Chapter Text
Word after word. Page after page. Headline after headline. Article after article. Every tweet, comment, video essay, clip, short video, haunted the guileless mind of Shin Ryujin. She was unbeknownst as to how her world could come crumbling down within such a short period of time - how the life she had achieved, the stardom she had crafted for herself, her reputable sense of allure and charm, had faded out like an an angel walking into an endless abyss of light - one that could leave anyone instantly blinded by mere eye contact. She kept scrolling. Scrolling. 832 quote-retweets. 1,740 quote-retweets. 4,588 quote-retweets. The numbers kept growing, and growing, and growing with every tweet she laid her eyes on. She navigated her cursor onto the trending tab. #1 in Korea. #6 worldwide. A wave of nausea overcame her.
She lay there in disbelief. That is all she could feel. Disbelief. How somebody she once treasured, adored, gave the world and beyond to.. could trap her in such a web of lies. A web that she found herself slowly sinking in to, suffocating. The slimy, scrawny strands of white twisting around and wrapping each of her limbs, a grip forming tighter and tighter as each waking second passed her by. Her breath growing with each she takes, her heart rate rising in union, an earthquake forming in her porcelain hands as she feels an unnerving chill begin to flood throughout her body - well, what could better be described right now as only an empty vessel, drained of the bright and beloved publicly-treasured charm it had contained a few hours prior. The breathing turns into hyperventilation. The heart is now running a marathon. The earthquake grows to a magnitude of 6. The chill turns into hypothermia. Thousands of tiny hairs rise like an army, about to collectively flee from their mission. An unrelenting scream coils from within, the hairs of web gripping tighter like the fingers of a giantess clawed around her neck. The scream builds. The hyperventilation becomes rapid. Eyelids glued shut. Grip becoming stronger. Heart sprinting at a reputable pace. The pigment of her skin draining out into a pool of sweat that collects beneath her, like an ocean who's one aim is to drown those who are deserving of it - the evilest of the evil - like her. Was she evil? Were all of these really lies? Was she really some disgusting, abusive, criminal witch? One whom deserves to be gnawed on by a black widow? Have a pint of their venom injected *directly* into their bloodstream? One who deserves to die the brutally cold and painful death of asphyxiation? Alone?
The laptop shut with a clamorous slam. Ryujin sighed wearily. She placed her hand on the left side of her cold, pale, chest to feel the beat of her heart. *Boom, Boom, Boom.* Still relatively fast, but nothing of too much concern. Another sigh escapes her lips, almost as if all the frustration, hurt, anxiety, draining out of her mind and soul, each at a time. No - she still feels a lot of frustration, hurt, resentment, disappointment, betrayal, you name it, but right now there was only one feeling that occupied her mind: Anxiety. That is all the girl felt, all the girl had the capacity to feel at this moment in time. No matter how many books she'd start to read (she'd discard of them after the first page, leaving them to grow dust on her bedside table), how many tosses and turns she'd take (It's too hot in here. Now it's too cold), how many times she'd take her socks off then put them back on (to feel the warm fuzz of the wool) nor how many songs she'd listen to before skipping along to the next one (the song is "too depressing" for her liking).
Yet another sigh. The 8th one of the hour that had been added to her ever-growing mental tally. It kept her mind occupied for a short while, a 10-second period, but the only thing she was fixated on was an image of a spider web. Her tangled in. A tiny, naive vunlerable, fly. That was Shin Ryujin. A fly whom had a family, friends, loved ones, and fans. A fly who thought she had it all in life.
Until she found herself tangled in Sophie Lee's web.