Before You Go

You Have Me

Minjeong stared at the familiar woman with wide eyes. Her body felt frozen, like it wasn't hers to control anymore. Her brain felt like mush, and her heart drummed loudly in her ears.

"Minjeong," the step that the woman took towards her seemed to snap her out of her trance.

"S-Sorry, ma'am." Minjeong managed to say. She clenches her teeth so hard that it felt like her jaw could shatter into pieces. "I'm just on my way home." She sidesteps, walking around the woman, steps hurried.

"Minjeong," the woman's firm tone stops her abruptly, "is that any way to greet your mother?"

Minjeong swallows the lump in her throat, hands tightening into fists. She refuses to turn around. She couldn't bear to look at the woman who abandoned her like a worthless piece of dirt.

"I don't know. My mother has been dead to me for years now."

There was a silent pause after her words.

"Your brother called me."

"Then go find him." Minjeong says coldly, "I have to go."

Her feet were moving again. Minjeong didn't know where her feet were leading her to, but her fight-or-flight mode was on and going a hundred miles per hour.

Minjeong wasn't the type to have bursts of emotion very easily. She's never had any source of comfort growing up, so she was forced to learn how to keep her emotions in, keeping everything to herself because that's the only person she had. Herself. She's always been alone.

But recently, she felt like she had someone. Her friendship with Ningning has grown, she was well acquainted with Aeri, although sometimes she doesn't know where she stood with her. Mostly because Minjeong feels the tension between them, a lot of that tension coming from Aeri's role of Jimin's overprotective best friend.

And then there's Yu Jimin. They were friends, yes, but Minjeong knows that the way she felt for Jimin was different from what she felt with Ningning and Aeri.

Next thing Minjeong knew, she stood in front of a familiar white door. The lights were still on, and she heard laughter coming from inside. Her chest rises and falls as she tries to even her breathing, given that she ran to get there, and her body was high on her fight-or-flight adrenaline.

"Just knock," Minjeong mutters to herself, raising her closed fist, but only for it to fall short, having it dropped to her side once again.

Heaving a sigh, Minjeong shakes her head. "What am I even doing here?"

She shuts her eyes closed, running a hand over her face. Another sound of laughter reaches her ears faintly, and her heart clenches with jealousy. Minjeong turns around and slowly walks down the four cement steps that lead up to the front door.

Suddenly, she hears the doors opening, and Minjeong turns to see a woman with a brown bob. She leaned up against the wall, stomping her foot on the floor to get her right sneaker on.

"I love you, kiddo! Make sure to take your medication before bed or I'll kill you myself!" The woman chuckled to herself, grabbing the door knob once she got her shoes on.

Closing the door, the woman finally notices Minjeong standing just a few feet away. When their eyes met, the woman looked surprised to see her, but it disappeared pretty quickly.

"Kim Minjeong?"

Minjeong's eyebrows raised in her own form of surprise. She eyes the brunette, "y-yes?"

"Here to see Jimin?" The woman asks, reaching the bottom of the steps and welcoming her with a bright smile. "I'm Wendy," a hand is extended towards Minjeong, "Jimin's one and only aunt. Her favorite person in the whole world."