Work Text:
When she turned down a second serving of their meal, Jimin knew something significant must have happened.
“I’m just not hungry,” the smaller girl huffed, tilting her head off to the side. There was no overlooking the flash of uncertainty through her eyes though, as if she worried about how Jimin might react.
Jimin raised an inquisitive brow, pointing out, “You’ve never eaten less than two servings of any meal we’ve shared together.”
Minjeong breathed out sharply, obviously irritated. “That doesn’t mean I have to stuff my face every time.”
“You’ve never once considered it ‘stuffing your face,’” Jimin rebutted quickly, now downright uneasy about the whole matter. Where had this sudden change sprouted from, and why did Minjeong seem so embarrassed about cluing her in? “Did you forget your wallet?” she ventured a guess. “You don’t have to feel bad about spending my money. You know I’d fight you for the bill and win anyway so don’t force yourself—”
“I didn’t forget my wallet!” Minjeong hmphed, crossing her arms over her chest, “And I would’ve won this time!” Her small pout appeared as it always does whenever Jimin teased her even a little bit.
“I’m going on a diet,” she finally declared.
“A diet?” Jimin deadpanned. It was a well-known fact that the idol industry harbored harsh conditions and emphasized impossible beauty standards, but when aespa was formed, the girls made a pact to put their own health above all else. That meant not restricting their food intake. “You don’t need to diet.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Minjeong-ah,” Jimin started sternly, aware that her voice shifted from Jimin the Friend to Karina the Leader, “I get that promotions are coming up and we’re going to be on camera a lot but—”
“ Unnie !” the smaller girl expressed impatiently, “It’s not an idol thing! You wouldn’t understand.”
“Explain it to me, then.”
“It’s just . . .” Minjeong rubbed her hands together, breathing out slowly in a moment of hesitation. “. . . There’s this boy.”
Jimin’s chopsticks froze in mid-air. She flitted her gaze to the girl sitting in front of her in one, swift motion, only to find that a dusting of red had settled across her nose. The only time Jimin had ever seen the small girl look so insecure was when her pride was on the line, and so Jimin quickly jumped to the only logical explanation.
“Is he bullying you?” she asked sternly, the corner of her mouth turning down into a deep frown. “Is he telling you ridiculous things, like you need to eat less or—”
“No!” Minjeong interjected, her eyes trailing up into a half-roll at the drawn conclusion. “I-I. . . Well, I like him.”
Jimin stared. “You like a boy.” It came out as half a question and half a shocked statement, as if she needed to bluntly summarize what she’d just heard for it to make even an ounce of sense in her head. “And why does that require dieting?”
“Well, Yeji unnie and the other girls know him—just from around music shows and festivals, you know? They heard that the last girl he used to like was really something: pretty and super thin. I need to get thinner if I want him to look at me.”
The blush mildly spread to her cheeks, and Jimin couldn’t stop herself from staring. It had never occurred to her that Minjeong would ever devote herself to a boy. Her Minjeong liked horror movies, roller coasters, taking pictures of the sky, chasing butterflies—when did she start liking a boy ? Jimin’s mind had already become a whirlwind of different thoughts and reactions.
One finally managed to work its way out of her mouth: “Shouldn’t you want him to like you for you? Changing yourself like this to impress him won’t solve anything.”
“It’s not like I’m changing my personality,” Minjeong refuted impatiently. “I’m just changing how I look a little. This could be good for me. I eat too much anyway.”
“But you love food,” Jimin argued, but it seemed futile.
Minjeong shook her head, softly claiming, “I’m willing to make the sacrifice. After all, when you like someone, you want to try hard for them.”
Jimin had nothing to say against those profound words, and if she was honest with herself, she admired them too much to even try. Instead, she polished off the last of their meat as Minjeong rummaged through her wallet to pay for their food. Her efforts were cute.
-
When she sullenly accepted seconds of her soup, Jimin realized something had changed.
“You said you were dieting,” she said aloud. Granted, that had been over a month ago, but she knew, like most idols, that weight loss was a long and rigorous process.
Minjeong sighed heavily. “Oh, I still am. I’m just not cutting back as much anymore.”
“Any reason?” Jimin asked cautiously, noticing how exhausted the girl looked compared to the last time they sat down to eat together; there were bags under her eyes and a pale whiteness to her skin, all of which added to the unhealthy tinge in her appearance. They had been practicing their solo cover performances for their upcoming concerts, so the girls rarely ever saw each other. Each day, Jimin left for practice earlier than everyone and she would fall asleep before Minjeong would get home.
Minjeong paused with her spoon dipped in her broth, contemplation passing over her features as she hesitated much like the last time she’d uttered her confession. “. . . I passed out.”
“Passed out—” Jimin almost choked on her own soup from the surprise, and Minjeong grimaced in return.
“I passed out at practice last week because I hadn’t eaten all day. The doctor said it was malnutrition—that I was eating too little and exercising too much.” She swirled her soup in its bowl, brooding as she stared down at it. “Manager unnie gave me a good scolding that day.”
“You have no energy to dance,” Jimin stated incredulously. “That’s two things you love that you’ve lost now. Minjeong-ah, don’t you think you’re taking this too far?”
Her answering smile was dejected. “I do it all for the guy I like, so it’s no big deal.”
“But there’s a limit,” Jimin tried to argue, but Minjeong shook her head again, refusing to bend on this matter, and Jimin withdrew unwillingly. She was sure the smaller girl got a hefty lecture from their manager already and once stubborn Minjeong came out, it was near impossible to reason with her.
But still, Minjeong was a friend, so she couldn’t help her worry as she observed the girl’s hollowed features once again.
Winter had begun and there was a nip in the air, but while the other patrons of the restaurant were happily slurping their soup and accepting its warmth, Minjeong picked at her food in slight disgust. It was obvious that she didn’t want the steaming meal, that she had reluctantly ordered it simply to avoid collapsing again, though Jimin knew she was normally the type to practically swoon at something so delicious. Minjeong wasn’t herself anymore, and Jimin wondered just what kind of boy could be worth this torture.
“Just make sure you eat balanced meals everyday,” she tacked on in the end. “It’s possible to be skinny and healthy, you know, as long as you’re both staying active and supplying your body with proper nutrients. Be sensible about this.”
“Yes seon-saeng-nim,” Minjeong replied jokingly, her grin playful rather than resigned for the first time since the two of them started eating. Jimin’s relief at seeing it almost made her own lips twitch, but she managed to suppress the urge to double-down on her seriousness and gruffly returned to her own food.
They split the bill this time.
-
When she began shoveling spoonfuls of six different cakes into her mouth, Jimin knew something was wrong.
It wasn’t strange to have sweets after they finished their world tour, but the Minjeong she had come to know valued hard work above anything else; she would never destroy all of her sacrifices up until now, especially after months of cutting back on her favorite foods.
It had been three months since their last food date and she already looked different, much more like the girl she once was; her cheeks had rounded out once again, almost back to their healthy, pink color, and her hands didn’t shake from weakness anymore as she handled cutlery. Jimin assumed her bandmate had properly heeded the doctor’s words and followed her advice, but watching the girl now, it was more likely she’d been overcompensating for something with food.
“Is everything all right?” Jimin asked carefully.
Minjeong paused her frenzy, eyes widening as she looked up at her, and asked slowly. “Wh-Why do you think something’s wrong?”
“This is the most I’ve seen you eat for five months,” she pointed out. “Do you expect me to believe nothing has changed?”
Minjeong set down her fork, mouth opening and closing a few times before her shoulders dropped. Her voice was soft. “He got a girlfriend.”
Masking her surprise and the jolt in her chest, Jimin approached the situation delicately. “The boy you liked?”
“A-A few weeks ago,” she continued shakily, her eyes boring down into her cakes, though Jimin had a feeling she didn’t actually see them. “He started going out with another girl a few weeks ago. I-I didn’t even get to confess yet.” She looked back up at her, and Jimin started at the glisten in her eyes. “All that work, unnie, and I didn’t even get my chance.”
Her lip quivered for one moment of weakness. She shed no actual tears, but the look in her eyes was all Jimin needed to see to realize that she had fallen apart on the inside.
She was so passionate in her love. It had been nothing but a silly, silly crush, and yet she took it as hard as losing that one ray of light in a dark world. It was as if, to her, the intensity and the devotion made it all the more real, and Jimin vaguely mused that the person Minjeong would one day marry would be incomparably lucky to receive all the girl’s passion.
But Jimin was helpless when faced with this kind of distress. Liking a boy, feeling so much for a boy—Jimin couldn’t understand the act of it because she had never met a boy she liked or felt for. So what could she do for Minjeong who she cared for but couldn’t understand?
She eyed the plates of cakes spread out amongst them. As Jimin had thought, Minjeong had been eating to overcompensate for the love she had lost and to fill the void it had left behind. It was actually doing wonders for her, returning her the strength she had lost from refusing food for too long. If this was how she chose to grieve, then Jimin wanted to help in any way she could.
Minjeong blinked in uncertainty when Jimin slid her own cake across the table, pushing it towards the other girl.
“Eat up,” she ordered, coolly reaching for her steaming cup of tea. “I’ll pay this time.”
“But you always pay,” Minjeong replied, her voice cracking at the end.
“You need this,” was the simple answer, and it was all she had to hear to dig into the dessert, hiding the overwhelming emotion on her face.
Jimin paid their costly bill without a word, all the while thinking of how beautiful Minjeong was in her heartbreak.
-
When she started humming while drumming the same tune on the lid of her coffee cup, Jimin noticed the sparkle had returned to the girl’s eyes.
It had been quite a while since their last one-on-one outing to lunch together, when Minjeong had fallen apart in front of her eyes and Jimin had spent many sleepless nights trying, and failing miserably, to forget the heartbreak on the girl’s face for even a moment. In their time working together during their busy busy schedule, she’d noticed that Minjeong seemed to be moving on from her misery, that each time she heard her laugh it sounded more and more true, but Jimin had never had time to ask for confirmation from the girl herself.
Now, they finally sat in a coffee shop; an entire morning of posing for cameras and magazine articles had left Jimin exhausted and in dire need of caffeine, and Minjeong had taken one look at the bags under her eyes before declaring that as aespa’s foodie, she knew the best place for coffee in town and promptly dragging the older girl there by the wrist. Minjeong was brash with her actions, Jimin had learned after years and years of friendship, but it was only recently that she had realized Minjeong was also always considerate.
Trying to return even a fraction of that consideration, Jimin was all ears—though she pretended not to be—as she asked, “Something good happened to you?”
Minjeong beamed in reply. “So you noticed, huh? Well, as a matter of fact, something did.” She’d stopped strumming her cup already, settling for drawing circles around the rim of the lid instead. “The guy I liked broke up with his girlfriend.”
She might have expected Jimin to gape in shock. Even Jimin was prepared for an influx of astonishment, or maybe even empathy after following the younger girl’s story for so long. Instead, irritation pricked at her like falling pine needles. After experiencing all that heartache, Minjeong was still pining after that boy?
“And this is a cause of celebration?” she asked dryly. “You can finally confess?”
“Oh, I already did.” Minjeong grinned when Jimin lurched in her seat, eyes uncharacteristically wide while hesitating to ask the question. Elbow on the table, Minjeong rested her cheek against her first to learn forward and announce, “I was rejected.”
Trying to calm her own thudding heart, Jimin appraised her carefully. “You’re not upset though,” she observed.
“Nope!” Minjeong’s grin molded into a gentle smile as she linked her arms in front of her and stretched. Her eyes were just as soft, and Jimin noted in wonder that the younger girl had matured splendidly through the experience. “I think I just needed that closure, you know? I realized something after he turned me down: I actually came to terms with him having a girlfriend a long time ago. It was just the fact that I never got my chance, even after working so hard, that was eating away at me.”
Jimin took that in with a moment of contemplative silence. “So . . . what now?”
“Now? Now I find a new love.”
It was hard not to smile back when the one Minjeong directed at her was so bright and brimming with youth, and she was sure it must have looked as proud as she felt. Minjeong might have worked her body a little too hard in a moment of weakness, but she had a very healthy control over her emotions.
Minjeong sank back into her seat, playfully heaving a deep sigh. “But man, it’s gonna be hard to find someone as good as him, definitely.”
“He couldn’t have been all that great,” Jimin grumbled in return, feeling bitter towards a boy she’d never even learned the name of. She didn’t forgive people who hurt her friends very easily.
“No, he really was.” Minjeong waved an airy hand. “He’s pretty smart, almost freakishly nice, and damn good at dancing too. I only settle for the best, you know.”
Jimin slammed a hand against the tabletop as she stood up. “I’m done with my coffee,” she muttered, crushing the cup in her hand. “I’ll go pay.”
“You’re paying? Again?” She didn’t say anything about the abrupt change of subject, or didn’t notice.
“Of course,” Jimin snapped back. “You know I’ll always take care of it.” Of you . But Jimin didn’t say that.
“Hmmm,” she overheard the girl mumbling to herself. “I guess you’ve always been caring, unnie.”
Jimin’s ears definitely turned pink from embarrassment and she tossed her trash into a bin and made a beeline for the front counter. Of course she was! Was Minjeong only just noticing?
Too busy thinking about her perfect crush I suppose.
The darkness of her tone surprised even her. She hadn’t liked the boy very much to begin with, even if they’d never officially met. No matter how much Minjeong praised him, if he was someone her friend needed to starve herself for, she didn’t think very highly of him.
Recently, however, Jimin had begun to realize that she just genuinely disliked hearing Minjeong talk about him. She was beginning to lose her patience over the girl’s hero-worship, though she hadn’t given it much thought when Minjeong had first developed feelings. With this closure, hopefully she would spare Jimin from having to listen as she swooned over undeserving boys.
She was still grumbling to herself as she approached the cashier. “I’d like to pay for our coffee,” Jimin informed the woman behind the counter. “Mine, and hers.”
Jimin pointed to their table with a jab of her thumb, directing the employee’s gaze to Minjeong, who was idly sipping the last of her drink as she awaited her return.
“Oh!” the woman gushed, calculating their fee. “Treating your lady over there, are you? What a nice girlfriend you are!”
Jimin didn’t bother correcting her as she dolled out the payment.
-
When she gazed longingly at the poster hanging on the far wall of the restaurant, Jimin couldn’t help but be intrigued.
This time, she didn’t have to ask before Minjeong offered an explanation.
“The owner of the restaurant started a new promotion last week,” she said, pointing to the advertisement for the event she’d been staring at. “Whoever can eat the most mandu in five minutes wins a pair of tickets to see the baseball match in the stadium next week. It’s one of the last games of the season.”
“And you would like to try?” Jimin guessed.
Minjeong sighed heavily. “I already did, but I couldn’t get them. See, the owner already set the record, so if anybody wants to win, they have to beat his number.” She pointed him out, a burly man who certainly looked like he could pack away a hearty meal. “He ate twenty-eight.”
Jimin’s eyes widened. “That . . . is certainly a lot.”
“The mandu here are smaller than usual, which is why it’s easier to eat more, but they’re full of so much stuffing that eating too much can make anyone sick. It’s impossible.” Her bottom lip jutted out as she laid her head on the table in defeat.
Jimin took one look at her friend’s mournful expression before she set her jaw and marched purposefully to the owner. This was important to Minjeong, and as such, it was important to her too.
She had realized not too long ago, Minjeong’s needs mattered more to her than she could care to explain. Maybe it had come from watching her deal with her first heartbreak and feeling so helpless over how to help her, or maybe it had come from feeling so accomplished when Jimin managed to lift the girl’s spirits again with her comfort.
Jimin had no delusions. Whatever it was, it fueled her urge to keep the girl happy, and she’d long since accepted what that meant.
“I’d like to take on the mandu challenge,” she declared to the owner, who gave her an expectant once-over.
“Sure thing,” he chuckled. “Let me get everything ready for you.”
Minjeong lifted her head and stared at her. “Unnie, are you crazy? You’ll definitely get sick. I just told you it was impossible!”
“I’ll decide that for myself,” she replied. Seeing the worry Minjeong directed at her, she was quick to assure her, “Don’t worry, Minjeong-ah, I can do it.”
“I didn’t even know you liked baseball,” Jimin overheard the girl say quietly.
-
“Holy shit, this girl’s a machine!” a random customer exclaimed four minutes into Jimin’s challenge. “She’s got a black hole for a stomach!”
Minjeong just watched in awe as her friend scarfed down her food with breakneck speed, chewing hastily and thickly swallowing each time. Jimin ate in a very efficient manner, never wasting her time or movements while maneuvering the chopsticks. She was, however, beginning to look slightly green around the edges now that the end was in sight, but persevered through her nausea.
“How many is that?” someone asked in awe, which began a unanimous countdown.
“Twenty-six . . . twenty-seven . . . twenty-eight . . .”
When Jimin hit twenty-nine, the crowd burst out into cheers and applause, while she dropped her chopsticks, reclined back in her seat, screwed her eyes shut, and tried to suppress a pained groan.
“Here ya go,” the owner grumbled, unwillingly tossing her an envelope with her prize inside. He stalked into the kitchen after, a sour glint in his eyes.
“You all right, unnie?” Minjeong asked quietly, watching her with worry. The other patrons were busy chattering amongst themselves excitedly, which gave her time to check up on her ill-looking friend.
Jimin wordlessly handed her the envelope, clapping her hands over her stomach after. The chair screeched as she pushed it back, and it was with difficulty that she managed to right herself. “The fee of our lunch has been waived now, right?” she muttered. “Then I’m going back home.”
“Wait, your tickets!” Minjeong cried, but Jimin shook her head.
“Take them,” was all she managed to say.
Minjeong looked down at the tickets as the older girl wobbled away, biting her lip unsurely. “I don’t know, unnie. It doesn’t feel right for me to take these, not when you did all the work.”
“Take them,” Jimin hissed, not even looking back as she finally made it to the door. Her cheeks had flushed something horrid. “Otherwise, this would have no purpose. Who do you think I did this for, anyway?”
“For me?” the smaller girl replied in disbelief. “All of it?”
Jimin had done something so uncharacteristic and out of her comfort zone just for her? Was it possibly because she could tell how badly Minjeong wanted the tickets? Had the disappointment and the longing in her words been too strong?
Even so, never in a million years had she ever thought she would see Jimin do something so blatantly uncool—and by choice. She was a sight to behold right now, barely able to stand straight without turning green, as she would have known would happen should she take on the challenge. This horrendous state was hardly fitting for an idol, yet she had willingly cast the thought aside. It was all very touching.
Minjeong was strangely shy as she called after her. “Why do all this just for me, unnie?”
Jimin paused halfway out the door. With her back facing her, Minjeong had no way to see the uncertainty that passed over her features, replaced with determination an instant after. She only noted the silence, which stretched on for so long that she almost believed Jimin wouldn’t answer at all.
But Jimin was out of the shop with words that left her dumbstruck, coolly waving her hand as Minjeong gaped after her.
“When you like someone, you want to try hard for them, right?”
-
When she passed her a tub of popcorn and their fingers accidentally brushed, Minjeong felt electricity spark against her skin.
It had always been there, she realized in a daze. It was only now that she was starting to notice it, only now that it was so strong she couldn’t ignore it as she had been.
“I-I’m surprised you agreed to come,” she made conversation as Jimin took her seat beside hers. Down on the field below, a batter struck out for the third time, and a majority of the crowd groaned collectively.
“I’m surprised you asked me to come,” Jimin retorted.
“It just seemed fair, since you did win them and all.”
Her answering eye-roll was dry. “You were free to take anyone you wanted, Minjeong. I told you I won those for you.”
Minjeong bit her bottom lip. “About that . . .” There was a crack as the next batter cleanly hit the ball across the field, and the arena basically exploded into cheers. Ignoring both the game and the ear-splitting commotion, she turned to Jimin and yelled over the noise, “What did you mean when you said you were trying hard for the person you like!”
This time, Jimin’s face morphed into astonishment so strong that it would have been funny had Minjeong not been so serious. “You think now is the best time to have this conversation?”
The older girl was right, of course. They’d spent almost the entire car ride here in silence, because she’d spent that time trying to steel herself to ask the question that had been nagging at her all week. But here, where the energy from the crowd was pumping her up, she had finally found her courage.
“Why not?” Minjeong retorted just as the next batter came up to play. “You never hide what you have to say. Just tell me the truth, unnie.”
“The truth?” she repeated, her eyes dark. “The truth, Minjeong, is that I meant it just how you meant it.”
The player hit a home run just then, and the crowd went wild in their excitement as the two intensely gazed into each other’s eyes.
Jimin noticed the pink of Minjeong’s cheeks, but she didn’t take back her words. She had no delusions—she knew exactly what it was she was feeling, and she’d prepared herself for this conversation when she’d said those words at the restaurant.
It was Minjeong who was at a loss. She would admit that she’d dreamed of Jimin saying those words to her more than just once—she was a girl after all, and Jimin was an extremely attractive friend—but never had she deluded herself into thinking it would actually come true. She was not prepared for this.
Jimin sighed when the younger girl’s panic set in. She’d had a feeling this would happen.
“It’s all right, Minjeong-ah,” she consoled her, finally tearing her eyes away. “I just felt that you deserved the truth, but it would be best if we just forget this ever happened.”
That seemed to get her started again. “What?”
“I’m offering you a way out of this,” Jimin answered, finally focusing her attention on the game, though she didn’t actually see anything. “Nothing has to change.”
“Again, what?” she repeated.
Act like Jimin had never confessed to her? She could never be that cruel.
This was Jimin, the girl who’d put up with her crazy crush even when she didn’t have to, who’d consoled her in her moment of weakness until she could honestly say she was good as new, who’d put her needs above her own—and not just when she’d won her these tickets she’d wanted so badly, but on multiple occasions.
Minjeong already loved her. Jimin was one of her dearest friends, the one who’d stuck with her the longest in their difficult journey to fame. She was also one of her most trusted confidants, for she’d told her things she’d been too ashamed to tell the other two girls.
Jimin just didn’t understand what was going through her head right now, that she was seriously considering her in her mind and realizing that this could be something really, really great.
And as Minjeong peeked at Jimin from the corners of her eyes and noticed that the older girl refused to look her way, it hit her that—
I’ve hurt her.
Of course she had, after reacting so horribly to her confession! Jimin had put herself out there and she’d reacted with nothing more than a single word of confusion, too eager to recede into her thoughts. Jimin had taken her silence to mean rejection.
That understanding hurt her. She knew what rejection was like, how much it hurt. The apology that was at the tip of her tongue just didn’t feel right anymore, didn’t feel like enough.
But w-what can I do for her ? Minjeong asked herself, anxiously wringing her hands. The inning was already over, that was how long she’d taken, and the players were retreating from the field for their break.
“Jimin unnie?” she called out to the girl guiltily.
Jimin stubbornly refused to look her way, but even so, couldn’t find it in her to completely ignore the girl she liked. “Hm?”
The entire arena gasped collectively when the cameras circulating the stadium turned towards the crowd, just in time to film a girl hurling herself out of her seat and passionately kissing her companion.
-
“I’m sorry that dinner was so awkward,” Minjeong apologized hastily, cringing as they stepped out onto the balcony of their home.
“I’m sorry that manager unnie was watching that baseball game on TV,” Jimin mumbled in response. And perhaps all of Korea.
As anyone would have suspected, their manager hadn’t taken the shock well at flipping on the television just in time to watch Minjeong plant a kiss on her bandmate in front of hundreds of people—even if their manager always gushed about how much chemistry the two had. She’d spam the living shit out of their phones and demanded that the both of them went home immediately, before the scandal blew up over every news outlet. There was mostly silence at home up until the dinner with the other girls. The meal had ended exactly how Minjeong foreseen it would: as a traumatizing memory she was sure she would bring up in therapy in a few years.
It had been worse for Jimin.
“You okay after that?” Minjeong asked carefully. There was a chill in the air that had her folding her arms and hopping from foot to foot to keep warm, but even so, she refused to go back inside without Jimin.
According to manager unnie, the two girls weren’t so easily recognized with their baseball caps on and the camera panned away before the two parted. It was enough for the news articles to publish dating rumors but it was also enough for their company SM to bury those very rumors by ignoring them all entirely.
“I’ve gotten used to idol scandal protocol since long ago,” Jimin sighed, dismissing any reason for her to worry.
“I’m just glad that the other girls seem to approve,” Minjeong mumbled, scuffing the ground with her toe. “You know, since we just started . . .”
Jimin raised an eyebrow when the smaller girl trailed off, embarrassed. “Yes, since we just started, I’m relieved they didn’t think much of the sight we must have made.”
Minjeong’s entire face flushed bright pink at the memory. “S-sorry! Spur of the moment.”
“I wasn’t accusing you of anything,” she assured. Who wouldn’t like to be kissed by the girl they had confessed to? Jimin was far from upset with her.
“W-well, it is weird to think about though,” Minjeong mused. “Starting tomorrow, when we wake up, it won’t be as friends anymore.”
“Romance doesn’t mark the end of friendship,” Jimin answered simply. “I hope that when I ask you out officially for a date, you won’t feel uneasy.”
“Only if you don’t bring me flowers!” she declared, because it was exactly what she knew Jimin would do.
“Then what should I bring you?”
Minjeong thought it over before deciding, “Chocolates. The good ones. I want a big box of chocolates with caramel inside.”
Jimin chuckled. “You sure do love food, don’t you?”
“I sure do,” she agreed with a smirk. “But don’t worry, unnie. It goes: you, then food, then dance. Those last two might possibly get switched depending on my mood, but you’re always at the top of the priority list. As long as you bring me those chocolates, of course.”
“Of course,” Jimin echoed, amused. Her voice was husky as it drifted into the night.
And when she leaned in to brush their lips together, Minjeong knew that her pesky crush all those months ago was nothing compared to what she felt at the moment.
-