I agreed to transfer schools with my childhood friend who was constantly being bullied, but she backed out on the last day.

Her friend teased, "I can't believe you pretended to be bullied all this time just to get rid of Harry. He's your childhood friend. Are you really willing to let him go to another school all by himself?"

Lena said indifferently, "It's just another school in this city. How far could it be? I've had enough of him always being around me. Getting some distance between us is just what I wanted."

I stood outside the door for a long time that day before deciding to turn and leave.

However, on the transfer application, instead of writing Haleswood High School, I wrote the high school that my parents wanted me to go to, which was abroad.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten that Lena and I had been worlds apart from the very start.

The moment I heard the truth, my heart trembled violently.

Over the past month, Lena Shaw had been beaten up or falsely accused countless times.

I had tried my best to help her avoid harm, but there were always moments I failed.

Unable to endure it any longer, I suggested that we should transfer schools.

At the time, Lena had just been splashed with ice water, her delicate face pale and pitiful, and she helplessly grabbed my hand.

“Harry, I don’t want to go to a strange place alone.”

Lena and I had been childhood friends—we had gone to and from school together since nursery, and that had never changed for more than 10 years.

Besides, I had secretly admired her in my heart.

So in a moment of impulse, I promised her, “Don’t be afraid. Wherever you go, I’ll go with you.”

But until now, I finally learned that everything she did had been a carefully staged act just to drive me away.

I couldn’t help but wonder—did Lena hate me that much?

The voices in the private room continued, “Harry’s truly devoted to you. You’re sending him to another school now—aren’t you afraid he’ll fall for someone else?”

“Him?”

Lena let out a mocking laugh, as if she had heard the funniest joke on earth.

“For me, he even dared step in to stop a group beating. Even when he got bruised and battered, he never took a single step back. You think he’d stop loving me?”

Someone muttered quietly, “But what if? Harry doesn’t seem like someone easy to mess with.”

Lena’s tone was lazy. “There are plenty of pretty girls at First High School. Have you ever seen him spare any of them a glance?”

Her tone inevitably carried contempt.

“All he ever did was follow me around. Even a lapdog wasn’t as clingy as him.”

Sharp, grating laughter erupted in the private room, like a slap across my face.

I wanted to leave, but my feet felt rooted to the floor, forcing me to listen—and hurt.

Someone clicked their tongue in amazement.

“This is the first time I’ve seen someone personally push away a man who liked her. Respect, girl.”

“But if you didn’t like how clingy Harry is, couldn’t you have just told him? He doesn’t seem like the type who would keep pestering you.”

Lena clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Harry is too stubborn. If I said it outright, it wouldn’t be that easy to make him leave.”

Then her tone shifted. “Besides, Michael always felt inferior and sad when he saw him. He only got better when I stayed by his side. For Michael’s sake, this is the only thing I can do. Harry will just have to suffer for a while.”

The moment she said that, everyone immediately understood.

Lena decided to pretend she was being bullied exactly one week after Michael transferred to First High School.

Someone laughed and scolded Lena, “You little fox—he’s only just came to our school and you already have a liking for him?”

“But Michael really was handsome, with a really gentle personality. It’s normal for a girl to be attracted to him. Unlike Harry—cold and stern, always keeping people a thousand miles away. No matter how handsome he is, it doesn’t help.”

Their wild commentary about me surged like waves, one after another.

And the Lena I had secretly loved for years didn’t stop them, didn’t refute them—she even agreed occasionally.

I stood outside the door, my heart sinking deep into an endless abyss—empty, heavy, and suffocating.

For a moment, I wanted to open the door and demand answers from Lena.

Ask her why she lied to me.

Ask her whether she ever felt even a moment of guilt or softness watching me get beaten while protecting her.

Ask her if she ever thought about our more than 10 years of friendship before doing all this.

But in the end, my mother’s voice echoed in my ears. ‘Don’t do unnecessary things.’

A person wouldn’t change overnight.

I turned around and left that private room.

Thin, continuous pain registered belatedly.

Originally I would not have been so upset, I told myself it was just a betrayal by a friend and that it was no big deal.

But the line called friendship was the one Lena had chosen to cross first.

The day we decided to transfer schools together, she pulled me to a bar to drink and celebrate our liberation.

Ambiguous lights lingered around us, and I watched the person I had quietly liked for years and felt a little dazed.

So when she leaned in and kissed me, I did not refuse.

Affections suppressed for years had suddenly run wild in an instant.

I could not contain myself and blurted out, “Lena, what are we now?”

Lena affectionately kissed my lips again and said, “Silly, what else could we be?”

Cheers rose in the private room, and the atmosphere was warm, like the stirring in my chest.

I had not expected that only two days later I would hear Lena personally shatter my one-sided wish.

I smiled, but tears uncontrollably streamed down my face.

So that ambiguous retort had also been Lena’s way of coaxing me away quickly for Michael, hadn’t it?

The wind jingled the wind chimes in my bedroom and dried my tears.

My broken heart also slowly began to mend.

Lena was wrong.

She was merely the illegitimate daughter of the Shaw family, and I was the Chase family’s only heir, indeed we should not have clung to each other.

Because we did not match.

The transfer application in my hand had been stained by my tears, the ink had spread and the paper looked filthy.

But it did not matter, if this one was dirty, I would replace it with a clean one.

The Chase family never lacked alternatives.

I reprinted a form, but when I reached the line for the destination school I called my mother.

“Mom, when you said you wanted me to study abroad, which high school did you have in mind? Yes, I would go alone.”

The wind chimes in the room made a clear, pleasant sound, as if celebrating for me.

I closed my eyes slightly, and this time the face that appeared before me was not Lena’s.

A woman who resembled Lena quite a bit but was gentler and more attractive smiled at me, the same certainty and seriousness as two years ago.

“Harry, sooner or later you would give up Lena and choose me.”

At the time I thought she was joking.

Now I silently repeated it in my heart.

Lena, I truly did not want you anymore.

After filling out the new application, I took a deep breath and felt a quiet calm descend.

Then someone suddenly knocked at the door.

I was stunned—this house had always been mine alone, and the only person who knew the code would be…

I opened the door and indeed saw Lena’s face.

Her tone was gentle as usual. “Harry, you haven’t come to say goodbye to your friends in a long time, I was worried about you.”

I forced myself to speak calmly. “My stomach wasn’t feeling well, so I’ll pass.”

Just as I was about to send them away, out of the corner of my eye I saw an unexpected figure.

Michael, coward and pretentious, shrank beside Lena and flinched slightly when our eyes met.

Lena watched his every move and immediately held his hand.

“Harry, you scared Michael.”

Again with that act—Michael always put on a frail look as if I were a monstrous bully, as though I had done some unforgivable thing.

But I had done nothing at all.

My expression turned cold. “I said I did not like others coming to my house.”

Lena frowned slightly, displeased. “Michael is not an outsider. Besides, he had come because he’s worried about you.”

Before I could retort, Michael began his perform suddenly.

“Harry, I’m sorry. I know you always looked down on me, but I showered every day.”

He added with a face full of grievance, “I wouldn’t dirty your house…”

Hearing this, Lena immediately knitted her brows and looked at me with displeasure. “Harry, Michael was only poor in family circumstances, but he was not as hopeless as you thought.”

“You treating him like this really disappointed me.”

Michael timidly lowered his head, forgiving and full of understanding.

“Lena, I’m fine, don’t argue with Harry…”

He sniffled and showed a wronged but stubborn smile.

“After all, Harry said you two were childhood friends—how could I compare to that status…”

“What nonsense are you saying? You were unique already.”

Lena soothed him in a soft voice.

Then she turned to me, her face cold as if frozen, and said heavily. “Michael isn’t feeling well. I’ll take him home first. You can reflect on what you’ve just done. Don’t forget, you need a stamp on the transfer application.”

I did reflect seriously on my poor judgment of character.

Then I went and changed the code to the front door of the house.

The bottled-up anger in my heart finally eased a little.

The next day, I took the new application form to school to get it stamped.

Watching that bright red seal marking my departure land steadily on the paper, my heart suddenly felt hollow for a moment.

I stood there dazed, and someone stepped in front of me.

Lena frowned slightly.

“Harry, did you change the password to your front door? After I walked Michael home yesterday, I immediately went to find you, but the door wouldn’t open at all…”

I cut her off and said simply, “Yeah, I changed it.”

She looked a little displeased and asked, as if nothing had happened and we were still close, “What’s the new password? So I can go take care of you at your place.”

I answered calmly, “No need. After the transfer, I won’t be living there anymore.”

Lena looked at the folded application form in my hand, as if suddenly remembering it. “I completely forgot about that.

“Don’t worry, Harry. I’ll come get it stamped tomorrow.”

Moments like walking and chatting with Lena had grown increasingly rare since Michael transferred to First High School.

I closed my eyes for a second, indulged the reluctance in my heart, and probed, “I’m not worried about anything between us.”

Lena stayed silent for a long time, then abruptly said, “Harry, actually I—”

Michael suddenly appeared behind her, holding a stack of notebooks, and complained affectionately, “Lena, didn’t you say you’d tutor me? Why did you suddenly disappear?”

As he spoke, he handed the notebooks to Lena.

“I saw that your tutoring schedule was planned out for the next two months, so I prepared the corresponding study materials.” Then he blinked playfully. “You won’t blame me for peeking, right?”

“Of course not…” Lena’s smile looked strained, and she glanced at me guiltily.

Seeing that I had no reaction, she actually looked faintly disappointed.

So while pushing me away, she was already planning the future with someone else.

Except her future had never included me.

I tried to maintain dignity on my face, but inside, bitterness spread like a dark, heavy wine.

I dug my nails into my palm to force myself awake. “You two talk. I’m leaving.”

Michael acted as if he had just noticed me and jumped in fright. “Ha—Harry…

“Are you upset because Lena and I are studying together?

“But my family is poor, and I don’t have the resources you do…”

As he spoke, he actually started sniffling again.

I didn’t want to play along, so I said coldly, “Move.”

Whatever thin trace of guilt Lena still had disappeared. She grabbed my wrist, her voice burning with anger.

“Harry, what kind of tone was that?”

Without letting me speak, she yanked me in front of Michael and shouted, “Apologize to Michael!”

The last untouched piece of my heart silently crumbled into dust.

This time, without hesitation, I raised my hand and slapped Lena hard.

“Lena, the person who should be apologizing is you.”

“But not to Michael—to me.”