adora • lookism

7. Cafeteria

So it turned out that showering affection on someone who'd been affection-starved for years might make them a little clingy. Who knew, thought Ari.

••••

"Oh my god," someone said, plopping down next to Ari in the school cafeteria. "Did you see Daniel Park today? He looked delicious."

"Hi Yui," said Ari, nibbling on a shrimp tempura that Jay had slipped over when she wasn't looking.

"Hi," Yui said, also giving an offhanded wave to Jay sitting in front of them. "But did you see?"

Ari looked over at Daniel, who was walking in with Jiho and Zoe. He looked like he normally did, but with more expensive shoes. Granted, he also normally looked exceedingly handsome, but she saw exceedingly handsome men most every day. Shirtless, at that. And in high definition close-ups.

"Sure," said Ari. She chomped at the last bit of the tempura. "Delicious."

Yui sent her a look that established how unconvinced she was by Ari's dedication to Daniel Park's yumminess. "Anyways, do you think I should snatch him up? But that leech Zoe is always hanging off of him."

"You would be hanging off him like a leech too, if you didn't have a boyfriend," Ari commented, unconcerned.

"Ex-cuse me," Yui retorted, tossing her long, silky hair over a shoulder. "Having a boyfriend has never stopped me from doing anything in my life."

Well, Ari supposed she could respect that, to a degree. Although she personally thought that managing one man sounded exhausting enough.

Then Yui leaned against Ari, coquettishly holding her free arm and shaking it a bit. "Putting men aside, when are you going to come over to be a guest on my stream? Someone was asking about you yesterday, you know."

Ari gave her an odd look. "But why? I was only on there a few times, no one should still remember me."

"Dunno," Yui said bluntly. "Guess they thought you were cute or something. Anyway, I'll split the stream profit halfsies with you if you do it."

"Will it be a mukbang?"

"Sure, if that's what you want."

"And I don't want your boyfriend to be there. He's a boor."

"Ugh, fine. You're SO high maintenance."

Ari laughed and hugged Yui's arm back. "Nice doing business with you."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll text you the details later." Having said her piece, Yui got up and flounced out of the cafeteria with another flick of her hair.

Seeing Jay's look, Ari said, "What? Money is money and food is food---ugh!" A body collided into hers from the side, tipping her chair over. Without any warning, she felt herself briefly becoming weightless; in the next second, she collapsed onto the floor, the chair falling onto the fleshy part of her legs with the weight of another person on it.

Ari was stunned for a moment, breathless.

The person who'd been splayed on top of the chair scrambled to get up, urgently lifting the chair off of her. "Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He was a plumper boy whose face she couldn't immediately place. "I'm so sorry, are you okay? Are you hurt?"