╰┈➤ ❝ [ Clearing the air, I breathed in the smoke]

IT WAS STRANGE REALLY, for someone who had been physically assaulted by her mother just the day before Kim Ji-an was doing pretty well. At least that's what she liked to make herself think. It was the first time something like that had happened and Kim Ji-an preferred to act as if nothing had occurred in the first place. The girl had woken up, taken a shower, tried making her uniform look as cute as possible, curled her hair, and lastly she covered the ugly red mark on her cheeks with makeup. She looked gorgeous and collected on the outside but in the inside all that was left was a broken girl attempting to live up to people's standards.

She did not bother on eating breakfast or acknowledging Chin Sun's presence as she just ran out the front door before anyone could stop her. A good advantage of waking up early was that she had enough time to stop by her favorite coffee shop and buy her oh-so-loved iced coffee.

Now, she found herself walking outside the school grounds as she happily took a sip of her beverage. Though her peace didn't last long as the familiar yet annoying sound of Seo-jun's motorcycle filled her ears. She turned her head to see Han Seo-jun parking his motorcycle and quickly she took out her phone, snapping a few pictures of him as he got out of the vehicle. Of course she wasn't going to rat him out to his mother even if she had promised the woman she would—not after what Seo-jun had revealed. He had finally opened up to her a little bit and Ji-an wasn't about to ruin the small progress they had made.

Still Han Seo-jun didn't know that so once he noticed she was taking pictures of him, he narrowed his eyes and marched towards her. "What do you think you're doing?"

Lowering her phone Kim Ji-an smiled, she ignored the pain that shot through her cheeks and shrugged. "Just taking a few pictures and before you start yelling at me, I won't show them to your mother."

A scoff left Seo-jun's mouth as he looked away momentarily. "Really, then why were you taking them?" He looked at her and smirked leaning in closer. The girl was wearing heels so that saved him from having to lower his neck too much. "Were you in need of pictures of me to use as your phone wallpaper? Because if that's the case, you could've just asked."

Ji-an's eyes widened. "That's actually not a bad idea." She grabbed her phone and quickly looked for the best looking picture of the couple she took before putting it as her lock screen. "Here you go." She showed him the phone screen and Seo-jun's eyes budged at the sight.

"I was joking you know that right?"

The girl nodded putting her phone back in her pocket. "I do, but if we want this whole thing to work we gotta put our all into it."

Han Seo-jun hummed knowing she was right and grabbed his phone, going into his gallery before chuckling at something he saw. Noticing Ji-an's curious gaze he turned the phone towards her. "Should I make this my new lock screen then?"

Kim Ji-an's jaw dropped as her eyes were greeted with a picture of her fast asleep, her head resting on her crossed arms with a small trail of drool leaving her lips. It was an embarrassing picture and Ji-an had no idea as to why Seo-jun had it. She guessed he must had taken it when they meet up at the library a few days before. Ji-an snapped her eyes up to look at Seo-jun. "Delete that right now."

"I don't think so." He began to walk away but once he noticed Ji-an was following after him, he quickened his pace into a jog before going into a full sprint.

"Han Seo-jun! Delete it! Han Seo-jun, delete it or I swear you won't see tomorrow's daylight!" She ran after him not caring about the looks they were receiving or even noticing the fact Lee Su-ho was watching them from a couple feet away.

Turning his head back Seo-jun was surprised to see Ji-an running close after him. Who would've thought she was as fast as him even while wearing heels. "Stop following me!"

"I will once you delete it!"

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷

"Who would've thought running could be so exhausting." Kim Ji-an murmured to herself as she strolled through the halls. Her heartbeat was still pretty fast from all the running she did while following after Han Seo-jun. She had been so close to catching him too. If only it hadn't been for a random boy getting in between the hallway right when they were passing, that horrible picture of her would've already been deleted from Han Seo-jun's phone.

But that didn't concerned her. In fact, she was already planning a way of getting back at him but in the mean time she decided to focus on the most important thing—-getting Go-woon to believe the huge lie Kim Ji-an was about to tell her.

The girl damned Han Seo-jun. It had been his decision to keep the whole fake dating stuff a secret from his sister and mother. It would've made everything a lot easier but the girl came to the conclusion nothing was easy with Han Seo-jun. So now she had to deal with lying to the girl she considered a sister. Go-woon was good at reading people and one mishap from Ji-an would be enough for her to discover the truth.

Kim Ji-an took a sip of her iced coffee as she rehearsed the story like a broken record. Over and over again hoping if she repeated it enough times, the lie would engrave into her mind and make her acting more believable. The girl had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't pay attention to her surroundings so when she rounded the corner, the feeling of a finger jabbing at her forehead snapped her out of her thoughts and back to reality.

Lifting her gaze to meet the other person's eyes, she made eye contact with Lee Su-ho. His presence caused unwanted memories from the night before to resurface and Kim Ji-an did her best to push them away as if it had been a big nightmare that never occurred. Not only that but what happened wasn't his fault so there was no reason for her to feel that way.

Last time she talked to Lee Su-ho, their encounter hadn't been the most pleasant one and Kim Ji-an mentally groaned at the lack of attention she had paid to her surroundings. She hoped this time their interaction ended better than their previous one.

Lee Su-ho removed his finger from her forehead and glanced down at her right hand holding her iced coffee as he placed his hands in his pockets. "What's your order?"

The unexpected question caught her of guard and it took her a second to recover from her shock as her wide eyed gaze followed his line of sight. "Um, it's a large iced white mocha with extra caramel drizzle." The words left her mouth before she could second guess herself. Her initial thought was to snap at him or ignore him. It was the least he deserved but the quick turn of events took her by surprise. It was an innocent question really so there wasn't anything wrong with responding plus getting into another argument wasn't on the top of her list.

Lee Su-ho only nodded in response and before Ji-an could think about stopping him, he walked away. Staring after him Ji-an looked down at her coffee with a slight frown. She didn't know what were Lee Su-ho's intentions or why he was behaving the way he was. Only thing she could do was pray this was the start of amending their relationship.

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷

"Okay okay, I get it." Go-woon raised her hand as if to stop Ji-an from talking any further. "I don't need any more details as to how you came to realize you like my brother. Or any more details for that matter.

"You were the one who asked." Kim Ji-an shrugged, acting nonchalant about it but in the inside she was celebrating at her success. The girl would be lying if she said she hadn't been thinking about canceling their little meeting. Both had agreed on spending their free period together——actually more like Go-woon had demanded and as much as Ji-an had wanted to avoid the upcoming conversation she would've never had the guts to stood
up Go-woon. 

"Sadly, now that I know the rumors are true, can we go please talk about something else? I don't want our first conversation in person to be about my brother." The younger girl said as they took a seat on a bench outside the school grounds.

"How has school been? Did you enter the music program?" Kim Ji-an placed her now empty iced coffee on the ground before turning her attention on Go-woon. It was a dumb question given Ji-an had no doubts that the girl had been accepted. She heard Go-woon sing in a few occasions and each time she was left stunned by the girl's enchanting voice.

Go-woon smiled but it didn't seem to reach her eyes. "Yeah, I got in a week ago."

A frown took over Ji-an's face. She could tell something was off. "You don't sound as thrilled as I though you would be. Did something happen?"

"No, nothing happened. I think I just lost the excitement that's all.

"Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything."

"I'm fine, really. Now tell me about your time on Miami." Ji-an knew she was lying but she didn't want to push Go-woon. If she wanted to tell her she would.

Nonetheless Ji-an smiled at the mention of the place that was her second home. "It was amazing. I had a lot fun and met some good people along the way. I think leaving has been the best decision I could've done. I felt free like I could actually breathe you know? It was a fresh start which was exactly what I needed. I just wish I had taken more advantage of it."

It was never Ji-an's plan to come back to Seoul at the time she did. She had intended on finishing her modeling contract there before returning to Korea. But it seemed her parents had other plans and now here she was—stuck in a huge lie that might come to bit her on the ass later on while pretending her life wasn't falling apart.

——————— ↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ——————

—Joy

Uh here I am! 👀

Finally updating this book lmao. I promise next chapter would be more exciting. Oh and I changed the opening gif it's so cute!