"I absolutely need to know every detail of, well, basically the whole story" Zoe, Riley's best friend, exclaimed over face time.
"Hey!" She suddenly screamed and looked at the screen to see Riley laughing at her. "Some asshole bumped into me!"
Zoe was standing in the middle of the Trafalgar Square, Starbucks coffee in her hand, phone in the other and an old school briefcase hung over her shoulder.
"Please Ry? I need to do this project and the fact I have a famous best friend just plays into my cards."
"What exactly do I need to tell you?" Riley asked while sitting on the couch in her office, too lazy to continue working just now.
"I need to do an essay which is more structured like a script. But it needs to me based off real events and it needs to be about love blah blah blah.
Either way, I thought your and Changbin's story would work perfectly!"
"Call me again when you're home so you can take notes or whatever. And it's not like you don't already know the story or anything" Riley rolled her eyes and went over to the Coffee machine.
"I need every detail sweetie! Or else it won't be believable" Zoe argued while taking a seat in one of Londons famous busses.
"Bye bye Ry, love you"
Before Riley could say that they would be talking again in less than thirty minutes, the call was ended.
"Ms. McEvery?" A shy looking boy, the intern, entered the room and fiddled with his hands while standing in the doorway.
Riley looked up and offered a smile, not wanting to come across like a typical rude boss.
"Mrs. Yon said I should bring you these files. They need to be signed otherwise the ship can't enter the harbour."
Riley held out her hand for the files to be placed into. "You can make yourself a coffee while you wait" Riley suggested and opened the first folder.
After a few minutes Riley had checked every file and corrected some information before giving them back to the intern.
"I'm sorry but what was your name again?"
"Kim Byul" The guy stuttered and bowed deeply before leaving the room again.
When her phone rung, she didn't need to look at who was calling. "Zoe, am I intimidating?"
"No? Yes? Do you want to be intimidating?" Zoe was clearly confused but tried to hide it by opening her laptop.
"Our intern just came in and he didn't even make eye contact. Like I would yell at him the second he would do so"
"You're the boss Ry. That alone brings something intimidating and that is good. We can't have your workers not have respect for you"
Riley laughed at the thought of acting like some movie-cliché-CEO.
"Now for the important part, I'm all ears..."
flashback 19th February 2015
"Listen up class! We have a new student starting today and I want you all to behave your best!" The teacher, Mrs. Oh, scolded the class and fixed the position of her glasses.
Changbin only lifted his head from the table when he heard the news but let it sink back down seconds later. School was boring, it was just an endless circle of waiting for the weekend. Changbin hated it, he would much more like to ditch and make music at home. He didn't need to be good at maths for that.
When the classroom door opened, Changbin lifted his head because as much as he was bored and tired he didn't want to come across as rude.
A girl entered the room: Long blonde hair falling around her waist, the normal school uniform paired with a camouflage jacket and a fitting beanie. She turned towards the students to start introducing herself and - gosh was she beautiful!
Changbin immediately fixed his slumped over position and looked at the newcomer, waiting for her to start speaking so he could hear her voice.
"Well, hi? I'm Riley and I moved here a few days ago from London. I just turned fifteen a week ago and I'm not good at Korean yet" The way she spoke made it clear that she learned this text by heart but Changbin didn't care.
For him this was the most sothing voice he's ever heard. Like an angel was talking to him.
"Thank you and welcome to our class Riley. Now who of you speaks English and can help dear Riley fit in?"
Changbin didn't know when his body decided to move on his own but here he found himself with his hand raised - he didn't speak Englisch for shit.
"Oh well...Changbin. Riley go sit down next to him" Even the teacher seemed surprised by his act and Changbin was internally cursing himself until he saw the angel herself stand in front of him.
He quickly put away his backpack and made space for her while trying to stop his cheeks from turning into a crimson red.
"I..I'm Changbin" He stuttered and looked over at the girl who had just sat down and started unpacking her things. Changbin was glad he at least knew how to say his name in English but that was about it.
"Yeah, I know. Nice to meet you" Changbin responded her smile and only nodded, he had a guess of what she said but he didn't want to jump to false assumptions.
"Could you show me the way to Chemistry room 036 later? I don't have it together with you or the rest of the class since I'm taking advanced but your school is really confusing" Riley chuckled embarrassed while Changbin looked like someone told him that his mouse, which he doesn't own, turned into a horse and was now waiting in the parking lot to pick him up.
"You don't understand a word I'm saying, right?" Riley chuckled, switching to her broken Korean. Embarrassed Changbin shook his head.
"Then why did you raise your hand? It's not that I don't want to sit next to you, I just think it would've been easier to show me everything" Riley's Korean wasn't bad at all, she was just very insecure about it.
"You're Korean is actually really good, why did you say that you couldn't speak it earlier?" Changbin tried to change the topic because he himself didn't know the answer to the girl's question.
"Thanks but I still lack a lot and you still didn't answer my question" Riley tilted her head and leaned closer seeing the teacher had started now and she didn't want to make a bad impression on her first day.
"Honestly I have no idea. I guess I just wanted you to sit next to me. Sorry that sounds weird but you're interesting? No, still weird, let's say I just want to get to know you" Changbin finished his rambling and scratched his nape akwardly.
"Thanks I guess. Well, I'm happy you raised your hand. You seem nice and this way I don't have to sit next to some stuck up bitch." Changbin laughed at her remark and couldn't help but notice how he wanted to hear her laugh again.
"Changbin, Riley, please focus on class and resume your conversation during break" The teacher scolded and the two students had a hard time trying to stop themselves from laughing even harder.
The rest of the lesson these two sat leaned back in their chair, leaned to one another so their shoulders were touching, and Changbin informed Riley about all the gossip in school.
They felt like this was the beginning of a new friendship but what they didn't know was that this friendship would turn into so much more.
flashback end
"Did you have to add that last line? It made the whole thing sound so cheesy" Riley whined and covered her face. She didn't have a problem telling this story to her best friend, seeing she already did that once, but her few addings made it seem like some highschool fanfiction.
"No, it was very much needed! You guys are so cute!" Zoe squealed and typed something into her laptop.
"Tell me about the first time something more than friend vibes happened between you guys" Zoe demanded and took a sip from her tea.
"You are embarrassing meee" Riley whined and covered her reddened face, hoping it wasn't visible through the screen.
"Stop blushing and start talking"
After a while of thinking, Riley remembers the first time she realised her feelings weren't all that best friend-ish for Changbin.
flashback
"Riley, I need your help!" Changbin complained, his mood already down because he needed to learn some stupid choreo for the school festival.
"I'm not even in the music class! How am I supposed to help you?" The girl questioned and focused back on her chemistry project that was scattered around the floor of the dance room.
She was willing to accompany her best friend through his misery but had no way of helping him. She would represent their school in the science aspect - especially chemistry.
"But you're athletic and you can easily remember things" Changbin continued to whine, not giving up his hope of receiving help just yet.
"Fine!" Riley groaned and stood up, taking a look at the video which showed the choreography.
"This doesn't seem too hard, you just need to rotate your torso at the right moment."
Changbin looked up from his seated position and smiled fondly. "Please show me?" He begged and grabbed onto Riley's hand.
The latter motioned for Changbin to get into position and started the music. When the troubled part came, she paused and went over to her best friend.
"You need to be relaxed here" She put her hands on Changbin's hips, causing the latter to blush at the touch.
Keeping her hands there, Riley guided Changbin through the movement until he understood what he did wrong until now.
Wanting to impress the girl, Changbin put all his willpower and energy into the next try and managed to pull it off.
What he didn't calculate though, was the speed he had afterwards, causing him to stumble towards the ground.
In his downfall, Riley lay on his way, and in an attempt to catch the boy, both got pulled down.
Reacting as fast as possible, Changbin looped one arm around Riley's back and pressed the smaller body against his own.
With his second arm he tried to lessen the impact which more or less worked.
"Are you okay?? I'm so sorry" Changbin panicked while still hovering over her.
"I'm okay"Riley breathed out, too enchanted by their close proximity. Changbin still had one hand next to her head, keeping himself just right above her, and the other placed on her waist.
Both were staring at each other, breathing rather heavily. It was the moment Changbin's eyes flickered to Riley's lips, where the atmosphere changed.
Without noticing both began leaning in until the sound of a shutting door pulled them back into reality.
Changbin stood up awkwardly and pulled Riley along. He diverted his eyes, to embarrassed to keep eye contact.
"Hey guys, wassup?" Jungwon, a fellow classmate, asked and walked up to the pair.
What the poor guy didn't know was that the both of them were cursing him in their minds for interrupting their moment.
flashback end
"I did not curse him!"
"Oh shush, I need to add a little something here and there to spice things up. And your relationship is either way only an inspiration and not the exact story I'll tell" Zoe commented and typed away in her laptop.
"It must already be late for you Ry, go to your loverboy and cuddle him to sleep"
After they bid their goodbyes, the call ended and Riley slumped back in her seat.
Oh, how she wished she could do what Zoe suggested but the pile of work on her desk forbid her to go home anytime soon.
This was going to be a long night - and more were yet to come.
—————————-
~do you like these kind of flashbacks into their story?
Edit: I actually had a plan about Kim Byul the intern but forgot about him, oh well it still worked out
~until next chapter
~~June