[Contest 3] You are Mint Lavender (Season 2)
EP11. The Storm Before the Storm
※This episode also unfolds from the omniscient author's perspective!
'Jeeeeing! Jeeeeing!'
After the female protagonist left the house, Jimin's phone rang while he was cleaning up the area.
Jimin looked down at the screen and saw three letters that made him furrow his brow: Jeon Jungkook. He knew that he wasn't the one calling him, and he felt a strange sense of unease wash over him.
박지민
"......."
As Jimin hesitated while holding the phone, the long vibration sound suddenly stopped, and as he was about to put the phone down, he began to bite his lips at the sight of a text message that had arrived.
'Take it, it's urgent'
Jimin, feeling anew that the call wasn't without reason, swallowed his anxiety and called Jungkook.
박지민
"What's going on?"
전정국
"Kim Yeo-ju, where are you now?"
박지민
"What the heck..."
Jimin's eyes widened at the sudden start of the conversation, which asked about the heroine's whereabouts, and he couldn't hide his bewilderment.
전정국
"Okay, where is Kim Yeo-ju now!!"
In a state of maddening urgency, Jungkook's eyes were bloodshot, searching only for Yeoju, and even explaining the situation to Jimin was put on the back burner.
박지민
"I went out because I had someone to meet. Why are you asking?"
전정국
"what..?"
Taehyung's desperate cries were just his delusion.
I hope that the place where I meet her is not in the middle of a painful and cold sandstorm.
Jungkook had longed for it, but the fact that the devil's prediction became reality through a phone call with Jimin only answered his fervent wish.
박지민
"Kim Seokjin said he had someone he could introduce me to, so I went out!! Why did you do that!?"
전정국
"That's...haa...it's all a fabrication, damn it!!!"
전정국
"The person who called out Kim Yeo-ju wasn't Seok-jin hyung!"
박지민
"Wh,what..??"
Jimin's face turned pale as the thought crossed his mind that enough time had passed for something to happen.
박지민
"Haa....damn it!!"
As soon as Jimin finished talking to Jungkook, he called Yeoju, but all he heard was a long, long beep, as if she was teasing him.
Jimin had been making nearly thirty phone calls like a maniac, and it had already been about two hours since she left.
박지민
"Fuck, I can't take it anymore"
Even though Jimin should have run out a long time ago, he waited quietly at home when Jungkook told him to wait while he went.
But what returned was not the heroine, but anxiety, and Jimin, who could no longer endure the anxiety that felt like his brain and heart were being torn apart as his worries about her continued to feed on worries, ended up getting up from his seat.
Jimin, who hadn't even brought a coat in the dead of winter, was about to make another phone call when he noticed someone staggering toward him from the entrance of the alley.
박지민
"Wh,what is it...Kim Yeo-ju?"
At first, someone was not clearly visible, but gradually came closer. It was the heroine he had been waiting for.
As the heroine stumbled and walked with difficulty, as if she were about to fall at any moment, the relief Jimin felt at her return vanished for a moment.
박지민
"G, Kim Yeo-ju..!!!"
김여주
"Jim..."
The female protagonist, who was in so much pain that tears welled up in her eyes, collapsed on Jimin's shoulder and lost consciousness without even being able to call out his name.
박지민
"Kim Yeo-ju, wake up!!!"
Her entire body was a ball of fire, her mind lost, and the hours she had disappeared without contact, unable to be dismissed as a simple cold, clung to him without any answers.
Soon after, his phone vibrated again, and the "block caller ID" message, as always, made him frown.
박지민
"What is your purpose?"
Jimin, who believed that he was the one who had caused all this, gritted his teeth and expressed his extreme anger as soon as he received the call.
He gave off a more murderous look than the one he had given Lee Jeong-wook at the time, and it felt as if the object of his anger was right in front of him.
유인영
"Hmm... purpose..."
유인영
"Let's say we call it a goal rather than a purpose, right? For some reason, saying "purpose" makes me feel a little bad."
박지민
"Shut your fucking mouth. Since when do I have to be with a bitch like you?"
유인영
"Shut up? Well, is it just me or does it feel like the girl who's collapsed in your arms right now will wake up if I say something?"
박지민
"....What do you want!!!"
유인영
"What do you want? You don't need to know that. It would be best if you just listen carefully to what I have to say from now on."
유인영
"What Kim Yeo-ju just took is a drug recently developed by our pharmaceutical company. Clinical trials have shown severe side effects, including high fever and difficulty breathing, so it's not currently on the market."
박지민
"what?!"
유인영
"Shh. It's noisy. I'm not finished speaking. Also, Kim Yeo-ju has signed a contract to work at the JW Medical Research Institute. I'll leave the details up to you to figure out on your own."
박지민
"Do you think I'll just let it be!?"
유인영
"I don't care what you do. The message won't reach you anyway. But I have a condition."
유인영
"I'll give Kim Yeo-ju the same medicine I just gave her every day. Oh, and of course, I'll give her the antidote, but that's only if you don't tell her anything about this."
유인영
"Then I'll hang up now. I put today's antidote in Kim Yeo-ju's pocket."
The phone call ended, and all the strength drained from his body. Had it not been for the female protagonist collapsing into his arms, he might have collapsed, unable to hold on.
박지민
"Ugh...fuck..."
Misfortune left Jimin with nothing but a sense of helplessness, unable to do anything, even as Kim Yeo-ju, aware that she would spend countless days in pain, continued to watch.
They say it's the calm before the storm, but for these people, there was no such thing as a calm before the storm.
It was just another storm before the storm.
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박지민
"Please, my lady...please..."
김여주
"This is my first time, and my whole life. And you're telling me not to go? Sorry, I don't think I can do that, Jimin."
김여주
"No, I can't."