Just as I had convinced myself to become a sugar baby for a greasy, middle-aged businessman, floating text suddenly materialized out of thin air right in front of my eyes. [This cannon fodder side character is ridiculously stupid. Her roommates are using her selfies to catfish hot billionaires, and she is out here willingly settling for a wrinkled creep.] [The worst part? She catches something incurable from the old guy, loses her mind, and ends up jumping off a roof. Tragic.] [You have to admit, the female lead is an absolute genius. To avoid getting caught, she dragged her other two roommates into the catfish ring so they were all complicit.] [The funniest plot twist is that the three billionaires are childhood best friends. LMAO. They were all hiding their online relationships from each other. If they had just compared notes once!] [In the end, all three guys fall for the female lead in real life. It just proves they did not love the side character's face, they loved the female lead's beautiful soul.] Behind me, my three roommates were busy flexing the luxury gifts their "online boyfriends" had just sent them. Brittany, the self-appointed dorm president, suddenly called my name and pointed her phone camera at me. "Sienna, give me a heart!" I looked straight into the lens and smiled sweeter than I ever had in my life. Since they were using my face as bait to reel in these massive catches, it was only fair that I claimed the fish for myself, right? 01 [Oh my god, Brittany sent that photo to Asher, and he absolutely loved it. He just transferred her another five grand to buy the newest iPhone.] [Asher is not just new money, his family has deep political ties. Five grand is literally pocket change to him. But whatever, all his wealth is going to belong to our female lead baby eventually anyway.] I looked down at my own phone. The screen was shattered like a spiderweb. Five grand for a single selfie. I fully admit, I was deeply jealous. Brittany should have been thrilled about the cash, but she suddenly let out a panicked gasp. The other two girls instantly swarmed her desk, asking what was wrong. Brittany shot a look in my direction, clearly thinking she was being subtle. Vanessa, who was sitting closest to me, cleared her throat and put on a fake smile. "Sienna, were you about to head to the dining hall? Could you grab a salad for me?" Ever since these three started their billionaire catfish operations, they decided campus food was beneath them and exclusively ordered delivery from five-star restaurants. If Astor University did not have a strict mandatory dorm policy for underclassmen, they would have rented luxury apartments off-campus ages ago. Vanessa was obviously just finding a cheap excuse to get rid of me. I kept a perfectly straight face, quietly slipped a disposable paper cup into my sleeve, and smoothly agreed before walking out. The moment the door clicked shut, I pressed the open end of the cup flat against the wood and pressed my ear to it. Brittany's voice came through, trembling with sheer panic. "What do I do? Ash is asking to meet up in person again." "This is the third time. If I reject him again, he is definitely going to get suspicious." Brittany had milked Asher dry. In just one year, she had hoarded over a dozen designer bags, not to mention a mountain of other extravagant gifts. For her birthday this year, he literally shipped her a diamond necklace worth tens of thousands of dollars. Having grown addicted to this lavish lifestyle, Brittany was terrified of losing her golden goose. In comparison, Vanessa remained entirely calm, playing the mastermind. "Just agree to the date for now. When the time comes, tell him your roommate had a medical emergency and you cannot make it. Penny and I will back up your story." Brittany acted like she had just been handed a life preserver, thanking Vanessa profusely. With the crisis averted, the dorm fell silent. The floating comments, however, were going absolutely wild. [Our female lead is truly the brains of this trio. So smart!] [Those two should literally worship the ground the female lead walks on. They would not have a dime without her brilliant ideas.] [Luckily, all three male leads eventually fall for the female lead, forcing these two freeloading parasites to cough up everything they stole.] Reading that, I finally confirmed my theory. Vanessa was the legendary "female lead" the comments were raving about. And that greasy old man I almost sold my soul to? He was a contact Vanessa had specially introduced to me. 02 I did not even have to eavesdrop to find out the details. The floating text helpfully leaked the exact location of Brittany and Asher's supposed date. Incredibly, it was the exact same luxury hotel where I had just been hired for a part-time job two days ago. Because I had previously planned on accepting the sugar daddy arrangement, I had lost all motivation to work and called the hotel to decline the job. Thankfully, when I called the hiring manager back, he did not give me any grief. He told me I could come in and start my shift immediately. I could not help but reach up and touch my own cheek. I knew exactly why the manager was so accommodating. It was because of my face. Ever since middle school, I knew I was stunning. My locker was constantly stuffed with love letters. But my mother always drilled it into my head that I should never use my looks for deceitful gains. So I had always kept my head down, relying on my own hard work to make a living, never once considering taking a shortcut. Ironically, I refused to take the shortcut, but someone else happily borrowed my face to take it for me. I rushed to the hotel. Thanks to my looks, I was immediately assigned to the front entrance as a VIP greeter. Through the comments, I knew Asher had been sitting in his private dining suite waiting for Brittany for three solid hours. Exactly five minutes ago, he received the text that he was being stood up. Catching a glimpse of a tall, imposing figure descending the grand staircase, I deliberately shifted my tray of drinks and crashed right into him. Asher was already visibly frustrated from being stood up by his online girlfriend. When I bumped into him, his head snapped up, his eyes flashing with irritation. I kept my head bowed, frantically apologizing while dabbing at his expensive suit jacket with a napkin. Right before he could snap at me, I jerked my head up. The absolute second Asher saw my face, he froze completely. He grabbed my wrist with an iron grip, his voice cracking with unfiltered shock and joy. "Baby?!" I put on a flawless mask of confusion and quickly yanked my hand back. "Sir, I believe you have the wrong person." Asher panicked, stepping closer. "Baby, it is me. It is Ash." "Sir, I honestly do not know you. Please step back." My absolute coldness acted like a bucket of ice water over Asher's enthusiasm. He stood frozen in the lobby, his expression cycling through confusion, realization, and then a dark, stormy anger. Just as the tension reached a breaking point, my cell phone rang. 03 Listening to the voice on the other end, I let my tears spill over, crying silently and beautifully. I hung up the phone. Completely ignoring the mess I had made and not even bothering to tell my manager, I bolted toward the hotel exit. Asher chased right after me. He reached out, instinctively wanting to wipe the tears from my cheeks. But his hand hovered in the air, stopping just short of my skin. I did not let him pull away. I grabbed his hovering hand, letting my tears fall thick and fast. "Sir, do you have a car? It is impossible to get a cab around here right now. Could I please beg you to drive me to City General Hospital?" In the passenger seat, I kept up a quiet, heartbreaking rhythm of soft sobs. Asher kept his eyes on the road, freeing up one hand to pass me a tissue. "Did something happen? Maybe I can help." I bit my lip, looking incredibly embarrassed. "We are complete strangers. You driving me is already too much of an imposition." Asher glanced at me. "It is fine. I just like helping people." Getting the exact opening I needed, my cheeks flushed red, and I asked with hesitant desperation, "Could you... could you possibly lend me some money?" Terrified he would think I was a scammer, I quickly promised, "I swear I will pay you back. I can write you a formal IOU right now." My mother was diagnosed with acute leukemia last year. She required long-term hospitalization and aggressive chemotherapy. The hospital had just issued a final notice. If we did not clear the massive balance today, she was getting kicked out of her bed. I watched Asher's brows furrow deeply. I lowered my eyes, playing the tragic victim. Thanks to the comments, I knew Brittany's entire persona with Asher was stolen straight from my actual life. A dead father, a critically ill mother, and a beautifully broken girl holding it all together. Brittany had milked a fortune out of him using my real tragedy. Same face. Same exact tragic backstory. If Asher could not put the pieces together now, his IQ was genuinely in the single digits. When Asher finally spoke, his voice was tight and raspy. "Are you absolutely sure you have never heard the name Ash?" I tilted my head, pretending to search my memory very hard. "I really have not. But it does sound slightly familiar, like someone mentioned it in passing." Asher did not say another word for the rest of the drive. When we got to the hospital billing department, he bypassed me entirely and deposited a flat hundred thousand dollars into my mother's account, guaranteeing we would not have to worry about bills for at least three months. Because of Asher's massive deposit, the staff even upgraded my mother to an intensive care VIP suite. Watching my mother sleep peacefully, a massive weight lifted off my chest. I pulled out my phone and sent a twenty-dollar tip to the nurse who had agreed to call me at that exact time. Exposing Brittany's lies to Asher was really just a side quest today. Securing my mother's treatment was the real victory. Finally catching my breath, I looked up at the floating comments. [Is this side character completely insane? Her little stunt just threw the female lead's entire plan into chaos.] [Asher is completely ignoring Brittany's texts. Brittany is throwing a massive tantrum in the dorm, blaming the female lead for giving her a terrible excuse.] [Our female lead baby has never been treated this unfairly! She tried to help, and now she is getting yelled at. I am so mad!] 04 I had already drafted the IOU while sitting in the hospital waiting room. On the drive back, I held it out to Asher, but he refused to take it. I stubbornly kept my hand suspended in the air, playing the role of the fiercely independent, prideful poor girl to absolute perfection. Asher finally sighed deeply, shaking his head in defeat as he accepted the piece of paper. I could feel it. The way he looked at me had completely changed. Whenever Brittany took his money, she never once politely declined. Half the time, she outright asked for it. Before today, Asher probably did not think much of it. But now, comparing her greedy behavior to my stubborn, tearful independence, Asher was obviously feeling a deep sense of whiplash. Even though this amount of money was nothing to him, this was the fundamental flaw in the male ego. I can give it to you, but you are not allowed to reach out and demand it. More importantly, Asher originally fell for Brittany because of my face. He only bothered to learn about her "inner beauty" because he was captivated by my photos. When Asher offered to drive me all the way back to campus, I politely declined. I asked him to drop me off back at the hotel where I worked. Just before I stepped out of the car, Asher suddenly pulled up a photo on his phone and asked me when it was taken. I nailed the look of utter bewilderment. "Why do you have a picture of me on your phone?" Asher looked me dead in the eye. "My online girlfriend sent it to me." I muttered softly, acting incredibly confused. "Online girlfriend..." I suddenly froze, my eyes widening in horror as I slapped a hand over my mouth. Asher's sharp gaze locked onto me. "You know something, do you not?" I stammered, looking terrified, before finally spilling the beans about my three roommates and their massive online dating ring. "That photo... my roommate Vanessa took it yesterday. She loves taking candid pictures of me in the dorm." In reality, Brittany was the one obsessed with snapping pictures of me. Even though all three roommates used my face, their methods were completely different. Brittany preferred the organic route, constantly finding sneaky excuses to take real-time photos of me. Penny was lazy, she just stole old pictures off my social media feeds. Vanessa, the female lead, was the true mastermind. She used advanced AI to manipulate my face into whatever videos or photos she needed. She even used deepfake software to video chat with her targets. By pinning the blame entirely on Vanessa right in front of Asher, I was throwing her straight under the bus. The floating text instantly exploded, cursing me out with every vile word in the dictionary. Watching Asher's face turn completely thunderous, I slowly closed my eyes. The comments insisted that Asher would eventually fall in love with Vanessa's brilliant mind anyway. I decided I was going to sever that little red thread of fate right here, right now. 05 Asher operated with ruthless efficiency. He dumped Brittany instantly, demanding she return every single penny he had spent on her, or he was bringing down a massive lawsuit on her head. But the money was already gone. Brittany desperately begged Penny and Vanessa for a loan, throwing an absolutely apocalyptic tantrum in the dorm. She straight up blackmailed them. Because Penny had once logged into her social media on Brittany's laptop, Brittany had secretly memorized the username of Penny's billionaire boyfriend. If they did not bail her out, she was going to expose all of them. If she was going down, she was dragging the whole ship with her. I have no idea how the three of them negotiated a truce behind closed doors. All I know is that the mountain of designer bags stacked in Vanessa and Penny's closets mysteriously vanished overnight. And Brittany was permanently exiled from their little alliance. The second I walked into the dorm, the atmosphere was suffocatingly weird. Looking at Brittany sitting alone in the corner, I knew this was only the beginning of her nightmare. I pretended to be completely oblivious and sat down at my desk to study. Vanessa suddenly hovered over me and physically dragged me out into the hallway. She looked at me, eyes burning with gossip. "My aunt told me your mom's hospital bill was completely paid off today." She paused, winking conspiratorially. "Did you go on a date with Mr. Henderson this morning?" Mr. Henderson was the greasy old creep Vanessa had so generously introduced me to. Vanessa's aunt worked as a nurse at the hospital where my mother was admitted. That was how Vanessa found out about my desperate financial situation, allowing her to "kindly" point me toward selling my body to an old man. I looked at Vanessa's eagerly expectant face and shook my head. "Someone lent me the money. I paid it off for now." Vanessa looked highly skeptical. "That is a massive amount of cash. Who would casually lend you that kind of money?" "Besides, loans have to be paid back eventually." She was gearing up to gaslight me into calling Mr. Henderson, ready to hype up his wealth and generosity. I cut her off smoothly. I remembered reading online that the fastest way to make someone shut up is to ask them for a loan. "Vanessa, your boyfriend buys you all those luxury bags and gives you a massive weekly allowance. Could you lend me some money to pay off my debt?" Vanessa snapped her mouth shut instantly. She stuttered out a pathetic excuse about how she had already spent all her allowance. She was not entirely lying. Every dime she scammed off her online boyfriend went straight into funding her elite spa treatments and luxury skincare routines. Before I could press her further, Vanessa spun around and darted back into the dorm. I followed right behind her, just in time to hear Penny sighing in massive relief. "Thank god Declan has not demanded we meet in person yet." Unfortunately for her, she was celebrating way too early.
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