On the day before the college entrance assessment, my three childhood friends have gone missing collectively. Because of that, my phone is swamped with phone calls.

The parents of my missing friends keep wailing to me, "We've worked so hard our entire lives just so our sons can get into a great university!"

My homeroom teacher, Mr. Levinski, begins pressuring me. "You're the class president, so you must find them! The college entrance assessment is a vital event that can determine how one's future will turn out!"

Even my classmates and my neighbors keep texting me for more updates.

But what they don't know is that I've already hung up on my friends' phone calls for help by using my revision for the assessment as an excuse.

In my previous life, my childhood friends had already gotten bewitched by Lucille Reyes, a delinquent. They insisted on celebrating their coming-of-age ceremony at a nightclub because of her.

I accidentally overheard Lucille plotting with her delinquent friends that they intended on taking nudes of my friends and extort money from them so that they couldn't attend the college entrance assessment the next day.

So, I did everything I could to stop my friends, only to get kicked to the side.

"Don't stop us from pursuing true love!"

For the sake of my friends' future, I informed their families at once and had them brought into the exam venue by force.

Finally, all three of my childhood friends got into prestigious universities. But Lucille, on the other hand, got beaten to death by the delinquents because she couldn't pay her protection fees due to her scheme getting foiled.

My friends broke down mentally because of her death. They then decided to pin the blame on me.

On our freshman year, my friends treated me to some drinks out of "gratitude", only for them to spike my drink. Later on, they tossed me to the same group of delinquents, who violated me in an alley. They even had the gall to record everything from the alleyway while keeping an eye out for the police.

Thanks to them, my future was completely ruined. My parents committed suicide out of despair.

To rub salt onto my wound, those friends showed up at the hospital with the video and backed me into a corner once again.

"You owe Lucy this much!"

In my despair, I ended up jumping off the rooftop.

When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day before the college entrance assessment.

As I watch my friends excitedly discussing the nightclub party behind my back, I can't help but smile.

In this lifetime, I choose to lock my door and sign the guaranteed admission agreement meant for Mephton University, the most prestigious university ever, without any hesitation.

As for my so-called friends, they can enjoy their coming-of-age ceremony in hell.

"Ms. Abigail Benson, your guaranteed admission agreement with Mephton University has been finalized. You won't need to sit for tomorrow's college entrance exam."

After hanging up with the admissions office, I looked at my parents sitting on the couch, both red-eyed from emotion, and gave them a firm nod.

"My sweetheart…"

Mom covered her mouth as tears streamed down her face.

"We must've been blind in our previous life," Dad growled through clenched teeth. "How could we have asked you to help those three ungrateful brats?"

Connected by blood, after I was reborn, I had bared the full horror of my past life to them. My parents hadn't doubted me for a second, simply pulling me into their arms and holding me tight.

I walked over and took their trembling hands.

"Mom, Dad, let's keep the admission offer a secret for now."

In my previous life, I had resolutely given up my guaranteed admission spot just so I could attend the same college as my three childhood friends. It wasn't until they shoved me toward the gang of thugs with their own bare hands that I realized how stupid I had been.

This time, I wanted to watch them fall into hell with my own eyes.

After comforting my parents, I headed outside.

I'd barely left the neighborhood when I ran straight into my three childhood buddies and Lucille Reyes.

Chewing gum, Lucille looked me up and down before smirking, her expression laced with thinly veiled sarcasm.

"Well, if it isn't the goody-two-shoes who follows you guys around all day."

Jeremy McFadden, the hotheaded athlete of the group, immediately stepped in front of her protectively.

"Abigail," he said, frowning. "Can you stop stalking us all the time?"

Gregory Burke, the trust-fund kid, looked disgusted. "Exactly. You're sticking your nose into everything all the time. Don't you ever get tired of it?"

Wendell Trudeau, the academic prodigy, wrapped his arm around Lucille's waist, his brows furrowed deeply.

"You're always walking around with that miserable look on your face. No wonder Lucy can't stand you. Keep acting like that, and we won't help you study anymore."

I stopped in my tracks, nearly bursting into laughter.

Help me study? Ever since Lucille—the vocational school student—appeared, they'd spent their days skipping classes and going to gaming centers and nightclubs looking for cheap thrills.

I hadn't studied with them in ages.

I looked at Wendell, barely lifting my eyes. "Have you forgotten what you scored on the last mock exam?"

Wendell froze, his expression shifting slightly.

"I scored a 725," I said, my voice cold and flat, the words hitting them right in the face. "Exactly 20 points higher than you, Mr. Prodigy."

Then I glanced at the other two academic failures, my lips curling into a smirk. "As for you two, are you even qualified to help me study?"

Their faces paled, then darkened, but I couldn't be bothered to look at them anymore. I promptly turned and walked off.

"What's your problem, Abigail Benson?" Jeremy, the most hotheaded one, roared and lunged forward to grab me.

I sidestepped him and brushed off my sleeve with a look of disgust.

"No problem at all." I looked at them coldly. "Aren't you guys throwing a coming-of-age party with her? Have fun."

The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted them.

As expected, all three of their expressions changed drastically.

"How did you know about that?"

The four of us had been born in the same hospital, just a couple of days apart. To make things easier, our parents decided to have our birthdays be on the same day. They had even joked that I should pick one of the three boys to be my husband in the future.

Growing up, I'd practically looked after them like an old mother hen. That was, until Lucille showed up. The mature, rebellious edge she carried satisfied all the fantasies these "good boys" had about breaking the rules.

And so, afraid that I'd try to stop them, they hadn't told me anything about the coming-of-age party that night.

In my previous life, I'd only found out by chance that Lucille had been setting a trap to extort money from them at the party. I'd done everything I could to stop them from going, only to be utterly despised for it.

"Are you stalking us?" Wendell asked, his expression turning disgusted.

I raised an eyebrow. "Why would I need to? All your dumb plans are written all over your faces."

Pushing his anger down and adopting a serious tone, he said, "Abigail, we're adults now. Lucille's very innocent. Don't look down on her just because she's from a vocational school. It's only because she didn't know us before. And she just wants to use this party to cram and study with us."

"If you're worried, you can come along tonight," Gregory jumped in. "But you're not allowed to look so pissed off the whole time."

Before I could refuse, Lucille's eyes reddened, and she clutched his sleeve tightly.

"Greg, we'd better not ask Abigail to join us. She looks so angry. I'm scared…"

His heart aching for her, Gregory immediately turned to glare at me.

"Look at how petty and mean you've become now, Abigail. You really should learn to be gentle like Lucy!"

"If you don't fix that terrible attitude of yours, none of us will ever want to marry you," Wendell added.

Jeremy shook his fist at me. "Remember! If any of our parents ask, tell them you're out studying with us!"

I watched them leave, the three boys crowding around Lucille, and a wave of nausea rose in my throat.

Marry me? I'd been blind in my past life. This time around, I definitely didn't care about those three pieces of garbage.

I turned around, went straight home, and locked myself in my room.

"Go ahead. Go enjoy your coming-of-age party," I thought to myself. "This time, I'm done with my savior complex. I'll respect your hell-bound fate."

Around dinnertime, a frantic pounding on the door shattered the quiet in our home.

When we opened the door, the parents of the three boys were standing outside.

"Patrick, have you seen our three brats?" Mrs. Burke, Gregory's mother, asked. "My phone calls won't go through!"

"The CEA is tomorrow! Where on earth did they run off to at such a critical time?" Mr. McFadden, Jeremy's father, asked, stamping his feet in frustration and craning his neck to peer into our house.

Dad stood in the doorway like a solid wall, his expression icy.

"They're not here."

The coldness in his voice made them freeze.

Mrs. Trudeau, Wendell's mom, pushed her way forward and stared directly at me.

"Abby, you're usually glued to their sides. Do you know where they went?"

I didn't even look up.

"I really don't know, Mrs. Trudeau," I answered, my voice flat.

My indifference immediately made them realize that something was off.

Mrs. McFadden frowned, looked me over suspiciously, then turned to my parents. "Patrick, did those three brats upset Abby?"

Their anxious expressions only made my stomach churn.

In my past life, after I'd lost my innocence to those thugs, I'd been in such deep despair that I'd jumped off a building.

To protect their sons' futures, these three sets of parents not only cut ties with my family at lightning speed, but they even threw all the blame on me.

Mrs. Trudeau had even slandered me in the hospital hallway. "It was Abigail herself who behaved shamelessly and ran around seducing delinquents. What does any of that have to do with my son?"

I'd already told my parents every single detail about this.

Mom's expression turned livid.

"Upset or not, Abby isn't responsible for babysitting your children!" she snapped icily.

Mrs. Burke's temper instantly exploded. She shoved her finger in Mom's face and shrieked, "What are you saying? Abby is the daughter-in-law that all three of our families agreed upon years ago! We watched her grow up!"

"Abby, as our future daughter-in-law, it's your responsibility to watch over them!" she continued, shamelessly guilt-tripping me. "Now that they're missing, you should hurry and go find them!"

Mr. McFadden chimed in as well, playing the good cop.

"Exactly, Abby. You've always been the most sensible one. Hurry up and bring them back. This concerns their future—the rest of their lives. Can you really take responsibility if something happens?"

Their sheer audacity was revolting. I was just about to speak when Dad stepped forward.

"Bullshit!" he snapped. "What 'future daughter-in-law'? You actually took a childhood joke seriously? My daughter is a good, respectable young woman! You think your three idiot sons, who run around with some delinquent girl, are worthy of her?"

He pointed out the door and roared, "Get out! And stay away from us from now on!"

Then he slammed the door shut, completely cutting off the shocked expressions and harsh curses of the parents outside.

Silence filled the house.

"I never realized they were this kind of people."

Mom turned around and pulled me into a hug, tears streaming down her face.

"Poor Abby… Just how much did you suffer in that last life…"

She stroked my face, her voice catching but sounding resolute. "This time, your dad and I will protect you no matter what. We won't let those three monsters come near you again!"

I hugged her back, a wave of warmth filling my heart.

"It's all in the past now, Mom," I said, wiping her tears away, smiling.

I met her eyes with the same determination. "This time, we're all going to be okay."

After comforting my parents, I returned to my room. I randomly picked out a foreign-language classic novel and quietly began reading.

When the time ticked to 11:00 pm, my phone suddenly lit up. It was Gregory calling.

The moment I answered, deafening dance music mixed with shrill screaming blasted through the speakers.

His words were slurred, and his tone was full of mockery.

"Do you hear that, Abigail? This is what a real coming-of-age party is really like!"

Jeremy chimed in from the side. "Things are insanely awesome out here without an old mother hen like you nagging us!"

"Alright, just let her have it for awhile," Wendell's cold voice cut in. "Don't ruin Lucille's fun."

Expressionless, I hung up. A few seconds later, several photos arrived in my messaging app. They were in a private room at the nightclub, with the trio surrounding Lucille. Empty liquor bottles littered the table.

The caption read, "A night without the buzzkill. Perfect."

I smirked at the photos. Then I looked at the clock again. The hand ticked slowly as time passed.

Suddenly, my phone lit up again and began vibrating frantically. The caller ID showed that it was Jeremy.

I stared at the screen coldly, listening to the shrill ringtone. This time, I declined the call without hesitation.

But the next second, calls from Wendell and Gregory started flooding in. The screen kept flashing, and the relentless ringing of incoming calls pierced the air, one after another, like a death knell.

Even through the phone, I could practically feel the hellish despair and panic they were going through right now.

Judging by the time, the trap Lucille had set up with the thugs had probably sprung. Right now, those three guys were likely pinned under the boots of those very thugs, forced to take scandalous photos.

My lips curled into a smirk. I held down the power button and shut off my phone.

The room fell into complete darkness and silence.

This "old mother hen" wasn't going to save them this time around. Good luck to them.

The next morning, with less than two hours remaining before students needed to enter the exam centers, I opened my eyes to dozens of missed calls blinking on my phone screen.

I tapped open my messaging app. The group chat with the three guys was flooded with texts.

"Abby, where are you? Why aren't you answering your calls?"

"We miss you. Come meet us so we can study together."

The words "study together" sent a chill down my spine. In my past life, they had used this exact excuse to lure me into that dark alley before shoving me straight into hell with their own hands.

My expression was icy as I continued to scroll down. At around 3:00 am, the tone of the messages abruptly shifted.

"Abby, do you have 200 thousand dollars on hand? Lucy's family is dealing with an emergency, and they need life-saving money. Can you figure out a way to scrounge that up and get it to us?"

I scoffed at the pathetic excuse.

Family emergency? Please. They had merely been pinned down by the thugs at the time, forced to take compromising photos for blackmail.

After washing up, I went downstairs.

At the dining table, my parents noticed my expression and looked over with concern. I handed the phone over to them.

When Dad read the messages, he was so furious that he slammed his hand onto the table.

A flash of sympathy crossed Mom's eyes.

"Should we…" she started hesitantly. "Should we maybe call the police? It's already happened anyway… What if someone actually dies—"

But she stopped halfway through her sentence. Her eyes welled with tears as she looked at me, remembering how in my past life, I had lain in a hospital bed, covered in blood. And in the end, overwhelmed by despair and hopelessness, I jumped off a building.

Compared to how much our family had suffered in the past life, what those guys were going through right now was nothing.

Dad took a deep breath and placed a fried egg onto both Mom's plate and mine.

"Eat. After today, our Abby will be a top student at Mephton. We've got a long, happy future ahead of us!"

The mood had just begun to improve when a violent pounding shook the front door.

With a livid expression, Dad slammed his fork down and went to open the door.

Standing outside weren't just the same three sets of parents from last night, but also our homeroom teacher, Mr. Levinski, and several classmates who should have been on their way to the exam center.

The moment the door opened, Mrs. Burke shoved her finger in my face before turning to the teacher.

"Look, Mr. Levinski! I told you she must have something to do with my Greg disappearing! He's always glued to her side! Who else could it possibly be but her?"

Mrs. Trudeau, seemingly having completely forgotten the fight we'd had yesterday, rushed forward and grabbed my wrist desperately, as if she were grasping onto a lifeline.

"Abby, sweetheart," she said, switching to a gentle, coaxing tone. "The boys never came home last night. Be a good girl and tell us—what errand did you send them on this time? Where did they go?"

Mr. and Mrs. McFadden stood at the very back. Even though they didn't say anything, the look they shot me was laced with venom.

Hearing the phrase "this time" and seeing how entitled they looked, a wave of iciness surged from deep inside me.

They had behaved exactly this way in my previous life. The moment something happened to their sons, they blamed it all on me.

To them, I wasn't their sons' childhood best friend. I was just a free babysitter at their beck and call.

Before I could pull my hand away, Mr. Levinski squeezed forward in a rush. He looked frantic, and his tone was filled with reproach.

"Abigail! Do you know how important the CEA is for their futures? It's almost time to head into the exam hall, but they're still missing! What tantrum are you all throwing right now?"

Tantrum?

The image from my past life—my parents convulsing agonizingly on the floor after they drank pesticide—flashed through my mind. My nails dug deep into my palms as I forced the metallic taste of blood back down my throat.

Yanking my hand away, I stared at them expressionlessly. "I really don't know."

Chaos erupted at my words. A few of my close classmates began whispering among themselves, their eyes filled with disapproval.

"Why is our class president behaving like this? They're usually so close…"

"That's right. This is the college entrance exam. No matter what happened between them, she still shouldn't play around with their futures."

Looking at the chaos unfurling before me, I lost the desire to even explain myself.

"Excuse me, please move aside," I said, my voice cold. "We're going out."

I'd just taken a step when Mr. McFadden threw his arm out and blocked the doorway.

"You think you're still going to sit for the CEA?"

Mrs. Burke screeched in agreement. "That's right! If you're going to make my son miss the exam, you can forget about taking it too!"

Several classmates immediately piled on.

"Abigail, just go and bring them back quickly. Can you really bear the responsibility if they miss the CEA?"

"Exactly! If they can't make it, we won't go either."

Seeing them use the College Entrance Assessment as a bargaining chip to force me into submission, my lips curled into an eerie smile.

I met their furious gazes straight on.

"Who told you…" I slowly asked, enunciating each word clearly, "...that I'm taking the CEA?"