Paganini's Puppet | Ryeji

Promise

"They weren't drugs...they're prescribed to ease my nerves before a performance."

Her pills...are anxiety pills. They calm her down.

Her state of constant stress and negative thoughts would result in...depression.

This wasn't the first time she'd thought of dying.  She told me she'd written a suicide note a while back.

"The one person I truly felt I could trust to be by my side until now was Lia."

My heart was completely broken for her. I always thought she was overly privileged. I used to think: how can someone with everything possibly struggle? She always functioned fine in school, and she never failed to impress those around her.

I misjudged her.

The only thing I could do right now was be here for her.

(A/N: idk if this explanation made any sense to y'all. But Perfectionism isn't the glorious gift everyone makes it out to be. It leads to anxiety and depression, and I wanted Yeji to embody this concept.)

———————————————————————

Yeji POV

I woke up with Ryujin still sleeping beside me.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and saw a spam of messages from Lia.

"Where the hell are you? I went to your house and your parents said you never came home last night."

"Hey? You agreed to talk today, remember?"

"Dude, respond!"

"Why aren't you answering?"

"Yeji, please. I'm sorry for yelling at you yesterday."

"Hey, I'm really worried about you."

"Please answer your phone."

She scrolled through her phone some more and saw a text from Satan himself.

"Come home, dear. I'm not mad at you. I even bought you a brand new $500,000 violin and $20,000 bow."

Tsk. Of course he's trying to bribe her. As if she'd believe her father's words. She knew she'd suffer the worst of consequences if she went back home.

Suddenly, she felt Ryujin stir beside her.

"Good morning." Ryujin said in her morning voice and gosh did it make Yeji feel things.

"Morning." The girl answered shyly.

Ryujin turned to her side, checking the time.

"It's 8:30 a.m. My mom's already left for work."

"Your mom works on Saturdays?"

"Ahah. She works everyday..."

"Oh..."

"Come on, let's go eat some breakfast."

Ryujin POV
I prepared a bowl of steamed egg and worked on frying a kimchi pancake while Yeji sat at the kitchen counter, fidgeting with her fingers while observing me.

How is she so cute?

I really wanted to know if she felt anything for me...or if that kiss really meant nothing and just happened in the moment.

I sat across from her on the counter and placed the food down.

"Here, eat up." I smiled.

I questioned her as we ate.

"Are you feeling better?"

"...yeah."

"That's good. When do you plan on going back home?"

"...I don't know. Maybe never...haha." She said half jokingly with sad eyes.

"Yeji...you can't avoid your parents forever."

"How can you say that? You know how badly my father treats me! My mom is never home anyway!"

Shit.

I placed my hand over her's on the counter.

"I- I didn't mean it that way. I'm sorry. You can stay as long as you need. I just think...you'll have to face them eventually."

"...thank you."

"Of course. Uh...have you...have you thought of getting treatment?"

"You have no idea. My parents don't believe their "perfect" daughter could be mentally ill. Especially when they're the cause of it. They won't take me to see a psychiatrist."

"I'm sorry."

"You say sorry a lot for someone who hasn't done anything wrong."

"I just...I care about you."

She looked up at me with a confused expression.

"Please, don't try killing yourself again. I don't think I can go on...without you."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ryujin. I'm just a burden...to everyone."

"How can you say that?! You were never a burden. You mean more to me than you know!"

"W- why?"

I could feel my heart already pacing. Universe, please be on my side.

I leaned in and kissed her.