That day, the sky was clear and cloudless. The sun shone softly through the leaves. There was no sign of anything bad to come. Dinda walked to school with her backpack on her shoulders and the Chemistry assignment she had finished revising the night before. The day should have been perfectly ordinary. But at this school, bad things always came without warning.
Chemistry class began at eight. Ms. Rita hurried in, carrying a thick folder and wearing an expression sharper than usual. Something was wrong.
“Who erased Group C’s lab results from the lab board?” she asked sternly, standing at the front of the classroom like a judge beginning a trial.
The class fell silent. A few students exchanged glances. Then Arman raised his hand from the middle row.
“This morning, I saw Dinda go into the lab, ma’am,” he said calmly.
Dinda turned around quickly. Her heart pounded. “I... I only went to the teachers’ lounge, ma’am. Not the lab.”
Arman shrugged and gave her a small smile. “But I saw you from the hallway. You were holding a marker and erasing something.”
“That’s not true!” Her voice rose. “I never went in there!”
Ms. Rita stared at her coldly. “You’re denying it? You were also the last person to turn in the assignment.”
“I went to get my homework from the Math teacher this morning, ma’am,” Dinda replied quietly, trying to explain. “I only came to class afterward.”
But Ms. Rita’s expression had already changed. Rigid and cold, she delivered her punishment with a blank face.
“You’re getting a zero this week, and you’ll have to redo the lab by yourself next week.”
Dinda’s eyes widened. Her breath caught, her face went pale, and her mouth fell slightly open when she heard that she had received a ZERO. A number that represented nothingness. Not a shred of appreciation—only punishment. The light in her eyes dimmed as clear tears gathered.
The entire class fell silent. Then a soft laugh came from the back row. Dinda didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. For some reason, Cindy and her friends were here.
Cindy sat casually, covering her mouth as she giggled. Beside her, Liza looked satisfied. She even glanced at Arman and gave him a small thumbs-up.
‘What are they doing here?’ Dinda muttered inwardly.
‘How can she freely access my classroom when it isn’t even her class period?’ Dinda’s inner voice raged in protest.
Apparently, the school let its queen do whatever she wanted. Her chest began to tighten as though a huge stone were crushing it. She wanted to cry, but she had to hold it in.
She couldn’t let herself look weak, even though her heart felt shattered. She was determined to hold on until the bell rang for the next class.
All Dinda could do was lower her head and try to ease the tightness in her chest. There was no one to defend her. No room for an argument.
The popular kids always won.
Dinda fled to the restroom at the end of the hallway. She locked herself in the farthest stall, sat on the toilet lid, and let her tears fall.
Her hands covered her face. Not because she was weak, but because she was too exhausted from holding everything in by herself.
This wasn’t the first time they had attacked Dinda, but this accusation cut deeper. They hadn’t just dragged down her grade—they had damaged a reputation she hadn’t even had the chance to build. Another wound was carved into the wall of her heart.
Dinda felt completely broken. She calmed herself while steadying her breathing. Her hands were still trembling with anger.
With slightly trembling hands, Dinda pulled a small blue-covered notebook from her bag.
It was the diary she had carried with her since moving to this city. The first page contained only one large word:
‘STRONG’
With shaking hands, she began to write:
‘Today I was falsely accused. In front of everyone. Again, by people who don’t even truly know me. I don’t know why they hate me. But I do know one thing: if I cry in front of them, they win. So I’m writing this:’ ‘I'm Not Defeated Yet’
The sound of footsteps made her wary, but it turned out to be only a girl student who stepped inside for a moment before leaving.
After making sure it was safe, Dinda came out. She splashed water on her face and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Her eyes were swollen. Her lips were pressed into a stiff line. No matter what happened, she still tried to hold herself together and look whole.
In the mirror’s reflection, she saw Cindy walking down the hallway. Her steps were arrogant, her bright white shoes impossible to miss, and her smile clearly fake.
“Yeah, Leo still doesn’t know. Let’s do it all at once. When he comes to the lab, we’ll put on a show. I want him to see for himself how that bookworm falls,” Cindy’s voice rang out clearly as she spoke on the phone.
Dinda’s eyes flew wide, and her face flushed. ‘So all of this really was planned!’ she hissed softly to herself.
Dinda’s body went rigid. Both her hands clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
It hadn’t been a coincidence. All of this had been planned.
Back in class, everything carried on as if nothing had happened. No one cared. Rani was the only one who showed any concern, sitting beside Dinda with a worried expression.
“Hang in there, Din. Maybe you could tell the school counselor?”
Dinda shook her head weakly. “What’s the point? They won’t believe me.”
Because she knew that was exactly how things worked. Cindy was the daughter of a businessman who sponsored the student council.
Her parents had connections everywhere. And Dinda? She was just a girl from the countryside staying at her uncle’s house.
Dinda lowered her head over her notebook again, trying to copy down the Chemistry formulas. But the letters seemed to float and dance meaninglessly before her eyes.
Her head hurt.
Her soul was tired.
After school, the sky was overcast. Dinda waited for a minibus at the bus stop, her thin jacket clinging to her body. A drizzle began to fall, and her hair started getting wet beneath the rain. The minibus still didn’t come, and her body began to shiver.
Across the street, a black SUV stopped. Leo was inside with Daren. The car window was slightly open. Dinda could see them laughing, completely at ease.
Leo glanced over briefly. Dinda’s empty gaze was fixed in the direction the minibus would come from. Leo quickly looked away.
Dinda stood frozen, her mind blank. She didn’t know whether Leo was part of Cindy’s plan. Only one thing was certain:
Leo had never defended her. Not even once.