one summer | winrina

➥ eleven

"Kim Minjeong!"

"What?"

Jimin stood at the door of Minjeong's room, frowning, her eyes stormy and her arms crossed over her chest.

"Eh? What's the matter?" Minjeong questioned, shooting Jimin a suspicious look as she looked up from the book she was reading. Blue Hope by Sylvia Earle. It was part of her mission to understand the marine biologist to add to the biography she was completing slowly over the summer. It was actually pretty interesting, and Jimin's interruption- and the confusing feelings tumbling in after- didn't help her concentration one bit.

"You."

"Excuse me?" A frown spread across Minjeong's face and she put the book away, turning to face Jimin fully. "And what do you think you mean by that, exactly?"

"I mean you've been ignoring me!" Jimin mirrored her frown, stomping forward and taking a heavy seat on Minjeong's desk chair. The younger girl winced at the sound. "I thought we were over this stasis stuff, but here you are, acting like I don't exist again! You have only a few days left, I thought you'd want to spend them together."

"Do I, though?" Minjeong snapped before she could stop herself.

She could see the shocked look flit across Jimin's face, but the damage was already done. Minjeong inhaled shakily, and decided that she had no choice.

"What do you even mean by 'together'? We talk and act all romantic with each other, but both of us know it won't amount to anything in the end. I'm on the other side of the world and you live in New York. We'll probably only get to see each other once a summer, and you did that with Jeno, and look how that turned out." Minjeong puffed out a breath exasperatedly. "I like organized things. A future I can count on."

Jimin's chair swung around slowly, almost in shock as she gave Minjeong a wide-eyed, surprised expression.

"You really think we won't amount to anything?"

"I didn't say that," Minjeong amended softly, after seeing the expression on the other girl.

"I'm just saying that we can't keep this up forever."

Jimin's expression said it all. Her jaw dropped slowly, her red lips open, and her eyes fixed on Minjeong, suddenly filled with a new emotion.

Was that... fear?

"Can't we?" Jimin asked softly, and that was the moment Minjeong realized how big the rift between her and the other girl was becoming.

They didn't match personalities at all, but they'd come together anyway, and she had no idea how Jimin felt about her.

Jimin could be just a really good actress for all she knew.

"No, Karina," Minjeong whispered, and the sudden usage of her real name shocked the other girl into silence. "You had the indecision with Jeno, and that kept you two together. We don't have any of that. We live on opposite sides of the world."

Jimin bit her lip, and the original boisterousness she'd entered the room with was all but gone. "But... I didn't feel deeply for Jeno, I was just figuring it out."

"Isn't that what we're doing?" Minjeong asked desperately, staring at Jimin. "We aren't even anything."

The hurt that flew into Jimin's eyes at that moment was impossible to miss. The chair stopped moving as Jimin clung to it for dear life, mouth open in surprise and eyes stunned. "Wh- what do you mean?"

We haven't defined what we are yet.

Except I think I know what we are.

"Never mind." Minjeong gave her a tight smile.

Minjeong had never been one to run into the fray, to tackle problems head-on. She preferred to be behind the scenes, having all the control. When someone dove right in... things got messy.

And that was the last thing Minjeong needed at the moment.

"No, what do you mean?"

Jimin stared at her inquiringly, biting her lip, and Minjeong frowned slightly, but not noticeably. She couldn't really take this right now, and the question that hung between them wasn't something she would outright ask.

Not without a prompt.

"I didn't mean anything."

"Yes, you did-"

Minjeong shot forward, sliding into the lap of the other girl, causing a whimper of surprise to escape Jimin's lips. She turned Jimin around roughly so she was straddling her, then kissed her hard, drawing the last whispers of breath from Jimin's lips as she aggressively locked lips with her. 

Jimin tried to talk, but Minjeong silenced her fast, kissing her again and again, her arms locked tightly around Jimin's waist, pinning her to the chair. All the conflicting thoughts were starting to overwhelm Minjeong's mind, and she tried to lose herself in the girl in front of her.

It was so un-Minjeong that it just went to show how deeply she felt.

Normally, the girl would take time, then slowly deal with the issue. Outright ignoring it was not her.

But she'd change her entire personality for Jimin- and that was why she was so scared to make them anything.

Jimin couldn't break Minjeong's heart if it was never hers; but it already was, and all that was needed was the clarification Minjeong was so conflicted about.

She turned her head slightly, keeping her lips on Jimin's.