"You went out on a date and you didn't even tell me?" Bom asked.

"I thought we were supposed to be working out together? I'm the only one who's doing anything," Minji complained after finishing her thirty push-ups. She only had a minute to rest before the next interval of her workout began.

"I just bought this workout outfit and I really wanted to show it off,” she said, pushing her s out in her new, hot pink tank top. “And that’s not the point. The point is that you went out a date with, who Chaerin tells me, is the iest man on Earth.”  

“It wasn’t a date. And he’s not that great looking.”

“Lies, Gong Minji, lies,” Bom purred.

Minji went back stretching her legs. Today was her first day off from the company after working for nearly two weeks with 28Dolls. The job was exhausting, trying to keep up with the girls' constant mistakes and tears. There was too much estrogen in the room with only Kai there to even out the tension. Even though Hyoyeon and Minji grew so frustrated each day, he stayed calm and collected, a smile always on his lips.

           “Do you have a picture of him?” Bom asked, attempting to stretch but gave up when she couldn’t reach her feet.

           “Why do you and Chaerin always need photographical proof?”

           “Because you choose bad men!”

           “I do not!” Minji said, slapping Bom’s hand away when she tried to poke her side.

           “That Jin guy? He only had ten teeth!”

           “Shut up, Jin was really sweet,” Minji defended. “And he had more than ten teeth.”

           “Anyway, why don’t you make a move on this? It’s been almost two weeks and you won’t even show him your s.”

           “Shut up, Bom.”

           Minji got back up and started doing crunches while Bom ate a Snickers bar. “And two, I’m way too ugly for him.”

           Bom hit Minji’s head. “You are not ugly!”

           Minji rubbed the wounded area, “It hurts.”

           “As it should. Now you know that can’t nobody touch you? I don’t care what you think about yourself, but you are beautiful.”

“Go away,” Minji said.

“Now I am the best, but you’re pretty awesome too. You have to believe in your own beauty, Minji, or nobody else will.

Minji grunted.

“Do you love me?” Bom asked.

“I love you.”

“Then listen to me. You’re falling in love, I can tell. And I’ve already predicted that you and I aren’t going to be lonely this year. We’ll come back home with boyfriends,” Bom mused, pushing her face onto Minji’s.

“I hate you and I’m leaving,” Minji said, pushing Bom away from her.

“Please don’t go!” Bom pleaded.

“I’m busy.”

           “I’m already missing you!” Bom yelled, waving frantically.

           After leaving Bom alone at the gym, Minji decided to reward her hard work with a supersized vanilla milkshake. She walked into her favorite ice cream shop when she saw, of course, Kai.

           Bull, Minji thought.

           The ringing bells in the shop alerted Kai to her arrival. She pretended not to notice him sitting in the corner writing in a journal. She could see Kai get up from his table and walk towards her from the corner of her eye.

“Hey there Minji. I didn’t think I’d see you here.”

“Yeah, I’m just here getting my…” Minji quickly scanned the menu for the healthiest thing on it, “my Wheatgrass Vegan Ice Dream.”

Kai nodded his head. "Sounds tasty."

"It is. You can taste the dirt in every sip."

Kai smiled. “Why are you drinking it if it tastes so bad?”

“I have to get pretty before I hit thirty.”

“Why thirty?”

“Because if you’re not cute by thirty, then you never will be.”

“Well I think you’re beautiful now, so I don’t think you really need to worry about that,” Kai said quietly.

Heat engulfed Minji’s face and she looked at her old Skechers. “You’re just being nice.”

“Hyoyeon and I are hanging out with some friends, and you should come with us," Kai offered.

Minji shook her head no. "I shouldn't impede on you and your friends."

"Come with us. It’ll be fun. And I’ll buy you something that tastes better than that wheat vegan bull.” Kai pointed to the cup the cashier had just handed her.

Sadly, Minji had always been easily persuaded by the promise of free food.

The smells of oil and chicken frying filled the tiny restaurant in the center of downtown. Kai had led Minji down a few blocks till they stopped in front of Mr. Cluck Cluck’s.

“The name is dumb, but the chicken is delicious,” Kai said as he opened the door for Minji.

The sounds of oil popping and orders being yelled to the chef penetrated Minji’s ears. The place didn’t look or feel any bigger than her apartment, but there were still a lot of people inside. It was somewhat dark, with a few dim lights on the ceiling lighting the building. The walls had faded yellow wallpaper with little chickens on them. Kai grabbed Minji’s hand and led her to the back of the restaurant where Hyoyeon and a couple of other guys were sitting.

Hyoyeon waved frantically at Minji, “I didn’t know you were coming! Now it’s not just me and the boys!”

Minji pulled a chair out next to Hyoyeon while Kai sat in the chair next to herself and another guy at the table. When she looked at him, the word “squishy” came to mind, but she wasn’t sure why.

“Minji, these are my friends Chanyeol, Onew, and Kyungsoo,” Kai said.

Minji greeted them. Chanyeol and Onew said hello while the Kyungsoo one just glared at her.

“So how do you know Kai, Minji?” Chanyeol asked.

“Kai, Hyoyeon, and I are all choreographers at the same company.”

Chanyeol nodded his head. “You know Kai is a beautiful, graceful dancer. Used to be in ballet too. I love how great a dancer he is. He not only has great technique, but you can tell he feels it in his soul.”

And for at least fifteen minutes, Chanyeol explained how fantastic Kai was at everything. Kyungsoo took his glare off of Minji and onto Chanyeol. Kai and Onew seemed to be in trance as they looked at other people’s chicken.

Hyoyeon looked extremely bored and leaned over to Minji. “He does this every time Kai and him are in the same vicinity.”

“So Kai,” Kyungsoo said loudly, successfully shutting up Chanyeol, “when does the little girl group debut?”

“March 1st.”

“AKA the day I have to find a new job,” Minji joked.

Kyungsoo perked up. “You’re leaving then?”

“My contract ends that day. Technically I can stay, but they won’t pay me.”

Kyungsoo smiled.

“That’s two months away though, so no need to worry about that,” Kai said, patting Minji’s hand on the table. Kyungsoo’s furrowed eyebrows and frown came back.

Their chicken finally came to the table. Minji apparently hadn’t heard that six whole chickens were ordered.

Minji leaned over to Hyoyeon. “Is this not a lot of chicken?”

“No. By the time Kai and Onew finish, they’ll probably be about five pieces for the rest of us. They devour everything.”

“I devour nothing,” Onew said in between bites of the fourth leg he’d eaten in the five minutes since the chicken arrived.

It truly was amazing to see two people so skinny consume so much food. Hyoyeon managed to steal a wing and a thigh from Onew’s plate. Minji took the wing from her and bit into it. The meat was tender and juicy with a perfect breading to chicken ratio. It was seasoned beautifully with something she didn’t taste often on chicken, cumin, possibly. It was free of excess grease that many chickens were so often plagued with. Minji knew deep in her heart that this was what heaven tasted like.

“Delicious isn’t it?” Kai asked.

“I didn’t know you could fall in love so quickly.”

Kai gave her a . “Have another.”

Everyone at the table suddenly gasped.

“In all my years of knowing you Kai, I’ve never seen you so freely and willingly give another person your chicken,” Hyoyeon commented.

“This is truly amazing,” Chanyeol said.

Kyungsoo seemed disgusted, “The last time I tried to take a piece of chicken from you, you tried to stab my hand with a fork.”

“But I didn’t,” Kai defended.

“You must truly like Minji. I’ve never felt compelled to share my chicken with anyone,” Onew teased.

Kai lowered his head. “Shut up. All of you.”

Minji heard Kyungsoo say something under his breath, but she couldn’t tell if he it was, “This ,” or “This ditch.”

“Does Kyungsoo not like me or something?” Minji whispered to Hyoyeon.

“You’re just coming on to his man.”

“They’re dating?” Minji knew no straight man’s hair could be that perfect 24/7.

“In Kyungsoo’s head, yes. In reality, no.”

Minji decided then that she shouldn’t be afraid of Kyungsoo. He was just delusional and small.

A/N: Hey guys, I just came to say a few things. First of all, thank you for all the nice comments! I would respond to you all, but I don't know how. You'd think after being on this website for a while that a person would understand some things. but I don't. Second, there's only like a month and half of school left where I'm at, but this is the most intense school has ever been. I'm going to have to bull at least seven essays in the next month. Due to these circumstances, I don't know how much I will post for a while. I have three or four chapters already written out since I started this back in January, but I don't want to post them all at once just in case I'm not able to write more for you all. So if I don't update for a little while, don't think I've abandon you. I'm just doing the 146th project assigned to me, and I'd rather be here with you all.

Also did you guys see what I did with Bom and Minzy's conversation? Did you like?

*Update: I found the reply button on the comments section. I'm a little dumb