Outside the office building, more and more banners exposing their sordid affair were unfurled.
I went to the school to report Leo for his immoral behavior.
The art academy forum where he studied was flooded with vulgar comments.
At his graduation ceremony, someone hired people to loop videos of our past joyful moments on the big screen.
The memories that I once cherished became the weapons I used to attack them.
And yet … Kelly still protected him. In the end, Leo successfully graduated from the nation's top art academy. He was even about to hold his own exhibition.
To protect him, Kelly was finally willing to look at me with respect.
"Leo's dreams are about to come true. This has nothing to do with our past grievances. Don't mess things up for him."
I was already blinded by rage. "Mess things up! I'm all set. Everyone at the exhibition will be delighted to see those masterpieces.”
Suddenly, a document was slammed onto the table before me.
“If you want to preserve your mother's final resting place in peace, be obedient. Sign this divorce agreement and stay far away from me and Leo.”
When my mother was buried, I was too grief-stricken to handle anything. So, Kelly, as her daughter-in-law, took care of everything, including choosing the burial plot and purchasing the land.
Perhaps due to land scarcity, even plots in the afterlife had become commodities.
As long as she was the one who signed the document, my mother would never rest in peace.
I threw coffee at Kelly's face.
That night, I cried myself to sleep on my mother's gravestone.
Then the next day, I went to the City Hall.
But, things turned out differently than I had imagined—Kelly only allocated me one of her family's old houses.
“You reported the company's tax issues back then. Now most of the funds are frozen in the accounts. This is all I can give you.”
“If it weren’t for Leo pleading on your behalf, you wouldn’t get a single cent.”
I could never win against her—not since childhood.
She was steady, meticulous and never acted on impulse. She skillfully used strategy and power to achieve her goals.
I, on the other hand, was always the type to charge headlong into things without a second thought and although it caused immense damage to my enemy, it caused greater injuries to myself.
I fell silent, just as she’d wanted.
Before selling the house and heading south, I still went to Leo’s art exhibition. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
A giant projection in the city center displayed the man’s handsome face. The exhibition was titled “The Key to the Heart”.
It was a phrase we’d often spoken in our youth. It symbolized the pure, untainted hope of adolescence. It is the most sincere and beautiful connection between friends.
With the last shred of near-masochistic nostalgia, I armored myself fully.
But the moment I stepped into the venue, I felt like a mouse peering into someone else’s happiness.
Until I saw the painting titled “The Key to the Heart.”
It showed two bodies.
There was a mole on the woman's shoulder blade, the one I had traced countless times.
The man crumpled the pillow in his grip. Behind them, a bed draped in pale purple sheets. Outside the window, magnolias bloomed in full splendor.
That flower's variety was the one that I had personally selected at the flower market.
Pink blossoms as large as lanterns, silent in their beauty.
That was my home. It was also the place where Leo and Kelly had first made love.
So, it turned out that his heart belonged to Kelly and the key belonged to Leo.
A wave of uncontrollable nausea surged through me and I threw up.
This startled the two people entertaining guests nearby.
A bright, concerned voice reached my ears. “Sir, are you alright?”
The key design on his cufflinks dazzled me; it perfectly matched the heart-shaped brooch on the woman's chest.
