TW: strong and vulgar language

“Hey Jimin! Wake up!” Sooyoung shouted, throwing the curtains open in her niece’s room where the bright morning sunlight beamed through the window beside her bed, directly blinding her eyes just to rouse her from her sleeping.

“What?” Jimin muttered annoyingly; she didn’t even dare to lift an eye to peek around her, instead, she shifted her back away from the window, squeezing her eyes shut as she forced herself to go back to sleep.

“I can’t believe this punk is getting on my nerves this morning!“ Sooyoung blared when she took notice of the lack of obedience from her niece, shaking her head in incredulity as she stood by beside her bed, biting her lower lips with knitted eyebrows. She proceeded. “Remember what I told you last night? You’re supposed to open the convenience store right now because Taeyeon has a salon appointment today!”

“Ah. Yeah,” Jimin realized. For the record, she totally didn’t forget about it; she’s just basically bone-weary as she thought of not putting herself into motion even just for a moment for her body cried out for more sleep from her agonizing tasks at hand in the restaurant last night for doing all the work. Maybe playing pretend would lengthen her sleep just for few seconds.

Sooyoung raised an eyebrow as she fizzed. “Hey! Move your lazy now!”, she pulled the sheets that was draping over Jimin’s body, throwing it away on the bedroom floor, placing her hands on each side of her waist as she waited impatiently for her niece to get her off the bed.

“Yeah,” Jimin groaned as she gave in for the cold temperature made the hairs on her skin bristled for she’s still wearing her yesterday’s clothes. She confirmed right off the bat that playing pretend wouldn’t work like a charm to her witch aunt.

Dragging herself up, Jimin took wobbly steps as she squinted her eyes to search for her bath towel in her jungle-like room: dirty clothes piling up at one corner and all over the room, food crumbs from chips or leftovers scattered on her bed sheets and some bits onto the floor, a case of empty bottles of various brands of alcohol under her bed, a bundle of cigarette butts beside the ash trays on her bedside table and her desk. After a while, she eventually found her towel on the floor under her desk. Jimin picked it up and gave it a few taps to remove some dusts accumulated on it for who knows when was the last time she washed it, as she hung it around her nape while pacing her way with heavy steps to the bathroom just across her room, leaving behind her speechless aunt who witnessed how miserable her niece was – if Jimin couldn’t put things in order in her own room or even in small things, how much more in her own life.

“Just give me few minutes to wash myself,” The raven girl said like it was not a big deal.

Eventually, Sooyoung somehow came back to her senses as she asked her niece. “By the way, did you clean everything up last night in the restaurant? I’m telling you, Jimin. If I visit there right now and I see any trace of dirt, I will make deductions in your salary!” she threatened, pointing at her aggressively even though her niece couldn’t see it as if she even didn’t bother to look back at her aunt.

“Yeah, don’t worry,” Jimin dismissed her aunt as she entered the bathroom, pushing the door behind her using sole of her foot.

Jimin indeed cleaned everything in the restaurant last night. In fact, she got over and done with that in less than an hour after staring at the moon and stars last night. How ironic it was that Jimin could take care of someone else’s belongings but she couldn’t do that for her own self – and the raven girl couldn’t care less. Actually, she decided to stay there for another hour to drink a bottle of Soju without putting it on her tab. Besides, she convinced herself that she deserved to drink it as the fruit of her hard work without telling her aunt about it. Also, Jimin was the one who was checking and counting all the inventories in the restaurant so she could easily get away with that by tampering it.

“Just make it sure! I’m telling you! I’m not joking!” Sooyoung shouted.

Heaving a sigh, Jimin observed her face on the bathroom mirror – those big dark circles under her eyes for not getting enough sleep every day, her swollen face for eating too much refined carbohydrates and high-sodium food for she couldn’t even eat a proper meal.

She took a baby step to examine herself closely on the mirror to somehow motivate herself in her own way – she might seem like she didn’t give a damn about everything about herself but at least she tried to love herself somehow. She slapped her face with both of her hands as she twisted her lips into a sad smile.

“ that . Let’s get it.”

Jimin took a quick shower and wore her daily wardrobe style: plain black tees under an oversized red flannel shirt, denim gray skinny ripped jeans that she also wore yesterday, black sneakers, black trench coat, and her favorite knitted scarf that was wrapped around her neck. She didn’t even bother to check the kitchen for food on her way out if her aunt prepared a breakfast meal for her because she’s one hundred one percent sure that her aunt didn’t so she left the house with an empty stomach. She rarely ate at home and if ever she was, she was always alone and most likely in her room. She’s also got used to eat any food in the convenience store that was near expiration date every time she was checking the inventories so she could also save money. The small convenience store was also owned by her aunt that’s why Sooyoung preferred if Jimin ate the near expiry consumables there so it wouldn’t be wasted and also having her less person to feed.

The raven girl was walking down the streets on her way to the convenience store in their neighborhood which was only a walking distance for fifteen minutes from their house as she warmed her hands inside the side pockets of her black shabby trench coat for she didn’t own a pair of gloves – she was capable to buy but she didn’t want to, she preferred warming herself with cigarettes, alcohol, and her favorite knitted scarf. The spring breeze in the early hour of the day was freezing her to death in which she began to blame herself that she should’ve bought that fifty percent off discounted price of a pair of gray knitted gloves she saw the other day from a street vendor she never knew when to see again.

Having a frugal personality was not a bad thing, Jimin believed, but it didn’t mean that she just wanted to avoid spending her money at all. She preferred spending her money on things that was important to her in life and choosing to spend less on the things that didn’t matter – and it’s pretty obvious what was important to her just by the looks of it. She really had a twisted definition of her priorities in life.

“Jimin unnie!”

A familiar voice clamored her name from afar as she halted on her way, rifling through her surroundings to its source. But one thing was for sure, it’s not her flippant cousin who’s calling her for she was no doubt out of the picture so it was probably somebody else.

“Jimin unnie! Wait for me!”

The voice was getting louder as she heard the sound of the rushing footsteps somewhere near her increased its volume. Jimin looked thoroughly behind her where suddenly she saw a figure of a familiar friend dashing towards her, waving both of her hands in high spirits as Jimin flat-out recognized who that was from the color of her university jacket.

Jimin smiled at her. “Hey Ningning!”

Ning Yizhuo, but she preferred to be called “Ningning” by her friends, was on her last year in college in Mokpo National University, and was currently pursuing a degree in Fine Arts. Despite of the two years between them, they were close friends – and Ningning was included in one of the three people whom Jimin considered as real friends and trusted in good faith.

“Jimin unnie, is that you?” Ningning bear hugged Jimin as soon she reached her, lifting her feet off the ground due to great excitement which made the older girl struggled to breathe from the firm clasp. Jimin didn’t grumble about it for she knew it had been weeks since the last time they saw each other due to their busy schedules – but knowing Jimin’s personality, if other person did that same thing Ningning did to her, Jimin probably sent that someone to the hospital by a speeding ambulance, unconscious with a big black bruise around the eyes – the raven girl was not fond of physical affection at all… and so far, Ningning was an exception because the younger girl just loved doing it and she was her only best friend.

Ningning continued. “It’s a miracle that I see you in broad daylight. Is that really you?” she broke the hug as she squeezed Jimin’s face with both of her hands which made the older girl wasn’t able to stop her for the series of event happened in a speed of light. “Wait. Let me check if it’s really you,” the younger girl investigated, stretching every skin all around the older girl’s face.

“What?” Jimin asked in an uncontrollable pout due to Ningning’s squishing of the older girl’s cheeks which made the younger girl giggled how adorable her best friend was.

Jimin was famous in their neighborhood for having a cold innocent beauty for she’s merely intimidating on the grounds that she had this effortless bad girl appearance from the way she interacted with people and the way she expressed herself. Nevertheless, for Ningning, her best friend was the cutest and softest person in the world – completely contradicting of the way Jimin was perceived by many.

“Yup, it’s definitely you. You look mad always,” Ningning cracked up as she removed her hands from Jimin’s face. She embraced the older girl tightly as she acted like a big cute baby – in which she’s unquestionable good at – that was in need of great attention from her best friend so that Jimin won’t get mad at her tease.

“Hey! Do you want to die right now?” Jimin quipped, as she struggled to break free for she couldn’t grasp for air once more from the younger’s girl tight grip as Ningning had no intentions to let her go – where eventually Jimin gave in, smiling from the younger girl’s antics.

“Just kidding,” Ningning dissolved into making fun of her best friend as they broke apart and continued walking together. “Anyway, I miss you! Don’t you miss me?” she asked.

“Of course... not,” Jimin teased.

Ningning raised an eyebrow at her as she pouted. “Tsss– Stop playi