Ryan’s breath tickled my ear, and I lightly pinched his waist in response.

Honestly, even that felt better than Ethan’s.

I had not expected Ryan to take me to GNR when he said that he would show me a good time.

This place was inconvenient.

After all, this was where my wonderful boyfriend and dear best friend had planned to party tonight.

I tugged at Ryan’s sleeve. “Let’s go somewhere else. It’s too loud.”

However, he would not be Ryan Carter if he listened to me.

“You can go home on your own.”

The dim lights cast an illusion of intimacy.

He reached out and gently pinched my earlobe.

“Besides, it’s quiet in the private rooms.”

…

Who said private rooms were quiet?

All that shouting inside nearly shattered my eardrums.

I got up and stepped into the hallway for some air.

Even though it was the middle of summer, the air-conditioning inside was cranked up way too high.

I was not planning to stop until I passed one of the rooms.

My boyfriend’s voice was just too recognizable.

“Hey, Ethan, why didn’t you bring that straight-A girlfriend of yours? Let us meet her.”

“Ugh, don’t even get me started. She has no sense of style whatsoever.”

“Come on, she just focuses on her studies.”

I was not sure what had gotten into Ethan. Maybe he was drunk.

Anyway, he sounded increasingly agitated.

“Damn, you guys have no idea. She acts all high and mighty. She won’t even let me touch her. Does it matter if she has good grades? Her family’s broke. You think I’m with her for love? It’s just because she looks decent! Girls like that are always putting on an act… You know, I could slap a wad of cash in her face, and she’d come crawling like a dog.”

Standing outside the private room, I frowned.

I heard every word loud and clear.

Just then, a soft chuckle rang out behind me.

Ryan was somehow standing there and eavesdropping just as intently as I was.

I was about to turn and ask Ryan what he was doing there, but he suddenly grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a small side room.

It was a storage space that was a little cramped.

He wrapped an arm around my waist and shut the door.

The middle section of the door had a frosted glass panel. So, it offered a clear view of the hallway outside.

Ethan was stumbling out of the private room and partially supported by his friends.

He was still muttering curses under his breath as they helped him along.

Ryan reached up and brushed a stray strand of my hair off my shoulder.

He whispered in my ear, “Tell me. Do you think he would regret it if he knew you were actually the daughter of the city’s biggest real estate tycoon?”

The one thing my dad always taught me was never to think I was better than anyone else.

So, throughout elementary, middle, and high school, he made sure that I had just enough.

It was not too little to lose dignity, but never so much that I flaunted it.

Maybe that was why Ethan never saw me spend money.

He assumed that I was just some scholarship kid who got in on grades alone.

The sound of his cursing eventually faded down the hallway. Only then did Ryan push open the door and walk out holding my hand.

I struggled a few times, but his grip did not loosen.

“Ryan!” I yelled.

He turned around and met my gaze with a smirk. He lifted our joined hands and swung them playfully in front of me.

“What’s wrong? Feeling guilty about holding hands with me behind your boyfriend’s back?”

Ryan was my childhood friend.

However, I was not sure if “childhood friend” was the right way to describe him. We had known each other since we were kids, but barely anyone knew about our connection.

He used to stay with my family when we were little.

My dad was always polite to him, but not in the warm, doting way adults usually were with kids.

It was the kind of attitude you showed someone who was above you.

My dad was already a man of status in the city.

Yet, there was someone else he had to carefully accommodate.

However, Ryan did not stay at our house for long. Less than half a year later, he left. I never knew where he went.

The next time I saw him was on that fateful day… It started with a text message that came out of the blue.

I received an address, and it was our school gym.

The sender was Ryan, whom I had not heard from in years.

So, I went to the gym. What I saw was Ethan pinning Claire against the wall and kissing her.

I had always thought Ethan merely looked down on me. I never expected him to cheat.

On top of that, it was with Claire of all people.

I would not lie. At that moment, I lost all reason. Just as I was about to rush out and confront them, someone suddenly grabbed my hand from behind.

The Ryan standing before me right then was nothing like the boy from my childhood.

I had always thought that he would grow into a warm and sunny guy.

However, the man before me clearly had nothing to do with warmth or sunshine.

His eyes were dark and unreadable. His movements were completely silent. His face was somehow even more striking than I remembered. Yet, it sent an inexplicable chill down my spine.

As he looked at me with a teasing gaze, I flinched.

He leaned in and spoke next to my ear. “I heard he’s your boyfriend. He’s screwing around behind your back. What do you think?”

I remained silent.

It was my first time seeing Ryan again after five years.

It just had to be when my boyfriend and best friend were busy making out, like they could not bear to part.

Ryan casually reached up and straightened the ribbon on my school uniform. “Want to get even?” he asked with a smile.

…

It was my eighteenth birthday today, but it was not going great.

This afternoon, I caught my boyfriend and my best friend all over each other.

At night, I called my dad, only for him to tell me that his flight got delayed. He would not be coming home to celebrate with me.

“You’re eighteen now, right? You’re an adult. So, stop doing childish things like celebrating your birthday.”

His voice over the phone was laced with exhaustion.

Even so, I still wanted to talk back.

“If you don’t come back, I’ll start smoking, drinking, perming my hair, and getting tattoos!”

On the other end, he let out a dry chuckle.

“Do whatever you want.”

Then, he hung up.

I glared at my phone, but the screen was already dark.

The sharp click of a lighter echoed in the quiet. Ryan held a cigarette between his lips and stared at me boldly.

I felt an urge to do something rebellious. So, I curled a finger at him.

“Ryan, teach me how to smoke.”

It was funny because I hated it when Ethan smoked. But somehow, the way Ryan held a cigarette between his lips looked effortlessly cool.

He slowly pulled out his pack and slid a cigarette free before holding it out to me.

“Hold it in your mouth.”

I parted my lips and took it between my teeth.

The flickering glow of the lighter cast shifting shadows across his face as he lit his cigarette first.

Then, he leaned closer with the cigarette between his lips. The faint ember at the tip brushed against mine.

His lashes were long. When he was focused, there was almost a softness to him.

That was when I lost my grip.

The cigarette slipped from my lips and fell to the ground with a small thud.

Ryan looked at me and snorted.

“Forget it. You can’t even hold one properly.”

…

The night you became an adult, should there not be at least some recklessness?

That thought crossed my mind as I curled up on Ryan’s couch.

How did I even end up at his place?

The sound of running water came from the bathroom. I stared at the tightly shut door while I was lost in thought.

Ryan’s house was massive. It had three stories and a garden, yet it was completely empty.

Just as I was zoning out, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I took it and saw a message from Ethan.

[I got you lipstick. It cost over nine hundred dollars. Happy?]

“You should really start putting more effort into your looks.”

Attached was a picture of the lipstick he had bought.

Too bad I had an excellent memory.

I opened Claire’s social media and scrolled back to a post from a few days ago. Just as I had suspected, it was the exact same lipstick.

[This shade is hideous.]

I scrolled up to her most recent post from earlier today.

It was a luxury gift set of lipsticks from the same brand.

[Someone got these to make it up to me. Hehe.]

…

The situation could not be clearer.

Ethan’s cluelessness had led him to buy lipstick for Claire, only for her to trash it.

So, to make it up to her, he bought her the entire luxury set.

Rather than let the rejected one go to waste, he graciously handed it down to me like some kind of pity offering. He gave me the lipstick that Claire did not want.

He probably thought that nine hundred dollars was a fortune to me, that I would be grateful.

…

Some faint rustling behind me told me that Ryan was standing there. I did not even have to turn around.

I could feel the warmth of his freshly showered skin radiating against my back.

I locked my phone screen, only to catch his reflection on the dark surface. He was bare-chested.

He reached out and casually adjusted the collar of my shirt with an almost deliberate patience.

“Soph, there’s something I want to tell you.”

He only ever called me by my nickname when he was trying to coax me.

I hummed in response.

Just then, my phone started ringing.

I was momentarily taken aback as I glanced at the screen. It was Ethan.

The moment Ryan saw the name, his gaze darkened.

“Answer it.”

“Sophie, that lipstick’s your birthday gift from me. I know you’re happy. After all, you have a generous boyfriend.”

He sounded very drunk on the other end.

“You’d better obey me from now on, got it? No one else is going to spoil you the way I do. Hmph. Soph, I know you’re an adult now, so doesn’t that mean we can finally…”

He started slurring his words, and they led to something unpleasant.

I did not particularly care. However, behind me, Ryan’s fingers suddenly began moving inappropriately.

“Did you have a little too much to drink, Ethan?” I responded absentmindedly as I held down Ryan’s wandering hand.

I glared at him.

He told me to answer the call, he was messing with me at this moment.

“I didn’t drink that much. Soph, what are you doing?”

“Just doing homework… Ow!”

I had barely managed to brush Ryan off when he bit my shoulder without warning.

“Huh? Soph, what was that? I swear I heard something.”

Even wasted, Ethan still managed to pick up on the smallest sound.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s damp black hair brushed against my neck. He was clearly in no rush to end his little game.

“Wait. I definitely heard something just now.”

On the other end of the line, the drunk idiot suddenly sobered up a little.

I mouthed at Ryan to cut it out.

He smirked and nodded.

I tightened my grip on the phone and blurted out the first excuse that came to mind, “It’s nothing, probably just the neighbors arguing.”

“Fine. Tell me you love me.”

Drunk Ethan was like a malfunctioning machine. There was no way I would say something disgusting like that.

“That’s enough. Stop…”

“Say you love me, Soph.”

“I…”

I did not get to finish my sentence.

The person pressed against my shoulder let out a soft chuckle.

It was clear enough to travel straight through the phone.

The other end of the line went dead silent, and I froze.

As if Ryan had not caused enough trouble already, he decided to make it worse.

He then ran his fingers through my hair.

“Baby, are we sleeping on the same bed tonight?”

Ethan Scott completely lost it.

I never expected such an extreme reaction, but he went insane.

First came the endless calls. Then, the flood of texts. [Who was that guy next to you?]