Hot Chocolate || RYEJI

6

Has the flowers always been this vibrant? Ryujin thinks to herself as she walks along the path to the entrance of her university.

She had always taken this route to her school, but she never really noticed how... captivating these flowers were. Somewhere in her mind, she knows that she never really paid attention to such things as flowers. The reason why to her was unknown.

Even if she had no idea why the colours of the world were now blending in and splashing at the corners of her blank canvas, it was no longer on her mind when she spots a swaying brown ponytail near the entrance.

"Good morning!" Yeji smiles with a little wave. Ryujin returns it. "Why didn't you tell me Chaeryeong's your best friend?"

Ryujin's brows twitched in confusion for a split moment until her gaze drifts to the pair not too far from them. Her best friend wears a smile on her face as her hair curls around her index finger; she's talking to a particularly tall girl that Ryujin remembers from that one day near the art display cases.

"Yuna's been droning on about her and her talented art skills," Yeji adds once she sees that Ryujin catches on. "We should all hang out together some time."

"Yeah..." Ryujin looks back. "That sounds nice."

"Morning to you too, dumbass," Chaeryeong greets when she struts over with a tall bunny behind her. She pokes Ryujin in the forehead. "You're late! Thank god for your girlfriend or else I would've ditched you."

Ryujin's eyes widen at her friend's words and subtly pinched Chaeryeong's waist. Yeji seems confused when she glances at Yuna.

"She's a jokester, isn't she?" Ryujin awkwardly laughs afterwards, desperately trying to diffuse the tension in the atmosphere. Chaeryeong casts her a teasing glance and that's when Ryujin decides she's had about enough. "Let's get to class already. We're late enough."

"And that's because?" Chaeryeong wiggles her brows in yet another teasing manner, successfully annoying the shorter Shin.

"Enough!" Ryujin hisses when they're close enough, but far from the ears of the other pair of best friends. She's had about it for Chaeryeong's shenanigans today and it's only the morning. Who knows how exhausted she'd be by the end of today?

"Chaeryeong! Isn't that yours?" Yuna gasps when they pass by the art display case. The girl in question smiles and follows the tall Shin to the case, while the other two take their leisure time falling behind.

"You guys are cute," Yeji comments. Ryujin raises her brows in curiosity. "I've always wanted to have non-biological sister when it came to making friends. Turns out, God really wanted to nurture my babysitting skills," she giggles.

"Her? A baby?" Ryujin squints at the brunette's best friend. "I don't see it."

"Oh, you will," Yeji murmurs with a sly grin, "Looks deceive."

"Really? I don't believe it," Ryujin mumbles her reply, smiling when she notices that the cat-eyed girl catches her lingering gaze. 

"What?"

"Nothing." The dark-haired turns away. "I gotta get to my first class with Ryeong. She never stops talking if someone asks her about her art."

Yeji snorts as somewhat of an agreement. "Sounds familiar," she says, directing a look at her own best friend.

Soon, the two of them drags their best buds away and waves goodbye. Ryujin finds herself having a hard time focusing later in class, especially with the interrogation from the irritatingly smart Lee beside her, so she ends up barely getting any work done. 

She figures that a heartwarming hot chocolate could be of use and Chaeryeong never has objections about a free drink. Thus, for lunch, Chaeryeong happily invites Yuna and Yeji to tag along. The four of them spends a lengthy time together that noon. 

And it is no doubt that it happens again, again, and again.