Found my world in a small town | Winrina

Chapter 5- Café Owner

During the next week or two, the situation got both better and worse.

Worse, because Jimin still would not talk to Minjeong. The blonde girl had settled on ignoring her guest, turning her head away when Minjeong walked past her, not speaking to her unless she had to, leaving the room when Minjeong entered, disregarding her entire existence. It was a very uncomfortable feeling for Minjeong to constantly be ignored and overlooked but at the same time, Jimin managed to conceal her behavior so well that neither of the adults noticed the weird atmosphere between the two girls. The only time of the day when Jimin spared Minjeong more than a bitter look was during dinner where she actually interacted with her. Minjeong would not go so far as to call Jimin's behavior at the table 'polite' but at least she handed her bowls or bottles when Minjeong asked.

Not that Jimin ate dinner with them often, anyway (and that was the good part). Apparently, she had just taken a week or two off of work after Christmas because after the first weekend Minjeong had spent in Kwangya, Jimin started working at the restaurant almost every night. She ate together with Ningning and her parents and often did not come home until midnight — which, for Minjeong, was a blessing.

Since she had to be at work at five pm to help set up everything, Jimin also adapted her daily schedule: instead of going out early, eating lunch at home and then skiing again until five, she now stayed outside the whole day before coming back around four; showering, eating a quick snack and then going over to Ningning's.

Minjeong also took more time to get to know the village and explore the countryside. She bought some more books from Mr Uchinaga and even visited Mr Lee in his antique shop once or twice. The fact that Jimin did not come home during the day anymore was an advantage because this way, she was a little more relaxed about going out. She did not want to risk getting caught not taking Winter with her a second time but also did not want to take the dog with her every time she went out. She also had the feeling that Jimin would not be too happy either if she found out that Minjeong was taking Winter with her. Jimin's problem was not that Minjeong was mistreating her dog, it was Minjeong herself.

Still, Winter was an old dog who took her small walks but did not appreciate being outside, especially not in weather this cold. Minjeong did not want her to catch a cold so when she was just buying some books or going for a quick walk, she left her at home. Of course she made sure she would not be able to fall down the stairs and she always filled her water bowl before leaving.Jennie and Taehyung also offered Minjeong and her parents to teach them how to ski on the weekends but all of them declined that offer. Baekyun was not too keen on sports in general, especially not if they were dangerous — and he considered skiing to fall into that category, along with boxing, American football, Surfing... the list went on. Taeyeon had some problems with her knee ever since she had injured it as a teenager and while she enjoyed yoga and fitness, skiing was not for her.

Minjeong had been happy about the offer at first. She did not know how to ski and was sure she would make a fool of herself but she still wanted to try it. That was, until Taehyung said that 'Jimin should be the one to teach her' since 'they were the same age' and 'it would be boring if Minjeong had teachers as old as Jennie and Taehyung'. After this statement, Minjeong decided to side with her father, disregarding skiing as too dangerous to pursue.

Jennie and Taehyung did not even seem disappointed, they just smiled and told their guests that should they change their mind, the offer was still standing but that it was okay if they did not want to.

Minjeong began envying Jimin a little at that moment. Her own parents had almost never accepted a 'no' from her when she did not want to do something. When she did not want to play the piano as a kid, her parents said that 'learning how to play an instrument was beneficial for her mental development' and when she wanted to stop taking ballet lessons, her parents told her that 'it was important to pursue at least one sport other than general fitness workouts'.
Jimin's parents never forced her to do anything she did not want to do: if she did not want to join the dinner table, they allowed that and if she declined to look at the pictures her dad had taken, Taehyung just nodded and smiled. And, of course, they also accepted her career choices.At least Minjeong's parents did not have many opportunities to nag her about her profession. Baekyun spent hours and hours together with Taehyung, either outside collecting specimens and taking pictures or working on categorizing them and writing indoors and Taeyeon helped them with that. She was a journalist who wrote articles for various magazines and newspapers and used her new location to write about Kwangya's nature and traveling.