My childhood best friend was cornered in the classroom, getting beaten half to death by the school’s resident mean girl. Just as I was about to step forward and stop it, lines of floating text suddenly materialized in the air right in front of my eyes. [Can the villainess just mind her own business? Doesn’t she know this is just foreplay for our main couple?] [If it wasn’t for this toxic third wheel interfering, the male and female lead would have gotten together ages ago. They wouldn’t have missed out on all those years!] [It is fine. The male lead gets his revenge later. After enduring the humiliation of marrying the villainess, he deliberately orchestrates multiple miscarriages for her and gaslights her into severe depression.] [I bet the villainess does not even know that when she finally commits suicide by jumping off a building, the male lead is in a hotel room, having crazy, passionate hate sex with our sweet baby girl!] I stared at the floating comments, turned on my heel, and walked away. These two toxic psychos deserved each other. They could rot together for all I cared. 1 I stood at a distance, watching Asher. Right now, he looked like a stray dog with a broken spine, slumped on the floor in utter humiliation. His faded school uniform was stained with dirt and blood, clinging to his trembling back. The girl bullying him, Blair, looked radiant and untouchable. She stood over him, grinding the sole of her designer shoe violently into Asher’s long, slender fingers. “Well, look at our genius scholar. You’ve got some tough bones, haven’t you?” Asher was pale as a ghost from the pain, but he clamped his jaw shut and refused to make a sound. If I had seen this exact scene one minute ago, my heart would have bled for him. But the floating text hovering in my vision was a blaring reminder to drop my savior complex and respect his destiny. [So annoying! Why is Sydney showing up to ruin the vibe again?] [The villainess is so stupid. Can she not see the sexual tension between our leads?] [If she hadn’t reported Blair and gotten her expelled, the male lead wouldn’t have lost so many years with his true love!] [Don’t worry guys, he gets payback for all of it later.] [This idiot Sydney definitely doesn’t know that the male lead is the one who swaps out her dad’s heart medication. Serves the old man right for always looking down on our female lead!] [When the villainess finally jumps off the roof to end her miserable life, the male lead is literally hooking up with our precious Blair in a penthouse suite!] [Hahaha she deserves it! That is what you get for tearing true love apart!] Every single word hovering in the air felt like a brutal, stinging slap across my face. So my self righteous attempts to save him would only cost me my family and my life. I looked back at the classroom. I looked at the utter despair in Asher’s eyes. He looked exactly like a beaten hound waiting for its master to show it a shred of pity. A cold smile broke across my face. Since this was their twisted version of romance, then as the designated “evil villainess,” it would be incredibly rude of me to interrupt. My face completely blank, I pulled back the foot I had just stepped forward with, turned around, and walked away without a second thought. I barely made it thirty feet down the hall before a sickening, brittle crunch echoed from the classroom. Immediately after, Asher let out a bloodcurdling scream. The floating comments instantly dissolved into mass panic. [Oh no! Because the villainess didn’t interfere, the female lead actually broke his right hand!] [This is insane! It is a comminuted fracture! He is completely ruined! How is the male lead supposed to take the State Placement Exams now?!] [Sydney, you are so evil! Why didn’t you turn around? If you just stopped her, the female lead would have backed off!] I scoffed under my breath. How was that my problem? 2 Half an hour later, Asher stumbled into my line of sight. His face was twisted in agony, and his uniform was covered in dusty footprints. But the worst part was his right hand, which was currently bent at a completely unnatural angle. I slapped a look of pure, exaggerated shock onto my face. “Oh my god, Asher! Your hand!” I reached out, pressed my thumb directly against his fractured bone, and pushed down hard. “Ahhhhh!” Asher’s shriek echoed through the entire corridor. He violently shoved me away, cradling his mangled hand against his chest as he screamed at me. “Sydney! Are you insane?! Are you trying to kill me?!” Oh, so that hurt? I pretended to lose my balance and grabbed his arm to steady myself, subtly driving my elbow straight into his eye socket. Asher shrieked even louder. The floating comments were weeping for him. [Is the villainess brain dead? Can she not see our male lead is severely injured?] [What a stupid bitch. She deserves to have her family destroyed later on!] I sneered internally, pulling my phone out of my pocket. “This is going way too far. I am calling the cops!” “No! You absolutely cannot call the cops!” Fighting through the blinding pain, Asher lunged forward and snatched my phone out of my hand. “Sydney, what is wrong with you? Are you trying to ruin Blair’s entire life?” I raised an eyebrow, genuinely astounded by the absolute absurdity coming out of his mouth. “She literally shattered your hand, and you are standing here blaming me for wanting to report her?” Asher’s eyes burned with a delusional, desperate need to protect her. “You don’t understand anything!” “Sure, she has a bit of a temper, but deep down she is a kind girl. She only acts out because she comes from a broken home and needs an outlet to vent! She is fragile and pitiful on the inside. She just needs someone to be patient with her.” “But you, Sydney… I never realized how cold blooded and selfish you really are.” I slowly clapped my hands together. “Beautifully said.” “Well, Asher, since you think I am so incredibly selfish, starting tomorrow, you can begin paying back all the sponsorship money my family has given you over the years.” Asher’s parents died in a car crash when he was young. I was the one who begged my wealthy parents to sponsor his education and living expenses. I never expected to be feeding a rabid dog that would eventually turn around and bite my entire family to death. Hearing my demand, Asher looked as if I had just spit in his face. “Sydney, do you honestly think I care about your money? Your family forced that charity on me!” “Great. Then pay it back.” By the end of the argument, Asher was forced to awkwardly use his left hand to scribble out a formal promissory note for his debts. I snatched the paper and flicked it with my fingernail. “From this day forward, our only relationship is creditor and debtor.” The comments completely lost their minds. [Is she crazy?! Using money to humiliate the male lead? Does she think having some cash makes her a god?] [Ten thousand dollars? Please. The male lead will make that in a heartbeat later in the story!] [I get it. The villainess is using debt to trap him. She thinks tying him down with money will get his attention. Keep dreaming, you psycho!] I had to admit, that last comment actually made me feel nauseous. Asher and I parted on terrible terms. I thought I could finally just focus on my studies, but the very next day, Blair cornered me by the bathrooms. 3 Blair blinked her big, watery eyes at me, a vicious smile playing on her lips. “Sydney. Want to guess what I did to your precious boy next door today?” “Why don’t you beg me? If you get on your knees and beg, I promise I won’t lay another finger on him. How about it?” The comments flooded my vision. [Hehe, our girl is so dark and twisted. I love it!] [Our sweet angel did nothing wrong. She just wants to force the villainess to submit.] [To be fair, this is all Sydney’s fault anyway!] [Yes, Blair! Teach her a lesson! Sydney totally humiliated the male lead yesterday and made him write an IOU!] While the comments debated exactly how I was going to tearfully drop to my knees and surrender, I raised my arm without a single warning sign and slapped Blair across the face. Smack! The entire world went dead silent. Blair cupped her cheek, her eyes wide with absolute disbelief. “Sydney. Did you just hit me?!” I raised my hand and slapped her again. “I hit you because I felt like hitting you. Did I need to check my calendar first?” Blair let out a furious shriek and lunged at me, raising her hands to fight back. I was entirely prepared. I grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her hard against the tiled wall. She started screaming and kicking. I grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back, forcing her to look up at the ceiling. “Scream. Come on, scream louder. Let’s get the teachers in here so they can see exactly who the school bully is.” “Besides…” I gently patted her red, swollen cheek. “Besides, if the teachers do show up, who do you think they are going to believe? You, or the straight A valedictorian?” Blair was shaking uncontrollably from pure rage. “Sydney, you bitch! You just wait! I am going to make your little boyfriend’s life a living hell!” Hearing that, I intentionally paused my movements. I let a flash of fake panic cross my face. “Don’t you dare! If you keep bullying Asher, I swear I will never forgive you!” After delivering my completely hollow, pathetic warning, I released her and stumbled away down the hall, making my footsteps sound frantic and chaotic. Behind me, Blair slumped against the wall, gasping for air. Just as I turned the corner, I caught a glimpse of her eyes. They were shining with a sick, twisted excitement. She looked like a predator that had just found a massive weak spot in its prey. I prayed silently in my heart. Blair, please don’t let me down. 4 The female lead truly lived up to her title. Her efficiency was terrifying. In just a few days, Asher lost a massive amount of weight. Even though I didn’t witness the abuse with my own eyes, the floating comments gave me a play by play update on his misery. [The male lead got locked in a bathroom stall and drenched in toilet water! He is shivering so hard right now!] [Blair just pushed him down a flight of stairs! He totally twisted his ankle!] [Someone poured water all over his desk and shredded his textbooks into the trash can!] [This is entirely Sydney’s fault! If she hadn’t provoked the female lead, Blair wouldn’t be taking her anger out on him!] [The villainess is so evil. If she hadn’t cut off his allowance, he would have had enough money to go to the hospital and get his hand treated!] Right, right, totally my fault. I was the ultimate scapegoat. Everything that went wrong in the universe was clearly on my shoulders. These commenters genuinely seemed to lack basic brain development. I was busy rolling my eyes at the text when I turned a corner and saw Asher pinned to the ground. Blair was wearing heavy leather loafers, grinding her heel ruthlessly into his mangled, untreated right hand. She uncapped a bottle of water and dumped it directly over his head. “Come on, genius. Didn’t you say you were going to save me? Speak up.” Asher had dark, bruised bags under his eyes. His lips were a bloodless white, but his cheeks burned with an unnatural, feverish red. The exposed skin on his arms was littered with fresh scrapes and cuts. His eyes were totally unfocused. He kept muttering the same thing over and over. “Save me.” I turned around and walked away. Respect their destiny. Drop the savior complex. Asher, didn’t you want to be bullied by her? Then enjoy every single second of it. Three days later, Asher collapsed in the middle of gym class and was rushed to the emergency room. Because he delayed treatment for far too long, the bone in his right hand was severely infected. Necrosis had set in. To stop the infection from spreading and killing him, the doctors had no choice but to amputate his hand. I learned all of this from the frantic floating comments. That very afternoon, I packed a bag and headed straight to the hospital to visit him. After all, as the designated evil villainess, how could I pass up a golden opportunity to rub salt in his wounds? 5 I pushed open the door to Asher’s hospital room. He was lying flat on the bed. At the end of his right arm, wrapped tightly in heavy white bandages, was empty space. He had his eyes closed, but at the sound of the door opening, he turned his head to look at me. His gaze was dark, heavy, and full of calculation. Even though he was sitting there in a cheap hospital gown, he suddenly exuded this aura of deep, brooding maturity. It was a complete 180 from the pathetic boy he was yesterday. Just as I was trying to figure out what happened, the comments flooded in. [Hahaha! The villainess definitely doesn’t know our male lead has been reborn!] [Just an hour ago, the male lead suddenly got all his memories back from his previous life!] [This time around, he swore to fix all his past regrets and get together with the female lead early!] [Sydney is never going to get his love in this lifetime. She won’t even get to touch him!] Gross. Who wanted their recycled garbage anyway? Asher’s voice was rough and scratchy. “Sydney. You were reborn too, weren’t you? Why else would you just stand there and watch me die?” “You were supposed to rush out and shield me when she broke my hand.” Hearing that, I actually almost laughed out loud. Did he really think I was his personal meat shield? He literally gets a second chance at life, and instead of asking Blair why she tortured him, his very first instinct is to interrogate me for not saving him. First of all, I wasn’t reborn. Second of all, even if I was, I would rather die than admit it to him. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at him with absolute freezing contempt. “Asher, did they amputate your hand or lobotomize your brain? What are you even talking about? Why don’t you accuse me of being an alien while you’re at it?” Asher narrowed his eyes, scanning me from head to toe with a razor sharp glare. “Then why did you stand there coldly and watch me get bullied?” I sneered. “Because you are a pathetic masochist who refused to let me call the police. That has absolutely nothing to do with me.” “You reap what you sow. Now you are a cripple, and you should be taking that up with Blair. Where do you get the nerve to sit here and interrogate me?” He stared at me in silence for a long time before finally looking away. “Fine. Losing an arm is a small price to pay if it means you stop obsessing over me in this life.” “The only woman I love is Blair. From today onward, we walk separate paths. I want absolutely nothing to do with you.” Watching him act so disgustingly arrogant and full of himself, I couldn’t hold back anymore. I cut him off. “Who said we have nothing to do with each other? You still owe me a ton of cash.” I reached into my pocket, pulled out the promissory note, and flicked the paper in his face. “And for the record, I am not blind enough to fall in love with a delusional cripple.” Watching Asher’s face turn the color of a charred frying pan brought me immense joy. 6 Asher collapsing on the track field turned into a massive scandal at school, but he absolutely refused to name the person who had been bullying him. I didn’t understand it, nor did I respect it. I immediately turned around and cornered Blair in the bathroom again. After giving her ten minutes of intense, physical “re education,” I grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to arch backward. “Blair, I warned you to stay away from Asher. Why can’t you just listen?” Despite my grip on her hair, Blair started laughing hysterically. “Sydney. I knew it. You are totally in love with him, aren’t you? Why else would you care this much?” I forced a look of flustered, humiliated panic onto my face, acting like she just exposed my deepest secret. “Who I like is none of your business!” “I am telling you right now, he is mine! Stay the hell away from him!” Blair laughed even harder. “God, Sydney, I can’t believe you are actually into a pathetic loser like Asher. Your taste in men is absolute trash.” I lunged forward, acting like a woman blinded by rage, and slapped her twice across the face. “Don’t you dare talk about him like that!” Blair clutched her stinging cheeks, looking at me with pure, intoxicating triumph. “Sydney, it doesn’t matter how much you love him. Asher told me himself. He feels absolutely nothing for you. In fact, he thinks you are annoying.” “You are just his pathetic little stalker. No matter how hard you beg, you only make him sick.” I screamed back at her. “So what?! He will fall in love with me eventually!” “As long as he doesn’t have a girlfriend, I still have a chance!” After delivering that final, agonizing line, I put on a heartbroken expression and stumbled out of the bathroom, looking entirely defeated. But right as I stepped through the door, I heard Blair whisper to herself. “As long as he doesn’t have a girlfriend?” A few days later, news broke that Asher and Blair were officially dating. 7 I walked past an empty corridor and caught them. Asher had Blair pinned against the wall, gripping her wrists, kissing her aggressively. The wet, suggestive sounds of their tangled bodies echoed in the hallway. Suddenly, a loud slap shattered the heavy romantic tension. Blair wiped her mouth furiously and slapped him across the face again. “Who the hell do you think you are, putting your hands on me?!” Asher ran his tongue over the inside of his cheek, staring down at her with dark, obsessive eyes. “Kneel.” Asher only hesitated for a fraction of a second before dropping obediently to his knees in front of her. Blair pressed the toe of her shoe against his chest. She grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked hard. After hearing him suck in a sharp breath of pain, her demeanor instantly softened. She reached down and gently scratched him under the chin like a pet. “Good boy.” “Now tell me. Who is prettier? Me, or Sydney?” Asher looked up at her with utter devotion. “You, of course, baby.” The floating comments were losing their collective minds. [Yes! This is exactly what I came for! The toxic angst! The enemies to lovers tension!] [Blair is a little harsh, but when they are sweet, they are SO sweet.] [She abuses him a thousand times, and he still treats her like his first love! Sydney must be dying of jealousy!] [The villainess can stay mad. The male lead only has eyes for his queen!] [Queen Blair and her loyal dog! I am eating this up!] I legitimately almost threw up my breakfast. It was burning my retinas. Even though the comments had thoroughly spoiled the plot for me, seeing Asher act like a total masochistic sub in real life still gave me full body chills. How could a human being have zero self respect? As a normal, functioning member of society, I needed to stay as far away from these two lunatics as physically possible. But just because I wanted to avoid them didn’t mean the plot was going to let me go. Because my grades were flawlessly at the top of the class, the school nominated me for the Stanford Early Admissions Exam. Somehow, my direct competition for the sole scholarship spot was Blair. I genuinely didn’t understand how someone with her academic record even qualified to sit for the test, but whatever. On the day of the exam, I arrived at the testing center early. Just as I was about to walk into the building, a shadow blocked my path. Asher stood there, staring at me with dead, cold eyes. “Sydney. You already have everything in life. Give this admission spot to Blair.” “Your grades are fine. You can get into a good college on your own without this scholarship.” I was so baffled I actually laughed. “Asher, did you get dropped on your head as a baby? Do you seriously believe the entire planet revolves around you?” “Get out of my way.” I turned to walk past him. Suddenly, a flurry of red text exploded in my vision. [The villainess actually thinks he is just going to ask nicely.] [There are plenty of ways to disqualify her from a written exam. Like shattering her right hand!] [It is perfect. There are no security cameras in this alleyway anyway.]
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