Chapter 3

Yorick was always generous to himself but stingy to everyone else.

He claimed he felt bad about always making Sophie pay for everything, so he cooked some simple dishes at his dorm and brought them over to her place, making sure it was a grand gesture that everyone saw.

Being a loving boyfriend who even cooked for his girlfriend naturally earned him all the brownie points he could. Everyone praised him, and the ladies commented about how lucky Sophie was to have found herself such a kind, considerate boyfriend who could cook on top of that.

Rolling her eyes at the thought, Sophie checked the time and realized it was already evening.

Hiding the coolness swelling in her, she forced a giggle and replied, "It's alright, I'm not hungry. By the way, my parents said they're visiting tomorrow. Shall we have dinner together?"

Yorick was a little surprised. "Why are they visiting?"

"Teehee!" Sophie giggled charmingly. "To see you, of course! You're their future son-in-law, after all!"

Yorick twitched uncomfortably in turn.

Just last year, Sophie's father, Jonah Zurer, had visited specifically to check him out. The look on his face had been one of clear displeasure, and he had clearly implied his disapproval that Yorick was basically living off his daughter.

In fact, he had Yorick agree to pay for himself on the trip to Southport, but Yorick kept making excuses to get Sophie to hand over all her money, even getting that pendant for free.

Her family was richer than his anyway, and she was ugly—why shouldn't she be spending all that money on him?

Hell, no one would want her otherwise!

"Actually, I'll be busy checking out the internships available with my classmates," he said. "How about some other time?"

Ignoring that, Sophie kept purring softly and innocently, "Oh, that reminds me—my parents agreed to get me a car. Weren't you always saying that you wanted an Audi? Why don't I wire you the money so you can get it first?"

Yorick's voice was at once thrilled. "How much will your parents sponsor you?"

"It's forty grand, right? We'd need at least half, but I'll try to wrangle them for more tomorrow."

"But…" Yorick sounded hesitant again. "They'll get you the car before they go, right? So you're going to be the registered owner…"

Sophie sneered on the other end.

That was just how selfish and greedy Yorick was. How blind had she been to have fallen for him in her past life?

Still, she quickly said, "No, of course I'll have it registered under your name. I mean, what's yours is mine, right? Anyway, I insisted we're only checking out the car tomorrow, and I'll buy it myself later before we register it. I mean, I don't need a car now, so you can buy me one when I start working."

"That's more like it!" Yorick exclaimed, but he was clearly trying to sound extra mild and patient. "Nothing will ever come between us anyway, and we can register our marriage as soon as we graduate."

"Yeah…" Sophie trailed off as if shy. "Oh, I've forgotten… Dad said I should pay half for the car, since I should have at least that much savings in my account, and he's definitely going to check my balance tomorrow. What am I going to do? With what we spent last year plus that trip, I have almost no money left."

Yorick was left speechless for a while, eventually saying dryly, "Your dad is really something. He calls it 'buying his daughter a car', but he makes her pay half…"

Sophie rolled her eyes again.

How petty!

Still, she stammered like a child caught being naughty, "I-I think he's just worried that you spent all my money… And he said he'd disown me if I lost all of it…"

There was yet another long silence.

After all, he was used to being a leech while not showing any gratitude, and he certainly wasn't happy about the shoe being on the other foot!

Sophie hence swiftly changed her tone to sound as understanding as ever. "I guess your family didn't send you the money? It's alright, maybe we should just wait to buy the car. We're not graduating yet, so we won't need a car right now…"

"No way!" Yorick panicked right then, pausing for a moment before saying gingerly, "I'll give you ten grand! But I can't raise that much all at once, Fi… Don't you have some credit service you can use? Just take out a loan, and I'll try to figure something out..."

"But I can't…" Sophie sniffed. "My credit limit is too low. Besides, do you think my dad is only checking my bank balance? He'll definitely check my credit card and other accounts too!"

Yorick could snap at her right then, demanding to know what sort of a father constrained their beloved daughter like this, but he naturally stopped himself.

After weighing his options, he reluctantly agreed. "Alright, I'll get you ten grand. Once your parents leave…"

"It will be returned to you right away!" Sophie promptly exclaimed. "You know what I'm like, Yorick! Don't worry!"

'Ain't that the goddamn truth,' Yorick thought.

In the year they'd known each other, Sophie had only been very generous with money, never holding back a dollar from him if she had one.

After all, her family was better off than his!

Even as bitterness swelled in him, he kept reminding Sophie that the ten grand was just a loan, and she absolutely had to remember to pay him back!

He hesitated for a long time but eventually decided against asking Sophie to put it in writing.

After all, Sophie might be ugly, but she wasn't stupid. If he really made her do it, then his dream car would go up in smoke!

On the other end, Sophie felt sick to the stomach after she hung up.

In her past life, she was trapped in Stockton by the Endless Floods after the apocalypse.

Her parents, worried about her, wired her more money while repeatedly telling her to stock up on supplies such as rice, flour, and cooking oil—enough to last her months.

She did just that, stacking the boxes and sacks in the living room with all the supplies she needed.

Moreover, her rented apartment was on the nineteenth floor, having two bedrooms and one living room. It offered much more convenience than the college dorms, so much so that when Yorick and Susan asked to move in with her, she readily agreed.

No one had expected the floods to keep swelling amid global tsunamis that struck all coastal areas, with the government completely failing to provide relief to the victims.

Eventually, their supplies ran out, and Yorick started to change.

He had already been hooking up with Susan. Not only did they keep siphoning off whatever supplies Sophie had, but they also kept gaslighting her however they could.

Whenever one of them had to make a supply run, they would both start flattering and coaxing her.

"Fi, you're strong, smart, and ugly. You'll be safe going out there. That's not the case for Susan. These are some dangerous times for a beautiful girl like her to go out there…"

"Yes, Fi. You're a strong, independent woman, while I'm just a leech. I'm really sorry I can't help…"

Sophie was naive then. With her inferiority complex, she was always convinced that she hadn't done enough, that she could do better for their sake.

And seeing that the supplies were insufficient while her boyfriend and best friend wanted her to go, she fought against her own grievances.

She would leave the apartment every single day, rowing a makeshift raft made of water bottles to find supplies… Until six months later, when she returned home early one day and caught said boyfriend and best friend in bed together.

She was furious, but never did she expect them to snap back at her right then.

They told her that she should be kinder and more understanding, that she was just being jealous! That despite everything, they were the ones to accommodate her because she kept behaving like a spoiled princess!

But at that point, she had already come to her senses, her hands shaking with rage as she bellowed at them to leave—that she never wanted to see them again!

That was when Yorick revealed his true nature in an instant. Savagely slapping her hard across the face, he knocked the wind out of her, leaving her seeing stars.

While she bled, he had Susan help lock her in the smallest bedroom.

Afterward, he called over his thug friends, all of whom were homeless or squatting elsewhere, feasting in the living room and hollering about banding up.

With the rental as the base of their operations, they vowed to grow stronger so that they wouldn't have to live off scraps to survive, and that they would be sharing everything from good food to women, and so on and so forth.

Sophie listened as they kept rambling on about their ambitions, until she heard Yorick offer her up for their pleasure.

Without hesitation, she ground the rope on her wrists until it loosened. Even as she bled from her hands, she blocked the door from the inside, broke the window, and jumped from balcony to balcony, starting from the nineteenth floor.

The torrential rain lashed at her face, and she was covered in her own blood and the rain as she kept going, barely managing to escape hell.

Jean Ascott, who was a senior from the same faculty, lived in the same apartment complex with her boyfriend, and they had teamed up together on supply runs.

Now, more than six months after the apocalypse, Sophie had nowhere to go and had long since lost contact with her family, so she gingerly visited Jean to ask for help.

Fortunately, Jean was kind. Upon hearing Sophie's story, she was filled with righteous indignation for Sophie and took her in.

Her boyfriend, Kenny Owens, wasn't happy about it but didn't argue, so Sophie was allowed to stay with Jean.

As time went by, however, surviving became increasingly difficult, and supplies even more rare.

With everyone starving. Kenny conspired with Yorick's gang, attempting to trade Jean and Sophie for supplies.

They both fought like hell but made it out alive, killing Kenny while they did.

However, Jean died on the journey to the north…