True Beauty

Chapter 15

Walking into her classroom Sooah jumped to see the girl "Look you're in second place for the Newstagram Queen Contest" showing her phone to her.

In her mind she couldn't care less about winning or not, but if Sooah was putting this much effort into her wanting to win Ari just had to fake it till she made it.

Nodding her head "That's great" trying to sound excited.

"Oh come on try and sound more excited the school's pride is riding on your back. That's why so many people are competing"

Showing Ari's picture having almost 150,000 likes while Se Mi was still in the first place but only by a couple of thousands. "Park Se Mi?" taking the phone out of her hand. "Out of all people to compete with?" muttering to herself.

Meanwhile outside in the courtyard, Suho was walking back to class when Soojin stopped him. "Hey, Suho" making the boy turn around. "I was wondering if you're free today after school. I wanted to talk to you"

Cutting her off slightly "I have plans. Sorry"

"Is it important? I wanted to tell you something"

"Can't you just tell me here right now?"

Pushing back her hair behind her ear. "I don't want to talk about it here. Can't you just cancel?"

Shaking his head slightly "I have plans with Ari" walking away from her before she got the chance to respond to him.

It was lunchtime taking her seat she noticed a new person sitting across from her. Sooah asked who it was "We have class together, so I invited her to join us" Soojin explains to the table.

Ari was left speechless because it was a girl from her old school. She was there when Se Mi bullied her and she just recorded the whole thing. Looking down at her food starting to pick at it. "Aren't you a transfer from Yongpa High?" as the conversation kept going it was getting hard for Ari to focus.

"I'm sorry, please excuse me I'll be back" getting up from her seat fairly quickly making everyone at the table a little confused as to why the girl needed to leave abruptly.

Stepping out of the building to get some fresh air Ari was leaned against the wall. Taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down. Han Seojun saw this and made his way to her.

"Everything okay?" grabbing her shoulder. Nodding her head yes "Of course" and continued to walk out to the main courtyard. Looking at his girlfriend as she walks away "What happened?" muttering to himself.

Later that day Suho and Ari had plans set already and were meeting up at their favorite comic book store. Suho knew more detail about Ari's situation and felt like she didn't need to explain her reaction to things as much as she would with Seojun.

She knows that now that she and Seojun are together that she needs to tell him these things but she's not ready to let him know everything just yet. Along with that she also didn't need him to go find and beat these people up when it was years ago when it happened.

"Aish what am I going to do?" thinking back to how she's going to hide from Se Mi now. Suho saw the girl in frustration and chuckled a little he took a seat next to her. "What's going on"

Running her fingers through her hair and looked at him "oh nothing. Just the fact that my secret could leak and for the wrong reasons." speaking to him in a sarcastic tone. "Well if it makes you feel any better I'll take care of things if they get out of hand"

Giving him a small smile "I don't need you to come and save this time Suho. This is my fight" moving on from the topic. "Anyways have you and dad talked yet?"

Looking at some books across the table Suho stayed silent. Having a feeling that would be his answer Ari pulled a bag from the side of the couch and handed it to him. "What's this?" taking it into his lap.

"Just open it"

Suho pulled out a ball of yarn and some kneading needles. "It's for when you're stressed out. I thought maybe it can help" Ari trying not to make it sound like a big deal. "Thank you" he said sincerely and even though she doesn't it show it very often. Suho knows that Ari has a soft side to her. The two of them continued on staying at the book store till it closed talking about who knows what.

Walking to her classroom all of her classmates were clapping and Sooah started to talk "Welcome the amazing winner of the 2020 Newstagram Queen Contest, Kim Ari" making everyone cheer and clap for the girl.

Ari was speechless and not in a good way. One of her classmates showed her ranking on the feed. Ari's eyes widened and took the phone out of her hand and saw that she was indeed the winner. Being right above Park Se Mi. So many thoughts are going through her mind right now.

Sooah places a crown on her head "Come everyone let's hear what our winner has to say" pretending to hold a microphone in front of her. Groaning she took off the crown and just leaned back in her seat in agony thinking about the fact that Se Mi knows where she is now.

Ari thought that if she avoids Se Mi till she graduates there's no way her scandal would get leaked. At this rate, everyone is bound to find out and that made Ari stressed out even more.

While everyone stood around her talking about jobs they want being that Ari was considered a celebrity in their eyes Ari just put her head down. Meanwhile, Suho was looking at the girl and just felt bad more than anything while Soojin on the other end of the classroom felt no empathy for Ari.

After school, Ari tried to avoid everyone at all cost not wanting to be bombarded with questions. As she was walking out of her school gates her gaze was met with Se Mi.

"You've got to be kidding me?" muttering to herself as the girl and her friend started making their way to her. "Well look who it is. Kim Ari. So this is where you've been all this time?"

"Why are you on this side of town?" ignoring her question. "I just wanted to see for myself if it was really you." giving her a sly smile.

Ari rolled her eyes "Okay you've seen me can you leave me alone now" wanting to go around the girl but Se Mi stopped her. Ari looked around to see if anyone was around and when there wasn't she pushes Se Mi to the side.

"Yah!" Se Mi yelled as her friends helped her up. Ari just kept on walking and flipped her off. Without either of them knowing Soojin watched the whole thing from hiding behind some trees. Thinking to herself what could make Ari hate someone so much?