Hot Chocolate || RYEJI

2

The next day, Ryujin shows up to school and goes through the same routine. With the exception of a few changed things, though.

Her professor smiled wider when he greeted her. Her seatmates stared at her for longer. She felt like the heavy boulders on her shoulders had been lifted. And her best friend was oddly pulling at her cheeks.

"Do you have makeup on?" Chaeryeong inquires.

"No," Ryujin blandly responds, swatting her hand away before taking a huge bite of her handmade sandwich. "I ran out last week."

"Right." Chaeryeong places her chin in her palm. "You look livelier."

Ryujin's eyebrows furrow. "Do I now? That's strange."

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Chaeryeong murmurs. After a few moments of silence, she asks once again, "Are you sure you don't have makeup on?"

"God, Chaeryeong. No. Get your eyes checked out."

"Funny, I got new prescriptions just last weekend."

"Do you have your contacts on?"

"Yep."

"Check again."

Chaeryeong rolls her eyes. "Not the point. Did the stray cat come back or something?"

Ryujin's shoulders falters. She places her half-finished sandwich on the table. "No, I wish."

"Are you sure it's not dead?"

"One hundred percent!"

"Okay," Chaeryeong laughed. "I want to have the confidence you have when it comes to that cat on my strokes. My professor keeps bugging me about how they aren't artistic enough. What's that supposed to mean?"

Ryujin didn't know either, because for once, her tired eyes land on someone else. Someone who was worth all her remaining energy to stare at.

An angel.

God, was she a view for sore eyes.

"Ryujin!" Chaeryeong snaps her gaze back onto her, just as the angel passes by their table. "What the hell you lookin' at?"

The girl in question blinks away her mental snapshots of the angel from up close and shakes her head. "Nothing. I'm listening."

Her best friend was well aware that the other girl was only bluffing, but she brushes it off either way. "Okay well, as I was saying..."

——

Later that day, Ryujin saw her again. She was with a friend. They stood by the art display cases, and Ryujin was pretty sure that one of Chaeryeong's finished pieces was up there. Her friend stops in front of what Ryujin knew as her best friend's piece and took a picture. She was quite tall.

Initially, she was on her way to the parking lot after her last class finished. However, the display case is something that everyone passes when they're on their way to the main parking lot, hence how Ryujin ended up catching another glimpse of the angel. Normally, she'd be home by now. Normally, she wouldn't even bat an eye to the strangers around her. Normally, she ignores the display case. Unless Chaeryeong dragged her along to explain the extricate details of her art. And normally, Ryujin would not be so intrigued by a semi-attractive stranger, especially not one she didn't know.

But the catch is—the stranger in question is not just semi-attractive. Lord, she is captivating. There's this something about her, this ethereal pull that draws the eye like a magnet to metal. It's not just the delicate way she moves or the grace in her laughter. No, it's deeper, like she carries a universe in her gaze.

Ryujin pauses, caught off guard by her own thoughts. She's never been one to get all tangled up in the existence of someone she didn't even know. Hell, she's never felt this way about anyone at all. But there she was, her attention snared by an angel that she met in her favourite cafe.

She lingers at a distance, pretending to be engrossed in the titles of the artworks, stealing glances that felt far too intrusive yet entirely irresistible. There is an urge to look away, to hide the intrigue, but the more she tries, the more her gaze gravitates back to the girl who seems to hold a touch of magic in her aura.

You must be insane, Ryujin. She thinks to herself, half frustrated and half confused. But before she knew it, the angel left the display case, arm in arm with her friend.

Ryujin lost sight of her.

So later in the afternoon, she visited the cafe and settled in the same seat again. She hoped for the angel to show and perhaps get her name, but as time flew by, Ryujin's laptop died and so did her hope.

The angel didn't show up that day.

'Maybe tomorrow.'