┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁۪ 。˚ ✧

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁۪ 。˚ ✧

⚠️ this story contains topics as eating disorders, body dysmorphia, low self esteem, negative thinking, perfectionism and obsession. please read at your own risk. ⚠️

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 Jinah had clicked into work and was currently counting fish—for what felt like the third time. She had weighed the bucket of dead, frozen fish, but somehow it seemed way too little. Taking out her walkie-talkie, she pressed a button and held it to her mouth.

"Jinah here" she spoke, "did we get a new order of fish yet? For some reason the bucket for the emperor penguins is way too little." Jinah waited for an answer and her senior answered. "Hi Jinah, there was a delay in the order. The new fish will only arrive this afternoon. The emperors have to eat what we have" the woman answered and Jinah sighed. "Got it, thanks" she answered, clicking the walkie onto her belt and put the dead fish back in her bucket.

After filling the bucket and getting rid of her gloves, she left the staff room by the penguin enclosure. Her eyes moved over to the seals. A few guests were looking at the newly born baby seal that was bouncing up and down and watching her mother swim in the water.

Fun fact: baby seals can't swim. They have to learn it before they jump into the nice cold and fresh water!

The new zookeeper wasn't there yet. She quickly shook her head and walked to the back door of the penguin enclosure. She heard the penguins honk once she sat foot in the enclosure some of the birds waddled over to her.

"Good morning guys!", Jinah cheered and all her worries from eating breakfast disappeared. She waved at the penguins and rustled with the bucket in her hands. "Ready for breakfast?", she asked when a tall male penguin named Emmanuel poked her leg with his beak.

"Slowly, Emmanuel" Jinah laughed and waited for some of the younger emperors to make their way over to her. Jinah saw some of the zoo guests walk over to the penguin enclosure, as Jinah was making quiet a commotion with the animals.

She started throwing the fish and the older penguins jumped after them, slowly eating their breakfast. She hand-fed a few of the babies and once her bucket was empty, she quickly scanned the enclosure.

It was a bit dirty, so she had to clean it. The cleaning was quickly done and once that was finished it was time for Jinah's favorite part of the day: walking the penguins.

The Seoul Zoo had a funny little thing going on, where one of the penguins was allowed to walk around the zoo with their zookeeper to look at the other animals or attract more people to come to the penguin enclosure.

Jinah looked at her list and saw that it was Minho's time for a walk. Minho was actually a female emperor but the vet did a mistake when saying the gender, so the female penguin was named after the famous Korean actor Lee Minho.

After cleaning the enclosure, Jinah walked back into the enclosure and looked around for Minho. Minho was sitting on a stone, honking and clicking her beak. Jinah smiled. Minho was a beautiful penguin with a slender body and beautiful dark eyes.

If Namsoo was a penguin, she would be as elegant as Minho.

Jinah clicked her tongue and some of the penguins looked at her. "Minho" she called and the penguin girl turned her head and clicked her beak towards Jinah. "Come on" Jinah nodded towards the door and the rather smart bird understood immediately.

She jumped from her stone and waddled over to Jinah. She looked up at the girl and honked at her. "Yeah, I know. You wanted to observe the colony, big girl. But it's time for a walk." Jinah clapped the side of her thigh and walked out of the enclosure—Minho right behind her.

At the beginning of Jinah's apprenticeship, the girl wasn't allowed to walk the penguins alone. The penguins didn't have any relationship with her yet and wouldn't listen to her. But Jinah quickly befriended the penguins and especially Emmanuel and Minho had a good bond to her.

Minho was a little bratty from time to time, honking at her as if she was telling Jinah to F off, but Jinah only smiled. She knew the personality of the penguin. Minho was quite a Karen.

The two of them walked out of the back door of the enclosure and Minho honked at a small family, that chuckled when the penguin walked behind Jinah. Jinah smiled at the family. "Mum, look a penguin!", the son of the family cheered and pointed at Minho.

Minho simply walked past the family and Jinah apologized. "She has a strong personality." With a polite bow she walked after Minho who was standing in front of the seal enclosure.

"You found the seals?" Jinah asked and kneeled next the emperor penguin. Minho honked. A seal was swimming past her and she watched it through the glass. "They're scary, right?" Jinah asked when she heard the sound of a bucket rustling.

Jinah stood up and looked as equally surprised as the seals when a young man entered the enclosure. He wore wellies and had a bucket in his hand. He clicked his tongue and shook the bucket.

"Hi guys" he said and Jinah watched him. He was probably in her age, maybe older, maybe younger, and had messy brown hair. The seals barked at him and Jinah was fixated on him trying to throw them fish.

The baby seal, Maki, bounced over to him and barked quietly, the boy smiled and threw the white fluffy baby a fish.

"Look Minho" Jinah said and the penguin clicked her beak. "That's the new zookeeper" she said and looked at the penguin. Minho didn't seem to look at the zookeeper but rather at the dead fish, that was slowly sinking to the ground of the pool—a seal right behind it.

― 🐧♥️🦭 ―

It was 12 p.m. when Jinah had lunch break and went into the staff room. She had bought herself a raspberry protein bar and an energy drink without sugar and zero calories. Her mother didn't have to know she didn't eat anything proper all day.

Sitting down on the couch in the staff room and taking her phone out, she was more than ready to enjoy her hour of lunch break. The first five minutes she was quietly looking through her social media and sipping from her Red Bull, then the door opened.

The young man from the seal enclosure literally stumbled into the room and Jinah flinched. "Holy shit" the boy cussed in English, "I didn't know you were in here" he said. Jinah nodded and relaxed a bit.

The boy went over to the vending machine in the corner of the room and threw some money in there. "Mind if I take my break in here as well?", he asked and Jinah shook her head.

Her shyness had taken over her body and she was unable to properly speak to the boy. "Great" the boy said and took out the sandwich that just fell from the vending machine. He went to buy a bottle of coke and sat down at one of the tables, unpacking the sandwich.

"It's my first day today" he said, his mouth full of food, "it's quiet a tough job" the boy continued and Jinah nodded. "Oh, dang, how unpolite of me! I'm Jake Sim!" He held his hand towards Jinah and smiled at her.

"Kwon J-Jinah" she stuttered and shook the boys hand. "Nice to meet you Jinah" he smiled. Jinah blinked twice. "We don't know each other" she said quietly and the boy smiled, "Oh, right. Sorry!" He lifted his hand.

"Kwon Jinah-sshi" he smiled cheekily and continued to eat his sandwich. Jinah shook her head and opened her protein bar. She quietly munched on it, continuing to skim through SNS.

"What enclosure do you work at?" Jake asked and Jinah rolled her eyes. "Penguins" she simply answered and the boy smiled. "Sweet! I work with the seals. They're a handful! But the baby is so cute!"

"Maki is a blessing" Jinah confirmed and the boy nodded. He looked at her and smiled. "I'll be quiet now, so enjoy your break." The extrovert said and Jinah simply nodded and leaned back in the couch.

And Jake kept his promise and kept quiet. He looked through his own phone. Both young adults in their own bubble. Jinah liked a few new selfies Namsoo had posted onto Instagram and commented them.

As always the shy girl also promoted her best friend. Sharing her selfies in her story with a nice caption. Namsoo loved it, when Jinah did that and Jinah was more than ready to help her friend grow more followers. Namsoo deserved a big number of followers because she was so pretty. Pretty girls deserved being seen.

Once Jinah's break was over, she collected her stuff and put her phone back in her locker. She nodded at Jake and left the staff room, walking over to the penguin enclosure once again. One of the baby emperors had to get a chip this afternoon.

While walking over to the enclosure, she heard someone call her name. She turned around and saw none other than her best friend Lee Namsoo. Surprised Jinah opened her mouth and looked at Namsoo.

"What are you doing here? My works not done yet" Jinah said quietly and Namsoo chuckled. The gorgeous looking girl wore high waisted, royally blue shorts and an oversized yellow sweater tucked into her trousers. On her feet were crispy white clean All Stars and her black hair was curled and held back by a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses.

Lee Namsoo looked effortlessly beautiful. Even in such a simple and sporty looking outfit. Jinah immediately felt inferior in her work uniform and her wellies.

"Just wanted to check in on my best friend" Namsoo said with a pout. "I got the annual pass for a reason, Jin" she smiled and went to hug her friend. When Namsoo let go of the taller girl she frowned. "You smell fishy" she laughed and Jinah pressed her lips together.

Not saying anything, she pointed towards the direction of the penguin enclosure. "I need to get back to work. Minho's daughter is going to get chipped today" Jinah said, trying to swallow down the insecurity Namsoo had set off in her.

"Can I tag along?" Namsoo asked, looking at her phone.

From the outside looking in, everyone would think Lee Namsoo was a conceited, arrogant little she-devil. But once they got to know her, they realized she had a lot of interests and was pretty smart. She just had the luck to be born pretty.

Prettier than anyone Jinah had ever seen before. Even prettier than her mother who used to be a Victoria's Secret Angel. Namsoo was the epitome of the Korean beauty standard. She had a slim figure, small face, a soft, v-shaped jaw, pale skin, straight eyebrows, flawless skin and gorgeous eyes.

She also had the ideal height for a Korean woman with her 168 cm, while Jinah stood out with her 172 cm.

"Sure" Jinah said, "but you have to stay in front of the enclosure. I can't take you to the staff area." Namsoo laughed and put a hand on Jinah's shoulder. "Of course. I know the rules."

Just as the two girls started walking towards the Antarctica area of Seoul Zoo, Jake zoomed past them. He quickly turned around and shot a smile to Jinah before running off, his walkie on his ears.

Namsoo stopped in her tracks and nodded towards the boy. "Who's that?", the Pisces asked and Jinah looked at Jake. The boy with the fluffy brown hair disappeared behind a corner. "He's the new zookeeper at the seal enclosure" Jinah answered and Namsoo chuckled.

"He looks like a loser" she said, poison dripping from her lips. "Don't hang out with him too much, okay Jin?" Namsoo gave Jinah a beautiful smile and the girl nodded. "You know I'm not good at making friends anyway" Jinah answered and Namsoo hugged her side.

"I'm glad. That means I have more of you for myself." Jinah looked at Namsoo and smiled. Even if being next to god-tier Lee Namsoo made her feel very insecure about herself, she was glad to have Namsoo in her life.

— ❄︎ —

𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠!

𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞.

𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

—𝕤𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕗𝕝𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕞𝕪𝕝𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕠𝕡