Dump Your Cheating Girlfriend, Says Future Me

In the afternoon, I mysteriously receive a text message from myself seven years in the future. Thinking it's some kind of new scam, I don't even bother reading it before replying, "Get lost, scammer!" However, the sender sends a photo of an empty bottle of sleeping pills and replies, "I'm not a scammer, but I really am dying. Break up with Crystal. Today will be the first day she cheats on you. "Her first true love just returned from abroad today. His name is Reuben Knight." I'm stunned. I'm about to make fun of the scammer for lying so blatantly to me because I clearly know that I am Crystal Harper's first love. At that moment, the door behind me opens. Crystal then strides in with a man behind her. She introduces me to him and says, "Hey, Daniel, I'd like you to meet a friend. This is Reuben Knight, and he's like a brother to me. He just returned from abroad today." Chapter 1 Daniel's POV My girlfriend, Crystal Harper, told me, "The rooms at the old Harper residence aren't ready yet, so Reuben will be staying with us for the time being. "Oh, and by the way, tell the chef to prepare something more comforting for dinner. Reuben just came back from overseas, and I'm worried that he can't get used to the local food here yet." Crystal continued talking, but I couldn't hear a word she said. I just stared at the text message on my phone in my hand, lost in thought for a long time. "Daniel?" Reuben Knight suddenly called out to me, interrupting me mid-thought. He looked at me anxiously and asked, "Is something the matter? You don't look too good… Is it because you think that having me around is a nuisance after all? Actually, I don't mind moving out to a hotel instead…" Crystal immediately frowned at me. I snapped back to the present and forced a smile onto my face. I said, "No, of course you won't be a bother. If Crystal treats you like a brother, then you're also a brother to me. You can stay here with us without worrying about a thing. Make yourself at home. "You guys continue catching up. I'll just go have a word with the chef." Just a few steps later, I couldn't stop myself from questioning the person in my text messages. "Crystal just said that he was like a brother to her. How could he be her real first love? You're lying! Who the hell are you?" Five minutes later, another text message popped out. "I am you, but from seven years in the future. Tell the chef not to put any black pepper in the food because Reuben is allergic to them. "You're probably going to get into a huge fight with Crystal tonight, but it won't help anything. Even if there was no black pepper in the food, there will still be something else to argue about." I didn't know if I could trust this person, but after thinking about it for a long while, I still did as he told me to do and got the chef to leave out black pepper at dinner. During dinnertime, Crystal led Reuben to the table. He casually sat down right next to her, which was where I usually sat at meals. I had already taken one step toward that seat, but I stopped halfway. Reuben looked up at me and grinned innocently at me. "What's the matter, Daniel?" Crystal glanced at me without a word. I felt a little uncomfortable, but I still went over to the other side of the table and sat down opposite them. Reuben just grinned victoriously at me and began to eat. However, he'd only taken two bites when he suddenly clutched at his throat and began dry heaving. "Eugh…" Crystal jumped to her feet and immediately pulled him into her arms, patting him on the back. "Reuben? Reuben, what's the matter with you?" He leaned weakly into her arms and said in a breathy, raspy voice, "B-Black… Black pepper… Allergic… I c-can't breathe… Did Daniel…" Crystal's face turned black at once. She turned to me and began screaming in my face. "Daniel Summers! Are you out of your damn mind? How could you not know that Reuben was deathly allergic to black pepper? "You did this to him on purpose, didn't you? You did it so that he wouldn't feel safe staying with us and he'd move out! How could you be so selfish!" I was so shocked that I stared at her, completely stunned. My eyes turned red with a tingling feeling. I just couldn't understand why Crystal would think of me like that. "You never told me he was allergic." "And you're still making excuses for yourself? Get the hell out of here! I'm taking Reuben to the hospital now!" Hearing this, the chef, Greg Mercer, hurried out with the trash can in his hands and exclaimed, "Wait, Ms. Harper! There has to be a misunderstanding! "Mr. Summers had already told us not to use any black pepper when making dinner tonight! See this? We've already thrown out all the black pepper in the house! We even threw out the white pepper just in case and sanitized the entire kitchen to remove any cross-contamination!" Greg was worried that Crystal wouldn't believe her, and he quickly showed her the CCTV footage of them sanitizing the kitchen and throwing out anything that might have been cross-contaminated. "We've really done a thorough job of it, Ms. Harper!" Crystal was stunned. She looked down for a moment, looking at the video. Just as Greg said, the kitchen staff had removed all potential contaminants and cleaned the whole place right after I told them about dinner. Meanwhile, Reuben somehow stopped dry heaving and gasping for air when Greg suddenly made an appearance in the dining room. His face was slowly returning to normal. I glanced at him. "Have you already recovered, Reuben?" It wasn't until then that he suddenly realized the loophole. But he didn't have the guts to continue faking it anymore, so he had no choice but to say, "Sorry, maybe I just choked on something because I was overly excited just now. "Crystal, please don't blame Daniel for this." Crystal finally removed her gaze from the CCTV footage and looked at me with a guilty expression on her face. "Dan, I—" I knew what she was going to tell me, but it didn't mean anything to me anymore. I now believed everything the me from seven years in the future told me about her. I needed to talk to him now. So, I said, "You guys can continue with dinner. I'm full. I'll just go back to my room." Chapter 2 I texted, "Am I not happy seven years from now?" There was a long silence on the other end after I sent it out. Then, the phone rang, and I saw that it was my future self calling me. I answered the call. The person on the other end of the line sounded tired, weary, hurt, and in great despair. "You'll have married Crystal seven years later in a very grand wedding, and you'll also have a daughter named Pearlie." But before I could even feel happy about that thought, I heard him say, "But you're not the least bit happy. In fact, you're in great torment every day. "Reuben will still be living in your house, doing all sorts of over-the-line things with Crystal every night, but he would always use the excuse of him being her 'brother' to ward you off. "It won't be until you come back early from a business trip and catch them red-handed in your bedroom that they'll finally admit it." I listened to him speak and felt a knife going through my heart. "Crystal will be very sorry about it at first and fall to her knees, begging you to forgive her and that she won't ever do it again. And you believe her because of the baby you're having with her. You can't bear to divorce her at that critical moment. "But when Pearlie is only just seven months old, she will cheat on you again with Reuben. Eventually, she won't even have a shred of remorse left. She'll tell you that she hates how vanilla you are in bed. She'll tell you that she hates how you always get suspicious of her and Reuben. "Even Pearlie will never acknowledge you as her father. She'll only ever call Reuben 'Dad'." He then sent me a family photo. It showed Crystal happily leaning into Reuben's embrace with a little kid about five years old sitting in her lap. They were all smiling happily at the camera. But I wasn't in the photo. And I shouldn't have been absent from it. I continued listening to my future self talking about his life, feeling the pain and despair washing over my body. When he was finally done speaking, I suddenly recalled the photo of the empty bottle of sleeping pills that he'd sent to me at the very start of our conversation. I shakily asked him, "The sleeping pills! You took the sleeping pills, didn't you? How can I save you? I want to save myself too! Are you going to die, Daniel Summers?" There was a long sigh on the other end of the line. Then, his voice slowly grew weaker as he said, "Probably. I think the drug effects are kicking in. But Crystal brought Reuben and Pearlie abroad for a family trip. I guess the maids are the ones who'll discover my body tomorrow. "Just break up with Crystal, Daniel. And don't ever look back!" Right after my future self said that, I heard the sound of the phone clattering heavily on the floor. Then, the call disconnected. I lost control of my emotions and burst into loud sobs. It felt as though I was the one in that empty house seven years from now, watching my future self gradually dying. I cried for a long time until I completely ran out of energy. Then, Crystal finally pushed the door open very lightly and came up to me, gently pulling me into her arms. She stared at my swollen eyes and said, "Dan, I'm really sorry about what happened earlier. I—" I looked up at her and said, "Crystal, let's break up." Chapter 3 Crystal froze. She thought that I was just being temperamental and leaned in to kiss my tears away. "Dan, I know that I was wrong. It's just that Reuben's health isn't too good to start with, and I guess I spoke too soon and too harshly because I was so concerned about him, since he's like a close brother figure to me. "Reuben's already feeling terrible about it and wants to apologize to you for just now. Just let go of the past and pretend it never happened, alright?" I dodged her lips and pushed her off of me. I came clean with her and said, "I know that Reuben is actually your first love, not me." Crystal's face darkened. She suddenly grabbed me tightly by the wrist and demanded, "How the hell did you find out about it? You investigated me in secret, didn't you, Daniel Summers?" My wrists hurt from her vice-like grip. I looked at her and felt my nose tingling with tears once again. "Does it matter how I found out about it?" I asked. "Crystal Harper, you were the one who brought your first love home without telling me anything about it and then misunderstood me afterward. Don't you think that you're the one with some explaining to do instead?" She fell silent after I bombarded her with my questions. She then muttered begrudgingly, "We'd already broken up. He's nothing but a brother to me now." The way she still called him her "brother" stung me in the ears. Suddenly, the voice from seven years later exploded in my mind—I could hear myself arguing with her over her infidelity, and how Pearlie kept calling Reuben "Dad" instead of me. I had enough of it all. I flung her hand off me and headed out. "Only you and God will know whether you're really treating him like a 'brother' or not. We're breaking up, Crystal." However, the moment I yanked the room door open, I saw Reuben eavesdropping on us at the door. His eyes were rimmed red, and he grabbed me by the arm the moment he saw me. He then said pleadingly, "No, Daniel, you can't leave! Crystal and I were just young and dumb back then, and today was all my fault. Please don't argue with her because of me. I'll just leave if you don't like me. "I'm nothing but a disgusting troublemaker for everyone anyway. I might as well just kill myself!" The moment Crystal heard him saying that, she couldn't care less about me anymore and hurriedly grabbed him and pulled him toward her. Then, she turned to me and screamed, "What the hell is going on in your head, Daniel? "Reuben's already apologizing to you and asking you for forgiveness! And you're still going to hold that against us?" In my daze, I seemed to see a scene from seven years later. It would be when I caught Crystal and Reuben red-handed doing the deed in my bedroom when I came home early from a business trip. The way she glared at me with hatred in her eyes then, like I was her sworn enemy, looked exactly the same as she was doing now. She demanded to know why I refused to forgive her as well. I didn't say another word and shoved Reuben out of the way before storming out of the house. Crystal still wanted to come after me, but Reuben suddenly stumbled to the floor and cried out in pain. So, she gave up on running after me and went back to check on Reuben instead. I walked out of the house and stopped a cab by the roadside. The wind was cold and chilly, but I never felt more awake as the frosty wind enveloped me. The cab came to a stop by the roadside. Just as I opened the door to get in, Crystal suddenly grabbed me from the back and stopped me from going in. She glared at me angrily and forcefully dragged me back. "You're coming back with me, Daniel Summers! Reuben's throwing a huge fit and threatening to end his life because of you! You must come back with me and apologize to him right now!" I shook off her hand, wanting to ignore her, but Reuben soon ran out after us. He also grabbed my arm and tried to yank me back into the house, apologizing at the top of his lungs as though he wanted the whole neighborhood to hear him. The cab that I hailed saw the commotion and drove off without another word. In the scuffle, I never even realized that Reuben had somehow managed to drag me out to the center of the street. It wasn't until glaring headlights suddenly flashed at me in the dark of the night that I realized a truck was heading straight toward me. The truck tried to stop with a loud screeching of its tires, and suddenly, everything felt like it was in slow motion. I saw Crystal's terrified face as she reached out for me. But Reuben was also falling in the other direction beside her, and her arm that was initially stretched out toward me suddenly changed direction and grabbed Reuben instead. She managed to pull him to the roadside in safety. However, the truck also ran straight into me the next instant. My body flew into the air several feet off the ground, and then I landed heavily on the ground a few seconds later. I felt an excruciating pain spread all throughout my body, and warm, sticky liquid began pouring from all of my wounds. Just before the world blacked out for me, I heard a robotic voice in my ears. [The storyline has been changed.] Chapter 4 Third-Person POV Seven years later, Crystal looked at the dozens of calls she'd made to Daniel that had all gone unanswered. She felt a sense of unease creeping up on her. Daniel never used to behave like this. He would always make a huge fuss about things whenever she did something like this, texting and calling her every minute on the minute until she finally picked up. He would question her and interrogate her every time, demanding to know why she was still torturing him like this, why she had to cheat on him like this, why she was doing this to him, and then cry and beg for her to go home to him soon. However, it was just too quiet today. Daniel never even sent her a single text message today, let alone made any phone calls. Crystal began to fidget. She grabbed her coat and spoke to Reuben next to her, who was holding Pearlie in his lap. "I'm going back for a bit. You can stay here and continue with the trip with Pearlie." Reuben immediately got to his feet and stopped her from going out. "What's the matter? Is it Daniel again? Did he go crazy on you again today? "Crystal, you know how hard it is for us to finally come out on a trip on our own. Just ignore him. When has he ever stopped bothering you like a madman anyway? If you give in to him now, he's only going to walk all over your head again the next time!" Crystal hesitated, but she still thought of going home to check on Daniel. Reuben sighed helplessly and changed the topic. "You just promised Pearlie that you'd accompany her to the amusement park tomorrow. You're not going to go back on your word and let your own daughter down in front of her, are you?" Reuben then gave Pearlie a look. Pearlie immediately ran up to Crystal and threw herself at her, crying and wailing loudly, "Mommy! You can't go! You're not allowed to go to the Big Bad Man! "Big Bad Man is a bad person! I hate him because he won't let me go to the amusement park! Mommy, you must stay here and bring me there tomorrow! You must keep your promises! You cannot lie to me!" Crystal felt something sharp drive into her heart. She petted Pearlie on the head and corrected her, saying, "How many times do I have to tell you? He is your father. You mustn't call him that." Pearlie then looked up at her with huge, teary eyes. "I'm sorry, Mommy. But I'll be good if you stay. I won't call him Big Bad Man again when we go back." Crystal nodded. This was basically agreeing to stay behind. But throughout the night, she kept checking her phone over and over again dozens of times, and still, she never received a single text message from Daniel. He wouldn't pick up any of her calls either. Around 4:00 am that day, she finally couldn't hold back anymore and booked the earliest flight back home. Reuben rubbed his eyes sleepily at her when she got up from the bed. "Crystal? Why are you up so early? The amusement park won't be open this early." Crystal didn't even look at him and replied, "Daniel hasn't replied to my text messages for a day. I'm worried that something's happened to him. I'm going back to check on him. "You can stay here and keep Pearlie company." She was out of the hotel room before Reuben could even stop her. After the plane touched down, Crystal had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hopped into a cab and asked the driver to hurry back as quickly as possible. When she finally arrived at home, she saw an ambulance parked right at the door. She didn't even wait for the cab driver to come to a complete halt and stumbled out. She rushed into the villa shakily and yelled anxiously, "Dan! What's happened, Dan? Answer me, Daniel Summers!" Nobody replied to her. The maids and butler were all crowded around Daniel's bedroom, and Crystal fought her way through the crowd, finally getting in. There was a white sheet placed over what looked to be a body on the ground. The paramedics got up and looked at Crystal. Then, they said in a grave voice, "Our deepest condolences to you, Ms. Harper. "It seems that Mr. Summers overdosed on sleeping pills last night. He… He can't be brought back anymore."