Icy like diamonds || Ryeji

Chapter 57

Sometimes Yeji still thought about it. Mostly imagining different scenarios where they'd meet again or where she would have done things differently and told the girl her name. It was fun to imagine what it could have been like to still know that girl.

She wondered what her name was and what she looked like now. Two years is a long time when you're a teenager, maybe the girl had already forgotten all about her. Yeji was 14 already and her life had changed since. She had changed a lot. When she looks at old photos, she can hardly recognize herself. Her eyes aren't covered by those bangs that she now despised, her cheeks aren't as big and she grew taller.

These days she doesn't smile as much, doesn't laugh as hard. There's more pressure for her to be this or that. To look a certain way. To behave and act properly. To appease to all these rules that will make her look better in the eyes of her parents and those they find important.

Yeji doesn't care for it. It's all too fake for her liking. But what else can she do?

So she sits with her perfect posture, smiles politely at those with high status when it's expected of her, acts the way she must and tries to be perfect in all aspects possible.

Then, when she gets a moment to daydream, she imagines being free to do whatever she wants. Sometimes, but less often than years ago, she imagines the other girl. Now older as well, probably just as tall as she is. Yeji imagines letting into her life and allowing her to turn it upside down.

She wants someone to offer their hand to her again, just to dance with her in public, not giving a damn who might see or if they look stupid.

Instead she gets uncomfortable conversations with boys her age who have nothing to offer but disappointment. Or with her parents about her possible future husbands.

Often earning a chuckle or two from her older brother who seems entirely too amused that their parents have yet to figure out she isn't interested in men.

She was spending time with her mother. Something that didn't happen too often but she needed to write about it for school. About what her mother did for a living. One of those things was running her dance academy. Yeji herself had been dancing there for years, although her mother had nothing to do with the teaching anymore. But she wasn't acquainted with the work her mother did.

Today, however, she was learning all about what running a dance academy is like and enjoying every step of it.

Until her mother found herself busy with paperwork and, probably to get rid of Yeji who kept sighing at the corner of the office, had informed her about the new kids auditioning for the dance classes.

They were young, she noted, Yeji thinks they must have been around 10. But it was better than watching her mother read legal documents in silence.

Sitting at the back of the room, she quietly observed the kids. Some looking nervous, others far too afraid of stepping into the spotlight and one particular tall kid looking all too excited. Yeji smiled, her chin resting on her hands that were laid at the top of the chair in front of her. Luckily it was dark therefore nobody would be able to spot her unless they knew where to look.

The kids were good but Yeji was still only half paying attention. That was until the next kid was called.

"Shin."

The name was far too common. Yeji knew that. Yet it didn't stop her from physically reacting every single time she heard the name aloud. Shin. Such a common name still had her heart racing in expectation.

"Shin Yuna."

Suddenly looking at the stage with more attention, she saw the girl who had been smiling while waiting for her turn, walk up to the center and start dancing.

Of course it wasn't her. Yeji chuckled to herself. How silly could she be to still react to a family name of a girl she only knew for a couple of hours. It had been two years and there she was, reacting like that to one word.

The girl finished her routine and even Yeji had to stop herself from clapping.

It took a while but eventually all girls were done auditioning and just as Yeji was about to leave the room the doors opened near the stage. Revealing some of their family members.

She doesn't know what it was that made her look. Couldn't quite place why she looked that way. Honestly, it was far too quick. Maybe it was wishful thinking or a product of her imagination but Yeji saw her.

Yeji saw a girl, same whisker smile as the one she had met years ago, same laughter and demeanor. The girl put one arm around the tall kid who's name was Shin and walked out of that big door. Leaving her staring at the other families while her brain caught up.

Her brain was still running trying to catch up with everything else in her body that told her it was the girl she had once been looking for. That's when her mother spoke from besides her, making her jump from where she was standing.

Yeji hadn't even known she was standing. Last she recalled she was still sitting while preparing to leave. Honestly, she might have been reacting too fast. Surely that's not her.

The seat she's sitting on is placed as far from the side entrance as possible. She's too far to actually see the details on her face. Maybe her mind imagined the shadows of her whisker smile. Surely she was just trying to find something she had been looking for.

"What?"

Her mother smiled, amused by how scared she was. "What were you so focused on?"

Yeji shrugged, trying to gather what shred of dignity she had left after imagining the girl had been there. "I was distracted. Didn't hear you come in."

"I see your attention was elsewhere. I'm done with work. Should we go get something to eat?"

Nodding, Yeji took one last look only to see other families but no trace of this Shin Yuna kid and whoever had side hugged her.

With a sigh she wasted no time in following her mother.

They got inside their car, the driver driving them off to go to her mother's favorite restaurant for lunch. She could hear her mother going on about something on her side, speaking into her phone. Yeji could only sit there, looking at the side window and think about the girl she had once met.

It was crazy how after two years her mind was still imagining her. Maybe she had been right to think the girl would be a bad influence. She wasn't even in her life yet Yeji had spent months breaking the rules to find her and was now imagining seeing her when she wasn't there.

The car took a turn and they passed by the front of the dance academy, slowly due to the traffic.

That's when she saw her, again.

Right on the other side of the car window, maybe two or three steps away from the car. She was just standing there, laughing along with the tall kid from earlier. The whisker smile in full display, this time close enough for her to see it clearly.

She was still wearing an oversized hoodie, beat up sneakers and looking shorter than her. Yeji smiled at the sight and that's when the girl looked her way.

Yeji swears their eyes met for a split second. She swears on her life that they did. Right before the driver carried on driving, their eyes met.

Her brother would probably argue it was someone similar. Or that she had gone crazy.

She's not sure that she hasn't.

The words almost left her mouth, "Stop the car." That's all she wanted to say. But they were already in the middle of the street, dozens of cars surrounding them. Besides, she's sure the girl was not standing there waiting for her. So she chose not to speak up. Not to move from her seat. Her head only following the spot where the girl had been until she could no longer see any trace of it.

Yeji sat back and replayed that scene on her mind.

The way their eyes met just as quickly as she lost sight of them.

Frustrating didn't begin to describe the situation.

After all this time. She had been right there. In the same building as her. Just a few steps away.