Hot Chocolate || RYEJI

11

"Do you ever think about how the clouds continuously change shapes?"

Ryujin looks up from her spot on the grass, raising a brow at how relaxed Yeji is compared to her, Chaeryeong, and Yuna, who were currently playing Monopoly. She follows where the brunette is staring and spots a fluffy cloud that resembles too much of a cat. "Not really."

Yeji smiles as she shields her vision from the piercing sun. "It's my favourite thing ever. Every second something is changing and moving. One hour passes and you look up, there's something new. Sometimes I look up whenever I'm stressed, turns out that it actually helps with creativity."

"Really?"

"Yep. It's beautiful."

In the past, Ryujin didn't pay much attention to the clouds above— she already had a dark cloud hanging over her head, what more can she do?

But since the day she met Yeji, the bright and optimistic girl, things have changed. The way Ryujin looked at things changed.

Especially how she now looked at clouds.

Maybe Yeji had a knack of explaining things in the most effective way, or maybe Ryujin just had a knack of taking Yeji seriously and applying anything she says to her lifestyle. It's evident how much has changed since she's met Yeji.

Ryujin's grew to love hot chocolate as her morning drink. She admires the colourful flowers on her way to school. Whenever she's struggling with school work or stress, she'd look up at the sky—even at night, and pretend that Yeji was right beside her describing all the clouds with particular shaping. Sometimes, she is. What's more is that whenever she has a literary assignment, she would unconsciously link it to the brunette she knows.

"You're down bad," Chaeryeong would say, and Ryujin would glare and deny. But deep down, maybe that is slowly becoming a statement. Perhaps, what Ryujin feels now extends beyond admiration and appreciation. What is it then?

Well, Ryujin has no clue.

But Chaeryeong does.

"It's lov—"

"No, I don't want to hear that nonsense right now." Ryujin covers her best friend's mouth, eyebrows twisting before she retracts her hand. As of right now, they're sitting in the busy café, waiting for the other pair.

"Okay keep denying because it's gonna do you so good," Chaeryeong sarcastically says, puffing out air when she crosses her arms and leans back into the brown leather couch. "You're the dumbest person I know."

The two of them are best friends, it's been like that ever since Chaeryeong boldly started a conversation between them in their English class the first week of junior year in high school. She's seen and experienced almost everything a teen could have, specifically Ryujin before a certain incident, so she'd like to say that she knew Ryujin best.

But because of that, she often becomes frustrated with the girl. Ryujin's quite dense, and she likes to deny and deny until something proves that it's safe to accept. In this case, that would probably be the most difficult thing due to how friendly Yeji is.

So as of now, all Chaeryeong can do is to listen. But obviously, that's a hard thing to do.

Ryujin scoffs. "I thought that you're supposed to be the supportive best friend, not the annoying-know-it-all best friend."

"Who says?" Chaeryeong quips. "I'm the supportively annoying-know-it-all best friend. Happy?"

"No." Ryujin sticks her tongue out. Before anything else escalates, her ears pick up a melodious laugh.