Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Once again, my childhood sweetheart coldly rejected the school’s It Girl.
He was about to take my hand and lead me away when a man in a tailored suit suddenly charged toward us and slammed two brutal punches into Ethan Ashford’s face.
Grabbing Ethan by the collar, the man roared, his eyes bloodshot, “I’m you at twenty-eight!
“I came back to stop you from making the wrong choice again!”
Then he turned to me, his gaze dark and unreadable.
After a long silence, he warned in a low voice, “Stay away from my eighteen-year-old self.”
I barely heard him.
All I could see was Ethan, hurt and bleeding.
As I anxiously checked his injuries, my hands shook while I reached for my phone to call 911.
“Ethan Ashford!” The man was incredibly strong, and he glared at Ethan with the fury of someone watching his younger self throw his life away.
His eyes shifted to Vanessa Vale’s dejected figure as she walked off alone. “Go after her. Tell her you like her. Don’t let her leave heartbroken!”
Ethan frowned.
Like me, he clearly didn’t believe a word this lunatic was saying.
Without drawing attention to it, he tugged at my wrist, signaling that we shouldn’t pick a fight we couldn’t win.
I understood immediately.
But just as we were about to slip away, the man gave a quiet laugh.
He leaned lazily against the wall, lit a cigarette, and said with careless ease, “Ethan, if you insist on choosing Claire Bennett again, then ten years from now, you’ll end up exactly like me.
“Living the same tedious life day after day, bored out of your mind.
“Right before I came here, I asked Claire for a divorce.”
Ethan went rigid.
He seemed to be holding something back.
After a long moment, he finally asked, “Why?”
His cheek was red and swollen, and anger simmered beneath his voice as he demanded, “Who the hell are you?”
The man calmly adjusted the watch on his wrist.
“I already told you. I’m you.
“I changed my name the year before my company went public. I’m Adrian Ashford now.”
Adrian looked down at Ethan, his voice taking on an almost hypnotic quality.
“Look at the girl beside you.
“You’ve been together since childhood. You grew up side by side. What’s wrong with loving each other like brother and sister? Why insist on getting married and turning the rest of your lives into something dull and painfully predictable?
“If I remember correctly, you even helped Claire pick out the underwear she’s wearing today.”
My head snapped up in disbelief.
For the first time, I truly looked at the man standing before us.
He really did look exactly like Ethan.
They had the same handsome features, even the faint reddish beauty mark between their brows.
The only difference was that Adrian seemed colder and more refined, with a far more commanding presence.
I drew a breath and tugged at Ethan’s hand.
“Forget this lunatic.
“Let’s go.”
Ethan, who had always listened to me, remained where he was.
After a moment of silence, he spoke softly.
“Claire, you should go home without me.
“There are some things I need to ask him.”
Chapter 2
He pulled his hand from mine.
Ethan noticed the hurt in my eyes and seemed about to say something, but Adrian seized him and dragged him away.
Beneath the streetlight, I watched their tall figures recede into the distance.
An inexplicable sense of dread settled over me.
By the following morning, it had proved justified.
I barely slept that night.
I kept replaying the man’s words in my head, and none of it made sense.
Ethan Ashford had never been good with words. He was aloof by nature, and from childhood onward, he had always followed quietly at my heels.
He was curt and distant with everyone else, yet he had always indulged me in everything.
Our relationship had been steady for years. I refused to believe anything that man had said about the Ethan from ten years in the future.
For all I knew, it was nothing more than an elaborate scam tailored specifically to deceive me.
So I got up and went downstairs to our usual meeting spot, just as I did every morning, to wait for Ethan.
I waited until I was almost late.
He still never came.
By the time I hurried into the classroom, the school’s It Girl was already sitting in my seat, giggling as she looped her arm through Ethan’s.
Ethan had always despised her.
But this time, he didn’t pull away.
Instead, he watched her from the corner of his eye.
I stood there and stared coldly as a faint blush slowly spread across Ethan’s cheeks.
When Vanessa saw me, she pouted and edged even closer to Ethan.
“Come on, childhood sweetheart. Let’s switch seats, okay? Let me be Ethan’s seatmate today~”
I instinctively looked at Ethan.
Before, he would have turned cold and told her to get lost without hesitation.
But now…
Ethan kept his head lowered as he flipped through his book, allowing Vanessa’s long hair to brush suggestively over his bare forearm.
My heart sank, and the tip of my nose began to sting.
Even so, I forced myself to stay composed.
“No.
“This is my seat.”
Vanessa’s grades were terrible. She had always sat in the last row.
I glanced at her messy desk, then placed my bag firmly on my own.
To my surprise, Vanessa suddenly sprang to her feet as if I had deeply wounded her.
“What are you doing?”
She covered her face, her voice thick with tears.
“Does Ethan belong exclusively to you, Claire? Is anyone who gets close to him going to suffer for it?”
Her voice rippled through the quiet classroom.
Everyone turned to look. A moment later, whispers spread from desk to desk.
Vanessa’s sobs grew louder and louder until she finally collapsed across her desk and began to cry.
Someone spoke up for me.
Chapter 3
“All right, Vanessa. Who doesn’t know you have a thing for our academic star? You’ve tried every trick in the book to win him over!
“Too bad your fake-sacrifice routine was obvious from the start~
“Vanessa, you’re out! They’ve been childhood sweethearts forever, and you just had to force your way between them and make trouble…”
Crash!
Ethan shot to his feet. The two desks pressed tightly together rocked under the sudden movement.
My bag fell to the floor.
The pendant Ethan had made by hand shattered across the tiles with a sharp clatter.
His face darkened, and his voice was icy.
“Apologize.”
The atmosphere grew taut.
No one moved.
A girl who was always obsessed with pairing Ethan and me finally spoke in a soft voice.
“Vanessa, he’s telling you to apologize~
“You’re so pretty, so why do you—”
“Claire Bennett!”
Ethan cut her off coldly. Then he repeated himself.
“Apologize!”
I met his frozen gaze.
For once, I couldn’t hold myself together.
Big tears spilled down my cheeks in an instant.
The day Ethan Ashford and his mother moved into the neighborhood, I was ten years old.
He was a handsome, delicate-looking boy who kept to himself. Everyone ignored him, and the more they did, the colder he became.
I was the only one drawn to his beautiful face.
Every day, without ever growing tired of it, I went to his house and asked him to play.
Once, when a childhood bully cornered him, I found courage I didn’t know I had. I fought with everything I had to stop the boy, even slashing his face with a shattered glass bottle.
That was how I ended up with a scar across my back.
And from that day on, Ethan slowly began to let me into his world.
Beneath his cold exterior, he was gentle and considerate with me—and me alone.
This was the first time he had ever been so harsh with me.
I stood frozen in place, my voice trembling.
“Ethan… what did you just say?”
Ethan saw the tears in my eyes and frowned.
Then, as if uncomfortable, he looked away.
He let out a slow breath, his face blank as he began packing his books into his bag.
Once his desk was cleared, he nudged Vanessa Vale’s elbow.
“You coming?”
Without waiting for her answer, he slung his backpack over one shoulder and moved to the empty seat beside hers.
A few seconds passed before Vanessa snapped out of her daze. She answered eagerly, then hurried back to her desk.
Before leaving, she arched a brow at me, making no attempt to hide the challenge in her voice.
“Sorry, childhood sweetheart. Looks like Ethan would rather sit with me today.”
She spoke loudly enough for Ethan to hear.
But his expression never changed.