Bargaining & Depression

"Damn a beautiful woman is reading about...." Daehye's father came from her back and took a peak at her laptop screen "......neurotic cancer."

"It's an assignment papa." She said while redirecting her focus. "Take a break, let's go somewhere hmm?"

"Go take mum on a date."

"Let's get you a haircut." Her dad was right, get a haircut. The best fucking alternative to actually change something at least physically if you can't do it emotionally.

"You'll get one too then." She eyed her father's locks of hair falling on his forehead and blinding his eyesight to some extent. "Done." She shut her laptop off and both of them left after almost five minutes which were spent in changing to her sneakers.

Rather than taking a car they just took a walk down the  Myeong-dong since there would have been problems in finding a place to park. The place was always too packed with people. "Ha- papa this looks expensive now." Daehye stared at the luxury salon in front of her. " the truth to be said, Min Daehye wasn't born well off or rich in any sense. She was born to immigrants who struggled to have a successful business.

The whole reason why the Min family travelled from US was because they went bankrupt. Mr. Min wanted to give one last shot to his aspirations and he did with the support of his wife. And it did work out in the best way possible. In just four years their work skyrocketed. Life is filled with good opportunities and opportunities bad enough to fuck us up. Spoiler- the bad opportunities are the ones which actually help us in future.

"We can afford this now I guess." Her father said and she followed him inside. They could afford it. Of course they could. And maybe now was the right time to discuss about her future plans. Daehye would be graduating in less than a year now. And she did wanted to pursue a phd in biochemistry. Maybe even research about cancer. She did manage to get a scholarship from Kaist. But now she was aiming for an Ivy League in the states. In the country she was born. The country which was one of her homes.

For now she kept those plans to herself. She made sure that she would discuss these matters on the way back home with her father because he was the one who supported her by saying 'it would be good, STEM huh? So badass, a woman in a group of men. Show em what you are.' Her mother? Well a typical Indian parent who wanted her daughter to take over her business. To do what she was doing. Daehye rebelled against it and she was glad that her father stood with her.

"Let's go in then." She said to herself, dragging her feet against the clad marble floor, hair dressers were bustling around and before she could even look around more someone else approached her. "Maam how we may help you?"

"Oh I-" her hand automatically went to her hair as she, "A haircut would be gratifying I suppose."

"Please this way." Daehye turned her head to inform her father but much to her surprise he was already on a chair with a hairdresser standing, examining his hair. "You have beautiful natural hair ma'am. I'll make  it even more beautiful. HWAITING!" The guy who must've been her age screamed with punching the air and looked at her. She meanwhile gave him a fist bump with an awkward smile on her face.

"Thanks." The hairdresser put on the cape on her before pulling the chair. "You seem familiar." A voice intruded her. A very familiar one. "Kim Jennie-ssi?"

"Daehye?" A smile appeared on her face. Daehye now thought again. Were they that rich that Kim Jennie and her were at the same fucking salon. No cause her eyes redirected to the badge. Kim Nol, celebrity hair stylist. Yeah that was okay then.

"Long time no see." Daehye said, "how are you?" She asked Jennie. "I'm fine and you?"

"I'm trying to make it till Friday for now." The hairdresser untied her messy bun and gazed at his hair. "Oh right now that you're here and considering the fact that you're the Chanel representative may I have the pleasure to seek your opinion on a new hairstyle?" Jennie smiled at her words again.

"Glad to help a Freind." She leaned in and stared at her for a second. "What do ya think?" Jennie asked her hairdresser. "I'm thinking of side bangs and step cut maybe?" Daehye's squinted her eyes, imagining what the cut would look like on her.

"Yeah." She and Jennie said in unison. "And what about some ash grey with a touch of lilac highlights?" Jennie twirled her fingers around her hair.

"Damn that's hot?"

"Indeed." Throughout the time Daehye thought about whether she should embrace the songwriter opportunity with open arms or whether she should just let it go. The decision was rather complicated. She met up with the Hybe representative in the morning. Turned out they only revealed the information regarding which artist she would be working under. It was TXT for which she would be an assistant song writer, under Beomgyu and for BTS for their upcoming album, co- songwriter with well.....depends on the circumstances.

Life threw such a golden chance on her that it started to seem fishy. Was it reprimanding for the times it was way too harsh to her or was it just another high she thought never existed?

If she faired well under Hybe then they sure would make her a permanent client. She chose to discuss this with her father too.

"Aish my daughter is too pretty." Mr. Min was probably the first father in Seoul who found her daughter pretty after she got her hair coloured. Jennie was right Ash grey under highlights with a tinge of lilac looked so damn hot.

"Let's hope mom says that too." She said as they walked out of the salon. "Papa if you were offered a side job as a songwriter under a successful company then what would you do?"

"I would grab it asap." She smiled at his response. And they continued their way towards their home. Turns out Mrs. Min did like her hair.

Daehye was currently clicking the pen in her hand, waiting while wearing her black hoodie with the cap on her head and boyfriend jeans, ripped enough. Her resting bitch face was covered with a black mask but right now her demeanour screamed of nothing but to back off. Hybe certainly didn't sign her for this. Whoever the song lyricist was she was working under was super late.

"Oh sorry for making you wait." A deep voice flipped her off from her thoughts.

No shit Sherlock.

Cause the Kim fucking Namjoon with his 6ft height stood there in front of her. And her mouth was just hanging down on the floor.

"What the absolute fuck" she whispered.

"I'm sorry but I beg your pardon."

"No no it's just- you're Namjoon and this information alone that I'm working under you is just a lot to digest sir please I'm-" she stopped herself from further rambling. And just looked at him cause god he was beautiful.

"Your work is super and that's the sole reason." Kim Namjoon just said that her work is super. Damn. Is this a hallucination. Yes.

"Soo you liked that shit- how even. I'm amazed on an universal scale." She snapped back.

"It depends you know. That piece was a good one because it portrayed emotion. That won't be the same with everything you write. Right now at this moment I need you to assist me because there's a comfort language I have- Korean, your comfort language is English. The words 'assistant songwriter' are only for the show. You're the one doing most of the work for us and I need you to be aware of that." He responded her back, by the time he finished Taehyung waved her from the doorframe and took a seat next to Namjoon.

"Who is the one singing and composing the song?"

"Jimin." Yeah as expected. Woman wasn't even surprised. She was just relief that the thing she though of blowing up at her face, did blow up at her face. At least she was right.

"I-" she gave a brief pause and looked at Taehyung. He understood her problem all too well. "Hyung maybe she can chat with him."

"Yeah sure, and tell me what name you wanna go under." Namjoon asked her as he grabbed a notepad and a pen.

"Taehyung oppa what are you feeling like?" Daehye thought of keeping her Indian name but no. People knew her by that too and she wanted to go completely all anonymous.

"Been practising a lot hence dizzy."

"Okay soo........" she thought. "Daze. Yeah that's the name."

"And I need your number." Namjoon asked her and she answered him right away.

She was the first one to text him. She typed and backspaced for one whole hour before just settling for, 'hi I'm your new songwriter.' To which he responded almost immediately. The discussion was highly professional. It didn't even look like she was chatting with Jimin. It was like a robot automated to take his place. He needed a wistful song but it had an EDM beat.

She liked the EDM song but he ordered her to write the song which was acoustic. "I'm in danger." She unconsciously copied the Simpson meme while throwing her arms on the table after ending the chat. 

Who knew she would be struggling with the song. One week passed and none of the ideas were there- at this rate her contract was in danger so the most unexpected person guided her through this. Her mother. The last person she expected to even guide her for this.

"Kya hua?" She asked Her in Hindi.

"Nothing." Daehye put her hands on her forehead.
"Put your emotions." And yes that statement helped a lot. Cause she just straight up somehow managed to change the song's genre all together. With some mind storming with her boss, the conclusion of her idea turned to be better than expected.

——
"Oppa Namjoon Oppa I-" and then Daehye's laces untied and she fell on her left arm. All the papers,  flying out of her hand. This wasn't a desirable situation when three hot men were working out in the gym. She picked herself up cause honestly who cares. She finally wrote her song and she was excited as fuck.

The man doing crunches with barbells cracked a smile, "clumsy ass." He said while continuing with his work. Namjoon meanwhile panicked, it was the first time he saw people falling off like nothing after Jimin.

"Daze are you okay?" He held her elbow and looked at her head to toe, examining if she had a scraped knee. "Im fine but this- I wrote it finally yes-" she was breathless which meant she was running. Namjoon took the sheet from her hand and read the first two lines.

"This has passed my vibe check Daze." He said and saw her eyes close. "I know right yes." And she hugged the shirtless man because yea, who cares. He patted on her head and smiled.

"Damn." She said freeing him, too late to realise that she just spoke, that she just fell, that she just did everything to ensure that she was Min Daehye because the man doing crunches stopped long ago. His chest was glistening with sweat, his gym joggers hanging low below his waist and showing his v-line.

Jimin stared right through her soul. He knew that voice. He knew that excitement. She was wearing a mask which covered her face well but wasn't a stranger to her brown eyes. She stood in front of him, merely ten metres away and nothing mattered. He just wanted to kiss her hard on the mouth and then cry about where she went off leaving him.

Jimin knew he didn't deserved anything but he just wanted her to hear him out. Only once.

She stared at him back and before anyone could even blink she ran. Like the world was on fire. And he did the same. He chased her. "Daehye wait." He screamed, she was struggling to keep up with tying her laces and with putting all her papers in the bag. Her diary fell out of her bag, she ran back but Jimin was just running in full speed and she just let it be.

Fuck the diary. Just run. She reached the elevator and luck was by her side cause it was just on the same floor. She clicked the down arrow around five times and the lift opened to slowly, she got inside fast, pressed the ground button but it closed off slowly. This is irritating.

"Close close close bhenchod." She cursed, panicking so much. Why was she even running away? Because she knew once she made her way back to him then it would be impossible to return. "Daehye-" his hand almost slid between the doors but the lift shut off and descended down.

"Motherfucking son of bitch." Jimin slapped the elevator door and hurried by the fire exit with her diary in his hand. Enhypen members were rushing off with their outfits on them- why take the damn fire exit now. This resulted into him greeting every member. Every member eyeing his abs and secretly simping.

"Hyung take my jacket." Jongseong handed his wayyy to shiny jacket to him. "Thank you." Jimin took the jacket and headed off downstairs at a faster rate.

Meanwhile Daehye was on the ground floor thinking where to hide. Her car was in the parking area but that was a danger zone too since Jimin would head for the same.

"Ma'am can I please hide here? Yes? Thanks I love you." She put her hands on the reception counter and jumped to the other side. Without even waiting for the receptionist's reply she ducked down.

As if the circumstances weren't getting any stranger, The receptionist saw Park Jimin rush towards her in his joggers and sports shoes, his sequence silver jacket which really wasn't his was unbuttoned, his hair were tied in a sweaty bun and his neck was glistened. "Did you see a woman with ash purple highlights- a little shorter than me with a black mask on, exit?"

"Sir she headed towards this way I suppose." The receptionist directed him towards the main entrance. "Thanks thanks." Daehye whispered. Her phone vibrated with multiple notifications.

Jimin: you're Daehye. That explains every fucking thing actually-

*the user has blocked your contact*

Author
Okay you guys I'm sorry for publishing this so late. Happy new year.