Chapter 2

During a girls' basketball game, Ryan met Jessica from the training team.

After that, Ryan started giving most of his attention that used to belong to me to Jessica, and he stopped calling himself my husband.

Every break between classes, when I went looking for him, he'd already run off to watch Jessica play basketball. He said, "Girls who play basketball are so cool."

So, for him, I went from a hopeless nerd who knew nothing about sports to someone who actually made the school's girls' basketball team.

But even then, he never gave back to me the attention that he had given to Jessica.

A few times, trying to stake my claim in front of Jessica, I mentioned that engagement our families arranged.

But I didn't expect Ryan to blow up at me. He snapped, "Quit it with that old-school marriage pact stuff. These days, people date whoever they want. Say that nonsense again, and don't blame me for ignoring you."

I knew he wasn't the brat who used to follow behind me calling himself my husband anymore.

Before high school, he spent every birthday with me—just the two of us. He used to say, "A birthday only counts when you spend it with the person you like."

Even in the first two years of high school, even when he invited Jessica, he still invited me. But this year, to him, I wasn't even worth having at his birthday.

I didn't knock or walk into that private room. I turned around and headed home.

When I got back, I tossed the bouquet straight into the trash can by the door.

My mother happened to return from grocery shopping and saw me. She frowned and hurried over. "I thought you went to celebrate Ryan's birthday. Why are you back so fast? And the flowers—you didn't give them to him? Why did you throw them away?"

She kept firing off questions, and with my mood already shot, I lost my patience. I waved her off and muttered, "He's got plenty of people keeping him company. He doesn't need me. Please don't ask."

Then I went straight to my room, lay down, and buried my face in the pillow. My tears came before I could stop them, soaking the entire pillow through.

I didn't even realize when my mother walked into my room. She pulled me up and, seeing my face streaked with tears, asked worriedly, "Sweetie, what happened? Why are you crying so hard? Did you and Ryan get into another fight?"

Since I was a baby, I'd never cried like this before. Even when I broke my arm during basketball practice, I didn't cry. But with my mother fussing over me, I just lost it and started bawling my eyes out. "Mom, I don't want Ryan anymore. I don't want him."

My mother rubbed my back over and over, trying to calm me down. "Alright, sweetheart, you don't have to care about him anymore. It's okay."

I didn't know how long I cried. I only stopped when I physically ran out of tears.

After I finally steadied my breath, I looked at my mother and said, "Mom, I want to transfer schools."

She froze. She must've thought everything I'd said before was just me lashing out, so she just went along with it.

I continued, "Since our company is moving to another city anyway, I'll transfer there."

The city we lived in was only second-tier. When our company was small, it worked fine, but as it grew, the limitations piled up. Moving to a bigger city was the only way forward.

Initially, my parents planned to wait until after I took the SAT, and once I went to university, they would move. So my sudden request caught my mother off guard.

With the exam right around the corner, transferring now sounded impossible.

Just as I was about to convince her again, my father's voice came from the doorway. "Let her transfer."