It was totally a spur of the moment kind of thing. She doesn’t usually do this, but sometimes Heehyun and Suhyun are really good at forcing people to do things. But Sejeong really doesn’t usually do this. In fact, it’s the first time she’s done this.

Nope, Sejeong’s not the kind of girl who calls up a university agency that rents out fake dates or girlfriends or boyfriends. Sejeong didn’t even know prior to this that there was such an agency.

Oh wait, “agency”. It’s definitely a pretty much bullted organization made up by a bunch of college kids desperate for income, loving, or some entertainment. It’s not, like, a real thing. Otherwise people would know they’re fake dating, right?

The point is, Sejeong is not someone who calls up a fake dating agency and asks for a fake girlfriend to make her ex-girlfriend jealous. But Heehyun said the only way to move on is if her ex’s the one pining after her and not the other way around, and Suhyun said some friends of hers set up this agency she’s not allowed to join because they’re ultra-scared of Lee Haein.

And Suhyun punched in the numbers on Sejeong’s phone with her own fingers as Heehyun holds back a raging Sejeong.

These damned Hyuns.

“Hello, Hire-A-Jellyfish Agency, make your heart go dugeun dugeun in fake beats. Hana speaking; how may I help you?”

She mouths a you to Suhyun as the latter holds the phone out to her.

“Hello?”

Suhyun glares at her as she shakes her head, determined to keep shut and wait for the Hana girl to hang up.

“Hello? Is this a prank call?”

A new voice speaks, very different from the first one. “Prank call? Maybe it’s Heehyun? She talked to Suhyun once about making Chaeyeon jealous and-”

“Chaeyeon? As in Jung Chaeyeon?”

“Yup.”

“Ki Heehyun, is this you? Because we’ll have to turn down your offer, Jung Chaeyeon will never get green-eyed jealous. How many times must we tell you? She doesn’t like you.”

Sejeong throws a questioning look at the girl as Heehyun scowls at the phone. Her grip on Sejeong tightens, and Sejeong yelps.

The line grows quiet and Sejeong almost thinks they hung up. But then the first girl - Hana - speaks again.

“Who is this? Speak up before I ask Hyeyeon to track your number and Xiening to beat you up.”

“Can I do the beating up?”

“Shut up, Sojin.”

Without thinking, Sejeong speaks, (besides, Heehyun’s nails are digging against her skin and it’s not a pleasant feeling), “Um, hello?”

“Oh , they’re talking.” Hana clears , the sound crackling across the line. “Hello, this is Hire-A-Jellyfish Agency, make your heart go dugeun dugeun in fake beats. Hana speaking; how may I help you?”

“Uh, I’m Kim Sejeong.” Hana hums from the other line and Sejeong’s filled with sudden calmness. But that doesn’t stop her from stuttering. “I’m— I wanted to— Um— my friends, you might know them, um, they told me I should call you and— well, actually they’re the ones who called. Heehyun’s holding me back right now and Suhyun’s holding the phone up and—”

“Take a breather, sweetie. Start from the reason.” It’s another voice this time, but just as calming.

Sejeong takes a deep breath and starts explaining everything.

How she and Chungha got together thanks to the other members of their swim team – especially Somi and Yoojung. How Chungha liked picking her up from her class with her motorcycle every period even though sometimes her class is on the other side of the campus. How Chungha buys her breakfast every day when she’s too busy with classes and the training to even remember she needs to eat. How Chungha’s arms always fit perfectly around her and how she’s always so safe in them.

How they were together for almost two years.

How Chungha suddenly became distant. And things changed. How Chungha broke up with her the day before their supposedly second anniversary because she’s getting a bit too used to Sejeong being around and she needs to be on her own to remind herself that she’s an entirely different being from Sejeong.

And that they don’t have to be together until forever because forever’s a really long time and Chungha’s afraid of it. It’s safe, their relationship. But Chungha’s not sure she wants safe.

Sejeong knows what Chungha wants to say is she’s not sure their relationship is what she wants. That Chungha’s not sure Sejeong’s who she wants.

Before she knows it, she’s a sobbing mess and Heehyun’s hugging her warmly instead of holding her back as Suhyun pouts in that girl, I’m here for you way she’s been doing a lot lately.

And Hana — or someone else, Sejeong isn’t so sure anymore — sighs against the phone. “So you want to make this Chungha jealous?”

She hiccups before she can answer, “Yeah. Heehyun said I won’t be able to move on until it’s Chungha who’s chasing after me. And not, you know, me chasing after her.”

Another sigh, this time instead of sympathy, it’s disappointment. “I should probably remind you that most of Heehyun’s advices bring more bad results that good ones but it seems like you’ve been friends for a long time and we do need money for a new couch in the office. I’m sure Heehyun and Suhyun can drive you to our office. You can pick from our jellyfishes here.”

The call ends and Sejeong’s left staring at the wallpaper of her phone (a simple black background with ‘Babe, have a good day. Always smile, I love your smile most - Chungha’ in golden font) and wondering if that really happened.

Did she really call Hire-A-Jellyfish and asked for someone to pretend as her new girlfriend to make Chungha jealous?

A new message appears on the screen

Unknown number: Also, can you tell Suhyun to buy us all our favorite drinks? We’re probably about to die from thirst and everyone’s busy doing something. Tell her Hongbin will pay for it.

Yep, she did. She stooped that low.

But then again, love and heartbreak does wonders to humans.

-

The two Hyuns lead her to an office space in the building beside the apartment complex she lives in, both grumbling and complaining about the fourteen different kinds of drinks (theirs not included) they bought in the convenience store on the first floor.

Outside, the room looks pretty normal aside from the scampering feet that Sejeong can see through the glass on the lower part of the wooden door. But the moment Suhyun opens the door (without knocking or conjuring a magical set of keys), she’s greeted with chaos.

The first thing she sees is a grown man about to jump on the back of a much more grown man holding up a bottle of water. Then she looks past them and finds a group of five girls and three boys playing Uno cards on a (very messy) table by the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

At the far corner of the room, there’s another woman and another man arguing over something in front of the most important looking computer (out of three; why do they even need so many computers? Not to mention the laptops scattered around the place), the latest episode of W playing on the said important looking computer.

And finally, she turns her head slightly to her right and notices the two cutest human beings she ever saw looking at Heehyun with a glint of something (it couldn’t be something good) in their eyes. Then, in another moment or so, they pounce on Heehyun and pepper her with lipstick kisses – the poor girl merely drops her plastic bag of drinks and tries to push them away.

The pair by the important looking computer look up. “Hey, you’re Sejeong?”

“Uh, yeah," she answers, still looking at Heehyun and her two attackers. “Um, are we in the right place or—?”

The woman stands from her seat and walks to her in a very business-y manner. “You are. Come in.” She looks past her and sends Suhyun an expecting look. “Where’s my canned coffee?”

“In the plastic bag Heehyun dropped,” Suhyun answers naturally, as if those two attacking Heehyun with kisses is a thing that she’s used to.

(But then again, Sejeong finds a bit of relief swimming in Suhyun’s eyes and thinks that maybe this also happens all the time to Suhyun. She’s just lucky this time.)

The two rogue Pokémons finally let go of a (literally) red faced Heehyun. They look up at Sejeong with matching angelic smiles.

“Hi, I’m Hyeyeon," says one.

“Hey, I’m Mina," says the other.

Sejeong can’t help the small aw the escapes her lips. Suhyun merely curls her lips in disgust (and distrust) at the two.

The other people are still pretty much chaotic around them but then someone claps loudly. (Or was it two someones?)

“Jellyfishes, clap three times!”

She flinches backwards as everyone (even those playing UNO and the not-really-smiling-not-really-frowning man holding up the water bottle) claps. Three times. Like they’re children.

Sejeong doesn’t know whether she should laugh or frown. She settles for something in between that she hopes looks like a business-y expression.

Hana (Sejeong assumes she’s Hana) speaks as everyone sans the two cuties line up behind her, “Okay. We all heard Sejeong’s story through the phone—” she blushes; she didn’t think this many people heard her being a pathetic little crying , “—and I’ll introduce each one to you, you’ll pick from them.”

She grabs Sejeong’s wrist and drags her to the first man, the one holding up the water bottle earlier. Sejeong notices he’s now holding one of the two Red Bulls Suhyun bought.

“This is Jung Taekwoon. He specializes in quiet but sweet gestures and his voice is great too. Everyone here, actually, except Xiening who doesn’t even speak, but in my opinion, Taekwoon’s voice — along with Haebin’s — is the best. Anyway, he’s the most popular choice in the male department and he’s like, um, the usual rich and y kdrama guy who’s actually really sweet.”

Sejeong only nods, not really here for the boys. She looks around the office instead of Taekwoon’s face, afraid of the scowl that’s permanently embroidered on it. She notices a cork board beside one of the lesser important looking computers and finds cutouts of different k-drama characters pinned to it with little details underneath.

She stares at it, then traces the walls of the office with her gaze, lingering on the papers stacked on desks and open math textbooks on the corner of the carpeted floor by the window and some coffee cups here and there. She doesn’t even realize she missed whatever Hana was saying about the next two boys after Taekwoon (she does catch their names — Wonshik and Sanghyuk, she thinks) until she feels Hana’s eyes boring into her.

“Oh, I’m sorry. But, um, I’m looking for a fake girlfriend, not boyfriend.”

The corners of Hana’s mouth very subtly pull downwards as the men rejoice and go back to their UNO cards, the two fighting over the water bottle joining them, only the man arguing with Hana a while ago stays. “Well, that would’ve been good information before we started.” She clears , all business-like again. “So, what kind of girl do you want?” she asks, gesturing to the line of five girls.

“Haebin’s not usually up for hiring by girls, she’s a totally hetero-only jellyfish. But since you’re a good friend of two—” her gaze grazes over the two Hyuns in distaste “—not-so-good friends, we’re setting her up for hiring.”

“Question.” She raises her hand a bit timidly. Hana nods. “Is this even legal? Isn’t it, like, against some laws?”

“It’s only against the laws if you’re caught," one girl says, smiling at her innocently – the kind of innocent that tells Sejeong it’s not innocent. She thinks her name’s Mimi (Suhyun screamed it earlier, something about the girl not paying for whatever it is she broke).

“I’m pretty sure what’s illegal is still illegal when you’re not caught.”

Mimi shrugs. “You must be fun at parties.”

She frowns and mutters an ‘okay’ under her breath before turning back to Hana. “Why did you start this business?”

Hana blinks, then frowns thoughtfully. “You’re the first to ask that, surprisingly. Well, we’re all part of the drama club and we thought a business like this would help us with our acting and finances.”

Sejeong nods, taking in the words seriously. “Why’s it called Hire-A-Jellyfish?”

Hana’s lips twitch a little, hiding a smile. Sejeong notices her stealing glances to the far end but she’s not so sure where she’s looking. “Nayoung made the name," Hana tells her in a soft, proud voice.

She follows Hana’s gaze and finds a very familiar girl standing at the very end of the line, rubbing the back of her neck like she’s very shy. Hana prods her to talk and she does, “Jellyfishes don’t have hearts. And since this is a purely business only kind of thing, no hearts will be involved.”

“Oh. That’s… cool.” She stares hard at the girl, trying to remember where she saw her. Her eyes look familiar, like she’s stared into them quite a few times before.

Hana’s talking again, something about how Mimi came up with the dugeun dugeun part of their slogan. But again, Sejeong’s not listening. She’s staring at the girl. Suhyun taps her shoulder and sends a pointed look to Hana’s direction, ordering her to listen.

And then it clicks. Suhyun. “You’re Suhyun’s ex-girlfriend!” she blurts, gaze never leaving the girl — Nayoung, she remembers. Nayoung flinches and looks up at her, surprised. “Uh, I mean… I’m not so sure, really. Were you faking it too?”

“Suhyun brought her to a party once, right? And introduced her as her girlfriend?” She nods at Hana’s questions. “Suhyun got her to make Haein jealous. Haein knows her from way back though, so things got complicated fast and they stopped.”

Suhyun shifts beside her, looking the most uncomfortable she’s ever been since they became friends. “Yeah, yeah. This isn’t about me. Let’s go pick the lucky girl.”

There are grunts of disagreement all around and Sejeong glares at them. Her gaze lands on Nayoung — stifling a laugh at something Mimi said — and she’s decided. “Nayoung.”

“What?” Nayoung, Heehyun, and Suhyun all exclaim, eyes staring at Sejeong in disbelief.

“Why her?” Heehyun queries, throwing Nayoung an insulting look that the girl merely rolls her eyes at. “Sojin’s a good girlfriend, I recommend her.”

“I think I saw her date Kim Nahyun from the archery team too.”

“Fake date,” Nayoung interjects.

She shrugs and turns to Heehyun, “And didn’t you fake date her once too?”

“Nayoung? Ew, no!” Heehyun almost screams as Nayoung grumbles a small, “Disgusting.”

The two glare at each other from across the room in a way that tells Sejeong they’ve got quite a few years of friendship. Though, as Heehyun’s childhood friend, she isn’t sure how that’s possible.

“You brought her as your plus one to that one party.”

“I wasn’t with her.”

Again, she shrugs. “I want Nayoung.”

The said girl sighs before walking away from a giggling Mimi. “Fine. Let’s go to the discussion table.”

The ‘discussion table’ is a table beside the door with two chairs. Nothing special about it except for the fact that it’s the only clean space in the office.

Nayoung sits across her with a notebook and pen. The two Hyuns join the others on a game of UNO.

“So, this is to make Chungha jealous right?”

Her heart still aches at her name. She nods.

“This Chungha is, um, Kim Chungha?”

Again, she nods, prick on heart still there.

“Um, will you make sure the swim team won’t beat me up then drown me? Because my favorite duo’s coming to Korea later this month and I want to live long enough to see them live.”

She laughs. Looks like picking Nayoung as her fake girlfriend won’t be so bad with her jokes. “Nah, they won’t. I promise. They’re mostly kids anyway.”

“Good.” She opens her notebook and Sejeong notices the first clean page is nearing the middle. “What story will we tell them?”

“Um, just that we met through Suhyun and hit it off immediately?”

“Hm. Okay. How long since we were together?”

“Oh, not that long. It can’t overlap with my relationship with Chu— her. We broke up two months ago.”

Nayoung keeps her gaze on the notebook but her eyebrow quirks ever so subtly at the hesitance in Sejeong’s voice to say Chungha’s name. “Okay. So maybe a week together? Sounds good?”

“Yeah, great.”

“Tell me about Chungha. And please give me the summary only, I already heard you being a sobbing mess, I don’t need to see it too.”

She cracks a small smile at the obviously joking tone. And then she starts talking about Chungha, pausing every now and then to keep herself from crying.

(When she gets to the goodnight texts though, she bawls and Nayoung stands from her seat to sit next to her, opening her arms. Sejeong cries to her shoulder, muttering apologies. For her, herself, and Chungha all together. Even for the other occupants of the office that look at her in sympathy.)

-

After their discussion, Nayoung stands and leads her to Hana. “We finished talking.”

Hana nods, a certain kind of softness in her eyes as she stares at Nayoung. “Great. Sejeong, I’ll send you an email about the contract and payment. You’ll pay once you decide you want it to end. Nayoung, go help the muffins with their homework now. It’s your turn today.”

“But I just got a new mission. Shouldn’t I be exempted?” Nayoung complains, even pouting. “Besides, don’t you think those two demons are old enough to do their own homework?”

Hana shakes her head with a small smirk before turning to continue her job of watching Korean dramas. “You know they won’t do their homework unless someone’s there to help them.”

Nayoung sighs. Then her gaze focuses on Sejeong and she smiles. “Fake girlfriend, let’s go help Satan’s spawns with their homework.”

She looks around, looking for whoever Nayoung might be talking to. Then she points a finger to herself, eyes widening. “Me?”

“No, I was talking to Kang Yi Na,” is the sarcastic response she gets. Nayoung even points to the episode of Age of Youth that Hana’s watching. “I would love it if she were my fake girlfriend though. Unfortunately, I’m stuck with you. Now, go help me with the little dementors!”

A hand grabs hers and she’s pulled to the corner of the office where the open books are. Nayoung yells for Hyeyeon and Mina even though they’re sitting on the table next to the corner and pushes Sejeong down beside one desk before sitting beside her. The two youngest sit in front of them with their bags.

Hyeyeon hands her notebook first.

“Today, we’re learning about— what the , you’re learning about Quantum Physics already? Aren’t you five?”

Hyeyeon scowls at her. “ off.”

“Hana! Hyeyeon’s cursing!”

“Shut the up, I’m watching!”

This makes Nayoung’s eyes widen in amusement as she transfers her gaze from Sejeong, to the two girls, then Sejeong again. “Wow, I wonder where the kid learns it all from.”

“I’m not a kid!”

Sejeong laughs as Nayoung pats Hyeyeon’s shoulder in a teasingly sympathetic way.

Soon after, they’re talking about Quantum Physics and the many reasons and proofs of alien’s existence.

She notices how Nayoung’s eyes widen ever so comically every time she’s telling Hyeyeon and Mina legends and superstitions and strange occurrences in history. Her hands fly everywhere, a gesture for everything. And she always throws Sejeong a look that looks like she’s making sure Sejeong’s listening to her, too.

Sejeong’s always listening. Something about Nayoung makes her want to listen. Especially when she’s throwing her head back, throat exposed as the laughter vibrates through it, eyes crinkled at the corners, and beautiful throaty laughter flowing out .

It makes Sejeong smile too. And Sejeong’s genuinely happy for the first time in a long time. Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all.

(She gets a good night text with a smiley emoticon for the first time in two months that night. And she sleeps with a small smile.)

A/N:

I hope you liked this! And next update will be later this week, I promise it's not as bad as the first chapter. Comments are much appreciated!

Title from Collide by Howie Day!