Chapter Text
“Barty! Bar- Oh my gosh!”
Jimin shrieks in horror as she sees the family cat scamper up one of the many apple trees that dot around the farm.
“Sir Bartholomeow the Third, if you don’t get down this - No don’t climb up higher!” the ten-year-old facepalms, watching as the striped orange cat continues its rebellious ascent, claws digging into the bark before finally resting on a tall branch.
“Ma!” She calls out, “Pa?” She looks around seeking help, but her parents are too busy tending to the rest of the farm. She turns back over to the perpetrator, hands balled into fists and resting at the sides of her hips.
With a sigh, she rubs her hands together and tries to get a good grip on the tree trunk. She jumps, using the soles of her running shoes to climb upwards, but ends up falling back on her palms, staining the bottoms of her dungarees. She dusts the dry dirt off of her hands and butt before adjusting her glasses with a little nudge of her finger.
Before she can give it another attempt, she watches as Sir Bartholomeow III gets up off of the comfortable branch, finally getting bored. Only he couldn’t. The cat looks down helplessly, realising that he indeed could not get down on his own. Getting panicky and restless, Sir Bartholomeow III lets out a, well, meow and screeches as he topples off the tree.
As if on instinct, Jimin jumps up and the air near her seems to whoosh against her face. By some miracle she actually manages to catch the cat, her heart racing, beating quickly in her ears. Clutching on tightly to the furball, she sighs. That was certainly close. “Phew.”
Wanting to finally return Barty back to the ground, she begins bending down but she stops.
And she blinks.
And she blinks again.
Huh. That’s strange.
She closes her eyes and shakes her head, but she knows she's not mistaken.
She’s floating.
She’s not up too high, maybe just thirty centimeters from the ground. But she’s definitely floating.
“Ah!” She screams in panic, accidentally letting go of Bartholomeow. Jimin grimaces, stretching out as she reaches for him and manages to grab him again, her whole torso and outstretched arms carrying Barty left just a few inches from the floor. Letting out a breath, Jimin slowly lowers the both of them onto the floor, her side meeting the ground in a soft thud. Bartholomeow worms his way out of Jimin’s weak hands and prances away in the general direction of the cornfields as if nothing happened. Jimin, still wide-eyed and dazed, turns onto her back and tries to process everything that happened, looking up into the blue sky. The clouds slowly sway, blocking the sunlight from streaming directly into her eyes.
There’s no way that just happened, right? Jimin thinks to herself. Rising to her feet she jumps a few more times, but…nothing. Jimin is left deep in thought, until a voice calls out to her.
“Jimin darling, could you help out in the barn please?”
Shaking away her thoughts, she turns her direction to the voice and jogs over. “Coming ma!”
Her pops is having trouble moving around some of the hay bales. As he’s gotten older he's at risk of doing his back in with all the manual labour that's expected of a farmhand. “I got it dad, why don’t you just take a break?”
“And leave all the fun to you?” The man with greying hair gives a warm smile. C’mon let's do it together. Jimin mirrors his smile, picking up one side of the stack of straw while her pops grabs the other side. A good few minutes pass while the two of them continue to stack the hay bales neatly, the towers near the back almost touching the roof.
“Think we’re all done for today kiddo.” He ruffles up Jimin’s thick dark locks. She giggles, dusting off her head. “You’re getting dirt in my hair.” She turns towards the exit of the barn, but turns back when she realises her dad is going back for the heavy-duty metal ladder resting against some of the bales at the other side of the barn. He gives it a wiggle and it starts to move, but a part of it somehow latches onto the bale and in trying to pull, he loses his balance.
“Dad!” Jimin rushes forward. Everything seems to pass by in a blur, as if overcome by the shifting, moving energy. Jimin’s eyes grow wide and before she knows it, she can feel hay-bales crashing against her back as she shields her father who is hunched down on the floor.
Panicked, she flings the hay bales away. “Dad! Are you okay?” The older man looks up at his daughter dazed, rising to his feet so quick he could have hurt his knees. “Jimin, are you okay?”
“I’m-” Jimin hesitates, realising she didn’t actually feel any pain at all. And now that she thinks about it, how did she even get here in time? “--Fine?”
“Those bales are heavy and you're completely fine?”
“I guess so.”
“Kid, you sprinted all the way from there-” he points to the entrance of barn, “to here!” He exclaims, gesturing right to where they were standing among a mess of loose straw. “And then you shielded me from a bunch of heavy hay bales!”
She pauses for a moment and thinks about what to say. “Pa…. Just earlier today, before I came into the barn, Barty got stuck in a tree and he fell. I jumped up to catch him but then suddenly I think I was….floating! I tried to float again, I kept jumping but nothing happened.”
Her dad just returns her a blank stare, not commenting on anything. Kids at this age can be very imaginative, playing pretend where they have all sorts of powers, but he’s just seen his daughter do something impossible. And now that he thinks about it, not everything about his daughter is ordinary, though this is the first time he’s been reminded of it. Now it’s like the quick-witted man is completely lost for words.
Jimin starts to panic.
“Is there something wrong with me?” Jimin asks, voice becoming watery.
The man’s features immediately soften, shaking away that dazed look instantly once he picks up the worry in Jimin’s voice. “No, no,” he says soothingly, giving his daughter a tight hug. “There’s nothing wrong with you, kiddo.”
His heart breaks when he watches his daughter look up at him with big glassy eyes. “Awww, Jimin.” He coos, taking off Jimin’s smudged glasses and giving them a good wipe with his shirt. Once he slides the spectacles over her face again he smiles, watching as it makes her eyes bigger and gently boops her nose to get her to cheer up a bit. “Let’s find ma, everything is going to be okay.”
Taking his daughter’s hand, he rushes back into the house. “Miyoung! Miyoung, I think we need to show her.”
Armed with shovels, the Yu’s approach the corn fields. Jimin’s parents use the side of the space to mark out a huge square and Jimin watches as her dad digs only a couple of inches before coming into contact with the clang of metal.
“What is that?” Jimin asks hesitantly. She’s never seen anything like it!
“This is… where we found you.” Her mum gets to work and Jimin follows in tow. Jimin’s mind races as she digs with her shovel. Where we found you? What do they mean by ‘found’ her? Jimin isn’t entirely sure, but she wants to find out. This could be the answer, all she has to do is dig.
Her dad looks up from his own work only to look over agape in surprise, walking over and nudging his wife who looks up and also becomes shocked.
Jimin is working like a machine! Digging through the dirt like it's no problem at all. Once the area is revealed, she tosses the shovel to the side.
“So what now?” She asks. All her parents can do is offer her a shrug.
Jimin thinks to herself, looking down at the metal floors. The pattern displayed is intricate, straight lines intersecting each other and forming different shapes of triangles, parallelograms and diamonds. She reaches down to touch the line, and watches as it begins to light up as a vibrant light blue from where she touched, travelling along like electricity through a wire.
The floor begins to grumble and shake, before five triangular prism-shaped totems rise from the ground, coming closer towards her. She notices the same lines from the metal on these totems as well, and comes forward to touch it. Once she makes contact, a bright blue light erupts from the center gem of the totem. A hologram carrying the same blue light projects right in front of her. A beautiful woman with short, bobbed hair appears in front of her. Her face is perfectly symmetrical, looking almost artificial.
“ªӘ´°ɲӘ, ≥Ә¢𝖡µı˘´ æ┍ ª†Әɲ𝖡≤Ә.” Karina looks on in wonder, not sure how to react. With adrenaline pumping through her veins, it takes her a good while to realise she can’t make out what the woman is saying.
“øæ¢ ›-›Ә≤ 𝈇˘ 梴 æɲ¿≤ µæ”˘ µæ”˘.” The ground begins to open-up slowly and dirt begins to crumble around them. “◊'› ϐæ´´≤ ┍æ´ ┍æ´ϐӘ«°ɲ𝖡 ≤æ¢-≤æ¢, 𝈇¢ı ◊ ≥°≥ °ı ıæ «˘˘” ≤æ¢ ϐ-ϐӘ┍˘.” Jimin turns around and realises her mother is slipping, her dad now pulling her arm to stop her from falling. Jimin reaches over to her parents and hoists them up in the sky to keep them away from danger.
They look down as the hologram continues, struggling to make sense of it all. It appears to be glitching, parts of the video repeating itself like a buffering CD. “°¢´ µæ›˘ ›Ә≤ 𝈇˘ 𝖡æɲ˘, 𝈇¢ı ◊ µӘᵛ˘ ϐ˘ɲı ıµ°ϐ ᵛ˘´ϐ°æɲ æ┍ ›≤ ˆæɲϐˆ°æ¢ϐɲ˘ϐϐ ıæ µæ”˘┍¢¿¿≤ 𝖡¢°≥˘ ≤æ¢.”
“ªӘ´°ɲӘ
ªӘr°ɲa
KӘr°ɲa
Karina
Kwangya.”
The hologram stops and the totems faze back into the floor. Jimin lowers her parents right outside the perimeter. Picking up the shovel, she buries it all, making sure that every bit of metal is covered. It’s done in only a flash. When she’s done her breathing is erratic and she throws the shovel away, landing somewhere in the cornfields. She makes eye contact with her mother and then her father and runs straight towards them. They receive her with loving arms and embrace her tightly.
“I d-don’t wanna come here again…” She starts to sniffle, tears forming in her eyes.
“Kiddo-” her dad starts, patting her back.
“Maybe she’s right. We don’t know what that is and it could be dangerous.”
Jimin looks up to meet her mum's eyes, and this strange realisation dawns on her. Her parents said she was found. “If you found me here then… then am I not… your daughter?”
Her mother gasps in surprise, holding her tighter. “No, Baby, you will always be our daughter.”
“Am I even… human?”
“Jimin-” Her dad tries to hold on as she backs away, trying to create distance between them.
“Who am I?” She falls to her knees, tears finally breaking through. She shudders as these questions raging in her head continue to fog up her mind, leaving her completely overwhelmed. It takes a while before she registers her parents embracing her again, refusing to let her suffer alone.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The sound of the alarm clock rings loudly in the room, taking Jimin completely by surprise. Even though it's part of her daily routine, she can’t help but accidentally slam down a bit too hard, crushing it with what she thought was a simple pat. That might be the sixth clock since moving in just two weeks ago!
“Jimin!”
The girl screams, watching as her best friend and roommate hangs upside down from the top bunk, her hair reminding her of one of those troll dolls. To be honest, when it came to Giselle, troll wasn’t too far off — She’s always been the more outgoing and mischievous of the two.
“Christ Gigi, you scared me!”
“Boo! Hahaha. Anyways, you know I take forever to get ready so use the bathroom quickly so I can get started. We need to make a good first impression.”
Jimin groans, stretching out and still trying to get her bearings after waking up. She slides her glasses over her eyes, seeing Giselle’s bedhead in high-definition glory. “What are you— Oh yeah!” Finally remembering, she hops up and gets her clothes that are resting neatly on her chair and heads off to the bathroom.
Jimin takes a breath, looking at her reflection in the mirror after she’s changed her clothes and brushed her teeth. She stares down with a serious gaze.
“Normal day. We’re just going to have a normal day.” She clears her throat. “Hello, my name is Yu Jimin, it’s nice to meet you. I’m so normal by the way.”
Noting her own serious expression she tries to give a boxy, toothy smile and feels a little less nervous.
“Jimin, are you done?”
Huh? Oh right, Giselle needs to get ready too, she almost forgot. Frantically she reaches for the door handle, but pushes too hard she snaps it clean off. She grimaces and tries to brute force it back in, sighing in relief when it thankfully snaps back into place and works again like normal.
Phew. Normal day. Right.
She opens the door, popping a pink hoodie over her work clothes as she watches Giselle meticulously plan her outfit.
“Oh Jimin, our alarm clock exploded again! Crazy how that keeps happening.”
Putting on the most convincing show possible, Jimin tries to act shocked that the clock is broken, rather than petrified because she was the one who broke it. “Woah that’s crazy how that happened again! We should really stop buying those… what about using a phone alarm instead?”
“No, but you know I like this clock cause it makes those forest sounds and it slowly lights up so we don’t get flashbanged in the morning! I’ll just send them an email and try and get another discount.” Giselle answers back as she awkwardly carries her stack of probably perfectly colour-coordinated clothes into the bathroom. It can take Giselle at minimum an hour to get ready - and that’s only for basics.
Wanting to draw the conversation away from the alarm clock that she totally didn’t break, Jimin gets ready to go out for a walk. “I’m gonna go get us some breakfast. What do you want?” Jimin yells through the other side of the bathroom door.
“Americano with a little bit of oat milk on top and avo toast with poached egg thank you~” She replies in a sing-song with one breath, as if completely rehearsed.
“Okay got it, I’ll see you in a bit!”
“Ddaenkyu Yuji!”
Jimin sets out for her morning walk, and she reflects on how she’s finally made it to Seoul, ready to start her new life. It’s a really big difference from growing up on a farm. The hustle and bustle of the city make it feel like it is living and breathing in a messy concrete jungle. She doesn’t mind the change, just finds it different.
If Jimin was being honest, she’d say she lucked out a bit having Giselle as her roommate. Being a little more shy, she didn’t really have anyone she could call a ‘best friend’ aside from her. They met in high school when Giselle moved from Japan to Korea and had been inseparable ever since, going to the same university (despite pursuing different majors) and deciding to move into the city together. Despite both having very different dreams, somehow today they both start their first day at The Daily Planet – a news organisation.
Giselle has always been creative, invested in art, fashion and photography. Naturally, she got a position as an intern specialising in social media. She has a dream of becoming some sort of influencer and icon, so sometimes Jimin sees her recording things for her own personal channels and accounts, but so far nothing has taken off yet. Jimin still remembers how surprised she was when Giselle excitedly told her she was also accepted at the same workplace.
“You applied?”
“Hell yeah! Oh my gosh,” She dolphin screams high enough that Jimin has to cover her ears. Yowch! “I can’t believe we’re going to be in Seoul together!” Giselle hops around, full of energy, grabbing Jimin by the arm. “This is so exciting!”
Jimin is excited too and smiles brightly, but she’s confused because she has been completely blindsided. She was feeling nervous about moving into the city alone, but now with Giselle, she feels like it’ll be a much easier change. “But I thought you wanted to pursue content and all that stuff?”
“With what money? Patience! Jimin, this is all part of my five-year plan! First I’m going to intern and build up my creative resume, gain more skills and experience and start making content on the side. Plan A, my socials take off, I go viral and become a star and quit my job to pursue content full time, reaping my millions. Plan B nothing happens and I work in corporate hell, get a quarterlife crisis and five new hobbies that amount to nothing and then be miserable for my whole entire life!”
“Okay well, for your sake I hope Plan B works out.”
“You’re my Plan C,” Giselle jokes back.
Jimin smiles, reminiscing over the two of them just a couple months ago, fresh out of their University degrees. Since then they’ve only had to deal with two floods from the toilet, five broken door handles and three petty arguments, which might sound concerning for only two weeks since moving in together, but honestly hasn’t been that bad. They’re finding out what works and what doesn’t and how to make things better for each other. Living with Giselle has its pros and cons of course. She can be a little dramatic and be a bit of a diva, but Jimin wouldn't have it any other way. It’s nice to always have a best friend to talk to - and it’s better if that friend is as clean as Giselle is - Christ the house is always looking immaculate thanks to her need to have everything ‘aesthetic’. She’s not complaining.
After a brisk ten-minute walk, Jimin arrives at their local coffee shop. The smell of commercial coffee hits her nose immediately. It’s peak time in the coffee shop, and a good line has formed. While looking at the menu and deciding what to order, she decides to also get some pastries for her soon-to-be new colleagues – a good variety so everyone has some choice.
“Hello, can I get an avocado toast with a poached egg, americano with a splash of oat milk, two apricot danishes, two cinnamon buns, two chocolate muffins, two millionaire shortbread and…. Hmm… an iced Americano black with a ham and cheese croissant.”
“Uh…” The lady at the till responds, poking her register. Jimin realises she just ordered like ten different things.
“Oh- sorry.” Jimin gives an embarrassed smile, scratching the back of her head. “Let me know if I need to repeat anything.” She adds bashfully.
“Just checking, two apricot danishes, two cinnamon buns, two chocolate muffins, two millionaire shortbread, two iced americanos one black and with with oat milk with a ham and cheese croissant.”
“Yes! Oh and also an avocado toast with a poached egg. Can I have that and the croissant in a separate bag please?”
“Right, okay, is that all?”
“Yep.”
“And can I have a name?”
“Jimin.”
“Perf, we will call when it’s ready.”
Jimin gives a smile and waits to her side. Knowing she’s probably going to wait for a while, she looks around and takes in the atmosphere of the coffee shop. There’s a good mix of people. Some students are tapping away on their laptops and tablets, most likely adding the finishing touches to their assignments before submissions. She also sees guys in fancy suits, leaving the premises as quickly as they entered, one hand gripping their drink and the other a small briefcase. There are also people enjoying a quiet morning, sipping coffee and reading the news. Hopefully, it's The Daily Planet!
On the topic of The Daily Planet, she can’t help but feel a little nervous. This is her first real job ever and she’s really hoping that everything goes smoothly. Just a normal day. That’s all she asks for.
“Order for Jimin?”
She steps forward and looks at everything on the counter just for her. There are two bags, one bigger and one smaller with two coffees just next to them. She peers into the bigger paper bag and sees a box with a clear plastic top, presenting all the pastries she's ordered for work. The other bag has a paper sleeve and a smaller paper take-out container that she can only guess has the avocado toast. Awkwardly she slides the two bag handles around her wrists, one for each bag, which slide and sit on the crook of the elbow. She then grabs the two cups of coffee.
Holding all her stuff, she realises she has no free hands to open the door, so she resorts to pushing with her hip to open it.
Huh. It’s a lot stiffer than she remembers.
But she’s already broken one door today and doesn’t want to make it a second, so she tries again, but puts extra effort to not push too hard.
“It’s a pull by the way.” A voice answers.
Jimin turns towards the voice and locks eyes with a girl. And her heart stutters in her chest when she throws her a small smile. She’s so pretty! It’s as if her type personified just manifested right in front of her, with short hair and a cute, puppish face with big brown sugar boba pearl eyes, only this girl just watched her open the door the wrong way.
She comes closer and pulls on the handle, making way for Karina to pass through.
“Th-thank you.”
“It’s no problem.” She follows after. “You heading to a party or something?”
“Huh?” Jimin realises that the girl is walking by her side and almost yelps. “Oh, this! No.” She pauses. Then she realises this dream girl probably thinks she’s a massive glutton eating all of these pastries by herself. “Not like I don’t go to parties. I mean what? What am I saying? Work. I’m bringing these to work. It’s my first day of work today and I want to give a good impression.”
The girl laughs, finding the stranger’s awkwardness endearing. “I’m sure you’ll make a great first impression. Hope you have a lovely day.”
“Hope you do-”
SLAM
Jimin walks headfirst into a stop sign, denting it terribly and causing her to fall flat on her ass. Some coffee spills, but thanks to the lids it’s not too much, though a little hot to touch. Her glasses now rest awkwardly on her head, tilted to one side.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay?”
Jimin looks up to see the pretty girl looking over her with concern.
“Wow. I did not see that there.” Jimin feels her face burning in embarrassment. She tries to use the side of her hand, still gripping the cup to adjust her glasses.
The girl tries and fails horribly to hide a giggle. She then squats down and adjusts the arm of the glasses, making sure it's back on properly. “I guess one pair of glasses isn’t enough.”
Jimin tries not to oogle in public and stops her mouth from hanging open like a complete loser (a part of her already acknowledges that she’s loserish so the goal is just not to be a complete one at this point). “Yeah,” she laughs, getting back on her feet with the help of the girl who pulls her by her wrists to help her back up.
The pretty girl throws her a smile. “So much for lovely day am I right?”
“Well, it’s not too bad.”
“Hmm?”
“I got to meet you.” She says with a smile.
Wait did she just say that out loud? She never says stuff like that ever.
Jimin can feel her cheeks warming up and her heart rate accelerating as every millisecond tics by, her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
Is this gay panic?
“Anyway-it-was-nice-meeting-you-stranger-goodbye-forever!” She raps out in a breath, making her way back home, stumbling over the paved walkway due to her clumsiness.
“Be careful!” The girl adds as she watches Jimin get further away, a smile still etched on her lips.
Jimin wonders if she’s lost her mind on the way home, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole, which now that she thinks of it, almost already happened once. When she makes it back into the apartment, she sees Giselle recording some content, likely an OOTD TikTok with how she’s posing in the mirror. She’s all dressed up with a full face of office-appropriate but still very pretty makeup. She’s in her black shoulderless top and some long dark brown pleated pants that emphasise her proportions expertly, completed with tall heels and a matching brown coat that's probably too hot for the season.
Jimin puts down the coffee and quickly washes her hands, freeing herself of any leftover americano residue. She takes off her hoodie and grabs a knitted cardigan for when she’s ready to go back outside. When she’s back at the table, Giselle is sitting comfortably and puts out the food for the both of them, opening her takeaway container.
“Thanks for getting breakfast Yuji.” She peeks into the other bag, looking at all the pastries. “Um, okay I know you can have an appetite sometimes but that's a bit overkill I think.”
“They’re for work dummy!”
“Don’t dummy me, I’ve seen you smash like four pizzas and three litres of soda.”
Jimin pulls a face and rolls her eyes impishly.
“Oh! My yolk popped!” Giselle comments as she takes a picture of her breakfast.
“Oh, yeah. I-uh…. tripped when I was coming back.” She takes a bite of the croissant. Yum. Still warm!
Giselle takes a long sip of her coffee. “Jimin, we’ve been friends long enough, I know when you're lying to me! Spill. What happened.”
“I… walked into a stop sign.”
Giselle’s eyes get all shifty, her gaze becoming narrow. She brings the avocado toast to her mouth and takes a bite, but is sure to maintain this scrutinising eye contact the whole time. Jimin feels smaller under her gaze. “As embarrassing as that is, it's nothing I haven’t seen before” She swallows, struggling to get the toasted sourdough down. “… so why would you keep that from me…. Unless there’s something else?”
Jimin facepalms. Why does Giselle have to know her so well?
“Did someone see you?” She hears Jimin whimper, it's so pathetic it makes her cackle. “Oh my god someone totally saw you. Were they cute?” She takes another munch of her toast, cleaning up the sides of her lips of any running egg yolk with the pads of her pointer finger.
“Cute?” Jimin groans. “She was adorable !” She hides her blushing cheeks behind her hands, which covers her tiny face. “Oh Giselle, she was so pretty. Like stupid pretty and I walked right into a stop sign!”
Giselle couldn’t hide her laugh, but she wouldn’t attempt it anyway. It’s part of her job to tease and make fun of the girl, and she makes it too easy. Jimin is like a disaster on legs sometimes, bless her heart. “Did you at least get her name?”
Jimin looks really cute, defeatedly eating her croissant. It just makes Giselle even more entertained.
“No.” She sighs and tries to calm down, fanning over her red cheeks. “But she smiled at me and said I’d make a good impression at work.”
“Well to be honest, only up after that impression.” Giselle quips, enjoying another bite of her breakfast.
Jimin scowls and crosses her arms. “Gigi!” She just gets a laugh at her face in reply, which makes her laugh too even if she tries to hide it.
“Well did you say anything back?”
“I did and it was super cringe. Honestly, maybe I should have just walked onto oncoming traffic.”
“Okay, drama queen.” She glances over at her watch and finishes her last bite of breakfast. “I think we should get going.”
Jimin nods and gets up from the chair, making her way to the door, and being sure to grab the bag of pastries on the way out. Right as they step out of the house, Giselle turns around and looks down at Jimin, tsking as she dusts flecks of croissant off of the corners of her lips and on top of her clothes. “Can’t take you anywhere.” She mutters under her breath.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The Daily Planet occupies the top three floors of an Office Building situated in the heart of the city, the top of it decorated with a massive golden gilded statue of a planet, with words 'THE DAILY PLANET' engraved in a thick ring that wraps around it. Jimin gulps as she feels its shadow tower over her.
After a long elevator ride, Giselle and Jimin find themselves directed to meet their new manager, who briefly introduces himself.
“You guys must be the new interns. Welcome to The Daily Planet. Could you please just wait here. Someone will be here to show you guys around.”
“Of course, that’ll be no problem,” Giselle answers, making herself comfortable on the plush coach.
“Giselle and I got some pastries as a hello. Please have one!” Karina says, opening the box.
Their manager raises his hand. “That's very kind of you, but I’m gluten-free. You can put them down in the staff room, but I’d suggest leaving a note with allergen information.”
Jimin immediately closes the box, and moves it far away from her boss, as if gluten allergies could be transferred through the air. “Will do, Sir. Sorry about that.” He gives a smile and Jimin sits back down, feeling bad she didn’t get anything her boss could eat.
The doors fly open and a girl comes rushing in.
“Sir, thank you so much for finally giving me a chance. Listen to this. There’s suspicious activity in the warehouses near the underground station. I’ve obtained data on the energy readings of the nearby buildings.” She slams the paper down and gestures to a bunch of graphs, pointing at a pie chart. “The fourth warehouse is using over sixty times the electricity of a normal warehouse! That's enough to power five Daily Planets! We need to investi-”
“Kim!” The boss interrupts, groaning and dragging a palm over his face. “I did not call you here to listen to your outlandish stories, I’m here to introduce you to the new interns!”
“What?” Their boss gestures to Jimin and Giselle, and she finally acknowledges the other two in the room.
She meets eyes with Jimin who looks shocked, a dusting of pink dancing on her cheeks.
“Oh, it's you!” She says with a wave, surprised.
“H-Hi!”
“Minjeong, this is Jimin and Giselle. Jimin and Giselle, this is Minjeong, she’s an intern and will be showing you guys the ropes.”
“But Sir, I have a lead, what if we went out and-”
“No, Kim. Intern.” He pauses and repeats again for emphasis. “ Intern. Just teach them how to work the printer and get coffee. That is all.”
Minjeong sighs. “Okay, boss.”
“You can all go now.”
The walk through the hall is quiet as Minjeong looks down at her papers silently. Jimin taps on Minjeong’s shoulder.
“Would you like a pastry?” She asks quietly, praying to god she didn’t have some allergy as well.
Minjeong gives a small smile gratefully and takes an apricot danish. “You’re sweet. Thank you.” Using a free hand, she pushes for the elevator.
She takes a bite and hums in content. “Sorry about earlier, probably gave a really bad impression.” The ding of the elevator sounds and the three of them step inside.
“I mean hey, can’t be worse than walking into a stop sign.” Jimin jokes, trying to lighten the mood. It works because Minjeong laughs and Jimin thinks it sounds like music, easy on her ears and so nice to listen to. In the background, the math is mathing in Giselle’s head and she’s putting the picture together. Maybe she’s more suited for investigative journalism than she thought.
The elevator arrives two floors down and Minjeong leads them to their office space after swiping her key card, gesturing for them to do the same. “So Minjeong, how long have you been working here for?” Giselle asks, slipping herself into the conversation.
“About a year.” She takes another bite of the sweet treat. “It’s kind of embarrassing to be an intern for this long, so I’ve been looking everywhere for a break - but I just never seem to get a chance.” She balls her fist and clenches her jaw.
“Well me and Jimin would love to help, so if you have any ideas feel free to bounce them off us,” Giselle adds, yoinking the box from Jimin and taking some Millionaire shortbread for herself.
“I’ll be sure to follow you up on that.” She gestures to the cubicles in front of them, small, but adequate with a rolly desk chair, small table and monitor. “This is where you guys are stationed. If you guys have any work it’ll be sent to your work email, but it's mostly print-related. I look forward to working with you guys and ask me any questions if you got any!”
Jimin sits down in her cubical. “Thanks, Minjeong.”
She smiles. “It’s no problem.”
When she leaves, Jimin is left to her own thoughts. She swings her chair around, and from where she's sitting she gets a good view of the city below, watching as people rush around, wrapped up in their own lives. Being about twenty floors in the air, it's a good vantage point for people-watching. She isn't left alone for long. Silence can be a luxury when Giselle is your best friend.
She comes in whisper shouting, slamming her hands against the small desk and kneeling down on the carpeted floor. "Oh my gosh, Yuji! There's no way Minjeong is that same girl you met at the coffee shop! What on earth are the chances?!"
Jimin places her hands on her cheeks, feeling them warm up.
"So... what's your game plan?"
"Game plan. What-"
"You can't just stare at her all day! Make a move!"
“Wh-what are you talking about I don’t-”
“Oh sure~” Giselle teases, dipping her chin down and batting her eyelids, making them look extra sparkly. “Don’t pretend like this is exactly how you look at her.”
Pink dusts Jimin’s cheeks. “I- well-”
"Yeah, don't even try to deny it."
Jimin sits up, refusing to be teased any longer. "Let's focus on work. Don't forget why we're here!"
Giselle rolls her eyes and gets up, "We got a girl scout over here I almost forgot. Fine. But don't think you're off the hook! I want updates."
Jimin keeps her eyes glued on the monitor, shoeing Giselle away with the flick of her hand.
It's going to be a long day.
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