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Today, Sorin turned 31. He just got another promotion because of his achievements. He had become a lieutenant at such a young age. Well, not that young, but still.

He came home from work like usual, bringing some fruit from the local grocery store. He opened the door to see his girlfriend of four years, Amy, sitting on the living room couch.

"Hey. How's work?" Sorin asked.

"It's okay," she tiredly answered.

Sorin walked past her toward the kitchen, where he realized no food was ready yet. He turned casually toward Amy and asked, "Should we order dinner?"

"Yeah," Amy answered flatly.

"Alright. I'll shower, so can you order for me?" Sorin passed his phone to her. She took it from his hand before Sorin walked past the kitchen once more to go up to their room.

Accidentally, Sorin noticed how a lot of seasonings had run out. He muttered without much thinking, "I should've bought some sugar from the store."

But it seemed that it made Amy snap. "Are you trying to say that I don't contribute to this household?!"

Sorin stopped his steps. He turned to Amy and asked calmly, "What?"

Amy threw his phone to the table. "The way you walked on eggshells around me... but also insinuated to me how failed my life is!"

"What do you mean?" Sorin grasped the stair railings, trying to calm himself.

"So what if I can't buy you anything! I'm not a successful officer like you! I can't buy you some sugar!"

"Amy, what are you trying to say?" Sorin sighed.

"Look at how calm you are, you bastard! Just say it outright. Honestly! Tell me that I'm not enough for you!" Amy screamed at him, and her eyes started to water.

Sorin shut his mouth.

It was true that Amy had failed her project recently. She was under a lot of stress at work, and Sorin knew of her insecurity. He was trying to build a safe and cozy environment for Amy at home by being considerate, but this...

"What do you mean you're not enough? Last year I proposed to you. YOU told me you're not ready. I waited for you, keeping everything together because you said you loved me, and I loved you too. What do you want?!"

Sorin tried to be calm, but he was also on the brink of snapping. And that was when Amy suddenly screamed back, "Why do you think I go to get my nose done? Why do you think I get lip filler every six months and buy all those make-ups?!"

"I know I will never be enough for you!"

Sorin couldn't understand what made her think she needed all those achievements, beauty, and money. He really couldn't wrap his head around why she kept competing with him on everything.

"If I don't think you're enough, why would I even propose to you? But you don't even wear your ring that was supposed to be our engagement ring anymore!" Sorin didn't know any more other than raising his voice.

"You proposed to me because you wanted me to give up on my career, right?! You acted nice to me, you didn't lock your phone, you want everyone to see how good you are!"

"You want to prove to the world that I can't be successful, and you want to be the proud provider of the house!" Amy pointed at him angrily.

"I never said ANYTHING like that!" Sorin walked toward her, trying to grab her hand that was pointing at him. But she pushed him away. Sorin shook his head.

"Listen. I don't care what you look like. I don't care how much you make. You can work all you want even after we get married, and I won't even ask for a child since you hate them so much. I would've still love you," he said.

They'd been together for such a long time, and they'd known each other even longer. Amy had known him since before he was this successful, and Sorin believed they had been through thick and thin together. He didn't want to lose her.

Not after everything he had been through.

Amy cried.

She wailed and screamed. "If you don't care, why do you keep gaslighting me about that beautiful girlfriend? You kept saying you don't know what I said!"

"Are you accusing me of cheating right now?" Sorin almost lost his patience completely.

"See?!" Amy screamed.

Amy had been comparing herself with that beautiful girlfriend ever since... she didn't know. It was true that she couldn't prove her existence, but her presence was always there at the back of her mind.

Beautiful... long white hair. Tall, curvacious body and perfect face. Now that she recalled, that girl was even more beautiful than any supermodel out there.

"I remember everything," Amy said and then started reciting dates and times when she remembered seeing the girl with him at his old apartment. "You didn't come home for three days, and you brought her with you. I remember!"

Amy couldn't let go. Even though throughout their relationship, Sorin had never met any other girl out there, including that girl she remembered. She still couldn't let go.

"Fine!" Sorin yelled. "I will ask for my friend's help so we can solve this all together. We will find this beautiful girlfriend you're talking about if she is real."

That was what he said. But it wasn't easy to look for something that he didn't even know what it looked like. Heck, he didn't even know it existed.

Still, he wouldn't want to dismiss it further. It might be cliche, but he was the kind of man who would do anything for his family. It didn't mean he was weak; it didn't mean that Amy could oppress him, doing anything she wanted to him.

He did it because he could do it. To prove that he was right. And to not be fucking ridiculed by the person he once believed he could spend the rest of his life with. But now, he wasn't sure anymore.

Sorin spent around three months to try and find this mysterious girl. He knew it was going to be hard, so he tried all angles.

This afternoon, he used his break to go to his old apartment. He had made an appointment with the old owner, and he told him he might be able to help.

When they met, the man shook his hand. He sighed, "When you told me the date, I remembered my wife passed around the same time. My son took over the management, and we changed almost every surveillance system after."

"It might be a coincidence, but I still have the hard drive for the old system, and since it was changed around that time, maybe you can recover the data," the old man said.

It was such a coincidence, indeed. If the old device was changed without wiping off the data, he might still be able to recover the overwritten file. And it was exactly what he expected.

Inside the storage room, the owner told him to just bring the old device with him to be analyzed by the professional. "You said it could help you, so it's alright. I checked all the footage every month, so I know there's nothing wrong with it."

The old man just wanted the large sum of money Sorin offered him, and he also knew there was no incriminating footage in the device. For him, it was a win-win.

It needed around a week for Sorin's colleague to recover the file, and then, they finally found the date.

Sorin called Amy and showed her the raw footage... and then she saw herself pressing the doorbell.

The door opened... just to make Amy widen her eyes. The person who opened the door was Sorin himself. There was no other woman present.

"No way. I want to see the other footage. I want to see all of them!" Amy freaked out. She looked at each and every piece of footage available but still found none of her claims. It was clear that nothing was edited, either.

She was defeated.

But when she turned to Sorin to see his cold and detached expression, she realized her mistake.

"Even if she was real, does it really matter?" Sorin asked her. "I've never compared you to anyone. Not even to myself. You chose to do it yourself."

Amy grasped his hand, but it was too late. Sorin pulled his hand away and left her. Tomorrow, he would pay someone to pack her things out of his house. It was too bad, but after everything, he decided to sell the house too.

Inside his car, after he left her, he kept thinking that something was a bit weird. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something.

The footage.