My boyfriend had severe depression. His medication and sessions with a top specialist cost over ten thousand dollars a month. To pay for his treatment, I worked myself to the bone, taking on endless freelance illustration gigs and running food deliveries day and night. My friends constantly warned me I was going to work myself to death. Until one day, I managed to snag a high-paying delivery order to an exclusive, ultra-wealthy gated community. I respectfully handed over the $18,000 premium sushi platter to the customer. But when I looked up, standing right inside the doorway was my boyfriend—who was supposed to be at his therapy session. He stared back at me, looking absolutely shell-shocked. 01 "Aren't you supposed to be at the clinic, Liam?" I looked at the breathtakingly luxurious mansion, my left hand gripping the sushi takeout bag so tightly it physically hurt. Even though it was pushing 100 degrees outside, I started shivering as if I'd been plunged into an ice bath. I had only ever seen places like this in movies. "I'm sorry, Rose, let me explain. Dr. Lewis had an emergency this afternoon..." "I'm just hanging out at a friend's house." Caught entirely off guard, Liam lost his composure and reached out to grab my sleeve. It was his go-to move whenever he apologized. It always worked before. But not today. I slapped his hand away coldly. The custom-tailored dress shirt he was wearing had a designer label I didn't even recognize. But looking at it now, it was incredibly ironic. It suited his rich-boy aura far better than the cheap basics he usually wore. I lowered my eyes, pulled out my phone, and opened the booking app for the Green City Clinic. Seeing that Dr. Lewis's schedule still had open slots for the afternoon, I didn't even have the energy to call out his lie. Taking a deep breath, I organized my chaotic thoughts and forced my voice to remain perfectly calm: "Liam, is this fun for you?" "Acting like a poor, depressed, struggling kid around me, pretending you couldn't even afford a cup of bubble tea... when in reality, you're a billionaire heir whose lunch costs $18,000!" My lips trembled. I stared resentfully at the man in front of me, completely unaware of when the tears had filled my eyes. "You really... played me for an absolute fool..." "$18,000! I would have to deliver 6,000 orders to make that much! That's two months of work..." The most pathetic part was that the only app still open in the background of my phone... Was our text thread from half an hour ago. I had texted Liam, telling him I was going to splurge on dinner tonight and make his favorite lotus root soup. Because the customer in this wealthy neighborhood was incredibly generous and left a $100 tip. I just never, in my wildest dreams, imagined that the tip came directly from Liam himself. 02 Late at night, Liam used to hold me tight and whisper that in this entire world, my love was the only thing he never doubted. That even his parents' love for him wasn't as pure as mine. Those whispered promises used to make me so incredibly happy. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world to find genuine love in a society where it was so rare. But looking back on it now, nobody else could possibly be this stupid. Risking heatstroke out in the blazing sun just for a five-dollar extreme weather bonus, just so I could scrape together enough for his medical bills a little sooner. "I haven't slept for more than five hours a night in so long. I dreamt of the day you would finally get better." "You knew all of this better than anyone, didn't you?" My accusing voice slowly broke into a sob. Liam's previously calm expression finally cracked. His eyes reddened slightly, and he nodded. We lived in a cramped, rundown, one-bedroom apartment, a thirty-minute walk just to get to the subway station. He watched me exhaust myself. He watched me stretch every single dollar until it broke. He watched me struggle, desperately working to pay for his fake poverty-simulation game, just to 'cure' this imaginary depression he had fabricated. He watched the entire thing unfold like some detached creator observing a rat in a maze. "I'll transfer a large sum of money to your account. Consider it compensation." "I... I truly wronged you." Liam lowered his head, his eyes filled with guilt and a hint of helplessness. He realized he couldn't lie his way out of this, so he simply gave up trying. With stiff fingers, I pulled the crumpled receipt from my pocket. It was half a meter long, listing nothing but the most premium, expensive cuts of meat. I crumpled it into a ball and threw it at him with every ounce of strength I had left. Liam didn't dodge. His expression was a mix of sorrow and deep regret. The cold air conditioning from inside the house provided a stark contrast to the blazing heat outside. Over the loud hum of the cicadas, I heard footsteps approaching from inside. Followed immediately by a whining, sweet female voice: "Liam, is the food not here yet? I'm literally starving to death!" 03 The tense standoff between Liam and me broke. His expression shifted drastically. We both turned our heads just in time to see a young woman in a lacy silk nightgown walking toward the door. Liam panicked and tried to block her path. "Why did you come out? I'm coming back in right now. Be a good girl, go back inside." But the girl seemed determined to see what was going on. She stepped around Liam, a polite smile on her face. But as she looked at me, her almond-shaped eyes flashed with a hint of recognition and pure disdain. "And this is..." Silence. Seeing that neither of us was going to answer, she smirked. Then, naturally, she linked her arm through Liam's and deliberately pulled her sheer, blush-pink nightgown down slightly at the shoulder. The red marks on her neck and the curves beneath the thin fabric were fully exposed. She leaned her entire body against him, looking incredibly soft and pliant. The man's anxious gaze was fixed entirely on me. I turned my head away in absolute despair and closed my eyes. My hair was soaked in sweat, sticking uncomfortably to my face. My temples throbbed with a sharp, rhythmic pain. Even someone as dense as me knew exactly what had just happened here. Originally, I thought I was just the unlucky pawn in a rich kid's "poverty" roleplay. Now I realized I was also the spicy side dish in his high-society romance. What absolute, terrible luck. I didn't want to stay a second longer. I turned around to pack up my delivery bag and leave. But the girl suddenly called out to me: "Wait a second. Are you Liam's little slum-girlfriend from off-campus?" "I didn't recognize you in that delivery uniform. Are you Rose Evans from the Humanities department?" 04 I froze and turned back to look at her. It took me half a minute, but I finally recognized her. She was a year above me. Chloe Vance. The gorgeous, incredibly wealthy, and universally adored campus princess. But we had history. She used her family's influence to pull some strings and give my need-based financial aid scholarship to someone else. Because of that, I never sucked up to her like everyone else did. Seeing my dark, unnatural expression, Chloe tightened her grip on Liam's arm. She feigned excitement, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness: "Liam, I can't believe it! Last year, I casually mentioned to you that there was this annoying, fake-righteous junior I couldn't stand." "You just asked a few questions, and you actually went and destroyed Rose Evans for me! I have to admire your methods. So brilliant..." Chloe looked up, shooting me a vicious glare as she continued: "So brilliant that you played our college's brilliant prodigy, Rose Evans, like an absolute dog." My hands, hanging limply at my sides, slowly clenched into fists. The cold air from the mansion washed over me, but it brought absolutely no relief. To these people, the future, feelings, money, and hard work of ordinary people were just annoying weeds on the side of the road. They didn't just ignore them; they had to stomp on them and spit on them too. Chloe leaned up and kissed Liam on the cheek, like she was rewarding him for making such a fool out of me. Her eyes taunted me. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, her expression turned strangely manic. She asked: "Junior Rose, did Liam tell you he had depression?" I frowned, not denying it. The woman in front of me immediately doubled over with laughter. But the words that came out of her mouth froze my blood. "That's because I told Liam that your younger brother committed suicide because of depression." "I told him that if he claimed he had depression, your brainless ass would fall for it instantly." "And look! I was right." 05 The moment those words hung in the air, the world seemed to stop. Only the sound of the cicadas remained. My brain completely short-circuited. I bit my lower lip so hard it bled, ripped off my delivery helmet, and swung it at Liam like a maniac. If I swallowed this insult, I might as well give up on life completely. My chest heaving violently, I screamed at him: "Depression, huh?! Playing poor, huh?! You love poking people right in their deepest wounds, don't you?!" "You deserve it! You deserve the fact that your parents don't love you, you piece of trash! You deserve it when your dad beat your mom right in front of you! Why didn't he just beat you to death too?!" "I'll fucking beat you to death right now for him!" During the year Liam and I were together—whether it was all an act or if there were moments of genuine emotion—we had shared our deepest vulnerabilities with each other. So I knew exactly what he could never let go of: the coldness and neglect from his parents. He had never experienced the love of a family. And right now, that became the weapon I used to verbally annihilate him. Before either of them could react, I repeatedly smashed the helmet into Liam's face as hard as I could. Fueled by pure rage, I gasped for air. My chronic lack of sleep made my head spin dizzily. The exact second Chloe brought up my little brother, Leo, the rationality I had barely held together all afternoon completely shattered. He was my absolute untouchable boundary. Until Chloe finally managed to drag me away, Liam didn't fight back once. He covered his mouth, his hands covered in blood. "Are you okay, Liam?! I'm calling the police right now!" "This crazy bitch has a death wish, hitting you like that?! I'm going to have my dad..." Chloe's furious voice was laced with a panicked sob. But Liam grabbed her hand and shook his head: "No. Don't." "It's all... my fault. I owe her." He smoothed down his hair, which I had messed up, and walked over to me. He pulled a gold card from his pocket and held it out to me: "The PIN is your birthday. I know what I did is unforgivable, but... just take it. I'm sorry." I let out a cold laugh. The look I gave him contained nothing but absolute ice and pure hatred. "Die soon." I violently snatched the gold card from his fingers, dropped that final curse, and turned to walk away. 06 There was $770,000 on the card. I asked my delivery manager to settle my final paycheck, and then I quit. The 250-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment was so small you could see the whole thing at a glance. The reason I had moved out of the dorms and in with Liam was because he claimed his physical symptoms from his depression were getting worse, and he needed me with him every day. Originally, I had my guard up when Liam so boldly barged into my life. But seeing that he suffered from the exact same illness as my brother... it made my heart soften. And it clouded my judgment. For a long time, it was hard to tell if my feelings for him were driven more by love, or by the overwhelming, desperate need to compensate for the guilt I felt over my brother. I just wanted, obsessively and frantically, to help cure his depression. As if doing that would somehow lighten the crushing weight of my own nightmares. Honestly, after a year, we hadn't accumulated that much stuff. But everything we had bought as a couple was too painful to look at, so I threw it all directly into the trash. Listening to the rattle of the old AC unit, I stared at the ceiling, slowly drifting away from the endless exhaustion of my daily grind, and fell into a deep sleep. In my dream, I couldn't even count how many times I had seen Leo in that bathtub. He lay there, completely drained of color, in a pool of crimson water. His entire body was as pale as a porcelain doll. Cold. Lifeless. Pill bottles were scattered near his limp fingertips. His long eyelashes were gently closed, looking exactly the same as all those nights he used to wait up for me to finish studying, nodding off. Only this time, they would never open again. He would never rub his sleepy eyes and ask me when I was going to bed. On his phone, he had deleted his chat history with everyone. He only left me one final message: "I'm sorry, Sis." And a transfer of $3,569.81. It was every single penny he had to his name. Spring was in full bloom that year. Leo, who was as brilliant and perfect as the sun, left during the most beautiful season. And I was trapped in that spring forever. 07 The rustling of plastic bags behind the door woke me up. A man in a black dress shirt was crouching by the trash can, sneaking around, digging through it. "Who's there?" The man froze, then slowly turned around. It was Liam. He was wearing a mask, and there were a few bandages on his face. I rubbed my throbbing forehead. I forgot he still had a key to the apartment. The couples rings, the matching mugs, the watches, the souvenirs—everything I had thrown in the trash that afternoon had been pulled out and neatly lined up on the floor. "Why are you taking that stuff?" Hearing me, Liam lowered his eyes, his expression unreadable. "I just came back one last time to pack some things to take with me." "It's all worthless junk. The young Master Sterling actually wants it?" I sat up in bed, looking around the room to see if there was anything important left. Since things had come to this, I planned to move back into the dorms next week and terminate the lease here. Liam held the cheap silver couples ring in his hand, his thumb gently rubbing it. His voice was desolate and low: "Rose, I know you don't believe me, but my feelings for you were real. You were the only person I truly trusted..." "No one has ever loved me with that kind of pure, absolute devotion. I don't want to lose you." I waved my hand dismissively, lowering my head to let out a harsh scoff. The scene from this afternoon replayed in my mind like a cruel joke. "Real feelings? Was making me deliver food to you right after you finished sleeping with her your way of showing love? Should I be thanking you for that?" "I can explain what happened with Chloe! Nothing ever happened between us. I only agreed to be with her because I wasn't thinking straight." "And I've wanted to break it off with her for a long time. I realized that the person I truly love is actually..." "There's no point in discussing this anymore." I cut him off coldly, my eyes empty. Water dripped steadily into a bucket in the bathroom. The knee-high faucet had been leaking for ages. To save money on the water bill, I always kept a plastic bucket underneath it. The money I saved was just pennies. His claims of "true love" were so absurd they were laughable. The moment the lie was exposed, regardless of whether his feelings were real or not, an uncrossable chasm had opened between us. "Honestly, Liam, when you used my dead brother to get close to me, did you ever consider that karma might come back to bite you?" "What do you mean?" I didn't answer. I just frowned, opened the door, and gestured for him to leave. Seeing my absolute, resolute expression, he looked deeply hurt. He grabbed the items lined up on the floor, shoved them carelessly into his bag, and stood up. "Stop pretending to have depression." "Because for every piece of trash like you in the world, the stigma around depression gets worse, and the people who actually need help have a harder time getting it." And there will just be more people ending up like Leo. After a long pause, the man in front of me slowly nodded. Then, Liam pulled a bag of pork ribs and lotus root from behind the door. He had seen the message I sent about our special dinner. "Could you make lotus root soup for me one last time?" "No. Your personal chef can make it a hundred times better." "I only like the way you make it." "Rose, why can't you just trust me one more time? Give me one more chance?" His voice was choking with tears. I never imagined that Liam, having returned to his untouchable status as a billionaire heir, would ever wear such a desperate, pleading expression. At this point, none of this fit the parameters of his little poverty roleplay game anymore. But regardless of whether his words were true or false, I remained completely, utterly unmoved. He understood I was rejecting him. He reached out as if to grab my hand, but ultimately let his arm drop. Before walking out the door, Liam looked back at me, his eyes red. "Do you still love me?" "No." "Could you ever love me again?" "No."
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