I was finally getting married to my boyfriend, who I had been dating for seven years. Then I found out that he took my carefully selected wedding dress and let his childhood sweetheart try it on.

I felt extremely aggrieved and insisted that my boyfriend should cut ties with his childhood sweetheart, but he said indifferently, "Can you stop being so childish?"

I didn't want to wear the dirty wedding dress anymore.

So, I went to try on a new wedding dress with the man my mother had arranged for me to marry when we were little, and my boyfriend went crazy.

——

My name was Ruby Keller. After finding out that the wedding dress I had carefully selected for half a month was tried on by someone else and was even stained with menstrual blood, I angrily slapped the wedding dress in front of the staff of the wedding dress store.

"I've been waiting for this wedding dress for so long, and it's a custom-made one no less. How could you let someone else try it on?"

The fabric at the waist of the wedding dress was clearly stretched out, and the most important thing was the blood-red marks on the lining, which were particularly glaring on the white dress.

The staff was somewhat panicked, repeatedly apologizing and assuring me, "Miss Keller, we absolutely would not let other customers try on a custom-made wedding dress. We can guarantee this.

"Yesterday, when your fiancé came to pick up the wedding dress, we opened the box and showed and inspected it on the spot. I believe he can confirm the truth of my story. Besides, we also recorded a video when we opened the box. If you want, you can see for yourself."

I immediately checked the video and found that the wedding dress was indeed brand new and perfect back then.

Suddenly, I remembered that Oscar Wash, my boyfriend, went to the lab after picking up the wedding dress yesterday. He brought it back today.

I took out my phone, logged on to WhatsApp, and clicked on the profile of Yolanda Swanson, Oscar's childhood sweetheart. She had already changed her profile picture at a certain point. The photo only showed her upper body, and she was wearing a strapless white dress, which might not be recognized as a wedding dress by those who didn't know.

Oscar and I had been in love for seven years. He usually focused on academic research and put most of his time and energy into experiments, so he wasn't very romantic. He had never mentioned anything about marriage in the seven years of our relationship.

I didn't mind. I firmly believed that our love didn't need to be proven with a piece of paper.

Then one day, my mom called his lab three times in one day. This fool took all the accumulated three years of leave at once, took me on a trip, and proposed to me on the last day of the trip.

That evening, we were in a wooden cabin in the forest, and there were just the two of us. The flames in the fireplace reflected on his face. He knelt down on one knee and asked me to marry him. The scene was even more warm and touching than I had imagined.

At that moment, I felt that he was the one for me in this lifetime.

After returning from the trip, he buried himself in hard work again, while my job was relatively leisurely, so I took care of most of the wedding preparations.

This wedding dress was custom-made by a designer I liked for years. It took a long time to finish the dress, and I timed it to make sure I received it one month before the wedding.

Yolanda was the daughter of Oscar's family's neighbor.

Because their parents were close friends, they grew up together since childhood. Oscar had once said Yolanda was like his younger sister, and she treated him like her elder brother.

To follow him, she got into the same university as he did and became his junior.

Yolanda's alias on WhatsApp was "Scar". I didn't know if Oscar had noticed this.

But as the saying went, love me love my dog. I loved Oscar and had always been considerate. I figured that Yolanda might have a childish nature, so I had never had a tantrum in front of him.

With red eyes, I returned to my home with Oscar with the wedding dress in a bag, quietly waiting for him to get off work.

We started dating in college. I studied painting, and he was a famous straight-A student in another department.

I almost never set foot in the library. But that day, I heard that a complete set of comics had arrived at the library, so I got up early to borrow them.

In the end, I didn't get to borrow the comics. I ended up losing my soul.

On a quiet Sunday morning, the library was quiet. I tiptoed to reach for the books on the top shelf in the comic corner. Just as my fingertips almost touched the book, Oscar, who was a head taller than me, gentlemanly put the book in my hand.

He smelt like ebony wood, which was so pleasant, and under his eyelashes were a pair of eyes that were the purest I had ever seen. The scene was so beautiful that it didn't seem real. When I met his eyes, I fell in love just like that.

I found a position diagonally across from him, opened the comic book, and used it to cover my face. It was the first time I read comics so distracted.

I read it for three months in a row.

We were each other's first love, blushing while walking on the playground, holding hands for the first time, kissing for the first time...

Later, Yolanda got into our university and majored the same as him. He introduced to me that they grew up together and that she was like his sister to him.

We had many dates with Yolanda. Out of consideration for the same gender, I always took care of her. I figured that she had just left home to go to college, and it took time for her to get used to a lot of things, so I never minded her joining us on our dates.

Later, I found that she had no boundaries.

When we ate together, she put the meat from her plate into Oscar's plate and said with a smile, "I'm so full. Oscar, eat it for me."

Oscar worked part-time to earn money and bought me a bracelet as a birthday gift. After a week, I saw the same bracelet on her hand. Oscar was a bit helpless and said to me, "If I didn't buy it for her, she'd go to my mom and complain.

"Don't mind her. She's like a child. I'll buy you a better one next time."

I cried and made a scene in frustration, but in the end, it didn't work. They were still "loving siblings".

But this time, it was different. If Oscar didn't draw a clear line with her, I wouldn't have the confidence to get married to him.

With a click, the door opened. Oscar was back.

Unlike the usual times, I didn't greet him with a smile when he came back.

"I have something to ask you," I said straightforwardly.

"What is it? You look so serious."

He came back from overtime, and the screen of his phone still showed work-related materials. There was obvious fatigue on his face.

He asked while checking the materials, "What's wrong?"

I took out the wedding dress, put it in front of him, and said seriously, "I need an explanation for this.

"Otherwise, I don't think we can get married. It will always bug me."

The bloodstain wasn't big, but the wedding dress was pure white, which made the red bloodstain stand out, stinging my eyes.

When he saw the stain, his expression remained unchanged. "You got me. I thought it was something big."

I suppressed my grievances and tears, facing his indifferent attitude.

"Yolanda tried it on last night. She's on her period and might have accidentally dirtied it. Just wash it. What's the big deal?"

I frowned and immediately raised my voice. "You knew?

"How could you let her try it on? This is my wedding dress!

"My wedding dress! Do you know what that means? It's what I'm going to wear when I marry you. What? Are you saying she wants to marry you? She's already in college, OK? How come she doesn't have any boundaries at all? Doesn't she have any shame?"

I sneered, "Or do you want to marry her?"

Oscar frowned. "Stop messing around. Yolanda is like my sister.

"She's just a kid and wants to try on pretty dresses. It's just a child's nature. What does it have to do with boundaries and shame?

"You're a grown-up now. Can you stop being so childish?"

I looked at his face and suddenly realized that the boy I had a crazy crush on in college had slowly become a different person.

I looked down at the dirty wedding dress. The bloodstain was like the stain in our relationship, both abrupt and indelible.

I felt so aggrieved. Unable to hold back anymore, my tears dropped, mixed with stains on the wedding dress, making me feel nauseous.

Oscar's phone rang. He was about to have a conference on the phone. He looked at me, sighed helplessly, and got up to go into the study.

I left home and walked aimlessly on the road. The autumn night was a bit cold, so I found a coffee shop and sat down.

With a ding, my phone suddenly rang. It was a reminder, telling me I should update the comic I created. In fact, I had only a few dozen followers.

I had been updating for two years, but I hadn't achieved much. I had thought about giving up drawing comics since I had never made any progress. But there were a few die-hard fans who had always supported me, and every time I wanted to give up, they gave me a lot of confidence.

I looked at the words of encouragement from my fans and calmed down a bit. Then I received several messages.

It was Yolanda. She didn't change her profile picture, in which she wore my wedding dress.

[Ruby, Oscar said you were upset. I didn't mean to dirty your wedding dress.]

[I suddenly had my period. I wanted to clean it up before returning it to you, but Oscar said that girls shouldn't wash clothes with cold water on their period, so he took it back for you to clean.]

[Don't be mad at him. He works so hard.]

Then she sent a photo of Oscar sitting across from her eating. They were at the restaurant that I always wanted to go to, but he never had time to accompany me.

He claimed to be a workaholic, but he was OK leaving a meeting to have dinner with his so-called "sister".

I had to admit I was sad. Looking at them, at this moment, I felt like my years of liking him and my efforts were a joke.

After graduating from college, I planned to go abroad to learn more about comic-related knowledge, but because Oscar said that doing academia was so lonely, I rejected the ideal offer and stayed in his city.

My creation had no improvement, and he advised me not to waste time and introduced me to an administrative job.

He said he wanted to establish a career before starting a family, so I silently accompanied him for seven years.

I was the girlfriend he envisioned, enduring his boundary-less interaction with Yolanda and desperately suppressing myself...

It was only now that I realized that my years of feelings for him were starting to fade away.

I returned to our home. At the same time, he was having dinner with his childhood sweetheart at the restaurant I liked.

I called the moving company overnight and paid for the express fee. I moved back to my original apartment before he came back.

The next day was the weekend, and I had a good sleep. When I turned on my phone, I received a message from Oscar.

He texted me at 1:30 in the morning, which meant he went home only at 1:30. Then he found out that I had moved away.

[Have you had enough? I've sent the wedding dress to the dry cleaner. If you want, we'll just buy a new one.]

I wanted to laugh. The material of this wedding dress was not suitable for regular dry cleaning at all. It was already ruined, and it'd be completely ruined after dry cleaning.

It was even more impossible to buy another one of the same. This designer never took rush orders.

I replied to him, [Let's break up.]

I received his reply several hours later. He texted, [I don't have time to help you move back. We're about to get married, and you're still playing these lame tricks? Do you think it's fun?]

Did he think I'd move back?

Then he really underestimated me.

Oscar sent another message, [The wedding dress cannot be cleaned. Let's go buy another one together another day.]

He ruined a bride-to-be's wedding dress, and he didn't even bother to solve the issue immediately. He simply brushed me off, saying "another day".

Last time he said he would take me to the restaurant I liked "another day", but until he and Yolanda ate there, I didn't even get to go anywhere near the restaurant.

I replied to him, [No need to buy it.]

He replied instantly, [You're right. It's a waste of money to buy another one. Anyway, the dirt is inside the lining and can't be seen from the outside.]