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To be honest, Jimin should have the right to feel this way.
Wait. No. Maybe not. Why should she, why would she? Minjeong and her aren't even close. Not even anywhere near the label ‘friends’. Or she keeps telling herself so.
Aeri’s been stressing on the fact that they do more friends stuff than the average friends do—hint: more than Aeri does with Jimin. Like, hanging out on weekends; which Jimin keeps telling Aeri that it's purely non-consensual because Minjeong keeps crashing over at their dorm room whenever she wants to use Jimin’s brainpower for assignments she should be doing on her own, and that Jimin has no choice but to abide albeit without much complaint. And she thinks that's a funny example to start with because she and Aeri are roommates, which means they already hang out on a daily basis.
Or, like, sleeping in each other's beds but Jimin will argue until the day she dies that it's one-sided! Minjeong likes to use her bed as a crash pad at the most random times ever and although Jimin doesn't shoo her away or kick her off, she absolutely finds it annoying how Minjeong will hold her calico cat plushie hostage every time she naps in her bed and totally because it will smell like her afterwards. Also, this event never occurs when Jimin is in the bed, so she doesn't get why Aeri would point this out as if they sleep together in one bed.
Then, Aeri added that the time Jimin had to make it up to Minjeong by taking her out to the movies was super intimate. Preposterous, dare she say. It had always been that way with Minjeong, even when they were younger. Jimin recalls one time during middle school, she had to get creative with communication because Minjeong had her blocked on every platform in existence; messages, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Minjeong even blocked her on Roblox. Can you believe that, Roblox? That's how insanely petty this girl is. She had to regress in communication and write letters to then slip them into Minjeong's locker every day, and leave candies and chocolates on Minjeong's table before classes started. She has to go above and beyond in terms of doing anything for Minjeong. And you know what? Jimin never really complained about having to do so, anyway, and that probably doesn't help her case at all.
“Alright. You're just making stuff up now.” Jimin had said before Aeri could continue listing down what she and Minjeong did that was apparently friendship coded. But in the back of her head, she realizes that if Aeri really were making things up, she wouldn't have had to defend herself or explain anything in general.
Today is the weekend and since it's that time of the month, a.k.a. the time period where private goods run out—specifically Minjeong's, they head out to buy groceries.
One of the wheels on this shopping cart is stuck. The plastic wrapped around it has basically immobilized the wheel but Jimin can't be bothered to turn around and take another cart because a) she doesn't care, b) it's tolerable, and c) that stupid guy at the pet store they stopped by.
“He was flirting with you.”
Minjeong sets the shampoo back onto the shelf, turns to her with a pointed glare of questioning. “Who’s he?”
Jimin's whole body tics from either rage or annoyance—she can't tell which one it is. “Pets Co. guy! Or whatever the store name was. Remember; fluffy hair, flawless skin, terrible posture?”
Minjeong scoffs, eyes rolling. “He wasn't flirting with me.”
“He asked for your number.”
“Yeah, for a membership.” Minjeong argues with a lilt in her voice that screams ‘you’re smarter than this’.
“What membership? You don't have a pet.”
“Then I'll get one.”
Jimin drops her shoulders almost theatrically. “Yeah? Like what?”
“A puppy.”
“You’re allergic to dust and fur.”
Minjeong bristles. “Where the hell did you get that from?”
She doesn't say she remembers it from the time they were still in high school and they were both at the park, sitting on grass when a foot-sized yorkie on a loose leash came barreling towards them. It jumped onto Minjeong almost immediately before a horrible sneeze rippled through the air, and then Minjeong's nose was red. Jimin remembered it particularly due to the fact that Minjeong resembled Rudolph (which she thought was sort of cute).
Instead, she says: “Your mom.”
Minjeong stops. So does Jimin with the cart a few steps lagging behind. There's that judgy squint again from the blonde. “That’s so not how the joke works.”
“It wasn't intended to be one.” Jimin meekly argues.
The rest of the shopping goes by quietly, to practically everyone’s surprise. Of course, the few bickerings and hostility still exist but that's nowhere near abnormal. The one thing that is strange is the fact that Jimin, all throughout the one hour of shopping, did not breathe a word.
Which, Jimin concedes, is a bit out of character for herself. But currently, she's pulling a card Minjeong loves to play and she's admittedly sulking.
Jimin realizes a bit late, once they're done loading things into the trunk, that sulking means jealousy. And she tells herself that, no, she isn't jealous because she has no reason to be and no one to be jealous of.
“Oh?” Minjeong exclaims, staring at her phone down in her lap. “He texted me.”
Jimin yanks on the seatbelt a little too aggressively to be considered cool. “Who?” She asks, even though she already has a hunch that it had something to do with a membership.
“Pets Co. man.”
…Okay, maybe there is someone to be jealous of. She admits that now.
She focuses on pulling out of the parking lot and driving home, letting the radio blare at high volume. At some point, Minjeong reaches over to turn the dial down while complaining that her ears hurt. Jimin argues that she should have full control over the music since she's behind the wheel, and turns it back up.
Nowhere in that fight does she mention that she'd rather let the music burst her eardrums than to listen to Minjeong's typing and giggling while talking to Pets Co. guy.
When night falls, Jimin is hunched over an unfinished lab report and lab results when her room door opens and a phone plops screen facing up on the desk right beside her hand.
She tears her eyes away from her report to look up. Minjeong has her hands on her hips and her pretty little lips in a frown.
“There. Happy?”
Jimin blinks mutely, mouth slightly ajar while she glances at Minjeong's phone again. “What am I looking at?”
“The pet membership guy. I blocked him.” Minjeong grumbles as she retrieves her phone again, moving only to throw herself onto Jimin's bed. “Now, quit being jealous. You’re more insufferable when you're not talking to me.”
She wants to argue, to debate, and whatever else they always do. But a text from Aeri reminds Jimin that they aren't alone in the room, and that Aeri would be their singular audience if Jimin were to simply spit out that she is not jealous (obviously) and that Minjeong's measures were uncalled for.
So she settles for a scoff. Although, she couldn't deny that she feels way better now knowing Minjeong has the guy blocked.
aeripoo:
oh👀
jimin:
not a fucking word, aeri.