The boy next door used to be a piano prodigy. He had won countless awards by the time he was fifteen. But after he met my classmate, he gladly let her sit on his beloved piano and kiss him. He threw away his education for her, smashed his piano to pieces, and spiraled into total ruin. So, I told his parents. Because of that, the boy next door was forced to go abroad to study at a conservatory. Years later, he made a massive name for himself. He became the brightest, most untouchable superstar in the entertainment industry. And I ended up as a trainee at his management agency. Without even looking up, he pointed a finger at me. "I'll take her." That very night, my manager got me blackout drunk and sent me into the hotel rooms of powerful corporate investors. He stood by the doorway, biting down on a cigarette, and chuckled softly. "Consider this my way of thanking you for snitching on me back then." I was abused to death on that freezing winter night. When I opened my eyes again, I was back before any of it had happened. 1 "Don't you think dragging the untouchable golden boy down from his pedestal would be a total rush?" "His lips are so thin. I wonder if he's a good kisser." My desk-mate rested her chin on her hand, teasing playfully. Directly across the courtyard, a tall, striking silhouette sat by the floor-to-ceiling windows. It was eighteen-year-old Caleb Bennett. I snapped out of my daze, clutching my chest and gasping heavily for air. I turned my head. The girl sitting next to me was my classmate, Ashley. In my previous life, she had sat exactly like this, resting her chin on her hand, staring at Caleb with a flirtatious gaze, looking absolutely determined to conquer him. Back then, I just thought she was talking big. But that very night, I saw her sitting on top of Caleb's grand piano. Looking down and kissing him. I was back. I had been reborn, returning to the time before everything went wrong. I forced myself to stay calm and reached out to shut the window. "I need to study. If you don't have anything else to do, go back to your own house." Ashley pouted. "Aren't you curious? I thought you had a crush on him." I froze instantly. When I was seventeen, I made two massive mistakes. One, I secretly harbored a crush on the boy next door, but never had the courage to confess my teenage feelings. Two, I snitched on his secret relationship with Ashley. Because of that, he hated me for six years. He didn't even hesitate to destroy me just to exact revenge for that betrayal. Thinking back to that desperate, freezing winter night in my past life... I squeezed my fingers tight, my teeth biting into my lower lip until it bled. 2 "No, I never had a crush on him." I replied with deadpan calm. Ashley smiled slyly, the corners of her mouth curling up. "Good, then I don't have to feel bad. I wasn't sure how to tell you that Caleb and I are officially together. I didn't want to trigger you." In my past life, Ashley had brazenly staked her claim exactly like this. Ashley was a total player. Almost every decent-looking guy in school had dated her at some point. She was loud and unapologetic. While everyone else was stressing over SATs and finals, she was busy dating, smoking, drinking, and hitting the clubs. She was the exact opposite of a "good girl." But girls like her possess a fatal attraction for guys who have spent their whole lives following the rules. Caleb was clearly one of them. I remembered the moments right before my death in my previous life. My hands, covered in cigarette burns, desperately clutching the cuff of Caleb's crisp white shirt. I begged him to let me go. "Even if you hate me, you shouldn't do it like this." But Caleb just looked down at me, his cold lips curling into a smirk. He scoffed. "And how should I do it, Chloe? If it weren't for you, Ashley wouldn't have been forced to marry someone else, and she wouldn't have died in childbirth. Why does she have to be dead while you get to live a perfectly happy life?" "Chloe, it's just not fair." He was right. Because of my snitching in our past life, Caleb was forced to move overseas. Ashley, distracted by the romance, bombed her conservatory auditions and ended up marrying a local street punk. Not long after, she got pregnant out of wedlock. Her parents disowned her. The punk bailed on her, and she ultimately bled out in a sketchy back-alley clinic. Caleb always believed that if I hadn't told his parents, he never would have left the country. And Ashley never would have died. So, it was all my fault. I lowered my eyes. "That's great for you guys. I wish you a long, happy life together." Ashley gave me a weird look but didn't say anything else. 3 Days passed by. The two of them dated in secret. Like all teenage couples, they skipped class to catch movies, got matching tattoos on their chests, and kissed on romantic Ferris wheel rides. They rode motorcycles through the midnight streets. They completely forgot that their primary identity was supposed to be high school students. I watched all of this with cold indifference. Meanwhile, I nervously prepped for my college entrance exams. In my previous life, heavily influenced by Caleb, I had chosen to attend the same performing arts high school as him, training to be a musician. I spent my life chasing his shadow, desperately hoping to touch his light. Now, I was planning to drop the arts track and switch back to standard academics. I was going to retake the standard exams and forge my own path. It was undeniably going to be a brutal uphill battle, but no matter how hard it was, I wanted to try. Until one day, I overheard Ashley bragging to some girls at school: "Caleb is just a piano nerd. He doesn't know anything about the real world. Honestly, if he wasn't famous for winning all those competitions and didn't make me look good, I wouldn't even be dating him." Classmate A: "Yeah, right. Like he'd actually fall for you? He's probably just messing around with you." Ashley confidently fired back, "Don't test me. If I tell him to jump, he asks how high." Classmate B: "I heard he has a massive piano competition coming up. If you're so powerful, make him skip it." Ashley smirked. "That's easy. Just wait and see." I was sitting right nearby. And I knew that winning first place in that competition guaranteed a full-ride scholarship to a prestigious European conservatory. I knew exactly how important this competition was to him. Sure enough, even without my interference, the major turning point of my past life was still unfolding. In my previous life, I knew Ashley had ulterior motives. I dropped hints to Caleb several times, but he just thought I was a jealous drama queen trying to ruin their relationship. After hesitating for days, I finally chose to tell his parents. With his parents stepping in, the fallout was massive. The two were forced to break up. Caleb, devastated and completely out of it, ended up losing the first-place trophy anyway. However, he still secured an opportunity to study abroad. But he held a grudge against me for years because of it. To the point where he personally destroyed my life. By the time I snapped out of my thoughts, Ashley had leaned close to my face. She winked at me. "Chloe, you're not going to snitch, are you?" I looked down, calmly flipping the page of my textbook. "Of course not." This time around, I chose silence. I would respect other people's fate. 4 Until I saw Caleb sitting on my front porch. This was the first time I had crossed paths with him since I was reborn. Thinking about what he had done to me in our past life... I swallowed down my nausea. I glanced down. Shattered beer bottles were scattered all over the ground around him. Blood was dripping steadily from his hands. The moment he saw me, he scrambled up from the ground and grabbed me, his eyes completely bloodshot. "Chloe, you and Ashley are close, right? Can you please call her for me? She said she wants to break up. I really can't lose her." "She said playing piano is boring. I can stop playing! The piano will never be as important as her. Just help me, please?" "I'm completely out of options. I love her. I'd give up anything for her." I stared at the pathetic boy standing in front of me. His radiant halo was completely gone. His long, elegant, pale fingers were slashed open by glass, but he didn't seem to care at all. In my memories, he used to guard those hands with his life. He used to say he was grateful to God for giving him hands that could play such beautiful music. He loved the rhythm of his fingers dancing across the keys. But right now, to him, a pianist's most precious asset meant absolutely nothing compared to Ashley. He was no longer the boy I used to have a crush on. I suppose a first love is only beautiful when it stays a memory. I thought for a second, pulled out my phone, and dialed Ashley's number. "Ashley, Caleb is drunk outside my house. Can you come over?" He stood carefully beside me, staring at the phone with desperate, hopeful eyes. Ashley seemed to scoff on the other end of the line. Then she said, "Ask him for me—is it true he'd do absolutely anything for me?" I had it on speakerphone, so Caleb heard it perfectly. He panicked and practically yelled, "Of course I can!" "Then don't go to the competition." With that, Ashley hung up the phone. Leaving a stunned Caleb standing rigidly on the porch. I studied Caleb carefully. I wanted to see what choice he would make in this life, without my interference. Dreams versus love. Which one would he choose? Caleb kept his head down. It took a long time before he finally let out a bitter laugh. "Is giving up the competition really the only way to prove how much she means to me?" He clearly wasn't asking me. But I knew he already had his answer. I didn't say a word. I just watched him turn around and walk away, looking completely defeated.
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