Twisted Games(Ryeji ver)

YEJI[CHAPTER 3]

ONE OF THE WORST THINGS ABOUT HAVING A ROUND-THE-CLOCK
bodyguard was living with them. It hadn’t been an issue with
Sunghoon because we’d gotten along so well, but living in close
quarters with Ryujin put on me on edge.

Suddenly, my house seemed too small, and everywhere I
looked, Ryujin was there.
Drinking coffee in the kitchen.
Stepping out of the shower.
Working out in the backyard, her muscles flexing
and her skin gleaming with sweat.
It all felt strangely domestic in a way it hadn’t felt with
Sunghoon, and I didn’t like it one bit.

“Aren’t you hot in those clothes?” I asked one
unseasonably warm day as I watched Ryujin do push-ups.
Even though it was fall, the temperature hovered in the
high seventies, and a bead of sweat trickled down my neck
despite my light cotton dress and the ice-cold lemonade in
my hands.

Ryujin must be roasting in her black shirt and workout
shorts.

“Trying to get me to take my shirt off?” She continued her
pushups, not sounding the least bit winded.
Warmth that had nothing to do with the weather spread
across my cheeks.

“You wish.” It wasn’t the most inspired
answer, but it was all I could think of.

Honestly, I was curious about seeing Ryujin shirtless. Not
because I wanted to sneak a peek at her abs—which I
grudgingly admitted had to be fantastic if the rest of her
body was anything to go by—but because she seemed so
determined not to be shirtless. Even when she left the
bathroom after a shower, she was fully dressed.
Maybe she was uncomfortable getting half-naked in front
of a client, but I had a feeling not much discomfited Shin
Ryujin. It had to be something else. An embarrassing tattoo,
maybe, or a strange skin condition that only affected her
torso.

Ryujin finished her pushups and moved on to the pull-up
bar.

“You gonna keep ogling me, or you got something I can
help you with, princess?”

The warmth intensified.

“I wasn’t ogling you. I was secretly praying for you to get heatstroke. If you do, I’m not helping you. I have…a book to read.” Dear Lord, what am I saying? I didn’t make sense even to
myself.

After our moment of solidarity at The Crypt two weeks
ago, Ryujin and I had settled right back into our familiar
pattern of snark and sarcasm, which I hated, because I
wasn’t a typically snarky and sarcastic person.
A shadow of a smirk filled the corners of Ryujin's mouth,
but it disappeared before it blossomed into something real.

“Good to know.”
By now, I was sure I was beet red, but I lifted my chin and
reentered the house with as much dignity as I could muster.
Let Ryujin bake in the sun. I hoped she did get heatstroke.
Maybe then, she wouldn’t have enough energy to be such an
ass.

Sadly, she didn’t, and she had plenty of energy left to be an
ass.

“How’s the book?” she drawled later, when she’d finished
hee workout and I’d grabbed the closest book I could find
before she entered the living room.

“Riveting.” I tried to focus on the page instead of the way
Ryujin's sweat-dampened shirt clung to her torso.

Six-pack abs for sure. Maybe even an eight-pack. Not that
I was counting.

“Sure seems that way.” Ryujin's face remained impassive,
but I could hear the mocking bent in her voice. She walked to
the bathroom, and without looking back, she added,
“By the way, princess, the book is upside down.”
I slammed the hardcover shut, my skin blazing with
embarrassment.