Riosaofficial

They are top scholars. Model students.
On paper, they’re perfect — smart, disciplined, and flawless.
But behind the grades and accolades lie secrets they can’t afford to let slip.

Four students from different worlds are bound by a single lie.
They’re not friends. They barely trust each other.
But one mistake has linked their fates forever —
a data theft scandal that could ruin everything.

Now, under the pressure of scholarship, reputation, and truth,
they must protect a secret too dangerous to reveal…
and too fragile to keep.


---

Four Names, One Secret

"Secrets don't always whisper. Sometimes, they scream from the shadows—waiting for the right eyes to listen."

The university courtyard was unusually quiet that morning. Clouds loomed low, threatening rain, while the wind carried a strange heaviness — like the world was holding its breath.

Aluna sat on the edge of a stone bench, her fingers twisting the strings of her hoodie. She had been up since dawn, unable to sleep. The file. The exposure. Said's disappearance from their group chat.

Something was wrong. Deeply, undeniably wrong.

Behind her, a pair of footsteps stopped.

"You're early," Ara said, setting down her coffee beside Aluna. She didn't sound surprised — only tired. Her eyes were rimmed with dark circles.

"So are you," Aluna replied without looking at her.

Aska arrived five minutes later. No greetings, just a curt nod and a flicker of annoyance at the atmosphere. "Where's Said?"

The question hung in the air, unanswered.

"I tried calling him," Ara said after a moment. "No reply. His dormmate said he hasn't been seen since yesterday."

Aluna's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Come on," Aska leaned back against the tree behind the bench. "He's been acting weird for days. He's the only one who had full access to the admin server. Don't tell me none of you have thought about it."

"You think he's the one who leaked it?" she asked.

"I think he panicked," Aska replied. "And made a stupid choice."

Aluna opened her mouth, but stopped. There was something in Aska's tone that didn't sit right. Not anger. Not even fear.

She looked at him differently then — not as the cold, perfectionist scholarship student she thought she knew, but as someone who might be capable of far more than he showed.

Ara was still holding her phone, eyes scanning the latest update from the campus board. "They've restricted access to the digital portal. Security breach. All system logs are under review."

They were trapped in a ticking time bomb.

But because one of them already knew who leaked the file.

And they were protecting that person.

Or worse — they were that person.

The camera feed blinked alive in a dark room.

Rows of screens glowed dimly, casting pale light onto a pair of tired eyes. Said leaned back in his chair, hoodie pulled up, phone screen glowing beside him.

He watched them — his three teammates — as they spoke in the courtyard. No sound, just movements. Lips forming words he didn't need to hear to understand.

They were turning on each other. That's what guilt did.

He knew someone among them had sent that file. But it wasn't him.

The stolen data, the manipulation, the cover-up — it had started long before he got involved. He had only discovered it.

And now, everyone was looking his way.

"I trusted you," he whispered to no one, but his words cracked like glass.

He opened the folder on his desktop.

"CONFIDENTIAL: Project SC / Academic Anomalies 2022-2025"

His fingers hovered over the keyboard. One more push, and he could expose everything.

Names. Dates. Logins. IP addresses. The real culprit.

"When the truth is buried too deep, even the innocent become suspects."

Eyes In The Shadows