"Unnie!"

"What!"

"C'mere please."

"It better be for a reason, Nanie," Sera said as she entered the kitchen.

"We ran out of cooking oil, can you go get some, please? I don't wanna be late."

"And sacrifice my exercise time?"

"Just jog your way and back to the store." Hongnan rolled her eyes.

And that's how Sera ended up bumping into the charming man in front of the grocery store, a mix of not being able to control her trotting limbs down the sloping road and the sudden act of crossing by the other.

"Let me help you," the mysterious man extended his hand for help after he himself managed to stand on feet. He had high cheekbones, straight pointy nose with a heart-shaped smile adorning his smooth, oblong face.

Sera scoffed at the way he just smiled at the unfortunate situation.

"Since it was your fault, I'll let you make up for it," she used his helping hand as she spoke, only to find her standing on her feet facing the other with the minimal appropriate distance separating them.

"You look even more pretty from up close," he mumbled unaware of Sera's cochlear competence. Sera let go of his grip on her hand to walk away.

"By the way, I'm Jung―" the young man stopped only to realize that the woman was done walking feet away from him. He noticed the currencies by his own feet. "Hey! Excuse me―" 

Before he could say any further, a hand swished its way to stop inches away from his face. He had to pull his head back in reflex. 

"Ohh, stupid hand," Sera slapped her left hand. "Got a mind of its own, likes to stretch and exercise a lot, sorry. But good defence on your part, might be used to women throwing hands at you for unnecessarily flirting with them, isn't it?"

The man gasped. "You're so full of yourself, I just called you because you dropped your money."

"Mister, I wouldn't have turned back if I didn't realize about the money already. 'You look more pretty from up close,' remember?" She smirked at the later part of her speech.

"If I didn't say that to your face, then it's not flirting. I just complimented about you to myself."

That was not the kind of reply Sera was expecting. Eventually, it became impossible for her to hold onto her cold demenour, and she let out a shameless giggle much to her surprise before storming into the store.

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Jimin was all ready to work hard and not be loose today, he had been nearly on the peak of his personal satisfaction this week and he was determined to fashion his mental potential energy to physical kinetic energy. The cost of that personal satisfaction was something he had adjourned for the morrow to deal with.

But fate was never kind. Amidst the live, lively and loaded crowd, on the visually approachable DJ's stage, Jimin was raised by his collar by the very buff-looking tall man he had been praying to avoid.

"Give me the damn money, Park!" he growled. The crowd and the music stopped.

"I said I'll give it to you. I've got my salary. Just give some few damn hours while I finish my damn work. You are gonna be here until the crowd clears away. Now just fucking put me down!"

The man put him down, only to grab his neck. "This is not like every other time, the stuff is expensive and you already delayed enough, I had to pay before boss would have fired me."

"Fine, fine, I'll take a break. You can come with me to the ATM if you want, but will you take your goddamnit hands off of my throat buddy, 'cause I have anger issues too."

Jimin felt the grip tighten more. "I wouldn't dare to talk like that if I was as small as you, Park."

And thus began the iconic fistfight, to which the crowd responded by either freakingly distancing away from the stage in worry, or hooting and amplifying the ruckus only to grab Sera's cochlear attention.

She barged down the stairs to witness the crowd cheering to an animalistic fight between two, ironically, men. Grabbing a microphone to discipline the animals, she yelled into it, 

"What in the devil's world is happening here!"

The crowd stopped and cleared the way for her. What she saw left her jaw hanging for not more than a second before she threw the mic and ran to the man. She was quick to dodge the punch that was directed to her already bleeding Jimin; tangling her middle and index finger, she hit right at the man's navel. She had no intentions of showing off her combat skills, that her brother used to tell her were as good as a military man, when the simple action could do the job. And it did, the man bent forward holding his stomach in pain.

"You'd be dead you crazy bitch, only if you weren't boss' friend."

Sera folded her arms. "Explain yourself now."

The man looked at her as if he'd murder her then and there. Even the crowd of previously cheering idiots were scared for the woman, but she was unfazed.

"He bought stuff and it has been a week since the payment is due," the man accused Jimin.

"And?"

"It was Yen this time," he gritted.

"Go to my office, I'll be up in a minute and pay you."

Sera tried to help Jimin get down the stage. "Seriously Jimin. What's wrong―"

Jimin slapped her hands away in disgust. "Are you my mother? Girlfriend?" He yelled in fury. "Hell, you're not even my friend. Stop pitying me, stop paying my fucking dues, you're are no one to me but a crazy bitch who has obsession problems."

"People are watching you, you ungrateful fuck," she said tightening her jaws and grabbing his collar.

"Oh, do I fucking care?" He pushed her with the harshest force he could.

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Shortly after he joined Etiquettes Sera helped Jimin get a student loan. Sera became his go-to friend since he was all new to Seoul and had no connections― well Sera was too, but she at least wasn't new to adult life. Since Jimin came as a package deal, Jandi became no less than Jimin to Sera. Though the girl didn't actually work at the club, she'd be there almost every night along with Jimin and Sera. The trio was a thing in the club; they tagged Sera as the mother and the two as her kids.

It took not more than a year and three months for the oldest's consciousness to realize she didn't exactly feel maternal towards the boy. All she wanted to was to subside her feelings for the sake of her beloved sister's romance, but all that she ended up was with an unhealthy hike in her affection of asset-mentalism for the boy. After all, Jandi had been true all the time she'd playfully complained about Sera's biasedness towards Jimin.

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"You don't show up that often now. Jimin told me you're dedicating the time to your college friends. Even though I don't believe in making tons of friends, I'll say like everyone else does...I'm happy you are making friends."

Jandi laughed. "Aww, look at my eomma being happy for me."

"Stop calling me that before I grab my gun."

"There's this just one friend, unnie. I didn't tell Jimin because I know he is possessive, and I know you're being one now too."

Sera smiled. "She must be a very good friend then."

"It's a 'he'."

"Okay then, 'he' must be a very good friend," Sera laughed.

"See, I thought it was a good idea to tell you. Stupid Jimin, if I'll tell him, he'd get jealous as hell and judge me."

"He shouldn't care unless you're 'not just friends', which I don't think is true, am I right?" Sera folded her hands subconsciously, devoid of any emotion.

"Umm..." Jandi didn't deny it and stayed silent for a moment. She hesitantly looked up to meet Sera's eyes to sense any kind of dismissive emotions, but there was none.

Sensing Jandi's fright Sera gestured her to come to her. Jandi was quick to run into her arms.

"If you won't tell me everything, I won't be able to help, honey."

"I thought you'd hate me even more than Chim, unnie. But I was wrong, you're the coolest."

Sera patted the girl's head. "So tell me."

"Chanyeol is a very good friend, unnie. We started hanging out because we had so much in common, he's very much like me and understands what I like and why I like. He's rich, and though I am not anymore, we both grew up like one so we connect that way."

"You like him?"

"I don't know. He likes me and has kissed me several times. I didn't push him away at first....and now I've even started responding to it. I feel so bad, why am I like this, unnie? He knows I have a boyfriend but still he does that. Should I stop being friends with him or threaten him to just remain friends with me?"

"Do neither. Let it be."

"What?"

"You always accuse me of being biased to Jimin, Jandi-ah. But you gotta know I love you both dearly, and that is why I'm saying this, for the benefit of the both of you. It might seem unethical to others, but that's how I have lived. Only being practical helps you in this world."

"I don't understand."

"I don't hate you now, Jandi-ah, but I would if I know you are still dating Jimin after knowing you have the tendency to like someone else. That tendency indicates you don't like Jimin as much as you thought. And keeping it a secret indicates you don't care for him. I'll say, since you aren't sure if you like that guy yet, keep continuing it until you're."

"Then what if I happen to like Chanyeol?"

"I'd encourage you to be with this Chanyeol then. But if you don't like him, then you'd still have to break up with Jimin. Either way, you'd have to end it with Jimin. You can do it now if you want. But remember, it's not your fault, I'm in support of you."

"I don't know, unnie. I want to try with Chanyeol and find out, but if it happened to be nothing, I don't like the idea of leaving Jimin. But I believe you if you think it's for good. I want time, I'm not breaking up till I find out, so please don't tell Jimin."

"I'd never."

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It didn't take Jandi a month to affirm her feelings for Chanyeol. Of course, Sera wasn't deprived of the updates. She found herself sweating more as the experiment progressed. As much as she had faith in her beliefs, she was worried about how bad Jimin would take it. She had been happy that Jimin would be available after Jandi would leave him, but everything she guided Jandi had been nothing but out of genuine well-wish, yet.

Everything took a turn when Chanyeol confessed that he had been her suitor sent by Jandi's parents. His love for her had been genuine though, he promised. The sudden turn of events would cause nothing but more hurt to Jimin. Sera knew he wouldn't be able to get over Jandi ever, so she had to make him do it. Mentored by evil, Sera convinced the new couple to elope back to Busan, which the young kids couldn't comprehend the evil of.

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"I'm scared, Sera. What if someone did something to her? There are a lot of murderers and―"

"Relax, Jimin. She would be fine."

"She was supposed to reach back from the trip day before yesterday. Even if the bus broke down or something, she would've made sure to catch a train to come celebrate our anniversary yesterday. Now if she couldn't convince the faculty, she could have called using any of the other students' phone. It not like all of their devices would be dead altogether."

"Maybe she doesn't remember your number, maybe there's no network."

"Those are stupid arguments Sera. Gosh, how were you the top law student in university?"

"These aren't arguments, Jimin. It's the truth, Jandi is alive, relax," she yelled in anger.

Jimin sobbed more. "Even you are being an intuitive person now. What does that mean, that you're scared yourself?"

"Shut the fuck up! Aren't you understanding? Why are you so sure she isn't responding because she is not able to? She can be ignoring you! Which she is, Jimin. I know it and that's why I'm relaxed... There was no trip, there wasn't anything... She is safe. She just left Seoul."

"What? Why?"

"She ran away with her lover, Jimin, for God's sake, stop being so pathetic for the girl who ran away with another man. She wouldn't contact you because she's scared. She is not coming back. If you wanna be sure, contact your old friends in Busan and they'll tell you."

"You knew?"

"I didn't want you to know this on your anniversary, I'm sorry."

"How long have you known?"

"I was convincing her to tell you this herself Jimin."

"So you knew this for a while? Don't even lie, I've seen you both talking to each other secretly so many times, and it didn't look like you were being dismissive, Sera."

"It's not like that Jimin―"

"I thought you were my friend."

"Why are you mad at me? She just ditched you, why are you so calm about it, and you don't seem to be having a hard time accepting she eloped."

"She had been distancing herself, it makes sense. I'm hurt, angry, mad, but I still love her, I'm pathetic," he said between his cries. "But what you did doesn't make sense to me."

"After all this, you're thinking about her. What about me, Jimin? What about me? I've been in love with you for so long, but still, I waited patiently. Now when she ran away from you, you're blaming me, not her."

"What the hell, Sera? You're confessing now? Is this the time? You brainwashed her to leave me, didn't you? It all fits now, I fucking get it now."

"No Jimin―"

"Don't ever fucking talk to me, Sera. You're no longer my friend," Jimin growled.

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A/n: