After our friendship was established, we became close — so close that even heaven didn’t want this marriage to work. Lies right there, lies everywhere, that’s how our marriage works. Full of untruth, a fabricated fairy tale written by a liar partner.

Each time, I just wanted to return to the time — a time where I fell for this certain man, and warned myself to stay away from harm, but now, can I still elude the cataclysmic reality that this man is my husband now? Of course not.

Dale questions himself again, hurtfully and tragically, “Could this moment be etched into my destiny? A lamentable quest? Being your stand-in?” Facing the truth is hard for this precious boy, because he keeps holding on to this shattered love — a love like a broken frame.

 If only Dale knew he was in a deep sleep, would he continue on this misleading, dark path? The question is in him whether he will act or not, nor will he just neglect his own feelings, just to be haunted by the ghost of pain like a living entity in his head.

“So… Are we friends now?” Johann Schneider asked with a big smile that it almost shut his eyes because of how slanted it is, leaning his hand to make a formal gesture to his notable ‘New friend’, a very fresh start, a bond without stain.

Like a casual scene from a movie, where the protagonist from a romance novel will deliberately agree upon hearing the profound proposal, Dale Muller straight away agreed with the ideology of friends, because for him, it's a good start — a good start from hell.

“You act like a prominent child, Dale!” My beloved bellowed at me angrily. I never saw him act like this, because he used to be softer with me, looked at me like a flimsy that needed to be cared for — a fragile thing that is easily broken if you are clumsy.

But now, everything has changed and become like this: “Your acquisition is falsely frivolous, so stop exclaiming such nonsense.” His vexation can be seen, and it was written all over his expression, an act he said he would ne'er do, so do I.

“Did you get tired of me?” I questioned him, feeling down in agony, “Are you finding someone now, because I’m no longer used to you? Is this how you're gonna throw away our 13 years of marriage?” At this time, I can no longer forgo my feelings and just pretend again.

I suspect him again, “Are you seeking something new? A new dish that can serve you?” With each question I asked him, I was hoping and really begging that he was sinless. “The heavens are really kind to me, aren’t they?”

I came closer to him and upraised my hands to his face and remarked something, “If I were the same pair of shoes as your mistress's, would you still love me?” The past bond has now been stained.

I extend my greatest gratitude by formally acknowledging him, with an utmost pure smile, and I meekly said this to him, “I agree to be your friend.” As I recognized him, I welcomed his hand. Like a typical novel, all the stories have their own prologue, and in this story, this is our own version of a prologue.

“Johann Schneider, by the way,” he introduced himself with so much manners in his tone, “It was my pleasure to meet you, Daley…?” The awkward, mistaken mention of my name makes him chuckle in a bashful manner.

I laugh with his expression, with just this side of his, it makes my heart flutter, seeing his sheepish side is very rare. To cut a long story short, I directly corrected my name and said, “Dale, call me Dale Muller.” I addressed to him.

Straight away, the boy who’s flooded with awkwardness, replied to apologize, “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call you that,” he chirped like an innocent sheep lost in the wilderness, me, whom have a weak heart for this man, couldn’t stop my heart from beating.

“It’s okay, mistakes are common, though,” I replied politely with a smile. But then, as my curiosity plays a role in my head, I can’t stop questioning myself why he is still here, so I asked him, “In any case, Johann, can I ask what brings you here?”

With the same smile he showed me earlier, he rejoined my question and confessed, “I’m waiting for someone,” he declared, but didn’t stop right there, and added something to his remark, “I’m waiting for someone, a very important one.”

I felt down as I overheard that, and at the same time, the feeling of despondency devoured me. As an overthinker, I thought of something unlikely that might hurt me and my own sanity. Someone…? It might be his crush, I presume.

Therefore, since I have been in the classroom for a long time and it is almost midtime, I decided to pack my things up and leave, but then my new friend, and that new friend, none other than my crush, Johann Schneider. He asked me like a casual friend while scratching his nape with embarrassment, “W-where are you going… Dale?”

I answered him in no time, but at this moment, I replied to him in an emotionless expression, “Home… why?” A very short assertion, though I felt bad, but for me, his answer to me is not exquisitely cool and delinquently.

Though my feelings are not valid, even so, the impact it causes is more than a wounded heart nor a person yearning, but a holocaust, in which case my heart is not only broken, but it turns it into dust that moves away together in the air.

 But then, out of the blue, a question came, also from an unexpected person, “Dale…? Can you take me with you?” Johann asked like a little puppy waiting for his owner to authorize him, “Will you allow me? Please?”

I, who was shocked, even froze on the spot and abruptly questioned him, “W-what, why?” just by looking at him with his puppy eyes, my heart almost had a heart attack at how endearing it was. However, I remember something he mentioned earlier that perturbed me, so then I questioned him again and mentioned this: “Don’t you have something to wait? A very important one, you said?”

Johann Schneider didn’t exclaim anything for about a minute, but then he sighed deeply and replied in a way of uttering chatter, “He is about to leave…”