Page 74 of Didn't See That Coming

Gentle laughter ripples across the crowd. They’re all completely enamored by Jonas, listening to his every word, their eyes wide and full of interest. And I still don’t know what I’m going to do.

“But night after night, Dudebro10 found me and killed me over and over again. I couldn’t play the game. I reported him to the mods, but they did nothing. So I did the only sensible thing: I took it into my own hands to find out who Dudebro10 is in real life. I thought he was going to be a twelve-year-old boy in Thailand or something.” He gives this self-deprecating laugh, and the crowd laughs appreciatively. A couple people even clap. “But what I found shook me. I mean, literally. I wasshook!” Jonas does one of his dramatic pauses, turning his head slowly from left to right, his gaze sweeping across the crowd. “Because Dudebro10 isn’t some random kid. Dudebro10 isn’t even a dude.”

“What?” Liam mumbles.

All the blood drains from my head. I feel dizzy. “Liam—” I choke out. “I need to tell you something.”

But my voice comes out so tiny that Liam doesn’t hear me. He’s staring openmouthed at the stage, and god knows what’s running through his head. He takes out his phone and unlocks it, muttering to himself. He begins typing rapidly.

A second later, my phone vibrates in my purse with a text. I ignore it, gripping my purse handle tight with sweaty palms.

“Dudebro10,” Jonas says in a low, let-me-tell-you-a-secret voice, “is a girl. And she goes to this school.”

A murmur rises like a growing tide across the crowd. Liam types furiously into his phone. My phone vibrates again and again, message after message coming from him, and still I remain frozen, still I do nothing, say nothing, my voice gone.

“And when I found out exactly who Dudebro10 was, I”—Jonas takes a deep breath—“fell for her.”

“Ooohh!” the crowd gasps.

Jonas smiles, scratching the back of his head. “That’s right, I fell for her, because wow! What a girl. Any feminist would immediately fall for her, right? And so of course, I went to her house, and I said, ‘Kiki Siregar, will you be my girlfriend?’ ”

He might as well have set off fireworks in the gym. Everyone starts talking at once, the noise level in the gym rising like a tide, but none of it matters to me, because when I look over at Liam, I find him staring at me with an expression of utter shock and betrayal. My insides twist painfully.

“Liam—”

But Jonas isn’t done yet, oh no. “It was basically a real-life enemies-to-lovers story. You guys all know how much Kiki hated my guts.” He laughs. “First day in school and she was already on my ass in class, weren’t you, babe?” He winks in my direction. “But love wins. Every. Single. Time. She can’t resist this, what can I say? And I had to do this. I had to tell you all the truth, because I feel really bad for starting that whole‘Crazy Kiki’ thing. I’m here to tell you guys that she isn’t crazy. I mean, she’s sassy, amirite?” Jonas laughs. “But not crazy. And she definitely shouldn’t hide in the dark. Someone like her has to enjoy the limelight. Come on up here, babe. To my beautiful, feisty girlfriend, Kiki!”

Every pair of eyes in the vast room is suddenly on me, the weight of all their gazes pinning me down. I can practically taste their expectation, hear the thoughts running through their heads. They’re all waiting for me to rush onstage and hug or kiss Jonas and thank him for the romantic reveal. They don’t know that he’s just destroyed everything I’ve been so careful to protect.

I keep my eyes on the only person who matters to me right now. “Liam, I wanted to tell you—”

“You—you’re Dudebro10?” His voice cracks, nearly breaking, and it nearly undoes me.

Somehow, I manage to nod. “But I can explain—”

Liam’s mouth twists, and without another word, he turns on his heel and strides away. Everything inside me screams at me to go after him, but I’m rooted—truly, it feels as though roots have sprouted from the soles of my feet and dug deep into the ground—and I can do nothing as Liam walks away from me.

“Baaabe,” Jonas calls from the stage, his arm still outstretched.

Everyone watches me, starry-eyed from what they think is the most romantic thing they’ve ever witnessed, and this is what makes me snap: the fact that they think what Jonas just did is amazing and not ridiculous. Shame bubbles up fromdeep inside me, hot and red and thick. I’ve told myself to be patient, to be quiet and benign so I wouldn’t call any attention to myself again, wouldn’t get on the wrong side of my new schoolmates, but all that has gotten me is this freaking mess. I can’t bear to be here, to hear the judgey murmurs that are already rippling through the crowd.Why isn’t she going up to him? Why isn’t she more grateful? Why doesn’t she know how lucky she is to be dating Jonas Arifin?

It’s too much, all of it. A sob chokes out of me, and I clap a hand over my mouth. My muscles unfreeze, and I sprint away from the crowd, running for the exit, my vision blurred by hot tears. It’s over, everything is shit, and I fully deserved this.

CHAPTER 19

I can’t possibly remain on school grounds. It won’t be long before everyone rushes after me to continue enjoying my humiliation, and I sure as hell am not about to hop into Jonas’s car. So after I burst out of Xingfa’s main gates, I keep running, which is quite the feat, considering that form-fitting mermaid dresses aren’t built with mobility in mind. Still, I manage to do a thigh-squishy waddle all the way to the main road, where I finally stop long enough to order a GoCar.

“Your GoCar will be here in four minutes,” the app announces, and I groan out loud.

Might as well be a whole eternity. I don’t have a choice, though, so I stand there, my chest heaving, my gaze skittering back to the dark silhouette of Xingfa now and again. Nobody comes after me. But just as I’m about to breathe a sigh of relief, my phone judders in my hand. It’s a notification from TikTok. Someone’s tagged me in a video. Dread unfurls in my gut. My phone vibrates again. And again. More TikTok notifications. An Instagram notification. Another Instagram notification.

I don’t want to look at any of this stuff. But my thumb moves on its own accord and taps on the top notification. It directs me to a TikTok of Jonas on the stage, talking about Dudebro10. Then the camera swivels off the stage and locks onto my stunned face in the sea of students, gaping at Jonas. The caption reads: “Org yg paling tdk tau diri didunia #CrazyKiki #BestBoyfriend.”

It translates roughly to: “The most oblivious person in the world.” Butoblivioushere isn’t being used as “ignorant,” it’s being used to describe someone who doesn’t know her place, who thinks she’s better than she really is. That’s how my schoolmates see me. Someone who doesn’t know how good she has it.

The next TikTok has similar content—Jonas onstage making his speech. The caption reads: “Pls how can anyone not love himmm?!#CrazyKiki.”

I should stop, I know I should, but I tap on the next notification, and the next.

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