It’s over ten years, one group and an unexpected ending— Aespa is remembered, loved and missed by many. 

Ningning’s promoting in China— having left the company more than two years ago as well as Aeri, who is back in Japan doing everything she loves. 

A never re-signed contract and a broken group, Jimin and Minjeong remain at SM. Something tethers them down and maybe it’s because Minjeong is a renowned soloist, following in her sunbae’s footsteps, she sells out shows just like Taeyeon. Jimin hadn’t been up to much, having cameos in TV shows and hosting television programs. Making music, dancing and performing on stage was her dream, but for reasons unknown, she can’t see herself on that stage anymore.

There’s a quiet trepidation in her soul when she looks upon that stage and she doesn’t see any of her members beside her.

She talks to Ningning and Aeri occasionally, wanting to keep in contact with them as best she can, and Minjeong? Jimin doesn’t think she remembers the last time she was on the same planet orbit as Minjeong.

Nothing was ever the same those last few years together as a group. Ningning left first and then it was Aeri. Minjeong and Jimin stayed and there’s that quiet hope that they stayed for each other, but no one has seen them or heard of them being together for years.

Everyone thinks they know them— coworkers only, but in truth, it was a family that fell apart.

Jimin can only dream of another day where they’re all in the same room and on the same stage again.

—

It’s the SM Halloween party again and Jimin doesn’t want to party at all. Feeling too tired from existing, she doesn’t want to socialise and talk to anyone at the party, but one of her juniors asked and begged, and so Jimin found herself dressed as a vampire. She actually just wore her usual clothes and did messy makeup with blood at the corner of her lips and faux fangs. She didn’t put much effort into it.

When she arrives at the SM party, she looks around and her eyes land on Minjeong immediately. Minjeong’s dressed as a vampire as well and so is Jungwoo from NCT, but he doesn’t make Jimin’s heart stutter in her chest and feel like the world’s stopped just for them.

Minjeong’s iconic short hair is slicked back and she wears a leather jacket over a white cropped tank top paired with a black miniskirt and knee length boots.

Jimin walks to her table without looking as her eyes are kept on Minjeong and she bumps right into something tall and rigid.

“Jimin - woah!” Jimin startles and looks up to see Jeno holding her shoulders in place.

“Sorry.” She blinks sheepishly.

“It’s alright, watch where you’re going next time.” He chuckles affectionately and Jimin smiles curtly before finding her table and sitting down.

Jimin fiddles with her name placard and her eyes flit around the place, but eventually continues to land on Minjeong, who’s sitting and chatting to the junior girl group.

Jimin smiles, eyes softening— feeling a surge of pride in her as she watches Minjeong interact with them. Contrary to tabloids and rumours, Jimin had never been jealous of Minjeong’s success, in fact— she probably wanted Minjeong to grow this big. Minjeong talks to the juniors animatedly and Jimin feels proud knowing that Minjeong is a respected senior artist.

One of the juniors says something and Minjeong turns to Jimin momentarily. The taller girl’s eyes widen and her back straightens abruptly, ears growing warm having been caught staring. Minjeong forces a smile and waves at Jimin. Jimin swallows, waving back. 

“Why don’t you sit with Karina sunbaenim?” One of the junior group girls says and Minjeong smiles tightly.

“The name placards are already assigned.” She gestures to her name on the piece of paper in front of her.

“Weird that they wouldn’t put group members together.” One of the other girls says and Minjeong shrugs.

She wants to tell them that they haven’t really been group members in a while, but no one needs to know. She'd rather it not go to the press.

Minjeong sighs and her shoulders sag when the junior group leave to go talk to the other seniors in the company. She’s been so busy all these years and she’s been recently preparing for her  encore fanmeeting in Seoul which is in two weeks. She’s been preparing all her earlier songs as well as some of Aespa’s songs.

She finds it strange to sing their group’s song without the other members. It doesn’t seem right. Sometimes Minjeong dreams about them all being in the same room again and on the same stage, but it is difficult when they’re all over the place.

But there’s Jimin.

Forever still standing Yu Jimin whose eyes are always on her.

It’s maybe a little over an hour into the party that Minjeong wants to leave to go home and sleep off her fatigue.   

She gets up, says goodbye to a few people before she heads to the elevator to go down to the carpark where she could wait for her manager to pick her up.

She steps into the elevator and moves to the back, leaning against the railing and resting her head against the cool mirror wall of the elevator. She shuts her eyes for a moment as the doors begin to close, but then she straightens up when she hears a shout.

“Hold the doors!” An arm is stretched out and Minjeong reaches over to press the button to open the doors.

It’s as if it happens in slow motion. From the moment the doors open, a tall figure steps into the space and Minjeong’s freezes up just as the other person does. 

“Oh.” Jimin blinks.

Jimin’s eyes widen when she meets eye to eye with Minjeong. She had wanted to leave the party early as well, but she didn’t realise that Minjeong was the one in the elevator.

The door closes and they lapse into silence. Minjeong remains in the back of the elevator and Jimin stands in the front, unusually rigid and still-standing. Minjeong can see a glimpse of Jimin’s profile in the mirror to the right of her, and Jimin is chewing on her bottom lip with an expression of anguish— wanting the elevator ride to hurry up.

Minjeong then realises they’re also headed to the same floor, having started from near the top of the building to now having to head down to the basement, the elevator slowly stops at ten, and then nine, and then eight, and so on. 

Minjeong’s eyes trail down to Jimin’s fidgeting hand.

Clenching into a fist, and then unclenching as she flexes her hand.

Jimin prays that the elevator ride will just end, hoping that the silence will cease.

She knows Minjeong’s eyes are on her and even if she does want to turn around so badly to see, she won’t do it. 

The elevator dings and the doors open.

Jimin steps out first and Minjeong follows out.

They come to a stop, Jimin feeling around for her car keys in her pocket and she clutches it. She turns to her side slightly and sees Minjeong standing off at a safe spot away from the cars with her arms around herself and looking down at her phone.

Jimin swallows, fidgeting with her car key.

She takes a breath in and turns to Minjeong.

“Need a ride?”

—

Minjeong sits in the passenger seat of Jimin's car, looking out of the window— not able to turn to her side to look at Jimin at all. Her words keep bay at and she doesn’t really know what to say or think in this situation. Her mind’s a mess and all she wants to do is look at Jimin.

Minjeong’s thankful that Jimin’s chosen to turn the radio on, playing a generic pop song because if the car ride to her apartment was in silence, Minjeong thinks she’d rather roll out of the car and walk home.

The car comes to a stop and Minjeong unbuckles her belt. Jimin swallows, looking to her side slightly to catch Minjeong’s face, but her hair obscures it, so Jimin’s left with a strong sense of yearning.

“Thanks… Jimin.” Minjeong says, opening the door.

“No problem.” Jimin smiles tightly and Minjeong nods slightly.

She steps out of the car and turns to Jimin and the taller girl startles at Minjeong’s soft expression.

“It was nice to see you.” Minjeong says and she turns on her heels to leave.

“You.. too.” Jimin says to no one in particular.

Jimin rests her head against the steering wheel for a moment with her eyes closed tightly and she sighs.

“What is wrong with me…” She breathes out.

Even though she’s well past her twenties, she feels as if that single moment shared with Minjeong just then reverted her back to some silly twenty year old, dreaming of a love unattainable.

She shakes her head slightly.

No. I can’t think about her like this anymore. 

She straightens back up again and adjusts the radio to play quieter and prepares to drive again, but a knock to her window suddenly appears and she startles, flinching at the intrusion.

She blinks and sees Minjeong standing by her door.

She rolls down the window and sees a light flush blooming on Minjeong’s cheeks.

“Do you wanna come up?”

—

Neither of them know how to go about this. More than ten years of secret glances and belly fulls of silence has somehow gotten them in this situation.

All it took was a halloween party and the incessant need to leave and go home early.

“You okay with wine?” Minjeong asks as she takes out two wine glasses from her cabinet.

“Sure.'' Jimin answers, oddly chirpily as she taps her fingers against Minjeong’s carpeted floor.

She looks around and sees essences of Minjeong all over her apartment. It doesn’t feel strange to be up here like she’s imagined, but it’s nice and quaint.

It’s warm and reminds her strangely of spring.

Minjeong sits down beside Jimin on her carpet floor in front of her couch and hands Jimin a wine glass.

“Are you sure it’s okay to drink wine on your carpet?” Jimin asks.

“Eh.” Minjeong shrugs. “I can clean it if we spill.”
“Okay then.” Jimin chuckles.

Minjeong pours the wine and Jimin takes a long sip of it, thinking that she can’t get through this without being sober.

“I like what you’ve done with your place.” Jimin says. “It’s nice.”
“It’s a mess, sweet talker.” Minjeong snorts and Jimin blushes.

“Still nice.” Jimin shrugs. “Has a homey feeling.”

“Thanks.” Minjeong chuckles.

Minjeong stands up after a few wine sips and almost stumbles as she makes her way over to her record player. She puts on an old vinyl and sweet slow music begins to pay. A sense of nostalgia fills the room and Jimin feels herself relaxing.

Minjeong sits back down and takes a long sip of her wine before putting her glass on the coffee table.

“So...” Jimin swallows. “How’s life been?”

Jimin cringes at her attempt at conversation. Minjeong finds it funny, seeing Jimin out of her element as she smiles.

“Been alright.” Minjeong shrugs. “Just tired.”

“From your tour?” Jimin asks and Minjeong nods.

“You know about it?” Minjeong asks.

“Of course. I watch your videos - I mean, I keep track of you… and everyone.” She blushes.

“Right.” Minjeong grins, taking a sip of her wine.

Jimin does the same.

“You haven’t been up to much?” Minjeong asks and Jimin shakes her head.

“No… not really.” Jimin says. “I’ve just been around. They’ve been pushing me for an album, but I just don’t feel like it’s the right time.”

“When would the right time be then?” Minjeong asks softly and hearing Minjeong’s voice right next to her like it’s so normal almost renders Jimin speechless, but she holds onto the carpet, struggling to string together her thoughts in front of Minjeong. 

“Um..” Jimin blinks. “Probably when I sort myself out. I’ve been all over the place.”
“Same.” Minjeong chuckles softly. “I’m gonna take a break after this concert.”

“Really?” Jimin asks.

“Yeah.” Minjeong nods. “I’ve been active for so long. God knows I need the rest. And then maybe we can-”

Minjeong stops abruptly, almost cursing herself for getting ahead of herself.

“Maybe I can visit Aeri-unnie and Ningningie.” Minjeong says and Jimin nods.

“Yeah… that’d be nice.” Jimin decides to let the slip up go.

“Then you can release your album and take my limelight.” Minjeong snorts and Jimin shakes her head with a fond smile.

“I could never take your limelight, Min.” Jimin says softly and Minjeong is sent travelling back in time when all she wanted was her leader’s affections. She blinks and pulls herself out of the past, swallowing thickly.

The record player stops and a muffled static noise replaces the atmosphere as the stylus traces over the dead wax of the record.

“I’ll put something else on.” Minjeong says before getting up. 

Jimin shudders and presses her hand deeply into the carpet to ground herself. She then makes a decision.

She gets up and approaches Minjeong.

Minjeong places another record and plays it— reverberating gentle jazz music in the room. 

She turns back around, ready to return to her spot beside Jimin on the carpet, but she startles when she sees the woman standing behind her, leaning on the dinner table.

“What’s up?” Minjeong asks. “You hungry?”

“No, just…” Jimin chews on her bottom lip and Minjeong pretends that it isn’t distracting.

Minjeong waits for her to speak, not sure if she can bring herself to ask as the distance between them seemingly grows shorter and more suffocating.

“Do you think you could hug me?” Jimin asks and Minjeong releases a breath of surprise.

“I…” Minjeong suddenly stutters in her movements.

“Um, forget about it actually.” Jimin shakes her head, laughing it off. “Sorry - that was weird-”

No.” Minjeong stops her. “I want to.”

Jimin stops her thoughts and all she can hear in her mind is Minjeong.

Minjeong, Minjeong, Minjeong. 

She steps forward and wraps her arms around Jimin’s waist, pulling her close and flush against her. Jimin leans down, wrapping her arms around Minjeong as she rests her head in the crook of Minjeong’s neck— relaxing and breathing in Minjeong’s familiar scent that she’s been missing for years on end.

“I miss you.” She confesses and Minjeong’s heart rams against her chest.

“I…” Minjeong swallows down her confusion and hurt. “I missed you too.”

“Minjeong?” Jimin’s voice is muffled by Minjeong’s shoulder.

“Hm?” Minjeong hums.

“I’m really sorry for what happened with us.” Jimin says.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Minjeong says softly. “It’s bound to happen with any group. Different paths and all that.”

“No.” Jimin pulls away and Minjeong finds herself reaching for more warmth. “I meant us.”

“Oh.” Minjeong blinks.

The jazz music fades out gradually and all that Minjeong can hear is the beating of her own heart.

“It's been years and we never addressed anything.” Jimin begins, having held her feelings back for so long. “I knew what I meant to you back then. I know you loved me more than a member should and I know I hurt you.”