I Used To Be Alright

Chapter 14

Yeji

So she already likes someone.

Yeji thought to herself as she was walking out of her last class several days after Ryujin admitted that she's having conflicts with her friends due to the girl she likes.

She intentionally left the necklace on top of her drawer when she was getting ready this morning – the reason why, she still wasn't sure. But ever since Ryujin's admission, she felt somewhat... down. Disheartened?

Thinking about it, she had experienced a lot of new emotions and surprises since she met Ryujin than she did in her whole school life. She even almost got in a fight last week. The rage she felt during that night, the embarrassment and the worry that came the morning after. The overthinking, and most recently... the hurt. Upon knowing that Ryujin has now developed actual feelings for someone else.

Even someone as detached as she is would be an idiot not to realize that this isn't a mere reaction to the new experiences she's getting. She's actually feeling something more for the brunette – something definitely more than a friend would.

She hasn't even seen the brunette for a couple of days but she couldn't get her out of her head.

"It's a lost cause."

She took a big sigh and muttered to herself.

"What is?"

She was surprised to hear a familiar voice and a sound of hurried footsteps beside her.

"Lia-ah? Hey. I haven't seen you in a while."

"Same."

They walked a couple of meters side by side before Lia started to speak again.

"I actually came by to talk to you about something, Yeji-ah."

Yeji began to walk slower and waited.

"So Minjeong told me."

The feline eye didn't seem too surprised. Of course she would tell her friends. Ryujin hasn't really brought it up in any of their conversations after Jeju, but she knew that everyone in their circle probably knows by now.

"I guess I just want to make sure that what happened won't cause a ripple between us and your friends. You know, we enjoyed Jeju a lot with you guys."

Yeji still wasn't sure why Lia's suddenly talking to her about the topic but her best guess was because she genuinely didn't want any complications stemming out from it.

"Of course. I'm just treading lightly, you know? I don't know a lot about heartbreaks but I want to give her the time. But you guys are free to hang out with Ryeong and Yuna whenever you want."

She wanted to ask about her conflict with Ryujin, but decided to just stay out of it.

"Yeah. She would need the time, but she'd get over it sooner, for sure. You're not planning to date anyone else from our group, right? That would be the only one that'll complicate things."

Lia laughed nervously as Yeji kept her eyes ahead – clearly baffled where the statement stemmed from. It was disturbingly random, and the way she said it sounded like there's more to it than just being a sudden thought.

Before she could even open her mouth to ask, Lia strode away and said her goodbye.

"It was nice running into you, Yeji-ah. See you around."