Jay's POV
The week couldn't end fast enough.
I was officially done with this school.
First, Section E had been pretending I didn't exist for almost an entire week.
Then yesterday they somehow managed to treat me like unpaid staff.
Let's not even start on that.
And now...
Now I was sitting beside Aries, who had apparently decided I no longer existed either.
Wonderful.
If kuya hadn't forced this punishment on us, I would've happily walked to school instead of sitting beside Mr. Grumpy.
Honestly...
Walking sounded peaceful.
We had barely reached the school gate when I spotted a familiar yellow jacket standing near the entrance.
My eyes widened.
"Oh my God!"
I practically jumped out of my seat.
"Stop the car! STOP THE CAR!"
The brakes screeched.
My forehead slammed into the dashboard.
"Ow"
"What the hell, Jay?" Aries snapped, glaring at me. "Do you always have to scream like the world's ending?"
I rubbed my forehead.
"Sorry..."
I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt.
"I'll just go from here."
"For the love of God," he muttered, already driving away, "never scream like that again."
"Okay, okay!"
I shut the door before he could continue his lecture.
The car disappeared.
I didn't care.
Because standing a few metres away...
...was Ci-N.
Finally.
I hurried towards him before he could disappear again.
"Hey."
I tapped his shoulder.
He slowly turned around.
It took him almost ten whole seconds to recognize me.
My smile faded.
Am I bothering him?
Am I the only one trying to keep this friendship alive?
Did I become...that annoying?
"Oh!"
His face suddenly brightened.
"Jay!"
"I missed you."
Before I could react, he pulled me into a quick hug.
My brain instantly forgave him.
No.
No.
Absolutely not.
He ghosted you.
For an entire week.
Control yourself.
I stepped back and folded my arms.
"I'm not talking to you."
I started walking away.
He immediately followed behind me like a guilty puppy.
"Sorry, na, Jay."
Silence.
"I was sick."
More silence.
"I'm serious."
Silence.
"I missed you."
I sighed dramatically.
"You literally vanished."
"I know."
"No messages."
"I know."
"No calls."
"I know."
"No explanation."
"I know."
"So yes."
"I'm mad."
He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
Then something caught my attention.
Bruises.
One near his lip.
Another on his cheek.
Fresh scratches across his knuckles.
I stopped walking.
"...Did you get into a fight?"
"What?"
"Your face."
He instinctively touched his cheek.
"Oh."
"I fell off my cycle."
I stared at him.
He stared back.
"...Do I look that dumb?"
"I actually fell."
"Sure."
"Seriously."
"Mhm."
He looked away.
Definitely lying.
But before I could force another answer, yesterday's scene flashed through my head.
The torn paper.
Yuri's expression.
Keifer looking furious.
Even Aries had gone unusually quiet.
Percy too.
Everyone had reacted like someone had reopened an old wound.
I looked back at Ci-N.
"Fine."
"If you really want me to forgive you..."
His eyes lit up.
"I'll do anything."
I smiled.
"Tell me."
"...What exactly is this confession page everyone keeps talking about?"
His smile disappeared.
"...Oh."
"You know about that?"
"Not really."
"I just know everyone loses their mind whenever someone mentions it."
"Yesterday there was some notice."
"Yuri literally tore it into pieces."
"Keifer looked like he wanted to kill someone."
"Aries became serious."
"Percy too."
"What happened?"
CN stayed quiet for a long moment.
Finally he sighed.
"...I guess you deserve to know."
We continued walking toward the academic block.
"It started around a year ago."
"Someone made an anonymous confession page."
"At first..."
"It was harmless."
"People sent anonymous crushes."
"Confessed feelings."
"Friendship apologies."
"Teachers people secretly liked."
"Random memes."
"The entire school followed it."
He laughed softly.
"Even teachers secretly checked it."
"Seriously?"
"Oh, absolutely."
"But popularity changed everything."
His smile disappeared.
"People realised they could post anything."
"And nobody knew who they were."
"So..."
"The gossip got darker."
He counted on his fingers.
"Body-shaming."
"Slut-shaming."
"Making fun of scholarship students."
"Calling poor students beggars."
"Posting edited screenshots."
"Fake chats."
"Fake relationships."
"False cheating rumours."
"Teachers' private lives."
"Parents."
"Everything."
I frowned.
"...Didn't people report it?"
"They tried."
"But everyone was reading it."
"Even the people who said they hated it."
He wasn't wrong.
Curiosity always wins.
"Then things became worse."
"There was one girl."
"She wasn't popular."
"Someone secretly recorded her getting rejected after she confessed to a senior."
I felt my stomach twist.
"The video reached the confession page."
"The admin mocked her."
"People started making memes."
"They edited videos."
"Made fake quotes."
"Started commenting whenever she walked through the corridors."
He paused.
"She transferred schools before the term even ended."
I looked down.
"...That's horrible."
"It wasn't just her."
"Another scholarship student left because someone exposed how much financial aid his family received."
"A teacher almost lost his job after fake screenshots accused him of taking money for internal marks."
"Half the school stopped trusting each other."
"Friend groups broke apart."
"People fought over rumours that weren't even real."
I swallowed.
"...So the school finally got involved?"
"They had no choice."
"The parents started complaining."
"Teachers were furious because even their families were getting dragged into anonymous posts."
"The management wanted one thing."
"They wanted it over."
I already knew where this was going.
"So..."
"They blamed Section E."
He nodded.
"We were the easiest target."
"The 'problem children.'"
"The class everyone already expected trouble from."
"They checked our phones."
"Our bags."
"Our laptops."
"Questioned us separately."
"We denied everything."
"Because we genuinely didn't know who was running it."
"You weren't?"
He laughed bitterly.
"Jay..."
"We read it."
"We commented on harmless posts."
"Like everyone else."
"But running it?"
"No."
"Not us."
We had almost reached the staircase.
His voice became quieter.
"Then Blair was called."
I froze.
"Blair?"
"You know she used to be in Section E before getting shifted."
I nodded.
"The management offered her a deal."
"If she cooperated..."
"...she'd get transferred back to Section A."
My heart sank.
"What did she do?"
He looked straight ahead.
"She said she'd seen us uploading confessions."
"She claimed we discussed what to post during breaks."
"She even named people."
My chest tightened.
"She mentioned edrix because everyone knew he could hack almost anything."
"She hinted Keifer knew about it."
"She made it sound like the whole section shared one account."
"...None of it was true."
"But once someone inside Section E confirmed the story..."
"...our words meant nothing."
I stayed silent.
"Didn't Keifer stop her?"
His expression changed.
"That's the worst part."
"Back then..."
"Keifer would've done anything Blair asked."
"Anything."
"He defended her every single time."
"So when she accused us..."
"He couldn't even process it."
"He kept saying there had to be some misunderstanding."
"That she'd explain."
"That she wouldn't betray us."
Ci-N smiled bitterly.
"She never did."
"And David?"
"He..."
CN hesitated.
"He accepted the punishment."
"What?"
"He argued there wasn't any proof proving our innocence."
"And if they wanted someone to blame..."
"They'd keep digging until they got one."
"So..."
"He told everyone to stay quiet."
I frowned.
"They were angry?"
"Very."
"They thought their class president gave up too easily."
"Some still think he failed us."
"And some think he saved us from something even worse."
He shrugged.
"No one agrees."
The bell rang across campus.
"So..."
"Blair went back to Section A."
"And Section E became the villains."
"Even though we weren't."
Silence settled between us.
For the first time...
I understood why yesterday's single word
Insider.
had been enough to make Yuri rip the paper apart.
Some wounds didn't heal.
They simply waited for someone to scratch them open again.
(This scene takes place after the re-election fight from the original book.)
Oh, God.
Damn it.
This asshole won.
I don't know why I dislike this guy so much.
What a complete jerk.
I dusted the dirt off my uniform and looked around the ground.
At least I should help David.
I was supporting him.
The crowd had already started leaving. Some students were still talking excitedly about the fight, while others had already forgotten about it.
Typical.
After a few seconds, I finally spotted him.
He was sitting alone near the edge of the ground.
...Damn.
His lower lip was bleeding.
A dark purple bruise had already started forming near his jaw.
His white shirt was stained with dirt, and one sleeve had almost slipped off his shoulder.
That looked painful.
I walked over without saying anything and stretched my hand towards him.
He looked at it.
Then looked at me.
Instead of taking it, he placed one hand on the ground and tried standing up himself.
He barely got halfway before losing his balance.
Seriously?
I rolled my eyes and shoved my hand a little closer.
"Come on."
David's POV
I looked at the hand stretched out in front of me.
Again.
Persistent.
I'd heard about her.
The new girl.
The one who'd somehow ended up in Section E.
I hadn't expected... this.
Most people would've walked away after I ignored them once.
She didn't.
"Come on."
There was annoyance in her voice.
But not impatience.
More like she genuinely couldn't understand why I was making this difficult.
"I can manage," I said.
"You literally can't."
"..."
"You almost fell."
Fair point.
I glanced at her again.
She didn't look uncomfortable standing here.
Didn't seem nervous.
Didn't seem intimidated.
She wasn't trying to impress anyone either.
She was simply offering help.
Nothing more.
"...Unless you're planning on sleeping here," she added, wiggling her fingers, "take my hand."
Despite myself, the corner of my mouth twitched.
Stubborn.
I finally placed my hand in hers.
Her grip tightened immediately.
Firm.
Confident.
She pulled me up before I had the chance to protest.
For a brief second, my balance slipped.
She caught my arm almost instantly.
Reflex.
She probably didn't even think before doing it.
Interesting.
She let go the moment I was steady.
"I was just making sure you didn't fall again," she said quickly, almost as if she needed to explain herself.
"Hm."
"Oh, don't 'hm' me."
I almost laughed.
Almost.
She bent down and picked up my blazer.
Before I could reach for it, she'd already shaken the dust off.
"You fought like an idiot."
"I've been told."
"No kidding."
She held it out.
I reached for it.
Pain shot through my shoulder.
I couldn't stop the slight wince.
Her expression changed immediately.
"...Your shoulder?"
"I'm alright."
"That's not what I asked."
She noticed that quickly.
Most people would've accepted the answer.
She didn't.
Without waiting for permission, she took the blazer back.
"Hold still."
Before I could argue, she carefully helped slide one sleeve over my injured arm.
She was surprisingly gentle for someone who'd been calling me names five seconds ago.
Contradictory.
Or maybe...
More straightforward than contradictory.
She said exactly what she thought, then helped anyway.
"There."
She brushed a bit of dust from my shoulder before taking a step back.
"...Happy?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because next time, try not to get punched."
That earned a quiet laugh from me.
"I'll try."
She folded her arms, looking oddly satisfied.
"...Thanks."
For the first time since she'd walked over, she looked caught off guard.
Interesting.
I turned and walked away before the silence became awkward.
As I reached the corridor, one thought lingered.
So... that's Jay.
Not at all what I'd expected.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Hi besties! 💕 I'm so sorry this update is short, but I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, please leave a comment 💬 and a vote ⭐—it means so much to me! I'm working on the next part, so stay tuned! ✨