𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 || 𝐅𝟒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 (editing)

three

chapter three:

"But it's not Lunar New Year"
———

In a secluded corner of  the courtyard, right behind the wall of a school building that Lia had already forgotten the name of, hid the two girls. Lia kept peering over the brick wall too catch a glimpse of the cafeteria doors. Right next to her was an out-of-breath Gorya slouched on the floor. "Alright, it doesn't look like that psycho guy is coming outside to find us," stated Lia before sitting down next to her wheezing classmate.

"Why did you drag me along with you?" asked Gorya in between her gasping for air. Lia shrugged, blaming it on the fact that Gorya just happened to be directly in her exit path, "it would have taken too long to go around you, so I just.. took you along for the ride. I practically kidnapped you if you think about it,". Both of them laughed lightly at her comment.

"I'm Gorya by the way." The younger girl locked eyes with Gorya while a playful grin appeared on her face, "Liliana Nakamura, it's nice to finally know the name of my hostage". This resulted in another fit of giggles. "Friends?" Lia nodded and smiled widely before responding to Gorya, "Definitely".

The following morning Lia spotted Gorya standing in front of her locker Blair witch style. As she approached her new friend she glanced around and noticed a strange amount of students in the vicinity. "Psst," Lia whispered whilst she tapped her friends shoulder, "you know that's not a mirror right?"

This simple whisper snapped Gorya out of her thoughts. She returned a small smile to Lia and accepted her inevitable fate. As the locker began to open it felt as if the entire world stopped. Everyone held their breaths until the locker door was completely wide open. There it was, right in the middle of Gorya's locker was a simple red card with the letter 'F' adorning it in four different fonts. Calmly, Gorya grabbed the card. Phones began to take pictures of her and text messages were sent to the entire school to inform them of the new victim.

Lia's pretty face wrinkled in confusion when she saw the red piece of paper. She quickly opened her locker —which conveniently was nearby — and saw absolutely nothing inside besides a few textbooks. Lia spun around and confronted Gorya, "but it's not the lunar new year, why do you have a red envelope?" when her eyes met Goryas she instantly realised that the red piece of paper Gorya got was not something to be celebrated like the money-filled red envelopes that she received from her aunties and uncles. Terror was the only emotion that was visible on Gorya's face. Before Liliana could ask her what the card was Gorya crumbled up the card and sprinted off.

As she watched her friend urgently run away Liliana decided against following her. Clearly there was something wrong with her friend but she didn't want to be a pry, especially not after Gorya ran away from her. She sent the other girl a quick text asking to meet up after school and then proceeded to go on to her classes. Lia needed information about the stupid red thing that caused her friend panic and she was determined to get it. No matter what.

It was already the end of the school day and Liliana had not seen a single trace of Gorya all day. Lia, being the impatient person she is, went searching for her. As she made her way up the stairs after searching the rest of the campus she saw the door to the roof swing open.

Ren was slightly annoyed. He was up on the rooftop sketching as he usually did during class. The girl that stood up to Thyme the day before interrupted his peace and quiet when she bagan screaming out insults aimed at his friend group. He wasn't as much as an asshole as his other three best friends and hid Gorya as soon as he noticed that a group of girls were searching for her since she got the red card. Ren eventually left the girl alone once the group ran off.

As he was walking down the stairs he locked eyes with Liliana who returned his gaze with a look of disgust. Ren was taken aback by this response. He had never seen this girl before aside from the giant scene she had created the in the cafeteria. Why did she look so agitated by him?

Lia parted open her lips to ask him a question, "Do you deliberately try to act like you're in one of those cliche soap operas?" Ren stood at the top of the stairs, his confusion increased. "I mean, you just came from the rooftop of the school and you constantly look like you're in pain 24/7," Lia clarified "I'm guessing it's not on purpose then". Did he really look like he was in pain to her?

His interest was peaked by the girl. As he walked down the stairs towards her, Lia tilted her head slightly. It was as if she was studying him. Ren smiled and laced his fingers into hers before pulling her along with him. Much to Lia's dismay, Ren ignored her protests and continued walking towards the front doors of the school.

At the same time somewhere else in Bangkok there was a family lunch taking place. Kavin hated having lunch with his family. His father insisted on having a meal together at least once every other week to catch up. At least, that's what he wanted outsiders to believe. In reality the family meals were another way for Kavin's father to criticize and control others. More specifically, it was another way to control Kavin's life. At every dinner his father would tell him what people to keep an eye out for, what he needed to do to look good in the public eye, and encourage him to be a politician. Well it was less an encouragement and more of a command than anything.

Nevertheless, Kavin sat at his place in the dinner table and ate the freshly made pasta on his plate. His father was rambling to his mother about some new political issue that might affect future campaigns. Truthfully, he wasn't really paying attention to the story and was far more interested in the wine.

"If anyone can make sure I keep my position it would be Hikaru Nakamura but he rarely makes any public appearances which makes him hard to befriend," grumbled his father. Nakamura? The name seemed awfully familiar and it was definitely not of Thai decent. Perhaps Japanese? "Kavin, Mr. Nakamura's daughter, Liliana, just transferred to your school this week," stated his father. In response Kavin nodded and took another sip out of his glass. He hoped that he hadn't slept with that girl yet or else his father would disown him. "She used to go to some elite boarding school in Switzerland so be sure to show her around and befriend her," his father commanded.

Suddenly everything clicked and Kavin instantly spit out the wine that was in his mouth. In the cafeteria the day before, the girl that insulted Thyme spoke in German and claimed she transferred from a school in Switzerland. Not only that but her doll-like features were definitely that of a foreign ethnicity. If that girl was the daughter of the influential Hikaru Nakamura then Kavin and the rest of F4 had fucked up.

And they fucked up bad.

——— a/n

this chapter kinda sucks because I'm supposed to be studying for my midterms tomorrow! sorry about that and the next chapter will probably be a lot better !!