The four of them were seated cross legged on the floor of NingNing’s bedroom with the window wide open welcoming the summer breeze in. If a parent walked in, they would’ve thought the teenagers were performing a seance with only the many candles of the Chinese girl lighting the room. 

“So…” Aeri started.

“...the new girl who moved in next door” Ning finished. Yesterday, Aeri and NingNing both claimed that they saw a massive Uhaul truck in front of the house next door and that there was a pretty blonde girl there, but Jimin didn’t believe them since she didn’t see any of it for herself (maybe it was because her family was out the whole day, but still).

“Why is it such a big deal”Chenle chimed in munching pringles. He’s NingNing’s cousin that would visit every summer break. His cousin dramatically gasps from beside him.

“Why is it such a big deal?” she repeated with an offended tone, “Oh dear cousin, you wouldn’t understand. Nobody new has ever moved into this neighborhood for the past 18 years of my life!”

“Right this is the rich suburbs we’re talking about, blondie’s family must also be well off”

Jimin stayed silent. 

“Jimin hasn’t seen them yet, maybe you should ring their door and give them baked goods?”

“What? No, why would I do that?” Jimin had no interest in entertaining her new non existent moved in neighbors.

“As peace offerings of course!”

“Why don’t you do it NingNing? You literally live right next door from them”

Chenle face palms very loudly “Why don’t we all give them a ring tomorrow all right? Jimin included since you wouldn’t believe them”

 

It’s settled, they will visit the new family tomorrow. Aeri and Jimin bid their goodbyes to Chenle and NingNing as they “dismiss” their “meeting”. As Jimin switches on the lights of her bedroom, she notices that the blinds of the neighbor across the street was wide open. So, Aeri and NingNing were actually right about that. Her lips parted when she sees a girl with blonde hair come to view. 

Oh, she’s pretty. 

 

Jimin walks closer to the window, about to close it when she sees the blonde girl lift the hem of her shirt. In an instance, she pulls the blinds down.

That was close.

But the image sequence of the girl kept replaying in her head. Frustrated, she slams the lights close and falls into slumber.

 

“C’mon Jimin, we gotta greet our neighbor”, NingNing practically pleaded to the older girl. As much as she wanted to see the owner of the blonde hair up close, her socially awkward would just be embarrassing herself. Oh plus, yesterday night’s incident.

“Is it really necessary? They’ll greet us themselves if they wanted to”, she protested but Aeri was already dragging her to the front door with Chenle trailing behind with a tray of freshly baked warm chocolate chip cookies.

“So what’s our game plan Ning?”, they stood in front of the double wooden door.

“Ring the bell and hope for the best?”, she answered hesitantly. They heard Chenle practically scoff at the answer.

“There’s only one car in their driveway, are they even home?”, Yizhou just awkwardly laughs and looks at them apologetically.

“Well, um I mean if they aren’t home now, we can try again later.”

Jimin reminds herself to never let Yizhou make any more decisions for the four of them. “Ugh, as if I’m going to agree to come with you again-” Before Jimin could continue, Aeri rings the bell once.

Then another time until they heard shuffling from the other side of the door. 

 

Oh , Jimin. Breath.

 

The door is opened by a dark-haired girl, maybe a couple of years older than they are. It’s definitely not the girl Jimin saw from yesterday. They all just stared at each other for a good 5 seconds before Yizhou spoke up.

 

“Oh! You’re so pretty!”, Aeri rubs her temples when she hears the words slip out of the Chinese girl’s mouth as if she wasn’t thinking the same thing. “Oh oops- well. Sorry for disturbing you, new neighbor, but we all live around you. Well, except for this one” she says pointing to Chenle. “I’m Yizhou, but you can call me NingNing!”

“Hey, I’m Aeri”

“Uh hello, and I’m Jimin”

“Chenle”

 

The girl before them blinks a few times before breaking into a beautiful smile, retrieving the tray practically shoved in her face. “Hey! It’s so kind of you all to welcome us, I’m Taeyeon. My parents are away right now, but my younger sister...YAH KIM MINJEONG!” They see a girl pop her head from a doorway. “Come here, kids probably around your age brought us cookies” Then the girl fully comes to view when she strides towards them.

 

Jimin couldn’t help but stare. Minjeong’s hair is down like earlier, but an oversized hoodie engulfs her body with what seems to be shorts (but Jimin could barely see it because of the size of the hoodie) and her proportionate legs are on display. Jimin almost stumbles when her eyes reach up to the girl’s face only to meet her questioning amused look towards her. The raven-haired girl averts her eyes to the plate of cookies.

“These are our kind neighbors, they brought cookies for us”, Taeyeon says, encouraging the blonde girl to say something. But the thing is, she doesn’t, at least not for a while. She grabs a cookie from the plate and takes a bite, while the guests hesitantly stare expectantly. 

 

“Is she not gonna ing say thank you? Or introduce herself?”, Chenle whispers from behind. Taeyeon suddenly gasps, the sudden movement causing everyone to flinch.

 

“Oh my gosh, I forgot I have a discord call to attend to”, Minjeong rolls her eyes at her sister’s carelessness, “Minjeong, be nice to them and make friends. Thanks again for stopping by and I leave Minjeong to the four of you!” She bolts, leaving hem and a tray of cookies.

 

“So, Minjeong…” Aeri tries to converse. Instead of saying anything once again, Minjeong just eyes them one by one. Jimin could tell NingNing was starting to get nervous from the tense air, and all Jimin could conclude is that Minjeong is an . From the corner of their eyes, it looked like Chenle was going to have an outburst until they heard a stifled giggled that turned into melodic laughter from the blonde. 

“Huh?” NingNing blinks in confusion. From their 10 minutes interaction, Jimin has only seen Minjeong with an unreadable unimpressed face, so she let out a relieved sigh knowing the other girl had more than one emotion.

 

The laughter dies down as Minjeong is clutching her stomach trying to calm herself. “Ah, sorry I just found it so funny how you all reacted”, she sheepishly says. “I couldn’t help but attempt to make an intimidating first impression”

 

“Well it worked”, Chenle scoffs. 

 

“Clearly” she grins “Well I’m Kim Minjeong, surprisingly lived for 18 years and it’s a pleasure to meet you all”

 

“Oh! We’re 18 too!”, Yizhou jumps onto Minjeong for a hug causing the other to flinch from the contact but resipricates it anyways with a reassuring pat on her shoulder. 

“Quit lying Ning, Jimin and I are 19”, scoffs the Japanese girl. Then they all re introduce themselves again as if Minjeong hadn’t already heard them from the other room. “Hey why don’t you hangout with us for a day?”, Aeri suggested. Jimin frowns because they never planned this with their “say hi to the neighbor plan”.

 

“Where to?”

 

“How about getting boba and heading to the beach?” Well, Jimin had to admit, she did want to get to know the other girl so this was okay, right? Minjeong hums, pulling a thoughtful frown that totally did not make the raven girl smile.

 

“Like… right now?”

“Why not?”

“Well, all right then. Let me just wear something under my hoodie”. Then she laughs at Chenle’s disgusted reaction to the TMI. 

 

They wait in Aeri’s jeep for Minjeong. From the car, Jimin could see the girl’s blinds open. 

For ’s sake, she better not be flashing the whole neighborhood again.

But before she could stop herself, she wonders what would have happened if she just delayed closing her very own blinds last night. Ugh, Jimin no. Bad thoughts.

The small girl runs out of her house practically wearing the same things from earlier. She wedges herself in the 5 seater beside Jimin. She feels the space between them close when she feels Minjeong’s hot breath to her ears.

“Jimin”, she whispers, calling for the other’s attention as if it wasn’t already on her. The taller girl swore her heart jumped out of her chest when she heard her very own name come out of Minjeong’s pretty lips. Jimin just hums, encouraging her to continue because she was afraid she would stutter. “You smell good, which perfume do you use?”

“Oh, Channel’s latest collection. I’m not even going to attempt to pronounce the french words”, she applauds herself for forming proper words. Minjeong nods, dragging her eyes down to the taller girl’s plump lips.

“And your lipstick?”, Minjeong asks again, darting her eyes back up.

“Givenchy”, this earns another nod from the girl, turning her attention to the car window. Jimin pouts from their short interaction, little did she know Minjeong was smiling from her reaction as she saw it from the window’s reflection. 

“It suits you”, not taking her eyes from the scenery, she adds, “the lipstick, but everything would suit you with a face like yours”

Even if a warmth began creeping to her face, Jimin felt giddy after hearing the compliment. “Pft, quit flattering me. We just met today, it’s not fair if you make me fall for you” Minjeong laughs at this.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind you falling for me” she yawns, leaning against the window. “Gonna sleep, wake me up when we get there, Jimin”

 

Huh? Falling for Kim Minjeong, is that what’s happening now? She just met her today, well, but she saw her yesterday. But Jimin couldn’t deny it, there was chemistry between them, maybe even tension? Maybe it’s just admiration for the girl’s personality, maybe lust? It wouldn’t be bad to crush on the girl, Jimin was still confused about her uality so she identifies as straight for now. She hasn't had a crush on a guy in a while, and she was definitely physically attracted to females but can’t a girl just admire?. She can’t help but to feel scared about having feelings for someone though, the last time she had one was Cher from Clueless and that doesn’t even count. 

Jimin hears Minjeong’s soft breathing indicating she was fast asleep, and she’s glad that Ning and Uchinaga are happily immersed in their conversation, so she buries her blushing face in her hands quietly screaming. She notices Chenle’s teasing eyebrow raise and smoochy face.

 

She shoots him a glare, “Shut up Zhong”

The boy laughs, “I didn’t even say anything to your whipped ”

 

The fresh salty sea scent made it’s way into their noses as they got out of the Jeep. Aeri was loudly sipping on the last drops of her matcha drink as NingNing pulled over her oversized shirt and ran towards the water screaming like a child. 

Chenle plugs his ears “I swear she’s on something 24/7”

“So NingNing is always like that?”, Minjeong questions. In unison, the remaining 3 say yes. “I like her” This causes Aeri and Jimin to flinch, but the shorter girl doesn’t notice and runs to where Yizhou was in the water. Before she actually gets in though, she pulls down her track shorts and hoodie revealing a 2 piece bathing suit.

 

“S-she meant that in a platonic way right Jimin?”, Aeri was clearly malfunctioning from the girl’s response. 

“I don’t know… I can’t seem to read her”, she responds honestly. But it did seem more platonic, but you can never know right?

“Can you ask her later?”

“What? Why me? You know I don’t like confronting people”

“It’s just a question though”

“Why don’t you do it if it’s just a question” 

 

The Japanese girl just runs off to join Minjeong and Yizhou, sending Jimin a wink. The three other girls were laughing and splashing water, with an occasional drowning each other below the water. Taking off her zip-up sweater, Jimin plops laying on the sand underneath a giant umbrella. Chenle was under a separate umbrella playing Pubg, so Jimin didn’t want to disturb him. She was about to completely doze off, until she hears a movement shift beside her. Opening her eyes, she sees Minjeong take a place beside her.

 

“Are you done playing in the water?” The latter tries to make herself comfortable over her sweater.

“Yeah, scared Aeri and Ning are going to actually drown me” Jimin grins at her answer. “This place is pretty” She turns to Jimin. “My old place was in the actual city, so I didn’t get to see this kind of environment a lot”

The city, Jimin thought. The city wasn’t too far from their neighborhood, but still, why would she move away from the city?

“Why did you move?” 

“Hm, oh. Parents thought it was a good idea to move away from my high school friends, I was caught up in drama with them” Jimin mouths an ‘o’, not knowing how to respond to the question. “Are you going to uni, Jimin?” University was something on Jimin’s mind constantly.

“Yeah, for bio. Hoping to be in the medical world. How about you?”

“I wasn’t so sure before, but maybe architecture?” The raven haired girl would have never guessed the other to want to be in that field due to her carefree nature. She just stays quiet, letting the breeze and NingNing’s loud laughter be the only thing flying in her mind. Ah right the question.

“We were just curious”, she emphases the ‘we’, “what you meant when you said you liked Yizhou” the question clearly put MInjeong in a thoughtful frown. 

“I meant that I liked her personality. She seems like someone I would get along well with. Similar vibes in a way? Maybe minus the constant yelling, but yeah. I like her” 

Jimin releases the breath she was holding. So it’s platonic, she should have known. NingNing did give off the younger sister vibe, except for when she’s with Aeri of course. 

“Aeri also likes her right? So I wouldn’t want to get in between anything they have” the comment surprises the other girl.

“How did you know that?”

“Jimin” she deadpans “my gaydar is going off”. Jimin stares blankly at the other girl. She’s not straight? So, I have a chance..Jimin stop.

“You’re… not straight?”

“Bi” Jimin blushes from the idea of possibly having a chance with Minjeong, but she would never say anything out loud though because it seemed like Minjeong really did just have a flirty nature. “And you?” Jimin wasn’t sure what would happen if she said she was straight. Would this thrill of flirting with each other end. Jimin didn’t really like guys anyway, so what’s stopping her. Before the raven-haired girl could answer, Aeri and Ning grabs both of them up.

“Come on Chenle, let’s take a photo!”

 

The car ride back home was just filled with NingNing and Minjeong screaming the lyrics of some random pop song on the radio, and it made Jimin smile nothing less. 

 

Minjeong couldn’t sleep. It was midnight already and she’s been spending the past hours laying on her bed thinking of a specific person. It’s already been a couple weeks since she’s befriended Yizhou, Jimin, Aeri, and Chenle (who went back to where he lived). She buries her face on her pillow, then looks at her phone.

Should I call Jimin?

Sitting up from her bed, she peers over to her window to find the lights of the other girl open, so she dials the other’s number. After two rings, she brightens up after hearing the deep voice from the other line. 

 

“Minjeong?” Jimin’s voice has always calmed her down.

“Hey” she breathes out. She wasn’t exactly sure why she chose Jimin out of all people she could have called. She sees her literally every day.

“Why are you still awake? It’s really late” I was thinking of you.

“Couldn’t sleep, how about you?” not entirely a lie.

“Binging movies”

“But we’re going to do that tomorrow at Aeri’s sleepover” Right, the four of them were sleeping over at Aeri’s house just for fun.

“I’m watching romcoms, you know that Ning is somehow going to convince her to pull up horror movies” Minjeong laughs at her comment because it was so true. 

“Ha, right. Well, look out your window” Then she sees Jimin’s pretty face from across the street, she waves at her and sends her heart fingers.

Jimin scoffs, but Minjeong could clearly see the smile on her face. “Pft you’re a dork, Kim Minjeong” 

“You like it though”

“Sure, whatever you wanna think. Goodnight Minjeong”

“Goodnight Jimin”

 

“Jimin, why the hell does it look like you’re dozing off already? You just got here!”, NingNing was already in her sleep attire with space buns, Aeri was filming tik tok dances, while Minjeong was on her way. 

“Ugh, I’m not dozing off, just getting comfy” it’s past dinner, which they had in their respective houses. 

“Why isn’t Minjeong here yet anyways?”

“NingNing, be patient, she's only 10 minutes late” Aeri pointed out, but Jimin thinks that’s pretty late in her own standards. She lives across the street, maybe 5 minutes was understandable but 10?

As if she was reading Jimin’s mind, Ning says “She lives basically across from you! She has nothing to be late for!”, the Chinese girl was flailing and stomping like a child, only to be stopped by Aeri’s hugs. Finally, though, they hear a doorbell ring and Jimin was the first to dash to the door. Once opened, the door revealed Minjeong in track shorts and a black hoodie, like her usual attire during summer nights. Yizhou arrives beside Jimin with crossed arms and a pout present on her face.

The blonde girl nervously laughs “Sorry I’m late?”. Jimin of course could never be upset at the other girl, but she couldn’t say the same for NingNing. That girl holds grudges sometimes, like before in high school when Aeri and Jimin went on an ice cream date and Ning got upset because she wasn’t invited. The girl had work that day, WORK. 

“And why are you late miss Kim Minjeong”, Yizhou questions, eyeing her up and down. Minjeong knew this question was coming and it was unavoidable. 

“Well, miss Ning Yizhou… I-” she pauses and the suspense was suffocating “oh nothing” she says as she runs past everyone darting for Aeri’s bedroom. However, poor Minjeong was tackled by the three of them and cornered to one side of Aeri’s room.

“Minjeong, spill”, Jimin tries her best to glare at the girl.

“You better start explaining why there was another car in your driveway”, Aeri’s statement clearly caught the girl off guard. She heaves a sigh and raises her arms in defeat.

“Fine, my most recent ex came by and wanted to talk” Ning’s face softened as if she wasn’t shooting lasers out of her eyes seconds earlier.

“And what did they want to talk about?” Jimin jabs the girl’s waist after hearing the prying question.

The blonde girl looks at everything but the people in front of her. “She… wanted to get back together” Jimin scoffs at the audacity of Minjeong’s ex.

“Your answer was?”

“No, of course. I told her I was interested in someone else anyways” They back away from the girl, giving her space. Minjeong has never talked about her exes to them before, but it was a relief that she trusted them enough to at least talk about it a little bit.

“Hey let’s watch the movie now so we can have midnight snacks, yes or yes?”

 

Yoo Jimin was barely focusing on the movies in front of them, Midsommar. The choices were between Us, the Human Centipede, the Nun, and Midsommar, and the last option was the most bearable one for Aeri and Jimin. But how could she focus when Kim Minjeong was breathing down her neck with their legs entangled together. Jimin hopes that the rapid heartbeat the other hears is from watching a freaking movie than their extremely close proximity. They were at a terrifying part of the movie, so Jimin tears her eyes away from the screen and to Minjeong, who was in fact still watching the movie. The raven-haired girl shuts her eyes tightly as she was still hearing the noises from the living room flat-screen TV. 

“Hey you good?”, she hears Minjeong whisper, and just like that the sound from the TV dies down as it’s replaced by her heartbeat when she opens her eyes to see possibly the prettiest girl she knows. Minjeong’s lips were as close as they can be, and her urge was being encouraged by the other’s hands drawing comforting circles on Jimin’s thighs. 

Jimin shuts her eyes again, suppressing the impulsive thoughts in her head. “Yeah I’m fine” she breathes. Minjeong finally turns her head to her.

“Are you sure? You’re feeling a little warm unnie”

Yeah, and it’s because of you.

“Don’t worry I’m fine”. Minjeong gives her a dimpled smile at the response, and Jimin totally did not swoon. 

Kim Minjeong, I’m about to detonate and it’s all going to be your fault.

 

As confident as Minjeong was on the outside, she did not know what the hell she was doing here watching a movie with 3 friends she knew she could trust, one of them being someone she would totally make out with. But Minjeong already knew and accepted her urges were way more than just lust, she actually really admired Jimin. So here she was, looking up at the girl from her position on the other’s shoulder, watching the girl frown at whatever it was on the screen. And that damn mole underneath her red lips, she’s never felt so sure to do something about her feelings ever since her decision to break up with Lia. 

 

Minjeong didn’t notice the credits already playing on the screen, as she felt movement shift beside her and it was Jimin excusing herself to answer a call from her cousin. NingNing and Aeri smirk seeing the blonde girl’s eyes trail on the girl walking away.

“You like her don’t you, Minjeong?” Aeri questions, the smirk not leaving her face. Minjeong, chokes on nothing and gapes at the two girls.

“What? Why would you say that?” 

“Unnie, you didn’t answer our question” The question did catch the girl off guard, but she was to expect it from them someday anyways.

Minjeong huffs and crosses her arms “And what if I said I did?”

“Then that’s great, about time you admitted it yourself out loud to us” Aeri’s answer did relieve her, she expected more pestering from the two.

“Well, what are going to do about it unnie?” What was Minjeong going to do about it? She hasn’t thought that far ahead. 

“Not sure, maybe nothing? I don’t know how she feels about me”

“That’s exactly why you should confess!” states NingNing as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Do you want to be in a relationship with her?” She doesn’t answer Aeri’s question, so Aeri continues. “Would you be ready for a relationship?”

Right, Minjeong was sure she wanted to do something with this feeling. “Yes”

“Yes? To which question”

“Both”

“I know you’re our friend, but don’t hurt Jimin. She’s very passionate about things she take interest in” Aeri recalls a time early in highschool when she was so adamant on making it to the volleyball team that she would wake up earlier in the morning and practice her digs. 

Minjeong laughs “Don’t worry I would never” 

“By the way Minjeong, why did you and your ex break up? Oh only, if you’re comfortable with telling us”

“We just lost interest, it was natural as we were in different friend groups”

“And, so now she wants you back?”

“Yeah, she said she felt the lost only after I was actually gone”

“That’s BS”, Jimin says, leaning against the door frame with her phone in hand. 

NingNing just got a great idea, and Aeri could see that she was scheming in her head. Aeri eyes her suspiciously, but the chinese girl just shoots her an ‘ok’ sign.

“Aeri unnie and I are going to prepare pudding, why don’t you two go to the convenience store to pick up some snacks hm?” 

Jimin beams at the suggestion “Sure, let’s go Minjeong” Aeri takes the opportunity of Jimin running off to the front door, to whisper to the blonde girl.

“Confess if you can right now, alright?” 

“I’ll try”

 

It was nearly midnight when Minjeong and Jimin arrived at the closest 24/7 convenience store, a couple blocks away from their neighborhood. They picked out 6 cans of pink pringles and were on their way out. 

“Are you cold?” Jimin notices Minjeong shiver slightly under the exposure to the breeze in her shorts, so she does grabby hands to the short girl.

Minjeong rolls her eyes at the girl’s nonsense “What are you a child?” yet she takes the hand in hers.

“You calling me a child because I’m cute?” Jimin teases, and Minjeong’s disgusted face was worth the aegyo. “I am though, right?”

“Fine, yeah, adorable” The taller girl’s face lights up at the response, tightly her hold on the girl. They were mid way to Aeri’s house when Jimin feels the girl stop walking, so she turns to her in confusion. “What’s up?”

“Have you ever dated?” 

What’s with the question, Jimin thought. “I have once before” she glances at the girl adding “in highschool”

“Are you straight?” Jimin raises her brows at the question. If Jimin said yes, what would the other girl say? 

“Yes”

 

Her brain was going haywire, Minjeong did not think this through. She’s straight? Then what the hell, it’s over before it even began. This situation was never happened to her, well mostly because other confessed to her first but what the actual . All the effort in getting to know this girl is lost, because of your .

Think Minjeong. Say anything.

 

“If you’re straight, then kiss me” she dumbly blurts out, but from Jimin’s end she probably sounded serious. Minjeong, you screwed up this time. The raven-haired girl just gawked at her.

“W-what?” Jimin was flustered and confused. The heat creeping to her cheeks because who wouldn’t at a request like that.

“Kiss me” Minjeong shut the hell up before you ruin it more, she tells herself “I-I mean if you’re straight then this kiss will be nothing but platonic right? Like uh no feelings? Just between friends right? Since you’re straight and all” Minjeong rambles on about why Jimin should kiss her and she finds it cute. And to her surprise, Jimin grabs a hold of her chin, angling it up to look directly at her orbs.

“Shut up”

“Excuse m-?” but Minjeong couldn’t finish her sentence as she felt the touch of Jimin’s lips on hers. Melting into the kiss, she snacks her arms to the girl’s neck pulling her closer. She could no longer feel the cold under this girl’s spell. Minjeong feels Jimin’s mouth open inviting her in, and she opens her eyes, quirking her brow at the girl but slides her tongue in anyways. When they finally need to breathe, they pull apart. 

“Jimin, you said you were straight but what the hell was that” Minjeong’s arms still around her neck. Jimin flushes red and buries her face onto her shoulders.

“Well, clearly I’m not” she mutters. The blonde hums.

“Well, you know what else is clear?” Jimin curiously looks at the girl, waiting for her to continue. “That I badly want you” Minjeong grins. 

Jimin laughs at how cheesy the girl was and the turn of events the night ended with, “You’re a dork” pulling away, she looks deeply at the blonde girl’s piercing eyes “but I want to ing kiss you”

“Then kiss me”

Kim Minjeong was indeed going to make Yoo Jimin detonate.