She--

Chaewon really--

What?

Minjoo was completely dumbfounded. She was torn between feeling guilty over snapping at the girl and feeling confused as to why Chaewon did what she did. It didn’t make any sense, none at all! Minjoo racked her brain for any hidden agenda that could be lying underneath.

She couldn’t think of any.

At this point, it was dark out with few people roaming around. After the revelation made by her father, she had spent a few hours just digesting the information. She was wordless as she paced around the house, bewildered. A few hours later, here she was, getting some fresh air in the middle of the night (really, she couldn’t sleep and just needed some more time to think and marinate).

“Ah, so strange,” she mumbled to herself as she just stared intensely at the ground in front of her.

A bit later, she found herself at the playground. Of course, there weren’t any kids running around or playing; it seemed to be just herself here.

Or maybe not.

Upon closer inspection, Minjoo spotted a lone figure sitting on the swing just kind of moving their legs back and forth in the mulch. Obviously, Minjoo goes against the safer route and instead moves closer to the figure.

When she’s only a step away, the person in front of her lifts their head up and looks at Minjoo in surprise.

“Hi,” Minjoo says sheepishly, giving the girl an embarrassed smile.

Chaewon looks at her for a second before resuming what she was doing before: looking down at the ground and swinging her legs.

“Did you come here to yell at me some more? About how terrible I am, maybe?” Chaewon says smoothly while still looking at the ground.

Surprisingly, Minjoo doesn’t sense any anger or annoyance. Even more surprising, she finds that Chaewon sounds amused.

“I--,” Minjoo stutters as she tries to find the right words to say. She had been thinking for so long yet absolutely nothing came out of it.

“No? Then you wanted to tell me that I ?” She continues, this time glancing up at Minjoo through her eyelashes.

“Sorry,” Minjoo finally mumbles, pouting guiltily.

She hears Chaewon exhale loudly in something close to a laugh.

“It’s okay, I definitely expected it.”

Minjoo pouts at Chaewon as the older girl turns her head up fully to look at Minjoo with a half-smirk on her lips.

It’s barely a smile but it’s so pretty wow--

Minjoo shakes her head slightly.

BEGONE THOUGHTS.

Before she can retort, she notices something.

Without even hesitating a little bit, she reaches out and brushes her fingers against Chaewon’s cheek.

Jolted by both the sudden contact and the burst of pain, Chaewon flinches slightly and pulls her body backwards.

“What’s that?” Minjoo asks with a look of concern as she eyes the fairly large gash.

“Nothing,” Chaewon responds as she turns her head away from Minjoo’s worried gaze. It’s quite funny, really, how a few hours earlier Minjoo had been screaming at her, yet now here she was, giving her that look.

Chaewon’s not used to that kind of look. Maybe, maybe, she thinks that it’s a nice change.

Looking for some kind of excuse to change the topic yet still wanting to be around the girl, Chaewon suddenly gets up.

“I’m hungry.”

With that, she just starts walking.

And, of course, Minjoo rolls her eyes and sighs--

--and follows anyways.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually, they find themselves sitting at a barbeque joint. Minjoo stares at Chaewon who is silently looking out the window as Minjoo grills the meat.

“What happened to your face?” She asks, concern returning in full force.

Chaewon glances at her out of the corner of her eye. She guesses she should say something to appease the girl; otherwise, she feels like she’ll be interrogated all night.

“Got into a stupid fight.”

Minjoo seems to consider it for a moment before nodding in satisfaction at the response. It really wasn’t a farfetched idea; she bets that Chaewon gets into tons of fights all the time. Unknowingly, it brought a frown to her face thinking about how often Chaewon got hurt.

“What’s with the frown?” Minjoo hears suddenly, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Ah, was I frowning?

“Ah, it’s nothing,” she replies hastily. She doesn’t give Chaewon a chance to respond and instead places some meat on her plate. When Chaewon just continues to look at her instead of eating, Minjoo raises an eyebrow at her and gestures for her to eat.

Eventually, Chaewon turns her attention to the food on her plate. For a moment, she seems lost in thought just staring at it. When Minjoo places some more in her plate, Chaewon tilts her head while sporting that same look.

“What’s with that look?” Minjoo asks this time. It was odd how lost in thought Chaewon seemed while just looking at meat all of a sudden.

After a moment, Chaewon responds.

“Nothing.”

And with that, she begins to eat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier that day

“Hi.”

She watches in slight amusement as Minjoo’s father jumps at seeing Chaewon standing in front of his house.

“Mind if I come in?”

“Oh, yes, of course, please come in,” he replies quickly and motions for her to come inside. Chaewon feels a bit bad as he’s trembling slightly, but it can’t really be helped.

Chaewon walks in to the middle of the living room before turning around and facing him.

“I’m letting go of the rest of your debt.”

It’s silent for a few seconds as he soaks in the girl’s statement.

“You’re what?”

“I’m letting go of your debt,” Chaewon repeats more slowly this time.

“What’s the catch?” He asks quietly, not being able to believe that there wasn’t some sort of trick here.

Chaewon shakes her head and shrugs her shoulders.

“No catch. Really.”

Before he can respond again (most likely with another question of disbelief), the door opens with Minjoo behind it.

“I’m serious, okay? See you.” Chaewon says quietly to him before heading out the door.

When Minjoo runs after her and starts screaming things, she can’t help but feel a little amused. She figured the girl would react this way. Sure, it hurt a little bit, but, dang, it was still a little funny to see how fired up Minjoo was since Chaewon knew that she was being entirely misunderstood. She imagined Minjoo’s expression when she finds out why Chaewon was actually there.

She smirks a little bit.

And yeah, maybe she had gotten back to her father and admitted to what she had done, drawing some anger from him. And yeah, maybe she didn’t really have a good excuse as to why she did it. And yeah, maybe he ordered the others to beat some sense into her, but it’s not like it hadn’t happened before.

It’s been a long time since those days, though.

But when Minjoo runs into her and has the guiltiest look on her face and a pout on her lips, Chaewon can’t help but think it was all worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re so messy, geez,” Minjoo sighs in exasperation as she grabs a napkin to wipe some rice off of Chaewon’s face. Chaewon had really gone down on the food, but, goodness, she was so messy.

Chaewon’s cheeks are full of meat as she turns her gaze to Minjoo who’s bringing a napkin towards her lips.

“So messy,” Minjoo mumbles.

It isn’t until after she sets the napkin down and resumes her meal does her face get warm. That seemed to be the case every time she was with Chaewon: she always reacted so instinctively around her, but right after she’d be a blushing fool.

Ridiculous.

Thankfully, she doesn’t catch Chaewon’s comical expression that’s a mix between embarrassment and shock. She was getting whiplash from tonight’s turn of events.

Really, she can barely even feel the injuries on her body.

There were other, more important things right now, anyways.

“Why’d you let go of our debt?” Minjoo questions suddenly.

There it is.

Chaewon doesn’t stop eating and just mumbles through her food.

“Who knows.”

Minjoo rolls her eyes again as she watches Chaewon make more of a mess while giving her such a vague answer. Well, can’t say she didn’t expect anything else. It was worth a shot, though.

“Okay, then what’s your favorite color?”

Chaewon stops shoving food into momentarily and just looks at Minjoo with a curious expression. Surprisingly, she answers.

“Mint. You?” She counters as she tilts her head to the side.

Minjoo smiles and starts to finish up her meal.

“White.”

“But does that really count?”

“Finish chewing before you speak!”

“Sowwy.”

Minjoo snorts at the muffled reply coming through a mouthful of food. Even so, that same stupid, stupid smile can’t seem to be wiped off of her face.