At a certain class reunion, the former class president brought out the time capsules everyone had written years ago and read them aloud one by one.

When it was Harper Langley’s turn, he opened her note and read, [Marry Jayden as soon as possible.]

The room immediately broke into teasing laughter.

“You two must already be married. Why didn’t you invite us to the wedding?”

Before Harper could respond, the man sitting beside her spoke up with a smile.

“She’s my boss now. She’s been busy building her company, so she hasn’t had time to get married. If any of you keep pressuring her to settle down and mess with my paycheck, you’re going to have a problem with me.”

The speaker was Eugene Rowe. Back in school, he had been Harper’s obsessive pursuer, and she had deeply disliked him for it. He had since become her assistant.

Harper did not deny anything. She simply took my hand and smiled, as gently as she always had.

I pulled my hand away and smiled at everyone.

“I’m getting married at the beginning of next month. You’re all invited.”

Eugene’s face turned deathly pale. He stared at Harper in disbelief.

She frowned and pulled out her phone.

A moment later, my phone buzzed with a message.

She texted: You didn’t have to lie to our classmates just to avoid embarrassment. My company is at a critical stage right now, so marriage can wait.

I locked my phone without replying.

I had not lied.

I really was getting married at the beginning of next month.

Harper was just not the bride.

My words instantly set the private room abuzz with excitement.

Everyone started congratulating us all at once.

“You’re something else! You really tried to keep something this big from us!”

“Exactly. We have to be there to share the happiness of our campus couple.”

“I knew it. With how much Harper loves Jayden, she must have wanted to marry him ages ago. Eugene’s just an outsider. He clearly got it wrong.”

The last comment hit Eugene Rowe the hardest. He could not sit there any longer.

He shot to his feet, excused himself, and left the room.

After he left, the conversation naturally shifted to him.

“Come to think of it, Eugene was Harper’s number one admirer back in school. It looks like he’s finally given up.”

“Well, he had no choice. Everyone in school knew Harper and Jayden were childhood sweethearts and deeply in love. Eugene never stood a chance. Right, Harper?”

Harper Langley took my hand naturally while smiling with gentle certainty.

“Of course. I’ll only ever marry Jayden.”

Her words sounded like the sweetest of promises, but I alone knew the truth behind them.

The hand she had on my waist tightened without her realizing it, and her gaze kept flicking toward the door as she spoke.

I pulled her away and looked at her calmly.

“Go to him if that’s what you want.”

Harper froze for a moment.

“What are you talking about? Why should I go to Eugene?”

I said nothing. I merely looked down and pressed lightly at the spot on my hand where her nails had dug in.

She sighed and edged closer to me, wearing a soft, helpless smile.

“Are you upset?

“Eugene is my assistant. He sees me working around the clock every day. He knows I truly don’t have time for marriage right now, which is why he said that.

“I know getting married has always been your wish. That’s why I didn’t call you out when you lied to everyone earlier. Let’s call it even, okay?”

Eight years ago, Harper had wished to marry me as soon as possible.

But somehow, she spoke of it as if marriage had been my wish and mine alone.

I gave a faint smile.

“I didn’t lie.”

My voice was soft, but every word reached Harper clearly.

“I’m getting married at the beginning of next month.”

Harper froze briefly before reaching for the juice on the table and pouring me a glass.

“Alright, Jayden. You can fool everyone else if you want, but there’s no point fooling yourself.”

The warmth in her voice had been replaced by a hint of coldness.

“Regarding marriage, I already made myself clear the last time we talked about it. I don’t want to spend any more energy on something I’ve already made up my mind about.”

By “the last time,” she meant our eighth anniversary two weeks ago.

After all those years together, I had thought it was time for us to move on to the next stage of our lives.

I knew Harper had spent the past two years completely absorbed in her startup. She barely ever had a moment to breathe. So, I had decided to take the initiative and propose to her.

I was willing to take care of every aspect of the wedding myself. She only had to show up on the day and be my bride.

That night, I took out the matching rings I had prepared. While blushing deeply, I had asked her if she would marry me.

However, Harper showed none of the excitement and joy I had imagined.

“Jayden, I don’t have time to get married now.”

She closed the ring box and pushed it back toward me.

“Can you wait a little longer?”

Her tone carried the same familiar warmth and intimacy as always.

But something inside me slowly ran cold.

I had already heard the word “wait” far too many times.

Harper and I had grown up together. Our families knew each other well, and they were more than happy to see us together.

As soon as we graduated, they started bringing up marriage plans.

Harper had told me we were still young, and that she wanted to focus on her career for two years before getting married.

I had agreed and told my parents there was no need to rush things.

They respected my decision and never mentioned it again.

Two years later, Harper left her job at the company and started her own business.

In the early days of her startup, she worked until two or three in the morning almost every day.

When she came home, she would hold me around the waist and promise to marry me once she succeeded, asking me to wait just a little longer.

I saw how hard she worked, so I never brought up marriage again.

It was already our eighth year together.

Harper’s company had gradually stabilized. Though she was still busy, it was nothing like the early days when she practically lived in the office.

I thought it was finally time for us to get married.

Even if she had no time to handle the wedding arrangements, I did not mind. I just wanted to marry her.

But to my surprise, her answer was still “wait.”

“We’ve been together for eight years. Don’t you want to marry me?”

I could not hold it in anymore. My words spilled out in a rambling rush.

“I don’t even care if the wedding is grand or modest. As long as it’s the two of us and our closest family members, I can–”

“Jayden Grant.”

In our eight years together, it was the first time Harper had ever called me by my full name.

All the warmth left her face, replaced by overwhelming exhaustion.

“I’m already worn out from work every day. Why do you keep pressuring me? Are you really in that much of a rush?”

Harper’s voice had not been loud. If anything, it was remarkably calm. It was as if she were simply commenting on the weather.

I sat across from her while staring in disbelief at the woman I had loved for eight years.

Back when we first started dating, she was the one who held me and said that her greatest wish in life was to graduate as soon as possible and marry me.

She had also said that whenever life became exhausting, the thought of marrying me motivated her to keep going.

But somehow, I had become the one pressuring her. I had turned into the one who could not wait.

“Harper, you’re the one who said–”

“So what?” Harper interrupted, sounding impatient.

“People change their minds. I’m busy right now, so I don’t want to get married yet. Can you accept that?”

With that, she shot to her feet.

The chair legs scraped across the floor with a harsh screech.

“Take some time to calm down. Something came up at work, so I’m leaving.”

The door slammed shut behind her, and the sound echoed through the room before everything fell into dead silence.

I sat frozen in my chair, my gaze falling on the closed ring box in front of me.

It felt like a hard slap across my face, the type that left your skin burning and stinging.

On our eighth anniversary, the proposal I had worked up all my courage to make ended in complete humiliation.

A notification chimed on my phone. It was the edited video of our eight years together that I had commissioned.

I had planned to curl up on the sofa with Harper and watch it projected on the screen, but that was no longer possible.

When I set my phone down, I accidentally hit play.

The next second, a bright, cheerful female voice came through the speaker.

“Today is February 14, 2018, Valentine’s Day. Jayden and I came to Lake Eronne. I, Harper Langley, swear upon this lake that I will love Jayden Grant for as long as I live.”

It was the first trip Harper and I had taken by ourselves after graduating from high school, and we had traveled to Dewmere.

Harper had made that vow at the foot of Mount Caelum, beside Lake Eronne.

Every memory I had with Harper played through my mind, frame by frame: holding hands at amusement parks as children, sitting in the same classroom at school, sheltering from rain by the roadside, and cooking together in our first shared home.

In the end, I still could not bring myself to let go of this childhood love.

Perhaps she had only acted this way because the pressure of starting her own business had become too much for her.

I should have been more understanding.

After thinking it through, I grabbed my coat and went to Harper’s company.

Just as I reached the entrance and raised my hand to knock, a woman’s confused voice came from inside.

“Harper, what were you thinking? Jayden’s been with you for eight years. He proposed because he wants to marry you. Did you really have to hide out at the office like this?

“Besides, you used to go on and on in school about being his future wife. Now that you’re at the right age to get married, why are you dragging this out? You didn’t even accept his proposal.”