The Secret Sonata || Ryeji

Chapter 35: Do You Know Girls Can Like Girls?

Two fourteen year old girls were sitting silently by the edge of the waterfall cliff; one of the them was turning fifteen in a week. The ambience was quite desolating with only the sound of burbling water surrounding them, none of them uttering a single word until the oldest of the two broke the disconcerting silence.

"Ryuddaeng, I need to go now. Doyoung oppa's prolly waiting at the cafe now." Yeji finally sprung to her feet, only to be dragged down by Ryujin.

"No, don't go. Stay with me a little more, Yeddeong," Ryujin requested, desperation evident in her voice as she tugged on the hem of Yeji's shirt.

"I'm gonna be late and it's rude to keep him waiting," the cat-eyed girl said, patting the younger's shoulder.

"Do you even like him to go on a date with him?" The question caught Yeji off guard, but the answer to it was as clear as day for her.

"No," she replied affirmatively.

"Then, why would you go?!" Ryujin suddenly barked, startling Yeji.

"Look. I made a bet with Shuhua that if I get to make him fall for me, she'll give me 10,000 Won," Yeji uttered curtly, brushing away strands of stray hair from her cat eyes.

"So, you're gonna let yourself get caught up in a lowly bet? For what? To get money when your family owns a mansion?" The short-haired girl taunted, totally disappointed with the long-haired one.

"Yah! It's not just about the bet. It's about winning and not being defeated. You don't understand anything, Ryuddaeng," the long-haired girl reasoned, her voice strained as she tried to get her point across, yet leaving out some information. The truth was that she didn't actually care about the bet and she wasn't really competitive, albeit bringing home myriads of trophies gained from piano contests. To be frank, she just wanted to piss Heejin off since she knew that the said-girl had feelings for the boy who asked her out, and in the interim, she was still holding a grudge against her because of the previous year's incident. Ryujin got badly hurt due to her ruthless friends. Speaking of those friends, all of them transferred to another middle school, the reason being that Lucy's blood-curdling haunt had left a huge trauma on them.

Nevertheless, that wasn't the first time they hurt Ryujin for protecting Yeji. The first time involved Heejin, herself, since she cornered Yeji once behind the school's building, together with Jihoon, Naeun and Eunbin. There, they poured bags of flour on her and chucked eggs at her for defeating Heejin at a piano competition. Miraculously, Ryujin appeared on the scene like a knight in shining armor and fended them off as she utilized her jiu-jitsu skills. Unfortunately, she was outnumbered and pummelled. Of course, Yeji did her best to block their attacks on Ryujin by covering the younger with her body the instant she hit the ground. Not much later, the teachers and the whole student body arrived, successfully breaking the fight off, albeit rather too late. Where was Lucy during that time? She was meticulously being trained by Han at the haunted town hall, so she wasn't able to save them. The punishment for the bullies? Just a monthlong suspension from school and deducement of merits; not that they had enough merits to be deduced. Henceforth, Yeji's plan was to go out on a date with Kim Doyoung as a payback for Heejin's mistake. Although she understood that she shouldn't drag an innocent person into her plan or even mislead him at the slightest, her wish to break Heejin's heart dominated her rational side. Indeed, she resented that girl for the bruises she'd given to her little cutie. Yeji fervently despised seeing Ryujin in pain. It ruptured her heart and killed her from the inside. Owing to that fact, you could see the tenuous similarity between the twins— holding grudges. Be that as it may, the method of which they handled such a persistent feeling was different from one another. The older twin would handle it with patent brutality which was in marked contrast to that of the younger.