After a heroic rescue and a head injury, I feigned amnesia and asked my eight-year girlfriend who she was. She said we were classmates.

I bravely saved someone but hit my head. My girlfriend of eight years came to visit me in the hospital. I pretended to have amnesia and jokingly asked her who she was. She paused, then her voice calm, she said, “We’re classmates.”

Classmates… I stared at Chloe’s face, my girlfriend of eight years, trying to find a hint of a joke, but there was none. She was serious, and so… calm. I forced a strained smile. The words “Just kidding!” got stuck in my throat. Classmates? Not even close friends. I wondered if she would’ve even come if the doctor hadn’t called her. But I didn’t question her. I just put on a normal smile. Watching her glued to her phone the entire time, my eyes darkened. I replied, “If you’re busy, you don’t have to…” “I actually am quite busy. Since you’re fine, I’ll head out.” She cut me off before I could even finish, grabbed her bag, and walked out. Maybe I still held a tiny bit of importance in her heart. After she pulled the door open, she turned back and looked at me, cautioning, “Get some good rest.” A faint smile lingered on my face, and I politely nodded. But that smile didn’t last long. The moment she left, it vanished from my face.

Chloe and I had been together for eight years, ever since university. But no one at the company knew about our relationship. At first, we just felt workplace romance was a bit awkward. Later, we both became directors, each leading our own departments, competing for sales. At that point, it was even harder to go public. But the company didn’t forbid dating. Sometimes I’d ask her about going public, but she’d always just smile it off. Sometimes, I even doubted if our relationship was just a shell of what it once was. Now, I didn’t have to doubt anymore. She’d wanted to break up for a long time, hadn’t she? The doctor told Chloe I was fine. But when my condition didn’t match what the doctor said—when it was contradictory—she didn’t question it. She even flatly stated we were just classmates. Maybe she didn’t care if I had real amnesia or was faking it. Or more accurately, she just wanted to use those words to make her stance clear. After all, if we broke up, she could be with Leo.