my annoying neighbour || ryeji

epilogue

The lingering sun was obliterated by the rapidly falling weather. The once bluish and vivid sky transformed into a vast expanse of gloomy grey that engulfed the town. A canopy of showery rain materialized amongst the river of sadness. The river babbled, mirroring the dazzling assemblage of pouring rain. The faint wind brushed against the waters surface, the ripples ruffled the stillness of the surface and shattered the reflection of the woods.

The lucent daytime of that day would never escape her memory. She clearly remember the bright baby blue curtain draped over the sky and the twisted, warped shapes that the clouds made against the sunny weather. The glassy speckles twirled and danced along the sky in various patterns, tugging at the corners of her lips in a way that almost made her smile. It was hard to shove aside the worries corrupting her mind, but eventually, she stopped walking over the soft sand below her feet and just... stopped thinking. Ryujin was alone. Nothing from her life could touch her. Not a single thing could harm her.

"Why do you have to leave me so soon? You vowed that you'd stay through thick and thin... Why, Yeji? Why? Why do you have to go and break your promise like that..."

Ryujin stared up at the sky and studied the dark grey glow of the clouds. They showered down at her with love so intense it warmed her soul like a fireplace on a cold winter's night. And there she was, standing on the riverbank at broad daylight to escape her life at their home, not wanting to do anything but cry.

But the look that the clouds gave her didn't cause the storm to go on inside of her. Instead, a hot blue fire flickered in her heart and soon started to grow, eating at all of the dark emotions in its path. Ryujin's worries burned away and the tears that were starting to form at the corners of her eyes melted down her cold face with a rush of deep torment and affliction.

"Tch. Classic Ryujin. So much for being dramatic as fuck. Who said I left you and broke my vows?"

Her voice. It left Ryujin staring into those sparkling hazel eyes burning with mischief that made her heart fell silent. Oh, how she missed drowning in her sweet honey voice as she used to do before but she couldn't move her lips to utter any words. As if she's stucked underwater, everything was slow and indefinite as Yeji approached her.

"Why are you acting like you've seen a ghost? It's just me, Ryujin."

"B-but... how? Y-you were d-.."

"Dead?"

Silence gnawed at her insides. Silence hung in the air like the suspended moment before a falling glass shatters on the ground. The silence was like a gaping void, needing to be filled with sounds, words, anything. The silence was poisonous in it's nothingness, cruelly underscoring how vapid their conversation had become. The silence was eerily unnatural, like a dawn devoid of birdsong. Silence clung to them like a poisonous cloud that at any moment could choke the life from her. Silence seeped into her every pore, like a poison slowly paralyzing them from either speech or movement. Ryujin expected for Yeji to crumple, wail or dissolve into tears but she did none of those things. Instead she embraced her fragile soul into her arms. She knew the latter was dead and yet here she is, making her feel like she's home.

"All of this was just a dream right, Yeddeong? You're not real! None of this is real."

"Maybe I'm dead and I'm no longer physically here with you anymore when you wake up in the morning but I never ever leave you, Ryuddaeng. I never break my vows to you. I love you so much and I know you feel it too somewhere in your heart."

"Then why the fuck did you... Why.. Just why did you leave me alone like this? What happened to all of those days when we had fun together and love each other deeply? How could you do this to me?! You lied, Yeji! You lied to me!" She sank to her knees on her spot, not caring for the damp sand that dirtied her clothes. Her tears mingled with the rain and her gasping wails echoed around the woods. The pain that flowed from her was perceptible and soon her only one true love, slowly fading from her sight.

"I'm sorry I'm no longer physically there for you but I really want you to know that I am always with you spiritually. Days and nights they always change but my love for you will stay the same. Just save a space for me, just save room for us in your heart."

"I love you, Yeddeong. I really do."

Ryujin cried noisily like a child with running snot and choking sobs and she was not ashamed. The numbness of her loss had passed and the pain would hit her out of nowhere, doubling her over and over again. She cried until there was nothing left inside but a raw emptiness that nibbles at her insides. Her irises were threaded scarlet and her eyeballs hung heavy in their sockets. Her whole body hung limp like each limb weighed twice as much as it had before and just moving it about was a slow, painful effort.

The rain has stopped and the sun has shone in the sky but not for Ryujin.

The birds sung in bursts of melody but not for Ryujin.

The rainbow has painted the sky in radiant colours but not for Ryujin.

For her there was no beauty left in the world.

For her there was no passion left in the world.

For her there was no love left in the world.

For her there was no Hwang Yeji in the world.

She was her entire universe and it's already collapsed.

"I'm sorry I wasn't enough for you and maybe I will never be enough at all."

a/n ; thank you for taking your time to read 'my annoying neighbour' for all these time. as sad as it is, this is the end of the story. i'm sorry if there were any grammar mistakes i made while writing this ryeji au and for playing with your ryeji hearts most of the time hehe ><

thank you so much for reading this. i appreciate all the reads and votes. much love xo.

signing off,

shinjangs.