Chapter 3

The person before me and the Ethan Parker who had been by my side for over a decade were like polar opposites.

Or rather, they were like two souls inhabiting the same body.

Ethan Parker would never say such things.

He was too good.

Like a piece of pure, flawless jade.

And I was too lucky.

Using my status as his childhood friend to stay by his side.

During that winter break in my sophomore year of high school.

I asked Ethan Parker for a promise.

I hoped he would come pick me up on the day of our final exams.

My oversized scarf hid my slightly reddened ears, concealing my secret thoughts from him.

At that time, Ethan Parker looked at me with a smile, his phoenix eyes narrowing slightly, but he didn't answer. He just raised his hand and gently ruffled my hair.

The New Year's bells were about to ring.

Fireworks filled the sky and firecrackers exploded all around.

I thought the surrounding noise was too loud, so I had to stand on tiptoe and lean close to his ear.

"Ethan."

"On the day of our final exam,"

"Will you come pick me up "

The firecrackers were really so loud, so loud.

So loud that I couldn't even hear my own voice.

But I still heard him lean in close to my ear and say solemnly yet intimately:

"Okay."

But he broke his promise.

That day when I stood in the surging crowd, looking around in confusion.

When all the noise and clamor rushed at me from all sides.

He didn't come.

All my expectations had come to nothing.

When I numbly knocked on his door that day, what I saw were his parents who looked like they had aged ten years.

And the devastating news they told me with reddened eyes.