stylist°n.jm

chapter six: bills, bills, bills

  "Is it bad to flirt with someone else's girlfriend?"

  The six other Dreamies turn to Jaemin with puzzled, perplexed expressions at his unexpected question.

  "Of course, it is!" Mark answers confidently.

  Jaemin groans and wilts. "I'm a bad person. I've become a villain."

  His members frown as they get more befuddled.

  "Wait, why? You flirted with someone else's girlfriend??" Jeno sounds, bewildered.

  "No..." Jaemin groans while face-planted on the couch. "I don't know if she even is in a relationship."

  Jisung furrows. "Who even is this person?"

  Nana takes a while of a pause. "...Deiji."

  Confused visages form on the others.

  "Is she even in a relationship? She's always working whenever I see her," Haechan points out.

  Jaemin furrows. "The staff team suspect her to be because whenever she's got time, she goes out and comes back a while later. And her phone rings frequently and right when it does, she leaves."

  "Hyung, I think those rings are alarms, though," Jisung says and the curious look on Nana's face makes him add an explanation. "Sometimes, Deiji leaves her phone here and there and I've seen it go off more than once but for all those times, they weren't because of calls and instead, alarms."

  "Alarms? Why would she need so much, though?" Renjun wonders.

  Mark's eyes light up. "Maybe, they were reminders instead of alarms."

  "Possible," Chenle chimes. "Anyways, you have a crush on her or something, hyung~?"

  The rest automatically howl and Jaemin breaks out a grin but he gives no verbal answer.

-

  "He still bothers you with doing those reports?" Deiji asks her cousin, Jinkyong, with concern through the phone.

  "Sad to say but the answer's yes," Kyo responds and Deiji sighs.

  "You know, rich people's lives are so hard. Sometimes, I feel grateful I'm not one of them," she says and Kyo chuckles, can't help but to agree.

  "Ah, the head of the house's back. I better go out and greet the 'master.' Don't hang up, though! I'll come back in a bit," the younger tells and Deiji lets her go.

  The older looks at her desk with its surface covered with scattered notes of late payment. "It's hard to be rich but then again, it'd be nice not to have so much debt for once."
 
  "I told you, I'll get them done soon! It's not even real assignments, why are you so uptight with them??"

  She can hear Jinkyong's faraway voice of argument with her father and she leans against her bed's header, thinking of how depressing it must be if she were in Jinkyong's shoes.

  Still, if she was, she wouldn't have all this incessant payments weighing like tons and tons of bricks on her back, would she?

  "Sorry about that. Greeting him took longer than expected. Anyways, what did you want to say?" Jinkyong asks and Deiji's grip on the phone tightens as many unspoken words pile in her head.

  I'm tight in cash...

  I've got a lot of debts to pay soon but it's hard to get money so can I borrow some from you?

  My part-time jobs aren't enough to...

  I'm exhausted.

  All those thoughts yet, her lips remain frozen.

  "Deiji?" Kyo's worried voice emits and the other snaps back to the outside. "Is something going on? You sound a bit tired."

  Deiji's brows knit. Jinkyong doesn't know about her debts and financial issues so if she knew, she'll no doubt come running to help her without a moment to spare.  

  Kyo is loaded, that's undeniable so she'll insist to help her all she can but she's got enough on her own plate.

  "Nah, I'm fine. We had a team dinner yesterday so, I guess I'm still a bit hungover," Deiji lies and she's relieved that Jinkyong isn't there because she would be able to see right through her so easily.

  The brief silence from the other line already tells Deiji that Kyo's suspecting something.

  "You should have some hot soup, then! Want me to come over and make you my famous chicken soup?"

  The older shakes her head. "Maybe some other time. Right now, I'm just getting sleepy so, I'm gonna have a nap."

  "Oh, okay. Rest well!!"

  "Thanks! Bye~"

  And the call ends.