Several days have passed and Jimin would shut herself into her apartment whenever classes were over. She'd often take a seat on the bench in front of her grand piano and stay silent, occasionally playing a few songs every now and then.
After a while, she hesitantly reached for her bag not too far from the bench and pulled out a particular card. She gazed at the card expressionless for a prolonged moment before taking out her phone and tapping in the digits.
Jimin was about to press the call button until the sudden knock on the door made her flinch and look towards it. Placing her phone on the table, she huffed and approached the door.
She didn't open the door and took a look through her peephole's camera.
"Jiminie! Open up! There won't be any classes till' next week and I'm aware that you're going to lock yourself up again. Really, are you okay?"
Jimin snickered seeing one of her brothers— Kihyun, knocking on her door nonstop. Aside from Win, the guy's the second most worried about her.
Unfortunately, Win had already taken his leave to take over the company and study. Thus, requesting Kihyun to look after their sister closely.
"I'm not leaving here until you open this door," Kihyun grunted while crossing his arms.
The girl couldn't help but smile and shake her head slowly, then return the guy's knocks a few times saying that she was fine.
"Shutting yourself inside for who knows how long is fine?"
"Yes..."
"Bullshit."
Jimin only raised her brows.
Kihyun sighed, "Look, Jiminie..." he laid his back against the door. "I know you've been going through a lot of shit right now, I understand. But doing it like this isn't just the answer, you know?" he scratched the top of his head. "So why don't we have a talk and open this door?"
Jimin reluctantly grasped onto the doorknob and gripped it tightly. A lot of things have been going through her mind lately and she wasn't very fond of it, scoffing.
Soon after a short silence, the girl opened the door which revealed her brother who instantly gazed at her in relief. He didn't even wait for the latter to invite him inside and dropped onto the living room couch.
Jimin rolled her eyes and closed the door. She sat down on the couch across from her brother and crossed her legs— this was the first time in a while she had let someone step foot in the apartment in which Kihyun swiftly examined the surroundings.
"Wow, you really had it hard."
It was messy as a countless amount of music sheets were scattered across the living room even stretching towards the girl's bedroom. It wasn't that dirty to begin with, her brother just knew how neat his sister was so it was an unnatural sight.
"Can you just get straight to the point, please?" Jimin turned her head to the side to avoid her brother's gaze.
"Alright." Kihyun stretched his fingers and leaned a bit towards his sister with serious eyes, "There's this rumor going around your girl-"
Jimin clutched onto one of the couch's pillows, "Kihyun, we're not together anymore." she paused before continuing. "And I know, I'm aware of this rumor."
Kihyun's expression shifted into worry, "Then aren't you going to stop her?"
"Why would I?"
The girl unconsciously tightened her clutch to the point one of her nails pierced through the pillow, unfazed.
"We're not together anymore and I'm not in the place to be doing that, dummy. She's completely different now, and I need to accept that." She said monotonously, then realizing how it's been like forever since she talked like that.
Jimin laughed at herself mockingly inside her mind. Later, she stood up and picked up the phone she left on the table.
"Then how about all of this shutting yourself? When are you going to stop? We're all worried about you. Even your friends won't stop asking telling me that you've been ignoring them since the day you two broke up."
"I'll stop now, don't worry." Jimin proceeded to tap the dial button on the phone she left open, "To move on... hm, I wonder— Just now, I've settled on making myself busy and not think about it too much." she placed her phone next to her ear.
Kihyun tilted his head, "What are you planning...?"
"I'm going to France."
"Eh?"
The brother was about to speak again yet Jimin quickly prevented him by shushing him and placing an index finger against her lips. Kihyun furrowed his brows at this and stuck his eyes on the latter.
"Ah, yes. Ms. Yu?"
"Sorry to bother Mr. Fabien."
"No, it's fine. Since you called, have you finally thought about our invitation?"
Jimin pursed her lips, "Yes, I did and... I'm going to accept the opportunity."
"Excellent! I'll send the information through text. I hope to see more marvelous performances from you, Ms. Yu."
Kihyun immediately took the opportunity as soon as the call ended and looked unsure, "Are you really going to France?"
At the same time, a message from Mr. Fabien appeared in the girl's inbox saying that they'll be preparing for this major competition in France and fly there the next week. There's also an address embedded on it which Jimin quickly took note of.
"If it's to take my mind off things, then yeah."
"For how long?"
Jimin shrugged, "Depends." she casually said then noticed how her brother was looking at her worriedly. "I'll be fine! Don't we have a home there? You guys can visit me anyway, I recall dad gifting us each a jet or something."
"But-"
"No buts!"
Jimin tucked the phone into her pocket and pulled up Kihyun to stand. She pushed her brother towards the exit, opened the door, and pushed him out.
"You guys should stop being a worrywart. I'll be fine, really. I can take care of myself, it's just... everything is just sudden for me and I'm still coping up with it."
Kihyun breathed out a long sigh, "Alright... then I'll be coming tomorrow again to check up on you."
"Be my guest."
Falling into a soft smile, her brother actually still felt worried though knew for himself that he couldn't do anything about his sister's situation since she could be terrifyingly stubborn. Thus, he gave the girl a pat on the head before turning his back and leaving.
Then lying her back against the corridor, Jimin watched her brother's figure get smaller in the distance and eventually disappear.
"Hurry up! Someone's going to see you like that, stupid!"
"It's your fault for ripping my shirt!"
Jimin suddenly heard two voices not too far to her side. When she turned around to look towards it to feed her curiosity, she was met by a pair of eyes that gazed at her with an unreadable expression.
It was Minjeong, and she was grabbing onto this girl's wrist. What grasped Jimin's attention was how that girl looked pretty messed up— her dark red lipstick smudged, messy hair, and a few marks near the collarbone that seemed to look like hickeys.
Jimin's breath paused for a millisecond as she stared their way. Many ideas popped into her mind and she wasn't liking them, she couldn't help but overthink. But then the thought of her and Minjeong not being together anymore passed in which she bit the inside of her cheeks and swiftly step back into her apartment.
Her hand tightened around the doorknob and her knuckles became white.
She displayed no expressions and stuck her eyes on the floor. She inhaled deeply and her lips opened. Only air came out and her throat seemed to be blocked.
It's hard.
As Jimin continued with her footsteps, she flopped down onto the couch and buried her face into a pillow. The familiar sharp pain appeared again.
Inside the pillow, her face looked so broken that she felt powerless and dizzy.
In the end, she practiced playing the piano for at least eighteen hours.
———————————————
A new day... A new tomorrow.
Jimin stuck that phrase into her mind the very day she decided to finally go back to attending classes in the last three days since the apartment incident.
The first group of people to greet her was of course her friends. They wouldn't stop rambling about how they were worried about the latter and would write notes for her in her place.
Jimin smiled and thanked them.
The group of friends decided to spend time together and eat lunch in the campus garden. They talked about various things happening inside the campus and caught up with each other.
Aeri then explained the rumors that have been going around lately about Minjeong and how it kept growing. The friends glared at the Japanese thinking that it would cut the good mood they were having.
However, unexpectedly, Jimin looked fine and couldn't have cared less.
Ning gazed at the girl with a poker face though eyes looking worried were evident, "You're okay now?"
Jimin erupted in laughter, "I'm fine. I'm fine." she munched onto her burger. "There's no point in getting gloomy and hurt over it. There's no such thing as not getting hurt in this world anyway. We just gotta get used to it and move forward."
"Point taken." Ryujin frowned her lips and lied her head on Sakura's shoulder, "Though I am quite disappointed that our MJ is gone now."
Sakura solely smiled and patted the girl's shoulder, "That's just how things are Ryujin. She may not be the MJ we know... but she's still Minjeong."
Aeri scoffed, "I'm sorry but... I hate this version of her."
Everyone on the table directed their eyes on the latter.
"What?" Aeri snickered, "Don't get me wrong I love her like you guys but... Come on. She's so arrogant, stupid, and ignorant. Plus, we're all aware of the rumor how she'd play with people and ghost them the next day— guy or girl." she quoted the word play with her fingers.
"Right." Ning huffed, "She doesn't really talk to us anymore, huh?"
"Hmm." Jimin finished eating her burger, "I wonder if we should cut ties with her?" she said so nonchalantly that caused everyone to raise their brows.
"And you're okay with that?" Ryujin asked.
"As long as everyone is okay, then yes and I should probably tell you guys this." Jimin cleared her throat, "I'm going to France in a few days for a competition... I've settled on dropping when this term finishes too."
"WHAT?!"
Everyone exclaimed in unison and Jimin nodded her head.
"This is just so sudden," Sakura released a small gasp.
That's when Jimin began explaining what's been happening and what she's been doing these past three days. She said how she's been practicing nonstop and visiting her brothers as well as her father inside the rehab.
"It's a great opportunity for me, yeah?"
Soon the group of friends understood and flooded the girl with good luck and praises. In midst of this, a sudden ding came from her phone and the sender happened to be Mr. Fabien.
So Jimin waved her farewells and stood up saying how she needed to meet the french musician for a meeting along with other people who'll be participating in the competition.
But then a ball came towards her way and hit her directly on the face.
*THUD*
Jimin dropped onto the ground and winced quietly in pain. Everyone was alerted by this and stood up to check if the girl was alright. Then as of immediately, the culprit appeared and bowed her head at a ninety-degree angle.
Ning was outraged the moment she noticed her friend's nose bleeding, "What the fuck Minjeong?!"
Minjeong gripped onto her shoulder and bowed once more, "I'm sorry!!!"