The Invisible Chains

On my wedding day, I jumped from the 38th floor of the hotel.

It all started when I got together with my first love, Colin Frey. My best friend, Alice Manning, came to me and said she had bound herself to some kind of love system. She claimed that every guy I dated would fall for her and dump me.

I thought she was just messing around and did not believe her. However, just a few days later, Colin came to me and confessed that he wanted to break up because he had fallen in love with Alice.

After that, I got smart about it. I stopped telling anyone about my relationships and did not even post anything on social media. Yet, somehow Alice always knew. It was as if she had installed some kind of tracking device on me.

No matter who I dated, she would find out. Then, within days, they would all fall head over heels for her and leave me behind.

I was completely heartbroken, so I moved back to my hometown to get as far away from Alice as possible.

Through my parents' arrangement, I was set to marry a guy through a blind date setup. Yet, on the actual wedding day, he stood up in front of everyone and confessed his love to Alice, saying he wanted to marry her instead.

My parents, who were sitting in the audience, were so furious and devastated that they collapsed on the spot. They were rushed to the hospital, but it was too late. They were gone.

Meanwhile, Alice was wearing the ring that was supposed to be mine, looking absolutely smug as she boasted, "A man this amazing? As if you deserve him. Now he's mine, so why don't you just step aside like a good girl?"

I could not take the blow, so I climbed to the hotel rooftop and leapt off without hesitation.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the very moment before Alice had ever mentioned that so-called system.

"Lauren, how are things going with that guy you've been seeing lately?"

The moment I heard that familiar voice by my ear, my eyes snapped open. Alice Manning, my so-called best friend, was leaning toward me, her face full of nosy curiosity.

I was so startled that I shoved her away, unable to hide the hatred in my eyes.

"Hey, why are you pushing me? I'm just asking! This is your first time dating someone, so I need to look out for you and make sure he's good enough."

First time? What a joke! I have dated several times in my past life, but the woman in front of me sabotaged every single relationship without fail.

I pulled out my phone and checked the time. After seeing the date clearly, I finally confirmed that I was actually reborn.

When she saw that I was not responding to her, Alice brushed the dust off her clothes and sat back down next to me. She had a mysterious look on her face, like she was about to say something important.

My stomach knotted. I already knew that she was going to talk about the system binding.

Sure enough, she started speaking with what looked like guilt, and her eyes even turned red. "Lauren, there's something I have to confess to you. Last night I accidentally bonded with a love system.

"That stupid thing told me that all your boyfriends will fall in love with me and break up with you. I don't want this to happen either, but it said that if I try to unbind from it, I'll die. You're my best friend, so you wouldn't want to see me die, right?"

In my last life, when I first heard those words, I did not believe her at all. I thought she was just messing with me. After all, I only saw system binding in novels, and there was no way something like that could exist in real life.

Besides, human emotions were incredibly complex, so how could a simple system control them?

If all the men I dated ended up falling for Alice, then it just meant I had terrible taste and was only attracted to scumbags.

Noticing that I did not believe her, Alice said she would prove it to me in a few days. I did not take her words seriously at all.

But then, just a few days later, my boyfriend, Colin Frey, actually came to me. He told me he wanted to break up and even said he was in love with Alice.

I could not believe what I was hearing and even started to doubt whether the system Alice mentioned was actually real.

I was heartbroken for quite a while, but I also learned my lesson. I stopped telling anyone about my relationships and did not post anything on social media either. Besides me and whoever I was dating, nobody else knew about my love life.

Even so, every man I dated would want to break up with me without fail. They would claim they fell in love with Alice.

Even though I really did not want to believe in that system, I had no choice but to accept it now. With my own power alone, I probably had no way to fight against Alice.

Feeling completely defeated, I returned to my hometown, cut off all contact with Alice, and even deleted every way she could reach me.

Later, my parents introduced me to a guy, and we decided to get married.

Even then, Alice would not leave me alone. She suddenly showed up at my wedding and destroyed everything, even causing my parents' deaths.

I lost everything and had no idea how to fight against that so-called system. In my despair, I chose to end it all.

Maybe because I died such a pathetic death, heaven gave me a chance to figure all this out. This time, I was determined to find out exactly what that damned system of hers really was.