friend chapter 2

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To begin this story, we must go back to the winter I turned eleven. That day, I had a shocking dream. I swear, before that dream, I was an ordinary child. A spoiled little girl from a marquisate, perhaps a bit of a princess, but ordinary nonetheless. I even had a crush. The kind and handsome second son of the Duke, Lawrence Avery. I called Lawrence my prince and indulged in elaborate fantasies.

In my pink diary, under the title “Princess Lumina’s Dream,” I’d written my goals: Enter the academy, start dating Lawrence, and marry him immediately after graduation. My older brother, Cain, who was a year older than me, would laugh until his sides hurt whenever he saw it, but I was undeterred. I genuinely believed it would come true.

Not a chance.

Lawrence would never be mine. Because the heroine had already been chosen.

“Sob, Jade. Don’t die, waah…”

One day, when I was eleven, I woke up crying. It had been a difficult dream for a child to bear. Why? Because it was a dream about my past life. In the dream, I was born with a frail body, spending most of my days in bed. It was a dreadfully boring existence. I reached twenty without ever experiencing the typical joys of youth. I had no friends, and even a drop of alcohol would have sent me straight to the afterlife.

“I need something exciting…”

My only pleasure was reading novels on my phone. And the novel I was reading at the time was a dark, reverse-harem story called That Duchess’s Poison. The protagonist, Jade, was a notorious heartbreaker. Born as the illegitimate child of a duke, she was neglected by her family and grew up without knowing love. So, upon entering the academy, she began a relentless cycle of relationships, changing partners as if they were clothes. 

For Jade, love was a game, and men were her playthings. And in the end, it was her downfall. She was too daring, playing with the hearts of other male leads while dating the crown prince. The problem was, the crown prince was a madman. When he discovered her infidelity, he imprisoned Jade in the palace dungeons. Her spirit slowly eroded, and eventually, she took her own life.

“What kind of ending is this? Even more miserable than my own life.”

My past self, filled with despair, threw her phone across the room.

“Lumina, that fool.”

One character, in particular, bothered me. Lumina Ashford, Jade’s best friend. Lumina, heartbroken when the man she loved fell for Jade, turned on her friend in an instant. She exposed Jade’s relationships, spread malicious rumors, and even rallied her friends to bully her. Eventually, she was caught by Blake, one of the other male leads, and expelled from the academy. Blake, wealthy and influential, blocked Lumina’s every path to employment and marriage. The Ashford Marquisate was saddled with mysterious debts, forcing them to sell their title and lands. Lumina and her family ended up destitute and homeless.

“There were other options.”

Throughout the novel, Lumina’s actions frustrated me. Due to my illness, I never had a single friend. I always longed for a close companion. Lumina, blinded by her own perceived misfortune, had thrown away the greatest treasure in her life. She was completely oblivious to how much Jade cherished her.

If I were Lumina, I would never have abandoned Jade. I wouldn’t have let her self-destruct.

Back then, I didn’t know. That after death, I would actually become Lumina. The platinum blonde hair and light pink eyes in the mirror felt foreign. When I first had the dream and regained my memories, all I could do was cry. It was a terrifying reality to accept. Of course, I was only eleven at the time. But eventually, I had no choice but to accept it. The world in the novel was too similar to the one I lived in. And the events from the novel began to unfold, one by one.

“Let’s break up.”