In a fit of bravado, I save someone's life, only to sustain a head injury. Jenna Newson, my girlfriend of eight years, comes to visit me at the hospital.

In order to pull a prank on her, I pretend to be amnesiac and ask who she is.

While Jenna is momentarily stunned, she soon answers calmly, "I'm a classmate of yours."

Classmates?

I stared at Jenna Newson's face, my girlfriend of eight years, trying to find even a trace of joking in her expression. But there was nothing. She was serious, and... calm.

I forced the corners of my mouth into something resembling a smile. The words "I was just kidding" that I wanted to say stuck in my throat. She called us classmates. Not even close enough to be called ordinary friends.

I figured if the doctor hadn't called her, she probably wouldn't have come at all. But I didn't question her. I just smiled as if everything was normal.

Yet watching her keep her head down and stare at her phone the entire time, my gaze darkened. I started to say, "If you're busy, you don't have to..."

"I am busy, actually. Since you're fine, I'll head out first."

She didn't even let me finish before cutting me off, then grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

Maybe I still held some small place in her heart, because after pulling the door open, she glanced back at me. "Rest well."

I kept that faint smile on my face and nodded politely. But the smile didn't last long. It vanished the second she left.

Jenna and I had been together for eight years. We started dating in college and never stopped. But no one at the company knew about our relationship.

At first, we thought office romances weren't a good idea. Later, we both became directors, each leading our own department teams in competition for performance metrics. At that point, going public became even more complicated.

The company didn't actually forbid dating. Sometimes I asked her about making our relationship official, but she always laughed it off.

Sometimes I wondered if what we had only existed in name. Now I didn't need to wonder anymore. She'd wanted to break up with me for a while now, hadn't she?

The doctor told Jenna that I was perfectly fine. And when my story contradicted what the doctor said, she didn't question it.

She even stated plainly that we were just classmates. Maybe she simply didn't care whether my amnesia was real or fake. Or more accurately, she just wanted to use those words to make her attitude clear.

After all, if we broke up, she could be with Felix Foster.

Her changes hadn't escaped my notice.

We'd been together for eight years. That was nearly three thousand days and nights. We were so familiar with each other that the boundaries between us blurred until we were almost like one person.

I could spot her unusual reactions immediately, and it started when a new employee transferred into her team. A good-looking guy named Felix Foster.

In our entire company, only our chairwoman shared the surname Foster. And coincidentally, when Felix filled out his employee paperwork, under "mother" he wrote the name of our chairwoman, Francine Foster.

At first, Jenna would explain why she was looking after Felix. He was young, fresh out of college, and the chairwoman's son, so she needed to take good care of him.

She told me not to worry, that she wasn't into golden retriever types like Felix anyway. But what Jenna didn't know was that the "young man" she claimed was fresh out of college was actually three years older than me.

Then one day, I needed a video file for work. My laptop wasn't nearby, so I borrowed Jenna's. Her password had been changed.

I called her to get the new one. It was Felix's birthday.

Just when I naively thought it might be a coincidence, I noticed the wallpaper. It showed a photo from a bar with the main subject clearly being a man's hand making a heart gesture.

I remembered how possessive she used to be about wallpapers. She told me I wasn't allowed to change mine, and she promised she wouldn't change hers either.

For years, my computer wallpaper was her photo, and hers was mine. I also remembered how much she hated places like bars.

Jenna must have realized this belatedly, because shortly after I opened the computer, she called me again.

"Hunter, an employee, accidentally changed that wallpaper."

Jenna told me not to overthink it. I believed her. But after that, she never let me touch her computer again. I didn't know if she ever changed it back.

What she didn't know was that I'd always known who that man was. His hands were too distinctive to mistake.

There were plenty of similar incidents after that, like the celebration party the company threw when Jenna closed a major deal.

I was tied up with another project at the time, so I couldn't make it to the party. I was so busy that day that I barely had time to eat, but I still called Jenna right away to congratulate her. I'd even prepared a surprise for her.

She didn't pick up, so I thought maybe she was busy. I sent her a text instead. She didn't reply to that either.

Then I saw her social media post. She was holding a bouquet of roses, her smile sickeningly sweet. But I'd sent her lisianthus, her favorite.

Felix posted on social media that same day. He was also holding roses, grinning ear to ear. The two photos matched perfectly in location and pose. At first glance, they looked like they were announcing a relationship.

Jenna even left a comment under his post. "Don't forget to eat."

I couldn't remember exactly what I felt at that moment. All I remembered was seeing my flowers in the trash bin outside the office the next day, while that bouquet of roses sat in her office.

She used to tell me she hated roses, that they were too cliche. But apparently, people became cliche in the end.

I stayed in the hospital for two days. After my final checkup confirmed I was fine, I was discharged.

Jenna hadn't contacted me once during those two days. Even now that I was being discharged, she hadn't sent a single message.

But at least she'd bought me my favorite cake. So, I decided to give her one more chance.

I set the cake on the chair and called Jenna, keeping my tone gentle. "Jenna, I'm being discharged today. Can you come pick me up?"

We both tactfully avoided mentioning my supposed amnesia.

There was silence on the other end before she finally spoke. "I'm kind of busy right now. Could you just head back on your own?"

The question came out tentative. My turn to fall silent. Then she offered to call me a car.

I cut straight to the point. "How busy?"

My words clearly caught her off guard. I'd never been this sharp with her before. And I knew the company was in a slow period right now. There was no reason for her to be busy.

Yet here she was, telling me she was busy. I could even hear faint music and chatter in the background. She didn't answer, maybe still processing what I'd said, but I hung up and let out a bitter laugh.

The difference between love and indifference was painfully obvious.

I remembered the summer I was working out of town and suddenly came down with a high fever. Half-delirious, I called Jenna. Then I passed out because the fever was too severe.

When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed. She sat beside me, exhausted, her eyes bloodshot. She said she knew something was wrong and drove through the night from another city to reach me.

She hadn't even taken the time to change out of her pajamas and slippers.

"Hunter, you have no idea how terrified I was when I kept pounding on your door, and you wouldn't answer.

"When I saw you lying unconscious on the bed, I nearly lost my mind. Thank god you're awake now."

She buried her face in my chest. My shirt was soaked through with her tears.

Back then, she really cared about me. But I figured everything changed eventually.

I threw the cake in the trash without a second thought. A girl walked over and asked softly, "You don't like it?"

I froze. She quickly explained, "I'm the girl you saved! I've been on break the past few days, so I came late. I'm sorry."

"I heard you were being discharged today, so I got you a little gift. If you don't like it... or if there's anything else you need, I'll do my best to help you."

So, the cake was from someone else. I apologized to the girl and explained the misunderstanding.

Inside, I laughed bitterly at myself. This time, Jenna and I were truly done.

When I reached the entrance to our apartment complex, I saw Jenna. She wore something sexy and trendy, her face done up with the heavy makeup she used to hate.

Her head was down as she scrolled through her phone, texting someone. She was laughing at whatever was on her screen, looking happier than I'd seen her in months.

I stood there, unmoving. She was so absorbed in her phone that she walked right past me without noticing.

I followed behind her like that until we got into the elevator. Then I called her name in an even tone.

Her head snapped up, surprise flickering in her eyes. "You're back from the hospital?"

She immediately shoved her phone into her bag, as if afraid I might see something. Her reaction was almost funny.

"Let's break up."

I never thought I could say those words so calmly. She looked stunned for a second before apologizing.

Her apology meant nothing to me. I didn't want it. I packed my things without expression. We'd rented this place together, but now it could be hers.

My calm seemed to catch Jenna off guard. She watched me with something like curiosity in her eyes.

"Hunter, you don't seem very upset."

That was just like her.

In her mind, I should be begging her with red-rimmed eyes, pleading with her to stay. She was the one who betrayed us, the one who wanted to break up, but seeing me this composed made her resentful.

She expected me to grovel.

I picked up my suitcase and gave the room one last glance without saying anything. Of course, I was hurting. Eight years couldn't just disappear without pain. But I'd already done my grieving.

I'd already grieved when she ignored my calls and texts but commented under Felix's posts, when she threw away the lisianthus I gave her, when she changed her wallpaper to his photo.

When she called us classmates, while I pretended to have amnesia. When she went out to flirt with someone else instead of caring that her boyfriend was being discharged from the hospital.

Now, looking at each other, all that remained was disappointment settling into calm acceptance. There was nothing to regret. She'd changed, and we both knew we couldn't go back.

It was better to let go than suffer together.

Besides, we were both adults. We could part with dignity.

As I left, I asked her one question. "Jenna, I need to know. Did you fall for Felix because of who he is, or because he's Francine Foster's son?"

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her gaze sharp and calculating in a way I couldn't remember seeing before. The innocent girl from my memories was long gone, replaced by a woman who valued status over loyalty.

"Hunter, you're not a kid anymore. You know how the world works. People move up when they can."

She admitted it without hesitation.

I let out a low laugh. "I hope you get everything you want."

As I dragged my suitcase into the elevator, she leaned against the doorframe. Her expression dimmed for a moment, but that shadow was nothing compared to her lack of regret.

She told me not to blame her. I said there was nothing to blame. We were adults. People made their own choices.

Besides, we wanted different things. There was no point in staying together.