3: 3

Margery frowned, watching me with a flicker of displeasure. "Rodney, when did you turn so paranoid?"

"The three of us have been hanging out since college, all these years. So what if we share a bite of ice cream?"

Emmet put on the same careless look.

"Right, Rod. If Margie and I really had something going, we'd have gotten together back in college."

Right. We were college classmates. Seven years of friendship.

Back in college, Margery, Emmet, and I were all in the campus radio club.

I joined first. Then Emmet said he was bored and joined too.

Emmet knew I liked Margery.

Margery was outgoing, always joking around, always wanting to game with the guys.

It's laughable now, but I actually taught myself online games just for her,

hoping she'd play one round with me.

Emmet made a point of pushing us together, finding chances to seat me beside her.

But I was wooden and gutless, barely able to look her in the eye.

All I could do was watch Emmet mess around with her without a care.

I poured every secret feeling into scripts and read them on the radio club's show.

Little by little, the whole school knew the radio club had a gifted writer.

On Valentine's Day of my junior year, in the middle of a heavy snowfall, Margery handed me a heart-shaped box of chocolates and asked if I wanted to be her boyfriend.

My head went blank. "Are you really confessing to me? I thought you liked Emmet…"

She wrapped her arms around my waist and rested her head on my chest. "Silly. Why would I ever like his type?"

"Emmet loves the spotlight too much, and he's flighty. I only like you. You're steady, dependable. You're the one I want to spend my life with."

Back then I was drowning in happiness, and I believed every word.

Steady and dependable.

In the end, those two words became the chokehold I've worn for seven years.

Because of those words, I made room for Emmet countless times.

I put up with him calling in the middle of the night for Margery to come game with him. I put up with Margery sitting up all night nursing him when he was sick.

There was even one New Year's Eve when we were playing a game,

and Margery actually dug out the diary where I'd written about my crush on her, and read it out loud in front of Emmet.

I was mortified and furious, and the two of them just laughed.

What exactly did she think my feelings for her were?

"I'm tired. I want to go lie down for a bit." I stood up.

"Go, go, get some rest." Margery waved me off, then turned to Emmet. "So tonight let's hit that new Japanese place? You've been going on about it for days."

"Sure, let's go." Emmet agreed on the spot.

I quietly got up, walked into the bedroom, and shut the door.

That Japanese restaurant — I'd booked it long ago.

But Margery kept putting it off, stalling and stalling until now.

Three years dating, one year married,

and Margery and I had never once had a proper meal at a decent restaurant.

Was it that she didn't want to go, or that she didn't want to go with me?

The thought pushed me past holding back. I pulled the door open and walked back out.

4: 4

I forced out a calm smile.

"I've been thinking. Let's all go get Japanese food together after all."

The air went quiet for a second.

Margery and Emmet exchanged a look.

Margery smiled at me. "Now you want to go? A minute ago you said you were tired."

I just said, "Mm."

Emmet cleared his throat. "Then… then the two of you go. I'm always the third wheel between you, Rod definitely doesn't want me around. I'll head home."

Margery clicked her tongue, glanced at Emmet, then turned back to me.

"Fine, we'll eat in, then. Emmet and I will go buy some groceries and cook. Rod, your leg's bad, you rest."

Listen to that.

As if the two of them were the close, loving couple,

and I was just some distant relative who had to be entertained.

Right then, Margery's phone rang.

"Good afternoon, ma'am, this is Matsubara Japanese Restaurant."

"The cake you had custom-made for Mr. Hudson has just arrived at the shop. Should we put it in the refrigerator for now?"

I heard every word of it.

Margery scrambled to hang up, her eyes darting away.

I looked at her calmly and asked softly, "What was that?"

"What cake for Mr. Hudson?"

Margery cleared her throat and explained, "Rod, don't get the wrong idea. Today's the birthday of that game character Emmet likes, so…"

I let out a short laugh. "A birthday party for a game character?"

"Yeah, it's a thing now. People in the group even buy the big mall screens for a character's birthday. You wouldn't get it, you're such a hick."

I looked at her.

Suddenly she was so understanding.

Back when we'd just gotten married, on my birthday I'd had my eye on a mountain bike I wanted to buy. What had she said then?

She said I was making trouble over nothing, that after marriage I didn't know how to save for our little household, that a man in my position should be grateful he had a bike-share to ride.

Every birthday, no cake. No happy wishes.

So all the cakes went to Emmet, then.

I thought about the day I had my car accident. It was pouring rain and I came home early, and she'd been dead set on driving me back out.

Later, at the hospital, she and Emmet had come to see me together.

She'd just wanted me out of the way, out of the house, so she and this man could carry on.

Margery tried to smooth the whole thing over. "Enough. I'll have my mom come over and cook you some noodles, you two can have something warm."

"I'm doing this for you. Japanese food is all raw and cold, your stomach's bad, it'll just upset you."

I stood where I was and didn't back down. "I can eat the cooked things. The place has tempura, they have sukiyaki hot pot."

Margery heard that and her brow furrowed at once. "Rodney, can you not be such a hick?"

"You go to a Japanese place and order the cooked stuff? Cooked salmon, are you serious? You'd just be wasting the food."

"I'm going today." I stared at her and said it one word at a time.

Margery froze.

In seven years, I had never once spoken to her in that tone.

Seeing this, Emmet quickly stood up.

"Let it go, Margie, don't be mad at Rod. You two go eat. It's my fault, all of it. I know Rod doesn't have money for games, and here I am going on about throwing a birthday for a character…"

His backing down only pushed Margery over the edge.

She strode right up in front of Emmet, and the look she turned on me was pure disgust.

She said to Emmet, "Ignore him. This orphan's so poor his brain's short-circuited, paranoid all day long, nothing's ever good enough for him. He's spoiled rotten!"

It went through me like a shock, and I stared at her, unable to believe it.

Orphan.

My parents died young. She had always known that.

And now she was throwing it at me like this.

This was the woman who'd brought me chocolate in the heavy snow, who'd said she wanted to spend her whole life with me.

When she finished, she fixed me with an ice-cold stare.

"Rodney, a little thing like this, and you just have to lose it, is that it?"

"Let me tell you, today I'm not taking you at all!"

She snatched up the car keys and dragged Emmet toward the entryway.

"Margie, this isn't fair to Rod…" Emmet's voice drifted in from outside the door.

"Who cares, it just spoils him."

The security door slammed shut.

I was the only one left in the living room.

Margery sent me a message. 【You made me lose face in front of Emmet, so what was I supposed to do. Don't take what I said to heart.】

【You love sukiyaki, right? I bought the sukiyaki base and the beef, I'll have Mom make it for you.】

I didn't reply.

I just packed a few clothes and booked myself a very expensive Japanese restaurant.

I ordered a whole table of sashimi, took a picture, and posted it to my feed.

The next morning, I sat in the sales office.

Margery called, furious.

"What is wrong with you?"

"How much did that table of sashimi cost? If you throw money around like this, when are we ever going to buy a bigger house?"

I glanced at the office and answered calmly. "The house gets bought today."

She paused, and her tone softened a little. "Today? Why wouldn't you wait for me to go sign together?"

"You don't need to sign."

"…What?"

"The house is mine alone. It has nothing to do with you."