Changes and Chances

Chapter 36

Yeji parked her car at the back and entered the library.

She has been eyeing this library since she came back 4 months ago - Chaeryeong was driving her home from the airport when they passed by the building.

It looked a little too intriguing that after months of settling in, processing the necessary residential documents, and renewing her Korean driving license, the first thing that the cat eye did was to visit the place.

She walked past the door and the scent of old books and flipped pages greeted her.

She spent the next hour going through shelves and browsing some familiar titles.

While she was rounding the section of the classics in the back, a painting caught her attention. It was hanging just above the small shelf containing art books, tutorials and art for beginner series.

She stopped in front of it to appreciate the details. She didn't know much about art but this particular one caught her attention. It's an abstract painting of geometric shapes and lines that somehow forms a shape of a... woman? It looked like a woman. Felt like a woman, the more Yeji stared at it.

And the colors, they felt... freeing.

She stood still for a few more minutes until she heard someone coughing behind her.

She turned around and was surprised to see Ryujin.

Of all the places that they might run into, she didn't think it'd be in a library.

"U-hm. Hi."

"So what do you think?" The brunette asked.

Yeji looked at her confused.

"About the painting."

Realization dawned on her. This is her piece. She looked over the hanging art and surely, she saw Ryujin's small signature on the bottom right corner.

"I like it a lot. The colors and the imagery are very interesting." She smiled towards the brunette and the latter smiled back.

"So... what brings you here? Chaeryeong with you?"

She's being nice and is trying to make small talk. No need to act surprised. Yeji told herself internally.

They haven't really purposely hung out or talked since she came back, aside from the group outings they've been to. Yeji was always with Chaeryeong and multiple times, Lia and Ryujin would tag along, too.

And although Lia has been welcoming and immediately fell into the old habits with Yeji, the cat eye still treads lightly when it comes to engaging into conversations with Ryujin when they're all hanging out.

Along the lines of their talks, she casually discovered that Ryujin and her girlfriend had broken up even before Yeji returned to the US several months ago. And so she thought that the brunette must've been feeling aloof towards her because of it.

That's why she's a bit taken aback by how relaxed Ryujin sounded.

"No. I visited alone. This library has been on my list since I got back."

The brunette gave her an acknowledging nod and turned her attention towards the painting.

"So what else is on the list?"

There was a pause.

"My energy's quite high having finished this piece a couple of hours earlier than intended, and the owner wanted it displayed right away."