Chapter 1

"....You know, I had a million reasons to leave you, was given a ton of excuses in order to not to be with you, but I chose to accept you. Accept you with everything that you had to offer and everything you lacked. But you needed just a reason, a single verdict and you left me. Still, it was my choice. And so, I'll always keep you in my thoughts. Even if I can not express those thoughts, even if I have to hide these feelings, I'll remember you, always.

But, now I won't wait for you. Farewell!"

And he left. Gone forever, never to turn back again. Maybe this could be a new start for him… a new start for both of them….

But it was definitely the end of their story!

The En…

"Oh God, another sad ending? Al, must you? Each and every one of your stories had has a very tragic ending till now. Can you give your readers a break?", Alvin turned back from his laptop to look at his friend whining at him. About his stories. Again.

Lian Smith, his friend, and editor was making faces as he read the new, and final installment of his story. In fact, he couldn't blame Lian. What he said was basically true. Alvin's stories tended to have tragic endings. His fans would cry for him on social media, begging him not to separate/ kill/ shatter their favorite characters. But his stories continued to have sad, heartwrenching endings. Despite all this, his fan-following continued to increase as the stories did catch the hearts and minds of the readers.

Alvin Smith (no, Alvin and Lian are not related by blood, they are just that good friends), had started writing when he was in school. But he never had the courage to publish it. It was just after that incident…

Well, whatever!

Lian was one to secretly publish his work after he got to know him in the last year of his graduation. Said it was his graduation present as an elder. Alvin had to remind him that he was just a year older than him, but he was grateful nonetheless. He had wanted to publish his work for a long time, it was just that he never got the courage. So, even if he was a bit angry at his friend, he couldn't stay mad at him for a long time. He had eventually come to accept his friend's help as his stories started getting recognition. It didn't hurt that his friend himself was the editor and the one to forward his story for publishing. Later it was a package deal for them. His stories always had Lian as the editor.

Now he had a huge fanbase, his books were well known and thus increased the pressure on him for his work. But somehow, Alvin always ended up with tragic endings. Well, he knew the reason why, but he didn't pay attention to that tiny bit of detail.

"You know why, Lian! I can't. It's not like I haven't tried writing a fun story or anything. You know I have. I did try writing those teeth rotting fluffy stories, but somehow they always end up in tragedy or a disaster or some kind of misfortune. It's like these stories have minds of their own. They always turn towards tears. I can't control them."

"Whoaa… Calm down! I know, I know. I was just teasing you. Have I not seen the way you have tried to turn the story into an upbeat one and failed? I know you just can't write a happy ending. Well, we can not change our nature in a day, can we? That's ok." Lian tried to soothe him and Alvin got to see his friend's capability in sympathizing with others. His friend was simply not capable of comforting people.

"Lian..,"

"Yes?"

"Shut up. And please take my word for it and don't try to give comfort to anyone. You will fail and that too, hard."

"Ah? Come on, Al. Don't be sad."

"....."

"Ali?"

…..

"Vin?"

…..

"Vini?"

"Ok. Ok. Please shut up for God's Sake. And can you tell me why are you here? It's Sunday. You never work on Sundays."

"I Should take offense to that statement but I'll let it go since what you are saying is true. Well, I came to you with a piece of good news. Your novel, my dear friend Ali, has been taken for a live adaptation. There were a lot of writers and a lot of book clubs going for this, but your book was selected and now it is going to be turned into a live adaptation. And for this, you should thank, your good friend, Lian, as I have spent a lot of my effort on it. And finally, we are getting the fruits of our labors as your story got selected. You, my dear friend, are going to be famous, well, even more famous than you already are."

At the end of his rant, Lian turned around with his hands spread wide, as if describing how famous he was going to be, only to find that Alvin had turned back to his story and was now giving it some final touches.

"ALI, I'M TALKING WITH YOUUUU!"

Alvin tilted his head a bit, not even turning to face his friend as he dismissively said, "Yup. I heard you, already. But it was going to happen sooner or later, right? I saw you taking action for that. So, it's not really a surprise, you know."

"Oh.."

"Ah, by the way, who is taking the story? No, actually tell me first, which story."

"Right, the adaptation is being taken for your 'My School Friend' and the one who's taking it is MK."

This answer caused Alvin to abruptly stand up and turn towards his friend.

"WHAT?"

"I said, your story 'My School Friend' is being adapted by MK."

"MK? You mean The MK Entertainment?"

"Ummm, yes? That's what I've been telling you."

"Arrrgghhhh, Liannnnn…"

"Ok. you are losing me here. Care to explain a bit?"

"LIAN, MK ENTERTAINMENT!!!'

"Yes?"

"It's Mike's"

"Oh, ok."

"...."

"Wait. What?? MK? Your Mike?"

"Yes. The same Mike. Oh, God, Why did I let you join for the adaptation? No, I shouldn't have let you be my editor. Actually, I should not have allowed you to post my story, or even better I should NOT have let you read my story. What was I even thinking when I let you open that folder? It should have stayed in the dark, dark depths of my hard disk….."

"Vini, calm down. I don't think this is that bad."

"It is. I used our names. OUR Names, and it is our story. What if he reads it? What will he think about it? About me?"

"I don't think things will turn out as you have been imagining them, Al. Tragic things happen only in your stories. I don't think he'll notice it or notice you. I mean, you use pen name while writing and it can't be that coincidently he'll be there or meet you, right?"

As it turned out the next few days, things could really turn out to be that coincident.