<OST: Tell me about your day - Kwon Jin Ah>
"Jungkook-ah! Hold on-"
Jieun stopped in her tracks and turned around. They were heading towards the car together with Seokjin as Taehyung came running towards them, a gold medal in hand, with a silver one around his neck.
"Jungkook-ah-" Taehyung bent down and caught his breath for a while, before holding out the gold medal towards him. "You forgot to take this."
Jungkook barely even glanced in his direction. "You can keep it. It should be yours, anyway."
"I already told you earlier that I tripped-"
"You didn't trip, Kim Taehyung-" Jungkook growled. "I was watching your every move - you slowed down at the last minute. And that's precisely why I won."
Seokjin hurriedly went to start the engine, not wanting to interfere. Jieun's eyes darted between the two, not knowing to help.
"That's- That's not true-" Taehyung shook his head. "You would have won either way."
"Lies-" Jungkook glared at Taehyung like he was his worst enemy on earth - which, he probably was. "You know what disgusts me the most, Kim Taehyung? Number one, betrayers. Number two, liars. Number three, people who don't give their all just because of sympathy. All of which, you are. So you jolly well take the stupid medal and get out of my face."
Taehyung pursed his lips as he looked down at the medal. He glanced up once more, this time looking at Jieun, as if asking for her help.
"Um- Um, I-" Jieun stammered, avoiding eye contact with Taehyung. "I'll go wait in the car! The two of you can take your time to talk!"
"No, you stay here-" Jungkook ordered Jieun. "I have nothing more to say to him. You can talk to him if you want."
Jungkook boarded the car and slammed the door loudly behind him, leaving Taehyung and Jieun out in the open.
"Jieun-ssi, we meet again-" Taehyung let out a soft sad chuckle. "I'm really sorry... that you always have to be the one caught between us."
"It's okay, Taehyung-ssi-" Jieun said with a small smile. "I'm glad to see you again. I saw your post thanking me for your makeup the last time."
"Oh, you did?" Taehyung forced a laugh, but Jieun could really tell that he wasn't in the mood to do so. "That's nice. I meant it, when I said I'd like you to do my makeup again sometime."
"Anytime, Taehyung-ssi-" Jieun said with a smile. "I gave you my number the last time, so you have anything you need, feel free to contact me."
"Thank you so much, Jieun-ssi..." Taehyung flashed her a grateful smile. "I'm glad that you aren't distancing from me because of JK... there are plenty of people who, after finding out that we aren't on good terms, end up choosing between me or him. And that's definitely not I want, since I intend to reconcile with him one day. That's why I'm grateful for people like you and Jennie."
"Ah... Jennie-ssi-" Jieun pursed her lips as she recalled the dating news between him and Jennie. "Right... you know her..."
"You don't have to be so careful, Jieun-ssi." Taehyung ruffled his hair a little. "I know you saw our dating news - everyone did."
Jieun cleared her throat awkwardly. "Right."
"We're friends," Taehyung said simply. "Just friends. I won't steal someone else's girlfriend, especially not Jungkook's... I already have way too much I owe him..."
Jieun nodded slowly, even though she still had no idea what had happened between the two of them.
"What am I going on about?" Taehyung laughed as he held out the gold medal towards Jieun. "Anyway, Jieun-ssi, please make sure you hand this to JK for me, alright? Thank you so much for listening - I've said way too much today."
"Ya! Lee Jieun!" The car window slid down and Jungkook poked his head out, still with a perpetual scowl on his face. "Aren't you gonna come?"
"Ah-" Jieun turned back to Taehyung. "Sorry, Taehyung-ssi, I'm afraid I have to go-"
"Don't worry about it, I understand-" Taehyung sighed, as he looked down at the medal in his hands, before looking up at Jieun once more with a small sad smile. "You better go now, before he gets upset."
Jieun hesitated for a while, before grabbing the gold medal and putting it in her pouch. "Don't worry, Taehyung-ssi. I'll hand it to him when I get the chance."
"Thank you so much-" Taehyung said with a smile. "I'll see you soon, Jieun-ssi."
Jieun smiled as she waved goodbye to Taehyung. "See you soon, Taehyung-ssi."
-•-•-
"You have a surprising lot to say to that guy whom you barely even met for just a few days, don't you."
"Huh?" Jieun looked up from her phone. "You talking to me?"
"No, I'm talking to the car-" Jungkook said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. "Obviously I'm talking to you. Why do you guys have so much to talk about?"
"Excuse you-" Jieun folded her arms. "I only met you a couple of days before I met him. You have an awful lot to say to me too, for a guy I barely even know."
"It's different-"
"Yeah, of course it's different-" Jieun folded her arms. "Taehyung-ssi is way easier to talk to than you are."
"You-"
"There, there, there again-" Seokjin signed. "I thought you guys were just starting to reconcile but there you go, fighting again. Why are the both of you always on such bad terms? It has barely been a few days, but the two of you constantly bickering next to me is taking a toll on my health, you know? Show some consideration towards me - gosh!"
Jieun and Jungkook exchanged glares before turning away from each other.
"What happened earlier anyway, while I was talking to the doctor?" Seokjin asked curiously. "I came in and both of your faces were just covered in multi-coloured powders... what goes on?"
Jieun and Jungkook slowly turned to glance at each other. The corner of Jieun's mouth twitched a little as she recalled Jungkook's face looking like the pattern on a peacock's feathers. Jungkook recalled Jieun's smurf-like image and burst into laughter at once. It wasn't long before the both of them were rolling over in the backseat in uncontrollable laughter.
Seokjin looked genuinely concerned as he glanced at the two through the rear-view mirror. "You guys okay...?"
"No, earlier-" Jungkook wiped away a tear. "I didn't wanna say this, but her face looked like a racoon's bum."
"Your face looked like that of a chameleon at one point-" Jieun choked on her own saliva as she guffawed. "I thought you were gonna camouflage into the wall-"
"Shut up-" Jungkook sniggered, his eyes leaking. "You looked like a macaw earlier, I'm freaking- freaking gone-"
"I can't-" Jieun heaved. "Your face had all the colours of the rainbow on it at the end-"
"I-"
"You-"
"You looked ridiculous-"
"You too-"
Jieun and Jungkook couldn't breathe.
Seokjin shook his head and clucked his tongue. "Kids."
Finally, the laughter stopped.
"What about last night's events?" Seokjin asked carefully, after they both calmed down. "You guys talked it out already?"
Silence fell over the car.
"I thought about it," Jieun began hesitantly, without looking at Jungkook. "I'm sorry for not sticking to your house rules and for yelling at you. And maybe, I overreacted a little just because you didn't wanna eat the food I cooked."
Seokjin glanced at Jungkook. "JK, you?"
Jungkook pursed his lips, fidgeting in his seat u comfortably. "I..."
"I saw the Guerrilla Date interview by V-ssi earlier," Jieun said slowly. "It was filmed at Namsan yesterday, the exact same place you went to hike. I figured out that perhaps you saw him and some bad memories surfaced... could that be true?"
Jungkook bit his lower lip and nodded.
"Ah..." Jieun chuckled softly. "See? You should have just told me, you were in a bad mood or something. Then I would have avoided you, and we wouldn't have gotten in such a huge argument."
"I'm not the expressive type," Jungkook said softly. "These kind of things... I prefer keeping to myself."
"I noticed-" Jieun sighed. "In that case, you'll need to try sharing your feelings more - if not you'll always end up with people misunderstanding you."
Jungkook was silent for a while.
Jieun looked away. "Anyway, I'm not expecting you to apologise or anything-"
"I'm sorry."
An awkward silence fell over the car, as Jieun and Seokjin both turned to glance at Jungkook. Jieun was surprised as she had never heard Jungkook say sorry to her before - not even back then when he had knocked her over. And all the more shocked Seokjin was, because never in his five years with Jungkook did he ever say a single word of apology.
"Sorry for taking out my anger on you-" Jungkook elaborated with some hesitation. "I should not have jumped to conclusions that you were the one who moved my things simply because you were the only one there when I came back. I also should not have made such a big fuss about you cooking either - it actually tasted pretty good."
Jieun's jaw dropped. "You tried it? I thought you said you dumped them down the chute-"
"I was mad, that's why-" Jungkook nodded slowly. "I actually ate all of it, it was good."
"You did?" Jieun sat up in her seat. "I- I'm pleasantly surprised."
Jungkook pursed his lips, smiling a little. "Let's put it behind us now."
Jieun smiled and nodded. "Mm."
Seokjin watched the two quietly from in front, trying to hide his smile.
Jieun hesitated, before she called Jungkook once more. "Jungkook-ssi?"
"Hm?"
Jieun reached into her bag, feeling her fingers grip around the gold medal. Taehyung had asked her to give it to him, but Jungkook was so upset earlier when he did so... Now that he was feeling much better, Jieun didn't want to ruin it.
Now was not the time.
Jieun shook her head and smiled. "It's nothing."
-•-•-
"Jennie-ya."
"Hm?"
"I'll show you something..." Jimin bit his lower lip nervously as he glanced at Jennie who was smiling into her phone like an idiot. "Just promise me you won't freak out."
"What is it, oppa?" Jennie looked up at him with a frown. "Hurry up and tell me - I have a dinner I need to prepare tonight."
"Well, it actually ain't that serious-" Jimin tried to prepare Jennie. "It isn't something that me or our company can't settle-"
"What is it?"
Hesitating a lot, Jimin finally handed the iPad in his hands to Jennie. Jennie frowned as she looked down and began to read, the small smile on her face disappearing at once.
- - -
BREAKING: Actress Jennie Kim
Allegedly Bullying Younger Actresses
On Set Of 'Cinderella The Movie'
- - -
Jennie almost dropped the iPad as she glanced up at Jimin, with evident fear and trauma in her eyes. "What? I didn't- There's no way, they were the ones who-"
Jimin pursed his lips and gestured towards the iPad. "Just read on first, Jennie-ya."
Even more fearful than before, Jennie mustered enough courage to continue reading.
- - -
BG Entertainment actress Jennie Kim has been in a couple of scandals in the past few months - ranging from dating fellow labelmate solo artist JK, to being speculated to be dating solo artist V after being spotted with him at a hospital. But out of them all, perhaps this one might shock you.
A voice recording of Jennie Kim was uploaded online with the caption: 'Heol. I'm so f*cking taken aback'. In the now deleted tweet, the voice allegedly owned by Jennie Kim uttered the following words:
'If that's how you wanna console yourself, let's go with that narrative. Let's just say that's how I got picked for the lead role, alright? But you know what? At least I got picked - unlike the both of you, who tried... and eventually failed. No matter how hard you work or how much experience you have, you still can't beat me in terms of popularity. So go cry over it in some corner, or just suck it up and do a good job. Don't come complaining to me like some 2-year-old who just wet their pants.'
Following that tweet, the same account also uploaded pictures of Jennie Kim with Actresses J and Y, whose faces were blurred out. Netizens, however, were quick to figure out that Actresses J and Y were none other than Joy and Yeri from Red Velvet - Jennie's costars on the current movie she is filming, 'Cinderella The Movie'.
In the sequence of pictures, Jennie is seen grabbing on to Actress J's wrist tightly as she presumably spoke those words to her face. Actress Y watched on, cowering in fear, as Jennie eventually tossed Actress J's hand aside and marched off.
In response to these accusations, netizens were quick to respond with comments ranging from disgust...
'Wow, everyday she pisses me off
more and more. Nowadays, when
her face appears on TV, I turn the
whole TV off. It's really that bad.'
...to surprise (or rather, the lack of)...
'At this point, I'm wondering if she
does such things to maintain her
relevance in the industry... There's
no explanation how someone can be
this problematic, is there? A two-timer
and now a bully too...? I'm genuinely confused how she's still allowed to be
an actress at this point... Is it simply
because BG Entertainment is rich?'
...to pure rage.
'I HATE HER I HATE HER SO MUCH
SHE'S LITERALLY A BULLY HOW CAN
ANYONE STILL SUPPORT HER?????? I DON'T GET IT, IF YOU KNOW ABOUT
THIS AND ARE STILL ON HER SIDE,
PLEASE BLOCK ME RN I'M GENUINELY
TERRIFIED OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU.'
When contacted, Jennie Kim's agency, BG Entertainment, has yet to respond to this issue. Please stay tuned for more updates.
- - -
"Jennie-ya...?" Jimin placed a hand on Jennie's shoulder hesitantly, after seeing that she didn't look up at him for ten whole minutes. "Jennie-ya, you okay...? Don't take it too hard on yourself-"
Jennie looked up at Jimin, surprising him when he found out that she wasn't crying. "I'm okay, oppa."
"You're okay...?" Jimin grabbed the iPad from Jennie and stared at her. "How can you be okay? All these things they said to you, how can you even be in the slightest bit okay...?"
"I'm okay-" Jennie managed a smile as she grabbed her things. "It's just the usual - being accused of something I didn't do. I'm just sorry that I need to bother you to settle this issue for me again, oppa. Sorry for the trouble, and thank you."
Jimin frowned as he tried to get out of the car. "Jennie-ya, let me bring you up-"
"No, it's okay-" Jennie held out a hand in rejection. "I'm okay, oppa. You better go back to the company before sajang-nim calls. I can go up alone."
"Are you sure you're-"
"I'm perfectly fine!" Jennie laughed as she gave Jimin a gentle push towards his car. "I'm good, so you can go."
Jimin hesitantly boarded his car once more with a pout on his face. "Take care of yourself then, Jennie-ya. Call me if you need anything and... please don't read too much."
"I won't."
Jennie put on a smile and waved goodbye as Jimin drove off. As soon as the car was out of sight, Jennie's knees buckled and gave way, causing her to slump to the ground. Tears poured down her face as Jennie stifled a whimper.
How could she possibly be okay?