Mga Maiikling Kwento tungkol sa Inspirational at mga Nobela ng Childhood Sweethearts na may Cheating

All because of Leo Cullen’s words, I gave up a place at a top-tier university in Ceres and stayed behind to retake the entrance exams with him—three times. By the fourth year, a girl arrived at our cram school, and Leo forgot the promise we made. He started skipping class, picking fights, smoking—doing everything but studying. One day, I stood at the school gate, blocking his path with a textbook in hand as he tried to ditch class. He smirked, unimpressed, and blew a bubble with his gum, letting it stick to the ends of my hair. “Naomi…,” he began, “who still cares about studying these days?” So I stopped caring and avoided him entirely. When he fooled around in the classroom, I went to the library. When he played basketball, I sat in a quiet corner with my books. Even when I craved noodles from my favorite shop, I’d scan the room first to make sure he wasn’t there. “Are you avoiding me, Naomi?” he asked later, his face in a frown. I shook my head. “Why would you think that?”

On the day of the bridal shoot, Nathaniel White's childhood friend, Yvonne Woods, turned up out of nowhere with an armful of flowers and threw herself into his arms, laughing. The photographer couldn't look away and turned the camera toward them again. I stood off to the side in my wedding dress with no idea what to do. The shutter clicked 99 times. Not once was the camera pointed at me. Watching how comfortable they were with each other in front of the camera left a bitter ache in my chest. Nathaniel and Yvonne, the girl he'd grown up with, were both very good-looking. Whenever they stood side by side, every photographer aimed straight at them. The day he asked me out and I said yes, a friend offered to take our picture. Instead, she aimed the camera at him and Yvonne. She even said they looked perfect together. On a Valentine's Day date, every street photographer we passed offered to photograph the two of them for free and asked me to step aside so I wouldn't ruin the shot. I'd spent most of a year preparing for these bridal photos: losing weight, taking care of my skin, and choosing the perfect makeup look. None of it could compete with one sweet smile from Yvonne. "You, the wolf on the grass! Move! You're in the shot," the photographer shouted at me impatiently. I froze. Instinctively, I looked at Nathaniel, hoping he'd speak up for me. Instead, he looked away and reached over to pluck a fallen leaf from Yvonne's hair. His usually cold eyes were full of tenderness. Something went out of me. I walked off without a word. I was giving the whole frame back to them. And the rest of my life, too.

On our eighth anniversary, Claire Young announced that she had already registered her marriage with her childhood friend. She took him home, ordering me around as if it was only natural. "Move to another room. Stan loves sunshine." "Stan doesn't like sweets, so don't bake any when you're at home. He'd be upset if he saw it." I kept quiet through it all and bought a ticket to leave. My friend wanted to help me out of the predicament, but she didn't think it was a big deal. "He's just being dramatic again. Let him be—he'd be caving in just a few days." Everyone laughed at that, and quietly made bets as to when I'd come crawling back to Claire's feet. None of them knew I was already inducted into the national weapons program, and that I was really leaving.