On the 1st anniversary of ITZY, a rising girl band, the members decide to go on a vacation to the keyboardist's hometown in Andong. With light hearts and joyous laughters, they set foot in the House of Hwang, thinking that they would finally get the...
"Oh my. Oh my. Ryujinnie's awake? Did you have a good dream?" The red head giggled in a malicious manner, twirling the tip of her red hair as she flew down on top of Ryujin, and the latter felt her hair standing on her end once again. A weird radiation could be felt from the phantom as she drew nearer, eyeing Ryujin's pinkish, plump lips as she licked her own matte red ones— just like the day before.
"A-are you feeling better now?" Ryujin's unexpected question, with obvious concern dripping from her voice, stopped the phantom from whatever motive she had in mind.
"Huh?" The red-haired girl diverted her attention from Ryujin's alluring lips to her eyes that she'd always wanted for them to see her, only her. She found herself suddenly enjoying her reflection on the convex surfaces of the whisker-dimpled girl's orbs, tremendously loving the way they were solely focused on her.
"You were hurting a lot yesterday," Ryujin clarified, referring to the torture, the cause of which she wasn't apprised of.
"Yes, I really was..." The red-haired spirit responded truthfully to the human girl beneath her, and she narrowed her eyes in skepticism.
"You're still not telling who or what was hurting you last night, aren't you?" This question lit a light bulb inside the spirit's head as soon as realization dawned on her.
"Tsk," the phantom clicked her tongue as she twirled the tip of her red hair for the nth time; a habit that Ryujin took notice of recently, and she reflected upon how Yeji had never done that during the midnight conversation they shared the night before. "Nope, I ain't gonna tell." While the spirit was still twirling her hair, the human's observant eyes landed on its hand, and she squinted her eyes suspiciously because the same bracelet was hugging the wrist—the one with a woman cradling two eggs—, but the ring finger was deprived of a ring.
"T-the ring... it's gone," Ryujin gasped, so the other girl cocked her head to the side, chewing her inner cheeks in deep contemplation to the human's words.
"Oh!" The phantom in black suit finally uttered as soon as she remembered the promise rings, and she raised her empty ring finger in full display. "The ring usually disappears in the morning. Don't ask why. I don't know either. Haha!" She flashed a toothy grin at the girl below, lacking of warmth and cuteness, contradictory to the gummy smile of the silver-haired one. "You look so cuddly, Ryujinnie..." She lowered herself down onto the warm body, only to pass through it like being swallowed by quicksand, which she was totally familiar with, and she despised that dreadful feeling more than anything else in the whole world. She resented quicksand to the very core of her being.
Meanwhile, Ryujin was on the verge of blacking out due to the radiations transmitted by the spirit that was halfway through entering her body, and she shivered with discomfiture the moment her red head shot up from her chest. The transparent chin was still submerged inside the human's chest, whilst the feline eyes were ogling at her features.
"Why can't you touch me in the morning?" Ryujin inquisitively asked through her chattering teeth, and the spirit quirked a brow. "It's weird how you feel so solid at night, but now you're... you're misty? Foggy? I don't know the right words to say."
The red-haired girl briskly removed herself from Ryujin in a flash, her previously stagnant cat eyes were now rippling with mixed emotions: anger, jealousy, indignation, defeat, possessiveness, hatred, and every sentiment of negativity that had always been welling up inside her. Witnessing the spirit's altering countenances right before her very eyes, Ryujin shot up from the bed and examined her in scrutiny, not bothering to run away, in spite of the vengeful feline eyes that were trained on her.
"Y-yeji unnie?" The cat eyes turned even more vengeful, and the ghost curled up her fists once Ryujin talked again. "Stop looking at me that way. It's scary."
"Stop looking at me that way. It's scary," the ghost mimicked, irony dripping from her voice, and Ryujin bulged her eyes owing to the familiarity of the words. "Oh, Ryujinnie... My Ryujinnie... Don't be scared. Unnie won't harm ya," she cooed, twirling her red locks with her ringless hand. "But I hate the fact that I can't touch you or cuddle you in this state." She gestured herself, heaving a forlorn sigh.
"What do you mean? You can still touch me at night. Last night, we even cuddled together until we fell asleep, remember?" Ryujin stated, utterly puzzled. "Yeji unnie... don't be sad about not being able to touch me now. I'll always-"
"SHUT UP! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING!" Ryujin whimpered in fear due to the sudden outburst, and the red-haired phantom's face was fuming with unresolved rage and jealousy.
Do ghosts have bipolar disease? Ryujin pondered, stimulating tremors and her body became rigidity. Why does she look jealous of her own self?
"S-sorry." An unexpected apology coming from the haughty ghost caused her to glance up, and she was seemingly trying to tone down her anger. "Didn't mean to scare you. It's just... this afterlife is so stressful, suffocating and lonely." The red-haired ghost hung her head low.
"It's okay. After all, I don't really understand it. I should be the one saying sorry to you," Ryujin comforted as she teetered toward the ghost, still feeling shaky as an aftermath of the frightening tantrum the latter had almost thrown. "Yeji unnie, look at me."
Rolling her cat eyes at the vexatious way Ryujin had called her, the red-haired phantom lifted her chin up to be met with the almond eyes she fell in love with—awfully, deeply in love with.
"I'll always give you the attention you deserve. And I'll always keep you company as long as I'm here, arraseo?" Ryujin held her gaze intently with those irresistibly mesmerizing eyes that the phantom had always been obsessed with.
As long as I'm here... Those painful words recurred inside her dead head like a broken tape, and her nonexistent heart clenched in sorrow.
"T-thanks..." The feline eyed ghost managed to utter her gratitude, and she was suddenly at the receiving end of the bedazzling whisker-dimpled smile.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
