“Sooo... You like me?”

Ai chocked on her strawberry milk. Alarmed, Chanyeol hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the pink liquid off her chin. Ai forcefully snatched the cloth and wiped it on her own. “I almost chocked myself to death because of your stupidity, you happy now?!” she growled, “And why the hell do you own a handkerchief, what are you, some young maiden?”

Chanyeol pouted and leaned back in his seat. “It has always been very useful to me, what’s so bad about it?”

“Forget about that,” shaking it off, she frowned at the boy, “You know why we’re here, right?”

In all honesty, Chanyeol wasn’t so sure as to why they needed to come to the most isolated part of the school library to discuss their current situation. And why Ai needed to buy a bunch of snacks from the vending machine in order to do so. On the other hand, they did have privacy and could speak fairly loud since the sound was blocked by the rows of tall bookshelves and it couldn’t bother anyone.

Nodding his head, Chanyeol took a sip of the girl’s vanilla milkshake, earning a scowl from her. “You’ll be my girlfriend from now on.”

Slamming her fist in anger, Ai half-shouted. “No, I will NOT! Well... Not for real.”

Flashing her his widened eyes, Chanyeol questioned. “Wait. So you mean like a pretend-girlfriend? You want us to have a fake relationship?”

“Only for a few months, until we ‘break up’ because of our differences.” Ai explained as she casually crunched on her cheetos. Hearing the boy’s sigh, she picked up her gaze, “What? You don’t like it? You could have been interrogated by the police and whatnot back there, I practically saved your .”

“It’s not that...” he looked at her sadly, “I— I mean—”

“You what?”

I want to date you for real. “I don’t like lying to people.” he quickly invented an excuse, “A-and this means exactly that! Are you ready for something like that?”

“Do you think I LIKE lying to people?! !” Ai flared up, “We don’t have much choice right now, Chanyeol. I gotta work with what I have. And except for keeping this a secret, there’s not much we need to do for this pretend . Letting people occasionally see us together will suffice.”

Chanyeol chuckled deviously at the thought. Aw man, am I going to make you do stuff with me. “What are you smiling for?” Ai asked vexedly.

The boy lowered his eyes and smiled shyly. “Nothing. It just seems that you had all of this planned out. And what you said back at the office, “ he looked at her, his cheeks rosy and eyebrows arched, “You said that you felt bad for me and wanted to apologize for the yesterday?”

Blush crept to her face at the embarrassing mention. “THAT— I— I h-had to say something, didn’t I? To m-make it more believable!” Goddamnit, why did I have to spill that out?

“Yeah, suuure.” Chanyeol drawled and laughed, not believing the girl at all. “So we have to keep this a secret from everyone?”

Ai scratched her neck while contemplating on the question. “Well... I guess not everyone. I’ll be telling one of my friends for sure, cause I trust him enough. How about you?” at that moment she remembered that the giant is friends with another, nastier and ier giant. “No, wait! You absolutely CAN’T tell your friends!”

Chanyeol pouted. “Why not? I trust them—”

“Well, I DON’T. And don’t you try convincing me that is a nice person, we've already had this conversation before!” Pointing her orange-powder-covered finger at the pouting boy, Ai threatened. “Besides, this is only for a few months, it’s not a big deal.” Dusting off her hands, she picked up the remains of her snacks, before standing up, “I’m going back to my class to inform all those nosy bastards, so they’d stop spreading rumours. Pick up your trash before you go.”

Chanyeol pouted, looking after the departing girl’s form. Just when he thought all of his wishes were coming true, Ai just had to act this cold and indifferent, crushing his spirits. But he wouldn’t let himself get discouraged by such behaviour, he was planning on using every little benefit of the fake relationship and flipping the whole situation over to his advantage. Snickering, he leaned back in his seat. Just you wait, darling. I’m going to make you go head over heels for me.

Time spent in walking back to the classroom allowed Ai to feel regretful. She wasn’t exactly delighted with her current situation. She did plan on apologizing to Chanyeol that morning, but she didn’t want to get any further involved with the lanky boy. Scratching her neck while frowning, she scolded herself. Why did I have to make up such a lie? What did I put myself into? Jeez, such a .

But then she remembered her parents. Those two irresponsible pricks don’t deserve to know anything that’s happening to me! I couldn’t have possibly allowed Siwon to call them. They’re too busy with their own lives anyway. She was feeling bitter even by thinking about them. Yeah, I didn’t do it for that stupid Chanyeol, I did it for myself! The girl tried to convince herself into thinking that way.

When she found herself standing in front of her classroom, she took a deep breath before knocking and opening the door. The whole class gasped in unison and an old chemistry teacher simply ordered her to go to her seat. “Is everything alright?” the old man asked.

Ai scowled at her classmates and responded indifferently. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” The teacher nodded and resumed the lecture.

When the bell rang and the teacher left the room, Ai stood up with intention of clearing the misunderstanding possibly caused by eavesdropping of some classmate of hers. However, before she even got the word, someone flung an unexpected question at her.

“Is it true that you’re dating Park Chanyeol?”

The others just watched the girl’s reaction expectantly, while she paled, staring at the student. “How... How do you know that?”

The said student scoffed to the side. “Everyone knows that. It’s all over the school’s blog!”

The girl allowed herself a few moments of silence to simply process the words. Then, she remembered the administrator of the school’s website. It was Siwon’s secretary, the lady whose main purpose in life was to dig into students’ personal lives and live off the juicy gossips. She was school’s own version of the Gossip Girl, the only difference being her well-known identity. Ai figured that the woman had probably eavesdropped on their conversation in the morning.

The one thing she found unbelievable was the speed the woman needed to post the news onto the school’s website. And why is such an insignificant thing part of the school’s news anyway?! Seriously, that old hag is unstoppable! The girl did acknowledge, though, that it did make the things easier for her. How was she going to announce her “relationship status” to the class anyway? It was a way too embarrassing act for the girl.

Breaking out of her thoughts, Ai shrugged her shoulders and cleared before speaking. “I guess you already heard everything, huh? I didn’t plan on hiding it now after some MORONS spread those filthy rumours!”

Her accusing words caused a rush of chill to pass through some students’ spines, making them avoid her gaze by hanging their heads low. Clicking her tongue, Ai continued. “The ones who did the spreading should consider themselves lucky I don’t know who they are.” she chuckled in contempt, “Because if I do find out, it’ll be the end of their peaceful lives. For one I can promise them that!”

“So for long have you two been datin’?" "How did you meet?” The multiple questions kept emerging from all of the directions, causing Ai’s lips to twitch in annoyance. “It’s none of your goddamn business, so off! I don’t recall being on friendly terms with any of you!”

Making everyone scoff and glare at her in dissatisfaction, Ai strode haughtily to her friends’ seats, completely ignoring purposely loud remarks from the female part of the class. Most of them expressed their aggravation at the fact that school’s idolized prince charming was dating the y hellcat from their class. Some of them even refused to believe the already confirmed rumour.

Pulling a chair from the front desk and straddling it, Ai sent the two of her friends a remorseful look, praying inwardly for them not to ask her anything yet. The two boys glanced at each other before nodding understandingly at Ai, getting the message, even though they were both extremely confused and shocked with everything that was happening. The girl silently informed that she would explain everything at a more appropriate time.

When the long recess began, Ai asked the boys to go outside, specifically to the back area of the school yard, a fairly isolated patch of school’s territory. She texted Minseok beforehand, so he would join them in their secret discussion. Arriving at the secret spot, a small veranda in front of the school’s old sealed back entrance, Ai sat he