Chapter 3

If it weren't for your affection, I would never have been harmed by Aria to the point of infertility.

Nor would I, 12 years later, witness you and her having a child, using the misfortune you caused me to repeatedly torture me!

On the diary pages, traces of what seemed to be laboriously written, crooked handwriting continued to appear.

"Fallon, is there anything else you need me to do?"

18-year-old Zoran, who deeply loved me, asked.

But I didn't soften my heart.

"Leave my life and never appear again."

Once, when I was mocked countless times for being infertile, it was he who shielded me from the storm.

I once thought that as long as I had him, I could overcome any difficulty.

But later, it was also he who let go of my hand, stood on the side of those who mocked me, and pushed me into the abyss with one shove.

The person who loved me the most also knew best where to hurt me the most.

Countless times I broke down in despair, questioning fate why all of this had to happen to me.

I even thought about using death to escape this pain.

Now, if there's even a one in ten thousand chance, I don't want to let everything repeat itself.

The 18-year-old Zoran clearly didn't accept my request, writing down in the diary his proof of love for me:

"Why, Fallon, why won't you believe that I truly love you? Do you know how much I love you?"

"Every time after class, I would purposely take a long detour past your classroom door, just to catch a glimpse of you."

"During gym class, when I heard from classmates that you had a fever and called in sick, I immediately skipped class and ran to the pharmacy to buy fever patches and medicine."

"And there's more..."

"Enough! I know all about these things you're saying!" I seemed to see the Zoran from back then, interrupting him with red-rimmed eyes.

"I know, one day I forgot to bring a sanitary pad, and it was you who rushed to buy one and delivered it to the girls' dormitory."

"I also know that when I was bullied by the school thug, it was you who single-handedly took on the entire school team, getting beaten black and blue, your head split open and bleeding, just to help me vent my anger."

After an unknown amount of time, a line of text slowly appeared in the diary.

"Fallon, how do you know about these things?"

He didn't know that his future self had told me these things years later.

I took a deep breath and slowly wrote:

"It's the future you who told me."

The reply came quickly from the other side: "If you knew, why did you still want me to leave your world?"

I smiled bitterly: "Because the 30-year-old you deeply regrets doing these things for me."

"You said you shouldn't have saved me, shouldn't have married me. You said you mistook youthful possessiveness for love."

"That's not possible, Fallon. Why won't you believe me? I don't want anyone but you." The crooked letters appeared as quickly as possible.

"It's all lies! Not only do you regret marrying me, you'll even have a child with that woman!!"

Tears fell silently, soaking the diary, and I accidentally punctured the paper.

In an instant, the world spun, and when I came to, I found myself in a hospital room.

In front of me, 18-year-old Zoran lay weakly on the hospital bed, thick bandages wrapped around his abdomen, his face pale.

He covered the bandages with one hand, while the other painstakingly wrote each word, muttering under his breath.

"Fallon, I'm begging you to give me a chance. You have to believe me, I..."

He looked up, his gaze colliding with mine.

We stared at each other in silence.

After a while, he spoke with difficulty: "Fallon, these words..."

The next second, a harsh ringtone sounded, and I was back in the home that 30-year-old Zoran had turned upside down.

I answered the phone, and a sharp, uncompromising command pierced my ears:

"Fallon, come to the coffee shop downstairs from the office now. Aria and I have something to tell you."