( cupcakes & a helping hand ! )

───── YARA LAZILY SAT ON THE GLASS STEPS, her eyes following along with the orangish-blue flame, mindlessly flicking the silver lighter in her hand. the lee residence was quiet which had been nothing out of the ordinary for the youngest lee child. yara was waiting patiently for her older brother, seokmin, who was currently styling his hair. the 18 year old had told his sister that she would be accompanying him to his friends house that he was working on a project with. yara didn't remember who's house they were going to, nor did she care, she was only going since her father demanded she stay with seokmin.

yara couldn't help but scoff at the thought. she could somewhat understand why her father didn't want her out by herself, but she wasn't some fragile seven year old anymore; she could protect herself. she's been doing so for seven years.

the sound of a door closing and sudden footsteps alerted yara that they would be leaving out shortly. she stood from her spot, slipping the lighter inside the pocket of her leather jacket, turning to her brother who stopped a few steps above her.

"you ready?" she asked as she eyed the older with a blank stare.

"yup" seokmin responded, popping the 'p' as they both made their way out of the house and towards seokmin's bmw i8.

"so, who's all doing the project?" yara asked as she ran a hand through her loose curls.

"uh, me—obviously—hao, sooyoung and haseul. that's who's house we're going to"

"haseul?" once seokmin nodded, yara asked another question after hearing a familiar name. "isn't hao the one hyunsik told you to stay away from?"

seokmin rolled his eyes at the mention of their father. just hearing his name brought the mood down.

"he doesn't know hao will be there, besides, hao's not my partner for the project. haseul is, and it's her house so" seokmin shrugged as he turned into a neighborhood with less flashy homes.

"and now i'm stuck playing besties with her little sister" yara chuckled out in disbelief with a slight shake of her head.

"well, on the bright side, i'm buying you burgers and a milkshake" seokmin reminded as he parked in front of a two story home with a beautiful garden and a stone path leading up to the door.

yara eyed the colorful garden as they walked up the path. storing the image in her mind for whenever she had the time to whip out her old canvas and paint brushes. seokmin rang the doorbell before sending his sister a warning look.

"play nice"

"you obviously don't know me, seok" yara started as she faked being offended. "i'm the nicest in the land"

once yara finished, the door swung open. seokmin and yara stared wide eyed at the short brunette who had blunt cut bob and silver rimmed glasses sitting perfectly on her nose. not to mention, she was out of breath as if she had just run a marathon.

"seok! finally!" haseul exclaimed as she pulled the siblings into her home. "sooyoung and hao are driving me crazy"

haseul slammed the door shut and locked it. she spun on her heel, eyeing yara and seokmin before turning to yell over her shoulder. yara fought the urge to cover her ears.

"yeojin! they're here!" there was a small thud heard from the kitchen as haseul yelled out, sending a beautiful smile in yara's direction while seokmin just chuckled.

"shit!" a voice came after the thud.

yara tilted her head as she felt she had heard the voice before. she looked over at haseul for a quick moment.

"did you say yeojin?"

yara's question was answered not even a second later. a familiar head of long blonde hair was seen, the girl's petite figure confirmed yara's thoughts, a large pan of cupcakes held with her oven-mittens. yara took a mental picture of the image of yeojin with her hair pulled back into a low ponytail. an unusual pair of silver rimmed glasses, identical to haseul's, slowly sliding down the bridge of her nose.

"did you have to yell? i almost dropped the cupcakes" yeojin rushed out with a hiss in her tone. not noticing yara's presence yet.

"hey yeojin" yara greeted, her deep voice pulling yeojin out of her stare down with haseul, shock taking over the blonde's features.

yeojin froze in her spot. her eyes roaming over the all black attire that yara wore, from the plain bucket hat and shiny leather bomber jacket to the chained cargo pants and combat boots, before meeting yara's dark brown eyes that seemed darker than usual.

"yara? what are you doing here?"

haseul put her hand up in confusion. "when the hell did you two meet?" her face scrunched up in confusion.

"school" yara and yeojin spoke simultaneously, eyeing the other with a pinch of their eyebrows.

"a few days ago" yeojin added.

"well then" haseul started with a small chuckle.

"we'll be upstairs if you need us" seokmin smiled at his younger sister, who stared back at him blankly, gently pushing haseul up the stairs.

"don't bother us, losers" haseul's voice was heard before the sound of a room door closing.

silence overcoming the two sophomores who stood in the middle of the living room. yeojin kept her gaze trained on the batch of cupcakes in her hands. yeojin planned on avoiding all and any eye contact with yara for the next few hours, how hard could that be for her?

"you got any video games?" yeojin lifted her head, almost getting whiplash from the rush of excitement going through her petite figure.

one look at the ghost smile playing at yara's lips, had yeojin wanting to know what yara looked like with a full face smile. imagining yara's cat shaped eyes curling into mini crescents, her cheekbones lifting as her long black curls fell into her face. yeojin thought the sight would be beautiful, carefree, a complete contrast from her cold, furtive and untrusting personality.

"hell yeah"

——— 2 hours later

two hours had passed by. two hours of playing video games. two hours of yeojin stealing second long glances. two hours of yeojin telling yara about herself in hopes the older would open up about the situation between her, chaewon and hyejoo. two, excruciatingly long, hours of yara pretending she didn't notice.

"you're a curious little thing, aren't you?" yara mused after a few moments, an amused smirk resting at her lips, turning her head slightly to meet yeojin's eyes for a second.

"exactly! so please, do tell" yeojin pressed, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"i told you already" yara pointed out, yeojin rolling her eyes as she softly pushed yara's shoulder.

"if you think i'm that dull, i'm taking offense"

with a small shake of her head, her blonde hair falling over shoulder, she paused the game and shifted so her whole body was facing yara. the older biting down on her bottom lip as she took in the blonde's beauty. a few moments went by, yeojin watching yara patiently, yara let out a dragged sigh before removing her gaze from yeojin's.

"it's classified information. aren't you friends with hyejoo and chaewon, anyway? you can just ask them" yara noticed the sad pout on yeojin's lips as she let her eyes fall onto the paused video game. "what happened?"

yeojin huffed out, her cheeks puffing out which yara wouldn't admit—but it was cute.

"you" was the only thing yeojin said, rolling her eyes as she pulled at her fingers.

yara turned to yeojin, her face scrunched up, incredulously "me?"

"yes you" yeojin huffed once again. "they want me to stay away from you for some reason, i don't know"

"and what do you want?"

"i want to know what's so 'dangerous' about you" yeojin chuckled out, catching yara's attempt to hold in her laughter, yeojin questioned her on it.

"i'm sorry-" yara let a deep chuckle slip out, her hand coming up to her mouth to cover the smile taking over. "they told you i'm dangerous?"

yeojin sat there. shock was what she felt first.
the wide smile that yara wore made her sharp eyes turn into crescent moons, just how yeojin imagined. slowly, yeojin found herself smiling at the sound of yara's laughter. it was deep, as expected, yet there was a certain airiness to it that made it sound like she was holding the laugh back.

"are you?" yeojin questioned, yara's laughter having died down.

yeojin watched silently as yara's gaze slowly went to the ceiling, as if she was deciding on the best way to answer. hesitation. yara ran a hand through her hair as stray hairs fell into her eyes, leaning back on one elbow.

"i... i move with a dangerous crowd." yara's tone was rough. she'd rather not dive into this topic.

however, one of yeojin's biggest flaws? she was always curious and needed answers. yara picked up on that not even five minutes after having a conversation with the blonde.

"the kind of people i don't ever want you to meet" yara finished.

for the first time, since yeojin had met lee yara, there was a distinct emotion in the girls dark eyes. the usual blank stare had subconsciously changed for just the split of a second, yet, yeojin caught it. yara's gaze had been a mixture of a glare and worry, although yeojin was bad at reading others she had gotten enough experience in learning how to read and understand hyejoo's often monotonous tone and cold demeanor.

"i like when you laugh" yeojin found herself blurting out.

yara's gaze snapped over to yeojin, pausing in her movements of attempting to get her stray hair out of her eyes. it took a few seconds of silence for yara to clear her throat. her fingers immediately moving to twist the ring around her finger.

"thank you?"

"i need your help"

yeojin squeezed her eyes shut the moment those words left her lips. yeojin herself didn't know where she was going with this, but she needed answers to why she felt like time seemingly slowed down whenever she was with yara. she needed to know why sharp cat shaped  eyes that held little to no emotions were always occupying her mind when she tried to focus.

"depends on the situation" yara replied.

"i..." yeojin trailed, not actually believing yara would hear her out. "i have this weird feeling whenever i see a certain person, haseul thinks it's love at first sight—" yeojin paused as yara let out a snort of disbelief. "but i've like, never had a crush before so i don't exactly know what this is"

"okay." yara nodded for a short moment. "who's the person?"

"what?"

"the person you like or don't like—"

"why'd you put air quotations on don't like?"

"who is it?"

"I can't tell you" yeojin rushed out, yara furrowing her eyebrows in response. "it's a secret, and you wouldn't agree to help if you knew who it was"

yara let her eyes travel over yeojin's position on the bed. the blonde had her arms crossed one over the other as she avoided any contact with the older. yara almost smirked at the idea that yeojin believed yara wouldn't find out sooner or later. yara always got answers.

"you know me well, im yeojin" yara chuckled lowly, her gaze falling onto the paused video game. "what do i need to do?"

"go on a date with me"

"what?"

"go on a date with me" yeojin rolled her eyes as she fixed her position, sitting with her legs crisscrossed, her eyes staring directly into yara's, who turned her head to meet yeojin's gaze.

there was no going back after this.
yeojin thought.

"how would going on a date with me" yara gestures up and down to herself. "help you with your feelings for someone else?"

"i don't know!" yeojin huffed out, throwing her arms up in the air. "i just need to figure out what these feelings mean, i've never actually liked someone before so i don't exactly know how it feels"

"you've really never had a crush before?"

"lame right? yerim swears i'm demiromantic or something like that"

yara could sense that yeojin was definitely going through an internal battle with herself right now. not only was she dealing with unknown feelings, but yara could only guess that yeojin didn't know her own sexuality yet.

"have you ever thought about your sexuality?"

"no... never had a reason" yeojin shrugged out.

yara nodded silently. she didn't really want to act on these feelings that were slowly creeping up on her. although, she wanted to help yeojin figure out whatever this was.

yara thought about yeojin's friendship with hyejoo and chaewon. that would definitely end if they found out about this supposed 'date' between yeojin and yara.

yeojin would've thought about that though? she wouldn't willinglyput her friendship on the line if it wasn't important to her.
yara finalized in her head.

"fine... i'll help you with whatever this is"

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 :

its an updatteeeee!!! the 4th chapter has finally been re-written! it took a while but that's probably cause this went from 1224 words to 2184 words 😭😭 we still alive so that's a plus.

there has been a change in plot. i've decided that i don't want yeojin to just blurt out her feelings for yara during their first actual time hanging out. yk? i felt that was a little fast moving. i want both yeojin and yara to sort of suppress their feelings ( not really lol ) for one another during the fake dating. idk i like the slowburn. but this won't be a lengthy slow burn, cause i love yeojin and yara too much to do them dirty. that's all, hope you enjoyy.