THE GAME.
Lumi stood beside Akari as she was being introduced infront of her new classmates, her expression unreadable as eyes locked onto her. The classroom buzzed with curiosity whispers already circling about the new girl.
"Please go ahead and introduce yourself," Akari said to her.
"I'm Lumi Yue." She said flat more of uninterested.
The all class froze waiting for her to go on but all they could hear was silence. Lumi simply stood there, unfazed.
"Th...that's all?" Akari asked sounding puzzled.
She nodded slightly.
From the back of the room, Ruan leaned on his seat, arms folded across his chest. A quite chuckle slipped out.
"Weird," he mumbled under his breath.
Akari then allowed her to go and take her seat. Her seat was right opposite to Ruan's.
On her way, students gazed at her wondering why she transferred on a senior year. Lumi didn't flinch at all. She kept it cool and walked to her seat.
As she took her seat, Ruan leaned forward and whispered, "Welcome, cigarette girl."
She didn't even bother looking at him. She fished her books out of her bag and set them up for the session.
The bell echoed through the halls as students stretched, packed up, and began filtering out for lunch. Akari remained behind at the teacher's desk, sorting papers. His eyes flicked toward the back corner, Lumi was still seated, unmoving, her gaze fixed out the window.
A quiet girl. New. Sharp eyes. Too sharp for someone pretending not to care.
He walked over slowly. "You're not heading to lunch?"
Lumi didn't turn to him. Her voice came flat, like it had no energy to pretend.
"They're loud. And boring."
Akari raised an eyebrow. "You might get hungry."
Lumi finally turning said, "Teachers pretend to care a lot. Are you one of those?"
Her eyes met his, calm, piercing, and cold.
Akari didn't flinch.
Akari, still cool, he fixed his glasses, "I care where it counts. The rest is none of my business unless you make it so."
Lumi blinked once then with the faintest hint of a smile, more like a twitch at the corner of her mouth she stood up.
"Fair enough." She walked past him, bag in hand.
Akari watched her go.
Outside, Lumi sat alone on one of the benches beneath the tree canopy outside the class. Her ear pods were in, music cocooning her in her own world. The buzz of students around her faded into the background.
Suddenly, she felt somebody poke her shoulder. She slowly removed the earpods and looked at the person.
"Hey, aren't you going to make any friends, cigarette girl?" a deep voice teased.
It was Ruan. He jolted and sat up by the table facing Lumi.
"My name's Lumi. I don't know any cigarette girl you are talking about." Lumi denied, then lowered her head down and went on focusing on her books.
"Ah, I see. Playing the classy new girl card, huh? Still...that night by the river. That was fun." Ruan said
"Talk all you want but I don't remember meeting you before the dinner night," she answered, uninterested.
"Then, I must've met a ghost," Ruan said with a chuckle. "A really pretty one."
Lumi sighed, then looked up at him, "What do you want, Ruan?"
Ruan grinned, half playful, half serious. "Ok, I will cut to the chase. I know you don't approve of this engagement thing. I'm not either. So, what do you say we find a way out? Team up and kill the fairy tale before it kills us."
Lumi didn't answer for a few seconds. She kept her gaze up at Ruan as their eyes locked. Then without warning, she let out a short chortle. It built into a laugh, unexpected and oddly chilling.
Ruan's brows arched. He didn't understand her reaction but waited.
Lumi wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, and then composed herself.
"What?" she finally said, voice tinged with irony. "Who said I didn't want this engagement, huh?"
Ruan was startled.
Her expression hardened.
"This might be a game to you, but for me? It's survival. Let me clear it out to you, our company was facing a financial collapse. Cracks, layoffs, silence in boardrooms. And I sat and thought to myself, how do I help my father?"
Ruan leaned back slightly, watching her as she spoke.
"Then I saw the news. Koo Group was hosting a charity gala. Big names and powerful people. And in the middle of it all...I saw you." She paused, her eyes narrowing. "That night, an idea struck me. Ruan Koo could be our lifeline. If I could secure a bond, no, an alliance with you, maybe the Yue family could survive."
She chuckled once, her smile thin.
"Cigarette girl, huh? Even that night by the river...it wasn't a coincidence. I planned it. I needed to study you first before I pitched the idea to my dad. And now that we're here, there is no way I'm calling off what I started."
Ruan stayed silent, processing every word she said. He blinked slowly, then gave a short laugh and clapped once.
"Wow! Villain energy. You really own it. Honestly, that's impressive." he said, and then tilted his head. "You know I wondered, you are not the most people like I meet in other dinners."
"You mean I don't fake smile and giggle at your jokes?" she asked.
"Something like that."
"Good. Because I'm not here to entertain you."
Ruan smiled and nodded, but inside he was burning. Something unfamiliar stirred in Ruan's chest. No one had ever tried to control his life like this- except his father. And now, this girl, with eyes like knives, was trying to bind his future into her plan.
"Check your phone. I sent something," she said. She then grabbed her books. "See you."
She walked away leaving Ruan in deep thoughts. He grabbed his phone and looked what Lumi had sent him. It was a welcoming poster for a night party.
"A night party? What is she up to this time?" he said with a frown.
Unknown to him, she hadn't just sent it to him. The entire class group chat had received the invite. Lumi Yue had just made her first move.