Chapter 2
"Wait!" Ryan shouted, slamming his hand against the door to stop me from closing it. "Are you sure there's really nothing?" he demanded.
"No," I replied.
"Olivia!" Ryan called out, his hand still firmly pressed against the door.
"Those are gifts from our shippers. If you want them, I can just give you some cash, but do you really have to be so cheap about it?" he said.
"Me? Cheap?" I snorted.
"You only ever took the gifts and dumped all the hair, trash, and blood beads on me. Funny how you never called me cheap then." I sneered.
I said, "Ryan, I couldn't care less about the junk your fans send.
"If you're so obsessed with those shippers' gifts, why not let your new girlfriend deal with them? What's the point of dumping them at your ex's place?
"If you're bold enough to have your ex handle your packages, you'd better be ready for a little payback."
With that, I ignored his frown, pushed him aside, and slammed the door shut with a loud bang.
Ryan lingered outside for a while before I finally heard his footsteps heading back down the hall.
The next day, Ryan was streaming again.
A sharp-eyed shipper asked: [Hey, why aren't you wearing the Cartier couple pendants I sent you? I waited forever to get them.]
Ryan looked genuinely bummed. "Oh, don't even get me started. The delivery must've gone to my neighbor by mistake."
"Seriously, I tried asking, but they just wouldn't admit it. I'm out of options," he added.
His fans: [Damn, have they got no shame?]
[Cartier's not cheap. After seeing those fancy necklaces, they're just playing dumb, huh?]
[Doesn't matter how pricey it is, it's still someone else's. Who does that?]
The chat blew up with people roasting him, and one fan even said: [No worries, I've already figured out where you live. I can probably guess who your neighbor is, too. I'm about to call them out online.]
I clenched my fists, trying to keep my cool.
Man, these fans would seriously do anything for their idol.
But then, the same shipper popped back into the comments. [Wait, are you sure your neighbor kept them? The delivery guy just called me and said the necklaces I sent you got returned.]
Ryan's face fell.
But what happened next totally caught him off guard.
The shipper who sent the gift found a note inside the package.
It said: [I'm not his girlfriend. Please stop sending me stuff.]
The shipper: [Wait, was the address fake? So who actually got my package?]
Other fans: [Ryan, seriously? You just tossed us a random address?]
[You don't have to give us your girlfriend's address, but you don't have to brush us off with someone else's either. We're your shippers, not haters.]
*****
Ryan cut the stream in a hurry.
It wasn't long before Ryan was banging on my door.
"You sent the package back?" he demanded, fixing me with a hard stare.
"Yep," I said, not even blinking.
He frowned. "Why did you send it back? Do you have any idea what you've done? I'd be exposed.
"If they dig deeper and find her, she'll get cyberbullied so badly that she might end up hurting herself. How can you be so heartless?"
"So I'm just supposed to take the bullet for you guys?" I shot back.
I stood my ground, refusing to give in.
I said, "Cut the act. You don't get to play the devoted boyfriend now.
"If you really wanted to protect her, you should've kept your mouth shut.
"You want all the couple hype, but don't want her to get hurt? Life doesn't work that way.
"I've been your prop long enough. I did my part, so what gives you the right to call me out now?"
With that, I picked up my phone and started dialing 911.
"Are you leaving or not? If you don't get lost, I'll let the cops handle you," I snapped.
Ryan was practically grinding his teeth, stubbornly blocking the door, refusing to let it go.
He said, "Come on, can't you just help me out? It's not even hard for you.
"Do you have any idea how many people would kill to get clout from being my girlfriend?"
"You're crazy," I shot back.
I gave him a push and slammed the door shut with a loud bang.
Ryan deceiving his fans set off a storm online, with drama exploding everywhere.
Some of his delusional fans were celebrating like crazy, thrilled that Ryan was apparently still single.
But others did some digging and found out he actually had a girlfriend. She was just not staying at the so-called "Room 520" he'd been talking about.
So basically, he threw an innocent girl under the bus to cover for his real girlfriend.
Some people called him gross, while his delusional fans kept gushing about how "devoted" he was.
But honestly, most people online were dragging him way harder than the fans could defend.
The topic [520 Is Your Lie] was blowing up on the trending list with hashtags.
Big-name bloggers jumped in to break it down, asking if risking an innocent person just to protect your own romance even counted as real love.
It was like razing a whole city for one person. Was that true devotion, or just straight-up insanity?
The answer was obvious to everyone.
The hate for Ryan stacked up by hundreds of thousands, flooding the comment section.
I let out a long sigh of relief.
Finally, I was free from their insane couple drama.
I slept like a baby that night.
But the next morning, I looked out my window and saw someone had arranged a giant heart made of roses right downstairs.
And there was Ryan, kneeling in the center of it all, looking up at my window with desperate devotion.
"Olivia, I'm sorry. Please, forgive me!" he shouted.