Page 57 of Didn't See That Coming

“I find you?” Jonas cocks his head to one side. “Did you not hear your mom repeatedly say I’m an Arifin?”

I grit my teeth. “Yes, Jonas, I know who you are. Big freaking deal. I don’t see what that has to do with—”

“My family owns TalkCo.”

“Yes, Jonas, we all know your family owns the nation’s leading internet and cell phone service provider, big freaking deal. Wooow, can I please have your autograph?”

Jonas snickers. “I wasn’t saying that to show off. Okay, maybe a little.” He winks in what he probably thinks is a very adorable way. “But basically, it’s really quite simple. First, all I had to do was ask one of my employees to look up Dudebro10’s IP address, then all they had to do was trace the IP toyour home address, and…” He leans back in his seat, smirking. “Here I am.”

“What?”For a few moments, all I can do is gape at him. “What the shit?” I cry. “Jonas, that is such a breach of privacy. You’ve broken pretty much every freaking privacy law there is, not to mention betrayed the trust of your customer!”

Jonas rolls his eyes. “Methinks someone’s been watching too many American shows. You know the rules are differenthere.”

And as much as I hate to admit it, I do know. I can rant on and on about Jonas breaching privacy laws, but am I actually sure that such laws exist? Or, rather, they probably do exist, but am I certain that our internet contract didn’t come with fine print that says the provider can use our IP address to track us down? And even if the law were on my side, am I really going to take on someone as rich and powerful as Jonas Arifin? His family won’t just have a lawyer, they’ll have a whole entire legal team, and they’d probably countersue or something and we’d end up being buried under legal fees for years to come.

I gape at him wordlessly, taking in his smug expression, the way he’s sitting so relaxed in Papi’s chair. He knows he’s won. He knows there’s not a damn thing I can do about him being here. All I can do is…what? WhatcanI do? I shove all that aside and try to focus on why I contacted him in the first place. “Okay, so…but why have you asked the Lil’ Aunties to match us with each other?”

“Ah.” Jonas leans forward, putting his fingertips together, and says, “Keep an open mind, because I actually have an amazing proposition to offer you.”

I almost blurt out that I’d rather eat my own foot than enter into any kind of agreement with him, but I remind myself that he has the upper hand, so I should at least hear himout.

Jonas raises an eyebrow at me, and I can just tell that he thinks he’s so damn cute. “The reason I asked those kids to match us with each other is…I want you to be my girlfriend.”

I swear the entire universe implodes right then. All forms of logic and reasoning shatter into a billion meaningless pieces of rubble, leaving nothing behind but this most nonsensicalof situations. Jonas freaking Arifin, asshat who has tormented me ever since I arrived at Xingfa, asking me to be his girlfriend. Do I cry or do I laugh?

“You can go right to hell” is what hisses through my lips.

Jonas places his palms on his chest dramatically. “Kiki, you wound me.”

“Well, the answer’s no, so you can fuck right off now.”

“Hear me out. I have to admit, when I first went looking for Dudebro, all I wanted to do was take revenge. I thought it was some asshole dude—” He snorts, shaking his head. “A literal dude bro! Great job with the name, by the way. None of us even suspected it was a girl. Why did you play as a dude?”

“To avoid getting hit on or threatened by assholes like you,” I mumble.

Jonas frowns. “Wow, Kiki. I would never.”

“No, all you did was gaslight and bully me in person. So much better than bullying me online.” I can barely keep my voice at a reasonable volume, I’m so incensed.

Jonas sighs. “Maybe we got off on the wrong foot at school. Anyway, where was I? See, my employees all guessed thatDudebro must be someone I knew in real life, because why else would he be so invested in griefing me continuously in-game? I thought it was Andre from Charity, or Tommy Hilfiger from Kindness. Those two losers have had it out for me since day one.”

“Oh? Did they also not take kindly to your gaslighting and bullying them?”

Jonas only gives me one of his bashful, winning smiles. It doesn’t win anything with me, except maybe the almost overwhelming urge to punch him right in the face. “Anyway, imagine my surprise when they traced the IP address to your house!” He chuckles. “I was so certain it would be a guy that it took an embarrassingly long time to figure out it was you, even after I saw that the account holder is Siregar. I was, like, this surname sounds familiar, but I can’t think of any guy at school with this last name! Then one of my employees said, ‘Maybe it’s not a guy?’ and it clicked into place. Kiki Siregar.” He gazes at me, shaking his head slowly. “You are amazing.”

“What the hell are you smoking? You just told me that you found out I’m your online troll. Well, good for you.” I raise my arms wide before letting them fall back down. “Here I am. I bet you hate my guts even more now. So. Yes, you’re right. I am Dudebro10. Yes, I took pleasure in killing you over and over inWarfront Heroes.I wish I could tell you I’m sorry,but…”

Jonas laughs again. “Kiki, no! I don’t need you to apologize. I just—god, how do I even describe it? When I found out it was you, it was like…” He rakes his fingers through his hair. “It’s so unbelievably romantic, right?”

“What?” I must be dreaming right now. This has all thehallmarks of a dream—sudden plot twists that make zero sense, me being stuck and powerless to do anything.

“Do you know how boring it is to be me?”

At this, my mouth quirks into a smile. “I do, actually. Probably mind-numbingly boring.”

Jonas rolls his eyes. “You know I didn’t mean it that way. I mean, like, being me…there’s not much that’s a challenge. Every girl would kill to date an Arifin. All of them so eager to please me.”

“Poor you, life is so tough.”

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