Chapter 2

When I got home the next weekend, my parents were sitting on the couch, scrolling through their phones.

As soon as I walked in, my mom looked up and smiled at me. "Sophia, come here and check this out. Jason and Fiona just published an article that's making headlines."

I paused for a moment and then walked over and took the phone from her.

On the screen was an academic news article with a headline: Kinborough University Team Achieves Major Breakthrough in Nanocomposites.

The accompanying photo was of Jason and Fiona together in the lab.

My eyes instinctively darted to the author credits, and I stopped cold when I saw them.

First Author: Fiona Perkins

Corresponding Author: Jason Hammond

I stared at those words, my mind spinning.

"What's wrong?" my dad noticed something was off and peeked at the screen. "Oh, Jason's the corresponding author. That's not bad at all."

"Not bad?" My voice was icy. "This project was his baby."

My mom looked puzzled. "Isn't the corresponding author the person responsible? That means Jason's still the leader, right?"

They didn't get it, but I did.

In academia, the first author is the one who actually does the research and makes the biggest contribution. For a PhD student like Jason, having his name as the first author on a top-tier paper is basically the key to his future academic career.

The corresponding author is usually more like a supervisor or project lead.

Jason had told me this himself. "The academic world is ruthless. Results are everything. If my name isn't first, no one will remember what I did."

But now, he'd actually given the first author spot to Fiona.

I stared at the photo. Jason was standing next to Fiona with a faint smile on his lips.

Fiona shot him a glance, her eyes full of tacit understanding.

He knew better than anyone how much the first author credit meant, but he still gave it away.

My chest felt tight, like someone had squeezed it hard.

He'd given away the academic achievement he cherished most to the colleague he was always praising.

Suddenly, I remembered how he'd been talking about Fiona on the phone lately. There was this open admiration in his voice, maybe even a hint of reliance.

He'd said, "Her thinking is so sharp. Sometimes she's even ahead of me.

"We'd be up talking until dawn, and she'd grasp the point instantly."

Back then, I just felt uneasy, but now, everything clicked into place.

For her, he'd broken his own rules.

I turned off the phone, my throat tightening up.

The Jason I knew would never hand over what he valued most to anyone else.

But now, it was like I barely recognized him.

Ever since I saw the author credits that day, I couldn't focus on anything, just kept replaying everything between me and Jason.

We've been together for so many years, and I just couldn't bear drifting away from him.

A few days later, I got a journal notification from Advanced Materials.

I opened the email and saw that Jason and Fiona's paper on nanocomposites had just been accepted.

I immediately called Jason.

The phone rang for ages before finally switching to voicemail.

I stared at my phone, hesitated for a moment, and then sent a WhatsApp message: [Saw your paper got accepted. Congrats.]

Three minutes later, my phone buzzed.

[Thanks. I'm out with my colleagues for dinner. I'll catch up later.]

Just a short reply, not even an emoji.

I put my phone down and walked over to the window.

Night had fallen, but the lights in the campus building far away were still burning. Maybe he was still there, somewhere behind those windows.

Suddenly, my phone rang. It was my mom.

"Sophia, did Jason's paper get published already? Your dad just saw it on the news," she said.

"Yeah, it just got accepted," I replied.

My voice sounded way too calm, even to myself.

"That's wonderful. When are you two coming back? How about we all get together for a celebratory dinner?" asked my mother.

"He's been really busy lately." I paused. "He's at a lab dinner tonight."

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

"Sophia..." my mom's voice grew gentle. "Is everything alright between you and Jason?"

My throat tightened, and I found myself absentmindedly running my fingers along the window frame.

"Yeah, we're good," I replied.

There was silence again.

"Sweetheart." My dad took the phone this time. "No matter what happens, we support you."

After I hung up, my mind drifted back to my third year in college, when Jason got his first paper published as the second author in Nano Letters.

It was eleven at night when he showed up outside my building, clutching the printed acceptance email. His eyes were shining like they were full of stars.

"Sophia, I did it," Jason called out.

He pulled me into a hug, and I could still catch the faint scent of the lab on his hair.

We walked around the neighborhood for a whole hour, with him explaining every detail of his paper, even though I had no clue what any of those technical terms meant.

But now, his biggest accomplishment had just been published, and the only way I found out was through a journal alert.

The screen of my phone went dark.

Suddenly, it hit me. Between Jason and me, that lab door had finally become a wall.