My Wedding, Her Lie

After studying abroad for two years, I ended my studies early, eager to return to fulfill my promise to marry her.

But while decorating our wedding room, I stumbled upon thousands of meticulously kept plane tickets from my girlfriend of ten years.

She had flown to Fransei at least once a month, yet not to see me, even though I was only 60 miles from her destination.

I arrived early at the proposal site where we had planned to meet, only to witness her accepting a proposal from the man she truly loved in the venue next door.

"Olivia, will you marry me? If you nod, I'll turn the wedding into our wedding right now!"

She slipped the ring on her finger, tears welling up, and I couldn't bring myself to take another step forward.

I wasn't the man she wanted to marry, so giving them the wedding didn't seem like a loss.

But after I fled the wedding, she crossed oceans searching for me.

——

The proposal scene, adorned with roses, was bathed in warm yellow light, romantic and intimate.

Olivia Yukio, dressed in a wedding gown, with tears streaming down her face, looked exactly as I had imagined she would when she agreed to marry me.

But the man on one knee, asking her to spend her life with him, was not me!

"David, I've finally waited long enough for you to come and propose!"

Olivia covered her mouth with one hand, pulling David Foster up with the other, planting a passionate kiss on his lips.

David held her tightly, deepening the kiss.

The intimate sounds carried through the wind and into my ears.

I instinctively rubbed the matching couple ring that Olivia had sent me from across the ocean.

I hadn't told her that the ring was too big.

To keep it from slipping off, I had tied a piece of red string around it to make it fit.

Perhaps after years of wear, the string snapped with a tug, and the ring, now free, slipped from my finger and rolled far away into the storm drain.

Just like how Olivia had drifted further and further from me during my two years abroad until there was nothing left to hold onto.

A ring that doesn't fit isn't worth retrieving, and a woman who doesn't love me isn't worth holding onto!

"Olivia, I hope your wedding day goes as planned."

"Why? I only want to marry you!"

"Because... I want to crash your wedding! That way, I can prove you love me the most!"

My footsteps halted.

I was curious just how far Olivia would go for David.

"Stop it! Only you could come up with such a bad idea!"

"Then I'd better prepare another pair of running shoes, so when we elope, I can run faster."

"Olivia, are you really willing to treat Martin Jones this way?"

"As long as I show up at the wedding, I've kept my promise. If he insists on leaving the country and can't stop his wife from being stolen, he can't blame me for falling out of love, right?"

Their laughter pierced my heart.

I turned around, leaned against a tree, and felt my legs go weak.

Overwhelmed by the pain, I gathered all my strength to escape that place of heartbreak.

But halfway through, my legs gave out, and I fell hard to the ground.

I limped back home, dialed my advisor, and said, "Professor, I've decided to join the research project you mentioned."

My advisor was thrilled but puzzled. "Didn't you say you'd settle down in the country after getting married? Or has your wife agreed to a long-distance marriage? It's not ideal to be apart after marriage, especially for a girl who needs a sense of security. Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?"

I wiped the blood off my scraped knee, the pain sharp and unrelenting with each wipe. "The wedding is off. From now on, I'll be your right-hand man, fully dedicated to research!"

My professor, who treated me like his own son, immediately sensed something was wrong. "Well, today is the deadline. I'll put your name down. Come back soon, and we'll dive into work. Keeping busy will help you stop thinking too much. Don't blame me for being blunt, but you've spent these two years coming back to see her, while she didn't even visit when you were sick in Fransei. That's enough to show she doesn't love you as much as you think. If you've decided to let go, then don't dwell on the past anymore!"

If I hadn't seen that thick stack of plane tickets, I might've confidently rebuffed my professor's claim that "she doesn't love you as much."

I felt sorry for her and didn't want her to make the tiring trips back and forth. But she willingly traveled across the globe each month for David.

No wonder she always went silent at the end of each month—busy flying to be with David!

For two years, like a fool, I raced to finish my coursework and publish papers, all to free up time to fly back home and give her a sense of security.

Those short meetings after hours of flying used to be my happiest moments.

But my love, which crossed oceans and continents, had become a joke in front of that stack of plane tickets she cherished.

On my way to the chapel, I tried to convince myself that maybe she was just traveling for fun.

But seeing her accept a proposal from the man who had once bullied me made it clear why, even though we were only 60 miles apart, she never came to see me.

David had a strong possessive streak. He forbade her from seeing me, and she deceived me with her sweet words of longing.

She knew full well that David and I were sworn enemies.

To be precise, after my mother remarried, David and his father became the biggest shadows of my childhood.

I had imagined many times that Olivia might fall for someone else during our two years of long-distance love.

But I never imagined it would be David, and that she would be so eager to humiliate me at their wedding.

I soaked myself in a warm bath, gulping down shots of strong liquor until my body finally stopped trembling.

Then Olivia called.

"Martin, why haven't you arrived yet? I've been waiting for so long!"