Dangers of a Saint || Ryeji

43

"Turns out it wasn't actually Jaehyun who made that billboard for you," Chaeryeong said.

Yeji flipped the pancakes over and smiled happily when she saw they turned out unburnt. "You talked to him?"

"Yeah," Chaeryeong replied from behind her, pulling up to her side with a glass of orange juice. "You don't mind, do you?"

"If you're still going around investigating who made that billboard for me then I might just step in," Yeji said jokingly, concentrating on the pancakes. "Let it go, Ryeong. It's probably just someone from the office. They wouldn't know about it otherwise."

"Aren't you the slightest bit curious about who it is? If there was someone interested enough in me to pay for a gigantic billboard just to congratulate me, I would die to know who they are."

Yeji shrugged, releasing a quiet sigh. There was no need for her to wonder who it was. "I honestly don't think it's a big deal. I just want to know who they are to thank them . . . for doing something stupid like that."

"Don't you find it cute?"

Yeji had to glance at her younger sister twice to make sure that she was serious with what she was asking about, and for a second she almost wanted to tell her that even if she didn't know it wasn't Ryujin who did it, she would still feel the same lack of enthusiasm. If she wasn't certain that it came from the billionaire, Yeji didn't want it. It just felt weirdly wrong to accept such things from somebody else.

But then again, they remained prisoners to the veil of secrecy. Honesty was a luxury they didn't have.

"Maybe," Yeji said, shrugging. She also felt bad for lying to her own sister so she stopped herself there.

Chaeryeong pulled her foot up the chair and rested her elbow on her knee as she dug into the pancakes her sister made. They sat comfortably across from each other, discussing trivial matters every once in a while until they finished their food. It was a Sunday and mornings on that particular day of the week were spent leisurely, usually allotting more time catching up with their social lives. So even when they were done eating, they spent a few more minutes on their phones, momentarily showing each other whatever they found interesting or hilarious.

Chaeryeong found a picture of kittens running around and suddenly had the idea of getting a cat for the both of them. She was just about to show Yeji the photo when she heard Ryujin's voice echoing from her sister's phone. She caught the thundering music, a bunch of frisky laughters, the flirty giggles. Next came the chanting of chug and another round of laughter but Yeji obviously didn't seem happy with what she was seeing. Chaeryeong brought her volume all the way down and quietly opened her own Instagram. Although Ryujin wasn't the type of person who was regularly active on her social media accounts she still had them. She didn't care about her thousands of followers, casually posting whatever she felt like sharing on random days.

Her getting totally wasted in a party—and having it documented—was something Chaeryeong definitely didn't expect to be one of them. Ryujin's stories contained messy clips and blurred photos that were posted a few hours ago. Chaeryeong could barely recognize the people she was with, although there was a particular woman who stood out the most. She knew most of Ryujin's friends, if not all, since there weren't many to count, which made it strange to see her stories filled with strangers, especially the one that the billionaire seemed to be really close with. Chaeryeong tried to recall where she had seen the girl before.

Slowly looking up, she saw that Yeji's face had something she couldn't quite comprehend, visibly struggling to keep her heart from spilling out.

The thing was, Chaeryeong already knew that it was Ryujin who set the billboard up to congratulate Yeji. She wasn't stupid. She knew what was going on for days. She knew that the gifts didn't come from Jaehyun, that Yeji snuck out to meet up with Ryujin from time to time, that her sister remained pretty much wrapped around her teetering best friend's finger. She was only trying to get her to open up to her about it first, curious if she was even willing to talk about it. It annoyed her that Yeji wasn't and chose to still keep it from her. But despite the feeling of betrayal, her dissatisfied reaction to Ryujin's whereabouts drove her further up the wall.