The Real Us

. chapter 6 .

Usually she would have skipped school today to visit her Grandfather, but her Grandmother insisted that she shouldn't miss any lessons. Taeryoung laid down on the bench, facing the sky. She shut her eyes, allowing the warmth of the sun and the cool of the breeze to engulf her.

She just wanted to have him back. She missed the jokes he made and the little chocolates he would sneak to her when her grandmother wasn't watching. But she had lost him, and she had never even gotten a proper goodbye.

She felt tears well in her eyes and she bit her quivering lip, letting out a soft sniffle. Suddenly, the sun stopped shining on her face and the light she could see through her eyelids ceased to appear. She squinted her tear-filled eyes to see a familiar upside-down face.

Park Sunghoon leaned over the girl, shielding her from the sun's harsh rays. The girl quickly sat up and hid her face, so as not to give the male another thing to tease her about.

"Why are you here?" she mumbled as she franticly wiped her tears with her sweater sleeve. "Why wouldn't I be?" the boy answered as he sat beside her on the bench.

"You are the last person I want to talk to right now." She finally turned to look at him as she felt a tear trickle down her cheek.

The male's usually cold and unfriendly expression suddenly softened seeing her like this. God, how could anybody be so beautiful when they cried? Her tear-stained cheeks glistened in the sun and she bit her lip once more, making her dimples pop out.

It was then that an idea intruded his thoughts. Was this because of how he had treated her that morning? His heart sunk at the thought that he might have been the reason for her tears.

Suddenly, before he could stop himself, he felt his arms wrap around the girl, holding her tight in his embrace. "I'm sorry."

To his surprise, she didn't stop him or yell at him like he had expected her to. Instead she buried her face in his chest. He could feel her uneven breathing as he squeezed her tighter.

He realized then, he had begun to fall for her. Really fall for her. Despite only having known her for a weeks, he constantly caught himself thinking of her in the most random situations and his heart began to race when she was close. He had begun leaving his phone's ringer on just so he would know when she messaged, and found himself smiling in the stupidest ways when she laughed. And imagining what would happen when their deal finally ended made his heart sink.

"Sunghoon?" her whisper was so quiet the boy could barely hear it. He hummed in response, telling her to go on.

"You know nobody else is here, right?" she finally moved away as the male loosened his grip. She looked at him and for the first time, she noticed how handsome he was. The breeze blew his bangs to the side, revealing his forehead just the slightest bit. His eyes sparkled as he squinted in the sun, and his nose and jaw were perfectly sculpted.

He slowly nodded. "I know."

Just then the rooftop door flung open and a group of first year girls stepped out, laughing and cheering. Upon noticing the two second years sitting there, one of the first-years gasped and whispered to her friends,

"That's Park Sunghoon!"

"Seriously? The one Chaeyin told us about?"

"He's even more handsome that she described..."

"Wow... no wonder he's so popular with a face like that."

The male's face hardened again and he grabbed Taeryoung's hand, gently this time. "Come on," he spoke softly. "Let's go."

The pair made their way past the first years who seemed to not even see Taeryoung beside the male.

-

That night, Taeryoung still couldn't stop thinking about what had happened on the rooftop. If he had known there was nobody watching, why had he hugged her? She buried her face in her pillow.

He sure knew how to make a girl fall for him. But Taeryoung wasn't going to be one of those girls. She wasn't about to embarrass herself by falling in love with her fake boyfriend. After all she had only agreed so Kyojun would stop liking her and Sunghoon's obsessed admirers would leave him alone.

Suddenly, her older sister, Sooyoung creaked the door open. "Taer? You doing okay in here?"

Taeryoung turned to her sister, flustered, and nodded quickly.

"Grandma and I were about to go visit Grandpa if you're feeling up to it."

Taeryoung nodded at her sister again and got up to visit her grandpa again.

a/n: sorry if the backstory is too unclear rn but ill explain it more later so just stay tuned :)