"Don't worry. I don't like taking selfies."

"We'll see about that!" Bettie reached for his phone, her fingers tracing the smooth surface as she pressed the lock screen button. The screen flickered to life, prompting her for a password. “What's the password?"

"Your birthday." Lance's gaze remained fixed ahead on the road.

“Okay... Okay." Bettie's heart skipped a beat at his response, a rush of conflicting emotions washing over her. She lowered her eyes to the phone and entered the familiar digits. With a soft chime, the screen unlocked, revealing the screen wallpaper that left her stunned.

In the image, a boy clad in a white T-shirt and knee-length black shorts stood alongside a girl in a light yellow dress. Their hands were intertwined, fingers laced together, as they stood beneath the glow of a street lamp. Both wore radiant smiles, their innocence captured as they Looked at the camera.

The photo was tinged with nostalgia, its quality slightly blurred with age, but Bettie was instantly transported back to the past when she looked at it.

This photo was taken at the end of their college entrance examination.

After the exam, instead of heading home with her mother as planned, Bettie made up a flimsy excuse about having to go to a class party and slipped away to meet Lance.

Back then, concerned about Bettie's performance in the exam, Amirah decided to send Bettie abroad to take her chances and study there.

Bettie felt anxious. Despite longing to stay with Lance, she felt powerless to defy Amirah's wishes.

But when Bettie saw Lance that day, she didn't tell him about it, not wanting him to overthink. So she acted as usual and didn't show her unease at all.

That day, the two of them wandered around carelessly and played outside until the sun dipped below the horizon. On a whim, they booked a room in a hotel and had sex.

Lance said he would not think twice about selecting one of the two top universities in Violetholt with his remarkable grades.

Therefore, after the results came out, Bettie opted for an ordinary university in Violetholt, wanting to be near him.

ALL the top universities were vying for Lance due to his grades. Yet, when she pressed him about which university he would choose to go to, he remained evasive and didn't answer her questions. She assumed it was because he hadn't made a decision yet.

The next day, however, she couldn't get in touch with him, no matter how much she tried. All he left was a simple message before he disappeared from her life.

It wasn't until the start of a new semester that Bettie heard of his whereabouts. In their group chat, Elora, a fellow student from a foreign university, suddenly said that she saw Lance at the university she studied at.

For Bettie, who had missed the opportunity to apply for universities abroad, this revelation was a bitter pill to swallow. She remained tethered to Violetholt, spending four years without Lance.

Bettie once had this photo. But she deleted it after Lance left. She deleted everything about Lance. She was desperate to sever the ties that bound her to him. She wanted to forget all the memories between them.

ALL of a sudden, the memories of their time together resurfaced from where Bettie had buried them in the depths of her heart, flooding her mind like a tidal wave. Her lips pressed into a tight line as she grappled with the tumultuous emotions swirling within her. She didn't expect that Lance would have held on to this photo all this time.