Minjeong was glad her last delivery of the day was at S&S. She stepped inside carrying two palettes in her strong arms, and a voice welcomed her the same second.

“Minjeong!”

She approached the counter and let the palettes on top of the marble surface with a heavy sigh. “Hey, Hyunjin.”

“I’m so glad you came, I have something to tell you!”

“Sure, but first get me something to drink, I’m thirsty. It’s so hot today.” Minjeong dropped to a bench, fanning her face with her hands.

“A cold coke with lots of ice and a slice of lemon?"

Minjeong chuckled. "Exactly."

Hyunjin winked at her and proceeded with it.

“First of all, how are you?” Hyunjin asked, setting the glass on the counter.

Minjeong took a couple of large gulps, a shiver running down her arms at the coldness and the gas of the drink. “I’m... I’m good.”

“Good, hm? How about that stupid silly grin on your face?”

Her cheeks warmed up. “I had a great weekend.”

“With Jimin.”

“Correct.”

“Tell me about it. I’ll be sorting the drinks you just brought, but I’m all ears.”

Minjeong checked the time on her phone, and she still had an hour until she had to go pick Yerim up at school after dance club. So instead of summarizing it, Minjeong told her all about the weekend, what they did, how fun it was, and how it ended. Hyunjin’s chin could reach the ground.

“Did Yerim really say that? To you two?!”

“She did.”

Hyunjin burst out in loud laughs, holding onto her belly. “Oh my god, I would pay to see your faces!”

“It may be funny to hear about it, but it was really... tense. I couldn’t react. Jimin dealt with it, as she always does when I freeze. But then we talked and she said she wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet as well... and I asked her if she wanted to have that responsibility. Okay, I lie, I didn’t ask, I literally just stated it.”

Hyunjin gasped. “And what did she say?”

“That it wasn’t about it. She said she was just overwhelmed because Yerim used the word mom, you know. And that she needed to think and... yeah.”

“I mean...” Hyunjin drummed her fingers on the counter. “You can’t blame her. Put yourself in her shoes. Suddenly a child turns to you and says ‘hey, I wish you were my mom’. It’s like, suddenly you got a child! I mean, you do have a child... so, imagine if you got pregnant again! It would be like, hey, you’re gonna have a kid! But then again, you already went through that, so I guess you can imagine the feeling.”

Minjeong looked at Hyunjin with a half frown, half laughing. “What are you even saying?”

“Who knows. But listen to me. Your fear is that she doesn’t want to? Or, what is it?”

“I don’t know it myself. She said, in her own words, that what the three of us have is what she imagined her future family to be. But then she reacted like that when Yerim said that.” Minjeong sighed.

“Girl, if she didn’t want to have anything to do with Yerim, she would have yeheeted the second you told her you had a daughter!”

Minjeong frowned. “She would have what?”

“Straight up dumped you! I mean, you know how lots of people are. Meet someone at night, maybe hook up and have , then one of them reveals they have a kid, and the other’s like ‘, no, I’m outta here’. And what did she do? She wanted to meet Yerim right from the start!”

Minjeong couldn’t help but laugh at Hyunjin’s antics, but she agreed.

“She literally considers you and Yerim family,” Hyunjin continued. “She always included Yerim in everything, even when she asked you to move in with her. She was really just surprised. It’s what I said, it’s like from night to day she got a daughter. It’s not like she doesn’t want to, she just needs to get used to the idea that Yerim may really see her as a mom now, therefore, that she is a mom now.”

Minjeong nodded. “Thanks, Hyunjin. I think you’re right.”

Hyunjin flipped her hair. “Of course. For real, don’t worry. Actually, if you think about it, hasn’t she been acting like a mom to Yerim all this time? Inviting her for ice cream and to do fun stuff, giving her gifts.”

“I guess so.”

Her phone lit up on the counter. She didn’t even notice the immediate grin showing up on her lips as she noticed it was a text from Jimin. She grabbed her phone and read the message. ‘How are you? Are you done with work?’

Messages like that were normal throughout the day, but now she always smiled when she checked her phone because she would look again at the picture they had taken at the beach. Minjeong typed a reply, and as she dropped the phone down on the counter, she found Hyunjin shaking her head at her.

“What?”

Hyunjin wiped a fake tear. “I’m happy for you, alright? And care to show me that pic?”

“Oh.” Minjeong’s face warmed up, but she still showed Hyunjin her wallpaper, and the girl squealed. “We took it yesterday. Jimin and Yerim have it as their wallpapers as well.”

“Gosh, I’m gonna vomit. That’s way too cute.”

Minjeong laughed and threw a punch at her bicep, laughing along. “What did you want to talk about, by the way? You seemed so excited.”

“Oh, right! It’s just... there’s this stupidly cute and gorgeous girl.”

Minjeong raised her eyebrows. “Do tell!”

Red dusted Hyunjin’s cheeks. “You know her...”

“What? I know her?”

“H-Heejin.”

Minjeong blinked, then it clicked. “Heejin?! From Jimin’s team?”

“Yeah.” Hyunjin did try not to smile too widely.

“But... that night, she was all smiles with Yizhuo.”

“Yeah, I remember. But then, that same night, after Yizhuo left, Heejin stayed. I guess there wasn't anything with Yizhuo, after all. And we talked a lot, and she insisted she would stay until the end of my shift, and since she hadn’t brought her car, I took her home, and-“

“Kim Hyunjin!” Minjeong gasped.

“Let me finish! Nothing happened! And what if it did? Didn’t you have with Jimin the night you met her?”

Minjeong cleared . “Right. You’re right, that happened. Okay, but, you took her home, and then?”

“And she said she wanted to meet me again. And we did. We went on a date yesterday.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Minjeong pretended to be oh so offended.

“I didn’t know how it would go! I didn’t want to raise my expectations, just to come and tell you it wasn’t good after all. But it was! We had so much fun, and she said that she would visit me here somewhere during this week, but she didn’t say when, so it would be a surprise.”

“Let’s hope she doesn’t bring her car so you can take her home again, then.”

“You’re right! I hope she doesn’t...”

Minjeong laughed and took more sips of her coke.

“Oh, by the way, there’s something else I wanted to tell you!” Hyunjin said. “Earlier, not long after I arrived for work, a woman showed up, looking for a Kim Hyunjin.”

Minjeong gulped. “W-What?”

“Right! Girl, I swear, I nearly pissed my pants when she said she was from the police, showing me her badge and all.”

“Was it Huh Yunjin?”

“Yes! Exactly! But in the end, she just asked me a few questions about the night you met Jimin, and about you two in general. Is it about the investigation?”

Minjeong sighed. “Yeah. Both me and Jimin went through an interrogatory as well. What did you tell her?”

“Well, the truth. That you met that night, and you didn’t even know each other before. She said she would ask for the CCTV footage then. She’s serious about this!”

“And I’m glad she is. She’s working hard on proving we’re not guilty of anything. Thank you, Hyunjin. I’m sure you helped a lot.”

“I’m glad I could help! What next?”

“We wait and hope this is all done, and fast.”

---

A/N - like I always say, is there a story of mine without 2jin? ahahaha

Twitter - @itzloonatic
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