Prologue (2): Eliza

“Hi, what’s happening so early in the morning?” I asked while getting close to the wall bulletin, without realizing that everyone had immediately paved the way for me. “How come it’s so crowded? Is there anything fun…? “

My words just stopped. My eyes were fixed on the photos that were placed carelessly on top of a neatly arranged wall bulletin, the sign that the photo’s existence had not yet received approval from the school.

It was a photo of Ferly with Erika at night. Ferly’s hands were wrapped around Erika’s shoulders, their eyes staring stiffly, as if they were afraid of being caught or something. The sight immediately made me sick. I could hear the muffled whispering around me.

“Ewh, gross. Not enough being a broken girl, now she is a whore…”

“Snatching her sister’s boyfriend, OMG. Damn, she doesn’t have shame, doesn’t she?!”

“Oh please, it’s a public secret. Erika has had a crush on Ferly since half-semester this year.”

“Poor Eliza, I think she’s going to cry.”

“How can she not cry? If I had a sister like that, I would’ve killed myself already.”

Yeah, their words were correct. It felt sad and embarrassing to be pitied like that. How could Ferly and Erika put me in this situation?

It was not that I didn’t know Erika also liked Ferly. I mean, she did not just ‘like.’ It was not hard to find out, because Erika wasn’t the type of girl who liked to do sweet things to the guy she didn’t like. Of course, she was also not directly transformed into a feminine girl when she was with Ferly. But I could feel her mood become brighter and softer when she was with Ferly. We’re twins, for god’s sake! It was only natural that we could feel each other’s moods (this is also the reason I want to get to know Erika’s heart much more than what she showed.)

But, I thought she wouldn’t get close to Ferly for my sake. And I thought Ferly wouldn’t touch Erika because he had chosen me. But why…?

No, I could not lose control of myself here. I am the popular and confident Eliza. I will not become a shameful victim. 

After successfully calming myself down, I spread a smile on my face and said, “Geez, so what if they walked together? It doesn’t mean there is something between them. Even if they did, then do you have a problem? “

“But, isn’t Ferly your boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” said others. “It’s not ethical to snatch your own sister’s boyfriend! Moreover your twin sister!”

“Erika is too much! Once in a while, you need to have a talk with her. She needs to know her place!”

I still wanted to continue to answer all the questions that existed to build my self-esteem, but suddenly a loud voice interrupted us.

“Well, well.. so crowded here… What kind of interesting gossip is on this ugly wall bulletin?”

I groaned in my heart hearing that voice. Gosh, why does she have to appear at this kind of time?

For anyone who saw us only a glance, there would be no one who thought we were twins. I always appeared with long straight hair and a girly ribbon. My body lines were smooth and soft with a brilliant white uniform neatly ironed, emphasized with smooth, graceful gestures, and, on several occasions, somewhat seem to appear pompous. Meanwhile, Erika purposely cut her hair to look like a man — she even put hair gel and modeled it like Daniel Redcliff in Harry Potter 3. Her white uniform, whose color had begun to be dull and ugly, had been decorated with black markers. Linkin ‘Park rulez. Eminem rockz. Eat my shorts. And her slim body, which tended to be thin but muscular, looked rough, like a truck that did not hesitate to run over anyone who got in its way. She was thinner than me who tended to be curvaceous, and because of that, she looked taller. Well, maybe her body was a little taller than mine. I don’t know. We never measured it.

Our faces that were supposed to look similar looked different. As high school students, we were secretly experimenting with makeup, but we all did it while trying our best not to be conspicuous. Because of that, despite using a lip gloss and eyebrow pencil, my face looked natural. But, Erika, instead, appeared in a very weird gothic style. Her eye lines were thickened with eyeliner, while her lips were polished with dark brown lipstick. I knew she did her makeup not because she wanted to look beautiful, but only because she wanted to prove that she was not afraid of the school regulations. A really childish reason.

Our faces were also very different. While I was always keeping my expression cold and a bit arrogant — a popular girl’s face should be like that, right? —Erika always showed a grin and mischievous face. But right now, her pompous face immediately froze when her gaze fell on the troubling picture.

“What the f….?”

“Erika!” I snapped, loud enough to hold Erika back from cursing in public.

Even though she didn’t continue to curse, Erika didn’t care about me. She ferociously pulled the photo from the bulletin wall, then squeezed it. Her eyes scanned around her and stopped when she looked at me. 

Okay, was she accusing me of being the culprit?

I returned her gaze with pleading eyes, hoping that she would not embarrass both of us by fighting in public — and all just because of a guy!? This would completely destroy both of our reputations.

I almost fell down as she walked toward me, stuffed the photo into my hand, and said in a low voice but clear and heard by everyone around us.

“One day I will kill the one who made this.” 

I wanted to defend myself, saying that I’m not the culprit, but my tongue was sticky. You see, the threat really sounded scary.

As if she really could kill me.

What made me feel worse, it seemed like Ferly also did not have any explanation that more made sense.

 “Liza, I’m sorry,” he said with regret showed in his face. “You just need to know that this is all a misunderstanding. There’s nothing going on between me and Erika. I swear! “

Actually, that was the only explanation I needed. I believed Ferly. He was not a guy who easily moved to another heart. The thing was, after all that happened, I couldn’t act as if I was Ferly’s girlfriend again. Everyone would laugh at me, Ferly, and Erika because of this shameful love triangle. So, to protect everyone’s good name, I decided to keep my distance from Ferly.

It was only for a while. Until the gossip about Ferly and Erika disappeared on its own.

Or maybe I should do it myself.

So, when Marty said Ferly would come to his party, it crossed my mind that this was a perfect opportunity to get Ferly back.

I did not realize that I would be making the biggest mistake of my life.