Since Minjeong has been keeping an eye on her experience bar regarding DEX that's been linked to stamina, exercising for an hour felt like an eternity. And thank god Jimin was the one to snap Minjeong out of her focus and take a break.

"You're looking a bit red, you okie?"

Jimin asked as she grabbed a towel from the shorter's bag, gently pressing it on the latter's forehead to wipe away the sweat. Minjeong smiled at this and nodded her head.

"You don't need to do that, you know?"

Moving the towel to press on Minjeong's cheek and placing her free hand on the other, Jimin playfully squished them and giggled adoringly before hanging the cloth over the shorter's shoulder.

"I want to do it."

Holding herself back from smiling like an idiot, Minjeong raised a brow instead.

"Why?"

"Why?" Jimin repeated as she turned to her bag and crouch down to take out a scrunchie and tie her hair into a messy ponytail, "You're selfless. You take care of everyone around you so much that you forget about yourself— Who's going to take care of you?"

Amused by the taller's observation, Minjeong slipped out a faint smile. "I don't need to be taken care of, Jimin."

Jimin snickered at that. When standing up, she turned to look at Minjeong and gazed at her for a moment before pulling out her phone and walking to her side, showing how exhausted and messy her hair looked on camera.

"You probably wouldn't have noticed that until you get back home."

"Okay, strangely, you know me too well." Minjeong combed her hair with her fingers, "What are you implying?"

"Nothing..." Jimin said while tucking her phone back into her pocket, "If you're having any trouble, I just want to let you know that you can rely on me anytime."

Unsure of what to say, Minjeong stood in place and watched Jimin pick up her bag to hand it to her. The shorter was solely speechless, unable to come up with words to say.

Rely? Do I really need to rely on someone...?

Minjeong found the idea ridiculous as she was already beyond a human being's normal physique. And to think that someone as ordinary as Jimin wants her to rely on her— something fuzzy sweltered around her chest.

Promptly, wearing the bag over her shoulder, Minjeong watched Jimin who was gulping down water from her flask. Sweat slowly fell from her temples, down to her neck, then to her collarbones, it was like something was pulling the shorter into a trance.

And before Minjeong could stare at the taller any longer, Gre who has been laying on the grass barked two times, causing the latter to flinch back to her senses and rapidly shake her head.

She shifted her eyes to look at Gre, only to see the husky looking back at her with his mouth closed and head tilted to the side.

"Don't look at me like that."

Minjeong squinted her eyes which the husky responded by barking once and walking to Jimin's side, a head nuzzling against her leg like a cat.

As a result, Minjeong furrowed her brows and Jimin laughed at the weird behavior.

"Don't you think your dog is a bit odd?"

Jimin asked while petting the husky's head and the shorter only replied with a nervous chuckle, nodding two times.

Gre has been acting weird around Jimin and Minjeong simply refused to believe that those actions he did were linked to her emotional and physical response. There must be a misconception. Or an error to the system.

There's seriously no way...

"So, wanna grab breakfast?"

Shaking her thoughts away, Minjeong looked at the taller. "Ah, yeah. Sounds good."

Whatever she was thinking. No matter how many times she glanced at Jimin while pacing her steps, trying to decipher what was happening to her mind. Minjeong pursed her lips, chose to ignore them, and focused on her main goals.

Level up. I'm out here to level up.

Minjeong was in denial.

✩

While on the way back to her apartment, Minjeong coincidentally met Yujin on the bus going home as well. On that bus, they talked about how they were slowly getting more famous as there were a few promotional ads with their faces on bus shelters around.

Minjeong found it surprising since she never really took notice of these things due to how deadly focused she was on the system. Level up this. Level up that. Earn as much experience as possible to rank up for better chances of winning.

Her thoughts were always filled with ways of evading the outbreak that she never got to properly see the outside world anymore.

"Damn..."

She mumbled to herself which caught Yujin's attention.

"What's up?"

"I didn't realize what was happening until you mentioned it."

"Seriously?" Yujin laughed, "Are you a hermit?"

Minjeong snickered as she lightly punched the girl on the shoulder, "I'm not used to being a celebrity. And I feel kind of bad for not noticing the fans' efforts, I think I should show how much I appreciated their actions somehow."

"Hmm." Yujin subtly tilted her head in thought, "Then, do you wanna go to that mall near Aeri's apartment? A group photo of us contestants on the second round was posted as an ad there. We can take a picture there and post it on Idol Factory's Instagram page."

"Wow, really?"

Yujin smiled, "Uhuh, that shows how successful the program is. They must've really liked us."

"That's amazing."

"Right?!"

In the middle of their pleasant conversation, one of the passengers who sat in fr