Chapter 2

2

My relationship with Nora was anything but glamorous.

In high school, we attended classes by day and skipped evening study halls to hand out flyers on street corners, earning just enough for the next day's meals.

Once the flyers were gone, we would huddle in the hospital hallway outside her mother's room, using the dim fluorescent light to tutor each other.

I was weak in math and strong in literature, while she was the exact opposite.

To avoid waking the patients, we wrote everything down on scraps of paper.

Over three years, we filled five thick notebooks, and we ended up with the exact same college entrance score.

On the day the results came out, her mother was too anxious to swallow food.

As I fed her soup, she gripped my fingers with red-rimmed eyes.

"Gavin, if you and Nora don't get into the same college, will you still come visit me?"

"Even if you fall for another girl someday, it doesn't matter. Just come back and be my son, okay?"

"Gavin, I really can't bear to let you go."

When Nora walked in carrying a basket of dried laundry and saw us crying together, she felt utterly helpless.

"Worst-case scenario, we do long-distance, and we get married right after graduation."

"Either way, we're spending our whole lives together."

Later in college, I moved out of the system, and her mother was discharged home.

Ashamed to ask her relatives for more charity, Nora applied for student loans alongside me.

College gave us more time to work part-time jobs; I took on two, and she took on three.

Since we were in different departments, the only time we had together was the late-night walk back to the dorms after our shifts, leaning against each other and dreaming about the future.

We made a promise to compete for the fully funded exchange program in our junior year and go to London together as seniors.

Then, we would marry right after graduation.

To build that hopeful future, we studied harder, worked longer shifts, and saved every penny.

Yet right when we saved enough money for the study abroad expenses, life dealt us a brutal blow.

Nora's mother took a turn for the worse and ended up in the ICU.

All the money we had saved vanished into medical bills, and we borrowed heavily on top of that, but it still wasn't enough.

Her mother's condition fluctuated constantly, forcing Nora to keep vigil outside the ICU doors day and night.

I skipped all my lectures, working around the clock and sleeping barely three hours a day, transferring every cent I earned directly to her.

During that time, neither of us had the energy to talk about the future.

My phone was filled with critical condition notices from the hospital and my daily wire transfer receipts.

The future felt too distant when simply surviving the present was draining the life out of us.

Thankfully, her mother stabilized right before the selection deadline.

The suffocating tension that had gripped us for six months finally eased.

Nora rushed back from the hospital, and I quit two of my gigs so we could study like crazy, heading straight for the exchange exam we had dreamed about for years.

The scores were posted soon after, and once again, our test scores were identical.

However, having missed an entire semester of lectures, both our attendance scores were zero.

Nora appealed on the grounds of caring for her critically ill mother, whereas I had no excuse; every professor knew I had skipped class to work and make money.

Duty to family beat raw hustle, and I lost.

My qualification was revoked, and the slot went to the third-place candidate.

Furious, Nora stormed the dean's office to prove that every dollar I earned had gone toward her mother's care.

But the final roster had already been submitted, and nothing could be changed.

Clenching her fists, she declared that if I wasn't going, she wouldn't go either.

Yet this had been her dream since childhood; she wanted to study international business in the UK, build a company, and give her mother and me a good life.

Holding back my tears, I grabbed her hands and snapped that if she dared give it up, we were over.

Sobbing uncontrollably, she threw her arms around me and swore a desperate oath.

"Gavin, wait for me. I'll come back successful, marry you, and give you a real home."

"If I ever let you down, I hope I die with nothing left of me!"

By this point in my story, Leo was already wiping away messy tears.

"That's so brutal. You two had it way too hard."

"But why didn't you get married in the end? Did something happen to her in London?"

I shook my head calmly.

"She fell in love with someone else."

Leo's sniffles cut off instantly, and he balled his fists in sheer rage.

"Then she should've just stayed over there and rotted!"

I guess life simply isn't fair.

Every time I thought I was finally getting a family, life tripped me up.

The day the exchange roster went public, the guy who took third place cheered loudly in front of the board, turning around until our eyes locked.

"Gavin!"

"Owen?"

While I was still in shock, he threw his arms around me in excitement.

In the process, he knocked over the milk tea Nora had brewed to comfort me.

Just like that, the only two exchange students from our school became bound to each other.