What My Boyfriend Wore

It's my first time going on a trip with my boyfriend. I overhear him on the phone with his friend as they discuss how he's going to deflower me. "Grayson, you should be able to have your way with Summer this time, right?" "Don't even talk about that. She's so conservative—I've said and done everything, yet she refuses to budge!" I lower my hand instead of knocking on the door. I stand outside the room and listen as he continues. "Come off it. We've given you so many ideas in the group chat, haven't we? Have none of them worked? And didn't you guys get a room yesterday? You should've just brought sedatives. Think about how easy it would've been if you could've just knocked her out!" Grayson Hale snaps, "I forgot, alright? Besides, who would've known there'd be two beds in the room? She insisted on sleeping separately, too. I sneaked onto her bed in the middle of the night when I saw she was asleep. She woke up just as I was about to take off her clothes and kicked me off!" My blood runs cold. My hands tremble as I reply to my boss' message. "I accept headquarter's decision to transfer me."

I don't know how it happened. One minute I'm living an extremely lonely life and all it takes is getting lost to change all of that. But, change is good, right? Yeah, if you take the fact that I was entrusted with the most adorable little girl as good. Throw in a reunion with a twin brother that I haven't seen in years and a gang of bad boys to the pile and all is peachy keen. As complicated as it seems, there's more. Now, I have to keep a certain mystery boy away from me for my own sake. I have to deal with a brother that thinks these bad boys are his new best friends. And on top of all of that, someone's after me. Forget the fact that this is senior year. Why can't I just be Khloe Mason, an uncoordinated mess of fandoms. Now, I'm The Bad Boy's...What?

When Alexander Smith stands in front of me and says he's going to marry someone else, that's when I realize he's been reborn too. I remember our 20 years of love in our past life. A plane crash. And then, rebirth. "This is to save Sophia," he says. "In our past life, she was sold to a Vostmark oligarch after her father's political scandal. Not long after, she took her own life due to abuse. I can't let that tragedy happen again, so I need to get engaged to her." As he speaks, he hands me an orange prescription bottle. "If you take this, you'll forget me for a little while. You won't feel the pain. It's just seven days. Once her father's scandal blows over, you'll stop the medication and your memory will return. Then I'll end the engagement and officially propose to you." I stare at the bottle, knowing it's a lie. Not the part about Sophia's suicide. The lie is about the drug. He thinks it only causes temporary memory loss. But I know better. The suppressant causes permanent damage to emotional memory. The seven-day countdown isn't the time it takes for my memories to return. It's the time it takes for my love for him to die.

I lapse into unconsciousness for a few days after a high fever. When I wake up, I see my boyfriend and his best friend standing by my bed. I want to enliven the atmosphere, so I joke, "Who are you?" Eric Cobb, my boyfriend, is taken aback. I almost laugh at the look on his face. Then, he points at his friend, Jonah Mullen. "Don't you remember? Your boyfriend's been panicking over you. As his best friend, I have to be here with him." This time, I'm the one who's taken aback. Unexpectedly, Jonah steps forward and says, "That's right. I'm your boyfriend, Jonah Mullen."

After the plane crash, my body was never recovered. My soul drifted back to the home I hadn't stepped foot in for five years. They didn't know I was dead. They were still waiting for me to come home for Christmas. When my mom got the call from the airline, she froze for a long time, completely at a loss, before breaking down in tears. I followed them as they went to the memorial crash site. That was when I noticed something strange—I could see their levels of regret hovering above their heads. My brother's regret level read: 40%. My father's showed: 60%. Even my sister-in-law had 30% over her head. But my mother's regret level? It flashed a cold, unchanging 0%.

Entering a one-sided love isn't easy, especially if the relationship you have is only for a business. "Why do you have to be alive?" My lips loosened up as I sensed the bitterness in his voice. It is as if he hates my existence so much that he has to do something for me to be gone already. "Why do you even need to be existed in this fucking world if you're just going to ruin my life!" Ciara Hilvano is an innocent and martyr wife who always gets violated by her husband and makes her feel that she's an unwanted wife. This guy really doesn't have any idea that the girl he was hurting and almost killed everyday was secretly suffering from the cancer in heart. The time came when Ciara's life was in big trouble. She almost died because someone tried to end her life. What if Ciara can no longer cope with the challenges and trials in her life? What if she just let her own death fetch her? Will Tyron regret all the things he did to Ciara? What if she dies? Will he cry?

Olivia Lane gave five years of her life and her heart to a man she believed loved her. From the moment she lost her parents, Ryan became her anchor, her sacrifice, her forever. She trusted him enough to give him everything… except the one thing she swore to keep until marriage. But love, she thought, was worth the wait. Until he sold her. Now broke, betrayed, and on the verge of losing everything, Olivia is dragged into the office of the last man she ever wanted to face, Nathan Harold. Billionaire. Ruthless. And Ryan’s friend. Armed with cold proof of her boyfriend’s betrayal, Nathan offers her a choice: walk away with nothing… or sign a marriage contract that binds her to him instead. Desperate and shattered, Olivia signs. But what begins as a calculated arrangement quickly spirals into something far more dangerous. Because Nathan doesn’t just want her name on paper—he wants her trust, her surrender… her heart. And he’s willing to play a slow, intoxicating game to get it. Caught between burning resentment and undeniable attraction, Olivia finds her walls crumbling under the weight of his relentless pursuit. The man she was warned about, the one she swore to hate becomes the one she can’t stop thinking about. Just when she begins to believe she might have chosen right this time, the past claws its way back. A desperate ex. A shocking secret. And a truth that threatens to shatter her all over again. This time, Olivia has a choice to make Run from the fire… Or stay and fight for the man who might have been her greatest mistake… or her only salvation.

The day two students got into a dispute, I ran into Morris Freeman, my ex from ten years ago. The boy who had been fighting wiped his tears and called him "Dad". Morris froze when he saw me, then finally remembered what was going on and apologized. "Ms. Langstaff, I'm sorry for causing you trouble." I handled the compensation by the book and wrapped everything up. When it was over, he lagged behind, clearly wanting to say something. "Back then, I remember you didn't want to be a teacher." I gave a faint smile and walked him to the office door. "People change. So do their ideas." Just like my feelings for him. That chapter had been closed a long time ago.

When Tessa Shoreman read Henry Jennings' cancer report, she immediately paid her hard-earned money of sixty thousand to the hospital. She had saved the money from working part-time while she was in university. However, she was worried the money was not enough, so she held back her fear as she sold a kidney to the black market to get more. As she walked to the ward door with a heavy bag filled with cash, she heard shrill laughter coming from inside. "That cheap woman, Tessa Shoreman, got tricked by us again. Haha!" Tessa's hand gave pause right when she was about to push the door open. What did he mean by saying she was tricked? Tessa looked through the glass on the door to see inside the ward. When she left, the man looked extremely weak, but he was now sitting up lazily in bed. Henry had a cigarette in his mouth, and he was blowing smoke rings nonchalantly. He did not look like a cancer patient at all. "It's been two years, and that woman still has no idea." "If she hadn't beaten Serene to first place, Henry would never have left behind his life as a rich heir and planned such an elaborate scheme to become a working-class man living in a cheap rental home. The way that cheap, penniless woman looks at Henry is so amusing." "We agreed that the punishment ends when Henry and Serene get engaged. It looks like time is almost up. We've probably punished her 108 times in the past two years." "The first time was lying to her that Henry didn't have a suit for a job interview. She worked tirelessly for 72 hours straight before she earned enough money for one, but that suit was given to the domestic help to use as a cleaning cloth. The second time was tricking her into believing Henry had a high fever. She forfeited during the finals of a scientific research competition to race home and take care of Henry in the hospital…" "Sigh. Too bad it's coming to an end. I'm going to miss entertaining myself with her."

I slide into the bath and let my muscles melt. My mind drifts—back to dinner, the city skyline glittering behind Tommy’s head. I close my eyes, biting my lip. One hand trails beneath the water, slow and lazy. I don’t mean to. But it’s all still so fresh—the way his hands felt on my skin, how deeply he— Except, it’s not Tommy I’m imagining anymore. It’s the doctor. Suddenly, it’s his fingers I’m imagining spreading me open. That cool composure cracking as he groans my name into my neck. “Oh, fuck,” I moan, breath catching as the orgasm rips through me like a shot of white lightning. My back arches against the porcelain. Water sloshes. “Dr. Cole,” I gasp before I can stop it. And then I freeze. What. The. Hell. **************************************************** He’s her gynecologist. Her client. And her boyfriend’s father. What could possibly go wrong? Beth thought dating Tommy was the start of something stable. Sure, he was cocky and impulsive—but charming, right? Until the red flags started piling up. The gambling. The secrets. The mood swings. The way he always blamed her when things went wrong. But then she meets his father. Dr. Stacy Cole. Silver fox. Calm. Collected. Everything Tommy wasn’t. And she already know him. He’s her OB/GYN. Her firm’s newest client. And the man who makes her body betray her every time he’s near. Beth knows she should stay away. But when Tommy starts spiraling and Stacy starts looking less like a boundary and more like a lifeline… she’s forced to face a terrifying truth: She might be falling for the one man who could destroy everything. Taboo. Addictive. Slow burning. Emotionally dangerous. This isn’t your average age-gap romance.