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Fame is a thing that not everybody is capable of handling. If you suddenly found yourself with millions of followers overnight, what would you do? If you suddenly found yourself under the watchful eye of the public, being scrutinized for every little thing you did, how would you react? It’s a question that most people fail to ask themselves as they tend to believe that type of life isn’t in the cards for them. In truth, all it takes is for a single post to blow up out of nowhere and suddenly you find yourself with thousands of fans the very next morning. In the 21st century it is easier than ever for people to randomly acquire fame out of nowhere.
Kai Monteago is a prime example of that fact, a highschool kid , a ‘nobody’ who suddenly found himself with thousands upon thousands of followers overnight. Fame wasn’t something that Kai had been seeking out, in fact he originally hadn’t been all that tech-savvy when it came to the internet. He had little to no knowledge on the ways of the internet world. The day he decided to give social media a try, was the day everything changed. His friend, a known prodigy in the art of photoshop, had sent him an edited photo of himself.
Photoshopping was something that Kai’s friend did for his own enjoyment, they hadn’t expected to make a career out of it. This one edited photo was enough to blow Kai’s Instagram page towards new horizons. He often wondered if he had posted an unedited photo of himself, would he have gotten the same traction. As much as he claimed that this photo wasn’t him, that this photo was simply an utopian version of himself. A dream, something he could never make a reality. He had to admit, he liked the attention.
Originally he had simply posted the photo to show off his friends amazing skills in photoshop, but after seeing the traction the photo had gotten, he couldn’t find it in himself to stop. He would request his friends help in editing photos more often, even offering to pay them to some degree. It wasn’t long before his friend grew tired of Kai’s continuous begging for edited photos.
“Then why won’t you just learn how to photoshop yourself, if this is seriously that important to you?” his friend would tell him, feeling as though the only reason Kai ever approached him anymore was to have his photos edited. Their friendship had no substance anymore, it was purely transactional. That was only the first of many friends Kai had lost because of his newfound fame. He didn’t understand Kai’s obsession with fame, he wasn’t nearly as chronically online as him. “Damon. You don’t understand. I need this.” he would tell him.
“Why? Why do you NEED this?”
Perhaps the saying was right, fame really did change a person. Kai wasn’t a bad person, but it didn't take a genius to realize that he was a bad friend. He had taken his friend's advice and learned his own photoshop techniques, often wondering if the person in the photo was truly him. “ I look so different …” He would say to himself as he stared at the edited photo, comparing the before and after photos. Every single imperfection that Kai had would do a quick disappearing act thanks to the magic of editing. It had gotten to the point where Kai would often try to replicate those unrealistic beauty standards his photoshopped photos set, and bring them into his day to day life.
Besides, there was a glaring problem. How was he to explain the huge difference in his appearance to people if they recognized him in real life? Especially after getting accepted into the college of his dreams, Eden’s Garden Academy. Kai knew better than to believe that College would be all that similar to highschool, especially when taking into account the difference in the number of students.
This college had around 20 thousands attendees, which was a huge difference when compared to the 500 students that his highschool had. He’d be surprised if absolutely no one recognized him. That's why he tried so hard to replicate his photos to the best of his ability. Makeup , Hair dye , and baggy clothes were all it took to ensure that his little white lie wouldn’t be exposed.
Luck, however , seemed to want to make him its worst enemy. His new roommate for this university experience was the friend who graciously edited photos for him a year ago. All it took was one bitter soul, with old photos of him to expose his lies. Would .. he really do that to him? This person was the only one left who still remembered the old him, would he betray him like that? He wouldn’t blame him if he did, in fact he felt he deserved it to some degree. He had been such an awful friend.
He missed him.
“I’m sorry.” he found himself mumbling to himself, as his eyes travelled to the bed on the other side of the cramped dorm room. It had been months of rooming together, and although Damon had the power to completely ruin his career. One unedited photo. That’s it. Just one is all it would take to completely destroy everything he built. He would forever feel indebted to him for not posting the pictures when he had every right to do so. Every single night, it had become a common routine for him to spend the nights refreshing his hashtag. It was genuinely becoming a problem, it was starting to affect Kai AND Damons rest as Damon would have to deal with the slightly dim light of Kais computer.
“You’re going to give yourself a fucking aneurysm, doing that, y’know that right?” Damon told him one day. “But what do I know?” he would shrug as he went back to minding his own business. Kai would sigh as he put down his phone, knowing that Damon was completely right. The reason Kai did this is because he knew that all of this, his life as he knew it, could be gone in a minute at the snap of his fingers.
There had been so many stories of influencers losing their fame over night. Although, of course those influencers had done things worthy of losing their career. Borderline Pedophilia, scamming their fans, saying slurs. Catfishing, or as Kai liked to put it, telling a little white lie about your looks was in no way comparable to those horrendous acts.
Still, people were sheep, they followed the newest trends, went with the crowd, regardless of who it hurt in the long run. It was incredibly rare for anyone to actually fact check the allegations before choosing to cancel an influencer. ‘Eat the rich.’ as people would so vehemently toss around. Of course, for Kai .. it was different, there were no allegations to refute. His childhood photos were real, they were the real him.
Just as quickly as his rise to fame, things came crashing down.
alex @kaimonteagofan7162 5 Mar 24
Oh. my. god. did you guys see the recent kai photos?
That has to be edited, right? why does he look like he’s
never showered a day in his life? #kaimonteago
___________
#1 Kai fan @leahspersonalacc 5 Mar 24
replying to @kaimonteagofan7162
right? It’s sad that op took down the photos as quickly
as they did. I’m glad I saved them in time, if anyone
wants to see them, hmu. #kaimonteago
___________
monaca!! @kaimonteagosgf 5 Mar 24
replying to @kaimonteagofan7162
What happened to my twink boyfriend? It seems
all the sweets he's been eating in his vlogs have
finally gotten to him, maybe cut back on the
candy and chocolate sweetie. just a tip ! <3
@therealkaimontago #kaimonteago
___________
Those were just a tiny portion of the thousands of tweets flooding the Kai Monteago hashtag throughout the night4. The moment Kai had turned on his phone for the day, his notifications were spammed with every single tweet he had missed during the night. Kai had finally achieved his dream, he was #1 trending in Japan for Beauty, but .. for a less than stellar reason. This was not the reason he wanted to be trending. Kai spent his morning frantically scrolling through his hashtag, desperately searching for the source of the sudden hate. He knew little to nothing when it came to the court system, but perhaps if he approached Wolfgang asking for legal advice, he would actually have a case there. Actually, on second thought would he? While it was slanderous, he had been unable to find the original poster, there was a chance he could lose the case if everything the poster said was legitimate. He knew what he used to look like back in highschool, what if they had somehow gotten ahold of those old photos?
While he was unable to find the original poster, he had seen dozens upon dozens of reposts, and sure enough they were old photos from highschool. He remembered the photos, he looked noticeably younger in them. Around 14 years of age. These photos made him shutter as he remembered the origin of them. They were photos he used to think were so cute, photos he used to use as background for everything before realizing just how insane he was to think that. White T-shirt, natural black hair, small patches of mustache, god why hadn’t he shaved that off before taking the photo? Worse of all, in this photo he had shown a little more skin than he felt was socially acceptable. He scoffed softly as he stared at the old photo of him, he wasn’t sure if he was more upset at the fact that someone had gotten ahold of this, or the fact that he had even taken the photo in the first place. There was only one other person with known access to this photo. It was a photo he had taken while he and Damon were together, and Damon had sent it to him all those years ago. Though .. Damon wouldn’t betray him like that, right? He wouldn’t.
Sure, their friendship had gone through a rough patch due to his own selfishness and shallow needs, but they had been roommates for a few months up to this point, it would have been more impactful to release the photos right at the start of the school year. If Damon truly wanted to hurt him, he would have done so already.
Damon couldn’t.
No, he wouldn’t hurt him like that.
Still, he had to admit, there was no better explanation as to how the internet could have gotten ahold of this photo. His eyes slowly narrowed as he glanced at the empty bed in the corner of the room. Damon attended earlier classes than he did, so he had already left for the day. While they didn’t talk much these days due to their strained relationship, he had thought they had a mutual understanding of one another. There was only one thing left for him to do, confront Damon. Besides, at this rate it was next to impossible for him to find the original posts. He had skimmed through thousands upon thousands of posts, and there were thousands more he hadn’t even seen yet. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, there were just too many. He let out an annoyed sigh as he climbed out of bed, this was NOT how he wanted to start his Tuesday. He glanced at the clock, 11 AM, that meant that Damon would most likely be in physics right now. Would it have been better to wait until after class? Absolutely. However the curiosity, Anger, and just overall disappointment and betrayal were eating him alive. He quickly changed out of his overnight clothes, opting for an oversized sweatshirt, some oversized pants and a medical mask to make his appearance more inconspicuous, besides he hadn’t had time to put on makeup this morning. He quickly grabbed his phone and room key before leaving the room and heading for the main school building.
He passed by hundreds of students that immediately recognized him despite the mask he had worn. They must have seen the photos posted online because some would stare at him for longer than necessary before looking away. Probably trying to get a better look at him to see if the rumors were true, why didn’t they just mind their own business? He ignored them all, tried to tune out to avoid absolutely snapping on them. It wasn’t long until he arrived at the main building and immediately headed towards the room he knew they held physics in. The door was shut, but not locked. He looked through the tiny window as he peaked in and took a quick scan of the room. No teacher, most students were just playing games and talking amongst themselves rather than actually focusing on their work due to the lack of a teacher. Another scan and .. bingo. Damon was in the corner of the room away from everyone, arm propped up on the desk, head propped against the propped up hand, staring out the window. He took in a deep breath as he entered the room, some students glanced at him but most ignored his entrance, thankfully. As he headed over towards Damons desk and slammed his phone down on the desk of the male.
“Damon Maitsu. We need to talk.” he mumbled in a stern voice. That grabbed the boy's attention as he glanced at him, before his eyes immediately went back to their former position. What was so interesting out there?
“I’m in class right now. Can’t it wait?” Was all the boy said, seemingly brushing off Kai’s concerns entirely, earning a scoff from the latter. “You’re an asshole, y’know? No wonder you don’t have friends.” he replied as he glanced around the room at the students who almost seemed to be ‘social distancing’ from Damon in a way.
That comment earned a sigh from Damon as he put his hand down onto his desk as he finally gave Kai his full attention. “Wow. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, who shat in your cereal this morning?”
“This is just a joke to you. That’s all I am, one gigantic joke to you. I know. I’m the reason for our friendship ending, it’s my fault. But this? This was to fucking far.” he said as he glared at Damon, tears prickling in his eyes. “Y’know what? Forget it, I knew talking to you was a lost cause.” he shook his head as a tear rolled down his face and he left the room.
Damon's face fell as he watched Kai walk away, he was.. Confused to say the least. Kai looked genuinely hurt and upset, he was literally on the verge of tears. Damon had never seen Kai cry before, well.. Cry real tears. He had seen him fake cry in the past to get his way, but real tears? Practically unheard of.He glanced down at his desk, Kai had forgotten his phone in his hurry to leave, he’d have to return it to him later. What was the cause of Kai’s sudden burst of anger? Damon hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary, they mostly avoided each other these days.
His eyes traveled to the phone as he picked it up. “Sorry Kai, but I don’t like being left in the dark.” He said as he input the password Kai had from back when they were friends, he sure hoped he hadn’t changed it. Sure enough, he hadn’t. Kai’s twitter had been kept open, and on it was a zoomed in picture, a picture Damon knew all too well. He was there when Kai took this picture, in fact it was still a picture he had on his own phone. He thought Kai looked genuinely nice that day, so he had asked him to send the picture. He exited the zoomed in photo as he looked up at the caption that accompanied the photo.
sadie @sadiebrown73 5 Mar 24
GOD. he looks so ugly in this photo,
Thank you to whoever found this.
ALSO.. why is he showing so much skin?!
Don’t believe everything you see on
the internet, guys. This is proof.
This tweet alone had 825 retweets , 8172 likes and 62 quote retweets. The tweet earned a scoff from Damon as he rolled his eyes and started scrolling down towards the comments. Every single comment under that post was just a shallow comment about Kais appearance and body. This is exactly the reason that Damon didn’t use social media all that often, everyone on it was so .. toxic and shallow. He started to question how this person had even gotten ahold of this photo to begin with? He remembered how Kai had almost immediately deleted the photo upon taking it, the only copy being in Damon's possession. Wait.. Kai didn’t think that he would.
“Damn it.” he mumbled as he ran a hand through his hair as he tried to figure out how this random person on the internet had gotten ahold of this photo when the only copy of it was in his possession.
Wait.
His eyes scanned the room before falling on a certain trio. More specifically, the “Leader” of said trio. A girl whom he had allowed to borrow his notes a few days ago. His eyes locked with this girl as she quickly looked away, he sighed in annoyance as he quickly pulled out his own phone. Immediately going to his messages and emails. Both inboxes were empty. However the trash in his messaging app wasn’t. He opened up one of the files and all he saw was the photo accompanied by the caption. “Kai’s true self”. She had been smart enough to delete the message, but not to empty his trash?
“Idiot.” he scoffed, loud enough for her to hopefully hear as he stuff his phone back into his own pocket, before putting Kai’s into his vacant pocket. He glanced at the clock, 15 minutes left .. but he genuinely couldn’t care less. The teacher wasn’t here anyways. He quickly put his school books into his bag as he swung it over his shoulder and stood up. He ignored the calls from students asking where he was going as he left the classroom. As much as he despised Kai for becoming so obsessive over internet fame did he really hate him? No, he couldn’t say that he truly hated him as much as he claimed to. They had been friends for years, he had been his ONLY friend for years. He wasn’t sure that this would fix their friendship, but he needed to clear things up.
Kai wasn't so much a stickler for education as he was, there was no way Kai would attend class in that state. He had 100% returned back to the dorms, there was no doubt about it. Before Damon returned to the dorms, he stopped by the school cafeteria and brought a coffee, a caramel macchiato he had witnessed the boy order multiple times before. After a short walk, he finally arrived back at the dorms and threw his backpack into the corner of the rooms. He placed the drink onto the bedside table next to Kai’s bed as he glanced around the room, where had that idiot gone? He knew Kai better than anyone, he was definitely in here. His eyes eventually fell onto the slightly cracked door of their shared bathroom. He slowly walked towards it, sniffles from inside becoming more apparent as he grew closer.
He slightly pushed the door opened with his finger, being met with a sight he wouldn’t wish upon anyone. There stood his best .. ex best friend in front of the mirror, shirt slightly pulled up as he stared at his stomach, poking it. Tears streamed down his face as he seemed to be so entranced by the sight that he hadn’t heard Damon come in. This was a point of vulnerability that Damon had not seen from the other male. To him, Kai was always an airhead, he was always smiling, and nothing ever seemed to bother him. He walked towards Kai as he closed the door behind him, earning a flinch from Kai as he finally noticed his presence. Kai said nothing as he continued staring at his stomach.
Without needing an exchange of words, Damon walked up behind the male and wrapped his arms around him. He placed his chin onto Kais shoulder as he stared at the mirror. He felt Kai shaking underneath him, as Kai dropped his shirt and started to cry harder. Damon had never been a hugger, he hated the physical contact of someone being so close to him, but this was the exception. It was something that Kai clearly needed right now.
“You’re an idiot. Yknow?” Damon finally said. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way you look.” he said as he started to rock him and Kai back and forth. “You have a healthy body.” he leaned his head against Kais. “Those people .. all they care about is views, likes and money. Most of them most likely joined the hate train without knowing you at all. They saw a popular influencer getting hate and wanted to bring him down a peg. Eat the rich. As most people say. Do those people's opinions really mean more to you than your own? Or mine?.. A person you have known for years?” Damon continued.
“I know. Our friendship has been on the rocks ever since that day .. but I didn’t like how the internet was taking away my friend, I didn’t like how fame was changing you into something you weren’t, so I kept my distance and drifted away. I admit, I shouldn’t have done that. But I couldn’t deal with your social media obsession. I wasn’t jealous, I just missed Kai. MY Kai. The one who didn’t care about his appearance, the one who would take goofy selfies with me without all the shity filters. The one who would steal clothes from our parents and try them on to have a dumb fashion show. That Kai. I wanted that Kai back.” he mumbled as he felt tears prickle into his eyes, he hid his face into the crevice of Kais neck. “I’m so selfish, I know.” he said barely above a whisper. There was no sound of either of them as Kai slowly turned around in the hug, silence, deafening silence as Kai finally hugged him back. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” he said as tears streamed down his face.
“I saw what everyone else had and I wanted that. Growing up, you were my only friend. It’s not that you weren’t good enough, but I saw people with so many friends and even fans and.. I wanted that. I became greedy. I saw how things worked on social media and started confirming myself to their standards. I grew to hate myself, everything about myself. My jet black hair, the little bit of mustache that just won't. Leave. Me. Alone. The pudge .. oh god, especially the pudge around my stomach. It made me feel fat. It made me wonder if I truly deserved my fame. I’m not dumb, Damon. I know that every single person who follows me, follows me because they find me ‘cute’. I have been compared to so many K-pop & J-pop idols. It’s something I hear every single day of my life.” he paused as he brought his hands up to wipe his tears. “I’m tired of it. I’m tired of people just seeing me as eye-candy. I’m so fucking tired of it, Damon.”
Damon was silent as he listened to Kai’s rant and rubbed his back, he understood it completely. “I know it’s easier said than done, but I suggest you take a break from social media for a while. It’s doing a horrible number to your mental health.” No response, but Kai knew he was right. “Yeah .. Yeah..” he said as he smiled softly at Damon. “You’re right, but first ..” he said as he pulled away, finally breaking from the hug. He started to feel around his body, clearly looking for something. “aH.. Right.” he said as he realized he had left his phone on Damons desk.
“Looking for this?” Damon asked as he pulled out Kai's phone and handed it back to him, earning a playful push and roll of the eyes from Kai. “Pose with me, will you?” he asked as he unlocked his phone and turned towards the mirror. Damon was confused , but did what was requested of him as he wrapped his arms around Kai’s waist and put his chin on the boy's shoulder again.
“Can’t you choose a different pose?” Kai asked in mock annoyance.
“Nope. Come to find out, I like it here.” Damon said with a slight chuckle.
“Whatever …” Kai replied as he opened his front camera and held out his arm, he smiled brightly as he snapped the photo. His eyes were still slightly red from the previous tears, but he didn’t care.
“Cute.” Damon said with a smile, “Send that to me.”
Kai nodded as he opened up his messages with Damon and sent him the photo before opening up his instagram and posting the photo, no filter, no makeup, no mask, just raw. He simply wrote. “Love yourself.” in the caption before posting it. Kai didn’t love himself just yet, he still had his own doubts, but he was making efforts to do so. Besides, Damon was right, the only opinion that should matter is his own. He let out a sigh as he did something he hadn’t done in years, he shut his phone off. Well, perhaps the opinion of his best friend. He glanced back at the male who hadn’t moved from his spot. “Hey. I’m skipping class today, I think I need a little time to myself, care to join me?”
“When do you ever actually attend class?” Damon said in a teasing tone as he finally released his grip around the male's waist. Earning him a glare and roll of the eyes from Kai.
“Ok. offers off the table,” Kai said with a shrug as he left the bathroom.
“Wait no! I was joking. I’ll tag along.” Damon exclaimed as he quickly followed Kai back to the room, Kai who had of course made a beeline for the drink that Damon had left on the bedside table, which earned a chuckle from Damon as he sat next to Kai on his bed. Maybe things would be just fine. They finally had a talk that was LONG overdue. They had a new found respect and understanding of one another. He missed this. He missed him.