The silence in the dressing room was suffocating. It felt much heavier than the roar of the crowd. It was crushing her. Reina felt a pressure in her ears and the air in the small room became thin and hard to breathe.
Reina stared at herself in the vanity mirror. Her hands lay rested flat on the cold table. A junior stylist had bandaged her knuckles with a clean gauze. But she could still feel a faint but stinging pain under the gauze. Also from time to time small spots of red began to appear on the bandages and soaking the gauze. As if the red blood was staining her carefully crafted perfect image.
The effects of "Vitamin Cocktail" were starting to wear off.
Her heart began to beat irregularly. A cold sweat broke out on the back of her neck. The fake strength that had kept her going for the last four hours was about to vanish. She felt like her very bones were turning to ice. Her vision blurred at the edges and the room's bright overhead lights made her feel sick.
Reina closed her eyes, trying to search for that cold, sharp "wicked woman" strength she had felt earlier.
She started her breathing exercise-
Breathe in for four seconds.
Hold for four seconds.
Breathe out for four seconds.
Reina closed her eyes. But it didn't help her at all. She could still see the date glowing in the dark:
October 14th
The man with the scary eyes and rough hands had whispered those words right into her ear. He sounded like an affectionate lover but to her he was a nightmare.
The Minato Women's Clinic. I saw you in your black hat.
Reina's whole body trembled with a violent shiver . It wasn't just the "Vitamin Cocktail's" withdrawal. It was a cold, sickening realization.
How did he figure it out? She hadn't told a soul. She hadn't posted a word online. She didn't even write it down in her diary since she knew the dorm managers would see it.
There was only one entity on earth that tracked her biometric data in real-time. One company that tracked her heart, her health and her location through her phone's GPS.
LUMINA!
Reina's fingers dug into the table. The stalker wasn't a genius hacker nor did he steal her data. He bought it. The agency hadn't made a mistake. They had sold her life, her pain into a "bonus feature" for a VIP fan. And Sayuri was the one who made the sale.
"Reina."
Sayuri stood in the doorway. In the mirror, her reflection hovered over Reina like a ghost. She tapped her tablet rhythmically, her face glowed in the cold light of her tablet. She didn't even look at the blood on Reina's bandages. She was too busy staring at the digital charts and numbers.
"You are losing fans. Your engagement dropped 3.8% in the final 20 minutes," Sayuri said coldly. "The algorithm flagged your three micro-expressions as 'insincerity.' And fans might soon find those fake smiles and criticize you. They don't pay for a dream girl who looks like she's counting the seconds until she can leave, Reina."
Reina stared at Sayuri's reflection. This was the woman who had taught her to dance. The woman who bought her ice cream when her mood was down and when she was suffering from period cramps. And now that same woman watched her bleed but didn't comfort her at all but pushing her to her breaking point.
"I was just tired," Reina whispered. She sounded small and weak.
"We don't have room for 'tired' anymore," Sayuri finally looked up. Her gaze was cold as ice. "If your body keeps failing, can't handle the work and compromises the brand, Chairman Kaneshiro has already authorized your replacement. Your AI version doesn't get tired, doesn't need 'Vitamin Cocktails', like you do Reina. It just needs a server."
The threat was clear.
The AI was ready to take her place.
Sayuri checked her watch. "I have to talk to the board about our sales. You have got thirty minutes before the 'After-Hours' stream starts. Clean yourself up. Fix your face. You look half-dead."
The door clicked shut. And the silence returned.
She slumped forward against the mirror, her head resting on the cold glass. She felt sick with shame and anger. This wasn't the strong anger she wanted. It was a thick and dirty guilt that she couldn't wash off.
She wasn't a master of strategy. She was just a coward wearing a costume that cost more than her family's apartment.
She looked into the mirror. Under the harsh lights, she really looked pale and sickly as if she was half-dead.
Suddenly, her reflection on the mirror blinked.
Reina's breath caught. Her own eyes were fixed and staring but the girl in the mirror had moved.
The room seemed to stretch and grew darker as if she were underwater. The smell of bleach and air freshener was gone and replaced by the scent of wet dirt and old rust.
And then the girl in the mirror shifted. She didn't look like an idol anymore. Her hair was plain and messy. No longer had the perfect curls. Her beautiful white LUMINA! performance dress was covered in dark patches and old stains. The silver zipper at the neck was stuck shut with something that looked like dried blood.
It wasn't Reina.
It was Yuka. The First-Generation Center who had "graduated" two years ago.
Reina couldn't breathe. The drug crash was now breaking her mind, pulling her deepest, darkest memory into the light. Yuka's face was blurry at the edges as if she was a broken computer file that was trying to render itself in the real world. She leaned closer to the glass, her breath fogging the mirror from the inside.
"They recycle the skin, Reina," the ghost whispered in a wet and static-heavy voice.
The voice didn't come from outside. It came from inside. Directly from her head.
"There is no America. There is no graduation. And now you are wearing my grave."
Reina closed her eyes shut, her fingers digging into the nearby table until her gauze turned red. It's a hallucination.
It's a hallucination.
Maybe I'm too stressed.
It's just the cocktails withdrawal effect.
Nothing more than that.
She muttered repeatedly.
But that was the truth.
Two years ago, Reina had found Yuka crying on the dormitory floor at 3:00 AM. Yuka had grabbed Reina's wrist, begging for help.
"They have a machine that wears my face. Please, Reina. Help me. Help me Reina."
But Reina did nothing. Neither she mocked her nor she helped or gave her support. She just stood there and after sometime she walked away.
She didn't want to stand there because she was greedy and jealous of her spot. At that moment she had felt relief that Yuka was breaking down and soon the Center position would be hers. She had let them erase a human being because she wanted to be the star.
I killed her, she thought, I had traded her life for my greed. For my jealousy. For a position that only lasted for a short time. I'm not a victim. I'm also an accomplice. I killed her.
She opened her eyes. Her tears ruined her foundation. She didn't look like a star. She looked like a pathetic and messy human.
And in the mirror, the ghost was still there.
"Run," Yuka whispered. "Before they delete you."
Snap.
Sayuri opened the door. And snapped her fingers. The snapping sound returned to reality. Her focus returned. The smell of dirt was gone and now replaced by Sayuri's sharp perfume.
Sayuri was standing by the door, holding a garment bag. She gave Reina a look of disgust.
"Enough. Stop acting," Sayuri snapped. "You are ruining the makeup. Crying isn't today's segment."
Reina panicked, trying to dry her eyes. Her hands shook so much that she knocked her gym bag onto the floor.
The bag hit the floor with a loud and heavy thud and the zipper burst open.
Her things scattered everywhere: a water bottle, some new and used tissues, the stolen vial and the black burner phone she had secretly purchased and hidden from everyone.
The world stood still.
Reina's heart tightened inside her chest. The phone fell right beside Sayuri's designer heels.
If she picked the phone and saw the encrypted chat app Haru had installed then everything would be over, the "Supernova Protocol" would die even before it even started. She would disappear just like Yuka.
Sayuri looked at the floor, her eyes cold.
"What is that, Reina?"
Reina froze. Her mind raced. She had let her guard down and got distracted by her guilt and the ghost of Yuka that she had made a mistake. To save herself, she had to play the part of a victim. She couldn't act smart or strong now. She had to be what Sayuri wanted her to be. She had to be a broken, vulnerable child.
She dropped down to the floor and started sobbing. She ignored the phone on the tiles and covered her eyes with her bandaged hands and began to scream and wail.
"I'm sorry!" Reina wailed in a high but childish voice, "Kenji! The stalker! He came today! He knew about the clinic! He scared me so much! I bought that phone in secret just to call my mom! I didn't want anyone to overhear us! Please, don't report me! Please don't tell Chairman Kaneshiro! Please!"
It was a shameful and embarrassing lie. It made her look like a weak, pathetic girl. It took away the last shade of her dignity.
Sayuri stared down at her for 10 long, painful seconds. Reina stayed on the floor, crying and waiting. She could feel her eyes burning into her back.
"You are so stupid, Reina," Sayuri finally sighed. She stepped over the phone. She didn't pick it up. To her, a girl crying for her mommy wasn't anything new. It was just another annoying mess she has to clean up.
"Keep it for now. If it helps you to stay calm and keeps you from breaking down in front of the camera, then fine. I don't care. But if you get distracted, I'll have security break your fingers."
She kicked the phone toward Reina's bag.
"Five minutes. You have five minutes to fix your makeup and get dressed"
She walked out. The door clicked shut. And the silence returned.
Reina waited until the hallway was silent. Then she stopped acting and reached for the burner phone with a steady, cold hand. She hid the phone and the stolen medicine under her clothes.
She looked back at the mirror. Yuka was disppeared.
There was only Reina, kneeling with shame. She felt sick and dirty and felt the weight of her sins. But she was alive.
I'm no hero, she told her reflection. I'm just a monster who didn't die. But maybe a monster is exactly what they deserve.
She stood up. She didn't fix her makeup immediately. She looked at her ruined face one last time. Then like a machine, she picked up the powder and began to paint the lie back on.
> [SYSTEM LOG: LUMINA!_DORM_SURVEILLANCE_04]
> Asset: Reina Shiratori.
> Status: Behavioral Breakdown detected. Cortisol levels: High.
> Manager Note (Sayuri): Asset is exhibiting signs of severe paranoia. Asset attempted unauthorized communication (familial contact).
> Recommendation: Isolate Asset from external feeds. Accelerate AI integration.
> [ALERT: ENCRYPTED OUTBOUND SIGNAL DETECTED... SOURCE UNKNOWN.]