Noon, University of Miami, inside a girls' dorm room.
Asa sat sideways on her bed, holding her phone up to record a video of herself.
She pouted, made a fist and placed it near her cheek, and tilted her head, striking a cute pose.
Thanks to the beauty filter, this girl, who was normally a bit below an 8 out of 10, looked even cuter than Shirley Taylor on camera.
The angle, shooting from top to bottom, not only captured her entire body but also got her casually-seated roommate, Bella Kennedy, in the frame.
Videos with a "girls' dorm" backdrop were incredibly popular online.
The thirsty guys loved watching beautiful women, and they especially loved watching beautiful women with beautiful roommates.
It was even better when the roommate was someone like Bella Kennedyâsitting there playing on her phone, with one elegantly long, pale leg casually propped up on the deskâas it fed into their voyeuristic desires.
Bella Kennedy was completely oblivious to all this.
She sat on a chair with only two legs touching the ground, leaning back against the chair's backrest and gently rocking back and forth.
This laid-back, almost arrogant sitting posture was usually reserved for guys, but somehow looked even better on girls.
Asa, satisfied with the footage she had captured, felt a thrill of excitement.
She was about to go live.
She needed to post a somewhat suggestive video first, so that people watching the video who wanted to see more would click into her livestream.
Using a video editing app, she added some trendy background music and a few captions, creating a short video around ten seconds long.
As she was about to finish, Bella Kennedy suddenly let out a shout.
"Holy sh*t!"
Asa jumped, nearly dropping her phone.
She thought Bella had caught her recording her without permission and quickly started apologizing in a sweet, pleading voice.
"Big sis Bella I'm sorry! Your legs are just so pretty, let me use them just this once, okay?"
"What are you talking about?"
Bella Kennedy turned around, and upon realizing she was being filmed, got annoyed.
"Are you filming me again?"
"Hehe, I didn't show your face this time, just your legs," Asa said, grinning sheepishly.
She had discovered that faceless beauties seemed to attract even more traffic online.
People were constantly asking for photos in the comments.
And fans would even share old photos of the girls to show off.
This active engagement led to even more exposure.
"Don't you have your own legs?" Bella Kennedy asked, shooting her a glare.
"But they're not as pretty as yours! Your legs can lure in a whole crowd of thirsty guys, hehe," Asa said, flattering her roommate.
Bella Kennedy, secretly pleased, pretended to be annoyed.
"Next time, just ask before you film. Don't be so sneaky," she said.
"Okay, okay, big sis Bella, you're the best! I wanna marry you!" Asa said excitedly.
Bella Kennedy waved her hand dismissively.
Then, she got up, walked over to Asa's bed with her phone, and handed it over, saying,
"Let's talk about something serious. Does this guy look like Shirley's boyfriend?"
Asa took one look and knew immediately that Bella was talking about the viral proposal video.
She had already seen it the night before and had watched it several times.
Just from the man's voice and overall vibe, there was a 90% chance it was the Rolls-Royce-driving rich guy.
And when she noticed the tall bodyguard in the video, she was almost certain it was him.
But Asa had kept this discovery to herself the previous night.
Both her roommates had a thing with the guy. It seemed stupid to blurt out, "Hey, your guy is cheating on you..."
Now, with Bella directly asking, Asa still tried to play it down.
"He looks a bit like him, but it's hard to tell from this distance. I don't think it's the same person," she said evasively.
"How could it not be? That's definitely that scumbag," Bella Kennedy said, fuming.
"Well, big sis Bella, don't get mad yet. This is clearly staged, just to get views," Asa said cautiously, trying to defend James.
"I'm not mad. I just feel bad for Shirley. How could she fall for such a jerk?" Bella Kennedy said, grumbling.
Normally, this wouldn't be her problem.
But for some reason, she felt angry.
Whenever she saw that scumbag pounding the floor in the video, she felt an uncontrollable urge to punch him.
"He just got with Shirley, and now he's already proposing to another girl? What a shameless jerk," Bella Kennedy said, finding a reason for her anger.
"Maybe it's not the same person. He just looks similar," Asa suggested.
"No way. Look at how he smiles at that girl. It's the exact same way he smiles at Shirley..." Bella Kennedy said, pointing at the screen for Asa to see.
Just then, the dorm room door opened.
Shirley Taylor walked in, carrying bags of food.
Bella Kennedy tensed up. She hadn't decided whether to tell Shirley the brutal truth or not.
Then, she heard James's voice from her phone.
"I like you, always, and I also like..."
Bella quickly hit the back button, exiting TikTok.
"Shirley, you're back!" Asa said awkwardly.
Shirley Taylor could tell it was James's voice.
The fact that it was coming from Bella Kennedy's phone caught her off guard, and she froze.
Seeing Bella Kennedy's panicked expression, even the usually naive Shirley realized something was wrong with James.
She stood rooted to the spot by the door, bags of food in hand, unsure of what to do.
Bella Kennedy and Asa exchanged a look, silently debating whether to tell her.
Since Shirley didn't use TikTok much, she probably had no idea that James was seeing other women.
Asa shook her head slightly, suggesting it was better not to stir up trouble and to wait until Shirley found out on her own.
Bella Kennedy wanted Shirley to see James's true colors.
But revealing it now seemed too cruel to the innocent and sweet girl.
After a moment of hesitation, she decided to keep it a secret, for now.
After all, without concrete proof, it wasn't fair to assume the man in the video was definitely James.
Bella Kennedy walked over, acting as if nothing had happened.
"Shirley, what are you standing there for? Come in," she said, taking the bags of food from Shirley's hands.
She opened them and exclaimed with delight,
"Wow, they're serving Big Plate Chicken today? That's the only good thing about the cafeteria."
But Shirley remained frozen, letting Bella pull her into the room.
"Shirley, are you okay? Is something wrong?" Asa asked from her bed.
She was on a diet and wasn't eating.
Shirley slowly came back to herself, glancing at Asa blankly and shaking her head without saying a word.
Asa, unsure if Shirley had recognized James's voice, said nervously,
"Don't overthink it. Bella was just showing me a funny video."
"Yeah, it was hilarious," Bella Kennedy added, forcing a smile that looked a bit unnatural.
Shirley didn't respond. She sat down at her desk and picked up a thick textbook, pretending to study.
But her vacant stare showed she wasn't really paying attention.
Her mind was in turmoil.
She thought she heard James confessing to her roommate.
If that was true, she wouldn't know how to face James or her roommate.
She didn't have the courage to ask them about it, nor did she want to know if Bella had accepted James's confession.
Timid Shirley just wanted to forget what she had heard and pretend she knew nothing.
But as luck would have it, Bella Kennedy, while eating, casually asked,
"Shirley, if you found out your boyfriend was cheating on you, what would you do?"
Shirley's fingers, gripping the book, turned slightly white.
She was too nervous to respond properly and mumbled,
"I don't know."
"That scumbag is clearly trouble. You'd better be prepared, so you don't do anything drastic later, okay?" Bella Kennedy said, trying to warn her subtly.
Shirley lowered her head and mumbled an "Okay."
Asa, feeling sympathetic, tried to defend James,
"Maybe it's a misunderstanding. Your boyfriend seems to really care about you."
"Misunderstanding my *ss. He's definitely a jerk," Bella Kennedy said angrily.
Then, turning to Shirley, she added,
"Isn't your boyfriend in New York City? I have something to do in the city this afternoon. If you don't have class, do you want to come with me and check up on him?"