Mrs. Miller pointed at him, too angry to speak, her tears falling again. "I called Nina's parents... Nina... Nina really withdrew! She’s already on the train home!"

Seth’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. The thing he feared most, the thing he refused to believe, had been confirmed by his mother in the most direct way.

"She... how could she do this..." he muttered, his tone filled with the indignation and confusion of someone who felt betrayed. "Isn't it just a prank? Does she really have to go this far? What does she think our eighteen years of history is worth?"

Slap! A loud, resounding sound echoed as Seth was struck across the face.

The one who had dealt the blow was the usually silent Mr. Miller. Seth was stunned, covering his face as he looked at his father in disbelief. Never in his life had his father laid a finger on him.

"You bastard! Even now, you still think she’s making a fuss, that she’s overreacting?" Mr. Miller was shaking with rage. "You humiliated a girl in front of the whole school, ruined her hair, and trampled on her dignity—you call that a prank? What is inside that brain of yours!"

"I... I just wanted to get in with Sonia’s circle... Sonia was the one who said I had to prove I’d made a clean break with the past..." Seth defended himself incoherently, covering his face.

"So you used Nina as your tribute? You used a girl who was devoted to you, a girl both our families watched grow up, just to pave your own way?" Mr. Miller’s rage grew even stronger. "Do you have any conscience? The Miller family's reputation, the decades of friendship between our two families—you, this animal, have thrown it all away!"

Mrs. Miller cried from the side, "Nina's father said on the phone that Nina told them everything... he was so angry he couldn't even speak... how... how can this even be resolved..."

Seth was completely panicked. He had never seen his parents this furious, nor had he ever imagined that a "small matter" he thought he could easily brush off would trigger such a violent chain reaction.

What he feared was not the extent of the harm I had suffered, but that the situation had spiraled completely out of his control, bringing him unpredictable trouble.

"Dad, Mom, what... what should I do?" He finally revealed his true terror.

Mr. Miller pointed at the door and commanded, word by word: "You go now, immediately, to Nina’s house! You apologize! I don't care what you say or do, even if you have to kneel, you must convince Nina to return to school!"

"Now?" Seth was stunned.

"Right now!" Mr. Miller picked up the car keys from the table and threw them at him. "I don't care what method you use. If Nina doesn't return to school, don't you ever come back! I don't have a son like you!"

Seth held the icy car keys, his palms drenched in cold sweat.

He finally realized that the "surprise" he had personally directed had turned into a disaster he couldn't possibly manage.

And he was about to face his first judgment for his own stupidity and cruelty.

07

I locked myself in my room, the door panels shutting out the outside world, but they couldn't shut out the muffled arguments and weeping of my parents.

I knew they needed time to digest this fact and an outlet to release their shock and anger. And I, too, needed a space of absolute quiet to settle my hollowed-out heart.

I don't know how long it had been when suddenly, there was a sudden, forceful knocking at the door—bang, bang, bang—as if someone wanted to smash the panels through.

"Who is it?" my mother’s alert voice, laced with tears, rang out.

From outside came a familiar yet flustered male voice: "Auntie, it's me, Seth. I’m here to see Nina... I’m here to apologize to her."

The living room fell into deathly silence. A few seconds later, I heard my father’s suppressed rage: "You have the nerve to come here?"

"Uncle, Auntie, please, let me see Nina. I know I was wrong, I really know I was wrong!" Seth’s voice was tearful, filled with a dramatic sense of repentance that sounded utterly fake.

I didn't move. I simply sat at my desk, listening quietly.

I could imagine his expression right now—filled with anxiety and regret, the typical performance of every selfish person when their benefits are threatened.

The living room door eventually opened. Perhaps my parents also wanted to ask him face-to-face why he would do this to me.

"Where is Nina? Where is she?" Seth asked urgently.

"She doesn't want to see you." My mother’s voice was cold, lacking the warmth of the past.

"Auntie, I..." At that moment, I opened my room door from the inside.

I stood calmly in the doorway, looking at that familiar figure in the living room.

Seth was wearing a tracksuit, his hair disheveled, his face pale, his eyes rimmed with red, with a clear palm print still visible on his left cheek. When he saw me, it was as if he’d seen a life raft, and he immediately lunged toward me.

"Nina!" My father’s burly frame instantly blocked my path, standing like a wall.

"Stay back!" My father’s voice was low and powerful, filled with warning. "Get away from my daughter."

Seth’s momentum came to an abrupt halt. He looked at my father’s icy eyes, then back at me, forcing a smile that was uglier than a cry: "Nina, don't be mad, okay? Last night... I was a jerk, I was in the wrong. I was just pulling a prank on you, I didn't think you’d take it so seriously, I..."

"A prank?" I asked gently, cutting off his pathetic excuse.

My voice wasn't loud, but the temperature in the living room seemed to drop a few degrees.

I stepped out from behind my father and looked straight into his panicked eyes.

"Seth, in front of a thousand people, in order to please another woman, you pinned my shoulders down and let her treat me like a doll, destroying the hair I’d been growing for years. You trampled my dignity underfoot and let the whole school treat me like a joke. Now, you’re telling me this was a prank?"

My tone was completely devoid of ripples, as if I were reciting something unrelated to me.

Yet every word was like an awl, stabbing fiercely into Seth’s heart.

His lips trembled, unable to form a complete sentence: "I... that’s not what I meant... I just... Sonia, she..."

"You just wanted to fit into her circle and needed a tribute, right?" I said it for him. "And I, the 'friend' you’ve known for eighteen years, the one who obeyed you, the most convenient, the one who wouldn't fight back, became your perfect sacrifice."

Seth’s complexion shifted from pale to green. Having his dirtiest intentions exposed, his eyes began to dart away.

"No... Nina, can't our eighteen years of history outweigh this one incident?" He brought out our heaviest chip again. "You’re withdrawing over this—what are you going to do to your uncle and aunt? What about my parents? The relationship between our families..."

"Enough!" My father finally bellowed, unable to hold back anymore. "You bastard! What right do you have to mention eighteen years? When you treated Nina as a prop for your family to show off, as a stepping stone for your social life, did you think of our eighteen years? Now that Nina won't play your games anymore, you suddenly remember eighteen years? Seth, let me tell you, what you did to my daughter isn't a prank—it’s an injury! It’s a trampling!"

My mother’s eyes were red as she pointed at the door. "Get out! We don't welcome you in this house! Nina has already decided, and nothing will change that! Don't come here to bother her again!"

Seth was completely panicked. Seeing the three of us standing together in solidarity, he knew that verbal defense was useless.

His legs gave way, and with a thud, he actually knelt toward me.

"Nina, I’m begging you, come back to school with me! I was wrong, I’m kneeling here to apologize! As long as you go back, I’ll do anything! You can't withdraw—if you withdraw, my father will beat me to death!"

He was weeping, snot and tears streaming down his face.

This kneeling wasn't for repentance; it was to beg me to let him off the hook so he could avoid the consequences.

It was truly pathetic and laughable.

I looked down at him as he knelt there, the person I had once thought was the most important in my life, and the last remnants of warmth in my heart completely extinguished.

"Seth," I looked down at him, my voice as cold as ice. "Keep your cheap performance to yourself. Your kneeling, just like your apology, only makes me sick."