Crestmont Academy didn't sleep anymore.
Its halls whispered scandal with every footstep. Cameras flashed like lightning during every break. Students recorded everything—every glance, every fight, every forbidden touch—for clout, for fear, for survival.
Julian became both a name and a myth.
Some said he was working with the Ministry of Education, others that he was being blackmailed by a foreign agency. Most didn't care. They just wanted to be close enough to his name to shine—or to burn.
---
Classroom B-12 – Midday
Ms. Taylor, the literature teacher, slammed a book onto the desk.
"Does anyone here care about anything beyond likes, shares, or who's sleeping with who?"
Dead silence.
A girl in the front row, Camille, just whispered, "Not really."
Ms. Taylor laughed. The kind of laugh that says this place is falling apart.
Julian sat at the back, earbuds in. He wasn't listening to music.
He was listening to a private audio file.
His phone screen read:
"RECORDED CALL – Gloria Moretz & Congressman Dune"
> "Yes, Julian Rivers. He has it all. Shut him down. Expel him. Leak a scandal if you have to."
He hit stop.
The room blurred as a plan stitched itself together in his mind.
---
Steam and sweat filled the space.
Julian walked in just as Tobias Grimes—the top athlete—threw a student into the wall.
"Say it again," Tobias snarled.
The kid whimpered, "I didn't mean it—"
"Say it!"
Julian's voice cut through.
"He called you a washed-up jock whose girlfriend faked her orgasms."
Tobias froze.
Turned.
"Rivers…"
Julian dropped his bag. "What's it gonna be? Throw me too?"
Tobias looked ready to kill.
Then he did something no one expected.
He laughed.
Long. Cold. Loud.
"You've changed," he muttered. "You're not scared of anything anymore."
Julian just said, "You shouldn't be either."
Then left him there with silence.
---
Eva Liu met Julian at a rooftop lounge lit in neon, above a strip of live streaming cafés where girls with cat ears begged for donations and men in suits threw cash for attention.
"You wanted to talk?" she asked, sipping a pink martini.
Julian leaned forward.
"I'm exposing Gloria next. Her entire political ladder. She's laundering money through student foundations and hiding sex crimes through private payouts."
Eva's face didn't flinch.
"You want help?"
"No."
"You want me to leak it?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"I want you to choose. Who do you want to become?"
She leaned in.
And kissed him.
Right there. Neon on her cheek. Hunger in her lips.
"Someone you regret trusting," she whispered.
---
The watch pulsed red.
[Warning: Political Entity Detected. Surveillance Active.]
He shut the blinds. Locked the door. Sat on the floor.
His mother's old voicemail played in the background, a comfort and a curse.
> "You're gonna be something, Julian. Not because of where you're from—but because of what you survive."
The laptop beeped.
The footage of Gloria and Congressman Dune was uploaded.
Scheduled to drop at midnight.
His hands trembled.
For the first time… he felt the weight.
Of being a target.
Of being real.
Of being seen.
---
Serena was watching the leak with a bottle of wine.
She laughed.
Then deleted Julian's number.
"I don't chase kings," she whispered to herself.
"I replace them."
And across the room, Max Kade watched her.
Smiling.
Because she had finally chosen sides.
---