[CONTENTID1]Chapter 21[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]"Clear skies after the rain is your pretense, always smiling at me is your strength,"[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]             "What the do you want?" Sena deadpans, staring at the apologetic girl with an emotionless stare. Mina flinches under the cold, apathetic words, but swallows down her fear and gives the snow haired girl a genuine smile filled with remorse and pity.

             "Can I come inside?" Mina softly asks, gesturing at the presents in her hand. "These things get heavy after a while."

             "Depends. Are you going to call your friends and beat me up if I keep flirting with Baekhyun?"

           ​​​​​​​  "I—," Mina stammers, clearly flustered. "No, actually, I... I wanted to apologize..."

           ​​​​​​​  Sena stares at her, unimpressed, but moves away from the entrance to let the other girl in. "Yeah. Okay. Take a seat on the couch. Please remember that there are cameras in this house, and if you try to assault me again I'll have evidence."

           ​​​​​​​  "I will try to remember that," Mina chuckles nervously. She stumbles to the couch and nearly breaks her gift when she drops it on the coffee table, overcome by anxiety. She sits daintily on the sofa, in contrast to Sena who confidently struts to the couch and regally sits on it, like a queen sitting on her throne. Even with her injuries and multiple bandages on her body Sena looks beautiful. The shy girl's voice got stuck in , looking at Kang Sena.

           ​​​​​​​  The girl was a work of art, and Mina's opinion of her hasn't changed one bit, no matter how hard she tries.

           ​​​​​​​  "A-as I was saying," the apologetic girl starts again, shying away from the stare. "I'm really sorry about what happened. I didn't know they would do such a thing, I wasn't informed until Baekhyun told me, I swear—I know this doesn't magically fix your injuries, so I got you a first aid kit and some cookies I baked... I don't expect you to forgive me or even believe me, but I want us to start over. Really. Fighting over a boy is stupid, and it's not your fault Baekhyun broke up with me. We started off on the wrong foot, and I regret that."

           ​​​​​​​  , Sena mentally sighs. The girl really was that nice. How can she expect Sena to hate her when she's literally an angel in disguise?

           ​​​​​​​  "You want us to be friends?" The blonde raises an eyebrow. "I doubt we have a lot in common, but okay, I guess. It's against my morals to hate a girl because of some boy anyways."

           ​​​​​​​  She apologizes to Baekhyun for calling him a boy, but not really. Besides, she doubts this 'friendship' would even work out. What could they even have in common? Mina looks like the type of girl to bake cupcakes for children, and Sena is the type to steal cupcakes from children. They're yin and yang, white and black. No way it'll work.

           ​​​​​​​  It did work. Ten minutes after talking, Sena finds out that they both listened to obscure fake deep music and hated sports. Mina has so much in common with the blonde girl it's unreal, and completely unexpected.

           ​​​​​​​  "And then one time, during freshman orientation, Sehun stood up during the principal's speech and asked him if the counselors gave away free condoms," Mina cackles, waving her hands in the air wildly as she explains the story. "Like, our principal is super conservative, and he knew that, and I've never seen the old man look so red in the face. I thought he was going to expel your twin brother."

           ​​​​​​​  "It sounds like something he'd do," Sena snickers, her icy façade melting away with every word spoken. "I remember back in third grade he asked the teacher what the difference was between an organism and an ."

           ​​​​​​​  Just when she was about to say something, Mina's phone rings. Walking to a more private place to answer it, the pretty girl comes back a few moments later with a remorseful face and gestures to her phone.

           ​​​​​​​  "My parents want me to come home and help them out," Mina explains regretfully. "I really wanted to hang with you, but they insisted. Do you want to meet me tomorrow to do something?"

           ​​​​​​​  "You don't have to hang with me because you feel bad for me. It's fine. Go do what your parents asked."

           ​​​​​​​  "No!" Mina exclaims, blushing. "I really want us to be friends. You seem like a cool person, and we have a lot in common. How about I pick you up at 7 PM tomorrow and we can have a girls' night out? It must be tiring to hang out with guys all the time and I doubt they've shown you any cool places around this town."

           ​​​​​​​  "Well..." Sena hesitates. It's been such a long time since she's hung out with someone who isn't part of the soccer team, and it's been an even longer time since she's hung out with a girl. Friends haven't been a top priority since the Yixing incident, and it finally strikes her how lonely she's been. Even when he was alive she's never been a social person, always preferring to hang out with a close group of friends she trusted than befriending hundreds of people she barely knew. When he left, so did their friend group, but then again, it can't even be considered a group when it was just three people. She has friends now, though. Lu Han and Sehun and Chanyeol and maybe even Baekhyun and she finds that she misses having friends. A lot. "Yeah. Just give me the meeting place. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow."

           ​​​​​​​  "Great!" Mina beams. "See you!"

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