“You’ve repeatedly slandered Tiffany and challenged my authority as a judge. I demand
<
that you publicly apologize to Tiffany and me,
and promise to never step foot in the art world again!”
Tiffany, the drama queen, chimed in, “I never
wanted to get into this. You kept bullying me,
that’s why I couldn’t hold back anymore.”
“Now, I need more than just an apology, I
need you to compensate me for all the mental
damage you caused. Or I’ll get my lawyer and
sue you!”
Ethan and Tiffany look to the live stream,
hoping to see a bunch of messages agreeing
with them.
But what they got was a flood of criticism
and questions.
<
“So, Ethan just bullied a blind woman? He
knocked her down and didn’t even help her
up! He’s even talking to her with his back
turned! What a trashy dude!”
“I was wrong about Tiffany too. Chung’s
clearly the more vulnerable person here. She’s
blind, how is she going to pay for any of the
things Tiffany is asking?”
“And isn’t it basically impossible for a blind
person to copy a painting? How could Chung
even see to do it?”
“You know, the last commenter has a point.
I’m starting to think that Tiffany is the real
copycat, because how else can you explain
how similar their paintings were!”
Ethan and Tiffany were shocked. They
く
completely forgot to keep up appearances.
They quickly turned to look at my eyes.
And then they saw them. Empty, hollow
sockets where my eyes used to be.
Tiffany yelped, jumping back and hiding
behind Ethan.
Her voice was filled with disgust, “What is
that?! A monster! How can a person not have
any eyeballs? That’s so ugly, so creepy…”
That was it, the online chat snapped. They
tore into Tiffany for being insensitive.
“You should treat people with disabilities with
respect!”
“Putting the truth aside, how can Tiffany, who
<
is considered a public figure, talk about
Chung’s disability like that? That’s completely
insulting to people with disabilities!”
“They’re calling her an art goddess? I’d say
she’s more like a mean ghost!”
Seeing Tiffany get roasted online, Ethan lost
- it.
He gave Tiffany a hug to calm her down, then
turned to me, ignoring the crowd. He was still
focused on the copycat thing.
“Look, Chung, I’m sorry that you’re blind.
You’ve had a rough go at it.”
“So, how about we call it a truce? Tiffany and
I won’t push the copycat issue, and you
apologize to Tiffany. We can just drop the
<
I cut him off, “Are you not going to push the
issue, or did you just realize you can’t pin the
copycat thing on me because I’m blind?”
“Before I took off my glasses, you were
yelling at me and calling me a criminal. What
changed after seeing my eye sockets that you
want to just drop it all now?”
My words were logical and reasonable. The
chat picked up on what I was saying, and
started to see it my way.
“I think Chung is right, it’s pretty hard for a
blind person to copy a painting.”
“And Chung also said she has the sketches of
her art. If we see those, we can see who
really stole who’s design.”
く
That’s exactly what I wanted them to bring
- up.
I knew that when Ethan and Tiffany planned
to frame me, they would hide the sketches so
I couldn’t find them.
I was carefully testing them, not giving them
an out, keeping things vague to give them
hope that they could still come out on top.
My plan was to get Ethan and Tiffany to bring
out those sketches.
