One Destroyed Me, One Cherished Me

When Iris ran for student representative, even though I wasn’t running, my childhood friend Derek made everyone vote for me.

But he wasn’t doing this because he liked me. He just wanted to get Iris’s attention.

Once I even heard him joking with his friends,

“You guys want to hook up with Luna? I can make the introduction. One night, five hundred bucks.”

I froze, and quietly switched all my major classes to different sections.

That rainy night when Mom’s condition worsened, I asked my childhood friend for money. He waited until the cigarette in his hand burned out before saying:

“Luna, I don’t owe you anything.”

After he left, a handsome guy held an umbrella over my head.

“Would you be willing to come to England with me?”

I nodded.

On the first day of school, Iris stood on stage running for student representative. The moment the votes were announced, her flushed face turned deathly pale.

Out of thirty students in the class, I got twenty-nine votes.

Derek stared at Iris’s devastated expression with great interest, then suddenly started clapping, saying dotingly:

“Luna, surprised?”

Iris’s expression grew even worse, tears welling in her eyes as she looked at me with jealousy.

I sighed silently.

Derek and I grew up together.

But I was just the daughter of his family’s housekeeper.

The summer after middle school graduation, my dad was driving pregnant Mrs. Sterling and my mom when they got into an accident.

Only my mom survived, and she became a vegetable.

From that day on, I was thrown out of the Sterling house.

My relationship with Derek changed dramatically too.

Brake failure—he said he didn’t blame my dad.

But he never spoke to me again.

Everyone at school said my father was a murderer.

That he killed Derek’s mom and his unborn baby brother.

Derek was happy to watch me get blamed.

After the exams, we coincidentally ended up at the same university, in the same class.

He intimately took my bag, leaning close to my ear,

“Haven’t seen you in so long, I missed you.”

During self-introductions, he pointed his chin in my direction, “Luna.”

Everyone looked over.

The sunlight happened to fall on my profile, and they all thought it was the most beautiful confession from a teen drama.

But then he suddenly smirked.

“Her dad’s dead, her mom’s a vegetable.”

The whole room erupted.

They uncomfortably looked away.

The professor sternly told Derek to get off the stage.

When it was my turn, I just introduced myself simply.

Derek found it incredibly boring.

Until Iris appeared.

She was beautiful, but poor. Like a rose with thorns, declaring she hated rich people the most.

When she spoke, her gaze fell on Derek without any attempt to hide it.

Derek scoffed, twirling my hair around his fingers, saying:

“Don’t get too close to people whose brains haven’t fully developed.”

I had a feeling he might be the one getting close to her.

That was fine with me.