In Another Realm (AU)

23

Lia is on her way home from school. Recently, she has been working a lot for the upcoming election for the school council presidential position, which is the main reason why she has been so stressed.

She's not only stressed but also worried about her friends. She wonders how things just suddenly went wrong.

Even before things went wrong, Yeji talked to her when they were hanging out at Lia's place. Yeji told Lia that she's finally giving up on the competition of who between them will pursue their dream position.

Lia knows that Yeji is very passionate about becoming a great leader for the school council presidency and she earns everything to win it as much as Lia does. So when Yeji suddenly decided to give it up, Lia was confused and worried because she didn't know the reason why Yeji wanted to give up something she had always worked hard for.

Yeji explained that it has nothing to do with their friendship and that Yeji didn't give it up for the sake of their relationship, but Yeji also didn't state an acceptable reason either.

After they talked, Lia assured her that even if they still compete, it wouldn't ruin their growing friendship and they would even show support to each other whoever wins.

It felt so soothing that she was able to talk to Yeji that day, and she felt like she had talked to her soul, not knowing it was going to be Lia's last real, long conversation with Yeji.

After a few days, Yeji had started ignoring not only her but also the rest of the girls.

Just like what Lia also thought, Yeji is only trying to ignore Ryujin because something came up between them. That's why Yeji is becoming distant to all of them.

But Lia wonders if there's something more to Yeji's distance and treating them as if they don't know each other.

Lia thought maybe Yeji was upset because she had finally given up her position to Lia and just needed time to recover, but something else felt different.

Yeji appeared to become a different person. Whenever they see the cat-eyed woman across the room, they can notice a different demeanor in her, the way she speaks, acts, and just by looking at her, she's still the same Yeji, but different from the person who they had grown attached to.

Lia had never realized that the person who had once become her rival and the person whom she always thought she envied a lot would turn into someone close to her. And now that they stopped constantly talking, Lia just realized how precious Yeji had become to her as much as how the rest of the girls had become important to her.

"Heading home?"

Suddenly, Lia was caught up in her deep thoughts when she suddenly heard a voice nearby her. She quickly turned to her side to see the familiar woman who owned the most soothing voice she had ever recognized.

Ryujin gave her a tiny wave with a faint smile on her face.

Lia's emotions from overthinking at that moment suddenly burst. Seeing Ryujin made her body produce a gush of excitement.

She did miss Ryujin just as much as she missed Yeji. And she hadn't heard or seen the woman for a long time, so seeing Ryujin suddenly appear in front of her made her heart skip a beat.

Lia just stood frozen in the same spot. She just looked at Ryujin and realized how weary Ryujin appeared, but still tried her best to look presentable.

Ryujin chuckled, seeing Lia freeze. She slowly walked to the woman with her hands in her pocket because she was trembling. She was terrified of approaching the woman because she was afraid of receiving words of frustration from her because she kept ignoring her messages when all Lia wanted to do was make sure Ryujin was fine.