Than Never to Have Loved
Mina

It’s only been a week but Mina likes school.

Well, she likes some parts of school.

Like classes and making friends and hanging out. Not so much the homework or the tests which she supposes makes her a fairly average student. Math does not faze her and English is kind of hard but sometimes it’s not too bad so really she doesn’t mind. The dance major is pretty neat too - she gets to actually dance at school, gets to learn things from the teachers she may not otherwise get the opportunity to - and there are lots of kids in this class signed to other agencies which certainly brings different perspective.

Well, there are lots of kids in this school signed to agencies period.

It’s one of those things that she doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to.

Just yesterday she thinks she saw GFriend’s Yuju passing by in the corridor - and of course she’s heard about DIA’s Jung Chaeyeon who was dating someone but may not be anymore but guys shouldn't even try because there’s no point.

That’s not even scratching the surface of the third years, then there are the second years and then there’s Oh My Girl’s Arin and rumors that there are SM trainees in her grade too.

(She supposes she technically counts, being signed to Jellyfish and all, but Jellyfish hasn’t ever debuted a girl group and nothing is certain.)

“Yah Kang Yebin!”

She turns at the screech that echoes down the corridor and quickly ducks as someone goes flying past, almost knocking her off balance.

“Oh, sorry,” the voice says as she grabs hold of Mina’s elbow, smiles, “Sorry about that.”

Mina just shakes her head, “No worries.”

The girl grins at Mina, pats her arm, “Really sorry about that,” then releases her and takes off down the corridor shrieking, “coming through, sorry! Kang Yebin, wait up!”

“Yah Joo Kyulkyung, Kang Yebin!” Another voice comes down the corridor, swiftly followed by another person who manages to more daintily sidestep Mina this time.

This school, Mina thinks, is insane.

But she kinda likes it.

At this point Mina is fairly certain that the Jellyfish manager has forgotten that she is supposed to be picked up from the IOI dorm and taken to school early today.

Well, never mind being taken early so she can get to classroom duties, at this rate she may even be late for class. She could call the manager but it would take him at least half an hour to get here and then there is no way she would not be late. Doyeon and Yoojung have already left, even Sohye and Yeonjung were picked up earlier.

Mina actually likes the few opportunities she gets to go to school so this is quite the downer. She sighs, sits down on the doorstep and fiddles with her phone. Better late than never, she supposes.

“Eh?” Mustard yellow appears in the corner of her vision. The rest of the SOPA uniform swims into view.

Oh. Sometimes she forgets that Jieqiong-unnie is still attending school, sometimes she forgets that Jieqiong-unnie attends the same school as she does.

“Mina? Why are you still here?”

Mina shrugs, “I think my manager forgot.”

“Oh,” Jieqiong says, pauses, “Wanna ride with us then?”

“Is there space?”

Jieqiong shrugs, tugs on her sneakers, grins, “Probably. Yebin isn’t that fat.”

Mina snickers a little and follows Jieqiong out the door.

“Oh?” Yebin says from the front.

“H-Hi Yebin-unnie,” Mina says, buckling in her seatbelt and shuffling a little closer to Eunwoo so that Jieqiong can buckle her seatbelt in on the other side.

“Her manager forgot,” Jieqiong says, clicks the buckle in, “we’re not kidnapping her.”

“Aw,” Yebin says, “We don’t get to keep her?”

“Nope.”

“Pity,” Eunwoo says, “She’s so much cuter than you are. Hi Mina.”

“Hi Eunwoo-unnie.”

“Yah, Jung Eunwoo,” Jieqiong reaches around Mina to slap at Eunwoo’s arm.

“It’s true,” Yebin grins, “you two did that Apink song right? And she won?”

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean anything.”

“It does.”

“Does not.”

“Does.”

“Does not.“

“Does too.”

“You weren’t even the center for that one,” Yebin says.

“Yahh!”

“Didn’t you cr-” Jieqiong lunges across Mina’s lap and covers Eunwoo’s mouth with a hand.

Yebin snickers. The manager frowns.

“It’s alright, Mina wouldn’t want to join you guys anyway. She’s got Sejeong-unnie, eh?”

“Ah unnie~” Mina squeaks, blushes, and feels at home.

Yebin’s grin gets a little too wide.

Classes end and lo and behold she has been forgotten.

Again.

Somehow this should no longer surprise her but it still does.

Mina shuffles around hesitantly by the carpark - she could take the bus back to the dorm but it could be awkward if people follow and take pictures. There have been a lot of photographers around the school recently, probably because of NCT’s Mark or maybe someone else but whoever it is the fact remains that travelling in this school uniform makes it difficult to be inconspicuous.

She should call. In this case she can wait until he arrives even if it will take a few hours.

“Mina?”

“Oh hey,” she turns.

“Do you have a schedule today?”

She shakes her head.

“Heading back to the dorm then?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait,” Jieqiong says, “didn’t you second years get let out an hour ago?”

Mina shrugs.

“Oh,” Jieqiong says, sits down and pats the curb space next to her.

Mina brushes some dust away, sits.

They both look to their phones for a bit - Mina replies her mom’s texts about when she’s going to get a day off next or if they should fly up to Seoul to see her. Mina suggests Chuseok which is a while away but she’ll definitely be free then.

“I’ll talk to Nayoung-unnie about this,” Jieqiong says, looks up from her own phone, “and she can probably ask the manager to fix it.”

Mina shrugs, “This happens pretty often.”

Jieqiong frowns, “Just because it’s happened before doesn’t mean it should keep happening.”

Mina shrugs again.

“You gotta stand up for yourself a little more,” Jieqiong says, “Don’t let mean people step all over you.”

Mina shrugs, “This doesn’t seem like a big deal. And manager-oppa isn’t mean, probably just forgetful.”

“Time’s precious,” Jieqiong says, pauses, wiggles her eyebrows, “also not sure how he’d forget about you. You’re pretty precious too.”

“Unnie~!”

Jieqiong laughs, nudges Mina on the shoulder, “It’s true though. We don’t get to see you enough because you're in the sleepy room. You should hang out with us more.”

Mina is sure she’s blushing a little, “Jieqiong-unnie, you’re turning into Sejeong-unnie.”

Jieqiong’s grin only widens, “That sounds like a good thing if you’re saying it.”

“Yah unnie!” Mina hits back at Jieqiong who looks shocked.

“Did you just hit me?”

“S-Sorr-”

Jieqiong laughs, “I was just kidding~ I don't bite.”

She winks.

“Ah unnie! Don't do things like that!”

“But it's fun,” Jieqiong fake-pouts, bats her eyelashes obnoxiously on purpose, “you're fun.”

Mina can't help but giggle.

Mina swiftly discovers that Jieqiong has discovered that she can be horsed around with. Nayoung-unnie and Chungha-unnie have Yoojung and Somi, Chaeyeon-unnie mothers everyone and Sejeong-unnie has no qualms with anyone but Jieqiong-unnie was a little more guarded in the past but has not been holding back with her of late.

It’s not that Mina was deliberately hiding that she likes playing, it’s just that the awkwardness she has with unnies in general takes a while to subside - being polite has been bred into her bones and it is difficult for her to joke around with the unnies, let alone speak casually with them like Somi sometimes does. This discovery is also greatly helped by the fact that they stand next to each other at most events (and that Chaeyeon-unnie stands on the other side of Jieqiong-unnie and those two are by far the most awkward duo within I.O.I, don’t let anyone tell you anything otherwise).

They loiter by the check-in counter because group check-ins are definitely more efficient but still take forever since all eleven of them plus staff are heading back this time. They’re checking some of the others in now but the airline people are taking a while so Mina turns and sees the Victoria’s Secret bag in Jieqiong’s hand.

Ooh, Victoria’s Secret.

She knows what that means.

Mina grins, points and tugs at the lip of the bag.

“So who’s that for?”

Jieqiong wiggles her eyebrows, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Ah, unnie!”

Mina is wholly unprepared for Jieqiong’s face to suddenly get really big and for the lightest sensation to land on her lips.

She stares back, stunned.

Jieqiong looks equally shocked for a moment before Yeonjung waves for Mina to head back - the airline staff want to check her luggage in.

In the hubbub that follows that involves checking bags, getting tickets and herding all eleven sleep-deprived and jetlagged girls towards the gate, Mina forgets about the incident.

It doesn’t seem real. To be fair, IOI itself still doesn’t feel real.

“Oh look it’s our tangerine,” greets her the moment she steps into the room.

She grins, steps into the hug.

Hands squish her cheeks.

It’s hard to admit but the IOI beagles’ touchy-feeliness really is something special. No matter how much Nayoung (Kim) and Hyeyeon like to throw arms around shoulders, there is something about someone having no qualms whatsoever with running their hands all over your face as Jieqiong-unnie is doing to her.

That and it’s literally been forever since Mina has seen the other IOI members since Gugudan was busy with their debut song and the unit was also promoting Whatta Man.

“Ah, unnie!”

“You’re the only one that keeps saying that,” Jieqiong grins, “We’ve missed you, our tangerine!”

Nayoung (Im) wraps her arms around her shoulders and nods.

“I missed all of you too,” Mina says, “I hardly even see you in school nowadays. I wish I could see you more often.”

Jieqiong pouts at her.

“If it’s yellow then it’s gotta be Mina,” she hears Jieqiong-unnie say, which sounds about right but she really doesn’t know what they are talking about.

“Do it together,” the PD says.

Do… what together? Some form of strange greeting?

“You have to be serious about this,” Jieqiong-unnie says rather seriously.

Mina is desperately trying not to laugh, tries to get a word in sideways but then Yellow Popcorn, hands around the head, a chest pop, takes very serious shape before her eyes.

She follows along and Jieqiong-unnie winks.

They do it once more for the camera before Mina is summoned away by the nice people that do their makeup.

Not before she sees the smile on Jieqiong’s face.

It’s been days and enough people have started to call for Yellow Popcorn that even the PDs mention it.

They oblige but honestly Mina still doesn’t quite understand why this Yellow Popcorn thing is so big. She’s also not sure why none of the others seem to be willing to play along but it’s fun and already as it is she barely gets the time to hang out with the other girls before she goes back to Gugudan.

“Unnie,” she gently nudges Sejeong-unnie.

“Hm?” Sejeong looks up from her phone, smiles.

“What’s this Yellow Popcorn thing about?”

Sejeong frowns slightly, “aren’t you and Jieqiong the two in it?”

“Yeah,” Mina says, “but I was kinda dragged into it.”

Sejeong shrugs, “seemed like something she came up with on the spot.”

“Then why me?”

“Because you didn’t say no?”

Mina shrugs, “should I have?”

Sejeong looks at her, “it seems fine. Jieqiong seems like she likes it so...”

Mina nods.

She doesn’t really get why but if this makes people happy she’s all for it. Besides, this has definitely given her the opportunity she’s wanted to hang out more with the unnies, never mind the fact that the rest are a little too shy to participate in this (the words shy and Sejeong-unnie don’t go together but hey there’s a first for everything).

“Who’s heard of Yellow Popcorn,” she hears and immediately scurries off stage to find Jieqiong.

The Yellow Popcorn greeting is, by now, something incredibly familiar - it feels like she’s been doing this all her life.

Mina giggles as she is tugged closer by Jieqiong.

“I’m in charge of,” she pauses, “facial expressions!”

“I’m in charge of rap,” Jieqiong grins.

“Ah, M-I-C Zhou!”

“MC Zhou,” Jieqiong corrects her, “MC, not M-I-C.”

“And what are you?”

Mina grins, “Kang Mina.”

The last fansign is over.

Mina is desperately trying not to cry again.

Well, they said it was the last fansign, all the fans kept saying that they would wait, then Sejeong-unnie started crying and Doyeon is telling people that it’s okay to follow other groups first but to please come back so really Mina is already sobbing on the inside.

And then she had to speak.

It’s not the end yet, there are still a couple of days left and there’s technically the second unit but she knows that they’ll have Gugudan things to do and this is basically it and the words really don’t want to come out but she has to say something because this is the last moment.

So she burst into tears, cried even harder after the other members tried to comfort her, heard Somi’s “Hey Girl”, felt Chungha-unnie’s arms around her waist.

It’d been a crazy ride that she always knew she’d have to get off but it had never seemed real until now.

There will not ever be a fansign with ‘Very Very Very’ in the background, she won’t ever get to sit between Somi and Yeonjung, lean over to see Yoojung and Chungha-unnie, they won’t…

No more comebacks, no one year anniversary, not even a name for their fans.

It’s just over.

She picks up her bag from where they had left their stuff before the fansign, blows her nose now that she is no longer on stage.

Mina wonders what her experience with the I.O.I unnies would have been like if she had not been signed to Jellyfish. Perhaps she may have had more time and more opportunities to get to know the others better. Perhaps that would only make this hurt more.

‘Tis better to have loved and lost, she’s been told.

‘Tis better to have met these girls than to have never known them.

She joins Sejeong-unnie in the van.

After all, they have to meet the Gugudan girls in two hours to film.