— Aara's POV
Aara knew something was wrong the moment she woke up.
It wasn't the silence — she was used to that.It wasn't the smell of smoke drifting through the apartment. Ayin was always lighting cigarettes like they were incense.
It was her sister's voice.
Low. Cautious. On the phone. In the kitchen.
Aara cracked her door open just enough to listen.
"No, I told you I'm working on it. Just give me a week.""I said I'm handling it. She doesn't know anything."
She.
Her.
Aara.
She stepped into the kitchen without a sound.
Ayin turned like a girl caught stealing.
The phone clattered to the counter.
"Oh, hey," Ayin said, voice too bright. "You're up early."
"I could say the same."
Ayin's smile faltered.
Aara looked at the phone. "Who were you talking to?"
"No one."
"Don't lie."
Ayin exhaled through her nose like she was bored. "Look, I just… have a few things I need to deal with. Adult shit."
"I'm dealing with adult shit every day," Aara snapped. "Try again."
Ayin didn't answer.
So Aara reached for the phone.
Ayin grabbed her wrist.
But Aara had been fighting bigger people in underground rings for over a year now.
She twisted Ayin's grip, pulled the phone free, and opened the last call.
A number. No name.
She opened the message thread.
There it was.
"If she finds out you used her ID, you're fucked."
Aara's stomach dropped.
Cold. Deep. Bottomless.
"You used my name?" she whispered.
Ayin said nothing.
"You borrowed money under my name?"
"I had no choice," Ayin said, instantly on defense. "I didn't think they'd come after you!"
"You didn't think at all."
"They said it was just paperwork. I didn't even sign anything!"
"You forged my ID. You used my life. My name."
Aara stepped forward, eyes wild, voice low.
"That debt? That's mine now, isn't it?"
Ayin opened her mouth, then closed it again.
The silence was louder than any scream.
Aara laughed.
Not out of humor.
Out of disbelief.
Out of the sheer insanity of it all.
"I gave up everything," she hissed. "For this family. For you. I worked while you ran. I fought while you vanished. And you — you stole from me while I was trying to save us."
"I didn't mean—"
"You never mean to. That's the problem."
She stormed out of the apartment barefoot, rage pulsing in her bones like thunder. The hall blurred. Her hands were shaking so hard she nearly dropped her phone as she called the one person who always showed up.
Haru.
He picked up before the first ring ended.
"I know," he said.
Three words.
Aara froze in the stairwell.
"You… what?"
"I found out last night."
"You knew. And you didn't tell me."
"I was handling it—"
"You're not God, Haru!" she screamed into the phone. "You don't get to decide what I can or can't know!"
"I didn't want it to hurt you."
A pause.
Then Aara laughed again — sharp and broken.
"Hurt me?" she said. "Everything hurts me. You think this is about pain? This is about choice."
She heard him breathe, steady but shaky.
"I thought I was protecting you."
"No," she said, voice cold now. "You were controlling me. Just like everyone else."
"Aara—"
"I need space."
"I can fix this."
"That's the problem. You think fixing it means erasing it."
She hung up.
Didn't cry.
Didn't collapse.
She just stood there, on the edge of the stairwell, heart thundering, lungs on fire.
And for the first time, she felt something new.
Anger that belonged to her.
Not borrowed.Not suppressed.Not swallowed.
Owned.
She walked back inside.
Ayin was still in the kitchen, arms folded like a child waiting for punishment.
"You want to stay?" Aara said flatly. "Fine."
Ayin blinked.
"But you will clean. You will cook. You will find a job. And if one more word about your debt comes near my name—"
She stepped closer.
"I will sell your bones to pay it off."
Ayin flinched.
Good.
That night, Aara pulled out her notebook.
The one with the truths.
She wrote:
"He kept the truth to protect me.""She used the truth to survive.""I will carry the truth to win."
Then she opened her closet.
Pulled out the hoodie.
Taped her fists.
Picked up the mask.
Not for the money.
Not for the pain.
But because she needed to remember who the hell she was before everyone else started trying to own her.
As she slipped out into the night, her phone buzzed.
From: Haru"I'm sorry."
She stared at it.
Then typed back:
"You want to protect me?""Then stop standing in front of me.""And start standing beside me."
She didn't wait for a reply.
Because tonight, she didn't need him.
Not to fix her.Not to save her.Not to hold her.
She just needed to fight again.