Yeri catches her a few days later, brandishing some magazine at her like a weapon. "Told you so," She says, handing her the tabloid and crossing her arms in victory.

The headline reads, 'Love Triangle? Na Jaemin and Yu Jimin fight for her personal assistant's affections!' as the cover displays pictures of Minjeong interacting with both of them. Barely resisting an eye roll, Minjeong shoves the magazine back into Yeri's arms.

"Told me what? All I see is a bullshit story someone made up for money." Minjeong tells her, already walking away.

"It doesn't matter if it's true or not," Yeri argues, following behind her. "The media makes up whatever they want, but once they find a target, they'll never leave you alone."

"Why do you even care?" Minjeong asks. "You hardly even know me."

Jogging ahead and cutting her off. "I've been in this industry for a long time, and I've seen plenty of people jerked around by the media, celebrities and otherwise. I just want to prevent that from happening again if I can." Yeri explains.

"Look," Minjeong says, running her hand through her hair. "I appreciate the concern. Really. I know what I'm doing, okay?"

Yeri frowns, looking wholly unconvinced. "Everyone says that."

"Well I actually do. Jimin and I talk a lot, and we worked out the terms of this relationship months ago."

"Right." Yeri scoffs. "That's why she's totally aware that you're head over heels for her." That makes Minjeong freeze, and if Yeri's smug expression is any indication, she knows it. "W-what are you talking about?"

"Give up the act, Minjeong. No one's in earshot."

"I'm—" Minjeong can hardly get the words out, her heart's beating so fast. "I'm not..." Yeri raises an eyebrow, and Minjeong's filled with the sudden urge to beat her. "I'm not in love with anyone."

Yeri just shrugs, that infuriating smile still on her face. "Okay sure, maybe not. But you're close. I'd say give it another week or so, and you'll be long gone."

"And how would you know?"

"Well I suppose you could say I was raised by love experts." Yeri says as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. "And besides that, I have eyes, Minjeong. I can see how hard you're falling for her." Minjeong huffs, crossing her arms. "Look, I know how you feel. You're what, nineteen?"

"Twenty." She mutters darkly.

"Fine, fine. You're twenty, and you're done with all that stupid school shit, and you know how to handle yourself, right?" Yeri starts, her expression infinitely more sympathetic than before. "But whatever you think you're doing right now, you have to realize you're in way deeper than anything you signed up for. It's only a matter of time before the paparazzi finds out where you live or starts hounding you when you try to leave the set, and then you have to ask yourself. Was it worth it? Was it worth having a fling with an actress that doesn't even love you back?"

Something swells up in Minjeong at that, a self-righteous heat that makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and blood rush to her cheeks. "Listen, mind your own business, alright?" She all but shouts at Yeri. "No one asked you for your help, so keep it to yourself."

With that, she spins on her heel and marches off, ignoring the way Yeri's bemused expression matches her own surprise at how upset she is. She stomps all the way to Jimin's trailer, practically throwing the door open before walking up to Jimin and pulling her into a hug.

"Is everything alright?" Jimin asks, arms wrapping themselves around Minjeong's waist despite her obvious confusion.

"Yeah, I just need a hug." Minjeong replies, squeezing a little tighter than is absolutely necessary.

"Was it Jaemin?"

Minjeong sighs, resigning herself to talking about Yeri even if she's the last person she wants to think about at the moment. "No, it was Yeri."

Jimin heaves an exaggerated sigh, one hand coming up to play with Minjeong's hair. "Another person for me to compete with? You're just too popular, Minjeong."

Barking out a laugh, genuine but still too forceful, Minjeong places her forehead on Jimin's shoulder. "Trust me, Yeri is not interested in anything other than making my life harder." She says, barely restraining a soft noise of pleasure from slipping through her throat when Jimin's hand moves to thread itself into Minjeong's hair.

"Hmm, do I need to speak to some people?"

"No, I can handle it. I just need cuddles." Minjeong says, giving Jimin another squeeze to prove her point.

For her part, Jimin just giggles and awkwardly walks them over to the couch, falling onto it so she lands first. "Alright, I can do that." She says, chuckling more when Minjeong nuzzles into her neck instead of speaking. "This is probably an easier job than talking to people, anyway."

Minjeong doesn't bother to respond, choosing to soak in the comfort of being in Jimin's embrace instead. She buries her face in Jimin's shirt, as though that will help her forget Yeri's words, or better yet, help her ignore the fact that she's right.

—

It takes her a couple of days before she builds enough courage, but Minjeong manages to corner Yeri before the week's over. Yeri sent her looks that ranged from pitying to wary every time she saw her since their chat, and Minjeong feels like she at least owes her an apology for biting her head off.

"Yeri-sshi," she calls out, while Yeri's taking apart a boom pole to store for the night. Yeri looks at her like she's been waiting for her to approach her, and that almost makes Minjeong turn and walk away. "I want to apologize for how I left things a couple days ago."

"Oh, which part?" Yeri starts, handing off her work to another sound crew. "The part where you yelled at me and ran off, or the part where you're still in denial about your feelings?"

Biting back the urge to snap at Yeri again, Minjeong takes a long breath through her nose. "Both," she says, instead of the scathing reply that first came to mind. "And I'd like to add that I'm not so 'in denial', as you so nicely put it. I acknowledge that I..." she lowers her voice to a whisper, "..have stronger feelings for Jimin than she does for me," she raises it back to normal, "but I've accepted that. And I'm not going to stop seeing her. Might as well take advantage of our time together, right?"

Yeri frowns at her, and for the first time, Minjeong gets the impression that she's a bit like an older sister she never had. "You're just going to hurt yourself worse in the long run, you know," Yeri says, more statement than question.

"It's worth it," Minjeong replies.

"If you really think so," Yeri sighs, frown still in place. "I'd beg to differ, but I guess I can't stop you."

"No, you can't," Minjeong agrees, "but thank you for the concern. It's very sweet, actually."

"Sweet enough to make you reconsider?"

Minjeong laughs, and something about it makes the tension she didn't know she had in her shoulders release. "No, but thanks for trying. I know what I'm doing, and I know that what I'm doing probably isn't the smartest thing ever, but love is stupid. And I'm willing to be stupid if it means I get to be with Jimin as long as I can."

If anything, Yeri's frown gets deeper. "Let me see your phone," she says, holding her hand out. "Personal phone, none of that business phone bullshit."

"What, why?" Minjeong asks, fishing out her phone and giving it to her despite her confusion.

"This is probably a terrible idea," Yeri tells her, tapping away at her phone, "but I'm giving you my number. If you need to talk about anything about this, you can call or text me." Finishing up her work, Yeri hands her phone back.

Minjeong laughs for the second time, this one more familiar, chiding. "Why do you care so much, Yeri-sshi?"

Yeri smiles. "I work in one of the most cutthroat industries in the country; I see people get crushed all the time. I guess I just want to do what I can to stop it from happening, especially to someone who obviously didn't know what they were getting themselves into."

Giving Yeri's arm an affectionate punch, Minjeong smiles in what she hopes is a reassuring manner. "Fair enough. And thanks, really. I do appreciate it."

Yeri shrugs, smiling back, and Minjeong walks away, back towards Jimin and the scheme that sank her into the deep end.

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