Home Is You [Ryeji]

CH. 5

Yeji's senses were greeted by the kind, warm, inviting aromas coming from Ryujin's kitchen.

Yeji pushed the door closed behind her, making sure to make some noise to signify that she'd arrived, since Ryujin never bothered to lock her doors anyway.

The apartment was bathed in the fleeting light of the golden, setting sun, and Ryujin looked remarkable.

She was wearing a light auburn summer-dress that brought out her eyes.

That was the first thing Yeji noticed, besides her freely flowing golden-brown hair, trailing behind her as she turned to greet Yeji.

And for once, Hwang Yeji was oddly breathless.

It was the good kind of breathless, the one that made her lungs burn, dying for some sort of relief, and yet, she enjoyed every second of the pain.

Ryujin had gone all out.

Flowers were on the center of her (cleaned) kitchen table, and the apartment was neater than Yeji had maybe ever seen it.

And there was a single, aromatic candle in the middle of the table, separating the two place setting from each other.

This was impressive. (Yeji was oftenn called the "candle hoe" by Ryujin, and while she knew that aromatics didn't go with meals, because come on that was an amateur move, she adored Ryujin for trying.)

"Yeji!" Ryujin turned from her spot, cutting what appeared to be vegetables from the kitchen counter.

"Ryujin." Yeji nodded, mouth feeling dry. She glanced down, cursing herself for coming straight from the office, in just a business pantsuit.

She must've looked quite the idiot.

"This isn't pizza." Yeji's wry comment was completely not what she'd intended to say. But Ryujin did that to her. She didn't know how to function properly.

"It's not." Ryujin grinned.

Yeji's eyes widened as she stiffened. "I was under the impression you couldn't cook?"

Had she spent endless nights making Ryujin dinner for nothing? Not that it particularly bothered her, but if she didn't know that simple fact, what else didn't she know about Ryujin? What if her parents could detect their freshly hatched lies from the start?

"Yeddeong." Ryujin grinned, nodding towards the trashcan in the corner.

Yeji stepped over, eyeing the trashcan and then rolling her eyes.

Ryujin had pulled, what she so eloquently called, "Take-out and fake-out."

"All this for me?" Yeji teased mildly.

"This..." Ryujin motioned to the pots. "-is not just any old dinner."

Yeji cocked a brow. "Oh?"

Ryujin smirked. "It's our first date."

Yeji's heart suddenly took off at full speed, and she toyed with the watch around her wrist. "Uh..." she began unsurely. "It is?"

Ryujin turned off the low heat, turning to Yeji, nodding enthusiastically. "That way, if anyone asks us about it, we can kind of give them an honest answer."

Yeji nodded slowly in understanding, trying to fight off how nervous she felt, how the dynamic suddenly changed. "That's.. smart."

Ryujin smiled, coming to envelop her into a greeting hug, since she'd been occupied when Yeji had first entered.

She took a step back, running her hands along the lapel of Yeji's suit coat, smiling softly to herself. "You look perfect, Yeji."

Yeji tried not to shiver under Ryujin's touch.