I held my breath and lifted the lid.

But there were no car keys inside, nothing like what I'd been picturing.

Just a small acrylic keychain stamped with the same brand's logo, lying there.

"You said you liked this brand last time. There's no car, but a keychain's nice too, right? You can keep it on you every day."

Theo reached out, ready to pull me in the way he always had.

It had always gone like this before.

The smallest gesture from Theo and I'd soften, let it go.

But this time, I suddenly didn't want to.

I was tired. I didn't want to keep talking myself back into it.

I looked at that tiny keychain, and I laughed.

"Funny. I didn't know this brand sold the keychains separately."

Theo's face went cold.

"I know today upset you, but do you have to count every little thing like this?"

"I've told you so many times. I've always thought of Shirley as my own little sister. She's not well, so it's only right that we give a little more to her. Can't you be more reasonable about it?"

"What did I even say? Can't I just ask?"

I held his eyes, steady.

Theo choked on it, started to explain something.

Then the phone rang.

Shirley.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"Can't sleep? Put on some soft music, something soothing. It's okay, I'll stay on with you the whole time…"

His voice dropped low on purpose as he turned and walked out to the balcony.

I went back to the bedroom and called the bank, reported my salary card lost on an emergency basis.

When Theo came back, he found me lying with my back to him.

He peeled back the corner of the blanket and lay down beside me.

He eased closer, trying to slip an arm around me from behind.

Without a word, without any sign of it, I shifted toward the edge of the bed.

He stared at my back for a long moment, then let out a soft sigh and turned away.

I didn't sleep all night.

When I woke the next morning, Theo was already out of the room.

Two takeout boxes sat on the table.

One seafood wonton soup, one bowl of plain rice porridge.

Without thinking, I picked up a spoon and reached for the seafood wonton soup, the one closest to me.

The spoon was almost in the bowl when a hand slapped it away, hard.

"That one's yours."

Theo pointed at the rice porridge.

"I got this specially for you. Even had them put extra scallions in it."

He took the box out of my hand, set the lid back on carefully, and tucked it into an insulated bag.

Only then did it sink in. The seafood wonton soup was for Shirley.

"I don't eat century egg."

Theo frowned, plainly annoyed.

"Shirley's sick. You're going to fight her over a single breakfast?"

"Rebecca, what is it with you and food? Like you never saw a meal in your last life?"

I didn't say anything else.

I set the spoon down without a word and went back to the bedroom to change.

Maybe because I seemed so low, Theo actually offered to drive me to work, something he never did.

I'd asked him to drive me plenty of times before.

He'd always turned me down, said it wasn't convenient because he had to pick up and drop off Shirley.

I opened the passenger door, and the motion of getting in stalled.

Throw pillow, thin blanket, sunglasses, water bottle, snacks…

The little passenger seat was buried under things that belonged to Shirley.

I shut the door.

"Never mind. It's too crammed. I'll just take an Uber."

My car had gone in for servicing only yesterday.

Theo blinked, caught off guard.

"What's gotten into you? Don't you usually beg me shamelessly to drive you?"

His eyes landed on the things piled in the passenger seat, and Theo's expression shifted slightly.

"Don't read into it. Shirley's not well, so naturally I packed a little extra for her, just in case."

I nodded. "Sure. I'm not reading into it."

Theo opened his mouth like he wanted to explain something more.

But when he saw how flat and unbothered my eyes were, his face went cold.

"Get in or don't. Your choice."

Then the car shot off down the road.

That night, I ran a high fever.

It was probably the rain.

The truth was, I was just like Shirley—catch a chill, and I'd come down with a cold and a fever.

Theo had simply forgotten.

Or maybe, even if he remembered, he just didn't care.

Theo pressed his palm to my forehead to check the temperature.

"You're burning up. We're out of fever meds at home. Hang in there, I'll run down to the pharmacy and get you something."

By then my head was already going foggy.

I nodded vaguely.

The door clattered shut, and I sank into sleep.

By the time the sky brightened, the fever had eased a little.

My head slowly cleared.

I was dying of thirst.

I called out for a long time, and no one answered.

That was when I realized the man who'd gone out to buy my medicine had been gone two whole hours and still wasn't back.

I dragged myself up and went to the kitchen for water.

There was a noise at the door, and Theo walked in empty-handed.

"You're awake? Feeling any better?"

He reached out to feel my forehead, and I stepped away.

Theo froze, his brows knitting together.

I didn't answer his question. I just held out my hand to him.

"Where's my medicine?"

His expression stalled, his eyes flickering twice before he started to explain.

"Right, so—when I got to the pharmacy, Shirley called me. She, um..."

"She said she was craving the soup dumplings from Sheldon's Deli, so you drove halfway across the city to buy her a midnight snack, and my medicine got left behind."

I finished the sentence for him, my face blank.

Theo's head snapped up, his eyes going wide.

"How do you know that?"

Only after the words were out did he notice the phone still glowing in my hand.

The screen was open to a post Shirley had put up a few minutes earlier.

【Thank you to my guardian knight for feeding me!】

【Want it, get it!】

【So happy!】

The photo: a steaming order of soup dumplings.

Knowing he was in the wrong, Theo came closer.

"You know how it is. Shirley's stomach is bad, she can't go hungry."

"If she gets too hungry, she ends up in the hospital."

I asked him, "And what about me?"

Theo frowned.

"You're different. You're healthy. A fever a little longer or a little shorter doesn't really matter for you. Worst case, you sleep it off."

"Come on, be the bigger person. Don't hold it against someone who's sick."

I gripped the cup, and a bitter laugh almost rose up in me.

A fever high enough to blur my mind didn't count as anything in Theo's eyes.

But Shirley going a little hungry was treated like an emergency.

The double standard really was something.

Theo came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me, his voice going soft.

"See? I wasn't wrong. You're fine, aren't you? I told you you were healthy."

"Tell me what you want to eat, I'll make it for you."

I shook my head. "Don't bother. I don't have an appetite."

Theo watched me without blinking for a long moment, as if checking whether I was still angry.

When he saw how calm my face was, he let out a breath.

"All right. Get some good rest. Just tell me when you feel like eating."

I nodded and went back to the room.

That afternoon, I took the day off work and took an Uber to the bank.

Pulled a number, filled out the forms, reported the card lost, closed the account, and applied for a new one.

The whole process took maybe half an hour.

I tucked the newly issued salary card carefully into my pocket.

In that moment, even my steps felt lighter.

I walked out the bank's front doors, looked up, and immediately saw Theo and Shirley coming out of the mall across the street, arm in arm.

Theo had shopping bags hanging from both hands.

Every logo on them belonged to luxury brands I never even dared to glance at.

Shirley was in head-to-toe couture, made up down to the last strand of hair.

The picture of a wealthy heiress.

And the ring of keys she was toying with caught the sunlight, throwing off that cold metallic glint.

Then she pressed a button, and a white BMW parked at the curb gave two short chirps.

It was the exact model I'd picked out before, the one Theo had refused to let me buy.

"Rebecca? What are you doing here?"

The second he saw me, Theo's hand stopped on the car door, panic flashing across his face.

I didn't answer. I just let my eyes wander over the brand-new car in front of me.

"Nice car."

Theo's expression changed slightly.

"Let me explain."

I shook my head, indifferent.

"No need to explain. Let's break up."

Right then, there was a ding.

Theo had received a text from the bank, notifying him that the salary card had been closed.