“Well, I want to throw a welcome party for Emily. She loves the ocean, and this beachfront mansion of yours is perfect. Let me borrow it for a day, yeah?”
He said it with such entitlement, even nudging my elbow.
“We’re buddies, right? You wouldn’t refuse to help me pursue my goddess, would you?”
Buddy. Always that word.
Ryan never missed a chance to remind me, warning me not to have feelings I shouldn’t.
But he was overthinking.
I was leaving soon anyway.
“Fine. Do whatever you want.”
Too tired to argue, I turned and went upstairs.
Behind me, I caught the flicker of surprise in Ryan’s eyes.
The next morning, I awoke to find the house overflowing with flowers, as though I’d stepped into a fantasy world.
Ryan said he was planning to confess to Emily that day, so he had decorated carefully.
But I couldn’t help recalling a saying:
Love begins with a single bouquet of flowers.
I once hinted to Ryan that I wanted that kind of gesture—flowers.
But he scoffed,
“Sophia, how old are you? We’ve slept together countless times. What do you need flowers for? Isn’t that childish?”
Now, with the overwhelming fragrance filling my nose, I finally understood.
It wasn’t that he lacked a sense of romance.
It was simply the difference between love—and the absence of it.
Two hours later, the welcome party began.
Ryan’s and my mutual friends, along with Emily, all arrived.
After seven years, she was still as graceful and charming as ever.
Ryan’s gaze was glued to her, endlessly seeking conversation.
At last, someone couldn’t help but ask,
“Ryan, haven’t you been with Sophia all this time?”
His face darkened, and he barked,
“What nonsense! Sophia and I are just friends—best bros! Don’t spread rumors!”
“Besides, I like girls like Emily—soft, delicate, sweet. Sophia has this long, ugly scar on her right side, looks like a centipede. Disgusting! How could I ever like her?”
My breath caught, my nails digging painfully into my palms.
Five years ago, Ryan got drunk missing Emily and tangled with a group of thugs.
At the critical moment, I stepped in front of him and took a knife for him.
That scar on my right side has remained ever since.
Back then, Ryan’s eyes were bloodshot, swearing to the heavens that his life now belonged to me.
He promised to protect me with everything he had, never letting me suffer again.
But now, just to distance himself from me in front of Emily, he publicly exposed my scar.