"I woke up pissed off today.

And lately, everyone feels fake."

There for you : Martin Grattix, Troye Sivan

》...《

Stepping into school, ryujin lowered her cap down, not wanting any one to see how bloated her skin was underneath. Mindful of the other students, her eyes diverted around the hallway; her pupils shaking as she was unsure whether or not her actions were suspicious to the public.

The girl kept her head down whilst walking to her locked and took out all the necessities she needed for her morning class. Her mind remained blank as after her depressive episode last night, it made her mood drop down to a zero.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, she quite harshly closed her locker before resting her head on the cold material. Despite earning a few glances from the surrounding beings, she couldn't care less about it now.

Ryujin had overheard some girls passing by, chatting on the subject of her. The words being said out of their ill-mannered mouths made ryujin clench harshly onto her books that she was currently holding.

She was so close to pulling their collars and punching the living hell out of them– with grace, of course. Just imagining it, caused her to chuckle at how much her mother has ingraved her ways of disciplining.

Gritting her teeth, she told herself to calm down, not wanting to start a commotion and end up in the Principles office as the day hasn't even started.

+×+

After realising their footsteps were further away, ryujin lifted her head from her locker. Only for her eyes to be fixed onto a boy staring at her, with an expression full of concern at her movements. The girl stiffened abit before turning her heel and strolling to the designated classroom.

It was true that Ryujin had left her apartment room a few minutes earlier just for the sake of avoiding the poor boy– fearing the possibility that he might've heard her pitiful cries last night as he did live a floor below her.

However, the girl wore her facade still not wanting to give hints at how downhearted she currently felt that morning. Although, judging from Beomgyu's expression, it seemed that he too didn't think it was the right time for him to approach her.

+×+

All of them were now gathered in the classroom together to eat, some standing, some sitting on the desks or– like ryujin, sat on their chair. Her eyes drawn to the floor, with her arms crossed; it almost appeared like she was sleeping from how comfortable she was in that position and how still she remained.

"Hey beomgyu, why aren't you eating?" –taehyun had nudged his elbow before taking a bite out of the tuna kimbap he had bought from the school's cafeteria later on. He had noticed beomgyu just picking on his food making him wonder if anything was troubling his friend's mind.

"Oh, I was just thinking of something–" "ahem, more like ..." With a teasing smirk, hueningkai had cleared his throat after locking eyes with beomgyu, who made a gesture that he should zip his mouth, which the kid smiled sweetly and did so.

However, Chaeryeong had also noticed Ryujin's odd behaviour causing for her to suddenly catch sight of ryujin swollen eyelids as she just had to peek under her cap and questioned, "unnie, did you cry?". The question drew the silence to thicken as they waited patiently for the girl's answer.

Flustered, Ryujin laughed it off and gave a sheepish grin to the rest– "me? What makes you say that?"

Although she was quite convincing by the relaxed tone in her voice, her mind was swirling with worry as she thought the water was enough to hide how swollen her eyes were.

Just in time, the bell had cut their conversations as the shuffling of chairs skidded onto the wooden floor could be heard. The door had opened whilst a bright figure had entered the room exclaiming 'Hi everyone!' to the rest of the individuals present.

It was their music teacher, Ms Park that had arrived. She had instructed the students to get into groups and made them try abit of songwriting and later planned on letting the pupils perform the mini project infront of the class.

+×+

"Guys, the time is up! Is everybody about done with their piece?" –her bright voice called out to them as a smile were drawn on her face after seeing most of them nodding their heads.

"Okay then. Can i please have Yeonjun's group, Kriesha and Chenle's team to present their work please!"

Beomgyu took a glimpse at ryujin before leaving his seat and met up with the other four boys in his group. Once they were at the front of the classroom, the four all looked at one another signalling at the count of three that they would begin singing.

"1, 2, 3..."

Ryujin tried keeping her composure despite having direct eye-contact with a specfic boy whilst she thoroughly listened to the lyrics. Subconsciously, she felt her finger start to tap as it matched the timing of song.

It was as if they were the only living souls in the room, letting herself get lost into the words being sung aloud. The flow of the beat kept going profusely, almost in rhythm with her own heartbeat. At this moment, Ryujin really couldn't decipher whether it was the beating of the music or the pumping of her heart she could evidently hear.

Beomgyu swayed his head, still not wanting to break eye-contact as he sang with a small tug on his lips. Despite this, all he recieved was a straight face from the girl leading for his mind to result to bizarre conclusions. But, that quickly came to a hault after noticing her jamming to the beat discreetly.

+×+

The bell went on que as the rustling of bags were heard through the corridor, the sliding of doors as teachers left the classrooms to attend a staff meeting was seen and their students also wishing their goodbyes to them.

"Finally, another day finished! Thank god we didn't have maths today..."–Soobin exclaimed whilst stretching almost knocking a person beside him because of those long limbs.

After all of them were out of the school grounds, Yeji had announced, "Hey guys, I'm planning a sleepover at my house. Can i have your phone numbers to text you all the details?"

Without a doubt, the youngest of the two groups had their eyes lighten up after this, now pushing everyone to agree with the sleepover. The rest just laughed at how the two were so enthusiastic, radiating the same energy– having the possibility that it could just be because their still youthful and are always energetic.

Successfully getting their numbers, Yeji thanked everyone before taking off as she too was excited to plan the event although it was still quite early to start organising it.

Taking it as her turn to leave, ryujin waved to the group and now were a metre away from them. She took a deep breathe in as she embraced the warm breeze not realising familiar voices calling out to her. The girl being oblivious to what was happening behind hed, she continued to hum the song she had heard earlier in class.

–facing the owners of those voices, she saw the boys now nudging beomgyu towards her. Puzzled by their smirks and how flustered beomgyu had gotten, she had a confused expression on her face.

+×+

Clearing his throat, the shy boy decided to just blurt it out as he only has one life and doesn't want to regret anything afterwards. Fidgeting with his hands, he finally had the courage to say the question knowing his friends will make fun of it later on.

"Doyouwanttowalkhometogetheragain?"

Internally screaming at how he messed up infront of everyone, he could see from the corner of his eye that the four boys had all facepalmed themselves at how much stupidity beomgyu had locked in his brain to embarrass them on his behalf.

However, ryujin just chuckled at how he had acted as she thought the question were to be more serious as to how nervous he was. Eyeing her friends, she saw them with teasing smirks, giving her nods telling her to agree with his confession.

Honestly, she was quite surprised they were even able to work out what he had said to her as he was rapping a list. She guessed that he shouted it abit louder than what she thought, wondering if the whole street heard about it.

Beomgyu found that she was taking her time and the silent response from her was excruciatingly slow as he thought he'd made a fool out of himself by refusing his offer. Still having his head held down, beomgyu had his eyes glued to his shoes and parted his lips to make a protest to save him from the situation.

However, the boy then felt a hand pat his head, tenderly stroking his hair allowing for him to meet those kind eyes once again. He heard a soft giggle escape her lips causing for his heart to do multiple back flips as he found her single laugh were a better song than the one he had sang just previously ago.

Beomgyu found a smirk replace Ryujin's smile before she took a step closer, leading for his eyes to widen. After letting her arm fall behind her back, ryujin finally gave an answer that the boy had wished for from the start. "Sure."