Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English
Synopsis
In my past life, during the military academy entrance physical, my childhood friend drugged my drink and filed a complaint claiming I had a color vision deficiency.
All so she could hand my spot to an underprivileged guy.
"He deserves more sympathy, and he needs this chance more than you do."
Those were her exact words back then.
My dreams were shattered, my health completely ruined, and I died in the dead of winter at twenty-eight.
Before I died, I sent her one last text: Did you know about that drugged water?
She never replied.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the morning of the exam.
The water bottle was still sitting in the fridge, the seal completely intact.
I poured it down the drain, filled it with tap water, twisted the cap tight, and put it right back.
Her voice called out from outside the front door: "Ethan, did you grab your water? Don't forget to drink it!"
I opened the door and gave her a small smile.
"Got it. I'll make sure to drink it."
Chloe stood outside. Her voice was just as soft as in my previous life, her tone completely unchanged.
"Let's head to the military academy together."
Our footsteps echoed down the empty corridor.
She walked half a step ahead of me, then suddenly turned around.
"Ethan, once we're admitted, we'll get to train together again."
She had said the exact same thing in my past life.
Later, when I was lying alone in a dingy rental apartment waiting to die, she was running laps side by side with Julian across the academy field.
I lowered my gaze. "Yeah."
Downstairs, her father's black sedan was already idling at the curb.
Julian was sitting in the back seat, wearing a faded school jacket, his head bent over the medical examination guidelines.
He looked up and gave me a timid smile. "Hey, Ethan. Mr. Miller said it was on the way, so he offered me a ride."
I didn't answer him. I just pulled open the front passenger door and sat down.
Chloe started the engine and reminded me again:
"Ethan, where's your water? You'll get dizzy if you fast for too long. Make sure to drink it."
A soft sigh came from the back. Julian's fingers tightened, crumpling the exam slip in his hands.
Chloe immediately glanced at him through the rearview mirror. "What's wrong? Nervous?"
"Yeah... I couldn't sleep last night."
His voice was quiet, full of fragile grievance.
"Don't worry. Your scores are incredible, you'll do great." Her voice was light, filled with the kind of patience you'd use to soothe a child.
I leaned back against the headrest, quietly watching the city streets flash past the window.
A long line had already formed outside the medical examination center.
After parking, Chloe retrieved another water bottle from the trunk and handed it to Julian.
"Got one for you too. Clear your throat before they take your vitals."
Julian took the bottle with both hands, whispered a thank-you, and followed behind us with his head down.
The waiting area smelled heavily of rubbing alcohol and bleach.
Julian sat next to me, nervously turning the bottle in his hands, twisting the cap back and forth at least ten times.
"Ethan, drink your water first," Chloe said, checking her watch. That was the third time she had pushed me.
"In a minute."
"Just don't forget."
The loudspeaker called my name.
I stood up. The bottle in my bag rested quietly in the side pocket, the cap sealed tight, without a single drop missing.
Inside the vision testing room, the examiner gestured toward the chair across from him with a blank expression.
"Call out the numbers as soon as you see the patterns. Don't hesitate."
He flipped to the first plate.
In my past life, this was the exact plate where everything blurred into a grayish mess.
"Twenty-nine," I said without missing a beat.
The second plate, the third, all the way to the most complex red-green dot pattern.
"A butterfly. And the number twelve in the bottom right corner."
The examiner pushed up his glasses, turned to two more high-difficulty plates, and I called them out effortlessly.
"Color vision perfectly normal. All items cleared."
When I stepped out of the examination room, Chloe and Julian both stood up at the same time.
"Ethan, how did it go?" She stepped forward, wearing a bright smile.
"Passed. The color vision test was completely fine."
Her smile froze for a split second before returning to normal. "That's wonderful! I knew you wouldn't have any problem."
Julian stood frozen, nearly dropping his water bottle.
"Ethan... that's amazing," he said, forcing his mouth into a stiff, awkward grin.
Chloe reached out to hold my hand, but I shifted aside and dodged her touch.
Her hand hung awkwardly in midair, her tone puzzled. "Ethan?"
"I'm a little tired. I want to go home."
On the drive back, Julian sat silently in the back seat, and Chloe checked on him through the rearview mirror multiple times.
I closed my eyes and rested against the window as the cool breeze rushed in.
In my past life, on the day she drove Julian back to campus, it was this exact same road.
I had been standing on the curb, and their car had sped right past me without stopping.
That night, my phone screen lit up.
A text from Chloe: Ethan, are you free tomorrow? I want to check on Julian. His exam didn't go well today, and he's pretty upset.
I didn't reply.
I closed the chat and placed the phone facedown on my desk.
The next day at noon, my phone rang.
The caller ID showed the landline for the medical examination center.
"Ethan Vance, someone has filed an official complaint against your color vision test results from yesterday."
The voice on the other end was strictly bureaucratic, every syllable hitting like a hammer.
"We require you to come in tomorrow morning for an official re-examination."
My hand tightened around the phone until my knuckles went pale.
The person who filed the complaint was Chloe.Early the next morning, when I walked downstairs, Chloe's car was already waiting at the curb.
The back window rolled down, revealing Julian sitting inside. His eyes were puffy and red, a crumpled tissue clutched in his hand.
Chloe leaned over from the driver's seat.
"Ethan, I heard someone reported you. Did you sleep okay last night?"
I opened the front passenger door. "Fine."
Julian sniffled softly from the back, his voice hoarse.
"Ethan, don't be nervous. I'm sure the re-exam will go fine."
I clicked my seatbelt into place and didn't look back. "Yeah."
Two blocks in, Chloe glanced sideways at me several times, hesitating to speak.
Her fingers drummed softly on the steering wheel, her breathing noticeably heavier than usual.
In the back seat, Julian buried his face into the tissue, his shoulders trembling faintly.
Chloe caught a glimpse of him in the mirror.
The memory of Julian breaking down in tears the night before churned violently in her mind.
He had sobbed about how much this exam meant, about his father's medical bills and his mother working odd jobs, how this was his only shot at climbing out of poverty.
Then he had bitten his lip, wiped his tears, and hurriedly insisted that he didn't mean anything bad—he was just terrified of failing.
She had frozen on the spot.
After a long silence, she had finally nodded.
Once Julian left, she sat in front of her laptop staring at the screen for an eternity before opening the complaint portal, typing out Ethan Vance's name letter by letter.
Snapping out of her thoughts, she pulled a water bottle from the door console and held it out to me.
It was the exact same brand, the exact same packaging as the one from the day before.
"Ethan, drink some water. You have to fast for the re-exam too. Clear your throat."
I looked down at the bottle.
In my previous life, she had handed it to me just like this, gently urging me to finish it, and I had drained the entire bottle.
After that, I failed the vision check, got rejected by the academy, watched my body deteriorate day by day, and finally died alone in a rundown apartment.
I looked up into her eyes.
"Chloe."
Her shoulders flinched slightly.
"Do you really want me to drink this?" I looked right into her eyes.
The car fell dead silent. Even Julian's muffled sniffling in the back stopped for a second.
Her fingers tightened around the plastic bottle, making a faint crunching sound.
She parted her lips, her eyes wavering, her gaze darting toward the rearview mirror.
In the mirror, Julian looked back at her with wet, pathetic, tear-stained eyes, full of silent pleading.
She pushed the bottle a fraction closer to me.
"Drink it, Ethan. I'd never hurt you."
Right then, I felt something shatter completely inside my chest.
It wasn't heartbreak. It was a clean, absolute severance.
Like a string that had been pulled taut across two lifetimes, finally snapping into total silence.
I took the bottle, twisted off the cap, tilted my head back, and held the rim just above my lips.
Tilting my wrist slightly, I let the cold water run down my chin into the inner lining of my jacket collar. The thick fabric absorbed every drop without showing anything on the outside.
The water was freezing cold. As it trickled down my neck to my chest, it carried a chilling chill, just like the cold ground on the day I was buried.
I lowered the bottle and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
"All gone."
From here on out, we were strangers.
Chloe's shoulders slumped in relief, then tensed up again.
In the back, Julian lowered the tissue, staring intently at the bottle in my hand.
We arrived at the medical center.
This time, I was led into a private examination room where three senior examiners sat in a row, a full stack of test plates laid out before them.
"Ethan Vance, please take a seat. The re-test follows the same procedure as yesterday. Call out the numbers as you see them."
The first plate was flipped. I called out the number.
The second, the third, the fourth... They went through every single plate from start to finish, repeatedly pulling out the most difficult ones.
"A butterfly. Twelve."
"A bull. The silhouette of a bull."
"Number eight, over a red-spotted background."
The three examiners exchanged a look, and the one in the middle spent several moments jotting notes on the evaluation form.
"Ethan, your color vision is completely normal. The results are fully consistent with yesterday. There is no defect whatsoever."
I placed the half-full water bottle on their desk.
"Thank you, doctors. I have one more question."
The lead examiner looked up at me.
"Someone submitted an official complaint accusing me of cheating on my color vision test, which forced me to come back for this re-check. The results prove I am entirely clean."
My voice was calm and steady, every word ringing clear:
"I want to know who filed that complaint against me."The lead examiner took off his glasses and gave a slow nod.
"Ethan, we will follow protocol to verify the complainant's identity. Once that's confirmed, you will receive an official notification."
I stood up. "Thank you, sir. I'll wait for the notice."
I pushed open the door to the waiting room.
Chloe and Julian were sitting side by side on the bench, barely an inch apart.
At the sound of my footsteps, Chloe shot to her feet, and Julian quickly followed.
"Ethan, how was it?" Her voice was pitchy, with a faint tremor at the end.
I walked up to them, locked eyes with her, and said, word by word:
"I passed the re-exam. My color vision is completely normal."
The last bit of color drained from Julian's face. His lips trembled before forcing out a single word:
"Congratulations."
"One more thing," I said, casually sliding my hands into my jacket pockets. "I've requested the center pull up the complainant's identity. They promised me an official explanation."
Chloe's pupils contracted violently.
"Can... can they actually trace that?" She cleared her dry throat. "Aren't those reports usually anonymous?"
"It was submitted anonymously," I nodded, my gaze drifting slowly over Julian's bowed head. "But the examiners told me that even anonymous submissions leave digital logs in the system. Pulling the logs will trace it right back to the source."
Julian's shoulders shuddered visibly.
Chloe shifted half a step to the side, shielding him from my view.
"Ethan... do you really have to dig into it? You passed the re-exam anyway. Maybe just let it go."
"Let it go?" I repeated the words softly, but the quiet tone made her freeze. "Someone accused me of cheating on an entrance exam for a military academy. That's a stain on my record. If I don't clear it up, that allegation hangs over my file forever."
Julian finally looked up, his eyes rimmed in red, his voice shaking:
"Ethan's right. Something like this really shouldn't just be ignored."
I met his eyes and gave a faint smile.
"Julian, were you crying this morning? Your eyes are awfully red."
His neck stiffened, and he quickly looked down, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.
"I... I just didn't sleep well. I was worried sick about your re-exam today. I was up tossing and turning all night."
"How considerate of you," I said softly, my voice completely level. "I didn't even lose sleep over my own exam, yet you stayed up half the night stressing for me."
Julian pressed his lips into a pale line, his fingers twisting the hem of his shirt.
Chloe stood between us, darting glances back and forth, her mouth opening and closing without producing a sound.
I took a step closer to her, lowering my voice so only the two of us could hear.
"Chloe, why do you think someone would report me?"
She jerked backward half a step until her back hit the wall.
"How... how would I know?" Her voice was rough. "Maybe it was a misunderstanding, or someone just misread the situation."
"Misread the situation and jumped straight to an official complaint?" I tilted my head, staring at the faint beads of sweat forming on her forehead. "The center processes over a thousand candidates a day. The medical staff double-checked everything before signing off. Is this complainant smarter than the doctors, claiming cheating after a single glance?"
The hallway air felt suffocatingly heavy.
"Ethan, maybe we should just go home. Your parents are waiting for news."
Chloe finally found her voice, barely holding onto her composed demeanor.
"No rush." I turned toward the elevators, keeping my pace steady. "Waiting for the results won't take long anyway. Between the report and the formal review, it's only two or three days."
The elevator doors slid shut behind me.
Through the narrowing gap, I saw Chloe leaning against the wall for support, Julian standing a step away from her, both of them paralyzed in silence.
As the elevator descended, I caught my own reflection in the metal doors.
That expression reminded me of myself in my past life, typing out that final text on my cracked screen right before dying.
My fingers had lost all their strength back then, but I had forced out every single letter anyway.
The message sent, a red exclamation mark popped up, and then everything went black.
This time was different. Every single debt owed to me would be paid back in full.
The elevator dinged on the first floor. As the doors opened, I almost ran into someone.
She wasn't particularly tall, wore the academy's PT uniform, and held a manila folder in her hand.
She stepped aside, glanced at me, and then peered behind me.
"You here for the physical too?"
"A re-check," I answered simply.
Riley Brooks arched an eyebrow, clearly surprised by the bluntness, but she didn't pry.
"Well, you're in luck. The lead examiner on the review board today is the chief of the center. Known for being strictly by the book."
"I know." I moved past her toward the exit.
Her voice called out from behind me: "Wait, what's your name?"
I glanced back.
"Ethan Vance."
The corner of her mouth lifted. "Riley Brooks. Physical check too. Maybe we'll be classmates."
I didn't reply, pushing open the glass doors into the outside world.
The blazing sunlight beat down, burning hot against my skin.
In this lifetime, the world was finally starting to warm up.Two days later, the call came from the examination center.
"Ethan Vance, the complainant's identity has been verified. Please come in."
I set down my phone, threw on the same jacket I wore that day, and adjusted my hair in the mirror.
The reflection staring back was calm, like someone heading out to pick up a package long overdue.
In the same examination room, all three doctors were present, with an extra manila folder on the desk.
The senior examiner slid the folder toward me.
"The complainant has been confirmed. It's an applicant from your same cohort: Chloe Miller."
He turned over a photocopy of the signed complaint. Black ink on white paper, with Chloe's name penned neatly in the signature box.
Every stroke was deliberate and clean—the handwriting she had practiced since childhood. I knew it by heart.
I stared at the name for several seconds, feeling nothing inside.
I had known this answer before I died in my past life; I just hadn't possessed the strength back then to demand justice.
"Thank you, sir. Am I allowed to confront the complainant directly?"
The examiners exchanged looks, and the senior doctor nodded.
When Chloe was summoned inside, Julian trailed behind her, his face sickly pale. He even tripped over the doorframe coming in.
The moment Chloe saw the photocopy in my hand, her feet froze to the floor.
"Ethan, listen to me—"
"I'm listening." I lifted the sheet of paper so her name faced her directly. "Did you write this?"
Her lips trembled, dark circles bruising the skin under her eyes, looking as if she hadn't slept in days.
"I wrote it," she forced the words out of her throat. "But Ethan, I wasn't trying to ruin you. I just felt..."
"Felt what?"
Julian spoke up softly from behind her, his voice trembling:
"Ethan, Chloe was just trying to keep things fair..."
I cut my eyes toward him, and he swallowed the rest of his sentence.
"Chloe, your complaint claimed you suspected I had prior knowledge of the test plates. The re-test results are out, supervised by three senior examiners. I passed every single plate without an error. How do you explain yourself?"
She stood there, her slender frame shrinking inward.
"I..." She couldn't find the words.
I stepped forward and dropped the paper onto the desk beside her hand.
"Fine. If you won't explain the complaint, let me ask you something else."
I stared into her panicked eyes, keeping my voice low, but crystal clear.
"The bottle of water you handed me the morning of the exam—where did you get it?"
She reacted as if hit by an electric shock, recoiling violently until her back slammed against the doorframe.
Sweat beaded on her temples, rolling down her face.
She was terrified—so terrified she couldn't speak.
In my previous life, she had always been composed, gentle, and self-assured in front of me. Even after destroying my future with her own hands, she had never shown an expression like this.
So you know how to be scared after all.
Julian tugged at her sleeve from behind, speaking fast and desperate: "Ethan, it was just a regular bottle of water! Chloe had a whole case in her trunk, and I drank one too!"
I didn't even look at him. My gaze remained pinned to Chloe's face.
"I'm asking you, Chloe."
She suddenly covered her eyes with both hands, her shoulders shaking violently.
When she lowered her hands, her expression had completely crumbled, her lips trembling for a long time before she could push out a whisper.
"Ethan... that water... did you not drink it?"
Her voice was cracked, barely audible.
"Did you know... all along?"
Julian snapped his head toward her, all the color draining from his face.
"Chloe, what are you talking about?!"
Chloe didn't look at him. Her eyes were fixed on me.
"I remember now... I remember everything..."
The examiners looked at one another. The senior doctor stood up, his puzzled expression turning stern.
I stood my ground, folded the paper, and slipped it into my pocket.
"Chloe, regarding your false complaint, I will formally report this to the authorities. As for what you just said, I suggest you explain it clearly right in front of these three doctors."
My voice was quiet, but unwavering.
She looked up, her lips parting repeatedly, but nothing came out.
Julian bit his lower lip hard, glaring at Chloe's back, his fists clenched tight at his sides.
I pulled the remaining bottle of water from my bag and set it gently onto the desk.
The plastic made a soft tap against the wood, but in that dead-quiet room, everyone heard it.
"This is the water you gave me on the morning of the test. I didn't finish it. Whatever is left inside can be sent to the toxicology lab."
The lead examiner picked up the bottle, unscrewed the cap to inspect it, and tightened it back down.
He picked up the internal phone on the desk and dialed an extension.
"Send the investigative oversight unit up here immediately. We have a situation requiring a formal inquiry."
Chloe dropped to her knees, staring blankly at the bottle I had placed on the desk, the light in her eyes fading completely into darkness.
Chapters (4)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Watch & Promotions
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