I forced myself not to roll my eyes at his ridiculous question and nodded firmly.
"Obviously, yes."
He put his coffee down like his life depended on it, then covered his face with his other hand and started laughing so hard his shoulders shook. I stared at him in bewilderment.
Before I could even open my mouth, Aylin walked up, dropped her bag next to Mete, took off her coat, and turned to me with curiosity.
"What's so funny?"
I frowned suspiciously at Mete, then turned back to Aylin.
"I have no idea."
"My God. I always thought your stupidity was adorable, angel, but this…" Mete sucked in a deep breath, still grinning, and shook his head at me like he'd lost all hope. I shifted uncomfortably on the spot. "Wow. I genuinely feel bad for Kerem right now."
I knew he was teasing me, but it felt like he knew something else too.
"Why do you feel bad for me?"
Before I could ask more, Kerem entered the conversation, and all eyes went to him.
"We can say it's because you live with the dictionary definition of 'oblivious,' in short."
Kerem smirked at Mete's thoroughly entertained answer and tossed his coat onto the bench. Instead of easing my curiosity, that suspicious vibe only stoked it.
Aylin seemed to finally understand what was meant, laughing and shaking her head. I was about to snap at the two of them in frustration when Kerem sat down beside me, kissed my cheek, and draped his arm over my shoulders. I froze, stunned.
"Close your mouth, Sunshine."
I managed to shut my mouth, but the rage made me clench my jaw so hard my teeth nearly ground together. Without even looking at me, he casually picked up the menu on the table and started reading it like nothing was happening. I tried to shift away from him and spoke as quietly as I could.
"Hotshot! What do you think you're doing?"
"As you can see, I'm trying to decide what I want to eat, sweetheart. Are you hungry too? These look good. What do you think?"
He knew exactly what I meant, but he played dumb anyway. I grew even more irritated and tried to push his arm off my shoulders. Instead, his hold tightened. He set the menu down, cupped my chin between his fingers, and pulled my face closer to his. When he locked his soft brown eyes onto mine with that dangerously attractive smile, every last bit of my anger evaporated.
"Remember, Sunshine. Whoever's following us probably already knows we live together, and in this situation, to avoid drawing more suspicion, you have to act like my girlfriend—even if you don't want to."
"Okay."
He kissed the tip of my nose and leaned back. While I blinked in confusion, trying to process what had just happened, Kerem had already turned forward again and was back to studying the menu as if nothing had occurred.
I heard the giggles and turned my head, only to see my friends covering their mouths, struggling not to laugh out loud. With a dramatic sigh, I threw my hands up.
"Don't hold back, by all means. Make yourselves comfortable!"
They took me at my word and lowered their hands, laughing openly now. I rolled my eyes and leaned back.
"Did you see his face when Kerem pulled back, Teresa? She was literally having a heart attack!"
"I saw it! And her answer—oh my God. 'Oki.'"
As they mocked me and cackled, I narrowed my eyes and pointed two fingers at them.
"You two. Don't ever let me catch you alone."
After sweeping the room with my eyes, glanced sideways and noticed Kerem was laughing too—only halfway, but still. I yanked his arm off my shoulder and stood up in irritation.
"Where are you going?"
As if Mete's presence wasn't attention-grabbing enough, the second the campus's popular guy joined our table, you didn't need to be a genius to know every eye in the cafeteria would be on us. But the real problem was that Kerem's little show had shifted all the attention from us to me—and I hated that with my entire soul.
Ignoring Kerem's question and my friends' uneasy looks, I snatched my phone from the table and headed toward the restrooms. Every person I passed looked at me like I was some newly discovered species, and feeling those stares crawling over my skin only made my already explosive anger multiply. Hearing people comment about me without caring whether I could hear them or not made my eyes start burning.
"Look at her! Did Kerem really pick that?"
"No way! Don't be ridiculous. Would a guy that hot date her?"
"Did you see Kerem's girlfriend? Where did he even find her? He's gotten so tasteless."
"Want to bet? I give it three days."
"No chance—twenty-four hours at most. If she's lucky."
"Look, look. Kerem's latest victim. She looks kind of sweet, but it's gonna end badly."
"Wait, he's dating her? You're kidding!"
"With all those model-level girls around him, what would he even do with that?"
"Have you seen her before? Apparently she's Kerem's new obsession."
"Who? That chubby one? Don't be stupid. As if."
"You're saying he kissed her? She's not terrible, but she's not really Kerem's type."
"Kerem knows what he's doing, bro. The girl must have something. Maybe she's good in bed."
I shoved the restroom door open in fury. As it shut behind me, I made sure no one was inside, then turned back and locked it. Bracing my hands on the sink, I stared at my reflection and tried to breathe myself calm—but it was too late.