Chapter 2

Isaac's POV

Sherry froze for a moment before dragging me straight out of the private room.

Once we were away from the noise inside, she finally lost her patience with me.

"Isaac Jahn, what the hell are you trying to do? I've been trying to help you fit into my circle. Can't you see that?"

Back then, I didn't want her to have to choose between her friends and me. So, I drank alcohol that I didn't like, tried to get along with people I wasn't fond of, and forced myself to talk about things I didn't care about.

I thought that if I kept trying, I'd eventually become one of them. But no matter how much I compromised, they always took Cole's side. They deliberately left me sitting on the sidelines.

I would always be an outsider in their little circle.

Cole followed us out and shoved the ring back into my hand while lecturing me. "You don't have to force her to give up her friends. When her company ran into trouble, we were the ones who helped her raise the money to get through it. We're friends who'd go to hell and back for each other.

"You don't drink. So when she wants someone to drink with, she can only come to me. And when something's bothering her, I'm the one she can talk to. Like when your mom got into that car accident.

"You should reflect on why you can never seem to blend with the crowd instead of grilling her."

After my mom's accident, I'd wandered the streets in a daze and nearly collapsed from exhaustion. In my desperation, I'd called Sherry over and over again. She hadn't answered a single call.

I'd later learned that she'd been drinking with Cole to drown her sorrows.

My heart sank to my stomach with a dull, crushing ache. I couldn't even bring myself to clench my hand around the ring.

Sherry finally turned on Cole with a grim expression and ordered, "Get back inside."

Cole rolled his eyes and waved the auction card in his hand. "I won't bother you guys. They're still playing the auction game in there. I'm putting my room up for auction tonight. If you two don't want to play, that's your loss."

Sherry's expression shifted as she stared in the direction he had gone.

Then she patted my arm and said, "You should get a ride home first. He's had too much to drink. He'll probably do something stupid again later."

I stared at the ring in my palm and suddenly found all the effort I'd put in over the years utterly ridiculous.

As soon as I reached home by cab, a new post from Cole popped up on my Instagram feed.

He wrote, "True friends have no problem sleeping in the same bed!"

In the photo, he was wrapped in a towel with his abs barely concealed. Sherry lay beside him, fast asleep.

The comments section blew up.

"Wait, you two really slept together? Mad respect!"

"Sherry's so petty. We were supposed to drink with you until sunrise, but she kicked us all out after offering us 30 grand."

"If Isaac sees this, I bet he's going to cry. Haha."

I didn't cry.

Instead, I liked the post.

A short while later, Sherry texted me.

"What are you trying to achieve by giving the post a Like? Are you trying to piss me off? Your dad used to do the same thing and drove your mom away with his crazy behavior. And now, you're doing the same? I thought you'd have learned your lesson by now."

I stared at those words for a long time.

My mom had cheated on my dad. When he threw the evidence in her face, she had left without looking back, taking her lover with her.

My dad had eventually ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Every day, he rambled about how he didn't want me to get married because he was afraid I'd end up following in his footsteps.

But I had simply smiled and said to him, "Dad, Sherry is different."

Looking back now, I realized she wasn't so different after all.

I called my dad, who was still at the psychiatric hospital. "Dad, I'll listen to you. I'm not getting married anymore. I've agreed to join my company's overseas project. It'll be a closed-door assignment."