Halloween Party (Part 1)

Jimin was fresh out of the shower, in comfortable clothes and heavily considering ignoring her friends that were outside by their dining room so she could jump into bed and get some sleep.

But Chaeyoung said that Aeri and Tzuyu coming by was a must because they needed to plan out their upcoming Halloween party, and it was an event that the friends all agreed to have every year.

So as much as Jimin didn’t want to deal with it, she had to. Chaeyoung was annoying as it is, and Jimin had no choice but to leave her bedroom to join them. She would rather be able to relax in silence once it was done, than deal with a whiney and insufferable roommate.

Once she was decent enough, she grabbed her phone from the side table and exited her bedroom. Aeri and Tzuyu were already sitting by their usual seats on their dining table and Chaeyoung was busy going through their fridge, hopefully thinking about what to prepare for dinner since they all hadn’t eaten yet.

She could ask them later.

Jimin walked over to her usual seat in between Aeri and Tzuyu and settled in.

Chaeyoung sensed her presence and looked over, she then closed the fridge, a beer bottle in her hand, while the other grabbed her chair and pulled it out.

“Okay, now that we’re here.” Chaeyoung was about to sit down, but she stopped to acknowledge the people at the table, nodding at Aeri and Tzuyu. “Friends, and—“ she then pointed at Jimin and took a moment, but settled with a careless shrug. “—person I live with that has a cookie problem.”

Jimin immediately reacted. “Why—” she tried to fathom the title her roommate decided to grace her with. But instead of getting riled up, she pinched the ridge of her nose and exhaled. “I don’t have a cookie problem.”

“Yes, you do,” Aeri said immediately.

“It’s pretty obvious,” Tzuyu followed it up too, eyes still on the magazine she was reading.

Chaeyoung then pointed her hands at the two friends, as if she was trying to prove a point. “See? You have a cookie problem and you’re a monster.” Then Chaeyoung narrowed her eyes at Jimin. “Do you know how many sleepless nights I have because I’m living with you? You might kill me if we have another one of Minjeong’s cookies in our apartment again.”

An exaggeration, but at the same time, Chaeyoung wasn’t wrong. In response, Jimin raised a brow instead. “How about you don’t touch what’s not yours next time?”

“Freak.”

“I’m telling Mina unnie on you,” Jimin said, almost like a child whining. “You promised her you’ll be nicer to me.”

“Eat shit, Jimin.” Chaeyoung glared at her, obviously annoyed that she was pulling this card again. But just like the weather, her mood changed. She placed both her palms on her waist and smiled at Jimin. “Anyway, what should we do for dinner?”

Maybe Chaeyoung was the freak instead of her.

“Before this conversation gets derailed again…” Tzuyu decided to end their weird exchange, finally putting the magazine down, and looked at Chaeyoung. “We're here to talk about our Halloween party, right? So what’s the plan? Are we doing the same thing as last year?”

“We could,” Aeri piped up, leaning on the back of her seat and shrugged. “I honestly liked the idea of a party with just us in costumes, getting wasted at someone’s apartment.”

Jimin nodded in agreement. She remembered last year when the four of them decided to have the party that only consisted of the four of them.

At the time, Mina flew back to Japan to visit her parents and because Chaeyoung was a pathetic loser when her girlfriend leaves her like that, she decided they should still wear costumes and get completely shitfaced in their apartment.

Hence the reason why tequila was banned in their home.

But it was fun. Despite Jimin getting wasted like that. Especially in a costume she just rented and ended up paying for the damages she did on it. Sauce stains, beer spillage and vomit. Jimin knew it was a lost cause and couldn’t get it out by simply putting it in a washing machine.

Okay—maybe that part wasn’t fun. However, it was definitely something she could put in the books.

“Well, I guess that’s fine,” Jimin finally said, settling with the idea. “I honestly am not feeling up to going out anyway.”

“Right.” Chaeyoung nodded, then she pointed her finger at Jimin. “You wanna invite Minjeong this time?” She faced Aeri as well. “Yizhuo as well, since they’re your new girls.”

“Minjeong isn’t my girl,” Jimin responded almost immediately. A weird and unfamiliar pang of emotions spread through her chest when Chaeyoung said ‘your girl’. Not entirely sure if she liked the idea of Minjeong being ‘hers’. But not in the possessive way. Jimin wasn’t like that.

“Defensive,” Tzuyu said with a smirk, eyes observing her. Jimin gulped, Tzuyu never paid attention to her like this.

“No, I’m not being defensive,” she responded to her friend, trying her best to be nonchalant about it. She didn't want the others to know about her feelings yet. It may be obvious, but Jimin wasn't really ready to fully acknowledge it to other people. And herself.

“I actually do want to invite Yizhuo,” Aeri said, luckily changing the topic and Jimin felt like she could breathe again. “Maybe Minjeong would go if she knew Yizhuo was coming as well.” Then Aeri gave her the same smirk like Tzuyu’s. “But I’m sure Minjeong would say yes either way with or without Yizhuo.”

“As long as Jimin is the one inviting her,” Chaeyoung chimed in, also giving her a teasing look.

She took it back; her friends probably want her to be miserable.

Jimin sighed and shook her head. “She might have class, or she could be busy studying. I don’t want to bother her.”

It was a valid excuse.

Tzuyu nodded at her response. “Well leaving an invite is still good?”

That was valid too. But—

“Yeah, just invite her either way. It’ll be fine,” Aeri said, already on her phone and texting someone. It was probably Yizhuo, maybe her best friend was already telling her about the party. Jimin hoped that Yizhuo wouldn't mention the party to Minjeong already, because even if she was resisting it, she wanted to be the one to invite Minjeong.

She would probably talk to Aeri about it later.

Jimin let out a heavy sigh. Aeri always said it was fine, but what if it wasn't fine? Didn't she remember that Jimin could overthink at a hundred fifty kilometers per hour?

Because there was a part of her that did want to invite Minjeong, see her in a cute or empowering costume and then Jimin could ogle at her at a short distance, but silently and to herself.

But at the same time she didn't know if Minjeong wanted to go to stuff like this. Did she even party? Did she like being around her friends? Maybe she would say no because wearing costumes on Halloween is lame and she would think that Jimin was a gigantic loser.

“I don’t know…” Jimin voiced out her thoughts, chewing on her thumb as she tried to calm her thinking.

Chaeyoung didn't seem to notice, so she scoffed and shoved Jimin’s shoulder playfully. “Just invite your cookie supplier, you junkie.”

She immediately glared at her roommate. “Will you let it go?”

“I’m not Elsa, so no.”

Minjeong was finishing up one of her favorite customers that was on the grooming table. The light brown Chihuahua was wagging his tail as Minjeong was snipping the loose hairs that were too long and were peeking out from in between the pad of his paws.

“Good job, Elvis,” Minjeong cooed as he looked up at her with a big dopey smile and closed his eyes when she scratched under his chin. “Just a little more and you’re done, okay?”

Minjeong quickly did the finishing touches to the dog and once she looked at him one last time, satisfied with her work, she unhooked the chain from his collar and picked him up slowly from the table. She couldn’t stop smiling at how the dog’s tail was just wagging so quickly. She loved grooming this dog since he was such a sweetheart, and he was considered to be the friendliest dog that they had at the salon.

She opened the temporary kennel and gently placed him inside. “Your mommy won’t be here yet, so I’ll just grab you water.”

The senior dog simply looked at her and wagged his tail as she talked to him, like he understood what she was saying. Minjeong closed the kennel, grabbed a bowl, filled it with water and then placed it inside so the dog could drink.