I Had Crossed the Finish Line When He Chased Me

Lory’s POV

The guy I looked up to fell in love with a reckless little rebel.

He said being with her gave him a kind of thrill he had never felt before.

For her, he smoked and drank.

For her, he got into fights and skipped classes.

For her, he abandoned me at the scene of a crash without even looking at me.

Later, I left my hometown and moved to another city.

I never imagined that seven years later, we’d meet again at a prestigious conference.

I thought he must have long since married that wild girl from high school.

Yet he came rushing to me, gripping my arm as if I’d slip away again.

He asked, “You and I… Can we start all over again?”

Frayne Gallacher and I grew up in the same courtyard.

He was the very definition of the “perfect child” in everyone else’s family.

I was just average, the kind who could only rely on hard work to catch up.

Frayne could have easily skipped grades, yet he chose to slow down for my sake.

In his words, he “didn’t want to let the idiot drag behind alone.”

His tongue was sharp. But under his guidance, my grades steadily climbed.

Sometimes his family would walk by and see him with his hands clasped behind his back, teaching me with the air of a little tutor. They would burst out laughing, and his grandmother often teased that we looked like a married couple.

Every time I heard that, a quiet sweetness bloomed in my heart.

With the reputation of a prodigy, who wouldn’t be fond of him?

What mattered most was that he was also incredibly good-looking.

Even when he grumbled at my requests, he never once refused me.

By all logic, the path ahead of us should have been simple—we’d hold hands, tie the knots, and walk into the wedding hall.

But Bettina Wilks got into the picture and shattered that beautiful dream.

She was nothing like the other girls.

Even in the plain school uniform, her striking charm and confidence couldn’t be hidden.

She didn’t turn down the gifts the boys gave her. In fact, nearly every handsome boy in school had already fallen under her spell.

Back then, when everyone else was trying to be a well-behaved model student, she stood out with her rebelliousness. Naturally, she drew the attention of many boys.

And Frayne was no exception.

They were people from two completely different worlds—people who were supposed to have no connection at all.

But against all odds, they ended up together.

The usual game of a girl chasing a boy was turned into something entirely new in Bettina’s hands.

Once, she cornered Frayne at the entrance of the restroom, chewing gum as she leaned close to his ear.

“Hey, handsome,” she whispered, “wanna hang out sometime?”

Her bold teasing made Frayne’s eyes flicker with nerves; his tension was obvious to anyone watching.

Just as she leaned in closer, the class bell rang, saving him by sheer luck.

The second time, she sat right on his lap with a rose in her mouth, cooing and pouting in front of the entire class, leaving everyone in stunned silence.

“Frayne, am I not pretty enough?” she asked, feigning a wounded look.

“N-No… you’re very pretty,” Frayne stammered.

He drew in a deep breath and reached out to take the rose that had slipped from her lips.

——

And so, eventually, Frayne and Bettina became a couple.

In his words, compared to all those good girls, Bettina gave his dull life a sense of thrill and novelty.

Once, when I rushed to catch up with them, Bettina hooked her arm through his and laughed sweetly.

“Oh my, my darling is quite popular, isn’t he?”

Frayne only shook his head, offering me no explanation.

Bettina stuck her tongue out at me and pulled a silly face, taunting me with obvious delight.

The setting sun cast long shadows across the ground, stretching my loneliness out farther and farther.

From that point on, Bettina forbade me from being close to Frayne or even from speaking too much to him.

He stopped tutoring me. He stopped accompanying me on grocery runs for snacks.

Instead, she coaxed him into skipping class to wander the streets.

She taught him to ride a motorcycle, letting him taste speed and adrenaline for the first time.

That year, during the final exams, both of their grades plummeted to the middle of the class.