Jimin held Baek Hee's hand delicately, but she yanked it away and started removing her makeup in the mirror. Her glare was icy and angry.
"Baekie... I'm sorry I don't have that dress for you."
"I literally saw someone else in it today. Not even a star- just some random nobody! And you know what she said when I asked her where the dress was from? Clearance. So you lied to me."
Jimin looked taken aback for a moment. I gasped softly when it hit me and I looked down at my dress guiltily. I pulled the dress up and around me neck to see the tag. Of course- Chanel. Why didn't I notice that before?
"Clearance...? Look Baekie. It was probably a fake that some other company created. Sometimes these dresses all look the same, right?"
She whipped her head around and grumbled, "Is your taste really that poor?" And she stormed away to a little door that was either a changing room or a restroom, slamming the door behind her.
Jimin sighed and looked very troubled as he sunk into the couch in the middle of the room. I bit my lip and wracked my brain for a way to get out of there, or somehow return the dress. I looked at my dress and saw that it would definitely not pass as a fresh present without being washed anymore- especially after having worn it through a hectic day.
I gave up and stayed squatted, looking at my phone for any cracks or scratches. I saw a few unread messenger notifications, and accidentally opened the photo feature of the app when I checked it. I suddenly thought of a brilliant idea.
What if I wrote a message, and then threw my phone at him? Even if his girlfriend walked in she probably wouldn't care, and maybe just think he has several phones right?
I blacked out a picture on my phone and wrote a message on it, ready to throw my phone at him, but I stopped myself... because of how terrible the idea was. I huffed with frustration and swiped up to delete the picture message, when a little notification popped up halfway on the screen. AirDrop: Jiminnie.
________________________
Jimin's POV
I waited for Baekie while looking and feeling miserable and keeping an eye on the door to make sure nobody unwanted would barge in and ask questions. Suddenly my phone buzzed with a notification. I peered at it, and had to stop myself from screaming.
"This is Riti. Don't come but I'm stuck behind the clothing racks. You guys came in while I was looking for my phone back here."
I slowly turned my head to the rows of clothing racks with my horror clearly visible on my face, and saw a faint rustling among some clothes as a dark hand stuck out slightly and waved at me. I stood up and groaned, annoyed at her antics. The hand retracted when I heard the click of Baekie's door and I quickly turned my head to look at Baekie, not sure what I was feeling guilty about. My phone buzzed again and I saw another Airdropped message: "My dress! Give her my dress in that bag."
I looked at the bag in my other hand, I'd forgotten I was carrying it. But the problem was that in my rush I hadn't actually cleaned it. Not to mention, Baekie wanted something... better. Another message: "GIVE IT."
I was about to whine, but controlled myself. "Baekie... I know you wanted a really expensive, designer, one-of-a-kind dress..." I said aloud, hoping that Riti got my message. Almost instantly, another message airdropped. "Check the label."
I curiously ruffled through the bag to look at the label on the white dress... Yves Saint Laurent... "which is why, Baekie, I bought you this!" I held the bag out with a lopsided and nervous smile, "and chocolates?" She turned around from the mirror and came to me to grab them.
"But see, the problem is... I ruined the dress. I was eating ramen in my room and spilled it all over the dress not that long ago today," I took a breath and said loudly, "and I feel really guilty about it!" Another Airdrop: "It's cool, dude," in English over a dark selfie of her smiling. I gave a small chuckle and sent her an Airdrop myself, though it took me more time. "This is too hard. What's your kakaotalk ID"
Airdrop: "I don't have one."
"Get one."
"YSL? Wow I know the catalogs but I've never seen this one before..." Baekie commented, waving the dress in front of her. I looked up from my phone and gave a nervous chuckle. "It is one of a kind, after all... just like you, Baekie-ah."
She looked at me with round cute eyes and gave a sheepish smile before saying, "Wait here. I have something for you." She disappeared back into the dressing rooms and I sighed with relief and checked my phone.
Airdrop: "I made one. The ID is ______"
I switched apps and added her, typing in "Don't do anything crazy or we'll both be in trouble."
She responded, "Crazy? Me? Oh please."
That sarcastic tone made me frown.
"Where did you get the dress?"
"What, you think I'm poor?"
"No, but you didn't seem like the type."
She stopped typing, and I thought maybe I was being a little too rude.
But I guess I just felt familiar enough to say things like that. After all, she was eavesdropping on a conversation between me and my girlfriend right now.
She finally responded with a smiling emoji. "You're right. It's one-of-a-kind because it's fake. I literally sewed that label on myself."
"What?!"
"I suggest you take the dress before she pulls the tag or something."
"I literally cannot believe this. Why would you even put on a fake tag? It's a tag!"
"It helped, didn't it?!"
I realized she was a bit slow at typing in Korean, and substituted some English in her writing. Not to mention her writing was a little weirdly formal. Well, she definitely wasn't Korean, so even this was kind of really impressive.
Suddenly, I heard a familiar scream from the dressing room and slowly got up, but didn't bother to go to her. By now, I knew it was her dramatic response to anything shocking. I heard a little thud from behind the clothing racks though, and I had to suppress a giggle when I realized Riti probably fell. But I immediately ironed my features out when Baekie stormed out of the dressing room with her phone in one hand and a couple of bags in the other.
She flung the bags at me and I barely caught them, taken aback. One was the dress and the other had wrapping paper and something in it. "Jimin! I literally cannot believe you! You knocked up a girl?!"
I choked on my spit and stared at her for a minute. "What?"
She walked towards the door, looking distraught and enraged.
"Don't even lie to me. A stylist friend of mine was at the BigHit building today... she saw you coming out of the restrooms... with a pregnant girl!"
The room got uncomfortably silent. Baekie turned to the door and started sobbing.
I heard a sudden snort of laughter that was immediately muffled come from behind the clothing racks. Baekie's head snapped up and I panicked and cleared my throat to play it off as my cough or sneeze or something. My lips trembled as I tried to suppress a laugh myself.
"Baekie- Baek Hee! Stop crying, seriously! Your friend saw me as I happened to leave the bathroom at the same time as some woman and you assumed I'm the father? Are you crazy?" My tone betrayed my increasing annoyance, and she stopped crying.
"Honestly, Baek Hee. Do you do this to try and make me feel guilty? So that I can overlook—" I took a sharp breath and stopped myself before I got upset and said something I'd regret.
She looked at me with a calm expression, but her voice was dangerously sharp. "You have the guts to accuse me when you can't even do something so basic as to get the right size for me for a dress? What am I, obese?"
I frowned with disappointment. "Listen, Baek Hee... look, I'm sorry for this present botch up. Let's just talk when you're less tired, okay?"
She narrowed her eyes and said in a murmur, "I brought your birthday present today because I'll be busy on Friday with the music show. It's in the bag." My Birthday is on Saturday. She grabbed a purse sitting on one of the dressers and left the room, and I waited till she rounded the hallway corner to close the door and plop onto the couch with a big sigh.
"You can come out now," I said in English.
I saw her figure walk up to the dressers and check out her dress in the mirrors. She laughed and spun around to face me. "Did she really call me pregnant?" I could see that she liked to keep a very safe distance from me. Not surprising; she was probably a little intimidated. I almost preferred her bad-mouthing me when she didn't know who I was, though.
I was about to tell her something along the lines of being more comfortable around me, but it came out as a half-shriek when the door opened all of a sudden. But instead of Baek Hee, a tall bunny poked his head in, confused.
Riti grew visibly more nervous and shrunk into a chair. Huh. "Kook! Did you see Baekie leave?" I asked, getting up.
His eyes didn't leave Riti as he responded. "Yes she got off the elevator as I got on... wait, what's going on here? Ms. Riti, why are you here?"
She shot up when she was addressed and cleared her throat. "I'm here for work, actually. Dr. Kang is at a meeting I'm not allowed to be at right now upstairs. I came here to look for my phone." She waved it in front of her with a smile.
Kook slowly nodded and looked between us.
"Oh! By the way!" She exclaimed. "Call me crazy but... do you guys remember the guard at the airport with the red handcuffs?"