[HOT] News! and Jealousy
Jiwoo wouldn’t necessarily say that she’s the jealous type, she tries to swear by it. And the thing is, she isn’t until she is. In all reality she says she’s okay with whatever Jinsol is explaining to her but she can’t help the way her face starts burning, her spine starts tingling cold and the thoughts she has in the back of mind start spitting at her 1000 miles per hour.
Does she ever voice them? No, because she isn’t the jealous type!
She doesn’t know why she does this to herself, watching Jinsol constantly get paired with that other guy for an MC-ing gig for a performance show. It’s unreasonable. Jinsol likes women. Likes her. She was her girlfriend. Besides, that guy is probaby a nice person. Maybe!
But if she has to watch one more fan edit with eye contact, heart emojis and cute music of them together-
“I would think it’s funny.”
Jiwoo glances briefly at Chaewon, face turning red again and she swipes out of the app. “You think I’m being ridiculous, huh?”
Chaewon wipes the table next to Jiwoo’s and pushes the chairs back in. The younger gives a thoughtful hum “No but I think you’re gonna have to find ways of dealing around it.”
Jiwoo puts her phone facing down and leans back into her seat. She blows a raspberry and crosses her arms “I’m not jealous if that’s what you’re trying to say.”
Her bestfriend opens her eyes widely, eyebrows raised and everything “You did not just say that.” she finishes up rearranging the table condiments.
“Anyway, when are you-”
“Anyway, why are you changing the subject.”
Jiwoo opens her mouth in disbelief, smiling almost “There isn’t a subject to begin with. You know that I don’t get jealous. I trust my girlfriend wholeheartedly.” she picks up her phone and swipes at her messages, trying to make herself look busy and find something to get out of this accusation. An accusation that isn’t even there to begin with!
Chaewon waves her rag around, dismissively “Trusting your girlfriend can have nothing to do with how you’re acting. I get it. I’ve been there. Do I think someone is going to hit on Hyeju? Sure. Do I trust her not to flirt back? Yes. Does it stop me from feeling sick? Absolutely not. Okay, sometimes its funny when guys do it because she starts making that face when- anyway you get what I’m trying to say. It’s okay to feel jealous.”
The oldest purses her lips “Okay, fine. I am a little jealous. Happy?”
Her best friend shrugs her shoulders and eyes someone standing in front of the pastry display. There’s just something about actually doing your job during working hours that grinds her gears. Working at work? Terrible.
She wordlessly walks away behind the cashier table and Jiwoo huffs some air out of her nose. Her thumb rubs back and forth on her phone, simultaneously spacing out and trying to get her life together.
Her phone vibrates in her hands and she quickly opens the message from Jinsol. Her girlfriend had been so crazy busy. If she wasn’t practicing, it was radio shows, school festivals, special collaboration stages or tv shows.
Jiwoo isn’t one to complain. They got over this, kind of. She still misses Jinsol and sometimes she wonders if it’s enough for the both of them.
Jindori 💙:
would u be mad if I invite u
to hang out at 1am
Me:
1am??
but that’s so late 😩
Jindori 💙:
i know 😣😣
but some of us are somewhat free
tonight and I have a late schedule
tomorrow so I thought we could
sleep in if u stayed over
u don’t have class right?
Me:
where? and no!
Jindori 💙:
haseul’s!!
if u don’t want to we can go back
to mine or urs if ur still down 🥺
Jiwoo chews on her bottom lip, gosh it’s gonna be so late. She can barely hang during her late shifts and anytime she hangs out with Jinsol’s friends- their friends, two hours turn into three and she feels like the party pooper when Jinsol notices when she’s tired.
Me:
no im down 🥺🥺
“Why do you look so miserable?” Hyeju asks while tying her apron around her waist. It was one of the few days out of the week where she turns over the shift with Chae.
Jiwoo puts her phone down and presses her finger under eye “I’m just really tired. I haven’t been sleeping well recently.” She knew she looked terrible because she felt it.
Hyeju glances at her girlfriend quickly “Why don’t you go take a nap or something. I can give you tea to go if you want.”
Jiwoo shakes her head but does start to gather her books into her bag “No, it’s okay. I do need a nap so I can hang out with Jinsol later.”
Hyeju crosses her arms across her chest “Speaking of Jinsol.” Jiwoo zips her bag close and swings it across her shoulder “I’m thinking of doing a fan meet up here if you think it would be a good idea to invite her.”
“For Odd Eye Circle?”
The taller hums a yes and eyes flicker to the clock mounted on the wall. If she doesn’t head over soon, her girlfriend will be grumpy tonight. “Yeah, for the whole group. She doesn’t have to come or anything but just thought I’d invite.”
Jiwoo holds her phone up and shakes it slightly “I’ll let her know for sure but no promises if she’ll actually go.”
Hyeju nods her head and bids her goodbye. Jiwoo waits by the door for Chaewon to finish up and gosh I’m so sleepy.
“Sorry, I tried being quick.” Chaewon takes off her work visor and hands it to Jiwoo to put in her bag. They don’t often walk home together except on the days where Jiwoo wants something sweet for free. “You look sleepy.”
She rubs her eye “Yeah, I need a nap.”
She gets her nap and maybe sleeps past her alarm. Jiwoo wakes up at a shake, a voice calling out her name and getting louder with each repeat. She opens her eyes, stretches her body and breathes in deeply.
“Jiwoo, baby. Do you still want to go? You can go back to sleep if you want.”
She turns her face, Jinsol’s face slowly clearing from the blur “Mmmm?”
“Do you still want to go to Haseul’s?”
Jiwoo stretches again before trying to sit up, her voice raspy and eyes squinting. “No, I still want to go. I just need a minute.” She almost wanted to say no but they haven’t gone out in a while that she knows she’s going to regret it if she doesn’t force herself to get up.
Jinsol slides in under the blanket and makes herself comfortable. She props her elbow on the pillow and plays with her girlfriend’s hair “You know, you’re making it a lot harder to get out bed.”
“Are you sure you want to go?”
“You sound like you don’t want to go.” Jiwoo mumbles and digs her face closer to Jinsol’s body.
The older laughs and shakes her head “I don’t but everyone else misses you. They keep asking about you. Don’t tell her I said this but I think you’re Jungeun’s only friend.”
“Are you saying you’re not her friend?”
“We don’t count.” Jinsol squeezes her for a couple of seconds and pats her butt “Now come on. We’re already late and the faster we get there the faster we can go home.”
“Two hours top?”
“I was actually hoping for just one but we gotta be sneaky about it.”
Jiwoo squeezes back and finally gets up, foreal this time. She tries to somewhat get ready quick, dressing comfortable in some sweats and one of her old hoodies while Jinsol closes her eyes for a quick second.
When they get there there’s a small “Finally.” from Yerim and Jiwoo smiles an apology.
“She overslept.” Her girlfriend throws her under the bus and Jiwoo doesn’t even try to defend herself. It was late! Who could blame her.
She scans the room and makes eye contact with Hyunjin, who quickly looks away to talk to Heejin. Jiwoo had forgotten about her last conversation with the girl and even though they ‘cleared the room’, it was apparently still awkward for them.
“I’m gonna grab something to drink, do you want anything?” Jinsol asks softly, while everyone else was arguing on which game they should play or if they should watch a movie.
Jiwoo reaches over and hooks a finger with Jinsol’s “I’ll go with you.” she wasn’t necessarily thirsty but now that she’s seen Hyunjin she realizes that they’re overdue for a talk.
They go into the kitchen, away from all the noise when Jiwoo quietly asks “Are you still not talking to Hyunjin?”
The blonde’s face scrunches up and she shakes her head. She honestly looked like she didn’t want to talk about whatever was going on between them. “Why not?”
“I didn’t know she was going to be here.”
Jiwoo tilts her head in confusion but ignores whatever Jinsol had said and how she didn’t answer her question “I think you should go talk to her and make up.”
Jinsol makes another face and leans against the kitchen counter. She takes a couple of seconds to reply and Jiwoo could tell that the older was trying to come up with some words “She…ummm..she had some not very good words about you at Jungeun’s party. That’s basically why we fought.”
“I know.”
“What? You know? What do you mean you know?”
Jiwoo gives a nod “Mmm.” A step closer to take both of her hands “We talked. She apologized for what she said and she really misses you.”
Her girlfriend looks guilty. Truthfully, she really missed Hyunjin too and felt bad about missing her even when she was being ugly to Jiwoo. It’s not like they texted everyday but they did save their stories for when they did have the time to talk. It rubbed her the wrong way knowing that her friend wasn’t happy for her and she knows that Hyunjin must’ve felt betrayed because she took her girlfriend’s side over someone she’s known for years.
“Look, I get it. I was mad too but I think I had to put myself in her shoes. I think I’d be a little skeptical about me too. She doesn’t know me-“
“Yeah, she didn’t even know you and she-“ Jinsol is getting heated again and her eyebrows are doing that thing she it does when Jinsol gets emotional.
Jiwoo rubs her thumbs on the back of her hands “She said it because she cares about you. And you care about her too. Talk to her, please?”
Jinsol closes her eyes, wanting to avoid talking to her friend but nods her head anyway. Now Jiwoo can stop feeling guilty even when she knows it wasn’t her fault to begin with. She doesn’t feel right knowing her girlfriend is throwing away her friendship for her, especially someone so close over something dumb. Will she ever be friends with Hyunjin in the future? Probably not but it doesn’t mean she can’t be civil enough for Jinsol’s sake.
Jinsol makes another noise before agreeing. “Fine.” she pulls Jiwoo in by her waist, putting her chin over Jiwoo’s shoulder “And thank you. I love you.”
“I love you more.”
“You’re a stinkin liar.”
After getting their drinks, they go back into the living. She pushes Jinsol away so she could go talk to Hyunjin. Jiwoo wanted to push this drama behind them as soon as possible.
She puts herself into the talk Vivi and Haseul were having but her eyes don’t miss the way her girlfriend gestures Hyunjin into the hallway.
They’re gone for almost ten minutes and Jiwoo almost excuses herself to make sure everything is okay. They both come back out and her eyes immediately lock onto Jinsol’s. Her girlfriend throws her a quick thumbs up, showing everything was good between them now.
“So have you guys decided on what we’re gonna do?”
“Did she say she was gonna come?” Hyeju asks while setting up the last remaining decorations in their cafe. This was the first time Jiwoo has witnessed something like this. A fan event, celebrating their favorite celebrities and just hanging out.
It was a cute idea and easy way to meet people with the same music taste as you.
“She said that she would swing by for a minute but she hasn’t texted me back in a while.” Jiwoo says, trying to fix up the album display to make it look more organized. It wasn’t biased if she scooted her girlfriend’s solo album closer to the front, was it?
There was a small group of girls that came in, they were wearing Odd Eye Circle shirts and even brought their lightstick.
Chaewon is the first to greet them and passes out the freebies that Hyeju and her friends came up with. Soon enough, there were more people coming in waves at different times. It was mostly teenagers and young adults, definitely a lot more girls than anything.
Jiwoo is behind the counter, apron over her own OEC shirt that she stole from Jinsol. She was mainly helping by grabbing whatever was ordered and distributing it.
There’s yelling that makes Jiwoo flinch and drop a cupcake, red icing smearing on the tile. She reaches for some napkins and quickly wipes it up. She stands up and sees what all the screaming is about.
She sees Jinsol, Jungeun and Yerim smiling and waving at everyone. They quickly make their way over to the counter and Chaewon opens the gate to let them get in. She gives a quick smile to her girlfriend, trying to make it less obvious that she wants to pull her into a hug.
“I invited Yerim and Jungeun. I hope that isn’t a problem.” Jinsol says, her voice is barely heard through the still on going yelling in the background.
Jiwoo’s eyes flicker to see Hyeju’s reaction. She doesn’t think her friend ever got to meet the other two. It was mainly Yerim and Jungeun being busy but she’s definitely brought up her friend in multiple conversations.
Hyeju’s face immediately turns red and she looks like a deer in headlights. The younger had gotten over seeing Jinsol a million and one times and Jiwoo didn’t think she’d still be fangirling over her other friends.
Chaewon tugs on her girlfriend’s elbow “Yeah, of course. It’s so great to meet you. My name is Chaewon and this is Hyeju. She put together this event.” She was trying to brag about it a little, a ‘look how amazing this turned out’ thing.
“Choerry.” Yerim is the first to greet with a big smile. She had recently dyed her hair brown with some bangs that over grew.
“Hi, I’m Kim Lip.” There’s another shriek from a random girl and it makes Jiwoo laugh.
Jinsol’s head is on a swivel as she’s looking around “Do you guys have any more aprons? We can’t stay too long but we can help out a little while we’re here.”
Hyeju scrambles to find more aprons and Chaewon feels a little embarrassed at the thought of this is what she probably seemed like when she got to meet her idols.
They all get to work and it’s so much fun. There were a couple times where Jiwoo’s eyes would drift to Jinsol. It was hard not to! She had her hair up and sleeves were pushed up to her elbows. And this was her girlfriend!!! She was hot!!!
She tries to stay focused for the most part, not wanting anyone to question just how hard she was staring. She sticks to Jungeun’s for most of it. They got to catch up in between her talking to fans and Jiwoo might be making things up in her head but Jungeun seemed a little off throughout the conversation.
It wasn’t like Jungeun was usually a ball of excitement but once you got her going, she went. She constantly kept looking into the crowd and then would start blinking fast.
Jiwoo smiles, finally understanding. Jungeun wasn’t off but she was getting emotional. She reaches a hand out to squeeze her arm. “Stop, you’re going to make me cry.”
Okay, maybe it was a terrible idea to make her friend cry in front of her fans. “If it happens, you can always go into the break room. I don’t think they’d care too much if you took a breather back there.”
Jungeun doesn’t take a breather but they do end up cutting a cake with everyone and Yerim ends up being the one who cried. They don’t stay long after that, needing to go back to the company for a surprise anniversary V-Live.
Jinsol promises her that they’d meet up at her house once they’re done with that.
When she helps Hyeju clean up she could tell the younger was absolutely glowing and it may or may not have been related to getting to talk to Yerim like they were friends. It was cute and Jiwoo’s glad they got along.
“I can’t wait to brag about this on Twitter.” She hears her say to Chaewon like she’s over the moon.
Now that Jiwoo has been introduced to the celebrity world, she can’t believe how stupid she’s been at work. She sees them come in every once in a while, recognizing the ones she’s seen come out in shows with Jinsol.
Apparently there’s another entertainment company nearby, mainly actors and comedians. The most surprising thing about this is sometimes she gets recognized by them.
Jinsol’s friend is what they call her, really thinking they were just friends and Jiwoo smiles and laughs. She jokes around with them and tells the repeated story on how they met here. Most of the time the conversations aren’t long, they’re busy and don’t want to be bothered by other people coming into the store.
Jiwoo’s eyes follow a familiar face that walks into the store. She hasn’t seen or even heard her name being brought up again since Jungeun’s party. She could see that Sooyoung had a recent hair touch up with a darker shade of pink.
After much thought, she remembers that Jinsol didn’t tell her what was up between them. She’s used to seeing her girlfriend act like a baby but never as childish as she was in that ten second casual conversation that the trio had.
Sooyoung stares at her and holds it, trying to figure out where she saw Jiwoo at. Jiwoo gives a polite smile and small wave, unsure on how friendly she should be with her.
Jinsol in some shape or form didn’t like her. Jungeun on the other hand liked her enough to invite her to a close friends only party. She doesn’t think Jungeun would do that to her girlfriend if some crazy beef happened between the two. She’s stumped.
Sooyoung snaps her fingers “Ah, Jinsol’s….” She looked around the store, it was only the two of them “…friend.”
“Yeah we talked a little bit at the party.” She almost adds a ‘Sorry about Jinsol’ but why would she apologize about that.
Sooyoung cracks a small smile and sticks her hands in jacket pockets “Yeah, I guess that’s partly my fault. I didn’t know you came with her and Jinsol has always been a little….like that.”
What’s that supposed to mean?
“What do you mean by that.”
Sooyoung looks a little confused with her own words, not knowing how to not make this not awkward. “Well, um I know you probably know what went down between us.” She takes a couple steps closer to the counter, feeling weird that she was raising her voice just to talk to Jiwoo.
Wait. What? What went down between them? Were they a thing before or something? There’s suddenly more pieces to this that she hasn’t put together yet and Jiwoo’s trying not to be caught off guard in front of Jinsol’s ex(?).
“Jinsol has held onto this grudge forever and yeah I thought you were cute but if I would’ve known you guys were together I wouldn’t have, you know.” She makes a hand gesture.
No. She doesn’t know what is going on. Sooyoung was having a one person conversation over here and it didn't take long for her to notice the lost look on Jiwoo’s face.
Sooyoung stops her explanation to ask a different question, words coming out slowly and questioning “You do know what I’m talking about, right?”
Feeling stupid she shakes her head no.
Now Sooyoung feels caught off guard. Jinsol didn’t talk about it for a reason, she guesses. She doesn’t know if she’s over stepping boundaries right now but it’ll look worse if she doesn’t try to defend herself after saying too much.
“We were friends before but now she doesn’t like me over something dumb.” Sooyoung thins her lips, not really prepared to spill the beans. It happened a while back ago that she couldn’t exactly remember what had happened. “Basically, we liked the same girl and she chose me. Okay, wait. That sounds bad.”
“I didn’t know Jinsol was…messing around with the same girl I was messing with. It wasn’t like they were exclusive or anything but she thought they were. Let’s just say it was awkward when we both found out.”
Well that answers half the question. They were not ex girlfriends.
“The girl ended up wanting to date me and it was hard for Jinsol. It wasn’t like I dated her afterwards. It's a little weird to date someone your friend was dating.” She flicks her hand again “Jinsol never really got over it so I guess she got defensive when she saw us talking.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
She can…she can work with this. Ex friends definitely beats out ex girlfriends. This doesn’t seem too bad, or maybe she’s being too dismissive because it wasn’t her that went through that. It must’ve sucked for Jinsol at the time but it led to them dating now so she can’t exactly complain about that.
It’s gotten quiet, neither of them not knowing where to go from here.
She can’t stop the word vomit that comes out “This one time, Jinsol tried carrying me to the bed and she dropped me.” Jiwoo doesn’t know why she had to say that but it already came out because she couldn’t handle this atmosphere of being too quiet.
Sooyoung leans her hip against the counter and has a small smile “Why am I not surprised by that. How long have you guys been dating?”
It wouldn’t be weird to talk about this, right? She knows Jinsol likes women. Sooyoung likes women. “It’s been over a year.” And she can't help her own smile that grows at the mention of their relationship.
The door opens with the bell ringing and Jiwoo clumsily turns to greet the customer. Her girlfriend lifts her cap up, hand going up to wave but stops once she sees the pink hair. There’s this weird feeling in the air and Jiwoo feels like she did something wrong just for talking to Sooyoung.
“Hey.” Sooyoung is the first to say, standing up and leaning away from the counter she was resting on.
Jinsol’s eyes flicker between the two and Jiwoo smiles at her “Hey.”
“I guess that means I have to go.” Sooyoung mutters loud enough that only Jiwoo hears it. She sticks her hands in her pockets, says a goodbye to the both of them and Jiwoo realizes she never got to buy anything.
“I brought you some pizza.” Jinsol says and holds up a small box in her hand, it looked like it was only enough for one. “Wanted to surprise you.” she says nervously as if Jiwoo wouldn’t be happy to see her.
“I missed you.” Jiwoo waves her over with her hand and leans her elbows on the counter. Jinsol seemed to be in a better mood now that they were alone and practically skips over.
“I missed you, too.” Jinsol is all smiles now and reaches over for Jiwoo’s hand. “I can’t really stay long. I told the manager that I was just going to grab some drinks and the pizza took five minutes away.”
“Are you hungry?” Jiwoo reaches over to fix Jinsol’s crooked hat, it was the one thing that bothered her the most about Jinsol. It was silly and now that she thinks about it, Jinsol might be doing this on purpose.
“No, I've been snacking this whole time.” Jinsol says before suddenly getting moody. Not really moody but more like something was bothering her. Jiwoo knows this look, it doesn’t come out often but when it does it’s easy to point out.
“What’s wrong?” Jiwoo puts her other hand on top and Jinsol tries to shrug off the topic. “You can tell me, even if it’s dumb. Especially if it’s dumb. I actually like dumb.”
Jinsol stares at her, eyes looking almost uncomfortable. Jinsol was making herself sad with her own thoughts. “It’s nothing.” She ends up saying, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.
Jiwoo feels like she knows what’s bothering her. She can put these context clues together. Jinsol was in a good mood before she saw Sooyoung and from Sooyoung’s side it seems like Jinsol would have a problem seeing them talk with each other.
“You can ask me about it.” Jiwoo decides to fish for an answer “What we were talking about before you came in.”
Her girlfriend’s face turns a soft pink, ears even pinker poking out of her hair “I-“ she looks down, trying to be nonchalant with her movements “I don’t need to know what you were talking about.”
“I love you.” She says like Jinsol needs a reminder.
“I love you, too. I’m sorry.” Jinsol visibly deflates and the frown she was trying to keep to herself finally comes out “I was trying to be cool about it. I just- I don’t really like seeing you two together. I didn’t want to make you feel bad about it either.”
Jiwoo hums at her honesty and Jinsol feels like she needs to get this off her chest “It’s not that I don’t trust you or anything and you haven’t given me a reason to act like this….but I think I just get a little insecure.”
“If we’re being honest here.” Jiwoo squeezes her hand “Seeing you with your co host drives me insane. It’s kinda stupid.” It feels good talking about this with no bad intentions or a big reason to bring this up. There isn’t an accusing finger being pointed at each other.
Jinsol snorts at this, almost not believing that out of everyone that guy is who she was jealous of. “He’s rude to the staff and I don’t like him. Since we’re talking about this I will also bring up the girl that delivers to your apartment.”
Jiwoo laughs at this one “She’s been delivering to me for a year and I only know her name. I’m only polite to her because I always try to be nice.”
The blonde shrugs her shoulders, pretending to be upset at this but Jiwoo could tell that she was joking. Jinsol’s mood had jumped and Jiwoo wants to keep her happy. She doesn’t like that some random girl made Jinsol feel this way.
“I’ll stop talking to her.”
Jinsol is taken aback from how serious she sounded. She pulls her hands back and shakes them in front of her “What. No. You can’t control who comes to your door-“
“I was talking about Sooyoung.” It wasn’t like she owed her any friendship, she hardly knew the girl.
Jinsol frowns again at the sound of her name and not for the same reason as initially “You don’t have to do that. You can talk to whoever you want.”
Jiwoo takes a small breath and breathes out, she holds her stare until she knows Jinsol is looking back at her wanting her to know that she was being serious about this. Jinsol always did this thing when she wanted a subject dropped.
“She told me what happened between you two.” Jinsol goes back to looking uncomfortable at this being brought up. She felt stupid for getting played after being all in and it was embarrassing that other people knew about it too.
“This isn’t about jealousy, I just don’t want you to ever feel that way with me. I can’t promise you there won’t times where I have to talk to her but if I can help it I won’t ever put you in the position of doubt.”
Jinsol’s lower lip quivers for a quick second, she looks up and exhales “Gosh, you’re really something haha.” She puts a hand back on the counter “But really, you can talk to her and sorry acting all weird about it. I just love you a lot. More than anyone I’ve met before.”
There’s vibrating coming from Jinsol’s pocket and they both know it’s most likely her manager calling. “Love you more. Text me when you get to your building.”
-
[HOT] Odd Eye Circle Contract Renewal
Staff have reported that 2 members have renewed their contract extending four years and 1 undecided. It was not said which members will continue their careers under the group, now duo?