I woke up a week later in a hospital.
I had never seen my mother or sister cry that hard.
After that, life resumed.
I went to school. I laughed at jokes on cue. I fulfilled my duties as president.
Days turned into weeks. Weeks into years.
I graduated high school as a diligent student. I excelled. My mother was proud, but she always looked worried, more than when I was a child.
I had already dropped my plans of studying abroad, but I did not want to abandon the idea of moving out. I tried to leave anyway, but my mother broke down and refused to let me go. We fought, badly, and after everything, I finally made her accept that I would attend a college in a different state, far away from home.
Only after I enrolled did I find out the truth. My mother dragged my dad and the rest of the family along and shifted to an area near my college. There was no escape left. I gave up and settled with her again.
Life continued, even in college. In many ways, it felt exactly like high school. I blended in easily. I had multiple people who called themselves my friends.
A few months in, I heard about the college president elections. I ignored it at first, but I could not keep doing that for long. Siri's words echoed in my mind, "Ajin, we always need to be at the top." They played again and again until I finally enrolled.
Even after enrolling, I did not start campaigning immediately. The voice only grew louder. Every day, every hour, every minute, every second. What once sounded sweet began to sound terrifying. It haunted me until I could not bear it anymore.
So I started campaigning.
In forty years of the college's history, no first year student had ever become president. That record would have remained untouched if I had not entered the race.
Unlike school, where Siri was always with me, guiding me, preparing my speeches, perfecting every campaign, this time she was not there. During the first high school election, she had been with me throughout. The second time, I barely had to do anything. But now, starting fresh, I was alone again.
I had to build everything on my own.
My campaigns failed terribly at the beginning.
None of my classmates or anyone close to me supported me. They did not take me seriously, saying first years never win anyway. Other nominees mocked me. No one stopped to listen. No one heard me. The voice grew louder.
"Ajin, we always need to be at the top."
So I started changing things.
I perfected my smile. I polished my speeches. I made the faculty and the director pay attention to me. I forced my classmates and the people close to me to take me seriously.
It was nowhere near enough.
So I began pulling other nominations down. I spread calculated rumors, planned revelations, and befriended people strategically. I even started doing things I hated.
I flirted with girls. I kissed a senior girl on my own accord just to make her campaign for me. I hated every second of it. If I had been given the chance, I would have burned her or cut my lips off. But the torturous echo in my mind, "We need to be at the top," made me endure it.
My favorability slowly increased. From not even finding my name on the list, to being considered. One percent chance of winning. Five percent. Ten percent. A week before the elections, it spiked to twenty five percent after the senior girl I kissed campaigned for me.
It still was not enough.
My two competitors, Keth and Saffron, were both fourth-year seniors and former student council members. Keth had been president for two years. Saffron had been vice president for one. Keth led with forty percent favorability, Saffron followed at thirty.
To win, I needed to take them down.
I started digging for dirt.
It was easy to find out that they were ex-couples who broke up a few weeks before the elections. I believed their breakup would give me something useful, but I found nothing. Every one of their best friends and student council members said the same thing.
"They just drifted away."
I did not believe it. I could not accept an answer that simple.
Then the perfect opportunity arrived.
A few nights before the elections, it was Keth's birthday. He hosted a party at his guesthouse with all his friends and former student council members. Everyone understood it was a celebration of his supposed victory. He even invited me, probably to piss me off.
That night made one thing clear. Keth had not taken the breakup with Saffron well.
He rubbed his expected win in her face, cracked jokes at her, and insulted her repeatedly. It gave me an opening, and I wanted to make the most of it.
I was the odd one out among the fourth years, and she was the sore point of the party. Starting a conversation with her was easy.
Getting her to open up was not.
She was one of the toughest girls I had ever met. But drink after drink, combined with my soothing words and warm smile, finally made her open up.
She told me how she trusted him, how she loved him completely, how she once thought of marrying him after graduation. Then she told me how he never loved her the same way, how he only wanted the relationship to last as long as college did, with no commitment beyond that.
I hoped for something worse. Cheating. Blackmail. Anything that would make him look evil in everyone's eyes. But there was nothing. They had broken up like a normal couple.
It crushed my hopes.
The echo in my head became unbearable. I felt myself losing control.
Then I noticed something. One by one, a few people were popping tablets and drifting away. I realized I could use that.
I stole a few tablets and spiked Saffron's drink.
I did not know how long it would take to kick in, so I immediately asked her to drop me off. She agreed easily.
As she drove, the tablets began to take effect. I could see her losing control. She steered off the road multiple times. I grabbed the wheel and managed to drive the car into a nearby park.
Somehow, I brought the car to a stop. She collapsed onto the wheel.
I placed a bottle under the accelerator. Then I woke her up. I pretended to ask if she could drive on her own and made her believe she said yes. I stepped out of the car.
Once I was out, she started driving again. After a few minutes, the car stopped, just as I planned. She dozed off on the wheel, her leg pressed on the brake.
I drove the car back to Keth's guesthouse and used her phone to message him, asking him to come outside.
When I saw the drunk Keth walk onto the road, I crashed the car into him and drove past the house.
I drove for another mile and abandoned the car with Saffron at the wheel.
The next day, it was announced that Keth had been hit by a car and removed from the nominations. Saffron avoided prison with her parents' help, but people who attended the party had seen her car hit Keth. The news spread quickly.
Most of her followers abandoned her and I dominated the election.
It has been two years since then. I became president twice again.
I am still at the top.
I fulfill my duties as a student council president, as a diligent son to my mother, and I am always surrounded by people who call themselves my friends. I live a life that looks perfect by society's standards.
Apart from that, there is nothing missing.
Except Jason, my classmate, the bully, has been trying to annoy me for a long time now. Almost two years. Recently, he crossed a line. I heard that he commented on Maa when she visited the college last time.
Maa told me he complimented her. Knowing Jason, I am certain he meant something ugly, twisted in the way only he could manage. But my Maa is innocent. She believed it was genuine.
Finally, he succeeded in annoying me.
A few days back, I saw Jason bullying a sophomore. I recorded everything. The sophomore wanted to report it to the teachers and get Jason punished, but a simple college expulsion felt far too small for what he deserved. So I scared the kid. I made him give a false testimonial instead.
Today, I sent the video to news channels, government bodies, and NGOs.
It seems Jason might end up in prison for a while.