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Chapter 1 …
The characters, names, and organizations in this work are fictional and have no relation to reality.
Prologue
Today is a very important day.
It’s the 18th birthday of Jesse—her childhood friend and the person Harry has a one-sided crush on.
For this day, Harry had been working part-time for a full three months.
She even prepared a birthday present with the money she earned, so now all that’s left is for the main character, Jesse, to arrive……
“Are you sure JJ is coming?”
Aymus asked while glancing at his watch.
It was already the third time he had asked the same question.
That wasn’t surprising—an hour had already passed since their meeting time.
“He’ll come…… He’s probably just late because of work.”
Even when she first answered, she had sounded confident.
But after being asked the same thing three times, her confidence faded.
As she fidgeted with her fingers on the table, Aymus shrugged and called the waiter.
Maybe it was because they had only ordered drinks and were taking up space.
Or maybe it was because Aymus was a good-looking boy who made people around him steal glances.
Either way, the waiter approached as if he had been waiting.
“We’re ready to order food.”
As Aymus casually opened the menu, Harry’s eyes widened.
“Jesse isn’t here yet……”
“We’ve waited an hour. That’s enough. JJ won’t complain about us eating first.”
That made sense—Jesse was kind and gentle.
She didn’t like the idea of him eating cold food, but it also didn’t seem polite to starve the guest who came to celebrate his birthday.
Jesse arrived only after all the food Aymus ordered had been served.
“Jesse!”
Every time the restaurant door opened, Harry stretched her neck to look. She jumped up from her seat to greet him.
“Sorry I’m late. Did you wait long?”
After graduating high school and becoming a fashion model, Jesse looked exhausted from a photo shoot and hugged her.
At that moment, the fact that she had waited over an hour no longer mattered.
Harry smiled brightly at him.
“It’s okay. I didn’t wait that long.”
From across the table, Aymus let out a scoff.
The sound was loud enough that Jesse turned his head.
“Aymus, you were here too?”
“Text next time if you’re going to be late. And ‘not long’? You were an hour and a half late.”
Aymus immediately began lecturing him.
Flustered, Harry quickly stepped between them.
“Y-you’re hungry, right? Sit down. Let’s eat.”
“Yeah, good idea.”
Kind-hearted Jesse smiled and sat beside Harry.
“You already ordered food? I was hungry—this is perfect.”
“Yeah. You’re done with the shoot, so you can eat a lot today. Eat plenty—this too.”
As she pulled food toward Jesse, Aymus glared.
“Earlier when I suggested ordering food first, you looked like you were going to kill me.”
“When did I do that?”
Harry ignored Aymus’s grumbling and watched Jesse eat.
Jesse Jackson—commonly called JJ.
Because of his name, people sometimes mistook him for a girl.
Likewise, Harry often got mistaken for a boy because of her name.
So people often joked that they should just switch names.
Yet Harry had never once disliked her name or wanted to change it. Because—
“Lily, you should eat too.”
Lee Harry. Harry Lee. Lily.
It was the nickname Jesse had given her.
“Yeah, I’m eating.”
As they smiled at each other, another scoffing sound came from across the table.
Without even looking, she knew it was Aymus.
What is his problem today?
Was he here to celebrate Jesse’s birthday, or just to pick fights?
She lightly kicked him under the table to signal him to behave.
At that moment, restaurant staff approached with a birthday cake.
“Happy Birthday!”
“What? You even prepared this?”
“You can’t have a birthday without a cake.”
Jesse laughed as he put down his fork.
He had noticed a photo of himself on top of the cake.
“Happy birthday to our beloved Jesse!”
After the staff finished singing.
Jesse closed his eyes, made a wish, and blew out the candles.
“Thanks for the gift, Lily. And Aymus too.”
Even while thanking them, his eyes were fixed on the photos decorating the cake.
There were recent modeling shoot photos—and even older pictures of just him and Harry.
“Older” meant only last year, but it already felt distant, as if it belonged decades ago.
Maybe because everything between then and now had changed so much?
As Jesse smiled faintly—
“Actually, I prepared a real gift separately.”
Harry, looking more excited than the birthday boy, pulled out a box from her bag.
The elegant black ribbon wrapping made it obvious it wasn’t cheap.
Jesse’s expression darkened.
“Lily, you really didn’t need to go this far. The cake alone was enough.”
He had thought this was just a simple meal to celebrate his birthday.
If he had known she prepared something like this, he wouldn’t have come.
Noticing his intention to refuse the gift, Harry quickly waved her hands.
“It’s really nothing! It’s not even that expensive.”
“……”
“Can you at least open it?”
Jesse reluctantly accepted the gift.
It might just look expensive, but perhaps it really wasn’t anything special like she said.
While he unwrapped it nervously, Aymus calmly ate cake like it was someone else’s business.
Click.
The black ribbon came undone and the box opened.
Harry swallowed nervously and glanced at Jesse’s face.
Inside was a wristwatch with a blue dial and a high-quality leather strap.
“How is it?”
“Lily.”
“You don’t like it? I still have the receipt, so you can exchange it for something you like……”
He sighed and closed the box with a loud snap.
The sound felt so sharp that Harry flinched.
“Did you seriously work part-time all summer vacation for this?”
At his interrogation-like tone, Harry felt like she might cry.
“I just thought… since you’re a model and will meet a lot of people for work, it would be good to wear a nice watch.”
“Sigh……”
“And it’s not that expensive. It wasn’t even a big burden for me.”
It probably wasn’t a burden for Harry.
But for Jesse, it was different.
With sick parents and mountains of debt still left to pay, even a watch like this felt heavy—like another burden of debt.
“I can’t accept this.”
“Jesse!”
“And I don’t want you giving me gifts like this in the future.”
Harry looked at him with a face full of things she wanted to say.
It was just a watch.
It wasn’t given for no reason—it was a birthday gift, once a year.
It was a gift from her, of all people. Why did it have to be analyzed so carefully?
But his phone rang.
Jesse checked it, his expression turning stiff.
Seeing him suddenly stand up, Harry grabbed his sleeve in panic.
“Where are you going? We haven’t even finished eating.”
“Manager called.”
“Weren’t you done filming?”
“There’s a party hosted by a famous editor. I’m supposed to stop by and make an appearance.”
If it was something like that, she couldn’t stop him.
Her grip slowly loosened.
“Okay. Go ahead.”
Just as he seemed about to leave, Jesse turned back as if something was bothering him and picked up a photo from the table.
It was one of the photos on the cake—just him and Harry together.
“Don’t forget to refund the watch.”
With that final sentence, Jesse left the restaurant.
Now left alone with Aymus again, Harry collapsed onto the table.
If Aymus hadn’t been there, she would have burst into tears.
“…I’m ruined.”
The watch sitting on the table was unbearable to look at.
It reminded her of herself—rejected by Jesse.
Above her head, Aymus’s voice rang out mockingly.
“The one who ruined the birthday party isn’t you, so why are you the one sulking?”
“Shut up.”
“Let me see this ‘amazing gift’.”
He snatched the box away before she could stop him.
He opened it effortlessly and whistled.
“Nice watch.”
“Give it back!”
Ignoring her protests, he casually strapped it onto his wrist.
“I think it suits me better than JJ.”
“No way.”
Harry frowned deeply.
The blue dial had been chosen to match Jesse’s eye color.
There was no way it suited Aymus.
And yet, he couldn’t stop staring at it.
“Give it to me.”
“Don’t joke around. Take it off. I need to return it.”
“Why?”
Aymus looked straight into her eyes.
“Because it was a gift for the guy you have a crush on, I can’t have it?”
“Ho—how did you……”
“Only an idiot wouldn’t know.”
At that moment, the watch on his wrist no longer mattered.
Harry grabbed him as he calmly resumed eating.
“Does Jesse know? Does he know too?”
“Unfortunately, he’s one of those idiots.”
Jesse didn’t know she had a crush on him.
That was, at least, a small relief.
Biting her lip nervously, she pleaded.
“Please don’t tell Jesse. Please.”
“A secret, huh……”
Aymus toyed with the watch on his wrist and smiled at her.
“That depends on what you do from here on out.”
Harry’s vision went dark.
Would her secret be kept?
