Chapter 1

Stuck in a downpour, waiting for my boyfriend to come get me, I scrolled past an emotional-content influencer's fifty-first video about winning back an ex.

【It's pouring today. Until you come, I'm not leaving.】

The photo showed a girl in a white dress, soaked through.

I tapped into her profile. The bio read:

【My handle is your birthday. Every time you need me, I'll post a video. If I post fifty-two and we still haven't made up, then I'll agree to the matchmaking and forget you for good.】

The numbers in that handle matched my boyfriend's birthday, and I thought it was just some strange coincidence.

I opened the comments, about to type that no woman should trade her health for a man's pity, hoping to guilt him into staying.

Then a message came in from him.

【Got called in to work last minute, can't pick you up. Head home on your own.】

I typed back a dejected okay, and when I went back to the account, it had already updated.

【Number fifty-two. I always believed you'd never forgotten me, and thank god I waited. Everyone, he's come to get me. We're back together. This account will never update again.】

And in the photo, the rag the man was using to wipe her shoes was the good-luck charm I'd embroidered for my boyfriend with my own hands.

……

The comments were full of two hearts finally becoming one, blinking up at me like needles.

The photo of them with their fingers laced together made my chest clench.

The scar on that broad hand was from last night, when Melvin Henson burned himself making me porridge and picked out the blister himself so I wouldn't worry.

The sheer absurdity of it closed over me, and before I'd even processed anything, my body had already dialed his number.

Melvin's voice was as gentle and attentive as ever.

"Did you get a car? Send me your route so I can track it."

I forced down the lump in my throat.

"Not yet. What are you doing?"

He hesitated.

"Working overtime, obviously."

As he said it, a woman's voice rustled through in the background.

"Do you want to rinse off? You're all wet."

In that instant, it felt like a hand had closed around my heart.

"What are you doing?"

He rushed to explain.

"A pipe burst at the office. Don't read into it, sweetheart."

The call ended in a hurry.

I waited an hour for a car before I finally got home.

Melvin didn't come back until one in the morning.

"Why aren't you asleep? Didn't I tell you not to wait up? Or did you forget you said you wanted to be the most beautiful bride, no late nights?"

He carried the faint scent of gardenia, a perfume I never wore.

Watching how genuine his concern seemed, I couldn't believe that man was him.

I didn't answer, just looked at him with trembling eyes.

"Where's the good-luck charm I gave you?"

He froze for a second.

"The rain was too heavy. The herbs inside got soaked and ruined, so I took it apart to dry it out and asked someone to help restore it."

Then he even showed me a screenshot of his chat with the tailor shop owner.

I'd gotten that charm for him the year before last, after his car accident left him scraped up, bowing every three steps to pray for it. Even when it was damaged, he'd never once let anyone else touch it. He always fixed it himself.

I took a deep breath and told myself it might just be a coincidence.

After all, he'd said the way things ended with his ex was ugly, that they'd never speak again as long as they lived.

"Tomorrow's the wedding-dress fitting. You still remember, right?"

He patted my head.

"Of course."

But the next day, halfway there, he suddenly got a call.

Whatever the other end said, his expression went tense.

After he hung up, he looked at me, serious.

"A coworker has an emergency and needs my help. You go ahead and look. I'll come find you later."

The words slipped out of me before I could stop them.

"But it's hard to catch a car out here. What's so urgent it has to be right now?"

His brows knit together.

"I really do have something to deal with. Stop making a scene."

He pulled me out of the car. It was the first time he'd ever pushed me off like that.

Before, no matter how urgent things got at his company, he always got me settled before he left.

Watching the car speed off, some impulse I couldn't name made me open my phone.

That account had updated at almost the same moment.

【My family kept pushing the matchmaking, thank god he came.】

And the last digits on the call log in the attached photo were exactly the same as his.

My chest throbbed, over and over, aching hard.

A while later, the bridal shop manager called.

"Ms. Dotson, your appointment time has come and gone. Are you two still coming in for the fitting today?"

It felt like a stone was pressing down on my throat.

My voice came out hoarse.

"We're not coming."