Rika was taken off guard for a brief moment before realizing her mistake. She was a tsundere who also had a height complex! Rika didn't have that issue when playing the tsundere rule so hadn't forgotten it as a possibility until just now. That's her problem, forgetting the obvious. She mentally slapped herself on the forehead. This complicated matters, especially now that she had already made the mistake. She stammered, trying to think fast on her feet for some damage control. Unfortunately add libs were not her strong suit so she didn't know exactly what to say to make things better. She wanted a script, or at least time to think. Otherwise she might accidentally make an even bigger fool of herself then she already had. She needed to be careful. 

"N-N-No, I-I just...," her face flushed with embarrassment.

"Think Rika, think..." she thought to herself.

"Oh, all the excitement threw out my back! he he..." she explained nervously. "Err...actually it was my knee. Silly knee. Both of them, actually. My back mainly, as well..." she forced herself not to start rambling on with the lie. Perhaps she could try to just ease the situation somehow else. "You're not that short. A lot of Japanese girls are like that...err...by that I mean not short. We're all pretty normal...he he..."

She played nervously with her right hand that had since retracted from the handshake position when it become clear that was not going to happen. If only she had more experience dealing with actual people then fellow actors. This was going far worse then expected. She wanted to disappear. Maybe if she just got time to think and Kobayashi-san time to cool off.

"W-w-Well, looks like I have class coming up pretty soon. Gotta go," she said. "Excuse me."

She bowed and then rushed for the door.