Autumnal Equinox (JinJi)

Five

Minji pressed her lips into a thin line. "It's just a phone," she said flatly, then smiled. "So. You helped put together this little... thing."

She looked around, taking in the black decor, the medieval font, the dark red roses. Jinyoung looked around, too, but he looked a bit more amused.

"I'm gonna go ahead and guess that Jennie was in charge of decor," he said, laughing.

"She does have a flair for it," Jisoo said. "I'm thinking she missed her calling. What do you think? Jennie Kim, interior decorator?"

"Do you think she'd travel for work?" Jinyoung said. "She can do my apartment when I move to New York."

"Our apartment, babe," Minji said, playfully hitting his chest. That little detail caught Jisoo's attention.

"New York?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah," Minji said, perking up all of a sudden at the mention of New York. "Jinyoung's been promoted and transferred. Father's firm just opened up a branch in Manhattan and is looking for talented young accountants to join him there. I just sort of threw his name into the conversation."

Jisoo actually was impressed. By the promotion, of course, but also that upstanding citizen Park Jinyoung had actually used nepotism to land it. And that he was an accountant. She smirked, looking between Minji and Jinyoung.

Jinyoung modestly looked at the ground as his girlfriend bragged about the promotion. Jennie beckoned them over to the open bar to get some drinks. It was, after all, meant to be a cocktail mixer. Jennie ordered a cosmopolitan, but then she downed the drink and then moved on, saying that she had a bone to pick with the DJ. That left Jisoo alone with Minji and Jinyoung again.

"Did you really just ask for a glass of ice water and a lemon wedge?" Jinyoung asked Minji. "At a cocktail mixer?"

He was just teasing her of course.

"Your sister's wedding is coming up, and I'm not having my stomach poke out," Minji said. "You know that dress is impossible to squeeze into."

Jinyoung put his hands up, surrendering. "You're right," he said.

"Anyway, what are you drinking?" Minji said, grabbing the black bottle that was in Jinyoung's hand. "A Guinness?"

"Which is decidedly also not a cocktail," Jisoo said, joining in. She looked over at Minji and tried to give her a sisterly smile, but Minji was still raising her brows at Jinyoung.

"You know these things have like 500 calories, don't you?" Minji said. "The wedding is just weeks away and you already got fitted for a tux. You really want a beer gut when your sister gets married?"

"Actually," Jisoo said, chiming in. "A 12 ounce Guinness has 125 calories, which is actually just 15 more than, say, a Bud Light. Most of the calories in beer come from the actual alcohol, and most brands are around 5% ABV, but Guinness is just 4.2. So less alcohol, fewer calories. And, anyway, it would take years of heavy drinking to develop a beer gut."

Minji blinked at her for a good five seconds until Jinyoung burst out laughing.

"I forgot," he said. "Professor. Do you remember when you were trying to show me how experts taste beer? You did that weird gurgling thing and accidentally spit it out all over your lap?"

Jisoo facepalmed. Yes, she remembered that.

"Let's not revive that memory," she said, laughing. Jinyoung slid his bottle of Guinness over to her.

"You should show Minji," he said, smiling expectantly. Jisoo shook her head.

"No!" she said. "There are people here!"