A simple cafe dinner that was supposed to be a bonding time for the couple turned into an interrogation. 

Jimin and Minjeong silently ate their dinner, while both Yizhuo and Aeri were quietly drinking their newly bought drinks. The latter couple knew that once the other two knew about their relationship, hell would break loose (or endless questioning). However, what they didn’t expect was seeing the other two together...as a couple?

“So,” Aeri carefully starts, “I didn’t know you guys are...in talking terms now.” Both Minjeong and Jimin looked at each other, slowly realizing they haven’t told their friends they are officially together.

“Ah, about this-”

“The thing is-”

Both girls looked at each other, trying to talk telepathically. Aeri raised an eyebrow, having a questionable look at her friends. “Oookkaaayyy...” Something was definitely up.

“Both of you are a couple, aren’t you?” Yizhuo starts to speak up. The other 3 immediately looked at the youngest, “what?” She looked at Aeri, “babe, it’s quite clear that they are together.”

“Aren’t you guys too?” Minjeong immediately interjected. Yizhuo snapped back, “So you are admitting you guys are together?”

“That’s…” the blonde girl clears , ”we’re not denying anything,”

“You never bothered telling m-”

“You never told me about you and Aeri too, Ning,” Minjeong immediately snapped back.

“Guys,” Jimin inserts herself as she feels the growing tension between best friends. “Let’s not fight here, we are in a public place.” She looked at the blonde girl and gave her a comforting smile. She intertwined with Minjeong’s hand and squeezed it in assurance before looking over her friends, “About Minjeong and I, yes, we are together...officially this time.”

Both Yizhuo and Aeri had their eyes widened, “oh, so I’m right!” “What?!?” Both girls were shookt. The last time they heard about the two, they ended the fake dating arrangement. “But wait... I am confused,” Aeri expressed, “How? How did you guys…? Aren’t you guys like....over? Supposed to be...”

Minjeong sighs. She looked at Jimin, who was already staring at her, “We did...broke up...a few days ago.” She gave her a small smile before looking back at her friends, “The arrangement...it was over. We ended it. But we were able to fix what needs to be fixed, admit what needs to admit, and now,” she raised the intertwined hands of her and Jimin, “we are official.”

“Huh,”

“Oh,”

Silence surrounds the group as both Yizhuo and Aeri take the information in. “So,” Yizhuo starts off again, “you now know,”

“Know what?” Jimin asks.

“What happened years ago...”

“Ah, yes, Minjeong confessed it to me. She told me everything.” Yizhuo casually asks, “Even the letters?”

Jimin’s brows furrowed, “uuuhh...let...ters?” Minjeong immediately clears , “I told her about my feelings, why I did what I did years ago, and apologized.” She glared at Yizhuo who was now confused again. Jimin saw this and was confused as well. Is there something… “Wait,” Aeri spoke, “I think I’m the only one not in the loop here.”

Both Minjeong and Jimin decided to share with the other couple what really happened years ago, and the recent happenings of the couple. “That was...a lot to take in,” Aeri tried to make sense of it all, “I’m happy for you guys.”

“Thanks, Aeri,” Jimin smiled at her friend. "Took you guys long enough," Yizhuo expressed. She looked at her lover, "we shouldn't have stopped the bet, I could have won."

Minjeong was shocked, "Wait, a bet?"

"Not my fault you felt bad, babe," Aeri smirked Yizhuo, who was now scowling, "Man, I knew Jimin Unnie would confess first." The couple then heard someone forced a cough, it was Minjeong, "so you guys...made a bet?" Jimin could only shake her head.

"It was for fun, you know." Aeri tried to explain, "you guys clearly liked each other already so we are just waiting for either of you to confess."

“What was the bet about?” Jimin inquired.

“Whoever confesses first. I was team Minjeong, while Yizhuo here was team Jimin,”

“Team?” Minjeong shook her head in disbelief. “Like I said, Min, it’s for fun.” Aeri chuckled, “the prize would be whoever loses will be the spender of our next shopping spree.”

"I canceled the bet cuz of what happened," Yizhuo explained further, "when you said that you guys broke up, I just...felt bad. So I canceled it."

"But now you're regretting it," Minjeong monotonously added. The Chinese girl shamelessly nodded, "Yep, I am regretting it."

"Why you!" Minjeong comically launched on to her best friend, who also got up to go head to head with the blonde girl, as their respective girlfriends tried to stop the commotion. Few people sitting not far from them looked at them weirdly, which made Aeri and Jimin embarrassed.

“Stop it, you two,” Jimin tried to sound angry but failed as the scenario was funny. She couldn’t help but remember the times she used to go in between Minjeong and Yizhuo as the two tended to -heads a lot of times in public. Aeri, on the other hand, usually stays on the sidelines when the two besties go off with their fight. However, with Yizhuo being her girlfriend now, she feels responsible for her.

Speaking of their relationship…

“Enough about us,” Jimin points out, “I think we really need to address the elephant in the room.”

“Elephant, what elephant?” Yizhuo tried to dodge the topic, “there’s nothing we need to talk about, Unnie.” She saw Minjeong rolling her eyes at her answer and spoke, “Yeah, right. I knew there was something between the two of you but you keep on shutting it down.”

“That’s,” Yizhuo tried to explain but she sees Minjeong giving her a knowing look. She knew she couldn't lie her way out of it, so she shut and nudged Aeri. “Huh, me?”

“Yeah, you’re the older one,” Yizhuo whispered to her, this made Aeri awkwardly gulp, “yeah well, Yizhuo and I are together.”

“Huh,” Minjeong was unimpressed. Jimin inquired, “Since when?”

“Before Summer break started,”

“What?” Both girls on the other side of the table exclaimed. It was their turn to be shocked, they didn’t expect their friends to be in a relationship for that long. “Wait, wait..” Jimin was really confused, “that long? How come I didn’t know this?”

Aeri glanced at her girlfriend before continuing, “It’s not like we had no plans in telling you guys, we got together a week before our exams started and we both decided to announce it after, but we-”

“We forgot,” Yizhuo sighed. “The party Aeri hosted before? That wasn’t only for the “Thank god it's the end of exams” kind of party, but also “Hey guys! I have a girlfriend” party.”

“But you guys forgot to announce?”

“Yeah,”

“But I was with you guys the whole night,” Minjeong whiningly points out, “You guys didn’t bother sharing it with me.”

“Min, as we said, we forgot,” Aeri could only chuckle at their demise, “the alcohol didn’t help either.”

“Anyway, after that. You guys happened.” 

“The fake dating thing,” Jimin points out.

“Yeah. As your best buddies, we decided to hold off telling you guys about ours and focus on helping you guys out,” Aeri said. 

Minjeong suddenly asks, “Wait, you guys were already together even before we went here, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, you,” Minjeong points at Aeri, “staying at her place,” points at Yizhuo, “planned?”

Aeri tried to talk but closed and looked at Yizhuo, as it was the other girl’s plan in the first place. “You caught me,” Yizhuo sighs, “yes, it was all planned.”

“Aeri Unnie planned to stay at my place for the summer to meet with my family and for us to spend more time together,” the Chinese girl carefully explained, “regardless of the fake dating thing happened or not.”

“But conveniently, you guys had that arrangement and we just,” she glances at Aeri, “and went with the narrative that she came to oversee the fake dating thing.” 

Aeri immediately saw Jimin’s conflicted face. She immediately reached out and touched the older girl’s arm, ”Hey, what I said to you before was true. I also came here for you, to help you out and be there for you.” She squeezed Jimin’s hand for comfort, which made Jimin smile at her.

“Okay then,” Minjeong accepted her best friend's reasoning, but she wasn’t done, “why did you shut me down every time I pointed something out about you and Aeri?”

“It’s not like that,” Yizhuo tries to explain her side, “The fake dating thing you have with Jimin Unnie was like...Priority? So I just didn’t try to put a spotlight on my love life when yours is...you know...already so complicated.”

“So you guys hid it?”

“Not really hiding it, it was more of waiting for the right timing.”

Silence them once again, as both Minjeong and Jimin process the new information they just learned.

“So,” Yizhuo breaks the silence, “is the interrogation done now?”

“I can’t believe you guys were together all this time,” Minjeong scoffs, “I feel somewhat betrayed.”

“Wow, literally from the person who didn’t inform their bestie (for the nth time) an update about their love life,” Yizhuo retorted, “I was there when you cried your eyeballs out-”

Minjeong blushed in embarrassment, “Yah!”

---------

“I can’t believe this!” 

Jimin could only laugh, “It’s not so bad.”

“Maybe to you,” Minjeong sulkily mutters, “you love shopping too.” Jimin continues to chuckle seeing her lover sulking while driving home. Both Yizhuo and Aeri decided to go shopping the next day and offered to let them come along.

“It will be like a double date,” Yizhuo excitedly says.

“Date? I thought you guys said you guys were going to go shopping?” Minjeong asked.

“Yes, shopping and dating,” her best friend points out, “we do that all the time.”

Aeri then added, “If you guys come, it will be more fun!”

“We can always decline the offer, if you don’t want to go, Minjeong.” Jimin gave her a smile, “it’s fine by me.”

“It’s not that I don’t like shopping,”, this made her sigh, “it’s just,”

“Hmmm?”

Minjeong stole a glance at her before continuing, “When we were sharing to Aeri and Ning what happened these past days, I just realized...it’s been a lot?” She reached out to hold onto Jimin’s left hand and squeezed it, “You must be tired.”

Jimin can’t help but smile. She loves it whenever Minjeong shows her concern for her and does these gestures, it makes her feel loved and cared for. But she also knows her Minjeong. She knows that the blonde girl is also saying stuff for them not to go tomorrow.

However, she does admit that she is feeling the ache of her body after everything they’ve been doing the past few days. “Now that you mentioned it, I do feel tired,” Jimin relaxes comfortably on her seat. She stole a glance at Minjeong while she feels the other girl’s thumb caressing the back of her hand, “Mindongie,”

“Hmmm?”

“Let’s do something else tomorrow,"

Minjeong was confused, "something?"

"Yeah? Something relaxing. I figured...it’s the best way to go rather than going shopping."

The blonde girl smiles and nods, "I like the sound of that." She glances onto Jimin, "what do you want to do tomorrow?"

It made Jimin think. She doesn’t have an exact plan in mind, other than spending time with Minjeong. It was then when she remembered one of the gifts she prepared days ago, "Ah!"

"Hhmm? Have you thought of something?"

"Yeah," Jimin sat up from her seat and faced Minjeong. This made the blonde girl more confused. "Let’s go to the cliff tomorrow night."

"The cliff? The mountain view cliff? Why?"

"It's a secret."

"Secret?" Jimin nods. "Can't I know this secret?"

"It's a secret for a reason, Mindongie," Jimin then planted a kiss on Minjeong’s cheeks and whispered, "it's something you'll never forget."

--------

“So you guys are not coming,”

“Yep,” she said as she yawned. Minjeong hears her best friend sigh on her iPad, “you know, you could have texted me this last night. That way I wouldn’t have been excited.”

“I did text you,” Yizhuo gave her a knowing look, “I did! But I was too tired and failed to send the text.” Minjeong took her phone that was charging on her bedside and showed it to her best friend, “see?!?!”

“Still won’t change the fact that you guys gave me false hope,” she sees Yizhuo acting hurt on-screen, Minjeong could only roll her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, sorry Ning Yizhuo.”

“Anyway I’m still really sleepy, so I am going to sleep again.” Minjeong laid down again on her bed to rest, as she should, when Yizhuo starts off again, “the supposed double date that you guys canceled is not the only thing I want to talk to you though.” This caught the blonde girl’s attention and begrudgingly sat up on her bed, “what? There’s more?”

“You actually think I would slip up what you did yesterday?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

She sees Yizhuo look around before whispering to her on the iPad, “You haven’t told Jimin about the letters.” This made Minjeong gulped, Oh crap. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ning.”

“Please, Unnie,” Yizhuo was clearly not happy, “Jimin Unnie doesn’t know about the letters. What the hell.”

“It’s not like that,”

“Then what is then? Clearly, you told her everything except that. Why?”

Minjeong sighs, “because she doesn’t have to know.”

Yizhuo gave her a blank face, “you’re kidding me, right?”

“I’m not.” She sees Yizhuo literally facepalming herself, “Unnie, why are we in this situation again? She needs to know about it.”

“It’s all in the past, Ning, I don’t need to tell her about it.”

“You-” Both suddenly heard a door open, it was Aeri, “hi babe, who's that on your phone?” Minjeong sees Aeri appearing on screen, “Min, hey.”

“Hi, Aeri.”

“Jimin informed me last night that you guys aren’t coming with us today. Too bad.”

I knew it, Minjeong knew she didn't have to inform her best friend about the cancellation as she knows Jimin will definitely inform Aeri, but she still did, I’m such a good best friend. “We will come with you guys next time.”

Aeri smiled at her, “I’ll hold on to your word, Min.” She glances over to Yizhuo and pecks her lips, “I will take a bath first then we go, okay?”

“Yes, babe.”

Aeri looked over to Minjeong on screen, “Min, see yah later.”

When Aeri leaves, Minjeong immediately comments, “I still can’t believe you guys are together.” she earned an eye roll from the Chinese girl, “yeah, well, get used to it.”

“You also need to change that pet name of yours.”

Yizhuo raised an eyebrow, “excuse me?”

“Babe,” Minjeong points out, “that’s what I call Jimin too. It’s weird.” Yizhuo was shocked, “And you expect me to change ours to accommodate you guys?”

“Yep.”

“In your dreams, Unnie.” Yizhuo scoffs, “And don’t change the subject! I’m not yet done with you.” Tsk, Minjeong thought. “We have nothing to talk about Yizhuo. I have no plans on telling Jimin about the letters for now.”

“Why? What’s wrong with you admitting that you were the sender?”

“It’s-” Minjeong wants to say it's for Jimin's sake, but she knows it's not. It’s for her own sake. As much as she cherishes those memories of her sending letters to the raven-haired girl, it has been tainted with the heartache she felt in the end. Yes, she does have Jimin as her girlfriend now, but the pain she felt before was connected to those memories, she can’t just openly share it, even with Jimin. Not yet. “It’s too painful, okay? It’s...it brings back unwanted pain.”

She looked at her best friend sadly, “I am in a good place with Jimin right now, and I feel like if I bring the letters up, everything will collapse. I don’t why but...I just feel like it does. And I don’t want that...especially now. Not yet.”

Yizhuo listened well to Minjeong and sighs, “I understand, Unnie. But please, once you feel like it’s the right time, please tell Jimin Unnie about it. She deserves to know the truth about the letters and the rejection.”

“I know, I know.”

“Tsk, you and your secrets, Unnie.”

Minjeong could only roll her eyes, “if you don’t have anything else to say other than annoy me then let’s end the call. I really want to catch more sleep.” 

“Yeah, sleep well sleepyhead.” Minjeong turned off her iPad as the call ended and laid back on the bed once again. She closed her eyes to catch some sleep, but her mind was too occupied by the words of her best friend, the letters, the memories, and Jimin.

“Arrgghhh,” she sighs, she couldn’t sleep. Damn you, Ning. She rose up from her bed and went near her music station to get her guitar. She accidentally hit one of her shelves in the process. A box full of papers was spilled on the, “Oh crap.”

It seemed fate was playing around, the box that spilled contains all her letter exchanges with Jimin years ago. Great.

She slowly picked the letters and put them all back in the box. She sighs. Minjeong doesn’t want to bring it all back, but she can’t deny, her best friend was right. She needs to tell Jimin about the letters. Soon.

It might be painful for her to remember everything that had happened before, but it isn’t right for her to keep this a secret from her lover when both of them are involved. Both of them are also in a good place now. Though she couldn’t deny that she feels a bit worried about how Jimin will react to the information, she needs to be honest with her. I will tell her, just...not now.

She sighed once again and returned the box to its proper place. She picked her guitar up again and went to her bed.