After the most wanted bachelor in Renowoods, Marvin Chambers, lost his memory, he began to pursue me relentlessly.

I dated Marvin for three years and fell hopelessly in love with him.

Just when I was about to tell him I was pregnant, I overheard a girl who used to bully me say to him, "Thanks for pretending to lose your memory and pulling 99 pranks on Serena just to avenge me.

"Once you hit 100, I'll be your girlfriend."

That was when I finally understood—Shirley Hunt was the one Marvin had always loved.

And I was just the fool he used to make her laugh.

Later, I died in a plane crash.

Marvin lost his mind searching through the wreckage, only to find a single ring. Inside, it was engraved: [Hope You'll Love Me After 100 Pranks].

They say he collapsed crying in the debris and had to be rushed to the hospital after passing out.

When he woke up, he turned against everyone who had helped him prank me.

Meanwhile, I stood smiling in the snowstorm of Frontania, watching as my medical records went up in flames.

He had faked amnesia to win my heart, so I faked my death to teach him a lesson.

Just a wall away, I could hear Shirley Hunt's voice lift with excitement. "Prank number 96 is a success!"

Marvin Chambers's tone held a sharp, unfamiliar sarcasm. "Did you enjoy it?"

One of Marvin's buddies chimed in, laughing. "Marvin's so sweet to get back at Serena for you, Shirley. But she brought it on herself for stealing your national scholarship and that game design competition trophy.

"Once he hits 100 pranks, he's going public with you!"

My whole body froze.

"I've got to hand it to Marvin—pretending to have amnesia just to mess with Serena is a genius move.

"Remember the first prank, where he made her search in the rain for that bracelet, just to hand it off to Shirley? You should've seen her face..."

My nails dug into my palm.

That emerald bracelet had been a gift from my mother on her deathbed. Marvin said he lost it during the move.

I spent seven hours looking for it in a storm that day. I had a 104-degree fever by the end.

Another friend laughed. "The best one was on the day she did her thesis defense! Marvin told her he was drunk and had been beaten up at a bar.

"After she found out there wasn't a fight, she ran back to the professor in tears, begging for another chance. I even got it on video."

I bit down hard on my lower lip.

I'd skipped the presentation I'd spent six months preparing just to find him. In the end, I had to postpone my graduation.

Shirley chuckled lightly. "I remember the time we folded the game design drafts she'd spent three sleepless nights on into paper airplanes. She spent the whole night picking them up with red eyes. She looked like a lost puppy."

Right on cue, Marvin laughed. "So what should the next prank be?"

"Let's tell her you're in the hospital. She'll rush over to look for you, while we'll throw a party. Perfect, right?"

My phone buzzed immediately. It was a message from Marvin.

[I'm in the local hospital ER. Come now.]

Worried they might catch on, I left in a hurry.

But two minutes later, Marvin deleted the message—like he regretted lying to me.

I pretended I never saw it and didn't reply.

The truth was, I'd already guessed something wasn't right.

Once, while Marvin was in the shower, I accidentally found an encrypted folder on his phone titled "Game Progress".

There were exactly 96 videos.

The same number as the pranks I'd endured.

The password? Shirley's birthday—1224.

He'd told me it was the day we first met.

Last year on that exact day, I waited for him in the snow for three hours.

Meanwhile, he was at the Hunts' villa, placing a birthday crown on Shirley's head. He didn't show up until late that night.

He'd wrapped a scarf gently around my neck, like he genuinely cared about me.

Feeling a dull ache in my chest, I opened his WhatsApp.

In the pinned chat at the top, I saw he updated Shirley every day with prank progress.

[I told her I had to work overtime the day I took you to Disneyland. She waited until 3:00 AM.

[I lied to her about the time of the competition. She showed up two hours late in her pajamas. It was the funniest thing ever.]

The last message stopped on the day of the class reunion.

That day, when Shirley "accidentally" spilled hot coffee on me, Marvin instinctively shielded me.

But the chat read, [I felt disgusted just touching her. I even disinfected my hands thrice.]

I called my father and told him I wanted to move to Fronville, Frontania to live with him.

After my mother passed away five years ago, he moved there—to the place where they first fell in love—and stayed to keep her company in a sense for the rest of his life.

I, on the other hand, stayed behind for Marvin. I had turned down the chance to study abroad, clung to him, and spent the entire year away from my father.

I thought if I held on long enough, I could thaw Marvin's icy heart and finally win him over. Instead, when his icy heart melted, all that was left was a bitter cold.

What I believed was true love was nothing more than a cruel game of pranks. I was just a clown in his twisted act to impress Shirley, his first love.

When my father heard what I said, he was overjoyed. "I'm so glad you've finally come to your senses!"

I held back my tears and gave a soft hum.

"When I leave, help me stage a fake plane crash."

He didn't understand why, but he still agreed.

The plane crash would be my final gift to Marvin.

I'd make sure he drowned in regret for the rest of his life.

I deleted every photo of us from my phone. But when I got home to pack, a leather-bound notebook slid out from Marvin's safe.

The dark green cover was embossed with the phoenix crest from "Ashen Mythos", a game I had stayed up late 36 nights in a row to design. That was my very first logo draft.

Marvin had it printed on the cover. Inside were all my design sketches from over the years. He'd kept them, carefully organized, like he truly believed in my dreams.

I flipped to page seven and froze. Next to a photo of me coding at my desk with my glasses on was a sticky note.

[Today, she snapped at the computer screen, looking like a puffed-up kitten. The revised version was ten times better. How can anyone be this smart and cute at the same time?]

Every time I pulled an all-nighter sketching, Marvin was right there, massaging my shoulders and cooking for me.

Just because I mentioned it once, he went out in the middle of the night to get me cake. He remembered my period and always made sure I was comfortable.

He got into a relationship with me as a prank, but the truth was, he was just as caught up in it as I was.

Tucked into the back of the notebook was a stub from a flight on Valentine's Day last year. The blank space beside it was filled with his familiar handwriting.

[If I had to do it all over again, I'd still pretend to lose the ticket and trick her into staying up all night at the airport to revise the proposal with me… because that was the 72nd prank I pulled for Shirley.]

Rain slammed against the window.

All that love had been built on lies. Maybe Marvin loved me, in some twisted way.

But he loved Shirley more.

I was just someone he used to entertain her.

With shaking hands, I pulled out my phone and booked a surgery to end the pregnancy.

That night, I lay in bed as Marvin came home, the chill of the night clinging to him. I stayed still, pretending to be asleep.

There was no sound for a long time. It felt like he had paused mid-move.

I hadn't followed through with the prank this time. He must've looked bad in front of Shirley and the others.

But I couldn't figure it out. Was he really just going to let it go?

Then the mattress dipped behind me, and two strong arms wrapped around my waist.

Marvin rested his head against my neck like a tired bird finally returning home. His breath was warm, full of joy. "We're having a baby, Selene."

Selene stands for "moon". That was the nickname he gave me. He once said I was like the moon in the sky, shining only for him. It also sounded like my real name.

But I knew the truth.

Behind my back, he told Shirley and the others that I was just overthinking. He said Selene was just a name he made up for fun to trick me and make me fall so deeply I couldn't see the truth.

All that so he could laugh at how love turned me into a fool.

I said nothing. He had no idea I'd already made my choice to end the pregnancy.

Marvin didn't notice anything strange. He pulled out my test results and drew three tiny hearts on the paper.

He used the fountain pen I'd bought him with my first paycheck. He'd carried it with him for years.

I didn't say a word. He just held me tighter, whispering sweet nothings like any other day.

But my heart felt like it was trapped in the dead of winter—frozen solid, impossible to thaw.

"I'm tired. Let's sleep," I whispered.

He went quiet right away. Then he murmured, "Remember we're going to Shirley's birthday party tomorrow," before quickly falling asleep.

But I stayed awake all night.

He had faked memory loss, and I had given him my heart for three years.

Now, I would fake my own death and let him live with regret for the rest of his life.

At the birthday party, Marvin's friends crowded around me in the private room and pushed the biggest slice of cake right in front of me. "Marvin says you love cake. Have some."

Marvin looked away, pretending not to notice.

The moment the cake touched my lips, a sharp bitterness rose in my throat, and nausea hit me hard.

But Shirley pressed me down while shoving the unfinished cake back into my mouth. "It's my birthday today. It'd be rude for you to spit out my cake. Come on. Finish it!"

Suddenly, my lower stomach clenched with pain, unbearable and sharp.

Marvin's friends started teasing and laughing, treating me like part of some cruel joke.

After finishing the cake, I rushed to the bathroom, vomiting until I felt the world spin around me. From the private room came satisfied laughter—clearly, it was another prank of theirs.

"Is your stomach still bothering you?" Marvin handed me warm water with mint leaves floating inside, an old remedy for nausea he taught me when we first met.

I couldn't respond as my body was wracked with sharp, stabbing pain, like needles piercing through me.

I looked down and froze. Blood was trickling from between my legs, running down my thighs. It was terrifying.

I grabbed Marvin's arm, trembling. "Take me to the hospital…"

But Shirley stood blocking the door, grinning. "Marvin, it's just irregular bleeding. Girls get that all the time. Don't worry about it."

"Move!" Marvin snapped, his voice sharp.

That was the first time he'd ever gone against Shirley.

When I woke up, I overheard Shirley teasing Marvin's friends outside the exam room, "Did you put too much of the drug? Didn't we agree just to embarrass her in public?"

One of them chuckled. "Marvin should be thanking me for helping him get rid of a burden."

"Yeah, it's been three years. If Serena had a baby, how would he get away from her?"

Marvin stayed silent for a long moment, then said, "Pranks are one thing, but you shouldn't mess with her health."

Shirley looked surprised, then angry. "You said you wanted to 'make the bookworm fall from her high horse' to avenge me, remember?

"You suggested humiliating Serena in public for my birthday. What, are you in love with her now?"

Marvin shook his head like he wanted to run from the question. "No way! You're the one I love."

Outside, laughter and cheers started again.

They celebrated the 98th prank's success and immediately began planning the 99th.

I touched my flat belly, the dull ache there a painful reminder.

The baby and I were just part of their game, wrapped up in a bow as Shirley's birthday present.

I wiped my tears and, with shaking fingers, canceled the surgery. It turned out I didn't need to do that because the baby's father had already sentenced it to death.

Just as I was about to call my father, Marvin came in. I shut my eyes tight and pretended to be asleep.

I heard him whisper in a guilty, hoarse voice, "I'm sorry…"

I knew exactly what he was sorry for.

After I recovered and was discharged, Marvin told me his friends and Shirley wanted to apologize and invited me to climb Mount Chessier with them.

He said they wanted to pray for our lost child at a monastery on top.

I knew it might be another prank, but thinking about the baby made my heart ache.

This would be my last goodbye before I left for Frontania.

All the way up, they clustered around Shirley, laughing and flattering her while ignoring me completely.

When we passed by a tree adorned with ribbons on which people had written their wishes, Marvin bought a ribbon strip, and we wrote a prayer for the baby together.

Shirley stood nearby, smiling sweetly at me. "You're such a good mom."

I ignored her false kindness.

There wasn't much space left on the tree. To hang mine, I had to lean over the fence a bit.

Suddenly, someone shoved me hard from behind.

"Ah!"

I fell forward without any chance to brace myself and tumbled down the steep slope. A sharp, unbearable pain shot through me, deep into my insides. My right leg was so badly injured that I could barely move it. Then everything went black.

Half-conscious, I felt Marvin pick me up, his eyes red.

"Selene, don't worry. I'm taking you to the hospital."

"Why…" I whispered, tears blurring my sight. "Why do this to me?"

Though my body was wounded, it felt like my heart was breaking into pieces.

Marvin's eyes were full of guilt and fear. His voice shook as he explained, "I didn't know they'd go this far. I really didn't know…"

Then my world faded into darkness.