Chapter 4

In the beginning, Jamie and I didn't have a password lock installed on our door. Five years ago, we stayed in a rundown house in the poorer part of the city to save money for research funding. The rent had only been 300 dollars a month. One day, after I had pulled an all-nighter to complete my experiment, I ran into someone trying to forcefully break the lock on our door when I returned home from the research lab. Fortunately, Jamie had appeared in the nick of time, averting a crisis from occurring. After that incident, Jamie forbade me from pulling all-nighters for my research again, no matter how hard I tried to convince him. He hugged me tightly in our moldy, one-bedroom apartment and promised me that he would move us into a big and luxurious house one day with the safest, state-of-the-art password lock on the door. We were living comfortably nowadays, but he had turned around and used the security lock we picked out together to lock me outside of my own house. Just as I was about to leave, the door swung open. "Who's disturbing my beauty sleep so early in the morning?" Daisy was clad in skimpy lingerie. The sheer shawl she had draped around her shoulders did nothing to cover up the red marks littered all over her skin. "Oh. It's you, Mrs. Frestin. I was wondering who it could be. Is there something that you need? Professor Frestin was exhausted last night, so he's still sleeping. If there's something urgent, you can tell me, and I'll pass on the message to him." Daisy flaunted her baby bump as she spoke. She pulled her shawl down, forcing me to take in the irrefutable evidence of their lovemaking, behaving as if she were the lady of the house. I would have lost my mind from anger in my past life. But now, I simply ignored Daisy's provocations and entered the house. "I'm just here to grab my things. I'll leave after I'm done," I explained. I pushed the baby stroller around her and into the house. But when I arrived at my bedroom, I realized that my belongings were all gone. The photographs near the top of the bed and on the walls were all pictures of Jamie and Daisy. The photographs served as proof for their trip to Frost Island to see the aurora. They also swam with dolphins in the ocean and kissed on a mountain top during dawn. Jamie had done so many couple activities with her, but he hadn't done a single one with me. I didn't feel heartbroken. On the contrary, I felt like I had behaved so laughably in my past life. During the last five years, I made the same birthday wish every year—I wished for Jamie to spend more time with me this year. Jamie had always smiled and promised that he would make more time for me next year, but he broke his promise every single year. I finally found out the reason why. It wasn't that he didn't have any spare time. He was just busy spending all of it with Daisy.