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"ALRIGHT, so let me get this straight," taeyeon said as she unzipped her wallet, which was too big to be a wallet, the younger thought; it was already the size of a purse. "he brought home a girl."

seulgi nodded, her won bills in hand. "yeah."

"a japanese girl."

"yes."

"about a week after you gave him closure."

"around the same time we last slept together, too, yes."

"and this girl does ballet?"

"apart from the fact that she's really beautiful and everything she does is fucking elegant, yep."

taeyeon put her purse in between her arm and torso and leaned on the counter facing her. "well, my takeaway is that you have a very complicated love life," she said as she paid for both of their drinks. "and it looks like jimin scored a goal."

"not funny, unnie," seulgi said, rolling her eyes.

"i'm not trying to be funny, seulgi-ah," taeyeon replied, although the creasing lines of a smirk could be seen from her mouth. "i'm just processing this newfound information."

"newfound information does ballet shows on mondays, and has been crowned swan lake princess seven times, whatever that means." seulgi huffed. "she's obviously winning at life."

"hey, just because she gets to prance around in pretty ballerina shoes and a tiara - possibly also getting the guy - doesn't mean she's already winning at life," taeyeon said, raising an eyebrow. "don't be too quick to jump into conclusions. besides," she added, poking seulgi's shoulder, "you barely even know her. this mina girl sounds so much prettier than she actually looks, coming from you."

"i think i know her well enough, unnie."

taeyeon raised her other eyebrow. "oh, you do now?"

the waitress turned from across the counter and placed two styrofoam cups of coffee in front of them - a caramel macchiato for seulgi, and a mocha frappuccino with extra whipped cream for taeyeon - on a coffee-colored tray. they took their drinks and started walking after doing so.

"i know that she's a rebound girlfriend," seulgi said, sitting at the two-seat table at the edge of the cafe, taeyeon trailing after her. "and that they're not going to last long."

"you sure about that?"

seulgi stopped as soon as she poked her straw atop her drink. she eyed her hesitantly. "n-no."

"'rebound' is a strong word," taeyeon said, opening her cup to gouge on the whipped cream. "for all we know, she's probably a decent girl, so don't be too harsh on her."

"she is decent. too decent. she's literally an angel that fell from the sky a few minutes after i legitimately broke up with jimin. she's too nice, i swear," seulgi replied. "she visits him almost seven days a week, in his room, and who knows what the hell they do in there; she shuts up when you make an awkward remark instead of actually addressing it, which is super nice in my opinion; and she cooks for him. seriously." she shook her head. "she made me kimchi stew this morning for breakfast."

taeyeon almost spit out her drink because of the urge to laugh. "and this is a problem because...?"

seulgi stared at her, dumbfounded. "unnie, i'm the ex-girlfriend here. if people found out that jimin found a girl so much more better than i am, or will ever be, then that kicks me out of their good perspective, now, doesn't it?"

"you're overreacting."

"it's not overreacting if it's no less than true."

"i'm sure that's not the ca-"

"look at it this way," seulgi said, leaning towards the table, making sure the paper bag containing her dress for wendy's rehearsal dinner is still safe beside her, "suppose you didn't know me. if you found out that jimin is dating mina, this beautiful, introverted, graceful as fuck ballerina chick who cooks him breakfast and nurtures him like he's the only person worth loving in this planet, and that he used to date me, a flop-careered hag who doesn't know how to cook and shouts at him most of the time we're together, who would you choose, or rather, be more okay with?"

taeyeon, while thinking, bit her lip, looking at seulgi with a cautious expression on her face. "i see your point."

"see? it's bound to happen." seulgi slumped back, stuffing her hands in her sweater. "i lose."

"did you just call me up to have coffee with you to discuss this?" taeyeon asked. "your boyfriend troubles?"

seulgi didn't have anything planned for the day, possibly, other than choosing and buying a dress that she would be wearing for wendy's rehearsal dinner and would never be wearing again. she had no idea as well, but she ended up phoning taeyeon, who was free every morning, to have coffee at a small, quite dainty cafe at the east side of seoul where the drinks were up to her budget and possibly lower, which meant she couldn't complain about quality. she had her and jimin's situation in mind when she called her to have a small chat with her, and it was probably embarrassing to admit.

maybe it was the reason. probably it could be true. but she can't know that. "w-what? no."

"stop lying."

"i'm not-"

"seulgi, i train young kids to be future idols. i'm practically experienced in reading facial expressions." she replaced the styrofoam lid and began sipping on her frappe. "so if i tell you you're lying, you'd better own up to it."

if she could count every single time she failed to hide her feelings from people she was talking to, seulgi swore she'd be rich by now. "would it be bad if i said yes?"

"nope, it's not as if i had better things to do. i was just asking."

"i figured you'd listen," seulgi said. "everyone else is busy, and since you know about what happened at wendy's bridal party, well, i thought it was okay with you."

"it is okay, i swear," taeyeon said, smiling, offering her comfort. "i guess it just sounds wrong."

"what does?"

"everything you've been saying." seulgi stopped sipping to stare at her. "look, this may sound a little bit too frank, but aren't you supposed to be getting mad at the fact that jimin found another girl to date, or at jimin being the flirt that he is, actually, rather than getting mad at the girl herself?"

seulgi felt everything stop. taeyeon, as she knew, always prides herself at the fact that she knows how to make a point. and she was right. "i-"

"wait, before you say something else, let me add something." taeyeon scooted her seat closer to the table. "looking at it, mina doesn't really have a fault in this, because in the first place, she wasn't the reason that you two broke up. that was all on you and jimin," she said, pointing at seulgi. "the fact that she just happened to meet him at a time that he needs someone to connect with him emotionally is purely coincidental, even if they are just temporary."

seulgi sighed. this was just another episode of her letting herself get swallowed by her feelings, and it wasn't going well.

"you're just channeling your anger towards her, the new girl, because you can't bring yourself to be at him, or at the fact that he's seeing someone else now." taeyeon sipped on her drink as if nothing happened. "now, is that the case?"

seulgi sipped on her coffee again, trying to avoid her gaze. "n-no."

"seulgi."

"okay, maybe it is," seulgi said. "i just don't get why it's affecting me so much."

"those are called lingering feelings, dear." taeyeon nodded at her. "from the first time we've talked at that party, it's pretty evident that you still have feelings for him. i didn't rather say since it was already pretty safe to assume."

"very funny."

"you know it's true."

and it was true; seulgi didn't get why she had this huge, unbothered urge to hate mina. in fact, she actually thinks mina would be one of the people she would naturally be friends with.

but whenever she sees her hands interlocked with jimin's, that wasn't the case.

"i'm the bad guy in this situation, aren't i?"

taeyeon cocked her head to the side. "that's one way to look at it. but i'm guessing it's just your way of responding to these series of unfortunate events, hm?"

"i guess. i mean, i still do like him," seulgi replied, shaking her cup. "i guess i'm just disappointed at him more than i'm disappointed at her."

"how so?"

"well, remember how i told you that he was good enough to take care of me the whole time we were together? i knew he was a flirt, but the fact that he only cared about me when were dating made me fall harder than ever for him. it made me feel so loved. the fact that he didn't date anyone after we broke up because he still had feelings for me made me regard him even higher." she sighed. "he didn't take a single girl home since we started becoming roommates and that was going well for us both."

"i don't see where you're going with this."

"what i mean to say is, i actually may have expected him never to like someone else again, but, well, me." seulgi tried to hide her face in shame, but to no avail; taeyeon was still looking at her intently. "i actually thought he'd remain like that, which, as you can see, was so wrong of me."

"seulgi-"

"i'm not even preventing him from loving again, it's just that, well, it feels wrong after we just cleared the air around each other." seulgi sipped her drink, hydrating her throat after talking, "and besides, isn't there like a three month rule? couldn't you have at least thought of dating someone three months after everything has happened? or at least, well, after you both have moved on?" she sighed again. "i'm not wanting him to consider my feelings, you know, it's just that i live in the same apartment as him. if he's not making this happen, well, i don't know anymore."

taeyeon just looked at her, still blinking rapidly. "are you hearing yourself right now."

"well, yeah."

"are you comprehending every word that comes out of your mouth?"

seulgi bit her lip. "honestly, no."

taeyeon chuckled while seulgi kept a straight face. "look, hon. the three month rule is applied three months after you break up. you gave him closure two weeks ago. you guys broke up a year and a half ago, so technically, this is all legal, considering the time."

seulgi huffed. she was starting to hate it when taeyeon was right.

"secondly, you can't tell jimin when or with whom he's choosing to recover with. that's not your position to tell him. people move on differently, in different ways and different paces. you can't tell if he still loves you unless you're psychic or something, so for the meantime, you're going to have to deal with these two, unless you move out." seulgi looked her in the eyes. "which, i am not encouraging you to do."

"i get it," seulgi said, sighing and pouting through her mouth. "i'm the bad guy in my own love story."

"you're not giving up, are you?" taeyeon asked, sipping on her drink again, which was already only a quarter full.

seulgi scrunched her forehead in confusion. "what?"

"just because this happened, you're giving up on him?"

"unnie, i'm seriously beginning to doubt you on which side you're on."

"i'm not siding with any one of you. in fact, both of you are idiots," taeyeon replied. "look, i know you might have ended it, but, all facts aside, you love him, and that's what matters, right?"

"i-i think so."

"i'm not one to butt in on your problems, but this is something i'm sure you'll regret deeply once you let go." seulgi glared at her, and she just smiled. "jimin is a keeper, honestly. if you guys don't end up together, that's just sad."

seulgi just stared at her blandly. "you're confusing me."

"i told you, this is just my take on this, it's not supposed to be something that matters. don't listen to me, i was just thinking out loud." she took seulgi's hand in hers. "if you choose to move on, it's probably for the better, right? whatever works for you, and for jimin, definitely."

and that night, as seulgi stepped into their shared apartment - which, slowly but surely, was becoming mina's, too - a few donuts in hand for dinner, she saw a sight worth seeing.

the living room was dim, with the only source of light being the television blaring that week's third rerun of hello, counselor. jimin was lying on the seemingly small sofa, the same sleepy look on his face that was ever so familiar to seulgi, in a white shirt that hugged his arms neatly as he slept. those were the same arms that were flung around mina, who was wearing a familiar black hoodie, her hair in her face, looking more beautiful that seulgi thought she could ever be.

she didn't think she could stay mad at her, though. not for long, at the very least.

she took the patterned black and red duvet that pooled by their thighs and brought them up to their chins, walking over and shutting off the tv, before looking at them, this time, not forcing herself to smile, because she couldn't.

maybe moving on is the best option.

"alright, myoui mina." she sighed as she whispered to their sleeping forms, putting her hands in the pocket of her jeans. "you win."

she walked into her room, her lips pressed in a thin line.

"good night."

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a little bit of angsty comedy for you lovelies,, also, YES OR YES

- nayeonsbunny -