Replaced by a True Prince, Your Failure Means Nothing Chapter 06

Replaced by a True Prince, Your Failure Means Nothing Chapter 06

They laughed it off and climbed into the back of a taxi.

To punish me and leave me hanging, they’d blocked me on Facebook. And they turned our old group chat of three into their personal little feed.

Maren: [There’s a pop-up market going on at HSU today, it’s so cute!]

Joren: [You only get to enjoy it ’cause I’m right here with you.]

Maren: [Stumbled on this hidden gem shop in Haven!]

Joren: [Too bad someone else can’t come try it. Lucky you get all the good food.]

…

Messages kept rolling in day after day. I never replied to a single one.

A full week dragged by. Joren tossed and turned, unable to sleep. He scrolled back through the chat history, and it hit him slowly—he hadn’t noticed when I’d stopped talking much in the group.

Nearly every conversation was just him and Maren going back and forth.

Anytime I brought up plans to come visit them, they’d brush me off with lazy half-replies. Followed quickly by something like We’re swamped, don’t hit us up unless it’s important.

If I tried starting new topics, they’d act like they never saw my messages at all.

Little by little, I stopped trying to join in. Outside of the occasional quiet mhm or okay, anything I said would get overlooked within three lines.

It dawned on him sluggishly.

When exactly had my feelings stopped mattering so much?

It suddenly hit him.

Back then, he’d already been growing closer and closer with Maren. They’d always clicked easily, and once college started, they were each other’s main person.

On top of that, I was still stuck in senior year high school.

I couldn’t possibly understand everything he was going through. School stress, drama with classmates—he could only vent about all of that to Maren. Naturally, we ran out of things to talk about.

He pressed his lips together, a sinking feeling twisted in his chest. He pulled out his phone and shot Maren a text.

“We should swing by Haven Community College tomorrow.”

“I’ve got this weird feeling… Wynne never actually came to Haven.”

The next day, they bolted straight over to the community college the second their classes ended.

The whole place felt chaotic. When Joren stepped onto campus, he watched a crowd of students yelling at each other off to the side. He frowned deeply.

“This place is rough.”

It took ages to track down the main academic building. They headed straight for the admissions office staff.

The worker tapped lazily at his keyboard, clearly annoyed.

“Nope, don’t have anyone named Wynne on our roster.”

“Beat it. You two aren’t even enrolled here, what are you bothering me for?”

Only once they stepped back outside the school gates did Joren fully process what happened. “She’s not here. Why isn’t she enrolled?”

“She must’ve seen the community college application we set up and picked Vallis out of spite.” Panic surged through him. He scrambled with his phone and unblocked me right away. He hammered out a message and pressed send. All he received was a taunting red failed delivery icon.

Maren tried messaging too, same result.

Joren’s eyes dimmed. “If she figured everything out, why wouldn’t she just apply to HSU instead? Why didn’t she even ask us about any of it?”

Maren worried her lower lip.

“Wynne probably just acted on impulse. This is partially my fault too. We were supposed to go on that post-grad trip and it never happened.”

“If we’d agreed to go with her back then, we might’ve fixed everything before it spiraled.”

“She left without saying a word that day. She must’ve been hurting really badly.”

I’d hit a rough, confused stretch senior year and broken down crying in that group chat once. They comforted me then, promising we’d all drive out to see the ocean once exams wrapped up. But after I left that day, they’d silently dropped the subject entirely. They silently agreed to never bring it up again.

Suddenly, a photo popped up on Joren’s feed.

There I was in the photo, standing at the front gates of Vallis U, camera in hand, grinning bright and free.

He stared, lost in thought.

How nice it would be if I was still right beside him.

Maren tugged lightly at his sleeve, hesitating before she spoke.

“Joren… maybe this works out for the best.”

“She got into a great university. We don’t have to live in constant fear she’ll find out about us. And we still get to be together.”

Joren kept his head down, not uttering a single word.