Destiny

Chapter 32

Mina sighs into her pillow. She can't recall the number of times they took turns exploring each other's body. She aches all over, but in a delicious, sated way. She's sore, but it's wonderful, and the images from earlier that rushes to her sends a flush rise to her skin.

It's late, if she has to go by the darkness lingering outside their window. 

It's snowing.

She vaguely remembers Nayeon- even thinking of her name causes the tip of her ears to turn red, makes her want to bury her face in the pillow bashfully- telling her that the girls would be home soon, she needs to get dressed. She's mumbled no in her sleep and dragged her into her arms again.

She remembers gentle touches lingering in places that makes her tingle, as strong hands slips clothes on her naked body. She remembers pulling the hand around her waist and snuggling into a warm chest.

What she doesn't remember is Nayeon slipping out of the bed. She stretches languidly and touches the purple marks below her collarbone.  A mark she wants permanently etched on her skin to let the world know she belongs to Im Nayeon. She isn't ready to see them fade but knows they would with time.

Time.

Her face whitens.

Tick. Tick.

The sound that she's pushed to the background suddenly comes alive in the foreground, pounds loudly against her eardrums, deafening them.

21:30 The clock reads.

She throws her legs to the side. Runs. Because exactly in ten minutes Nayeon is going to step out of the door. To never come back.

She runs. Crashes to the doorframe, ignores the pain that shoots through her arm. Picks herself up. Breaks into a jog again. She stops when she sees Nayeon by the door. The older girl smiles when her eyes find her.

Her smile- it's warm, like a mug of coffee on a rainy day, connects them like the bridge of a song, it's fireworks in the way it sends sparks shooting through her body.

"Mina." She knows she should concentrate, but Nayeon's tone is so shy, so endearing, she is adorable in the way she nervously scratches the back of her neck with her hand, and Mina finds herself distracted momentarily.

"Where are you going?" Jihyo's stern voice snaps her back to attention.

Nayeon throws her boots on, picks up her car keys and says, "I'll be back in ten minutes."

The reality comes crashing down upon her.

This night is everything she possesses. Nayeon has to live and she'll give anything for the twinkle in her eyes to shine for a long time.

"You won't." She sobs.

The older girl pauses, says with amusement, "I will."

"Please don't go." Her voice is shaky. Tears begins to well in her eyes, panic rises in her chest, in the way she breathes and Nayeon is immediately affected.

She comes to her side, runs a soothing hand up and down her back. "Hey, it's okay calm down."

"No." She cries, chokes back the tears, and pulls away from her. "It's not okay. Promise me you won't go."

Confusion clouds the eyes that's looking at her with love. "But why?"

This one forbids you to reveal the conversation you had with me. If you do so, you will cease to exist.

A dreary voice echoes in her ears.

Mina looks at Nayeon. Destiny can't win. Destiny can't steal the life in those eyes, it can't snatch the love that makes that chest breathe.

If she tells Nayeon the reason she'll cease to exist, but the older girl will get to live.

If she doesn't, she'll get to live but Nayeon won't.

The choice is easy to make. She loves Nayeon. She needs to live. She deserves to live.

She takes Nayeon's hands, interlock their fingers and squeezes them gently. She expects to feel a panic at choosing death willingly, but she only feels relief. "If you step out the door, you will die."

It starts as a low tremor. Then it grows bigger and bigger until she feels Nayeon's hand slipping out of her grasp.

A mist of white surrounds her, her hands searches for Nayeon aimlessly and comes up with nothing. She aches physically as the dorm, the girls, the timeline, falls away like pieces of puzzles.

Her heart beats at a bludgeoning pace.

She's not sure how long she stands in the void, with only a faint tick of the clock to keep her company.

The cloaked figure comes through the mist.

Silence.

"You gave up your life to make her live." Their voice is composed, "You went against destiny."

She nods.

Silence. More silence. 

She feels herself beginning to disappear a little by little into the mist.

Soon, the mist engulfs and embraces her completely.