She

Chapter 40

"It'll be fine," Ryujin answered confidently, giving her bestfriend a comforting nod with Chaeryeong and Yuna following as well.

"Guys I'm still here," Jisu interrupted, making the others laugh and thankfully, ease the noticeable tension that had been building up since their car ride.

"Jisu-ya ... you trust me, right?" Yeji asked, her hand still clutching onto Jisu's, though just slightly tighter than before.

"That's not the most comforting thing to hear when you're blindfolded," Jisu answered, bringing out a light chuckle from the silver haired girl. And while Jisu didn't answer the older girl's question, Yeji felt a slight squeeze of her hand from the shorter girl, and that was enough to let her know that yes, Jisu did indeed trust her with all her heart.

"I guess I'll take that as a yes," Yeji responded with a subtle grin.

The oldest took one last deep breath, before tapping the keycard on the doorknob censor and opening the door slowly, carefully leading Jisu inside with the 3 following closely behind.

Upon setting foot inside, both Chaeryeong and Yuna gasped at the sight of the well decorated room, while Ryujin could only mouth a silent wow.

"C-can I take this off now?" Jisu asked, in which Yeji responded by letting go of the younger girl's hand and moving to stand behind her, before cautiously untying the blindfold.

Jisu blinked several times for a moment, adjusting her eyes that had gotten use to the darkness of the black blindfolds to her new environment, and with each blink, she slowly came to the realization that where she stood was in fact, not new at all.

They were in Jisu's old apartment. 

The one she had spent much if not all her high school years living in, and though much of the furniture remained in the same spots just as it had been when she first rented the place, there were Christmas decorations adorned all over.

The living room itself was dimly lit, with only several yellow-ish orange string lights illuminating the place in a warm festive glow. There were 5 large red socks hung by the wall just above the TV, while Christmas ornaments could be found scattered all over, from a few cute elf plushies that sat by the sofa, to the little different sized Santa statues that adorned the empty shelves. There were even mistletoes hung by every doorway possible. And by the corner of the room, was a medium sized Christmas tree, well decorate in different sized round bulbs of various styles, some coated in glitter while some were glossy and metallic smooth, while the lights that wrapped around the tree changed from red, to blue, to green, to yellow, to a mixture, every few seconds, each complimenting the yellow-ish orange hue of the whole place in different ways.

"Is this why you asked for our secret santa gifts?" Yuna exclaimed as she excitedly pointed towards the present she had wrapped herself that was underneath the tree along with other gift boxes of varying sizes.

Yeji nodded with a smile, happy to see the youngest excited and amazed, as were Ryujin and Chaeryeong too, who were also walking around the place, admiring the way the eldest had created such a picture-perfect Christmas living room, while also reminiscing the times they use to come over to Jisu's place, whether it was for late night study sessions or even just to chill and talk, which most of the time ended with everyone sleeping over.

"How?" Chaeryeong asked. "How did you get the keys to this place again?"

"I-it wasn't easy ... I had to go around asking for the building owner's number, and then asking for the landlord's number, and then asking her if I could rent the place out for a night ...," Yeji answered.

"And she let you?" Ryujin responded.

"Uhh ... yeah, sort of ...," Yeji replied hesitantly, hiding the fact that she actually had to pay a whole months-worth of rent for this one night as the landlady didn't rent the room at a per-night rate.