Against the Algorithm

Chapter 64: Before the Game Began

Because this was Yao's moment. And for all her stuttering nerves and bitten-back emotion, she stood there—heartbroken, but not breaking. "I turned you down," she whispered, "because I knew you didn't see me. Just something you could use." She took a step forward, tears brimming now but not falling, and turned to Ai Jia. "And you..."

Ai Jia stiffened as her gaze landed on him.

"I thought you were my friend."

Those six words landed like a stone dropped into still water—soft, quiet, but devastating.

"I thought you... I don't know. Understood me. You never pushed. You always acted like I was safe around you. Like I mattered." Her voice grew smaller. "I was wrong."

Ai Jia's throat worked, but no words came. No apology. No excuse.

Yao's hands clutched the edge of her sweater. "I didn't say anything before because I didn't want to make it awkward for Jinyang. But I shouldn't have protected you at her expense. Or mine."

That did it.

Kaya stepped forward, reaching out to gently guide Yao back—just enough to place herself physically between the girl and the two boys still frozen in their shame and silence. "Go to my office," she said gently to Yao. "There's tea waiting. Go now."

Yao nodded once, her steps slow and soft as she slipped out of the room. And when the sound of her retreating footsteps faded down the hall, Kaya turned back toward the stunned, humiliated boys in front of her.

Her voice no longer soft.

No longer cutting.

Just lethal.

"You used her name," she said, eyes locked on Jian Yang, "to try and crawl into something she earned with her own hands. And you—" she turned to Ai Jia, "—stood beside her with a smile and a lie." She looked toward Kazime.

He didn't need a word. He stepped forward with the steady grace of a man delivering judgment, his voice low and final. "You will leave. Now. Jian Yang, you will not speak to her again. And if either of you so much as brings her up to another soul—" He didn't finish the threat. He didn't need to. Because the look in his eyes made it clear: He was no longer asking. '

The silence barely had a chance to settle again when the sound of fast, purposeful footsteps echoed down the hall.

Jinyang.

She stepped into the room with the force of a thunderclap, dark eyes sweeping across the space in one quick pass before locking with laser precision onto Ai Jia. Her gaze didn't flick to Kaya. Didn't shift to Kazime. Didn't even pause on the subtle tension hanging in the air. Her eyes were trained solely on him. "You—" she started, voice low, deadly.

Ai Jia stood abruptly, shoulders still stiff, trying to compose whatever pathetic excuse he'd been building in the back of his throat, but he didn't get a chance.

Jinyang reached him in three strides and grabbed him by the ear.

Hard.

He yelped.

"You're coming with me," she snapped, dragging him forward with all the authority of someone who was the storm and had no time for whatever sad little justifications he might try to offer.