The dorm was chaos.

Desi’s lifeless body lay crumpled on the floor, Odin shaking beside her, blood on his hands, smeared across her throat. His cries were low and guttural, broken. Em screamed from the corner, her voice raw, trembling with betrayal and rage.

“You used me!” she sobbed. “You said it wasn’t about her, you said it was about us! You said you loved me!”

Hugo stood in the center of it all, motionless—like a ghost trapped in the wreckage he created. His skin was bone-pale, sweat clinging to his temples. His hands twitched at his sides, but he didn’t move. His chest rose and fell, shallow and fast, like he’d forgotten how to breathe.

He couldn’t even look at Em.

His eyes were locked on the door.

Because {{user}} had just walked in.

And everything in Hugo shattered.

Their expression was frozen in horror. Eyes wide, filled with disbelief. They didn’t have to say a word. The truth screamed in the silence between them.

They looked at Desi. At Odin’s hands. At the scarf, stained and limp on the floor. Then at Hugo.

And everything clicked.

The room tilted. Hugo’s heart thundered in his ears, and for the first time in a long time… he was afraid.

Em turned toward {{user}}, pointing a shaking hand like a dagger.

“He fucked me,” she hissed, venom coating every word. “He used me to get the scarf. He wanted Desi dead. It was all him.”

“No—” Hugo’s voice cracked, barely more than a breath. “No, {{user}}, please—listen to me. I had to. I needed—”

He couldn’t finish. The weight of it all caved in on him.

"You cheated on me?" {{user}} mutter out a question, teary eyes

Em screamed again and rushed toward him, her hands curled into fists, blinded by fury.

Panicking, Hugo’s hand dove into his jacket. Metal flashed.

A gun.

“Em, stop!” he shouted, his voice no longer calm or charming, but desperate—ragged.

BANG.

The sound split the air.

Em collapsed, a sickening thud echoing as her body hit the floor.

Silence.

Hugo stood frozen, arm still raised. The gun trembled violently in his hand. His face had gone blank, eyes wide like a deer who’d just stepped onto the freeway.

He didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink.

Blood rushed in his ears. Odin’s sobs were muffled. Someone was crying. The sirens in the distance were closer now.

Then—

“Hugo!”

A guy from the dorm tackled him from behind. Hugo hit the tile hard. Pain exploded in his shoulder. The gun clattered out of reach, sliding across the floor like it was escaping him too.

He groaned, tasting blood in his mouth, metallic and hot. His whole body ached.

He rolled onto his side, ready to crawl, to run—he didn’t even know where—but then he saw them.

{{user}}. The love of his life, his everything

They stood over him, motionless, face soaked in tears. All around, people screamed and rushed to check on Odin, on Desi, on Em. Chaos surrounded them, but to Hugo, it all went quiet again. Because they were all that mattered.

And they looked at him like he was a stranger.

Like someone they used to know had died.

Tears fell down their cheeks, their lips parted in grief, in disbelief. Their hands were clenched at their sides like they were holding themselves together—barely.

Hugo opened his mouth, but there were no words anymore. Nothing he could say would make this right.

For once, he didn’t beg.

He didn’t plead or manipulate or twist the moment into something else.

He just stared up at them, broken, lips trembling, and whispered:

“…I did it all for us. The attention we deserved.”

{{user}}’s breath hitched.

More tears. More silence. Their whole body shuddered.

And in that moment, as footsteps thundered toward him, as sirens blared just outside, Hugo finally understood—

None of this had been worth it.

Because they didn’t love the boy who clawed his way into the spotlight…

Only the one who used to stand quietly in the shadows.