CHAOS IN YOU || RYEJI

27.

Yeji was walking through campus the day after the party, having just finished her last class of the day and on her way to a coffee shop to do some studying.

That's when someone approached her, tapping on one side of her shoulder, glancing to that side but not seeing anyone.

"Boo" The person said, peeking over the other side of her shoulder.

Her mind starting to process seeing the other when she looked in her direction.

"Are you stalking me, Hwang?" The girl casually back hugging her, her shin resting on Yeji's shoulder and smiling innocently.

Yeji hadn't even finished processed seeing Ryujin there, at her school. Let alone the warmth and tightness of her back hug. Or the way her innocent smile made Yeji smile back.

"If anything you're the stalker here." she retorted, huffing. Her arms crossing over her chest and Ryujin finally letting go. Taking a step back and Yeji turning to face her.

"Am I?" Ryujin adorably asked, head tilting and a cheeky smile growing on her face.

Yeji rolled her eyes, "I live here, you know?"

"Here? At your school?" Ryujin was clearly trying to give her a hard time and it was working.

"Shut up. You know what I mean." Yeji answered back, slapping the other's arm playfully and earning a chuckle from Ryujin.

"What are you doing in Seoul anyway?" She was curious. About her sudden presence in Seoul, both now at her school and the day before at the party she had gone to.

"She asks questions." Ryujin joked, faking surprise and clearly teasing how Yeji used to avoid questioning the other about things when they first met. "Visiting friends." a shrug offered before shifting the weight from one foot to the other.

"Friends?"

Ryujin hummed in response.

"And the bartending?" Yeji questioned again, eyebrow raised and staring at Ryujin. Her hand holding her bag on her shoulder.

"Thought I could use some extra cash."

Yeji wasn't sure if that was the truth. Why a job in Seoul? Why not back home? How did the girl even find such job? Then again, maybe she was overthinking it. Fancy parties were unheard of in her hometown and surely they paid better than anything Ryujin could do back home.

She decided to dismiss her suspicion and pause the interrogation for the time being. "Funny we keep running into each other."

"Sounds like the universe is trying to tell us something." Ryujin quickly said back, as if flirting was second nature to her. Yeji suspected it really was.

"Oh. Quit it with the flirting, will you?" Yeji complained but the smile on her face clearly betrayed her and Ryujin knew it too. She could see it in the way the other smiled back at her.

"Do you actually want me to?"

Yeji didn't answer. She didn't have to. Both knowing the answer to the question.

"Well, I'll let you go now." Ryujin said, hands in her pocket and shifting the weight from her foot to the other again. Yeji thought she looked like she didn't want to say goodbye, or maybe that was only in her mind.

"Yeah. I'll see you around." Yeji replied, starting to turn around in the direction of the coffee shop she would be going to.

"It was nice seeing you, Yeji." Ryujin spoke a little louder, the distance between them bigger now.

Yeji peeked over her shoulder and offered the other a smile, watching Ryujin standing there and smiling widely at her.

Taking a few more steps, Yeji stopped on her tracks. Suddenly not wanting to go any further. Suddenly turning around and seeing Ryujin already walking in the opposite direction.

She hesitated. Maybe Ryujin had plans. Maybe she was busy. Maybe she wouldn't want to spend time with Yeji.

Shaking her head out of her thoughts, Yeji found it in her to call the other girl.

"Ryujin."

The other turned, looking confused. Her eyebrows clearly furrowed as she looked right at her.

"Want to join me?"

The other only smiled, widely and with her dimples in full display.

Damn you, Shin Ryujin, and your whisker smile.

They walked together to Yeji's choice of coffee shop. Neither of them talking but Ryujin occasionally playfully bumping shoulders with her and offering a smile. It was almost scary how comfortable such thing was.

Standing in line, each ordered what they wanted and sat on Yeji's table. The table she often spent afternoons on. By the corner with a full view of the coffee shop and the outside through the window.

Sitting in front of each other, Yeji couldn't help but feel... Intimidated? Ryujin was staring right at her, the girl's hands holding the coffee cup and a small smile present on her face. Making Yeji feel a little shy.

Sipping on her own coffee, after having poured too much sugar into it, Yeji tried not to pay any mind to the staring.

"I never thought I'd run into you in Seoul."

"Big city and yet, here we are." Ryujin responded, smile still present and shrugging.

"Are you sure you're not stalking me?"

Ryujin rolled her eyes. "Maybe you just wished for my presence so hard that I showed up."

"Don't flatter yourself."

The shorter girl chuckled, giving her another shrug. "Guess the universe wants us to meet then."

"Maybe." Yeji hummed, sipping some of her coffee and observing Ryujin do the same.

She didn't believe in all that. The universe having its own will. Fate. Destiny. Whatever people wanted to call it.

Yeji wasn't a believer in it. But Ryujin was sitting on the other side of that table and maybe it seemed like a little more than a coincidence.