Chapter 1My Wife's Boyfriend

The tenth time I felt his gaze on me—that intense, brooding stare from across the lecture hall—a line of text flickered into my vision, translucent as a ghost.

【The male lead time-traveled ten years into the past, only to find his wife is still someone else’s girlfriend. His world just ended.】

【All those years of pining, finally winning her over, and now he has to start from scratch.】

【Maeve, his baby, has a boyfriend right now. All he can do is watch. And wait.】

【Somehow, I don’t think this older, world-weary version of him is going to be as patient as his nineteen-year-old self was.】

As if on cue, my phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number.

【Hi. Can you break up with him?】

A moment later, another one.

【Or, would you consider having a second boyfriend?】

And then, the final blow.

【I promise I’ll stay hidden until you’re single again.】

* * *

The bell shrieked, signaling the end of the elective lecture. As I was packing my books, a guy from the back row—one of my classmates—gently tapped my shoulder with the end of his pen.

I turned around. He looked down, a nervous flush creeping up his neck. “Uh, Maeve? Could you… could you help me with this problem?”

I nodded, taking his advanced calculus workbook and sketching out the solution on a blank page.

“Does that make sense?” I asked, looking up at him when I was done.

He blinked, as if snapping out of a trance. The tips of his ears were bright red. “Yeah. Wow. You’re incredible, Maeve. Thanks.”

I offered him a polite, practiced smile. “Don’t worry about it. If you have more questions, just ask.”

The words had barely left my mouth when I felt it again. That unnerving, possessive stare.

There it was.

My head turned, my eyes landing on Caleb Chen in the row diagonally in front of me. He was the kind of handsome that was almost severe—a sharp jawline, a straight, noble nose, and pale skin that made his dark eyes look like pools of deep water. Right now, those eyes were fixed on the guy smiling at me, and they were filled with a profound, almost tragic sense of grievance.

When he saw me looking, his expression shifted. The anger melted away, replaced by a flicker of sorrow, of deep, lonely ache. He looked like a loyal dog, abandoned by its owner in the rain.

This was, by my count, the tenth time today.

It had been happening since this morning. Any guy who spoke to me—whether it was a classmate trying to get my number on the quad or an upperclassman I was chatting with at a club fair—Caleb would materialize. He’d find a corner, a shadow, and just… watch. And every time I caught him, his eyelashes would flutter, his face settling into that same look of miserable, beautiful despair.

It was beyond strange.

We’d never even spoken. I knew of him, of course. Everyone at Northwood University did. Caleb Chen. The campus heartthrob, the cold genius who was at the top of the Computer Science department. But our paths had never crossed. I commuted to campus, I didn't live in the dorms, and I kept to myself. I wracked my brain, trying to figure out what I could have possibly done to attract the attention of someone like him.

Just as I was about to give up and actually go ask him, the ghost-like text scrolled across my vision again.

【A 29-year-old man would stare daggers at any man near his wife. A 19-year-old Caleb can only stand there, telling himself he has no right to be jealous.】

【LOL. The internal monologue of a desperate husband: Every single man approaching my wife is a goddamn predator!】

【He time-traveled from 29 back to 19. His wife is with someone else. His world already ended, and now these guys keep buzzing around her. He’s losing it.】

【Imagine pining for someone for years, finally having them, and then having to do it all over again. Who wouldn’t go insane?】

…