"The truth doesn't always set you free. Sometimes, it breaks you first."
Rain still poured relentlessly as Aska sprinted across the campus, Ara's laptop clutched tightly under his arm. Every shadow looked like a threat. Every face he passed felt like it knew too much.
He didn't go back to his dorm.
Instead, he headed to the abandoned multimedia lab in the basement level — off-limits due to renovations, but Aska knew the back door code. It was quiet. Cold. Safe enough… for now.
He connected Ara's laptop to the wall outlet and booted it up again. The bookmarks she'd left behind were all he had to go on.
The camera glitch directory… It took him ten minutes to break past the password.
What he found made him sit up straight.
There were over thirty hidden files — all from security cams — but many had skipped timestamps, blacked-out frames, or strange audio spikes. Some of the recordings had been edited.
Why?
By who?
One clip caught his eye.
Timestamp: The night before the leak.
Aska hit play.
The video was grainy, the angle awkward, but one thing stood out: a hooded figure standing inside the staff IT room… alone.
But this time, he noticed something new.
In the reflection of the screen they were using — a partial ID card.
Barely visible.
But it was there.
Aska paused.
Zoomed.
Froze.
It wasn't Said's ID.
It wasn't any of theirs.
It was from Admin Level Access.
Someone from the university.
No. Someone above them.
His breath caught.
This wasn't just students. Someone else was in on this.
---
Meanwhile, Aluna sat under the staircase in the north wing, fingers clenched around her phone. She kept rewatching the video she'd been sent — the one that seemed to show her near the IT lab.
She wasn't sure what scared her more — the footage, or the possibility that she couldn't remember being there.
"Are you okay?"
Ara's voice.
Alive. Here.
Aluna looked up, startled. Ara looked pale but steady, a flashlight tucked under her arm, wet hair clinging to her cheek.
"I— I thought something happened to you. You disappeared."
"I know," Ara whispered, sitting down beside her. "Someone shut down my room. My phone. My whole dorm wing lost power."
"They're trying to isolate us," Aluna said, barely a whisper.
Ara nodded. "Divide us. Make us suspect each other."
Aluna hesitated. "Have you?"
"Have I what?"
"Suspected me."
Ara didn't answer for a long time.
Then: "Yes."
Aluna looked away, wounded but not surprised.
"But I suspect myself too," Ara added softly. "We're being manipulated. Played."
She pulled something from her pocket — a flash drive.
"I found this in my own drawer. It has midterm files on it."
Aluna stared at it.
"I didn't put it there, Aluna. But it's mine now. And if they find it…"
She didn't finish the sentence.
She didn't need to.
Aluna reached for the flash drive — and then paused.
"If someone is trying to frame all of us… they're almost done."
---
Said sat on the rooftop.
Alone.
The "CONFESSION.mp4" video still echoed in his ears.
I planted the file. But I wasn't alone.
Who else?
Who could it be?
He scrolled back through code archives, tracing login fingerprints. Most were masked — someone had been careful.
But one mistake stood out.
A Wi-Fi ping log. A connection to the server one minute before the email leak.
The device?
A tablet registered to: Professor R. Darmawan.
Their scholarship coordinator.
Said's fingers froze above the keys.
Was it possible?
Was he the one who leaked it?
Or… was his device stolen?
Said's mind raced.
Either way, the rabbit hole just got deeper.
"Everyone's chasing the wrong suspects. Because the real puppeteer never shows their hands."
---
At that moment, Aska's phone buzzed.
A message from Ara.
"We need to meet. All four of us. No phones. No tech. Just us."
He hesitated.
Then typed back:
"When?"
The reply came instantly.
"Midnight. North courtyard. And Aska… bring the USB."
---