Those days - txtzy

part 2: 一

A loud phone call was what Ryujin woke up to on a Saturday morning.

Rather, at 10 am.

An elderly woman was at the other end of the phone, her honey-sweet voice gentle to the ears of half-awake Ryujin. The girl jerked up upon registering what had been said to her, scrambling to change out of her pyjamas and spluttering apologies.

She practically ripped open her door and slammed face-first into Yuna. Her half-sister held her head as her expression contorted into one of absolute agony soundlessly, and Ryujin profusely apologised yet again. "Ow..." Yuna managed, rather belatedly, as she rubbed her reddening temple. Ryujin choked out another apology, which Yuna waved away and instead asked, "Where are you going in such a hurry?"

The older suppressed her panic and fibbed smoothly that she was meeting up with friends, before she sped out of the front door.

This was her routine every Saturday morning.

-

Monday afternoon, the clock ticking to four.

Yeji had canceled plans yet again. The girl had her nose so far stuck in her books that she completely ghosted her best friend. Ryujin complained so to Jisu, who laughed and said, "Well, not everyone has such a light curriculum like you, doesn't Yeji have, like, five more subjects than you?" The other girl's hand swished in the air in annoyance, then she retorted, "You've been busy too."

Jisu exhaled tiredly, then replied, "Hey, I have lots to do too. It's not easy to have to juggle so many humanities, even though I still wish I could have done music instead. And I got a new job at the cafe too."

With an exaggerated sigh, Ryujin leaned against the table with her hand propping her chin, "Well then, I'll have to find someone to be company."

With only a light laugh, Jisu returned to her many sheets of homework, a serious look on her face and completely deaf to any distractions.

When Jisu finally decided she was done for the day, and Ryujin had successfully balanced three pencils on top of each other before they fell with loud rattling, the duo exited the library and parted their ways. Before Ryujin stepped out of the school gate, however, she was stopped by a rough pat on the back.

Startled, she twisted, expecting Yuna to bounce out and declare some extravagant announcement, she was surprised to see another male instead.

Choi Beomgyu stood before her, his uniform pristine and his hair only lightly tousled. He was well-known for being rich and smart, and Ryujin was familiar with those kinds of people, so she avoided him like the plague.

"Yes?" She asked, trying her best to seem polite and not wary.

Beomgyu took a few moments to compose his features, which were in the midst of looking constipated. "So," He started out carefully, obviously unsure how to direct this conversation, "Hi. This is going to be weird. I don't think you know, but I'll explain anyways. There's going to be a...party, the annual gathering, for the business men and women running large businesses, big enough for them to be important, just to...you know, compare and kinda get to know the competition. Honestly it's quite useless, but it's important. Since it's getting late, I'll cut to the chase. I need a date, and I need it to be you."

Here Ryujin was just absolutely dumbstruck.

While she had heard of the party, she wasn't invited, obviously, so she didn't really care much. But Beomgyu, the Choi Beomgyu, was asking her, a person he had exchanged roughly five sentences with, was asking for her to be his date.

"Look, it'll just be for one night," Beomgyu said, running a hand through his hair in frustration, "I need it to be you, because the other girls are either ugly, too shy or taken, and I really don't want to be paired with my second aunt or something. You act, don't you? I've seen you before." Scoffing, Ryujin replied, "I do more singing, actually, but fine. One night. On one condition."

Beomgyu nodded, "Sure. As long as it's reasonable." Ryujin's lips quirked up, "Come with me to volunteer." Pondering for a few seconds, Beomgyu sighed and agreed.

"You have a deal."

Ryujin swiftly extended a hand and he shook it firmly, both feeling like they did a deal with the devil.

AN: This part will go rather fast because there are a lot of events that happen yikes