Tricked By My Girlfriend

Rachel and I went through a cycle of breaking up and making up, ultimately reconciling before the start of the semester.

I carried both our luggage, and we finally entered the campus of MIT together as we had hoped.

However, once we got to school, she continued to test me.

She would create a fake social media account to contact me to see if I would be seduced. When I blocked the unknown account, she would scold me for not recognizing that it was her talking to me behind the fake account.

She would ask me to take a walk on a rainy day, then deliberately not show up. She would stand upstairs watching me wait foolishly in the rain for three hours. Then, she would send me a text saying, "It's so cold, you should go back. I was just testing you."

The next day, I had a high fever which quickly spiraled into pneumonia.

She would take me to club dinners, testing whether I, who was allergic to alcohol, would take drinks for her.

Her friends would watch in amusement as they pushed drink after drink on me, then exclaim, "Rachel, your boyfriend is so good to you. He's willing to risk his life for you."

Rachel sipped on fruit juice, pretending to be modest. "If a person loves you, they'll go through thick and thin for you and endure any hardship. These are just the basics."

Halfway through dinner, I fainted and had to be rushed to the hospital for a stomach pump.

Love had become the hardest math problem to solve. I could no longer distinguish what was a test and what was a trap.

After returning home for the holiday in October, Rachel and I went hiking.

As we were preparing to descend the mountain, I suddenly received a call from my mother.

"Zoran, you need to come back. Your grandmother had a sudden brain hemorrhage and has been rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment."

I grabbed Rachel and started rushing down the mountain.

We took a narrow, unpaved path. There were many pebbles of varying sizes along the way.

Suddenly, Rachel slipped on some stones and stumbled forward.

Because I was walking so fast, I lost my balance as well due to the sudden pull. My back hit a sturdy tree trunk hard. In a panic, I quickly protected Rachel's head with my hand but ended up cutting my forehead on a rock on the ground.

I helped Rachel up, but she suddenly grabbed her leg and cried out in pain.

"Zoran, my leg hurts so much. I can't stand up."

I looked down at Rachel's pitiful, teary face.

A chill rose in my heart.

There were no large rocks where she fell, and her pants were not even torn. I had a hard time believing that she suffered a severe injury.

Even at a time like this, she was still testing me? Maybe the fall was deliberate too.

I narrowed my eyes and asked coldly, "Rachel, you really can't stand up?

Perhaps because my gaze was too sharp, Rachel's eyes darted to the side. She pouted, "What do you take me for? Your grandmother is in the ICU; would I really test you under such circumstances?"

After saying that, Rachel suddenly grabbed a rock the size of a fist and smashed it hard on her kneecap. "Do I have to break my leg for you to believe me?"

I stopped Rachel from continuing to smash her knees.

At this moment, all I felt was disgust.

I threw the rock out of Rachel's hand, helped Rachel up, and carried her on my back.

The descent down the mountain that should have taken an hour took me three hours because I was carrying her.

Just as I got a taxi, my mother called again. "Zoran, you don't have to come to the hospital anymore. Your grandmother has passed away. Just go straight to the crematorium."