Managing you || Ryeji

Chapter 16

Ryujin woke up early, probably because she actually went to bed before 11pm.

Which means she was up before the cameras were on.

'Good' Ryujin thought, getting dressed and leaving the room she shared with Lia.

Theirs was the only room on the ground floor. The other two were upstairs along with the gym. Meanwhile, the movie theatre and dance room were downstairs.

Luckily, the dance room was pretty sound proof and also far enough from the rooms that she thought it wouldn't bother the others if she used it in the morning.

Ryujin was wearing a skin tight crop top, short leggings and her signature chunky sneakers, her pink hair tied into a messy ponytail.

She checked the time, 8am. Hopefully that meant the others would be asleep for the next few hours. Any hour she got without them around, she would consider a blessing.

After what Ryujin assumes to have been about an hour, the door to the room opened, revealing the face of the person she wanted to avoid the most.

"Do you want coffee? I'm making some." She asked, still lingering by the door.

"We really don't have to talk."

Yeji rolled her eyes. "Getting you coffee is part of my job. I thought we could talk about work."

Ryujin didn't want to admit defeat so she thought about arguments to counter with. "You aren't my manager for the next month so we have nothing to talk about."

For a fleeting second, she thought the other might have been hurt by her words. But she quickly looked at Ryujin, with what she could only describe as disgust, before leaving.

The moment she left, Ryujin took a deep breath. She doesn't know why she still had such an effect on her. After four years just the sight of Yeji and a simple question could get her so shaken. It was maddening.

It really fueled her anger. How much it affected her. How stupid it was. How she really wished she could feel indifferently about the other.

She danced to the song three more times before the door opened again.

"What the fuck do you want now?" She yelled, not bothering to look towards it.

It wasn't 10am yet so fuck it. She could say whatever she wanted.

"I-l was-" the person stuttered, not continuing whatever they were going to say. Causing Ryujin to look their way and realize it wasn't Yeji.

With an apologetic look, she allowed herself to soften up slightly. Not completely though. They were the cause for her being stuck there after all.

"Sorry, Yuna." It was almost a whisper but she didn't dare to apologize any louder.

Yuna quickly exchanged her shocked expression for one small and sad smile. "I was going to ask if you wanted breakfast. We're cooking."

She thought it over for a second, but then realized Yeji is probably included in the 'we' that she was mentioning. "No. I'm good."

"Alright then." Yuna hesitantly accepted the answer, looking back at her once before walking away. By then Ryujin was back to dancing the routine, her face looking tougher than usual.

A few minutes later the door opened again and Ryujin's first instinct was to be annoyed. Until she spotted what she can only assume to have been Yuna pushing a plate inside the room and closing the door.

She found herself smiling to herself, as she happily ate the food.

An hour later, just past 10am, she left the room. Sweaty and tired but full from the food she was given. Carrying the plate she walked to the kitchen and washed it. Spotting Yuna she offered her a smile. Mouthing 'thank you' as she walked by her to go shower.

Leaving behind a very confused Yuna.

"What was that for?" The younger one asked the others, receiving no answer to her question.

Ryujin focused on reading, instead of interacting with the others. Who were being loud. Even with the big living room, and her being on one side of it while the others were on the opposite side, they were still very loud. And disturbing her reading.

She must have read the same paragraph about ten times before she closed the book, giving up on it.

Apparently, Lia took it as an opportunity to talk to her. Judging by how she was currently moving towards her with a determined look in her eyes.

"We're going to swim after lunch."

"Okay."

Lia rolled her eyes. "You're joining us, right?"

"No. Not really."

The girl sat down next to her, looking at the others who seemed to be having tons of fun. She doesn't know why but it doesn't matter.

"Time will go by much quicker if you have fun."

"What makes you think that would be fun?" She whispered. In all likelihood the cameras could still hear them but whatever.

"Call it a hunch." Lia responded with a shrug. "Being anti social isn't going to get you out of here. You might as well make the best of it."

Ryujin gave her a look. One that said it all, glancing at the problem. Aka, glancing directly at Yeji before looking at Lia who was staring at her.

"Baby steps then." Lia proclaimed, patting Ryujin's thigh before walking away.

She saw as she joined the others. Looking at them hurt. Much more than she had anticipated.

They had grown. All of them. You could tell some years had gone by. But their dynamic hadn't really changed. They were still them, just taller and a bit older.

And even if Yeji hadn't been there for years, all of them were interacting like no time had passed. The same could not be said about Ryujin. She left for the same amount of time and now she no longer had a place in the group. She didn't fit in like Yeji did. Maybe never had.

It was her fault. She knows that. When her and Yeji broke up, the others tried to understand both sides. To remain impartial. She remembers how they offered her a place to stay, when she suddenly found herself homeless after the break up. Or how they kept showing up, trying to talk and cheer her up.

But Ryujin pushed them away. And after a month, became a trainee, leaving without so much as a goodbye or an explanation. She wasn't even sure if they ever found out what happened to her. Maybe by now they figured it out. One day she was running into them on campus and at the practice rooms, the next she was gone, never to see them again. For the last four years anyways. At first they texted and called but, then she changed her number and just like that, they were gone from her life.

And here they all are now. Back in her life. Flaunting their friendship.