Imperfectly Perfect 3

39 : Old Friends

"But it was scary!" RM yells to Chaeyoung who is just right beside him. "How could you not be scared while traversing the path earlier?"

The soccer ace promptly rolls her eyes. "I'm just not a scaredy-cat like you, Park Namjoon. That's all."

The participants of the leadership camp are now on their way back to the retreat place. They are leisurely walking near the lake area, about ten minutes away from the gates of their accommodation.

"We all know that you're just as afraid of the dark as I am!" He pinches the smaller girl's cheeks. "And don't use my real name! It's hurting my heart. You sound like we're not best—"

"You sound so girly to me! And for your information, your pinching is the real thing that's actually hurting a real person here." Chaeyoung swats RM's hands on her face. "Tsk. You scaredy pants."

RM then shrugs and casually drapes his arm over the soccer ace. "Who were you paired with again?"

"Ugh. Let's not talk about this test of courage, please."

Chaeryoung, who was just silently walking her high school friends, finally joins the conversation. "It was Bambam, right?"

"Ahh. Really?" RM quickly replies. "He's one of my assigned roommates." He slowly raises his eyebrows at Chaeyoung. "Hey, hey, hey. Son Chaeyoung. Don't tell me he charmed you out, that's why you were too occupied to be scared while doing the activity?"

The cheer girl smirks. "Your lady hormones are finally starting to kick in, Chae?"

"Huh?" The soccer ace scoffs. "What the hell are you two talking about?"

"Well, as far as I could tell from how he behaves with me and our one other council guy roommate, Bambam's quite a cool guy. He knows his humor and jives with the other students well. I won't blame you if the gentleman made you feel secure during the Test of Courage."

"Gentleman?" Chaeyoung loudly scoffs. "Oh, please. He is everything but that. Now it's all making sense to me. He is in the theater club for a reason. He could stage a drama oh-so well in front of other people that they believe it's true."

"Wait. Isn't he from the same school as you?"

"He is." Chaeyoung answers. "But we're not close. We're not even on talking terms."

"Why?" Chaeryoung butts in again to pursue the topic. "He's one of the student leaders in your university. Doesn't that automatically mean that he's close to the prominent students like you? Or the people of the student council which... I assume it would also go down to being close to you because Mina happens to be the president."

The soccer ace glares at them. "I already told you that— you know what? Can we please just stop talking about him?"

RM knowingly glances at Chaeryoung, then to the smaller girl to his side. "Why am I getting from your tone that you're not too fond of this Bambam guy?"

"Because I'm not, RM."

"Why? What's the matter with—"

"I SAID STOP WITH—" Chaeyoung pauses to heave in a deep breath. "Speak one more thing about pursuing this topic and I swear I'm going to walk with Minari and the others up front."

And so RM purses his lips and fakes a wide smile to finally shrug the topic off.

The three of them walked in awkward silence for about three minutes when Chaeryoung decided to start another topic. "Hey, Chae."

"What?"

"You never confirmed the date of the party we're going to throw for you."

"Ah— Ahh." The soccer ace nervously chuckles. "That— About that... Umm..."