Chapter 2
She opened the video to shaky footage of a dark alley.
There was her familiar teenager, eyes bloodshot, beating the hell out of some thugs with fists and feet, completely brutal and out of control–nothing like his usual restraint.
Ruby was huddled in the corner, crying her eyes out, and during a break in his rampage, she threw herself around his waist, voice shaking: “Declan, stop! I’m so scared…”
Declan went rigid, turning to look at her while breathing hard, his tone a mix of fear and irritated concern Nina had never heard before: “Are you STUPID? Don’t you know how to call the cops in a situation like this?!
Ruby lifted her tear–streaked face, sobbing: “I… I don’t trust anyone else. I only trust you. I called you so many times and you didn’t answer. I was so scared…”
Declan clearly froze, staring at the girl’s completely trusting eyes. After a moment of silence, his voice unconsciously softened: “Set me as your emergency contact. Then… I won’t miss calls anymore.”
Set me as your emergency contact.
Those words hit Nina like a poisoned dagger straight through her heart.
Once upon a time, he’d made the same demand of her.
There was that night she’d accidentally pocket–dialed him while sleeping. When she didn’t respond to his
hellos, he’d freaked out and rushed back from another city overnight.
No flights available–this pampered rich boy had squeezed onto a train for eight hours straight. He didn’t
stop until he’d broken into her house and found her safe, then held her with red–rimmed eyes: “Nina, you
scared me to death.”
Back then, he’d insisted she make him her emergency contact, thinking he’d be her one and only forever.
Turns out… he wasn’t.
The video went blurry. Nina closed it, her heart clenching with dull pain.
She numbly watched the love story playing out on screen, but couldn’t absorb a single word.
When the movie ended and the lights came up, people started filing out noisily.
Just as she was almost to the exit, there was a horrifying grinding sound from overhead!
16:54
Boyfriend vs. Future Boyfriend–Pick Your Fighter!
Chapter 2
Then screams and shouts!
“The ceiling’s collapsing! RUN!”
CRASH!
A massive impact and violent shaking swallowed everything.
Nina didn’t even have time to react before everything went black, buried completely under heavy debris
and rubble.
In her last moment of consciousness, all she felt was endless sorrow and bitter irony.
Look at that, Nina.
That twenty–eight–year–old Declan only remembered today was the day Ruby would be in danger. He’d urged his past self to save her.
But he’d completely forgotten–or just didn’t care–that on this same day, you’d face your own disaster.
Turns out ten years from now, he really… didn’t love you at all anymore.
Nina woke up in heavy darkness.
“Over here! Still got vital signs! Quick!”
When the rescue workers carefully lifted her from the wreckage, the harsh sunlight made her tear up reflexively. In a daze, she felt herself being moved rapidly, ambulance sirens shrieking through the air.
She regained consciousness to the sharp smell of hospital disinfectant.
The anesthesia was wearing off and post–surgical pain was setting in clearly.
A nurse wheeled her out of the operating room while a doctor gently explained: “Surgery was successful. The leg fracture’s been set, mild concussion needs monitoring, everything else is just surface wounds. Just need good rest…”
Before he could finish, the gurney suddenly stopped.
Nina struggled to look up and met a pair of shocked, familiar eyes.
Declan.
He was coming out of the room next door, Ruby leaning weakly against his side, face pale with a small bandage on her temple. Twenty–eight–year–old Declan stood on Ruby’s other side, supporting her arm.
Chapter 2
Seeing Nina covered in bandages, ghostly pale with a thick cast on her leg, Declan’s face went white. He immediately let go of Ruby and rushed to Nina’s bedside.
“Nina? What happened to you?” His voice was panicked as he reached out to touch her, then froze with his
hand in midair.
Twenty–eight–year–old Declan steadied the stumbling Ruby, and his eyes flicked to Nina with a flash of faint surprise before returning to cold indifference.
Nina was exhausted, body and soul, and didn’t want to say a single word. She just closed her eyes.
The doctor sighed and explained to Declan: “This student was rescued from that collapsed movie theater downtown. She was buried pretty deep, lost a lot of blood. If we’d found her any later, it could’ve been dangerous.”
Declan’s face went completely bloodless. He whipped around to stare at his twenty–eight–year–old self, lips moving as if to demand answers, but finally turned back to the doctor urgently: “I’m her boyfriend. Let me
take her to her room.”
“The patient needs absolute rest right now,” the doctor blocked him. “Wait a bit before visiting.”
As the nurse wheeled Nina into her room and the door closed, she could still hear the muffled argument
outside.
“You’re supposed to be me from ten years in the future!” Eighteen–year–old Declan’s voice was shaking with suppressed rage. “You remember every tiny detail about Ruby Sullivan getting cornered by thugs today! So why didn’t you say ONE WORD about Nina almost DYING in that theater? She could’ve been killed!”
“Why would I remember?” Twenty–eight–year–old Declan’s voice was ice–cold and impatient, like he was stating an obvious fact. “I only have room in my heart for Ruby, so naturally I only remember things about her. As for irrelevant people–whether they live or die is none of my business.”
“You BASTARD!”
Then came the sound of fist hitting flesh, nurses crying out in alarm, Ruby’s weak sobs…
In her hospital room, Nina lay quietly as silent tears slid from the corners of her eyes, soaking into her
pillow.
Irrelevant people…
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