He stood up abruptly, pulling her up with him thanks to the handcuffs, and pinned her against the wall. His grip on her wrist tightened.
Ni-ki leaned in closer, his voice a cold whisper. "You're playing with fire, angel. Don't think for a second tha...
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RHAINE SAT ACROSS FROM NI-KI IN THE FANCY ROOM, her arms crossed, wishing she could disappear. Yesterday's stunt at the restaurant had gone viral faster than she'd anticipated. Not only did her phone explode with messages from curious classmates, but people had started recognizing her on the street. How was she supposed to explain this to Garam?
She sighed as she sat on Ni-ki's couch, wondering why Mr. Jin called her here so early in the morning. Ni-ki nonchalantly sat.
She was debating on asking him why she had to be here, but she knew Ni-ki wouldn't know. How would a clueless fuck like him know?
Mr. Jin finally entered the room, looking far too pleased for someone who'd caused this much chaos. He clapped his hands together, his face beaming as he took a seat at his desk. "Well, well, well," he began with a grin, "looks like people have 'caught on' earlier than expected."
Ni-ki glanced at Rhaine, unimpressed, while she shifted awkwardly in her seat, her face still a little red from the memory of being pulled onto his lap in front of all those people.
Mr. Jin wasted no time in pulling out his phone, scrolling through social media posts with a gleeful expression. "Take a look at this." He turned the phone around, showing them various posts—pictures of the scene at the restaurant, with Ni-ki pulling Rhaine onto his lap, and the fangirls gushing over how "cute" they looked together.
"Are they a couple?" one post read, the caption under a close-up shot of Ni-ki's arm around Rhaine's waist. "Look at how comfortable they are with each other!" another person commented, their post accompanied by blurry photos of the two of them talking at the restaurant. "Isn't that the girl who flamed him those years ago?"
Rhaine cringed internally, while Ni-ki remained silent, his expression unreadable. He looked like he had better places to be.
Mr. Jin chuckled, clearly delighted. "This is perfect! Everyone's already talking about you two. Look at this engagement—the comments, the likes! You couldn't ask for a better start."
"Thanks. It was my idea," Ni-ki made sure to point out as he flicked his butterfly knife.
But then, Mr. Jin's expression shifted as he scrolled further. "However..." He paused, his smile fading slightly as he held up a few tweets. "There are a couple of... issues we need to address."
Ni-ki raised an eyebrow. Mr. Jin zoomed in on the posts, reading aloud one of the comments.
"'Is it just me, or does Ni-ki look kind of creepy here?'" Mr. Jin read, his voice tinged with concern. He scrolled to the next tweet. "'Rhaine looks really uncomfortable in these photos. Is this even consensual?'"
"Look at you, making me look bad," Ni-ki glared at her, pointing at her with the butterfly knife.
"This is the problem," Mr. Jin said, looking between the two of them. "We need this relationship to look real. More believable. Pulling her onto your lap in front of a crowd—it's bold, yes, but Rhaine's reaction? People are picking up on the fact that she didn't look comfortable. We can't afford any slip-ups like this."
