Unexpected

After the party concluded, Ryu and Lyra were found talking with Gerald as Darah watched from inside her car, the grumpy look still not leaving her face. 

"You alright?" Luca asked from the front seat, obviously seeing her stiff expression. 

"Yes! I'm completely fine..." Hearing her stubborn reply made Luca smile for some reason, looking at the rear view mirror to catch a glimpse of her pouting red lips. 

"It's him isn't it?" He asked out of genuine care for the younger but Darah only seemed to shift in her seat, feeling uncomfortable. She definitely didn't want to answer that as disappointment took over her eyes. Luca left it in silence. 

"Thank you for bearing with my youngest daughter's antics, Ryu. I know she's a handful but you're a kind child." 

Lyra smiled at it, feeling sorry for Gerald. Kind who? Ryu only bowed slightly as the older man bid his farewell. As the duo turned to walk to their respective cars, Ryu turned to look at Lyra in an attempt to say something. 

"What did he say during the dance?" Ryu stopped Lyra in her tracks, making her nervous. She knew he was talking about Lang Han. Would he get too worked up if she told him the truth?

"It was just silly blabbering. Nothing serious." She smiled.

"Why were you disappointed then? I saw everything." Just as she guessed, Ryu was sharp with his observations. She sighed, dropping her shoulders. 

"Maybe it's about his father's death. He just wants to hurt us, not anyone specifically. But he mentioned Darah… It just caught me off guard. Because she has nothing to do with this." Lyra spilled everything with a straight  face only to see that Ryu had an unshaken expression over his face. 

"He won't touch a strand of her hair." He replied quite casually, turning to walk to his car. 

Darah turned away in her seat seeing his approaching figure from a distance but that was until Lyra stopped him with a smirk over her lips. 

"Just so you know, Ryu… I met a friend of mine who's a crystal gazer, a few days back. She told me I'd have to endure a heartbreak to find out if that person is my true love." Lyra laughed internally seeing her brother's face twist into a poker face, not knowing how to react to that trivial, unintelligible sentence. 

"What a load of bullshit." He muttered and continued to walk. 

"Oh and I asked her about Darah too!" She smirked, watching him stop in his tracks. Oh dear dear, look at how badly you're trying to hide your curiosity, Lyra thought as she saw Ryu turn around with doubt written all over his eyes. 

"For some reason, she couldn't predict Darah's future. She told me that Darah could create her own path and that she is a blessed soul for that one reason." 

"You mean a nutjob…" Ryu smirked but Lyra could clearly see the curiosity in his eyes when he listened to her since it was about his dearest Darah. He obviously didn't believe in silly predictions like these. 

Darah felt footsteps nearing her outside the car. She seated herself close enough to the door so that if Ryu would be beside her, she'd still be miles away. But to her surprise, he got into the front seat as Luca started the car. He didn't even give me a glance! Darah fumed, gazing out of the windows but then pulled off a smile as she waved Lyra goodbye. After that she was back to her cold expression. 

The entire ride back home was awkward and awfully silent. Darah couldn't tell why but it felt awfully suffocating to be anywhere near him at the moment. Reaching home, she saw how he followed right behind her with an ardent gaze but she ignored him, quickly dashing upstairs to her room. She closed the door swiftly and leaned against it, sighing in relief. 

There was no news from him till the next morning. It's not like she expected him to text her or anything. But just a tiny, itty bitty part of her heart just wanted him to at least look in her direction. Now Darah was seriously contemplating whether she overreacted that night. But if she were the one to approach him first after the fight, wouldn't that make her look too needy? She groaned in frustration, pulling her short hair angrily. 

Ryu was practically missing the whole time she was preparing to leave for her classes. And then he magically appeared in the Rolls Royce ghost, sitting beside her further away. Luca was dead silent too, noticing the awkwardness. 

Darah felt her cheeks burn with tension, her hands gripping tightly over her phone. A bunch of messages were popping up on her phone but she ignored the beeping sound and was instead watching Ryu's cold expression from the corner of her eyes. She finally gave up and looked at him.

"Are you late again?" She left a deep breath after saying that.

Ryu turned around with an emotionless gaze, observing her with disinterest. Darah felt insulted but kept her round eyes fixed on him, timidly. At least I made the first move, she thought. 

"No." 

Just that? Darah felt stupid for even asking. And she felt even more stupid for expectating questions from him. Unknown to her, he was looking outside at the lush green view, a faint smile over his lips. 

"Your phone's buzzing." He said without looking at her and it was only then that Darah noticed. Oh shoot, I was too nervous to see!

"Y-Yeah sorry."  She picked it and saw a number of texts from Jake, asking her if she's coming. She sighed, replying to him, missing how Ryu turned to watch her seriously, wondering who it was texting her too many times in a row. As soon as Darah caught his eyes, he turned away, causing her to smile to herself. The man who was gazing at her so passionately didn't take a second to pretend as if he didn't care. Playing hard to get huh, she thought to herself as her cheeks dusted pink.

Dropping her off this time, Darah cheerfully gave Luca a wide toothy smile and waved whereas Ryu was in a call so she let him be and left silently. Her dainty figure appeared smaller and smaller to his sight as she passed through the gates… From the corner of his eyes however, Ryu watched how a man popped from a side, scaring her and then making her laugh out loudly. He looked irritably at that direction.

"Wait." Luca braked the car immediately, hearing Ryu's deep voice.  A weird feeling passed through Ryu's mind as the man he was watching smiled and snaked an arm around Darah's shoulder, the both of them taking slow steps towards the campus. He couldn't tell if what he was feeling was normal or just downright wicked, watching the unexpected sight in front of him.