1 My six-month boyfriend, who texted me every day, confessed to my roommate on our first day of college. She wore my bunny scrunchie. As I reached for my phone to demand answers, glowing holographic text flooded my vision. [LMAO the side character thinks she matters. Log off.] [The FMC borrowed the villainess’s scrunchie and sparked instant love. Those looks were electric.] [Wait for the tantrums. Even if exposed, the ML returns to our girl. Angst fuels top-tier romance.] [He liked the side character only until meeting the FMC. Our girl wins every gaze.] I froze mid-reach. My phone buzzed with his message. “Babe, switch to my main number. Deleting this alt.” I typed a question mark and hit send. A red exclamation point appeared. Message failed. I had been blocked. The floating comments were still rolling frantically in front of my eyes. [Hahahaha this is too funny. The main couple just added each other on Snapchat. He thinks she's using a burner account, so he just nuked the old one without a second thought. The side character looks so mad right now.] [Stay mad, honestly. Her only purpose in this story is to play matchmaker for the main couple. If it wasn't her, it would be someone else.] [Ugh, but she's totally about to go stalk him and act desperate. It sucks that our main couple is going to be forced apart. So stressful.] [Chill out! A brief separation will only make him realize that his heart truly belongs to our sweet girl. The more the villainess bullies her, the more chances he gets to play the hero. The hurt just makes the comfort ten times better!] I stood there staring at the floating words for a long time until the pieces finally clicked together in my head. Before heading downstairs, my roommate Sophie had asked to borrow my hair tie. Tristan saw the little bunny scrunchie in her hair, mistook her for me, and instantly poured his heart out to her. And just like that, they exchanged contacts. Tristan assumed the chat we had been using for half a year was just my secondary account, so he wiped it clean without a trace of hesitation. While I was lost in my own thoughts, Sophie casually walked back into our dorm room and stopped right in front of me. "Hey Lily, could you actually just sell this scrunchie to me? Please?" Before I could even process her words, she pulled out her phone and sent me ten bucks on Venmo, almost as if she was terrified I would say no. "Just sent the money over. Thanks so much!" She hugged her phone to her chest and practically skipped back to her bed, a dreamy smile plastered on her face. I opened my mouth, but the refusal died in my throat. Tristan had no idea that the girl he had been falling for over the past six months was actually me. We had originally crossed paths on an anonymous college forum. It took me months to finally muster up the courage to send him that first direct message. In the beginning, he was freezing cold. I was lucky if I got a single reply for every ten messages I sent. But I was happy just to have his attention. I racked my brain every single day trying to come up with interesting topics, just hoping he would talk to me a little longer. Slowly, the walls came down. He started replying faster. The real turning point happened at midnight a few months ago. He randomly texted me, asking if I could wish him a happy birthday. I was startled, but I replied instantly. We ended up staying on the phone until the sun came up. That was the night I learned his mother had passed away when he was young, and his dad had quickly remarried and started a new family. It was his birthday, and not a single person in his life had remembered. From that night on, everything shifted. We talked constantly. Three months later, we made it official. Once we started dating, Tristan became incredibly clingy. He begged to meet up in person all the time, but my own insecurities always held me back. We finally made a promise to meet on the first day of college. This morning, before Sophie left the room, she asked if she could borrow a hair tie. I handed her a plain black one, but she reached right past me and snatched the bunny scrunchie off my pillow. By the time I turned around to get it back, she was already out the door. I never in a million years imagined that Tristan would look at a piece of hair elastic and just assume the girl wearing it was me. I wanted to march over to Sophie and ask if she knew he had the wrong person. I wanted to ask why she was so desperate to buy it off me. More than anything, I wanted to run downstairs, stand right in front of Tristan, and scream that he had made a massive mistake. But my legs felt like they were filled with concrete. I couldn't take a single step. [What's going on? Why hasn't the villainess gone after him yet? Shouldn't she be storming out in a jealous rage right about now?] [Right? The plot is lagging.] [Man, poor FMC. She doesn't even know the crazy roommate has figured it out. She's just enjoying her sweet little romance. They're about to get ripped apart and I'm already crying for her.] [Stay strong, sweetie!] I desperately wanted to go find him. But the floating text was painfully clear. Tristan and Sophie had experienced love at first sight. Even if I laid out all the evidence, he would still choose her in the end. I stood by my desk, battling with myself. Finally, the suffocating knot in my chest won out. I needed to face him. Even if he really did choose Sophie, I owed it to myself to fight for the relationship I had poured my heart into. Before leaving the room, I opened Venmo and sent the ten dollars right back to Sophie. "Sorry. It's not for sale. Give it back." That scrunchie was the only physical gift Tristan had ever given me. He was always trying to spoil me, randomly dropping hundred-dollar CashApp payments just to make me smile, constantly promising that we would be together forever. If I had known he would recognize a piece of fabric instead of my actual soul, I would have chased Sophie all the way to the lobby to rip it out of her hair. Seeing my outstretched hand, Sophie instinctively hid her hands behind her back, her fingers clutching the little fabric bunny for dear life. "L-Lily, didn't I already send you the money?" I shook my head. "I'm not selling it." I paused, deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt. "That scrunchie means something really special to me." The moment those words left my mouth, Sophie's eyes welled up with dramatic tears. The other girls in the dorm immediately sensed the tension and rushed over to play peacekeeper. "Come on Lily, it's just a cheap hair tie. If Sophie likes it, just let her have it." "Yeah, plus she already paid you. You can get a pack of those at Target for like five bucks. Ten dollars is more than fair." I stood there in heavy silence. "This isn't about money," I finally said, my voice dangerously calm. "I told you, I don't want to sell it. It has sentimental value." Seeing I wasn't going to back down, my roommates awkwardly dropped the subject. Sophie bit her lip, her eyes red and puffy, and slowly reached out to hand it back to me. But just as my fingers brushed the fabric, she let go. The hair tie plummeted to the floor. The little bunny charm was made of solid ceramic. It hit the unforgiving dorm tiles with a sharp crack, splitting cleanly into two jagged pieces. My hand hung suspended in the empty air. "Oh my god! I am so, so sorry Lily! It was a total accident, I thought you had a grip on it!" "I am so sorry, I'll just pay you for it again, I feel terrible." Sophie let out a pathetic little sob, frantically tapping on her phone to send me another ten dollars. My roommates immediately swooped in to defend her. "Let it go, Lily. She clearly didn't mean to drop it. Don't be so hard on her." "Seriously, we have to live together for the next four years. Let's not make things weird over an accident." I couldn't stomach another second of it. I bent down, picked up the shattered pieces, and walked straight out of the dorm without looking back. I wasn't an idiot. I knew exactly what Sophie did. She let go on purpose. But it was true that the hair tie wasn't worth much money. If I stayed in that room and screamed at her, all I would get were a few empty apologies. She had already sent the money. If I kept pushing, I would just look like the crazy, obsessed roommate making a scene over a piece of trash. And yet. My vision blurred as a hot, stinging sensation gathered in my eyes. I really loved that little bunny. Tristan had walked past a boutique one afternoon, FaceTimed me, and asked if I liked anything in the window. I had pointed at the little ceramic charm. He bought it right then and there and mailed it to me in a carefully wrapped box. And now it was broken. I paced back and forth outside the freshman boys' dorms. Guys walking by shot me curious, lingering glances. The text in my vision flared up again, scrolling faster than before. [Tsk tsk tsk, here comes the villainess. She really doesn't know when to quit.] [She knows our FMC already met the guy, but she still has to come ruin the vibe. So toxic.] [Standard jealous female side character behavior. Vicious and petty. But honestly, without her causing drama, how else is the main couple supposed to bond?] [Does she seriously think begging is going to work? This is just embarrassing. Second-hand embarrassment is so real right now.] [I feel like the male lead is going to be tainted... I mean, when he first finds out the truth, he actually gets manipulated into dating the villainess for a few days...] I stared at the glowing words, my chest tight. A part of me just wanted to turn around and walk away. But the anger burning in my veins refused to die down. We had spent countless hours pouring our hearts out through glowing screens. I had spent the entire summer dreaming about the moment we would finally meet. Would he like the real me? Would he think I wasn't pretty enough? Would I be a disappointment? My fingers tightened around the sharp edge of the broken ceramic bunny, the pain grounding me. If I told him the truth, would it really end exactly like the floating text predicted? If he was just going to leave me anyway, what was the point of humiliating myself? The longer I stood there, the faster my courage bled out into the cool afternoon air. Just as I turned around, fully prepared to swallow my pride and walk away. I saw Tristan striding aggressively toward me. 2 Tristan was moving fast, carrying a wave of hostile energy with him. He stopped inches away from me. His jaw was clenched, his brows drawn together in a deep scowl. There was absolutely no joy of a first meeting in his eyes. Just pure, unfiltered disgust. "Are you Lily?" His tone was ice-cold, dripping with condescension. The broken ceramic edge bit deeply into my palm, but I forced my spine straight and gave a single nod. "I am." Tristan let out a harsh, mocking laugh. He shoved his hands into his pockets, staring down at me like I was something scraped off the bottom of his shoe. "Sophie came back to the dorm crying her eyes out. She said you bullied her over some cheap piece of trash. We're all in the same college, why are you so incredibly bitter?" "She literally just borrowed something from you. She paid you for it. What more do you want? Are you not going to be happy until you force her to move out?" The accusations hit me like a barrage of physical blows. I looked up at the face I had memorized from dozens of late-night selfies. The surreal absurdity of the situation almost made me laugh. Just last night, this exact same guy was calling me sweet names, promising that the second we met, he would buy me the most beautiful gifts in the world. Today, to defend a girl who stole my hair tie, he was standing in the middle of campus calling me a bitter bully. The floating text exploded like a fireworks show. [Yessss! Go off king! He sees right through her toxic vibe and steps up to protect our girl!] [The villainess is probably seething right now, but she can't even say anything back. His aura is way too intimidating.] [That's what you get for messing with our sweet girl! Tell her, Tristan! Don't hold back!] I took a slow, deep breath. I walked over to the nearest trash can and dropped the broken pieces of ceramic inside. "Tristan." I said his name, my voice completely devoid of emotion. He flinched. He clearly hadn't expected me to speak to him so casually. His frown deepened. "How do you know my name? Did Sophie tell you?" I completely ignored the question. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and opened the exact messaging app account he had just blocked. The red 'Message Failed' icon was still glowing brightly on the screen. I flipped the phone around and shoved it right into his line of sight. "Take a good look at this." Tristan glanced at it with pure annoyance, but a second later, his eyes locked onto the screen. His entire body went rigid. The profile picture on that account was a photo he had picked out for me. The chat background was a picture of the city skyline he had taken himself. And sitting right there at the bottom of the screen was the log of our three-hour voice call from the night before. The disgust melted off his face, replaced by a horrifying pale shock. His pupils dilated. "You..." He opened his mouth, but the word choked in his throat. I didn't give him a single second to breathe. I tapped on a voice note he had sent me three days ago. "Babe, the second I see you on campus, I'm going to grab you and hold you so tight. Nobody is ever going to take you away from me." My phone volume was turned all the way up. Tristan's deep, desperately affectionate voice echoed loudly outside the dorms. A few guys walking past stopped dead in their tracks, their eyes wide with juicy gossip, staring right at us. All the blood drained from Tristan's face. He looked like he had been physically bolted to the pavement. "Did you hear that?" I pulled my phone back, locking eyes with his terrified, bloodless face. I pronounced every single word with razor-sharp clarity. "That scrunchie was sitting on my bed. Sophie took it and put it in her hair without asking me." "You're not just legally blind, Tristan. You're actually brain-dead." "Consider the last six months of my time charity work. We are completely done." Tristan looked like he had been struck by lightning. It took him several agonizing seconds to even form a coherent thought. He stared wildly at my face, then back at my phone, his lips trembling. "You're... you're the one I've been talking to? How is that even possible?" "But she was wearing the bunny! I asked her if she was Lily, and she nodded!" I watched his pathetic panic attack with nothing but cold amusement. "She nodded, so you just bought it? We talked every single day for half a year. You don't even know my vibe? My personality? My face? A ten-dollar hair tie is all you need to identify the love of your life?" Panic fully set in. He instinctively took a step forward, reaching out to grab my hand. "Lily, wait, you have to let me explain. I was just so hyped to finally meet you, my brain completely short-circuited, I thought—" I took a sharp step back, dodging his hand like it was diseased. "Don't call me that. It makes me sick." "You weren't acting like this two minutes ago. Weren't you just demanding justice for your precious Sophie? Go on. Go be her knight in shining armor." The floating text above me started glitching out in a chaotic frenzy of panic. [Holy shit?! Why is the plot leaking early?! He wasn't supposed to find out for another three weeks!] [Why isn't she following the script?! She's supposed to swallow her pride and silently plot her revenge! If she just dumps the truth like this, how does the story even work?!] [We're doomed. He knows he messed up. What happens to our FMC now?!] [Everyone chill! He's just shocked! Did you guys forget they had love at first sight?! Even if he knows the truth, he's definitely going to realize he likes the FMC more!] I looked at the desperately coping comments floating in the air and felt the last heavy knot of grief dissolve from my chest. They could twist the narrative all they wanted. A guy so aggressively stupid that he couldn't even recognize the girl he claimed to love wasn't a prize. He was a liability. I didn't want him. "Tristan. Delete my number. Block me on everything. If you see me on campus, cross the street." I spun on my heel and walked away. Looking at him for one more second felt like a waste of oxygen. Tristan shouted my name, his voice cracking with desperate panic. I didn't even turn my head. I walked out of the dorm quad with long, confident strides. The warm afternoon sun hit my face, and suddenly, I felt incredibly light. Draining my own energy for someone who wasn't worth it was the dumbest thing I could possibly do. When I got back to my own dorm, the door was cracked open. Before I even touched the handle, I heard Sophie's pathetic, wavering voice echoing from inside. "I honestly didn't know the hair tie was that big of a deal to her. It was just so cute, I thought she wouldn't mind if I wore it for a bit..." "The way she glared at me downstairs... it really scared me. My hands were shaking so badly I dropped it. She definitely hates me now." Jenna, one of my roommates, sighed heavily. "Stop crying, Sophie. Honestly, Lily is doing too much. Throwing a massive fit over a cheap piece of elastic is crazy." Brooke chimed in right on cue. "Right? We literally have to live together for four years. If she's going to act like a psychopath over every little thing, this is going to be a nightmare." I stood outside the door, a cold smirk spreading across my face. I lifted my leg and kicked the door right open. The heavy wood slammed against the wall with a deafening crack. The room went dead silent in a millisecond. Sophie violently flinched. The fake tears were still glistening on her cheeks as she looked up at me with wide, terrified eyes, playing the ultimate victim. "L-Lily... you're back." I walked straight past her, pulled out my desk chair, and sat down. I stared at her. "Are you done crying? Because if you're not, keep going. I'll record a quick video and drop it on the campus snap story so the whole school can see what a tragic victim you are." Sophie's face drained of color. She frantically wiped her eyes. "Lily, please don't do this. I already said I was sorry..." "Save your apologies." I cut her off instantly. "You should be apologizing to Tristan." The second the name 'Tristan' left my mouth, Sophie's eyes darted nervously to the floor. Her fingers twisted into her shirt. I raised my voice so every single person in the room could hear me loud and clear. "You walked downstairs wearing my scrunchie. Tristan looked right at you and asked if you were Lily. Why did you nod?" "You knew damn well he was the guy I had been dating online for six months. You didn't just steal my identity, you played right along and added his contact. Tell me, Sophie, does stealing someone else's boyfriend give you a power trip?" The air in the room practically froze solid. Jenna and Brooke stared at me, their jaws practically on the floor, whipping their heads back and forth between me and Sophie. "Wait, Lily... what did you just say? Tristan is your boyfriend?" Jenna stammered. I tossed my phone onto the desk, the chat logs glowing brightly. "Read it yourselves. We've been talking for six months. We were supposed to meet today. Instead, Sophie stole my hair tie, pretended to be me, and then had the nerve to text him crying, sending him over to yell at me for being a bully." My roommates leaned in to read the screen. Their expressions instantly soured. Brooke physically took a step away from Sophie, staring at her with pure disgust. "Sophie, what is actually wrong with you? That is insane." Sophie panicked. She threw her hands up, her fake tears entirely replaced by genuine terror. "I didn't do it on purpose! I swear I didn't know he was your boyfriend! I thought he just mistook me for someone else, and he was so cute, I just panicked and gave him my snap... I really didn't know!" I watched her pathetic act with absolute zero sympathy. "You didn't know? Then how did you know exactly who to run to when you wanted someone to come scream at me outside the dorm?" "Cut the victim routine, Sophie. I just ripped Tristan a new one downstairs and dumped his ass." "Since you love digging through my trash so much, you can keep the cheating loser. You two are perfect for each other." The floating text was having a complete meltdown right in front of my face. [I am so incredibly angry right now! Why is the villainess such a massive bitch?! How dare she call our sweet girl trash!] [Don't cry, baby! You don't deserve to share a room with a psycho like her!] [Everyone calm down, the male lead is totally going to come comfort her. The higher the villainess acts right now, the harder she's going to fall later.] [Exactly! Once Tristan sees how pure and innocent our FMC is, he's going to fall head over heels. The villainess is just digging her own grave!] I didn't even waste a blink on the holographic copium. Digging my own grave? We would see about that. The first week of classes started, and I completely detached myself from the drama. I threw every ounce of my energy into my industrial design courses and upcoming projects. The university had just announced the "Apex National Design Competition." It was a massive deal for freshmen. Winning the national gold didn't just mean a $10,000 cash prize. It guaranteed a fast track to a master's program. I didn't have the time or the brain cells to care about whatever pathetic soap opera Tristan and Sophie were filming. I lived in the library and the design studio, pulling reference data and building 3D models. One afternoon, I was sitting in my major's core lecture.
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