𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 || 𝐅𝟒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 (editing)

twenty two

chapter twenty two

the vicious shortie
———

"Fancy seeing you here,".

Gorya turned to face Vincent who was walking behind her on the stairs. She couldn't help but notice how pretty his smile looked. Or maybe she was just slowly losing her mind from being around Thyme too much. "It's not polite to ignore people," Vinny stated after a long silence. Slowly, she gave him a nod, "I was just going up to the rooftop to leave a handkerchief that Ren let me borrow... do you want to come with?".

Instead of responding, Vinny's smile grew as he began to sprint up the stairs.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

The two stopped sprinting and lowered their pace by the time they reached the rooftop. Gorya held the handkerchief in her hands and was prepared to leave it on the bench. Vinny observed her with his hands in the front pocket. The roof top was a mess. It was a dumping ground for volleyballs, unused desks and chairs, and an old set of lockers that no longer worked properly. But somehow it still felt calming.

"You still hide here like before?," Ren asked approaching the two. While the two boys gave each other a high five and traded a light conversation, Gorya couldn't help but think back to MJ's instagram story. The vivid mental image of Ren's loving gaze and his hand caressing Lia's bare knee kept replaying in her head. "You seem different," Gorya said interrupting their conversation about Vin's earring — which consisted of Ren teasing him and Vinny defending himself the entire time but ultimately failing.

"How am I different?," Ren asked as his laughter ceased.

"You don't draw anymore."

Ren let out a small hum. It was obvious that drawing seemed to be a touchy subject at the moment. An uncomfortable look was evident in his face. "I lost my sketchbook,".  It was an awful excuse, Ren knew that. But he didn't want to mention what happened in front of Gorya. He had only really told Lia what happened in France, the other members of F4 knew that it didn't work out with Mira but they just didn't know the reason why. Ren was almost positive that Vincent knew, after all, Vincent was Lia's best friend and she warned Ren that they never kept secrets between each other.

"How has Thyme been treating you?"

The topic change resulted in an eye roll from Gorya. She looked back and forth between the two boys, "We aren't dating, Thyme just assumes things,".

Vincent let out a small chuckle, "You don't have to be so defensive,". Ren nodded in agreeable with him, "Even if you guys are dating, we all can still be friends,".

"That's right,".

She wasn't quite how to feel about that sentence. In a way, Ren was practically rejecting her. On the other hand, he was saying that he still wanted to be in her life.

"Or did you want to be more than friends?" Ren asked, "We could date behind his back, Thyme doesn't need to know,". Before she could respond the sound of Ren yelping began to echo. "Easy there lover boy, make your friendship backstabbing plans after this week, yeah? Wouldn't want the vicious shortie to come and bite your ankles," Vincent said as he pulled Ren away from the railing by the collar of his coat.

"Easy I was joking! But who's the vicious shortie? Thyme of Lia?"

Vinny shrugged, "honestly? Both,".

"I'm not coming!," Thyme yelled into his phone.

Liliana had just arrived to MJ's house and entered the entertainment room where the whole gang was hanging out. She quietly moved towards the bar where MJ and Kavin sat, "psst," she whispered to get their attention, "Sorry I'm late, what did I miss and why is he yelling at his phone?". Kavin shook his head and let out a sigh, "Gorya wants to go on a double date with Kaning and her boyfriend but Thyme is playing hard to get,".

She let out an ahh sound in understanding of the situation. After giving the two of them greeting air kisses, she walked over to sit on the couch next to a tired looking Ren. The second she sat down he practically tossed his phone to the side and became more energized, "you finally came! I thought I was going to have to listen to him screaming all day alone,".

"What the fuck am I? Chopped liver?," Vinny asked with a mouthful of strawberries. He was sitting on a arm chair a few feet away from Ren. Lia looked at him in disgust and began to scold him for talking with his mouth full. In a genius way to stop the scolding, Vin stated the first thing he could think of, "Ren was making fun of my earring today!" he said before showing another strawberry in his mouth and scurrying off to join Kavin and MJ at the bar.

His plan worked. Lia looked at Ren like he had just killed her puppy, "why? I made him wear that, I thought it looked good,".

"yeah... me too..."

Thankfully, Ren was saved from a rant when Thyme's yells increased, "I won't go with you to the zoo if you don't say meow meow!". Liliana perked up, "the zoo?". She loved animals, a lot. It was one of her favorite places to visit back when she lived in Switzerland, "I want to go too, Gorya!".

Thyme dismissed her, "this is a double date. You can't go if you don't have someone to date duh! And no, you can't brink Vincent as your date,".

"Why is everyone attacking me today?" Vinny mumbled.

"I do have a date!," Lia said locking arms with the boy next to her, "Ren, you'll go with me to the zoo, right?". Ren really wanted to say no but how could he? Her eyes were practically sparkling and she was wearing the same enchanting smile that made him melt. Subconsciously he nodded and accidentally agreed to go on a triple date to the zoo.

Thyme's eyebrows furrowed. Normally Lia asking to hangout with others didn't bother him but somehow this did. He dismissed it as possible excitement from going on his first date, "Then I'll go on a date with you Gorya and these two will also be joining," he said before hanging up the call.

Gorya was screaming in the flower shop.

"Why is he like this? Does he earn money every time he gets his way? Is that why he's so rich? Kaning why are you teasing me???" she whined.

"Geez, can it get any crazier?"

And then the door of the shop opened to reveal the one and only older sister of the very guy Gorya was going on a date with.

———a/n

HI EVERYONE! I'm very much caffeinated and wrote this chapter in 30 minutes without outlining anything so please excuse the fact that it may be all over the place :D

BUT THANK YOU GUYS FOR 17k READS AND 1K VOTES!!!! THATS HUGE :) <3