Gemini (Ryeji)

Chapter 13

Ryujin have been taught and she believes she have been taught well in hiding her emotions. Love, need and most especially never show anyone your fear. But it's too blatant right now, with how shaky Ryujin's hand is as she holds the eviction notice and how her tears were ready to fall off her eyes the very second that she blinks.

"B-but this can't be..." Her voice sounded shaky even if she tries to control it not to be.

"Ryu?"

Ryujin didn't turn to look at Yeji. She couldn't... She couldn't face Yeji especially in her weakest...

"Yeji not now, ok?"

But Yeji presses on. "What's happening?"

"GET INSIDE I'll HANDLE THIS!" Ryujin's voice was loud, clear and demanding. She wasn't ready for Yeji to know about this, and Yeji's questions only heightened Ryujin's anger. But the fury turned to an apologetic shame when she saw the frightened look on Yeji's face.

"I'm sorry, love..." Ryujin softens up. "Can you go inside for a minute? I just have something to discuss with Mr. Kim."

Yeji knows better and steps back inside the apartment, closing the door behind her.

"So, I see that you haven't told her..."

"Stay out of my business..."

Mr. Kim sneers cockily, before glaring back at Ryujin with haughty eyes.

"I say you curb that arrogant attitude, Ms. Shin... especially now that you have nothing."

How dare does this man ever call Shin Ryujin nothing? As much as Ryujin wanted to snap back at him, the words that he said created more questions in Ryujin's head.

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Mr. Shin talk to me, he said if you want all of this fix. You should go to him."

*

"Ryujin?"

Ryujin came back inside their apartment, staggering towards their couch before burying her face in her hands.

"No Yeji... don't look at me right now..."

Yeji sits down beside Ryujin, wrapping her arms around the girl but Ryujin was quick to swat it away.

"I SAID NO!!!" And just by Yeji's look, Ryujin quickly crumbles, one tear turned to two, two into three until Ryujin was crying profusely... She should have felt alone, pathetic and vulnerable but instead crying have never felt so soothing...

Maybe it was because she was cradled in Yeji's arms, and maybe because the love of her life was whispering to her, almost like a lullaby carrying her to sleep.

"I'm so sorry, Yeji... I shouldn't have..."

"Shhhh...it doesn't matter Ryu..."

"I should be protecting you..."

"Baby, it's my turn... just cry Ryu... just cry..."

And like a child, Ryujin holds tighter into Yeji and cries.

*

"Is there anything else I could get you?" Giselle says politely...

"No... Gigi" Karina smiles and at the same time giving her friend across the table from her a warning look. "Thanks..."

"See you later, Gigi..." Ningning answers in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Giselle just nods politely before walking away. She could never stand aegyo and people's fascination to it, and Ningning's was no different.

"Gosh Ningning could you calm down?" Karina says it more in amusement than a preach.

Ningning frowns when Karina interrupted her from watching Giselle's backside swaying as she walks.

"What? You have to admit, Giselle is hot..."

"She is but she's well..." Karina wanted to say the word poor, but she couldn't utter it out. There was nothing wrong with being poor, yet nowadays, people see it as if it's a disease.

"I know... I know... she's like the star of her own drama, her parents are all dead and she has to take care of her younger siblings, but who cares?" Ningning throws all her caution in the wind, not like she has any in the first place. "I just want to take her out and bang her, it's not like I'm going to marry her. Gosh Karina, you have been hanging out too much with that Winter girl, she's turning you into this judgmental bitch."

"Winter?"

Karina could only say her name in a low, cautious voice. As if Winter is a secret a very dirty one, that could change the way people would see Karina if they know.

"Yes her... What is going on between you two? You two aren't lovers, right?"

"Oh no..." Karina shakes her head in protest. "Oh God no..." What does Winter knows about love anyway?

"Well good... cause she's not a great person to hangout with." Ningning leans in so Karina could hear some juicy secrets or gossip... "I heard, that's why she went to the States for a year because she got knocked up."

"I never heard of that." Karina answers. Actually, she did. She just choose not to believe gossip.

"I'm thinking it's true with all the guys she's been doing it with... I won't be surprise if she has 10 kids already..."

"You are just too much..." Karina knew that Ningning didn't mean any harm but those gossips are malicious, and even if Winter acts like she got a frozen heart, Karina knew that this might hurt her. And Karina didn't know why, she just don't like the idea of Winter getting hurt.

"But you know who they say the father is?"

"No... not that I care."

"Well, I'm telling you anyway... It's Hwang Hyunjin..."

Everyone turns towards their table as Karina's coffee cup created a clattering sound around the café. Karina looks up and smiles apologetically at everyone...

"Oh Gosh, Rina..." Ningning laughs amusingly... "I was shock too, but I wasn't that shock."

"Hwang? Hwang Hyunjin?"

"Yeah... He's Yeji's big brother, you know Yeji... the girl rumored to be with Ryujin."

Now that's a rumor that Karina chooses to ignore...

"I know Yeji." Karina says harshly that it made Ningning move back. "I perfectly know Yeji."

It was a good thing Giselle swooped in between them that it closes a bit of the tension.

"Is everything ok, Karina-shii?" Giselle asks while wiping off the table.

"Yes." Karina lies.

"Gigi..." Ningning butted in "I think Karina wants to ask you something, right Karina?"

"I was?"

"Yes... Friday night, remember?"

"Oh yeah... ummm... I'm having a party at my place Friday night. I was wondering if you would like to go."

"I...I would love too..." Giselle smiles, she rarely gets invited to parties especially the ones of the popular kids. But it wasn't the invite that made Giselle's day, it was the one inviting her. "Do I have to bring- Rina?"

Before Giselle could finish what she was about to say, Karina have already gathered up her stuff.

"I'm so sorry, I have to go, but I'll hope to see you there..."

Giselle was shamelessly staring at Karina, watching until the sound of the café door got her out of her trance. She looks back at the spilled coffee, mortified of her blatant ogling, but if looking at Karina was the closest thing she could get. Then, she's taking it.

*

The receptionist in Mr. Shin's office hurriedly put the phone down as she sees Ryujin barged in through the double glass doors.

"Ms. Shin... your father..."

"Go to hell." Ryujin shouts out before storming in to her father's office.

She stop right in front of her father, fuming, agitated. She was beyond angry that words won't even form in her head. But her father just sat behind his desk, his lips curving into a triumphant smile.

"Hello darling..."

Her father's indifference didn't do anything but infuriate Ryujin more.

"Be quiet! What is all this?"

"All what, sweetheart?"

"Stop playing dumb and tell me what is happening..."

"You know who I am and you talk to me like you're so much higher than me... When right now, Ryujin you don't amount to anything."

This was the second time she heard that, how she was nothing. But it didn't make things better, in fact it hurts worse especially since it was her own father who said it.

"It's about you and your lover..."

"Yeji? You never cared about anybody else I dated, why on Earth do you give a crap now?"

"Because I see the effect she has on you, and I can't have that... I can't have my heir be control by a... a....maid."

"Yeji might as well be a scum on this Earth but for me she'll always be the one that I love."

"Is it really love, Ryu? because I have to admit she's stunning. You might just be confusing love and lust, they could be quite similar."

"What do you know about it? When you don't even give a crap about mom"

Mr. Shin scoffs... "Why? Whoever said that I love your mom?"

Ryujin steps away from her father. She knew he was a cold hearted man but how could he say something like that about her mother.

"Y-you're sick..."

"And you're my child. Soon, you would realize that you and I, were almost the same person. If this girl loved you like she claims she does, she would walk away already."

This time it was Ryujin's time to sneer. "That's the difference between you and me dad, I have someone who's willing to stay with me for better or worse. How about you?"

"We will see how long she stay when you have nothing or how long you would stay until you come begging me to live back home."

Ryujin gritted her teeth, her father was pushing her so close to the edge. But she knows her father well, she knows that that's what he wants, for people to falter in front of him. But Ryujin is never going to be one of them, she stood her ground and matches those dark, brooding glares with her own.

"This conversation ends now. All I need you to know is one thing."

Ryujin leans over the desk, making sure that her father could remember the look on her face, when she walks away.

"Leave my girl alone."

*

"Yeji..." Ryujin says apologetically but Yeji was quick to forgive with a quick kiss on the lips.

"You don't have to explain anything..." Yeji puts her bags on the floor before wrapping her arms around Ryujin's shoulder. "Sometimes I still wonder what I ever do to deserve you..."

And Ryujin felt her throat tightened, there were so many words, so many actions to explain to Yeji why, but Yeji just playfully plays with Ryujin's hair before kissing her, she wasn't rushing for an answer, they have their whole lifetime anyway.

"YOH! get a room..."

Ryujin growls as Lia opens 'just in time' to catch her and Yeji kissing.

"But not mine... have Yuna... Yuna!!!"

"What?" Yuna answered from inside the apartment.

"Could Ryujin and Yeji have mad crazy sex in your room?!"

"SHUT UP!!!" Ryujin shrieks embarrassingly.

*

Winter's smile satisfyingly. A few seconds from now, she would be taking this conversation into action.

"We have to talk." Karina abruptly ripped Winter away from her present lover.

"Karina, didn't your mother tell you that it's rude to interrupt?"

"Rude? And what do you call ruining people's lives?"

"Could you excuse us for a while?"

Winter grips Karina's arm leading her away from the befuddled guy.

"I know this is your party, Karina but trust me, I have no trouble humiliating you."

"I'm humiliated enough as it is Winter... Nothing could scare me anymore..."

"You want Ryujin, right?"

"And you, you just want to destroy Hyunjin, right?"

And for once Karina has the winning words as she paralyzes Winter in her place. But Karina wasn't done, she was angry and Winter was going to hear it...

"And it was just too convenient that the girl Ryujin loves happen to be his sister. You never want to help me, you're just a selfish bitch just like I always thought you were."

"Damn right I am..." Winter growls between her clench teeth. "And you should feel lucky that I even give a crap about you and your pathetic feelings."

"The only person you give a crap about is yourself!"

"RINA!"

Ningning comes right on time before Winter and Karina was ready to start a brawl.

"She's here, Gigi is here..."

Winter didn't know why hearing Giselle's name, seem to light something inside her.

"HI GIGI!!!" Ningning shrieks excitedly...

"Hi..." Giselle walks over to them carrying a tray. "I brought some brownies..."

"Awww... Gigi... you're so sweet."

Winter almost rip Ningning's arm off her body as she pinches Giselle's cheek.

"Hi Winter-shii.." Giselle greets Winter warmly, thinking that that night they had in the café can be considered a start of friendship.

But instead of a proper response, Winter answers in a complete opposite manner. "I didn't know you were friends with beggars, Rina..."

Everyone looks at Winter, their faces a picture of surprised and irritation. Except for Giselle who's face fell, knowing that every word out of Winter were true.

And Winter walk away, knowing that seeing Giselle's expression makes her much more vulnerable than she already is.

*

Ryujin was absolutely convinced that her two bestfriends are madly in love with her girlfriend. Instead of resting, the two dorks spend the entire night trying to impress Yeji on who could kill the most zombies in their videogame.

Finally, the two quit hogging for Yeji's attention and let the girl go with Ryujin in Yuna's room.

"They're funny..." Yeji chuckles as she wraps her arm around Ryujin's waist.

"I think they're in love with you." Ryujin pouts jealously... "And I think you like the attention..."

"Hmmm... maybe I was trying to make you jealous..."

Ryujin's lip curve into a smile and turns toward Yeji, who also has the same teasing smile playing in her lips.

"Well, it worked." Ryujin playfully plants kisses on Yeji's lip making the girl giggle, Ryujin have slowly got on top of Yeji. "You're mine". Ryujin's hand was already halfway inside Yeji's shirt, when Lia or Yuna or probably the two decided to blast on the stereo...

"NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY, OH EH AH OH!!!!"

"WHOHOO!!! Shin Ryujin is naughty naughty!!!!" Lia and Yuna scream from outside the room.

Ryujin groans plopping her head beside Yeji but just chuckles as she sees Yeji in a fit of giggles. Ryujin brushes the hair falling out of Yeji's face and kisses her.

"Our life is going to be hell from now on, Yeji..."

Yeji smiles before pressing a soft kiss on Ryujin's lips "Still feel like heaven to me..."

*

"So, you two didn't do it?" Lia asks.

"Nope." Ryujin lies.

Lia and Yuna share knowing looks. The evidence was all there, Ryujin's goofy grin, those marks on her neck and of course Yeji doing the laundry (including Yuna's sheets) at the break of dawn.

"HEY!!!!"

Lia and Yuna tumbled over as they see Ryujin running towards her car.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Ryujin shouts out, pushing herself between the men surrounding her car. But the man remains unfazed, shifting his glasses before looking in his folder.

"Mercedes Benz CL class plate number RTF 7584, are you Shin Ryujin?"

"Damn right I am!"

"We're here in the order of Mr. Shin to take the vehicle."

"What?!" Ryujin pushes the men away, trying not to let them have even a feet close... "You can't do that! It's mine! This car is mine!" Ryujin clenches her teeth hoping to stop her tears but unfortunately the only thing it did was make her burst out crying.

"To clarify Ms. Shin, it was your father who paid for this vehicle making it his."

Ryujin try to use all her strength to push away the men but everything that was happening to her was making her too weak and vulnerable. An easy target for people especially her father to take her down.

"Ryujin..." Lia puts a protective arm around her bestfriend.

"NO! Lia they're taking away my car!!!!" Ryujin grips her car but her hand ended slipping off, along with her. The time pass didn't do nothing but witness Ryujin at her most vulnerable crumbling on the hot asphalt. "I won't let them... I' won't... I won't..."

And all Ryujin could do was whisper pleadingly through her tears, watching until her car disappeared into a tiny black dot on the street.

*

"We don't need to do this now, Ryu..." Yeji says

"No. I needed a distraction..." Ryujin says bluntly...

Yeji reaches out for Ryujin's hand, hoping it could make the girl feel better but instead Ryujin's hand just hang loosely on hers.

The ahjumma with the round shape opens the door, staring at the two beautiful young ladies before her eyes gazed down at their joined hands.

Yeji quickly let go before smiling at the older woman "Hi... Mrs. Choi? I'm Hwang Yeji we spoke earlier..."

"Oh yes... come in..."

Yeji walks ahead of a very hesitant Ryujin up the rickety stairway. The three stops in front of a door and Ryujin looks around the narrow hallway, she bounces back when she sees a cat scurried by, or was that a rat? The round ahjumma starts fiddling with her key then opens up to a small room.

Ryujin tries to keep her poker face to avoid showing her disapproval of the cramp living space. The whole room was about the size of Ryujin's walk in closet back home. Their whole home was like 50 steps big, there was no walls separating the rooms, it was all right there in front of her; the bed, a cabinet and a small table.

"This is your idea of fully furnished?" Ryujin says in a disapproving tone.

"With how much she's making, consider yourself lucky to even have a place."

"I-it's fine..." Yeji steps in before their landlady kicks them out before they could even move in.

"Ahjumma?"

The old lady sneers at the haughty voice of Ryujin. The cat eyed beauty was nice but this one girl is getting on her nerves.

"Why is it hot here?" Ryujin grimaces while fanning herself with her shirt "Is the aircon not working?"

The lady sneers before turning towards Yeji, giving Yeji a 'are you kidding me?' look.

"They don't have aircon here, Ryu, but don't worry on my next pay I'll get a fan..."

*

"With some paint and nice furniture... It won't be so bad, right?" Yeji tries to ease the tension as Ryujin purposely throws her stuff, instead of neatly tucking it in inside the cabinet.

"It's not just bad, it's horrible." Ryujin spatted...

"Well, you said you wanted to move out of Lia's apartment..."

"If I know we would be living in this craphole, then maybe I wouldn't say that"

"I-I'm sorry..."

Ryujin wasn't mad at Yeji, she was mad at her world and how the world was treating her. Unfortunately for Yeji, she's the only one there who's going to take the brunt of Ryujin's anger.

"I'm just tired Yeji..."

"Ok..."

Ryujin got on the bed and after turning off the light, Yeji soon followed. Yeji's arm slowly makes it way around Ryujin's waist but before she could fully wrap Ryujin in an embrace, Ryujin have pushed herself away.

"Don't. It's hot..."

Ryujin says while scooting away, and Yeji was so used in sleeping in Ryujin's embrace that she finds it hard to even close her eyes. Yeji inches closer as close as she can without getting in Ryujin's boundaries.

Ryujin wondered if there is even a mattress in the bed, she felt like she was sleeping on a wooden board. She keeps shifting, on her back, flat on her stomach, this way, that way, but no position made her feel the least bit comfortable.

She unconsciously let out a groan, out of frustration, out of irritation and again forces herself to sleep. But everything inside of her changes drastically when she felt Yeji's hand touching her forehead, wiping off her sweat before Ryujin felt a light breeze swifting towards her.

"Wae?"

Ryujin eyes flutter open and sees Yeji fanning her with her binder.

"Better?" Yeji was glad that other than the city lights outside their room, that it was fairly dark inside their apartment or else Ryujin might see the tears brimming in her eyes.

And Ryujin might have not saw the tears but she could hear the tremble quaking in Yeji's soft voice. Ryujin bit her lip to stop her tears. She have been crying too much these days, for the apartment, for her lost car. But right now, she was crying for Yeji, she was breaking Yeji's heart right now... and she realizes, it wasn't the apartment or the lost car that was worth anything, it was this. Making Yeji cry is the only thing that is worth her tears.

She buries her hand on Yeji's hair, pulling Yeji to her chest and she felt Yeji tremble as the girl starts to cry.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Ryu..." Yeji manage to squeeze out her words between her sobs, clutching into Ryujin tighter. "You should never go through this, I should have..."

Ryujin kisses Yeji tenderly before she could finish...

"Don't say what you're about to say..." Ryujin whispers before laying her lips on Yeji's neck "Don't... cause me without you... I don't even want to think of it. It should be me who should be sorry. I'm so weak Yeji... but you're here..." Ryujin smiles hoping Yeji could see it. "So, I'll be okay, we'll be okay..." Ryujin rubs her hand on Yeji's arms soothingly before pressing a kiss on Yeji's hair.


Instead of calming her tears, Yeji cried even more, it was this love that took Ryujin out of the world that she belonged to and put her in a life where she doesn't belong.

But what Yeji might never know is Ryujin would choose this, over and over again, in this lifetime and the next, the pain, the hurt, as long as Yeji was by her side.

Both their worlds were crashing down in record speed, but in their embrace, the whole world halted. Now it was only them, only Yeji in Ryujin's arms and only Ryujin in Yeji's...

"Can I just hold you?" Yeji asks pleadingly...

And Ryujin pulls Yeji close, closing every inch space with their embrace, until Yeji was the only thing she could feel. Until Yeji was the only thing left to feel.

And at the quietness of the night, with the stars staring down at them as their witness, Ryujin whispers to Yeji the three words that will forever remain constant in their changing world.

"I love you..."


TBC