Parallel Lines

Chapter 5

*Flashback to when Lia and Ryujin first met..continuation of Prelude to You*

"So...why were you crying?" The taller girl asked.

Lia pushed herself from the ground to stand up. Ryujin had to lean back quickly to avoid accidentally getting a headbutt.

"You see..the other kids were..calling me names..they kept saying I looked like a sloth.." Lia said as she turned her head, frowning at the memory. She opened her mouth to continue but she was cut off.

"Why would you cry about that?"
Ryujin tilted her head and crossed her arms.

"I mean, sloths are cute!"

The other girl's eyes grew wide with bewilderment. Then, a sound of a zipper opening forced Lia to look at Ryujin who was rustling to find something in her backpack.

It took a while for Lia to find her words and question. "C-cute?"

"Here look...we went to the zoo the other day and I tooks pictures and videos of all the animals" Ryujin pulled out a camera and held it in front of the other girl.

"There! I saw a sloth hanging upside down. It was really cute and cuddly." The brown eyed girl was clearly excited showing the pictures.

"Then Yuna spotted a monkey that she said looked like me, she even called me Ryusungie.."

Lia couldn’t help but chuckle at the nickname, but she just stood there and continued to listen to the other who had a big grin on her face.

"..but I fine was with it, because monkeys are cool, they can climb really high trees."

Ryujin's animated expression suddenly turned into a stoic mask, and looked at Lia with such sincerity.

"Names..are very important, they have power. When you give someone a name, you embody that person with the same amount of power.."

Lia was visibly confused at what the other girl was trying to say, but she couldn't look away from those brown orbs.

Ryujin sighed.

"What I'm trying to say here is, if other people call you names, don't let it tie you down, use it to your advantage so it can never be used to hurt you.."

It didn't take long for her grin to come back in full force.

"So..It’s okay to be called a sloth. Because I think they're cute, and hey since I'm a monkey..we could both be on a tree."

Ryujin's words faded into the distance as Lia slowly zoned out. She couldn't believe that this girl who she just met, the same girl who fell from a tree, has such profound way of thinking.

She’s the same age as me right?

Lia hummed, thinking it over. It was during that conversation that Lia began to notice a faint warmth in her chest, and for the first time she liked the idea of being compared to the lazy animal.

"Yeah. Maybe it's not so bad." Lia laughed, a light and airy laugh.

Ryujin was captivated by the sound, she could feel her cheeks filling with blood as she beamed. "See, you'll get the hang of it."

*

The sun was setting on the horizon as the two were finding their way out of the woods.

"By the way, you're really good at taking photos, I should give you another nickname." Lia held her chin in her fingers and closed her eyes. "Ryutographer!"

Ryujin couldn't help the small blush. "and I will gladly accept it. Anyway, I learned it from my father, he's a movie director."

"Wow! Your dad makes movies?"

Ryujin nodded with pride.

"and my mother's a music producer, they teach me a lot of stuff..when I grow up I wanna be just like them!"

"That's awesome! I wish my parents were as cool as yours. They're not bad, they're just busy running hotels."

Ryujin blinked several times.

"Hotels..with an S?"

"Yeah..you see that building? It's one of ours" Lia points at at structure they were headed at.

"I also live there,  my room is on the top floor."

"That's high.." Ryujin muttered.

Lia couldn't help but feel happy; this was the first time in a while she had someone to have fun with.

After thay day they became inseparable.

Lia slept over at Ryujin's ’s house more times than she could count, because Ryujin didn't like the idea of being in a floor that high.

They visited parks, find trees to climb. Ryujin would spend an awful lot of time at cat cafés and Lia would have to stop her from taking a cat home.

Lia also became close with Yuna, Ryujin’s younger sister; who was somehow taller than both of them.
They would play video games together, which Ryujin was very good at. "Ryujin unnie always wins" Yuna would pout every time.

It became their tradition, once month on a Friday to have a movie marathon, and since it's not a school night, they'd stay awake past midnight talking about anything really.

Lia would wake up with her head nestled against Ryujin's shoulder. Her best friend’s shoulder.

**
Sorry for the delayed chapter.
I got sidetracked posting Itzy Incorrect Quotes on twitter :)

Anyway, this was just supposed to be a short introduction on how their movie night came to be, but I added a few more details.

Thoughts?