Eternity [ryeji]

Chapter 20

Ryujin lifts her head when she hears the car door opening and sets her phone aside, closing the game app. “Hey,” she greets the tall woman sitting next to her.

“Hi. How was your day?” asks Yuna.

“Not bad. Picked up Yeji’s father, talked to my broker about a new exhibition and I even got some work done.” Ryujin carefully starts driving away from the curb.

“That’s productive. I was expecting you to nap a lot today.”

“Huh? Why is that?”

“Because you had a very busy night.”

“What?” Ryujin steals a glance, sees the grinning Yuna and turns red in the face, realizing that her housemate has probably overheard her and Yeji. “Oh my god.”

“Our walls aren’t that thick, you know. You’re lucky that I have noise isolating earphones.”

“Sorry,” mumbles Ryujin, wishing that she could disappear from that car. She was caught up in the moment and too eager that she had forgotten about the other occupant of the house. In the old days, she’d never do it when Yuna was around. “I should’ve been more considerate.”

“That’s okay. I mostly heard Yeji unnie anyway so it’s not too traumatizing,” says Yuna. “I would’ve evacuated the premises if I heard my older sister moaning.”

“Oh god. Please don’t tell Yeji about this? I promise to be extremely careful and extra considerate next time.”

Yuna laughs. “I’m okay. Kinda. Trauma aside, I’m happy to see you happy again. Finally.”

“I’m really sorry,” Ryujin apologizes again, still not done feeling embarrassed.

“You’re completely forgiven. So are we going straight to Yeji unnie’s apartment?” Yuna asks, changing the topic of the conversation for Ryujin’s sake.

“Yes.”

“How scary is her father?”

“Very.” Ryujin deflates. “I think he’s deliberately trying to scare me away.”

“He’s probably testing you, you know that, right?”

“I know but it doesn’t make it less intimidating. I can’t wait for him to go back to the States.”

“You’ve been through this before, Unnie. Her parents weren’t exactly fond of you living with their daughter, were they?”

“No but it was different. They were mortals. They couldn’t do anything to me and they didn’t know me. Plus, she was the one I cared about and she knew me. What her parents said wouldn’t have affected her.”

“Yeji unnie’s father doesn’t know you either and I believe that it was her decision to be in a relationship with you, not his.”

“But he knows what I am and he can easily influence Yeji because she’s new at this,” argues Ryujin. “You know what I mean. He’s one of us. A knowledgeable, older, more experience immortal. He knows things I don’t so I can’t outsmart him, lie to him or pretend to be something I’m not,” explains Ryujin.