Chapter 1

The day before my thesis was due, I walked out of the library and suddenly remembered I'd left my laptop on.

When I rushed back, I saw Alex, my girlfriend's childhood friend, sitting in my seat.

He gave me an awkward smile.

"Uh-oh, looks like you might not graduate after all. I kinda deleted your thesis final draft from your drafts folder by accident," Alex said, scratching his head.

My girlfriend Sunny, stepped in front of him, her face serious.

"Alex didn't mean to. He's never been to college. Don't blame him—he feels really bad about it," Sunny said.

With the deadline ticking away, I asked her seriously, "Are you sure you don't want to hold him accountable?"

Sunny's face darkened.

"What's there to make a fuss about? It's just a one-year delay. You get another year of college life—call it a blessing in disguise. Do you really have to pull that long face?" Sunny said.

Her voice kept rising, and people around us started shooting us strange looks.

Seeing that, Sunny lowered her voice and said, "Alex's heart's not great—he can't handle too much stress. How about this: when you finally graduate, I'll marry you. Will that finally make you happy?"

Alex shot me a look and raised an eyebrow, and I couldn't help but find it a little funny.

Sunny seemed to have forgotten that just two days ago, she'd asked me to help her edit the sections her advisor had flagged.

I was logged in with her student ID, editing her thesis.

She didn't seem to realize that Alex never bothered to check the student ID or the name the whole time.

My thesis had already been uploaded ages ago.

There were less than twelve hours left before the thesis deadline.

Honestly, I couldn't help but look forward to seeing Sunny's reaction when she finally realized it was her own thesis that got wiped out. She really has no clue what's coming.

*****

That night, Alex started a live stream in our group chat.

His face was pale, his eyes red and puffy like a rabbit's, and he was so choked up he couldn't even get a full sentence out—just kept repeating himself.

He just kept repeating, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Ethan, I'm so sorry."

The group chat blew up—everyone was asking what happened, and some even wondered if I'd bullied him.

After a long pause, he finally managed to choke out that he'd accidentally deleted my thesis.

"It's all my fault. I never even went to college, but I still tried to play the expert. When I saw Ethan hadn't submitted yet, I just wanted to help," Alex said, his voice trembling.

"What am I supposed to do now? Ethan must hate me so much. Maybe I should just drop dead or something," Alex said, his voice breaking.

He clutched his chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

The group chat went quiet for a second, then people started jumping in to defend him.

"Don't stress about it—your heart's not great. You were just trying to help, so why's he blaming you?" someone said.

"He left his laptop on and didn't even submit his thesis, and now he's blaming you? Can you believe it?" another person chimed in.

"Ethan's online in the stream. Why isn't he saying anything?" someone asked.

"He's just faking it," another person replied.

As they were chatting. Sunny stepped into the frame.

Sunny saw Alex struggling to breathe, quickly set down the fruit she'd been cutting, and reached over to soothe him, gently helping him calm down.

"What's wrong? Did Ethan blame you again?" Sunny asked.

Alex didn't say a word, just sat there, silently sobbing.

Sunny glanced at the screen, her eyes full of impatience and anger.

"Ethan, do you really have to keep harping on this? Are you trying to push him over the edge?" Sunny snapped.

"He's apologizing to you in front of everyone, and you can't even say a word to comfort him? Did all those years of school teach you nothing?" Sunny said.

"It's just a thesis—do you really have to blow it out of proportion?" Sunny added.

Alex shook his head weakly.

Sunny's eyes rimmed with tears, her tone softening out of concern.

"Don't worry, I'm here. He wouldn't mess with you while I'm around," Sunny said.

Then she turned back to the screen, her voice cold.

"Ethan, why do you always have to nitpick? Seriously, it's just a thesis—do you really have to get so worked up about it?" Sunny said.

"Do you even realize how bad you look right now?" Sunny added.

Staring at her face on the screen—someone I thought I knew, now a stranger—my whole body went cold.

After four years together, I finally saw her true colors.

Back in freshman year, when a senior tried to get me flunked, she ran all over campus in the pouring rain, doing everything she could to appeal for me.

She said she couldn't bear to see me get hurt, not even a little bit.

But now, she doesn't give a damn about my future—she's just busy shielding Alex, her childhood buddy with a weak heart.

Talk about irony.

Since I stayed silent, some of the more intense folks in the group chat started spamming my DMs.

Someone even asked in the group, "What's Ethan's number? I want to call him myself and see how he plans to keep picking on Alex."

Oh, right. They're not my friends—they're Sunny and Alex's crew.

After being comforted, Alex finally stopped sobbing. He looked really down, like he'd just lost his best friend.

"Ethan must totally hate me now. Sunny's been busy taking care of me lately, barely hanging out with him. And after today, he'll never let this go," Alex said, his voice shaky.

Sunny ruffled his hair. "Of course I should take care of you. He's just sulking, he'll be fine in a bit."

"It's just a one-year delay, not like he's never graduating. Why's he acting like it's the end of the world?" Sunny added.

The group chat started chiming in: "Just ignore him. He's just throwing a tantrum."

"He really thinks he's Sunny's man? Does he even deserve her?" someone snarked.

"Who does he think he is, just an orphan—what's he got to be so cocky about?" another person scoffed.

I took a deep breath, barely believing Sunny had actually told them I was an orphan.

I grabbed my phone and dialed Sunny.

"Sunny, do you even get what it means if I can't submit my thesis?" I said, my voice tight.

Sunny paused, sounding totally annoyed. "Yeah, I get it. So what, you want me to kill him over this?"

I let out a heavy sigh.

"So what you mean is, even if my whole future gets ruined, his feelings still come first, right?" I said, my voice flat.