Jason arrived early to the reunion.
He had joined a major company after graduation and climbed faster in one year than most people managed in ten. Everyone knew it. Everyone said it. Compliments followed him like confetti.
Usually he enjoyed that.
That night, he barely heard any of it.
He kept glancing toward the door.
The class president noticed.
“Looking for Chloe?”
Jason didn’t answer.
To outsiders, I had always been the one chasing him. He was used to that version of the story.
The class president shook his head.
“You like her and still don’t know what you’re doing. You were like this at graduation, and you’re like this now. Not everyone stays where you left them.”
Jason leaned back, voice cool.
“Chloe will. She can’t leave me.”
At that exact moment, Summer swept in wearing a sea-green dress and the kind of smile that meant trouble.
She saw Jason and laughed without any warmth.
“Oh. Still alive?”
Jason ignored her.
“Where’s Chloe?”
Summer sat down slowly across from him.
“What’s the rush? You’ll see soon enough.”
Then she smiled in a way that made him uneasy.
A few minutes later, I walked in.
With Ryan.
The room stilled just a little.
I smiled at the class president. “I hope it’s okay I brought someone.”
He blinked, then recovered immediately.
“Of course.”
Summer grinned like the devil and clapped once.
“This is my brother.”
No further introduction was needed.
Everybody there knew Ryan Carter.
Back in high school he had already been legendary—the student who scored impossibly high, the heir from the city’s most powerful family, the senior who felt less like a classmate and more like a rumor. Even Jason had never matched his academic numbers.
A person like that didn’t belong naturally in rooms like this.
Not unless he wanted to.
And smart people know when not to bring up old history directly.
So instead, the teasing started.
“Chloe, when are you two getting married?”
“You better invite us.”
“You guys look insane together.”
“How long have you been dating?”
I could feel Jason’s stare like heat against the side of my face.
Ryan smiled faintly.
“When we get married depends on Chloe,” he said. “I’m still waiting for her to give me a title.”
The room exploded.
The comments flashed across my vision too, going wild.
Summer finally did something useful.
If not for her, the crown prince would still be crying in secret.
He heard his sister call him Chloe’s boyfriend once and immediately transferred her a hundred grand. He’s gone.
He wants a title. He really wants a title.
Look at Jason’s face. He’s about to crush that teacup.
I sat there in a daze.
A title?
Ryan wanted… official status?
The entire reunion passed in a blur after that.
I didn’t talk to Jason once.
At the end of the evening, Summer and I went to say goodbye to our former homeroom teacher. Ryan stood a short distance away, waiting for us.
Jason approached then, his expression dark.
“Chloe is mine.”
Ryan didn’t even look at him.
“I already told you. No one waits forever.”
Jason laughed like he didn’t believe a word of it.
“She’s just mad at me. We grew up together. Do you really think she can let go of all those years that easily?”
Ryan finally turned.
There was a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.
Cold.
Mocking.
“Useless.”
Jason’s face changed instantly.
Maybe because Ryan almost never showed emotion so directly.
“What did you say?”
Ryan’s voice stayed calm.
“She was good to you. She was kind. She was all heart. And you still managed to make her this angry. If that’s not useless, what is?”
Jason stepped forward.
Ryan went on.
“Without Chloe, you’re nothing but a stray dog.”
My breath caught.
The comments screamed.
The crown prince is so hot.
He almost never gets emotional. He’s losing it because of her.
I can’t wait for the romance arc.
The text floating in front of me took a sudden turn into things I absolutely did not need to read in public, and I nearly choked.
I hurried toward Ryan before the night got any stranger.
The second I reached him, he stepped forward too, as if he had been restraining himself from doing it sooner.
His arms came around me lightly.
“Finished?” he asked.
I nodded.
“There are a few things I want to say to Jason.”
Ryan released me at once.
But his hand stayed around mine.
That one simple touch gave me more courage than I expected.
I looked straight at Jason for the first time in a year.
“If we’ve broken up,” I said, “then let’s break up peacefully.”
He stared at me.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened.
“We’ve known each other this long. I only made one small mistake.”
Ryan’s fingers tightened around mine.
And just like that, all my fear vanished.
I looked at Jason, really looked at him.
“At first you told me kissing other girls was just to make me jealous. To make me care more. During the time I was with you, I kept questioning myself. Was I not pretty enough? Not interesting enough? Not enough for you to stop hurting me?”
His face changed.
I kept going.
“You flirted with girls in front of me. You brought up breaking up over and over. You tested my sincerity like it was some game you were entitled to win. But I’m a person, Jason. I’m not an object. I feel pain. I get sad. Love is not supposed to look like that.”
He opened his mouth.
I didn’t let him speak.
“You don’t love me. You love yourself.”
The room had gone completely silent.
“The only thing I’m grateful for,” I said, “is that you didn’t destroy my ability to love someone else. So yes—I’m going to walk toward my next relationship with my head up. But you?”
I looked at him calmly.
“You don’t know how to love anyone. And people like you never really find happiness.”
For a second, nobody moved.
Then Jason stood there in total stillness, like something had finally shattered deep enough inside him that even pride couldn’t cover it.
I turned away first.
Ryan opened the car door for me later with a quiet kind of care that somehow hurt more than anything dramatic.
I got into the passenger seat.
Summer climbed into the back.
And then, because she could not let a serious moment live in peace, she leaned forward and asked her brother brightly, “By the way, you’re not getting any younger. When are you finding me a sister-in-law? I want one. A nice one.”
Ryan kept his eyes on the road.
“I already have someone.”
Summer froze.
“Where?”
My face went hot before I even understood why.
Ryan said, very calmly, “Right in front of you.”
Summer went dead silent for three whole seconds.
Then she shrieked so loudly I almost dropped my phone.
“Oh my God. Are you a genius? How did I never think of that? Chloe, marry into my family. Please. My brother’s condition is actually pretty great. And if you become my sister-in-law, we’ll never have to be apart.”
The comments exploded again.
The sister finally gets it.
Congratulations to the crown prince. After ten years, the tree finally fell in the right direction.
I wanted to disappear.
Ryan only glanced at me once.
But that one glance made my pulse race all the way home.