Sana met Mina on a cold winter day in early 2014. The unfamiliar, long haired girl standing nervously in the corner of the practice room caught Sana's attention immediately. Mina's expression was so nervous and fearful that Sana wondered if the girl would crumble if Sana went over to greet her.

Sana smiled to herself, remembering how nervous she had been on her own first day as a trainee; that is, until she became friends with Momo, who started as a trainee on the very same day. Although trainee life was difficult and stressful, having a true friend like Momo by her side made things a little easier to endure. Sana hated to watch people struggle by themselves, so it was without hesitation that she made her way over to the new trainee and introduced herself.

"Hello, my name is Sana," she said in Korean.

"Eh?" Mina said looking up in surprise. Her eyes were wide and wary despite staring into Sana's kind eyes.

"So pretty..." Sana thought to herself as she waited for the girl to speak.

"H-hello, I'm Mina," Mina replied, returning the greeting nervously in Korean. "It's nice to meet you."

It was perfect Korean spoken in a perfect Korean accent to the point that Sana would have been fooled into thinking the girl stranding in front of her was Korean. But with that faint "eh?", Sana knew...

"You're Japanese aren't you?" she asked Mina in standard Japanese, using their native language.

Mina blinked in surprise. "Ehhhh? How did you know?" she asked Sana in Japanese.

Sana stifled a laugh, but didn't stop to explain how the Japanese "eh?" had given away her identity because she noticed something even more interesting. "Are you from the Kansai region?" Sana asked, detecting a subtle Kansai accent from Mina even though she spoke using standard Japanese.

Mina's wide eyes somehow widened even further. "Ehhhhh? Seriously, how did you know?"

"Because I'm from Osaka," Sana replied, letting her heavy Kansai accent and dialect take over her previous attempt at standard Japanese. "It's nice to meet another person who uses Kansai-ben here. If you need anything, let me know, OK?"

Mina smiled, but it was a reserved kind of smile. "Thank you, Sana-san," Mina said politely.

"Oooooh, who do we have here?" a cheerful voice asked. Momo came over to where the two girls were standing and draped an arm over Sana's shoulder, peering curiously into the eyes of the new girl. "Friend or rival?" Momo joked while speaking in Korean. 

Sana could tell by Mina's adorably puzzled expression that she hadn't understood a word of what Momo had said.

"She's definitely not a rival," Sana smiled, answering Momo's Korean question in Japanese. "Momo-chan, meet our new friend, Mina-chan."

That was the first time that Mina, Sana, and Momo were together.

In the weeks that followed, Sana and Momo learned more about Mina, but only a little bit at a time. Mina was shy, to put it mildly. Momo and Sana were the outgoing and friendly type. They talked to everyone, joked with everyone, and were very easy to approach. So they found it odd at first that Mina was so distant with them no matter how hard they tried to befriend her.

"Do you think we're scary, Mina-chan? Is that why you never play with us?" Momo asked her one day, noting that Mina was sitting by herself yet again after dance practice. Sana and Momo came to sit next to Mina. They were always the ones to try to engage her first, never the other way around. When Mina shyly turned to look up at them, Momo began poking Sana's squishy cheeks with her fingers. "See? Sana-chan's soft. She won't hurt you."

"Yah," Sana whined, pushing Momo's hand away. "If anything, you're the scary one, Momo-chan. You're always so loud!"

The two bickered back and forth like an old married couple, causing Mina to smile.

"Ah, she smiled!" Sana cried with delight.

"She smiled!" Momo repeated, raising her hands triumphantly.

The two hugged each other fiercely and collapsed in a pile of giggles as Mina watched.

"Are you two always like this?" Mina wondered.

"Yes," Momo and Sana replied together.

"And you would know that if you would just hang out with us like we keep telling you to!" Momo said, moving to poke Mina playfully on the cheek as she had poked Sana. But when Mina flinched after the first poke, Momo quickly pulled back her hand. "Sorry..."

"Are we bothering you?" Sana asked, suddenly wondering if they were a nuisance. They had both assumed that Mina was shy and needed coaxing in order to have fun with them, but they hadn't asked themselves if Mina just preferred to be by herself. "Do you want us to leave you alone?"

Mina shook her head.

"Then why are you always by yourself after practice and lessons?" Sana asked her gently. "Why not make friends with us or the others?"

Mina pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them, lowering her head and hesitating a bit before responding. "...I get lonely when I'm by myself, but sometimes I get so nervous when I'm with people that it's better to be alone."

The honest response was so melancholic that Sana felt an overwhelming desire to protect this girl that she had only known for a month. If it had been anyone else, Sana would have given that person a comforting hug of reassurance. But because Mina was so shy, Sana simply sat down next to the younger girl, leaning into Mina so that they were sitting shoulder to shoulder.

"Let's be friends, Mina-chan," Sana said, resisting the urge to hold Mina's hand or to pat Mina's hanging head reassuringly. "The three of us will hang out together all the time from now on. We want you to be able to depend on us when you need it."

Momo scooted over to the other side of Mina, shoulder to shoulder, and made a similar promise. "Let's be friends, Mina-chan. Let's have lots of fun together, ok?"

The three of them sat next to each other with Mina sandwiched between them. There was a long pause in which Momo and Sana glanced at each other over Mina's head, unsure how the younger girl would respond to their kindness. But after a moment, they saw Mina's head dip in the slightest of nods.

"...thank you."

The two older girls shared a warm smile, somehow feeling that their friendship with Mina was the beginning of something special.

The three of them went out for ddeokbokki after practice one day in the middle of March. They sat closely to one another at an outdoor table in the cold weather, sharing the delicious food happily.

"Say 'ah', Momo-san," Mina said with a smile as she fed Momo a piece of ddeokbokki. It was always Momo-san and Sana-san or Momo-unnie and Sana-unnie since the moment they met. The two older girls had suggested for Mina to call them more familiarly because the age difference between them was negligible despite being born in different years, yet the younger girl seemed content with being polite. The formal honorifics were just another obstacle in becoming closer to Mina.

"Well, feeding us is an improvement," Sana noted to herself, biting down on a piece of ddeokbokki offered by Mina. Compared to the quiet, withdrawn persona from last month, Mina had opened up to them a bit more now, actually accepting their offers to go play and eat together. Mina was so charming and adorable that it was almost a shame that only she and Momo got to experience this side of Mina.

They saw a group of friends at a bench nearby giving a girl a birthday gift and singing happy birthday in Korean.

"How nice," Mina said, smiling fondly at the friendly scene.

Sana smiled at the younger girl and fed her a piece of ddeokbokki in return. "We'll do that for you too when it's your birthday, Mina-chan."

"When is that, by the way?" Momo asked.

Mina hesitated a bit, taking time to chew and swallow slowly. "...it's next week."

Sana and Momo blinked in surprise.

"Are you serious?" Momo asked. "If we hadn't asked you just now, would you have just let your birthday pass without anyone celebrating it?"

Mina looked away before she answered. "...yes."

There was that honesty again. That melancholic honesty that made Sana just want to protect Mina forever. Her heart ached with sadness and Sana could stand it no longer. She reached across the table and put her hand on top of Mina's. The younger girl was surprised and jumped at the touch, but Sana held on to her hand firmly.

"Mina-chan, leave your birthday to us. We'll take care of it, OK?" Their eyes met briefly before Mina looked away again shyly. She nodded and smiled faintly, entrusting her first birthday without her family into the hands of her new friends. "T-thanks, Sana-san."

Sana nodded and smiled as well. It was the first time she held hands with Mina.

Mina found herself thinking a lot about Sana and Momo lately. She was terrible at expressing herself and conveying her gratitude to them, and she was worried that she had become too much of a burden on her new friends. After all, she barely spoke Korean and was still new to trainee life. She was relying on Sana and Momo far too much in order to survive in Korea.

She walked back to her dorm room and went inside. Mina expected the room to be empty aside from her belongings, so she was shocked to f