CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Unfinished Business

[ Jimin's. ]

[ 4 Months, 1 Week, 5 Days. ]

Well, a week went by and I have at least two good news so far.

First, Ate Irene and Ate Seulgi are already official, and I think my Ate also got courage to reveal her relationship to the public after our successful reveal two weeks ago. 

She even stayed here for a week—I that she's afraid of facing her father after Minjeong insulted him—and spent time with her lover as much as she could before leaving, and there is even a rumor that Ate Seulgi will move to San Lazaro some time later.

Secondly, I think bati na ata si Minju at si Chaewon. 

Chaewon still hasn't gone back to her job so I think she quit permanently, pero nag-uusap na uli sila when I saw them on the third day of the week—pero nabili na ata ni Minju yung isang unit sa BnB ni Aling Pacing—the one I used before.

"They're… unusually sweet," I commented one time while I'm putting ice over Minjeong's legs again, this time the last one since the bruises are already almost gone. "It's a little scary if they're just pretending."

"Kinausap ko na si Chaewon," my girlfriend said as she smiled at me appreciatively with what I'm doing. "Hindi ko alam kung anong trip nila, pero wag na sana sila magsakitan."

Third and lastly, I'm finding myself loving my Minjeong more as she's already my girlfriend. 

I mean, that's already expected, right? Kasi we have our label na—but gosh, she's continuing to give me her different sides and I find myself loving her for it.

Scenario 1, for instance.

She's so unnaturally clumsy. 

It's not even about her legs. When I'm watching her walk towards the kitchen, for example, there are times where she suddenly bumps into the table or trips on thin air. 

She glares at me as I laugh at her, but she trips again—I think hindi niya ako pinansin for an hour or two after that?

She only made pansin to me because I gave her a kiss—imagine if I didn't, then she would have sulked all day, oh gosh.

Scenario 2: 

Minjeong is very, very sulky.

I don't mind naman, in fact it's cute—I love making suyo with things that annoy her while she’s with me, and I love that she trusts me enough to voice it out and even trusts me enough to make sure her feelings are seen. 

It isn’t even “too much”, as I had often heard about people with relationships and their partners sulking like this—I just find it cute, and I know naman na things like these matter because I would know how to handle her if anything major happens. 

There was one time where I too much to the point that she’s almost crying nitong week na ‘to lang, to the point that she locked herself in our room and refused to go out for a while—five minutes—and Chaewon laughs at me as if her cousin being teased to tears is a normal thing. 

“Cutie,” I whisper, and she doesn’t answer at first. “Darling, will you let me in?” 

“...iinisin mo lang ako eh.” 

Natawa ako ng konti dun. 

“Darling, I wouldn’t.” 

Ilang segundo pa lumipas before I hear her voice again.

“Hindi naman nakalock.” 

I opened the door and saw her sitting comfortably on the bed, leaning at the headrest as she already has the comforter and the covers of our bed bunched up on her body since it’s already a little cold today. She has the remote control of the TV on her hand, and she’s silently flipping through channels but she already left a space for me to sit beside her. 

“What are you watching, my cutie?” tanong ko, but she doesn’t answer.

“Oh, Phineas and Ferb? Reminds me of something cute.” 

I tried to hide the urge to laugh as she whines and playfully hits her elbow on my midsection, since she knows exactly what I’m talking about. 

“Bakit nga ba nakita mo pa yung first time ko malasing?” she whines, and I try to encircle my hand around her arm and lean closer to her. 

“Because you love me?” 

“Truth, pero ewan ko sa’yo, Jimin.” natatawa niyang sabi, and I see her frown as she must have remembered something about that event. 

“What is bothering you, baby?” 

“Wala, hindi mo ako kiniss nung time na yun. Ewan ko sa’yo.” 

Just like that, she’s sulking again—the corner of her lip is slightly upturned, and I take it as a sign that she’s playing with me. 

“Cutie, I’m gonna kiss you every minute if that’s the way to make up for it.”

“Every minute?!” she exclaims, seemingly shocked about it. “Jimin, chumachansing ka na talaga.” 

“Are you saying you don’t want it?” Now, it’s my turn to playfully sulk, and she laughs as she places her finger underneath my chin and pulls me closer. 

We enjoy a short but sweet kiss as she pulls away first with a cheeky smile, but before I could even recover she pulls me close and kisses me again, a lot longer this time. 

“...who’s the one that’s chansing now, cutie?” I said, breathless as I moved to kiss her again, but she places a finger against my lips before it touches hers, and pushes me away. 

“I’m saying I want it,” she says, and with how she’s looking at me I just know that she’s not talking about just a kiss anymore. 

“Really?” I grinned, and before I could start another teasing with her, she already puts the covers on me and straddles my lap—I just know that I’ve turned red in front of her. 

“Don’t even try to tease,” she says in a hurried voice. “Come and get it, Jimin.” 

I smiled at her, pulling her in for a kiss. 

“Your wish is my command, baby.” 

(Let’s just say that the Phineas and Ferb cartoon was unwatched that day.)

Before I get derailed by… thoughts, there comes Scenario number 3. 

Minjeong is… well, how do I put this? 

She’s hot when she gets angry about people she loves and things she’s passionate about. 

I wasn’t there when she insulted Ate Irene’s father straight to his face, but I was there when she overheard people talking about me when we were buying some ingredients to cook in Mr. Kanor’s shop. 

“Napakagulo na ng San Juan nung dumating yung mayaman na nakikitira kela Seulgi, ano?” 

Hmm… Maybe they don’t know my face yet, or the fact that Minjeong’s living with me? 

In the corner of my eye I see Minjeong’s jaw twitch as she heard those words. She was about to in and scold these two gossiping young women but I kept a firm hand on my wrist, since we were still on watch with the reckless things we do that could cost us our newly built reputation. 

“Kaya ayoko ng mga dayo sa lugar natin eh. Masyadong magulo! Nako, narinig ko pati ata yung anak ni Mayor naimpluwensyahan pa ng babaeng iyon na lumayas mula sa poder ng tatay niya—” 

“Wala po kayong pakielam sa relasyon namin ng tatay ko at kung bakit hindi ako bumabalik doon,” biglang pagsabat ni Minjeong before I could even stop her. “If you have anything bad to say about my girlfriend, then say it to our face. Hindi yung nagiispread kayo ng kasinungalingan na gumulo ang San Juan nung dumating siya when there are other people who are causing that and not her.” 

Mabilis na umalis yung dalawang nagchichismisan when they got scolded by Minjeong, and even if those two were already long gone I could still see Minjeong fuming mad, so I paid for the groceries fast and gently pulled her away from the store. 

“Baby,” I called out to her as she’s still angry after the incident. “Baby, calm down. It’s just gossip—”

“It’s not just gossip,” inis na sabi ni Minjeong as she hurriedly took the other plastic bags filled with fruits and vegetables from my hand. “I don’t want the people here to badmouth you, Jimin.” 

I smiled at her, bumping my shoulder with her playfully as we walked as fast as we could back home since Minjeong and I are cooking for our friends today, the seventh day since we became girlfriends. 

“I don’t really care about that, you know,” I said as we entered the kitchen and we already started to prepare and cut the ingredients as we talked about it. “What matters is that the ones closest to us know the truth about us.” 

“Pero—”

“Ang cute mo pag galit ka, baby.” I said, laughing as I sliced the onions and garlic as neat as I could while she’s already slicing the meat into sizable pieces. 

“So dapat galit lang ako lagi?” she asks, playfully bumping our elbows together while we’re starting to cook some recipe that Minjeong saw in Youtube last night (she made me watch it until the wee hours of the morning). 

“Is that a trap question… or something?” I asked, and she laughed as the meat sizzled on the pan and she stirred the soup that she had already started cooking. 

“Just… asking? Ikaw, you’re cute when you make suyo for me.” 

I laughed at her. 

“Conyo ka na rin, baby?” 

“Bad influence ka daw kasi—ow!” 

I dropped the knife on the counter as I heard her exclaim in pain. My feet immediately take me to the first aid kit stocked in the bathroom and grab her hand, checking the wound at first at the tip of her index finger before dabbing an antiseptic wipe on it, wiping off the blood and disinfecting it at the same time. 

“Ow…” she whined, and I do my best to bandage the wound as neat as I could. 

“Luckily, it just broke the skin a little,” I said, kissing the bandaged finger like I remember my mother doing whenever I got my fingers cut when I played before. “Can you still cook? I think I can follow the recipe naman—”

“Okay lang ako,” nakangiting sabi niya as she picked up the knife again, and I studied her reaction closely to see if she’s just trying to hide her pain but she isn’t. “I’ve had a lot of cuts nung nagsisimula palang ako magpaturo kay Ate Seulgi magluto, so no worries.” 

We cooked in silence after that accident, and soon our friends were starting to arrive—Minju was the first one to do so, and she just smiled at us as she entered Chaewon’s room agad, like it’s her own. 

“Something’s happened with them,” I said, and Minjeong only laughs at it as she brings out a folding table from the storage room they had and puts it beside the dining table to extend it. “ I can feel it.” 

“Jimin chismosa,” she teased as she laughed. “I’m sure sasabihin naman ni Chaewon yun when the time comes.” 

We finished cooking two to three hours after we started preparing—I don’t really know how those people at restaurants could prepare food at a fast rate—and I was the one who served the food on bowls while Minjeong was tasked with calling our friends to go dito sa bahay.

I don’t really know why we’re celebrating like this; maybe because the war, as I think, is over. I even asked Minjeong to invite Jaemin over, since he never really did anything wrong and this was a chance to show him that we’re already together and he’s not going to do anything to ruin that. 

The only one I didn’t invite was Jeno, since I’m still mad at him for doing that to Minjeong and trying to ruin our relationship by that leak, which only backfired on him.