She stood by the glass wall of the boardroom, clutching the stack of documents she'd spent all night preparing. Her blouse was a little wrinkled, her hair was tied back in a plain bun, and her cheap shoes pinched at the toes—but none of that mattered. Not today. Today, she was going to be noticed.
"Mr. Zhang asked for these figures before the meeting," she said softly, walking up to the long conference table. No one looked up.
Not even him.
Liam Zhang, her boss, her first love, the man who used to sit behind her in class and borrow her pens without remembering her name, sat at the head of the table in his perfect tailored suit. He took the documents without a glance.
"Thanks, Lily," he muttered.
Her name was Lina.
She opened her mouth to correct him, but someone laughed. The new intern. The one who wore lipstick shades Lina never dared to touch and heels that echoed with confidence. "She's the assistant, not a miracle worker," the intern whispered to the woman beside her.
More laughter.
Lina shrank into herself.
The meeting went on. Charts. Sales. Projections. She stood silently at the back, invisible. When it ended, the room cleared. Liam stood, loosening his tie, and turned to her for the first time. Her heart stupidly jumped.
"You forgot to double-check the third quarter projections," he said flatly. "Don't let it happen again."
She blinked. "But I—"
He was already walking out.
....
She stayed late that night. Fixed the numbers. Printed the revisions. Before she took the train home in the rain.
Her tiny apartment was dark. Cold. She dropped her bag and turned on her phone. She sighed softly when she saw a message.
From her father.
"You were the weak link. They needed someone to take the fall. Be grateful it's just a demotion." the message read.
Lina blinked. It took her a while to register the words, and understand what they meant. One sentence. Just like that.
She was fired. Thrown under the bus to protect the higher-ups. Used. Again.
Her fingers trembled. Her lips parted. But no sound came out. No tears, either.
She stared at herself in the mirror. Her skin was pale, her lips thin. Unremarkable eyes. No one ever looked at her twice.
Not anymore.
Not ever again.
Lina smiled. A quiet, broken smile.
"Fine," she whispered. "You want someone to take the fall? I'll take it. But when I rise…"
She wiped the mirror with her sleeve.
"…you'll all kneel."
She didn't sleep.
Not even after shutting off the lights, not after curling beneath the fraying blanket she never had time to replace. Her father's words burned behind her eyelids.
"Be grateful it's just a demotion."
Demotion. That's what he called it.
No apology. No explanation. Not even the decency to say it to her face.
She had given everything to the Cai Group, worked overtime without pay, picked up the slack for managers who got drunk on power, and buried her own brilliance under the role of "obedient daughter." All to prove her worth. To make her father proud. And still, she was disposable.
She took the fall for them so many times, and wasn't even offered a smile from any of them.
The following day, she arrived at the office, only to find her access card revoked.
Security wouldn't even let her up the stairs.
They handed her a brown box with her name scribbled in cold ink and told her to sign a termination form at the lobby desk. Inside the box were the broken pieces of her three years—cheap stationery, a half-dead cactus, and the chipped mug Liam once touched.
She left without signing, and without a word. No one cared about her, and after spending twenty four years on earth, she finally accepted the curse on her.
She hadn't been walking long when the rain returned. It landed on her sharp and cold, slicing through her thin blouse like knives. She ducked beneath a café near the station. She'd never been inside. It was the type of place where confident women in red lipstick and designer coats sipped espresso and laughed like they owned the world.
She didn't belong there.
But she looked inside anyway.
And that's when she saw them.
Liam. And her best friend Cleo.
Sitting together in the corner booth, laughing.
Cleo wore Lina's favorite earrings, the ones she'd once said looked too plain for her style yet took from Lina.
Liam leaned in, brushing Cleo's cheek with his fingers.
Lina's stomach twisted.
Not because they were together. Not because they looked good. But because Cleo caught her staring through the glass… and smirked.
Lina didn't cry. Not there. Not then.
She turned, and walked. Her soaked shoes slapped against the pavement as she moved blindly through the streets. Past the shops. The couples. The glittering world that never noticed girls like her.
She paused when she reached the bridge.
Her hands gripped the railing, and her knuckles white. Beneath her, the city lights shimmered on the river. Cold. Deep. Infinite.
She didn't want to die.
She just wanted to stop existing like this.
Weak. Unseen. Used.
She stared into the dark. She let the silence in. And then, slowly… she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone.
Not to call anyone. People only knew how to need her help but never to offer one.
No one would answer. No one ever did.
Her fingers moved on their own. Steady. Calm.
She deleted her contacts. All of them.
Her father. Cleo. Liam. Every forgotten friend, every unanswered number.
Gone.
Then she opened the front camera.
The reflection on her screen stared back, soaked, trembling, eyes hollow with everything she'd lost.
She took a photo. One photo.
Not to post nor keep it.
Just to remember the last night Lina Yeong existed.
Then, without hesitation…
She tossed the phone into the river.
It vanished with a splash.
And so did she.