2
Leo flinched, probably because I’d never spoken to him with such ice in my voice. He opened his mouth to say something, but I had
already turned my back on him.
My mission was a failure. There was no reason for me to stay in this world.
The only silver lining was that the System had witnessed my tireless efforts and granted me an exemption from punishment. As
long as I exited this world within the given time limit, I could avoid being completely erased.
But the body I’d left behind in my own world was already dying from a terminal illness.
I remembered my mother’s eyes just before I was transported here–eyes full of a gentle, heartbreaking sorrow.
I bit my lip and quickened my pace toward the railing.
“Faye, what are you doing?” Leo’s voice, once dismissive, was now laced with urgency as he saw me getting closer to the edge.
He was right behind me. “What kind of trick are you pulling now? You know this whole ‘I’m going to die‘ act doesn’t work on Joey. Besides, after all the terrible things you’ve done, even if you died right here, right now, you’d never compare to Sera. You-”
His voice died in his throat. From his perspective, he saw me vault over the railing without a flicker of hesitation and leap into the glittering city below.
The world rushed up to meet me, the roaring wind scraping painfully against my ears. But it couldn’t extinguish the soaring, joyful feeling in my heart.
I was going home. Back to my parents‘ arms, back to the love of my friends. I would leave all the years of suffering and injustice behind me.
Almost there. Just a little further.
I closed my eyes.
The next second, the sensation of falling was brutally cut short.
A hand clamped around my arm, and the searing pain of muscles being pulled taut yanked me back to reality.
I opened my eyes. Leo was clinging to the railing with one hand, his other locked around my arm in a death grip.
“Let go,” I said, my voice eerily calm.
Leo’s jaw was clenched. I couldn’t tell if it was from the strain or something else, but his eyes were bloodshot, shimmering with unshed tears.
“Faye, you win this time,” he choked out. “You put on a convincing act, but it won’t change anything. Joey, he-”
“Let go!” I screamed, unwilling to hear that name again. I started to thrash wildly.
To catch me, Leo had already leaned halfway over the edge. My struggling made his grip on the railing precarious. We were both teetering on the brink of death.
“Stop moving!” he roared. “We’re really going to fall!”
When he saw I was ignoring him, a desperate breath hitched in his chest, and his tone softened.
“I can’t just let you die. If you keep this up, I’ll fall with you. Do you really want me to die with you… Faye?”
He used my old name, his voice intimate, almost pleading, just like when he lived with me, when we only had each other.
Back then, I saw Leo as the only family I had in the world. I spoiled him rotten, and he, in turn, developed a habit of getting his way
11:02
Chapter 1
by being sweet to me.
Now, I looked up into his eyes, once as bright as stars.
He was watching me, a flicker of… hope hidden beneath his feigned composure.
Was he waiting for me to respond? The thought almost made me laugh at my own sentimentality.
And I did laugh. I looked straight in
“Who cares if you die?”
his eyes and spoke, each word a shard of ice.
The color drained from his face. He stared at me, dumbfounded, as if he couldn’t process what I’d said. His grip on my hand began to slacken.
For a moment, hope surged in my chest again.
