Ara was shocked. So shocked that she didn’t even realize the look on Sehun's face. A look of shock and displeasure at what the girl who clung onto his arm said. She only stared at Lee Miyoung, as she slowly processed what she had just heard. Sehun had a fiancé. A fiancé. Ara repeated the word a few times in her mind as if to digest it before a feeling so much worse than the sourness of disappointment rushed through her. She couldn’t define it. It seemed to choke her for a moment and even Ara took several deep breaths to calm down the feeling didn’t disappear. A lump formed in , the urge to stand up and leave this classroom in an instant clutching at her senses. She wanted to scream, if possible. Scream to make herself realize this was indeed happening.

However, she did none of those. She remained calm. Calm and collected. Her rationality got the better of her before she could even grasp a proper thought. Her rational self, who had become so much more evident and stronger the past few weeks. And Ara was glad about that; glad about her rationality backing her up while her emotional side was still processing the fact that Sehun had a fiancé. Unlike the other part, her emotional self – her vulnerable self – wasn’t so calm. It was raging with something worse than disappointment, something beyond disbelief. And it hurt. Hurt because she had been waiting so long, feeling empty and regretting she hadn't realized her feelings for Sehun earlier. Because her whole being had been filled with so much hope and relief when the male had stepped into the classroom. Because having such positiveness crushed within less than a second hurt damn much.

So, for the time being Ara was just glad her rationality was numbing the raging feeling in her. That her pride wasn’t allowing her to show any weakness despite the chaos inside her. And so, she slowly shifted her gaze from the new girl, Lee Miyoung, to the blackboard, not looking at Sehun. It was due to her pride and a kind of self-protection that she didn’t spare a glance at Sehun. Self-protection in a sense that she wasn’t ready to look in his eyes yet without having the feeling in her take over. That she didn’t want her emotional side to get the better of her.

-

Sehun couldn’t believe his eyes when he stepped into the classroom. Couldn’t believe the sight of Ara sitting at her desk and staring at him with wide eyes. It felt almost surreal to see her after two and a half months of only being able to think of her. Between memory and reality, the latter was so much more overwhelming. It was overwhelming in a sense that he was unable to even realize it, causing him just to stand there and stare.

Only when an all too familiar voice he'd been hearing the past one and a half month rang in his ears, he snapped out of it. However, before he was able to give Ara a smile or just tell her with his eyes how glad he was – how relieved, how overwhelmed – now that he was back to reality, Ara's gaze already darted away from him. He followed it and just as his gaze fell upon the familiar auburn hair, he could already feel a pressure around his arm he'd been attacked with several times in the past one and a half month. Miyoung's grip.

His body automatically stiffened at her touch – he disliked so much physical contact – and as always, he shifted uncomfortably, a frown of displeasure gracing his forehead. However, he had no time to be displeased with Miyoung's action for all too long as the next second his attention already went to Ara. To Ara, who was staring at the girl next to him with a confused expression. And within a few seconds, panic grew inside him. Panic so strong and yet short-living, as the very next second the panic was already replaced by regret. Regret for not having been able to prevent the word that slid from Miyoung's lips like a casual introduction. Fiancé. That word – no, that lie – shocked Sehun for a second because he could see Ara's expression changing upon hearing it. Because he could see the look of confusion intensify before a knowing look hushed across her face. And with that came a glimpse of a disappointment before all of that disappeared beneath an utterly cold expression. An expression Ara hadn't shown at all during the months with Sehun.

For a second, Sehun just wanted to shout it was a lie and shake off Miyoung's grip, but then he remembered it wasn’t a complete lie. Although Miyoung was not his fiancé yet, he could already sense it coming. Right now, she was only the girl his parents arranged him to meet and spend his time with, in the hope that an acceptable relationship would bloom between them. He had seen through it when his parents