The Secret Sonata || Ryeji

Chapter 13: Hopelessly Desolated

Ryujin was getting riled up with Yuna, Lia and Chaeryeong's shrill screams whenever a ghost appeared on screen, giving them jump scares. Meanwhile, Jennie was murmuring prayers under her breath, clutching the pendant around her neck out of habit; something that she'd developed recently.

"No! That's not her, you moron! She's possessed by her dead sister!" Yuna squalled, throwing popcorns at the TV, which was displaying the steamy makeout scene of the male lead and the possessed female lead. "What are you doing? Run! She's gonna kill you later!"

"Yah! Close your eyes, kid!" Lia hastily covered Yuna's eyes with her hands as the scene got more erotic, while Chaeryeong choked on a mouthful of popcorns, thus she spat out some of them at Ryujin's stoic face.

"Aish. Lee Chaeryeong!" The bluehead yelled annoyingly and stood up from the couch, wiping Chaeryeong's saliva off her face. "I'm not gonna watch anymore!"

"You're leaving already?" Jennie asked from the adjacent couch, and Ryujin nodded as a response before heading to the corridor.

"Ghosts aren't even that scary! They're, in fact, cute. Especially my silver-haired one. Tee-hee," Ryujin tittered inaudibly as she starting skipping across the wooden floor, breaking into excited dance moves once every now and then, feeling thrilled to meet the ghost of the girl she loved. Simultaneously as she was passing the basement door, a series of sorrowful sniffles caught her attention, making her stop dead in her tracks; those sniffles actually came from the basement and they belonged to Yeji. Extremely worried, Ryujin didn't waste another second to rush inside, scurrying down the stairs— skipping three or two steps at a time as she did—, and her concerned eyes scanned the dim room frantically, whilst moonlight from the egress window outlined the monochromatic figures of furnitures; yet, Yeji was nowhere in sight. Only her distressed sobs and sniffles could be heard.

Utilizing her sense of hearing to the max, Ryujin's ears perked toward one direction, and she was, soon, scampering over to the secret door lurking in the shadows. Since the devastated bluehead could pry the locked door open, she knocked on it in an aggressive manner, calling out the silver head's name as she did so. "Yeji unnie!" Instantly, a cold, pallid body passed through the closed door, colliding into the warmer one of Ryujin. The human girl almost lost her footing and collapsed, but she managed to stand upright, firmly placing a palm on the icy waist and gingerly carding the soft, silklike locks of the silver hair with her fingers attached to the other palm.

"R-ryuddaeng," Yeji weakly articulated the forgotten nickname, visibly desolated by her tone of voice, and Ryujin's eyes subtly widened due to the familiarity of the name, but she dismissed the growing curiosity for the time being, pushing it to the back of her mind. All she needed to know right then was the cause of Yeji's despair, so that she could, at least, be of little help to bring an end to it; even if it was beyond her control.

"What happened inside there?" Ryujin asked softly, bringing her hands to cup the pale, tearless face of the mourning girl.

"... I can't tell," Yeji croaked, suddenly feeling a zap from her bracelet. "Can you just hug me and ask nothing?"

"Sure, unnie." Ryujin pressed her lips on Yeji's forehead as tenderly as she could—of course, she had to tiptoe—, and engulfed the cold girl with her warmth, whispering sweet nothings to make the latter feel better. The action did calm Yeji, much to her relief. Nonetheless, misery was still lingering in her soul, followed by the indignation and grudge she had on her torturer like a package deal.

Moping against the shorter girl's chest, with frosty arms wrapped around her waist, Yeji dwelled in the struggles she'd faced because of her torturer, who wouldn't stop weakening her spirit in order to prevent her from succeeding her task inside that secret room. In the interim, the tortures she'd received—whenever she got caught or accidentally crossed paths with her evil torturer— were too severe to the point that she would often have to lie in agony at a deserted area inside the mansion, or on the spot where the monster had left her after getting bored of afflicting pain. It hurt too much that she couldn't move. The only time of the day when she could recharge the energy she'd lost was nighttime, when the moon was shining in its glory and transmitting its powers to her soul; the procedure of which was performed under the permission of the merciful moon goddess, Dalnim. Some people would also call her the Korean version of Artemis, the twin sister of the sun god Apollo (in terms of Greek Mythology). Although the sister was generous and kind to Yeji, the brother, Haemosu, was just a haughty, pompous god who never answered to her cries of help in the morning; the time of his glory, and all he did was ride around the sky in his chariot of dragons for leisure, turning a blind eye to those who were in jeopardy. How could siblings be so different, especially twins? Speaking of the power she was lent from the moon, it also affected her hair color, thereby altering it from brunette—the one that she had during her lifetime— to silver.