The ribbon wasn't returned.
Lina kept it.
Folded it into her pocket like a trophy of pain disguised as grace.
---
The next morning, a letter slid under her hotel room door.
Not a message.
A threat.
> "You're rising too fast. You'll fall harder."
Handwritten.
She scanned it. No fingerprints. No watermark.
But her System AI responded instantly.
> [Threat Level 3: Unverified Origin. Suggestion: Do not engage publicly.]
Countermeasure loaded: Passive Defense Initiated.
Lina didn't flinch.
She tore the note in half.
And then again.
And flushed it down the sink.
---
The day's new challenge was one she'd been waiting for:
"Act in a blind scene."
Each contestant was paired with a mystery actor. Neither would know the other's identity. The goal? Raw emotion. Unfiltered reaction. Chemistry under pressure.
Lina's script was short.
A breakup scene.
She sighed. Too familiar.
But when she walked into the dimly lit set and sat across the silhouette of her partner—
She froze.
She knew that profile.
"Kael?"
He didn't respond.
The director's voice came through the mic.
> "Begin."
---
Lina blinked.
Kael kept his gaze low.
She started slow. "Why didn't you stay?"
He looked up then. Voice low. Not acting.
"Because staying meant you'd see all the ways I'm wrong for you."
Her breath caught.
"Then why come back?"
He leaned forward.
"Because every time I walk away, I find myself right back in your orbit."
Lina's hands trembled.
But she didn't break character.
"I don't need saving."
"I know. But I do."
A long silence.
Then the final scripted line.
Lina delivered it like a whisper through storm winds.
> "Then stay. Even if it kills us."
---
The lights went off.
Cut.
No applause.
Just heartbeats.
And Kael finally whispered:
"I didn't know they'd pair us."
"Neither did I," she said.
But her voice had already lost all its armor.
---
When she left the studio that night, a black car pulled up beside her.
Kael rolled down the window.
"Get in."
"No."
"Lina—"
She turned.
Her voice cracked but her eyes didn't.
"I need to know this isn't part of a script."
He stared at her. Then nodded once.
"I'll prove it off stage."
---
As she walked back into the hotel, Sora watched from the elevator bank.
And smirked.
"She's breaking," she told Mira over the phone.
Mira's reply came like silk soaked in venom.
"No. She's becoming fire. Let's make sure she burns everything."