Chapter Text

Jimin has known Kim Minjeong for years.

No, not like that. They went to the same school for twelve years, up until high school. Different universities though. Even though Minjeong always steered clear of her, fate always found a way to get them to be in the same space somehow.

13 and 11

Kim Minjeong was two years younger than Yu Jimin. She was smart and always at the top of her class, always voted class president, and naturally, she was also the teacher’s pet. Jimin, on the other hand, was average. She did enough to get decent grades, but they were nowhere near the top. And because Minjeong was so smart, she managed to land herself in the same year as Jimin’s class. 

Minjeong’s intelligence and closeness to the teachers would earn her their favor, but not their classmates’. Jimin sometimes hated that the girl could technically get away with any trouble she got herself into, but she never used that big head of hers to do so. She thought that the girl didn’t find the need to do it and it must be so, so nice to be happy with life without wanting shortcuts. She kind of envied Minjeong for it. Their classmates hated her because she would always remind the teacher that their homework needed to be checked. 

Jimin especially hated this part of her, especially because Minjeong’s favorite subject was math. Nobody loves math better than Kim Minjeong and nobody hates it more than Jimin.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Seo.” Minjeong raised her hand. It was PE class. It’s too hot, and Jimin felt like any movement would cause every single pore in her body to cry sweat. “Aren’t we doing last week’s unfinished exercises today as well?”

Jimin, ever the clever one, decided to quip, “You’re unfinished.” The entire class snickered, some suppressing their giggles. 

Minjeong turned to glare at her. Then with a straight face, she said, “Oh, Mrs. Seo, I think Jimin would like to demonstrate.”

Oh, she wasn’t only smart, she was good at pissing Jimin off as well. 

Mrs. Seo didn’t look up from her clipboard, busy listing down some sort of gameplay for the varsity team. “Yeah yeah sure, go ahead and give her the list, Minjeong.” Mrs. Seo waved her off.

Jimin glared at her. This wasn’t how she was planning for her day to happen. She was going to have her foldable fan out, pretending to participate in the games. They were just supposed to have a chill day wherein they would have been playing Korean traditional games. Not this.

She stood up however, still scowling at the girl who put her in this predicament. She snatched the list from Minjeong and stuck a tongue out at her. 

Minjeong merely smirked in victory.

15 and 13

“This sucks,” Jimin muttered to no one in particular. They were at homeroom, which was supervised by Miss Song, who also happened to be their math teacher. It wasn’t even class time yet but Minjeong had already reminded Miss Song about the early deadline of their math project. She’d like to think of Minjeong as a little bitch whose parents didn’t love her enough to remind her not to be a killjoy. Okay, that was a little too much, but still.

Aeri heard her from two seats away. “I know, right? She definitely needs a boyfriend so she can relax.”

Jimin huffed at that. “Yeah, or another hobby that doesn’t involve school.” Seriously, she was doing too much. Jimin wondered whether the girl even had anything other than school. She herself also had school, but she had friends, ballet, taekwondo, and even Chinese classes, just for fun. Did Minjeong even have friends? She never saw the girl eat during lunch.

It was time for the dance practice for their annual school program. It was one of the events in which Jimin actually enjoyed having to work hard. 

“Alright. Places, everyone,” Jimin directed to her classmates. “This time, we’re going to do a duet dance. Aeri and Yizhuo, come in front now. You guys practiced, right?” she questioned. The two girls nodded at her. “Right?” She narrowed her eyes.

Yizhuo rolled her eyes. “Yes, Jimin. Can we start now?” she asked, sarcasm lacing her voice. 

Jimin clapped her hands. “And five, six, seven, eight!” 

The whole class started executing the steps from the video that Jimin sent to the class group chat last week. It only contained the steps needed for the first part of the dance since Jimin was still in the process of completing the rest of the routine. Dance was her forte and no one else would have the guts nor the talent to lead the class. 

Just when the class was finishing the third round of practice, Mrs. Seo walked in with Minjeong in tow. The whole class went quiet, but it wasn’t because of the woman. Nobody wanted to piss off Minjeong and it looked like Mrs. Seo had something to say that involved the girl. But instead of making an announcement, the two of them walked towards Jimin. She then told the class to take a break.

Jimin blinked up at the woman. “Yes, Mrs. Seo?” It looked like the woman was going to break some bad news to her. 

And it was. Bad news, that is. 

“So… Jimin. It seems that the project this year needs to be a little more complicated.”

“...Huh?” Jimin looked at the woman, then to Minjeong, who was wearing a sketchy smile. She knew this was going to be bad.

Mrs. Seo simply smiled. “I’ve asked Minjeong here to help you out. The required steps are a little more complex, so I thought you might need some help.”

“I’m sorry, her?!” Jimin exclaimed. Mrs. Seo crossed her arms. “I mean—respectfully, um, her?”

Minjeong crossed her arms as well. They looked like mother and daughter at this point. It didn’t help that Aeri was holding back her laugh behind her. 

“Yes, Miss Yu. Is there a problem?” Mrs. Seo asked. Beside her, Minjeong was doing that annoying, devious, teacher’s pet smile.

“N-no ma’am.”

And just like that, Mrs. Seo left the classroom; and she didn’t take Minjeong with her. Jimin could cry.

With the two of them left to tend to the rehearsal, Minjeong began practice by handing her a piece of paper.

“What’s this?” Jimin asked. She was skeptical of Minjeong’s dancing skills, but she took it anyway. 

“The new steps,” she replied, “Mrs. Seo wants us to include these in the routine. I can take over. You look like you need help.”

“I… what?!” This day was so not going well for Jimin. 

Minjeong raised an eyebrow. “You heard me, Yu.”

Later, when the class had had enough practice, Minjeong handed her another piece of paper. This time, it was smaller, and suspiciously contained of only numbers.

Jimin furrowed her brows. “What the hell am I looking at?”

“This is my number. I need you to call it right now.”

“Um, why?”

“Because. I need to send you more stuff for the project. And before you say anything, I don’t have SNS, and I forgot my email. So call it now, Yu.”

Jimin scoffed, “Fine. I’m going to send a text. I don’t have call credits.”

Minjeong walked away after confirming that Jimin did send her one. With all of Minjeong’s ‘suggestions,’ (is she trying to completely take over Jimin’s role?) she would merely reply to the girl’s emails with a ‘K,’  and ignore the girl’s ideas for the project. 

It led to constant bickering in class on the daily. Jimin would go on to give Minjeong a single post-it note everyday, filled with a new insult or rude comment about her uniform. Despite her best efforts of preventing Minjeong from commandeering the entire plan for the routine (Minjeong was really just giving her half of the work), Mrs. Seo finally caught wind of Jimin’s sabotage antics. She flicked Jimin on the forehead for it and held her by the ear until she agreed to stop.

“I swear to god, Jimin. Your mom will be hearing about this at dinner.”

“Auntie!” she complained. Mrs. Seo pulled her ear, causing Jimin to duck and cringe. “N-no, ow!”

The term of familiarity surprised Minjeong. They were related?   

“No excuses! Now, are you going to cooperate with Minjeong or will I have to tell on your mom?

“ACK—alright alright!” she answered. Mrs. Seo then freed her ear. 

After that day, Jimin stopped trying to get in the way and the project ended up being a success, earning the entire class perfect grades. She still got the urge to make fun of Minjeong’s ideas, thoughts that she then included in her daily pissing-off-Minjeong notes. 

Minjeong had unfolded the small paper that was inserted into her notebook, her face not even masked with a hint of curiosity. She knew what this was. It read: nice ideas today. my hamster could think of something better. -J

Little did Jimin know, those notes would never see the light of day, but they would never be thrown away.

16 and 14

Jimin was now in the tenth grade. Over the years, she and Aeri got closer, and she can wholeheartedly say that Uchinaga Aeri was her best friend. They would be passing notes a lot in class, and sometimes they would get caught. It was a good thing that Mrs. Seo was her aunt; the woman would interfere whenever the teachers were about to call her parents—else she wouldn’t have gotten away with so much trouble.

This time, she was having a bit of a rebellious streak. Suddenly, all she could think about was skipping class to go play badminton or go to the convenience store with Aeri, which gave her the perfect balance of snacking and exercise to burn it all off, and some more.

Jimin was now… hot, and popular. It ultimately landed her the role of Danny Zuko in their tenth grade musical play which was assigned as their English final. It was an all-girls school, and there weren’t really any classics that had girl-to-girl pairings. Jimin became the most obvious choice.

This time of year also came her annual piss-Minjeong-off season. It became natural to her, like clockwork. She just instinctively gets the idea to do something to annoy the girl as soon as she laid eyes on her.

“Now, if anyone even thinks about skipping practice, I will have Minjeong personally give you detention. Understood?”

The whole class groaned at Ms. Im’s words. Minjeong was slowly becoming most-hated yet voted most likely to be successful.

“You heard Ms. Im. Props team, you guys will be in the other room so you’d have more space to work. Choreography, you guys can stay here. And actors, today we’ll work on perfecting the first sequence.”

A series of murmurs spread amongst the actors. Minjeong noticed the whispers and frowned. 

“What?” she asked everyone. Yizhuo timidly raised her hand. “Yizhuo?”

“Um… we still don’t have a Sandy…”

Minjeong narrowed her eyes at that. “We–what?!”

At the back of the small crowd of actors for the play, Jimin was busy scrolling on her phone. 

“Care to explain this, Jimin?”

Truth be told, Jimin couldn’t care any less about the play. She didn’t want to do it anyway. So in true Jimin-fashion (despite the vast number of girls who wanted to play Sandy Olsson), she managed to drive away every single one of those who was voted for or volunteered to be her partner. It was honestly baffling that Minjeong hadn’t even heard of it until now.

“She… didn’t want anyone to play Sandy,” Yizhuo further explained. “butyou…” she whispered.

Jimin then looked up from her phone because her sense of hearing finally noticed the silence and her gut told her that all eyes were on her. 

Minjeong’s hands were now on her waist, and she was glaring directly at Jimin.

“Yu Jimin.”

“Huh?” Jimin looked like a fish out of water with the way her mouth was open. Ah she finally knows. Heh. “Oh, well,” she shrugged.

“Yes, you. What is she talking about, huh?”

“What?” she shot back. “You heard her. I want Kim Minjeong as my Sandy, or I’m not doing Danny.” The rest of the actors did an ‘ooh’ at the declaration.

“You—” Minjeong sighed. She was getting real tired of this. “Is that why you’ve been skipping practices? Don’t think I don’t know!”

“How am I gonna practice if I don’t have my Sandy?” she replied, feigning innocence. Jimin was so proud of herself right now; too proud, in fact. “Come on, Minjeong-ah, don’t you wanna be the star of our play?”

For a brief moment, Minjeong closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and imagined herself strangling Jimin and pulling her hair while the other girl fought for her life. In Minjeong’s mind, Jimin couldn’t fight back, and she was begging Minjeong to let her live another day. She smiled at the thought of it and finally opened her eyes, now calmer.

“Fine, I’ll be Sandy,” she said with gritted teeth and a semi-forced smile. “But you—” She pointed at Jimin. “Are helping me get the whole act together, or I’m not doing it either.”

Jimin finally smiled, genuine this time. It was a success. She was so going to make Minjeong miserable. 

She held her hand out to Minjeong. “Deal.”

The younger girl just rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

-

Over the course of two months, Jimin had managed to annoy Minjeong every five minutes.

“Hey, Minjeong.” Jimin tapped the younger girl on the shoulder. “Me and Aeri are going to the bathroom.”

“Oh.” Minjeong was surprised, to say the least. But she appreciated the gesture. Maybe the older girl wasn’t all that bad. Though she did still give her those little post-its that ruined her day—every day. Today, Jimin managed to stick one on the back of her uniform without her noticing. Annoying brat, it said. Really, though? It seemed Jimin was running out of ideas with how lame it was. “Okay.”

At first, Minjeong really did think that Jimin was showing some effort, that she was giving her a reason to believe that she could be anything other than a little pest in her daily life. But then…

“Minjeong, I’m going to go backstage.” It was a makeshift black curtain.

“Minjeong-ssi, I have to pee.” She went to the bathroom just minutes ago.

“Minjeong-ah, I’m going to try on my leather jacket now.” Yes, that was quite important; they had to make sure it fit because the performance was only two weeks away.

But.

“Minjeong, I forgot to memorize my lines.”

“Minjeong-ah, I’m here.” They literally made eye contact and nodded to each other moments ago.

“Minjeong-ssi, I’m going home now!” She really didn’t give a crap. Go home! Nobody’s asking where you’re going, god.

Needless to say, Jimin was an annoying piece of shit. And Minjeong fell for her bait every single day, without fail. Her mission was a success.

18, 16

Senior Year

Senior Year. It was finally time for college applications. Jimin had been doing her best, applying to the top schools that were the best in her preferred major, business and marketing. Accounting, engineering, and whatever was Math-related was out of the question. She didn’t hate Science either, but she always had a passion (or a quirk) for impressing people. And selling ideas? That was right up her alley.

She was so ready for college. She’s even got plenty of backup schools from all over the country. Jimin needed them all, anything just to get out of this place. High school was fun, but it was getting a bit stuffy. Jimin just hoped she could get into the same school as Aeri.

“Wow, Jimin. That’s like, twenty schools!” Aeri stared wide-eyed at the pile of applications on Jimin’s desk. They were in Jimin’s bedroom, snacking and watching Grey’s Anatomy in the background. They were in the middle of discussing Callie and Arizona when Aeri suddenly noticed the pile of applications. She herself had applied to like what, three schools? So this amount came quite as a surprise; plus Jimin wasn’t even dumb, just lazy. 

“Dude, I have got to get away from here. I need to be un-curfewed!” Jimin told her. “See, I don’t understand how Callie can’t get it. You’re being selfish!” she raised her voice at the screen.

Aeri nodded in agreement. “I know, right. And then she recycled her relationship with Mark. I mean, he’s not bad, but ew.”

They continued watching the show while it was raining outside. The downpour carried on into the afternoon and night. Aeri decided that she must stay the night, which made Jimin whine. However, she really couldn’t resist her best friend’s puppy eyes. A sleepover sounded fun, anyway.

“I really hope we go to the same school,” Jimin whispered into the quiet. The two of them laid on the bed side by side, their hair sprawled out onto the pillow.

“Me too,” Aeri replied.

-

“Minjeong-ah, hurry up!”

“Coming!” Minjeong hurriedly stuffed her things in her bag, making sure not to forget her number two pencil. She was going to be late; she knew that, but it still wasn’t helping that her mom was yelling at her every five seconds. “I’m just packing my pencil case!” She yelled back again.

She ran downstairs to where her mom was waiting. Mrs. Kim smiled and held her shoulders. “I am so proud of you. Here.” Her mom handed her a neatly packed lunchbox. “Remember to eat. Don’t starve yourself.”

Minjeong rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “Okay, mom.”

Her mom then pushed her to the door. “Good luck, baby!”

“Mom!” she whined. 

She was going to have her first college entrance exam that day. She’s pretty nervous, but it helped a lot that her mom was being very supportive. But aside from the test itself, she was quite anxious about actually going to college. Everything would be new, she wouldn’t be familiar with her surroundings anymore, and most of all, she wouldn’t be the best. The change really worried her.

She got to the exam room, her nerves still about her. Minjeong remembered her mother’s words to hype herself up. You can do this.

The test wasn’t as hard as Minjeong expected, but it wasn’t easy either. It’s a good thing that she studied really hard. She saw some familiar faces from school earlier before the exam, which was kind of comforting because it was knowing that she wasn’t the only one struggling. Minjeong also saw the class’ resident troublemakers Uchinaga, Yu, as well as Yizhuo. It was nice to see them, she thought, but she hoped she wouldn’t be applying (and eventually attending) the same major as Yu Jimin. 

God, she really hoped that the girl wouldn’t be a pest even in college.

Minjeong strided through the halls, excited and so ready to munch on the lunch that her mom made for her. She found one of the stone tables around campus, sighing as she plopped down on it. She was mentally exhausted. Halfway through her meal, she spotted Jimin and Aeri walking through the food kiosks scattered across the open grounds. 

Huh. Thought they’d be checking out frats and sororities by now.

She continued chewing, following the two girls with her eyes. Aeri was pointing to a booth of stuffed keychains, which made Jimin squeal in delight. 

Minjeong smiled at the interaction, almost chuckling, but she regained her senses before it could come out. They didn’t seem so bad when they weren’t getting on her nerves. 

28 and 26 

The sun was out, blinding Jimin and making her groan at nature’s wake-up call. The neighbors were being pretty loud last night, going at it like rabbits the whole time so she couldn’t sleep until late.              

Jimin got up to draw the curtains. She looked out, observing the people outside with her dried tear-streaked face. She squinted, covering her eyes where the sunlight hit her face. This was supposed to be a good day, and she wasn’t gonna let a little less sleep affect it. It was her first day at her new job, after all.

She showered, brushed her teeth and got dressed. Breakfast could wait because Aeri told her they had meals provided at the company for new hires. Also, she heard that the boss was kind of mean, so she couldn’t afford to be late on her very first day. 

Jimin was starting anew, almost a clean slate but that’s just because she’s got her best friend at the new company.

Her phone rang.

“Good morning, sunshine!”

Jimin pulled the phone away from her ear. That volume was way too loud for this time of day. 

“Ugh. First of all, ow. That really burned my ear. Second of all, how are you this cheery so early in the morning?”

“It’s your first day! I’m gonna be working with my best friend. Of course I’m excited!” 

“Okay, god. Uh. Can you like, tone it down when I’m there? I’m starting to feel a headache coming in.”

“Hah,” Aeri laughed from the other line. “Your neighbors at it again?”

“Yes.” Jimin rolled her eyes. “Hold on, I gotta hang up. Don’t wanna be late.”

“Alright. See ya, bitch!”

-

Jimin walked through the building doors of her new workplace. It was sleek, and very much professional-looking in her opinion. Even more so than her previous job’s. That was to be expected. She talked to the front desk lady to ask about the directions to HR, where she was supposed to get her own ID. She thanked the front desk lady and sat in the HR office, waiting.

A woman, around her mid-thirties, approached her. “Thank you for waiting Miss Yu. Here is your ID. Just tap it at the gate next time and you’re good to go.”

”Oh.” Jimin stood up and took the ID from the woman. “Thank you so much.”

”No problem! Just come here if you need to know anything and I’ll try my best to help you out,” the woman said.

”That’s really kind of you.” Jimin smiled at her. “Thank you! I hope to see you around.”

The woman waved goodbye as Jimin stepped out of the small office. 

Jimin wandered around the halls, looking for the elevator. According to the email, her new office was on the twentieth floor. It was also the same floor that Aeri worked on, so she was looking forward to that. It really helped that at a new place, she had someone—her best friend even—that already had her back.

When she found the elevator, she texted Aeri that she was on her way up

On the twentieth floor, her best friend greeted her with a hug. “I am so glad you’re here. We can be work besties now!”

”Yeah, yeah.” Jimin hugged her back, giving her a firm pat on the back. She really was glad as well, but she did not let it show. There was a smile on her face, though.

Aeri guided her to her desk. “So, I was told this is where you’ll be. I’m just around there in the corner if you need me.” She pointed to her own desk. “We can pretend like we’re doing work stuff when you wanna gossip.” Aeri moved her eyebrows suggestively. Jimin rolled her eyes at that and lightly slapped her best friend’s arm. 

“Don’t. You’ll get me written up.”

”Alright, alright,” her best friend chuckled, “I’ll see you at lunch, ‘kay?”

It was quite a good first day so far. Tasks were manageable, and she hadn’t gotten yelled at yet. Rumor has it that the floor manager was ice cold, so she was kind of preparing herself for when she met them. Her direct supervisor, Miss Kang, was warm and welcoming and basically showed her the ropes of the company. Avoid this, do that, and make sure any changes to any documents were sent back to her. 

After lunch—which was a delight by the way, thanks to Aeri—Miss Kang’s team and some of Aeri’s teammates were called to a meeting by the other boss. This was one higher up the ladder than Miss Kang and Aeri’s supervisor, Miss Bae. 

“You’re gonna like this,” Aeri whispered to her as they both entered the conference room.

There was some chatter among the employees while everyone waited for the boss to come in. Across the table, Aeri was grinning from ear to ear.

She quickly texted her best friend since it seemed like they still had some time.

jiminie

The hell are you smiling about???

aerichan

jiminie, trust me on this :>

Just then, Miss…Kim? as Jimin read in the handout, entered the room.

And god, was she stunning. Jimin had to pick her jaw off the floor as Aeri contained her laugh.

But also… Miss Kim seemed kind of… familiar.

Holy shit.

“Good afternoon everyone,” Miss Kim—Kim Minjeong—holy shit again—addressed the room. Aeri was fully covering her mouth at this point. The reaction from Jimin was all too good. 

She mostly zoned out for the rest of the meeting. Minjeong spared her a glance only once or twice anyway. She’ll have to ask her best friend about it later to catch up because seriously, she could not focus on anything else other than the fact that the girl she used to bug in high school was now her boss. 

And that she was gorgeous as hell.

Kim Minjeong got hot.

“So?” Aeri inquired as they were exiting the conference room. She was all smiles once again.

Jimin pulled her aside and into her cubicle. “You couldn’t have told me Kim Minjeong was your boss?!” she whisper-yelled. Minjeong was only a few desks over and she did not need to hear about this. 

“Correction.” Aeri wagged a finger in her face, which Jimin quickly swatted away. “Our boss.” It was honestly surprising how fast Jimin recognized her. It had been ten years, after all; Minjeong's hair was a bit shorter—just a few inches below the shoulders—and blonde.

She hated that it suited her.

”Ughhh,” Jimin groaned, fingers coming up to massage her temple.

Apparently, Minjeong was the team leader of team leaders. She managed them, received direct orders from the higher-ups to pass them on, and called the shots on Aeri’s floor. Minjeong was the head of the whole creative department, which included Jimin’s and Aeri’s teams. Basically, she had the ability to fire people. One major slip-up can have you written up and reported to her.

”Think about it, you can continue that thing you used to do in high school once again," Aeri quipped.

“What are you talking about?” Jimin knitted her eyebrows. She really had no idea. It was so long ago.

”You know,” Aeri muttered, though it was more like a snicker with the way she was looking at Jimin. “Those cute little notes you used to give her.” She smirked.

Jimin rolled her eyes, but she was blushing like crazy. “Oh, you little shit.” Then, her face was adorned with a smirk as well. It had trouble written all over it. She turned to Aeri with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “That’s a great idea. Aeri-yah, you’re a genius.”

-

After that day, Jimin set off on a little quest to annoy Minjeong. She had it all planned: make sure Minjeong was already pissed at her because of work. Not too much though, but just enough that she wasn’t in the woman’s good graces. It helped quite a lot that whenever she messed up at work, Minjeong was somehow a witness to it, like she was somehow waiting for her downfall.

For the next few weeks, she continued working like usual. Lunches with Aeri became a routine, which was always fun because they got to gossip about work and who’s doing who. She got used to the work. It was pretty easy, considering that creatives wasn’t really her main expertise. 

(It did mean that she got to see less of Minjeong because the woman didn’t need a lot of follow-ups and didn’t give her many notes—much to her dismay.)

One day, Aeri brought up something that she didn’t completely forget, but she just hadn’t had the chance to think about. Or do.

”Hey, how’s Minjeong?”

Jimin stopped chewing on the question, then continued before swallowing. “Why are you asking me?”

”Oh come on, Jimin. You know what I’m talking about.” Aeri poked through a piece of cherry tomato. “Are you even gonna do it, ya baby?”

Jimin tossed a fry at her. “I’m doing it! Just—I don’t wanna get fired just yet. It needs to be… something tame.”

Aeri raised an eyebrow. “Like what?” 

-

Jimin was in a bit of a pickle.

She was supposed to have a fresh start. No more slacking off and getting in trouble with the bosses, and especially no more coming in late to work.

But see, it wasn't entirely her fault. No, Jimin can blame Minjeong for that. Minjeong with her stupid, natural eyeliner and almond eyes. The woman, who was her boss, who also had rosy pink cheeks and blonde hair that unbelievably suited her like she was the only person on earth who could possess blonde hair. It was very unfair of the universe to do this to Jimin, actually.

Last week, during her afternoon break, Jimin was casually strolling through the lobby of their building, sipping an ice-cold tea. She felt lucky, indeed, to be among the employees of such a big real-estate company. Then, it was clear as day. Minjeong—but with dark brown hair—stood plastered on a poster in the lobby. The woman was everywhere; smiling with her perfect posture. Except for the posture, the expression on her face was far from the usual that Jimin saw in the office.

Her head whipped around the area, scanning her surroundings.

Minjeong was not only on the framed posters, but she was also on the brochures and on the cover of a few magazines placed on the coffee table. She'd been here for weeks, how had she not noticed them? Hell, she's been in marketing for a while, and she's not a stranger to these kinds of publications. How? And since when?

Jimin wasn't proud of what she did next.

She looked around for anyone nearby, and then she stole a brochure and a copy of each magazine with Minjeong's face on it. There were different versions, how could she not? She quickly tucked it in her plastic bag of snacks, careful not to wrinkle them and also not to make it obvious that she just stole a bunch of publication materials with her boss' face in it.

"Damn it, Jimin," she muttered to herself. She walked to the elevator, trying her best to look as nonchalant as possible. Once she got on their floor, she speedwalked to her desk and hid the incriminating evidence.

"Whatchu doing?"

Jimin jumped at the voice. She looked up from her cubicle and saw Aeri peeking above the walls.

She held a hand to her chest. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Wow, chill. It's not like you're stealing donuts from the break room." Aeri paused. "Wait, are you?"

Jimin rolled her eyes. She should have been stealing donuts. Instead, she was stealing company property. But was it, still, private property if it's for public handouts? She would like to believe so. So yes, that makes sense. "I am not. Wait—they have donuts in the break room?"

Aeri chuckled at her. Her best friend was all out of sorts. "Uh, yeah, girl. Where have you been?"

"Haha," Jimin laughed awkwardly. "I'm still a bit new to the place. Haven't had a chance to really look around with all the work."

Aeri didn't seem to notice her shoving something into her bag. Being new was a great excuse. Yeah, like she hadn't just been touring the lobby full of Minjeong.

"Oh, good! I'll give you a short tour next time. Seems like that first tour didn't go into your head huh?" Aeri joked.

-

At 2 AM, she's still up. Jimin will be up at 2 AM for the next few nights, in spite of her 6 AM alarm.

She just… stared. She didn't need to put it up on the wall, but she did. There it was, Minjeong's face all over her bedroom wall. In all fairness, this made it easier for her to admire look at them. It was still… baffling. For Minjeong to be the face of some huge real-estate company. She remembered the younger woman to be quite the introvert despite her good leadership skills back in high school.

And Jimin stares. Minjeong was… pretty. Like one-look-wow-that's-a-gorgeous-girl pretty. It never occurred to her all those years that Minjeong could be attractive—hot, even.

Oh my god, what is happening to me…

And so, the next day—or rather, just hours later—she woke up at 7 AM. Not 6 AM, which left her just thirty minutes to prepare before the rush hour started. Her call time was at 8 AM, which meant that her hour and a half usual prep time was crammed. She went to work with damp hair and almost half-done makeup. Jimin’s stomach was begging her to put something in it and her heavy limbs were killing her, which left her cranky when Aeri came to find her at her desk.

"Hey—woah. You look like shit," her best friend remarked. "Uh, bad morning, I guess?"

Jimin groaned, "God, I couldn't sleep last night. I woke up an hour after my alarm." She massaged her temples. She could feel a migraine building up and she wasn't up for Aeri's daily gossip column. "Please leave me alone…"

"Aw, my poor baby," Aeri teased. "Alright. You know what, coffee's on me. I'll be back in a jiffy!"

Thank god Aeri decided not to chatter away like she always does. But hey, she got free coffee.

Jimin got started on her emails as she waited for the woman. There were already around twenty sitting in her inbox. It would have been fine, but the sleeping late thing had not happened in a while. Another groan came out of her but this time, she hadn't noticed that the volume was much louder than expected.

And would you know it, Minjeong was just passing by and heard it. She stuck her head above Jimin's cubicle, asking, "If I didn't know better, I would have thought you were complaining about work so early in the morning, Miss Yu."

Jimin's back instantly straightened up at the cold voice. "Oh—um, sorry, Miss Kim. I was just… I have a migraine, is all."

"Hm." Minjeong looked pointedly at her. "Then you better take some medicine for that, Miss Yu." She paused. Jimin contemplated texting Aeri to get her some pills as well. "There's a clinic on the fifth floor. Get yourself checked. You've got a long day ahead. Well, then." Minjeong took her leave.

She kind of got reprimanded, but she was thankful for the tip. Jimin let out a sigh of relief.

Aeri came back with a cup of hot coffee and some pills for her. "Here you go. One cup of piping hot americano and oh—I dropped by the clinic to get you these."

"Thanks, Aeri. You're the best." Jimin took the cup and the pills from her. She popped one in, using the coffee to wash it down. "Ah," she said, "Yeah, that hits the spot."

Aeri chuckled. "Hey, what were you and Minjeong talking about?"

Jimin almost choked on her coffee. "What? Were you watching the whole time?"

Aeri rolled her eyes. "Come onnn. This is the first time she's talked to you. So?"

"It was nothing. She uh, heard me groaning a while ago because of my head and thought I was complaining. Seriously, can't a girl groan in her own time?" Jimin asked rhetorically.

Her best friend giggled at that. "This is good. Oh Jimin, this is so good."

Was what good? Minjeong was literally just telling her off at work—as she should. It would have been better if she hadn't, though.

"Okay, I'm going back to my desk." Then, her best friend whispered, "Tell me all about it and your… plan," Aeri bid her goodbye and walked away.

Please, the only thing she had done was steal a bunch of publications in the lobby printed with Minjeong's face. At this point, there didn't even seem to be a 'plan' at all. Getting told off by the younger woman actually scared her; and she didn't want a repeat of that ever again.

-

The next few days proved to be taking a toll on her mental health. Literally, she was stressed because at night, she just couldn't seem to stop staring at Minjeong's posters. The magazines turned out to be genuinely interesting, and the brochures made her seriously contemplate buying a condo unit. She would hesitate taking them off the posters on her wall, though, or putting the magazines away. So, combining everything she did at night, she would always end up sleeping so late in the early morning.

Jimin was awfully tired. She would buy the most uncomplicated sandwich from the cafeteria, eat it in two minutes, and set an alarm so she could have a power nap at lunch. Aeri was also getting a little worried that her best friend wasn't joining her for lunches anymore, citing all of the above. After a week of Jimin's consistent tardiness, Aeri couldn't take it anymore.

"Girl, what is up with you lately?" Aeri poked her forehead at lunch. It was a bit of a chill day, save for the fact that Minjeong caught Jimin late for work again this morning.

Jimin was hurriedly marching through her desk, not minding the stares she got. She could only pray that they didn't notice that she hadn't washed her hair that morning. She braced herself to pick up the pace when she passed Minjeong's office.

"Running late, Miss Yu?" Crap. Her door was open. Why on earth was it open today? Plus, when she was late the woman's office was usually empty.

Jimin stopped in her tracks. Slowly, she peeked into the woman's office, trying to get her hair in place lest she be scolded for that too.

"Well?" Minjeong raised an eyebrow. It was unfair how good she looked with her hair up and while she was about to scold Jimin about office policy.

"I—um," Jimin stuttered, "I'm sorry, Miss Kim. I-it won't happen again."

Minjeong straightened her back. Then, she went back to writing on the file on her desk. "That's the third time this week. Don't think I haven't noticed." Those words again. It's like she was back in high school.

"I'm really sorry, Miss Kim. I will do my best not to disappoint."

"You better. Now, get to work."

"Ugh, Aeri. She caught me running late to my desk this morning."

Aeri almost spat out her water as she laughed at her best friend's misfortune. "You were what?! Seriously, get it together. I think she was about to ask me about it last time, but Miss Kang suddenly wanted to talk to her so I was safe." She continued eating. "What's keeping you up all night anyway?"

Honestly? The getting-caught-late was also getting to her. It was like a paradox; thinking about Minjeong catching her late to work coupled with the fact that she was marvelling at the woman's photo at night was keeping her up.

But Aeri didn't need to know the details. "Nothing. It's just the pressure, you know?"

"Hm," the other woman hummed. "If you say so."

-


Minjeong had called Jimin to her office one day.

This is it. I'm going to get fired.

In truth, Minjeong wanted to ask her about the recent presentation that she had submitted for the next meeting. She was assigned to design the powerpoint presentation for a new client and some sample advertisement posters.

"Miss Yu," the younger woman started.

"Yes?" Jimin stood up straight, wanting to avoid her eyes. But she couldn't do that, because she might get scolded again given their… history.

"Have you… had a chance to look at the presentation for the new client?" Minjeong clasped her hands under her chin.

Oh.

"Oh uh, yes, Miss Kim," she managed to get out. "I submitted it to Miss Kang on Monday." Keep it cool, Jimin. She just wants to ask some questions.

"Hm. And did Miss Kang give you any feedback?"

"Uhh… n-no?"

"Is that a question or an answer?" The air was getting colder with every word uttered by Minjeong.

"No… ma'am."

Minjeong sighed. Like she was pissed. Please don't be pissed. "I see. Can you imagine my surprise as I was prepping for my meeting this morning, when I saw that not only was it incomplete, but it had a crap-full of typos? Miss Kang told me that you were to send the revised version to me before the meeting."

Jimin was in shock. Did Miss Kang send her an email? Did she really mess this one up? "I…"

"I had to edit the entire presentation thirty minutes before the meeting, Jimin!" The volume of Minjeong's voice was higher now. She seemed really stressed. Oh, and Jimin? Minjeong hadn't called her that since high school. She really screwed this one up.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Kim… It won't happen again," she muttered.

Minjeong huffed, "It better not. Now, get out of my office."

"Y-yes, of course." Jimin timidly bowed her head and walked out.

-

Jimin felt shaking. Was it an earthquake? She couldn't really care anymore, she needed to sleep.

And there it was again. But this time, she heard a familiar voice. A very, familiar, cold voice.

"Hey, Yu Jimin. Wake up," said the voice. It was—

"Oh—I'm up! I'm up!" Jimin shot up. She looked around to find the voice that's been disturbing her sleep.

"Having a power nap, Miss Yu? At…" Minjeong checked her watch. "2 PM?"

Minjeong was literally looking down on her, while her face was all puffy from her nap. She must have fallen asleep after getting her coffee. To be honest, she didn't expect to see Minjeong at the cafe. The woman had never been seen to leave her office except for meetings and when it was time to go home.

"Min—Miss Kim, I—"

"Save your excuses. You've been causing trouble for yourself for over a week now. From now on, you'll be reporting to me every time you leave your desk. Understood?"

Jimin felt down. "Yes, Miss Kim."

Minjeong turned and walked away soon after that. Jimin was totally screwed this time. She took out her phone from her pocket and texted Aeri.

jiminie

you would not believe what happened this time

aerichan

what the heck did you do now???

jiminie

i'll tell you about it tomorrow lol

Right. She still had to work.

-

On one of her rare trips to the cafe, Minjeong managed to find Yu Jimin plopped down on a table, fast asleep. She kicked the leg of the table to wake her up.

During work hours? This girl, really.

"Hey, Yu Jimin. Wake up," she called to the woman.

"Oh—I'm up! I'm up!"

Minjeong was studying her face. Jimin's eyes were a little red from having been woken up so suddenly. The bridge of her nose was pointed in a way that was so perfect, a drop of water would glide on it so smoothly, in a perfect straight line. Her lips were full and pink, and she still had that mole under her lip.

Had she not known better, one would think she was admiring the older woman.

She scolded Jimin before hastily turning around to head back to her office. She failed to notice it, but there was a smile on her face as she walked back up.

-

Jimin needed to pee. Really bad. But as she contemplated leaving her desk, a certain blonde woman was on her mind.

Should I go tell her? Ah, screw it.

"Miss Kim?" Jimin knocked on the open door of Minjeong's office. "I uh… need to leave my desk."

Minjeong didn't look up from the computer. "Why?"

"Pee. I mean—bathroom," she stammered, "I really need to go to the bathroom."

"Fine." Minjeong dismissed her with a wave of her hand.

-

Today, Jimin needed to get some coffee downstairs. It was only 10 AM, which meant that it was too early to leave her desk. But god, did she need the caffeine.

So again, she knocked on Minjeong's office door. Maybe she'll be less cold this time.

"Miss Kim?"

"Yes?"

"I… need to go to the cafe downstairs?"

"Why?" Minjeong was still busy typing on her computer.

"Uh." Just say it. "I need coffee, Miss Kim."

"It's ten o'clock. You should have gotten coffee before work." Dead straight. No brakes.

"Yes." Jimin cringed. "I know. I'm sorry but I forgot to uh, do that."

"Fine," Minjeong said, still not sparing a glance at her. "There will be no next time, understood?"

"Thank you, Miss Kim."

Jimin couldn't help but smile on her way to the cafe. It wouldn't hurt to get the blonde a coffee, right?

She paid for the two drinks and headed upstairs. Quickly, she looked for a pen and a post-it pad. But the problem now was leaving it on her desk without the woman noticing.

Just then, she saw Minjeong heading to the bathroom. Great. Her luck was turning out to be good today.

Thank you for the coffee, she wrote. Technically, thank Jimin for the coffee. But she wouldn't have been able to get it if it weren't for Minjeong allowing her. She hastily sneaked into the blonde's office, stuck the note on the lid and went back to her desk just as fast.

Jimin tried peeking to see her reaction, but realized that she only had the side view of the doorway. She sighed, but smiled anyway. Knowing Minjeong would see it was enough. Hopefully she doesn't throw it out.

In Minjeong's office, she would catch sight of the mysterious cup of coffee on her desk. It was accompanied by an equally mysterious note. Why was it thanking her for the coffee? Weird.

Nevertheless, she took a sip. It wasn't that bad. Maybe she could try this flavor sometime. What is it? Hazelnut, it said. Risky move, Yu Jimin. But hey, not bad for a first try. The manager usually got an americano or a plain latte, no sugar. To Minjeong's surprise, she did end up liking this one.

Jimin, however, would never know this because she'd never be able to ask about it. She just hoped it wouldn't end up forgotten on Minjeong's table.

-

Today was Friday, which meant that the weekly grind was about to end. Although Minjeong did end up taking work home a lot of times, it still felt good that another week had been concluded.

For Jimin, though, it meant that she could look forward to a glass of wine tonight. It also meant that this was the last day before the weekend when she could come to Minjeong's office with another stupid reason for why she had to leave her desk.

Today, she changed things up a little.

"Miss Kim?"

Minjeong only looked at her with a blank stare. "What."

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm done so far with my tasks."

"So?"

Jimin grinned, but her tone was still in professional-acting-mode. "Nothing, I just wanted to let you know that I'm done with my tasks."

Minjeong rolled her eyes. "Get out of my office."

A couple of minutes later, Jimin went to Minjeong's office again.

"Miss Kim?"

"What now, Jimin?"

The younger woman called her by her first name again. She was starting to get pissed, Jimin could tell that much. It also seemed like the perfect time to ask a certain question.

"I just wanted to let you know that I came here to ask you about something."

Minjeong's irises could stay at the back of her head with how much she was rolling her eyes every time Jimin came up to her. She steadied herself and took a deep breath so she wouldn't explode on the older woman. She was still a professional. Still a professional.

Then calmly, she asked, "What can I do for you, Jimin?"

"Since we're, you know," Jimin began, "Erm, not really strangers. And you've been calling me Jimin and all. And…"

"And?"

"I was wondering. Could I… call you by your first name?"

That seemed to make Minjeong forget that they were at work. "You what?" It certainly wasn't a question she was expecting.

"'Minjeong?' Can I call you that?"

She supposed Jimin could. But, "No," came her immediate answer. Her mind paused for a moment. It was still a no. Yes, despite the coffee and the note. Her and Jimin were not friends. "We are not friends. I am your boss, Miss Yu." The blonde blinked up at her. "You may go now."

"But—"

Minjeong merely raised an eyebrow.

"Yes—of course… sorry for bothering you…" Jimin quietly stepped out of the office and back to her desk.

Rude… she didn't even give it a chance to marinate! Ah, Minjeong…

She sighed to no one in particular. Might as well get some work done while not thinking about when Minjeong would allow her to call the younger woman by her first name. (She couldn't do it.)

-

Minjeong came in early to work today. An hour and a half early, to be exact. It was Monday and she just felt like getting dolled-up. She thought it would be good to have your day feeling pretty so you can feel good at work. That, and she had back to back meetings and she figured she didn't need to feel haggard as well.

So, she did a full routine: concealer, foundation, eyebrows, mascara, eyeliner, blush, and lipstick. A little bit of subtle eyeshadow didn't hurt either, so she put that on too. Eyeliner wasn't winged though, just a line to make her eyes pop. It was the works, but she still went for a natural look since it was the office of course. She put on her best and favorite blouse, a skirt, and stockings. Nothing too crazy, but damn it if she didn't admit that she looked hot. Hot, yet still looking professional.

Minjeong had a good night's sleep so she was unbelievably early, even for her standards. She asked her assistant, Rei, to order her favorite meal from the breakfast place two blocks away, an omelette and smoked salmon with salad on the side. She made sure to tell the young woman to order some for herself too, her treat.

The day was going smoothly with two meetings down. Minjeong felt that nothing could ruin her day if she just stuck to the schedule. She felt good and work was being completed on time.

That was until a certain tall, big-haired woman felt the need to come into her office. Again.

"I—Min—Miss Kim. Good morning," Jimin greeted her.

Minjeong kept a straight face. "What?" she deadpanned.

"I just wanted to tell you that… you look really good today."

Minjeong paused. She took two seconds to stare at Jimin. She wanted to glare at the older woman but she kept her face intact. A bit conflicting on her part, because the compliment made her feel… warm. "Is that it?"

"I mean," Jimin continued, "I'm probably not the first to notice, so—I mean like, I just really wanted to tell you that."

Oh. "I see. Is that it?" she asked again.

"Yeah…" Jimin replied.

Then, the older woman turned to leave, but there was a blue post-it stuck on Minjeong's door that wasn't there before. She slightly frowned. She stood up, peeked outside to make sure no one was looking. She was pretty sure it was from Yu Jimin. She hadn't noticed the other woman sticking it on the door while they were talking.

Carefully, Minjeong took the note and read it.

Hope you aren't tiring yourself out from those meetings. PS. I like the eyeliner. -J

Minjeong smiled at the note, but she caught herself before it could get bigger. She stuck the note inside her journal where she kept all of her notes from the meetings.

After the fourth meeting, she received a facetime call from Yizhuo.

"Minjeong-ah! How are you? Are you busy?"

The two of them weren't that close in high school. However, they met once again during the freshman mixer at university. They found out that they were majoring in the same program. It started from lunches, which eventually turned into late-night cramming for papers at the 24-hour study hall. After freshman year, they started syncing their schedules together and managed to graduate both at the top of their class. Although they did their internships together, Yizhuo was more interested in fashion, so she went to a magazine company while Minjeong went into real-estate.

"Ah, not at the moment. But I just finished my fourth meeting today, so I'm free. What's up?"

"When are you free this week? Let's have dinner. My treat."

"Wow. Did you finally get the promotion? Congrats!" Minjeong beamed at the camera. If there was one person who could actually make her smile, it was Yizhuo.

"Yup!" Yizhuo giggled from the other line. "Nothing new at work?"

Minjeong rolled her eyes. "Good god. What did you hear from Aeri now?"

Yizhuo laughed once more. "Nothing? I mean, she did mention a certain Yu Jimin…"

Seriously, Aeri…

"Ugh. Nothing new. She's still a pain in the ass."

"Really? Aeri said she'd been working hard."

"Yeah, but she's still a pain in the ass. She got herself in trouble last time, falling asleep at work. So I made her report whenever she leaves her desk. Now, she keeps bothering me with stupid updates that I don't even need to hear about. God, so unprofessional…" Minjeong rambled on.

"Sounds to me like you're enjoying those 'reports' a little too much." Yizhuo teased.

"I do not. This is strictly for work," Minjeong shot back. "Anyway, I'm only free after Friday. That sound good to you? I'll ask Rei to send you a calendar invite so you can add it to yours."

"Sounds great. And Minjeong?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't push yourself too much. You're starting to get stress lines over… here." Yizhuo pointed to her own face.

Minjeong just shook her head. "Goodbye, Ning."

"Bye!" She ended the call.

After that last meeting, Minjeong finally closed the laptop. She could now rest. She called Rei in earlier to send her an email regarding tomorrow's meetings. The work had been quite repetitive recently, but she didn't mind. Honestly, she was looking forward to meeting Yizhuo later this week—which, let's face it, would probably turn into another gossip column about Jimin. Her friend was so going to turn this into a big deal even though she and Jimin barely interact, save for updates about presentations and meetings.

But those notes. She pulled out the journal from her drawer, flipping through the pages to arrive at a specific one. PS. I like your eyeliner. Was it really that nice? Minjeong knew she looked good, more so than usual. But she didn't think anyone would care to point it out. After all, she was known for her cold personality at work. Jimin was the only one who said anything about it. Although she did see giving her a look earlier that said, wow, you go girl!

Minjeong gathered her things, ready to head out of the building. While waiting for the elevator, she noticed something stuck to the wall, just beside the elevator buttons. It was pink and square, and it looked like she was meant to see it.

Hope you get home safe! -J

She looked around the office for signs of life, but there was no one and half the lights had been turned off. Once inside the elevator, Minjeong carefully tucked the note inside her bag, making a mental note to stick it in her journal later at home.

She honestly didn't know why she kept doing this. There was nothing special about them other than the fact that they were from Jimin. She could have crumpled it up the moment she saw it, but there she was, keeping the stupid notes safe in her journal so that they wouldn't be wrinkled.

-

As usual, Jimin and Aeri were having lunch together at the cafeteria. They started lunch a bit late because of some project proposal that needed to be done before afternoon. Naturally, Aeri wouldn't let lunch be cut short, so she told Jimin to ask Minjeong if they could come back from lunch late so they could still have a full break.

"Good afternoon, Miss Kim," Jimin greeted the manager. It was lunch, and yet Minjeong was nowhere far from her desk. Does she ever leave the office?

"It's lunchtime, Miss Yu. This better be important," Minjeong replied, like she herself wasn't on her lunch break. The scattered papers on her desk were a dead giveaway.

"Yes. Uh, so, since the team had to finish late because of the proposal, I was wondering if we—I mean me and Aeri, if we could come back a bit after the break. 'Cause—yeah, we had to take the break later." Nice going, Jimin.

Minjeong paused briefly, like she was genuinely thinking about not letting them go. "Yeah, sure." She waved the older woman off. "Just make sure to come back after an hour."

"Of course. Thank you, Miss Kim."

"Wow," Aeri mused. "I can't believe she said that."

"What's not to believe? It was a reasonable request," Jimin told her.

"I mean—she can be pretty strict, Jimin."

Jimin rolled her eyes. "It's her fault we're having lunch late. She made sure we knew we'd be dead if we didn't finish the proposal by noon."

"Yeah," Aeri agreed, "But like—she's very particular about time. She never lets people off the hook if she catches them late. You're special, Jimin." Her best friend clicked her tongue.

Jimin merely scoffed at that. "Yeah, her high school bully is special." Then, she really tried to think about it. She hadn't seen the younger woman throw away any of her notes. At least, not to her knowledge. Maybe she was…? "Should we invite her to lunch next time?"

Aeri coughed at that, almost choking on her chicken. "Are you insane?" She proceeded to interrogate her best friend, "Jimin, do you know what year it is? Can you tell me your full name?" Full-on interrogation, like it was a post-operation neuro exam.

Jimin shrugged. "Oh, shut up. It's not that crazy if you think about it. Besides, I've been telling her every time I have to go out for lunch—boss' orders. Plus, I don't think I've ever seen her leave her office."

Aeri pondered about it. "Fine, but you're asking her, not me."

-

Aeri found a new restaurant along their street, saving for next time they decide to have a nice lunch outside the building. The cafeteria was good, but they were sick of having egg drop soup for lunch. She urged Jimin to ask the manager to come with them this time, since it would be a change of environment and thought it would be good for Minjeong to get out.

The blonde was in her office, busy typing away on her laptop when Jimin knocked on the door.

"Hello, Miss Kim."

"Yes?" the manager replied.

"Would you… like to have lunch?"

Minjeong looked up then. "What?" Never had she thought that Jimin would even dare to ask such a question. "I—what makes you think I want to have lunch with you?" Like ever? She had a look on her face that told Jimin that she thought she was crazy. And she might actually be.

"N-no! Not like that. I mean, with me and Aeri." Jimin waved her hands to deny it. She was desperate to let this conversation end. Damn Aeri for making her do this. (Like it wasn’t her own idea, anyway.)

"Oh."

"Yeah… So… lunch?"

"I…" Minjeong was deep in thought, avoiding the older woman's gaze. "Alright. But you're buying."

Jimin mentally did a backflip at her answer. She doesn't know why she's glad that Minjeong said yes. It felt weird. Kind of like… she missed her?

No, no. No.

She missed pissing her off but now that this was lunch, an event outside the building and working hours, she could finally make fun of her. As Minjeong, not her as her boss.

It was just that. She was pretty sure Minjeong was infuriated from those notes she was giving her, because of course she didn't mean it. She just wanted to be annoying and Jimin knew that nothing was more irritating than having your high school nemesis send you little notes pretending that you care. But alas, it might be getting old, so she planned to recall stories from high school and middle school to put the cherry on top.

"Hey, Yu Jimin," Minjeong called out to her. It seems she had zoned out. "Are you coming or not?" The blonde was already waiting at the elevator, looking at Jimin like she was willing for Jimin to explode already.

"Ah, yes. Sorry about that." She scrambled to get to the elevator where the younger woman was holding the button for her. "Thanks."

The elevator ride was silent. Not that Jimin was expecting small talk, but god it was awkward.

"Aeri's waiting at the restaurant." Jimin said.

"We're not going to the cafeteria?" Minjeong asked. She thought they were just going downstairs.

"No, it's this new place. Thought it'd be nice to get out of the office."

"I see," Minjeong replied.

And that was it. The walk to the restaurant stayed silent. It wasn't until they got to Aeri, who was at the table, that they spoke again.

"Hey you guys! Oh, Minjeong!"

Seriously? Jimin sat down across Aeri, still in disbelief. She then turned to Minjeong who was already browsing through the menu. "Why does she get to call you that?"

Aeri just shrugged. "Oh, don't sweat it. Long story short, she's friends with Yizhuo, and I stayed in touch with Yizhuo during college. Voila."

Jimin scoffed at that. How did this all happen? Was Aeri close with Minjeong? Were they messing with her when she was completely left in the dark about the fact that they worked together?

"Aeri never bullied me when we were kids," Minjeong interjected. "That's the simple version, in case you haven't got it yet."

Jimin couldn't say anything to that.

"Cheer up, Yu. She'll let you in pretty soon," Aeri chuckled.

Minjeong's ears burned up. She couldn't believe Aeri would do her like this. It was a blessing that she sat on the chair beside Jimin and that she didn't put her hair up today. She did not need Jimin to have an excuse to see her current state.

"Oooh," Jimin teased as well, "Got any more secrets, Miss Kim?"

Minjeong rolled her eyes. "You two. Shut up. Let's order."

Lunch turned out to be nice. Minjeong was still quiet, quite like she used to be even back when they were kids. She chimed in every now and then—mostly to stop Aeri from teasing her about how Jimin used to get on her nerves—but nevertheless, Jimin was glad she was talking.

Jimin couldn't point out what it was, but between Aeri's flashback stories and Minjeong's light scolding, it all brought a small smile to her face. There was something different in Minjeong's eyes. Maybe it was because this was a casual setting or because she was finally relaxing around her—Jimin hoped it was the latter.

"Hey, remember when you used to send her insults in the form of post-its? Man, you were creative," Aeri said to Jimin, snickering. She had no idea Jimin was doing the same thing all over again. It would have been fun to get her in on it but those two were already friends of some sort.

Jimin made a motion of stabbing her with her fork. "That's all in the past. We're not kids anymore, Aeri."

Aeri raised her hands in surrender. "Alright, chill. It's just fun to think about. I mean, who would've thought we'd all end up here, right?" She then continued eating.

"Hm, I guess so. Yeah."

"Yeah," Minjeong agreed. Jimin didn't expect her to say anything, but Aeri did have a point. Maybe it was pure coincidence, maybe it was fate. She always knew Minjeong would end up at a fancy job somewhere in the city, though she never thought she would actually end up working under her. The forces of the universe were funny like that.

-

Much to Minjeong's dismay, lunches with Jimin and Aeri didn't end at that one time. Jimin was still slipping her post-it notes every now and then, containing what she could only think of as backhanded compliments about her outfit or Great work’s about her presentations. The regular reports didn't stop either. Jimin would be telling her the most ridiculous things about her day that she probably just had to tell Minjeong in order to bother her.

Thing is, she's getting quite used to it, even getting so far as to secretly guessing what type of crap Jimin would be coming up with every time she came into her office.

This time, it's this.

"Miss Kim."

And here we go again.

"What."

"Just wanted to let you know that there's muffins in the break room. Oh! And I finished that report for the Swiss company. Weird, why would a big Swiss company want to send a bunch of—"

"Miss Yu," Minjeong cut her off.

With shameless, hopeful eyes, Jimin responded, "Yes?"

"I really, really—sincerely, don't care," she deadpanned.

And Jimin would have been downcast, but instead, she shrugged, a ridiculous grin on her face as she told Minjeong, "Uh, I baked them? And—I heard from Aeri—which she probably heard from Yizhuo, that you like blueberries, and weirdly enough, raisins—so, I saved some for you." Then, like it was some top secret, she followed up with, "It's in the microwave."

And Minjeong would have told her how stupid it was to put them in there, but it was kind of genius. Lunch break was over—no excuse to use the microwave—plus, it keeps the ants out, if any.

"Ugh fine, just—get out. Stop bothering me." Minjeong shooed her away to which she giddily complied and even snuck in a laugh there on the way out.

Around ten minutes or so after the big-haired woman had left, Minjeong quietly went to the break room to check out those muffins. They were quite good, with just enough firmness to not fall apart but still soft and moist on the inside. The blueberry and raisins were a nice touch. There was one of each, almost like those two pieces were only made for her.

She didn't really hate it. The updates were annoying, yes, but it was also sort of part of her day now. Any day that Jimin doesn't say some stupid shit to her face felt like an incomplete one. And with the increasing frequency of her lunches spent with the two troublemakers from high school, she could almost say they were…becoming friends?

Aeri being there wasn't new, and Jimin certainly wasn't. (Not comparable, really, since Aeri had been working with her for years.) But it may be taking some time for her to fully accept that the older woman wasn't so bad. She may really, really not be hating it.

And what was up with the notes lately? She wasn't throwing them out, even though they contained suspiciously well-thought out questions and phrases like: 'What did you have for breakfast and was it pancakes with syrup because you look so sweet and delicious today,' or 'Did Yu have fun at lunch? Because Yu Jimin was there?' or even something like, 'So sorry we couldn't have lunch today! Miss Kang needed us for a team lunch with the sponsors. Sooo boring lol.'

She wondered how the older woman was coming up with all sorts of stuff to tell her, stuff she didn't need nor ask to know about.

Still, she kept them safe in her journal, silently pondering on the way home where in the board she would put it.

-

(5 years ago, 21

Minjeong always knew she was smart. Graduating college at twenty-one was no small feat, even if there were actual prodigies or geniuses out there. She got the best grades and she genuinely loved studying, so it wasn't a surprise that she stuck to it and got herself to graduate with flying colors and without any delays.

Right as graduation was approaching, the biggest marketing companies were already starting to reach out to her, wanting her talent and wit, promising the best benefits and most competitive salaries. One of them was the company in which she would be spending the next years of her life. They offered to train her for a managerial position, effective immediately after training ended, and a condo that was B-tier when it came to the size. She couldn't just not accept it. Plus, the scope of the work genuinely interested her.

When she moved into her apartment, plenty of the bits and pieces of her childhood bedroom came with her. That included her aromatherapy defuser, her favorite turtle-themed sheets (that came with her turtle-themed mugs and socks), and her whiteboard.

This whiteboard was special, indeed. Her whiteboard saw the best and worst of her, accompanying her during the most academically challenging times. She couldn't just not work without her whiteboard.

However, her huge whiteboard wasn't always this big. It used to fill only around two-thirds of her bedroom wall. Her parents gifted her a custom-made one for her sixteenth Christmas, which subsequently filled the full length side of her bedroom wall. This extended part though, was reserved for something undeniably stupid, even for her standards.

The post-its.

Yu Jimin had been ruining her life ever since Minjeong learned how to say, 'Miss so-and-so, but what about the homework?' She ruined Minjeong's days by just existing. Breathing. But Minjeong loved the planet. She couldn't throw perfectly good paper away, even if it contained insults from her archnemesis. So she stuck them on one side of the whiteboard. Perfectly normal thing to do for an environment-loving teacher's pet.

Over time, it became so full she had to keep some of them in a shoebox that she hid under her bed, for no one in the world to see. (She'd never even let Yizhuo in her room for this reason.) Minjeong could never find it in herself to throw them away. Good or bad, she was still sentimental.

The whiteboard came with her to the new city; and maybe, somehow, some part of Yu Jimin also did.)

-

11 and 13

Minjeong had just been promoted two classes up.

It had been a surprise, especially since her parents have always insisted that she stay in her grade so that she could be with people who were her age. But her teachers have spoken to her parents, and they thought it was the right time for her to skip two grades because she was getting too far advanced. They say it would benefit her more if she were to take the classes in this grade.

Of course, with new classes came new classmates. Everyone was a bit older than her, so she became quite the loner. But Minjeong loved school, and despite her usually shy demeanor, she loved reciting in class. It came to a point where she started reminding teachers of homework that she knew they were most likely to forget. For someone who gave a lot of homework, it was always the math teacher who was forgetting to check them. This got her branded as the teacher's pet. The most annoying classmate. The evil spawn.

But Minjeong didn't care. Grades were everything.

With her new classes also came Yu Jimin.

Yu Jimin was… pretty. She was the tallest in class. Quite a few people had a crush on her. Girls. It was not new for them—it was an all-girls school. Girl crushes were pretty normal. She knew of one couple in their class. There were probably some more within the entire grade.

When Minjeong saw Yu Jimin for the first time, she was stunned. Mesmerized, almost. The girl was really pretty. Not the regular kind, but the kind of pretty that was unique. Yu Jimin's face, her stance, her aura—it was the kind you'll probably never see again in your entire life. And at thirteen years old, that was saying something. She would definitely grow up to be Miss Korea, Minjeong thought.

She realized that Yu Jimin would react almost violently whenever Minjeong mentioned homework. She was reaaally annoyed. And that fueled Minjeong to never miss a beat. She made sure her homework was always pristine, and made actual notes in her school journal to actually remind the teachers, even before lessons started.

Annoying Yu Jimin became her routine.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Seo.” Minjeong raised her hand. It was PE class. It’s too hot, and Minjeong felt like she could sweat just by breathing. But she couldn't miss her routine today. “Aren’t we doing last week’s unfinished exercises today as well?”

"You're unfinished," quipped Jimin, causing the entire class to snicker.

Success.

She glared at Jimin. She must keep her facade on. “Oh, Mrs. Seo, I think Jimin would like to demonstrate.”

Jimin scowled at her, but it didn't matter. She still looked pretty even if she was annoyed at her.

Minjeong hid her blush under a smirk. Yu Jimin noticed her today. 

-

13 and 15

"This sucks," Jimin muttered to no one in particular.

And even though Minjeong was a few seats away, she still heard it. She started listening in when Aeri replied to the girl. It was probably about Minjeong reminding Miss Song of homework.

Well, that was easy.

But then, she heard Aeri say something peculiar.

“I know, right? She definitely needs a boyfriend so she can relax.”

Boyfriend? That's funny.

Why would I want a boyfriend? I can't even get a girlfriend… Heck, I can only get Yu Jimin to notice me when I'm being a pain in her ass.

She supposed Jimin could be a cool girlfriend (in some way). But when she thought about it some more, Jimin would probably be such an annoying one.

Jimin huffed at that. “Yeah, or another hobby that doesn’t involve school.”

But school is all she has. And in school, she had Yu Jimin. At least in her dreams.

Around this time of year came the annual school dance. This year, it was their grade's turn to perform.

Minjeong knew Yu Jimin could dance.

She knew that she was in ballet, and she was no stranger to talks of the girl's world-class flexibility.

It didn't come as a surprise that said girl was assigned to lead the class in their dance performance. But Minjeong had a plan.

"Mrs. Seo," she called to the woman who was heading to the faculty room.

"Oh, Minjeong! You need anything?" Mrs. Seo asked in a friendly tone. She was Minjeong's favorite teacher because she was so kind to her even though she wasn't the best in terms of physical activity. She knew Minjeong did her best, and she appreciated that.

"Oh, yes. Sorry to bother you but I just had some concerns about the dance performance."

"Oh? What is it?"

"Well…" Minjeong hesitated. "I heard from some rumors that this year's performance required extra steps. Like the steps we haven't tackled yet in PE?"

Mrs. Seo hummed, "Hm, yes, that's true. Why, do you think it's too hard for the class to follow? I can check with the others if we can adjust—"

"Oh no, no!" Minjeong waved her hands in defense. "It's not that, Mrs. Seo. Actually, I was wondering if I could help. I know Jimin will be the class leader. Um… I was wondering if I could be co-leader? U-uh… just to help Jimin since I know we have exams too that week." She said, almost mumbling the last part.

Mrs. Seo held her chin in deep thought. "Hmm. You know what, that's a great idea, Minjeong. Alright. co-leader it is." She approved. Then, she chuckled. "Wanna break the bad news?"

Minjeong smiled in return, also laughing a little.

Before the third round of practice ended, Minjeong was called outside by Mrs. Seo. She quietly snuck out and was greeted by the smiling woman.

"Ready?" Mrs. Seo asked.

Jimin was just calling the end of this round of practice when the two of them walked in.

Minjeong kept it cool as Jimin gave Mrs. Seo a doe-eyed look. Like she knew bad news was about to happen.

“So… Jimin. It seems that the project this year needs to be a little more complicated.”

Oh, her face. This expression on Yu Jimin deserved to be framed. Minjeong knew this would piss her off so bad. And that, it did.

“I’m sorry, her?!” Jimin exclaimed. Mrs. Seo crossed her arms. Minjeong could see the girl gulp. “I mean—respectfully, um, her?”

Minjeong crossed her arms as well. As if saying, 'you cross Mrs. Seo and you cross me.' It worked.

“Yes, Miss Yu. Is there a problem?” Mrs. Seo asked. Beside her, Minjeong was doing that annoying, devious, teacher’s pet smile.

“N-no ma’am.”

And just like that, Mrs. Seo left the classroom.

Minjeong handed Jimin a piece of paper that had the new required steps in it. She could already see the fumes coming out of Jimin's ears.

"What's this?" Jimin asked, skeptical. She must not have heard the rumors.

“The new steps,” she replied, “Mrs. Seo wants us to include these in the routine. I can take over. You look like you need help.”

"I… what?!"

She just raised an eyebrow at the girl. "You heard me, Yu." Jimin was holy pissed. Another success for Minjeong.

After practice, Minjeong handed Jimin a piece of paper with her number on it. It was needed, since they had to talk with regards to the project. That, and it gave her access to Yu Jimin's number. It's not like they were going to be best buddies, but the thought of having the girl's number did something to Minjeong's heart.

In return, Jimin would go on to send her a post-it note with a new insult everyday. Minjeong would frown upon seeing it. But she couldn't throw it away, not when it was from Jimin. It would earn its place on her whiteboard, along with the others…

14 and 16

Puberty hasn't been kind to Minjeong yet.

She had grown some in height, but she was still waiting for that bus to hit her and magically turn her decent-looking.

It's not that she looked bad, she just wished she could look better—like lose the acne. But she knew that was miles away, so for now she diligently put on sunscreen on her face everyday. Her mother says that that was her secret to her beautiful skin. If her mom could look good at her age, surely genetics would be in her favor too, right?

Summer break had ended. A lot of her classmates had changed appearance-wise during the break. And Yu Jimin was no exception, except she got hit by puberty way better than everyone else.

This resulted in the girl becoming more popular among the entire school. She was getting confessions from girls left and right. Some boys from the neighboring school would be waiting outside just to give her flowers.

Minjeong didn't know the status of Jimin's love life, of course. But she couldn't help but hear the gossip around the girl. Plus, it wasn't like Aeri was being quiet about Miss Popular when the girl came in with another gift from her admirers on the way to class.

She wondered if there was some way… some way she could give Jimin something. She knew the girl already hated her at this point, so even if she did give her something, she wanted to do it anonymously.

Ah, White Day.

Their very own tradition, similar to Valentine's day. Chocolates and flowers everywhere, with promises of forever. Minjeong could cringe, except she herself was thinking about it. This was the perfect opportunity to give Jimin a chocolate.

There she was on White Day, chocolate hidden in her jacket pocket, when she spotted Jimin.

But the girl wasn't alone. She was smiling that cute smile of hers, patting this girl's head. It seemed the other girl in front of her had just confessed to Jimin.

Minjeong scowled, turning away from the scene. She took the chocolate in her pocket and broke it in half, opening it and angrily munching on it herself.

This was supposed to be her chance, since everyone was giving Jimin chocolates anyway due to her popularity, but it was ruined. Yu Jimin ruined it.

-

Yu Jimin became the obvious choice as Danny Zuko in their English play. It annoyed Minjeong that she was getting this role, because it meant she had to get the girl in line so that they wouldn't fail.

But Minjeong had another problem.

“You heard Ms. Im. Props team, you guys will be in the other room so you’d have more space to work. Choreography, you guys can stay here. And actors, today we’ll work on perfecting the first sequence.”

A series of murmurs spread amongst the actors. Minjeong noticed the whispers and frowned. 

“What?” she asked everyone. Yizhuo timidly raised her hand. “Yizhuo?”

“Um… we still don’t have a Sandy…”

Minjeong narrowed her eyes at that. “We–what?!”

At the back of the small crowd of actors for the play, Jimin was busy scrolling on her phone. 

“Care to explain this, Jimin?”

Because why on earth would she be doing this? Lia was already first choice, and she had a great voice for when she would perform Hopelessly Devoted To You.

Apparently, Jimin had driven away every single Sandy candidate and refused to memorize any of the lines or choreography.

“She… didn’t want anyone to play Sandy,” Yizhuo further explained. “butyou…” she whispered.

Jimin then looked up from her phone, meeting Minjeong's eyes. She was glaring at Jimin, hands on her waist.

"Yu Jimin."

“Huh?” Jimin looked like a fish out of water with the way her mouth was open. “Oh, well,” she shrugged.

“Yes, you. What is she talking about, huh?” she questioned the girl.

“What?” she shot back. “You heard her. I want Kim Minjeong as my Sandy, or I’m not doing Danny.” The rest of the actors did an ‘ooh’ at the declaration.

“You—” Minjeong sighed. Her reddening face indicated she was blushing, but to everyone else it just looked like she was seething in anger.

“How am I gonna practice if I don’t have my Sandy?” the girl replied, feigning innocence.

For a brief moment, Minjeong closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and imagined herself strangling Jimin and pulling her hair while the other girl fought for her life. On the other hand, she was also imagining them in the play, acting all sweet and dandy like Danny and Sandy.

“Fine, I’ll be Sandy,” she said with gritted teeth and a semi-forced smile. In truth, she was trying not to smile with the way Jimin just said she didn't want any other Sandy but her.

Jimin finally smiled, genuine this time. It made Minjeong's heart skip a beat.

At first, Jimin's minute-ly updates were appreciated by Minjeong. Over time, she was looking forward to it because of how stupid it just was. It was still annoying, though. And really, Minjeong thought the girl would probably stay annoying for the rest of her life.

-

Today felt like a commute day.

Minjeong wanted to bring her car, of course, for convenience. But there was also the inconvenience of having to drive home after the day she was about to have. According to Rei, she had six meetings, three of which they were unable to reschedule anymore because they had been pushed back so much. Minjeong thought she might have to sacrifice Miss Bae because it was her team's delays that caused those meetings to be pushed.

In all honesty, half these meetings could have been an email but she couldn't afford any more delays in communication especially for Miss Kang's and Miss Bae's teams. (She also knew that sometimes it was those two idiots—either Jimin or Aeri—who would not be checking their emails on time.) God knows what certain employees were doing on their time.

It had been a busy day, so busy that Jimin didn't even pop in once. Minjeong was kind of missing it. Kind of. More like it's just weird that she's not here. Because Jimin's life mission is to get on her nerves.

Sundown came earlier than expected. Minjeong looked out the windows, wondering where the light went. Instead of purple and blue skies, she was met with gray. Thick and cloudy, and thunder. The rain had started pouring fiercely.

Oh well.

When Minjeong came down to the parking lot, she slapped a hand over her head. Crap. She had forgotten that she didn't bring her car with her and commuting was about to be a bitch. She quickly pulled up the Uber app on her phone. Thirty minutes of waiting—with twenty of those spent shivering—there was still no booking. And the raging downpour outside hadn't faltered.

Just when she was about to give up and considered spending the night at the office, an unfamiliar car pulled up in front of her. The windows rolled down, revealing the one person she didn't need to see right now.

"Get in!" Jimin beckoned to her. And this was no time for hesitation so she quickly got in. Once inside, Jimin told her to put in her address on the GPS.

Minjeong (not to be rude) internally groaned, but she put it in anyway. For sure this was going to come back to her. This was fine. She needed a ride. She will not be indebted to Jimin so she racked her brain for anything she can do to make it even. A storm was raging, both outside and in Minjeong.

When they arrived outside her condo, she offered for Jimin to come up. The older woman smiled—like a puppy finally given their treat, god knows why—and proceeded to park her car at the visitors' parking. "I'll make dinner," Minjeong muttered before stepping out. She had to wait for Jimin so they could come up together, and she hated that they looked like they came together.

She didn’t wait for Jimin at the door, hastily shutting any (or might as well all) doors that Jimin could wander into and she did not need the woman any more into her private space than she already was.

Minjeong washed her hands and put on her apron. She gestured to the living room. "Wait here. I'll make something." She looked away. "For your trouble," she mumbled, almost incoherent.

Jimin made herself comfortable on the couch. "You know you could just say 'thank you.'"

Her remark fell on deaf ears and the sound of chopping vegetables was the only thing heard throughout the kitchen. Minjeong might as well have been smashing the chopping board with the way she was cutting.

Dinner was simple; just a soup of chicken, vegetables, plus rice and kimchi. Jimin commended her cooking, even though she literally just threw them all in. She was definitely sucking up to her on purpose to pull her leg.

"Just say it like it is and I'll gladly throw it away for you." Minjeong was now glaring at her.

Jimin set down her spoon. "I'm serious. It's really good. Thank you for making dinner." And Minjeong could almost believe it. She had that stupid fake smile that reached her eyes—like how is that even possible? God, Jimin was really good at acting. She scoffed and continued eating. It was good, but anything is good when you're tired and hungry and eating your own cooking. Minjeong wanted to smack the dumb grin off her face.

Later, Jimin offered to wash the dishes. Minjeong just shrugged it off and told her she was going to wash up in the meantime. The older woman finished early, as Minjeong was not yet out by the time she was done and she couldn't help but chuckle at the turtle-themed cups in the cabinets. She had just found new blackmail material.

As the sound of the shower filled the condo, Jimin found one of the doors ajar. It must have been Minjeong's bedroom, seeing as part of the closet doors was visible and a towel hung by it. At the corner of her eye, she spotted something colorful. Before she could take a peek—and possibly be on Minjeong's wrath if she got caught, she heard the blonde calling out to her.

"Jimin." It was far, so she assumed it came from the bathroom. When she turned around, she saw Minjeong peeking slightly through the door.

"Could you… grab my towel?" she said shyly, "I forgot it." Minjeong did everything in her power to avoid Jimin's gaze. "It's hanging by the closet in the bedroom."

"Oh."

Once she realized what Minjeong was asking for, she quickly reached into the room to grab the towel. It was close to the door, so she didn't really need to get inside.

"Uh, here." Jimin stood in front of her at arm's length, careful not to look at her even though Minjeong was fully covered by the door.

"Thanks," Minjeong muttered, closing the door. And if Jimin didn't know any better, she would have thought that Minjeong's soap smelled amazing. Of course it does. Letting out a long exhale, she opted to stay in the living room until Minjeong was done. About two minutes later, she heard the bathroom door swing open but she refused to look.

"Don't you dare look this way, Yu Jimin," Minjeong said—snappy, traversing the living room to the bedroom and watching the back of Jimin's head every step of the way.

"Oh, now you're shy."

Of course Jimin had the nerve to joke about her nakedness right now. It seemed to take forever for the blonde to get to her bedroom and it wasn't just because she was careful not to slip. One twist of her head and she was going to snap Jimin's head off.

Ten minutes later, after she had dried her hair and dressed in something comfortable but decent, she headed to the kitchen to start drying the dishes.

"Oh!" Jimin stood up. "Let me help you with that." And Minjeong guessed that was fine, now that they were even, that it wasn't gonna make her more indebted to the older woman. So she let Jimin sort them back into the rack and they worked in silence. For a simple meal, she ended up using plenty of kitchen tools.

"Ow!" Minjeong exclaimed. She'd just cut herself on the kitchen knife she was wiping. She usually just let it drip on the rack, but for some reason she was doing it tonight. "Ah, sh—crap."

"Here, let me." Jimin ripped a paper towel from the counter. She grabbed Minjeong's hand, folding the paper towel and applying pressure to the wound. While the younger woman was hissing in pain, Jimin couldn't help but tease her. "I didn't peg you as the clumsy type."

Despite her pain, Minjeong still managed to roll her eyes at her. "Give me that." She made a motion to grab the paper towel from Jimin's hand.

"Ah uh-uh!" Jimin gave her a firm look. "Just hold still."

"Fine," the blonde grumbled.

Jimin continued pressing the paper towel onto her finger, adjusting her hold on Minjeong's hand to get a more stable grip. She didn't realize she was doing it to let the blonde be a little more comfortable. After a solid minute of just standing there, Jimin lifted it up to take a good look.

"There you go." Jimin then looked up at her face. "Do you have any betadine?"

Minjeong, who was looking at anywhere else besides Jimin and the finger, finally faced her. "No. It's fine." She was now looking directly into Jimin's eyes. Unconsciously, the blonde swallowed. "I'll just put a bandage on it."

They were looking at each other now, just talking about the finger.

"I…" Jimin started, "Well, where do you uh—keep those?" Her mouth suddenly became so fucking dry. She'd never actually seen Minjeong up close. The younger woman had always been so skinny since they were kids, but looking at her now, it seemed she still had the same baby cheeks. Not that Jimin ever noticed them, but she guessed she had just subconsciously known about it all this time.

I… What?

And the hair… blonde really suits her, Jimin thought. Again, what?

Minjeong was… pretty. Like I want to kiss her right now or I'll die pretty, and not in the oh my boss is kinda cute (oh well) way. Jimin didn't know what came over her, but one second she was asking about band-aids and the next, she was leaning in. And Minjeong was just looking at her with her pretty face and pink cheeks and pink lips—with an expression that could only mean to Jimin that she was begging to be kissed. She didn't move away, letting Jimin invade her space.

Finally, their lips touched.

There was no movement at first. A few seconds in—and in a surprising turn of events—Minjeong moved her lips. Jimin was able to hide her shock well—no widening of the eyes and no pulling away.

There was no turning back now. She couldn't believe she was kissing Kim Minjeong, her childhood enemy and current boss. And she couldn't believe that she was kissing her back. It was highly inappropriate. Surely she wouldn't get fired for kissing the boss if said boss kissed her back, right?

God, Aeri would be having a field day if she found out. Now that, that was inappropriate. Jimin's head was a fucking mess. She was dizzy, and somehow felt like she was levitating a few inches off the ground.

Minjeong, on the other hand, had forgotten about the cut on her hand. She placed said hand on Jimin's shoulder, deepening the kiss.

They stood there for a while. Was it minutes? Hours? In truth, it was only short of one minute, but Minjeong felt like it was forever before they broke it off.

Jimin leaned away first. "I… that was uh…" Deep breaths came from both of them. Jimin pressed her forehead against the younger woman, sighing, almost like she was content.

"Yeah," Minjeong replied. Jimin smiled—smiled her stupid, stupid smile. The younger woman struggled not to let out a chuckle. "You're so—stop smiling. It's annoying." Jimin could only laugh, because of course she'd still find her annoying after all that. "I… that was nice." (Minjeong was shocked that she could actually believe what she was saying.)

"Come." Jimin took the hand that was on her shoulder, tugging. "Let's get those bandages."

-

With all of the possible people that she could have sitting in her living room, kissing her all night, Minjeong never thought it would be Jimin. Jimin, who had always had a penchant for teasing her and ruining her day, was on top of her, kissing her and making her let out tiny little whines that were quite impossible to keep in her throat.

It was so embarrassing, being in this position. But at the same time, she couldn't help the feeling. The feeling that she liked it even though it went against all her principles.

Being kissed by Yu Jimin felt like she was being kissed for the first time. She'd only had a few exes and dated some, so she was no stranger to kissing. But… how? How was it that Jimin was making her feel like this? Minjeong would never admit this to anyone, not Yizhuo, and not even if she had to if it meant it would save her mother.

Oh, the shame. Yizhuo might have been right about her.

"Are you okay?" Jimin was looking into her eyes. She had wondered why Minjeong had stopped moving.

The younger woman shook her head. "I'm fine. Sorry. I was just thinking."

Jimin paused to look at her. "About what?"

"Nothing, just… what are we doing?" Minjeong held her gaze, biting her bottom lip. She looked unsure, as if she wasn't even sure about the question she was asking.

Jimin hummed. "Uh, kissing?"

That earned her a smack on the arm. "Be serious for one second."

Jimin rolled her eyes. "I literally just answered—" Smack. "Ow! Okay, god. Violent woman." The blonde was looking at her expectantly. "Honestly? I don't know either. I didn't expect any of this to happen, especially tonight."

Gun to her head though? She was just glad Minjeong invited her to come up because she was curious about the latter's place. Now that she thought about it, she was somehow always finding a way to talk to Minjeong, even if it was just to irritate her. Frankly, she didn't think she was excited or happy for other reasons other than getting under her skin.

And that's where she reckoned she was probably wrong.

"Well," Minjeong hesitated. "Me too."

"But… nothing will change, right? I mean, you're still my boss and… well, yeah."

"Yeah. That. Um…" Minjeong bit her lip again. "It's late… I think we should call it a night."

At that, Jimin checked the time on her watch. 9PM. They had dinner… around three hours ago? That leaves about another thirty minutes for the dishes and waiting for Minjeong to finish washing up, and then for the rest of that time they—

Oh god, I just made out with my boss.

And it was Kim Minjeong, no less.

Jimin suddenly felt the awkwardness of the situation.

"Oh, y-yeah." Jimin scrambled to get on her feet, fixing her now wrinkled blouse. And it was especially frumpled at the collar, an indication of the younger woman's strong grip. She went across the room to grab her blazer. "So uh, I'll see you tomorrow?"

Minjeong had sat up on the couch as well. "Yes. I'll see you tomorrow. At work." For work.

"At lunch, too, right?" Jimin added. She stood there, looking at her. "Minjeong-ah."

"Hm?" The blonde looked up at her.

Then, as if all awkwardness had been thrown out the window, Jimin grinned down at her. "Does this mean I get to call you by your name now?" Before Minjeong could throw her that signature glare of hers (that was at this point probably reserved for Jimin only), the older woman continued, "It's only right, isn't it? I mean, wouldn't you say we're kind of… friends now?"

She had a point. But Minjeong still wanted to look at her disdainfully, like it was second nature by now. So she did. But— "Fine."

"Oh, good! We can have lunch everyday. You, me, and Aeri."

She wanted to disagree. So bad. "Alright. I'll see you… for lunch. Good night, Jimin."

The older woman beamed at her, like a kid being promised to be taken to Disneyland. "Good night, Minjeong."

The sound of the door clicking shut filled Minjeong's home. She felt like getting hit with lightning. What the heck just happened?