Chapter 100
The guy was pretty tall with delicate features, but right now his face was flushed red, his eyes full of anger and grievance as he stared straight at me.
"Sophia!"
His voice was loud, drawing the attention of passing students around us. All eyes turned to us, and gossipy whispers rose and fell.
"Look, isn't that the guy who wrote Sophia a love letter and got rejected?"
"He's actually pretty good-looking. What a shame."
"He's aiming way out of his league. Sophia didn't even give him the time of day."
The guy's face turned even redder. He clenched his fists, staring hard at me, his voice trembling.
"Sophia! Why did you lie to me? You're already married, why didn't you say so earlier? Do you think playing with me is fun?"
I stopped walking and looked at him calmly. "On my first day at this school, weren't there already rumors that I was married? You pursue people without doing any research, didn't figure things out yourself, and now you're blaming me?"
His eyes flickered. "I... I did research, I just didn't see that information."
I was speechless. "That's your problem. What does it have to do with me?"
He questioned me, his voice shaking with emotion. "But I wrote you a love letter, and you didn't clearly reject me! I thought... I thought I had a chance!"
I froze for a few seconds, then realized—this guy in front of me was the one who wrote me that love letter?
Liliana immediately stepped in front of me, hands on her hips. "Who are you? What nonsense are you talking about? Who lied to you? When did Sophia ever make you any promises?"
"She accepted my love letter!" The guy pointed at me. "She accepted the love letter I spent a whole week writing! If she wasn't interested in me, why would she accept it?"
I was amused by his logic. "I didn't actively ask to receive the love letter—someone else passed it to me."
"Accepting it doesn't mean I accepted you. And didn't you say yourself that if I agreed, I should meet you at the library? Me not going—wasn't that rejecting you?"
"But you didn't return the letter either!" The guy persisted. "You clearly have a husband, you're wearing a diamond ring, so why would you still accept someone else's love letter?"
"You're just playing with my feelings, keeping me as a backup, messing with me!"
More and more people gathered around, whispering. Quite a few raised their phones.
I felt a headache coming on. This kind of person simply couldn't understand reason. There was no point arguing with someone like this—any more words would be a waste of breath.
"I'll say this one more time." I took a deep breath, trying to keep my voice calm. "I did not play with your feelings."
"Your attention and affection were your own one-sided actions. I never asked for them, and I never responded to them."
I raised my right hand, the diamond sparkling in the sunlight. "As you can see, I'm married."
"I'm not stupid. I wouldn't accept someone else's confession while I'm married, and I wouldn't get tangled up with anyone else."
The guy's face went from white to red, full of the embarrassment of being publicly refuted.
He suddenly rushed forward a step, as if to hit someone.
Liliana and Yasmin blocked him from reaching me.
"You're just playing with people's feelings! You think having a rich husband makes you so great? Having someone backing you up means you can just trample on other people's sincere feelings?"
Liliana got angry and pushed him hard. "Shut up! Who trampled on you? You're the one with unrequited feelings, and you're blaming others? Sophia already explained everything clearly to you. What more do you want?"
"Are you trying to get physical? Come on then!"
The guy stumbled from Liliana's push. He seemed intimidated by her presence.
He stood there stunned for a moment, then, humiliated and angry, raised his hand.
"Bitch! You dare push me! You're asking for it!"
"That's enough." I stepped forward and firmly grabbed his wrist before it could come down.
I looked at him, my eyes turning cold. "Feelings are mutual. Just because you like me doesn't mean I have to respond to you."
"I never gave you any ambiguous signals. You wrote me a love letter, wanting to pursue me—that was completely your own idea, not something I asked you to do. What right do you have to blame me?"
"Finally, and most importantly." I released his hand, my voice not loud but clear enough for everyone around to hear. "Whether I'm married or not, I should have the right to say no, shouldn't I?"
"I never promised you anything. You running here now to question me, to harass me—isn't that a bit unreasonable?"
"Unreasonable?" The guy got even more emotional, his eyes red as he shouted. "I've been paying attention to you for over two months! What you like to drink, what books you read—I remember all of it clearly!"
"For you, I went to the library half an hour early every day to save a seat, just so I could sit next to you! I spent so much time and effort on you, and you say things like this—how do you expect me to feel?"
"You're making a scene here just because of your ridiculous pride. You can't handle being rejected, you feel embarrassed, so you have to push all the blame onto me."
Liliana sneered. "If you keep harassing Sophia here, I'll call the professor right now and report you for harassing a female student. Whether you can graduate smoothly will be a question!"
The guy's face went pale instantly.
His roommate behind him quickly tugged at his arm, saying in a low voice, "Forget it, let's go. Don't cause trouble."
The guy looked at me, then at Liliana, his eyes full of resentment.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end said nothing. His roommate pulled him away, and he left dejectedly.
Seeing there was no more drama to watch, the onlookers gradually dispersed.
Liliana, Yasmin, and I went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat, then each went home.
That evening, I sat at my computer and spent about ten minutes finishing the homework the teacher had assigned. Just as I finished, I got a call from Andrew.
"Sophia, I know about what happened on the forum." His voice carried concern. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." I tried to sound casual. "Since when do you follow our school forum?"
"It made quite a stir. Hard not to know about it." Andrew paused. "I have another question—that ring you're wearing on your hand?"
I was silent for a moment, looking at the annoying ring on my right hand. "He bought it."
Andrew, on the other end of the line, fell silent too.
After a few seconds, Andrew finally said, "Sophia, don't do anything foolish."
"I won't." I smiled bitterly. "I've wanted to take this ring off for a long time, but it fits just right—I can't get it off easily. Forcing it might hurt my finger, so I figured I'd just leave it on for now and have a professional remove it later."
Andrew said, "As long as you're not thinking about fixing things with him, that's all that matters."
"I'll find someone to help you get the ring off."
"Great!"