Chapter 7

The day went by slowly, but it passed nonetheless. The two friends sat on the table at a cafe with a heavy atmosphere between them. As the hours ticked away from each other, the atmosphere turned more and more depressing as time went on.

The two had been sitting together for quite some time but neither spoke nor made any kind of move to talk. The silence became heavy and unbearable, until one finally decided to break it.

"Are you okay, Ran?" Kyung-Mi asks, raising her head a little to take a glance at Ran who's scribbling down on her notebook.

"Where were you earlier?" It took at least a couple of minutes before Ran replied, violet eyes glued on her notebook as she scribbled and erased here and there.

"Well... I got caught up in an errand from another teacher." Kyung-Mi smiles and Ran raises her head and looks at the brunette with her probing violet orbs which the brunette responds with a wide grin.

"I see." Was all Ran said before taking a bite of her strawberry shortcake.

'Liar.'

Silence falls between the two again. Kyung-Mi looked at her pink-haired friend before heaving out a sigh and decided to start a conversation.

"What about your project, Ran? Is it going fine?"

"Yes, it is."

"You haven't started, right?"

"No, not yet, I'm working on that."

"Then maybe we could work on it together?"

"Sure, I'd like that."

A small, awkward tension settled between the two once more. Ran took her last bite of her shortcake before turning to look at her phone when she saw it lit up.

Her eyes skim through the message she received before glancing back up at her best friend, who's enjoying the desert she ordered before heaving out a sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Do you want another one, Kyung-Mi?" Ran asks, reaching out for her wallet.

"Sure, how about you?" The brunette asks, a wide smile plastered on her face. Kyung-Mi felt relieved as the tension between them slowly disappeared.

Ran only nodded her head and stood up from her seat after putting her notebook aside. She watched as Ran walked to the counter and for their cakes.

A moment later, she returned with their cakes and a cup of iced coffee in hand. Kyung Mi takes the latter and gives Ran one last smile before digging into her cake. Both eat their desserts quietly as they sit in comfortable silence.

"Thank you, Ran. I hope you'll be able to sleep after drinking so much coffee." Kyung-Mi smiles when Ran returns.

'You don't need to concern yourself with me, I'm fine, and will be fine, so don't worry about me, Ran. Thank you.'

Kyung Mi doesn't say anything further as they finish their cakes in silence. They both leave the cafe afterwards, Ran waving goodbye to KyungMi as she goes on her way home.

The brunette walks home without paying much attention to where she was going, her eyes are glued on the floor and her mind is occupied with thoughts of what happened earlier. Kyung Mi chuckled lightly as she headed home.

'Ran is so good at reading people. To her people and books don't have that much of a difference. Except that books are far more interesting than people.'