Manual Of The Forbidden - Ryeji

Chapter 14

She limited herself to intimidating me, and when she noticed it, she stopped, lowering her gaze.

—What did Chaeryeong and you talk about?— asked Lia. The curiosity that had always existed in her now seemed strangely annoying to me.

—Nothing important, you know,— I shrugged, —her aunt, dinner,— I said, rambling a bit. —You know what? I'm going to see if we have any mail,— I invented to escape from that uncomfortable moment for a while.

—But...—

I didn't let Lia finish and interrupted the sound of her sharp voice when the door put me on the other side. I sighed and slowly descended the stairs, needing some fresh air.

I reached the top floor and checked in the drawer marked with 312 to see if we had any mail, there was nothing but a few bank account advertising brochures, from what I could understand.

I crumpled the papers into a poorly made ball, then left the building and sat on the entrance stairs where I deposited the paper balls to the side, I brought both hands to my forearms, tonight I had decided to dye myself in a dark blue and icy air. I sighed, causing vapor to come out of my nose and collide with the cold.

The door opened behind me and before I could articulate any thought, her voice distracted me.

—We need to talk,— said Ryujin, making me jump, her tone was a bit rough and when I turned to look at her, she was struggling to hide a somewhat angry face, but the mask wasn't holding up very well.

Suddenly I got scared. Had she taken it so badly that I gave the rose to Lia? I looked at her with distressed eyes.

She sat next to me, there on the cold cement of the worn stairs of the entrance, and the contact with her skin gave me a tender warmth when she put her arm and shoulder against mine.

—What's wrong?— I asked.

—What was that?— she said in the same tone of voice.

—What was what?— this seemed like a word game.

—That, with Chaeryeong, why did she kiss you?—

I burst out laughing out of sheer nervousness, I thought she would give me a good scolding for the rose thing and, she comes up with this?

—She didn't kiss me,— I said.

—Then what do you call the fact that she pressed her lips against yours?—

—What?— I laughed even more and apparently Ryujin didn't find it very funny. —Chaeryeong didn't kiss me, not on the lips, at least. It was just a friendly kiss.—

—Well, you didn't seem like friends,— she muttered.

—Ryujin, you sound like my mother,— I said, half annoyed at having to give her explanations, and the laughter turned into a tense line on my lips.

Ryujin sighed and decided to change the subject, though not the tone of her voice.

—Why did you give the rose to Lia?— she asked.

—Because she's your girlfriend, Ryujin,— I said, even though it hurt me to rectify that. —She's the one you should give roses, teddy bears, or whatever.—

—But I wanted to give it to you,— she insisted.

—And I wasn't going to tell Lia that, was I?— I sighed. —Ryujin, why do you get so upset about the things I do? Why do you care that I gave the rose to Lia and invented an excuse to save our skins? Why does it bother you if Chaeryeong kisses me or brings me a bouquet of flowers?—