Upon hearing the dare, Ashley's lips curved in a sly smile. Her eyes landed on the untouched slice of cake in front of Sienna.

The next second, she suddenly grabbed the cake and swiftly smashed it straight onto Sienna's face before anyone could react.

Caught off guard, Sienna let out a startled cry. A thick layer of cream was instantly smeared across her face, leaving her in a humiliating mess.

The entire private room fell silent in shock.

"What the hell are you doing, Ashley?" Lance was the first to react, shooting to his feet and yanking Ashley back with anger and disbelief.

But Ashley just looked innocently at him. "Didn't you all tell me to do the most thrilling thing I could think of? Isn't this thrilling?"

Sienna's whole body trembled—not because of the sticky cream, but from the raw, blatant humiliation. Slowly, she wiped the cream from her eyes. When her vision cleared, she locked her gaze on Ashley's expression of fake innocence.

Then, under everyone's watchful eyes, Sienna raised her hand and delivered a tight slap across Ashley's cheek. The sharp smack echoed throughout the room.

"Is this thrilling enough?" Sienna's voice was icy, carrying a faint tremor but cuttingly clear.

Without looking at anyone else, she grabbed her bag and turned to leave. She headed straight for the restroom. She rinsed her face again and again with cold water, trying to wash away the sickly sweetness and the stench of humiliation.

When she was finally clean, she planned to go straight home, but Lance caught up with her at the hotel entrance.

"Enna! I'll drive you back."

"No need."

"Don't be upset at me. It's late. How are you going to get home?" Without waiting for a reply, Lance forced her toward his car.

Just as he opened the passenger door, Ashley came running after them. Tears swam in her reddened eyes pitifully. "I'm sorry, Sienna. I was just joking earlier. I didn't think you'd be so angry. I'll never do it again. Please don't be mad, okay?"

Sienna stared at her frigidly, saying nothing.

Ashley then turned to Lance, her voice softer and more fragile. "Lance, it's hard to get a cab here, and I'm a little scared. Could you give me a ride, too?"

Lance glanced at the icy Sienna, then at the tearful Ashley.

In the end, he sighed and said to Ashley, "Get in."

Sienna looked at him in disbelief and felt her heart break painfully. He had seen everything. He had been there when Ashley had provoked and humiliated her. But still, he agreed to her request.

Upon getting Lance's consent, Ashley immediately broke into a smile.

But instead of opening the back door, she turned to Sienna and said, "Sienna, I get carsick. Can I sit in the front?"

Lance barely hesitated before turning to Sienna. "Enna, you sit in the back."

In that instant, a crushing sadness swept through Sienna. She suddenly remembered the night Lance had first gotten his driver's license and secretly taken her for a drive.

That night, under the dazzling starry sky, he had pulled her excitedly into the passenger seat. "Enna, this is my passenger seat. From now on, it's yours alone. No one else can ever sit here."

His eyes had been bright and sincere, with her smiling face reflected in them. His words still echoed in her ears, yet now, he was personally letting another girl take the seat he had sworn belonged only to her.

It seemed that promises only counted when love still existed.

She laughed, and tears began to fall.

Lance caught that fleeting smile and felt a sharp stab in his heart. Meanwhile, Ashley was already covering her mouth and getting into the passenger seat, pretending to feel unwell.

He had no time to think further and quickly got into the driver's seat to start the car. The vehicle moved smoothly down the road, but the atmosphere inside was heavy and silent.

Halfway through the ride, Ashley suddenly let out a pained moan and shifted slightly in her seat.

Her voice trembled with feigned agony. "Lance, I think my skin hunger is acting up again… I feel so awful. Please, help me…"

As she spoke, her hand began to reach toward Lance.

Lance immediately swerved away, his voice sharp. "I'm driving! Don't mess around!"

Through the rearview mirror, he shot a glance at Sienna. She was staring out the window, as if she was completely unaware of what was happening in front.

Ashley whimpered louder and louder. "But I really can't stand it! Ugh… Please, just once! Help me…"

Lance's brows became tightly knitted, his expression strained. The car was filled with Ashley's muffled sobs and moans.

At last, he seemed to yield. He took a deep breath and said to Sienna, "Enna, close your eyes. Don't look."

Sienna jolted slightly, but she gave no response.

Taking her silence as consent, Lance steadied the wheel with one hand and lifted the hem of his shirt with the other. He caught Ashley's groping hand and pressed it firmly against his taut abs.

"Go ahead," he said.

Ashley touched Lance's body as she wished. She boldly ran her hand over his bare skin and even started kneading while releasing a sigh of satisfaction.

Then, she touched a sensitive spot that made Lance's entire body jolt. His grip on the steering wheel loosened, and he lost control of the car.

The car they were in smashed through the guardrail and plunged straight into the river beside the road.

Following a dull but booming splash, icy river water surged into the car in an instant. Sienna, dazed and dizzy from the crash, grabbed the emergency hammer with sheer survival instinct and desperately shattered the window glass.

Water poured in like a torrent. She struggled and managed to get out through the broken window, but she could not swim.

"Help… Lance, help!" she called out desperately, choking on the freezing water.

Lance got out of the car as well. Seeing Sienna floundering in the water, he immediately started toward her.

But from the other side, Ashley screamed in terror. "Lance! Save me! I can't swim! I'm going to die! Help me!"

Lance froze. He looked at Sienna, who was sinking fast, and then at the shrieking Ashley. He felt torn and anguished over who to save first.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and turned toward Ashley.

Sienna watched him turn his back on her decisively. The last flicker of hope inside her was utterly extinguished.

…

When she woke up, she was once again lying in her own bed.

Lance sat beside her, his hair still damp and his face pale. Both his eyes were bloodshot with fear and exhaustion.

The moment Sienna opened her eyes, he held her hand anxiously. "Thank god you woke up, Enna! I was so scared! I'm sorry, I saved Ashley first because she can't swim at all. I thought you could hold on a little longer while she was about to sink. I had no choice…

"She once did me a great favor. Afterward, I called for rescue and went right back for you…"

Sienna stared blankly at the ceiling, not really listening to his explanation. Her heart hurt so much that it no longer felt painful at all.

Just then, Lance's phone rang yet again.

"Lance, where are you? I'm so scared… I feel unwell again… Can you come over?" Ashley's fragile voice whimpered through the speaker.

Lance looked at Sienna with guilt and hesitation on his face. "Enna, I…"

"Go," Sienna said, closing her eyes.

Lance hesitated for a moment and murmured, "I'll be back soon. Rest well."

He left in a rush. In the days that followed, Lance never came back.

Occasionally, when Sienna opened Instagram, she always found new posts from Ashley. Sometimes, it was Lance asleep beside a hospital bed. Sometimes, it showed two intertwined hands. Other times, it featured the silhouette of Lance peeling an apple for her.

Every post was set to be visible only to Sienna. She scrolled through them with a heart so numbed by the pain that it stirred nothing inside her at all.

One day, Sienna returned to school to collect her graduation photo. When she walked along the familiar tree-lined path, she heard a cat's faint and desperate cry from the old building nearby.

Following the sound, she found Ashley on the second-floor balcony, torturing a tiny kitten. The small creature trembled and cried in terror.

"Stop!" Sienna rushed forward, shoving Ashley aside to rescue the kitten.

But Ashley clung stubbornly to the cat's leg, refusing to let go. As they were struggling, Ashley suddenly smiled faintly and flung herself backward. She toppled off the balcony.

Sienna froze in shock and instinctively reached out, but caught only the edge of Ashley's clothing.

In that split second, a figure darted from below and caught the falling Ashley in his arms.

It was Lance. The impact made him stagger and fall, but he managed to catch Ashley and break her fall, leaving her unscathed.

He checked on Ashley anxiously. "Are you alright? What happened?"

Trembling and wide-eyed, Ashley clutched his shirt and burst into tears. "Lance, Sienna… I think she was angry because you saved me first when we fell in the river, so she pushed me…"

Sienna, who had just rushed downstairs, arrived just in time to hear this accusation. Rage made her whole body shake.

She exclaimed, "You're lying! I didn't push you! You were abusing the cat! I tried to stop you, and then you…"

Ashley cried even harder. "Lance, she pushed me, and now she's slandering me. I've always loved small animals. How could I hurt a cat?"

Lance immediately believed her, his eyes turning sharp as he glared at Sienna. "I saw you standing on the balcony when Ashley fell!

"You already pushed her once in the hospital, and now you've gone and pushed her off a building? If I hadn't been there to catch her, she could have been ruined forever!"

"I told you I didn't push her! She jumped herself! Why don't you believe me?" Sienna argued fiercely.

Lance countered coldly, "I saw it with my own eyes. How can I believe you? Everything I've done for her, from saving her to caring for her, was only to repay a debt of gratitude! That's all! Why can't you be more tolerant? Why do you keep bullying her again and again?"