Best Friend Reborn Short Stories & Novels

In my previous life, my best friend gave me a lock-shaped good-luck pendant. I never expected that once I put it on, it would never come off. Soon after, I came down with a fever that lasted seven days straight. When I finally woke up, everything in my life began to fall apart. Misfortune followed me everywhere. That was when I discovered the truth—I had swapped fates with her husband. He would get my wealth while I would get a short, ill-fated life. From then on, the two of them lived a life of effortless wealth, making money without even lifting a finger. Meanwhile, I sank into poverty, plagued by constant bad luck. I struggled through life and did not even make it to 30 before I was killed in a car accident. As I died, my mentally disabled younger brother cried out and rushed in front of me to shield me. However, he could not stop the incoming vehicle, and we died there together. When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn back to the moment she was about to put the pendant on me. I let out a cold smile and pondered. Since she was so desperate to steal my wealthy fate, then she could have a XYY husband instead.

The night before the grad school recommendation list drops, a video of me sneaking into the archives to alter evaluation scores goes viral across campus. The security footage clearly shows my face, and the access log records my student ID. Overnight, the entire university brands me a cheater. Cruel taunts and insults rain down from every corner. No matter how hard I try to explain, nobody buys a word of it. In the end, I'm expelled, and my parents are forced to apologize in public. The empty slot naturally goes to my best friend, Jessica Morin. My childhood friend, Ethan Jackson, is the only one who stands by me through the storm, even offering to marry me. I see him as my sole lifeline in the abyss. The night before our wedding, I overhear Jessica laughing in his arms. "You tampered with the access log, faked the video, and now you're marrying her. Was all that trouble really worth it, just for me?" Ethan kisses her. "Keeping her right under my nose is the only way I can relax." Outside the door, I freeze, feeling my blood run cold. The frame-up that destroyed my future and humiliated my parents was their grand design all along. When I open my eyes again, I am back to the night before the video is released. This time, I don't stop Jessica from stealing my student ID, nor do I expose Ethan for tampering with the access log. I simply swap a photo inside their face model dataset. At the disciplinary hearing, the video plays right on cue. I watch the university president sneaking into the archives on screen and burst into a smile. Let's see who they try to expel this time.