Kain stood in front of the door to a dorm room, his phone gripped tightly in his hand with a 'twitter' profile staring back at him ...
After having spent hours searching for the first person to post the video, Kain finally found something.
@MissCherrysWhispers; a gossip page run by some girl from Mass comm. department in campus.
Kain recognized her as one talkative social media persona. She is kind of popular within campus for posting campus gists and gossips. Kain wasn't surprised that she'd been the first to post the viral video of him, after all, she's always on and about looking for gossips to spill.
'Room 312-C' Kain's jaw clenched as he stood in front of the door, his gaze latched on the room number on the door. He'd confirmed from someone he knew that this was her dorm room.
With his hoodie pulled to avoid being recognized and causing a scene, Kain took a step forward and raised a hand to knock twice.
And shortly after, a petite girl whose round face was stuck in her phone at first opened the door halfway.
" What do you wan-" But then she froze when she rolled her eyes up and saw who stood by the door to her dorm.
Kain's tall figure was right in front of her, and she could see his face under the hoodie. A face she recognized all too well. After all, that very same face had been the source of her most recent viral clip.
She visibly shuddered and immediately tried to shut the door, but Kain was quick to block her from doing so.
"I just want to talk." Kain said through gritted teeth, staring her deep in the eyes. His voice carried a hint of threat that had the girl reconsidering her next action.
" W-what do you want, just so you know I had nothing to do with the video. I was only told to post it on my page." She stammered to say in a rush.
Kain frowned hearing this, " By who?" he asked.
"I don't know, some girl named Zara, I think." She said. " I've never even met her, but I know she's from business management" she added with shaky voice.
Kain stood stunned, the name Zara struck his memory. He recollected a tall tanned girl with dark brown hair who always followed Mira around.
He'd known her from when he'd first saw Mira and heard his friends talk about her group.
Kain frowned, realizing something was amiss. However, he raised his gaze to look at Misscherrywhispers once again, " Could you do me a favor and share me a screenshot of your conversation?"
The girl seemed to squeeze her face at this, contemplating why she should.
"Look I don't care about the viral clip, I just want to clear my name with my... girlfriend. She's deeply hurt right now..." Kain quickly added, part-lying.
The girl sighed hearing Kain. She looked down and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't know-"
"It's fine. Just help me, please." Kain cut her off and begged.
"Okay," The girl said, pulling up her phone to share the screenshots with Kain.
...
Later that evening, Aria who'd returned home stood stiffly in the main living room, arms crossed with the screenshot of the conversation Kain had sent him in hand, staring her in the face.
"You're saying, Zara, Mira's friend, had asked this popular twitter gossiper in campus to leak the video, and that it's all AI?" Aria asked.
Kain nodded, " Yes, she admitted to me that she posted it first and told me everything when I confronted her."
Aria frowned as she scrolled through the conversation. "Zara is indeed Mira's friend, so why would she do this?" Aria muttered out loud in confusion.
" Right?" Kain chimed in. "Which makes me believe Mira told her to do this!"
Aria shot her head up from the phone hearing this, she frowned, quipping to tell off Kain that her sister would never do something like that.
However, Kain spoke before she could, " Think about it, Aria. Why would Zara do this, knowing Mira is her friend, and knowing you are Mira's sister. From what I can tell, it seems you're pretty much acquainted with this girl. So she wouldn't dare do something like this to you without someone close telling her. Besides, no one else but me and Mira know about the contract marriage within campus, at least I don't expect anyone else to know."
Aria blinked at this. She wanted to refute Kain but she couldn't find fault in his line of reasoning.
Realizing she had no choice but to ask Mira, Aria sighed and said, "Kain, if we're going to confront Mira about this we-"
"I know. That's why I sent you the screenshots and told you first. I wanted you to confront Mira about it," he said. "I need you to see this through my eyes."
Aria paused at this. She sighed again then slowly nodded.
Just then, the main door was pushed open.
Mira stormed in with a cold expression, only to pause when she saw Aria standing in the main living room with a downcast face and phone in hand while Kain stood behind with a creased gaze. The atmosphere reeked of a confrontation, an inevitable one.
Mira's first thought was that Daniel had confessed to Aria that he'd told her about Kain being her blackmailer.
Mira stopped on her way in, arms folded as she looked at them both. She wanted to hear Aria's excuse before she spoke her mind about the situation.
" Mira...?" Aria called first, but she trailed off her words.
Kain, however, didn't waste time to step forward to start the confrontation. "Your friend framed me!"
Mira blinked, Kain's words failed to register for a second. "What?" Mira exclaimed, surprised and confused at what the hell he even meant with that.
Kain frowned as he proceeded, voice firm and unyielding. "I'm talking about Zara. She'd reached out to Cherry and asked her to post the viral video of me saying Aria was mine which was all edited using AI!" He stepped forward, held the screenshot of Zara's conversation with Cherry up and added, " Here's the screenshots of her asking Cherry to post it."
Mira's face fell hearing this, her heart drummed in her chest as confusion met with guilt. She hadn't expected this was what Aria and Kain were waiting in the living room for to talk to her about. She'd expected this to be about the blackmail thing.
She had no idea what Kain was talking about. But she knew that Zara knew about Aria's marriage. And it was through her.
Aria who'd been watching closely all along glanced at Kain to stop. She approached Mira, and asked in a soft tone, "Mira… did you tell her about the marriage?"
"I--" Mira faltered. "I didn't mean to. I was venting. I didn't think she'd do something like that. I thought she was just listening." She responded honestly, the whole thing about Kain being her blackmailer and Aria hiding it from her escaped her mind for a beat. Mira was being accused of something akin to betraying her sister's trust, and in turn, she was scared. She was afraid of being guilty...
"Can we see the chat?" Kain asked bluntly. "Between you and her."
Mira hesitated, cheeks flushing. But when she pulled out her phone, the evidence was there. Snippets of conversations between Mira and Zara, mentioning Kain and Aria's contract marriage and how it all affected her. About how she wanted Kain gone so she could be free of the guilt that her sister was carrying the burden they should both be carrying...
Aria seeing this got furious. She hadn't wanted to believe that Mira could do such a thing but now that she'd seen it, she'd never been so pissed at her sister.
"Mira, you've really gone and done it now." Aria started, voice brewing and rising at every word she spoke. " I've dedicated my whole life, trying, and carrying everything on my shoulders just so you wouldn't have to go through any of these problems. Just so you can live a stress-free life, a life without strings and ropes that I've admitted that I'll never, ever getting to live. And what do I ask of you? Literally, nothing. But you choose to repay me with this?! Really, Mira?"
Mira looked up at Aria, her face speaking of surprise seeing Aria getting mad at her,"I didn't mean to betray you, I was just-" Mira tried to argue but...
" Really?" Aria cut her off with a snark. "Then what is this you're doing with Zara, spilling everything about me and Kain's arrangement to her and causing all of this sh*t to go viral. Do you know what that has cost? Do you know just how much damage that's done to me?" Aria expressed without holding back. It was because of Mira and her stupid act that she'd lost Adrian...
If she hadn't told Zara about all of this, none of this would have happened. The way Adrian had spoken to her today, it hurt. She'd been so down that she'd been spamming his DM all day, trying to apologize for everything and asking that they talk things out. But Adrian wouldn't listen, he just ignored her.
And that hurt her more than anything. It hurt her ego, it hurt her feelings, it hurt the only one thing she could ever ask for in her troubled life!
And right now, all that hurt and pain was fueling her anger. Learning that her own sister whom she'd sacrificed everything for was behind all of this, Aria lost it. She took it all out on Mira!
"Aria, I didn't mean any of this. I had no idea Zara would do such a thing. I only told her I wanted Kain gone and she-"
"Enough!" Aria, unable to take it anymore, rose her palm and struck it across Mira's face.
Pa!
Mira stumbled back, her hands trembled to find her reddened cheek. Her eyes widened and reddened with tears threatening to break, she stared at Aria with shock spread across her face.
Kain who stood to the side, watching the whole altercation unfold was the same. He was just befuddled where he stood.
Aria stared her back, her shoulders trembling and her chest rising and falling. That's what you deserve!" Aria's voice was shaky, however, her eyes were resolute. It was evident that slapping Mira wasn't something she wanted to do but, she was just done with Mira.
The latter wouldn't even acknowledge her wrongdoing and apologize. It just pissed her off so much!
"You know what?" Mira said this time, a sneer tugging at her face. " Fuck you and how you feel about all of this." Mira suddenly snapped. "You act all mighty, all caring and shit, but you've never really cared about me, have you?"
"All you've ever really truly care about is yourself and the damned inheritance. That's why you're with him right? You betrayer!" Mira pointed towards Kain, leaving Aria frowning and Kain confused.
"You know what? It's fine. You don't have to worry and sacrifice anything for me me anymore, I'm leaving. You can both be together for all I care. I'm done with you!" Mira scowled as she said. She turned and stormed out right after.
Aria stood watching for the longest, her chest rising and falling. Infuriated, and a bit perplexed.
Her gaze fell on the distant floor, wondering if she'd gone too far.