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aeri’s been through some shit in her life. her occupation wasn’t just handed to her with ease, no, she worked her ass off to become a doctor. her countless nights of cramming and mornings spent studying finally paid off when she got hired at a local clinic. there wasn’t a point to vye for a position in a hospital since truthfully, aeri hates being ordered around. she’s tried her best to avoid working as an intern and so far, it’s been going pretty well.
she wakes up every day brimming with excitement. her job as a general practitioner makes her life interesting. the people she treats tell her stories sometimes. aeri knows that park sohyun, a young easygoing girl, only scraped her knees because she was trying to impress her crush with a kickflip on her skateboard. the elderly couple living next door to her frequents aeri’s clinic just because she’s there (and also because she helped them fix their door hinge, so they vowed to give her some business).
her colleagues are all very kind too. as the oldest, aeri tends to be a bit intimidating and strict, all just a facade to maintain professionalism in the clinic. but her cold stance doesn’t deter her younger colleagues from trying their best to befriend her. kim minjeong, a doctor who shares shifts with her, is basically a puppy. she reminds aeri of her dog staying with her parents. minjeong started working at the clinic a year after aeri did and she would follow the older girl around constantly. however, it seems that minjeong has a new girl to follow around. recently, they hired a new receptionist (more accurately titled medical administrative assistant) called ning yizhuo.
aeri thinks yizhuo is adorable. with the way yizhuo banters with them, it’s hard to tell she’s a foreigner at all. the girl replies easily to minjeong’s teasing with quips of her own. despite being a newbie, yizhuo has cemented herself deeply into the clinic. it’s hard to imagine the clinic without her to be honest. somehow, the girl has wormed herself into the heart of minjeong, capturing it. aeri would love for her two friends to be happy together but she does not appreciate the endless midnight calls minjeong graces her with, wailing about how yizhuo seems suspiciously close with their other receptionist.
and then, aeri has to comfort minjeong and explain that yizhuo’s just trying to make friends with someone comfortable, like chenle who’s also chinese. her words always manage to rile minjeong up even more since she’ll whine, “so yizhuo’s not comfortable with me?!”
anyway, it’s another one of those days where minjeong’s shooting daggers at the two foreigners and aeri just pats her back gently, “you have to stop glaring at them like that.”
aeri glances at the two, still engrossed in their conversation, “doesn’t seem like it’s working anyway.” minjeong frowns— not really a frown, more of scrunching up her face and wrinkling her nose like an angry puppy.
“don’t throw a tantrum now, it’s a bad look,” aeri reminds her. minjeong decides to roll her eyes in favour of answering. aeri’s familiar with the younger’s actions. she knows that sooner or later, yizhuo will come up to them, notice the upset look on minjeong’s face and ask her what’s wrong. then, minjeong will brush her off, saying it’s nothing and leave while yizhuo has to run after her. and at the end of the day, minjeong will feel guilty and apologise, stating a bullshit excuse of being stressed and tired rather than her true feelings.
she takes a long sip of her coffee when she spots yizhuo walking towards them. slyly, aeri takes her leave by slipping into her office. she doesn’t want to witness this weird mating dance the two conduct around each other. faintly, she hears minjeong’s choked up reason and yizhuo’s comforting words.
ah, young love. aeri thinks fondly of her friends. she really hopes that they’ll get around to confessing soon, it’s rather difficult to watch their strained friendship, borderline relationship. just as she’s about to take another gulp, yizhuo’s head peeks through the small window beside her desk, informing her that they were opening soon.
aeri sighs, guzzling the rest of her coffee. she gets a few more minutes of relaxation before the first patient knocks on the door. yizhuo slides her a printed copy of the appointment details. before she even gets to read anything, the door swings open. snapping her mask on, aeri smiles as big as she can, hoping the teenager can still see the way her eyes curve. she’s accompanied by her mother and is a regular at their clinic.
“good morning! how are you doing, eunchae?” aeri asks, slinging the stethoscope around her neck. eunchae smiles back weakly, “i’m okay.”
directing her attention to her mother, aeri reads off the piece of paper just handed to her, “sore throat and fever, is that correct?”
chaewon nods, gesturing for eunchae to sit down, “she’s been feeling a bit sick recently and there seems to be an infection going around her school. i just brought her here in case her condition worsens.”
like clockwork, aeri takes eunchae’s temperature, frowning at the high number displayed on the thermometer. she then looks at eunchae’s throat, which is also inflamed and red. if there’s an infection going around at the nearby high school, then aeri expects to see more teenagers coming.
after observing eunchae’s condition, aeri prescribes them the usual medication. one to bring down her fever and another to soothe her throat. it’s a rather stagnant operation, aeri assesses her patient, gives them a rundown of their symptoms, then they leave and the reception passes them their medicine.
it’s enjoyable but also rather boring. stability is good, aeri agrees and she’s glad she isn’t working in a big shot hospital working night shifts and getting called to work while she’s trying to sleep. but her days are spent in a cycle.
aeri needs some sort of excitement in her life. she needs something new— something that makes her feel like living. but she doesn’t know what she requires. a new job? no way, no matter how inactive her schedule was, she wouldn’t give up her hefty paycheck for a random spark. maybe a new pet? but aeri’s never at home. they would just feel lonely.
and almost like god is listening to her, the door opens to reveal the answer she’s been looking for.
she drags her eyes up to the girl, unimpressed as she reads off the clipboard. yu jimin, twenty four. thinks she broke her arm. aeri’s read enough.
“so, you think your arm is broken,” she states. jimin nods her head, “i literally heard a crack in my bone.”
squinting her eyes, aeri swallows her saliva and wills herself to be calm. the girl’s super pretty, like should be modeling for vogue pretty. but it seems that she’s a bit… slow. any semblance of attraction aeri might have felt was instantly gone the moment jimin opened her mouth.
“you should go to the emergency room if you think you broke a bone. you need to get an x-ray.”
“oh, should i? i wasn’t sure— it’s my first time,” jimin says, as if that explains why she’s here in aeri’s clinic instead of being at a hospital.
“let me take a look at your arm,” aeri calls jimin over, ignoring the thick woodsy smell emitting from the girl. jimin flops into the chair, still maintaining her smile as aeri examines her arm.
jimin’s arm isn’t broken, that aeri can confirm.
“i thought you said it’s your arm? not your wrist?” the doctor asks, gently tapping at the swelling around jimin’s wrist.
“uh, is the wrist not part of the arm?”
aeri’s eyes flitter up to glare at jimin.
“i don’t know, my arm hurts though.”
if jimin wasn’t her patient, aeri would have snapped her other wrist and asked if her arm hurts. but because she has morals, she chooses to continue with her examination.
“your arm isn’t broken, thankfully. but your wrist is sprained. what were you doing right before you felt the pain?” aeri questions, holding onto jimin’s wrist.
the girl looks away, contemplative.
“well, i was at the gym,” aeri lights up at the mention of gymming. she’s an avid gym goer and secretly, she’s quite obsessed with building muscle, “and my friend, ryujin, said i couldn’t lift more than her, which is obviously untrue. so we started a friendly competition!”
right. so that was a bunch of nothing.
“what were you lifting?”
“oh, uhm, we were doing dumbbell curls.”
“how much were you lifting?” the doctor asks, definitely out of kindness and not curiosity.
aeri watches as jimin counts her fingers, “we got up to twenty.”
“twenty pounds?”
jimin almost looks scandalised as she answers, “no, kilograms.” aeri resists the urge to whistle because that did not justify jimin’s stupidity despite how impressive the feat is. she wonders how jimin’s arms feel, there’s an obvious muscle definition when she moves ever so slightly. jimin’s sleeveless top allows aeri to openly gawk at her arms.
“can you move your wrist for me? tell me which part hurts the most.” jimin does so, as instructed while aeri watches her reactions carefully. when her wrist almost bends entirely, jimin winces loudly.
“okay, that part hurts?”
jimin juts her lower lip out and aeri almost chuckles at how childish the girl looks.
“i’ll prescribe you with some medicine to relieve the pain and reduce inflammation. but you should still visit a hospital to get an x-ray to check for any broken bones. keep your wrist above your heart level and wrap it in an elastic band to help with swelling,” aeri types her findings onto her computer. jimin instantly holds her wrist above her chest, nodding eagerly at every word.
“thanks—” jimin grins brightly, “aeri-ssi!”
aeri watches as jimin hops out gleefully, her wrist still elevated. what a dumb decision to make; just because of a bet? and now she has a sprained wrist? that would hinder any progress she had at the gym. aeri almost feels bad. she would absolutely hate it if her session had to be stopped short because of an injury.
when her shift ends, minjeong comes up to her, asking if anything interesting happened. aeri doesn’t see the need to lie about her rather strange encounter with jimin. after her retelling, minjeong snorted, saying how silly the girl seems. aeri mentioned that jimin was the same age as her, even older by a few months. it was almost comical how different they were.
she runs her fingers through her hair (the faint pink dye still remains thankfully), hoping that jimin stays out of trouble and heals properly, like she does with all her patients.
—
safe to say, jimin does not. within three weeks, the girl walks through aeri’s door, grin still as bright. aeri isn’t the happiest to see her limping to the chair. her wrist is healed now though.
“what happened?” she asks, trying to remain calm.
jimin shrugs, “i tripped over a rock and my glasses broke. luckily it was just the frame. i was super excited to visit the aquarium and i didn’t see the stupid stone in my way.”
ironic how jimin’s pinning the blame onto an inanimate object. aeri holds in her laughter.
“any swelling? bruising?”
the girl shakes her head, graciously lifting up her pants to above her knees, “just a scrape but it was bleeding quite badly and my mom said i should come here.”
aeri nods like she understands (she doesn’t. how is jimin alive? this girl was a walking disaster). she tripped over a rock because she was too excited to visit an aquarium. god, was she real?
“did you wash the wound?” aeri grimaces at the torn skin. jimin nods, at least she did.
“i’ll just clean it up and bandage your knee for you,” aeri says, writing a small note to yizhuo. within seconds, the bandages and saline are delivered in a small basket.
“i’m going to touch your leg now.” she bends down, lifting the behind of jimin’s knee upwards. ignoring the whine that comes out, aeri focuses on rinsing the wound with saline. then, she uses a gauze swab to clean it, moving outwards from the wound. after patting it dry, aeri wraps a bandage around her knee tightly. she’s so focused that she doesn’t notice how jimin shivers slightly whenever aeri grazes her bare skin.
thankfully, jimin doesn’t move much even when aeri poured saline onto the wound. maybe she had better pain tolerance than aeri previously imagined. her head must be built with steel too.
after she’s finished, jimin stares at her, her gaze full of expectation. aeri wonders if she has another injury she requires her to tend to. or maybe she wants to ask for medical leave? what job would a girl like jimin even have? maybe she was a model? but with the amount of injuries jimin has (only two, but aeri has a grasp of how clumsy she is), the girl wouldn’t be able to book too many gigs, right?
“yes?”
“you have really soft hands.”
oh.
aeri wasn’t expecting that at all.
“uhm,” she coughs awkwardly, busying herself with the report instead, “thank you.” she can’t bring herself to look at jimin in the eyes, knowing that she’ll immediately turn as red as the lipstick resting on jimin’s lips. who even says something like that?! they’re in a clinic! not on single’s inferno!
jimin nods, more to herself, as if acknowledging that she said such a compliment. aeri types ‘help’ ten more times before jimin speaks up.
“i’ll get going now.”
“yes, of course,” aeri smiles, strained. jimin seems to appreciate it nonetheless since she sends a blinding one back. a smile that raises her cheekbones and stretches her red lips. when jimin finally leaves, she lets out a sigh of relief. she has no idea what the older girl was doing— saying shit like that to her doctor? aeri slumps back into her seat and turns to the window where yizhuo and chenle sit.
yizhuo grins knowingly.
“fuck off,” aeri groans, burying her head into her palms. yizhuo’s grin only widens, “charming patients now? please refrain from flirting, we can still hear you.”
“that’s just ‘cause you have supersonic hearing, like a bat,” she hisses back. the two receptionists scoff and just as aeri’s about to get back at yizhuo (teasing her about minjeong always gets the job done), another patient waltzes in.
aeri mutters under her breath, “thanks for the head’s up, ning.”
yizhuo wiggles her eyebrows annoyingly in response.
—
jimin is considered a frequent visitor now. sometimes, she doesn’t even have an injury when she arrives. aeri would ask her what’s wrong and jimin would just make up something on the spot. it’s quite obvious that she’s lying through her teeth. if there was a long line outside, aeri would be annoyed. but somehow, jimin always drops by when there’s no one. it’s actually endearing to see her stutter through her words. one time, jimin straight up said that her eyes were hurting because she cried too much watching an animal documentary. like, what the hell was aeri meant to say about that?
another recent development is the constant stream of gifts jimin would bring along. gifts, aeri coins, because the items she procures from her bag can’t count as anything other than gifts. gifts that she definitely does not need. aeri appreciates them nonetheless. her first gift was a pack of shin-chan themed plasters. jimin reasoned that it was because aeri needed them for her work. the proud look on jimin’s face prevented her from rejecting the gift. so the cartoon plasters are stored inside her cabinet, next to all the regular ones. she uses them solely for children and jimin.
her next gift was a kuromi posture toy because jimin noticed how aeri always slouches in her chair when she’s working. aeri was definitely shocked at how observant jimin was and also a little concerned if the older girl was constantly watching her. she had been reluctant to use it at first, scared that it would ruin her whole professional look. but jimin pouted and aeri’s weak. she gets a few weird stares when older patients come in but she can’t care enough.
her latest gift was a pack of scented candles from jo malone because aeri had asked which perfume jimin used. it was just an offhand question to keep the conversation going but then jimin appeared with the candles in hand and a sheepish smile. when aeri got home, she lit one up and was immediately reminded of the girl that tortured her workplace and mind.
aeri leans into her posture toy, clicking away at her computer. she was almost done for the day, just a couple more bits to finish up. their clinic was closing soon, the time being almost ten. aeri had chosen to work here because of its working hours. the clinic would open up at eight in the morning and close for lunch break at two, before opening up at five and finishing at ten. her three hour break consisted of going home to shower or eating lunch with her colleagues. now, her lunch breaks were spent entertaining jimin.
when the girl found out about aeri’s extended lunch break, she vowed to bring her out, stating that the doctor needed a break. aeri doesn’t necessarily disagree, so she allows herself to be dragged around the city by the raven. she’s pretty sure they have eaten at almost every single restaurant and cafe by now. somehow, jimin manages to surprise her with a new one every time. aeri doesn’t know why but when she returns to the clinic, she’s all smiles and giddy.
(aeri definitely knows why. she just can’t confront that thought yet. it’s maddening to admit that her cheeks flush and heart races when the cause of it is some silly himbo.)
a series of knocks on her door draws her out of her reverie. minjeong’s voice can be heard as she calls out, “your lover’s here!” aeri furrows her eyebrows, wondering what the other doctor was talking about. she did not have a lover. she’s been single ever since graduating med school.
when she finishes packing up, jimin’s face pops up and aeri internally groans, realising who minjeong was talking about.
“hi! are you going home now?” she chirps cheerfully. aeri has no clue how jimin manages to be so upbeat even after a long day at work (she learnt during one of their lunches that jimin works as a freelance model).
“yeah,” aeri rasps out, “you coming with me?” the older girl has a habit of just following her around. the first time jimin followed her home, aeri nearly called the cops on her. how could she have expected that the hooded figure was jimin?! now, jimin shows up to her workplace first then follows her home. like a puppy.
jimin beams, “of course! i’m taking you home.” taking is an overstatement when all jimin does is walk behind aeri creepily. she doesn’t mind it though.
“you’ve eaten, right?” jimin asks when they head out. aeri nods. she ate some of minjeong’s home cooked food, it was delicious. can jimin cook? that would be nice. she makes a mental note to ask minjeong for the recipe later.
“anything happened today? anything interesting?”
aeri scrunches her face, trying to recall if something remarkable happened during her shift. other than the usual babies getting vaccines, nothing truly exciting occurred.
“well, i had a patient come in asking for plastic surgery,” aeri laughs, “she demanded to talk to me and yizhuo was seconds away from punching her. then i had to explain to her that this was a clinic and that i’m not a surgeon.”
jimin giggles along until aeri says, “she was quite pretty though, so i don’t understand why she wanted surgery.”
the girl’s neck snaps to stare at aeri so quickly she wonders if jimin sprained it.
as she bores holes into the side of aeri’s face, jimin asks slowly, “was she pretty? prettier than me?”
uhm. aeri blanks, already forgetting what the lady looked like. but either way, with how jimin’s glaring at her, maybe she should keep that to herself.
“n-no, of course not,” aeri sweats under jimin’s intense gaze, feeling a shiver run up her spine. god, aeri, you’re screwed, she thinks. jimin’s going to kill you. “you’re prettier. the prettiest, even.” she tries to say with all the sincerity in her heart. fortunately, jimin’s face softens with delight.
“okay kim aeri,” jimin narrows her eyes, “but i’m watching you.”
aeri sighs, relieved to be let off the hook this time. jimin gets upset and sulks if she isn’t the centre of aeri’s attention. it’s strange how aeri doesn’t mind this behaviour at all. maybe because it comes from jimin and no one else. if someone else started acting this way, aeri would call them childish immediately. when she calls jimin childish, it’s a term of endearment rather than exasperation.
“anything happen at your shoot? what was it for this time?” aeri asks. jimin shakes her head, frowning, “it was just the usual. but it was for a sports brand this time and luckily all the other models were girls too. they gave us some apparel too, look, i’m wearing it right now.”
aeri’s gaze wanders. she takes a good look at jimin’s outfit today, noting how her hair was tied in a cute side braid and that she was wearing a long navy golf dress with a white collar. the sight of the fabric clinging to jimin’s skin, accentuating the curve of her hips, makes her throat dry up considerably.
“yeah? did you have fun?” aeri chooses to ask and stare ahead because she’s a respectful woman who will not fantasise about her walking buddy for the night. she will not think about how nice it’ll be to wrap her arms around jimin’s waist and to press her body against hers. she will not imagine the gruffness of jimin’s voice in her ears—
“would have had more fun if you were there,” jimin says cheekily. aeri rolls her eyes just as they round the corner to her apartment complex. “thanks for walking me home, jimin. text me when you reach home, okay?”
yes, they do have each other’s numbers now. yes, jimin does send her a whole feed’s worth of memes and animal videos. and yes, jimin does send the occasional selfie that makes aeri’s heart skip a beat.
jimin stops aeri just as she’s about to enter, “i was being serious.” aeri raises an eyebrow, prompting her to continue. “would you come to one of my shoots if i asked?”
aeri thinks it over in her head. jimin’s been very attentive and supportive of her work. they haven’t labelled their relationship yet but at this stage, when they’re walking home together and they’re spending every day together… shouldn’t aeri be putting the same amount of effort into this as well?
“yeah, text me when your next shoot is. i’ll free up my schedule.” for you.
then, jimin smiles. it’s the one reserved solely for aeri. where her nose wrinkles and her eyes curve beautifully. aeri’s seen it a couple of times; when jimin’s staring at her, when jimin’s talking about her, when jimin’s talking to her. aeri has reached a point where it seems completely sane to be able to identify the different types of joy that jimin contains.
aeri has always enjoyed statistics and data. she enjoys coming up with a hypothesis and experimenting on it. and maybe now, her hypothesis is that jimin really likes her.
—
when aeri reaches the entrance of the building, she nervously tugs at her chrome hearts jacket’s sleeves. glancing at her reflection in the window, she adjusts the beanie sitting on top of her head and pushes her black framed glasses upwards. she looks like a teenage boy. the comparison doesn’t deter her from walking in with the most confidence she’s had in her life. sending a quick text to jimin in the lift, aeri ignores the lingering looks other people give her. god, she looks like she’s lost.
the lift dings and aeri steps out, navigating through the hallways to finally arrive at a door labelled, ‘photoshoot in progress!’ gingerly, she opens the door, instantly being blasted in the face by bursts of flash. aeri rubs at her eyes when she hears jimin’s sweet voice calling her name.
“aeri-ah! you made it!” jimin grins, causing a flutter to go off in her chest. aeri gulps, feeling a little too self-conscious with her presence next to jimin.
“i said i would come, didn’t i?” aeri says in lieu of focusing on the way jimin’s hand snakes around her torso. jimin gives her side a squeeze, “i mean, doctors are really busy, aren’t they? i’m glad you found time to come.”
aeri doesn’t really want to tell jimin that she had to get on her knees to beg minjeong to let her off for one day. the younger doctor would have more workload but aeri also promised her a day-off and to help her with yizhuo. the moment the youngest’s name slipped out of aeri’s mouth, minjeong agreed.
“you always come to visit me, so…” aeri rubs the back of her neck awkwardly. jimin smiles warmly, gesturing for aeri to sit down in one of the nearby chairs. truthfully, she has no idea if she’s even allowed to watch a photoshoot like such but everyone had seen jimin with her, so hopefully she could stay.
when she thinks about it, she had never seen jimin in her own field of work. it was always at the clinic. now, aeri understands why jimin had never invited her. the girl must have known that the moment aeri saw her modeling, she would get a nosebleed. blood rushes into her cheeks as she stares at the monitor, jaw-dropped. jimin’s sultry gaze distracts her from the product itself. how long did god take to create jimin?
when they finish, aeri can’t tell what the product jimin’s promoting is. she was too focused on the model and not the product. was it the jeans? or the shirt? would other people get to perceive jimin like this? aeri hates it— knowing that strangers got to see her jimin in such a way.
“how was it?” jimin has the audacity to ask. aeri knows from the shit eating grin she has plastered over her face that jimin saw her staring like an idiot.
“you looked… you look great.”
“yeah?”
aeri chuckles, regaining some of her bearings, “you should invite me to come watch more often.” jimin lets out a hearty laugh.
“i’m not sure how much of a doctor’s time i should take… don’t you have patients to attend to?” jimin teases.
“well, you are one of my patients too, ms. broken arm,” aeri quips. jimin’s face instantly reddens at the memory of their first meeting. laughing at her embarrassment, aeri pats her on the back, “it was quite an impression.”
“that was so humiliating! i have no clue why i acted like that— seriously,” jimin huffs. maybe aeri should tell her how as much as she found her stupid, she also found her cute. but before she could even open her mouth, a person interrupts.
“hey yuji and… new girl?” aeri looks away from jimin, blinking slowly at the girl in front of her. her hair was messily sprawled and textured into a wolf cut and she looked almost like a cat.
jimin jumps up, cutting in, “this is ryujin, my friend. and this is aeri.”
ryujin. aeri nods. the stupid friend that made the bet with jimin, causing her to sprain her wrist. that friend. ryujin seems to also be familiar with her name since she lights up with recognition.
“oh, you’re the doctor that jimin lik—” before ryujin can complete her sentence, jimin covers her mouth firmly and her words come out muffled. aeri contains her laughter.
“you’re such an asshole,” jimin whines, pinching ryujin’s side. aeri ignores the way her stomach lurches at jimin’s tone.
ryujin rolls her eyes, “so you’re telling me you created this whole scheme to date her and still can’t hear the word ‘like’ out loud?”
what. aeri turns to jimin. they’ve never talked about dating. their relationship was completely unlabelled, bordering on situationship. jimin turns pale white as ryujin continues to run her mouth.
“listen, aeri,” ryujin sighs, “that whole thing with jimin spraining her wrist? it wasn’t real, like okay, she sprained her wrist but not for the reason you think. has she told you yet?”
“no, she hasn’t.” jimin audibly gulps beside her.
“wait— ryu, stop!”
aeri swats at jimin’s offending hand reaching out to cover ryujin’s mouth again. she wants to hear this because all this time, she was under the impression that jimin sprained her wrist because of a stupid bet. not for any ulterior motives.
“so like, a week before jimin sprained her wrist, we were passing by the gym and she suddenly stopped. like full on enchanted. then she turns to me and says ‘that’s the love of my life’. so obviously, we start our gym membership the next day,” ryujin laughs, as if this is all normal sane behaviour, “then she sulks for days because she didn’t see her gym crush again. until one day, she comes up to me, all giddy, saying how she found out that you work at a nearby clinic from eavesdropping.”
aeri glances at jimin, who has her fists clenched tightly. so tightly that her knuckles are almost turning white as ryujin continues blabbing.
“and she creates this whole plan to get injured in order to visit the clinic, which was totally crazy but i did encourage her because it was funny,” ryujin says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “and then sooner or later, she showed up at your clinic and made a fool of herself. but somehow, i don’t know why, she managed to bag you! congratulations on becoming yuji’s girlfriend!”
“that’s enough— please, stop talking,” jimin begs, her voice shaking. ryujin finally snaps out of her chattering haze. “yo, dude, what… are you okay?”
aeri smiles politely at ryujin, “thank you for telling me this. it was nice meeting you.” she doesn’t know what to feel. shock? perhaps, but this seems like the shit jimin would do. she’s not exactly surprised. a little bit flattered that jimin would put in so much effort for her. a little bit upset that she would lie to her. and a little bit regretful for not asking jimin out earlier.
grasping jimin’s wrist, aeri ignores how ryujin states that the model still has one more photoshoot to attend to and pulls her out to the staircase. jimin refuses to even look at her, her gaze glued to the floor.
“jimin-ah,” aeri starts out, her heart thumping against her ribcage, “i’m not mad at you.”
when jimin finally looks up, aeri’s heart clenches at her tear stained cheeks. “i’m only mad because you hurt yourself willingly when you should have just approached me.”
jimin groans, choking out, “i-i know i should have… but i never saw you again… i just thought that this would be the best way.” she mumbles quietly, “and i didn’t know that ryujin would just say all that out.”
“can i ask a question?” jimin nods. “why did ryujin call me your girlfriend?”
aeri usually enjoys how red jimin gets. the way maroon spreads from her neck to her ears makes the girl look even prettier. but now, with jimin’s shameful gaze and pouty lips, aeri wants to swipe that upset look off her face.
“i was bragging to her about how you were coming… i was so happy that you agreed and when ryujin asked me if we were official….” jimin blurts out, “i’m sorry!”
the doctor furrows her eyebrows in confusion. “what for? why are you apologising?”
“well— i— uhm, so you’re not mad?” jimin asks meekly, “that i called you my girlfriend?”
“no, of course not,” aeri admits bashfully, “i would like to be your girlfriend.”
jimin gapes. “even after all this?”
“especially after all this,” she nods, “i like you. i didn’t at first, well, because i thought you were crazy. now, i know that you were just desperate and i do like my partners desperate—”
the older girl places her open palm against aeri’s lips, letting out a relieved sigh. she laughs wetly, “just, stop talking. it’s embarrassing to be reminded of that day.”
when she relinquishes her hold, aeri giggles as well.
“i like you too,” jimin grins toothily, “to be clear.”
aeri said she needed a spark. she stated very openly that her life was boring and she needed a change. just as she leans her forehead against jimin’s, she thinks, yu jimin is all the change she needs.