Chapter Text
“I’m going to a spin class tomorrow,” Minjeong announces as she enters the apartment. She drops her keys in the bowl on the kitchen counter then drops her backpack on the couch where Ning Ning is sitting.
“Why?”
“Hold on, I have to pee.” Minjeong rushes over to the apartment’s singular bathroom.
Ning Ning settles back into the couch and continues watching the newest season of love is blind. Ten or so minutes later, because Minjeong (not that Ning Ning is one to talk) has a tiktok addiction that quadruples her time spent sitting on the toilet, Minjeong reappears and throws herself onto the couch next to Ning Ning.
“Do you want to go?”
“To what?” Ning asks, attention still on the screen.
“Spin. It’s Beyonce.”
Ning Ning considers it for half a second. “How much is it?”
“First class is free.”
“Who’re you going with?”
Minjeong doesn’t respond. Instead, Minjeong tenses up next to her and it’s interesting enough that Ning spares a glance at her roommate. “Hello?”
Minjeong pulls her phone out and glances at it casually. “I’m not really going with anyone…”
Ning Ning rolls her eyes. “Dude. Just tell me who you’re going with. I don’t want to go if you’re going with like, Yuna, or someone ridiculously athletic.”
“-min,” Minjeong mumbles.
On screen, Ning Ning’s favorite contestant gets rejected and she lets out a gasp. “What the fuck?”
“Wow he’s fumbling so hard,” Minjeong says as they watch the man turn down Ning Ning’s favorite for a different woman.
“Men are so fucking stupid.”
Minjeong snorts. “All this show has taught me is that love is not blind.”
Ning Ning sighs, her desire to watch the show suddenly gone. She pulls her phone out to check her calendar. “What time is the class tomorrow? Also can you fucking tell me who you’re going with?”
“It’s at 5.”
“Jesus, do you not work?” Ning Ning exclaims. Her calendar is filled with meetings up until 6 on the dot.
“It’s No Meeting Wednesday.”
“Ok well I’m not working a bullshit remote job, and I have meetings so I can’t.”
Minjeong shrugs. “Okay, I’ll tell you how it is then. I might get a membership if I like it.”
“How’d you decide to go anyways?” Ning Ning asks, putting her phone down to reluctantly focus on the show again. “You hate sweating.”
“I do not!”
“You do,” Ning Ning replies. “That’s why you never exercise.”
Minjeong huffs and gets up from the couch. “I don’t never exercise.”
“Yeah, you do. I bet you couldn’t even squat the bar.”
Minjeong, who’s crossed the apartment to the kitchen, makes an indignant sound. “Ha. You sound exactly like Jimin–”
Ning Ning perks at the name like a dog that’s heard the word walk. “Jimin?” she repeats, her tone gleeful.
Minjeong groans and pulls a glass out of the cupboard to fill with tap water. Ning Ning pauses the episode and twists around to look at her roommate. “You’re going to spin with Jimin? Is anyone else going or is it just you two?”
Minjeong chugs her glass of water, determined not to answer. Ning Ning, delighted by the turn of conversation, clambers over the couch to join Minjeong in the kitchen. There, she props her elbows on the counter and tucks her face in her hands as she stares Minjeong down with a beaming smile. “How did that end up happening?”
Still, Minjeong refuses to answer.
“Don’t you ‘hate’ her?” Ning pushes, using air quotes to emphasize.
“Obviously,” Minjeong snaps back. “It just ended up that way! But it’s not like it’s just us two, I invited you just now.”
“Yeah,” Ning Ning nods. “But I can’t go because I have too many meetings. So it’s just gonna be you and Jimin at spin. All sweaty. Together.”
“Shut up.”
Embarrassing Minjeong is one of Ning Ning’s favorite pastimes, so of course she can’t stop here. “What are you gonna wear?”
“What do you mean? I’m just gonna wear some workout clothes.”
Ning Ning shakes her head solemnly. “Minjeong. My poor, poor, single-for-ten-centuries Minjeong.”
“Fuck off.”
Ning Ning continues, undeterred. “I’m not going to let you go on a date in just some workout clothes.”
Minjeong leans back on the counter and crosses her arms. “It’s not a date! Are you kidding me? With Yu Jimin?”
“Oh,” Ning Ning rolls her eyes. “You hate her, right?”
“Yeah!” Minjeong huffs.
“Okay, well don’t you think she’ll dress up and make you look silly next to her?” Ning Ning tamps down a smile as she says it, because if she laughs Minjeong will get embarrassed and say no.
Minjeong scowls (a fake one, Ning Ning is ready to bet). “Yeah, knowing Jimin she’ll show up looking runway ready.”
Runway ready is not how Ning Ning would ever describe someone she supposedly hates. But that’s none of her business. “Perfect!” Ning Ning claps, straightening up. “Come here, I have a new sports bra from asos, you can try it on.” Ning Ning drags Minjeong into her room and throws the green sports bra in question at her.
“Ning, we’re not even the same size are we?” Minjeong asks, letting the bra dangle from one hand awkwardly.
Ning Ning waves her worries away. “It’s fine, it’s a pushup anyways.”
“I’m not going to wear a pushup bra to a workout class!”
“It’s a pushup sports bra,” Ning Ning points out smugly.
“No way! What if Jimin notices?”
“God,” Ning Ning laughs. “I hope she does.”
Minjeong is so ruffled by this particular comment that she sputters, unable to think of a good response. Ning Ning takes advantage of Minjeong’s confusion to usher her into trying the bra on. After some weak arguing from Minjeong’s side, Ning Ning wins the battle and leaves her sports bra hung on Minjeong’s door handle for the older girl to wear to spin tomorrow.
–
The way that Minjeong ends up agreeing to go to spin with Jimin is as follows:
Minjeong goes into the office, as she does once or twice a week. Unluckily, Jimin also happens to be in the office that day.
Minjeong notices that Jimin’s in almost as soon as she walks in, because Jimin’s desk is just two rows in front of hers and the older girl almost always beats her to the office on the days they overlap. Minjeong, mood instantly darkened, sits down at her own desk with a scowl to check her email.
The worst part about working at the same place as Jimin is that just because they went to the same school, everyone assumes that they’re friends. And it isn’t like Minjeong hates Jimin anymore, that wouldn’t be very mature of her, so she isn’t going to say anything to correct the assumption.
Besides, what would she say anyways?
Oh, we’re not friends. We’re more rivals. Archenemies, really. I don’t hate her, I just feel a soul-consuming urge to defeat her in every possible way a person can be defeated. That would be a surefire way to make her coworkers think she was stuck in middle school.
So at lunch Minjeong is roped into sitting at the same table as Jimin, because Abby, her desk neighbor, says “Oh Jimin! Do you want to sit with us? You two went to college together right?”
Discreetly, Minjeong rolls her eyes at Abby’s remark. It’s not as if Jimin joined months ago now. It’s not as if it’s old news that she and Jimin went to college together. Jimin has the audacity to smile at the comment and reply, “How did you remember? Yeah, Minjeong and I are old friends.”
Minjeong forces a smile. “Jimin, how have you been?”
“Good,” Jimin replies as she takes a seat across from Minjeong. “My last case just wrapped up, I’m scouting around for new ones. If either of you have any recs.”
Abby nods and begins chattering away about open cases she’s heard about, which ones are supposed to be a ton of work versus which ones require a lot of travel. Minjeong blanches. She didn’t realize that Jimin was also on the beach.
Being on the beach is one of the quirks of working in consulting. Basically means you’re not on an active case, although it doesn’t quite translate to having no work to do like the name suggests.
Abby continues to run her mouth and next to her Minjeong prays fervently to a God she’s never prayed to before that Abby doesn’t spill the beans about the snapchat case. “Hm.. I think that’s all I heard about recently,” Abby wraps up. Minjeong breathes a sigh of relief that doesn’t go unnoticed by Jimin, judging from the quirk in her eyebrow.
“Oh,” Abby says, making Minjeong tense up again. “And there’s the snapchat case, right Minjeong? I remember you said you were talking to staffing about that one.”
Never tell Abby anything again, Minjeong notes to herself.
“Oh yeah,” Minjeong says through gritted teeth. “I was considering it.”
“Where is that one based?” Jimin looks suddenly interested.
Minjeong smiles graciously, pretending the vein in her forehead isn’t about to pop out. “LA, I think.”
“Oh LA!” Abby exclaims. “Lovely city, especially this time of year. Gosh, wouldn’t it be fun if you two were on it together? Old college buddies.”
“That would be so fun, wouldn’t it be Minjeong?”
Minjeong, because she is a mature adult, nods. “So much fun.”
Having delivered the maximum amount of damage that she possibly could, Abby stops mid-bite of her food to let out a gasp. “Oh my god! I completely forgot, I have a call I need to shadow right now. Catch you two later!” Then she picks up her food and dashes away, leaving Minjeong alone with Jimin at the table. Immediately the facade drops.
“Really?” Minjeong grunts. “You couldn’t sit anywhere else?”
Jimin laughs and reaches over to steal a fry from Minjeong’s plate. “Chill out Minjeong. I couldn’t exactly tell Abby no, could I?”
Minjeong huffs and pulls her plate closer to herself. “Get your own fries.”
“Geez, grumpy,” Jimin says. Minjeong glares at the older girl for a moment before focusing on her food. The faster she eats, the faster she can leave and not speak to Jimin.
“Are you training for competitive eating?” Jimin raises an eyebrow at the way Minjeong is devouring her food. “I guess you need it, you’re skin and bones.”
Minjeong angrily swallows down her admittedly large bite of hamburger. “Body shaming me?”
“Nope,” Jimin shakes her head. She reaches a hand over to touch Minjeong’s wrist. Minjeong recoils at the touch. She sends the older girl a scalding look that she hopes conveys ‘what the fuck why are you touching me’, although knowing Jimin she would ignore the sentiment.
“Just let me see.” Jimin reaches for Minjeong’s wrist again. This time Minjeong reluctantly allows the older girl to wrap her index and thumb fingers around Minjeong’s wrist.
“See?” Jimin says, capturing the circumference of Minjeong’s wrist with her fingers. “Your wrist is tiny. I could probably snap it like a twig.”
Jimin’s fingers are long and cool and soft. For a moment the feeling of Jimin touching her expands like a balloon in her head. Minjeong jerks her wrist back. “You could not!”
“I could too,” Jimin says as she steals yet another fry. “You don’t even workout Minjeong.”
“Stop taking my fries!” Minjeong slaps Jimin’s hand when she tries to steal a third. “And I do workout.”
Jimin pulls back her scolded hand with a wince. “You know walking to the office doesn’t count as a workout right?”
Minjeong groans. “I hate you.” Jimin smiles at the exclamation, which only serves to piss Minjeong off further.
“I started doing spin.”
“Who cares.”
“It’s pretty tough,” Jimin grins. “You’d probably collapse if you tried it.”
Minjeong knows she’s being baited. She knows it, but Jimin looks so goddamn smug as she says it that she can’t help but want to wipe that look off the older girl’s face. “Sounds easy.”
“Prove it then,” Jimin says. “I’m going to a class tomorrow at 5.”
Now it’s not true that Minjeong doesn’t workout at all, but she isn’t the biggest fan of exercise. Unfortunately, she would rather die than back out now. “Fine. Slack me the details,” she says as she gets up from the table, empty plate in hand.
Minjeong walks away, and she hears Jimin chuckling behind her. She can’t shake the feeling that she’s just been played.
–
“You won’t break my soul” screams from the speakers overhead.
You might, thinks Minjeong. In fact, she thinks blearily as she keeps her legs pedaling, she feels positively sick. Beyonce is killing her and spin is no joke.
To be fair, this is clearly not a beginner class. It’s a 45 min high intensity spin class and Minjeong is maybe dying. She can taste blood in the back of her throat, and every time she stands up on the bike her head spins.
If she were alone, she would take a break. Sure, it would be mortifying, because no one else in the class is taking a break, but also passing out in the middle of class would be more mortifying. So if Minjeong were alone, she would take a break.
But she’s not alone. Jimin is on the other side of the room right in front of the instructor. Alongside all the other olympian try-hards.
And stupid Jimin, in her stupid purple matching sports bra and bike shorts set, looks stupidly athletic. Her hair is tied into a high ponytail. The same movements that make Minjeong feel like an ungainly giraffe look effortless and graceful on Jimin. The thin sheen of sweat on her face doesn’t even make her look gross, it just looks like she has the perfect highlighter on.
Not that Minjeong is looking. Or caring, really. Minjeong’s only focus is to survive this living hell that is spin class.
An eternity passes before the lights come on and the class ends. Minjeong attempts to detach her shoes from the bike, only gets it halfway right, and stumbles off the bike with one foot still attached. Jimin appears out of nowhere and steadies her with a firm arm.
“Need some help?” Jimin’s glowing, her face still unfairly pretty after the 45 minute death workout.
Minjeong grunts in response and tries to get her left shoe off the bike.
“Hold still.” Jimin crouches to snap Minjeong’s shoe out of the pedal. “There you go,” Jimin says, looking up at Minjeong with a smile. It doesn’t affect Minjeong at all.
“Thanks,” she mumbles, brushing the stray hairs that have left her ponytail up out of her face.
“So what did you think?”
Minjeong shrugs. “Not bad.” It would be more convincing if her cheeks weren’t bright red from the exertion and she couldn’t feel sweat drying on her back.
The way Jimin laughs and eyes her up and down tells Minjeong that the older girl doesn’t buy it for a second. Minjeong opens her mouth to insist that she handled the workout perfectly well.
“Nice top.” Jimin says it with a wide grin. Minjeong buffers and curses Ning Ning a million times in her head.
“You hungry? Want to grab dinner?”
Minjeong’s mouth hangs open. Then her brain catches up. She’s about to reject the offer in a spectacularly rude manner when her stomach rumbles. Betrayed by her own body, once more Minjeong flounders for a response.
Jimin, with a laugh, grabs Minjeong’s water bottle for her and starts towards the door. “Come on. I know a place. We can head over after we shower.” With her water bottle taken hostage, Minjeong has no choice but to follow Jimin to the lockers.
The older girl stops at her locker and opens it, pulling out a towel. Minjeong fidgets behind her until Jimin turns to her with a questioning look. “Aren’t you going to go to your locker?”
Minjeong starts. “Oh, right.”
“Unless you wanted to shower with me?”
Minjeong snatches her water bottle with a scowl and turns away to find her locker. “You’re always welcome,” Jimin calls out behind her.
“Fucking Yu Jimin,” Minjeong mutters under her breath and yanks her locker open. She checks her phone first.
[5:47] how was spin
[5:47] did jimin like the bra?
[5:50] bitch why aren’t u answering
[5:50] im texting under the table in my meeting rn
[5:50] BITCH
Minjeong reads the messages then throws her phone back into her bag. Ning Ning can wait, it’s what she deserves for sending those.
A quick shower helps Minjeong feel less like she’s going to collapse at any moment. It also serves as a moment of clarity where she decides that she’s going to tell Jimin that actually she can’t do dinner, because she made plans with Ning already. She exits the locker room, story rehearsed.
“Minjeong-ah!”
Jimin is waving to her from the far corner of the lobby. She’s in a different outfit from what she was wearing at work, which makes Minjeong glance down at her clothes (the same ones she was wearing at work), self consciously.
Jimin’s hair is damp from the shower and gathered over one shoulder. She’s in a boxy gray t-shirt that hangs loose over her shoulders tucked into wide jeans. Her face is almost bare of makeup. She looks like college Jimin, younger, and softer.
Minjeong blinks and walks over to the older girl.
“It’s a ten minute walk, but I promise it’s worth it, okay?”
Minjeong nods.
She knows she should be telling Jimin no right now. She doesn’t want to go to this dinner. It’s going to be awkward, and there’s no way Jimin isn’t going to bring up how Minjeong looked like a dead fish the entirety of the class. And she doesn’t like Jimin. They’re enemies. Why would she go to dinner with her enemy?
But Jimin looks so eager talking about the restaurant that Minjeong can’t find the heart to tell the older girl no.
So Minjeong follows Jimin out of the spin center, and by the time she comes to her senses, she’s sitting across Jimin in a small booth near the back of the restaurant.
The restaurant is a small Italian place a 10 minutes walk away as promised. It’s kept on the darker side with candles dotting every table. The walls are decorated with photos of people dating back to what looks roughly like Godfather-era to Minjeong. The nearest photo to their table has a large man who might be the host of cake boss, but it might also just be another Italian man. Minjeong isn’t sure.
“Everything’s good here,” Jimin says as she looks down at the menu seriously. “The fettuccine’s a classic. I like the pappardelle the best, and the rack of lamb is to die for. Oh, and they give you this eggplant side with the bread, it’s amazing.”
Minjeong nods and looks at the menu. She feels weird. Like she’s sitting here, but also she’s not. Why does this feel like they’re friends? Does Jimin think that they’re friends? Does Jimin not know that Minjeong hates her?
“You held up pretty well in class,” Jimin says after they’ve ordered. Jimin got the lamb. Minjeong, at Jimin’s suggestion, got the pappardelle.
Minjeong snorts.
“No, really!” Jimin laughs. “The first class is always the hardest. And that was a 45 minute one too. You did much better than I expected.”
“Whatever,” Minjeong says, embarrassed by the sudden praise. She’d been prepared for Jimin to insult her, make fun of her, but not this. Whatever this was. She feels so off kilter that she slips out, “You looked like a pro by the way.”
Jimin leans forward and places her head on her hand. “What do you mean?” There’s something about the lines of Jimin’s neck and hand and the way her eyes look when she’s just barely looking up at you.
Minjeong takes a sip of her water. Fiddles with the napkin on her lap. “Just, like, you looked really athletic.”
“Didn’t realize you were looking.” Jimin grins.
At the most inopportune moment, when Minjeong is about to explain that she wasn’t ogling Jimin during class, the waiter comes back to the table. “I forgot to ask you two, would you like any wine?”
Minjeong looks at Jimin. Jimin looks back at her. “Sure? Minjeong, are you down?”
Minjeong knows she shouldn’t drink. She’s a lightweight, and she doesn’t want to be drunk around Jimin. Or maybe, she does. Maybe the drinks will make it less awkward and she’ll be able to get through this dinner without melting. She nods.
“Alright ladies,” the waiter, whose name is George if Minjeong remembers correctly, says. “Any preference on color?”
“White,” Jimin answers. Minjeong doesn’t bother correcting her. She prefers white. George begins telling Jimin about their options. Minjeong figures that Jimin has it handled and checks her phone.
[6:05] hello?????
[6:07] bitch i see ur locatijn
[6:07] location
[6:07] where tf are u going
[6:07] are u at a restaurant???
[6:08] ARE YOU GETTING DINNER WITH JIMIN??????
“I just got us a bottle.”
Minjeong puts her phone down. “Yeah, sounds good.”
The wine comes out before the food and even before the bread. Minjeong, following Jimin’s lead, starts her first glass on her very empty stomach and feels the wine almost immediately.
By the time the bread comes out there’s a pleasant buzz in her stomach, and Minjeong feels nice. Her and Jimin make small talk about work. It’s a safe topic where they can maintain the distance that’s been between them since they’ve met again.
When the food arrives, they’re each on their second glasses of wine. Minjeong is feeling the alcohol. Jimin looks less affected, but then, Jimin’s always had a higher tolerance.
“So what have you been up to after college?” Jimin asks as she looks up from a bite of food. “I know you were at Bain.”
“Yeah, I was there for about two years and then I switched here.”
“And you live with Ning Ning right? How is she? I haven’t seen her since graduation.”
Minjeong thinks of the no doubt growing pile of texts in her inbox and smiles. “She’s fine. Same as ever. Still at Apple.”
Jimin laughs, somewhat familiar with how Ning Ning could be. Her laughter trails off and they fall into a silence. Minjeong, tipsy, doesn’t bother trying to fill the quiet, and instead takes a big forkful of her pasta. Jimin looks lost in thought, the cavalier attitude she’s had on the whole day gone.
“I wish…” Jimin starts, a little hesitant. “I wish we could have stayed in touch more.”
Minjeong feels something like dread settle in the pit of her stomach. Jimin says it so quietly, Minjeong might not have heard it if she hadn’t been listening so carefully. Jimin says it like she’s embarrassed, like it’s a secret that shouldn’t be said out loud.
Minjeong chews her pasta. She takes a big gulp of her wine glass, almost emptying it. It shouldn’t have been said out loud, she thinks. It should have stayed hidden away, and then maybe she could have enjoyed the rest of this dinner.
“We were really close, remember? My junior year, your sophomore year?”
Minjeong finishes what’s left in her wine glass. “Yeah, we were.”
When she goes to refill her wine glass, Jimin stops her with a soft hand. “You sure? You’re looking a little red there.”
Minjeong smarts at the way Jimin tries to tell her what to do, like they’re back in college where Jimin’s the older one, and Minjeong’s the younger one, always following along and doing what Jimin says to do. So she pulls her hand free from Jimin’s and empties the bottle, half into her glass and the other half into Jimin’s.
“I’m fine,” she forces a smile. “I’m going to run to the bathroom.” She doesn’t wait to hear Jimin’s response and takes her phone with her as she walks away. In the safety of the bathroom stall, she texts Ning back.
[7:09] i got roped into dinner with jimin
[7:09] she thinks we’re like friends or smth
[7:09] i hate her
[7:09] oh so now u respond to me
[7:09] i fucking knew u were on a date
[7:10] it’s not a date!!!!!
[7:10] i couldn’t say no when she asked
[7:10] yes….. u could have… u just didn’t want to…
[7:10] dumbass….
[7:10] i still have to work with her???
[7:10] it would’ve been so awk to say no
[7:10] sure…
[7:10] fuck you
[7:11] ok so how is the date going
[7:11] its horrible
[7:11] she’s bringing up college and shit
[7:11] she just has zero awareness whatsoever
[7:11] like how??? can u please be specific?????
[7:11] i don’t know!!! she was like, oh i wish we stayed in touch
[7:11] omgggg
[7:11] the rizzler
[7:11] ning!!!! wtf
[7:11] she’s just being a flirt she always does this
[7:11] i hate her
[7:12] ok sorry
[7:12] ur right she’s really tryna hit on u
[7:12] why would she do this when we’re literal coworkers
[7:12] what if u just tell her ur not interested
[7:12] she’s not even being genuine tho
[7:12] like if i do that she’ll just be like oh i was just being friendly, not trying to hit on you or whatever
[7:12] don’t you remember??? in college???
[7:12] ya obviously
[7:12] do u want me to call you? pretend like i broke my ankle or something?
A knock on the bathroom door cuts Minjeong out of her furious texting. “Just a minute!” she calls out.
[7:13] it’s fine
[7:13] ill just be professional, whatever
[7:13] u sure? i’m so ready to pretend i’m dying
[7:13] ya im fine
[7:13] ok im going back out there
[7:13] pray for me
When Minjeong gets back to the table, she sits and downs her third glass of wine. Jimin, it looks like, has already finished hers as well.
“Hey,” Jimin smiles nervously. Her fingers are fidgeting with her knife and fork on the table. And she looks so earnest looking at Minjeong, a light flush on her cheeks, that Minjeong feels the anger rush back.
“Can we just get to it, Jimin?”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” Minjeong says, gesturing at the plates in front of them, “is weird. Us sitting here is weird. We’re not friends, Jimin. We weren’t friends in college, and now we haven’t seen each other for like four years or something. What do you want from me?”
The hurt that flashes on Jimin’s face makes Minjeong wince but she determinedly keeps her eyes on the older girl.
“We were friends. We hung out all the time–”
“Yeah, my sophomore year,” Minjeong interrupts. “And then we weren’t friends anymore, remember that? Remember that bit where we stopped being friends?”
Jimin falters. “I mean, we weren’t as close, sure, but we were still friends, weren’t we?”
Minjeong sighs.
“I didn’t–” Jimin tries, but Minjeong interrupts her again.
“I don’t like you, Jimin.” Minjeong pauses, takes a deep breath, because now the way Jimin is looking at her is sure to haunt her in her dreams. But when being cruel, the first mean thing is always the hardest to say. After that, it flows out easily and the guilt is nowhere to be found, not when adrenaline is coursing through her veins and Minjeong is still so mad.
“We weren’t friends then, and we aren’t going to be friends now, because I just don’t like you, okay?”
Minjeong tears her eyes from Jimin’s face, because she can’t look anymore. She picks up her wine glass to drink, to do anything to distract her from this moment, but it’s empty. She sighs and peers out of the booth to see if she can flag the waiter and get a check so she can escape.
“But we were doing fine just now, weren’t we?” Jimin sounds quiet in a way Minjeong’s almost never heard her be before. But still, Minjeong doesn’t look at the older girl. “At spin, and here at dinner, before, we were having a nice time.”
“Because we’re coworkers, Jimin. I want to be on decent terms with you because we have to work together,” Minjeong says, wringing her hands in her lap.
“Okay”, Jimin says softly. “We’ll start there then. Coworkers can get dinner like this sometimes, can’t they?”
Minjeong squeezes her eyes shut. Her hand goes to her forehead and she sighs in frustration. “That’s not the point Jimin. I just– I don’t want to have a relationship with you. I just want us to be professional at work and that’s it.”
Jimin lets out a breath that sounds so hurt that Minjeong wishes she could just run away. She feels bad, and even worse, she feels torn. All of this is horrible. She hasn’t felt this way since college, because she had forgotten about Jimin, and all the terrible ways the older girl made her feel. But now, suddenly, Jimin is back, and same as ever, and Minjeong feels so see through. Like Jimin can see right through her no matter what she says.
And the longer that they sit here together, the longer that Minjeong can see Jimin’s expression as she tells her that she doesn’t like her, the more Minjeong can feel herself wavering, and that just isn't ok. Minjeong doesn’t want to do that anym–
“Are you dating anyone right now?”
Minjeong blinks, caught off guard. “What?”
“Do you have a girlfriend right now?” Jimin repeats, leaning forward in her seat. “You don’t, do you?”
“Why does that– what does that have to do with anything?”
Jimin takes Minjeong’s objection as confirmation, and leans back. “Don’t you remember?”
“Remember what?” Minjeong snaps back, confused and frustrated at the smug look growing on Jimin’s face.
“Back in college. If neither of us are in relationships by the time I’m 26, we’ll get married.”
Minjeong’s head rings like a gong was struck inside her skull.
MARRIED.
The word echoes in her ears over and over. She blinks hard, and shakes her head a bit. Surely, she’s misheard. “What the fuck?”
“I’m 25 Minjeong,” Jimin supplies helpfully.
“So what???” Minjeong spits out. “I’m not fucking marrying you!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Minjeong sees George stop in his tracks when he hears her exclamation. The way his eyes pop open in shock makes Minjeong want to call out and explain to him that no, this isn’t some dramatic breakup, and that he needs to get over here with the check asap.
But Jimin pulls her attention back. “What, so you’re going to break your promise?”
It’s so obvious, from the glint in Jimin’s eye, that she’s trying to bait Minjeong. Minjeong knows it, and she knows that the mature thing to do here is to take a step back, but god damn it. She can’t do it.
“We were like 19!”
“So?”
“Why would you even want to get married to me?” Minjeong tries, her hands flying up to demonstrate the ridiculousness of what Jimin is proposing.
“You’re right, I don’t.” Jimin nods.
Minjeong scowls at the speed of the refusal, but feels brief respite from the insanity of the conversation. “Ok, great.”
“But I keep a promise when I make it.”
“Oh my fucking god.” Minjeong puts her head in her hands. She takes a deep breath. “It was just a joke. I release you from the promise! It’s fine, we can just forget about it!”
“Why, are you scared you won’t be able to find someone within a year?”
Minjeong raises her head from her hands to scoff. “What? That’s so unrelated. No.”
“You are, aren’t you?”
“I am not! Have you seen me? I’m fucking hot, Jimin!”
George, who had been approaching the table for a second time, blanches and spins around to retreat to the kitchen. Minjeong feels her face flush at the interaction, but focuses back on the issue at hand.
Jimin is laughing, as if this is funny, which pisses Minjeong off further. “Okay,” Jimin acknowledges. “So prove it. If you can’t find a girlfriend before my next birthday, we’ll get married.”
Minjeong rolls her eyes so hard she’s almost worried they might get stuck like that. “You’re crazy.”
“You don’t think you can do it, can you? I bet I can find a girlfriend faster than you can.”
It’s the alcohol that’s making Minjeong’s heart pound. It’s the alcohol that’s making Minjeong’s face feel so hot it might burst, and it’s the alcohol that’s making Minjeong even think about agreeing to something so crazy.
Minjeong just can’t stand the thought of letting Jimin win.
“Fuck you Jimin. You’re on.”
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