“Hi, I’m Ji Ruoyan.”

I was still in sixth grade when I came home one day and found someone sitting in my house. I was so startled that my first instinct was to turn around and call the police. But her cute face, her soft, gentle voice, and a strange sense of familiarity all made me feel safe enough to change my mind.

“Who are you? Why are you in my house?” I asked in my childish voice. “How did you get a key?”

Ji Ruoyan looked at me without saying much. She simply repeated, “I’m Ji Ruoyan.”

“Oh, aren’t you that person from the TV commercial?” I suddenly remembered seeing her on TV.

“I told you, I’m Ji Ruoyan. My mom sent me to keep you company. I heard it’s your birthday today, so…” The girl held her hands behind her back, wearing a strange smile.

“What is it?” I asked, leaning closer in confusion.

“Happy birthday.” The little girl brought a small cake out from behind her back and held it out to me.

I’d already experienced what it was like to spend my birthday alone. Now, though, a pretty girl was here to celebrate with me. I was confused about why her mother had sent her, but I was happy, too.

“Thank you!” I took the cake after thanking her, only to find that I couldn’t pull it away. The slightly chubby little hand on the other end was gripping it tightly. If I didn’t use some force, I probably wouldn’t be able to get it from her.

I gave her a puzzled look. ??? Weren’t you wishing me a happy birthday? Why were you holding on to the cake?

“Cake costs money, you know. This bank card is mine now.” She pulled a bank card out of her pocket. It was the money for my living expenses for the following year. Since nobody else was home, I’d just left it on the coffee table.

I wasn’t sure whether she knew the PIN, but I definitely didn’t dare take that chance.

“I don’t want it anymore. Give me my money.” I let go of the cake and reached for the bank card in her hand. Who’d want a cake worth hundreds of thousands? I immediately gave up on the little cake.

Then I was suddenly thrown down. As a girl, there was nothing wrong with learning a few self-defense techniques, but I was still shocked when a girl who looked about my age, a sixth grader, suddenly twisted my wrist with a joint lock. I was so stunned that I couldn’t react at all.

The next thing I knew, I’d been shoved face-first into the cake.

Her cold voice sounded by my ear. “I offered it to you. If you don’t take it, you’re just being shameless.”

She twisted my wrist hard again, and I fell to the floor.

I had no idea what was going on. Before I knew it, I was afraid of that girl.

“W-who are you, really?” I managed to stammer.

“Well, I might be your fiancée. When we turn eighteen, we’ll get engaged.” The girl’s expression was nothing like the one she wore in the TV commercial. It was almost vicious.

“I don’t want to!” I was suddenly scared. “I don’t want to get engaged to you. What does ‘engaged’ even mean?”

“You think I want this?” Ji Ruoyan casually slapped the cake off the coffee table and into my face.

My vision blurred. I nearly went crazy trying to wipe the cake off my face, but the injury from having my right wrist twisted so hard made me cry out. Tears streamed down my face.

I writhed in pain on the carpet. Tears and snot ran down my face.

“You look awful like that. Whatever, I’ll give it back.” The little girl looked at me with tears and snot all over my face, then tossed the card at me and walked out. Before leaving, she casually pulled the door shut behind her.

The bank card was stuck to my face, smeared with cake cream. I was a complete mess, but more than anything, I was bewildered.

“What on earth just happened?” I stood there, covered in cake and utterly dumbfounded. I wanted to call the police, but somehow it didn’t feel like I should. Then the living room phone rang. It hadn’t rung in a year.

Only after talking to my parents did I learn that they’d given Ji Ruoyan a key to our front door ahead of time. As for the whole fiancée thing, when I asked about it, my parents just smiled and said I’d understand when I was older.

I asked them to change the lock, but my parents said that if I dared change it, I wouldn’t get any living expenses next year. Considering the consequences, I quietly agreed not to change it.

My dad did say he’d discuss with my mom whether they should tell me what was going on. I kept pressing him, but that damn old man wouldn’t let a word slip.

I didn’t see Ji Ruoyan again until three years later.

By then, she’d grown into a beautiful young woman. We met for the second time when she was in eighth grade, and she apologized for what she’d done before.

“I really was too selfish back then. I thought I could scare you off in one go. I’m really sorry.” She looked at me without a hint of remorse, as if I were a piece of trash.

“…” I looked at Ji Ruoyan’s pretty face, unable to imagine how someone could say something so cruel.

“I-it’s fine.” I’d almost forgotten about her, but then I remembered how badly she’d beaten me before. My right wrist began to ache faintly, and an inexplicable fear filled my heart. In the end, though, I decided to forgive her. Whatever. Why should a man like me get angry with a woman I barely knew?

“I’m going to stay at your place for a few days.” Ji Ruoyan dropped that line and walked off on her own.

The next evening, my whole body aching, I stared in astonishment at Ji Ruoyan lying beside me in a thin nightgown and taking pictures. “

“When you said you’d stay for a bit, did you mean you’d come to my house, beat me up, and then take a picture with me?”

My voice was full of disbelief. Was this woman crazy?

“Yeah. Otherwise, how would my family believe that we’d started living together? Hurry up and hug me!” Ji Ruoyan twisted my ear and ordered me sharply.

“No! Ah, my ear! &……*&……&*” She’d already given me a thorough beating, so I timidly played along and let her take pictures, even though I had a soft, warm beauty in my arms.

But the pain all over my body left no room for any other thoughts. I didn’t dare have any, either.

By now, she was a fairly well-known actress and a wonderful singer. Countless people called her voice heavenly, and because she was so gentle with her fans, they called her an angelic singer.

But in front of me, someone like her showed almost no gentleness at all. I couldn’t make sense of it.

Ji Ruoyan soon started coming over to my place. She lived with me for the next few days—though only at night. After we took pictures together, she’d leave.

“I really hate you!” I looked at her with undisguised disgust. Being around this woman made me feel awful.

“You think I like you?” She didn’t care at all about what I’d just said. She raised an eyebrow, then grabbed my elbow joint again. It turned out that even though I’d diligently trained in all kinds of martial arts to protect myself, I still couldn’t last more than three moves against her before she got me in a hold.

Then came another savage beating.

In my phone contacts, her name was saved as “Half a Person.” I could appreciate her looks and figure, but not her character. In my eyes, she wasn’t normal. I’d thought about filming her and exposing her, but my parents had specifically called to warn me: if I let any scandal about her get out, they’d cut ties with me.

Whenever I complained that she hit me, or cried while showing off my bruises, Mom pretended not to notice. Dad, meanwhile, would grin and tell me Ji Ruoyan’s story, trying to talk me around.

Back in eighth grade, I’d pressed Dad to tell me what was going on with this woman named Ji Ruoyan. He gave me the general picture, then offered me two choices: cut ties with Ji Ruoyan completely, or save a woman who’d been driven into a difficult situation because of her childhood engagement to me.

At first, I chose to cut ties without hesitation. But Dad talked me around with all kinds of heroic stories, and soon this eighth-grade boy was fired up with enthusiasm—in other words, I was deep in my chuunibyou phase.

I put my hands on my hips and shouted, “I’m going to save this poor woman!”

And then… I had to stand by what I’d said, didn’t I?

After a few years of dealing with Ji Ruoyan, I understood that her family had arranged a childhood engagement between her and me. So whenever our parents happened to talk and her family heard I was home alone, they sent her over to live with me, hoping we’d grow closer.

Yeah, if they say hitting is affection and scolding is love, then Ji Ruoyan and I must be madly in love.

Though it was all one-sided—she was the one who loved me and kissed me like crazy.

To put an end to all the violence I’d been subjected to, I once offered to break off our childhood engagement unilaterally and set her free. All I asked was that she stop bothering me. I thought she’d agree right away, but she refused.

Her reason was that her family supported her career as a singer and actress. The most important thing was that she’d also agreed to go along with the childhood engagement her family had arranged. So until she could fully break free from her family, she’d keep up this so-called living-together arrangement with me.

Yeah. Whenever we needed to take pictures, she’d come over, beat me half to death until she was sure I wouldn’t get any ideas, then curl up in my arms and take all kinds of intimate photos with me. The reason my face was flushed and I looked so worked up in those pictures was just that my joints hurt like hell.

Damn it, you call that blowing off steam? Your family beat you into an idiot when you were little, and now you take it out on me? There were plenty of times I almost couldn’t take it anymore, but I’d promised Dad, so I put up with it… After all, Dad had a point. This woman was a pitiful kid.