3: 3

With Jenna's grades and ability, she could only apply to the low-bar schools that would take almost anyone.

Seven days later, one of them accepted her application.

Burton had spent every recent day out with Jenna, barely showing his face anywhere.

I sent him the school's information, and he replied:

*Good enough, I guess. Jenna says she's not picky.*

*Don't forget she starts in mid-September too. The tuition has to be transferred in the next few days, so we can all leave together.*

As if letting me pay the bill were him doing me a favor.

I sent back three words: "Got it."

A few days later, Burton called out of nowhere.

"Jenna's inviting everyone to her mom's little diner for dinner, and she wants to thank you in person."

"Remember to print out the acceptance letter and bring it. She'll need it for the visa and entry paperwork."

I was curled up in bed, riding out cramps, and I turned him down. "Another day, okay? My period came, my stomach hurts a little…"

His tone dropped a few degrees at once.

"May, don't lie. I remember it's not due until next week."

"But it came early—"

He cut me off before I could finish, cold. "Jenna's been looking forward to seeing that acceptance letter ever since her application went through."

"Some of the classmates who are free are coming too. Don't kill the mood at a time like this and leave her let down."

That last half sentence was the part he'd really meant to say.

I was quiet for a moment. "Understood."

At the long table in the little diner, the other classmates looked at her with open envy.

"Wow, Jenna, I had no idea you were this amazing. I hear the English proficiency exam is really hard."

Jenna, pressed close against Burton, laughed. "Oh, it's nothing, it's all thanks to how well Burton the heartthrob taught me. He stayed up a whole month, tutoring me over video."

"If I'd transferred into our class two years earlier, I might've gotten into a top school right here at home."

At that, my fingers tightened around my chopsticks without my meaning to.

It was only when I submitted Jenna's paperwork that I learned she'd sat the English proficiency exam in the same round as us.

Back then, there'd been one article I couldn't quite make sense of, and I'd wanted Burton to walk me through it.

He'd turned his phone face-down without a flicker, his expression cool. "May, if you don't have the ability, then don't go abroad."

"You're the Coleman family's little princess, sure, but no one owes it to you to be the knight who rescues you. You can't keep expecting to lean on other people."

So he'd been quietly preparing for Jenna that early.

And still he'd faked her sitting the SATs, faked her filling out college applications, just to keep me from seeing it. That wish card was the opening he'd picked.

Burton glanced at me, uncomfortable, and prompted her, "Jenna, May put in a lot of effort for you too. Thank her."

Jenna's expression shifted, then she smiled again. "You're right. May, thank you for being so generous and kind."

"All right, everyone, drink the chicken soup while it's hot. May, to thank you, I had my mom save the plumpest chicken just for you. It's very nourishing."

The others picked up their chopsticks, praising nonstop how wonderfully fresh the soup was.

My stomach was cold and aching.

Without thinking twice, I lifted my bowl and took a sip.

All I tasted was a mouthful of sickening greasy film, laced with the taste of dish soap.

I spat it right back out.

"May, what's wrong?" the deskmate asked, concerned.

I frowned and answered honestly, "There's dish soap in the soup. It tastes like leftover rinse water…"

The others exchanged glances. "Huh? That can't be. How come none of us tasted it?"

The deskmate went to check, but Jenna snatched the bowl away and smashed it on the floor.

Her eyes rimmed red, brimming with hurt, she said, "May, I know your fine-lady stomach is precious and you look down on a little diner like ours."

"But my mom poured her heart into that soup, simmered it all afternoon. You don't have to like it, but do you really have to smear it? We still have to run this business…"

I tried to explain. "I didn't—"

"Enough!"

Burton looked at me, disappointed. "It's my fault. I should've seen this coming the moment you faked a stomachache to get out of coming."

"If you want a fancy meal, then go crawl off to some five-star hotel. Don't come here putting on airs and trampling on other people's good intentions."

Except for the deskmate, everyone was watching me with complicated looks.

Their faces said it all: so awful, how could she be like this, why doesn't she just scram already.

My cheeks burned, and with nowhere to put myself, I turned and ran out.

I ran a long way before the tears I'd held back so long finally spilled over in fat drops.

Calvin the butler called.

"Miss, are we transferring your tuition and Burton's tomorrow?"

Before I could answer, Jenna posted an update.

"Hehe, who knew our heartthrob wasn't just smart, he's this caring too."

In the photo, her index finger had a little cut from a broken shard.

Burton had his head bent, carefully putting a bandage on it for her.

His comment underneath read: *That's because you're too clumsy.*

Jenna: *Yes yes yes, so from now on I'll have to trouble our heartthrob to keep taking care of me up close~*

Burton replied with an okay hand sign.

It felt like a drill was grinding into the flesh low in my belly, the pain bending me double.

I wiped my eyes and answered Calvin.

"Go ahead and transfer it, but only mine."

Since Burton was so eager to take care of Jenna up close, and had no use for what I was worth.

I'd go abroad on my own.

4: 4

My birthday party was only a few days away, but Mom and Dad were still in England hammering out a deal and might not make it back in time.

So they'd booked me a five-star hotel in advance and told me to invite my friends and classmates to celebrate.

When they heard I planned to fly over after my birthday to settle in early, Mom was thrilled and said this way she could throw me a proper party later to make up for it.

I said nothing about the mess with Burton. I didn't want them worrying, or dropping their work over it.

But on the day itself, the moment I reached the banquet hall on the second floor,

I saw my own welcome poster had been swapped out for a glamour shot of Jenna.

Across the top, in bold, curling script: Jenna's College Send-Off.

The hall was packed with her relatives and the little clique of girls she ran with at school.

My friends, the classmates I was actually close to, were all crowded at the door, lost, with nowhere to even sit.

I found the manager I knew and asked, "Who gave you permission to change the theme?"

He blinked at me, wide-eyed. "You didn't know?"

"Young Master Henson from your household called last night and said you'd agreed. I figured, the two of you being so close, I shouldn't disturb your rest—"

Because I was held in such regard, they gave Burton the same standing.

I frowned. "Clear the room, now. Put the original theme back."

"Wait!"

Burton appeared with Jenna in tow and pulled me off to the side.

"May, don't make a scene. I'll explain everything later. Jenna saved you a seat, go sit down."

Hilarious. They'd hijacked my venue and my banquet, and I was the one being told not to make a scene?

"Burton, my family paid for this. What gives you the right to turn my birthday party into her send-off?"

Jenna caught my hand, all fake regret.

"May, don't be angry with him. My relatives heard I'm going abroad to study and they all wanted to come celebrate, but the diner had a slow month, and my mom couldn't afford to host this many people—"

"If we did it somewhere shabby, people would laugh at us. That's the only reason Burton stepped in to help. We're classmates, after all, and you have so much money. You wouldn't nickel-and-dime over this, right?"

She'd dropped the campus-heartthrob talk and moved on to calling him by name like they were close.

I gave a cold laugh and pulled my hand free.

"Having money means I deserve to be the sucker? If you can't afford it, don't throw it. Guilt-tripping someone into paying, what is that? Are you a beggar?"

Jenna's face went white in an instant, her eyes brimming.

Seeing it, Burton shoved me hard.

"May, you've gone too far!"

The push sent me stumbling backward, and right behind me was the steep staircase.

If my deskmate hadn't been worried enough to follow me and grab me in time, I'd have gone tumbling down and split my head open.

Burton startled too, a flicker of panic in his eyes.

It hardened back into cold indifference just as fast.

"Your whole life, how many parties have your parents thrown you? You really can't spare this one?"

"That day you smeared her family's food and made her cry, you already owed her an apology. Consider this making up for it."

"The guests are already seated. Changing the theme now won't do anything. So either stay and eat, or leave, but don't cause trouble on someone's big day!"

I looked at his face, familiar and a stranger at once.

Like I was meeting him for the first time.

"Burton, you're really set on this?"

He pressed his lips together and coaxed, "May, I'm begging you this once. Just give her this party, and I'll wear the couple's necklace with you and make us official."

Ha. Even now he thought he could reel me in with that.

But I didn't care anymore.

I nodded. "Fine. Everyone, enjoy the meal. We'll be going now."

I'd booked another hotel and treated everyone to dinner there.

My deskmate cursed, unwilling to let it go.

"The nerve of them. Those decorations, the cake, the champagne, all those dishes, you could tell they were expensive. That had to cost a fortune."

"May, are you really just letting them off that cheap?"

I laughed and popped a piece of steak into her mouth.

"Yeah. It cost a lot. But they didn't necessarily come out ahead."

In the days after, Burton took Jenna traveling through the nearby cities, calling it one last splurge before going abroad.

I boarded my flight overseas alone.

A week later, on their way back, Burton finally seemed to remember me and sent a message:

*I got you a birthday present. I've been thinking, why don't we leave two weeks early. Jenna needs time to adjust to life abroad.*

*She's worried she won't get along with a roommate. I remember you have an apartment over there. Let's just stay there, it's close to campus too.*

He waited a long while and got no reply.

Burton got a little angry.

*Still sulking after all these days?*

*May, if you're going to keep throwing these spoiled little tantrums, I'll have to rethink whether I'm studying abroad with you at all.*

Three seconds later, his phone and Jenna's went off at the same time.

Burton felt a quiet flush of triumph.

Just as he'd expected, I was still the same May who caved first when he got angry, who apologized on her own, terrified he'd ignore her.

But when he opened his phone, he froze.

Because it wasn't a reply from me. It was an email, in English.

From the university he'd been about to attend:

*As you did not complete tuition payment within the required period, your admission has been revoked. Please be advised.*