I've Been There Before

Grace didn’t sleep well. Her forehead got sweaty.
It was a really long dream.
She dreamed about the old days when her grandfather was still alive. She dreamed about her chasing Caden. She dreamed
about her best time when she was eighteen.
Suddenly, she dreamed about her miserable prison life.
She dreamed about Leona’s death. She dreamed about the day when she regained freedom, her bitter life after that and that
man she could not escape from.
She also dreamed about her parents. But she couldn’t see them clearly.
“Grace, Caden want to be with you forever! Caden want you to be happy forever!”
Suddenly she heard an innocent voice.
She opened her eyes at once and looked at the snow-white ceiling. After a long while, she finally came to her senses and
realized that it was just a dream.
She sat up from the sofa. The door of the balcony wasn’t closed. The cold wind blew in. She trembled with cold sweats.
She raised her hand to wipe the sweat off her forehead. Then she sat motionless like a statue.
That dream was so real, like a movie about her whole life.
It showed the ups and downs in her life.
It showed how she became frail and weak.
Thanks to that dream, she recalled a lot of things.
When she was very young and her grandfather was alive, she was still innocent. She knew that her grandfather was very strict
with her, but he cared about her more than her parents did.
She went to the same elementary school as her brother.

Grandfather never put her under the spotlight. His brother had always received more care from parents, so they lived a different
life.
A chauffeur would send her brother to school. But she didn’t go to school with him.
She looked very ordinary at that time. She was bullied soon after she entered that school. Those bad kids played tricks on her all
the time.
Grandfather asked her not to threaten others with her family background. She should deal with those who bullied her on her own.
But at that time, she wasn’t strong. The seniors always ganged up to bully others.
Every day, she went home with some contusions on her body. Those seniors were not stupid. They hit her on her body part that
was covered by clothes.
Therefore, neither grandfather nor the servants discovered the contusions.
One day, after she finished dinner and went upstairs to do her homework as usual, her brother stopped her and dragged her into
his bedroom. Suddenly, her school uniform was pulled down and he saw the contusions. She still remembered that she was so
angry that she shouted at him.
She still remembered that her brother secretly took out a medical kit from under the bed and silently put medicine on her
contusions. At that time, she lost her temper. She didn’t want others to know she was bullied, so she sneered at her brother and
told him not to meddle in her affairs and not to tell her grandfather.
What did she say to him?
“Payne, do you think you have got something on me? I have the ability to deal with them myself. Don’t tell grandfather about it!”
Her brother said with distain, “It was just a fight. And you lost. I fight a lot, too. That’s why I hide a medical box under the bed.”
Then he drove her out of his room and closed the door.
As a girl who lacked the care of her parents, she was very jealous of her brother. Looking at the door, she even shouted, “I will
win. Let’s wait and see!”
After that, she always fought back and got injured. Every day, her brother would put medicine on her wounds and then chased
her off.

When she finally won, those seniors called over some gangsters who were actually high school students.
She was blocked in the back of the school building. She thought she would be beaten up. But her brother showed up suddenly. It
was the first time that she had seen her brother fight so fiercely. In the end, her brother got injured and his head swelled up. But
he still laughed at her, “Look! I’m a real fighter. You’re not!”
Grace was in a daze. Memories flooded to her.
She also remembered that when her brother fought with those gangsters, he shouted loudly, “Only I can bully my sister. I’ll kill
you if you bully her!”
At that time her brother was fierce.
She sat on the sofa for three hours.
She looked into the distance and recalled the old days. Sometimes she smiled; sometimes she pursed her lips. She seemed to
have been lost in her memories. Not all the memories were good. But some of them were beautiful.
Suddenly, her phone rang. She gathered her wits together. And her eyes became cold and dark.
She checked the phone. It was Caden.
She did not hang up the phone, nor did she answer it.
She quietly stood up from the sofa, picked up her backpack and walked to the entrance.
However, she suddenly stopped. At the entrance, two pairs of slippers were placed side by side.
She stood upright and looked down at the slippers for a while.
She fell into silence.
After a long time, she slowly squatted down, picked up the slippers and threw them into the trash can.
She also threw the couple cups on the bar into the trash can.
And toothbrushes, toothbrush cups, towels ...

Looking at the trash can that was almost full, she smiled mockingly. No wonder he was playing the fool.
He managed to take over her daily life step by step.
She didn’t realize that there were more and more things in pairs until now.
If she hadn’t noticed the slippers, perhaps she would never notice.
She turned around and left without hesitation.