The Lie of My Childhood Friend

I agreed to transfer schools with my childhood friend who was constantly being bullied, but she backed out on the last day.

Her friend teased, "I can't believe you pretended to be bullied all this time just to get rid of Harry. He's your childhood friend. Are you really willing to let him go to another school all by himself?"

Lena said indifferently, "It's just another school in this city. How far could it be? I've had enough of him always being around me. Getting some distance between us is just what I wanted."

I stood outside the door for a long time that day before deciding to turn and leave.

However, on the transfer application, instead of writing Haleswood High School, I wrote the high school that my parents wanted me to go to, which was abroad.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten that Lena and I had been worlds apart from the very start.

The moment I heard the truth, my heart trembled violently.

Over the past month, Lena Shaw had been beaten up or falsely accused countless times.

I had tried my best to help her avoid harm, but there were always moments I failed.

Unable to endure it any longer, I suggested that we should transfer schools.

At the time, Lena had just been splashed with ice water, her delicate face pale and pitiful, and she helplessly grabbed my hand.

“Harry, I don’t want to go to a strange place alone.”

Lena and I had been childhood friends—we had gone to and from school together since nursery, and that had never changed for more than 10 years.

Besides, I had secretly admired her in my heart.

So in a moment of impulse, I promised her, “Don’t be afraid. Wherever you go, I’ll go with you.”

But until now, I finally learned that everything she did had been a carefully staged act just to drive me away.

I couldn’t help but wonder—did Lena hate me that much?

The voices in the private room continued, “Harry’s truly devoted to you. You’re sending him to another school now—aren’t you afraid he’ll fall for someone else?”

“Him?”

Lena let out a mocking laugh, as if she had heard the funniest joke on earth.

“For me, he even dared step in to stop a group beating. Even when he got bruised and battered, he never took a single step back. You think he’d stop loving me?”

Someone muttered quietly, “But what if? Harry doesn’t seem like someone easy to mess with.”

Lena’s tone was lazy. “There are plenty of pretty girls at First High School. Have you ever seen him spare any of them a glance?”

Her tone inevitably carried contempt.

“All he ever did was follow me around. Even a lapdog wasn’t as clingy as him.”

Sharp, grating laughter erupted in the private room, like a slap across my face.

I wanted to leave, but my feet felt rooted to the floor, forcing me to listen—and hurt.

Someone clicked their tongue