Hello, here the new chapter

sorry if there was a mistake in my writing

enjoy

July 2021

Jimin has had enough of Minjeong's lack of effort to comprehend her, even after she made her point very obvious to the round eye woman.

She doesn’t want to be bothered; she needed her own space, yet here Kim Minjeong is seated on the couch in her publishing company lobby.

Minjeong has been continuously dropping and picking her up from work since that day.

It was suffocating for Jimin. She felt like she was trapped in this Kim Minjeong world all over again.

Don’t get her wrong; Minjeong is not a controlling type, but... She's coming strong at Jimin, and being vocal about getting back after she left a huge trauma at Jimin is just...

It’s such a turn-off for Jimin.

She used to look at Minjeong like the round eye woman was the most charming person she had ever met yet. now...

Jimin feels like Minjeong is the most unattractive person in her eyes.

The sight of the woman is such an eyesore to her.

‘I found this new restaurant; they just –

‘No Minjeong, I want to go home’ Jimin cut her off.

She is okay with Minjeong picking her up since, no matter how many times she said no, Minjeong still appeared the next day, like yesterday's fight didn’t happen at all.

‘How’s work?’ Minjeong initiated another talk.

Jimin remained silent, arms crossed over her chest and eyes staring at the city scene through the car window.

‘Are you still looking for an artist for your illustration book?’ Minjeong asked another question.

The round eye woman doesn’t know when to give up.

….

This weekend, Jimin ignored all the text coming from Minjeong, who invited her out. She couldn’t take it anymore with Minjeong ignorant.

Jimin decided to stay with Ryujin this weekend so she wouldn’t come across Minjeong in the apartment lobby.

Here, she can relax… she doesn’t have to be in deep thought like when she was with Minjeong.

Ryujin makes her feel at ease. A feeling Minjeong used to provide for her in the past.

‘Shall we go out for a movie though? There is nothing to do at my place’ Ryujin suggested. ‘Unless you want to play with plushie?’ she joked, pointing at her belly.

Jimin burst out laughing, hitting the woman with a couch pillow. ‘Yah! You're losing your mind, aren’t you?’

‘From what I remember, you loved it that night’ Ryujin wriggled her eyebrows.

Jimin blushed. Averting her eyes away from Ryujin when memories of that night resurfaced in her mind.

They fell asleep on the couch; she is on top of her best friend with her hand under Ryujin's shirt.

It was purely unintentional; she was unaware since she's asleep.

It must be because of her muscle memories—a memory where that was her favourite position when she slept with Minjeong, which was always cuddling and finger-tracing Minjeong's abs. Sometimes her finger liked to play with Minjeong's underwear band.

Her eyes widen, and she gulps.

She didn’t do that with Ryujin, right?

Jimin questions herself, forcing her brain to recall the hazy state of her that night.

At the same time, she scolds herself for falling asleep. Ryujin is her guest, yet she let her best friend sleep on the couch.

‘Jimin ah,’ Ryujin nudged her elbow. ‘Don’t worry, I didn’t mind it.’

Jimin chuckled awkwardly, ‘Still, what if you find it uncomfortable…’

‘Like I said, I don’t mind.’ Ryujin shrugged, ‘now, shall we go out?’

….

They ended up lining up to buy movie tickets; it was an impromptu decision from Ryujin. Quoted that it would be a waste to stay indoors on Saturday night.

'Wah, the last time we went for a movie together was two months before CSAT.’ Ryujin reminisced.

Jimin nodded. She cannot deny the fact that it makes her feel giddy on the inside. It’s been a while since she goes out enjoying the outside world with someone, or with a friend.

She shut down her world completely after she broke up with Minjeong.

Jimin was able to get Minjeong out of her mind for just a moment until Ryujin bought popcorn.

Popcorn reminded her of Minjeong…

The first time she and Minjeong went out on a movie date. They couldn’t afford popcorn; Minjeong only has money for the tickets.

Jimin, remember she offered to buy since they were dating, there's no reason Minjeong should always foot the bill.

But Minjeong argued that Jimin needed that money for studying, and Minjeong felt bad for using it.

They didn’t buy popcorn that night, and Jimin is delighted enough just to watch a movie with Minjeong.

She was all smiling and giggling that night.

Jimin wonders: is that where everything started to go downhill for their relationship? Is it because she is overly excited for a movie date?

Did she unknowingly put Minjeong under pressure to take her out on a date like that afterwards?

Something pressing against her lips brought Jimin back to the present.

Ryujin, with popcorn between her forefinger and thumb, says, ‘Open up. You haven’t eaten any of it’ she whispered while feeding Jimin the popcorn.

The action caught Jimin off guard, but she can’t really refuse what her best friend offers.

This one too reminded Jimin of Minjeong… that round eye woman loves to feed her; they share food all the time.

There is this one time when they both run out of money because its at the end of the month, Jimin hasn’t received her allowance from her parents for the next month yet, and she is craving some shaved ice during the summer.

Minjeong scrapped her piggy bank, and they managed to buy one and share it.

Jimin remembers it the most delicious shaved ice she ever ate.

Not because of the person who made it, but because of the person she sat with and had it together.

Minjeong really adored and cherished her at that time… the round eye woman did everything to make her happy.

Jimin knew her day could never go wrong as long as she had Minjeong by her side.

One of the reasons why Jimin couldn’t let them go even after years of breaking up.

‘It’s good, right?’ Ryujin whispered, asking her about the popcorn.

Her best friend was able to pull her out of her trance once again.

In the dark, her eyes found a soft gaze. The way Ryujin stares makes her heart feel calm, and it pushes away her lost feelings because of Minjeong.

Jimin found her smile because of her best friend; she leans her body closer to Ryujin. Feeling like she wanted to stick with her best friend. Closer.

Things she found it comfortable to do it with Minjeong; now she is doing it with Ryujin, who is her best friend.

A part of her is relieved to have rediscovered her love for skinship. She refrained herself after dating Minjeong since Minjeong is a jealous type.

It's not like she linked arms with a man; it was just her female’s friend in college, but Minjeong hated it.

Minjeong was not like that before, during their high school... but the round eye woman gets easily jealous over nothing once they hit twenty-one.

This is the first time Jimin has learned she is truly free from Minjeong after years of separation.

….

Minjeong walked into the elevator while checking on the kakao text she just sent to Jimin.

The woman read her message five hours ago, but the recent one remains unseen.

She sighed, shoving her phone back into her jeans pocket.

The elevator reached the ground floor. She's about to walk out, but standing outside waiting for the elevator are Ryujin and Jimin.

Her eyes studied how Jimin was basically glued to Ryujin, but she shifted her eyes somewhere else fast.

‘Minjeong?’ Ryujin guesses calling her since she wore a cap a bit lower.

Lifting up her face and forcing out a smile, Minjeong felt like she was slowly stabbing a sharp knife into her skin when their eyes met.

‘Ryujin’ she bowed her head lightly and turned to Jimin, ‘Jimin.’ Then she walked out, passing them who had walked into the elevator.

Jimin regrets coming back to her place; she just arrived and already ran into Minjeong.

‘You guys look awkward now’ Ryujin pointed out as soon as the elevator door shut.

‘We lost contact for years, after Hana wedding… it just gets awkward for both of us.’ Jimin explained, she hides a lot of things behind her plain sentences.

Ryujin nodded, completely believing Jimin's words.

‘Yeah, it’s not like she got a phone back then to stay in touch with anyone. She makes it awkward for everyone at the table.’

Ryujin didn’t say it in a mocking tone; her best friend simply stated the facts about Minjeong's past life.

That round eye woman indeed didn’t have a phone until she turned twenty.

Jimin found it difficult to contact Minjeong when they were dating; most of the time, Minjeong went looking for her.

Sometimes after her church visit, sometimes a random night on weekend she received a phone call. Minjeong used a public phone to contact her.

Sometimes Jimin just finds Minjeong standing at the entrance of the orphanage where she did volunteer work.

That’s how they date in the past.

After moving out to Seou