𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 || 𝐅𝟒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 (editing)

four

chapter four:

Ren liked Lia
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Kavin spit out the wine that was in his mouth. Everyone at the dinner table turned and looked at him as if he had grown another head. "What is wrong with you?" hissed his mother as a nearby worker scrambled to clean the spit wine off of the glass table. His father glared at him in frustration and seething in disappointment at the unsophisticated action his son had displayed. Kavin lowered his gaze and cowardly excused himself before rushing to a nearby room. In a matter of milliseconds he quickly typed out a text to the F4 group chat letting them know the vital information he just learned.

Much to her dismay Ren had dragged Liliana to a cafe across the street from the school. Lia sulked in the booth as she sipped her milkshake through the straw. Ren was somehow able to guess that she was a mastermind at escaping so he sat on the same booth as her, effectively trapping her in against himself and the wall. "What were you doing wandering around the school little bird?" he questioned. Lia scoffed, "little bird? Are you calling me annoying and loud?"

With widened eyes Ren tried to deny her comment. Liliana bursted into laughter when she saw the apologetic look on Ren's face, "I'm joking, I was looking for Gorya before you decided to rudely yank me away". A sigh of relief escaped Ren. At least he hadn't done anything to offend the girl. Not that he cared about her of course, right?

"I saw Gorya earlier," he reassured, "I'm sure shes headed home by now". Lia nodded her head. It did make sense; Gorya could have headed home, after all, she did run off that morning and seemed to be in a hurry all day. Perhaps she just hadn't seen the text from Lia and just went home early. "I guess that means I can grant you with my presence for just a little bit longer then bird boy," she stated in a sing-song voice. The corners of his lips were threatening to lift up at her comment, "bird boy?," he questioned, "are you calling me annoying and loud?". Lia pretended to think, tapping her finger against her chin. "No," she hummed, "I think I'm saying your colourful and have weak bones". Jokingly, he let out a scoff causing her to burst into another fit of giggles.

Ren liked Lia. Not necessarily in the romantic way — he was already pursuing Mira and didn't plan to give up on her just yet — but Lia was just so refreshing. The girl had absolutely no filter and didn't seem to care about his status, or anyone else's for that matter. They spent half an hour making small talk about various childhood stories, their favorite songs, and making fun of all of the intrusive thoughts that Liliana accidentally blurted out loud — especially the ones that she instantly regretted due to embarrassment. Ren was enjoying himself. This led to him completely ignoring his phone.

Eventually, the buzzing from his phone in his front pocket became too noticeable to pretend it didn't exist. Whatever was interrupting the nice ambiance that the two students had created better be important. When he turned on his phone he was greeted with a large spam in the F4 group chat — most of which were from Thyme. He withheld a sigh to not concern the girl and scrolled to the top of the messages from that day. It took Ren three whole times to reread Kavin's text to fully grasp the situation. In a surprised tone Ren turned to the girl, "You're Hikaru Nakamura's daughter?!"

Her eyebrows furrowed as she paused from sipping out of her straw. "Yeah," she replied in a skeptical tone, "Ren did you just... google me?". Ren waved his hand and violently shook his head to deny her claims, "no no no! Kavin somehow found out and told me. It's just weird thinking that i'm sitting next to someone who's dad owns one of the biggest technology companies in the world".

Liliana blinked, "Isn't your family rich?". "Yeah but none of them are competing with Mark Zuckerburg for fifth place on the Forbes Billionaires list! Hell, the highest we've ever been is 2377th place!" he whisper-yelled.