Inside a cramped apartment, a young woman lay tiredly on her bed. At the sound of her doorbell ringing, her head hidden beneath the covers shot up.
Whom could that be?
Oh, right! How could she forget that she ordered pizza? She smiles mockingly at herself.
Guess they were right, she was a little dense.
Shaking her head, the woman heads out of bed to answer the door after gathering the money she left on the counter.
"Sorry, that took so long. Here you go and keep the—"
Unable to finish her sentence, the young woman stares at the figure in front of her door wide-eyed.
"M-Mimi?!"
"Ms. Ming," Mimi bobbed her head.
Dressed in her typical tight leather shirt, skirt and jacket, Mimi glances at Jinny's outstretched hand holding money.
"Is your life so lonely that you have to pay your visitors to stay?" Mimi's brows rose questioningly.
"Huh?" Jinny glances at the money in her hand and pulls her hand away. "Ah, no, I thought you were…Mimi, what are you doing here?"
Removing the bag from her shoulders, Mimi shoves it into Jinny's arms, "Here."
Jinny looked at the bag shoved in her hands with creased brows. "Um…this…what?"
"Work." Mimi pointed out in an obvious tone.
"Oh." Jinny's mouth clamped shut.
Afterward, the two stood in silence. Mimi stared at her with her usual deadpan eyes, while Jinny averted her gaze rigidly.
Ah! Why was she staring at her like that? Feeling nervous under the girl's penetrating stare, Jinny finally gave up.
"D-Do to you want to come in?" Jinny asked warily.
As if scripted, Mimi responded in a stoic tone, "I had other things to do, but since you begged I don't see why not."
"Ahaha, then come in…" Jinny laughed stiffly and allowed the strange girl in.
As she entered, Mimi took in the young woman's apartment and her brows immediately scrunched up.
Why did everything look so expensive?
Wasn't her paycheck the same as hers? No, if anything it was probably lower. So how was she able to afford such luxurious furniture?!
When first looking at the small woman, one would think she was awkward and well…childish.
However, what Mimi saw was an apartment decorated with extravagant and clean furniture. High-quality silk curtains, a giant organized bookcase, and other expensive furniture brands.
Mimi inwardly praised her style. Who would have thought the airhead had such good taste!
While Mimi admired the interior, Jinny came out from her kitchen and handed the young girl a cup.
"Here, I only had grape juice. I hope that's okay."
Mimi looked down at the cup of grape juice in her hand with raised brows. "You don't have water?"
Was she thinking of her as a child?
"Ah, no, I do! I'm sorry did you want water? I just assumed you'd want…"
Sighing, Mimi takes the cup. "No, this is fine."
"O-oh, okay." Jinny lowers her head down shyly.
Mimi glances at her and takes a sip of her grape juice. Now that she had the chance to observe at her, Mimi found it more unbelievable such a woman owned high-quality items.
Due to her nap, Jinny's short buttercream, blonde hair was tousled messily over her large doe brown eyes, her stubby and slightly rounded body was covered in an oversized pink sweatshirt with hearts. Had someone told her she owned such a luxurious home, Mimi would have marked the person unstable.
The sudden sound of the doorbell broke Mimi from her observations.
"Are you going to get that?" Mimi looked in the direction of the door before sitting down comfortably on the clean, white couch.
"Oh, um yes!" Jinny scurried away to the door.
After paying for the pizza Jinny came back inside, only to feel a pair of intense, ravenous eyes on her. Freezing, Jinny nervously glanced over in Mimi's direction to see her bright purple eyes on the thin pizza box in her hand.
"You ordered food?"
"Oh, um yes. Just a pizza." Jinny responded restlessly.
"Just for yourself?" Mimi's brows rose.
Again, Jinny laughed uneasily. "Yes."
Mimi sighed and shook her head, "You know it's not very healthy. If you want, I can take half of it to spare you the pain of gaining weight."
Jinny's large eyes blinked in surprise as she found Mimi's words to be quite ironic. Compared to all the large meals Mimi brought into work and consumed on a daily basis; her pizza was considered an undressed salad.
However, seeing the hungry and pressing look in her eyes, Jinny felt cornered.
Jinny helplessly said, "T-Thank you for your consideration."
As if having done her a favor, Mimi nodded her head seriously. Gathering plates for the two of them, both didn't hesitate to dig into their food. Jinny watched as Mimi chewed her pizza with a stoic expression. Had it not been for her shining eyes as she ate, one would think she found the food revolting.
After she had finished her first piece, Mimi reached for another and turned to look at the young woman, "So, why the sudden need to play hooky?"
Jinny's eyes widened and her head slowly lowered, her expression growing paled.
She fiddled with her fingers and muttered, "I-I wasn't feeling well."
Mimi scanned her figure and an eyebrow raised. "You don't look sick."
Having been caught lying, Jinny pursed her lips and lowered her head even further in shame. When Mimi saw the woman's lowered head and flustered expression she felt a sense of irritation.
This woman really had no backbone. It irritated her.
Mimi looked like she suddenly thought of something and said in an exasperated tone: "Don't tell me it's because of what I said before? Is what I said true? Just because your friends abandoned you, doesn't mean you get a free pass from work."
When she heard this, Jinny's head raised and she shook her head violently. "No, that's not the reason. It's just—"
"Just what? You had a family emergency? You got some incurable disease?" Mimi's lips curled into a scornful smile. "Truthfully, any of those excuses would be better than your actual reason. It's quite pathetic and selfish when you think about it. Missing work because your feelings were hurt."
Jinny clamps her lips shut and her fists by her side trembled. "I-I wasn't feeling well that's all!"
Mimi suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and knock the woman on the head. How in denial was this chick?
"Let me ask you something," Mimi set her pizza down and looked at Jinny with unwavering eyes. "Did any of them call you while you were absent? If your friends or that Senior Su cared so much about you, why didn't they come?"
Jinny paled to her words. Thinking back, no one called her while she was gone. It was nearly a week and none of them made any move to check in on her. Not even Senior Su…
"T-That…" Jinny's voice grew faint.
Noting her feeble appearance, Mimi made no move to stop. She needed to clear this woman of her delusions.
Reaching into her bag, Mimi takes out her phone and after tapping on the screen a few times, shows it to Jinny.
Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Jinny looks at the phone handed to her with confusion. Without saying anything, Mimi placed it in her hand and played the video on the screen, the volume turned up.
A sinking feeling entered her stomach the second the video played.
Although the entire video recorded the floor, Jinny's expression blanched, her hand holding the phone shook. Not because of the imagery, but from the familiar voices in the video.
Those voices…she recognized those voices. They were her desk mates.
"You don't think Jinny got upset because of what happened with Senior Su?"
"It's possible. You know how sensitive Jinny is in regards to Senior Su. It's kind of annoying."
"Yeah. That would be pretty low of her to miss work just because of something like that. We're not in high school. She shouldn't be so sensitive about those things."
Shortly after the video ended, Jinny continued to stare at the black screen in a daze.
A few minutes passed before her trembling voice asked, "W-Why did you show me that?"
Mimi smiled coldly. "Because it's more fun that way."
Seeing Mimi smile for the first time brought shivers down her spine. How could such a young girl be so terrifying and heartless?
"Thank you for delivering my work over, but I think you need to leave." Jinny firmly said.
Mimi shrugged her shoulders and got up from her seat to leave. Just before she left, Mimi turned to Jinny and said, "You better not make such good production skills go to waste. Otherwise, I'll be really pissed."
With that, Mimi opened the door and left. As if being freed from a suffocating presence, Jinny's body collapsed in her chair and she stared glassily at her floors.
The people she believed were her friends…said such things about her. She suddenly felt like crying but found there were no tears for her to shed. Why is it that she didn't feel sad?
Rather than feeling betrayed and hurt while listening to the two woman's words, she felt like the image she had of herself was harshly slapped in the face. All the effort of being kind and giving, slowly crumbling.
A hoarse laugh escaped her. Out of all things she thought of, she only cared about herself. She truly was a selfish human being, just like Mimi said.
Turning her gaze to the leftover pizza on the table, Jinny noticed the black device on her table - it was Mimi's phone.
"She must have forgotten it…"
However, thinking back to the girl's strange antics and actions, she felt as if she had deliberately left it here.
But why?
Staring at the phone a while longer, Jinny's lips tightened. Her fingers reached for her short strands of hair and fiddled with them for a bit.
"You better not make such good production skills go to waste…"
Jinny's lips curved up into a rare genuine smile and she giggled. That girl really was ruthless.