It was a cold morning, with the winter approaching. In the past few days, she had started wearing thick layers of clothes than she would have a month ago. She balance the plastic bags of food on one hand, before giving up and instead attempted to pull down her beanie with the mere tips of her fingers. It barely budged. She sighed in defeat, and simply went on to punching in the code to enter the building. As soon as it beeped, she pushed the door open using her elbow, carefully making sure none of the food in the bag spilled. She wouldn’t want another stain on her top.

  Walking down the hallway of the entrance, she heard a familiar ping sound. Recognizing it immediately, she quickened her pace, and called out, “Wait, hold the door. Hold the door.”

  Luckily for her, the person in the elevator heard her, and managed to hold it. Now she won’t have to worry about pushing the buttons.

  “Going up?”

  “Yeah,” she answered, trying to calm her breathing. “Third floor.”

  The door closed leaving the two girls to go up together.

  Now, that she managed to catch her breath, she realized the girl with her was a complete stranger. She never saw the girl around the company building before. Maybe she was a guest. That would make sense, judging from her looks. She didn’t look Asian, let alone Korean. To say she took surgery, there’s only so much one person could change. Her raven hair fell past her shoulder, with barely seen purple highlights.

  “New here?” she asked, trying to make conversation.

  “No, not really,” the girl replied.

  “Really, I’ve never seen you around before,” she said, surprised. “I thought I know everyone in the building.”

  “I’m more of a guest rather than a tenant.”

  “Well, I’m Taehee. Kim Tae Hee,” she introduced smiling brightly at the stranger, extending out a hand.

  The stranger seemed hesitant, but shook it anyway, giving a beautiful smile of her own, “Jinyi.”

  “You’re Korean?”

  “No, my dad is,” she answered.

  The elevator pinged signaling that it had arrived to the designated floor. Taehee got off the floor, about to bid goodbye when she realized Jinyi was also coming off the same floor.

  “Are you here to see someone?”

  Jinyi smiled to herself, before shyly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “Yeah, my boyfriend.”

  “Oh, anyone I might know?” Taehee asked, intrigued and amused at the same time. It’s rare to hear someone out loud they were seeing her boyfriend – despite the fact that many girls would love to do so.

  “I’m not supposed to say,” Jinyi said, smiling softly. “The company has a strict policy against him dating.”

  “An idol?” Things just got juicy.

  Jinyi nodded, her smile never slipping off. It was clear she was thinking of him right now.

  “Well, can you at least tell me what group he’s from?” Taehee asked, knowing the girl was bursting to tell. She wondered who else knew.

  Jinyi bit her lip in consideration. Her raven locks falling over her face in a way that made Taehee slightly conscious about her own brown ponytail.

  “I guess, seeing that you work for the company,” Jinyi asked, slowly. “But can you not tell people about this? He’s really worried about the word getting around.”

  “Oh, I don’t - but yeah, okay,” Taehee said, more interested in knowing who this boyfriend is, rather than correcting her.

  Jinyi leaned in, eyes glancing around. Taehee held back a laugh at the way she was acting, as if it was this massive secret. It is a big one, but she acted like they were talking about something illegal.

  “Seventeen.”

  “Wow, you’re a lucky girl,” Taehee told her, automatically. “They’re all cute!”

  “Yeah, but he’s the cutest,” Jinyi said, before heading towards one of the practice room.

  Taehee smiled at the happy girl, before her answer sank in. She went to catch up with the girl, when they reached the door to a very familiar room. Taehee could already hear the ruckus inside, and could tell who was inside.

  “Wait, did you say, Seventeen?”

+++

this was written at nearly 2 in the morning. forgive the errors please.