Chapter 2

The door slammed hard behind him as he left.

I dragged my exhausted body to the window and brought in the rain-soaked clothes.

Rainwater dripped onto my feet, drop by drop.

Yet I didn't feel the slightest chill.

Then came the middle of the night.

I was lying on the couch when I heard a faint rustling beside me.

A headache I hadn't felt in a long time swept over me, and my eyelids were too heavy to lift even a little.

"You're sick."

Ethan's voice sank into my heart, along with the cold on my forehead.

Without thinking, I reached up to pull the towel off my forehead.

Everything in me resisted.

I didn't want his charity.

But Ethan beat me to it.

He pressed my hand down firmly and sighed.

"Wren, you have a fever... Even if you're mad at me, you can't play games with your own health."

"Just listen to me, okay?"

The fever left me in a daze.

Tears spilled from the corners of my eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Ethan sounded a little at a loss.

Then he picked up a tissue from the table and wiped my eyes.

A faint warmth touched my hand.

"Why are your hands so cold?" His palm covered the back of my hand.

At that same moment, the black phone on the table started buzzing.

Ethan glanced at the screen, then got up and went out to the balcony.

"I got it. I'll be right there."

"Don't worry."

Cold air crept into the living room through the gap in the glass door he hadn't closed all the way.

When Ethan came back, he stroked my hair.

"We don't have any fever medicine at home. I'll go buy you some."

"Get some more sleep."

I didn't make a sound.

I just kept my eyes fixed on his back as he walked away.

Until he shut the front door behind him.

A scoff slipped out of me before I could stop it. With effort, I crawled off the couch to the TV stand.

I dug out the fever medicine.

And swallowed it down with cold water.

The clock in the living room ticked on, its hour hand moving from one to three, then to six.

The man who'd gone out to buy medicine never came back that night.

Only when the sky began to lighten did the front door lock give a faint click.

Ethan pushed the door open, a plastic bag in his hand. When our eyes met, something faintly awkward flickered in his.

"You're awake? Is your fever down?"

He reached out to feel my forehead.

I swatted his hand away hard.

Knowing he was in the wrong, he said, "I got the medicine."

I looked him straight in the eye.

"Don't bother. Your medicine is too precious... I can't afford to take it."

"Wren, why are you always like this?" Irritation crept into Ethan's voice.

I gave a small smile.

"It took you all night to buy one box of fever medicine. That call last night... it was Natalie again, wasn't it?"

He paused in the middle of handing me a glass of water.

"Don't blame her. After I left, I got a message from work."

"By the time I finished working overtime, it was already morning."

Excuses like that.

I'd heard them more times than I could count.

"That's enough." I pushed through the headache. "Let's break up."

"That way you won't have to keep telling these ridiculous lies just to take care of Natalie."

I shoved away the glass he held out, and it fell to the floor.

"I told you, this has nothing to do with Natalie. I forgot." He frowned, his voice impatient. "Wren, can't you try to understand me for once?"

"Can you stop getting so hung up on everything?"

"Natalie and I are just friends!"

Friends who had crossed the line.

I laughed at myself and didn't say another word.

The fight drained out of him. He bent down, picked up the glass that had rolled across the floor, and walked straight out the door.