My words sent a shockwave through the
room. The online chat stalled.
“Wait…is she serious? Is she out of her
mind?! How can she ask them to drop out?”
“Did she just copy so hard that it fried her
brain? I must be hallucinating! This is unreal!”
Not only the viewers, but even Ethan and
Tiffany were speechless, staring at me.
“Chung, are you crazy?! How dare you ask
Tiffany and I to drop out? Did being a copycat
く
make you brain damaged?!”
Before Ethan could start stabbing at me with
words again, I decided that I was done
playing games.
The crowd was there, with phones out, ready
to record. I didn’t need to worry about the
director or Ethan and Tiffany cutting the
stream off, not with all these people around.
I pointed to my unfinished painting, cool as a
cucumber.
“There’s a reason why my painting is
unfinished. And this reason will show
everyone that I’m not the copycat. Tiffany
stole my design!”
“Then prove it!”
く
Ethan shouted at me, his voice filled with
rage, like he was trying to intimidate me.
My body was still, but my arms were shaking
a little, betraying how I was really feeling.
Ethan and Tiffany thought I was shaking from
fear, that I had no proof, and were just trying
to hold on to any argument to save face.
Tiffany’s eyes went all red again, guiding the
viewers to hate me.
“Chung, I know you’re jealous of my talent,
but you can’t steal my work just because of
that! You can’t try to ruin me like that!”
“I said, if you dropped out I could move past
this. But, you’re trying to accuse me, to make
the real artist seem like the bad guy! That’s
<
Ethan stepped forward, looking like he was
going to defend Tiffany.
The truth was about to come out, but it was
going to hurt me. I struggled inside to prepare
myself for what I was about to do.
Ethan took that moment and pushed me to
the ground with all his might.
As I fell, my hand slipped off my glasses.
As my body hit the ground, so did the truth.
The sunglasses came off, and revealed the
truth of what was hiding behind them.
The room went silent. The chat froze.
Because…
<
Where my eyes should have been, were two
empty, gaping sockets.
There were no eyeballs in my eye sockets.
“Wait, what the heck is going on… Can
someone please explain why Chung is blind?”
“Oh my god… so she finished 80% of a
painting at a competition while being blind?
That’s insane! I’m in shock right now!”
The chat was going nuts, filled with these
comments and questions.
And the people who’d rushed down to the
competition were just as stunned. They were
all staring at me, mouths open, like I was
some kind of sideshow attraction.
帽
<
The staff finally snapped out of it and got me
back on my feet.
Ethan, the jerk, had already turned his back
on me, cooing at Tiffany like she was some
delicate flower.
Tiffany, nestled against him, seemed
completely out of touch with what was going
- on. She thought she’d already won, the
sounds of the crowd were just applause for
Ethan being her knight in shining armor.
Ethan even has the audacity to turn his back
to me and say, with a fake authoritative tone,
“Chung, it’s not enough for you to just drop
out now.”
