Silvia stood frozen at the entrance of the university campus, her gaze fixed on Jessey. The sight of her, crying on the ground while two of her friends tried to comfort her, sent an unexpected pang of curiosity through Silvia's chest. Jessey, who had been so confident and malicious the day before, was now completely vulnerable, her pride stripped away in front of everyone. Even her hair is a bit messy today. For a moment, Silvia almost felt sorry for her and tried to see Jessey directly.
She hesitated for a moment, her instincts telling her to turn away, but something held her in place. Waksi, walking beside her, didn't even slow down. His eyes didn't flicker toward Jessey, his expression cold as usual. "Let's go," he muttered, uninterested.
Silvia glanced at him, a spark of frustration rising in her chest. "Shouldn't we check on her for a moment?"
"No. She's not our problem. I don't want to waste my time on a girl like her." Waksi's tone left no room for argument.
Silvia watched as Jessey's sobs grew louder, but Waksi was already moving ahead, and Silvia followed, caught between curiosity and the need to avoid any confrontation. She could feel the weight of the moment pressing against her, but she said nothing, following Waksi as they made their way toward class.
Inside the classroom, the atmosphere was thick with whispers. The students huddled in groups, their voices low, their eyes glancing over at Jessey's unusual spot in front of the main university gate. Silvia slid into her seat, her gaze drifting toward the girl they were all talking about. Jessey wasn't here yet, but it didn't matter—everyone seemed to know what had happened.
"Did you see the video?" one student whispered, just loud enough for Silvia to hear.
"Yeah, it's everywhere. Jessey lost her mind at that amusement park," another one responded. "Crying like that, I've never seen her like that before."
"I heard she was making a scene, threatening people, but somehow ended up being bathed with all the fruit juice there."
The gossip churned like a storm, a sickening mix of judgment and mockery. Silvia felt her stomach twist. Her mind raced, trying to process the information. A video? Was that why Jessey was so upset today? Was that why she was sitting at the gate earlier, completely breaking down in public?
"Honestly, she deserves it," another voice piped up. "It's about time someone brought her down a peg."
Not long after that, the door to the classroom swung open, and in walked Jessey, her red eyes glaring, still swollen from crying. Her usual confident stride was replaced by a slow, almost hesitant walk. She looked around the room, her gaze sweeping over the students before it settled on Silvia.
Silvia could feel the weight of her stare, and for a moment, everything in the room seemed to go silent. It wasn't the usual disdain that Jessey aimed at her, but something sharper, something colder.
Without a word, Jessey crossed the room, her two friends trailing behind her like shadows. Then, in a move that caught Silvia off guard, Jessey grabbed her wrist, pulling her up from her seat with surprising force.
"Come with me, now!" Jessey said, her voice shaking with barely controlled emotion.
The room buzzed with quiet whispers, eyes following them as they left the classroom. Silvia's heart beat in her chest. She wanted to pull away, to ask what was going on, but the grip on her wrist tightened. Jessey was dragging her outside, away from the noise, away from the eyes of their classmates.
Dhean, who saw the incident, was a little worried about Silvia. But he realized his position as a nobody to the girl. So he preferred to speak to Waksi directly. "Shouldn't you be doing something?"
Waksi sighed without taking his eyes off the book he was reading, "What do you want me to do?"
"I don't know, maybe stop Jessey from bullying Silvia?"
"That's none of my business. Why should I interfere in those girls' business?" Waksi said without expression.
"None of your business? Your girlfriend is clearly being bullied by someone else in front of you, and you act like nothing happened? Are you really her boyfriend?" Dhean said, getting suspicious. Waksi fell silent again without responding to Dhean's words.
Once Silvia, Jessey, and her two friends were out of sight, Jessey stopped in the hallway, her two friends standing a few feet behind her. She turned to Silvia, her face contorted with a mixture of anger and pain.
"This is your fault," Jessey spat, her voice raw and accusatory. "Everything that's happened, all the gossip, the video—it's because of you. You and your perfect little life. You think you can walk around like everything's fine, but you've been pushing me into this. All of it. You think you're better than me, don't you?"
Silvia blinked, her mouth going dry. She hadn't been expecting this. "What are you talking about?"
Jessey's breathing was ragged as she stepped closer, her voice almost pleading now. "The video, I'm humiliated. You don't know what it's like to have everyone in the school see you break down. To see people laugh at you, to have them call you crazy. And now you're all acting like I'm the one who deserved it!" Jessey's voice faltered as a fresh wave of anger took over. "I had to cut my hair short like this because of the incident yesterday. And my hat! My precious hat that I cherished so much was destroyed. Now it's impossible for me to get a hat that good anymore."
For a moment, Jessey stood there, her chest heaving, eyes wild with emotion. Silvia felt her heart race, the words she had just heard rattling in her head. Jessey was blaming her. She was blaming Silvia for everything—the video, the rumors, the humiliation.
"I never did anything to you," Silvia protested, pulling her wrist free from Jessey's grip. She took a step back, trying to keep her voice steady. "Is this because of yesterday's incident at the amusement park? For your information, I have nothing to do with the embarrassing incident when you fell yesterday. I don't even know how that video got out. Me and Waksi went straight to the movies after that incident."
Jessey's eyes glinted at something darker. "This is clearly your fault. I fell down yesterday because of your mistake. If only you hadn't dated Waksi yesterday, I would have never been humiliated like this. If I had been Waksi's girlfriend instead of you, none of this would have happened! It's all your fault!"
A wave of guilt hit Silvia in the chest, but she refused to let it overwhelm her. She clenched her fists, shaking her head. "You know, If you love Waksi so much, why don't you help me break up with him. That way you can take my place as his girlfriend."
Jessey and her two friends blinked a few times. Their mouths hung in the air as if they couldn't believe what they had just heard. Silvia asked Jessey for help in breaking up with her boyfriend? Didn't Jessey hear it wrong?