Before You Go

Hurting

"Who's that girl that's the talk of the town?"

Minjeong rolls her eyes at her brother, "Jonghyun, get off school property." She pops a carrot into her mouth, flipping through the pictures on her camera that she took that day. When Minjeong made her way to her spot during her free period, she didn't expect Jonghyun to be sitting there, waiting for her with a packed lunch. She also didn't expect to get a scolding about how she didn't bother to feed herself during school. It almost felt like Minjeong had an older brother again.

"Why? I'm bored at the house."

"You said you would look for a job."

"I'm still looking." Jonghyun steals a carrot from her, tossing it up in the air and catching it in his mouth.

Minjeong only hums, the crunch of the carrot covering the tone of her hum that tells her brother that she doesn't believe him at all.

He'll leave again. Minjeong never had the impression that he was going to stay long enough for her to let her guard down anyway. And she didn't need any promises from him that would persuade her to believe that he'll be there for her. This was only temporary.

In Minjeong's life, everything is always temporary.

"So the girl?" Jonghyun circles back to the earlier question. "Someone told me she was quite smitten with you. What was it? Uh—, Goo Jimin?"

"It's Yu Jimin." Minjeong corrects him.

Jonghyun grins, leaning back onto the bleacher behind him where he rests his elbows. "You're dating the it-girl of the school? Nice." He nods proudly, and Minjeong rolls her eyes.

"I'm not dating anyone." She clarifies.

"Then why are people talking about you two so much?"

Minjeong shrugs. "I don't know, and I don't care."

"Is that her, right there?" Jonghyun nods forward, and Minjeong immediately snaps her head away from her camera to see Yu Jimin walking towards her, and next to her, Aeri and Ning Ning.

"Great." Minjeong mutters under her breath.

"What? She's not as great as they say?"

Minjeong catches Jimin's eyes from down below as they reach the bottom bleacher, "no, she is great. But now she has to meet you."

Jonghyun scoffs, "I'll behave."

Jimin finally notices the man next to Minjeong and frowns. She crosses the bleacher below the one that the two were sitting on, stepping over it once she's reached Minjeong, and taking a seat next to her.

"Hi Kim Minjeong." Jimin says in a whisper, bumping their shoulders together. Ning Ning and Aeri sit on the bleacher below them, taking out their own packed lunch.

"Who's this?" Jimin glances at the grinning man next to Minjeong. He raises a hand, fingers fluttering at her in greeting.

"H-Hi, I'm—,"

"Yu Jimin." Jonghyun finishes for her, extending his hand over Minjeong who heaves a heavy sigh, munching aggressively on another piece of carrot.

"Oh." Jimin says in surprise, shaking his hand, "and you are?"

"Kim Jonghyun," he nods towards Minjeong, "her older brother."

Jimin's eyes widened, "oh!" She looks at the anxious expression Minjeong has, and she hides her smile. She places a cautious hand on Minjeong's bouncing knee, "it's nice to meet you. I didn't know Kim Minjeong had an older brother."