Chapter 1

Junior year, my rich girlfriend bought me an apartment.

It was in the most expensive tower downtown, right next to the love nest her childhood-sweetheart ex had bought for his working-class girlfriend.

The first day I moved in, she gave me my orders.

"One month. If you can't break them up, you're out."

I nodded hard, then chose my words carefully.

"The building fees on this place are too steep. I can't keep it up. Once it's done, could we swap it for cash instead…"

She frowned, plainly disgusted.

"Whatever you want."

I pressed my lips together and made her a promise.

"Don't worry. Once it's done, I'll disappear completely."

She looked at me like I was an idiot.

"I told you to break them up. I never said anything about breaking up with you. Where'd you get that idea?"

I blinked.

But the thing was, once this semester ended, I was leaving to study abroad.

If we didn't break up, what was I supposed to do, keep her around for the holidays?

01

Melanie Gilbert had a temper.

I thought about it and decided not to correct her.

Anyway, once she landed her childhood sweetheart, there'd be nothing left for a tool like me to do.

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and take some photos, post them."

"Don't forget to tag the location."

The woman on the couch shot me a glance, then tossed me a phone.

Newest model on the market, no screen protector, no case.

I fumbled it into my hands.

Then I snapped a few shots of the view outside and the room inside, and paired them, smoothly, with an over-the-top caption.

【Loving someone is like tending a flower. Thank you to my Mel, for giving me the first real home I've ever had in my life~】

The second it posted, the phone wouldn't stop buzzing.

I didn't even need to open it to know that eight out of ten comments were snide.

The other two were just flat-out trash talk.

Couldn't be helped. Melanie had set up the phone.

The contacts were either young lords and ladies as high-nosed as she was, or bootlickers like me.

And those were exactly the crowds that could carry a rumor straight to the ears of whoever Melanie wanted to hear it.

Sure enough, half an hour later, the doorbell rang.

Guy Fisher was here.

Melanie went to answer it. I was in the kitchen, staring blankly at the chicken soup bubbling on the stove.

The two of them said something out in the entryway. I couldn't quite make it out.

Then the man's voice came closer and closer.

"…where is he? Bought you an apartment after three months? I'd like to see what kind of man slipped you this love potion…"

I took a deep breath and walked out of the kitchen.

Straight into Guy Fisher, storming in full of fury.

The instant he saw me, he froze.

Two seconds later, he burst out laughing.

"Melanie, have you lost your mind, or have you just been reading too many body-double stories? Where'd you dig up somebody who looks this much like me?"

The woman stood behind him, her gaze settling heavily on him, but she said nothing.

I wiped my hands on the apron, awkward, and forced out a smile.

"Hi. You're Guy, right? Mel's mentioned you a lot. I…"

Before I could finish, Guy's hand was already clamped around my chin.

Those eyes, seventy percent the mirror of mine, brimmed with careless malice.

"No wonder the circle says you're all fawning and fake, that you'll post everything but a straight shot of your own face. Turns out you just don't have the face for it."

"This face cost a fortune, didn't it?"

His grip on my chin hurt. All I dared do was throw Melanie a look, begging for rescue.

She only glanced coolly at the hand on my chin and sighed.

"Guy, don't mess around. What if you hurt your hand? You need it for the piano."

Guy let go.

The next second, a slap landed on my face, not light, not hard.

I froze. He smiled.

"Tsk. Pretty convincing, actually."

"So tell me. With a face like that, how much are you planning to squeeze out of her?"

My left cheek burned faintly.

I suddenly remembered being a boy who'd done something wrong, and my mother's ruler always coming down across my face.

Harder than this. Louder than this.

But it hurt just the same.

"Answer."

The woman's voice pulled me back out of the strange drift of my thoughts.

I looked into eyes deep as a black pool and couldn't tell what answer she wanted.

Maybe all I had to do was make Guy jealous.

"Young Master Fisher, I'm not with Mel for the money. I really do like her."

As if he'd heard a great joke, he started laughing.

Then just as quickly he stopped, the rims of his eyes gone red.

"Melanie, when we broke up, you're the one who said a good dog stays out of the way and a good horse doesn't turn back for old grass."

"What, are you lower than an animal now?"

"I'm telling you, I already have a girlfriend. Stop coming around, stay out of my life…"

Melanie let out a cold laugh.

"Girlfriend? That gold-digger who picks the campus cafeteria when you take her to dinner?"

"Still better than you!"

…

I quietly backed into the kitchen.

Rich people really did know how to play.

Even a reunion after all this time needed a throwaway stand-in as a background prop.

If this were a novel, someone in my position would have to fight three hundred rounds before he got to exit.

But I had other ideas.

After all, from the very start, I was never here for her.