Archive of Our Own ^beta

Minjeong has been a bit bitchy these past couple of weeks.

No, not the usual kind of bitchy where she barges into Jimin's room to pick fights over little, trivial things. It's the kind of bitchy where she just ignores Jimin straight up. And Jimin's been teetering on the edge since it first happened.

She was on her phone. Texting a friend. The air conditioning in the student study room was freezing her fingers but she was too engrossed in the conversation to just drop it midway.

Then the door opened, and in came Minjeong. Jimin is certain now that she was looking for her to bicker about whatever. But Minjeong didn't say anything to announce her arrival, just stood in front of Jimin's chair with her arms crossed and hip jutted out, waiting.

When Jimin finally looked, Minjeong just scoffed and spun around to march back out.

Jimin’s smile dropped when the door slammed shut, grabbing the attention of many other students around. But she shook her head, figured Minjeong was just throwing a tantrum again, and dove back into texting.

The next time it happened, they were in a more public space: the cafeteria.

They sat across from one another at a table for two. It was like usual; Minjeong had dragged her to lunch when they were both free. Not that Jimin minded or anything. She could've just told her verbally though. Jimin would've come down either way.

Already full, Jimin stopped eating and was fighting a food coma, hand tapping her bloated belly. She eyed Minjeong who was still chowing down for a short while before a notification pinged her phone and she was distracted.

Again, it was her friend. The same one from Minjeong's first bitchy episode. Jimin chuckled by herself, eyes cast down at her phone, and she noticed Minjeong looking up from her food at her for a split second.

Ten text messages in, Minjeong was standing abruptly, chair screeching, and storming off without any prior warning.

“What the…” Jimin just stared in bewilderment.

The final straw was the third one when they were studying together. Yes, wow, what a shocker. But they do this thing where Minjeong just walks into Aeri and Jimin's room unannounced bearing her books and laptop, and she just steals Jimin's folding table to sit on the floor and do her work. It's a routine of some sort.

Instead of her desk, Jimin chose to work on her bed that day. Laptop on her lap and blue-light glasses perched on her nose, she typed furiously in her Word document like she had a deadline to catch that was approaching in ten minutes. Minjeong, on the other hand, was on the floor by Jimin's legs, front facing the bed. She was the opposite of Jimin at the time, leisurely clicking and humming to a song playing through her speakers.

After what seemed like a decade, Jimin finally pushed her laptop off her thighs, feeling her skin almost burning. She picked up her phone, deeming herself time for a five-minute break, and it was by luck that a new message came in, putting a small smile on her face almost instantly.

The door swung open. Aeri walked in toting her bag, cheery. “‘Sup, Jimin. Hi, Minjeongie.”

Minjeong's voice was distant, like she was far away and not just in front of her, when she spoke. “Bye, Aeri.”

The last thing Jimin knew, Minjeong was already gone from her floor. No pencil case, no book, no computer—not even Jimin's folding table was there. The thing was folded up and leaned against the wall where it was supposed to be.

Aeri looked just as stunned as Jimin was. Their eyes met, and Aeri stuttered. “That… was something.”

Yeah. So, now Jimin's pissed off. Because what the fuck is Minjeong's problem, anyway? She had no reason to act like a brat before, but now she's an even bigger brat and she still has no reason for it.

Also, this is just weird. First of all, Minjeong never—and Jimin means never ever—folds her table back up after using it. The fact that she did, and at a very quick pace, just heightens Jimin's suspicions. Secondly, Minjeong ran away before she finished her food! And that has never happened in their twenty-something years of knowing each other. And lastly? This somehow always happened whenever Jimin so much as touched her phone, which is even weirder because what the fuck does that mean?

Minjeong's lecture hall is right beside hers, as far as Jimin remembers. And there's only about twenty more minutes of class left for the both of them.

She planned this last night when she caught a glimpse of Minjeong's purple shark slippers at the laundromat. She's going to ambush Minjeong the second she's out of class and hold her at gunpoint (figuratively) until she gets answers.

Jimin's lecture, however, gets dragged on for a little over twenty minutes. Her battle against sleep is put to an end when she hears her professor finally dismiss the class, and she's pretty sure she's the first one out of there.

Much to her chagrin, both lecture halls beside hers are now empty. She jogs out of the building in search of a blonde mop of hair in the dispersed crowd of people but it's proven to be difficult when blonde hair is apparently a hot thing now. So she looks for the other obvious thing: Minjeong's bag.

It's brown, it's leather, it's expensive—and Jimin knows only because she was the one who gifted it to her. Oh, and it has that stupid Labubu doll on its strap. Yes, the strap. Not the zipper.

Jimin uses probability to find Minjeong. And the biggest probability is that Minjeong's on her way back to the dorm because that girl prefers her bed over everything, so she heads for their dorm building with gusto.

As luck has it, Minjeong is not too far away from their dorm block with a group of her friends. Jimin's legs speed up against her will and she's closing the distance between them in a blink.

“Hi! Can I borrow her for a minute? Thanks, girls.” Jimin doesn't even bother to wave Minjeong's very confused friends goodbye before she yanks Minjeong away. And Minjeong doesn't have enough time to escape when Jimin pulls her into the building and under the staircase.

Minjeong would have landed face first onto cement if it weren't for Jimin's grip. “What the fuck is wrong with you!” She shouts but her question only fuels Jimin's anger.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you, is the better question.” Jimin blocks the way out when Minjeong tries to run. “Don’t you run away from me. We are talking about this whether you like it or not.”

“There is nothing to talk about.” Minjeong grumbles, stepping back once it's apparent that she's not getting out of this.

Jimin cocks an eyebrow, “Really?”

Minjeong mirrors her expression. “Yes, really.”

“What’s with the attitude lately then?” She deadpans, continuing when Minjeong stays defiantly quiet. “You haven't been studying in my room at all this week. You reject me when I offer to buy you food. You don't answer my texts. You're ignoring me like the plague. So I think it's valid that I'm asking this. What the fuck is up with you?”

Minjeong looks upset. No, she looks livid, actually. Her neck is red and her hands are fisted up. Jimin wants to roll her eyes. Almost does it for real. But Minjeong beats her to it.

The blonde raises one hand to point a finger. “I’m not obligated to study in your room. I reject it because I'm not hungry. I don't text back because I'm busy. And I am not ignoring you.”

“You saw me in the pantry two days ago and turned the other way,” Jimin complains. “I also have your schedule. I text you when you aren't busy at all.”

“Are you just assuming I'm not doing anything in my free time? You’re so fucking shallow.”

“It takes two seconds to reply, Minjeong.”

“It takes ten minutes for you to reply to your stupid friend whenever we're together.”

Jimin pauses as she opens her mouth. What? Her teeth make a clicking noise when she shuts her mouth. What even was that? Jimin can't tell if that's disdain or irony—or even both—in Minjeong's tone. And she's sure Minjeong doesn't know either from the way the blonde is silenced as well.

A minute or two pass by, Jimin finally finds her voice again, angrily muttering. “Is that it? You’re jealous because I'm friends with someone else?”

“Don’t make it sound like something it isn't,” Minjeong barks back, clipped. “I’m upset because you're always on your phone when we hang out.”

Jimin presses two fingers on her temples when Minjeong shoves her aside and bolts off. “Oh my god, you are so childish…”

A confrontation and a thirty-minute lecture from her roommate later, Jimin is dressed in the nicest casual clothes she owns and standing in front of Minjeong's door, knocking thrice.

In lieu of Minjeong, Minjeong's roommate—Jimin recognizes her from when she kidnapped Minjeong earlier this week for investigation—is the one that answers the door.

“Oh, hello. You are…?”

“Jimin,” She quickly replies. “Is Minjeong in?”

“Yeah, she's right—”

“Go away!”

That is unmistakably Minjeong's voice coming from inside the room. Jimin offers a wry smile to the roommate as she wordlessly grants herself the permission to enter enemy territory.

Minjeong is curled up in her bed, watching something quite vehemently on her phone. She doesn't even need to look at Jimin for Jimin to understand that she's still pissy.

Jimin takes a seat at Minjeong's desk. “Before you tell me to leave, I'm not moving until you're dressed.”

“Why would I get dressed?” The girl mumbles under her breath.

“Because we have a movie to catch and it starts in about,” She stalls to fake a watch check. “an hour or so.”

Jimin suppresses a smirk at Minjeong's puzzled face. She stuffs her hands into her jacket pockets, mindlessly feeling for the two printed tickets, staring directly into Minjeong's questioning eyes. “I’m waiting?”

They get there with three minutes to spare, courtesy of Minjeong insisting she put on makeup even after being told again and again that she looks fine without it.

Jimin doesn't give any explicit or discreet answers when Minjeong asks why they're going out, or what movie they're watching. The adverts are already playing when they step inside the dark theater because Minjeong wanted popcorn and drinks. Once Jimin's led them to their seats—the last row because it’s literally the best spot—they settled down.

The intro to Superman finally appears. In the corner of her eye, Jimin sees Minjeong perk up in her seat and she leans back, lips in a pursed smile.

Jimin thinks Minjeong looks best when she's happy. And when she's wearing Jimin's jacket because she was cold during the movie earlier, but that's probably just a bonus.

A lot of things make Minjeong happy. Like food, puppies, the moon, taking walks, babies, the color yellow apparently, and getting all the attention she wants.

She looks prettiest when she's eating, especially if she's eating so heartily and happily that she doesn't notice she's got tteokbokki sauce all over her mouth and looks like a hamster with her cheeks full. She looks cutest when she looks up from her food and glares at Jimin when Jimin's already looking at her, but Jimin knows she's checking to see if she's gotten bored of her yet. Which Jimin hasn't. Never have.

Jimin hasn't touched her phone at all tonight. All she's been doing is tending to Kim Minjeong and she feels like she should be mad about it, but she really isn't. Her fingers flex around her chopsticks when Minjeong looks at her again.

“Don’t spill any on my jacket, stupid.” Jimin decides to say.

Minjeong hisses, grumbling because she ‘never spills’. But then she spills water on her pants five seconds later and Jimin has a good time laughing at her for making a fool of herself.

They get back to the dorms by 11:00 pm. They took a detour to an ice cream parlor because Minjeong wants mint chocolate and Jimin did tell herself that she'd do anything Minjeong tells her to tonight. 

And Minjeong doesn't tell her to, but Jimin escorts Minjeong all the way to her room. And she asks, “Are you still jealous?” once Minjeong's twisting the doorknob.

“I told you I wasn't jealous in the first place.”

Jimin rolls her eyes. “Are we good now?”

“No. Don't think I'm not done using your money for snacks.” Minjeong counters, like the brat she is. When she steps inside and closes the door, Jimin knocks again, prompting her to re-open it while grumpily asking, “What now?”

Jimin's index finger points down at the jacket around Minjeong's smaller body. “You still have my jacket.”

Minjeong glances down at the sleeves that go past her knuckles, giving her little paws. “You’re not getting it back.” And then the door slams shut again.

“...I guess so.” Jimin muses and turns away when the door opens yet again.

“Good night,” Minjeong seems a bit embarrassed to be saying it, voice soft and low. “I had fun tonight.”

The ghost of a smile tickles Jimin's lips. She looks at Minjeong with this thing in her eyes. “Great. Me too. Good night, Minjeong.”

If Jimin did smile, Minjeong didn't say anything. And if Aeri asked why she was laughing alone when she got back to her room, Jimin told her it's about a funny joke she found online and not because she likes seeing Minjeong so happy, wearing her jacket and wishing her good night.