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wonyui · 1 year

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Carnival Games

SUMMARY Feeling bored and incomplete, Minji decides to skip studying for once and focus on the fun plans that her friends had made at the carnival. Not being the best shooter out there, she tries to win the teddy bear that had been left to complete her odd teddy collection just for it to end in complete failure. Almost giving up entirely and leaving with a frown, she finds herself watching the pro shooter beside her go for the teddy that she originally wanted.

Pairings: Kim!Minji x F!Reader

Genre: carnival setting, strangers to lovers(not really) au, romance, comedy-romance

A/N: THANK YOU FOR THE REBLOGS AND SUPPORT ON THE SERIES MASTERLIST THINGY MAJIGGY!! 💕 Here's to that, and cheers to 100+ followers 🤭💓

- silent add: I finished this when I was sleep deprived, so please lmk if there's any incorrect spelling 💔

WORD COUNT 3.8k

"Bro, I suck at these games, but how do you manage to not knock down at least one bottle?" Hanni half questioned and complained, causing Danielle to nudge her in order to shut her up.

Minji stared at her friends like a menace, even more terrifying when Haerin stared at them for no absolute reason. The sound of the toyish gun machine was the only thing she continued to hear, along with the disappointed sighs, for every time she missed a plastic bottle.

"Should we get more snacks? We could get a soft cold drink for her," Danielle whispered with care in her voice, but since she was a terrible whisperer, it caused Minji's hold on the toy gun to become stronger. "Yeah.. we are definitely going to the snack and drink bar. Minji, we'll be just over there if you decide to give up, okay?"

"Make sure there's ice in it, I can't stand drinks without ice in them!" Haerin looked over to her shoulders as she continued to make her way over to their new destination, her cute yet annoying stare creeping Minji out to the point Danielle had to stop the younger girl from staring.

It took over more than Minji's monthly allowance to finally realize that she needed to stop. Otherwise, she wouldn't have enough money to buy more stuff that intrigued her. Before walking over to join her friends who watched her while making conversations, a stranger took the spot next to her. The strong visuals of the stranger next to her gave her the sudden gay panic attack. Seriously, who knew it'd be a blissful night when all of a sudden you see a cute stranger? It's definitely a win for Minji.

"It's a struggle for beginners." The girl happily hummed, almost as though she was talking to Minji.

"Uh.." Minji awkwardly looked back to her friends, wondering if she should reply(if it was even for her).

Hanni shot a thumbsup, giving it as a sign for Minji to reply even though she didn't know the exact reason for why Minji was staring at them with a questionable look in the first place.

Danielle watched the whole thing, sending a frown at her fellow Australian friend. "Do you even know why she looked over at us?"

"Hey," Hanni shrugged, "anything is good when it comes to a pretty girl."

Hyein, the only 14 year old there, snorted. Acting as though she didn't beg her mom to join them in the first place. Perks come when your mom is a social person. Plus, they were all basically her older sisters, so it was a win-win situation(only for Hyein).

"Unless she told her to stop staring because it creeped her out!" Hyein stated proudly, giggling to herself afterward.

"Right, staring is weird." Haerin added quietly, causing the three of them to look at her to see if she was even joking.

Back to Minji. Iternally gay screaming out of her mind Minji. The awkward silence between her and the cute stranger in front of her made her suffocate. For some reason, she wanted to leave, but it'd also mean missing a chance on at least starting a conversation with you. Yeah, blame it on her half introverted when meeting strangers and half extroverted when cursing at her friends personality. It's truly a blessing for her.

"I'm thinking I should aim for the one on the right top and get 10 more points," you spoke out your thoughts, "but I already have more points needed for the prize I want and it wouldn't really matter anyways unless I want to impress the pretty girl besides me and get one for her too. Which one do you think I should go with?"

Minjo turned red the moment you finished your sentence—or question. She didn't really know, but all that matters was the fact that you had basically called her pretty. It was also smooth along the lines.

"Uhh.. I'd say pick your choice? I don't know." Shs quickly answered, biting her lips and cringing mentally for sounding too dry for her own liking.

"Pretty girl, it is." You smiled, aiming perfectly for the toy bottle.

The worker clapped, feeling proud of himself for setting up such an 'easy' game, blind to the fact that half the people who paid to play didn't really win because the bottles were far and not everyone had great vision. Also, because some had horrible control over their aiming.

"Could I get the teddy bear on the top, right?" You kindly asked as he sent a proud thumbs up. "Thanks."

Minji's eyes stayed on you, waiting for you to look back at her to start another conversation. You eventually did, holding onto the teddy bear that the worker had given you.

"Do you still want this?" The shock on her face made you giggle, turning her even more redder than before.

Nodding her head shamelessy, not because her collection was about to be complete but because you had gifted it to her with your own efforts, made everything about the teddy bear feel more special.

"SHE'S SINGLE BY THE WAY!" A loud voice coming over the snacks and drinks bar made you jump a little.

Judging from the way Minji glared at the pretty girl who proudly wore her bangs, they must have been close friends. The passerbys continued to walk after hearing the loud shout. It was gonna be a memorable moment to you, but for the shy girl in front of you, it was definitely gonna be an embarrassing memory for her.

"I'm Minji, by the way," you smiled and nodded, waiting for her to finish so you could introduce yourself. "And I'm very thankful for the uh.. teddy bear. Am I supposed to give something in return? Because.. I'd really love to, so I don't have to feel as though I'm in debt."

"Y/N, and if anything.. I don't really need anything in return!"

"No, no, I insist."

"No, it's fine!"

"No, like, I want you to ask for something in return. Don't make me feel guilty."

"Oh! Then would it be fine if I took some of your time? It'll be short since you clearly have friends over there waiting to hang with you." Minji looked over at her friends who immediately sent another thumbsup, mouthing the words "we don't mind!'' or "we don't care, just leave."

"It's a yes. Take as much time even. I think they'd be more happy that a stranger took me out of their sight.."

You chuckled. "Alright! Where to?"

"I'm so fucki— oh. Is it alright if I swear?" Minji asked all of a sudden, waiting for you to finish tossing the ring so you could answer.

"You're cute," you laughed, finding her question funny. "Yeah, I sometimes swear, so it's nothing new to my ears."

Minji flushed, feeling her ears turn red.

Ah.. maybe hanging out with a fourteen year old 24/7 got to me.

The odd feeling of someone staring at her made Minji look around to find the source, making eye contact with one of her friends all of a sudden. The glare that she sent wasn't obviously enough to scare them away.

"What are you doing?!" Minji mouthed.

Hanni grinned. Danielle looked away. Haerin continued staring, although her eyes had a glint of mischief. Hyein looked more busy trying to count the many licks it took in order to finish her questionably big lollipop.

"We came to spy on you guys for our own entertainment!" Hanni mouthed back.

"Something wrong?" You asked, noticing how badly frightened Minji looked.

Making sure to use her whole figure in order to block the other girls out from your view, Minji sent a soft smile. "I think we've had too much ring tossing! Why don't we try bean bag tossing?" It was too fast that you couldn't utter out a single word before Minji could drag you by the hand, making sure the other girls couldn't catch up.

"Should we tell her that we happened to find her by coincidence and played along with it?" Danielle asked, feeling worried. Mostly for you.

"Nah," Hanni grinned, "didn't you see the way they held hands? I'd say it was a successful plan."

"And we voted Haerin the most devious.." Danielle trailed off.

Haerin gasped in disbelief, not believing the fact that her friends would do such a thing. "Hey!— I may stare all of a sudden for no reason, but it's because her reactions are always funny. I don't have the brain to think of something like this."

"Woah dude, congrats." Hanni clapped all of a sudden.

"Your first words throughout the whole night! Maybe getting a girlfriend next is on the list?"

"I despise you." Danielle giggled at Haerin's reply, not noticing the lingering glance that Haerin sent before looking elsewhere the moment her brain woke up in realization.

Inhaling for air, you thanked Minji for giving the bottle of water. It was enough coming from her for making you run more miles than you expected.

"I'm sorry, I guess I was just excited to throw bean bags." Minji immediately apologized, looking for any signs of her friends.

Gathering enough air to talk, you pointed to where the bean bag tossing was actually located. "That's nice, but bean bag tossing is over there.." With a huff of annoyance at herself, Minji looked elsewhere to find any fun things the two of you could do together. "Hey.. this might sound crazy but are you down to use your legs paddle something? Well—it's not really paddling, but we're using our feets so basically, it is." "You mean you wanna hop on those boat paddlers after running a whole 6 minute run?" "I'm down if you're down." "Honestly that's crazy, but because you're down, I'm down."

"This was a bad idea." You undeniably admitted the truth.

Minji tried to reply, but she had to catch her breath. After regaining her energy(well, half of it, but nobody was gonna point that out), she sinked into her seat and sighed.

"Well, it was worth the amount of oxygen I needed," She too, admitted. "But hey, we have the best view right now."

If the two of you weren't facing the wrong direction, it would have been the best. Right now, it was a huge wall filled with horrible yet funny art. It looked like junk.

"Are we looking at the same thing?"

"Are we? I believe the view is pretty from my point of view." Finally realizing what she meant, you turned to make eye contact with the latter who wore a coy smile on her face. "So we definitely weren't looking at the same thing."

"I guess the cute shyness disappeared?" You grinned, feeling quite content at the moment. Also, the redness that crept up under your cheeks felt too overwhelming to control.

"Well," Minji clicked her tongue with a geeky smile forming afterward. "I definitely wouldn't pass on a great opportunity like this. Would you?"

Shaking your head at her question, it brought her a great amount of happiness. "Definitely not."

"You sound kinda wayyyy too experienced with that reply. Are you sure I wasn't the only girl you've flirted with?" She joked, feeling comfortable to joke with you this time.

It was a suggestive joke, too, giving you the opportunity to reply back with something more funny. Or maybe a pick-up line at that—she hoped.

"I'm not sure," you pretended to ponder, "was I the only girl you've flirted with too?"

Minji simply shrugged. "Never in my life. In fact, I think you raised my standards."

"Well then, to be honest," you shyly spoke this time, "I've never actually shot my shot and vice versa. It was always questionably a given whenever a person would come up and ask for my phone number."

"Maybe it's cause they don't have toy guns just laying around, waiting for someone to use them?" Minji joked, getting nudged by you. "You know what I mean!"

"Yeah, you wanted my phone number."

"Don't get too confident.."

"You never denied it."

"And I didn't admit it!"

It could go on for long until Minji averted her eyes elsewhere, looking at her friends who waved at her, looking so small, yet she could see that they clearly wanted something. "I think we might need to go back on land.."

"What is it?" The annoyed girl grumbled, glaring at her friends(mostly at Hanni).

"Yeah, we get it. We interrupted your date, but we wanted to meet her too!" Hanni spoke out for the rest of them.

You nervous smiled, feeling a bit small in their presence. Minji noticed this, of course, taking your hand and interlocking it with hers. It was somewhat a habit of hers whenever she'd notice a friend was feeling a bit uncomfortable—which was rare. Something about her holding hands with you felt new—it made her feel things that she had never felt before.

"Okay, we'll pretend not to notice that!" Danielle positively smiled.

Before greeting you and introducing herself, she made sure to nudge Haerin. It was the only option she had to stop her from what it seemed like rudely staring at you.

"The names Danielle! That's Hanni, Haerin, and this one.. she doesn't need to be intro—" Before the poor girl who radiated sunshine energy could even finish, she had been interrupted. "Yeah, I'm Hyein. Nice to meet you!"

"Hyein, you're too young to involve yourself in this conversation!" Danielle reminded.

You raised your eyebrows, wondering what she meant by too young. Hell, the latter looked to be the same age as the one who seemed to have a bad case of staring for no absolute reason(which you didn't mind).

"She's fourteen.." Danielle sighed, feeling disappointed.

"Oh.." Sounding a little rude there, you paused. "I meant, oh! She looks mature! I'm in like—shock."

"Really? I sort of get that all the time." Hyein proudly grinned.

"Mhm! And the names Y/N." They all nodded in sync as soon as you introduced yourself.

"Pretty name!"

"For a pretty girl, that's for sure."

"Hey now."

"Relax, I'm not gonna steal her?"

"That's not what I mean- Ugh."

An idea was what Danielle wanted. Specifically something that could allow all 6 of you to hang out. Minji frowned, noticing the happy grin that presented on the younger latter's face. "Anyone up for bean bag tossing? Losers do whatever the winners want."

"I WANT A REMATCH!" Hanni complained.

Hyein side-eyed the older girl, feeling happy about the win that she didn't participate in because it was mostly you doing all the work of tossing the bean bags in. It felt truly horrific knowing that there was probably nothing you were good at.

"I honestly should have been in your team. A free win would have been good for me." Minji sighed.

"Be for real," the annoying Australian spoke, causing Minji to glare at her. "We know that's not the real reason." Minji continued to glare, "playfully" pushing the younger girl away so she wouldn't have the chance to say more stupid things.

"It's already eight pm?" Danielle looked at her watch, pouting at the thought of having less time to spend with you. Though it couldn't beat the disappointed stare that Minji gave, knowing that it'd be too upfront to suddenly ask for your phone number.

"We still have the bet going on, right?" You asked, looking at Minji mostly.

"Ah!" It had hit Danielle in realization at the sudden question. "Yeah, gosh. I almost forgot!"

"I'm cold. Hanni, give me your hoodie."

"Um. No?"

"The bet. Loser. Give."

Feeling defenless and giving up at that moment, Hanni started to mutter curse words under her breath while taking off her jacket. Handing over her jacket, Hyein smiled in victory before putting it in on. Danielle watched the whole thing unwrap, looking over at Haerin with a mischievous grin.

"Haerin? Are you afraid of heights?" Haerin immediately shook her head, hoping Danielle would ask her to join her on the ferris wheel.

"Great! How about you ride the ferris wheel alone for three minutes?"

A frown fell on her face, along with a big sigh. Danielle was a difficult person when it came to those who liked her. Usually, it was a blessing for Haerin, but she was now annoyed. Minji snickered, finding the situation funny. Haerin lazily made her way over to the ferris wheel, cursing the universe for ruining her enjoyment.

"I wanna join her." you stated, hoping Minji would take the hint.

The butterflies in her stomach disappeared, feeling more like a pit all of a sudden. "Oh. Well, you could if you want to.." Her disappointment sounded way too obvious, causing you to chuckle, "Well you obviously didn't get the hint. I meant I want to look at a better VIEW this time," you emphasized the word 'view'.

Minji unnoticably gulped, nodding quickly so her chances of being alone with you on a ferris wheel on wouldn't go to waste. "Yes. Please."

"What are you guys doing here? I thought the winner was supposed to order the losers around?" Haerin genuinely asked, wondering if the two of you had gotten fooled.

Minji flushed, feeling both nervous and giddy that she couldn't answer the cat-like latters questions. You, on the other hand, took the initiative to answer her question, almost sounding as though you weren't internally panicking in your mind.

"We're actually gonna ride the ferris wheel together."

Haerin bitterly smiled, blaming Danielle for her stupidity. Now, she has to basically third-wheel and sit all by herself. 'Good going, Danielle. Look what you did, dense idiot.' was the only thing that echoed in Haerin's head.

"It's so pretty.." You stared at the cities that looked small from your view.

Minji had been admiring the view, too, not looking at you this time. "Pretty good, I guess. I've seen better."

"Really? You're seriously a picky one, aren't you?" You raised your brows jokingly.

"Hey— you don't know exactly what I've seen in my life, but it's pretty admirable," Minji jokingly huffed, sounding way too proud of her own accomplished

"I'm sure it has been," you added, pretending to sound uninterested, "I'm sure it has."

The silence grew, keeping it peaceful. Minji had more to say, but she wanted you to have a great time enjoying yourself. The silence grew even more, this time a little awkward than it was before. Thinking of how to start her sentence, Minji decided to go big or go home.

"Listen I-"

"Hey so-"

The cut-offs made by each other quickly turned into laughter. "I'll go first since I'm an impatient one." Minji quickly added in between her laughs. You agreed, waiting for her to continue. "Listen, I had a great time with you and everything. It was truly enjoyable," Minji softly smiled genuinely.

It was mutual. You grew fond of the girl. You wished that the time didn't fly past, but repeated as though it was meant to be. You wanted more time spent with her, but it'd be too weird to admit in front of you.

"Thank you.. for this time. I also enjoyed it," You paused, wanting to add more, "your friends were also funny!"

It grew quiet once again. This time, the two of you had nothing to worry about, letting the silence overtake the atmosphere. Maybe it was the fact that you felt a little sentimental that you couldn't even look Minji in the eye. Just how different would have things been if you saw how fond she looked while staring at you? Would you have done the same? It filled her with questions that felt almost too possible to answer nor ignore. It was on border of being either too annoying or exciting to feel.

"I-" Before she could even finish, the ferris wheel started moving again, showing that the ride was about to finish. "Huh?" You questioned, waiting for her to finish. Minji fake smiled, "it's nothing, I was just gonna spit out a fun fact."

You slowly nodded, wondering if there was more to it than just a fun fact. Oddly enough, she looked more disappointed than you did at the moment.

"So, how did the two of you enjoy your time?" Haerin asked bitterly, remembering how it was just more than 3 minutes to herself. At least it was good enough to question her whole existence.

"Great!"

"Yeah.."

You who sounded enthusiastic looked over at Minji, who looked down. You wanted to say more but a familiar face stopped you from doing so, realizing that it was your older brother coming to pick you up. Also, the friends that you had accidentally ditched just to hang out with Minji, though they didn't seem to mind because they looked like they also had a great time.

"Ah, my brother is here.. this is where I take my leave." This time, it was you who had bitterly smiled.

The glare that your brother had sent for straying too far sent chills down your spine, causing you to bow and apologize before running off to where he was. All of it was too sudden for Minji to even bid you goodbye. Hell, she was frozen, trying to process things.

"Nice going!" Hanni nudged, disappointed that you had left without leaving your number or anything.

There were too many emotions she was feeling at the moment. You turned back, waving one more time with a smile as Minji finally returned it. Your figure leaving further and further away from her was all she needed to realize that you had already disappeared.

"I'm such a coward. Please tell me you angels had gotten her number!" Minji basically begged, feeling like she could cry at the given moment when her friends shook their heads(except Hyein).

Minji faced the youngest one, hope laced in her tone. "Hyein?"

The youngest pretended to shake her head, that is, until Minji's head began to hang low in disappointment. "I'm joking. Oh my god, take a joke."

"Pause. Are you saying what I'm thinking?" Minji asked, a sudden adrenaline rush coursing through her.

"Yes, I asked for it earlier, knowing you'd be a full-on coward. You're welcome." Hyein rolled her eyes, giving the note.

Taking the note from Hyein's hand, Minji's stoic expression melted into a soft smile. Although she wasn't brave enough to ask, she felt happy that her friends(mostly Hyein) had her back. Who knew a handwritten note was what made her night the most besides spending time with you? Minji read the note all over again as if you included words in it.

'xxx-xxx-xxx don't spam text/call please TT joking do it :)'

"Hyein.. I'm definitely buying you whatever you want. You're finishing your barbie doll collection tomorrow, okay?" Minji patted the younger latter on the back.

Hyein smiled while the others frowned in envy, wanting the older girl to buy something for them, too. "Hey! What about us?" They asked in unison. Minji stared at the other girls in distaste, ignoring them before pulling Hyein under her arms, planning to spoil her with candy and drinks for the rest of the night. Who knew an ex-stranger would be the reason for Minji's sudden giddiness?

"Shoot. I forgot the teddy bear at the duck paddling thingy majiggys! We gotta go back!" Minji yelled, running a little later on as the others joined in.

Luckily enough, she was smart enough to hide it under the seats. Otherwise, it would have been a total loss for her and a big treasure find for whoever found it.

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