Eternity [ryeji]

Chapter 6

“W-wha… what are you doing here? Who let you in?” asks Yeji, still unable to recover from the shock of seeing her father there.

“Jisu, of course. She’s in her room,” he says, pointing at Jisu’s closed room door.

Then as if he suddenly senses something wrong, his smile disappears and he turns his head to see Ryujin standing at the entrance. The woman is looking straight at him with wide eyes and clenched jaws.

She’s made the decision to just face the music instead of running away like a coward. She has to face him sooner or later anyway so it’s better to do it now and get it over with. Besides, if it turns out that she really can’t be with Yeji, it will hurt less to find out now.

“I’m sorry, Ryujin. This is totally…” Yeji starts to speak, turning around to find Ryujin staring at her father and when she looks at him, she realizes that both of them are in some kind of stare down – their eyes locked on each other. Now she’s confused. “What’s… going on?” she carefully asks, having recognized the ongoing tension to be out of the ordinary. Her father has never glared so intensively and scarily at her friends or dates no matter how much he disapproved of them.

“Your current name is Ryujin?” asks Yeji’s father after a few more tense seconds.

“Shin Ryujin,” replies Ryujin calmly. “You are Mr. Hwang, I assume?”

“Correct.”

“Dad, what’s going on?” Yeji asks her father.

“So you know?” he addresses Ryujin, ignoring his daughter’s question.

Ryujin nods. “I just found out today. How do you know? Even without going anywhere near me?”

“I’m from the older generation so I’m more experienced in this matter,” he replies then glances at his confused daughter. “Does she know?”

“I haven’t had the chance to talk to her about it yet,” Ryujin says.

“What’s your relationship with her?”

“Dad!” Yeji quickly stops the ongoing conversation, standing in front of her father. “What is going on?”

He looks at his daughter and repeats his question. “What’s your relationship with her?”

“We’re just friends!”

He takes a second to observe her and sighs. “You were never good in hiding things from me,” he says as he sits back down, shifting his gaze back to the woman who’s still standing at the entrance. “Have a seat,” he tells Ryujin, gesturing at the empty chair. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me.”

“And you for me, Mr. Hwang,” says Ryujin as she enters the living room and stealthily squeezes Yeji’s arm as she walks past her to set the latter at ease.

“You too, Yeji,” he says to his daughter, patting the empty space on the couch next to him.

“Jisu-yah!” he then calls out to his daughter’s best friend.

“Yes, Samchon?” Jisu replies, peeking out of her room. She has heard the commotion but thought that it was a family matter so she wanted to stay away.

“Come. You need to hear this too since you’ve known everything already anyway.”

The young woman goes to sit on the other chair, opposite from Ryujin, with a glass of water in her hand. She notices the unfamiliar person and raises her eyebrows but says nothing.

“Have you read the document I sent you?” Mr. Hwang asks his daughter.

“No, Dad, I haven’t. I had work to do, okay?” Yeji sighs and massages her forehead. “Just get to the point, please? What is going on?”