A Decade of Oblivion

My decade with Ethan ended under a sky choked with snow.
He stood in the center of the campus green, his friends cheering behind him, and in his arms, he held the girl who, according to legend, was his destiny.
And I, his girlfriend of three years, stood at the edge of the crowd, a complete and utter joke.
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in my mind. [Congratulations, Host. Mission Unite the Protagonists is complete. Do you wish to return to your original world?]
I watched the two of them kissing in the snow and smiled, a thin, brittle thing.
I had no one left in my original world. Here, even though I had just lost the love of my life, I had parents who adored me and a youth I had lived for ten years.
I told the System, "I choose to stay."
[Wish protocol initiated. Please state your wish.]
I closed my eyes, letting the snowflakes land on my face, their icy touch numbing me to the core.
"My wish," I said, forcing each word out with all the strength I had, "is to forget Ethan. Completely."

Our school had an unwritten rule, a romantic legend. The first snowfall of winter was Confession Day. Any couple who confessed their love on this day was said to be blessed, destined for a lifetime together.
I had imagined this moment a thousand times.
Ethan, holding my hand, telling me in front of everyone that he would love me forever.
After all, we were childhood sweethearts. Everyone said we were perfect for each other.
From the moment I arrived in this world ten years ago, the first person my age I saw was him. We grew up together. He watched me transform from a little girl with pigtails into the young woman I was today.
In our first year of high school, on a snowy day just like this one, he had wrapped his arms around me to shield me from the cold, his voice filled with a boyish mix of confidence and nerves. "Maya, will you be my girlfriend?"
Everyone thought we would be the couple of the legend.
Until Sophia showed up.
She was like a character straight out of a campus romance novel: poor but resilient, kind, with a stubborn streak she didn't even know she had.
The day she transferred to our school, she ran right into Ethan, knocking the basketball from his hands and stumbling straight into his world.
From that day on, everything spiraled out of control.
He would drive all over town to buy her favorite snack just because shed mentioned it offhandedly. Hed give her his jacket when she was caught in the rain, completely ignoring me shivering right beside him. He would leave in the middle of our dates because she called, needing his help with something trivial.
My best friend, Sadie, had yelled at me more than once. "Maya, are you blind? That girl, Sophia, has him completely bewitched, and you're just standing here, lying to yourself!"
I would just smile.
Because I knew. It was the power of the plot.
I was a transmigrator. Ten years ago, I was a sick little girl lying in an orphanage hospital bed. When I woke up, I was here, in this novel, as the childhood sweetheart of the male protagonist, Ethanthe classic, clich villainess.
My mission was to use my supposed arrogance and irrationality to highlight the female protagonist Sophia's kindness and virtue, ultimately serving as a stepping stone for their great love story.
The System told me that if I completed my mission, I could return to my own world and have one wish granted.
My original wish was to be a multi-millionaire.
But ten years is a long time.
Long enough to forget who I was. Long enough to gain parents who loved me. Long enough to truly fall in love with Ethan.
I naively believed that a decade of shared history could defy a pre-written plot.
Until today.
The first snow arrived, right on schedule.
Ethan texted me, asking me to meet him on the green, saying he had something important to tell me.
Clinging to one last sliver of hope, I dressed carefully, wrapping the white scarf hed given me around my neck, and arrived half an hour early.
But it wasn't him I was waiting for. It was a grand, public confession, meticulously prepared for another girl.
Ethans friends had arranged candles in the shape of a giant heart. A romantic ballad drifted from a portable speaker.
And Ethan, the boy who had whispered countless promises to me, was now looking at Sophia with an ocean of devotion in his eyes.
"Sophia," his voice, amplified by a microphone, carried to every corner of the field, "I don't know when it started, but my eyes just started following you everywhere. When you smile, my world is sunny. When you cry, it rains. I know this makes me a bastard, and I know I'm hurting Maya, but I can't control my heart."
A wave of good-natured laughter and cheering rippled through the crowd.
"I'm in love with you. Will you be my girlfriend?"
Sophia covered her mouth, her eyes welling with tears as she nodded emphatically.
The cheers were deafening, loud enough to shake the stars from the night sky.
They kissed in the falling snow, a fairytale prince and princess.
I stood outside the circle, feeling the blood freeze in my veins.
The same guys who used to joke around and call me Ethan's "better half" were now roaring with applause for his new romance.
No one saw me.
Or maybe they did, and they pretended not to.
In a perfect love story, after all, I was just an insignificant side character, destined to be sacrificed.
My phone buzzed. A text from Ethan.
It was short, simple, and colder than the ice forming on my heart.
[Maya, I'm sorry. We're over.]
I stared at the words until my vision blurred. I didn't cry. I just felt cold, a deep, bone-aching chill.
I calmly deleted the message and dialed his number.
He picked up almost immediately, his voice barely audible over the celebratory noise.
"Maya?" A flicker of impatience and guilt.
"Ethan," I said, my voice unnervingly steady, "we're breaking up."
I hung up before he could reply and blocked his number from everything.
Then, in the quiet of my mind, I spoke to the System that had been dormant for so long. The moment I made my choice, it felt like a mountain had been lifted from my shoulders.
A virtual panel materialized in my minds eye, presenting two options.
[A: Return to Original World]
[B: Remain in Current World]
Without hesitation, I chose B.
The System was silent for a moment, as if surprised.
[Host, please confirm. Returning to your original world will allow you to forget everything here and start anew.]
I smiled, but a tear I couldn't stop slid down my cheek.
I couldn't start anew.
Before I came here and knew the love of parents and the warmth of friendship, my reality had been nothing but the cold, sterile walls of a hospital and the sharp smell of antiseptic.
"I confirm," I whispered. "I'm staying here."
At least here, I knew what warmth felt like.
The virtual panel shifted, displaying an input box.
[Wish protocol initiated. Please enter your wish.]
With fingers numb from the cold, I traced the letters in the air.
"I. Want. To. Forget. Ethan."
As I finished the last letter, I felt completely drained, as if every ounce of my strength had been siphoned away.
[Wish confirmed. The System will now erase all memories pertaining to Ethan. Warning: The erasure process will be accompanied by a strong external physical impact. Please prepare, Host.]
[Countdown initiating. 10, 9, 8]
I took a deep breath and turned away from the suffocating scene. I couldnt bear to look at the happy couple, couldnt bear to hear another cheer.
I needed to go home.
Home, where there was hot soup and a warm light waiting for me.
I walked, step by step, as the snow began to accumulate on my hair and shoulders.
A decade of memories flashed through my mind like a movie reel.
The first time I met Ethan, he was a cocky little kid who pulled my pigtails and called me a tag-along. We climbed trees to find birds nests, counted stars in his backyard on summer nights, and shared popsicles. The first time he got into a fight for me, his face was a mess of scrapes, but he grinned like an idiot. "Don't worry, Maya," he'd said, "I'll always protect you." I remembered him giving me piggyback rides on the long walk home, the evening breeze cool against my skin, his back so broad and warm.
And that day in the snow, just like this one, when hed blushed and told me, "Maya, I think I'm falling for you."
He said wed go to the same college. Wed get married after graduation and have a daughter who was just as cute as me.
He said he would love me forever.
Those memories, once so sweet, were now daggers twisting in my heart.
So this was it. Ten years of friendship and three years of love, all worthless against the so-called "destiny" of a single glance from her.
How utterly pathetic.
[3, 2, 1]
The moment the countdown finished, I reached the edge of the road.
A pair of blinding headlights flared, followed by the screech of tires.
I didn't even have time to react. My body was thrown into the air like a broken kite.
In the final second before my world went dark, I thought I heard the System's last words.
[Memory wipe commencing I wish you a bright future, Maya.]
Goodbye, Ethan.

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