Managing you || Ryeji

Chapter 51

(Author's note: this really is coming to an end. Thank you so much for reading and all the feedback! There will be an epilogue still but this is the last official chapter)

Yeji's POV

Yeji didn't know how to heal herself from the damage that her parents had caused.

She wasn't sure if any amount of time would bring a solution to that quest of hers.

For the first time in her life, she could do whatever she wanted. Be whatever she wanted. It was like she had been holding her breath for years and now, 26 years later, she got to take her first breath.

Of course, the first decision she made had been to join ITZY. Or rather, to help the girls bring it back. As they put it, they wouldn't do it unless it was all of them. Together.

Through the passing of time, Yeji found herself learning a lot about herself and life.

ITZY felt like something more than a group. Something she had so desperately wanted but never gotten. A support system. A family even. But one day it would all come to an end. Sure, she knows they will never leave her life but this will. Being with them every day. Sharing all these life experiences. One day everyone will go their separate ways and have their own families. She's not sure if she will be able to call this a family forever.

Each of the other women had their own house but after everything, Yeji found herself without a home. At first, Yeonjun offered her the house they had lived in but that never felt like home to her. It had been bought by their parents. For them to live in. Every time she stepped foot inside, she was reminded of everything they had done to her. To them.

So she would crash on her members places occasionally. Whenever they weren't staying at hotels and moving around.

It wasn't until later, about a year into their contract, that Yeji bought her own apartment. It wasn't the most luxurious she had ever seen but it was hers. Purchased with her own hard earned money. And everything in it, was Yeji's. Every wall, every window, all the pieces of furniture and clothing inside. Everything was hers. Not her parents or Yeonjun's. But Yeji's.

She had too much fun decorating every corner of it. Picking out everything she liked without having to listen to anyone else's opinion on the matter. She could do whatever she wanted now.

There was an extra room which she turned into what Yeji called the hobbies room. In there, she explored all the things she never had because she hadn't been allowed to.

From collecting comic books and mangas that her mother deemed too boyish, to playing video games that would fry your brain cells according to her father. Or even exploring music and movies she had never allowed herself to before because of their subject.

Sometimes, the other women joined her in there and they'd spend hours playing around and having fun in her room of freedom.

The walls surrounding them painted in several colors, with badly drawn art done by her. Another hobby she had taken up. Art. Something that was meant to be observed and not done by people like them according to her parents. Screw that.

She would paint every wall of her apartment if she so chose to.

Yeji had always dreamt of being on stage performing as people cheered for her. And because of Ryujin, she could do that.

Every time she was on that stage, she gave it her all. It meant too much not to do so. It meant everything to her.

Because Yeji had thought she had given up on it years ago when she and Yeonjun made their plan. It was a sacrifice she had made willingly but one that pained her.