Twenty Something - Nightly

Ryujin shivers at the snowstorm outside, rubbing her hands together a few times as she shuts herself into the driver’s seat of her car. She quickly starts the engine, giving it some time to defrost and properly heat up, before she starts backing out of her parking spot.

(The night before)

“Hello?” Yeji's voice, thick with sleep, filters through the other end of the line.

Ryujin smiles, although the other girl can’t see it. “Hi.”

“Ryujin?”

“What’s up?” She poses a light question, setting her phone on speaker and starts to rake a comb through her damp strands.

A soft chuckle. “You remembered.”

“To call you? Of course.” A good-natured smile adorns her features as she sets the comb down and moves to squirt some lotion in her palm.

“How did it go?”

Ryujin pauses a bit to weigh her words before she answers. “I think it was alright. My interview was longer than everyone else’s, although I’m honestly not sure what that means.”

Yeji’s response is wholehearted and sure. “I’m sure you did fine. They definitely loved you.”

It’s quite evident that Yeji’s exhausted. The thought of the singer staying up for her call makes something in her flutter. It’s an odd feeling; she pushes it back down. “I hope so. Well, you should get to sleep soon, okay?”

A whine immediately comes through the other end. “Noo! I haven’t seen you all week- you’re just going to hang up on me like this?!”

All semblance of cool charm is out the window with one statement and Ryujin laughs, although Yeji’s right; they’ve been busy, things have been hectic, and making time to even see glimpses of each other has become harder and harder. She eyes the nighttime sky outside her window and sees tree branches whipping to the side, white specks flying past. All her classes had been canceled because of the impending snowstorm. She’s glad for the unexpected break- she desperately needs the time to catch up on rest.

“Yeji, you sound exhausted.” She says bluntly to the girl on the other end as she pats moisturizer onto her tired skin. Yeji groans, eliciting a small laugh from Ryujin.

“It’s not that bad. You’ve been busy too, haven’t you?” Her voice grows softer, fonder, and there’s this weird part of Ryujin that wishes she could see her right now.

“I’ll be alright after a good night's sleep. All my classes for tomorrow are canceled because of the weather, so I can sleep in.”

“That’s good.” Ryujin can hear the lightness in Yeji’s friendly voice, although there’s something else mixed in there that she can’t quite place. “I won’t be busy tomorrow either, seeing as they’ve lined up my agenda nonstop for the past four weeks.”

Ryujin chuckles at the older girl’s salty tone. “Want me to come over?”

“Now??”

“No way.” She glances at the raging snow outside her window. “Tomorrow, if the weather gets any better.”

“Of course!” Comes the automatic response. “But only if the roads are safe, okay? I don’t want you getting into any accidents.”

Ryujin just hums. “Yeah, I know. Get some sleep, Yej.”

A soft, sleepy laugh. “Sleep tight and don’t worry about the interview- I’m sure you nailed it.” Affection filters through the phone line and Ryujin feels her heart swell just a little larger.

(Present).

Thankfully, it had stopped snowing just in the earliest hours of dawn. Ryujin had set an alarm so she’d be able to check out the weather, and she does this now; it’s not exactly ideal, but it’s been driveable enough and there were already plows on the roads to clear up last night’s flurries.

She’s pretty much the only one out on the roads in these conditions- everyone else seems like they’d decided to take it easy and sleep in. Ryujin makes her way slowly but surely to Yeji’s living complex and parks in the sheltered area. The elevator ride up to the singer’s penthouse is quiet, and she only sees one other young gentleman in the elevator whom she thinks she recognizes from one of the more popular music shows. He smiles at her and says a quiet good morning, before getting off two floors below Yeji’s lofty view.

Upon exiting the elevator, she knocks a couple of times on the polished mahogany door only to be greeted with silence. Amusedly, she knocks again- this time she hears footsteps plodding over to the door before it’s abruptly yanked open.

“Hello- oh.”

Ryujin holds back a laugh but doesn’t say anything. Yeji’s wearing nothing but dark grey sweats, a black sports bra, and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses- obviously fresh out of bed. Ryujin would be much more… flustered, at the girl’s exposed midriff and sleep-mussed appearance if not for the mortified look of shock slowly dawning on Yeji’s face.

“Eek!”

Before Ryujin can even say ‘hi’, the door is slammed in her face and she’s left facing dark mahogany wood, listening to the sound of scuffling on the other side. She blinks, mystified, but she can’t even properly react before the door is yanked open again and a shirted, thoroughly embarrassed Yeji stands before her.

“Hi.” The girl mumbles, looking down at her slippers.

Ryujin just looks at her, holding in her snickers, mirth evident in her eyes. “Hi.”

Yeji stands there a little longer staring at Ryujin before she remembers that it’s quite cold outside today, even in the complex’s corridors, and she hastily moves out of the doorframe to let Ryujin in. “Co- come in.”

Ryujin steps inside the day-lit room and looks around. She’s been here before, but not recently and always in the light of a sunny day. Today it’s grey outside and the clouds are covering the sun. The light reflects whitish off of the freshly fallen snow, casting through the large windows in Yeji’s living room. Yeji shuts the door behind her and just moves to stare at her in wonder.

Ryujin looks up from where she’s unlacing her snow boots, a smile quirking on her lips as she calmly assesses her friend. “Did you forget our conversation last night?”

The surprised look isn’t a bad one at all- it’s something closer to amazement than anything else. Ryujin straightens from taking her boots off to properly look at the girl.

Yeji looks like she can’t find the words to properly express herself. It’s another bout of her happy loss for words. “I- I didn’t think you would actually come.” She says almost surreally, like she can’t believe Ryujin is actually standing in front of her.

It’s quite warm in the apartment; warm enough for Yeji to be wearing a t-shirt, and Ryujin feels herself starting to heat up under all her layers so she starts to take her jacket off. Yeji is quick to take it off her hands and hang it in the coat closet.

Ryujin finally smiles properly at her. “Hey, you.” She consents simply, finally letting the affection slip into her tone as she leans in for a hug.

Yeji grins as she pulls her in. “I can’t believe you’re here. I slept in because I didn’t think the snow would let up anytime soon.”

“It’s fine.” Ryujin mumbles into Yeji’s shoulder. She lets herself be led to the large couch, where there are plenty of blankets and pillows and other warm, fluffy things laying around.

Yeji grabs a grey throw blanket from the arm of her couch to drape over Ryujin’s shoulder before she straightens up. “Have you eaten? It’s still pretty early.” She notes as she starts to head to the kitchen.

Ryujin turns and rests her chin on the back of the couch to watch the girl. “Are you making something?”

“Yeah, what do you want?” Yeji calls over her shoulder as she ties her long hair back.

Ryujin hums softly, relishing the feeling of the blanket Yeji had draped over her shoulders. “Anything you’ve got is fine with me.”

Yeji doesn’t respond, just smiles at her from the open-concept kitchen, and gets to work. Twenty minutes proves to be enough for the girl to make blueberry French toast and coffee (although Ryujin knows that Yeji’s always been more of a tea person). Yeji sets the plate before her carefully.

“Here.” She says, and they both kind of relax onto the couch, not bothering to move to the kitchen table. They eat in silence, until-

“I’m sorry for earlier.” Yeji mumbles around a mouthful of blueberry bread.

Ryujin pauses temporarily to look mutedly at her friend. “For what?”

The singer looks sheepish and quite a bit shy. “That you had to see that earlier…” She trails off hesitantly, looking up at Ryujin expectantly.

“Oh.” Ryujin gets a flash memory of the chiseled muscle on the other girl’s body. “Don’t worry about it.”

Yeji is still chewing. She doesn’t seem all too comforted by Ryujin’s assurance. “I’m really sorry. I’m not usually such a mess.” She says, obviously still a little flustered, and this time Ryujin decides it would be fine to laugh. It’s clear Yeji is far more used to presenting a more polished front; Ryujin has an inkling that she’s one of the few who have seen Yeji in such a state.

The sound causes Yeji to look up at her questioningly. Ryujin just returns the looks with a small, teasing smile. “Don’t worry. Not the worst thing to see first thing in the morning.”

Yeji gapes at her, frozen, as Ryujin just goes back to her blueberry toast.

Oh.

Yeji doesn’t seem to know what to say and it’s actually pretty funny. Ryujin chuckles breathily, almost inaudible, at her friend’s apparent malfunction.

“Don’t think too much about it.”

The blush seems like it’ll permanently etch on the singer’s fair complexion. “Um- I-“

“The toast is fantastic. What’d you put on it?” Ryujin takes mercy on the poor girl and smoothly cuts her off, segueing into a more linear, simplistic conversation.

Yeji looks slightly flustered, but she takes the bait and goes to answer anyway. “Ah, just some eggs and the brown powdery stuff Chaeryeong left here the other day. To be honest, I’m not much of a cook but this was surprisingly easy to make once I got started…”

Ryujin just continues eating, listening to Yeji ramble between bites of French toast and sips of coffee. She nods at the appropriate times and pretends to be as interested as one could be in the (admittedly simple) art of making French toast, wondering if it would ever be an appropriate time to inform Yeji that she’s rambling again, the way she only ever does when she’s more nervous than she should be.

Yeji’s stopped talking though, and she’s looking at Ryujin like she’s expecting her to respond. Ryujin swallows the food in and looks up. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

The look on Yeji's face tells her that Yeji knows she wasn’t listening the whole time, but surprisingly Yeji lets it go (uncharacteristic; the Yeji Ryujin is acquainted with would never let such treason slide). “I asked if you’ve ever tried Chaeryeong’s pumpkin spice lattes.”

Ryujin ‘ahs’ appropriately, nodding sagely as if she’d totally been paying attention to everything that’s been addressed in their conversation (weren’t they just talking about French toast? Well, pumpkin spice lattes aren’t too far off, Ryujin supposes). “I actually have. She made me one before my last midterm last week.”

Yeji tilts her head in a way that would normally seem harmless, or even cute to some, but it’s actually kind of unnerving to Ryujin because right now, she’s not smiling at all. “She did?”

Ryujin nods affirmatively. “Yeah. I took a picture to commemorate.”

Yeji appraises her with that same still look on her face. “You’re lucky. Chaeryeong doesn’t cook for just anyone, you know.”

“I wouldn’t really call that cooking.”

Yeji ignores this and plows forward. “You and Chaeryeong have gotten pretty close then.”

Ryujin suppresses a scoff at the mention of Yeji’s ridiculous groupmate and fellow idol. Yeji isn’t wrong; Ryujin and Chaeryeong have indeed gotten quite close over the last few months, even though they didn’t exactly get off to a great start. But now, Ryujin is aware that Yeji doesn’t actually know the nature of her interactions with Chaeryeong. Chaeryeong, despite her cold/chic exterior, is actually one of the most ridiculous people Ryujin has ever met (and Ryujin’s best friend is Yuna- imagine that). Most of their interactions consist of crude banter, bouncing poorly-formulated insults off of each other as Chaeryeong seeks solace in Ryujin’s apartment away from her managers and other prying eyes on campus. It’s certainly nothing to be jealous of- although, the dark look in Yeji’s eyes says otherwise.

Ryujin tries her best to play it cool. “Yeah, I guess so. I think she likes me,” she starts, then quickly adjusts upon seeing Yeji’s defined jaw tighten, “although I don’t think it’s the same kind of ‘like’ that you’ve got in your head over there.”

Yeji’s jaw doesn’t un-tense. Her next words sound almost forced. “You’re lucky, you know. Chaeryeong hates almost everyone.”

Ryujin chuckles dryly. “I’m aware.” She drawls, leaning back languidly into Yeji’s pile of pillows. Their plates sit on the coffee table a few feet away from them and she kind of wants to get up and ask for more food, but she doesn’t because she knows Yeji will just end up ordering a ton of takeout, and Ryujin decides that that just isn’t necessary right now.

She does wish she could take a picture of Yeji’s expression right now. When the taller girl just sits there with that same look on her face and doesn’t say anything else, Ryujin finally sits up to appraise her in subdued curiosity and mild disbelief.

“Hwang Yeddong, are you jealous?”

Yeji’s sharp eyes snap back up to lock with hers. “What??”

“Are you jealous?” Ryujin repeats, a little louder and a little slower this time (she knows it’ll only piss her friend off- it should probably alarm her that the thought spurs her on even more, but she’s too preoccupied to think about being a good person right now). As expected, Yeji looks aggravated.

“Of what? You and Chaeryeong?”

“Yeah.” Ryujin bluntly confirms, turning her body so she’s sitting cross-legged and fully facing Yeji.

There’s a look in Yeji’s dark eyes that Ryujin can’t quite identify. “What if I am?”

That was more straightforward than Ryujin thought it would be. She silently admits that she’s impressed. “You have no reason to be jealous.”

Her words elicit a short bark of laughter from the older girl, whose shoulders just slump like she’s exhaled all the air out of her body. Yeji sits back on her haunches, running a slender hand through her hair through an incredulous huff. “Right. We’re just friends, after all. Right?”

Ryujin shrugs, satisfied with the response. She leans back into her pillows. “For now.” She smiles serenely, letting her eyes flutter shut in the comfort of Yeji’s apartment so she doesn’t have to see the startled look that inevitably emerges on the older girl’s features.

When she reopens her eyes a few minutes later, Yeji is sitting right in front of her face. Ryujin starts slightly but catches herself in time to stare back into the dark pair of eyes before her.

Yeji doesn’t budge. It’s unusual, because she’s usually always the one to back down first from their little back-and-forths. Ryujin has nowhere to run to this time either, trapped between a wall of pillows and Yeji’s frame in front of her. She’s not sure what to make of this situation.

Yeji is the first one to break their silence. “Hi.”

Ryujin blinks back at her. “Hi. Did I fall asleep?”

“Only for a little bit. You must be tired though- getting up early to drive over.”

Ryujin stretches her arms out in front of her in a poor attempt to put some more space between them. “Ah, sorry. I guess I dozed off.”

It doesn’t work. Yeji only shuffles closer. “You looked really peaceful.”

Ryujin can’t help the words that tumble out of . She blames it on her post-sleep haze (a part of her knows that she’s in deep for Yeji because damn she’s really going at it today and she’s not even had a drink). “Just peaceful?”

Yeji takes the bait, although it’s becoming increasingly obvious that she knows what she’s doing. “And pretty. You looked really pretty too.”

“Sleeping beauty is my alter ego.”

“You’re beautiful, Ryujin. I’ve always thought so.” Ryujin is surprised for the second time that day (or third, if you count the door fiasco from earlier) because it’s really a first that Yeji’s not stopping them from going any further than they usually do. And that she’s not going for Ryujin’s awful pun slash defense mechanism; really, such a shame, Ryujin thinks to herself. What a waste of pun-ny.

“Were you flirting with me just now, Hwang Yej?”

Yeji doesn’t back down this time. “Have been for the past three months, but thanks for noticing.”

They’re only inches apart now. Yeji’s close enough that Ryujin can feel her body heat through the t-shirts that they’re wearing, her breath quietly brushing over Ryujin’s skin. Yeji isn’t backing down this time, and Ryujin can’t believe that the sudden turn of events is actually making her heart beat much, much faster than it should be in a situation like this.

She doesn’t know what to say, but before she can actually think of something, Yeji’s reached out to trace her jawline with feather-light fingertips. 

“Can I kiss you?”

Ryujin’s nod is almost imperceivable, but Yeji leans in anyway.

It’s soft, demure, but there's a quiet fierceness in the way Yeji holds her jaw in place that speaks to her intentions much more than Ryujin thinks it should. They’re friends- they’ve been friends, and Ryujin was determined to have them stay friends. But she has nowhere to run anymore; has nowhere to hide from the tension that’s been building up between them now, and she feels the full weight of her actions finally catch up to her in this moment.

“Is- is this supposed to be a confession?” Ryujin tries to joke once they separate. Her voice comes out much weaker than she’d wanted it to.

Yeji looks at her with an unreadable expression, head tilted in that innocent way she always does with the corners of her pretty mouth turned up just the slightest bit. “It can be whatever you want it to be.”

Ryujin swallows, unable to meet Yeji’s eyes. “I want it to be whatever you intended it to be.”

Yeji laughs lightly at the characteristic, clever Ryujin-style rebuttal (no matter how weakly it’s uttered). She finally sits back, giving Ryujin the space she desperately needs, to breath.

“In that case, then yes. It was.”

Ryujin’s speechless. Yeji looks at her and Ryujin can’t believe she didn’t see this earlier- didn’t see the fond glimmer in Yeji’s eyes, the constant ‘I-look-for-you-whenever-you’re-around-me’ tilt of Yeji’s entire body that everyone’s apparently picked up on except Ryujin (and likely Yeji herself). The blushes that dust Yeji’s cheeks whenever Ryujin mock-ridicules her for being too cool for her, the constant staring that they always play off as teasing, and the constant backing-down on Yeji’s part when Ryujin makes her ridiculously flirty advances. She never thought they’d end up here.

“I really like you, Ryujin.” Yeji’s soft voice cuts through the silence.

Ryujin swallows thickly. “You- you know how I feel about dating idols.”

Yeji sighs. It's not really a particularly heavy sigh, because she’s obviously already given it some thought, but it’s a sigh nonetheless. “I know.”

At Ryujin’s subsequent silence, Yeji scoots in a little closer. “I just hope you’ll think about it.”

It’s not much, but it's a start. Ryujin nods, running long fingers through shortened pink hair.

“I will.”

Yeji hesitates before saying her next words. “Do- do I stand any chance with you?”

Ryujin doesn’t know how to answer that, so she doesn’t.