Pretend (Ryeji)

Chapter 10: Curious

Ryeji's so cute 😭

Also, I don't know if everyone knows how I work with flashbacks. Long story short, they just look like this.

Yeji woke up, immediately panicking about the time, despite not having checked it yet. She assumed it was early morning because of the orange glow shining through the blinds in her window. She had no recollection of when they arrived nor any memory of the dinner meeting that her co-star mentioned earlier in the car.

Frantically, she quite literally hopped out of bed, ignoring her phone, and dashed out of the room in search of the individual who practically insisted she'd wake her up. It didn't take very long since she found the latter with her limbs spread amongst the couch cushions.

"WAKE UP!" Yeji gripped the blonde's shoulders and shook her mercilessly.

"AH! What time is it??" Ryujin rose up from the couch hastily, her heart pounding slightly faster than usual from being startled.

"YOU DIDN'T WAKE ME UP AND NOW MISSED THE DINNER!"

A very sleepy Ryujin narrowed her eyes at the woman in front of her. She was in no mood to be awoken from her slumber for this particular reason, but she reckoned that it was her fault for fibbing about the whole ordeal. "Nobody has missed anything."

"Yes, we have! The meeting was— "

"There was no dinner, Yeji."

Confused, Yeji sat upright. She was no longer tired, which meant she could think more clearly. "What do you mean there was none? You said your manager organized it."

Ryujin shook her head, trying to wake herself up. She quickly put two-and-two together, acknowledging that she herself had fallen asleep. That meant she ruined whatever plans she made last night with Chaeryeong's assistance. However, that didn't mean she couldn't... reschedule. "I contacted my manager, told her you were sleepy. She agreed to move it to tonight when we get back to Seoul. Pretty much everyone has been notified."

"Oh... Then I'll let my manager know and— "

"That's not necessary. I already did that for you."

"You did?"

"Yes."

Yeji stared at Ryujin peculiarly. "So when do we leave?"

"At five." Ryujin removed herself from the sofa and wandered over to the bathroom, not wanting to continue a conversation that arose Yeji's suspicions and seemingly endless questions. She was still half-asleep. There wasn't enough time to continuously spit out lies.

She still considered it harmless. After all, she was only trying to do something nice. She knew Seoul better than she did Daejeon anyway. It'll be easy to rethink up some ideas. If need be, she'll contact Chaeryeong for help again.

On the other hand, Yeji remained in the living room area. She felt thrown off about how things have been as of late. Ryujin was behaving strangely. It would've been normal of her to get pissed off for waking her up in such an abrupt manner. It would've been normal of her to react to her consistent bursts of snappy remarks. What wasn't normal was her walking away like nothing bothered her.

*** *** ***

Yeji busied herself with her phone in the car, taking part in a lengthy text conversation with her little sister Monday. She would've called, but the topic of discussion was currently the individual driving the vehicle right now.

Everything was still throwing her for a loop. Between all that happened in Daejeon during the second week and all that's happening today, she can't seem to place her finger on the reason behind it. The young Shin had suggested they'd just show up to the meeting together, claiming it'd convince their managers that they were getting along fine. She said it'd reduce the chances of their interference.