Aeris Hilton: look how she massacred my boy

Aeris Hilton: [photo]

Jimin checked her notifications, tapping distractedly on the picture that Aeri had sent her. She’d half-expected some meme, but instead it was just a photo of Renjun, sitting apart from the other members of NCT and looking off into nowhere, slumped and soulless.

Jimin: she?

Aeris Hilton: your girl

Jimin: Minjeong?

Jimin frowned at the screen. What had Minjeong done? From what she’d said, she and Renjun had barely talked when they’d run into each other at SM. Besides, that had been days ago. Why would Aeri bring it up now?

Aeris Hilton: so you agree? Minjeong’s your girl?

She sighed. She wasn’t in the mood to do this with Aeri running interference, so she dialed her number despite the noise around her.

“What’s that I hear? Yu Jimin leaking Ningning’s debut single?” Aeri immediately asked upon picking up, probably hearing the cacophony across the line.

“You really need to brush up on your pop culture, because the song currently playing is seven years old.”

“That’s my blind spot. I only know stuff that came out twenty years ago or last week. So you’re not filming the MV?”

“No, just a fitting.”

“I don’t know why the music’s always so loud at those things.”

“I didn’t call you to complain about loud music like an old person.”

“Oh, sorry, sorry,” Aeri said without much feeling. “You wanted to talk about your girl.”

“She’s not my girl.”

“Not yet.”

Jimin pressed her lips together, a little uncomfortable with the topic. To be honest, she wasn’t sure about the two of them at all. She hadn’t heard from Minjeong since the botched movie-buddy date thing, and while she hadn’t really registered it at first, too busy catching up on sleep and trying to become a human being again, she was more or less back to normal by now and pretty sure that the silence had lasted a bit too long.

She was also pretty sure she’d made her own feelings clear enough, so shouldn’t it be expected that Minjeong should text her first? Wasn’t the ball in her court, or something? And was the absence of contact as accidental as it was on Jimin’s side, or intended as its own message?

Usually, Jimin wouldn’t find herself in these kinds of thought spirals. She liked to think she was a more straightforward type of person. But, honestly, she could see why Minjeong would want space. She could even see why the girl might be upset with her, despite her insistence that she didn’t blame Jimin for everything that had happened.

So, her plan so far had been to ignore the problem and hope it went away. She was certainly busy enough to keep at it for a while longer. But now here was Aeri bringing Minjeong up again, and Jimin second-guessing herself.

“What did she do?” she asked, trying to veer away from the thorny subject of her relationship with Minjeong and into the equally thorny subject of Minjeong’s relationship with Renjun.

“What didn’t she do! She didn’t tell you about it?”

“Just spit it out.”

“Okay, okay, you’re so grumpy today. Anyway, so last week, out of the blue, she contacts me saying she wants to meet Renjun.”

“To meet him? Like, in person?”

“Obviously I said no.”

“Obviously.”

“Very firm no. Unshakable. Couldn’t have gotten a pebble past my defenses.”

Jimin smiled despite her bad mood. “How long did she take to break you?”

“Let’s round it up to fifteen minutes. I don’t know why everybody keeps falling for that girl, she is nothing but a terrifying little ball of determination whenever we talk.”

“Some people are into that.”

“Oh, tell me more,” Aeri immediately latched on, and Jimin could picture every detail of the look on her face. She did miss working with her, all things considered.

“Absolutely, categorically no.”

“Boo, you .”

“One day you’re going to say that to someone who doesn’t get the reference and get into the funniest trouble of your life.”

“And you’re hoping so badly you’ll be there to witness it.”

“You know me so well.” She really missed working with Aeri. “Anyway, keep going. Minjeong met with Renjun because you’re spineless.”

“Thin ice,” Aeri warned, but she continued the story without further protest. “Okay, so she shows up to meet him and he’s all excited and she has this, like, grim look in her eyes. And she asks me to talk to him alone.”

“Obviously you said no,” Jimin guessed, playing up the sarcasm.

“I did, actually. I do value my job a little bit. Okay, so, I say no, and she looks at me and then at him like she’s reconsidering. And then I guess she makes up her mind because she launches into this whole speech. Guess what’s the first thing she says.”

“She knows Renjun likes her.”

Silence took over the line. Jimin had to assume she’d guessed it right, which did make her a little worried about the rest of the speech.

“Okay, that’s- I will be asking follow-up questions, but for now, let’s just keep going,” Aeri said, mercifully. “I will admit I was surprised. Renjun also looked very surprised. But also hopeful, which was so sad to witness. I know I shouldn’t feel bad considering what he’s done, but I do feel kind of bad for him. He’s like a sad wet little kitten.”

“Is he your poor little meow meow?”

Aeri made a sound halfway between a squeak and a giggle. “You know, honestly? Ning Yizhuo is having such a good influence on you. I love where your journey is taking you. I want to be her manager too.”

“Hands off, I got her first. Keep your sopping kitten or whatever. Anyway, hopeful Renjun, what happened next?”

She found that she was leaning forward in her chair by now, fully invested in the tale of whatever Minjeong had said to Renjun to leave him looking so defeated.

“What happened next was emotional evisceration. Like clean, surgical, ruthless. I’ve never seen anyone get so thoroughly dumped, and then raked through the coals for good measure.”

“She- What?”

“Well, she started by saying she didn’t have any feelings for him. Never did, never will, and she made it clear from the start, so it was really on him to get his head out of his and understand it. I’m paraphrasing. Her words were nicer, but this was the gist of it.”

“And then?”

“And then… Renjun asks… Why not.”

“Why not,” Jimin repeated, cringing in sympathy.

“Yes. I almost started laughing, which would have completely ruined the moment, but thankfully I masterfully turned it into a fit of coughing.”

“Is he a masochist? How is that the first thing that comes to mind?”

“I don’t know, but I’m glad it was, because it made her launch into yet another speech about how all his qualities mean very little when he is, at his core, a woman-hater.”

“She did not say woman-hater.”

“Okay, no, she said some stuff about how he slept with his fans and basically deserved all the trouble he got because that’s a big line that he was crossing like it meant nothing, and as charming as he might be that’s a no-no for her in terms of romantic attachments.”

“Smart,” Jimin could only say.

It was more than smart. It was… It was what she should have expected of Minjeong from the start, because she knew the girl wasn’t stupid, or even that gullible. It made her feel a little worse about joking about it with Aeri, about keeping the truth from Minjeong, and mostly about the terrible way in which the girl had ended up figuring it out. And now, not even two weeks after she’d found out, she’d already faced it, and ended things in a much more final way than either Jimin or Aeri had managed for much longer.

She should have just told her. As soon as she knew Minjeong meant more to her than just another girl on Renjun’s phone, she should have picked a side, and that side should have been the person she cared about, rather than the huge company with legal and financial power and more support than it deserved.

She really hoped Minjeong wasn’t upset with her. She hoped she hadn’t ruined things.

“That’s not all,” Aeri said, interrupting her gloomy line of thought. Jimin sat up at once. “She said she was disappointed. That he was so nice to her, and respectful, and thoughtful, that she could never think too badly of him. That she always assumed he’d treated all the other girls like that and that maybe, even if it looked bad, it wasn’t that bad. But it turned out he liked her. He was nice because he liked her. That was the worst part.”

“Minjeong…” Jimin murmured to herself, Aeri’s words giving her pause.

Was that what she had been thinking that day? Her whole opinion of Renjun, her favorite idol in the world, was shattering to pieces in front of her. And Jimin, the exact person who could have told her and never did, was too focused on blurting out her own feelings at the worst possible time.

“Then she told him she wished him the best, but she didn’t want to see him anymore,” Aeri finished, finally. “She also informed me that she won’t be meeting with anyone from SM anymore, she won’t be signing anything either, and we can sue her if we have a problem with that.”

“What about her chat logs?” Jimin immediately asked, focusing on the only thing that could possibly tie the girl to the company.

“She said we could shove it.”

“Paraphrasing again?”

“Hey, you can’t expect me to remember every word. She said she didn’t say anything wrong or illegal, so whatever, basically.”

“Well, it’s true,” Jimin pondered. “What’s the worst they can do? Expose her for talking to Renjun about his group’s music? It’d get him in too much trouble.”

“Honestly, it’s so low priority it’ll probably be gone with the next digital cleanup.”

Jimin sighed despite the assurance that SM would let Minjeong go scot-free. She felt a headache coming on, and it wasn’t just because she was being assaulted with the loudest, most distorted music known to man.

“Anyway, that’s my story. Renjun’s a broken wreck of a man, now. Hopefully he’ll cheer up before the comeback, because I’m not up for another round of rumors about him and Jungwoo being secretly mad at each other.”

Jimin chuckled. She didn’t miss those either, or the company’s insistence on everything from rearranging seating plans at fansigns to filming extra vlog content to counteract it.

“Now, spill,” Aeri carried on.

She frowned, confused by the demand. “Spill what?”

“Duh. How did you know that she knew about Renjun? And how didn’t you know about all this?”

“She figured it out when she came over to watch that movie,” Jimin admitted, focusing on the much easier first question. Normally she’d be more cagey with that kind of information, or at least make Aeri work for it, but right now she could actually use some advice. “And, um, she also figured out that we knew all along.”

“Like, on the date?”

“Date thing,” she corrected pointlessly. “Yizhuo stole her away while I was in a meeting and they ran into the guys.”

“Wow, I’m so glad you never told me this and I don’t have to get you in trouble for it.”

“Hey, snitches get stitches.”

“I literally don’t know why you’d say that to me when we’re not even discussing anything that could get you in trouble, because you never told me anything about it. The last thing I remember is you stating that it was a date in clear, unequivocal terms.”

“That is a very unreliable memory you’ve got there.” She hesitated, fingers drumming on her thigh before she carried on. “Anyway, she hasn’t said anything since.”

“Since running into Renjun? Which I was never told about, and still have no idea of,” Aeri added quickly.

“Basically. She told me she knew, we had the most excruciating conversation about it, then we watched the rest of the movie.”

Jimin cringed a little thinking back on it. Why in the world hadn’t she just taken the hint and run out? She supposed some part of her had hoped that Minjeong would say something, anything, if she stuck around. But then she hadn’t. Just more awkwardness, some strained goodbyes, and then… Radio silence.

“You watched the rest of the movie?” Aeri asked, sounding as confused by the choice as Jimin herself was and okay, fair question, but Jimin was not going to address it.

“Do you think she’s mad at me?” she asked instead.

“Yes.”

“I’m serious!”

“So am I. Thoughts and prayers. I’ve never seen her angry, but even her fake-mad was scary.”

Jimin slumped back in her chair and let out a pained groan. So Aeri thought she’d blown it too.

“Should I text her? Should I apologize again? Spaced repetition, that’s a thing, right?”

“Not in human relationships, I don’t think.”

“Well, it can’t hurt.”

She ran a hand through her hair, flicking it away from her face and twitching in frustration as some of it dropped right back in her eyes.

“I’d give it a shot,” Aeri said. “It’ll at least let her know how whipped you are for her, and how much she can expect to own your when you guys are dating.”

“That would be a plus?”

“Some people are into that.”

“Tell me less,” Jimin said at once, biting back the tiniest of smiles.

“One of these days I’ll get me a lover, and then we’ll see how much you want to know. At this rate, it’ll probably happen before you two get together.”

“At this rate,” Jimin repeated with a self-deprecating scoff. “The rate of zero.”

“I wouldn’t say zero, exactly. I think there were some signs.”

“Well, I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“Damn, at least try before throwing in the towel,” Aeri offered, which reminded Jimin that she hadn’t even told her the worst part. She supposed it explained Aeri’s optimism, for better or for worse.

“I did,” she admitted, shutting her eyes in a vain attempt to make the world go away. “Kind of. I said some stuff, I don’t know, she kind of blew me off. It was in the middle of the Renjun thing.”

“Oh.” A pause. “Oh, girl. Thoughts and prayers.”

“Not helping!”

“Well, give me a second, I’m readjusting my expectations.”

“What does that mean?” Silence. Jimin groaned again. “I’m doomed.”

“Okay. Okay. Look. Minjeong is… a weird egg. And she was in a weird place, which, by the way, you really need to work on your timing.”

“It wasn’t on purpose!”

“Then you need to work on your impulse control. Like, I love you, but that was an atrocious call. Anyway!” she said before Jimin could protest. “Normally I’d say cut your losses and let’s go get drunk about it, but given the extenuating circumstances, I’d give it one more shot.”

“Yeah?” Jimin asked with the full force of hope.

“But don’t text her an apology. Tone doesn’t carry through text and she’s hard enough to figure out in person. Ask if you can meet, and talk it out.”

“Right. Okay. That’s one option.” Jimin tried and failed once more to flip her hair into place. The tingles of hope were suddenly nearly indistinguishable from plain old nerves. “One other thing I was considering is-”

“’Ignore it until it goes away’ doesn’t work on bugs, and it won’t work on this either.”

“That’s rich coming from you.”

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

“You also say that if they wanted us to step out of it so much, they shouldn’t call it a comfort zone.”

“Fine. Die alone, then.”

Jimin sighed. She knew all her protests were just empty words. If Aeri thought she still had a shot, she was absolutely going to take it. Even if she was a little bit terrified of what might happen.

“If I don’t make it out alive, tell my parents I love them.”

“Should I also tell them you were taken out by the tiniest girl in the world?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s taller than you.”

“No!” Aeri gasped, sounding genuinely taken aback.

“She’s not that short, actually. It just feels that way, it’s like an optical illusion.”

“Make sure you work that into the conversation, she’ll definitely love it.”

“I’m hanging up,” Jimin said in a deadpan. Advice Hour was clearly over, and she wasn’t sticking around just to be mocked some more.

“Wait!” There was silence, as Aeri checked that Jimin wasn’t actually hanging up, then, “I’ll be rooting for you. Seriously, go get your girl.”

She smiled despite everything. It was good to know she’d always have at least one person in her corner, even if that person would also work in a good dose of teasing. It really was a shame they weren’t working together anymore. Maybe she could get Aeri over to the Yizhuo team too, if she pulled enough strings with enough patience.

For now, all she could do was follow Aeri’s advice and, fail or succeed, she’d at least know it wasn’t from lack