Han River

Yeji reached the park and she looks around to spot the girl that invited her to meet there. Yeji spotted Lia sitting facing the river. “Lia!!”

Lia turns to the person who called for her and she smiles at the bright girl who came running toward her. “Good morningYeji-ssi…”

“Aah…you can drop the formality Lia…just call me Yeji…” said Yeji as she feels awkward when Lia calls her name in a very formal way. Lia nods and tries to call Yeji just by her name “Good morning Yeji…”

Yeji could not help but to feel like she had accomplish something beyond her power when the latter said out her name with her sweet voice. However, Yeji snaps back to reality when Ryujin’s frowning face pop up in her mind.

“Good morning Lia, may I know the reason why you invited me to come here this early?”

“I love Ryujin…” said Lia so suddenly and Yeji blinks at her blankly.

“I’m sorry…but why are you telling me this?” asked Yeji.

“You know why…” Lia sighs “She’s a Shin, I’m a Choi…we are the modern days Romeo and Juliet…there is no way that I can be with her…”

Yeji takes a seat beside Lia and they both stares at the calming river flowing “And you’re going to get engaged to me too…and I know that your family did not want the Shin to know about the alliances. I told you that my uncle is try to find a way to kill me before I turn 21 so that he can take all of my fortune…”

“Yes…did he do anything to you that day?” Yeji asked, as she is concerned.

Lia shakes her head “It was nothing serious, just a slap across the face. Let’s not talk about that…let’s talk about how we are going to go against our family. You don’t want to hurt your best friend’s feeling and I don’t want to end up with someone that I don’t love.”

When Lia said that she does not want to end up with someone that she does not love hurt Yeji’s heart so much but the tough girl tries to fake a smile. “Well…they say we can learn to love someone when we spent time with them right?” is what Yeji wanted to say out loud to Lia but she kept it to herself.

“So, you’re telling me, you’re in love with Ryujin and you wanted to run away from our engagement?” Yeji asked.

Lia shyly nods but then she registered the sad undertone in Yeji’s voice “Don’t get me wrong Yeji-ssi…it’s not that I hate you or something, but…”

“I understand…” said Yeji as she tries to cut Lia off “And you called me formally again.”

Lia smiles at Yeji, she calls out Yeji’s name and this time she drops the formality “Yeji…I know it’s going to sound weird to you. I know it’s already sound weird when I told you that I love Ryujin out of nowhere. I know I’ve only knew Ryujin for a few months, but what I felt is something that I cannot explain. So Yeji…I don’t have any other friends, except for Chaeryeong, Ryujin, Yuna and you.”

Yeji was having a thought for a moment, and then she looks at Lia “How?”

Lia smirks and she did not answer Yeji’s questions but only hums out some melody as she stares into the blue sky. Lia’s attitude makes Yeji curious but she rather not ask her, and just wait for Lia to tell her what her plan is.

Shin Household

Ryujin wakes up early and it surprised her dad. Taemin looks at his daughter baffled, the coffee that he drank almost spill from his mouth. “Morning dad~” Ryujin greets her dad and she kisses him on the cheek.

“Honey!!” Taemin calls for his wife.

Naeun came out from the kitchen with her apron on and she was scowling at Taemin at first but then she gasps at the sight of Ryujin joining them for breakfast. Naeun turns to the clock on the wall and it shows that it’s only 8.30 in the morning.

“Honey are you okay? Are you sick or something?” Naeun rushes to her daughter’s side and begins to inspect her.

Ryujin tries to push her mom away because she was not used to the physical contact. She loves her mom but when Yuna was born, Ryujin try to act tough in front of her parents and then she got lesser and lesser physical contact with her mom so she finds it awkward when Naeun tries to hug her or kisses her.

“Mom~ I’m fine!”

“Young miss, you’ll never get your early especially during the weekend, this is the first time I’ve seen you wake up this early!” Taemin jabs on his eldest daughter.

“Dad!”

“You’re hungry? I’m just making some breakfast…”

“No thanks mom, I’m going out, for a jog than I’ll hang out with Chaeryeong, so you don’t have to wait for me. I won’t be back till dinner.” Lied Ryujin to her mom. She wanted to go to work early that morning because she wanted to meet with Lia and have breakfast with her.

“Be careful Jinnie…”

“Deh omma~ I’mma go now~ bye dad!!”

Taeming and Naeun watched their eldest daughter exited the house and then they turn to each other. Taemin raises his eyebrows and ask “Do you think…Ryujin is seeing someone?”

“Our Jinnie? No…she’s not even interested in boys…” Naeun pauses for a moment and then she gasps “Or…maybe…she is…maybe she met the girl that she likes! OMG! Hun! We need to do a background check!”

“Stop being over protective over Jinnie…she’s 17 and if she wants to have a boyfriend or girlfriend she can …” said Taemin calmly, but inside he is curious who managed to take his little’s girl’s heart.

Taemin puts down his ipad and quickly drink his coffee. He excuses himself but Naeun stops him “Hun, you better not call your PA and asked him to stalk our daughter…”

“Wh…who said I was going to stalk our daughter?” stammered Taemin.

Naeun only stares at her husband with her hands on her hips. Taemin break a sweat and he quickly excuses himself, lying that he was going to his study.

Lia’s Shop

Ryujin reaches the shop lot and she opens the shop with the spare key that Lia provide to her. She makes sure that she locks the door before she goes to open the lights in the shop. She puts her bag in the staff locker and then she carries the pastries that she bought for Lia to Lia’s room. 

She knocks on the door but there was no answer. Ryujin was contemplating if she should just open the door with the extra keys that she obtains from Lia after the incident where Lia found fainted in her room. Ryujin knocks the door again and calls out for the brunette and still no answer. Ryujin bites her lips as she is thinking whether she should open the door or not. She certainly does not want to be seen as a creep. 

Just as she was about to takes out the key from her pocket, she heard a car sound outside. A small window can see outside near the stairs, so Ryujin peeks through the window to see who it was. The moment she saw the car, she recognize the car plate number, it was Yeji’s car.

Ryujin was excited to see her best friend’s car, but her smiley turn sour when she saw Lia steps out from the car. Her eyes were fill with jealousy when she saw that her best friend steps out of the car and gives Lia a hug before she drives away.

Ryujin crumbles the paper bag that containing the beignet that she bought for Lia. She can hear the pastry crumbled and she stops when she realized it. The moment she realized what she had done, she snaps out of it. The flashback of when Lia told her that she is not ready to fall in love yet keeps replaying in her mind. Is this the reason why Lia is not ready to fall in love? She takes a deep breath and try to clears her mind. She heard the shop door being open so she changes her expression very fast.

“Oh Ryujin? You’re here early?” asked Lia with a slight surprised tone in her voice.

“Hi, good morning.” Ryujin greeted Lia with a fake smile.

Lia does not understand why but the air between them feels awkward, is it because of the confession yesterday or something seems to be bothering Ryujin. Lia’s eyes averted to the paper bag in Ryujin’s hand and her eyes light up “What’s in the bag?” she asked.

Ryujin snaps out from her jealousy and she looks down on what she was holding and she remembers that she was going to share the beignet with Lia that is why she came in early “I brought us breakfast” replied Ryujin, but she could not hide the bitterness in her smile.

“Oh! I’ll go make some coffee! Come in Ryujin!” Lia opens the door to her room and she invites Ryujin in. Lia asked Ryujin to sits while she prepares the coffee.

Ryujin sits on the couch and she asked if she can turn on the TV and Lia allowed her to. Ryujin puts the beignet on the coffee table and she turns on the TV. There are only news and cartoon shows that are available. Ryujin notices that there is a Bluetooth speaker nearby the TV so she went to turn it on. Ryujin plays some song from her playlist and start vibing with it. Ryujin peeks at Lia who is busy making coffee for them. Her eyes trail Lia down from head to toe.

Lia who feels a little hot exposes her neck so she can cool down a bit, which makes it even worse for Ryujin. Ryujin shakes away her dirty thoughts and she decided to go and help Lia with their coffee.

“Do you need any help?”

“Oh, it’s okay, you can just wait at living room, the coffee should be ready in a minute, would you like milk with your coffee?” Lia asked.

Ryujin thinks for a moment then she goes to Lia’s refrigerator and peeks inside it. Lia looks at Ryujin confusedly and she looks even baffled when Ryujin pulls out a butter stick from her fridge.

“Have you ever try butter coffee?”

“Butter…coffee? Isn’t butter going to make the coffee becomes greasy?” Asked Lia with a slight raised eyebrow.

“That’t the point. I tried this butter coffee when I visited Malaysia with my family a few years back, and I fell in love with it…why don’t you go plate the beignet and I’ll get our coffee ready.”

“Okay…nothing is wrong in trying something new.” Replied Lia and she takes a plate from the cabinet and goes to the living room to plate the beignet. Lia notice the song playing in the background and she smiles.

“Ryujin-ah~ you listen to this song too?” Lia asked.

“Yeah, you don’t like it? I can change!” said Ryujin from the kitchen.

“No, I love this band!”

“Really?! You know this band? Oh wow! We have the same music taste then!!”

“Which of their songs is your favourite?” Lia asked excitedly.

“I like their song ‘Surf’!” replied Ryujin excitedly from the kitchen.

“Nice choice Ryujin! Me too!” replied Lia and Ryujin immediately takes out her phone to change the song from Not Shy to Surf. The two happily sing along with the song, with Ryujin making the coffee in the kitchen and Lia putting the beignet on the plate. Ryujin pour the hot coffee into the mug and she dances her way to the living room with the mugs in hand.

Lia laughs when she sees Ryujin dance. Ryujin puts down the mugs on the coffee table, she invites Lia to dance with her, and Lia accepts the invitation and the duo dance together to Itzy’s song. Lia starts to sing along with the chorus part and Ryujin was surprise at how good Lia is. Ryujin then proceed to sing the rap part to compliments Lia. Without them knowing it, their body is getting closer and they can hear their heartbeat clearly. Just like the lyrics go, ‘more and more, my heart is faster when I see you’.

Lia can feels her face heats up when Ryujin wraps her arms around her back and she is pulling her closer. When the song reach the bridge, Ryujin sing along to the song.

“I don’t like the obvious, that’s what I’ve been thinking, but you’re different somehow, I’d like it if it were you…I feel up and down, I ride the waves every time…”

Ryujin’s face is getting closer to Lia’s face and the second that she knows it, their faces were inches away, their nose even touch. Lia can see some sadness in Ryujin’s eyes. Lia’s hands reach for Ryujin’s face and she cups it, gently rubs Ryujin’s cheeks.

“Ryujin…”

Ryujin did not say anything, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath and, she rested her forehead on Lia’s forehead. Lia did not back away and let Ryujin being intimate with her, it is not as if Lia hates it, she just feels shy about it. It’s been so long since Lia had any close physically contact with anyone else after she ostrarize herself from her friends and family after losing her family.

Lia rested her palms on Ryujin’s shoulder and she closes her eyes as well, and Itzy ‘Be in love’ started to play in the background. Their body starts to sway left to right with the rhythm, Lia slowly rested her head on Ryujin’s shoulder and she wraps her arms around Ryujin as well as they sway to the song. Ryujin’s pulls Lia’s body closer until there is no gap between them. Ryujin feels like she has found something that she lost when she hold Lia in her arms like this. Ryujin and Lia pulls away when the song finishes. They stares at each other and Lia once again grabs Ryujin’s face to look at her in the eyes.

“Ryujin…is something bothering you?” she asks.

“Nothing…why?”

“Your eyes…it look so sad…”

“Lia…can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah sure…”

“Where were you this morning?”

“I…” Lia hesitated for a moment the she continues, “I was out for some business.” replied the brunette.

“Hmmm…” was all that Ryujin replies. She let go of Lia and Lia immediately misses the warm from Ryujin’s hug. Ryujin goes back to the coach and she changes the song to Blackpink’s ice cream. “Let’s eat.”

Lia does not like Ryujin’s attitude, she knows that the latter is hiding something from her. There are many questions in Lia’s mind, and she cannot stop thinking about all of the reasons where Ryujin could be mad at her. Lia sits next to Ryujin and she takes the mug to try the butter coffee that Ryujin just made.

“Ohh…this is good!”

“I told you that it is good.” Said Ryujin “Just don’t drink it too often.”

“It does taste a little greasy though but I like it.” Said Lia and she give Ryujin the eye smiles that Ryujin loves so much.

“Try the beignet. I got it from the pastry shop near my house. It is to die for!”

“Okay I’ll try.” Lia takes one and she takes a bite of it. Her eyes went big when she took a bite “Oh my God Ryujin! This is so good!!”

“Glad you like it…” said Ryujin as she make a toast with her coffee mug and took a sip of her butter coffee. Ryujin peeks at Lia who enjoys her beignet like a 3-year-old child and she got all of the powder sugar all over her lips. Ryujin could not help but to smiles at Lia. She reaches for Lia’s lips with her thumb and it makes Lia freezes.

Ryujin saw the blushes on Lia face so she decided to and goes in closer to Lia’s face. Lia can feel Ryujin’s breath brushing against her lips. She slowly closes her eyes as she feels Ryujin’s face is getting closer. Ryujin saw the Lia purses her lips and she closes her eyes. Ryujin nervously leans closer to capture Lia’s lips.

“Lia unnie! Ryujin-ah!”

Ryujin quickly pushes Lia away when she heard someone calls for them. Lia was a little disappointed with the failed kiss. She notices how red is Ryujin’s face and she finds it cute for some reason.

“Ah there you are! I saw your bag stuff downstairs but couldn’t find you, so I thought you’ll be here.” said Chaeryeong who came in for her shift which is unusual because normally Chaeryeong will go for her dance practice in the weekend and Ryujin will have to cover for her shifts.

“Why are you here? You don’t have practice?”

“Ah, Chaeyeon unnie sprained her ankle so I decided to take a break from practice until unnie is heal.” Replied Chaeryeong.

“Ah…” Lia and Ryuin replied in unison.

“Oh beignet! Is it the one from near your house Ryujin?”

“Yep…” Ryujin replies.

“Can I get one?” Chaeryeong asked as she eyeing for the beignet and she could not stop her drools from dropping.

“Help yourself…I’ll go get you coffee…Ryujin just made butter coffee and it is delicious! Do you want to try some?” Lia offered.

“Sure.”

Ryujin stops Lia from getting up “I’ll prepare the coffee…you just sit here with Chaeryeong.”

Chaeryeong watches the two. Her head turns from Ryujin to Lia repetitively as she can feel something is going between the two. Ryujin seems to be upset with something and Lia seems restless. When Ryujin vanishes into the kitchen, Chaeryeong saw how Lia could not takes her eyes of Ryujin.

“Did something happened between the two of you?” Chaeryeong questioned her boss and Lia almost choke on her coffee.

“What? Nno…there’s nothing happened between us!” Lia denied, but there is nothing happened to them. Maybe something did happened to Ryujin but Lia does not know how to make Ryujin to spill it. She is certain that Ryujin is somehow upset with her.

“Or…did I came in the wrong time?” Chaeryeong asked again, she actually saw what was going on earlier. She came in and she saw Ryujin stuff in the staff room and she directly walks up to Lia’s room because she knows Ryujin will be there. It was no intentional when she almost walk into her friend and her boss almost kissing. Matter fact Chaeryeong contemplate whether to disturb them or just let them finished what they are about to do. Then Chaeryeong dirty mind wandering to something that is more 18 rated so she decided to intervene by calling out their name and acted as if she did not just saw what she just saw.

“What?” Lia raises her eyebrows to question Chaeryeong.

Chaeryeong peeks at Ryujin and she sees that Ryujin is still busy boiling the water to make coffee, so she scoots closer to Lia and whispers in her ear “Unnie…are you and Ryujin dating?”

“What?!” Lia almost screams but Chaeryeong shushes her.

“No we are not!”

“But do you like her?”

“Yeah I do…”

“As a friend or more than friend?”

“…” Lia keeps silent but Chaeryeong keeps pushing her to answer.

“I’ve seen the way you look at Ryujin and it is not normal.”

Lia squinted her eyes and she gives Chaeryeong a side eye “Then Miss Chaeryeong, what is it consider to be normal?”

“Unnie…no one stares at their friends literally every time! No matter what Ryujin does, you look at her like she’s your world, even when Ryujin crack some lame joke you laugh at her…if that is not love then I don’t know what is…”

Lia looks at Ryujin’s back and when Ryujin turns and the sunlight shine at her through the window, Lia knows that she is whipped for Ryujin. She sighs and she rested her chin on her palm as she mesmerized by Ryujin’s beauty.

“Yes Chaeryeong…you are right…but I don’t like Ryujin…” she pauses and she turns to face Chaeryeong “I love her.” said Lia boldly.

Chaeryeong gasps but she is happy for her boss, it is the first time that she seen her boss being this happy “Did you confessed?”

Lia shakes her head and it makes Chaeryeong gasps in disbelieve “You two are being obvious around each other and none of you confess to each other yet?”

“It’s complicated Chae-ah…”

“Love is not complicated. All you gotta to do is admit it and face the consequences later~” said Chaeryeong.

Ryujin disturbs their conversation when she came back with Chaeryeong coffee. “Here you go.”

“Ohh~ it smells good!” Chaeryeong compliments she takes a whiff of the coffee that Ryujin just made.

“It taste even better!”

Chaeryeong was surprise by the taste of the butter coffee, it is a little bit oily for her taste but she does not mind it. Three of them eat their breakfast in peace. Chaeryeong and Ryujin do the talking most of the time. They complain about their school and Chaeryeong said that she missed having in class with her.

When they done with their breakfast, Ryujin volunteer to clean up and let Lia and Chaeryeong to go open the shop. Chaeryeong pushes Lia to finish what she and Ryujin was about to do earlier. Lia refuses but Chaeryeong pushes her to the kitchen to be with Ryujin and she quickly runs down to do the opening.

Ryujin was surprise when she sees Lia is standing beside her “I thought you were going to open the shop with Chae?”

“Ah…she said she can do it herself.” Replied Lia and she stands awkwardly beside Ryujin. Ryujin who notices that there is still some sugar powder on Lia, reaches out and wipes it off with her thumb.

“You eat like a baby.”

“Thank you…I can clean it myself.” Said Lia and she grabs for the kitchen towel to clean her lips. Ryujin turns off the valve and she stops Lia from wiping off the powder. Lia only looks at Ryujin and it happen in a blink of eyes, the next thing Lia knows is Ryujin lips is on her. Ryujin’s lips is so soft against her and Ryujin’s breath is so warm that it makes Lia wanted to deepen the kiss. Lia relaxes her body when she feels Ryujin slowly wrapping her arms around her waist and pulling her closer. Lia slowly snakes her arms around Ryujin’s neck and they deepened their kiss.

Ryujin gently nibbles on Lia’s lips and Lia parted her lips, as the kiss gets deeper. The kiss turns from a normal innocent kiss to somewhat heated and wet kiss. It was Ryujin who break the kiss first as she gasps for air, she rested her forehead on Lia’s forehead “I love you.” said Ryujin gently. The words ‘I love you’ is like a music to Lia’s ear, she knows she heard it yesterday when Ryujin confessed to her but this time it hits differently.

Ryujin heard the conversation between Chaeryeong and Lia earlier. When she heard Lia faintly confessed her feelings toward her to Chaeryeong, Ryujin’s jealousy of what happened that morning is replace with a surge of ecstasy. She does not mind it if Lia keeps on pushing her away, for she knows that what they feel are mutual.

“I love you Lia…I wanted to be with you…I…heard what you told Chaeryeong. I heard you told her that you love me too…so why do you push me away?”

Lia caresses Ryujin’s chubby cheeks and she keeps her eyes locked onto Ryujin’s eyes, she sees that the sadness in Ryujin’s eyes is gone. “I…”

Ryujin shushes Lia and she hugs her tightly, resting her chin on top of Lia’s head “I don’t want to hear any reason. If I can only have you to myself only for this moment then let us stay like this for a while.”

“Ryujin…”

“Hmm?”

“The reason why I can’t be with you…is because…”

“Because of what?”

Lia sighs, she did not thought that she will have to break it down to Ryujin this early. She closes her eyes and she remembers of her conversation with Yeji this morning.

Flashback

“You want me to tell Ryujin that we are going to get married?” Lia questioned Yeji.

“Yes…that will be our first step to save you from your uncle’s clutch…I know that the Shin and Choi are mortal enemy but I know Uncle Taemin won’t hurt you…”

“It’s not about me getting hurt by the Choi or the Shin, Yeji-ah…if I tell Ryujin what is going on, your family is in danger as well.”

“I know…and I am ready for that consequence.”

“Yeji…”

“In my parents’ eyes, money is everything but for me…my best friend happiness means a lot more. Ryujin was there for me whenever I need her and she never lets her down, so how can I let her down when the girl that she likes is going to be forced to marry me?”

“……”

“Our wedding is a few months away Lia…it’s now or never…”

“No…” Lia objected Yeji’s idea.

“I am not going to run away from my responsibility and I am not going to jeopardize your relationship with your family too…here’s the plan. I will tell Ryujin everything and we will still go through with the wedding. The catch is, it will be a contract marriage until I turn 21 and then when I get back what is mine, we will get divorce. It is up to Ryujin if she wanted to wait for me or not.” Stated Lia.

 “This is more of a lose-lose situation. Ryujin will probably hating on both of us. Her best friend is marrying the girl that she loves. How cliché does that sound.” Yeji sighed.

“Because you are her best friend then she will believe you and probably won’t be that mad. We need to create a believable story, so that I can tell her why she needs to wait if she wanted to be with me.”

End of Flashback

Lia sighs heavily again and she caress Ryujin’s face. “I love you Shin Ryujin…but I’m going to get married to someone soon…that is why I can’t reciprocate your feeling.”

Ryujin’s heart shattered into a million pieces when she heard Lia’s confession and she stares at her in disbelieve.

“What…but you’re just…why are you telling me this now? Who is the guy that you are marrying?!”

Lia got scared for a moment at Ryujin’s aggressiveness “Ryujin calm down.”

“Let’s runaway from this place Lia! Run away with me! I know you are forced into this marriage thingy right?”

“Ryujin…I can’t run away.”

“But…Lia…” Ryujin was in the verge of crying.

“It will be a contract marriage until I get back my family businesses…so I am asking you Ryujin…are you willing to wait for me until I turn 21? I will give my answer to you when that time comes. As long as you are willing to wait.”

“Lia... is there something else that I need to know about this marriage thing?”

Lia stares into Ryujin’s eyes that looks like they are going to shatter into million pieces soon. She gives Ryujin a quick kiss on the lips before she reveal herself.

“My name is Julia Choi Jisu, the heir to the Choi family…”

To be continued

A/N: OMG!! I am so sorry that it took me forever to get this updated!! Live been busy! I am so sorry! Anyway, I love love loveeeee Itzy’s ‘Surf’ and ‘Be in love’ songs! Which one is your favourite?