Husband With Benefits-Chapter 820: Memories

"We often talked about you, Lily."

Lily’s gaze snapped up to meet Cai’s, a question forming on her lips, but he had already turned and started walking away. She hurried after him, her voice chasing him down the hall. "Wait, what do you mean you talked about me? You can’t just drop a bomb like that and walk away. That’s not fair!"

Cai grinned over his shoulder and, with a casual flop, sank into the couch. He patted the empty space beside him, signaling her to join. "Come sit. I’ll explain."

Reluctantly, but intrigued, Lily walked over and settled beside him, turning so that she could face him properly. Cai grabbed a cushion, hugging it to his chest, his expression thoughtful as he started to speak.

"Well, you know, we were just two dumb teenagers, right? Jasmine used to joke that she’d dump me before we even made it out of high school."

Lily blinked, utterly taken aback. To her, Jasmine and Cai had always seemed inseparable, like the kind of couple that was meant to last forever. They were the epitome of young love, at least from the outside looking in.

Cai caught the surprise on her face and laughed softly. "Ha! I see you’re shocked. But think about it, how many couples do you really know that have stayed together since high school? Forever’s a long time."

"There are exceptions," Lily protested, though her mind reeled. Jasmine and Cai were supposed to be one of those rare exceptions. Weren’t they?

Cai shrugged, nonchalant but with a hint of wistfulness. "Sure, exceptions exist. And maybe we could have been one of them. But Jasmine... she had doubts. And a lot of those doubts had to do with you."

Lily stared at him, feeling her chest tighten. "Me?" she echoed, pointing at herself as if he might be talking about someone else.

Cai’s lips curled into a knowing smile, his eyes soft with an emotion she couldn’t quite place. "Yeah. You. According to Jasmine, if we stayed together, I’d eventually leave her. Because of you."

Lily’s mouth fell open in disbelief. "That’s ridiculous."

"Is it?" Cai’s voice was gentle, but there was an edge of something heavier beneath it. "She said you looked at me like I hung the moon and stars, and she could never look at me like that. She thought, one day, I’d get swept up in all that admiration."

Lily flushed. "I... I did have a crush on you. I won’t deny that. But I didn’t think Jasmine ever noticed."

"Oh, she noticed," Cai said, leaning back against the cushions, his expression growing distant, as if recalling old memories. "And it worried her. Not just because of me, but because of you. She didn’t want you to be hurt. She was always thinking about how you’d feel after she left."

Lily frowned, the weight of his words settling in. "After she left..."

Cai nodded, and his tone shifted, becoming more serious. "Yeah. We talked about that a lot. She was worried about how things were at home for you, too. Your parents—well, they loved her, sure, but they were biased, weren’t they? Once they realized how exceptional Jasmine was at school and saw that you weren’t measuring up to their expectations... the way they treated you changed. Jasmine saw that. It is why she was often dragging you along everywhere so that your parents knew that the two of you were a team. She tried to bridge that gap, to fix things between you and them, but..."

He trailed off, and Lily felt a lump form in her throat. She hadn’t known Jasmine had noticed, let alone cared so much. "But she couldn’t fix it," Lily finished for him, her voice barely above a whisper.

Cai shook his head. "No. She couldn’t. But she wanted to. She was always thinking about how to help you. We even had a big fight about it once. Towards the end, she mentioned that she was glad that it was her who was suffering and would be gone. She’d hoped that your parents would then love you freely."

Lily gave a bitter smile then. And yet, she could not help but cry. Grabbing a cushion herself, she hugged it close as she put her head on it," Tell me more."

Cai’s voice was soft as he continued," She wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. So that she would be able to help little kids find their pace instead of studying all the time. She insisted that if a student was good at academics, she would throw them out of the class to explore nature or join some sport."

"I didn’t know that." Lily murmured. She’d never even thought of what dreams her sister might have had. And somehow those dreams would be connected to her. Sports. Hadn’t she been good at that? It had indeed been Jasmine who had always insisted that even if she was not good at academics, she was good at sports and dance so Lily need not be worried.

Lily felt tears fall from her eyes. She’d always thought that her family had never loved her, that she’d never measured up to those standards and yet, her sister had indeed loved her, accepted her for what she was.

Lily couldn’t hold it in any longer. The weight of everything—Jasmine’s unspoken love, her parents’ favoritism and their barbed words that it was better for her to die instead of Jasmine —came crashing down on her. She started to sob, clutching the cushion against her chest as though it were the only thing holding her together.

Cai tugged the cushion out of her arms and pulled her close. His arms wrapped around her, strong yet tender, as he murmured softly, "It’s okay, Lily. Let it out."

She pressed her face against his chest, her fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt as though afraid to let go. Her body shook with the force of her sobs, and she buried herself deeper into his embrace, feeling as if the dam she had built inside her had finally broken. Every tear she had ever held back, every bit of resentment and confusion, all of it poured out now, and she couldn’t stop.

"I didn’t know.I always thought that Jasmine felt the same way. That I should have been the one to die instead of her."