Chapter 2: Acquaintance
The story of how I had met Eric had hardly been a pleasant memory.
It all started when I was in my second year of high school. I got mixed up with some troublemaker students in my class. The worst part was when they cornered me by the girls’ bathroom door, grinning and waving a black marker. They said they were gonna draw legs on my birthmark to make me look like a big black toad.
I couldn’t fight them off. They pinned me down, and the smell of alcohol mixed with my struggling as they scribbled on my skin. My eyes were blurry with tears and sweat.
That’s when Eric showed up. Like a superhero, he kicked away the guy holding me down.
With no teachers around during lunch, he quickly took care of the three troublemakers, then dragged me to the play- ground. He stayed by the water fountain while I washed my face.
He was a considerate guy-he knew how much girls care about their looks, so he never once looked at my messy
face.
When the black marks finally faded, and I looked up, my face red from scrubbing, to thank him, he paused for a sec- ond before smiling. “No wonder those jerks picked on you. They must have thought you were pretty.”
His eyes were clear, like he wasn’t just saying something to make me feel better.
Even though a lot of people would see the birthmark on my face and say stuff like it’s a “flaw on a gemstone,” I al- ways thought Eric didn’t care about it.
Later on, I found out that Eric is actually the grandson of Hendrix Gibson, who’s the head of the Gibson Group and will inherit the whole empire someday.
Even knowing there was a huge difference in our backgrounds, I couldn’t stop looking at him.
He liked tall girls, so I was secretly happy about my height, even though people used to make fun of it. When he de- cided to go to a university on the north side of the country, I suddenly changed my college application and worked su- per hard to get into the same school.
In my second year of chasing after him, Eric finally let me be around him.
He’d take the water I gave him right after playing basketball, and when friends joked about whether I was his girl- friend, he’d just smile and not say anything, letting the rumors fly.
Just when I thought all my waiting was finally worth it, he introduced me to this super pretty girl who looked like a doll at a party,
That was when I found out he had a childhood friend studying abroad-Kelly.
Kelly was from a wealthy family and always seemed to glow with confidence and grace. Most importantly, no matter
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Chapter 2: Acquaintance
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how much people looked at her, she always acted with class and elegance, never showing any sign of feeling less than
others.
At our first meeting, she stared at my face for a long time. Then she asked, confused, “Is that… a fly on your face? It looks like a Dalmatian.”
It was a fancy dinner. The kid sitting next to me started laughing, and even Eric’s friends and relatives found her com- ment funny.
Amidst the laughter, I quickly bowed my head, using my hair to cover the birthmark near my eyebrow, forcing an awkward smile.
Noticing my discomfort, Eric-who had already been in a minor argument with her-snapped back sarcastically, “People shouldn’t talk while eating. Can’t food shut you up?”
Kelly’s expression darkened. She slammed her fork down and soon said she had to go back to her school overseas ear- ly.
After learning she left without saying goodbye, Eric didn’t seem too worried. But I heard that the guy who hardly ever drank got completely wasted that night.
The next day, he caught me just as I was about to give up and said, “Do you want a relationship that never breaks up?”
It turned out that he was right.
For the whole five years we were together, we hardly ever fought. Even when we did, it was mostly just little argu- ments, and every time, I’d figure it out right away, calm myself down, and then go to him.
Except this time, we’d been in a silent argument for a whole month.
It was all because of Kelly.
