Date: November 23rd
Time: 11:51am
Location: University cafeteria
Mood: Futurama Fry squinting
<><><>

"Unnie?"

Daydreaming in silence, Hyuna startled when Y/n spoke up. As was their custom, the older woman kept the younger company while she ate lunch in the university cafeteria. They'd already talked about as much as Y/n could manage to about Jimin and their date. The amount she was able to muster up wasn't much at all, as she became far too flustered even thinking about it, much less talking about it.

"Hmm?"

"W-why do you...like me?"

Y/n was the only person she'd ever met that couldn't understand why someone liked her. Which, she supposed, was part of the reason why she did.

"Cause yer Velma." she shrugged.

"No, I-I mean, what drew you to me in the first place?"

Hyuna had to try hard not a bust an uwu as she observed her. Hands clutching her sandwich, eyes trained downward as a soft pink dusted her cheeks. Y/n was ridiculously cute and at times, Hyuna had the strangest urge to squeeze her death. She wouldn't. But the urge was still there.

"Cause you're like my little sister. And because...I don't know, I guess you could say I've gotta soft spot for introverts. I like to think that I'm the extravert that every introvert needs. I can't say I click with you on that basis, or even understand you sometimes. But I like bein' that person that will get up and ask for more napkins or ketchup when the other person is too shy to go up and ask. Everyone needs a support system and I don't mind being the backbone to yours."

"Oh." Her face now brighter than the sun, Y/n didn't try to contain or hide a smile. "Thank you."

Hyuna winked and appeared to be in a particularly good mood today, giving Y/n the boost of confidence in which she needed to ask her next question.

"Um. How-how come you never eat?"

"Eh? Ah, it's nothing." Hyuna waved a dismissive hand but even as bad at reading people as she was, Y/n was still able to catch the nervous note to her voice.

"Are you ok?"

Her best friend smiled and to Y/n, it felt sad.

"I'm fine."

A clear line, full with a towering brick wall was drawn between them. It was so abundantly obvious Y/n had to look away and utter an apology, trying hard to not display how hurt she was over the rejection. For a moment she had thought, or maybe had tricked herself into thinking, that they were close enough for that to be ok.

On the other side of the table, Hyuna contemplated stabbing herself in the eyes but figured, maybe that was too dramatic. She grappled with ideas to break the tension she had created, when the freckled man apparently adamant on talking to her best friend invited himself to sit at the table.

Eyes wild and determined, he pointed a finger in Hyuna's face and the action instantly flared her temper all the way up.

For a milisecond she internally debated on whether biting this guy's finger off would be worth getting expelled for. Odd that she questioned herself when she knew that her soul whispered that it gave no fucks.

"AAH!" When he yelped and jerked back she let him go.

Placing her chin in her hand, she said the only thing she really had the energy for. "Get lost."

"N-no!" his finger was clearly itching to stick itself in her face again but he caught himself halfway there and withdrew before turning his sights on Y/n.

To her, watching the two of them interact made her feel like she was at work but she froze like a deer in headlights when he began to confess—again.

"I like you! Um—and please go out with me!"

"Sor-"

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY ASKING MY GIRLFRIEND OUT FOR THE SECOND TIME IN FRONT OF ME?!?"

Mouth ajar, Y/n gaped at the blonde woman like she'd lost it. Then hid behind her sandwich when she noticed that literally EVERYONE in the cafeteria was staring at them.

Guy who doesn't have a name because Hyuna will never allow him to introduce himself, paled dramatically as if his worst nightmare had come true.

"What! She's your girlfriend?!?"

"Yes, you fucking douche canoe!"

"That's...that's actually really hot."

The table nearly flipped at the ferocity in which the furious form of Hyuna stood and came straight for random guy's throat. Random guy, god bless his soul, was able to make it out alive because Y/n managed to grab hold of Hyuna's arm when she swung it back to hit him. Like the little bitch he was turning out to be, he ran away.

Hopefully none of that was read in a sarcastic tone.

Once he was out of sight, Hyuna smiled, happier than she'd been in a while. These lunches with Y/n were so nice.

"Unnie!" Her smile faltered at the stern look her friend was giving her.

"What's good, sis?"

"Why did you tell him that we're dating??"

"Cuz everyone's listening so now no one else will ask you out. Specially since your girlfriend is unhinged."

Satisfied as she realized the good point she'd made, Y/n still frowned at the word she described herself with. "You're not unhinged." On further thought, she realized that wasn't entirely true. "Well...maybe a little."

"Hey!"

<><><>
4:30pm

The elevator moved down noiselessly, delivering it's sole occupant safely to the ground level.

Checking her appearance in the reflective doors, Y/n tried to her best to assure assure herself that she could do this. Relaying parts of the time she spent with Jimin to Hyuna at school hadn't been too bad, surely she could come face to face with Jimin again.

Or die trying.

Inside of her jacket pocket her phone vibrated with a text alert and wasting no time, she pulled it out to check.

BFF✨: sorry cant make it im sendin a friend instead

Worry hit her for her friend, one that she had held onto for a while before saying anything. Something there was off but Hyuna was obviously not up for sharing.

Then as she walked outside to find a familiar old Hyundai pulled up to the curb, that worry disappeared and was replaced with a mix of emotions. Annoyance for being tricked, but mostly, severe anxiety and embarrassment at coming face to face with Jimin. She had fully expected to once she got to work. But had planned to use those five minutes to get there psyching herself up to be able to do it.

Ignoring her warning about Seo-Joon and her expressed desire to keep what was between them, just between them for now, the man stepped out of the car and ran across the salted pavement to greet her.

So she did the only logical thing. Which wasn't very logical to anyone but her.

Shrieking, she yeeted her phone at his head and took off.

"Wait...what?" She could hear Jimin's baffled voice as she ran away.

If only she could conjure up an answer to that question. But that wasn't important. What mattered here was getting as far away from that guy she liked as possible...for some reason.

Moving down an alley and out onto the next street over, she cut between two parked cars and made her way up the hill and into the next neighborhood, running as though her life depended on it.

"What is this?"

A startled yelp escaped her mouth as Jimin's car drove alongside her. The driver's side window was down and he was examining her as though she had grown an extra head. Maybe then this would make more sense. At least then she would have two brains to put forth in understanding why she was behaving this way.

For a split second their gazes met and her face felt boiling hot. One corner of his mouth titled upwards and her eyes caught onto the movement. Those same lips had been on her own repeatedly two days ago. Had kissed her so carefully and lovingly, had been-

"Watch where you're-"

Aching pain around mid-forehead and the bridge of her nose, and a resounding bang sent her head backwards as all movement in her legs came to a halt.

Too caught up in staring at Jimin, she'd forgone watching her step and avoiding the lamp posts lining the sidewalk. Of course. Because she wasn't embarrassed enough already.

That emotion increased as the source of her distraction quickly jerked the car to the curb and jumped out to approach her, this time with a purpose.

"Look what you did!" he snapped, wasting no time in pulling her hands away from her face to inspect the injury.

A angry huff of breath left his mouth. He glared at her and inside, she withered at the look. Three minutes in and she'd already managed to disappoint him. Being that clumsy and in front of the person she liked hurt her pride more than anything else, but a sense of panic wanted to implant at the idea that he was mad at her. If she let him down he would leave and she wasn't ready for that yet.

"Let's get in the car." He said as though it was suggestion, but took hold of her hand and tugged her to vehicle, opening the door and pushing her inside.

As he shut the door and made his way around the car she went ahead and bucked herself in, lest he decided to do that for her as well.

In a second he was in the driver's seat, gaze moving over her aching forehead, or what he could see of it as she rubbed the area with the palm of her hand.

"Why did you run from me?"

The small and vulnerable tone of his voice made her momentarily forget about any shyness she felt. The curve to his brow gave him a look of insecurity, as though he were afraid to hear her response.

"I..." she flushed and averted her eyes to her lap. "I don't know..."

"Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me? I know I texted you a lot yesterday, but it was only because I missed you so bad-"

"I-it's not that." She was fast to assure and put his fears to ease, while her own words continued to clumsily trip over her tongue. "I can't—I mean, I d-don't know what, o-or how to do...this." Gesturing between them she didn't dare to look his way, too fearful of finding that rejection she was sure was coming any day now.

Instead of yelling at her or putting her down, he chuckled. "To be honest, I don't either." his admittance surprised her enough to look at him. Jimin was handsome and such a natural flirt that she'd always imagined that he was well practiced in this area. This time around, he was the one red and flustered. "You're my first girlfriend."

She couldn't help but notice that he said 'girlfriend' but not 'kiss' but she didn't plan to ever bring up the topic. The thought of Jimin kissing anyone else, even if it was before they met, made her feel more violent than any DMX song ever could.

"I," Jimin paused mid-sentence, his eyes wide. "I mean, you are my girlfriend, right? I know we didn't spell it out, but..."

"Yes." She managed to get this one-worded answer out without dying. Somehow.

A triumphant smirk accompanied by his hand sweeping through his hair made her gulp.

"So..." he let the word drift off between them as he adopted a satisfied and mischievous grin. "I don't know much about dating but," he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel before bringing one hand up to tap on his cheek, "I do know that you're supposed to kiss me whenever I want. I just learned this the other day in class; apparently it's a law. You know, government policies and all that. And I wouldn't want you going to jail. What I'm saying is: I'm waiting for my kiss."

A snicker came out before she could stop it but she motioned to the clock instead of giving him what he requested.

"W-we should go to-to work."

He frowned. "Is that a no?"

"It's a—a work. We should work. I mean, go to work."

"I don't wanna go to work. I want you to kiss me." He pointed out unnecessarily. "Just five kisses, is all I'm asking. Alright, three," he lamented when he caught sight of the angry flush coating her neck.

Not knowing how else to respond, she reached over and started the car for him. Carefully avoiding his gaze, she ducked back to her own seat and attempted to make herself as small as possible.

Jimin grumbled unintelligibly for a moment longer before finally driving off again.

This is it, she thought to herself for the millionth time. She couldn't even give him a simple kiss when he asked for it, something that she'd been able to give him just fine two days ago. Surely now he would have had enough of her. Of course this was a belief she'd held onto for a long time now, but just because he hadn't left yet didn't mean he wasn't going to.

The ride to work was silent. When she braved herself up enough to take a peek at him, his lips had taken on an immovable pout as he glowered out at the road ahead. Her heart twinged at the reminder that she had been the one to put that expression there. But to become someone different and force herself to kiss him out in the open with people walking by the car, that wasn't something she could do yet. And for that, she pitied Jimin. Pitied him for not getting what would have made him happy and for being placed with someone like her. Randomly she thought to tell him to pick someone else, someone better. But that course of action was as impossible as the last. Letting him go would hurt worse than forcing herself out of her comfort zone.

When they pulled into the parking lot of the daycare, he had stopped to let someone pull out of their spot when he gasped. His hand slapped the steering wheel and he turned with a triumphant smile.

"Aah! Because it's too bright!" He looked to her for answer but she shrunk to hide behind her scarf.

Of course she didn't want to kiss him in broad daylight. Only crazy (normal) people did that!

A weird sound came out of him as his eyes bent to resemble crescents. "Aigoooo, is my baby too shy to kiss me when it's light out? How did you get this cute?!?"

She tugged her scarf until it covered her face so that only her eyes showed. It was relieving to hear that he found her faults endearing but the manner in which he informed her of this did little to relieve any timid feelings.

"Stop." She grumbled from underneath the wool covering her face.

The reply she received was another grin as he smoothly parked the car and turned it off. Sighing in relief, she unbuckled the seatbelt and reached for the door handle, but was stopped by his hand grabbing hold of her own.

"Hang on," he pleaded. "Look around."

Cautiously she did as asked to discover that he'd parked as far back from the other cars as he could get.

"No one's around." While pointing that out he leaned in, invading her personal bubble and causing her eyes to widen. "We're alone now."

Outside it was below freezing, snow still covering the ground and the sky promising for more later on. Inside the car, in this personal, intimate space they shared, Y/n would describe the temperature to be tropical. She blinked quite a few times in the space of a few seconds and tried steel her pathetically weakening resolve.

"B-but the-the uh-" having no idea what she was trying to say, she attempted to come up with an excuse anyway. A small squeak slipped out when one of his hands came to rest on the door behind her while the other slid to the back of her neck, moving beneath her scarf to connect with the skin of her nape.

"Will you make me beg?" A slight downturn to his lips did not disguise the mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Aren't you already? She thought, but of course didn't voice that opinion. Was it mean of her to keep denying him? Maybe, but it was meaner of him to continue to attack her like this.

"I d-didn't mean to-" didn't mean to what, she couldn't say. Nothing coming out of her mouth in this situation had an intended beginning or end, she was simply rambling for lack of what to say.

"Just one." He murmured as he moved in with a purpose, coming dangerously close.

"W-wait-!" The palms of her hands touched his chest but no pressure was applied behind that, giving him the impression that she didn't really mean it.

Feelings like a cornered animal, her 'instincts' took over and she attacked. With her whole head. A knocking sound filled the car as their foreheads crashed together. The second assault it had taken that day, her forehead suffered for her inability to act like a normal person.

At the same time Jimin let out an, "ah!" She whimpered, her palm working feverishly to rub the pain away.

"Baby, why did you do that?" Jimin groaned and ignored his own pain to tend to her.

"You! S-Stop it! Ok?" Pointing an accusing finger his way had him blinking in surprise and backing up. "I-I said—I said no!"

"You actually didn't..."

"W-well!" she spluttered, realizing he was right. "You-should have guessed!"

"Alright, that's fair." he conceded. "But I genuinely can't tell when you mean it or when you're trying to be cute!"

"I w-wasn't trying to be—to be," she couldn't finish the sentence.

"If you mean no, then say no or show our sign."

"I forgot because you-you were all...everywhere!"

"Oh my god!" Gasping, his mood did a 180 as he began to beam with happiness. "Y/n! Is this our first fight?!?"

To her confusion he whipped out his phone, opened up a blank note and began to type.

November 23rd
First fight with my baby! She was too shy to kiss me because it's daylight and she's a little red marshmallow with the biggest scarf on. It's so adorable I want to squeeze her and kiss her but she won't let me. Unfair. I like her and she likes me. She told me so and she can't take it back now because I already heard it. We kissed a lot and she can't take that away either. So I'll resort to picturing it whenever I want. Now she's running away because she read this and I swear she looks like the cutest little puppy ever.

I guess I should apologize.

—
Edited 8/1/22