" Wait, isn't that cute? Cmon, I wanna look at it." The youngest of the quartet quickly squealed before dragging the oldest woman into the store, leaving the actress and her manager standing on the sidewalk, watching the cars drive by.

 

" Aren't you going in? Come on then, don't mope around." Aeri glanced at the red head, walking past her into the shop after checking if Minjeong's mask and hoodie was on properly.

 

Minjeong quickly scans the store and their surroundings before walking towards her manager.

 

" I know that, just checking for- yknow." The actress quickly avoided eye contact with the group of teenagers coming out the store before finally reuniting with the trio, standing next to a pile of gag sunglasses.

 

Minjeong rolls her eyes, watching as Jimin intently looked over the pile, already knowing what the older woman would make her do.

 

" Min, try these on." Jimin reaches over, holding a giant pair of pink sunglasses, a innocent grin resembling one she'd see from a young boy on set on her girlfriend's matured elegantly attractive face.

 

Would it have been weird of her to say that that was one of the exact reasons she was so in love with said woman? Perhaps.

 

"Jim..." Pursing her lips, the red haired actor surrenders to fate, allowing the older woman to slide the gag item onto her face. 

 

Thinking of revenge, she quickly removes her mask for just a moment to stick her tongue out at Jimin, placing a fake moustache under the older woman's nose. 

 

Jimin takes out her phone and takes a selfie of the two of them, gasping at her phone screen when she sees the moustache Minjeong had picked for her.

 

"This one... it's dangerous to wear- Square moustache..." Jimin quickly removes the synthetic hair, shaking her head in fear before reattaching Minjeong's mask for her. She runs her fingers along the elastics, brushing against the shorter woman's ears.

 

The slight contact invites a pinkish hue onto the actress's ear and cheek, Minjeong tilts her head forward, allowing her hair to fall forward too, covering her face fully.

 

And as Jimin turned back to Ning who had begun looking at Kuromi bags, her original objective for coming into the store,

 

Minjeong slowly removed the giant sunglasses before holding the older woman's shirt hem, shy of onlookers gazes, afraid of being seen but still longing for even the slightest contact with her lover.

 

Jimin had other plans however, apparent when she had decided to grab the younger girl's hand off her back and intertwine their fingers instead, rubbing the back of Minjeong's hands with her thumb.

 

She's warm...

 

Ning holds up a Kuromi character crochet bag the size of her hips to Jimin, Aeri besides her looking at the price tag.

 

" Should I buy this? Jjim~ do you wanna buy it for me?" The shutter of a Samsung comes from the left, unbeknownst to the quarter except Minjeong, who flinches, recognising the sound.

 

" Ya, you earn more than me??" Minjeong looks over, surprised to see two teenage girls holding phone cameras pointed in their direction. 

 

"It's 10 hours minimum wage worth..." When the actress furrows her brows, trying to see if the pair were truly recording her, the two girls quickly point their phones down, looking at each other in surprise.

 

Confirmation, Minjeong quickly breaks the physical contact with the older woman, alerting Jimin who spun around quickly, alerting Aeri and Ning in succession.

 

Seeing Minjeong turned to face a wall, breath heavy and eyes unfocused, Jimin places a hand on the actress' shoulder, concerned.

 

"Min?" Jimin is slightly crouched down, meeting eyes with Minjeong, an action that backfires and only worsens the anxious knots in the younger girl's stomach.

 

Realising what's happened, Aeri quickly walks over to the two girls while Ning runs to the cashier to quickly pay for what she wanted.

 

" amera...we got caught." Minjeong manages to whisper, feeling the air rushing out her lungs and unwilling to enter.

 

She feels trapped, like a wave washes over her, Jimin's touch and voice fading off in favour of the feeling.

 

The feeling of being drowned, just like back when she was younger.

 

Just like when she was about to die.

 

Logically, she knows she's on land, that she's safe and surrounded by air, but for some odd reason,

 

Her mind doesn't.

 

Her shoulders tense up, her breathing haggard and rough, her eyes seems to lose its focus further as she's dragged into a trance like state.

 

Jimin tries holding her hand, only to flinch from how cold it was, the worry in her festers further.

 

"Min, let's go to the car. Aeri's got you. She's a pro at this for a reason." The weakness in Minjeong's legs roots her to the ground of the store, unable to move, unable to run.

 

She knows she needs to move, she knows she can move.

 

But it doesn't feel that way, it isn't that way.

 

Ning comes back with a big plastic bag before pulling out a astronaut helmet and dropping it over the actress's head.

 

The sudden darkness stops the overload of light from the outside world.

 

" It was $175, be thankful." Ning's voice seem to snap the girl out of her trance, she regains control of her body but the weight she was feeling doesn't leave her.

 

A weight that compresses her whole body, a feeling of numbness. A feeling of nothingness.

 

As if every limb was absent. As if she wasn't real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

" You feeling alright? " Back in the car, Minjeong was back to zoning out,  panicking silently at the events that had transpired earlier. 

 

Jimin has her arm over the shoulders of her lover, rubbing Minjeong's arm in an attempt to comfort the younger woman.

 

"Min..." The car door slams again when Ning rushes in, plopping her purchases in the leg space of the shot gun seat.

 

Aeri follows soon after, shutting the door and turning the ignition on quickly, pulling out of the parking space they occupied.

 

Once they were out the parking lot, conversation  begins from Aeri.

 

"Alright, let's calm down. They didn't seem to suspect anything anyway, and I've made them delete the photos and it's not like it was anything incriminating. It's just a hangout." The statement sends a wave of relief over two of three girls, the other instead, receives a jab straight to the heart. 

 

A jab that only causes the girl to feel conflicted.

 

That's... - Yu Jimin, you should be happy for her. Why the are you acting like this? Why are you being so damn...selfish?

 

Looking down towards Minjeong's hands, the older woman watches as the trembling slow to a stop. Looking up, she watches as Minjeong's pursed lips softens into a smile, the red haired woman looking over at Jimin.

 

The younger of the two leans her head down onto the model's shoulder, breathing in the scent of citrus mixed with sweat. It was a new perfume Jimin was trying, Minjeong decides she likes the scent on the older woman. 

 

A deeper breath this time, trying to calm her heart down.

 

"Min? You okay now?" Jimin is whispering, chin tucked behind the younger woman's ears.

 

The breath that brushes against her ear slightly causes Minjeong to flinch, feeling ticklish.

 

She snuggles back into the older woman before settling herself down once again. Finding the breath she needed to finally speak.

 

"Yeah...I think I want to go home, unnie." The actress' voice is laboured, clearly still a little shaken up by the earlier experience.

 

And Jimin is nothing if not the person who best knows Minjeong, or rather, every single way to make the younger girl feel better.

 

Jimin wraps her arms around Minjeong's waist, a chuckle escapes her lungs when Minjeong slowly shifts herself to koala hug Jimin, sitting on the older woman's lap with her head resting on the taller woman's shoulders. 

 

"Sure... goodnight baby." And as the world slowly fades to the sound of a piano key striked in rhythm, Minjeong feels the signals of Aeri's car turn on before a right turn is made. 

 

"Goodnight...Unnie."

 

 

NINGSELLE💕

 

 

"Ning, do you like that bag that much?" The kuromi bag the wine haired girl had previously purchased rested on her lap, the girl in question fiddling with the dangling bits of its design.

 

At a red light now, Aeri turned to look at the younger girl. Yizhuo, who finally looks up from the character designed bag, smiles gummily at the older woman.

 

"It's cute, don't you think?" Ning brings up the bag to flaunt it to Aeri who only laughs at the wid