I Used To Be Alright

Chapter 1

Ryujin

Ryujin has never been one to stay over, or let someone stay over.

So you could imagine the surprise she felt when she bumped into another body lying next to her upon waking up on a Saturday morning.

The girl's back was facing her and her head was buried in the pillow – which didn't help at all in figuring out her identity. However, it gave Ryujin some time to recall the previous night's events.

There was loud music, chitchats, dancing, bodies touching, and booze.

Lots of them.

She was at Yuqi's party – that much she recalled. But she didn't remember straying away from her friends and bringing someone home. She promised the celebrant to stay away from her guests, after all.

Did her body, somehow, act on its own?

Gosh. I really need to take a break from all this fooling around stuff. She thought, as the girl next to her started to steer and mumble.

She sat up and braced herself as the girl started to steer towards her side – revealing a person whom Ryujin would never expected to see in her bed. Ever.

Her body momentarily froze.

She had to blink multiple times to make sure that she's awake and that the situation wasn't a dream – simultaneously, the girl beside her opened her eyes and let out a ringing scream upon seeing Ryujin, who's looking at her directly.

"AGHHHH. What the f-"

Ryujin screamed back out of shock and immediately stood up from the bed.

"Why were you watching me sleep Ryujin-ah??"

The feline eyed took a deep breath to calm herself down and sat up slowly – revealing a full set of clothing.

So she's not undressed. Good. But wait, she doesn't look flustered at all with the fact that they woke up in the same bed. In Ryujin's room.

"Wait, why aren't you- What are you doing here Yeji-ah???"

Yeji smirked at her and stood up to gather her things.

"You called me." She said calmly.

"As you always do. But it was raining last night and you didn't want me to drive home alone."

Suddenly, everything started coming back to Ryujin.

She remembered getting so drunk with her friends that none of them stepped up to drive the group home. They all hailed cabs and booked their own Ubers while Ryujin insisted on calling Yeji to come and get her.

She also vaguely remembered Yeji's concerned tone while she was asking where Ryujin was exactly. She wasn't annoyed, or upset. She never was, despite all the other times that she came to Ryujin's rescue in the most inconvenient time – most of them during drunk midnights when she couldn't bring herself home.

She always joked that she'll make it up to her one day, but she's not sure if it'll ever come true. Yeji would only jokingly snort at the remark and give the same canned answer – "Okay."

"You don't have an extra cushion and your couch is full of trash. So, naturally, I slept beside you. You're too drunk to notice, anyway."

Yeji took her out of her trance. Ryujin looked at her blankly – still trying to process everything that happened.

"But gosh, you snored sooo loud I wasn't able to sleep until a few hours ago." The feline eyed added.

Ryujin just grinned at her apologetically and started to fix her bed to fill the awkwardly quiet space.

A few more minutes of shuffling from Yeji's end before she started walking away from Ryujin, and towards the door.

"Well, I'm gonna head out. See you around at school."

With that, she was left alone to contemplate.

Thinking about it, Yeji and her became friends in the most unexpected way.

Mid school year and the campus was buzzing with a visible sense of energy and a flurry of activities. Everyone had pretty much settled into their routine, students divided across those who choose to form groups in study halls, the ones who prefer a more secluded and quiet area in the library, those who didn't want to try too much and chose to hang out around the cafes and the nearby hot spots.

Typically for Ryujin's group, they were settled in the common area to chill out when a couple of men from graduate school approached them and asked if anyone would want to participate in a short filming for a Tiktok video.

Being the extrovert that she is, Ryujin stepped up. She's glad she did because she saw the other girl who was chosen from another group to join her – she has a distinctive appearance that's definitely eye-catching. One that you typically would remember even just after a quick glance.

The idea was to guess the other person's major based on how they're dressed.

Little did Yeji know that Ryujin already had the answer at the top of her head. How could she forget such a face – this specific one that had her stopped in her tracks weeks prior when she went loitering around the Engineering building to "people watch".

Added to the fact that she didn't get the chance to even say hi, Ryujin was sure that they were meant to meet again that day.

Soon after, she discovered that Yeji is this goody two shoes who doesn't care about flirting or finding a potential match in the university, or anywhere else at that. What she cares about – are her studies and her small group of friends.

Despite that, she doesn't really exude an aura of awkwardness, or eccentricity. Unlike the typical, all-books, all-studies club.

She's just... fine by the things that she already has.

And that's when Ryujin realized that there wasn't an inch of a chance that she'd be down for what she was looking for. And she never messes with the good ones, anyway, so she had long let go of that idea.

What's amusing was that they kept on subtly communicating weeks after they met.

Ryujin was struggling in her minor subjects and Yeji was surprisingly good at them, so she consistently bugged her to help her out with the lessons and schoolwork. Yeji, in turn, was mostly quiet and passive – accepting the free coffee and meal offered by the struggling student.

She would ask a few questions everytime Ryujin tells her stories about her adventures (and by that she meant – new girls she's meeting, parties she has gone to, some classroom anecdotes, and a lot of random encounters). Ryujin has always assumed that it was her way of being polite. And she makes sure to always thank her for listening and staying, despite getting absolutely nothing from their friendship.

Today, though... Today should be like any other day.

But for some reason, Ryujin couldn't shake off the image of Yeji peacefully sleeping beside her. In her bed.