After School – Jay's Apartment, Midtown
The door clicked shut behind me.
No bodyguards.
No classmates.
No chessboard of girls watching my every move.
Just quiet.
I dropped my bag on the floor and collapsed onto the bed—still fully dressed, staring at the ceiling like it had answers.
It didn't.
The silence was too loud.
Jay's Thoughts
Yuki offered me power.
Control.
She handed me the keys to the machine and said, "Let's take it all."
And I walked away.
Because I wanted to be normal.
Didn't I?
I've said that since the start.
"I just want to live like everyone else."
But today… that felt like a lie I was telling myself.
Because "normal" doesn't come with rumors like landmines.
Doesn't come with stares every hallway.
Doesn't come with friends you're slowly hurting just by being close.
Emma. Amaya. Sofia.
Even Tyler.
I closed my eyes.
What if Yuki was right?
What if they're already in danger?
He Sat Up Slowly
I stared at the night sky from my window.
"I didn't ask for this," I whispered to no one.
But that didn't change the fact that it was mine now.
This school.
This attention.
This throne.
Even if I never wanted it—
The world was trying to crown me anyway.
Scene Shift – That Same Night
Somewhere in the school…
Yuki Dawson walked silently down a hallway most students didn't know existed.
A skeleton key in her hand.
Eyes like polished steel.
Expression unreadable.
She reached the abandoned broadcast booth. Entered a password on a tablet wired into an old wall panel. Red light blinked once.
System Access: Granted.
She plugged in her flash drive.
Yuki's Perspective Begins
Jay Markov declined my offer.
He chose peace. Emotion. People.
That makes him predictable. Vulnerable.
She uploaded a data package labelled: "Counter-Rumor Campaign: Phase 1."
But I already knew he would say no.
That's why I started working before I asked.
On her laptop, multiple windows opened:
Anonymous posts retracting rumor's
Screenshots "accidentally" leaked to clear Emma
A fake group chat log to neutralize gossip about Amaya
A subtle shift in algorithm to flood the school feed with new distractions
Everything scheduled.
Everything precise.
Yuki at Her Most Dangerous
She sipped tea in silence while the chaos burned itself out in perfect, calculated order.
You want to be normal, Jay.
Then I'll make it possible.
Even if it means erasing the people who are trying to control you.
She leaned back in the squeaky chair.
Even if it means I become the villain to save you from being devoured.
Flashback – Her Past in One Sentence
A faint memory stirred.
A man's voice. Cold. Efficient.
"To win, you don't need to feel. You just need to calculate who bleeds slower."
She blinked it away.
Then whispered to the empty room:
"Let's see how long you can stay in the light, Jay."
And then she pressed enter.
Next Morning – St. Ivy High School
When I stepped into the hallway, something felt different.
Not louder. Not quieter.
Just… lighter.
Like a storm had passed and no one had realized it rained.
I made it to my desk without a single dramatic whisper or suspicious glance.
Tyler walked in right behind me, clapped a hand on my back. "Yo! The internet's actually chill today. Did we enter an alternate universe?"
Emma passed by me on the way to her seat. No glare. No sidestep. Just… neutral.
I blinked.
Sofia waved lazily. "Morning, Starboy."
Normal. Casual. Teasing—but not sharp.
And Amaya?
She walked over, handed me a warm canned coffee from the vending machine.
"I thought you looked tired," she said with a soft smile.
I took it, stunned. "Thanks."
She sat beside me.
Said nothing else.
But this time… it didn't feel distant.
It felt like we'd reset.
Somehow.
Elsewhere – Yuki Observes
From the last row, Yuki watched quietly.
She didn't take out her books.
Didn't speak.
Didn't even blink much.
But she watched.
As Emma looked at Jay without tension.
As Amaya tilted her head toward him just slightly.
As Sofia laughed again without bitterness.
The variables are stabilizing, she noted mentally.
The noise is under control.
No One Noticed
No one saw the fake logs quietly deleted from the class group chat.
No one saw the private posts flooded with supportive comments from throwaway accounts.
No one saw the senior who started the first rumor quietly change his tone the night before.
But it all happened.
Because she made it happen.
Yuki's Thoughts
He doesn't belong to me.
But I will protect what belongs to him.
Until he's ready to choose who he really is.
And then, for the first time that morning—
Yuki allowed herself the smallest of smiles.
Barely a flicker.
But real.