Work Text:
“911, What’s your emergency?”
“I…I think I broke my leg.”
-
She remembers she was doing her weekly runs. Her team had just finished another successful game yesterday and celebrated it with some dinner before heading back to their respective homes. Minjeong simply wanted to finish her run as quickly as she can so she can go back to lounging in her room without feeling the guilt of lazying around too much lingering in her head. She didn't mean to zone out.
Usually the music that was blasting in her ears would keep her focus. But, maybe she was overzealous. As she nears the corner, she plants her left leg while her upper body manoveroues to the right. Instead of seeing the other side of the wall, Minjeong’s body decided to have a little contact with the concrete ground.
“Fuck!” she exclaimed. She was lucky to be able to catch her fall with her hands, but a sharp stinging pain is traveling across her entire body so she can’t help but roll her body over so that she can see what the hell is causing her to be in pain right now.
It didn’t take long. A simple glance from her left knee and she can tell that it’s not positioned as where it’s supposed to be. Minjeong could feel tears prickling at the corner of her eyes as she tried to grit through the pain to get herself up at a nearby bench. She was also thinking about how she was going to tell her coach about the injury. Without a doubt, she is going to be benched. And it didn’t really leave a pleasant feeling for Minjeong. She’ll try to not bawl once the paramedics come to fetch her. No promises. She’ll try .
-
“A torn anterior cruciate ligament or ACL for short…”
“Total recovery is about 6 months after you complete your surgery…”
“You’ll have to do physiotherapy to regain control over your knee...”
“You have to stay out of sports in the meantime.”
Minjeong blinked. Just a few days ago she was with her teammates in a match, playing competitively while having the time of her life. Now she’s been discharged after being warded with a pair of crutches in tow, sitting in a wheelchair, as her friend Yizhou pushes her out of the hospital.
“Minjeong,” Yizhou calls her.
“What do you want to eat for lunch? I’ll get it for us before we head back to the dorm.”
They were already nearing Minjeong’s car which Yizhou had used to fetch her. She still hasn’t replied yet.
“Hey, Min,” Yizhou calls her again. “Do you want anything or not?”
Absolute crickets. It was as if Yizhou was talking to herself.
“Dude, are you- ” Yizhou didn't finish her question as she rounds to Minjeong’s front and sees the latter crying silently. Fresh warm tears wet her face as she bites her bottom lip tightly trying to not let out a strangled sob.
“Oh, Minjeong,” Yizhou coos as she kneels on the floor, ignoring the rough asphalt digging into her knees, as she hugs Minjeong as tightly as she could.
“I- I can’t play anymore, Yizhou. I can’t play for this years’ season…I- I can’t even go for training! I fucking hate it so much! Shit, why the fuck did this even happen to me. I want to play! Let me play, Yizhou. Tell them to fucking let me play, please!”
Yizhou kept patting Minjeong’s head as she tried to console her through the barrage of pleas and curses that Minjeong let out. It’s difficult. She nearly let out a tear when she first went to visit Minjeong when she was warded. It felt as if she was seeing an older version of young Minjeong all over again.
Clueless, hollow and empty. She was staring into nowhere listlessly and it scared Yizhou.
Now she was crying nearly hysterically and Yizhou couldn’t do anything but try to calm her dear friend down in the parking lot while keeping her tears to herself.
“Minjeong, please. Tell me what you want to eat. You need to eat something.” Yizhou asked again once she was sure that Minjeong had stopped crying. She saw Minjeong using the back of her hands, wiping the remaining tears covering her face.
“..Anything’s fine. I just want to go back.” she said monotonously.
Yizhou took a deep breath and nodded. She didn’t know whether Minjeong meant to go ‘back’ to their dorm or to go ‘back’ into playing her sport. But she knows that whatever it is, Yizhou will try her best to take care of Minjeong. She has to before Minjeong loses herself again. And Yizhou cares too much for her best friend to let that happen during her watch.
-
175, 200 minutes,
2920 hours,
121 days,
4 months.
The 2023 National School Games among the colleges have long ended. Her teammates managed to clinch fourth place. She’s proud.
She stared at the medal in her hand. She doesn’t deserve it. All she had done was attend the last two games that her teammates had. She may have cheered till her voice ended up being lost. But it was nothing compared to her teammates for putting their all during their training and matches. They deserve it. Not her.
(She's still the process of re-evaluting her feelings.)
The longer she stared at the medal, the longer she felt herself tightening her grip around the medal. Her mind no longer involuntary swirl with words that she thought she was powerless to stop from fighting against.
'I should place this somewhere-'
“Minjeong?”
Minjeong turns her head and sees a familiar raven-haired peeking from her door.
“Oh, hello.”
The raven-haired beamed and made her way over to Minjeong’s desk. She then placed her two hands on each of Minjeong’s shoulders, massaging it lightly before bending her body lower to wrap it around Minjeong’s neck. The position is quite uncomfortable for the former but Minjeong knows that even if she tries to protest it the said girl would only brush it off lightly.
“What are you doing here, Jimin? I thought you had a meeting.” Minjeong questioned.
She wanted to turn her head around to get a closer look of the girl. But the tight grip around her neck made it almost impossible. Minjeong says ‘almost’ because she knows she can loosen grip by tapping on the arms but the raven-haired seemed content with burying her head into the corner of Minjeong’s back.
“I did. It just ended early so I decided to come over,” Jimin explained.
“And also because I missed you.” she added.
Minjeong couldn’t fight the blush that made its way to her cheeks nor her ears.
“I’m pretty sure we just saw each other 3 days ago.”
“Well, 3 days is too long. I miss you every second. We need to make it up for all those years, no?”
Ah, right.
She might have forgotten that her and Jimin had just recently rekindled their friendship after years of no communication.
It happened so quickly. Her and Yizhou were out at a cafe near their dorm when they ran into Jimin and her friend Aeri. Yizhou had dragged her out of her room.
‘Some sunlight is important!’ she says.
Minjeong lets herself be dragged because she also needed a change of scenery.
Two months ago, she was able to ditch one of her crutches and used a knee brace to support her left knee.
A month ago, she was able to ditch both her crutches and the knee brace too.
3 weeks ago when she met Jimin and Aeri she was wearing a knee strap. She’s able to walk freely now. Though going back into playing competitively is still a few months away. She has her physiotherapy to complete after all.
She won’t lie. Her behavior over the past four months had become different. She was calmer. More prudent in her steps. She doesn’t randomly burst in energy anymore (which might actually be due to her refraining from eating sweets so that she can recover quicker). She’s also quieter. Keeping her thoughts to herself because they aren’t really the best as of now.
With sports out of her reach, she also poured more attention to her studies. Her grades are at an all time high. She’s academically happy, of course. But everytime she passes by her equipment, she’s back to the white walls and static TV in the hospital. Her mind reels her back to the first few weeks of her trying to accomodate to her injured leg.
It hurts the most when she finally realized during that time that she needed to rely on someone. That she couldn’t have a stick up her ass and put down her pride to ask for help. It’s only her childhood friend Yizhou who’s living with her and yet she still feels hopeless whenever she has to ask her for help.
So, meeting Jimin was a miracle. A miracle because; one, the girl was supposed to be on the other side of the country pursuing her degree in some ivy league university that Minjeong knows she can only dream of entering. Two; she had assumed the girl hated her considering how Minjeong had treated her before during their early years of highschool together. And three; Minjeong was so sure that Jimin wanted nothing to do with her after they finished catching up (mostly Yizhou and the other two talking as Minjeong tries to embrace the fact that Jimin is actually sitting right in front of her). Yet, just as they were about to part ways outside the cafe, Jimin pulled her aside and whispered something that made her knees weak and nearly stumble over herself.
“Text me on Instagram once you’re home, okay?” she winked as she quickly went back to Aeri, who stared at them with a raised eyebrow.
Minjeong gaped as Yizhou cackled at her expression.
“What the hell did Jimin say to make you nearly embarrass yourself?” she sneered.
“She asked me to text her on Instagram..” Minjeong said breathlessly.
Yizhou whistled as she placed her right arm around Minjeong, ruffling her hair like a soccer dad who’s congratulating their son’s first win.
“There you go! Good job, kid!”
-
Minjeong and Jimin had always followed each other on Instagram. But ever since Minjeong messed up and practically ghosted Jimin, she made sure to unfollow her on every social platform she had and deleted her number right after sending a text of apology.
So it came as a shock when Minjeong later knew that Jimin had transferred out of her highschool to somewhere she has no clue about and an even greater shock when three years passed and she received a friend request from Jimin on Instagram.
After calling Yizhou, deliberating for nearly 2 hours on what she should do with the friend request. The call ended with Yizhou telling her not to be a wuss.
‘It’s just a damn friend request, idiot. She’s not asking for some reparation for what you did to her.’
So, Minjeong accepted it.
She never tried to text Jimin. Nope. Hell no.
She never even thought about trying to text her.
She saw her highlights, her posts, her stories. Saw that Jimin is living her life fashionably and happily with her friends and family. So Minjeong decided that she’s going to step back and not disturb Jimin’s life ever again. Once was enough.
Currently, though, she has Jimin’s Instagram chat box opened. She has absolutely no idea what to say or what to send. Completely clueless and she wishes she could call Yizhou but she has classes now. She searched up tutorials on Google on how to send a ‘nonchalant text without sounding desperate or pathetic but also showing interest’ but there were no results that satisfied her.
In the end, Minjeong threw all caution to the wind and settled for the safest text she could think of.
imwinter : hi
‘Okay, simple and straightforward.’
Minjeong threw her phone to her bed and immediately started on her work. Although a ‘ding’ from her phone made her launch herself to her bed.
katarinabluu : heyy!
Minjeong blinked.
‘Uh, what now?’
Just before her brain could start working overtime to try and find a conversation starter, another text from Jimin stopped her.
katarinabluu : wanna meet up for some coffee?
-
3 weeks later, Minjeong and Jimin became closer than ever. Closer than when they were teenagers trying to learn about the world. Minjeong managed to sneak another apology to Jimin during one of their hangouts at another cafe they visited together. She explained the situation and apologized incessantly for her immaturity. Jimin merely laughed at Minjeong’s kicked puppy expression.
Jimin moved on from the incident. And it made it a little easier for Minjeong to also move on and close that chapter of her life which she had always subconsciously thought about.
During the 3 weeks, she and Jimin have been stuck to each other.
‘You can make it up to me by always hanging out with me.’ Jimin says.
And Minjeong simply agreed because she knows at the corner of her heart, she also missed Jimin a lot.
They are so close that there are times where she would sleep over in Minjeong’s room when she comes home late from her curriculums. She reasons that Minjeong and Yizhou’s dorms are nearby and that she’s too tired to go back to her apartment.
Again, Minjeong simply lets her because Jimin is the President of her Dance Club, juggling her secretary duties in the student council board while also maintaining her 4.0 GPA.
Whenever Jimin stays over, Minjeong would warm up a cup of hot tea for her to drink after her shower. Minjeong would change the covers of her pillows so that it would smell fresh. She would also fluff them up so that Jimin can have the comfiest sleep ever. Then she would light her incense stick and leave the nightlight on (she bought it for Jimin since she can’t sleep with no light on).
Minjeong then waits for her on her bed because Jimin voiced out that she sleeps better when she’s able to hug something. And Minjeong only has two pillows on her bed.
Finally, once the raven-haired enters the room, looking all cuddly in her oversized sweater and sweatpants: Eyes already drooping from the warm shower and tea that’s circulating her body. She will lie herself next to Minjeong before immediately latching onto her side with one arm around Minjeong’s waist and one leg over Minjeong’ leg, tangling them until Minjeong is unable to discern whose is which.
Minjeong always knew Jimin was affectionate. Back when they were in high school, the raven-haired would lay her head on Minjeong’s back, taking a short nap before their morning assembly.
Now, Minjeong doesn’t mind it. However, over the years, Jimin grew to become a woman. An attractive woman who has a charming smile, beautiful sparkling eyes, a height Minjeong is secretly jealous of and a body that makes people’s heads turn.
In summary, Jimin’s hot. She also has an amazing, captivating personality to come with it.
Of course, Minjeong is aware of it. She’s not so bad herself either. She has a nice toned body from all her training. And she also has a major case of babyface which people can’t help but squish her cheeks whenever they have the chance.
Minjeong releases a breath. Jimin’s hot though. Like. Minjeong’s ideal type of hot. She’s so insanely attractive that any form of affection that Jimin does now no longer bears zero meaning for Minjeong. Each touch, each hug, each cuddle means something for Minjeong. As much as she tries to ignore it, Minjeong absorbs Jimin’s energy just like a sponge would.
It’s crazy how in classes Minjeong would be thinking of how her and Jimin cuddled in bed in the morning and immediately a faint pink blush would subconsciously lie itself on her cheeks. Her heart beats so fast sometimes she wonders if Jimin can hear it whenever she’s near Minjeong. She wonders if Jimin is aware of the effect that she has on her. Surely those claims of ‘I miss you's’ and ‘I’m staying the night again’ mean something right?
Minjeong doesn’t know anything but she does know that she has a crush on her new friend.
“I missed you too, Jimin.” Minjeong suddenly exclaimed.
Most of the time she would reply begrudgingly with a raging blush on her face whenever Jimin tells her to reciprocate. Yet, for some reason today Minjeong didn’t feel embarrassed when she said those four letters. She also knows that Jimin is aware of her sudden change of tone.
“Hm, really? What made you reply to me so willingly, huh?” she teased.
At that, Minjeong let out a small smile.
“I was staring at my medal just now.”
She felt the latter shift before moving away to sit on her bed. Minjeong missed the warmth but she will keep that to herself for now.
“Why?” she says, with a frown adorning her features.
Ever since Jimin learned of how Minjeong injured her leg, how she coped with her leave of absence from her sport. Jimin had made it her life mission to help Minjeong recover healthily while also keeping in check with her emotions. Minjeong no longer cries herself to sleep because Minjeong has someone to cry to. Minjeong no longer wakes up feeling dejected as Jimin always greets her with a blinding smile that Minjeong can’t help but mirror.
Whenever they bump into her teammates, Minjeong no longer runs away out of shame because she has Jimin who made her realize that nobody on her team blamed her for getting injured. In fact, they were the most supportive in helping Minjeong recover.
Minjeong chuckled when she saw the raven-haired expression.
“I was only thinking of where I should place the medal instead of leaving it on my desk.”
“Oh.”
Minjeong couldn’t help but let out a laugh as she saw Jimin’s face contort to a pleasant surprise. She saw her form a pout which she hoped to kiss away but instead she only stood up so that she could take a seat besides the sulking girl.
“You’re mean. I thought….you know..” she muttered.
Minjeong smiled softly as she stared at Jimin fondly.
“I know, I know. And I’m always grateful that you care so much for someone like me.”
“Someone like you?” she repeated.
“Yeah, why?” Minjeong uttered confusingly.
Another frown adorned Jimin’s face.
“I don’t know what you mean by someone like you, Minjeong,” Jimin said while making a finger gesture to quote ‘someone’.
“But you’re someone that I care for a lot. Not because I have to. But because I love caring for you.”
Minjeong blinked away the tears that came as a result of Jimin’s sudden confession. She’s pretty sure her face was beet red. Her heart was beating so fast that she could even hear it through her ears.
“Jimin…” Minjeong mumbled.
The raven-haired hummed as she grabbed one of Minjeong’s hands so that she can play with her fingers.
“..Be careful of your words.” Minjeong said as she looked away.
Now, Jimin was the one that was confused.
“What?”
Minjeong took a deep breath as she summoned all her courage.
“I said, be careful of your words. Or else…someone’s going to fall.”
“Who’s going to fall?” Jimin asked. She’s still confused at Minjeong’s sudden change of tone.
“I’m going to fall.”
Jimin blinked.
“Wh- Wait, I don’t get it. What do you mean you’re going to fall?”
“I mean, I’m going to fall in love if you keep up with your sweet words like that.”
There. It’s out. The cat is out of its bag.
She doesn’t know how Jimin is going to react since she decided to look away. She might push her away. Stop fiddling with her fingers. Maybe even stand to leave, never to be seen again. And Minjeong will wallow in sadness before trying to move on because at least she had the best 3 weeks of her life.
Instead, Minjeong feels Jimin moving closer. Bodies touching each other. Her warmth became closer as her grip on one of Minjeong’s hands tightened.
“Who says I’m not going to catch you?”
Minjeong turned her head so quickly she felt something pop. But she’s too busy trying to register Jimin’s grinning face and twinkling eyes that it made her hitch her breath.
“W- What?”
Jimin moves impeccably closer. Her breath hits Minjeong's face now as she leans in so that the only thing Minjeong sees is the brown specks surrounding the iris of her eyes.
“Who,” she begins.
“..said I’m not going to catch you?” she finishes.
Minjeong stared at her incredulously.
“You like me too?!” She couldn’t believe it. Nope. Hell no.
“I thought it was obvious whenever I said ‘I miss you’ and when I chose to stay here more than my own apartment.”
“I- I thought that was all platonic!”
Jimin chuckled. Her poor Minjeong didn’t realize she has been making moves on her ever since she first saw her at the cafe with Yizhou and Aeri. No wonder they both told her to be bold about her intentions. Minjeong’s painfully dense.
“I like you, Minjeong. Way more than I thought I could.”
Minjeong gulped.
“I like you too, Jimin...” she mumbles shyly.
Jimin squealed as she launched herself on Minjeong. Hugging her so tightly that Minjeong finds it a little hard to breathe but it’s okay since it’s Jimin. She then felt wet kisses being placed around her face and couldn’t help but giggle.
“Ew, that’s disgusting Jimin!”
“You like me anyway!”
Minjeong continued laughing as Jimin continued to pamper her with wet kisses. Going from her forehead, her two chubby cheeks, her chin, everywhere that she could cover. Which is a lot.
“I do like you, Jimin. In more ways than I can.”
-
When Minjeong joins her first game with her team after a long while, she is greeted with Jimin wearing her training tees with a headband that had a cutout baby picture on it. She would have nagged at Jimin for her choice of showing support but the kiss that came with it silenced all thoughts that were on her head.
She was so glad she won.