"It smells soooo good."

Aeri whips her head around to look at Jimin. "What does?"

Jimin beamed at her, radiating such giddiness that you could feel her enthusiasm even behind her mask.

"This!" Jimin excitedly hopped towards Aeri, holding out the testers of the perfume that caught her nose. "Go on, go on, smell it!"

Aeri leans back, flustered at the small distance between them, before leaning in again, breathing in. Eyebrows rising, Aeri glanced at Jimin, who was looking at her expectantly with wide eyes that glimmered brightly at her. Coughing when she felt heat creeping up her neck, Aeri took another whiff.

Not exactly Aeri's cup of tea, but she could see why Jimin liked it. And the scent suited Jimin really well anyway.

“What do you think? I asked Minjeong a while ago and she told me that it smells good!”

“It does smell good,” replied Aeri vaguely, nodding her head as she leans back, pretending to look at the other items being sold in the store when in reality, she was thinking of what would be the best gift to give to the members.

They've already picked out which member they'll be the secret Santas to, and Aeri was Jimin's secret Santa. 

She knew exactly what Minjeong wanted (it's not like Minjeong would care about what kind of gift it is, because to her, 'it's the thought that counts'. Minjeong did once indirectly tell her to give her some snacks too if ever she was her secret Santa.

Yizhuo, Aeri knew, wanted fancy things. Jewelry, new designer clothes, new phones even when her phone was still functioning as good as new, you name it. It was either luxurious things such as those, or something as simple as new coloring materials that Yizhuo can use in creating new artworks and other stuff like that.

And Jimin...

If Aeri could give Jimin the whole world, she would.

She knew that Jimin would argue that Aeri didn't need to give her extravagant things because Jimin was the type to accept anything, even a small note containing a person's greetings to her, and be extremely happy about it. 

That didn't mean that Aeri shouldn't put any effort in picking out a gift for Jimin (or any of the members, really), since it felt wrong to not pick out an amazing gift for her.

But really- she might be Jimin's secret Santa, but that doesn't mean that she won't be giving Minjeong and Yizhuo their own gifts too. She knew that Minjeong's gonna about how Aeri's actually Santa in disguise, or how she's Giselle the Goddess of Generosity, but seeing all three members happy with their gifts would be worth the endless teasing.

Maybe Jimin's unnie instincts were starting to rub off on her now, she thought with an affectionate roll of her eyes, mindlessly walking around the store, thinking of what she could possibly give to Jimin as a gift.

—

Jimin was already skipping all around, excited to buy the perfume she wanted.

But then all of her plans were thrown out of the window when their manager says—

"No."

Like the bottle of perfume a customer accidentally dropped earlier in the store, Jimin's resolve comes crashing down.

"I'm sorry?"

"You can't buy more stuff."

Jimin blinked. 

"Can't I buy one anymore?"

"No."

"Pretty please, manager-oppa?"

"Still a no."

Tapping the glass door rapidly, the sleeve of the cardigan Aeri had bought for her a few days ago muffling the sound, she looked at her manager again.

"Even if there's a discount?"

"Even if there's a discount," repeated the manager firmly with an amused nod. "Karina, you've already spent a lot on the snacks you've bought for everyone – not to mention, you've gone on multiple shopping sprees yesterday with Ningning."

"But- But it's just one more item… Ning-ie and I were buying gifts for everyone! and I promise that I won’t buy anything more than that one perfume, that's all I'm buying," Jimin tried to reason with a small pout.

“No, Karina.”

She looked at him again and seeing that he had made up his mind, she stalked away, still pouting. 

Mood deflated, she was about to walk back to where her other members were at, unaware of the pair of eyes inside the perfume store that followed her every move, when she remembered something. 

She looked at her manager again and asked him to let her into the store again with the promise that she won't buy anything and almost ran back into the store when he (reluctantly) let her. She looks around the store and spots the very person she wanted to see.

“Aeri-ah!”

Jimin rushes towards her, nearly crashing into a shelf of perfumes as she hurried towards Aeri, whose eyes widen as Jimin gets down on her knees in front of her and with the testers of the perfume she wanted to buy in her hands, she holds them out in front of her as if she was proposing to a startled Aeri.

"Jimin, what are you doi-"

—

"Can you buy this for me, pretty pleas