I Won’t Be Your Best Friend - Chapter 1

“Huo Wan, get lost.”

Lin Dang’s voice trembled slightly, carrying a faint hint of a sob. The scene before her was too real, so real it made her feel as if all the blood in her body had frozen solid in an instant.

Her hands were clenched tightly into fists, hanging naturally at her sides.

Perhaps because she was using too much force, her knuckles had gone faintly white.

“From today onward, we… are no longer friends.”

That one sentence had already used up all her strength.

Before she knew it, tears had soaked her eyes, then slid down uncontrollably. This was the first time she had cried in the years since her father’s death.

Even when she cried, she cried stubbornly.

“Dangdang… I’m sorry.”

Song Yu, who was standing beside Huo Wan, looked somewhat unable to bear it. His face was full of guilt and self-reproach.

For the past two years, he had been together with Lin Dang. She had a very good personality, and her family background was excellent too. Needless to say, they were well matched.

But Song Yu always felt that Lin Dang did not love him. When they kissed, she never showed much emotion. More often than not, Song Yu felt as if she were merely going through the motions with him.

She was not invested enough, and her way of doing things was too strong-willed.

It made him unable to feel the sense of accomplishment of being needed as a man, unable to satisfy that faint, ridiculous pride of his.

After enough back and forth, it was inevitable that a knot formed in his heart.

At that time, Huo Wan, who was just as outstanding in every condition, quietly made her move from the side. Almost without any effort at all, she immediately stirred Song Yu into restlessness.

The thrill and the freshness, combined with Huo Wan’s deliberate guidance and patient coaxing, made him fall into the ditch all at once.

Although it had only been verbal temptation, and nothing substantial had actually happened.

And what Huo Wan had done was only because she wanted to completely tear open the hypocritical side of this man’s face and let Lin Dang see clearly for herself what kind of person he truly was, and whether he was worth entrusting herself to.

Yet in the end, this kind of behavior was still improper.

Today, Song Yu had originally been pestering Huo Wan, wanting her to give him a definite answer. Being caught here had also been unexpected. But even if they had not been caught, Song Yu had been about ready to come clean to Lin Dang.

Now, seeing Lin Dang cry from heartbreak, he finally felt that this woman truly did love him.

Otherwise, why would she cry so sadly?

He could not help taking two steps forward, wanting to comfort her.

But just as he stepped forward, Lin Dang simultaneously stepped back two steps. Lin Dang could roughly guess what Song Yu was feeling right now.

Her stomach churned violently, and waves of nausea rose in her.

So disgusting.

“Stay away from me. You’re disgusting.”

Although Lin Dang was crying, her words did not soften in the slightest.

If what the other party wanted to see was a scene of her sobbing loudly and opening her mouth to beg him to stay, then he was wrong.

Those merciless words were like a loud slap landing across Song Yu’s face.

They made his expression change at once.

Fine. He was wrong.

Lin Dang was still that same Lin Dang. How could he have come up with such an absurd thought and actually wanted to comfort her…

Huo Wan stood off to the side and watched all of this. Her face showed neither sorrow nor joy, like a complete bystander, from the beginning of this matter all the way to the point it had developed into now.

She had not opened her mouth to explain even a single word, even though the truth of the matter was not what the other person thought.

Not explaining equaled guilty silence. At least, that was what Lin Dang thought.

Aside from the two sentences Lin Dang had said at the start, which had stirred her a little, the rest of the time, Huo Wan seemed to be… spacing out?

Lin Dang lifted her eyes and looked toward that person she could not be more familiar with, only to discover that the other person had been looking at her the entire time as well… except her gaze was empty, and no one knew what she was thinking.

Her good friend who had grown up with her since childhood, on the day of her twenty-fourth birthday, together with the fiancé she had been with for two years and was about to discuss marriage with.

They had given her a great gift she would never forget for the rest of her life.

It was bright and sunny weather. There was no melodramatic downpour to set off just how sad she was.

She would not be like the women on television, getting so worked up that she screamed and shouted.

Nor would she lose all reason and rush forward to hit someone. Even at a time like this, she was still incomparably calm.

She only felt as if a huge gash had been carved open in her chest, the blood flowing without end, hurting with raw, living pain.

It hurt… but what was it hurting for?

It seemed that the pain of being betrayed by a good friend far outweighed the pain brought by a man.

Huo Wan had accompanied her through countless difficult nights, from darkness until dawn. When her family had been at its hardest point, she had stayed by her side without leaving for even a step, supporting her so she would not collapse.

Nineteen years of life-and-death friendship had rapidly fallen apart today because of one man.

In the end… what was there that could not have been talked through properly?

Why had she hidden it from her and secretly gotten entangled with Song Yu?

If she had been willing to speak properly with her, then perhaps she would also have been willing to step back.

As for love and all that… she did not seem to like Song Yu that much. She had only felt that once she reached the age when she ought to get married, everything would naturally fall into place.

Like a milestone in life.

And in her life, there were only two things that mattered most.

The first was taking good care of her family, letting them live in peace, joy, and health. The second was properly running the Lin Group that her father and mother had built with their own hands, and taking it to greater heights.

But now, no matter what she said, it was too late.

The word “betrayal” was what Lin Dang hated most to the bone.

And she had not seen even the slightest remorse or self-reproach on Huo Wan’s face. Perhaps, in Huo Wan’s heart, there was not even any guilt.

Huo Wan suddenly received Lin Dang’s gaze. First, she froze for a moment, and only then did she feel the sorrow and hatred in the other person’s eyes. It was as if a sharp dagger had stabbed straight into her chest.

Her heart suddenly clenched for no reason.

She attributed that sorrow to Lin Dang’s care for Song Yu. After all, they had been together for two years and had already reached the stage of discussing marriage.

She somewhat stiffly turned her gaze away.

She stared at the long bench behind Lin Dang, carefully concealing the bitterness in her eyes, trying her best not to meet Lin Dang’s gaze.

Mm. Although when she had done this, she had already guessed what the ending would be, she had still done it anyway.

Since she had already been misunderstood, then let the misunderstanding go all the way to the end.

Then, a lazy smile slowly bloomed on her face. No matter how one looked at it, it seemed careless, the kind of expression that made people think she deserved a beating.

“You don’t need to look at me like that. Anyway… I stopped wanting to be friends with you a long time ago.”

This sentence was something she had held back for a very long time. Today, she finally had the chance to say it openly and honestly.

But she had not wanted… for it to be in this way.

The word “best friend” had firmly locked the relationship between the two of them inside a fixed circle, making it impossible for her to take even half a step further.

After being good friends for so many years, did you know I had already had enough?

I stopped wanting to be your friend a long time ago!

Huo Wan’s words counted as an admission of her crime, and she gave no explanation or account at all. There was quite the sense of, So what if I stole your boyfriend?

That arrogant and high-profile smile was indeed Huo Wan’s usual style. The only difference was that in the past, Huo Wan had always stood on her side.

And now, the two of them stood on opposite sides.

Lin Dang was silent for a very long time.

It was not that she lacked the ability to take revenge for what Huo Wan had done, nor was it that she lacked the ability to punish her.

It was just… that she was unwilling.

Let them keep a little dignity.

“Take care of yourself.”

In the end, she only left behind a lonely yet ramrod-straight figure from behind. Huo Wan stood in place, watching Lin Dang gradually walk away, both fists tightening and loosening, loosening and tightening again.

But in the end, the steps beneath her feet still could not move even half a step.

The friendship between the two of them quietly drew to a close with that one sentence.

…..

“Sister Huo Wan, why… why don’t you explain it clearly to my sister?”

The matter of Huo Wan and Lin Dang falling out soon became known to both families. Lin Ran, who was still away at university, specially skipped class and rushed back from school after hearing the news.

Clearly, that was not how things were!

And that Song Yu was not anything good either. Once, when she and Huo Wan had gone to the company to look for her sister, they had happened to see Song Yu making ambiguous jokes with the young woman at the front desk.

In her heart, she felt wronged on Huo Wan’s behalf!

From childhood until now, Huo Wan had practically spoiled her demon of an older sister without limits! If Song Yu had truly been someone worth entrusting a lifetime to, she believed Huo Wan would have chosen to give her blessing.

Besides, Sister Huo had not done anything substantial at all. She had not even let the other party hold her hand. If Huo Wan truly wanted to steal someone else’s boyfriend, she would not choose to steal such a low-grade fake.

After all, if one randomly picked anyone from among her suitors, they would only be better than Song Yu, not worse.

Lin Ran felt sorry for her sister, but she also felt sorry for Huo Wan. The palm and the back of the hand were both flesh; favoring either side would not be right.

She was different from her sister.

She had gotten involved in matters of feelings relatively early, and she was also a little gay herself.

As time went on, throughout the process of getting along, she had also discovered that the way Huo Wan looked at her sister was somewhat different from normal.

Only, her idiot sister had never known. Her sister was always saying that Huo Wan was her best friend, not realizing that she was stabbing needles into someone else’s heart.

“What is there to say?”

Huo Wan brushed her hair back, putting on an extremely casual appearance. For the two of them to have reached this point could be considered the road being blocked completely.

“If I told her, she would think I was crazy and just deliberately making excuses.”

She understood Lin Dang too well!

For a person so straight-as-steel, if she could have figured things out, she would have figured them out long ago!

“And… I’m leaving the country too.”

A medical school in London had sent her an offer a long time ago, but she had kept dragging it out and had never replied. Her family was also very supportive of her going abroad for further study.

Chinese medicine and Western medicine each had their own merits.

The Huo family was a family of medicine, generations of them treating illnesses and saving people.

So let this secret rot forever in her stomach.

For both of them, this was the best choice. For the first nineteen years of her life, she had always revolved around Lin Dang. Now, she wanted to go a little farther away and see the world.

Lin Dang could continue her own life, and she would choose to disappear from the other person’s life.

Perhaps it was because they had been too close all these years that she had become obsessed, as if possessed, with wanting to have her.

If she stayed farther away, then maybe… she could forget? She should be able to, right?

….

Huo Wan sat on the flight to London, looking out the airplane window as the houses on the ground gradually grew smaller. Then the plane slowly rose into the troposphere, and the familiar outline of the city was also covered by clouds.

A vast expanse of white. Nothing could be seen anymore.

Only then did she withdraw her gaze and slowly lean back against her seat. She closed her eyes, and her mind was filled entirely with Lin Dang’s resolute gaze when she looked at her for the last time…

When had it begun…

Her thoughts slowly drifted to a very, very distant place.

It turned out that a long, long time ago, the trajectories of their lives had already intertwined.

Lin Dang was destined to be the calamity she could never escape.

The farthest distance in the world is not the distance between life and death.

It is that I am standing right in front of you.

And yet you do not know that I love you.