"Hi," Minjeong said. "Sorry I'm late."
Jimin's jaw dropped, her mouth wide open and gaping as she stared down at the crowd, blinking a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
No, no, she wasn't. Minjeong was standing in the crowd, light blue dress on, hair curled into a bun, strands of golden brown curling around her cheek, and in that moment, Jimin could have sworn that there was a light shining around where she stood, that the clouds had parted just for her.
For a moment she could do nothing but stare, frozen in space, and it took a few moments and a strong nudge from her father to get her to move. Behind her, Siwon and Tiffany were exchanging wide smiles, and Siwon said something that sounded like "Go get her, kid!" but Jimin barely heard. All she could think of in that moment was that Minjeong was here, and she was here at the wedding, and oh, God, she had heard all of her speech.
She stumbled down from her parents' table, and as she moved, the earth seemed to fall away from her, everything around her turning into a blur as she focused on one thing and one thing only - Minjeong.
And then she threw her arms around her, pulling her close and holding her tight, nearly knocking her backwards.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, her head pressed into her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
A smile tugged at the edge of Minjeong's lips and she pulled her closer still, her arms threading through hers and squeezing tight. "Hi, Jimin-shi."
"I didn't think you were - I didn't think I'd -" she said, her voice wobbling as her throat closed up and tears threatened to leak from her eyes. "I'm just so glad you're here."
They were still holding on tight to each other, like they were worried that if they didn't keep holding on, the other would just disappear.
"I know," Minjeong said, softly. "I am too."
For a long moment, they were stationary, just clinging onto each other for dear life. Around them, the wedding guests hooted and clapped, and for once Jimin found herself unable to care. What did it matter, anyway, when Minjeong was here?
"I'm still furious with you," Minjeong said into her ear.
Jimin pulled back, let out a choke of a laugh while a few tears spilled down her face. "I know," she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "You should be."
"But I shouldn't have left," Minjeong said, pushing her bangs out of her eyes before clutching her arm. "That was dumb."
Jimin shook her head. "I'd have done what you did."
"No," Minjeong said, quietly. "It didn't make sense for me to leave. I knew what I was walking out on, I should've stayed. Tried to sort it out. Look, Jimin, we need to-"
"Minjeong!"
She was cut off by Minho's voice, so loud above the crowd that people turned to stare at him. He marched through the swathes of people to clap his hands down onto Minjeong's shoulders. The poor girl shrank back.
"So wonderful that you came after all," he said, "after everything that happened, we weren't expecting you back. Poor Jimin made a right mess of things, didn't she?"
Jimin flushed a bright red. "Not helping," she muttered hotly.
Minjeong was looking between Jimin and Minho as if all she wanted to do was run away. Minho didn't seem to notice.
"You really had become a part of the family, it would have been devastating if you hadn't shown up."
Jimin wanted to sink into the ground, especially when she saw Minjeong staring straight at her feet, bangs falling in front of her face. Her eyes flickered up to the top table, and she shot a panicked look straight at his mother.
Tiffany coughed, clapping Minho on the shoulder. "Come have a drink with us, Minho. We might not get another chance."
She practically dragged him away, and Jimin smiled gratefully at her. She and Minjeong took the chance to scarper, disappearing into the crowd.
"Sorry about that," she mumbled, staring at the floor.
"It's alright," she said, but it didn't sound alright. "Look, Jimin, we need to talk about-"
"Jimin! Minjeong!"
Lisa gave the barest sigh when she was interrupted again. This time it was a woman's voice cutting through the crowd, and Irene came sauntering up to them.
"Well, Jimin, this was definitely a surprise," she said with a smirk, her eyes flickering between Jimin and Minjeong. "I'm almost disappointed. I thought for a moment, I had a chance."
The last time Minjeong had been on the receiving end of Minju's flirting, she'd enjoyed it. Now, she just gave a polite smile, and looked uncomfortably down at her feet.
"Minju," Jimin said, the warning clear in her voice.
"Sorry," Minju said, and the act shifted, her features softening. "I'm really happy for both of you. Don't be strangers, you guys."
Then she disappeared into the crowd.
Jimim turned to Minjeong as soon as she was gone. "I'm sorry, she has the worst timing. We really, really need to-"
It was Jimin's turn to be interrupted, this time by a figure bounding up towards them, and she tensed as she realised it was Yuqi barrelling into them. She shrank back as her cousin grabbed her by the shoulders, just like Minjeong had with Minho.
"Jimin!" Yuqi said, "I'm glad I found you."
Jimin shot a confused look towards Minjeong. "Er, you are?" she said, her eyes flickering between Yuqi and minute, backing away from her. Minjeong was clutching her arm, staring at the floor, and Jimin desperately tried send her a telepathic apology.
"Yeah, look," Yuqi said, rolling her shoulders back and forth uncomfortably. "I need to apologise to you."
Jimin blinked. "Apologise?"
Yuqi shifted under Jimin's gaze. "Look, I've given you a lot of shit over the years for a lot of stuff," she began, "especially about stuff involving relationships. I know that's caused a few problems for you-" she glanced over at Minjeong- "and I know I took it too far. I think it was because there were a few things I personally haven't wanted to admit. Mostly stuff about myself, and other people."
"You're not making any sense."
Yuqi sighed, and took a look over her shoulder into the crowd behind her. "Hey, Miyeon!" she called. "Get over here."
"Like I said," Yuqi began again, as Mina bounded over. "There are things I haven't wanted to admit about myself."
Miyeon reached the group. "Hey," she said, her gaze on Yuqi. "You alright?"
"Yeah," Yuqi said, and broke out into a smile. "I'm alright."
Jimin watched the exchange, and looked down in astonishment as she saw Miyeon and Yuqi link their fingers together. Her eyes shot back up to her cousin's face. For a moment, the irritation at being interrupted melted away, and she simply gaped up at Yuqi, mouth dropping open.
"You-" she said, her voice stopping short as she broke out into a smile.
"I'm bisexual too," Yuqi said, running an uncomfortable hand through her hair. "Sorry I let it get to me."
Jimin blinked, still smiling madly, completely lost for words. Yuqi frowned and waved a hand in front of her head. "Er, Jimin? You okay? You're starting to creep me out."
Jimin broke out of her reverie and pulled a shocked Yuqi into a hug.
"I'm sorry," Jimin said. "I never wanted to make you feel like you couldn't tell me things."
"Yeah, yeah," Yuqi muttered, "get off me."
She made a disgusted face, but after a few moments, Jimin felt her hug back. It was an apology, and it was forgiveness, all rolled into one, and most of all, it felt like another hole in her heart had been healed.
It was time to patch the rest of her heart up.
Getting time alone to talk proved much harder than either Jimin or Minjeong had anticipated. Around every corner there was someone that wanted to pull Jimin aside to talk about the wedding, and congratulate her on such a moving speech, and nod and wink at Minjeong until they were both desperate for some private time. Minjeong was growing tired about the constant, wink-wink nudge-nudge that everyone seemed to think was appropriate, and just as someone turned on some loud music and everyone gravitated towards the dance floor, she took the moment to slip away. Jimin, whose back had been turned for mere moments, felt her heart sink as she looked around to find her missing.
It took her a while to find her. In the end, it was one of the guests who pointed towards the beach and said that she'd gone in that direction.
The beach was empty. Almost everyone was at the wedding reception, and though she could still hear the music from the party way off in the distance, the beach was mostly quiet except for the faint lapping of the waves hitting the shore.
Minjeong was sitting in the sand, her legs tucked up by her chest, her dress bunched up around them, leaving her knees bare. Jimin hovered behind and watched her for few moments, before she joined her on the floor.
"Your dress is going to get filthy," she said.
Minjeong frowned. The wind lapped at her, and she pushed strands of hair out of face.
"It's just a bit of sand," she said.
Jimin looked down at her feet, picked up a stone from amongst the sand, and threw it out to sea. "We need to talk," she said.
"We do," Minjeong said.
And then the two of them fell silent, both of them staring down at their feet.
Minjeong ran her tongue across her bottom lip, and took a breath. "There's something I need to ask you."
"Yes," Jimin said. "Anything."
"Back before the reunion," she began, clearing her throat, "Why didn't you just ask me to be your date for real? Why did you have to complicate things so much?"
"Because I didn't think," she said. "You were my friend, Jeongie, my best friend in the world. That was so important to me, I couldn't even comprehend being anything else."
Minjeong kept digging her fingers into the sand. "Right," she said, crisply.
"I didn't think that you had ever thought of me any other way," Jimin said. "And then when we started this whole thing, I started to realise how I didn't want it to stop. And I freaked out, because I had all these boundaries in my head, about how we were friends, and nothing else, and I didn't want to ruin that. Your friendship meant - means - everything to me. If I screwed it up by doing something you didn't want, that would've been awful." She dug her nails into the sand and began scraping patterns around and around. "I thought if I could just keep the whole relationship stuff for show, and keep us as friends then it wouldn't matter. Only that backfired, obviously."
Minjeong gave a small sad, smile down at the sand. "Honestly, Jimin-shi, did it never occur to you that I might possibly feel the same way?"
"No," Jimin said, staring at her fingers. "I wish it had."
There was a long awkward silence between the two of them. They just sat together in the sand, not quite touching, while the waves lapped against the shore, in a comforting rhythm, the sea a dark colour under the night sky. Minjeong stared for a long time out towards the waves, watching them move back and forth. Jimin watched her, carefully.
"I don't think I've ever explained my relationship with my family ," Jimin said.
Minjeong eyes flickered up at her. "You don't like to talk about it."
Jimin nodded. "I don't like talking about it because I was scared I might be right," she said, and then took a breath, "Most of my childhood people always pointed out what I was lacking. They would compare me to mum and dad or Yuqi, Aeri or Haechan. Even when I scored the highest in my exams or was the top of my class, it wasn't enough. Nothing ever was" She stared at the ground. "I tried to ignore what they said, but you can only ignore so much until what they say finally gets to you. Any shred of confidence I had was gone. I felt like everyone was looking at me funny, all the time, like they pitied me and I hated it, I hated myself. I didn't feel good enough for anybody, which is why romantic relationships never really worked out for me. So, when it came to you, somebody I really cared about, I convinced myself that there was no way you'd ever like me back," she said, and swallowed. "So, I made the decision for you and I shouldn't have done. I'm sorry."
Minjeong nodded, and stared at the ground for a while.
"My Dad left my Mum at the altar when I was eleven," she said.
Jimin blinked. It was not the response she had expected. "I know that."
"You wouldn't have wanted to be there," Minjeong said, staring straight into the sand instead of at her, "It was horrible. It was like watching my mother's heart break in real time, and then she had to pretend that she was perfectly okay, for my sake. And she wasn't okay. I didn't really realise what was happening as a child, but now, I remember all of these times when I heard her crying alone in her room. Sometimes she would just stare straight into space. And it was scary, because my mother had always been the strongest person I knew. The idea of her falling apart just wasn't something I could comprehend: but what was worse was the idea that someone could do that to a person. That someone you loved could hurt you so very much." Minjeong took a breath out, looked up at the sky for a few moments, and then back down at her feet. "I promised myself then, that it wouldn't happen to me. I wasn't going to let anyone hurt me like that. Nobody was going to get to me like that."
Jimin pressed her lips together and stared at her feet.
"When you asked me to fake it with you, I didn't think it'd get to me the way it did," Minjeong said, trailing her fingers through the sand. "I protested at first because, really, Jimin-shi, this was not the simplest solution to your problem—" Jimin ducked her head and smiled sheepishly— "but deep down, I was kind of happy to spend time with you. I was always happiest when I was with you, especially when you were happy. And the way you looked at me when I agreed to do it was just too much, it was like it was your birthday and I'd just given you the best birthday present you could think of. So, I went along with it."
Jimin scratched the back of her head and went on listening.
"You don't realise how great you are," Minjeong said, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "You don't realise how smart, and kind, and funny you are. And you were one of the few people who really understood me—" she brushed her bangs out of her eyes— "which is why it hurt so much when you started pushing me away. And I knew that there was a reason for it that I didn't understand, and I knew I should have just talked to you about it, but all that fear bubbled up again and I wasn't going to let myself get hurt," she said. "And a part of me was really frustrated. You'd built up your parents to be scary monsters, when actually they're wonderful people."
The guilt burned in Jimin's throat. "I know."
"And you're so lucky in lots of ways," Minjeong said. "You have a family who really love you. You'd never have to worry about money if you asked them. Back at the reunion I was standing in your parent's home thinking that they must be awful if you were willing to turn your back on them, but they weren't."
Jimin hung her head. "I know. I'm sorry. I don't have the words to tell you how sorry I am."
She sighed, and stared at the sea again, watching the waves move back and forth. A minute passed. And then another. And another. Then she smiled at her. "Alright," she said. "I forgive you."
Jimin blinked. "Just like that?"
"Yeah," she said. "Jimin, look, I'm not going to pretend that what you did didn't suck. Because it did. But I didn't come back here just to drag you through the mud. I care about you, Jimin, a hell of a lot, and I don't want that to change just because of bad communication." She smiled, a little wider this time, and held out her little finger to him. "Just promise me that from now on, you'll tell me what you're thinking."
Jimin curled her pinkie around hers. "Deal."
"Good," she said.
Then she hopped to her feet.
"What are you doing?" Jimin said, staring up at her.
"I'm going in."
"You're what?"
Jimin didn't get an answer though, because Minjeong was already running, full pelt towards the sea, splashing through the waves until she was waist deep in water, her dress soaked. She waved and called over to her.
Jimin stood up slowly, hovering in the sand, unsure of what to do. Then, with a sigh, she began pulling off her heels, running into the water with her.
"It. Is. So. Cold," she mumbled, her teeth chattering as she waded over towards her.
"Coward," Minjeong said, her eyes sparkling in the moonlight, lifting up her hands to splash her.
"Hey!" Jimin covered her face with her hands. And then she said it again, her voice a little softer. "If I'm going to promise to tell you everything I'm thinking, I need to put my cards on the table, properly."
Jimin's fingers caught hers before she could splash her again. She gently pulled her towards her until the two were facing each other, just a metre away.
"I'm in love with you," Jimin said, her fingers barely brushing hers. "Ever since the reunion, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. It's not just a silly crush - more like I don't know what I'd do if you stopped being in my life. I love you, Jeongie, so much that it hurts, and if you'll let me, I will spend the rest of my life by your side."
There was a long pause. Minjeong's breath hitched as they moved closer and closer, until they were mere inches apart, her lips hover just over hers. All she'd have to do is move the smallest bit, and they'd be kissing.
Instead, she put two hands on her shoulders and pushed her into the water.
Jimin flailed and splashed, before standing up on her feet, her clothes soaked through and her hair sopping. Minjeong cackled wildly, doubling over while her shoulders shook.
"You're evil," Jimin muttered, wiping her hair out of her face. "I thought we were having a moment."
"Sorry," she wheezed, still doubled over, finding it hard to breathe between giggles. "I'm sorry - I just - "
Whatever she was going to say was lost as a new wave of giggles hit her, tears streaming from her eyes.
"You're actually the worst person," Jimin said, pulling a piece of seaweed out from her hair. "I take it all back. This is what I get. I'm trying to confess my love here, and you're just-"
Whatever she was about to say was interrupted when Minjeong took her hand and pulled her towards her, letting go so that she could cup her face and kiss her.
She was still giggling while kissing her, her arms wrapping around her. Jimin's hands slid up her shoulders to pull her closer to her.
"I love you too, Jimin," Minjeong said. "I have for a long time. I just... needed to hear you say it first. I needed to know that you were serious."
"I have-" Jimin said, in between kisses – "Never been-" Another kiss – "Any more serious-" – one more kiss – "Than I am about you."
Jimin pulled back after that, and took in Minjeong's face, her blonde hair dark with the water and bedraggled around her chin, eyes sparkling, and a grin stretched from ear to ear. Her arms were wrapped around her and they were so close together that even in the darkness she could make out patterns in her eyes, like they had constellations of their own.
"So, will you be my girlfriend for real, this time?" Jimin asked
Minjeong let out a laugh and looked down at feet before looking up at Jimin again. "What do you think?" she said, giving her a gentle shove.
Jimin grinned, eyes bright under the moonlight. "I was just making sure."
Minjeong didn't reply, she just pulled her in for another kiss.