All Chapters of Fate Saved Me From Sabotage: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The moment I changed my application choices, a line of green text appeared on the screen—"Change successful".I stared at those words, my eyes burning.Only one minute remained before the application system closed.Just then, my phone on my desk began to vibrate. It was from Macey Niles.I answered, and her cheerful voice came through the speaker."Cody, you finished your applications, right? I'm so excited for us to go to college together."I was silent for a moment."Are you really?" I asked."Of course I am," she said, her voice carrying an effortless certainty. "We made a promise when we were kids."I couldn't take it anymore, so I hung up.My mom and Macey's mom had been college roommates and best friends, so Macey and I had grown up together. We were practically attached at the hip.Ever since we were little, she always said that we would be together forever.We went to the same preschool, elementary school, middle school, and even high school.During our freshman ye

Two days later, our class held its post-graduation dinner.After dinner, everyone headed to a karaoke bar. I sat quietly in the corner with a glass of juice in my hand.A few songs later, Eric suddenly stood up. He took the microphone and lowered the volume."Why don't we all say where we're going to college? Maybe some of us will go to the same city. We can look out for each other once we're there."The room immediately exploded with excitement. One after another, my classmates called out their schools and where they would be going.I leaned back against the couch and remained silent.When more than half the class had announced their plans, our class representative suddenly shouted, "Hey, the Three Musketeers haven't said anything yet!"He wagged his brows as he turned toward us. "Cody, Macey, Eric, I bet all three of you applied to Kingsley, right?"Faced with everyone's teasing, Eric raised an eyebrow.Then, right in front of the entire class, he casually reached out and to

The moment our homeroom teacher's message appeared in the official class chat, the private group chat exploded."Wait, WTF?""Didn't Eric and Macey say Cody didn't check his applications?""Holy shit!"In the class chat, I followed the other students' lead and replied, "Thanks, Ms. Carter."Then I switched back to the private group and typed a reply."Since when did NIDE become a community college? I never knew that."I sent another message, tagging both Macey and Eric."Why aren't you two saying anything? Lost your voices all of a sudden?"Just as I sent the messages, two system notifications popped up."Macey Niles has left the group." "Eric Hunt has left the group."At the top of the screen, the member count beside the group name dropped from 43 to 41.The chat went quiet for about three seconds. Then, it exploded again. Messages flew up the screen nonstop.Someone sent eight exclamation marks in a row.Someone else spammed the chat with "HAHAHAHAHAHA".One guy sent

Mrs. Niles' shoulders shook as she covered her face with her hands. She didn't say anything for a long time."...I should've raised my daughter better."After she left, Mom closed the door, and the entryway fell silent again.Dad walked over and stopped beside me without saying a word. He simply put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze.At 11:00 pm, I was scrolling through my phone when I saw that someone had shared a post in our class group chat."What the hell is this? How dare he?"The headline read, "Top Student at Prestigious High School Falsely Accused of Sabotaging Classmate's College Applications."The post included a collage of photos of Eric and Macey.They looked gentle and harmless. Macey's dimples even showed in her smile.There were already more than 3,000 comments, and the top comment—"Cody Pearson is so shameless"—had over 5,000 likes.I scrolled through the thread and read more comments. "Bastard!" "Loser!" "He couldn't get into Kingsley, so

I stared at them, saying, "The first thing you do after getting out is ask me to take the blame and help clean up your reputation?"Macey panicked and took a half-step forward. "If this goes on my record, my life is ruined! What's the big deal about putting out one statement? It's not going to kill you!""When you changed my college applications, did you ever stop to think about whether my life would be ruined if I actually ended up at that community college?" I shot back.Her face went pale. Her lips trembled as she reached for my arm, but then she pulled her hand back."Cody, you can't be this cruel… We're begging you. We won't bother you ever again, okay?"I straightened up. "You spent seven days in custody because you broke the law. It has nothing to do with whether I put out a statement. Whatever's on your record is there because of what you did, not me."I moved to close the door. When only a narrow gap remained, I paused.My voice wasn't loud, but the hallway was quiet en