Rent A Girlfriend - Ryuryeong

Chap 7

Ryujin honestly hadn't felt this much out of her element in a long time. The last time she remembered being genuinely nervous and unsure was her first day at school. Even that had quickly evaporated once she'd talked to a few people, and realized that there wasn't any bullying bullshit that she'd had to deal with for years. Now, though, she was in uncharted territory. It made her feel strange; a sort of queasy, reluctant excitement and some embarrassment. She hated it.

Class started, thank god, so she got a moment of peace. She still felt eyes on her pretty often, but it was easier to deal with than Chaeryeong's cheesy pick-up lines that actually weren't necessary, because weren't they supposed to already be in a relationship? Shit, this was confusing.

Zoning out whatever the teacher had been going on about, Ryujin glanced over at Yeji. She still looked a little pale in the face and Ryujin had to hold in a grin. Her eyes fell on Chaeryeong next.

She hadn't moved from her seat next to Ryujin's, and Ryujin couldn't bring herself to mind. Since the teacher walked in, Chaeryeong hadn't even done anything else. She actually looked like she was paying attention, to Ryujin's surprise. Beauty with brains?

Ryujin had to think that if Chaeryeong wasn't such a dick, then she would probably be popular. Look at Ryujin, for instance. Average grades, slightly less than average looks, and she was well-liked.

Chaeryeong's eyes met hers, and it took Ryujin a minute to realize she'd been caught staring. Red lips curled into a smirk, and she winked at Ryujin. Ryujin looked away immediately.

Thankfully, not much happened for the rest of the class. Ryujin got called on and didn't even know what the teacher had been talking about, but besides that, all was peaceful.

It wasn't until the bell rang that things started to go straight to shit.

Ryujin got up from her seat and flung her bag around her shoulder. Chaeryeong didn't get up, it was more like she rose gracefully from hers and set her designer bookbag daintily around her shoulder. Ryujin had never felt so inadequate about the way she got up from a desk and carried her bag before.

Chaeryeong was fiddling with something on her phone, so Ryujin waited impatiently for her to hurry up and walk with her to the next class. Couples did that, right? Totally.

Chaeryeong was still on her phone. Ryujin cleared her throat, and Chaeryeong finally looked up at her, already glaring like it was an automatic response. The glare shifted to one of slight surprise.

"What are you still doing here?" Chaeryeong asked, and Ryujin would be surprised at the break-in 'cute couple' character if the classroom wasn't empty.

"Waiting for you." Ryujin said slowly. "We walk together, right?"

Something...weird happened next. Chaeryeong's look of mild surprise became complete shock and her cheeks got quite a few shades darker. Maybe Ryujin was just reading into something that wasn't there, but the redhead looked almost...happy? But then whatever Ryujin saw or imagined was gone.

"Oh, yeah. I was doing something, it must've slipped my mind." The lie would've been completely believable if Chaeryeong hadn't averted her eyes. Ryujin didn't pester her about it anyway, it wasn't like it was her right to.

"Okay." Ryujin replied. Neither of them moved.

"Are we gonna go, or...? The class has probably already started."

"Oh. Yeah, okay, let's go." She said, and wow, this was awkward. They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then awkwardly linked hands like those annoying new couples did and walked out into the hallway.