Comments were still discussing Reagan's panic over money. She was spiraling about finances now. Tuition, living expenses, and her mother's hospital bills. If her childhood sweetheart was the biggest regret of her past life, then in this life, after making up for that regret, she'd have to pay for it with a dozen other regrets.
On the way back to campus, I scrolled through the comments with amusement.
The female lead shouldn't go back to the second male lead. She'll definitely get tangled up for years again. Just watch. I just want to see the female lead have sweet romance with the male lead. The female lead is so pitiful. She's about to be forced back to the second male lead's side again. Who could stand the second male lead's controlling personality? Could rebirth really not free her from the toxic second male lead's control?
I scrolled through more comments. Sure enough, right outside the dorm entrance, I spotted Reagan standing there. She looked like she had been waiting for me forever. Seeing me, she smiled faintly, miserably, like she was accepting her fate.
"Dante, I've lost. I still can't escape your entanglement. Fine. As long as you give me the black card and promise to tone down that personality of yours, I'm willing to agree to be your girlfriend."
As she said these words, she completely deflated, like she had just made some enormous decision, like she was making some terrible sacrifice. There was even a trace of shame and humiliation on her face.
Was her self-respect really worth that much? Did she dare compare it to my unlimited assets and black card?
I laughed. I had never seen anyone beg for money with their head held so high. I couldn't help but remind her.
"Classmate Reagan. I'm sorry, but do we even know each other?"
Reagan smiled bitterly. "Vincent Dante. No one understands you better than I do. You think this will make me pay more attention to you? Fine. Just hurry up and give me the black card. My mother is still in the hospital. She desperately needs money."
Her voice was full of certainty, assuming I would indulge her like before. In my past life, I had been with her for six years. If not for love, how could I have persisted that long? She had seen me crazy with passion. She had seen me publicly display my feelings. As the one being adored, she had even more reason to be shameless.
Her mother couldn't wait any longer for hospital payments. A complete mess waiting for my money to patch it up.
Harper Sinclair immediately stepped in front of me. "Has Vincent Dante ever said he wanted you as his girlfriend?"
That final sentence rang out like thunder, striking Reagan right in the face. She stood frozen for a long moment. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she had confessed to Callum immediately after being reborn. And I truly had never once said anything like, be my girlfriend. All those messy entanglements from the past life still hadn't happened yet.
But right after that, Reagan shook her head in self-mockery. Six years of entanglement from the past life were carved into her bones. How could she believe I had never loved her?
She sighed, her voice carrying undisguised exhaustion. "Fine, Vincent Dante. I'll admit my confession to Callum upset you, but my mother's situation can't wait any longer. Just give me the card. I'll let bygones be bygones."
Reagan backed down. Comments immediately erupted in confusion.
The female lead just got reborn. Why is she getting tangled up with the second male lead again? But without Vincent Dante, right now she's just a poor college student. Even if she wants to start a business, she has no capital.
I looked at Reagan. Even as she waited for my answer, I was answering the comments in my head. No money? Then figure something else out. Pride without shame. But doesn't she know humiliation?
Reagan seemed to feel I had touched her self-esteem. She disappeared for a while. I still remember when she left, grinding her teeth.
"Vincent Dante, you'll never realize just how disgusting your personality is. Consider it punishment, so you can calm yourself down. Don't expect to see me appear in front of you for the next month."
The joy came so suddenly I almost couldn't believe it was real. We attended the same university but different classes. Campus was huge. Accidentally running into someone again was nearly impossible.
After Reagan disappeared, I started spending more time with Harper Sinclair. Every day she quietly stood outside my dorm, waiting to walk to class together. She even volunteered to carry my water bottles and buy my meals, which resulted in my roommate, Mason Kent, fiercely stopping her.
"Young Master Sterling, you just focus on your love life. Leave all this heavy lifting to this humble servant."
Mason was incredibly sharp, so I often called him monkey. After getting into college, his family didn't give him a single cent and even forced him to buy a house and car for his younger brother. That stubborn monkey packed his things in a burlap sack and went off to school alone. On the very first day, I offered to hire him to carry water and buy meals, two hundred dollars each time. He was so moved he hugged me and sobbed for a while.
I had long since forgotten about Reagan. Meanwhile, comments occasionally updated news about her, like how she was borrowing money everywhere, trying to patch the holes. But what college student around here had extra cash? It was just a drop in the ocean. Now she was completely broke. She even had to mooch meals off others.
The girl Callum once considered his greatest regret from the past life. Now that they were together, cracks were beginning to show, because she was desperately trying to save money. Reagan, who had never worked a part-time job before, had actually started taking on side work.
I thought I would never run into Reagan again. Who knew I would accidentally encounter her while eating with Harper Sinclair in the cafeteria?
A chance meeting. Normally, I only showed up here on weekends. Reagan only came Monday through Friday. We were like two parallel lines that would never intersect. Yet today, when she should have been off campus on the weekend, Reagan was sitting in the cafeteria.
Her aura had shifted slightly. When she had first been reborn, she carried that refined elegance money cultivates, every gesture radiating an inexplicable confidence. But now all that remained was exhaustion and irritation. She had even visibly lost weight. The space between her brows was naturally creased.
When Harper Sinclair and I walked into the cafeteria, Callum was mysteriously carrying a tray of food, his face full of excitement.
"I got the best thing in the cafeteria. Try it."
With that, he eagerly set the tray before Reagan. A seven-dollar mixed rice plate. Greasy and utterly flavorless. I could see the disgust written all over her face.
Comments started buzzing again.
Can the female lead even stomach food like that? Right? Wasn't every meal gourmet delicacies in her past life? Why is she eating this stuff every day now? The clothes the female lead's wearing are only worth a few dozen dollars. She used to wear the latest designer collections, but everything the female lead had came from the second male lead. Without the second male lead, this is how she would have lived all along. This life, she's just returned to her true starting point.
Once that comment appeared, no one argued anymore.
In my past life, when I loved Reagan, I never set foot in the cafeteria once. Every meal was gourmet dining out, or I'd have the butler bring fresh seafood, beautifully sliced and arranged, then delivered right to campus. Every week we went designer shopping once. Reagan's clothes were almost never worn twice.
She quickly adapted to that lavish lifestyle. Day after day, growing pickier about food and clothing. Now, forced to relive days like these, she naturally found the cafeteria food hard to swallow. Uncomfortable in her own skin.
After a long hesitation, Reagan finally set down her chopsticks, stammering to Callum across from her. "Callum, I need to ask you for help with something."
"What is it?"
"Could you lend me two hundred thousand?"
Callum choked on his tofu, instinctively raising his voice. "What did you say? You're asking me for two hundred thousand? You eat my food, drink on my dime. That twelve hundred and eighty meal you borrowed from me half a month ago still isn't paid back. Now you're asking for two hundred thousand?"
Countless eyes immediately turned toward Reagan. Even I felt secondhand embarrassment hearing it. Callum's family situation wasn't any better than Reagan's. Where would a college student get two hundred thousand to lend her?
Callum was still shouting. "Do you have any idea? My parents don't even make a hundred thousand in a whole year. And you dare ask me to lend you money. Every day you swipe my card to eat in the cafeteria, then complain the food is terrible. Not as good as imported seafood, right? Right now your face is cleaner than your wallet. Guess you'll be eating seafood in your dreams."
Her face flushed red all the way to her ears, unable to hold back her accusations. "It's because of you that I've fallen this low. Before, every meal cost me at least a thousand dollars. The cheapest bottle of wine I drank was over a hundred thousand. Everyone who saw me called me Director Shaw."
Callum looked like he had heard the funniest joke. "Reagan, have I known you for just a day? Someone who can't even afford tuition, always thinking she's the main character living in luxury. You must be sick."
Mocking laughter rang out all around, pulling Reagan out of her past life's lavish dream.