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Jimin, against her better judgement, wanders out of their shared room and into the living room after realising that Aeri wasn’t going to join her. She walks past the maknaes’ room, wincing slightly from the sheer volume coming from the younger girls, even behind closed doors.
The living room is completely dark, save for the blinding light coming from the television. Unsurprisingly, she finds Aeri snuggled into the sofa. Jimin freezes when their eyes meet; the initial complaints die on her lips as Aeri cocks her head slightly.
She pauses, pressing her lips together in frustration as she tries to recall what she wanted to ask her.
“It’s late,” is all Jimin can muster.
“Just go in,” Aeri insists. “I’ll join you soon.”
The rational side of Jimin yells at her to comply, tells her there’s no reason to draw this out more than she needs to, that she’ll forget all of this tomorrow morning.
The irrational side – exhausted from today’s schedule, deprived from the quiet that she’d craved all day, the same quiet that Aeri was readily providing now – is lulled by the warmth emanating from her, her gentle smile, and the calming white noise from the television.
Any other day, Jimin swears she’d refuse. She doesn’t have the energy to argue with herself today.
Jimin settles down beside Aeri on the couch and tries to ignore the way she lights up. The nervous flutter in her stomach grows as she watches Aeri wordlessly put on the Korean subtitles for the American drama she’s watching.
She doesn’t even have to ask what she’s watching. She could recognise the male lead from a mile away.
“White Collar again?”
Aeri huffs out quietly, amused. “We can watch something else if you’d like?”
Jimin shakes her head, gesturing at her to focus. It wouldn’t matter either way; exhaustion blurs the edges of her vision, making her unable to focus on much beyond Aeri, Aeri, Aeri.
She lasts about half an episode before she struggles to keep her eyes open.
“Jimin,” Aeri whispers, her voice enticingly low. “You don’t have to wait for me if you’re tired.”
Jimin nearly says I don’t want to go to sleep without you. Jimin nearly says there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than right here.
“I don’t mind,” she says instead, cutting herself off with a yawn that has Aeri looking at her pointedly.
“At least sleep more comfortably if you want to stay here,” she holds her arms out and it takes all of Jimin’s willpower not to jump in immediately. “C’mere.”
Jimin lets out a small sigh as she draws close, content to let Aeri wrap her arms around her as she lays her head on her shoulder.
Sleep comes easily, after that.
-
“Unnie.”
A soft hand gently tussles her hair, and Jimin jolts up in surprise. The hand flinches away and her eyes meet Minjeong’s, eyes bubbling with mirth.
“You overslept,” Minjeong says. Her gaze darts between Aeri and her, before she grins and leaves the room with a, “Wake Aeri-unnie up for me.”
It takes Jimin a second to register her surroundings. White Collar was still running on the television; Minjeong hadn’t bothered to turn it off. Considering that it was Minjeong that had woken her up meant that they were really late.
Beside her, Aeri was still fast asleep. There’s an ache in her chest when she realises that Aeri had stayed with her the whole night.
“Aeri,” she shakes her lightly, and watches the other girl slowly rouse from sleep. It’s endearing, how she blinks drowsily, her voice even huskier from the long night when she speaks.
“What time is it?”
“We overslept,” Jimin flushes.
That seems to grab her attention. She sits up immediately, rubbing her shoulder and groaning.
“How did you oversleep?” she mutters in disbelief.
“We did,” Jimin corrects.
“Me oversleeping makes sense,” she stretches her arms out, languid. “You never oversleep.”
It’s the crack of dawn, and Jimin doesn’t have the mental capacity to fully understand the implications of the observation. She only shakes her head in response and offers a hand to Aeri.
“Let’s go get ready,” she hoists her up carefully.
Jimin tugs Aeri out of the living room, watches the streets slowly fill with cars and people. The city stirs awake along with them.
-
“I’m Karina and one thing to know about me is that I’m a good- ” she pauses as she reads the script, hesitating at the word writer.
Jimin breathes out and starts again.
“I’m Karina and one thing to know about me is that I’m a good-” the word lodges in her throat and she frowns.
“Writer,” Aeri reads Jimin’s script over her shoulder.
“Writer,” she repeats slowly, hating how strained the word sounds.
If Aeri notices, she doesn’t comment. She only reads the whole line out once through in that addictive American twang that Jimin hadn’t gotten used to, before waiting expectantly for her to repeat it.
Jimin complies and ignores how her heart stutters at their proximity.
“I’m Karina and one thing to know about me is that I’m a good writer because I always write in my diary. ”
The blinding grin that Aeri gives her makes Jimin want to mispronounce every English word in the dictionary.
“Your accent is getting better,” she hums. “You almost sound like a foreigner.”
Jimin bumps their shoulders together, laughing quietly. “Thank you Aeri-yah.”
“Anything for you,” she shoots her a cheeky wink before heading off to help Yizhuo with her script.
-
Jimin staggers into the car, already half asleep when she settles into her seat. The giggling maknaes behind her do nothing to abate her drowsiness, and the steady thrum of the car is enough of a lullaby for Jimin.
It doesn’t last long.
Her head bumps against the surface of the car window, hard enough to jolt her awake. She frowns and rubs her forehead gently. Jimin’s not a quitter; she snuggles deeper into the seat, leaning her head on the headrest and praying the car doesn’t jostle her too much.
It’s fruitless — a few minutes later, her head slips off and she bumps into the car window once again.
She glares at her reflection in the window, as if that would solve her predicament.
A gentle tug at her sleeve has Jimin turning, and she nearly melts when Aeri offers her shoulder wordlessly. She mouths a thank you before trying to lean comfortably against her.
Their height difference, for once, works against their favour. Her back aches as she tries to bury her face into the crook of Aeri’s neck. The other girl fails to hide her amusement as she watches Jimin struggle.
“Lay on my lap,” she suggests, already shifting to let Jimin get into a better position.
“Is that okay?” Jimin still has the decency to be polite even though she wants nothing more than to be wrapped up in Aeri’s warmth and sleep.
“Of course,” she pulls her gently onto her lap, and Jimin finds herself looking up at the younger girl, trapped in her quiet bubble.
“Go to sleep,” Aeri’s smile is illuminated by the late evening moon, captivating.
A steady hand rubs circles along the small of her back, and warmth envelopes her. Jimin falls.
-
The group had planned it months beforehand, had argued back and forth with their managers for just a half a day’s break from their schedules. Their stubbornness had gotten somewhere, considering that all four of them were currently strolling along Han River.
It’s already dark out, the night sky contrasting the bustling cityscape. Aeri leans against the railing and Jimin’s fingers itch to capture the moment.
She doesn’t get the chance because Aeri is already turning towards her, gesturing for her to join her. Jimin lets her tug her along, if only to indulge her for her birthday.
“Did you enjoy your birthday?” she asks.
“It was better than last year’s,” Aeri shrugs.
They’d been so swamped with debut preparations that neither her nor Yizhuo got a chance to breathe, much less enjoy their birthdays. It was partially why their managers relented when they requested for this outing. Aeri cups Jimin’s cheeks with her hands and huffs out a laugh.
“Don’t look so glum,” she grins at her. “I loved today.”
“Thank you,” Aeri goes on a beat later. “For sticking by my side.”
“Anything for you, Aeri,” Jimin pulls her into a hug. It's a quiet respite.