The Villain We Loved - CHAPTER 13: That Night with Joy

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The thing about Joy?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOrMgQCHdR2
She smiled too easily.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhhsUOpknkF
Laughed too often.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYHWyJmD1bq
And no one ever questioned it.

Because kind girls don’t lie, right?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgqygTwIDNh
Because soft voices don’t stab.

But Ruthie remembered everything.

One year ago

They were in Joy’s house. Sleepover daw.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt5nJySeXsj
Six girls. Three boxes of pizza. A playlist full of heartbreak songs.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9ky3rA2uV
Laughter. TikTok dances. Pillows everywhere.

It looked like sisterhood.

But Ruthie should’ve known better.

Joy handed her a glass of soda.

“Di ka ba iinom, Ruthie?”

“Ayoko eh. Baka magka-acid reflux ako,” she joked.

Joy giggled. “Ikaw talaga, lola.”

Everyone laughed.

She laughed, too—out of habit.

Then the truth started dripping in like poison.

Maya asked, “May crush ka ba sa section natin, Ruthie?”

She blinked. “Wala. Busy ako sa studies.”

Joy turned to her with fake surprise.

“Akala ko type mo si Sir Adrian?”

The room froze.

Ruthie’s throat went dry.

“What?”

“You said it last time, diba?” Joy grinned. “Na cute siya. Na gusto mo yung style niya magturo.”

“I never said that.”

Joy raised an eyebrow, all innocent.

“Hala? Baka ibang Ruthie yun?”

The girls laughed again—louder this time. But not the same way.

It was a different kind of laughter.

The kind that cornered.

Later that night, Ruthie lay on the floor while the others whispered in the dark.

She wasn’t asleep.

She heard everything.

“Feeling ko nga, nagpapansin siya kay Sir,” Maya said.

“Grabe, teacher-student? Yuck,” Isa added.

“Narcissist ‘yan,” Joy whispered. “She acts smart para mapansin. Pero di naman totoo.”

“Grabe Joy, harsh!”

“Eh totoo naman, diba?”

They all giggled.

And Ruthie stayed still, pretending not to hear.

Her chest ached. But she didn’t cry.

Not that night.

Present day

Ruthie sat behind the old gym, fingers gripping a torn piece of notebook paper.

You deserve this, it said.

Same handwriting.

Same loops in the ‘d.’

She compared it to Joy’s notes from last year, folded and crumpled in her old planner.

Same girl.

Jay found her there, legs drawn to her chest.

“Hey.”

“Okay ka lang?”

She held out the note.

“Joy wrote this.”

Jay read it, eyebrows knitting.

“How do you know?”

“I’ve memorized the way she writes her a’s. They always lean left.”

Jay sat beside her, quiet for a moment.

“Why would she do this?”

“She started everything. The rumors. The bullying. Even Marian. Joy planted the seed.”

“Bakit?”

“Because I outshined her. Academically. Sa contest. Sa grades. She needed me to fall.”

Jay was quiet again.

“People listen to her.”

“Because she’s good at being fake.”

Ruthie tilted her head to the sky.

“That night... she made me doubt myself. Akala ko ako yung may mali. Pero hindi ako ang nagsimula ng gulo.”

Jay looked at her, really looked.

“You were just surviving.”

“And they called it manipulation.”

“They were scared of how loud your silence could be.”

Ruthie smiled bitterly.

“You make it sound poetic.”

“It is. But it’s also cruel.”

She closed her eyes, remembering the way Joy laughed while her name was burned behind her back.

“I wanted to be accepted so badly.”

“And now?”

“Now I want the truth to burn louder than their lies.”

Jay looked at her, a spark of worry in his eyes.

“You’re not planning anything reckless, are you?”

Ruthie looked at him, then smiled.

“Not reckless. Just… deserved.”

She pulled out her old phone and tapped a voice memo.

The night of the sleepover.

The whispered insults.

She had recorded it.

Jay stared.

“You kept that?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted to remember why I stopped trusting people.”

“Are you going to use it?”

“Not yet. But it’s time people see the cracks in Joy’s porcelain smile.”

Jay reached out, took her hand.

“Kahit anong mangyari, nandito ako.”

“Don’t say that unless you mean it.”

“I mean it.”

Ruthie squeezed his hand.

“Then be there when I bite back.”

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