Chapter 3 They Hated Each Other

• Moreover, Selene was not one to put love as the main priority in life. She believed that they were the same and that they might keep their relationship steadier than many others.
• As time flew, the time for their graduation came. Joseph received a full scholarship for his postgraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. At the same time, Selene decided to start working in Houston and maintain her romantic relationship with Joseph, even though a large distance would separate them. Joseph had also promised her that he would return to Houston to stay with her after graduation.
• After Joseph finished his postgraduate studies and returned to Houston one year ago, he almost reached his career goal of becoming an executive at SSGB, one of the most influential asset management companies in the city. But to Selene’s surprise, he did not contact her when he came back. Selene found this out from her old friends.
• When Selene finally met Joseph in the city, she saw a scene that shocked her to the core: Her boyfriend Joseph was sitting in the Royal Restaurant with a young and gorgeous girl, hugging and kissing her.
• Selene tried to rationalize Joseph’s betrayal. She believed that she could maybe forgive him, as they had been apart for a long time, so it must have been very easy for Joseph to get into a relationship with a lovely new girl.
• But when she saw that the girl who sat by Joseph was Jennifer Keller, her college classmate, she exploded with anger. How small the world was!
• Jennifer was not only her classmate but also her old rival.
• As students who majored in Fashion Design were mostly from middle- or upper-class families, Selene did not stand out among them. However, Jennifer, who drove a luxury car to school and wore expensive designer clothes, considered herself unique.
• With different family backgrounds, they did not socialize with each other for a long time when they were in school.
• Until the first semester in junior high, the two took part in the same fashion design activity held by the school. Being overly pleased with herself, Jennifer thought that she would win first prize every time she took part in activities before. Unexpectedly, she did not. But Selene, whose design wasn’t anything too special, won second prize.
• Jennifer was very ashamed and bitter about this, and she envied Selene for her prize. Why on Earth could Selene win the prize with such ordinary work? As a result, she started planning her revenge on Selene for this. Maybe spoiled silver-spoon girls were mostly naïve.
• Though Selene kept a low profile during her daily life, she did not let people walk over her. When she was very young, whenever kids would laugh at her when she was with her mother, she would later catch up with these kids alone and fight them. Seeking revenge for the smallest of grievances, that’s who she was.
• So that’s how a bitter rivalry had started between Selene and Jennifer.
• In fact, Selene did not want to interact too much with Jennifer, who was capricious and naïve. What Jennifer did was just destroy her design and alienate her from her classmates.
• Selene always shrugged off these petty occurrences. However, Jennifer was very persistent in playing tricks on her. Selene could do nothing more than to ignore her.
• However, one day, Jennifer becomes a love bandit by seducing Emily’s boyfriend. As Selene’s best friend, Selene could not help but hit back.
• It was very naïve for Jennifer to do this to Selene, so Selene decided to treat her in a similar way.
• Out of anger, Selene asked one of her friends, a tech geek, to hack into Jennifer’s computer, steal revealing photos of Jennifer with different boys, and post them on the school’s forum online. Though the photos were just taken when they were partying in nightclubs, they were fresh news of the central heiress that many students enjoyed gossiping about in their leisure time.
• Jennifer was disgusting from Selene’s perspective, but she was gifted, charming, and had a decent family background among the public. So, the photos that were posted online totally ruined her reputation.
• The posting of these photos escalated the war between Selene and Jennifer. Maybe this was very typical among girls who didn’t know each other well but became enemies over trivial things.
• They simply hated each other!
• They did not get a break until Jennifer moved to another city to further her postgraduate studies.
• Selene decided to stay in Houston with her family and start her career as an assistant in fashion design at a big company. After working at the company for one year, she left and founded her own custom-made clothing company and majored in custom tailoring, which she was quite good at. Also, the company was doing surprisingly well.
• Selene’s life became quite peaceful after that, and she gradually forgot what had happened in the past two years between her and Jennifer.
• But now they met again in the city, and Jennifer gave Selene a devious smile and greeted her. “Hi, Selene. Long time no see.”
• Ignoring Joseph, who was sitting by Jennifer with a pale face, Selene answered with a sneer. “Yes, it’s really been a long time.”
• “Let me make a brief introduction for you, Selene. This is my boyfriend, Joseph Geoffrey. Joseph, this is Selene. We went to college together.”
• Jennifer continued. “It seems that you two were high school classmates, weren’t you?”
• Joseph could only stand up and greet Selene with a quiet voice. That was the way they finally met after several years of separation.
• Selene snorted back. “Yes, Jennifer. We are not only high school classmates, but he is also my ex-boyfriend. I didn’t expect you to like chewing others’ leftovers!”
• Jennifer was too shocked by Selene’s words to say anything, and before she retorted, Selene turned back and left, leaving them her back.
• I didn’t want them to see how humiliated I felt. Selene thought. Though she felt really awkward, she tried to pretend to care nothing about Joseph’s betrayal.