Chapter 3

The stall owner gazed at me happily. "How could I forget you two? Back then, that girl would always cling to you at all times. It's hard to forget someone like that." I was amused, to say the least. Back in high school, Wynnie and I used to visit the farmer's market every day after school just to see when the market would go out of business. Wynnie's father was still alive at that time. She was still the daughter of a rich family who lived her life without any worries in the world. Since when had a rich girl like Wynnie set foot into a farmer's market before? That was why Wynnie tended to have as much fun as she could whenever we visited the farmer's market. Not only that, but she also wanted me to join in the fun. Thanks to our antics, everyone in the farmer's market always spotted us. I still remembered one particular afternoon when Wynnie and I visited the farmer's market. Coincidentally, we ran across a butcher, who was in the midst of making honey-glazed ribs. The tantalizing aroma of the dish permeated into the air. One could even smell it from the other end of the market and still yearn to take a bite out of the amazing dish. We were so entranced by the honey-glazed ribs' aroma that we planted our feet right before the meat stall. Amused by our reactions, the stall owner asked us to stay for a meal. She even teased Wynnie, saying, "You're already a high school student, yet you still don't know how to cook! How are you going to survive when you're all grown up?" Wynnie arched a brow and responded with her chin raised haughtily, "It's just honey-glazed ribs, isn't it? That dish is pretty simple. I'll be able to master it soon enough!" "It's just honey-glazed ribs, isn't it? That dish is pretty simple." Wynnie had uttered these sentences on two different occasions, yet the meaning was already warped the second time she had said them. It had been so many years. But whenever I heard others bring up my high school times, I could still vividly remember how radiant Wynnie was back in the day. I thought I wouldn't feel upset about Wynnie anymore, yet a pang of bitterness still flooded my heart. It was so bitter that I dipped my head low in an attempt to hold back my urge to cry. The stall owner didn't pick up on my abnormal behavior. Instead, she asked, "So, where's that girl now?" "We're getting a divorce soon." My response shut the owner up. I raised my head to smile at her before passing her the cuts of meat that I had selected. "How much is the total price?" Once I returned to the huge manor, I whipped up the honey-glazed ribs while paying attention to the time. Then, I waited in the living room till the wee hours of the morning. My legs had already gone numb because they were stuck in the same posture for far too long. But I didn't want to move at all. Wynnie said that she'd be home tonight, after all. My phone rang at that moment. I answered it, only to hear Wynnie's heavy breathing. She said, "I'm not going home tonight." This was the first time she stood me up just to be with another man. No matter how much she loved and pampered Richard, she'd never done this to me in the past. That was when I knew Wynnie had fallen in love with Richard for real. As I gazed at the fancy spread on the table, I grabbed a fork and took a bite out of a honey-glazed rib. I did whip up such an amazing feast, after all—I couldn't let the food go to waste. The honey-glazed ribs had already gone stone cold, so the ribs were extremely greasy and heavy on the taste. They didn't taste as good as they did when they were still piping hot. My stomach couldn't handle any heavy food in the first place. Thanks to my impromptu bite, my stomach became a lot more frail. Soon, a wave of pain that I was already familiar with spread from my stomach to the rest of my body. I could only curl into a ball on the couch while withstanding the pain. This time, the pain was a lot more intense than before. It felt as though I had slipped into a dream. In that dream, things between Wynnie and I didn't worsen to the point of divorce. Wynnie's heart would ache whenever I got hurt in the slightest. I grabbed her cold hand before nuzzling against her out of instinct. "Wynnie, I'm in so much pain right now…" By the time I woke up, the lights in the manor were already turned on. The sight of my bright surroundings left me in a state of dazed stupor. It was not until Richard slammed a glass of water onto the coffee table heavily that the rusty gears in my brain began to spin slowly once again. Richard sneered at me while saying mockingly, "I never knew that you were good at acting pitiful just to attract Wynnie's attention, Sebastian." I didn't know why Richard said such things, but I didn't really care about the reason why. Pain continued to torment me every now and then thanks to my stomach cancer. I barely had any energy to deal with Richard. Wynnie walked out of the kitchen with the plate of stone-cold honey-glazed ribs. A faint smile adorned her lips. The ribs didn't taste good anymore now that they had gone cold, yet Wynnie didn't care at all. She forked a rib and took a bite out of it. "You're a lot better than me at cooking," she remarked. Back then, Wynnie had strived to learn how to make honey-glazed ribs from the meat stall's owner. Even though she failed to learn how to make the dish in the end, I was the one who picked up the skill. The last thing I remembered before I collapsed was Wynnie telling me over the phone that she wouldn't come home for the night. Instead of responding to Wynnie, I asked, "Didn't you mention you wouldn't be back tonight?" "I called you many times after that, yet you never answered any of them. So, I came home to check on you." So, that was what happened. No wonder Richard was all pissy at me just now. He thought I was just pretending the whole time. But I wasn't. I was really dying. Wynnie let out a helpless sigh. She walked over to sit next to me before placing a hand on my stomach as though it was the most normal thing to do. "Look at you. The way you're acting right now is like a kid. You know you have a weak stomach, yet you keep eating cold food." I was taken aback by how affectionate Wynnie seemed. It had been a very long time since we were this intimate. Richard stood at the side. Despite his strong reluctance, he could only plaster a forced smile on his face, seeing as he didn't want to displease Wynnie. It probably tortured him to keep up his façade at this time. Wynnie noticed that I was looking in a certain direction. When she realized that I was looking at Richard, her smile widened by a fraction. Then, she tilted her chin in Richard's direction. "Sebastian isn't feeling well, so I have to look after him. You should go home on your own tonight." Her nonchalant attitude made me feel that she was just treating Richard like a pet. Richard finally couldn't take it anymore. "Wynnie…" But before he could continue speaking, Wynnie's expression darkened instantly. "Richard, be a good boy now." The reason why Richard got to be with Wynnie for such a long time was because he knew when exactly he should behave. He knew that fact more than everyone else. After watching Richard leaving the manor hurriedly, I shot Wynnie a confused look. "Why aren't you spending the night with him?" "Aren't you having a stomachache right now?" Oh? Was that not a dream? Wynnie did come home, then. At that moment, a loud beep came from the microwave in the kitchen. Sometime later, Wynnie returned to my side with a glass of warm milk. "If your stomach is feeling uncomfortable, you should have some milk before going to bed." "Don't you know that I don't like drinking milk, Wynnie?" The ever-present stink in milk made me feel as though I was drinking blood. It wasn't as if Wynnie didn't know that. She simply forgot about it because she hadn't been paying attention to me all this time. A look of embarrassment flitted across Wynnie's face. I plucked the glass of milk out of Wynnie's hands and dumped the contents into a flower pot in front of her. "You can leave now. There's no need to stay with me." Wynnie's expression slowly darkened with every word I spoke. She approached me before pulling me back to the couch forcibly. Her rough actions caused my stomach, which was starting to feel better, to squirm once again. Wynnie gripped my chin, forcing me to look at her. "Sebastian, you're the one who played the pity card just to lure me home. Now that I'm home, you're putting on this façade. You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" I looked into Wynnie's eyes, noticing the reflection of my calm expression in her eyes. "Nope. You're being delusional, Wynnie. I never thought about how to lure you home."