Just as I'd sent out the email, Ned suddenly called me up.

I wanted to reject his call at first, but I hesitated for a while. What if he was calling to tell me about the swapped application form?

If he told me the truth now, I bet that I would still be sad and disappointed, but at the very least, I could still see myself forgiving him. After all, it had always been my dream to attend college or university with him.

"Miranda? Why aren't you here yet? Prom's about to begin. We're just missing you."

Our high school had decided to organize a dance night for us to celebrate our graduation in style, and they happened to be holding it in Ned's house tonight.

However, I didn't feel like attending anymore.

I'd just wanted to reject them when I suddenly heard Scarlett's laughter on the other end of the line.

"I came on time, didn't I? Has the party already started?"

A few guys next to her exclaimed excitedly, "No, you're just on time! Why don't you dance with Ned for the first dance of the night? Your dress matches Ned's so well. Ned, you wouldn't mind, would you?"

I couldn't stop myself from gripping my phone a little tighter. When I heard a soft, affirmative hum from Ned, I felt my heart breaking into pieces. It started to hurt.

Ned's dance partner had always been me. All of our friends knew that.

There had been a few other classmates who had a crush on him and asked him for a dance, but he had brutally rejected every single one of them.

Our friends said that he was cold and cruel to do that, but Ned had then proclaimed loudly, "I will only dance with one girl and one girl only, and that is Miranda Montez!"

But now, he had agreed to let someone else be his dance partner for the first dance of the night.

It was loud and noisy on the other end of the phone call. Things were seemingly starting to heat up. So, Ned just told me in a hurry, "Hurry up and come over. Even our teachers have already arrived."

I hung up, wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, and went to get dressed in my favorite gown. I was going to attend after all.

This was probably the last time I would ever see my teachers and classmates anyway.

It was loud and lively when I finally arrived there. Scarlett was dancing sultrily around Ned, her dance moves sexy and suggestive, and everyone else was hyping them up and cheering them on.

Both Ned and Scarlett were so engrossed in dancing with each other that they never even realized that I'd arrived.

I stopped walking toward them. Instead, I found my friend, Hazel Brooks, and stuck around by her side.

At the end of the dance, one of our teachers, Ms. Gabby Petras, went onstage and took the mic, reminding us to complete our forms and send them in by the end of the day.

"Alright, students, there's less than 12 hours left for the submission of your college application forms. Please make sure that you've filled in the correct address. And for those of you who need help filling them in, come and talk to any one of the teachers here in private, and they will help you."

I was concentrating so much on Ms. Petras' announcement that I didn't even notice Ned approaching me until he flicked me on the head.

"How could you be late, Miranda? I waited so long for you!"

The corners of my lips curved upward. He hadn't been waiting for me at all. Hadn't he already abandoned me as his dance partner and already found another?

However, I didn't expose his lie and just looked at him quietly.

"What's the matter with you? Who got you all upset like this?"

Ned seemed to have thought of something and reached up to rub his nose sheepishly.

"Oh, did you notice that your application form got swapped out? Actually, don't you think that it's better in Westward? The scenery there is a lot better. I know that you love the beach, and the campus is located right next to the sea! We can go and take all the photos you want then!"

Ned just continued babbling as if he was trying to convince me and hide his guilt with how quickly he was speaking.

"The student accommodation in Eastland is too old and creaky, and it's just a terrible environment overall. The infrastructure there is also outdated and can't compare to the newer student lodging on the new campus. Aren't you picky about your surroundings anyway? You'd never get used to those creaky old houses."

With how he put it, it was as if his decision to send my application to Jafferton College was all for my own good.

I listened to him in silence for a while. Finally, I couldn't stop myself and asked him, "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me, apart from this, Ned Nicholson?"

My voice was breaking.

Deep down, I was still hoping that Ned would tell me the truth and then apologize to me.

This was the final chance I was giving him to come clean to me. If he would admit it, then I would still forgive him.

Instead, Ned just froze for a few seconds before mumbling softly, "You already know everything anyway. There's nothing else to tell you. Are you seriously going to kick up a fuss with me over this?"

A short while later, however, Ned softened his tone again, saying, "Alright, alright. It's still a pretty decent college, and the degree is still something we like. It's the same whichever college or university we go to as long as we're together."

After staying silent for a long time, I finally nodded lightly, feeling my disappointment seeping into my heart.

Even now, he still refused to tell me the truth!

Ned smiled in relief when he saw me nodding at him.

"I knew that you would agree to it. I'm going to prepare a huge confession ceremony for you on the first day of college, and I promise that you'll definitely like it! What do you think? Are you looking forward to it?

"Oh, and by the way, didn't you say that you'd always wanted to go to the beach for a vacation? I heard that the beach next to Jafferton College is really fun! We'll go over a little earlier and play on the beach until it's time for our enrollment!"

Ned continued planning out the rest of our summer vacation with much anticipation, his voice tinged with obvious excitement.

I felt my heart softening a little. Even if we were to go to separate colleges and universities after this, I figured that I could still spend my final summer vacation with him. After all, we'd made that promise to each other quite a long time ago, too.

Although the beach vacation hadn't been part of the original plan, we could still have a lot of fun if we planned meticulously enough.

I was just about to agree to his proposition when Scarlett suddenly appeared behind him and planted her chin on his shoulder.

"Ned, I still haven't bought all the stuff I needed to go hiking. Why don't you come with me? We can go shopping for them now!"

Right after she said that, she suddenly covered her mouth and looked at me guiltily, as if she'd just done something horribly wrong.

"I'm sorry, Mimi, but Ned promised me that he'd go hiking with me. He hasn't told you, has he? Do you want to come along with us?"

My heart squeezed, and I instinctively glanced at Ned for his reaction.

He just smacked himself in the back of his head in frustration and tried explaining himself.

"Oh, by the way, Scarlett also enrolled in Jafferton College, and she's been wanting to go hiking in the woods there. That's why I agreed to go mountain hiking with her.

"Maybe we can go hiking first before we go to the beach when we're there. You're fine with that, right?"

Ned had already planned out everything in his head. It was obvious that he'd already thought it out beforehand. However, this wasn't like him. He used to hate planning out trips in advance, and I would always have to lay it out for him before he would finally agree to go anywhere.

I said nothing and just nodded again in silence.

He could plan everything according to how he envisioned it.

I had fully intended on fulfilling the promise we'd made to each other last time, to go on a vacation with him. But now, it seemed like he had someone else to go with, and he didn't need me anymore.

Ned was happy when he realized that I wasn't opposing him in any way. He then opened up his Notes app on his phone and started jotting down the things he'd need to buy to go hiking.

"Why don't you go home first, Mimi? I'll buy the stuff with Scarlett. We'll just meet at the airport right away tomorrow morning!"

As soon as he was done talking to me, he then immediately set off with Scarlett in tow.

Ned had abandoned me for someone else once more.

He'd promised me that he would be the most loyal knight in shining armor for me. But now, this knight had someone else to protect, and it wasn't me anymore.

…

The next morning, I was rudely awakened with a phone call from Ned.

"Mimi? Are you already at the airport?"

He sounded careful, sheepish almost. I could also hear Scarlett's faint sobbing on the other end of the line.

"I'm sorry, Mimi," she said, "but I wasn't able to buy your plane ticket because I didn't have your full details."

Ned said gently to her, "It's fine. I'll just go and buy the ticket now. If we really can't make this flight, we'll just catch the next one."

"But… But I've already modified the flight details once. We can't postpone it anymore!"

He remained silent. Scarlett then cried a little louder and said, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's all my fault…"

"It's fine," I said in a calm voice, interrupting her. I then flipped over in bed and added, "I fell sick. I won't be joining you guys after all."

Ned heaved a huge sigh of relief. Then, he quickly comforted me. "Oh, don't be sad. We'll still have plenty of chances to go on vacation once we've enrolled here! Take care of yourself these few days. I'll see you at the college admission office in a week!"

"Okay," I answered meekly.

Then, I hung up and immediately booked a flight ticket to Dayward University for the next week.

Ned sent me a few photos, along with captions, just before his flight.

Both he and Scarlett were in the photos, looking at the camera with wide smiles on their faces.

He wrote in his caption, "We're off now, Mimi! See you in a week at Jafferton!"

I stared at the photo for a very long time before quietly setting my phone down.

…

For the following days, Ned occasionally shared some of his travel photos with me. There were photos of both of them hiking in the mountains, surfboarding out at sea, and having fun at an outdoor barbecue restaurant.

Every single place he went had been places I'd been dearly wanting to go for a long time.

I couldn't help the bitterness crawling into my heart. I was the one who was supposed to be with Ned while we experienced all of these, but now, he was doing them with another woman.

After that, I started wholeheartedly preparing the things I would need for my enrollment at Dayward University. Eventually, I received the acceptance letter from them as well.

At the same time, Ned and Scarlett uploaded a photo on each of their Instagram accounts.

They were standing at the entrance to Jafferton College with their acceptance letters in hand, wide smiles on both their faces, surrounded by a huge group of curious onlookers around them.

Plenty of our classmates left comments under their photo posts.

"Congratulations on getting into Jafferton College!"

"Oh wow, you both look so good together. Have you guys made it official yet?"

Yet, amidst the throes of congratulatory comments were a few comments from the people who were close to me and Ned. Many of them asked the same thing.

"Where's Miranda? Why is she missing from the photo? Is she not with you guys?"

Ned answered each of them patiently, explaining, "Don't get the wrong idea. Scarlett and I are just regular friends. Mimi wasn't feeling well, so the both of us came over first."

Just as I was done scrolling through to the last comment, I received a text message from him.

"Mimi, have you set out yet? We'll both be waiting for you before enrolling at the college admissions office! Just let me know when you're about to land, okay? I'll come and get you at the airport!"

I quietly placed my Dayward acceptance letter into my backpack before answering him with an "Okay".

Then, I put my phone away and wheeled my suitcase across the airport and boarded the plane heading for Dayward University.

…

I stood at the entrance to Dayward University and took a photo of the main gate. Then, I uploaded it to my Instagram account with the caption saying, "Saying hi to a fresh start at my dream university."

The photo hadn't been uploaded for long before my inbox was full of messages.

Ned called me so often that I thought my phone was about to combust. He also left me dozens of text messages.

"Mimi? What did you mean by that photo and caption on your Instagram? How did you end up in Dayward?

"Pick up my call, won't you? Weren't you supposed to be coming with me to Jafferton College? I'm still waiting for you before going to the admissions office!

"No, wait, you must be lying to me. Why aren't you replying to any of my texts?

"Mimi, I'm at the admissions office now, but I don't see your name anywhere on the list. Why?"