Chapter Text
Jimin didn't really know how she found herself doing this. But somehow, she had been coerced.
Sitting in front of two clients, her hand tightly clasped against Minjeong's clammy palm, she found herself questioning her whole life, which had turned into something akin to a one-woman show a few hours prior.
***
Yizhuo, her colleague and supposedly best friend, although that title should be revoked now, barged inside her office unannounced, which wasn't all that weird in the first place. The business law branch of their firm was situated in one big open space room, and a lot of people usually passed by and came in unannounced.
Besides, the younger woman never seemed to have any privacy etiquette, so Jimin quickly grew accustomed to such happenings.
The two of them met in law school, when Jimin was already in her third year, while Yizhuo had just started as a freshman. Despite already having chosen her speciality in business law, Jimin had been put in charge of mentoring Yizhuo who, apparently, didn’t choose to follow her footsteps at all, since she ended up pursuing family law instead, a few years later.
But despite their differences, both in characters –with Yizhuo being a ball of sass and energy, and Jimin being the calm and awkward of the two– and in their legal branches, they ended up becoming inseparable. And when they miraculously found a firm which brought together different kinds of law branches all in one place, they saw it as the perfect opportunity to properly start their career in.
And ever since then, Yizhuo and Jimin ended up becoming colleagues, although they weren’t evolving in the same field.
"Unnie, can I ask you a favor?" Yizhuo asked, her best kitten eyes ready and her voice full of fake sweetness, slowly approaching the older’s seat.
Jimin winced at the sight, but couldn't bring herself to even think about refusing. Because she really couldn't say no to the younger. One pair of kitty eyes, and she was done for.
"What's up?"
"I'm supposed to meet a client today but the boss threw like, four new cases in my face this morning! The nerves, ugh…" she scoffed. "Do you think that you can, y'know... maybe help me out of this one?"
Jimin's eyes widened. "Um– I'm in business Ningie– I can't help you with your marital cases..."
"I know, I know!" fake cried Yizhuo, dramatically throwing her arms over her head. "But I have no one else to turn to!"
Jimin winced. She knew Yizhuo had her in the palm of her hand, but this was too much, even for her! "I would love to help you but I really know nothing about marital law Ningie," she sighed. "It was like my worst subject in school..."
"But it's similar to business though!"
Jimin raised a dubious eyebrow. "How so?"
"Well..." Yizhuo scratched her cheek. "You usually sweet talk your clients into getting along and signing million-worth contracts in business right? It's about the same with family law! Just convince the two spouses that they actually love each other, and you win!"
Jimin scoffed, completely and utterly baffled. "We're lawyers Ningie, not love counselors!"
Yizhuo let out a deep sigh, as if she had witnessed the world's harshest horrors. "Trust me unnie, this goes way beyond law... I feel like I earned my degree just to play Cupid, I swear!"
"Aren't you supposed to usually take care of divorce procedures though?" she asked, squinting at her colleague. "This has nothing to do with business."
Yizhuo loudly whined, catching the attention of the rest of their colleagues who were working in the nearby cubicles. "I thought so too! But guess what? By the end of the preparations, they actually end up more in love than before, and I still get my paycheck. Win-win!"
Jimin rolled her eyes. "Yeah exactly, you're so good at your job," she said, purposely adding a tinge of sarcasm in her tone, topping it off with a tight smile just for the sake of annoying Yizhuo. "So you don't need my help."
"But if you don't help me I'll die from overwork unnie! Please, don't let me die! And make sure the couple stays together, I have a reputation to keep!"
Jimin let out a long sigh, before inching closer to Yizhuo's ear, careful of any curious ears around them. "But Ningie," she whispered, "aren't you supposed to have... experience to handle these cases?"
"What do you mean?" asked Yizhuo innocently.
Jimin silently cleared her throat, embarrassed at the thought of voicing her... lack of experience. "Different law branches aside, I never dated anyone... so how am I supposed to know how to keep a couple together?"
Yizhuo shrugged, as if Jimin had just told her that it was cloudy outside. "Easy. You find someone to date."
Jimin's jaw fell. "Huh?"
Yizhuo rolled her eyes, suddenly marching towards the cubicle right behind Jimin's.
"Hey Minjeong?" Her face was uncharacteristically serious, but Jimin knew that she was up to no good. Because when Yizhuo’s lips were curled in a slight smile like this, things usually could only go wrong.
Minjeong, Jimin's colleague and fellow business lawyer, tilted her head to the side, curious to see the infamous Yizhuo, storm of their firm, approaching her. "Yeah?"
"Can you help me and date Jimin please?"
The world abruptly fell silent around them, the only source of noise coming from the rustling sound of the fan at the corner of the room, and someone making themselves coffee in the pantry.
Minjeong's eyes widened, her mouth slightly agape, as if trying to make sense of what she had just heard.
And Jimin wasn't in any better condition. She was certain that her ears were crimson red by now, and her breath was so ragged that one could think she just came back from running a marathon.
"Excuse me, what..?" coughed Minjeong, her own cheeks mirroring the scarlet color of Jimin's ears.
Yizhuo looked at her, then back at Jimin, a mischievous grin plastered on her face.
"You heard me right."
***
And that was exactly how Jimin found herself sitting right next to Minjeong, facing the pouty couple in front of them, her right leg anxiously bouncing up and down.
This was ridiculous, and she was certain that Minjeong was thinking the exact same thing. Even though (somehow!?) her colleague had easily accepted Yizhuo’s ridiculous idea.
“I mean– uh? Sure?” Minjeong blurted out after a few seconds of silence, successfully making the whole room erupt in a… deafening silence. Save for Yizhuo’s loud squeal.
“I knew I could count on you Minjeong! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!”
Jimin and Minjeong weren’t particularly close. Having joined the company fairly recently, Minjeong wasn’t all that acquainted with the rest of their colleagues, save for Yizhuo, since it was close to impossible to avoid the woman. Because, despite her self-proclaimed introverted nature –which Jimin thought was really well hidden– Yizhuo had the knack to befriend all their newcomers. Something about giving back what she had been given when she first arrived or whatnot.
Minjeong seemed to be quite the shy one. And from what Jimin could gather, she was a year younger than her.
Actually, Jimin was certain that they never actually held a proper conversation before, save for their usual polite greetings in the corridors. But said greetings were done with every single other colleague.
Meaning that the two of them never actually interacted one-on-one before.
Hell, Jimin wasn’t even sure why, out of all their colleagues, Yizhuo chose to burden Minjeong with this ridiculous request.
She shook her head at the memory, a quiet huff escaping her lips. Why did Minjeong even accept in the first place?
Jimin couldn’t even get refuting words out of her mind when her colleague did! And before she knew it, Yizhuo dragged them both inside an empty conference room, instructing them to hold hands and stay put until the clients arrived.
And… that was exactly what they did. No words were exchanged between them. They awkwardly linked their hands, and patiently waited for the clients like two well behaved puppies.
No questions, no answers, just awkward silence.
Although Jimin was hurling inside. She was supposed to take care of her own cases, and she was certain Minjeong also had her fair share of workload.
Was it even legal for them to accept a case that wasn’t even within their scope of speciality? Sure, law was law. But still! Their boss should have intervened already. After all, that woman had eyes and ears quite literally everywhere in that agency.
She immediately frowned at the thought. Perhaps, Yizhuo bribed their boss into not intervening? Was it what was really happening there? An illegal action in what was supposed to be a juridical company?
Jimin heaved out a small sigh, feeling Minjeong anxiously squirming next to her. Bribery or not, they were already trapped there. So might as well finish this as soon as they could.
“We specifically asked for Ms Ning to meet us,” their client, Mr. Lee, scowled, his back slightly turned towards his wife, a telltale sign of his guarded attitude. “So why is she not here?”
Jimin immediately guessed from their body language that this couple was doing far worse than bad.
Yizhuo really threw a burning potato in their hands, and expected Minjeong and her to somehow pull it off and make these two back in love again. Jimin was already tired at the thought, and had to physically refrain herself from letting out a desperate sigh.
This was going to be one hell of a long case.
Jimin straightened up her spine, hoping to adopt something akin to a powerful stance. Minjeong and her were in this mess together but as the older one of the two, she felt like she should take charge of things.
“I–”
“Ms. Ning is unfortunately not available at the moment,” said Minjeong suddenly, her face changed. Long gone was her usual meek expression. Instead, she flashed the two clients a face full of confidence and professionalism. “But we assure you that we will try our best to meet your expectations.”
The man looked slightly taken aback by this sudden change. Even Jimin was flabbergasted, and probably more than him! Sure, she wasn’t familiar with Minjeong, but from the few times she had seen her in the office, she always looked shy and demure. And surely nowhere near as confident as this!
“Thank you,” replied Mrs. Lee softly, her gentle tone directly contrasting with her husband’s harsh one.
Minjeong, seemingly noticing that it would be far easier to deal with the woman, flashed her a small smile. “Of course. And sorry for the sudden change of plans. But I promise that, if we collaborate, we will be able to make this work.”
Jimin silently looked at their exchange, her mind already going haywire. Why was Minjeong so… chill about this? First, she accepted Yizhuo’s ridiculous request, and now she was actually going along with it and sympathizing with the clients?
Was she some kind of double agent and Jimin wasn’t aware of it?
Minjeong and the woman exchanged formalities for the next few minutes, each presenting their partners and laying the case out. Yizhuo did tell them that this meeting was solely for them to introduce each other, and Jimin was glad that it wasn’t going to get deeper than that already.
Her mind wasn’t equipped for this much drama today!
From what Jimin managed to gather, the man and the woman were married for six years. But lately, things had started to get a bit sour between them. The man began to arrive home late from work, his mind fully focused with his flourishing business, while the woman was being kept busy by her own firm, resulting in their time together grandly diminishing, and their relationship tarnishing.
Jimin wasn’t a pro at relationships, but even she could tell that their case was quite the typical one. After all, from what she read in books and saw in movies, quality time seemed pretty important in relationships.
Some people even asserted that it was the key to a long and lasting relationship, although Jimin wasn’t so sure of that. She may be inexperienced, but from what she could gather around her, other stuff like words of affirmation and physical touch were also essential parts of a great relationship.
All in all, the key here seemed to be the balance between everything that made people love each other.
Thinking about it that way made love sound almost… easy. When in reality, Jimin knew damn well that it was probably the most mysterious feeling that mankind had to deal with.
The mysteries surrounding love were probably the reason why so many people wrote songs about it. And why others could do the stupidest things just for the sake of it.
Wait.
Why was she actually starting to get invested in these clients’ story? And in love in general?
It never really interested her after all. Of course she found herself fantasizing about it in the past, especially when she was a teenager. But Jimin always had bigger goals in her life. Like passing the Bar exam and becoming a lawyer for example.
So to see her falling so easily for some romantic drama was utterly shocking. So much that her mouth slightly opened.
She was scandalized at herself for giving in so quickly, just because of some gossip! She always despised marital law though, so what kind of magic had been thrown at her? Was it because having access to other people’s affairs fed her curiosity?
If that was really the case, then was it the reason why Yizhuo was always so hyped about her new cases?
If Jimin knew about it before, she would have actually listened to her friend’s endless rants after all!
“Thank you for today,” the woman said as Minjeong and she shook hands, her elegant voice taking Jimin out of her swirling thoughts. “We will see you at the next appointment?”
Minjeong smiled. “Surely. Have a nice day,” she replied politely, looking at the man and then at Jimin, quickly gesturing for her to also shake hands with the clients.
Jimin slightly jumped at the look but immediately did so, wordlessly listening to Minjeong’s quiet instruction. She heard the woman softly chuckle at the action, while the man rolled his eyes and shook her hand.
“You two are adorable, I’m sure we can trust you with this,” the woman suddenly added in a hushed voice, looking at Minjeong with a hopeful smile.
This was the moment where Minjeong’s professional mask started to crack.
“Well– uh–” She looked at Jimin with panicked eyes, her gaze screaming ‘Help!’
It was Jimin’s time to –finally– save the day! No more useless Jimin!
“Thank you, I’m glad you trust us with this,” she said, taking a small step towards the woman and warmly shaking her hand, a semblance of confidence rushing through her veins. “I promise we will make this work.”
So professional, so cool Jimin!
The woman seemed pleased with this answer. She waved at the both of them, before motioning for her husband to follow her outside.
And before they knew it, Minjeong and Jimin found themselves standing in the middle of the now empty conference room.
“Well…” started Minjeong, awkwardly fiddling with her fingers, hands clasped behind her back. She hadn’t even noticed when they had stopped holding hands. Was it when they shook hands with the clients? Or even before?
Jimin let out a small sigh, careful not to meet Minjeong’s gaze. “What should we do now?”
Minjeong visibly gulped. “I feel like…”
“...we have no choice but to do this now, don’t we?” Jimin exhaled, her shoulders deflating at the realization that this was all too real.
Minjeong seemed to interpret her body language as something negative, immediately waving apologetic hands in front of her face. “I’m so sorry! I panicked and actually went along with everything and uh– I’m really sorry… I know you work a lot unnie and–”
“Jimin.”
Minjeong’s eyes widened. “Huh?”
Hell, even Jimin was surprised by what she had just blurted out! But a part of her knew, from the second that Yizhuo barged into her office and Minjeong accepted her request, that there was no way out of this mess.
So might as well do it from start to finish.
“That lady seemed pretty convinced that we’re together. Somehow…” She coughed, slightly straightening her spine. “So might as well start this whole fake dating thing by dropping the honorifics.”
“A–Are you sure?”
Was Jimin sure? Hell no! Did she have a choice in this? Hell no!
Instead of all the buried fears and obvious apprehension she had towards this, she flashed Minjeong a soft smile that she hoped looked reassuring.
Her constant state of panic was kind of cute.
“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s okay, really.”
Minjeong’s eyes traveled around the floor as she opened her mouth, a shy smile peeking at its corner. But before she could let a singular word out, the door next to them flung open, revealing–
“Good afternoon lovebirds!” loudly chirped Yizhuo.
The two jumped from surprise, Minjeong letting out a small squeal while Jimin instinctively took a step in front of the younger, facing Yizhuo with a scowl on her face.
“You scared us, gosh!”
Yizhuo looked nowhere near apologetic. “Sorry, sorry!” She giggled. “But it felt like I needed to intervene!”
Jimin’s eyes widened, quickly realizing what her friend meant. “Wait– You were here the whole time?!”
Even Minjeong looked shocked by the news, although she kept quiet and hid a tad further behind Jimin’s back.
“Of course I was! How are you even surprised?” Yizhuo shrugged. “I can’t let my two champs go to war without supervising them a bit first.”
Jimin raised an eyebrow, suspicious. “And–?”
Yizhuo dramatically closed her mouth, looking at Jimin, and then slightly moving her head to look at the poorly hidden Minjeong. “And…”
Jimin gulped. Behind her, she heard Minjeong shuffling to her feet, anxiety evident even in the way they nervously tapped against the ground.
“And–ugh! You two really suck at this! I can’t believe Mrs. Lee actually believed you!”
Jimin’s face fell. Seeing how Mrs. Lee looked at them with happy eyes, she was certain that they did a perfect job keeping the act up!
“What?” She scowled, not able to keep her indignation to herself. “But we seemed close the whole time and the clients looked satisfied!”
Yizhuo shook her head, her expression one of deep disappointment. “I can’t believe you’re that inexperienced unnie…”
“Hey–!”
“Holding hands is not enough guys! And just ‘seeming close’ is even worse!” Yizhuo exclaimed. “If we want this to work, then you two have to make things actually believable. Because if we keep going like this, they will see right through your bad acting!” Her hands flew over her head. “You need chemistry with a capital ‘C’!”
“You keep on saying ‘we’ as if you were the one having to do this…” quietly murmured Minjeong, earning a loud snicker from Jimin.
Shy and quiet, but pretty damn snarky too. Noted.
“Minjeong!” gasped Yizhuo, slapping a hand over her own mouth. “I can’t believe you! I’m part of this team as well!”
“And what exactly did you do here other than throwing your work at us?” asked Jimin, raising an eyebrow.
Yizhuo looked baffled, and rolled her eyes in a dramatic manner. “I am your coach, of course! Because it’s not like Minjeong is any more experienced than you.”
“Hey! That was private–” whined Minjeong, burying her face in her hands.
Jimin’s lips unknowingly curled into a small smile. Somehow, she felt relieved at the thought that she wasn’t the only one that had strictly no idea of what she was doing.
At least, they were really in this mess together.
Yizhuo ignored Minjeong’s cries and placed both of her fists against her waist. “You two suck, you really do. So! We’re gonna establish some guidelines for you to work with. Business contracts are your forte, so let’s use that!”
Jimin sighed. “That’s…”
“...surprisingly smart,” breathed Minjeong, finishing Jimin’s sentence without a second thought. Somehow, it seemed like Yizhuo’s idea made all of her previous embarrassment vanish. She took a small step forward, finally leaving her hiding spot (cue: Jimin’s back). “What are your negotiation terms?”
Yizhuo let out a loud snicker. “I knew you would catch the bait.”
Jimin wanted to ask her what she meant by ‘catching the bait’, finding her friend’s wording pretty suspicious, but couldn’t as Yizhuo resumed.
“I’ll make a draft for you two and give it to you tomorrow morning. I still have to confirm this whole thing with the boss and–”
“So you really bribed Aeri with this!” gasped Jimin, instinctively hitting (not so strongly) Yizhuo on the shoulder.
Yizhuo simply grinned at her. “Of course. You know how Ms. Uchinaga can’t refuse me a thing. I’m her best lawyer!”
Jimin begged to disagree, but didn’t find the strength to do so in herself. That day had exhausted her to no end, and the only thing she wanted to do now was to fall face first on her bed and stay asleep forever.
And well, what Yizhuo said wasn’t completely wrong either. She knew for a fact that Yizhuo was definitely one of the most talented lawyers around. And she also knew that Uchinaga Aeri, their CEO, couldn’t refuse a thing to pretty girls. At least, that was what Yizhuo proudly told her one day.
She sighed, resigned to her fate. Which wasn’t all that bad, because Minjeong didn’t seem like a bad person, and that was already a great start.
“Whatever. Just make sure we won’t do anything illegal or something.”
Yizhuo flashed her a mischievous smile as she marched outside of the conference room, nonchalantly waving behind at them. “Sure thing~”
Jimin let out a deep and tired sigh while Minjeong quietly chuckled next to her.
“She’s really something.”
Jimin found herself heaving out a small giggle as well, although it was more laced with indignation than amusement. “You tell me…”
She had to admit it to herself. Both Minjeong and her had, willingly and not so much, thrown themselves into this mess. And she wasn’t sure if they would get out of this whole thing unscathed.