Destiny

Chapter 9

"I swear to god, if you don't stop moving I'm going to kick your arse." Jeongyeon covers the mic with a hand and warns Nayeon in an irritated voice, a fake smile plastered across her face.

Mina jerks her eyes to the pair of them.

Nayeon is practically vibrating with energy that has her bouncing on her seat since the conference started.

"Ouch." She hears Nayeon whine quietly, reaching down and rubbing her abused feet. "What the fuck bro?"

"Told you." Jeongyeon shrugs unapologetically.

Mina takes the older girl's hand in hers and rubs circles on it until she feels her hyperactive energy calming down a little.

"I ate too many marshmallows." Nayeon sheepishly offers an explanation.

A fond smile dances over Mina's full lips. "I know." She squeezes the older girl's hands that fully envelopes hers under the table. "I made them for you."

She doesn't let go off her hand for the rest of the conference.

Mina only has three weeks left until the doom day.

The clock is ticking fast but she hasn't made any progress on finding the mysterious man or woman, whoever that has the older girl's heart.

A faint hint of irritation gnaws at her heart.

"I love you." Nayeon tells Kookeu, who snuggles by her feet.

"You're a coward Nayeon-chan." Mina mutters under her breath. The annoyance has grown and multiplied over the day.

Nayeon quirks up an eyebrow, probably wondering why she is picking up an argument with her.

It's not like they never fight, they have their fair share of arguments from time to time and she is always the one who snaps at the older girl first, because Nayeon is too playful and doesn't take her seriously like the time they went on a vlive and everyone said they didn't hear her speak. For some reason, she snapped at Nayeon that day.

"Who saved you from the spider in the bathroom Minaya?" Nayeon gives her a cheeky grin, and she finds her irritation grow because the older girl is smiling when she's dreading the end of three weeks, hurting every second because she'll never get to see this stupid smile again after that.

Nayeon is here, within her arms reach, alive and tangible, playful and happy, like nothing can touch her, blissfully unaware of her fate. She's the one who's going to have to learn to live in a world without her again.

She knows that it's illogical to get angry at Nayeon for the destiny that's been written for her but she still does.

"You know what, I'm done talking to you." She snaps. "Go for some stupid karaoke or cafe you love to go alone. Who cares about the people you leave behind?!!"

Chaeyoung and Momo stop slurping their noodles and share awkward glances between themselves.

Tzuyu and Jeongyeon pretend they haven't seen anything.

Dahyun doesn't care, she knows their arguments never last.

Sana and Jihyo look at Nayeon accusingly.

Mina stomps to her room, leaving her pot of noodles untouched, shutting the door behind her fully well aware of the twinkle she sees in the dark eyes that follows her as she struts out of the living room.

Only death managed to take that twinkle away.

She cries herself to sleep that night.

"Minaya." She feels a gentle touch on her shoulder. "Minari." Fingers softly brush the blonde hairs that sticking to her face. "Wake up."

Mina stirs from her sleep, her eyes fluttering open. "Nayeon-chan?" She creases her brows in confusion.

She slowly wills herself to wake up as the image before her coming to focus. She sees Nayeon sitting at the edge of her bed with a bowl of ramen soup in her hand.

"You get hungry in the middle of the night if you go to bed on an empty stomach." Nayeon doesn't wait for her to reply.

She pulls her to a sitting position on the bed, and begins to feed her.

Mina doesn't have any fight left in her, besides it's not like she's mad at Nayeon, she's mad at the situation. She's mad at things that are beyond their control.

"I'm heading out to the corner store." Nayeon tells her as she puts the chopsticks back into the empty bowl and passes her a glass of water to wash down the food in her throat. It's a thoughtful and sweet gesture it makes Mina ache a little bit more. "I have a late night snack craving."

"I'll go with you." Mina puts her feet down on the floor.

Nayeon glances at her softly.  "Are you not sleepy?"

Mina gets up to meet her eye level. "I am." She links their hands together. "But I want to go with you."

Her heart becomes a puddle when she sees the brilliant smile she gets in return.

"Thank you."

That night, Mina sleeps unaware of how Nayeon is the one staring at her when she sleeps.