Chapter 2: Terms and Conditions
1175 Words
There is nothing worse than being dumped publicly, but there is one thing even worse: accidentally landing a fake boyfriend who is so gorgeous that you feel like he could be a Netflix poster boy.
Correction: a fake boyfriend who thought it would be a good idea to take the role without even consulting me.
My reputation was in shambles already by the time the cafeteria was returned to usual noise levels. Everybody was gazing. Min-joon looked like he had just eaten a cactus and his girlfriend was in shock with her jaw on the floor.
In the meantime, Raven sat coolly peeling the paper off of his sandwich as if nothing had happened.
I leaned towards him and, with set teeth, whispered. “What the hell was that?!”
He did not look at me. “You had to have a pretend boyfriend. I volunteered. That problem is solved.”
“That was not an issue! That was—" I looked around-- Folks continued to take pictures with their cell phones. Great. Tomorrow, the campus headline will read: "Dumped Girl Bounces Back on Dark, Mysterious Transfer Student." Just perfect.
“You can not—not—just say you claim me like that!" I hissed.
At last even Raven was turned away to me, and I regretted it. His eyes were darker than black and as deep as to devour the light. “Why not?” He asked in a smooth voice.
I stammered and lost the argument. “Because—we’re strangers!”
"Strangers are the finest liars of all," he replied, with a smirk.
My soul came out of my body a little.
—
Hye-jin, of course, was enjoying every minute. “Oh my god, that is genius, she exclaimed, taking a photo before I could intervene. Faking dating the hottest guy on campus? Soo-ah, it is K-drama gold. You are in my dreams.”
“I want to wake up,” I said.
Raven rose to his full height, towering over us. So he put his hands in his pockets and said.
“My mind went off circuit.” E-excuse me?
“You heard me."
He was walking away before I could object. And after some fashion, my footsteps betrayed me and followed him. Hye-jin waved bye like an overenthusiastic mother sending her child out on a first date.
—
Walking with Raven was... an experience
Everyone stared. Rumors accompanied us as we walked down the hall. I would have liked to have sunk into the floor tiles, but Raven? He strode as though he owned the building. Everyone was background noise, just like me.
At a certain time, a girl from the student council even tripped over because she was looking at him. Raven did not even bat an eyelid.
I groaned and hid my face. “You are liking this, aren’t you?”
There was a smirk on his lips. “Maybe.”
I was just about to enter my lecture room but Raven suddenly leaned down, his face too much too close.
My heart was almost stilled
"Don't worry," he said, with soothing tones. “I will act it well.”
He stood upright and left before I could respond, while I remained at the door with my heart racing.
—
Thereafter, the time went by in a haze. The rumor circulated more quickly than a forest fire, and by the time I was leaving my final lecture, I had three text messages in my inbox from people I had not spoken to in years:
Is it true that you and the transfer student are seeing each other ? Soo-ah??
“Damn, you are fast! Respect.”
“Take me to his friend?? Has he got friends?”
I thought of taking my phone and dumping it into the Han River.
When I had returned to my dorm, Hye-jin was waiting to pop the popcorn. “Out with it all! Was your hand in sight? Did he say "babe"? Did he—”
"He is insane," I said. “Completely insane. I have to stop this. It is going to get worse.”
I was not really certain how, though. He was not quite the sort of guy you could say no to.
The next day I avoided him. Keyword: tried.
Raven was leaning against the gate like some mafia lord in a teen drama the moment I stepped out of my dorm in the morning.
“Morning,” he said, as though this were a long-established habit.
I froze. “What's the meaning of that pouring here?”
“Picking you up.”
“We are not dating at all!” I whisper-shouted.
His head nodded, the tiniest spark in his eyes. “Do you want people to think that you are lying?”
And just in this way he got me cornered. I can’t leave him now, because people will say that I made all this up just because I was desperate. My ego could not cope with that.
So I heaved a sigh and slumped my shoulders. “Fine. But there are rules.”
Raven raised one eyebrow . “Rules?”
“Yes. Rule number one: no touching. Rule two: I don't want to be called "girlfriend" in front of anyone. Rule three, this is when my ex stops presenting his fling, yep?”
He looked me over a long time. Then, to my vexation, he smirked. “We’ll see.”
“We’ll see!!” I sputtered. “Rules don't work like that!”
He had already started walking ahead, so I had to run to catch up with him.
—-
In the afternoon something strange occurred.
We were getting out of class and a group of upperclassmen was blocking part of the hallways. The guys are friends with Minjoon—they always thought they were the campus lords.
"Hey Soo-ah," one of them scorned. “You have already moved on? That’s cold. Poor Min-joon.”
I was about to have a swing at them when Raven jumped in between.
He made no reply. He simply gazed at them.
It was not a normal stare. It was brittle, in fact almost... carnivorous.
The atmosphere became dense. Above, the lights flickered. I thought I saw a shadow curl around his feet like smoke for a moment.
The guys grew pale. One of them stammers, "N-never mind. we will go.” They run like frightened cats.
I could not believe my ears. What—what was that?
Raven was looking at me again, as calm and as bored as ever. Nothing of that to worry about.
Nothing? NOTHING? People would not run in such a fashion unless they had seen a ghost. Such as a monster
I looked him over, not quite believing my eyes. Raven Azrael was not a person that fit in this world.
And it was the first moment since that ludicrous sham engagement had commenced that I ever asked myself whether I had made a pact with the beast.
Literally.
- Writer
