"Jeongguk, get your muscly ass over here and help us lift this goddamn table!" Taehyung screams from across the yard to the lake where the said man is standing, busy with his conversation with--you already know who--Lisa. "This shit isn't going to carry itself, you dumbo!"
Roséanne watches from under the small tent as the younger jogs to where the other older boys are, mainly Taehyung, Namjoon, Hoseok, Seokjin, Yoongi, and of course, Jimin, to help them set up the tables for tomorrow's dinner. They invited their friends over to assist them in decorating the place and they were kind enough to travel all the way here from Seoul. So far, this is actually going really good.
She feels a tap on her arm. "Are the colours in this vase okay?" Jennie asks while she brings forward her vase, fake stems of petunias and pansies neatly arranged. These were going to be placed at the center table and Chaeyoung needs it to look pretty to complete the piece.
"It's alright," she agrees as her fingers leave light carresses at the edge of the petals. "Might want to add a bit more whites, maybe? It looks like a unicorn puked on it," Jennie rolls her eyes at the comment before grabbing more fake flowers.
Progress: they're halfway done with the entire thing. They've set up the mini stage where the boys will sing on, placed the tables, and arranged almost all flower vases. All they need to do is to blow up the balloons (God, there are LOTS of it), put up the lights, and decorate the table. If Chaeyoung estimated correctly, they'd be finished before dinner.
"Chaeng!"
She looks up from the flowers and sees Jimin waving at her. Shit, she curses as her mind panics. Ever since Jennie made Jimin's intentions clear to her yesterday, she still doesn't know how to face the guy without feeling guilty and apologetic. She becomes a stuttering mess whenever he talks to her and often flinches when he touches her to get her attention--which is stupid, because she shouldn't even be acting like this! She's the one at fault so she really doesn't have any reason to-
A low snort came from beside her. "You better talk to him, Chaeng," Jennie murmurs as Jimin makes his way to them, smiles and all.
Chaeyoung gulps. She has never imagined talking to be that hard.
"Chaeng," he calls again, a few feet away.
"Uh, hey," Chaeyoung greets with a forced grin. "What's up?"
"What's up?" He raises his brows at the strange question. "Nothing, I just want to ask what do you guys want for dinner," he says it so casually while plopping down the freshly trimmed grass right next to her. This action makes her even more nervous that she stands up and walks away from him.
Jennie notices this and covers her mouth with her hand to hide her laughter. Stupid bitch, she thinks while pretending to look at the vases. To avoid suspicion, she talks again, "Dinner? What time is it?"
Jimin gives her a weird look but responds nonetheless, "It's 5 PM."
Dang, she thought it was like 3 PM or something. "We've been working that long?"
"Yeah."
They arrived at the place after lunch, of course with Chaeyoung going with Lisa to purposely lower the chances of her being in Jimin's car. He hadn't said anything, so for now she deems it okay.
"Chaeng?" He asks her again. "Dinner?"
She blinks at him. "Huh?" Bitch, he said dinner! Function properly! "Right, dinner. Uh, what about... chicken and beer?"
"Beer for dinner?" Jennie repeats from behind her. Jimin seems to share same sentiment, because he looks up at her with his brows scrunched.
"You don't like it?"
Jimin laughs. "No, no, it's just unusual for you to ask for chimaek." Jennie hums in agreement. "But yeah, I'll go order it right now."
Chaeyoung chuckles nervously. "Ah, yeah, sure, do it."
He gives her and Jennie a small smile before standing up and taking his phone out of his pocket.
"What the fuck was that?" Her friend wheezes from behind her, her gummy smile showing.
She huffs. "Shut up."
✹
Okay, maybe chicken and beer was a bad idea, because three hours later, Jennie is already trying to pop open Yoongi's jean button and Taehyung is crying while playing piano.
Before you blame her, they only drank two bottles each, Jesus Christ. It isn't even that strong, it only has 3% alcohol but they acted like they drank the strongest Bacardi or something. Both Kims were lightweight as hell and decided to hop onto the beer bottles after they finished blowing the balloons and they knew it, but somehow they managed to fuck up.
The rest of the group continue to munch on chicken and some kimchi, laughing quietly amongst themselves while Taehyung plays the beginning of Moonlight Sonata and Yoongi pries Jennie off of him. It's quite a sight, really, that Seokjin takes out his phone camera and took a quick selfie.
"Don't post it!" Yoongi yells as Jennie tries to get in his lap again. "Jen, you're drunk, let's sleep."
"Which room will you be taking, hyung?" Jeongguk asks after taking a huge bite of his drumstick.
They decided to spend the night here so they can get back to decorating the next morning. There are only five rooms in this property--two rooms in the upper house, two rooms in the lake house and one room in the other house. Chaeyoung decides she'll go room with Lisa later.
"The one at the other house," Yoongi grunts, finally Jennie has calmed down. "It's closer to the bath so I can clean her up quickly. God, Jennie, come on." He picks her up and carries her--literally. Yoongi gives them a nod before leaving.
Seokjin nudges Jisoo. "Hey, aren't you going to get Tae?" He points at the man playing passionately on the piano, hands stumbling over the keys.
She shakes her head. "I can't. Look at him, he's so happy." she coos.
"You two are so lovesick for each other, it's disgusting," Lisa makes a fake vomiting noise that had Jeongguk snickering.
"Says the oblivious bitch," Jisoo bites back.
Jeongguk shuts up.
Hoseok hisses after taking a sip from his beer, disliking the taste. "What are we doing for the rest of the night? Any suggestions?"
"Drink more?" Her and Jimin offers at the same time, the same words leaving their mouths.
As if a flick was switched, the entire groups falls into a hushed silence. Taehyung's still playing the piano, but it adds to the now-tense atmosphere (he's in the middle of playing Schubert's Der Doppelganger, fucking hell).
Oh my god, Chaeyoung thinks as grins start to appear on their faces. They know that I know about Jimin, she realizes when Jin winks at him. She feels Jimin grow confuse from across her, his gaze looking around helplessly.
"Um," he starts, "what's-"
"Chaeng," Jin calls out to her, and she wants to pee right there.
Before you judge her, listen: she isn't good with apologising, see, it's one of the skills she needs to work on because goddamn, her pride is really up there and she doesn't plan on lowering it down anytime soon. Yeah, she wants to clear things out with Jimin but... she doesn't know how. A sorry can't fix everything she did to him, obviously.
It's going to take a lot more than just one word.
A hand brushes her arm. She blinks to see Jimin looking at her with a concerned expression.
"You okay, Chaeng?" He asks, almost frowning.
Ah, she spaced out, fuck. "Uh, yeah, of course, why wouldn't I be?" Jimin still doesn't look convinced. "Anyway, I think I need some fresh air, I'll go to the garden for a bit."
Chaeyoung doesn't look at anyone before she leaves the living area and pulls her phone.
"Siri," she whispers to the microphone, "how do I apologize to someone?"