cw: unlikeable character. quite literally a gaslighting, gatekeeping girlboss. bullying mentions
[name_f]Arina[/name_f] " [name_m]Ari[/name_m] " Evdokiya Konyachev (17) is one of the people that [name_f]Iris[/name_f] is avoiding. A rising social media influencer, [name_m]Ari[/name_m] is beautiful and absolutely knows it. [name_m]Ever[/name_m] since she was a child, she realised how much she could get away with her looks— pretty privilege goes a long way— and loves getting what she wants, whenever she wants.
[name_m]Ari[/name_m] and [name_f]Iris[/name_f] knew each other since middle school, when [name_m]Ari[/name_m] was less manipulative and more kind. She only started changing when she first started doing Instagram seriously; she found out that social media was full of pretty girls like her and that she wasn’t the breakout star she hoped to be. As a result, [name_m]Ari[/name_m] became ridiculously competitive in all aspects of her life: beauty, grades, and dating. It’s no wonder that [name_m]Ari[/name_m] became a bonafide gossip machine— she’s trying to take down all her perceived competitors.
She’d even go so far as to say that she doesn’t consider her core friend group to be her true friends— Ari’s ended up surrounding herself with like-minded people that view the world in the same way. Contrary to what her Instagram shows, [name_m]Ari[/name_m] isn’t happy with her life; she wants to live a life of glitz and glamour. But when all the world’s a contest, and all the people are merely contestants, can you really be happy?
The worst thing [name_m]Ari[/name_m] has done was spread a lie about her former friend, about how she was kissing boys left and right and cheating on them. This, of course, was not true at all— [name_m]Ari[/name_m] just spread this rumour because her friend got a better grade than her last year. This caused the girl to become a social pariah, while [name_m]Ari[/name_m] just looked on and smirked to herself. The repercussions didn’t matter, she was merely taking out the competition. Was that so bad?
The one person who’s trying to reign in [name_m]Ari[/name_m] and her behaviour is her older brother. Her older brother knows that [name_m]Ari[/name_m] wasn’t always like this (well, she was definitely not as bad as she is now), and that if she’s on this warpath, then she’s going to alienate everyone around her. [name_m]Ari[/name_m], though, thinks that he doesn’t get it— even though she’s wrong. Her brother used to be a famous influencer, and recently left social media due to the toxic environment that he created for himself. He doesn’t want [name_m]Ari[/name_m] to fall into the same trap he did, but he’s afraid he’s too late.
Outside of her “friend group”, the one person [name_m]Ari[/name_m] is truly close to is her childhood best friend who lives across the country. She feels as if she can be herself around them, and is inwardly terrified to find out what’s going to happen if they find out what kind of person she is today. Of course, [name_m]Ari[/name_m] would never admit that. She’s perfect. She has to be.