Chapter 2

As I opened my eyes once more, Louis was there again.

He was down on one knee in a sea of vibrant red roses, holding a ring box, his gaze soft and deeply loving as he looked at me.

He asked carefully, "Kylie, will you marry me?"

Feeling a little lost, I glanced around. My friends were all staring at me, their faces brimming with excitement and hope.

Was this... the scene from graduation day when Louis proposed to me?

I still remembered how stunned I was. For a moment, I thought it was just a prank.

After all, I'd had a crush on Louis for four years.

Even after we started dating, I could never shake off that sense of insecurity.

He always proudly introduced me to all his friends, and his parents were well aware of me.

But he never really shared his world with me. He could remember every holiday, big or small, but somehow always forgot our anniversary.

He'd always check if I was cold or hungry, but the food he brought never matched my tastes.

His friends always had this unspoken vibe around me, but I could never figure out where it came from.

There was absolutely no warning before he proposed.

Up until then, I honestly didn't believe Louis cared about me enough to actually pop the question.

To be honest, I even thought we'd probably just go our separate ways after graduation.

So when Louis got down on one knee, my first reaction wasn't joy. I was honestly stunned.

But he made everything look beautiful, invited all our friends, and chose graduation day to propose with everyone watching.

The moment he asked if I'd marry him, suddenly nothing else seemed important anymore.

After we got married, I kept replaying that day in my mind again and again.

If I hadn't said yes to Louis's proposal, would everything have turned out differently?

I looked up at the sky, feeling the gentle breeze brush against my skin, and took a deep breath.

It was like I'd been given a second life.

Louis was still kneeling, and when I stayed silent, he held out the ring box, eager for my answer.

"Kylie, just say yes already," he urged.

His confident tone snapped me out of it, and I met his hopeful gaze.

Right then, I was the source of all his confidence. He never once thought I'd turn him down.

I reached out my hand, and Louis's eyes sparkled. He immediately moved to pull out the ring.

But I shut the ring box closed.

Louis's smile froze instantly, confusion and disbelief written all over his face.

The people watching were all caught off guard, staring in shock.

Everyone knew I was head over heels for Louis.

Since high school, I'd been trailing after him every single day. I even chose Nores City for college, way out of town, just so I could keep up with him.

It wasn't until sophomore year that I finally got brave enough to confess, and I only managed it because Louis was drunk at the time.

Louis said yes.

I still remembered the way he looked at me. There was love in his eyes, but also a hint of something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

But I was so overjoyed back then that just hearing him say "yes" sent me straight to cloud nine. I completely missed any sign that something was off.

Looking back now, I think it was guilt. He was feeling guilty about Jasmine.

After all, it wasn't until Jasmine came back from abroad that I realized she and Louis had a deep, unforgettable history together.

And the only reason he agreed to my confession was because he'd heard Jasmine had gotten herself a boyfriend overseas.

To Louis, Jasmine was always his pure, flawless first lover, the one he could never touch. Me? I was just her stand-in, the second-best.

My relentless chasing probably moved him a bit, so Louis decided to let go of the past and try for a new beginning.

And right at that turning point, I confessed my feelings to him.

Everything just fell into place.

We even got married, and life was quiet and stable. Nothing exciting, but at least it felt safe.

That was, until Jasmine came back.

Jasmine was Louis's high school classmate, the girl he'd been crushing on for years.

She'd always been frail, so before she could even finish high school, her family sent her abroad for medical treatment.

The year Jasmine went abroad, I had just transferred into the same fancy school as Louis.

My dad suddenly made a fortune from a demolition deal, and he rushed to get me into this elite school, saying the education here was way better than anywhere else.

Honestly, compared to my old public high school, the teaching staff here was way more impressive.

My classmates were all either loaded or came from powerful families. Most of them were being groomed as future heirs.

Meanwhile, I still had my awkward haircut and lacked the confidence everyone else seemed to have. I was even a bit shy.

Since I just couldn't get used to how things worked at this elite school, my grades were always near the bottom.

For no apparent reason, someone in my class just had it out for me.

Back then, my family was nowhere near as wealthy as theirs, and they had this snobbish attitude toward anyone they saw as new money, like me, the outsider trying to fit in.

So, I ended up getting bullied.

First, they started isolating me. Wherever I went, it was like I carried a social vacuum. Nobody wanted to talk to me.

Then came all the mean little schemes.

They'd hide my homework, smear glue on my chair, pull my hair, and scribble all over my clothes.

But honestly, that was just child's play.

In the end, they actually started laying hands on me.

They'd rough me up, kicking and punching, then lock me in the bathroom all night long.

They'd force me to skip class with them, and at their exclusive lounge, I'd become nothing more than a pawn in their games. Whoever won got to decide how to humiliate me.

This kind of thing happened again and again, until one night, when they dragged me to a nightclub for their sick games, Louis happened to be there.

He was in my class, and all I knew was that his family was seriously powerful, way more influential than anyone else in our class.

As far as I could remember, Louis was always frowning and lost in thought, but somehow, he still managed to ace every test.

When everyone else was ignoring me, he was the only one who never went out of his way to avoid me. He always seemed to be living in his own world.

That day, Louis just appeared out of nowhere and stepped in, telling the main bully off.

None of them dared to mess with Louis, so they all scattered.