After staying at Haein’s house for almost two weeks, Sungrin finally managed to find a medium-sized studio apartment for her to live in. Haein’s parents paid for her first 4 months’ rent after they won a ‘rock-paper-scissor’ game against her. Since she didn’t have a lot of things, only Haein helped her to move in.

“It’s a cool place,” Haein commented as she looked around the place. “When do you want to buy the furniture and electrical appliances?”

“I’m not sure. Since your parents already paid for my rents, I’ll use the money to buy the things. I’ll start with a medium-sized refrigerator, a radio and a washing machine. I’ll buy the rest after I’ve found a work,” Sungrin told her.

At that moment, Haein’s phone rang. She looked at her phone and gasped. “Oh, no! I’m supposed to meet my teacher today to help her with her project! Unnie, I have to go now. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, go ahead. I’ll be fine.” The girls hugged each other before Haein left. Sungrin went to take her jacket and bag. “Time for shopping!” she said to herself.

Her first destination was the electrical appliances store. She surveyed the whole store to get the best price.

“Sungrin noona?” a male voice spoke from behind her. Sungrin turned around. “It’s you!”

“Jimin!” she accidentally said. Jimin smiled.

“I see you still remember my name,” he said.

“I have a good memory,” Sungrin covered her mistake with a small lie. She continued with her work.

“May I help you with anything?” he enquired. She gave him a puzzled look. Then, Jimin showed her his nametag. “I work here,” he told her.

“Oh…okay…” she looked at her notebook. “What’s the cheapest price for a medium-sized refrigerator?” she asked him.

“Follow me,” Jimin instructed. He took her to the area for medium-sized refrigerators and pointed at the on the end. “This is the best price that we have. Does it fits your budget?”

Sungrin looked at the price. “It exceeds a little,” she admitted. She gave it a careful thought. Jimin moved closer to her.

“I can tell you a little secret if you want to know,” he said slowly. Sungrin looked at him. “A staff can get 15% off for any appliances.” Sungrin didn’t get it at first and when she got it, her eyes widened.

“You’re saying…”

“I can buy it under my name, if you don’t mind of course,” Jimin finished the sentence for her.

Sungrin hesitated. It was a great offer, but it’d only mean she’d get one step closer to him, and she didn’t want that. At last, she decided to accept the offer. 15% off was more than enough for her.

“I’ll take your offer,” she told him.

A wider smile appeared on his face. “Is there anything else that you need?” he asked.

“A washing machine and a radio,” answered Sungrin. Jimin helped her find everything that she needed. After that, they went to the counter to make the payment.

“You need to fill in your address so that we can deliver the things to your house,” Jimin said as he passed her a piece of paper. She did as she was told. After a few more minutes, everything was settled.

“Thanks for helping me,” she told him.

“No problem, but I do have a request though,” he said slyly. She looked at him. “Can I be your friend?” he asked.

“Oh…well…uhmmm…okay. I guess…”

“Cool! Can you wait for I while? My shift has just ended. I can accompany you to buy your things.”

“Okay… I’ll wait here…”

Jimin quickly went to change his uniform to his usual clothes, a ¾ shorts, an overlarge sleeveless t-shirt, a singlet underneath and a black snapback. Sungrin was impressed on how his image changed by just changing his clothes. He looked like a very polite gentleman in his uniform and now he looked like a normal, mischievous teenager.

“Where are we heading now?” he asked her after they left the store.

“To a furniture store, I still don’t have a bed,” she told him.

“Okay…” The two of them continued to walk silently. Jimin purposely walked a little bit behind her so that he could see her face. *She’s not even the prettiest girl that I’ve met. How did I end up feeling like this?* he thought. “You don’t live with your cousin anymore?” he broke the silence.

“How did you know I live with Haein?” she asked him back, surprised.

“Suga hyung said you live with her since your school days,” he answered.

Sungrin frowned. “Suga?”

“Oh! His real name is Min Yoongi, your ex-classmate.”

“Min Yoongi…” she muttered while trying to recall her memories. “That chubby guy who loves rapping almost all the time?” she asked to make sure. Jimin let out a laugh.

“Yeah, that’s the one. He’s my group member.”

“I see… So, the song that you all danced to that night, he also composed it?”

“Uh-huh, together with Rap Mon hyung and J-hope hyung.”

“Why do they have weird names?”

“It’s like their stage names. Only Jungkook and I use our real names. Jin hyung use the last syllable from his name, Seokjin,” Jimin explained. Sungrin nodded. “I’m curious about something though.”

“What is it?” Sungrin asked.

“Do you hate guys? I mean, why do you always refused when guys wanted to get to know you?”

“If I hate guys, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” she told him. Jimin rubbed the back of his neck shyly. “It’s simple, we’re different from other girls.”

*That’s why I’m attracted to you* he suddenly thought. “What do you mean?”

“We hate wasting our times doing useless things. Honestly speaking, most of the boys in that school are not that decent. Eventhough we look like we don’t care about anything, Haein and I knew what’s going on around us. We also know that there’s an underground club somewhere around the area that allows underage students to go in.”

At that last sentence, Jimin gulped nervously. Luckily, Sungrin didn’t notice since she was looking ahead. “You do know a lot.”

“We must know it. We don’t want to get fooled by the people around us. I don’t care about the students that go to the club to sing or dance, but I know singing and dancing are not the only things that happen in there. That’s why we always refuse the guys from that school.”

“How about the guys who are or were not from that school?”

“We still have a hard time believing them, so we decided to ignore them. Let’s just say we can only trust ourselves and our families.”

Jimin nodded. He’s happy that he’d slowly started to know her. “There’s another thing that I want to ask. Why do you agree to be my friend?”

Sungrin was a bit flustered by his question, so she took a longer time to answer him. “I don’t know. Maybe I feel grateful towards you because you helped me just now,” she replied. Jimin was a bit sad by her answer, but he brushed it away with a smile.

“That’s good enough for me,” he said.