Stay safe out there! There are a ton of weirdos and terrible people on the loose!
The post received 254 likes and 27 comments. I scrolled through the comments one by one, feeling my blood boil with each message of support.
They messed with the wrong person
Wtf this is so fucked up
Thank you for sharing this!!! More people need to know about this scam.
Imagine how much of a creep and loser you’d have to be to go through all this. JFC
NINE
“Why did you like this?”I asked Eunjin. We were studying together in the business school library the next day and I held up my phone to show her Laura’s post about the so-called scammer.
“Oh.” She shrugged. “I mean, the whole situation is super creepy. I don’t even remember liking it but probably in a show of support?”
“Since when do you follow Laura?”
“I mean, don’t you also follow Laura?”
“That’s irrelevant. When didyoustart following her?”
“I think she followed me when we were in Buddhism together last semester, so I followed her back.”
“She followed you first?!”
“Yeah.”
I was suddenly overcome with jealousy. I just didn’t know whether I was jealous of Eunjin or of Laura. I looked around the library to distract myself, to shake off the prickling sensation inmy chest. A group of business school students walked in and sat at the table next to ours, reminiscing about some trip they had just taken to Antarctica. I hated that Eunjin followed Laura. I hated that she had liked Laura’s post. I hated these business school students with their affected corporate joviality and logo’d sweater vests. I’d actually found it a little endearing before, how they all wanted to match with each other like a club sports team, but now found it utterly insufferable.
“Why do we still study here? The people suck,” I said, loud enough for the group next to me to hear. But they didn’t hear. They’d moved on to discussing when they’d be free to practice case study interviews with each other. “Casing,” as they liked to call it.
“Dude, why are you being weird?” Eunjin asked.
I ignored her question and chewed on my lip before speaking again.
“Can you be honest with me for a moment?”
“Of course.”
“Is she better than me?” I avoided meeting Eunjin’s eyes. It was embarrassing enough that I asked the question, but it was too late to take it back. I decided I might as well try to get an answer rather than pretend I’d never said it.
“Is who better than you?”
“Laura.”
“Oh.” Eunjin had a funny look on her face, as though trying to figure out whether I was joking or not. “We’re back to the subject of her post.”
“Yes.”
“Better than you? At what?”
“You know…at everything. Is she better? Objectively. Categorically. Holistically.”
“Wait, I don’t even know where to start with this. No one is better than anyone else categorically.”
“Oh, come on. You don’t actually believe that.”
