Archive of Our Own

This was not how Nayeon expected her senior year to begin. This year was supposed to be perfect. She had had it all planned out since her first year here at the prestigious J.Y. Preparatory Academy. She was supposed to be in the locker room getting ready for practice right now, not stuck in some dust-filled dreary classroom tucked in the back corner of the main building’s second floor. 

Yet, here she is. She tugs on the bottom hem of her skirt, playing with the fabric to keep her mind occupied. She’d already finished the stupid discipline assignment given to her within the first twenty minutes of this hour-long detention session. It wasn’t that hard to fill up an entire page with all of the regrets she has for her ‘wrongful and immature actions’ when a) she can skip each line on the paper and b) she doesn’t care enough to actually self reflect. 

The whole thing was ridiculous anyway. She shouldn’t have even gotten in trouble! How was she supposed to know you weren’t supposed to have your phone out during an exam even if you already turned your own test in. She even showed Mr. Park that she was simply messaging a friend, rather than looking up anything remotely academic. Like Nayeon would even try to cheat. She went into that exam knowing she’d make a solid C+ and was 100% okay with that outcome. Mr. Park wasn’t having it though, so Nayeon left fifth period without her cell phone (which had promptly been confiscated and stored in Mr. Park’s desk) and a detention slip in her hand.

The old analog clock on the wall at the front of the room ticks loudly. Each tiny tick chipping away at Nayeon’s sanity further. She looks at the time, half past four. Only thirty minutes left until she can finally leave this god forsaken room. Practice has started already. By the time she gets out of here and runs down to the lockerroom to change, only about fifteen minutes of practice will be left. Maybe twenty if she really books it. 

Looks like she’ll have to though. Jihyo said it would be fine without her just for today but it would look really bad for their squad’s co-captain to miss practice right now, what with regionals being only a month and a half away. And Nayeon prides herself on being the best damn co-captain this school’s cheer team has ever had.

Cheerleading isn’t just a simple pastime for Nayeon, no it’s so much more than that. It’s an outlet for her, she can express herself when she’s out there shining on the mat. The camaraderie is also a huge plus. Jihyo, her co-captain, is one of her closest friends. Together, her and Jihyo are their leaders, and she can’t just skip out on leading them even if it’s just for one day.

Agitated Nayeon goes back to chewing on the end of her pencil. It’s gross, she knows, but she can’t have gum right now and she needs something to keep her mouth occupied. Otherwise she’s certain she’d lose control of it and scream out of boredom. She really can’t wait to get out of here and get down to the gym. 

The only thing is that she’ll be there at practice, waiting to greet Nayeon with one of her signature fake smiles. Nayeon grimaces just thinking about it. That girl was the whole damn reason Nayeon was even stuck in detention in the first place. If it hadn’t been for her Nayeon wouldn’t have even been angrily texting Momo in the first place.

Nayeon could not stand her one bit—the new girl who thought it was okay to show up out of nowhere last week and turn Nayeon’s life upside down. The girl who somehow found a way to worm her way into every aspect of Nayeon’s life. The girl with the annoyingly bright smile and unnaturally well kept long chestnut brown hair (seriously though Nayeon’s never seen one tiny strand out of place on that girl’s head, how is that even possible?).

Knock, knock. Sounds on the door of the classroom. Mr. Park, who had been busy sleeping over his unanswered sudoku book, half-heartedly waves someone in.

Speak of the devil ...

There she is—the girl that Nayeon cannot (and will never ever) stand—Sana Minatozaki.

Or as Nayeon likes to call her: the newly found bane of her existence.

She’s standing there with her head peeking in through the doorway, looking all doe-eyed and innocent. Sana hesitantly enters the room, her athletic shorts revealing her long toned legs as she waltzes over to their teacher’s desk. Nayeon rolls her eyes at the way the muscles in her calves flex as she moves. How obnoxious.

“Excuse me?” Sana says, her sugary-sweet voice making Nayeon cringe. “Sorry to interrupt Mr. Park, but our coach told me to bring you this note for Nayeon. She said it was important.”

Nayeon has to control herself from letting out a sigh. Our coach. Like you have a right to say that Minatozaki. The audacity of this girl.

Mr. Park pushes his lopsided glasses up his nose as he takes the note from Sana’s hands. “I see.” He leans forward squinting at the yellow slip of paper.

“Im! You’re free to go!” His voice barks out causing Nayeon to jump in her chair.

Her right eyebrow raises skeptically. She was supposed to be here for the full hour after all. “Me?” 

Mr. Park gestures around the room. “You’re the only Im in here, aren't you?”

Nayeon glances back at the empty chairs surrounding her, unamused. Sarcasm really is only funny when she was the one delivering it. “Yes.”

The man reaches in his desk, fumbling around a bit before pulling Nayeon’s phone out and extending it towards her. “Well then come up here, get your phone and leave. Unless you’d rather stay in detention?”

“No, Mr. Park.” Nayeon replies, quickly bolting out of her seat and gathering her book bag and belongings. She races towards the front, grabbing for her phone with haste.

Mr. Park’s grip stays strong on the device though, his eyes narrowing as he stares Nayeon down. “I take it I won’t have any more problems like this with you this semester, now will I, Miss Im?”

Nayeon shakes her head with force. Like hell she’d want to be stuck in here again.

“Good. Now go on. It seems you all have a ‘cheer emergency’, whatever that is supposed to mean.” He waves both girls off. It seems he was just as eager to get out of there as Nayeon.

With her precious phone now back in hand and all is right within her world (for the most part) Nayeon pushes her shoulders back and walks out the classroom with her head held high. She glances at the time on her phone. It’s now only 4:40 so she’ll have at least thirty minutes of precious practice time. Hopefully her stunt group will be able to get a few drills in, outside of their regular run-throughs of the routine. Dahyun had been having some trouble with the tricks she had to do in the air and Nayeon wanted to help her solidify them as soon as possible.

She’s busy running through the drills they’ll do in their head when a hand taps her shoulder, stopping Nayeon in her tracks. She turns her head slowly, already knowing who it was but hoping that maybe she was wrong by some off chance.

“I bet you’re glad I got you out of there, huh? Seemed pretty boring.” Sana asks, staring at Nayeon expectantly. Her round brown eyes somehow find a way to gleam even under the crappy fluorescent school lights, much to Nayeon’s chagrin.

Why, oh why, did she have to be the one to come get me?

“You weren't the one who got me out of there. Coach did.” Nayeon replies dryly and continues walking. She hopes Sana will get the idea that she really isn’t in the mood to talk to her right now (or ever).

She doesn’t.

Running to catch up to Nayeon, Sana bounces happily matching their paces. “Actually it was me!”

Nayeon spares her a skeptical glance.

“Really! Well, me and Jihyo,” Sana lets out a light giggle that infuriates Nayeon. “She was complaining about you not being at practice so I gave her the idea to write the note. She forged Coach’s signature and had me run it down here.”

Jihyo. Of course it was Jihyo who sent you to get me. Bet she had a kick out of that. Nayeon reminds herself to give her friend an earful the next time they’re alone.

They’re almost to the gym now. Nayeon puts some more pep in her step once they exit the main building and the gym’s silhouette comes into sight. Just a couple more seconds, then she’ll be away from you-know-who for those few peaceful minutes as she gets dressed in the locker room.

Thankfully, Sana chooses not to say anything else for the remainder of the walk. Instead she just happily skips alongside Nayeon, her long ponytail bouncing annoyingly with each step. She gives Nayeon a grin as they approach the gym’s entrance, opening the door and motioning for Nayeon to go inside. It takes every ounce of will power Nayeon has in her body not to roll her eyes at that. 

She instead grips her hands into a fist so hard that her knuckles go white, and shoots a bitter grin back at Sana before pushing her way through.

“See ya on the mat, Cap!” Sana’s eerily cheery voice calls out at Nayeon who’s already halfway to the locker rooms.

Nayeon ignores it and instead takes a deep breath in and deep breath out. She opens the door to the locker room finally relaxing her tense shoulders for the first time since Sana started talking to her.

Even though there were only 30 minutes left of their practice, Nayeon could tell this was gonna feel like the longest one yet.

“Alright, great job today guys!” Nayeon calls out to the rest of the squad. Nayeon surveys the crowd in front of her. A little end-of-practice huddle has formed around Jihyo and her, the members of the squad sprawled out in a circle on the ground in front of them. Most are gulping from their water bottles as expected, cheer practice is a bitch of a cardio workout and their coach, Sunmi, made them do five full run-throughs of their routine today. Nayeon’s heart is beating rapidly in her ribcage and she can feel a line of sweat running down her back. The nice hot water from the showers is calling her name right now but first she needs to handle business.

“We did pretty well on nailing our stunts today. Dahyun, really proud of you and our stunt group for finally getting down that trick.” Nayeon announces giving the tiny blonde flyer a thumbs up.

Nayeon grins at the proud beaming smile that slips onto Dahyun’s face. Dahyun was a bit of a dark horse on their squad. Prior to high school she had no cheering experience, but she was quick on her feet and loved to face a challenge. When she joined the squad as a freshman last year Nayeon took it upon herself to personally take the newbie under her wing and it’s been extremely heart warming seeing her grow into her potential.

The smile falls from Nayeon’s face though when she sees freaking Sana Minatozaki go out of her way to crawl over to Dahyun and give her a celebratory hug. Nayeon can feel the vein on her forehead start to pop out when they don’t part from one another after the hug finishes. Instead Sana keeps her arms latched onto the younger and Dahyun leans back against Sana’s chest in a peaceful sitting position. 

When did those two become so buddy-buddy?

It’s extremely irritating the way Sana managed to waltz in and disrupt their squad dynamic in a matter of two weeks. Everyone is already wrapped around her perfectly manicured finger and pisses Nayeon off to no end. They all buy into the sweet and cheery facade Sana’s putting on, but Nayeon doesn’t buy it one bit. No one is that happy all the time. It makes no fucking sense to be that nice to people without any ulterior motives.

Jihyo’s voice brings Nayeon out of her thoughts. “Right but just remember we still need to work on drills over the weekend. Our first competition is only six weeks away and we can’t start slacking yet. We’ll have to start going over stand cheers with our newbies since basketball season is coming up, so not as much practice time will be devoted to competition. Got it?”

The squad nods in unison.

Nayeon claps her hands together, “Alright well that’s it for today then. Go hit the showers. Also remember to enjoy your weekend. Back to practice on Monday!” 

As the girls begin filing out, Nayeon grabs a hold of Jihyo’s arm preventing her from leaving the gym. 

“What?” Jihyo turns to find a visibly irritated Nayeon looking at her. The elder’s eyebrows set in a firm crease on her forehead.

“You know exactly what.” Nayeon spits out. She tosses her head in the direction of the locker rooms where the rest of the squad disappeared to. “Sending Little Miss Sunshine to come get me. That was really funny, Hyo.”

Jihyo rolls her eyes, pushing Nayeon’s hand off. She walks over to the bleachers and picks up her and Nayeon’s water bottles from where they had been sitting. She takes a big gulp before sitting down. With a shrug she speaks, “I thought you two could use some bonding time.”

“The last thing I need to do is bond with Sana.” Nayeon deadpans, sitting next to Jihyo. She takes her water bottle from the other and nods in thanks; Nayeon may be irritated with her roommate right now but she’s not an asshole.

“I still don’t understand why you have such a big grudge against her. She’s really sweet and funny. I’m sure if you’d just talk to her you’d see that.”

It’s Nayeon’s turn to roll her eyes. “Yeah she’s super sweet. It was really sweet of her using her daddy’s money to worm her way onto the squad this late in the semester.”

Everyone knew that in order to be on the cheer squad you had to have gone through the audition process which always happened at the end of the previous school year. Nayeon went through it, Jihyo went through, even their coach Sunmi went through it when she was on the squad in high school. It was a part of the team’s rules, and it was the way things had always been. However, though, it seems that if you transfer schools in the middle of the semester and your  family donates a large enough sum of cash to the school then “emergency try-outs” will be held for you. 

Originally, Sana wasn’t even going to be required to try out. She just showed up at their cheer practice last Monday after Sunmi announced a new member would be joining the squad. Nayeon had put her foot down, though. There was no way in hell she was just going to let someone waltz in onto her perfect squad. They hadn’t even known what kind of skills the girl possessed, she could’ve had two left feet for all they knew. It took a lot of arguing and a meeting with their school’s principal, but Nayeon was able to convince them that Sana needed to try out in order to be put on the squad.

Jihyo puts an arm around Nayeon’s shoulder. “Oh c’mon Nayeon. You know she’s a great asset to have on the team. She’s our strongest tumbler now.” 

As much as it hurts Nayeon to admit it, Jihyo is right. Sana proved at her tryouts that she definitely had the skills to be on the team. Nayeon’s jaw had dropped when she saw the other’s tumbling pass. The way her body glided gracefully through the air was really something else. Plus her jumps were phenomenal, the perks of being extremely flexible.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Sana was allowed on the squad due to unfair manipulation. Any other person would’ve been told to wait until the next year, but since her father’s some big hot shot she got a free pass. It just wasn’t fair and rubbed Nayeon the wrong way.

Nayeon’s shoulders slump with a sigh. “Still. I just don’t think it’s right. Plus she’s annoying. The way she struts around with her gorgeous silky hair and her fucking smile that’s so bright it could blind someone. I just want to rub that fucking smile right off her face sometimes.” 

“Sounds to me like you’d rather rub something else on her.” Jihyo smirks at the aghast look on Nayeon’s face.

Nayeon punches Jihyo’s shoulder lightly, “What the actual hell are you talking about?” She can’t believe what she just heard. The fact Jihyo would even toy with the idea that she was interested in Sana was utterly ridiculous.

“I’m talking about the fact that you stare at her constantly during practice. Don’t think I didn’t see you check out her ass during drills today.” 

Nayeon can feel flames licking at her face. Jihyo had to be messing with her right now. “I was just checking her form. We can’t have her dropping you on the ground in the middle of our routine.” 

“Yeah, checking her form. Got it. You know I’m captain too, and it’s my stunt group. If anyone should be checking her form it’s me.” Jihyo nods sarcastically, earning her another slap on the arm. “Well anyways for the sake of the squad you need to learn to get along with her. She’s a part of the team now.”

Nayeon nods solemnly, Jihyo’s right again. Despite her being a thorn in Nayeon’s side, Sana is a part of their squad. Their squad that Nayeon’s supposed to lead. “I know, I know. But that doesn’t mean I have to like her, or talk to her outside of cheer related matters. So please for the love of god Hyo don’t pull something like you did today again.” 

“I won’t if you don’t get sent to detention again. What the hell was that anyways Nayeon, we’re supposed to be good examples.”

Detention, like all of Nayeon’s problems lately, was of course Sana’s fault. Right before her Literature exam began one of her best friends, Momo, decided to spring it on Nayeon that she was ditching their usual Friday night movie plans in order to hang out with her new friend ‘Sana’. Well, ditching might not be the right term. Momo said she invited Sana to come over tonight to her dorm room to join them, but it was a betrayal nonetheless. Momo had listened to Nayeon complain about Sana’s privileged ass since the whole emergency tryout debacle. She knew how Nayeon felt about Sana, yet she decided to go and invite her to their special friend ritual. How was Nayeon expected not to yell at Momo through text message for that?

“I got caught texting during an exam. Momo invited Sana to movie night tonight.”

Jihyo scoffs, “Really? That was a dire enough situation to force you to text during an exam. C’mon use your brain Im.”

“I had already turned my exam in!” Nayeon screams in her defense. “I didn’t think that Mr. Park would care!”

Jihyo just shakes her head disappointedly.

“What? We can’t all know the rules, Ms. Student Council President.” Nayeon waves her hands teasingly at Jihyo.

“Student Council President or not, you’d think you’d know as simple a rule as don’t get your damn phone out during an exam.” With a sigh Jihyo looks at the clock on the gym wall. It’s electric display reads 6:02. Their little conversation took quite a while, the showers must be all empty by now. 

She reaches over and pats Nayeon’s thigh. “Come on. Let’s go. Hopefully the girls didn’t use up all the hot water by now.” 

Nayeon lets Jihyo pull her up off of the bench. The fatigue from practice had finally hit her. “I might just go to dorms and shower. I’m gonna just eat dinner and head to bed early.”

Jihyo pouts as they begin to walk to the gym’s exit, “What? You’re not going to movie night?”

Nayeon shoots her a look that says ‘really?’. “Not if she’s coming.” 

“But Jeongie picked a really good movie for tonight. You need to come, it’ll be fun!”

“Did Jeongyeon pick it, or did you tell her what to choose?” Nayeon asks pointedly. Jeongyeon, Momo’s roommate and Jihyo’s girlfriend of two years, was whipped for Jihyo like no other. They’re a good couple, though it did make Nayeon a little sick to her stomach with how sweet they can be with each other. It was surprising at first seeing Jeongyeon all doe-eyed for Jihyo; when she had first transferred to their school she had been a loner that even Nayeon was intimidated to approach. But it seemed that Jeongyeon was unable to resist Jihyo’s confident and bubbly charms.

“Ok, I might’ve told her I wanted to watch Coco again,”Jihyo admits. “That’s besides the point! It’s a good movie. Plus, I invited Mina to come tonight. It’ll be funny to see Momo squirm.”

Now that was a tempting offer. Mina Myoui, the quiet and beautiful student council Secretary, had been the object of Momo’s affections for years now. Nayeon had a sneaky suspicion that Mina had a soft spot for Momo just as much as Momo did for her, but Momo refuses to believe it anytime Nayeon brings it up. Ever since their Sophomore year she’d been pining for the girl who sat silently in the corner of the class that would never seem to give her the time of day. Not that Momo even had the confidence to speak more than five words to her. Mina just wasn’t really that talkative in general; for the longest time she only spoke to Jihyo and the other members of the student council. It took Nayeon quite some time to finally crack Mina’s defensive wall, but now she’ll hang out with their friend group from time to time. 

And when she did, it was absolutely hilarious to watch Momo attempt to not act like a big dumb gay idiot. From what Nayeon’s gathered over the past few years, trying not to act like a big dumb gay idiot only makes Momo into an even dumber and gayer idiot. Movie night tonight would probably consist of her sweating profusely and trying to keep her eyes on the screen and off Mina.

As much as seeing Momo squirm would entertain Nayeon, she’s going to have to pass. They pause their steps and Nayeon sighs. “No I’m sure. You tell me how that goes, though.”

“Alright, you’ll be missed. I’ll bring you some pizza back if we order any,” Jihyo assures.

Nayeon thanks her, a smile etching it’s way onto her face. Her bad attitude from earlier is finally starting to wear off as she begins to plan the rest of her night. She’ll get a head start on some studying before finishing off some scholarship applications for next year. She knows she’ll most likely be offered a cheer scholarship for university, but she still wanted to cover all her bases. After that she’ll probably waste a few hours on the web and give her mom a call before passing out for the night. It’d be the nice peaceful night she deserves after this week of hell.

As they walk through the exit, Nayeons mood drops instantly. Across the hallway exiting from the locker rooms is freaking Sana, her now wet hair looped up in a messy bun atop her head that still manages to look amazing. Nayeon’s fist clenches. She hopes she can dash out towards the dorms without Sana noticing them. 

“Oh hey guys! Nice practice today. Glad we finally got a hang on the pyramid tricks.” 

Nayeon’s luck seems to be abysmal.

Jihyo ignores Nayeon’s obvious unease and drags them over towards the object of her loathing. “Yeah, me too. It’ll be nice to not have to worry about it at practice next week when we start going over game day cheers.”

Sana gives them that same irritatingly bright smile as always. She nods like a hyperactive dog, walking over and getting much too close for Nayeon’s comfort. She has a loose tank top on now, no need to change back into their school’s uniform since classes are out. The shirt’s neck is painstakingly low, Nayeon notes, the girl’s cleavage peeking out a bit underneath. (Not that Nayeon’s looking or anything.)

“I’m excited to start learning them! Anyways you guys probably want to shower now, so I’ll let you go. Momo told me I would be seeing you at movie night, so see you guys then! ”

“No.” Nayeon blurts out. She backtracks at the confused look on Sana’s face and clarifies, “Jihyo’s going, I’m not.”

For the first time since Nayeon met her, Sana's face falls. Her smile dims and disappears. Nayeon thinks that her face is much more annoying without the smile, the pitiful frown causing her stomach to twist in annoyance. 

“Oh, well that sucks. I was really looking forward to spending some time with you Nayeon.”

Why? Nayeon doesn’t understand how Sana isn’t getting the picture that Nayeon doesn’t like her. She hasn’t been necessarily nice to the new girl after all. 

Apparently Nayeon had voiced her question without even realizing it because Sana answers. “Because I want to get to know you. You...interest me Nayeon.”

Sana’s frown quirks up into a tiny smirk then. For some reason, the twisting in Nayeon’s gut doesn’t disappear, it only tightens as a shiver runs down her spine. She wants to ask Sana ‘What the hell was that supposed to mean’ but her lips refused to move.

How annoying.

Jihyo clears her throat, “Uh, okay I’m gonna go hit the showers then.” She glances between the two, giving Nayeon a knowing look. “See you two later.”

Sana’s usual demeanor returns, her bright and cheerful smile gleaming. “Bye Jihyo! See you tonight!”

Nayeon’s brain chooses to finally begin working again after Jihyo’s presence is gone. She straightens and is able to form a frown on her face, directing it towards Sana. 

Jihyo’s words about Sana being a part of their team now echoe through her head. Even if Sana makes Nayeon feel...whatever the way that just was, she needs to get along with her for the team’s sake. 

She manages to bite out a farewell for the girl. “Goodbye, Sana. See you at practice next week.” 

Sana smiles at her, her pink lips forming into a sickly sweet grin. There’s a glint in her honey brown eyes as she reaches forward and gives Nayeon’s shoulder a reassuring tap. “Yes you will, Cap. You definitely will.” 

With a final wave and a wink, Sana exits, leaving a bewildered Nayeon behind.

Nayeon splutters, touching her shoulder where there’s now a ghostly tingle of Sana’s fingertips. 

Wha-what? Who does she think she is smiling at me like that and touching me like we're friends?

Nayeon’s heart is beating in her chest again, and it’s not from physical exertion this time. She doesn’t know what the cause is. Irritation, maybe? Whatever it was, it was definitely Sana’s fault. 

Nayeon grunts as she stomps into the locker room to grab her belongings. Her annoyance level at an all time high now. She thought she didn’t like Sana before, but now she’s certain now that Sana is definitely some demon sent to make her life a living hell. It wasn’t normal for someone to have this much of an effect on Nayeon. 

It was confusing and infuriating. As she storms to the dorms, eager to get a shower and distract herself from the annoying jitters in her stomach, Nayeon finds herself wishing Sana never even transferred to their school in the first place.

The cafeteria is already teeming with students by the time Nayeon and Momo finally make their way to lunch. It’s a sea of blue and white plaid pleated skirts swishing about back and forth as the lively crowd goes on about their business. Nayeon’s used to the chaos though, lunchtime at J.Y. Prep is a common scene for her after four years, and it doesn’t take long for her to spot their friends among the mess. 

Jihyo and Jeongyeon are sitting together in their usual spot, tucked away in the corner near the long wall of windows at the far side of the cafeteria. Jihyo’s engaged in a conversation with someone that Nayeon can’t quite make out, the table seated in front of them blocking her view. Whoever it is, Jeongyeon seems unimpressed or at least disinterested with them; her head resting in her chin as she stares out the window absentmindedly. With her unbuttoned dress shirt and scuffed up converse she’d look out of place next to the prim and proper Jihyo, but the way their hands are clasped tightly together underneath the table is a sure sign that Jeongyeon is exactly where she belongs.

“C’mon, Momo! Jeongyeon and Jihyo are already at the table.” Nayeon and Momo had just spent the majority of the last hour trying to stay awake during their Physics class, so the two were in need of socializing and some brain food. Nayeon grabs onto Momo’s hand and quickly drags her towards the canteen where the two grab their meals before heading over to the table.

When they’re about a few yards from the table Momo suddenly stops in her tracks. It’s comical really, the way her back stiffens as straight as a board and her mouth falls open. She’s staring straight at their lunch table, her eyes blown open wide as saucers.

“Oh god.” Her voice comes out a whimper.

Nayeon knows what the cause for this reaction is before she even turns to look at the table. There’s only one thing that can render Momo a speechless fool. Well not a thing exactly, rather a person that holds this kind of power over Momo. 

Mina Myoui is sitting at the table, her elegant profile now visible through the cracks in the crowd of students. She sits in front of Jihyo with a pleasant yet calm smile on her face. It’s a surprise to see her there. She never really sits with their group often. Choosing often to spend her lunch time in the giant library on the second floor instead. 

Mina’s always been sort of an enigma to Nayeon. The girl’s quiet and keeps to herself most of the time, only ever venturing out upon Jihyo’s request—the two are pretty close given that they’re the same age and on the student council. Nayeon would consider Mina a friend now but it’s taken her so damn long to get there. When Mina first started attending J.Y. Prep it was hard for Nayeon to even get a peep out of her.

It’s good, though, that Mina isn’t really that talkative. Well at least for Momo it is, seeing as how she can barely get a full sentence out when Mina’s around much less carry a full blown conversation. Nayeon’s been pushing Momo to at least try to talk to Mina more often. It’s getting old and just plain painful to see her pining over the younger girl for this long, especially when Nayeon is ninety-nine percent certain that Mina likes Momo too. It seems that today is not the day for that, though, judging by the look of amazement and terror painted over Momo’s face.

Nayeon coughs and shoves Momo with her shoulder, shaking her head. “You know she doesn’t bite, right? Why don’t you just go talk to her today?”

Momo shakes her head rapidly, her mouth still hanging open. “I can’t just talk to her Nayeon. It’s not that easy. Especially not after Friday night. She probably hates me.” 

Right. Friday night. Rather than sit for two plus hours in the presence of you know who, Nayeon spent her Friday night studying and browsing YouTube for hours. Time well spent if you ask her. This did mean she missed out on one of Momo’s signature Mina meltdowns, though. 

She still got the full rundown on what happened when Momo called her at 2 AM screaming about how she had managed to “to be Boo Boo the Fool for the millionth time”. Apparently by the grace of God Momo was able to say a proper greeting to Mina when she arrived and even managed to stay calm when the younger girl sat down next to her on the floor, but shit hit the fan eventually. Mina had asked for some of the popcorn everyone had been sharing and Momo was just a little too enthusiastic to pass the bowl to Mina. She lost her grip and the bowl promptly tipped over, spilling buttery kernels all over Mina’s lap much to Momo’s horror.

While it was embarrassing, Nayeon is certain that Momo is overthinking things again. Mina wasn’t the kind of person to get mad over things like that. Jihyo had even said that Mina told Momo it was okay and was happy to help with the clean up, but Momo was much too mortified to pay attention to that detail.

Nayeon chuckles and moves her lunch tray to one arm so she can loop the other around Momo’s shoulders. She pats her arm comfortingly, “There, there. I’m sure she doesn’t hate you.”

Momo pouts. “How can you be sure?”

“She wouldn’t be sitting at our lunch table if that was the case, now would she?”

Momo pauses to consider this for a moment, then gives a defeated nod. “Well I guess that’s true.”

Nayeon gives Momo a reassuring smile. For being one of their school’s star athletes, you would think Momo would have a bit more confidence. However, the power and dominance Momo demonstrates on the basketball court just doesn’t seem to carry over into her personal life.

With a sigh they resume their trek to the lunch table. They make it a few more yards, right to where they’re almost standing in front of the table when it’s Nayeon’s turn to stop in her tracks. Mina had dropped something on the ground and when she bent over to pick it up, an ungodly sight was revealed unto Nayeon. 

Mina wasn’t the only newcomer to their table today it seems.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

Beside Mina, hidden from Nayeon’s previous view, sits none other than Sana Freaking Minatozaki. Her long luscious brown locks are tied up again, this time with a pretty navy blue bow perched atop her head. The hairstyle allows for the smooth line of her jaw to be displayed, and when she suddenly gives a laugh at something Jihyo says the apples of her cheeks tense up giving her the appearance of an adorable squirrel.

Nayeon feels her stomach drop at the sight.

How unbearable.

Before Nayeon can voice her disdain to Momo, Jihyo spots the two of them and waves. 

“There you are. Where have you guys been?”

It takes a few seconds for the gears in Nayeon’s brain to begin working again. When she does eventually remember how to compute the words from her brain to her mouth her voice is stilted and deadpan. “Uh, physics. Dr. Choi had asked us to stay back for a bit.”

“Aww that blows.” A voice that grates Nayeon’s nerves responds. It seems that Sana has taken it upon herself to reply to Nayeon for some reason. Her bright pink lips are formed into a pout as she shifts to look towards Nayeon. “Lunch is almost over.”

Nayeon can’t fathom the reason as to why this girl keeps insisting on trying to be friendly with her. She’s definitely been anything but nice to Sana. What does Nayeon have to do to get Sana to leave her alone? Wear a big neon sign that says “I DON’T LIKE YOU”? 

That’s an impractical thought, so she just settles on glaring for now. “Yeah. It does blow.” She tacks on a subtle eye roll for good measure.

Sana seems unphased by Nayeon’s hostility. The same stupidly bright smile stays put on her face.

Jihyo however seems unpleased with Nayeon’s response. She frowns and tilts her head to the side. 

Really? She mouths.

Nayeon just shrugs and moves to round the table. She plops her tray down in the space next to Jeongyeon which is the furthest from Sana she can sit. Jihyo only said Nayeon needed to get along with Sana for the team’s sake, not her own. And they definitely aren’t at practice right now. Nayeon’s only going to have to pretend to get along with Sana when they’re on the mat and only when they’re on the mat.

Momo lets out an awkward laugh, drawing Nayeon’s attention away from Jihyo’s judging stares. The poor girl is stiff as a board standing awkwardly at the front of the table—her grip knuckle white on the edges of her lunch tray as she sways bashfully.

Sana coughs quietly and scoots over on the bench opening up a space in between herself and Mina. She taps the bench lightly, each of the three raps on the wood chipping away at Nayeon’s sanity just that much more. Sana’s brown eyes flit between Momo’s nervous expression and Mina’s oblivious face. Her pink lips twitch up into a smirk and she gives Momo a wink. “Here Momo, sit.”

Excuse me? Nayeon scoffs internally. Who does Sana think she is acting like good ol’ pals with Momo? She’s just sitting here, laughing and teasing the other like they’ve been friends forever. Nayeon’s skin crawls as she watches Momo nod and go to sit down at Sana’s request. Sana gives Momo’s arm a friendly pat, a bit too friendly for someone she’s only known for two weeks. The two share a look, Sana’s sickly sweet smile on her face as she nods towards Mina. Her hand peaks up from under the table, just out of Mina’s sight but visible for Momo (and Nayeon) to see her thumb poke out encouragingly.

“Uh, Mina…” Momo timidly peers out from under her bangs at the girl next to her.

“Hmm?” Mina, who had resumed eating her lunch, pauses her movements. A piece of lettuce falls down to her plate as she whips her head in Momo’s direction. Her eyes are wide and attentive as she waits for Momo to continue.

Momo tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and looks away from Mina’s gaze. “Um, why are you sitting here?”

Her eyes widen at the downtrodden look that settles over Mina’s features at her words. She jumps, shaking her hands at Mina haptically, her tray shaking on the table from the force causing some soup to slosh onto the table. 

“Oh, no! Not that I don’t want you sitting here. No, I do want you sitting here. I’d be okay if you sat here all the time. I’m not telling you to sit here all the time, though, not if you don’t want to. I mean I was talking to Sana too, not just you Mina. And-”

“I think what Momo meant to ask is ‘why are we here today’, right?” Sana butts in, saving Momo from rambling herself to death. She leans over and looks at Mina, “Why don’t you tell her why we’re eating with them today, Minari?”

If Nayeon was already tensed up before, her spine is now straight as a board at that. Disregarding Sana saving Momo from further embarrassment (which Nayeon has to admit she’s thankful to Sana for), Nayeon cannot believe what she just heard. Minari? Oh, Sana’s really pushing it now with her bold attempts at forcing friendship. Using Mina’s nickname so brazenly like that, when it took Nayeon months of awkward small talk to even get Mina to say anything more than “hi” or “that’s nice” to her. No, not on Nayeon’s watch. 

Like Mina would let someone she barely knows refer to her with that amount of familiarity. She’s probably incredibly uncomfortable with Sana right now. Nayeon leans back, waiting for Mina to quietly ask Sana to call her by her real name in that familiar polite yet assertive manner of hers.

But it never happens.

Instead Mina nods at Sana, giving the girl an equally bright smile in return. 

“Oh, yeah. After we left your room Friday night, Jihyo suggested we come eat with you guys today.” Mina ducks her head and laughs softly, a light blush dusting across her cheeks. She looks up at Momo, “I hope that’s okay with you?”

Momo mumbles out some sort of firm reassurance that it is in fact ‘completely okay’ with her, but the sound turns to a slight buzzing noise as blood rushes through Nayeon’s head.

People describe her as sort of a hot head when she gets angry, but that can’t be any less accurate for how Nayeon feels right now. No, as she clenches her jaw she feels frost settle over her veins as her blood runs icy cold. She’s frozen with anger as she stares on in horror as Sana continues to act like she belongs here, like she’s supposed to be an integrated fixture woven into the tapestry of Nayeon’s life. 

She doesn’t though. She’s a stray thread dangling off from the fabric, begging to be torn away. That is something that Nayeon is sure of.

Nayeon has worked diligently to build the perfect world around her. And she had finally accomplished just that. It was her senior year, the year she could finally see the fruits of her burden bloom. She had her perfect life, she went to the perfect school, she had her perfect cheer squad, and while she was friendly with mostly everyone she had a perfect close knit group of friends she could trust and confide in.

Just like that, though, all of that was ripped out from her hands. Sana waltzed in and decided to steal Nayeon’s happiness, Nayeon’s life, away from her.

Fine, she could deal with accidentally ending up in detention because of Sana and yes she guessed she could handle Sana joining the cheer squad since she did have some undeniable talent. But what she can’t handle, what she draws the line at, is Sana thinking she can take Nayeon’s friends from her.

Nayeon hates change. She loathes it, always has ever since her father decided to run away from home with his secretary seven years ago. She tries her hardest to plan everything out in her life so she won’t have to face unexpected disruptions.

And right now, sitting across from her is the biggest disruption she’s ever had the displeasure to meet.

Nayeon slams her hands on the table, pushing herself up. Conversation comes to a halt as all five girls whip their heads to stare at her. Out of all the pairs of eyes laid on her, Nayeon somehow ends up staring into Sana’s. The look of surprise and confusion dancing around in her honey brown irises only causes the pit of Nayeon’s stomach to sharply twist. 

Jeongyeon reaches up and places a hand on Naeyon’s arm tentatively. She raises a concerned brow, “You good, Nabongs?”

With a slight shake of her head Nayeon replies, her gaze never straying from Sana. “No. No, I’m not.”

Quickly she gathers her half-eaten lunch and hops over the bench. Her stomach isn’t full yet but she can’t stand sitting at this table with Sana for one more second. She has some granola bars in her locker anyways, she’ll just grab those before her next class.

Nayeon clears her throat, “I’m not feeling that great right now. My stomach’s hurting. I think I’m gonna’ go to the nurse.”

“Do you want one of us to go with you?” Jihyo asks. She sounds concerned but her tone suggests that she knows Nayeon’s stomach isn’t what’s bothering her right now.

Nayeon shakes her head at her friend. Right now she just wants to be alone, alone with her thoughts. A small part of her realizes it’s a little ridiculous how much she’s letting Sana’s mere existence get under her skin but she can’t control it. Sana’s existence is threatening in some way. This girl—this frustratingly beautiful girl—is lighting up her fight or flight response, and right now it’s telling Nayeon to run the heck away from this confusing and infuriating situation.

So without sparing Sana or her friends another glance Nayeon runs away. She runs away and out of the cafeteria so she can be as far from Sana as possible. She knows she’ll have to see Sana later that day, they have practice after all. But for now Nayeon allows herself to run from Sana and her provoking eyes.

“Hey Nabongs!” Momo’s excited voice is the first thing that greets Nayeon as she walks out of her last class for the day. Nayeon startles, almost dropping her book bag in the process.

It’s not unusual at all for Momo to be standing expectantly outside of Nayeon’s statistics class at the end of the day. Momo’s last class for the day is right next door and since basketball season is drawing near Momo also has to head to the gym for practice, so it makes sense for them to head that way together. However, Momo wasn’t always this chipper at the end of the day. Like most students, the standard 3PM drowsiness has usually taken Momo by this time and basketball practice serves as her pick me up. 

Now though the girl is wired up and practically vibrating with excitement. Her pearly whites are on full display, a wide smile stretched across her face making her blushing cheeks plump up. Her knuckles have gone white where she’s holding onto her backpack straps and her already large eyes have grown about five sizes as they gaze at Nayeon expectantly.

Either something extremely amazing has happened to her or she’s finally cracked.

Nayeon’s pretty sure it’s the first but one can never be too sure.

“You good? You like you just snorted fifty Pixy Stix.” Nayeon comments as she exits the class. 

Momo quickly joins her, matching their strides. “I’m really good. Better than good. I’m fucking amazing Nayeon!”

“Care to tell me why?”

Momo bumps Nayeon’s shoulder lightly, “Well you would know if you hadn’t been ignoring my messages all afternoon. I’ve been trying to text you since you left lunch! By the way, you feel any better?”

“Oh, yeah,” Nayeon hums. She bites her lip not really prepared with an excuse for her radio silence the past couple of hours. She didn’t even end up going to the nurse, instead she spent the last twenty minutes of lunch out in the school’s atrium alone. She feels a lot better now, a lot more calm than she had during lunch. A little bit of quiet time alone with her thoughts was just what she had needed. 

She still hasn’t made sense of her extreme reaction towards Sana’s presence, yet. Why the pretty brunette gets under her skin so much is still an anomaly to Nayeon. Hopefully she’ll figure out exactly what it is about Sana that makes her stomach twist and turn but for now she’s decided to just try and ignore the girl’s presence everywhere outside of cheer. What she doesn’t pay attention to can’t bother her, right?

Nayeon shrugs, “Sorry, I haven’t checked my phone in a while.” 

It’s not a lie, the device is buried somewhere deep in the confines of her bag and she hasn’t given it a thought since earlier in the day. She doesn’t feel like talking about herself right now though, she’s had enough self introspection for the day. She’s much more interested in what has Momo so wound up.

Momo’s voice is practically a light and airy squeal when she starts speaking again. “Well, if you would have checked your phone you’d know that I have a date this weekend!”

Nayeon raises an eyebrow at the news. “Seriously? With Mina?” She doesn’t want to sound too taken aback but she can’t help it. It’s not that she doesn’t think Momo could pull someone like Mina. No, in fact, she thinks the two would match each other quite well if they could get past the hurdle of their debilitating shyness.

“Yes!” Momo chirps happily but then her smile immediately crumbles a bit. She bites on the end of her lip as they start walking down the school’s main staircase. “Well, not exactly a date date.” 

“Ok?” Nayeon waits for further elaboration.

“It’s more of a group date actually. At lunch I was talking about how some of the girls on the team talked about going pedal boating last month during free time. Mina had said it sounded like fun, so I kinda asked if she wanted to go this weekend.”

“That doesn’t sound like a group date to me.”

“You didn’t let me finish.” Momo sighs, “Before she could answer I kinda freaked you know, because I realized what I had asked. I mean why would she want to go anywhere with me alone, y’know?”

“Don’t talk about yourself like that, Momo,” Nayeon complains. 

“No, no I’m just being realistic. We haven’t hung out together alone before, we haven’t really even talked all that much either. So I just think that being alone right now won’t be a great idea. She probably won’t be comfortable and I know I’d be a fucking mess.”

Nayeon nods.“Well, yeah I guess that’s right. So what, did you ask Jihyo and Jeongyeon to go with you?”

“Yeah, but not just them. Sana also is gonna tag along with us.”

Nayeon bristles at Sana’s name. Well there goes her plan for ignoring the girl.

Momo doesn’t seem to notice Nayeon’s distaste and continues. “That’s why I was gonna’ ask you to come along too.”

“You cannot be serious right now,” Nayeon deadpans.

“What? I’d feel bad if she felt left out. Being a fifth wheel wouldn’t be very fun. Can’t you empathize with that.” 

Nayeon would like to do anything but empathize with Sana Minatozaki at the moment. “Isn’t it not really a date though, how would she be a fifth wheel?”

“It’s pedal boating, Nayeon.”

“And?”

“They don’t make pedal boats for three.”

“I’m pretty sure they do.”

“Chaeyoung and Tzuyu told me that when they went last time they only offered it as a couples deal. So there’s only ones made for two.”

Nayeon groans. Well fuck. 

“Why does Sana have to go anyways? Or can’t you get someone else to tag along with you guys. I can’t be your only friend.”

“She was sitting there at lunch when we planned it plus she’s new here. I’m not just gonna leave her out like that.” Momo rolls her eyes, “I don’t understand what your issue with her is anyways. She’s really nice.”

At this point Nayeon isn’t quite sure what her issue with Sana is either. More than one major thing it feels like every little thing Sana does just ticks away at Nayeon’s sanity. “I don’t know she just... bothers me.”

“She bothers you?”

“Yes, she bothers me,” Nayeon huffs out. “I don’t like how she just thinks because she’s new here she can march around and get whatever she wants.” 

Momo scrunches her eyebrows. “That doesn’t really sound like Sana to me.”

“You’ve only known her for a little over two weeks now, how could you know what she’s like?”

Momo stops in her tracks. They’ve exited the main building now and are almost halfway to the gym. The late afternoon breeze pushes Momo’s bangs around as she stares at Nayeon dead on. “And you’ve barely talked to her. How can you know what she’s like?”

The sun feels suffocating as it beats down on Nayeon’s face. She’s frozen in place now. Not quite sure what to do or say in response.

Momo brings up a good point. Nayeon’s really only talked to Sana only a handful of times since she started attending their school. And the interactions they’ve had can’t even constitute as conversations per say, just an exchanging of words (and glares on Nayeon’s part).

In all honesty Nayeon doesn’t even know much about Sana, other than that she’s a Junior and has been in cheerleading for a while. (Naeyon does know some other things, like how Sana’s dainty hands are relatively smaller in length than hers or that her eyes turn a beautiful golden honey color when the light hits them a certain way. Those things aren’t really that important or insightful, though.)

“I...don’t know, Momo. I don’t know how, but I just know that she irks me. Whenever she’s around I feel… weird. ”

“Weird? Weird how?”

Nayeon shrugs with a sigh. “Just weird, okay? Everything she does irritates me and my stomach starts to get twisted up. The way she smiles, the way she laughs, even her fucking hair makes me angry. It’s so fucking shiny and full, how is that even naturally possible? She has to have extensions on! And don’t even get me started on how she walks. She’s not much taller than me but her legs look so damn long when she walks. What’s up with that?”

When Nayeon finishes speaking she’s a little out of breath. She can feel her heart beating quickly in her chest and pulsing at her temples. If she had been frozen with anger at lunch she was boiling with frustration right now. The sun beating down on them isn’t helping all that much either.

Nayeon turns her gaze back to Momo and finds her friend staring at her with a smirk. 

“What?” She asks in defence, the quirk on Momo’s lips suddenly making her self conscious.

“Oh, nothing. I just think I know what it is about Sana that bothers you so much.”

“Really? What?”

“You’re attracted to her, Nayeon.”

Not this again. Nayeon already had to deal with Jihyo spewing bullshit about her liking Sana, and now Momo’s saying it too. What did she do in her past life to deserve this?

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I don’t think it is. Everyone responds to emotions differently. I become a blubbering mess around people I like and you,” Momo reaches forward and places a finger on Nayeon’s chest, “you, get angry at them. It honestly makes so much sense to me now.”

“That’s not true!” Nayeon argues. She doesn’t act like that around people she likes. Not that Nayeon really has much experience with that to begin with. She’s never really been in a serious relationship, the small flings she has every now and then don’t count. Especially, when they’re based more on carnal desire than the emotional significance of the encounter. Love and romance just weren’t something she’d been interested in, she had more important stuff like school and cheer to worry about. 

“I’m pretty sure it is. You’re just in denial.” Momo tuts at Nayeon and pats her head.

Nayeon shoves the patronizing hand away. “I am not in denial.”

“And now you’re in denial of being in denial. That’s denialception .” 

“That’s not even a fucking word, Hirai.”

“It is now. I just made it up.”

Nayeon pushes her bag back up on her shoulders and begins stomping away from Momo. She doesn’t have time to deal with her friend’s nonsense. They both have practice to get to anyways. 

“Wait, wait, wait.” Momo calls out jogging to catch up. “Ok I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you mad. I was just saying what it looks like to me.”

“Well, you’re wrong Momo. I don’t know what’s going on with Sana and me but it isn’t that. ” Nayeon can’t even bring herself to say the words aloud. Feelings for Sana? She shudders at the thought.

“Ok, whatever you say. Well anyways, the offer’s still open for you to join us Saturday. Sana even asked if you were going to come.”

“Well you’ll just have to break it to her that I won’t be joining you.” 

“Or you can tell her right now.” Momo points to where Sana is strolling into the gym a few yards ahead of them.

Shit. Right Nayeon has to get through practice with Sana again. Great.

“I’ll just leave it to you or Hyo. I don’t plan on talking to Sana unless I have to for cheer related reasons.”

“Alright, alright.” Momo relents, knowing she won’t be able to convince Nayeon otherwise. 

The two finally reach the gym doors. The ones Sana entered through just half a minute ago. Nayeon grabs Momo’s wrist to look at her watch. 3:15 it reads. Fifteen minutes left until she needs to be on the mat. Fifteen minutes until she has to deal with Sana again.

With a sigh Nayeon opens the doors and follows Momo inside.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. To the right.”

Nayeon can hear Jihyo’s steady counts as she reaches down towards her foot, but she’s not really paying much attention to them. They’re more like a faint constant background noise, allowing her to space out as she goes through the motions of stretching. She’s done this a million times already anyways—their team’s stretching routine is something they do after warming up for every practice—so Nayeon doesn’t have to put much thought into it. 

Which is a good thing because her mind (and eyes) are too busy wandering around at the moment.

She hasn’t been able to shake Momo’s words since her friend said them twenty minutes ago.  

‘You’re attracted to her, Nayeon.’

It was the most ridiculous accusation ever. Just as ridiculous as when Jihyo tried to say the same thing last week. There is no way in heaven, hell, or whatever anyone wants to believe that Nayeon is interested in Sana.

Nayeon’s eyes drift over towards said girl’s form to glower at her. There are twenty-two members on their squad including the most recent introduction to the team, Sana. When they stretch they divide into five rows of four, with Jihyo and Nayeon at the front in a row of their own so they can lead the others. Sana—the ever eager go-getter—has taken it upon herself to sit in the first row directly in front of Jihyo and Nayeon. So, it does not take long for Nayeon’s eyes to find Sana.

Her brown hair is still tied up in a ponytail, but the bow from earlier is gone now and a lavender scrunchie sits in its place. A matching headband keeps Sana’s bangs out of her face as she leans over her right leg. Her hands easily wrap around her foot, her torso bending over and touching the top of her leg without much effort. 

Sana’s absurdly flexible, which should be a good thing for their team, but it’s just one more thing to get under Nayeon’s skin. Not that Nayeon isn’t flexible herself, it’s just a skill she’s had to work toward. Unlike Sana who it seems to be second nature for. Nayeon sneers as she draws the line of her gaze down Sana’s leg, starting from the top of her solid thigh teetering down to where her slim fingers grasp the bottom of her heels. Her eyes move back up towards Sana’s face, where she sees the girl has her lips puckered as she stares off into space without a care. Nayeon groans at Sana’s nonchalance, feeling the burn in her own thigh as she leans into the stretch.

Suddenly Nayeon feels a kick on her left foot. She jumps turning her head in the direction. Jihyo’s staring at her eyes wide as she continues counting aloud.

“...three, four, five,” Jihyo’s eyes motion towards her where her arms are stretched out in front of her, now over the other leg. 

Shit. Nayeon quickly moves to stretch her left side, nodding at Jihyo in thanks. She scans the room to see if any of the other girl’s had noticed her carelessness. Luckily no one had, the rest of the team focused on their own stretching. 

Jihyo just shakes her head, a light chuckle evident in her voice as she continues counting. Nayeon flushes. There’s no way Jihyo isn’t going to bring that up to her after practice. Especially since that hadn’t been the first time Nayeon found herself spacing out during practice today. 

At the beginning of practice Sunmi always makes the girls run a few laps around the perimeter of the gym as a warm-up. Which normally isn’t that difficult of a task for Nayeon. Today however, while Momo’s words tumbled around inside her head Nayeon found herself staring at Sana as she jogged on the other side of the gym. At one point Sana had bent down to tie her shoelaces and Nayeon—paying more attention to the way Sana’s calf muscles flexed as she leaned down than the path in front of her—tripped and fell against the laminated hardwood floor. It had only taken Nayeon a second to get back up and shake off Jihyo’s teasing laughs as she ran by, but Nayeon’s ego had been bruised enough that day already for the pain to last the entire rest of the warm-up session. It also didn’t help that Sana looked at her with worry filling her stupid warm brown eyes. She can handle Jihyo’s teasing jeers easily, but Sana’s pity? That’s something she doesn’t know how nor wants to handle. 

Nayeon bites at the inside of her cheek as they move on to lunges, forcing her eyes not to travel back to where Sana is. Her plan for ignoring Sana’s existence seems to be failing and obsessing over what Momo said to her earlier isn’t helping it one bit. 

Nayeon is not even completely sure why she’s letting it affect her to this extent. It probably has something to do with what happened in the cafeteria earlier. She had already been frustrated and worried beforehand trying to understand her feelings for Sana. It’s obvious to Nayeon that Sana definitely is having an effect on her life, and Momo’s suggestion only serves to confuse her even more.

Is it possible? Could Nayeon actually not be angry at Sana for ruining her life, but instead be angered that Sana isn’t a part of it? The flames licking at the pit of her stomach when she sees Sana galavant around the school’s halls—could they actually be attraction and not disgust like she had thought?

No, no, no. It couldn’t be. It can’t be.

Nayeon despises romance. She’s not interested in it, therefore she can’t be interested in anyone. Other people, like her friends, are allowed to dabble with it but Nayeon could never. She has too many things to worry about, she has herself to worry about. Nothing good ever comes out of relationships anyways. A relationship, much like a story, always has a beginning and an end. Sure, the things in between may seem fun and can offer a bit of solace when you look back on the memories. But in the end they do just become that—memories. 

So having any kind of romantic feelings for Sana are out of the picture, Nayeon’s stomach twists just thinking about it. That still doesn’t explain why she reacts so intensely to Sana. 

‘Sounds to me like you’d rather rub something else on her.’ Jihyo’s words from last week replay in her head. Unlike Momo, who implied that Nayeon had feelings for Sana, Jihyo had simply stated that Nayeon wanted to get in her pants. 

Nayeon plays around with the possibility in her head. It’s not like she isn’t interested in girls, she’s had encounters with them before (the all-girls-school-sapphic cliche really lives up to its name). And it’s also not like Nayeon can’t admit that Sana’s attractive, anyone with sight could see that easily. 

So, maybe all of Nayeon’s inner turmoil is just unreleased sexual tension. Maybe she can’t get Sana out of her system just yet cause she’d like to get into her shorts first. 

It’s a much more plausible option, but not one she has any more time to think about. Jihyo clapped her hands together, indicating that stretches are over. It’s Nayeon’s turn to take over practice and she can’t really do that while thinking about whether or not she wants to bone Sana Miantozaki. 

For the umpteenth time that day, Nayeon pushes her thoughts away. Afterall, she’ll have all the time to deal with them later and there’s only an hour left of practice time.

The hot humid steam from the showers hits Nayeon’s face as she enters the locker room. Practice had finished about twenty minutes ago and she had stayed back to help Sunmi drag the practice mats to the storage shed at the back end of the field outside the gym. The locker room is practically empty, the humid air serving as the only indicator that the room had been in use. Nayeon looks towards the showers noting that one lone stall is still on, the steam rising from it slowly. 

Typically Nayeon prefers to shower back at the dorms. Something about communal showers always grossed her out a bit. Today though her muscles are aching from lugging the heavy mats and sweat is running down the crevice of her back. She can’t imagine making the fifteen minute trek to the dorms in this state, so she’ll have to settle for showering here. She walks to her locker to gather the bodywash and other shower supplies she keeps there for times like this.

Before she can head to the showers, she needs to take off her sweat-drenched practice clothes. She shimmies her shorts down with ease, kicking them off once they reach her ankles. Next, she goes to take off her tank top, which serves to be a more trying task than her shorts. The tight wicking material causes her arms to get tangled above her head as she attempts to raise the shirt up. Nayeon lets out a sigh, this isn’t the first time this has happened.

“Need some help with that?” A voice calls out from the far end of the room.

Nayeon jumps in surprise at the sound. She stumbles backward, hitting the lockers behind her with a groan. She struggles but eventually manages to get the shirt back down enough so she can see who was walking.

A gasp gets stuck in Nayeon’s throat at what she sees when she finally regains sight. Sana stands at the end of the room with steam billowing out from the open shower stall behind her. She’s leaning against the tiled wall with a smirk across her face as she stares at Nayeon. She looks as painfully beautiful as she always does even with sopping wet hair stuck to the sides of her neck. That isn’t what makes Nayeon speechless though. No, the sight of Sana completely nude except for the towel wrapped around her body is what’s making Nayeon’s chest constrict.

“I-I,” Nayeon tries to form words but her malfunctioning brain isn’t up to the task.

Sana raises one eyebrow and crosses her arms across her chest, cocking her hip with sass. “Hmm? What’s that?”

“I-I’m fine. I don’t need help.” Nayeon diverts her eyes to the floor, trying not to openly stare at the water sliding down the length of Sana’s smooth legs.

“It sure looks like you need help to me.” Sana begins slowly sauntering forward.

Nayeon feels her cheeks grow more flushed with each step Sana takes closer. She attempts to back up, but instead only feels the cold hard metal of the lockers dig into her back. The hot and humid room’s temperature rises about 20 degrees as Sana finally steps in front of Nayeon. She’s close, too close for comfort. So close that Nayeon can see the water drops sliding down the girl’s sharp collarbones. She watches it travel down, down, down until it disappears underneath the top of Sana’s towel.

Nayeon gulps.

Sana licks her petal pink lips.

“You sure you don’t want my help,” Sana leans forward until her lips ghost along the shell of Nayeon’s ear, “ Captain ?”

“N-no, Sana. Really I’m fine.” Nayeon stutters out.

Sana pouts. Her hand comes up, her perfectly manicured fingers running along the side of Nayeon’s face. “Aww I was really looking forward to…helping you get undressed.”

A shot of heat spikes up from the pit of Nayeon’s stomach. She raises her heels off the ground as she tries to back away from Sana as much as possible. They’re around the same height though, proving the task to be impossible.

“You-you what?”

Sana’s hand slides further down, running along the slope of Nayeon’s neck and stopping once it reaches the strap of her shirt. She picks up the strap and snaps against Nayeon’s skin causing a whimper to sound from the elder. “I wanted to help you get undressed, Nayeon.”

Nayeon’s eyes shift over towards the locker room’s entrance. No one else was here right now, but literally anyone could walk in at any time. The thought should worry Nayeon, but she can’t help to notice the spike of excitement and anticipation she feels stirring inside.

“We really shouldn’t do this,” Nayeon groans out, “Not here.”

“I think you like it, though, Captain. I think you like being naughty.” Sana whispers. 

Nayeon bites her lip as Sana takes her hand away and places both hands against the lockers on either side of Nayeon’s head. Sana leans her head forward, her breath blowing against Nayeon’s face. It’s odd, Nayeon could’ve sworn that Sana’s eyes were a honey brown color but for some reason right now they’ve taken a red hue. Nayeon doesn’t have much time to linger on the thought. Not when Sana slowly begins leaning down.

Thump, thump, thump. Nayeon can feel her heart race in both her chest as Sana’s face draws closer. Her hands ball up in anticipation as she closes her eyes. She can feel the warmth radiating off of Sana’s body as it presses up against her own. 

And right as Sana’s plump pink lips meet hers…

She gasps, sitting up in bed swiftly. The room is dark as Nayeon looks around, save the night light plugged in next to her desk. It’s quiet, save for the sound of the air conditioner running and Jihyo’s light snores. 

Fuck , Nayeon thinks as she runs a hand over her face. It was a dream.

And what a dream it was. Nayeon slowly throws her covers off and gets out of bed. She slips her fluffy pink slippers on and shuffles around the dim room, being careful not to hit any furniture. She enters Jihyo’s and her shared bathroom and closes the door before turning the light on. 

Bleary-eyed, Nayeon looks at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair is a mess and matted at the back of her neck from sweat. Her cheeks are splotchy, a red flush decorating their surface. She leans her arms against the counter and sighs.

Well that settles it. 

That stupid dream just confirmed one thing.

She may have a thing for Sana Minatozaki. 

The next day Nayeon finds herself out on a mission. It’s the passing period right after lunch and she’s currently running through the halls of the school’s main building trying to locate Sana. She had spent the whole lunch period alone in the school’s atrium again, thinking about yesterday’s events and had come to the conclusion that she needed to confront Sana once and for all. It’s ridiculous and a bit rash, but Nayeon feels like she has to do this. Avoiding Sana’s presence obviously isn’t helping the issue at hand. She can’t run away from the cause of all her frustration and confusion over the past few weeks any longer. She needs to confront this head on so she can be done with it and get back to living out the perfect senior year she’s had planned.

She doesn’t even really know what she’s going to say to Sana when she finally finds her. All she knows is that she’s tired of Sana invading her life. She's tired of her taking her friends, worming her way onto her squad and now she can’t even find solace from Sana’s presence in her dreams. 

Yes, she can admit now that maybe Jihyo and Momo’s words had some truth to them. She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to Sana, especially not after that dream last night. But that didn’t mean she wanted to act on those feelings. Nayeon still couldn’t stand the idea of being friends with Sana much less lovers . 

Nayeon pushes through the crowds of students as she rounds a corner. She takes her phone out of her pocket and checks the time only to see that there’s ten minutes left until the next class period begins. She chews on her lip, debating over whether looking for Sana right now was worth a tardy pass. Just when she decides that maybe she could confront the girl before practice that day she spots Sana down the hall drinking from a water fountain.

“Sana!” Nayeon yells as she jogs over. 

Sana’s eyes widen, the stream of water from the spout stopping. She stands up and turns towards Nayeon. That signature grin immediately breaks out across her face upon seeing who called her name. (Nayeon won’t admit it, but her knees go a little weak at the sight).

“Oh, Nayeon! I missed you at lunch today.”

“Yeah, uh sorry about that.” So sitting with us is a regular thing for her now? “Look, we really need to talk.”

“Okay. About?”

Nayeon shuffles her feet and grabs at the ends of her sweater sleeves. She doesn’t really know what to say. She hadn’t really thought this far.

“Um, about you.”

Sana points to herself. “About me?”

“Yeah.” Way to be articulate Im. 

“Okay,” Sana replies as she readjusts the strap of her bag on her shoulder. She moves the both of them a little further down the hall stopping at a small alcove with a window. She leans against it and nods at Nayeon as hurried students run past them. “Well, shoot. Though, we don’t have much time. Class is gonna start soon.”

“This shouldn’t take too long. I think.” 

“Cool. So what is it about me you want to know?” Sana asks. The warm afternoon sunshine streams in from the window behind her, cascading around her form like a halo. Nayeon gulps. Well, here goes nothing.

“What’s your problem?”

Well, that didn’t come out right. Nayeon cringes at the harsh tone her words were laced with. She doesn’t really know what she meant to say, but it definitely wasn’t that. 

“My problem?” Sana furrows her brows together. Her smile darkens a bit and hurt settles across her features for a second. She quickly recomposes herself but not fast enough for Nayeon not to notice. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that. Let me start over.” Nayeon sighs, moving to lean against the window next to Sana. She stares down at their identical school-sanctioned loafers, noting how Sana’s still have that new-shoe shine on them. “I don't know if this will come as a surprise to you, but I haven’t really taken well to you transferring here.”

“Oh, no. Really?” Sana questions. Nayeon looks up at the question, surprised at Sana’s shocked tone, only to find Sana with her arms crossed grinning at her. “I had no idea.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll add sarcasm to the neverending list of things you're good at, then.” Nayeon looks back down at the ground. She’s even more confused now. If Sana knew how Nayeon had felt, she had not indicated that in any whatsoever so far. “So if you knew I didn’t like you, why do you keep trying to talk to me?”

Sana shrugs. “I told you already that I wanted to get to know you. You might not like me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you.”

“But why?” Nayeon asks, pushing off the wall. She throws her hands up in defeat. “I don’t get it. I haven’t been exactly nice to you. Why do you like me?”

“I like that you’re determined. I can see that in how much you care about the team. And I’ve seen how you interact with everyone else. You’re a nice person, even if you’ve been snappy with me. I thought if I kept trying to befriend you, maybe one day I’d get you to be nice to me too.” 

Nayeon is yet again at a loss for words. This whole time she thought that Sana’s sickeningly sweet personality had to be an act, but apparently it wasn’t. If she can see the good in Nayeon—someone who’s done nothing but be rude and ignore her since she’s come here—then Sana’s genuinely one of the kindest people on the planet.

A wave of guilt crashes over Nayeon with a swift slap of embarrassment following soon after. Everyone goes their whole life thinking they’re the protagonist of their own story, so it hurts like hell for Nayeon to suddenly feel like a villian. She’s been so selfish lately, only thinking about how Sana transferring here has affected her. She hasn’t even once stopped to think about how Sana’s probably just trying to make friends because she’s alone in a new place. Why in the world has she been acting like Sana has some personal vendetta against Nayeon and has been trying to turn her life upside down?

Before Nayeon can bring herself to apologize a loud whistle sounds through the hallway. Standing about ten feet away from them is a familiar face. Tzuyu Chou begins walking up to them, a notepad in her hand and a shiny blue sash with the words ‘HALL MONITOR’ written across it. Nayeon’s met Tzuyu a couple of times since she’s on the basketball team with Momo and is close friends with Dahyun and her girlfriend Chaeyoung—another member of the team, but she hasn’t gotten the chance to really talk much with the Freshman. The tall girl’s quiet nature reminds her a bit of Mina, so she’s sure that if she got the chance they’d be able to get along well.

Now obviously is not the time to try to further along their relationship, though. Tzuyu’s face is stone cold as she jots down in her notepad. “You guys know that sixth period started already, right?”

Fuck. Nayeon curses internally as she glances around at the now empty hallway. She must have not heard the bell ring, too engrossed with her and Sana’s chat. It seems that Sana is in the same boat from the grimace on her face. 

“Look, Tzuyu, is there any way you could just let this one go?” Nayeon begs, batting her eyelashes. She knows that getting that tardy slip would mean getting detention again, and she really can’t handle missing another practice—especially not with regionals in just a month. “I promise it won’t happen again.”

“Sorry Nayeon, but you know I can’t do that.” Tzuyu frowns, ripping off the slip of paper and holding it out for Nayeon to take.

“ Tzuyu , but please.” Nayeon whines out. “I know my favorite freshman wouldn’t do this to me.” It’s not necessarily a lie, but also not the whole truth. Nayeon doesn’t really know anyone else Tzuyu’s age besides Chaeyoung, and she would say she’s equally fond of the two.

Before Nayeon can attempt to schmooze away the tardy slip anymore she hears a familiar voice call out from down the hall. 

“And what’s going on over here, Tzuyu? This idiot giving you a hard time?” Jihyo asks as she walks up to the three. She has her own notepad in hand and is wearing her shiny blue sash proudly. 

Nayeon rolls her eyes. Of course Jihyo had to be on hall monitor duty too, the ever perfect model student she was. Maybe this is a gift from the universe, though. Jihyo knows that neither Nayeon or Sana should miss practice today so maybe she’ll let them off with a warning.

“No, everything is fine Jihyo. I was just giving them tardy slips,” Tzuyu replies calmly. She shakes the piece of paper in her hand at Nayeon again, gesturing for her to take it.

Nayeon looks at Jihyo pleadingly. They’ve known each other for so long that they've gotten pretty good at communicating with just their eyes. You know we can’t miss practice.

Jihyo pats Tzuyu’s back and tells the younger she can take it from her. She grabs the tardy slip out of Tzuyu’s hand and instead of crumpling it up like Nayeon had hoped she sticks it into the pocket of Nayeon’s blazer. Oh, you can afford to miss this one.

Nayeon looks on flabbergasted as Jihyo writes on her own notepad and hands Sana a slip of her own. Jihyo simply shrugs, “Sorry you guys, but rules are rules.”

Tzuyu chuckles at the look on Nayeon’s face before quickly scampering off. Okay, correction. Only Chaeyoung held the title as Nayeon’s favorite freshman.

Sana nods solemnly and takes the piece of paper. “Alright, Hyo. But this means we won’t be at practice right?”

“That’s fine. We’re just going to be running through the routine a couple of times before working on basketball stand cheers. Nayeon can help you out with those later.” Jihyo looks over at Nayeon, unable to keep a smirk from forming across her face.

Nayeon huffs at Jihyo before looking at the clock on the wall. There was still forty minutes left of sixth period, and while listening to Mrs. Lee drone on about supply and demand economics isn’t always Nayeon’s favorite it beats dealing with her traitor of a best friend. Before she stomps away she looks back at Sana, finally remembering what she was about to say before they were interrupted. 

Her dream had been wrong. Sana definitely did have the warmest honey brown eyes. They stare at Nayeon with a mixture of sadness and hope dancing around inside the irises. 

“Sana,” Nayeon says, “I guess I’ll see you in detention.” She decides it’ll be better to apologize properly when they’re alone. She definitely has a lot to think about between now and then.

Sana’s signature warm smile finally returns to her face as she nods at Nayeon. “Yeah, see you then.”

Nayeon didn’t think she’d ever find herself back in the detention room this year, but here she is again, standing awkwardly in front of the classroom door. It should bother her more that this is another strike going on her barely tainted record, but there are other pressing matters at hand. She reminds herself to tell Jihyo off when she sees the other back at the dorms tonight before taking a deep breath and entering the room. 

The tension in the room is thick as Nayeon steps into the classroom. She spots Sana sitting at one of the front row desks, who immediately lifts her head and locks eyes with Nayeon. For the last few hours their encounter from earlier in the day had played over and over again in Nayeon’s head, the guilt and unease slowly eating away at her insides. She had planned to apologize immediately, and even raises her hand in greeting with her mouth stretched open to speak. But Nayeon’s plans are thwarted when Mr. Park—who she hadn’t even realized was in the room—clears his throat and directs her to take a seat.

The desks are completely empty, except for the one Sana sits in. If Nayeon had been faced with this situation just yesterday she would have hightailed it to the other end of the room no question. After today though, Nayeon chooses to settle into the spot right next to Sana. She offers the girl a small stilted smile as she situates herself in the seat, holding out a metaphorical olive branch (despite the fact that she was really the only one who had been at war). Nonetheless Sana smiles right back at her. And for the first time since they’ve met, Nayeon allows herself to appreciate the beauty and kindness it holds.

“Alright girls, I have an assignment for you right here,” Mr. Park starts as he stands from his desk and begins making his way towards the row. He hands both Nayeon and Sana a sheet of blank lined paper and a pencil, before pointing at the clock on the wall. “You have an hour left in here. I expect that page to be filled before you leave. If you finish before the hour’s up, just sit quietly. No talking. Alright?”

They both simultaneously nod and with that Mr. Park returns to his desk and promptly picks up his Sudoku puzzle book.

The assignment is the same as last time, to reflect on her ‘wrongful and immature actions’ and write a one page paper on how she regrets her behavior. It’s nothing too difficult and doesn’t take Nayeon any more time to finish than it did before. It seems Sana didn’t have too much trouble with it either. When Nayeon sets her pencil down and looks up she sees that Sana’s already finished and attempting to balance her pencil on the tip of her nose. 

It’s a ridiculous sight, Sana’s absolutely terrible at getting the pencil to hold still for even one second before it rolls off her face and into her lap. Nayeon watches Sana make a few more attempts before she can’t hold back her laughter any longer. A chuckle escapes before Nayeon can stifle it, gaining both Sana and Mr. Parks attention. 

“Shhh!” Mr. Park slams his hand on the desk and points a finger at them. “Im, I told you ‘no talking’.”

Nayeon wants to make a quip about how she was laughing not talking, but bites her tongue. She doesn’t need to end up in detention again for a third time this semester.

As their teacher returns his attention back to his book, Sana’s lingers on Nayeon. Nayeon can feel Sana’s eyes locked onto her. She shuffles in her seat awkwardly, too afraid to look at the other girl. She still needs to apologize but isn’t entirely sure how to do so while stuck in freaking detention. 

Sana suddenly reaches over and pokes the elder on the shoulder. She quietly reaches in her backpack and pulls out a notebook. She rips a piece of paper, making sure to carefully tear along the perforated lines and looking up to see if Mr. Park has taken notice every few seconds. He never does, too engrossed in his puzzles and Sana eventually succeeds and sets the paper down on her desk. She quickly scribbles something down on the sheet before folding it and slipping it to Nayeon under the desk. Hesitantly Nayeon opens the note. 

‘Hi Nayeon :)’, it reads in Sana’s tiny handwriting, a small heart replacing the dot over the i. 

Nayeon rolls her eyes at the amount of theatrics Sana put forth just for the simple message, but she can’t help but also be a tad endeared. 

‘Really?’ Nayeon writes back, noting how her stiff and tidy handwriting contrasts the loose curves of Sana’s. She folds it over and passes it back.

Sana opens the letter with a giddy look on her face that quickly turns to a pout upon seeing the note’ contents. She writes a response and again passes it to Nayeon.

‘Yes,I’m bored. Sorry if you don’t want to talk to me still. I know we already talked today about it, so I’ll leave you alone. :(“

The sad face while juvenile and small, makes a great impact on Nayeon. She had wanted to apologize properly but apparently writing it down on a note is as good as she can do at the moment. It takes Nayeon a good minute to jot down her thoughts. She can feel Sana’s eyes on her as she bends over the paper to hide it’s contents, suddenly embarrassed. As she passes the note back Nayeon chews on her lower lip anxiously, heat rising to her face.

‘No, Sana. I actually wanted to apologize to you before we got interrupted. I realized that I wasn’t exactly being fair to you and was acting a bit like a selfish asshole. Well maybe not a bit, A LOT like a selfish asshole is more accurate. I’m really sorry. This is kinda a shitty apology and not how I wanted to do it, but I hope I can maybe make it up to you???’

Nayeon holds her breath as she watches Sana’s eyes scan over the note’s contents with a straight face. She doesn’t know what to expect as a response. In all honesty, if someone had treated her the way she’d been treating Sana, Nayeon would’ve promptly given them the finger and gotten on with her life. 

But that’s where Sana and her differ. When Sana hands the paper back to Nayeon her bright smile has returned to its rightful place. It gives Nayeon hope as she opens the note and reads.

‘Thank you for saying sorry. And this isn’t a shitty apology, just you actually saying sorry means a lot. If you want to make it up to me though, I have an idea.’ 

Just as Nayeon’s about to ask Sana what her idea is, Mr. Park clears his throat and stands up from his desk.

“I need to go do...something for a second.” He checks the watch on his wrist, “You still have thirty minutes left of detention though. So no talking. I expect it to be silent in here and for you to still be in your seats when I get back from my...business.”

He exits the room and about ten seconds after he’s gone, Sana finally breaks the silence.

“How much you want to bet he’s going to take a dump in the teacher’s lounge restroom right now?”

Nayeon bursts out laughing and shakes her head, “I’m not betting on that. I’m a hundred percent certain that’s what he’s doing.”

The two continue to chuckle, the echoes of their laughter filling the room and lifting Nayeon’s spirits a bit. When they eventually sober up Nayeon places a hand on Sana’s desk turning in her chair to directly face the other girl. She sighs deeply before looking up and locking eyes with Sana.

“Look, Sana. I really am sorry. I don’t respond well to change and I guess you coming here intimidated me a bit? I guess maybe I felt like you were trying to steal my life, as crazy as that sounds. Which isn’t a good excuse, but I feel like I should explain myself.” Nayeon chooses to leave out the parts about her confusing feelings for the other. She still isn’t too sure about them herself and maybe the two of them becoming more acquainted with each other will help. One step at a time is the way to go, after all.

Sana nods, “Yeah, change is scary. Trust me I get it.” 

She leans forward slightly and gently places a hand on Nayeon’s shoulder. Nayeon realizes this is the closest she’s ever been to Sana and notes the soft and gentle floral scent that radiates from Sana as she draws closer. It reminds her of the peonies and lavender flowers sprouting in the school’s atrium. The brightness from Sana’s smile is bleeding as she looks at Nayeon and continues speaking.

“But know I would never want to steal your life from you Nayeon. I want to be a part of it.”

An unfamiliar sensation blooms inside Nayeon’s chest at Sana’s words. It’s not like the sharp angry twists of arousal from before. No, it’s an airy and light feeling, like bubbles floating in champagne.

Nayeon’s stomach interrupts the moment before she can think about the odd feeling any longer. A long loud grumble erupts from Nayeon who immediately cringes at the noise. Could the timing be any more inappropriate? 

Sana on the other hand is delighted by the sound. “You hungry?” She asks Nayeon as she falls into another fit of giggles.

“I guess, I didn’t really eat much at lunch.” Nayeon wraps her hands around her waist at a hopeless attempt to somehow muffle the noise when her stomach growls again a few seconds later. 

“Here.” Sana says reaching down and picking up her backpack. She digs around in it before bringing out a half crumpled bag of chips. “I have these if you want some?” 

Nayeon’s eyes beam at the familiar sight of the bright orange and red packaging. She eagerly takes the bag from Sana’s hand and opens it breathing in the crisp pungent smell. “You keep Hot Cheetos in your backpack?”

“All the time. I kind of live off the things.”

“You and me both.” Nayeon eagerly grabs a handful of the chips and shoves them in her mouth. She sighs as the spicy and tangy flavor hits her taste buds. “Oh my god and they’re the lime ones too! You’re a saint Sana Minatozaki.”

The two happily munch on the chips until they hear footsteps coming down the hall. Quickly Sana rolls the bag up and shoves it in her bag before dropping it back on the ground. They both settle back in their seats and try to look natural before Mr. Park re-enters the room. 

The rest of detention passes by uneventfully other than a few small games of tic tac toe Sana gets Nayeon to play under the desk. After a warning from Mr. Park ‘that he better not see them here again’, Sana and Nayeon are finally dismissed. 

Practice was already winding down to a close by now, so the two decide to just head to the dorms for the night. It’s relatively quiet as they stroll across the late afternoon campus, most of the students already in their rooms or off doing after class activities. Nayeon doesn’t mind the silence much, it gives her a chance to think.

Nayeon can’t deny the fact that she's attracted to Sana, not after the dream she had last night. For some reason though, the idea of just sleeping with Sana and forgetting the whole thing doesn’t sit right with her. She can’t imagine just using Sana like that, especially after actually spending time with Sana today. Besides, she doesn’t even know if Sana would want to be with her in the first place, so that’s out of the picture.

Another fact Nayeon can’t deny is that she definitely doesn’t hate Sana anymore. Maybe she never hated her in the first place, she’s still not too sure on that front. What she is sure about though, is that Sana intrigues her and that spending the last hour together was anything but the torture she originally thought it would have been.

As they approach the large stone building of the J.Y. Prep dormitory Sana finally breaks the silence. She slides her ID card towards the main door’s sensors and holds open the door for Nayeon to pass through first. “Nayeon?”

“Hmm?” 

“You know how I said I had an idea for how you could make things up to me?”

“Yeah,” Nayeon nods as they walk further into the building. She usually takes the stairs up to her room on the third floor since the walk isn’t too bad but it’s been a long day so she decides to head for the elevators. Sana seems to think the same way too as she follows along and presses the up button.

Sana purses her lips and taps the rubber soles of her loafers against the tiled floors. Nayeon notices her cheeks are a tad bit darker than usual, a natural ruddy hue poking out from underneath the light baby pink blush she usually wears. It adds to the bright glow Sana exudes, Nayeon finds it gorgeous. 

 “Well, I was actually thinking maybe you could tag along with me for something this weekend?” 

A lightbulb goes off in Nayeon’s head, remembering her chat with Momo just yesterday. “You mean for pedal boating Saturday?”

“Oh, did someone already ask you?”

“Well Momo had asked me about it yesterday but I told her I wasn’t really interested.”

“Oh,” Sana lets out quietly, her head ducking down bashfully. “That’s okay then. I can think of something else if you don’t really want to go.”

Nayeon’s quickly finding out that Sana’s pout, while extremely adorable and endearing, makes her heart ache just a teensy tiny bit. “No, no. I mean I can go if that’s what you want to do!” she sputters out.

“No, really it’s okay if you don’t want to. You probably already had plans anyways.”

“You overestimate my social life, Sana. I was just going to hang at the dorms and probably work on some stuff for class and cheer. It’s nothing pressing though. I can go with you. I really don’t mind. Besides it’d be good for me to go out since we won't have another opportunity to go off campus for another month.” 

The elevator finally reaches their floor, a loud beep sounding as its doors slide open. Nayeon gestures for Sana to get on and follows in behind. She presses the ‘3’ button and looks to Sana who holds up four fingers. So we live a floor apart, good to know. 

As the elevator doors close Sana continues. “Are you sure? Really don’t feel like you have to come.”

Nayeon chuckles at Sana’s persistent worry. At least the pout is gone now, the corners of Sana’s mouth starting to twitch up into a hopeful grin. “Yeah, I’m sure. It’ll be fun. Besides I wouldn’t want to miss out on seeing Momo make a fool of herself in front of Mina.”

Sana’s grin is back on in full force now. “Oh, I’m sure they’ll both be making fools out of themselves. Mina is just as hopeless as Momo, she’s just not as obvious about it.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Momo but she won’t listen!” 

The elevator eventually reaches Nayeon’s floor signaling for her to make her exit. She starts to leave but turns around to look at Sana once she’s halfway out the door blocking the door from closing. “Hey, thanks for today.”

Sana giggles, “What? For getting you detention?”

“That was just as much my fault, No, I mean, thanks for...being so understanding about everything. I know I can be kind of hard headed and abrasive at times.”

Sana waves Nayeon off, “Nah don't worry about it. It’s water under the bridge. Besides, I don’t mind the hard-headedness. It’s what makes you you, and I like you Nayeon.”

Nayeon’s heart jumps suddenly. Maybe it’s from Sana’s words, or maybe it's from the elevator’s loud buzzing signaling for her to get her ass off of it. She’ll never be too sure.

“So how was detention?” Jihyo asks as she walks into their dorm room thirty minutes later. She’s still in her practice clothes and her sweat soaked bangs are splayed across her forehead meaning she still needs to shower. Lucky for Nayeon she already took hers right after she left Sana.

“Not that bad.” Nayeon calls out from where she’s lounging on her bed. She’s in the middle of playing imessage pool with Momo—whom she’s leagues better than. Why Momo always wants to play she’ll never understand, but she’s not going to complain. Nayeon’s always down for a little boost to her ego.

Jihyo toes off her loafers by the doors and moves to plop down on her bed. She raises an eyebrow at Nayeon’s response. “Really? No complaints about Sana?”

Nayeon shakes her head. She drops her phone on the bed, she’ll get back to beating Momo soon. “Nope. I guess...we’re actually kinda on speaking terms now.” It felt too soon to say Nayeon was ‘friends’ with Sana, but based on how today went she’s sure they aren’t too far off from getting there. 

“Ahh, so my plan worked then.” Jihyo leans back against the wall, crossing her arms behind her head with a satisfied smirk. Nayeon doesn’t know if she wants to wipe that smirk off Jihyo’s face or chuck a pillow at it more?

She settles for the latter.

Jihyo sputters at the face full of fluffy fabric. She yelps at Nayeon,“What the hell was that for?” 

“For making us miss practice today, traitor.” 

“It’s not my fault you don’t know how to listen to rules.”

Nayeon rolls her eyes, “You could’ve easily just let it slide this one time.”

Jihyo gasps and dramatically places her hand on her chest, “You want me to just abuse my power like that?”

“Yeah why else would I choose to be friends with you then?”

It’s Nayeon’s turn to have the pillow chucked at her face.

“Kidding, just kidding.” Nayeon laughs at Jihyo’s pouting face as she picks up the pillow from the floor and places it back in its rightful place on her bed. “Still we really can’t afford to miss too many practices now.” 

Jihyo waves her hand dismissively at Nayeon, “Ehh, it’ll be fine this one time. You both have your parts down in the routine and I’m sure Sana’s gonna pick up on the basketball cheers really fast.”

“I still don’t like missing this close to regionals.”

“Don’t get in trouble again then, loser.”

Nayeon wants to give Jihyo a sassy comeback, but can’t. She’s right. Nayeon’s spent the past few weeks blaming her issues on others when it’s all really her own fault. She’s been selfish and rash with her actions. Today really opened her eyes to that.

In all honesty, she should probably thank Jihyo for giving Sana and her detention together. While she had already made up her mind that she wanted to apologize to the other, it probably would’ve taken her longer to actually get around to it. Nayeon’s ego and pride would’ve definitely gotten in the way and made her put things off. Being stuck in that dusty classroom with Sana this afternoon was probably the best thing that could’ve happened.

Nayeon curls her legs up onto the bed, wrapping her arms around them and crouching in on herself. She picks at the lint on her sock as she talks. “You know, while I still think you’re a traitor, I really should thank you for today. I think it was what needed to happened.” 

“I knew it was what you needed. To be stuck with her so you could see who she really is.” Jihyo sighs out, “Sana’s a great person, you were just too stubborn to notice.”

Stubborn is a nice way to put it. Nayeon thinks.

“So,” Jihyo starts again, “does that mean you two are okay now?”

“Yeah, I apologized for being such an asshole. She’s too nice for her own good though. ‘Said she understood why I was like that.”

“Sana’s just like that. Very empathetic from what I can tell.” Jihyo stands from her bed and walks over to Nayeon. She pats her on top of her head. “Don’t beat yourself up too much, okay? Yeah you were an asshole, but at least you realized it. And I don’t blame you for being so guarded. You’ve been through some shit.”

Nayeon doesn’t really talk much about her parent’s split, but Jihyo knows about it all. She knows why Nayeon doesn’t talk about her dad, or why Nayeon tends to feel defensive around people she thinks are a threat to her relationships. 

“Yeah, thanks.” Nayeon looks up at Jihyo. Her friend’s eyes no longer have any of the previous mischief they held minutes ago. Only pure tender care is present.

Jihyo doesn’t say anything else, but Nayeon’s glad for the reassurance. She’s glad she has Jihyo there for her no matter what, even when she fucks up and is in the wrong. Nayeon should have never worried in the first place that Sana would steal her friends away from her, not when they care for her like this. They would never desert like that. 

“Okay, well that’s all good then. I gotta take a shower now.” Jihyo lifts one of her arms up and sniffs at her armpit. Her face cringes, “Yeah I definitely need to shower.”

Nayeon chuckles and shoves Jihyo away, “Go then stinky.”

As Jihyo heads to their shared bathroom, Nayeon picks back up her phone. There’s a string of messages sent within the past few minutes, all from Momo.

FROM MOMO:

hey its ur turn

bro its ur turn 

NAYEON ITS UR TURN

DONT TELL ME YOU LEFT ME

I DONT SUCK THAT MUCH 

DONT LEAVE ME HANGING

IM BOOOORED NAYEON :(

Nayeon shakes her head at Momo. Seven messages, all less than a minute apart. Now that’s some determination right there, she must really want to play pool.

TO MOMO:

Sorry hyo came in and i was talking w her about detention today

I’m back now if you want to play

Momo’s reply comes back almost instantaneously. 

FROM MOMO:

ohhhh right detention lol i heard from tzu bout it at practice

she said she caught you w sana today

whats THAT all about ?? hmm o.o

something to do with what i told you the other day??

TO MOMO:

stoooop, nothing really we just talked about some stuff 

FROM MOMO:

‘Stuff’ is that what the kids are calling it nowadays??

TO MOMO:

:/

really we just talked

Nayeon chooses not to mention that she did in fact think about what Momo brought up before, or the dream she had related to it. Those were tiny details Momo didn’t need to know.

FROM MOMO:

hmmm ok

speaking of sana

ur off the hook for saturday

I asked tzu to go with us and she said she’d see if she had stuff to do

 but i’m p sure that means yes

so ur free

Oh, shit. Right. Momo wasn’t there with Sana and her today so she doesn’t know. She feels bad for Tzuyu cause she’s certain that the girl would’ve had fun. Maybe it’s because she already told Sana that she’d go, but for some reason Nayeon doesn’t want to think about Sana riding in the pedal boat with someone else.

TO MOMO:

Wait uh if tzuyu didn’t say yes i’m fine with going

I’m gonna go

FROM MOMO:

wha??? really??

why the sudden change of heart??

what the HELL happened in that detention room today?? O.o

TO MOMO:

I told you we just talked

I apologized and she said it was okay. Thats it

FROM MOMO:

That can’t just be IT.

 you went from hating her guts to suddenly wanting to come on the date w her?? 

TO MOMO:

That is IT. we talked okay

We’re good now.

And also this isn’t a date

At least for us it isnt

FROM MOMO:

-.- imma let you off the hook this time

But i know there’s more to this story

Anyways ok i’ll let tzu know you’re coming instead

Night see u tomorrow

TO MOMO:

What about pool?

FROM MOMO:

Ehh got bored of waiting, gonna eat then sleep lol :p

Amazed at Momo’s short attention span (she had only talked with Jihyo for five to ten minutes maximum) Nayeon just tells her goodnight before closing her phone. Her stomach rumbles again for the second time that day, reminding her that the hot Cheetos she shared with Sana weren’t a proper meal. So she takes a cue from Momo and heads down to the dorm kitchens to cook up a quick dinner before heading to bed.

As Nayeon falls asleep that night she replays the past day in her head. 

So much changed today. She had woken up determined to finally get rid of Sana, to figure out why she had such a strong connection to the girl and nip it in the bud as soon as she found out. 

But that plan had been ruined. And for the first time in her life, Nayeon was okay with things not going how she had anticipated. She still has a lot to figure out. Sana entering her life set an enormous amount of change into motion, change she can’t reject or ignore any longer.

At first that was something she didn’t want, something she couldn’t handle. However as she thinks back to the smile on Sana’s face as they parted ways earlier, Nayeon finds herself thinking maybe change isn’t so bad after all.

The rest of the school week goes by in a flash and before Nayeon knows it, Saturday arrives. Nayeon finds herself taking extra care while she gets ready that morning. She hadn’t gone outside of campus in quite some time, they only get the opportunity to leave school grounds on the last Saturday of the month and last month Nayeon didn’t feel up to it. This gives her a reason to dress up in something other than her school uniform or athletic clothes, plus today just feels special, though she can’t put her finger on exactly the reason why. 

So Nayeon dons one of the few sundresses she has in her closet and spends longer than she’d like to admit curling her hair and applying her makeup. Nayeon is hurrying to put the final touches on her look—a little red lipstick can never go wrong—when Jihyo starts to incessantly pound on the bathroom door. Nayeon can hear the agitation in her voice as she tells her to ’get a move on it!’ through the door. 

When she finally exits the restroom she finds a shocked Jihyo staring at her. 

“What?” Nayeon asks as she rounds to the shoe rack by their door. 

“Nothing, just wondering why you put that much effort in your appearance if this isn’t a date.” Jihyo replies airly as she picks up her bag and moves to put her own sneakers on.

Nayeon groans, tired of hearing this for the nth time that week. Jihyo’s been teasing her ever since Nayeon made amends with Sana and decided to tag along on the outing. No matter how many times Nayeon reassures her that she has no romantic intentions for today, Jihyo chooses to insist that isn’t the case.

“That makes no sense. Look at you you’re not even dressed up and this is a date for you!” Nayeon gestures at Jihyo’s ensemble consisting of an old pair of ripped jeans and a light sweater.

“That’s because me and Jeong are practically an old married couple at this point. She’s seen me at my worst, there’s no need to try and impress. This is new for you though, you feel like you have to dress to impress. I can bet you Momo is just as dressed up as you are right now.” Jihyo looks down at her phone, “Anyways, the uber driver is almost here. We need to meet everyone else down stairs. Move it.”

When they reach the campus gates a few minutes later Nayeon can’t help the blush that forms on her face. Jihyo was right, standing awkwardly next to an equally dolled up Mina stands Momo wearing a nice red top and form fitting jeans Nayeon’s pretty certain she’s never seen before. 

“See, told you.” Jihyo mutters under her breath before winking and running off to greet the group.

The embarrassment is easily brushed off when Nayeon surveys the group in front of her, counting three more people than she had expected.

Next to Mina and Momo, stands Sana and Jeongyeon—who currently was trying not to tip over from the force of Jihyo suddenly latching onto her back. Nothing out of the norm there.

But right next to them, stands three familiar faces. Dahyun—who is excitedly engaged in a conversation with Sana—stands next to Chaeyoung who is currently showing Tzuyu something on her phone.

Something isn’t adding up here.

Nayeon’s pretty certain that Momo told her pedalboating had to be done in pairs, and she’s not too sure how that’s going to work out with nine of them going. 

Nayeon is brought out of her thoughts when suddenly Sana spots her and immediately waves her over.

“Nayeon! Hey, I’m so glad you could come!” Sana chirps out cheerily. She smiles that radiant smile of hers that makes Nayeon’s vision blur for a second. Nayeon still isn’t used to its brilliance, she’s not entirely sure she ever will be.

“Yeah, uh me too,” Nayeon says as she jogs over to the girls. Now that she isn’t looking at Sana with hate-fogged vision she can’t help but notice how charming she is today. The bright mid-morning sun is shining down on her soft honey eyes, illuminating them in the most enchanting way. It’s a little hard not to smile back at the contagious little giggle Sana lets out when they finally meet eyes.

Nayeon’s chest gets a sudden sharp pang. It goes away when she averts her gaze to the ground.

“Ok, my uber’s here!” Jihyo calls out, pointing at the silver SUV coming up the school’s main drive. “Who’s going with us? I got a six seater.”

Dahyun holds up her phone, “Oh don’t worry about it, you guys can just go. I ordered one for Tzuyu, Chaeng and me. Since we were added on to the trip last minute.” 

“About that,” Nayeon says pointing at Momo, “I thought you said the pedal boats only seated two at a time. How are we going to divide up?”

Momo looks off to the side of Nayeon’s face, refusing to make eye contact. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Nabongs. I never said that,” she feigns ignorance, rocking back and forth on her feet suspiciously.

Nayeon stares at Momo flabbergasted before peering darkly at Jihyo when she hears a snort come from her. 

Those sneaky little…

So they had both been in on this little plan it seems. Nayeon smothers the urge to give them a piece of her mind. Now isn’t the time. As the oldest, she should set a better example for the younger girls. She’s also not that mean of a friend to embarrass Momo in front of Mina right now, the girl’s probably going to do enough of that on her own today without Nayeon’s help.

And a small part of her is a little thankful for her friends' intrusive tendencies. She probably wouldn’t have realized how much of a jerk she was being towards Sana if it wasn’t for Momo and Jihyo sticking their noses in her business.

So she shuts up and follows everyone into the vehicle, ready to get to their destination.

Jihyo takes the front seat, obviously since she’s the one who ordered the car. Just as Nayeon’s about to ask who’s sitting in the back seat, she finds herself shoved towards it with Sana trailing closely behind her.  It’s a little awkward at first to say the least. Nayeon still feels pretty guilty about everything and isn’t too sure how to act around Sana yet. She scoots over to the far edge of the car, making herself flush to the side. She sits with her back as straight as a board and tries to put as much space between the two of them as possible. 

Sana seems to catch on to Nayeon’s discomfort. She looks over at her and frowns after putting her seat belt on. 

She leans over and whispers, “You can relax. I’m not mad at you. I promise I won’t bite.” 

Nayeon gulps as she gets a whiff of Sana’s sweet smelling perfume. She doesn’t know what to say to that. I still feel like shit for being so bitchy? I still don’t understand how you can’t hate me? Maybe I want you to bite me instead?

 Sana saves her and continues speaking. “I know, why don’t we play a game? That’s always fun.”

Nayeon regains her ability to speak, “A game?”

Sana hums and nods, “Yep, a car game. Whenever I’m stuck in a car for a while I always like to count how many red cars we pass by, or something like that.” 

Nayeon looks out the window beside her. Not a red car in sight. “I don’t think it’d be a very long game.”

“I said something like that, silly.” Sana chuckles before bringing her hand to her chin. She sits for a few seconds looking around the vehicle before her eyes widen. “Got it!”

Sana waves Nayeon closer, a devious grin spreading across her face. She brings her finger to her lips in a shushing motion before pointing towards the seat in front of them. “Why don’t we count how many times those two look at each other.” 

“What? Momo and Mina?”

Sana sushes her again but nods excitedly. “Mhmm, they’ve already done it a few times. Glance and then look away before the other can see them. Just keep track of how many times. We’ll compare numbers after.” 

Nayeon supposes the little game would be much more fun than sitting there overthinking things. So she joins in on Sana’s game. It’s actually pretty fun considering how awkward and adorable their two friends are with each other. By the end of the ride Nayeon’s tally comes to ten for Momo and eight for Mina. 

“No, it’s the opposite!” Sana whisper-shouts, hitting Nayeon’s shoulder playfully as they move to get out of the vehicle. “I swear I saw eight times for Momo and ten for Mina!”

“I don’t know what to tell you but you’re wrong.” Nayeon chuckles out. She realizes her shoulders are no longer tensed and her cheeks are stretched into a smile. No wonder everyone enjoys being around Sana so much. 

Whatever the truth is to the tally for their little game they’ll never know, because the minute they exit the car and step into the bright early afternoon sunlight Nayeon forgets the argument. The sun is still rising in the sky, not yet directly overhead but out enough for the world around them to be brightly illuminated. They’re really lucky they decided to come this weekend, it’s still early fall so the light breeze is comfortable and not overbearing. If they decided to wait any longer the weather would have been too chilly to really enjoy anything.

Nayeon surveys around the park as they begin walking towards the docks. There’s a few other groups aside from their own milling about the grounds, but not too many.  Off in the distance, just across the pond, Nayeon spots a hot dog vendor (she files this information away for later, she hadn’t gotten the chance to eat breakfast and a hot dog with relish sounds to die for at the moment). She can hear birds chirping in the trees above, adding another layer of loveliness to the scene. 

Overall, it’s a picturesque day—like something out of a romance film. The kind of day she’s certain would make the perfect setting for a date. 

“It’s really nice out today, isn’t it?” Sana brushes her bare arm against Nayeon's, grabbing her attention. 

Nayeon stops to take a second to survey the view in front of her. Yeah, the nature surrounding them is nice and all, but wow Sana’s beauty is something else all together. She has her head tilted up towards the sky; her eyes are closed as she takes a deep breath in and lets the sun shine down her face. She opens them and looks towards Nayeon, her lips spreading wide as she grins brightly at the other girl. 

Nayeon is taken aback. Her heart races as she stares at Sana’s eyes, the light hitting them just right so warm golden flecks tumble about in their depths. 

She soon remembers that Sana just asked her a question and that the normal thing to do is respond. With effort the gears in her brain begin to slowly start functioning again. 

“Oh yeah really nice. I like this kind of weather a lot. You know, where it’s not too warm, not too cold, just right.” 

“Mmmm I like it too. But winter’s my favorite season though.” Sana nods and links their arms together leading them down to the docks where it seems the rest of the girls had already wandered off too. Nayeon tenses up for a second but decides to just go with the flow. It seems that Sana doesn’t feel awkward around her and that she doesn’t dwell on things for too long. Nayeon could maybe learn a thing or two from her.

“Really? Mine too. Not because of the weather though.” 

In all honesty, Nayeon doesn’t really know that much about Sana. She’d only made amends with the girl just earlier this week so she hasn’t had much time to become acquainted. So she’s pleasantly surprised to hear even this little bit of information from Sana. Not that it matters really, but she wonders what other things they have in common.

She supposes today grants her the perfect opportunity to find out.

Sana has a noticeable pep in her step as she jogs down the hill. Not that she isn’t always a ball of positive energy but it seems to be a little more extra today. Nayeon smiles as she’s dragged along, the sound of Sana’s excited giggles mixing pleasantly with the light chirping of the birds. 

They eventually reach the dock where everyone else already has gathered. There’s a tiny booth there with an employee inside waiting to take their money for the pedal boats. Nayeon looks over towards the end of the dock where the youngest three of their little group are already decked out in life jackets and boarding their own boat. Nayeon sees that Momo technically wasn’t lying, the boat they stumble into only has two seats designed for paddling. However there’s a spacious back side big enough to seat two that Tzuyu happily stretches out her long limbs in. 

Nayeon chuckles to herself as she watches Tzuyu lean back and stick a pair of sunglasses on. Chaeyoung and Dahyun begin paddling away and their boat starts moving away from the deck. Nayeon sighs as she watches their legs move, only now realizing what a workout the day’s activity will be.

“I really shouldn’t have worn a dress.” she mutters, her hand smoothing out over the red fabric of the skirt.

“You look cute though, so I think it’s worth it.” Sana replies and sends Nayeon a wink before stepping up to the booth.

Nayeon doesn’t have time to reply to Sana’s statement. Instead she has to quickly shoot out her hand to stop Sana from reaching for her purse. 

“No, no. Don’t worry about it. I’ll pay for us.” Nayeon says, reaching for her own wallet. She was the eldest here, she should be the one paying for them. Besides it was the least she could do after being such an asshole to Sana before.

“No I really don’t mind getting it. It’s not that much.” Sana counters.

Nayeon looks up at the board listing the prices and cringes a bit. She doesn’t know how thirty dollars an hour isn’t a lot. Her monthly allowance she gets from her mom isn’t that much, but she supposes she can afford this just this one time. She’ll just have to survive solely off her meal plan for the rest of the month, no more spur of the moment pizza orders with Jihyo and the others on movie nights. She mentally apologizes to her bank account before getting the employees attention and asking to rent a boat for two hours. 

Nayeon gets out the debit card her mom had set up for her before she left for boarding school and hands it over. “Really it’s fine Sana. If it makes you feel better you can pay for lunch later?”

Sana pouts but nods. “Okay, I guess. But I hope you don’t mind hotdogs, I saw that place across the lake and haven’t been able to stop thinking about one.”

Nayeon grins at Sana, “You just read my mind.”

So hot cheetos, winter and now hot dogs. Nayeon tacks it onto her mental list of things Sana has in common with her. Oh, and cheer. I can’t forget cheer.

Nayeon quickly realizes another thing they have in common when they finally board their boat. They both seem to have a bit of a clumsy streak when it comes to being on the water. Nayeon feels her heart almost go out when she steps on and the floor begins to rock underneath her.

“Holy shit!” she yelps, her grip on the boat attendant’s hand tightening as she steadies herself. 

Sana chuckles from behind her where she’s still standing on the solid ground of the dock. “Careful there!”

Nayeon shoots her a slightly irritated look before taking a deep breath and calming herself. She’s able to get on and settle into her seat but not without a few peeps and squeaks leaving her.

It’s Sana’s turn now and Nayeon doesn’t want to say she revels in Sana’s nervous shrieks as the boat rocks underneath her, but that’s exactly what she does. 

“Careful there.” Nayeon throws Sana’s words right back at her. Sana just responds by pouting and sticking her tongue out playfully.

Jeongyeon and Jihyo who have already gotten the hang of paddling, float by at that moment with matching smirks on their faces. 

“Looks like you’re rubbing off on Sana, Nabongs.” Jeongyeon whistles out. She takes down her sunglasses and stares at Sana who’s still stumbling into the boat. “Don’t turn her into a loser please. I can only handle being friends with one.”

“Takes one to know one Jeong!” Nayeon cackles out as the two start to pedal off again.

When Sana gets stable and finally secures herself to her seat she chuckles and points off into the direction Jengyeon and Jihyo went off. “You guys are funny.”

The two start pedalling their feet and begin to drift away from the dock. The light breeze feels even more refreshing out on the water Nayeon notes. She tilts her head towards Sana and says, “Hmm? Well I think I’m pretty damn funny. Don’t know about Jeongyeon though.” 

“That’s exactly what I mean. The way you play around like that, it’s hilarious,” Sana chuckles, “You guys are all so comfortable with each other. It’s nice to be around.”

“Well we’ve been friends for a while so I guess it’s just natural.”

“Really? How long?”

“Hmmm,” Nayeon scratches her head, “I’ve known Jihyo since I was little. Our parents are friends, my mom was actually the one who suggested Jihyo’s mom send her to J.Y Prep. I’ve only known everyone else since they started school here, but I guess that’s been years now.” 

“Wow,” Sana remarks, “That’s so cool.”

“Hmm? Really?” Nayeon tilts her eyebrows, a little confused by the wonderstruck expression on Sana’s face.

Sana ducks her head slightly and shrugs. “Well it is to me. I didn’t really have many friends growing up, and the ones I did have I didn’t keep for very long.”

It’s Nayeon’s turn to be surprised. She stops pedalling for a second, letting the waves carry their boat.

“Really?”

Sana’s the most positive person Nayeon’s ever met, and while she had a hard time warming up to her for her own personal reasons, everyone else had no trouble falling for Sana’s charms. She can’t imagine Sana having a hard time making friends with her bubbly personality. 

Sana nods solemnly. “Yeah, I moved a lot growing up so it was hard to keep friendships.”

“Oh, was it because of your parents? Like a job that required moving a lot?”

Sana bites her lip pensively, “I mean...in a way? I didn’t spend much time with my father. He was busy running the family business with my grandpa. My mom wasn’t really ready to have kids when she had me so I was sent away to boarding school after boarding school. I also did allstar cheer growing up but that was kind of a strict no business place for me. They were super serious during practice and I never got the opportunity to hang out with any of my teammates outside of practice.”

A distant father? Well that’s something else Nayeon can relate too. Her father’s about as distant as they come (i.e. not there at all). “Gosh, Sana that sucks. Why’d you have to move schools so much though? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Sana sighed with a kind of faraway look in her eyes. It’s the first time Nayeon’s seen them look so empty, so desolate. “Nah, it’s fine. I kind of acted out a bit as a kid and Mom would always find something she didn’t like about a school.” 

“You? Act out?” Nayeon asks, baffled. Sana seemed to be as sweet as they come. “Hard to imagine you giving anyone trouble.”

Sana smirks and Nayeon feels a shiver run down her spine. “Oh, I gave them hell.”

They are silent for a second, the blowing breeze and the soft waves of the water the only noise. Then they promptly burst out into a fit of giggles. They sober up and start pedaling again when the boat rocks a little too much for comfort. 

“Yeah so I had a bit of a wild streak. Not so much now. I outgrew it.” Sana looks off into the distance, her face going darker. “Anyways so right when I was making friends...bam I was leaving again. It kinda slowed down as I got older and calmed down, but I’ve had...other issues come up that have caused me to move schools.”

Other issues? Nayeon wants to ask, but judging from Sana’s face it’s a subject she’d rather not delve into anymore. Not wanting to step over her boundaries, Nayeon tries to steer the conversation away to more lighter territory.

“Well I’m glad you’re here now.” Naeyon reaches over and grasps one of Sana’s hands into her own. She notes the size difference between their hands. Hers basically wraps completely around Sana’s and for some reason it makes her heart flutter.

Sana perks up a bit at this. “Really?” She sounds hopeful.

“Really.”

Sana stops pedaling too and turns towards Nayeon. She places her other hand atop Nayeon’s and her smile returns to her face. This time it doesn’t have the 100-kilowatt brightness it usually carries, no instead her smile seems to radiate a steady warmth that seeps into Nayeon’s body and warms her chest. It’s kind and reassuring. It’s one of the most beautiful things Nayeon’s ever seen.

The moment is brought to a sudden abrupt halt as the back end of their pedal boat is rammed into. Nayeon doesn’t even have to turn around to know who the offending party is. Jihyo’s and Jeongyeon’s cackles are telling on their own.

“Excuse you?” Nayeon quips.

“Hey we’re not the ones sitting in the middle of the lake not pedaling.” Jihyo calls out. “A real waste of sixty dollars don’t you think?”

“Sorry we got distracted a bit with chatting,” Sana giggles. She turns back to Nayeon, “Maybe we should get back to pedalling. I don't want your money to go to waste because I don’t know how to stop talking.”

Nayeon wants to tell Sana that she really doesn’t mind. That she enjoys listening to her soft voice and likes learning all the information about her that she can. That she would gladly drop another sixty bucks for a moment like the one they just shared to happen again.

But then she remembers that ‘oh yeah, sixty dollars is a lot of money and I don’t have a job’. 

Jeongyeon and Jihyo’s boat rams into theirs again.

“This isn’t fucking bumper cars!” Nayeon yells back at the two causing Sana to double over in laughter. 

“Are you guys just stuck? Do you not know how to move?” Jihyo teases, “Oh Jeongie I think they need our help.”

 Nayeon feels the vein on her head start to pop out. She can deal with a lot of things from her bestfriends, but she draws the line at the taunting babytalk that just left Jihyo’s mouth. 

“We’re fine, thank you very much. No help needed.”

“Well if that’s the case then why don’t you put your money where your mouth is.” Jeongyeon cocks her head back and points over towards a small bridge just up the stream. “Race us to that bridge and back.”

Nayeon has a bit (a lot) of a competitive streak and Jeongyeon’s proposition is just too damn tempting to turn down.

She lifts an eyebrow at Sana.

“You in?”

Sana steadies her feet back on the pedals and shoots a thumbs up. 

“I’m in.”

An hour later Nayeon finds herself pretty much drenched and her ego nowhere to be found. She should have known going into the race that this would be the outcome. Within the first few seconds of stepping onto the boat it had been obvious that neither her nor Sana’s grace they carried on the cheer mat transferred over to the water. She knew this, but that doesn’t make the sting of losing any less bitter.

(Why she chose to take up Jihyo’s suggestion of a second, third and fourth race...well her uncontrollable competitive drive is to blame for that.)

 Jihyo and Jeongyeon are already up on the dock standing triumphantly. Matching smirks filled with mirth are plastered across their faces as they throw playful taunts and jeers as Sana and Nayeon slowly pedal towards them.

“Ooh look who finally made it.” Jihyo calls out as she walks towards Nayeon and Sana’s boat. “Guess you finally learned how to pedal Nayeon.”

“You know you really shouldn’t be disrespecting your elders like this Jihyo. Some example you’re setting for the young ones.” Nayeon grunts and tosses her head in Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu’s direction. They’re already standing on the dock playing around with Momo and Mina next to them. So everyone else already made it. Guess we really did suck at this. Nayeon mentally licks at the wound to her ego; she hates being the worst at anything, much less something as simple as paddle boating.

Jihyo chuckles as she moves to help steady Nayeon’s boat towards the dock. She reaches a hand out towards the eldest. “Oh right, sorry forgot about your age. Explains why you were so slow. Your poor old joints must be aching.”

Nayeon sticks her tongue out as she lets Jihyo help her out of the boat. She goes to make another quip but Sana comes to her defense instead.

“Hey Jihyo give us a break. It’s our first time doing this.” Sana pouts as she extends her hand towards Nayeon. The boat sways below her slightly, Sana’s face instantly contorting into panic.

Nayeon quickly reaches out her own hand to steady Sana. As she helps her onto the deck she briefly takes note of how soft Sana’s palms are. They feel nice against her own. She wouldn’t mind holding onto them for a little longer but decides to let go. She smoothes down her dress, giving her hands something to do instead.

“We’re just playing around.” Jeongyeon says inserting herself in between Nayeon and Sana. She hooks her arms over their shoulders, squeezing as she chuckles. “C’mon let’s go eat. I’m starving!”

The four of them start to walk towards the others. Even as they near the end of the dock Nayeon’s palm tingles. She squeezes it tight, trying to ignore the ghost of Sana’s palm pressed up against her own. Nayeon glances over at Sana, takes in the sight of her laughing at something Jeongyeon just said.

It’s funny how fast things can change in the span of a few days. Just last week she couldn’t stand the sight of Sana. Now, as she watches the late afternoon sun bounce off Sana’s glowing cheeks, Nayeon can’t imagine wanting to look at anything else.  

Where her and Sana’s relationship stands, she still isn’t quite sure. Sana’s forgiven her and they're definitely hanging out like friends do. However, Nayeon can’t help but notice that the way she reacts around Sana is different to how she is with Jihyo or Momo. That strange feeling in her gut—the one she at first thought was hate then assumed to be carnal attraction—it hasn’t gone away. But it has changed. She still can feel her stomach violently lurch when Sana stares at her, but the feeling continues on up into her chest, spreading like a swarm of hyperactive butterflies. 

It’s a feeling Nayeon isn’t familiar with and it terrifies her. She doesn’t know what to make of it. So for now she’ll just ignore it. Maybe it will go away the more she gets to know Sana.

As for her and Sana’s relationship, well Nayeon guesses she can say they are friends now. She’s thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Sana today. She wants to see where this friendship will go. 

(She also knows that she thoroughly enjoys the feeling of Sana’s hand in hers.)

The next few weeks of the school year pass by in a swarm of pom poms, late-night study sessions, and laughter. As the days grow shorter and the weather becomes crisper, the end of October steadily approaches them and Sana soon becomes integrated into Nayeon’s daily life. 

In the morning, before classes if Nayeon wakes up early enough, she finds herself in the cafeteria with Sana and the rest of their friends eating breakfast. Soon after the end of their ‘not date’ Sana and Nayeon exchanged numbers. Nayeon quickly added Sana to the list of friends she messages when she’s bored in class— not during exams of course, she’s learned her lesson there. It’s a common occurrence for Sana to eat lunch with their group that has now expanded to nine. The week following the paddle boat outing Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu started sitting with them as well. Their table in the corner of the cafeteria has become a bit crowded, but Nayeon really wouldn’t have it any other way at this point.

And after the school day ends, Nayeon always gets to see Sana during cheer practice. They go to regionals this upcoming weekend, so practice hasn’t allowed for much time to play around. Nayeon and Sana still find the time to goof around with Jihyo and Dahyun during water breaks. Plus since basketball season starts next week Nayeon had to have private practices with Sana on weekends to catch her up on stand cheers. Being that Sana picks up on moves really quickly, she finished getting them all down within two days. For whatever reason, Sana keeps asking Nayeon to meet up with her on Saturdays to go over things. There isn’t much for Nayeon to correct, though, and they spend most of the time just talking or playing around in the gym. Nayeon doesn’t mind it though, because the more time she spends with Sana, the more she finds herself wanting to be in the other’s presence.

Like today Nayeon’s content as she sits munching on her lunch with Sana directly at her side. She can feel the pressure of Sana’s thigh press up against her own as Sana shifts along the bench to make room for Dahyun at the table. Nayeon is at the end of the table without any room left to move unless she can somehow magically morph into the wall. It’s a tight squeeze and Sana’s thigh will continue to press up against her own for the remainder of the lunch period. She can’t complain though; Sana’s leg feels nice against her own, even if the butterflies in her chest make it a little hard for her to swallow her food.

 Everything is fairly normal and well that day, nothing out of the new ordinary Nayeon’s created for herself. Across the table Jeongyeon is dozing off and every few seconds Momo moves to sneak a few fries off her plate only for Mina to chastise her. The two of them have been extremely close ever since the group date three weeks ago, and while they have yet to put an official label on themselves it’s pretty clear to everyone around them they’re an item now. They continue to get flustered around each other still, but instead of shying away they’ve started to fight through the blushing and embarrassment. It’s sweet really, and even though Nayeon doesn’t get the pleasure of seeing Momo trip up around Mina as much anymore it’s just as satisfying seeing them genuinely happy together. 

Gosh what’s gotten into me? I’m such a softie now. Nayeon thinks to herself as she watches Momo feed Mina one of her stolen fries. She usually would barf at the sickly sweet display but she finds herself fawning over them internally. 

It’s really odd, how her heart has been fluttering whenever she sees Jihyo run up and throw herself into Jeongyeon’s arms after cheer practice, the two sharing a sweet kiss. Romantic gestures have never really been something Nayeon cared for, but suddenly out of nowhere she can’t help but take notice of them.

She still wants nothing to do with romance. Her family’s track record with love and romance isn’t really the best. While she’s seen what a healthy relationship looks like thanks to her friends, she’s not too sure she could handle having one herself. 

And yet why does her chest sting a little with longing as she watches Mina dab a napkin on Momo's cheek?

Thankfully a distraction is brought her way when Sana taps her on the shoulder.

“Hey I’m gonna go get a parfait, you want me to get you one?” Sana asks as she stands up from the table. Nayeon’s thigh suddenly goes cold without the warmth of Sana’s against it.

Nayeon smiles and nods, glad that Sana thought of her. “Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks.” 

“No problem, Cap.” Sana winks and dashes off towards the canteen area. She passes by Chaeyoung who is eagerly making her way to their table an excited grin plastered on her face. 

Chaeyoung slams her hands down at the front of the table. “Guess what I just heard from Yerim in bio class?”

“Oh mah gawd, wha?” Dahyun asks excitedly around the spoon in her mouth. 

“ We,” Chaeyoung gestures around the table at everyone, “have a party to go to on Friday!”

“A pawty-” Dahyun coughs around her spoon and decides to sit it down. She clears her throat, and starts again clapping her hands in excitement. “A party?!”

Chaeyoung jumps up and down, “Yes. Our first high school house party! Well technically a dorm party since it’s just gonna be in Yerim’s dorm room but still a party!”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Jihyo waves her hands at the two. “I don’t think going to a party Friday is a very good idea. We have regionals the next day.”

Nayeon hums and nods, “Right, also don’t you think you guys are a little young to go to a party anyways.” None of them are of the legal drinking age yet—herself being the closest and she’s still three years away—and while she had been to a few parties before in her three years on campus Nayeon feels slightly weary about the younger girls going. 

“Oh come on me and Tzu are fifteen!” Chaeyoung whines out, “Besides I checked there isn’t gonna be any alcohol or anything. Just music, food and games.”

Jihyo shakes her head. “Still, Nayeon, Dahyun, Sana and I have competition the next day. We have to get up and board the bus by 6:30 in the morning.” 

“Oh, come on, we’ll only stay for a little bit ‘Hyo. Besides I think it’d be a nice way to get the pre-comp jitters out of our system.” Dahyun leans forward and bats her lashes in Jihyo’s direction. 

“Hmm, I still don’t know.” 

“Why not, baby?” Jeongyeon grunts out from the side, suddenly awake enough to add to the conversation. She shrugs and reaches over to start rubbing one of Jihyo’s shoulders. “I mean they said there won’t be alcohol and I think it’d be nice for you to relax a bit. You know you get too tense before competitions.” 

“I think it could be fun.” Momo adds, “Our first game is next week so it could be like a little pre season party. Besides since Jeongyeon, Mina and I won’t have to get up as early as you guys on Saturday we can keep a close eye on the young ones while y’all relax.” 

“You act like we’re children.” Chaeyoung complains as she finally sits down to take her spot.

“We kind of are.” Tzuyu deadpans from beside her, cracking a smile when Chaeyoung pouts.

Hearing their reasoning Nayeon eases up to the idea a bit. It would be nice to just relax and take a break from all the stress of school and practice. Since there wouldn’t be any alcohol involved either, there really wasn’t any reason to worry. “Ok I’m in. We can just stay for like an hour or two then head to bed. It’s on campus anyways we’d just have to walk back to our room. What time does the party start, Chaeng?”

“Nine. Yerim lives on the fifth floor. Don’t know what room but I can ask.” 

“See, so we go at nine leave by ten thirty and still get like six plus hours of sleep.” Nayeon looks to Jihyo who still seems pensive. 

Jihyo glances around the table taking in the pleading eyes of everyone and eventually caves. “Alright, I guess it’s fine. But only an hour or two! And I swear the next morning I will storm to your dorm room and drag you out of bed and onto that bus if I have to, Dahyun.”

The next ten seconds go by in slow motion for Nayeon. An excited Chaeyoung jumps up from the table and throws her arms out in triumph. However, before starting her victory dance she forgets to let go of her bag of chips and when she swings her arms around the chips go flying towards the table of girls sitting behind them. Nayeon watches in shock as a cloud of cheesy particles and crumbs land on the faces and in the hair of Chaeyoung’s accidental victims. 

Chaeyoung’s eyes widen as she realizes what she’s done. “Oh shit, I’m so sorry I-”

She’s unable to fully get her apology out before one of the girls at the table stands up and shouts from deep within her chest. 

“FOOD FIGHT!”

In an instance chaos erupts all over the once pristine cafeteria of J.Y. Preparatory. Screams can be heard, globs of food in liquid and solid form are flung from every direction. Nayeon barely ducks in just enough time to avoid a swarm of noodles to her face. It’s the first time she’s ever seen something like this happen in all her four year here at J.Y. Prep. She clears her lunch tray of it’s items and dives down to the ground, covering her head. (She had curled her hair that morning and she really didn’t feel like digging mash potatoes out of it.) 

The cafeteria has delved into pure and utter disarray within seconds. Above her Nayeon hears Dahyun shout before throwing a lob of noodles at someone's head. 

“Dahyun!” Nayeon yells out, “What are you doing? Get down!” 

She shrugs, “I’ve always kind of dreamed of being in a food fight. It’s really something you only see on TV so I’m not gonna pass this up.” 

Chaeyoung runs up to her side. “Okay but same. Also I mean I kind of accidentally started this. Might as well join in.” She pauses to take her blazer off and ties it around her waist. She turns to Dahyun and the two do some sort of handshake before letting out a cry and running off into the masses.

Okay then.

Amidst the chaos Nayeon remembers Sana had gone to get yogurt for the two of them. Her head whips in the direction of the canteen and standing right there with her eyes blown wide in confusion stands Sana, a parfait grasped in both of her hands. Nayeon spots a sudden movement from the side of her eye and sees someone’s hand poised to throw a gigantic piece of cake in Sana’s direction. 

Nayeon doesn’t know what comes over her, maybe it’s adrenaline from the disorder around them or maybe it’s just because she cares about Sana and doesn’t want to see her pretty face get plastered with chocolate icing. Whatever it is, Nayeon shoots up off the ground and runs full speed in Sana’s direction.

“Sana watch out!” 

Nayeon leaps into the air, knocking into Sana and sending them both towards the ground. The piece of cake slams into the wall right where Sana’s head just was. Their poor parfaits are splayed out across the floor besides them, unable to be eaten.

Nayeon opens her eyes and realizes the position they landed in. Her chest is pressed up against Sana's, her arms protectively around either side of the other girl’s head. Their gazes lock as Nayeon tries to regain her breath. Sana’s stare hypnotizes Nayeon and she soon gets lost in their honey brown warmth.

“Thanks.” Sana’s voice is breathy as she reaches up and picks a stray piece of food out of Nayeon’s hair, (The tray really hadn’t done a great job at protecting her it seems). 

“I- you’re welcome.” Nayeon thinks she says but she’s not really one hundred percent certain what comes out of her mouth are actually words. She’s too distracted by the twinkle in Sana’s eyes and by the fact that she’s literally on top of her. 

They lay there like that for sometime, staring into each other’s eyes. At some point Sana’s hand finds its way on Nayeon’s back. She doesn’t move it, just steadies it there as a constant source of comfort amongst the chaos. 

Nayeon isn’t too sure how much time goes by. It could be an hour, it could be ten minutes. All she knows is that it wasn’t long enough. When their principal gets on the intercom and puts the madness to a stop, Nayeon knows they have to finally get up. The air around them is charged and when Nayeon reaches for Sana’s hand to help her off the floor a jolt of electricity runs through her body starting from where their palms touch. 

Neither of them say a word about the exchange as they make their way to the bathroom to clean up. Nayeon’s not quite sure what would be the right thing to say in that instance. ‘I really liked being on top of you’ just doesn’t seem like something you say to a friend. 

And that’s what they finally are: friends. Nayeon’s still mad at herself for spending so long resenting Sana when she could have been just spending that time in her company. Sana’s funny, kind and just amazing to be around. It’s like Nayeon’s mood instantly goes up whenever she sees Sana’s face. She likes that—being friends with her. And she doesn’t want to risk losing that now that she has it.

Yeah she had that one dream about Sana, but she’s a teenage girl. It’s normal to have the odd fantasy about your friend every now and then, right? Besides she hadn’t had any other dreams like it since, so Nayeon really doesn’t think basic sexual attraction is the reason her feelings are on the fritz around Sana. 

Nayeon just has a ton of admiration for the girl and enjoys benign around her. That’s it. That’s all it is. 

That’s all it ever can be.

For the rest of that week Nayeon feels herself avoiding Sana more. She didn’t revert back to her old ways. She wasn’t acting cold or outright ignoring Sana. No doing that wouldn’t sit right with her. It’s not like she had the heart to turn Sana away when she came up to her either. 

She just wasn’t going out of her way to start a conversation or invite her over to her dorm room to study anymore. And she definitely tried to avoid situations that left the two of them alone. Ever since that day in the cafeteria, Nayeon just didn’t think it was a good idea for them to be alone together. It wasn’t an easy task, considering how much time they had been spending together recently. And Sana being the outgoing talkative person she was would always find time to come find Nayeon and start up a conversation. 

Avoiding Sana was proving to be an especially hard task tonight. Especially when Nayeon can’t help but openly stare at the girl sitting in front of her splayed out on the couch of the fifth floor’s common room.

They’d been at the party for some time now. Not too many girls were there, only about twenty or so. The turn out had been much more than Yerim had expected so the party quickly moved to a bigger space. There weren’t too many seats in the room so Nayeon had chosen to plop herself on the floor next to Jihyo and Jeongyeon. Across from them on the couch sits Mina and Momo cuddled up together, and Sana’s laid out next to them with her legs hanging off the arm of the couch.

And she looks downright amazing tonight. More amazing than any given person should legally be allowed to, Nayeon thinks. Her usually sleek, put together hair is down and splays out around her. A light coating of red is painted on her lips that matches the scarlet fabric of her sleeveless top. She has a pair of cut-offs on, highlighting the smooth line of her legs that goes on, and on, and on…

Nayeon gulps and quickly looks away when Sana catches her staring. She takes a sip of juice from the plastic cup in her hands. 

Mmm fruity.

Jihyo clears her throat. She gathers her trash around her and starts to get up. “Alright I think we should probably start heading out.”

“What?” Sana whines from the couch. “It’s only ten though.”

Jeongyeon pulls on Jihyo’s arm, stopping her from leaving. “Yeah babe. We’ve been here for an hour. And the whole point of this was to let you guys relax before tomorrow. Have you relaxed since we got here?”

Jihyo sighs, sinking back down to her spot. “No, but I mean we haven’t really even done anything to take my mind off things. Stuffing Cheetos in my mouth can only do so much.”

Nayeon disagreed. She was on her third mini bag of Hot Cheetos that night and she was sufficed.

“Hmmm maybe you’re right.” Momo calls out from the couch. “We haven’t really done much besides eat and talk. Where did the kiddos run off to anyway, maybe they have something to do.”

As if on cue an out of breath Dahyun and Chaeyoung run up to them and drop near the foot of the couch. Tzuyu, looking noticeably less spent, walks up and takes a seat on the other arm of the couch. There’s a light sheen of sweat on all three of their foreheads.

“Where have you guys been?” Nayeon asks. “You look like you just went for a jog.”

“One word,” Dahyun breathes out. “Twister.”

“Twister?” Nayeon chuckles out. 

Chaeyoung looks her dead in the eyes and deadpans, “Twister.”

She raises a finger towards Tzuyu and pouts, “she’s ridiculously good at it. For no damn reason.”

Tzuyu just shrugs and smirks, “You two are overreacting. It wasn’t that bad.”

“Fifteen minutes! I was in nearly the same position for fifteen minutes!” Dahyun whines out, “The spinner kept landing on red. I started to get a cramp.”

Jihyo perks up at this, “A cramp? Oh no, no, no. No more Twister for you tonight. Are you alright?”

Dahyun waves her off, “I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry. I’ll be good for competition tomorrow. Besides don’t catch me ever playing with Tzu again. My ego can’t take it.”

“You should be proud Tzuyu,” Nayeon calls out and gives her a thumbs up. “Dahyun’s one of the most flexible ones on our squad. Can’t believe you beat her.”

Tzuyu smiles, “It was more about endurance than flexibility, but thanks.” 

“Still. Have you thought about cheering before? The team could use you next year.”

Momo sits up at this shaking her hands violently, “Uh uh uh, you’re not about to poach our team's star player from us.”

Sana tuts her lips at Momo, “You know you can play basketball and cheer at the same time right. She just wouldn’t be able to cheer at basketball games.” 

Jihyo nods her head and looks at Tzuyu, “We’d be happy to have you on the team.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Well okay that’s great and all but weren’t we just thinking about doing something other than sitting here and talking.” Jeongyeon says. She reaches over and rubs Jihyo’s back. “We need to get your mind off of cheer right now.”

“A game! Why don’t we play a game?” Sana suggests happily, clapping her hands.

“Not twister.” Chaeyoung and Dahyun deadpan together.

Suddenly the hostess of the party totters over to the group. Yeri’s a small girl and when she hooks an arm over Chaeyoung’s shoulder their heads are at the same height. There’s a bright mischievous smile on her lips as she leans forward towards the circle. 

“So we’re thinking of starting a game of seven minutes in heaven. Came to see if any of you guys wanted to join in?” 

“Ooh, seven minutes in heaven?” Chaeyoung lifts her eyebrow. Dahyun hums in agreement and looks at Tzuyu who shrugs.

“I don’t know about that, you three.” Jihyo calls out. “You seem a little too young for that.”

“Yeri is literally the same age as me and Tzuyu,” Chaeyoung whines.

“She’s right y’all. I’m not gonna join in. Just gonna watch the chaos unfold.” Yeri giggles. Chaeyoung gives her high five. 

“Hmm I guess that’s okay. But we're gonna have our eyes on you girls. No funny business.” Jihyo stands and reaches down to pull Jeongyeon up.

Mina and Momo look at each other, shrug and follow the rest, leaving Sana and Nayeon alone.

“So…” Sana syas, picking at the frayed hem of her shorts. She looks up through her bangs, trying to establish eye contact. 

Nayeon chooses to keep her eyes on the stained carpet. “So…”

“Wanna join them?”

Nayeon ponders over her options. Say no and stay here stuffing Hot Cheetos in her mouth as she continues to avoid talking to Sana, or say yes and play the game. There’s always the possibility that she could end up locked in the closet with Sana for seven minutes, but the chances of that happening are low.

She nods and stands. It doesn’t hurt to take the chances. Much better than sitting here as the awkward silence continues to grow more suffocating.

“I’m in.”

“Three, two, one!” 

The beeping of Yeri’s stopwatch signals the end of the current turn. She runs over to the storage closet as the circle of around fifteen girls behind her scream giddily. Yeri rips open the door, revealing Mina and Momo with their lips locked together. 

Too lost in their little world filled with teenage pheromones and young love, It takes the two a second to realise where the sudden stream of light is coming from. Once they do the two immediately jump apart from each other. Well, try to jump apart from each other; the rec room storage closet isn’t exactly spacious. Mina bumps her arm against a spare broom that falls to the floor with a soft thud, while Momo hits her head on a shelf. 

If they weren’t official yet, that about seals the deal. Nayeon chuckles to herself as the two saunter slowly back out into the open, faces as red as ripe tomatoes. It seemed the fates were smiling down on the young couple tonight. Out of everyone in the circle Momo had been lucky enough to draw the strip of paper with Mina’s name written on it. The look of pure shock and thrill on Momo’s face when she had opened the slip of paper was absolutely adorable, Nayeon wishes she had taken a picture of it. What a missed opportunity for prime teasing material. Maybe another time…

The two girls sit back down in the circle. Momo taps Sana’s knee and winks. “Your turn.”

Nayeon feels her throat go dry as she watches Sana begin crawling towards the spare hat in the middle of the circle. Until just now it never once occurred to her that someone was going to have to go into that closet with Sana, even if it ended up not being her. Nayeon wasn’t really sure what made her more uneasy, the thought of Sana’s long thin fingers pulling her name out of that hat or someone else’s.

Her stomach gives a lurch when Sana dips her fingers into the hat, she peers around the circle, her mind flashing with all the possible outcomes. Her sweaty palms clench at the hem of her shirt. She knows most of these girls; she’s gone to school with them for years, is even friends with some. 

But just the thought of any one of them going in that closet with Sana...she couldn’t take it.

Her chest ached. Her hands trembled. She could feel a line of sweat dripping down her back because holy hell why was it so damn hot in here all of a sudden. This was too overwhelming. Nayeon couldn’t handle this anymore, these unfamiliar sensations she always seemed to be getting around Sana. She couldn’t handle this. It was too foreign, yet seemed too familiar at the same time.

Just as Nayeon’s fight or flight instinct was kicking in—and flight was looking like the much more appealing option— Sana finally drew a slip of paper from the hat. Nayeon tensed up, her breath caught in her chest as she watched Sana unfold the paper. It was only a matter of seconds but for Nayeon it felt like an eternity as she watched Sana read the slip blush red from ear to ear before clearing her throat.  

“Um, Nayeon?” Sana slowly lifts her head, her eyes falling directly on Nayeon. Their gazes meet. It’s electrifying. 

A chill runs down Nayeon’s back. She finally remembers how to breathe. “Y-yes?”

“I think we’re supposed to…” Sana shifts her gaze towards the utility closet at the back of the room.

“Oh.”

Shit.

Sana discards the slip of paper with Nayeon’s name in the pile next to the hat. She slowly starts to stand while Nayeon continues staring at her, dumbfounded. There’s a push at the base of Nayeon’s back. She turns around and sees Jihyo lounging on a chair behind her, drink in hand and a smirk on her face.

She motions towards the closet and raises her eyebrow. Her tone is playful when she says, “I think that’s your cue.”

The lightheartedness of Jihyo’s words makes Nayeon realize she’s probably overthinking this. It’s just a game, and one with pretty lenient rules at that. Two people are locked in a dark closet for seven minutes. That’s it. Just because Mina and Momo ended up swapping spit in that closet doesn’t mean Nayeon and Sana actually have to do anything. Nayeon’s going to go into that closet with Sana, avoid talking with her like she has for the last few days, then the timer will go off, they'll exit and everything will be fine and back to normal. Nothing has to happen in that closet. Even if the last time they were that close together Nayeon felt something , she doesn’t have to act on that feeling (whatever that feeling was).

With a nod and a vain chuckle, Nayeon stands and slowly inches towards Sana who’s already standing by the closet’s entrance. Her arms are crossed at her front, her bottom lip tucked into her teeth tentatively. Nayeon tries not to focus on it or the way it makes her stomach knot up even more.

Yeri waddles up to them, the fateful timer in hand. She pulls open the closet door and unceremoniously shoves the two of them in. The last thing Nayeon sees before the door closes and the two of them are plunged into darkness is Yeri’s mischievous grin.

“Have fun you two.”

The door clicks closed in front of Nayeon’s face. She takes a deep breath. It’s almost pitch black save for a small slip of light coming in from underneath the doorway. It doesn’t help much with making anything visible but does allow for Nayeon to get a vague understanding of their surroundings. 

The closet is a rather small space, not much is inside. There’s shelves lined on one side filled with what Nayeon assumes to be various maintenance supplies and she can make out what looks like a mop and a broom stuffed in the other corner. There isn’t much space to move around and Nayeon can feel Sana lingering near her back. If she were to take one step back Sana’s front would be pressed up against her. 

(She briefly wonders how that would feel.)

“Umm I think I saw a light switch in here. Wait.” Sana’s voice comes out much softer than usual. Almost as if she’s afraid to speak. It’s still deafeningly loud to Nayeon’s ears against the empty silence of the closet. 

Sana shuffles around slightly trying to find the switch. Nayeon no longer has to wonder how it would feel to have Sana pressed up against her. She can’t lie to herself. It feels nice, really nice. Not even in a charged way, just simply….nice. Like knowing that Sana’s there with her in that dark space is comforting, and the touch just reassures Nayeon that she’s really there.

The feeling is gone as soon as it comes though. Sana quickly finds the switch and pulls on it. It’s connected to one lone dusty bulb that slowly crackles to life. It isn’t the best lighting in the world but Nayeon can at least actually see objects, not just vague shapes.

“That’s better.” Sana breathes out. Her warm breath hits the back of Nayeon’s neck and she shivers. Suddenly she wishes she hadn’t worn her hair up tonight.

“Yeah, better.”

It’s quiet again for some time, Nayeon isn’t too sure exactly how long. Could be five seconds, could be five minutes. It’s hard for her to focus on much besides Sana’s overwhelming presence behind her.

Sana is obviously the one who breaks the silence.

“As pretty as your back is, I’d like to see your face too.” There’s a playful lilt to her voice that makes Nayeon’s knees go a little weak.

Not able to form a proper response, Nayeon slowly turns around. It isn’t very graceful, she bumps into one of the shelves and stumbles a bit. Sana reaches out a hand to help Nayeon regain her balance. Her palm is warm and steady against the skin of Nayeon’s shoulder.

Nayeon ducks her head bashfully and Sana smiles that same infuriatingly beautiful smile she always has. For a second Nayeon’s able to ignore everything that’s been stirring inside her for the past few days, all the weird confusing feelings she’s been holding inside disappear and everything is okay. It’s just her and Sana here together. 

“There,” Sana says as she tucks a stray piece of Nayeon’s bangs back into place, “it’s good to see your face up close again. I feel like I haven’t seen much of you the last few days.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Nayeon averts her eyes to the ground and runs her hand down the side of her face. “Things have just been kinda...tense, y’know with regionals tomorrow and everything.”

Sana hums in agreeance, “Oh yeah I bet. I can’t even imagine the stress you’re under, what with applying for college and everything on top of cheer.”

Nayeon nods, but in all honesty she hadn’t really been even thinking about college the last few weeks. She’d already sent in early applications beforehand but she should soon be looking for any potential scholarship offers, especially depending on how well the team does at regionals and nationals if they advance. While she knows her future is important and it’s what she’s been working towards and planning for all these years, how she’s feeling in the present is all she’s been able to focus on.

“Well I hope you don’t stress yourself out too much. I’m glad though.”

“Glad?”

“Oh sorry. Not glad about you being stressed but glad that that’s why I haven’t been seeing you lately.” Sana leans against the shelves. She sighs as she looks up at the lone lightbulb buzzing away. “I don’t know, I was scared you were mad at me again or something. Thought I did something wrong.”

“Oh no, no, no Sana. No I’m not mad at you.” Nayeon is in a hurry to get out her words, so they come out sloppy and rushed. “Really, truly. Trust me you did nothing wrong. It’s just me struggling to...deal with things.”

“So I didn’t do anything wrong?” Sana redirects her gaze to Nayeon.

“Of course not.” Nayeon breathes out, “You’re perfect Sana.”

Even in the dim lighting Nayeon can see the blush deepen on Sana’s face. The rosy hue is dusted across the tops of her plump cheeks, that are even more plump now as her smile deepens. It’s an ethereal sight. All of Sana is, from the aquiline slant of her nose to the pure warmth in her round eyes to even the non superficial aspects of her being. She’s one of the most kind and caring people Nayeon’s ever met. Her bright personality is just as infectious as her cheerful laugh, making just the act of being in her presence an immediate mood lifter. 

Nayeon knows that it’s impossible for any one person to achieve actual perfection. But Sana comes really damn close. So yes, Nayeon truly believes it when she says Sana is perfect. 

Because she is perfect in Nayeon’s eyes.

“I don’t know about perfect.” Sana says taking a step forward towards Nayeon. Well as much of a step as she can in such a small space. Her hands find themselves on Nayeon’s arms, they slide down the skin there leaving a trail of goosebumps behind. 

“I do, Sana Minatozaki. I’ve tried all my life to achieve perfection, and here you just come tumbling into my life out of nowhere showing me just what it really is.” Nayeon’s arms find themselves wrapping around Sana’s waist. It’s an instinctual thing, not something Nayeon consciously thinks about as their bodies press closer together. She’s not really thinking about much at the moment aside from how beautiful Sana looks right now, how thankful she is that she met Sana and gave her a chance, how sweet Sana’s lips look and oh did she just lick her lower lip? Wow.

Before Nayeon can realize what’s happening she finds Sana’s lips against her own.

The first thing she notices is that Sana’s lips are just as soft as they look and are even sweeter than she could have ever imagined. She has Nivea cherry flavored chapstick to thank for that. 

The second thing she notices is that while this is far from her first kiss, it definitely feels like a first something. Kissing and sex were great and all before, especially after she had a little practice and got the hang of things. But it never quite felt like this. It never quite felt this right , like kissing Sana was something she was made to do. Like being in this dusty closet with her arms wrapped tightly around Sana’s waist was exactly where Nayeon was meant to be in this exact moment. 

And the third thing that Nayeon notices is the reason why kissing Sana feels so right. Why all this time she’s had some undeniable connection to the beautiful girl in her arms. The twisting in her gut, the tingling down her spine, the uncontrollable emotions. It all made sense now. 

Nayeon never hated Sana in the first place. Yes, she saw her as competition, saw her as a disruption to the status quo she had created for herself, but she also had trouble admitting she was just plain downright attracted to her. And what may have started out as basic attraction has blossomed into genuine admiration and longing for Sana. 

Nayeon realizes now that over the past few months she’s slowly begun falling for Sana. And right now as Sana licks along her lip, she feels herself on a steep dive, unable to control how fast she plummets deeper and deeper into Sana’s grasp.

And it terrifies her.

Nayeon knows what comes next. She knows how things end when romance and—God forbid— love come into the mix. Love is such a fragile emotion. While it can seem strong and defiant like an eternal flame at one point, Nayeon’s seen first hand the damage it causes when that flame begins to sputter out.

And she can’t go through that again. She can’t put Sana through that kind of pain.

So Nayeon does what she was taught to do by her father.

She runs.

With tearstained eyes she runs away from the dusty closet. She runs away from the confused and concerned faces of her friends. And most of all away she runs away from Sana.

It was a normal afternoon for Nayeon that day. She had just gotten off the bus and was walking up the driveway to her house. She noticed her dad’s car was in the driveway, which was odd. He usually wasn’t home from work by the time Nayeon got back from school. Something must have happened at work that day then; perhaps he had gotten off early.

Nayeon breaks into a grin at the thought. If he was home this early he’d be able to actually have dinner with the family today. Having dinner as a whole family had become sort of a rarity. Over the past few months her father had been pulling late nights at the office more often. Nayeon couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen him other than in passing late at night when she would get up to go get a glass of water from the kitchen and see him stumbling into the house. 

So with high hopes Nayeon bent down to get the house key hidden under the mat at the back door and entered their house. She kicked off her shoes at the door, making sure to set them on the rack placed there by her mother. Ever since she had started coming home from school by herself this year she had gotten in a bad habit of leaving her shoes messily by the door, and Nayeon really didn’t want to get scolded by her mom again for forgetting.

As Nayeon tiptoed in the house further she soon realized that even if she had forgotten, her mom wouldn’t be doing any scolding that day. The harrowing sound of her mother’s weeping made it clear that she was much too distressed by something else to worry about something as insignificant as misplaced shoes.

There’s something really scarring about seeing your mother cry for the first time. To see someone you always viewed as this indestructible force to be reckoned with, someone you would always run to with all your problems knowing that everything would be alright with their help, to see that person broken to their core was terrifying. Nayeon felt like her world had been flipped on top of itself. 

And she would soon find out that is exactly what had happened.

“M-mom?” Nayeon calls out as she peered around the corner into the dining room. 

Her mother, who had been hunched over at the table with her head in her hands, quickly tries to sober up. She rubs at her wet eyes turning around to face Nayeon. She smiles, but it’s painfully forced. Her voice cracks when she speaks, “Hi honey. H-how was school today?”

“Mom what’s wrong?” Nayeon hesitantly walks towards her mother. “Wh-why were you crying? Where’s Dad?”

Bam. The sound of the master bedroom door slams down the hall. There’s the sound of wheels creaking on the hardwood floors and a few seconds later Nayeon’s father comes into sight. He’s still dressed in his suit from work and has a suitcase grasped in one of his hands. A woman that Nayeon finds vaguely familiar soon walks up behind her father. She has a stony emotionless face as she places a hand on Nayeon’s dad’s shoulder.

What? Is the only thought that runs through Nayeon’s head as she watches her father lean into the woman’s touch. 

She knows what’s going on, she may only be eleven years old but she’s not dumb. Her mother crying, the suitcase, the woman she now recognizes as her father’s secretary—it’s all really obvious. She’s heard the word divorce before and knows what it means, she even has a few friends at school whose parents are no longer together.

It still just feels unbelievable that this is actually happening. She had always thought her parents were soulmates, that they’d always be together. She’d heard her father say ‘I love you’ to her mother a million times. 

Did those words actually mean anything? Did he just say them out of obligation? Or worse, did those words used to actually hold meaning but with time his feelings dwindled away?

 “Dad? What’s happening? Why do you have a suitcase? Where are you going?” Even though Nayeon already knows the answer she still needs to hear it from her father.

In his defense Nayeon’s father at least has the audacity to look ashamed. He runs a hand over his face and glances to where Nayeon’s mother sits before looking back at Nayeon. “Nayeon, honey, look...Daddy’s going to have to go away for a while.”

“Go where?” Nayeon can hear her voice trembling as she speaks.

“Away.”

Every inch of Nayeon’s body feels numb as tears begin to well up in her eyes. They burn as they slowly spill over and move in stinging trails down her cheek. She gulps heavily. “B-but why?”

Her father looks back at the women on his side. He doesn’t even need to speak. He probably won’t even be able to say the true reason why. It’s okay though, because Nayeon already knows.

Because he doesn’t love them anymore.

“Nayeon, Nayeon. Wake up.” 

There’s a nauseating throb at the front of Nayeon’s head as she slowly opens her eyes. Disoriented, she peers up and sees a perky Jihyo next to her, shaking her shoulder rapidly. 

“Nayeon c’mon you need to wake up. Coach says we’re about ten minutes from the convention center.”

Nayeon groans but nods and sits up. “I’m up, I’m up.”

She knew it was a bad idea to sleep on the bus before a competition, especially since her makeup and hair had already been done. Her ponytail is pulling at her scalp in the most uncomfortable way and the mascara made her groggy eyes sting. She had had a rough night last night though, after running out from the party she had locked herself in her and Jihyo’s room and cried quietly under her covers for the majority of the night. Maybe two or three hours of sleep had snuck in there, but mostly she just wept and questioned all of the decisions she made over the past few months.

So the one and half hour power nap on the bus while it might’ve not been the best idea was something her body needed dearly. Plus it beat just sitting in her seat trying to ignore the burn of Sana’s sad gaze on the back of her head.

Nayeon knows that she shouldn’t risk a glance back at the girl right now, but she’s unable to control herself. Luckily when Nayeon turns around Sana isn’t looking in her direction anymore. Instead she was pressed up against the side of the bus, staring glumly out as she nods every now and then at whatever Dahyun was saying next to her. 

Nayeon’s chest aches as she looks at the downtrodden look on Sana’s usually bright face. She wants to say something, do anything to get that darkness out of Sana’s eyes. But there isn’t anything that she can do.

Sana had tried to talk to her this morning when they boarded the bus. She wanted to know what happened last night, why Nayeon had run away so suddenly without explanation. Nayeon ignored her though and chose to walk past Sana and take a seat next to Jihyo at the front of the bus, only giving a quiet ‘sorry’ as a response.

Nayeon knows it was wrong of her to do what she did to Sana last night. She knows Sana is probably worried and confused. But Nayeon also knows she’s saving Sana and herself from the inevitable pain that would come from them acting on their feelings for one another.

And they definitely did have feelings for one another. At least Nayeon knows she has them for Sana. She shivers at the thought, terrified at the realization from last night.

Sana may or may not like Nayeon back. If she did it would explain why she kissed Nayeon last night, and why the kiss felt like it did. But that doesn’t matter. None of it matters because Nayeon won’t be doing anything about it. Love is a terrifying battlefield and Nayeon isn’t ready to go to war. 

She’d already decided a long time ago that she wouldn’t get romantically involved with anyone. At least not now. She isn’t ready for it. She isn’t ready to get hurt again. She isn’t ready to possibly hurt someone the way her father hurt their family.

Plus there were more pressing matters at hand, regionals were finally happening. Their team had been working towards this moment for months. Nayeon can’t afford to not have her eyes on the prize right now. They needed to win in their division today in order to advance to nationals. If she wasn’t focused, Nayeon could hurt their team's chance at that. 

Nayeon was able to separate her personal issues with Sana from cheer before. Back when she had sworn Sana was the bane of her existence she had been able to push all of that aside and be civil with Sana during practice for the sake of the team. So she can do that again now.

“Hey what’s up with you today? You’re usually so hyped you can barely sit in your seat before a competition.” Jihyo asks Nayeon. Her eyebrows are drawn together in concern as she looks at her friend.

Nayeon just waves her off, “It’s nothing. Don’t worry. I’m just tired.”

Jihyo doesn’t look convinced. “Nothing? You sure about that? It doesn’t have to do with what happened last night in that closet?”

“Nothing happened in that closet last night. I already told you that.” Nayeon grunts as the bus hit a bump on the road. She grabs ahold of the seat in front of them, her nails digging into the cushion of the seat.

“Sure nothing happened. You just ran out looking like you saw a ghost for no reason.”

“Look Hyo, please.” Nayeon grits out from between her teeth. “I don’t want to talk about it. At least not right now, okay?”

Jihyo stares at her with her lips pursed, but eventually she nods. She drapes her arm around Nayeon’s shoulder, rubbing her hand up and down Nayeon’s arm. “Alright. But you promise me you’re okay? You’re not pushing yourself just because we perform in a few hours? I need Nayeon the person to be okay, not just Nayeon the cheerleader.”

“Yes, I’m fine. I promise.” It isn’t entirely true, but Nayeon can’t really tell the truth right now.

Jihyo smiles and runs a finger along the side of Nayeon’s eye. “Okay, well then here let me fix your makeup. Your eyeliner ran a little when you were asleep plus you need some more glitter on your cheeks.”

Nayeon closes her eyes and let’s Jihyo get to work. She tries to block out the distress she’s feeling and focus on the feeling of Jihyo’s makeup brush tickling her skin. 

She also tries to block out the image of Sana’s distraught face that’s burned into the back of her eyelids.

Their team performs in a little less than an hour and Nayeon’s nerves are really starting to kick in as they enter the warm-up area. She usually isn’t this nervous before a competition, but the tension that has been building between Sana and her all morning is throwing Nayeon off her game. It also doesn’t help that the other team currently on the main practice mat move together with the synchronization of a military squadron. 

Nayeon almost faints when she sees one of their members execute a tumbling pass that includes the most beautiful double full twisting layout she’s ever seen. She takes a deep breath and looks away from the mat. Now is not the time to psyche herself out.

As their team files onto the stretching mat, Nayeon tries not to let her eyes linger on Sana. She’s been unusually quiet all morning, which Nayeon assumes she’s to blame for. It’s painful, seeing Sana this way. It just feels wrong to see her lips set in a constant frown. Her distant gaze chills Nayeon to the bone like an unusual cold front on a sweet summer day. 

Nayeon wouldn’t have acted so rash last night if she’d had known Sana would react this way to her running out. The whole reason she ran in the first place was to protect Sana and herself from the inevitable mess and pain that comes with love. Is it possible that her impulsive decisions lead to them being more hurt in the end?

Did I only make things more complicated?

It’s starting to feel like the answer to that question is yes. They both go through the motions during stretches. Sana is lackluster with her movements, not fully stretching any of her limbs. Nayeon lets Jihyo take the lead on counting for everyone, much too distracted by Sana to focus on the task. They finish in ten minutes and time for their team to move on to the next warm station.

Everyone files into a line at the end of the long mat designated for tumling. Each member of the team gets two chances to practice their tumbling pass before they have to move on to the next station. Nayeon is at the front of the line and is able to do her tumbling pass without any hiccups. She stumbled a bit at the end of her double back tuck but managed not to royally fuck up the landing. She goes back to the end of the line and watches the rest of the girls on their team go. Everything is going fine, everyone is able to go through the first round with great technique and no major mistakes. Nayeon is even able to distract herself from all of her thoughts for a second, the rush of adrenaline she gets from perfectly completing her pass the second time gives her a temporary high.

Everything falls apart though when Sana steps up to the mat for her second turn. Right before she begins tumbling, she turns around and finds Nayeon’s eyes. There’s a slight glaze to her eyes, as if she’s about to cry. Her lips are pursed like she wants to say something, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t need to, the sadness in her gaze says it all. Sana turns back towards the mat, takes a deep breath and begins tumbling. 

Sana’s definitely their team’s strongest tumbler by far and the speed and strength she has at the beginning of her tumbling pass proves it. She starts off strong, her round off into a front handspring is flawless. Her long limbs look graceful as they propel her further down the mat. Near the end of her pass though she uses too much force during her final layout and fumbles the landing, falling backwards onto her bottom. 

Nayeon gasps loudly. It’s not the kind of mistake that could cause an injury but just the fact that Sana messed up in the first place is astounding. It’s the first time Nayeon’s ever seen Sana not stick her landing. She waits with bated breath for Sana to get up. However Sana stays down on the floor, her eyes open wide in shock. She looks down at the mat in disbelief at what just happened.

 Nayeon glances at the large clock on display at the center of the room indicating how much time is left before each team needs to rotate to the next warm-up section. There’s only a minute left before they need to move on. Sana was one of the last people in line but there’s still a few more girls who need to take their last turn tumbling. Nayeon starts to slowly walk towards Sana’s slack form on the floor but their coach—who had been watching on the sidelines—beats her to the punch. Sunmi runs up to Sana on the floor and bends down.

It’s busy in the giant warm-up room with numerous cheers and chants being shouted out in the background. Even with all that noise, Nayeon can hear the worried voice of their coach. “Sana, are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?”

Sana stiffly shakes her head from side to side. “No.”

“Okay. Well do you need help off the mat?” Sunmi holds her hand out to Sana.

“I…” San’s voice cracks when she tries to speak again. “I don’t-”

Her words break off when she lifts her head up and locks eyes with Nayeon. The dam holding back her tears breaks and with a fury Sana begins sobbing. 

“I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I can’t do this.”

With her head in her hands Sana jumps up and runs off, past the rest of their teammates and out of the room. The buzzer on the timer blares out just as Sana’s long brunette ponytail goes out of sight. Time’s up for this warm up section, their team needs to move on. 

But that’s something Nayeon just can’t seem to do.

Sunmi stands and starts to run in the direction Sana went off in but Nayeon puts a hand out, stopping her. “No Coach, I’ll go get her.”

As soon as Sunmi nods at her, Nayeon bursts into a sprint. It’s a flurry of bows and glitter as Nayeon darts in and out of the chaotic mass of cheerleaders in the room. She exits the room and runs down the empty corridor of the convention centers back hallways. The echoes of her sneakers hitting the cold concrete floors mix with her desperate voice as she shouts.

“Sana! Sana!”

Not only is Sana an excellent cheerleader, she apparently could also be a track star if she wanted to. Nayeon fills her heart beating in her throat as she runs around at full speed, not a trace of Sana in sight. The long winding corridors add to her sense of urgency and disarray as she continues to call out for Sana.

“Sana! Sana! Where are you?” 

Nayeon runs and runs but eventually has to take a break. She stops near a bathroom she finds and puts her hands on her knees. Her head hangs limply as she tries to catch her breath. Just as she’s about to set off on her quest to find Sana again, she hears a faint sound coming from the entrance of the women’s bathrooms. 

She walks towards the open entrance and listens closely. The quiet sound of muffled sobs drift through the air. The voice sounds a little too familiar for her liking and considering the situation they’re currently in, she has a pretty good idea who the source of the sound is. Nayeon goes inside the bathroom to further inspect.

There,curled up in a ball on the floor next to the line of stalls sits Sana. Her head is resting on her knees, the glitter red bow on it crumpled and skewed to the side. Her shoulders shake as she sobs. 

Nayeon’s heart breaks in half at the sight.

“Oh Sana.”

She rushes over and crouches down next to the other girl. Nayeon gently places a hesitant hand on Sana’s shoulder, but this only makes her cries grow louder. 

“No,” Sana whimpers out. “No, please don’t. Please. I can’t take it. I’m sorry.”

Nayeon feels the sting of tears in her own eyes as she watches Sana try to curl up further in on herself. “Sorry? What are you sorry for? This is all my fault.”

Sana’s whimpers putter out as she lifts her head up. Her eyes are red and puffy. A mix of eyeliner and mascara are smudged all around her top and bottom eyelids. They mix with the glitter placed there, making for a muddy and chaotic yet beautiful mess. 

(Nayeon doesn’t think she could ever not find Sana beautiful.)

“Your fault?” Sana questions incredulously. “No this is my fault. This is my fault for thinking things would be different here.”

“Different here?” It’s Nayeon’s turn to be confused. “Sana what?”

Sana laughs bitterly. It’s a dry dark sound, one that doesn’t sound like it should be coming from a girl who usually has a smile so bright it could rival the sun gracing her face. She looks off into the distance, her face emotionless as she speaks. “I thought it would be different this time. Everyone at this school, everyone on the team...just seemed so accepting.” 

Nayeon still has no idea what Sana is talking about, so she waits hoping for her to continue.

A lone tear streaks down the side of Sana’s face. She wipes at it and lets out a long breath before shaking her head. “I was so stupid for thinking that. It’s just that, I don’t know Jihyo and Jeongyeon are so open about their relationship and you had no problem with us trying to get Momo and Mina together. I just….”

Sana’s gaze is devastating as she lifts it to meet Nayeon’s. Emptiness, agony, longing. All of those and more are dancing around in her bloodshot eyes. 

“I thought you were different. I know it’s stupid now, but I just...I thought that maybe we had something.”

Nayeon’s dumbfounded. Sana’s words have only made her more confused. She has no idea what Jeongyeon, Jihyo, Momo or Mina have to do with all of this. 

She plops herself down on the ground so she can get closer to Sana. “Sana, I’m sorry but I don’t understand. You thought I was different? Different from who?”

Sana stretches out her legs, letting her arms fall limply to her side as she slinks back against the wall. “Do you remember when we went to the lake that one time? When we all went pedal boating?”

Nayeon nods. It was one of the first times she got to interact properly with Sana without any unfounded hatred clouding her mind. That day was great, and it’s a fond memory—one she’ll probably keep locked away in her mind forever.

“Ok, so remember when we were talking about why I transferred schools. Well I didn’t really say the truth. I mean I didn’t lie, there was an issue. I just didn’t tell you what that issue was.”

Sana had seemed hesitant back then and it wasn’t Nayeon’s place to push for the story. “Alright, do you want to tell me now?” 

Sana nods. She looks up at the ceiling, the fluorescent lights casting a melancholy glow on her face. She takes a deep breath. Her voice is unsteady when she speaks. 

“Well I haven’t exactly told you this, but I’m...well I’m gay. I don’t really speak about it because I feel like it’s stupid to have to come out. Like straight people don’t have to come out as straight, so why should I have to tell people I’m gay if it doesn’t come up? I’ve always felt like this. I mean I don’t mind saying it, I’m not ashamed. Just it’s not the only thing there is about me, I don’t want to just be known as the ‘gay girl’.” 

Nayeon nods in agreeance. She’s always felt similarly about her sexuality. Being bisexual had stigmas of it’s own and she didn’t feel like dealing with people’s unnecessary bullshit if she didn’t have to. 

“So at my last school no one knew I was gay, and I was fine with that. But somehow someone on the cheer squad found out. I guess one of their friends had met my old girlfriend and somehow my name came up. So I was cornered at practice the next day and they asked me about it. And again, I’m not ashamed or embarrassed, so when they asked if I was gay, I just said ‘yes’. And well, they didn’t really like that.”

Sana cuts herself off. She grits her teeth as she tries to hold back another round of tears. “They, uh, didn’t like the idea of a ‘dyke’ being on their team. So, you know, they made my life a living hell. It started off with small things like stealing my practice clothes so I’d be late for practice and have to run or just whisper whenever I would walk by. But eventually, they decided to post pictures of my face on bulletin boards around the school that had just awful things written on them. They petitioned for me to get kicked off the squad, said they didn’t feel comfortable with me being in the same locker room as them. You know, Nayeon, I tried really hard to be strong. I really, really tried. But it got to the point where I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

Nayeon’s blood was boiling by the time Sana finished speaking. She was lucky to not have to deal with homophobia, but she knew there were others that had to deal with it everyday of their lives. Finding out that Sana was one of those people plagued with that kind of hatred and bigotry was devastating. Sana—someone so positive and kind—had been treated so viciously just because she happened to like girls. It was terrible. Nayeon wonders how Sana was able to stay so happy and optimistic after something like that.

“Oh Sana, I can’t believe someone would do something like that. And your school just let that happen to you? They didn’t do anything about it?”

“I mean at that point basically the whole squad had turned against me. What were they going to do, expel the whole cheer team? They just got a slap on the wrist and were told not to do it again. But it kept happening. I had no choice but to just leave.” Sana wipes at her wet eyes. “And when I came to J.Y. Prep and saw how Jihyo, the co-captain of the cheer squad , was able to be in an open relationship with another girl I thought I had finally found a place I could be accepted.”

“But Sana, you did? We would never tolerate any of that crap on our squad. I would never let someone treat you like that.” Nayeon grabs a hold of Sana’s hands and squeezes them tightly, “Never.”

Sana’s eyebrows scrunch up together. She gives Nayeon a dazed look. “What? But after last night? I mean….you don’t hate me because I kissed you?”

“Oh Sana, no! I don’t hate you. I could never hate you.” Even when she had thought she hated Sana, she knows deep down she never really did. “Besides I’m definitely not homophobic. I kind of have been with my fair share of girls before, and I don't have any of that internalized hatred or anything.”

“Why did you run out then? It was so weird, I just thought you had kind of liked me and then when I kissed you, you kissed me back. I was really into it and it seemed like you were too, but then you pulled away with that deer in the headlights look and ran. And then all day long you kept ignoring me when I tried to apologize. So, I thought I had read the situation wrong and scared you.” 

Nayeon shakes her head and holds Sana’s hands up to her chest, right where her heart is. “Sana, trust me when I say this. You weren't the only one into it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about kissing you.” 

It’s hard to tell underneath the heavy cheer makeup Sana has on her cheeks  but Nayeon thinks she blushes. “Okay...but what happened then? Did I do something wrong? I didn’t think I was that bad of a kisser.”

Nayeon hates talking about what happened with her dad, she loathes it. But Sana deserves an actual explanation after all the confusion Nayeon put her through. So Nayeon lets go of Sana’s hands and readies herself to talk about something she swore she never would again. 

“You 're kind of right in thinking you scared me. I was scared last night. I still am. Terrified actually. But not because you’re gay or a bad kisser. Which by the way you definitely are not. ” Nayeon drops Sana’s hands from her grasp and leans back against the wall. “Last night, when you kissed me, it made me realize that I like you Sana. Well, no, like doesn’t even begin to describe it. You make me feel things that I’ve  never felt before. I’ve never really had crushes or dated anyone before, I don’t really like romance. I think it’s a bunch of bullshit. My dad, um, when I was eleven cheated on my mom. When she found out about it, he just left us. Ran away with his secretary and I haven’t heard from him since. I never really believed in love after that. He used to always say he ‘loved’ my mom and me before, and I used to believe him. But after he left ‘love’ seemed like a fake word. How could he do that to someone he ‘loved’? It didn’t make sense.”

“Nayeon I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”

Nayeon waves her off, “Why are you sorry? You’re not the one who left us. But anyways, I just never liked the idea of love. At least romantic love. I mean yeah I see Jeongyeon and Jihyo and can see they genuinely love each other. But honestly they’re both in highschool, they have no idea how they’re going to feel two years from now. What if they go to different schools? What if they fall out of love? I’ve seen it happen before.”

“But I mean that’s a part of it. The ‘not knowing what will happen’. It makes you appreciate your time together now even more.”

“Well yeah I guess that’s right. But I’ve just never wanted to take that risk before. I never had to worry about wanting to take that risk. But then I met you, Sana.”

Nayeon looks down at the tiled floor, too embarrassed to look Sana in the eye as she continues. “Sana I’ve never met anyone like you. Your never ending optimism drove me crazy at first, but now I can’t imagine not seeing that smile of yours everyday. The way you could strike up a conversation with literally anyone about literally anything is amazing to me. Your laugh is infectious, and when your cheeks puff up when you giggle I just about die.”

Nayeon trails off. She could go on and on about all the things she loves about Sana. She could try to formulate into words just how much she admires the girl sitting next to her, but nothing will come close to accurately explaining just how amazing Sana is to Nayeon. With a small smile Nayeon looks up at Sana again. Sana had stopped crying some time ago, but the evidence of it still linger in her tear-stained cheeks. She doesn’t look sad right now as she waits for Nayeon to continue to speak. Her expression is a mix of confusion, anxiousness and a little bit of hopefulness. 

“Sana I never really thought I could love someone. But when we kissed...I could imagine myself falling in love with you. I feel like I am falling for you. And that scares the living shit out of me. I don’t want either of us to get hurt in the end. I don’t think I could handle that. And I’m sorry for running out on you last night. It was stupid of me to not talk to you about it. But I wasn’t thinking straight and I ended up hurting both of us anyways.”

It’s quiet for a moment after that. The sound of one of the faucets leaking from the other side of the bathroom is deafening to Nayeon’s ears as she waits for Sana to respond. She had just basically bared her heart to the other girl, something she had never done before, and it was agonizing waiting to hear something, anything, in response from her. 

Unexpectedly Sana begins laughing. It starts out as a quiet dry chuckle but eventually she’s full on bursting with mirth. She clutches her stomach leaning over to rest her head on Nayeon’s shoulder.

“We’re a fucking mess, aren’t we?” Sana finally says once she quiets down.

She looks up at Nayeon and when their eyes meet they both promptly burst out into another fit of laughter. It’s cathartic in a way. After months and months of inner turmoil, Nayeon finally admitted the truth to both Sana and herself. Finally she was free. She liked Sana Minatozaki. She may be falling for Sana Minatozaki. And while the thought still scared her, it felt good to say it loud for once.

After they both sober up again, Nayeon reaches over and takes ahold of one of Sana’s hands. The skin of Sana’s palm is just as smooth and warm as she remembers. Nayeon interlocks her longer fingers in between each of Sana’s loosely. “Look Sana. I like you. Alot. Maybe more. I don’t know. But I also don’t know if I’m ready for a relationship.”

“I like you a lot too Nayeon, but it’s okay with me if we don’t date.” Sana smiles at Nayeon and for the first time that day it has that familiar warmth to it. “I just want you in my life in whatever way I can.”

“You do? Even after what I did last night?”

“Well, I think we need to be honest with each other about things from now on. But yes I do. I want to be with you Nayeon.”

“Honest. I can do that. I think I need to start being more honest with myself too. I tried to ignore my feelings for you for such a long time...I don’t think that was good for me.”

“Well at least you’re being honest with yourself now.” Sana squeezes Nayeon’s hand, “That’s a good first step.”

As much as Nayeon would like to stay sitting on the floor of this bathroom with Sana’s hand in her own, they still have to compete today. Nayeon looks at the clock on the wall and sees that it’s about fifteen minutes before they’re time slot. She reaches over and rubs at Sana’s puffy eyes. 

“We can continue to be more honest with each other later, but right now we need to get back to the others.”

Sana gasps suddenly remembering where they are. “Oh god, the others. I can’t believe I ran out of warm ups like that.”

Nayeon stands up from the floor and dusts off her skirt. She reaches back down and holds out a hand for Sana. “They probably already went through the run through without us but it should be fine. You could do that routine in your sleep. Let’s just get back there and fix your makeup before we have to get on the mat. I still think you look just as beautiful as always, but the judges might deduct points for non-uniformity.”

Sana chuckles and lets Nayeon pull her up off the ground. They run out of the bathroom and start the trek back down the long winding halls of the convention center.

Nayeon doesn’t let go of Sana’s hand even once.

They make it back to the rest of the squad in just the knick of time. When Nayeon and Sana return, their team is next on deck and standing back in the rafters anxiously awaiting their turn.

“Finally!” Jihyo calls out as soon as she spots the pair. “We’ve all been worried sick. Are you two alright?”

Nayeon looks over at Sana who, despite looking a bit like a raccoon still with all the messed up eyeliner and mascara, looks much happier and a lot more calm than she was when she ran off thirty minutes ago.

“Yeah, I think we’re fine for now. Sana?” 

 Sana smiles and squeezes Nayeon’s hand in hers. “Yep. We’re good.”

“I’m really glad you guys are okay but we have fifteen minutes before you guys go on,” Sunmi walks over pulling out her coach’s bag and digging out the extra makeup and hairspray she always keeps on hand during competition. “And your hair and makeup are in need of some attention.”

With a flurry of makeup wipes, brushes and bobby pins, Sana and Nayeon are back to looking pristine in their uniforms like the rest of the squad. They’ve moved up a head in line and are the next team to go on the mat. Nayeon can feel her nerves balling up in her stomach but it’s the good kind. The little bit of anxiety mixes with her adrenaline and helps her to perform just that much better. 

Nayeon calls the team to gather around in a huddle. “Alright guys, this is it. This is what we’ve been working towards for months and months. All of the weekend practices and hard work have led up to this moment. We need to go out and make that mat our own, you hear me?”

A chorus of cheers rings around the circle.

Jihyo claps her hands together encouragingly. “Okay, remember, we’ve got this! Don’t freak yourself, especially if this is your first competition. Remember to still have fun out there! We’re a team and we’re in this together. No matter what the outcome, I’m proud of what we’ve all accomplished.”

Nayeon locks eyes with Sana at Jihyo’s words. 

We’re in this together.

Sana nods and grins, understanding Nayeon’s unspoken words.

Jihyo puts her hand in the middle and Nayeon follows suit, placing hers directly on top. The rest of the team quickly adds on to the pile. Her voice carrying the strength of lion Jihyo shouts at the top of her lungs, 

“Who are we?!”

The rest of the team responds, throwing their hands up victoriously. 

“J.Y.P!”

The music on the main stage stops, signaling the end of the competing team’s performance. The crowd outside roars as the team exits off the stage and the lights go down. Nayeon gulps. It’s time

Nayeon heads to the front of the line, a coveted position. In all star cheer competitions the first cheerleader that steps onto the mat is the first impression of the squad the judges get to see. It may not seem like a huge deal to those not familiar with cheer, but having an energetic and confident entrance can really make a huge difference to your presentation score.

The rest of the team files in behind her and they walk up to the entrance for the stage. Nayeon lowers her head and tightens her arms to her side as the announcer begins introducing their team. She goes through a mental checklist.

Back straight. Check. Shoulders pushed back. Check. Shoes tied correctly. Check.

Everything is as it should be, but she still can’t stop her nerves from welling up inside. This is it, the first competition for her Senior year of high school. Hopefully, everything goes well today and their team advances on to nationals but that isn’t 100% a guaranteed thing. Nayeon really hopes this won’t be the last competition of her high school cheer career. 

Cheering is something she loves to do. Sure she’ll still have basketball games to cheer at starting next week, but doing stand cheers just isn’t the same as competing. There’s nothing quite like the thrill she gets when she first steps out on that mat, the blaring lights above shining down on her as she smiles and leads her team. Their cheer routine may only be two minutes and thirty seconds long, but Nayeon will be damned if she’s not at her happiest when performing for that short period of time.

 The announcer finishes calling out their school’s name and the loud bass of the intro music starts. That’s Nayeon’s cue. She takes the first step out and slaps her hand on the sides of her legs immediately popping her head up after and placing her hands on her hips. She smiles so wide her cheeks start to ache. 

Time to shine.

Like always the next few minutes go by in a blur as Nayeon performs. The minute the music starts for their routine, she goes in a trance. Her body moves on pure muscle memory for the most part and Nayeon puts most of her effort into being as sharp and charismatic as possible. 

Their team gives an excellent performance, possibly the best run through of the routine they’ve done so far that year. From what Nayeon can see in the corner of her eye while stunting, all groups execute their stunts perfectly and not one falls. The tumbling portion of the routine is great; Sana sticks her landing this time and no one else has any major slip ups. Their jumps are high, their voices are loud, their moves are sharp. Everything is perfect to a tee.

So why is Nayeon not getting the usual rush of elation performing gives her?

Not to say she isn’t enjoying herself. She’s happy performing because it’s something she loves to do. Only the feeling isn’t as strong as it used to be. It isn’t overwhelming her. She’s not at her happiest right now.

Near the end of their routine, realization dawns on Nayeon.

Performing isn’t the thing that makes her the happiest anymore. No, that place in her heart is occupied by something else now. Well, more like someone else. 

As the last note of the music plays and Nayeon hits her final pose she looks across the mat towards Sana. The warm lights radiate across the girl’s face casting an almost angelic glow around her. Nayeon’s heart flutters in her chest, it beats vigorously against her rib cage threatening to burst out of her body and fly away.

She didn’t think it was possible, but Nayeon’s smile grows even wider.

After finishing a performance there’s a rule to wait three seconds before breaking out of your pose. Those three seconds are long enough for Nayeon to make a decision.

She decides to no longer let her fear hold her back. She decides that maybe change doesn’t always have to be something bad. She decides to not let past experiences keep her from having new better ones.

Nayeon decides to take a chance on Sana. Possible heartbreak be damned, because being with Sana makes her the happiest she’s ever been.

As their team goes off the mat, Nayeon runs to Sana for the second time that day.  Nayeon catches Sana’s hand and pulls her towards the side of the stage, in the darkness and away from prying eyes. She wraps her hands around Sana’s waist and pulls her in their lips meeting in a searing kiss.

Sana’s shocked at first but soon melts into Nayeon’s arms. She brings her arms up and latches them around Nayeon’s neck. Sana’s soft lips press back against Nayeon’s, the two moving in harmony together.

Eventually, Nayeon pulls away, leaning her forehead against Sana’s. Their rapid breaths mix together sweetly. Sana slowly opens her eyes and Nayeon feels her soul leave her body.

“What-” Sana pants out, “What was that for?”

“I realized something out there Sana. I may love cheering a whole bunch, but I think I’m falling in love with you even more.”

Sana blinks, “So does that mean…”

“I want to give this a try, Sana.” Nayeon gestures in between the two of them, “I want to give us a try. If that’s okay with you?”

“Yes, that’s more than okay with me.” A ray of sunshine is painted over Sana’s face as she laughs and nods. “So does that make us…”

“Girlfriends?” Nayeon raises an eyebrow.

“Girlfriends.” Sana agrees.

Nayeon swoops in to place another kiss on Sana’s lips. This definitely was not how she planned for her senior year to go. The minute Sana Minatozaki tumbled her way into Nayeon’s life, any semblance of Nayeon’s plans for her perfect senior year were instantly obliterated. 

That’s okay, though. Change really isn’t that bad after all.