Chapter 1

At the Graduation Dinner, My Four Childhood Friends Raised Their Glasses and Announced They'd Follow Me Out West

At the graduation dinner, my four childhood friends raised their glasses and announced they'd follow me out west.

「D.C. can be as flashy as it wants. It'll never beat the five of us being together.」

My eyes went hot and red, and right there at the table I signed the confirmation form for the western classified project.

Half an hour later, the campus belle slid her phone across the table to me.

On the screen were screenshots. The four of them, all confirmed for their changed applications.

She was laughing so hard her shoulders shook.

「Barbara, you didn't actually believe them, did you?」

「All four of them are staying in the city with me. You go out west by yourself. That way you're not around, cluttering up the view.」

The four of them sat beside her. Not one of them said a word for me.

I nodded, and forwarded each of the screenshots of their changed applications to myself, one by one.

Then I quietly turned on a recording.

「Fine.」

「The four of you go to the city with her. I'll go out west alone.」

「But I can make sure none of the four of you make it back.」

They laughed at me for being a sore loser.

Then, on the first day of school, they stood at the university gate, and not one of them could get their admission code to scan.

Because all four acceptance letters had been voided.

……

The five of us grew up in the same staff housing complex.

Me, Barbara Norris.

Henry Weiss, Rupert James, Eustace Lyons, Dustin Swanson.

When we were kids, whichever house had braised pork ribs going, the five of us would follow our noses straight to that door.

In grade school, Henry got into a fight for me and had half a front tooth knocked out.

Rupert spent his holiday money on a box of strawberry candy for me and wouldn't even tear off the wrapper for himself.

Eustace was too chubby to climb the courtyard wall, but every time he'd still insist on crouching down first so I could step on his back and pull myself up.

Dustin was the quietest, but when I ran a fever and ended up in the hospital, he lay across the edge of my bed and kept watch the whole night.

The grown-ups always joked that I was the child bride raised by four little troublemakers.

I believed it.

Not the child-bride part.

The part where we'd always be together.

After the SATs, all five of us scored well.

Henry wanted to study aerospace design, Rupert computer science, Eustace applied for mechanical engineering, and Dustin was going into materials.

And I got a recommendation for a special program.

The program was out west.

The school's name wasn't public, and the major was just a string of code.

A teacher pulled me aside for a talk.

「The conditions are hard, the rules are strict. Once you're in, your information goes dark, and you can't tell people where you're placed after graduation.」

「But it's a rare opportunity.」

I hadn't even decided yet when Henry and the others called it for me.

「Go for it!」

「We'll all apply out west together.」

「Who cares about the Ivies? They can't put the five of us in the same dorm block anyway.」

They crowded around me poring over maps, checking the climate, even drawing up a list of which brand of sunscreen to buy.

Dustin even pulled out a route map he'd drawn himself.

「Fly out from the city, then three hours by car.」

「On breaks, we'll come back together.」

I teased him for thinking so far ahead.

He dropped his head and pushed his glasses up.

「It's not far.」

「Wherever you are, that's where we'll be.」

That night, Henry walked me home.

The streetlights stretched our shadows out long.

At the gate of the housing complex, he suddenly grabbed my hand.

「Barbara.」

「That thing you said before, about liking me. Does it still count?」