Chapter 6

The next day, I called a few cleaning ladies to tidy up the house. I had thought our little home we lived in together would be full of items with memories of us, but after a thorough cleaning, Lucas's things only filled one storage box, most of which were things I had bought.

A photo in the corner caught my attention, one I had never seen before.

I cleaned off the dust on the surface and looked at it. It showed a man and a woman kissing. The man was, of course, Lucas, but the girl in the photo, with a ponytail, wearing an oversized school uniform that made her look extremely thin, had a face I would never forget.

It was Claire, Claire from high school, or even earlier. In her first year of high school, she loved to tie a ribbon to her ponytail's hair tie, hanging down with her black hair, just like in the photo.

My heart felt like it had plunged into an ice cave. Lucas had never mentioned that he originally knew Claire, let alone that they had such an intimate past.

Those unbearable scenes flooded back into my mind, and certain details I had deliberately ignored suddenly became clear.

I had thought Claire's bullying was just because I was different from them. When everyone was eager to be a bad kid, the only good kid stood out. I, who buried my head in studies, became the object of their ridicule.