The next day, Mina had just finished her errands and was headed back home. So far, today was relaxing and quiet. A day off from school, no drama and Mina had made the bold (and much needed) choice to leave her phone at home. There were no distractions at all today. No distractions meaning she didn’t have to deal with seeing texts or receiving calls from Jackson if he even bothered.

    Mina passed by the coffee shop just a few minutes down the road from her place and peeked into the window. She smiled seeing Bambam standing at the counter ordering himself something. Mina stepped into the coffee shop and snuck up on him.

    “Boo!” she said, giggling when Bambam jumped in surprise and swore loudly in Thai. He had a hand on his chest, his eyes wide as he stared at Mina.

    “Ah! Mina noona, you scared me,” he whined, childishly stomping his foot.

    Mina shot him an innocent smile. “Sorry~ It was too tempting.”

    Bambam exhaled as he sat down at an empty table, his heart still pounding in his chest. “It’s okay.”

    Mina took the seat across from him and folded her hands together on the table. “Up to anything interesting today?”

    He shook his head. “Not really. I finished all my homework earlier and decided to come out for some much-needed coffee.” Bambam shifted his gaze to Mina. “And you?”

    Mina shrugged. “I just finished getting errands done. I was headed home until I saw you in here.”

    “And you decided to come in to give me a heart attack. I get it,” Bambam joked, a wide smile forming on his face as Mina laughed brightly.

    “Something like that,” she said as Bambam’s drink was delivered to the table. He thanked the worker softly and took a small sip of his coffee.

    “So, tell me,” Bambam said, the foam from his drink off of his lip. “What’s bothering you?”

    Mina blinked up at him in confusion and locked eyes with the boy in front of her. “What do you mean?”

    “You look bothered.” Bambam gently set down his coffee cup and held onto it as he spoke. “What’s wrong?”

    Mina fell silent and dropped her eyes to her folded hands on the table. She began to twirl her thumbs together as she bit her bottom lip. Is it really that obvious? she wondered.

    “Does it have to do with Mark hyung and Jackson hyung again?” Bambam asked.

    “I—” Mina started as she looked up meeting the gaze of Bambam again. She stopped talking when she noticed a look of pain in his eyes. “I—” she started again and looked back down to her hands. “Jackson oppa…He confessed to me last night over text…” Mina spoke softly making sure to say each word so Bambam heard her.

    Bambam frowned hearing his and tightened his grip on his coffee cup. “Oh,” was all he could say when he looked out of the coffee shop window and saw Jackson standing out there staring in; Obvious rage and jealousy poured out of Jackson’s facial expression as he glared at Bambam.

    “In fact,” Mina continued. “He said he may even be in love with me.”

    Bambam winced. He didn’t want to hear any more about Jackson’s feelings toward Mina. He wanted to hear Mina tell him that she didn’t have feelings for Jackson, that it didn’t matter what he told her because she didn’t like him in that way, but she didn’t say it. It made Bambam’s heart clench at the thought that maybe Mina liked Jackson too.

“Did he?” He stared down into his coffee cup, tears threatening to pour out of his eyes but he held them back. He bit down on his bottom lip and heard the bell of the coffee shop door chime. He didn’t have to look up to know it was Jackson.

    Jackson walked over to Mina and pulled her out of the chair by her arm.

    “H-Hey—” Mina stuttered before she was dragged out of the coffee shop by her wrist.

    Bambam sighed watching Jackson drag her away and pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialing Yugyeom’s number. When the younger picked up, he said: “We have a problem…”

    “Jackson oppa, slow down,” Mina whined trying to keep up with him. Jackson stopped abruptly and turned to Mina, letting go of her wrist. Mina pouted and rubbed her wrist. “What was that for?” she frowned, looking up at him.

    “You know damn well—” Jackson started before stopping and huffing out a breath. “I’m sure you read my texts last night. You should know why.”

    Mina looked down at her shoes remembering his texts and how she felt reading them the first time. It was different now. Jackson was in front of her reminding her about the texts and it made Mina feel nervous. Was he about to say it to her in person? No one has ever admitted to liking her before. Not to her face like this.

    “I didn’t read the whole thing,” Mina muttered, her hands toying with the bottom hem of her sweater.

    “Do you want me to say it to you in person? Because I will.” Jackson sounded angry and urgent. Mina frowned. Did she want him to? “Mina,” he said reaching his hand out to her. His hand lay gently on her cheek. “I like you, okay? It’s driving me crazy. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before. Mina, I…I want you to be my girlfriend.”

    Mina gasped and looked up at him with wide eyes. She didn’t know what made her do it, but in the next second, Mina had pushed Jackson’s hand off of her cheek and she was running down the street. She heard Jackson’s voice call for after her, but she already took the corner and ran straight to the apartment building. She rushed inside and bumped into someone in the lobby and almost fell to the floor.

    The someone she bumped into caught her just in time. “Whoa there,” he said. “Everything okay, Mina?” Mina froze knowing it was Mark and slowly looked up at him. “Why are you in a hurry? Did something happen?”

    Mina swallowed thickly knowing Jackson would have followed her. “Um, n-no. Everything's fine… I’m just—” She stopped when she noticed Mark hadn’t let her go since he caught her from falling.

    “Just?” Mark repeated.

    Mina shook her head and pushed Mark off of her and quickly straightened up. “Nothing.”

    “Alright…” Mark gave her a suspicious look before sighing. There was no sense in pushing on if she wasn’t going to tell him. “Look, Mina. While I have you here, there’s something I want to say.”

    Oh, no, Mina thought as she chewed on her bottom lip.

    “You probably already know this, Momo and Sana interrogated Youngjae about it,” Mark said, his hand raising to rub the back of his neck. “Mina, I like you.”

    Mina groaned. “God… Not you, too…” She buried her face in her hands and let out a heavy breath.

    Mark frowned. “What do you mean?”

    Right at that moment, Jackson came bursting in. “Mina—”

Mark’s face crinkled in disgust as Jackson scoffed seeing the other male. They both glared at each other for a moment before looking to Mina who was slowly trying to make an escape up the stairs. “Mina—” they both said in unison.

    “Don’t. Both of you,” said Mina as she looked back at them. “I can’t—Just…Leave me alone please…” She turned and ran up the steps.

Mark crossed his arms and shot a glare at Jackson. “What did you do to her?”

“Me? What about you, you prick?” Jackson shot back.

Mina ran into her apartment and leaned against the door. She put a hand to her chest and let out a long breath. Why me? she thought as she slid off her shoes.

“Mina?” Haruka called out to her. “Mina, is that you?”

    “Yes, okaa-san?” Her mom walked out of the kitchen, her hand clutching onto her cellphone. Mina frowned and looked at her mom noticing tears in her eyes. “Okaa-san? What’s wrong?”

    Mina felt her heart tighten as she stepped over to her mom and gripped onto her hand. “Mina, it’s your dad…” Haruka muttered.