Hot Chocolate || RYEJI

5

From awkward first visits to cozy and homey hangouts, Ryujin isn't sure where she stands.

Yeji and her have been taking care of the furry animal together. When Ryujin was free, she'd take it upon herself to pay the brunette a visit. Whether it was for the adorable animal or the refreshing sight of Yeji with semi-wet hair after a shower would be significantly debatable.

And that's where she struggles to understand where she stands in— not Yeji's life, but her own feelings.

"How's the assignment going?" Yeji inquires softly as she places a white cup of hot chocolate on the coffee table in front of Ryujin, who was diligently typing out her thoughts into a document. "You've been working for the past couple of hours. Isn't it a group project?"

"One of the members are injured and they're currently in the hospital; the others have extracurriculars and clubs to attend. I'm practically the only one who would be sleeping if it weren't for this assignment," Ryujin explains. Her eyes dart between the cup of steaming liquid and the brunette who is now plopping down beside her, "Thanks, Yeji."

Yeji hums and folds her legs into a criss-cross position. The small kitten immediately jumps in her lap. "I see. Why did I just get deja vu?"

That causes Ryujin's typing to come to a halt. "What?"

"It's been on my mind lately and," Yeji looks over to the dark-haired girl, "I still have no idea where I've seen you before."

"Gosh," Ryujin chuckles and turns back to her laptop, "Don't worry about it."

Yeji's brow quirks.

"Do you always give random strangers hot chocolate?" Ryujin asks, her eyebrows furrowing at the typo she made. She spams the delete button.

"Oh!" Yeji gasps. "I remember now! The café? I gave you hot chocolate, right?"

Ryujin reaches for the drink in question and takes a sip, her eyes peeking over the top of the mug. "Precisely." Once she places the drink back down, her lips curl into a smile. "You made my day, y'know?"

She doesn't know when it came to this point, but Ryujin was gradually becoming more and more comfortable around Yeji. Her nervous stammering disappeared and suddenly, sweet, candy tainted words would leave her lips. As if it was only natural to speak to the brunette that way. As if her lips were made just for that single purpose.

Ryujin wasn't sure when it exactly happened.

"Really?" Yeji scratches her cheek in thought, relaxing into the couch. "You look more like a tea person."

Caught off-guard by Yeji's random comment, Ryujin lets out a laugh. "Then why'd you give me hot chocolate?"

Yeji chuckles. "Come on, everyone loves hot chocolate. It's like a hug in a mug! And it was cold that day, I meant it when I said you looked like you needed it."

Ryujin thinks for a moment before nodding. She can't find it in herself to ever disagree with the angel. How can she anyway?

"Is there any other reasoning behind why?" She questions. Not that she has an idea, but that felt right to ask in the moment.

"You looked pretty," Yeji replies straightforwardly. There is absolutely no shame nor doubt in her tone when she delivers her response, and that causes Ryujin to completely blank out.

The dark-haired girl wasn't sure how long she zoned out for, but when she comes back to reality, there is a bunch of unreadable words on her document, along with a hairy intruder nudging her keyboard.

"Let's not do that, little one!" Yeji tries her best to grab the kitten, but when she thought that she succeeded, a sharp claw scratches the skin of her left arm. "Ouch!"

Ryujin jolts up at the sound of Yeji's yelp, accidentally knocking her laptop off her lap. It falls to the ground. The cat lets out an 'eek!' and escapes the scene.

Ryujin scrambles to pick up her fallen laptop, her heart not pounding just from the sudden commotion, but also the direct compliment from the brown-haired beside her.

"Are you okay?" She rushes to check the scratch on Yeji's arm, spotting a faint marking of red and a slight tint of blood. There is no hesitation in her actions when she reaches for the latter's arm, only to realize that she shouldn't have done so.

Yeji winces and a flash of pain flickers across her face before a small smile is painted on. "I think it'd be better if you don't hold my arm so tightly, Ryujin," she strains.

"I'm sorry!" Ryujin immediately lets go. "I didn't think it through, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay," Yeji calmly says and nods her head to the kitchen. "Just grab me the med kit and I'll clean this up."

Ryujin immediately obeys without a word. And that becomes a habit of hers. It would feel wrong if she rejects the brunette in any way. It's almost like Yeji is a goddess and Ryujin is simply there to praise her.

Although, this goddess wasn't anything of the evil, she was quite the angel.

Due to the furry animal that liked both of their attention, just like Yeji suggested, they made it a weekly occurrence to take care of the kitten together. It was lovely. After long days of school and work and life in general, they'd meet up at one another's apartment and chill out.

It became one of Ryujin's favourite pastimes.