ryujin - 7

yeji - 9

dahyun - 24

mina - 25

sana - 26

nayeon - 49

"hello?"

"Nayeon? Hello?"

Nayeon pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the contact once again ; MINA. Placing the phone back to her ear, she frowned when she heard loud screaming and crying in the background, no doubt coming from one of the girls, "Mina? You okay?"

"No, Ryujin started crying and Yeji is screaming and I don't know what to do. They won't stop. And Dahyun isn't picking up her phone, neither is my mom's, sana won't respond to my texts, and Joohyun is at an appointment, and I don't know what to do!"

Nayeon frowned at the shake in Mina's voice as she tried to explain the situation, "Mina calm down, you getting worked up isn't going to help. You're panicking right now aren't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"How about I take them for the afternoon? Nayeon suggested, already sitting up and turning off the TV I front of her. She could hear Mina go quiet for a second, silently weighing her options. Nayeon hummed again, "You sound like you could use a break."

"I'm not tired of them!" Mina exclaimed sounding a bit hurt at that statement, and the crying got louder at that statement, "I'm not, don't worry ryu-"

"No, Mina I'm not saying that, you just sound stressed. If you're stressed then they'll be stressed and it'll be a big cycle. Let me just take them for a few hours and we can all destress."

"..okay."

"I'll be over in like ten minutes, okay? Get them ready to go out."

Mina hummed in aknowledgement, before Nayeon offered a quick goodbye before grabbing her car keys and heading over. The drive wasn't far, and soon enough she was standing in front of Mina's front door, ringing the doorbell. The door opened and a flustered looking Mina stared back at her, "Hi."

"Hey yourself, where are the kiddos?" Nayeon asked, a smile on her face glancing past Mina into the house. Yeji and Ryujin sat on the stairs behind Mina, both looking upset glaring at the door, "C'mon you guys, let's get out of your moms hair for a little bit."

"She's not our mom." Yeji snapped, throwing Nayeon a look that maybe if she was older than nine would've actually been scary.

"You're right, well how about we go have some fun? Okay?"

Slowly the girls nodded, and got up from the stairs brushing past Mina as they walked out the door and behind Nayeon out to her car. Mina sighed and slumped against the door, "Was I this bad?"

"Worse, but hey look how you turned out. It was all worth it in the end."

"Thank you for this, you don't have to do th-"

"Don't even finish that sentence," Nayeon shushed, tapping the girl lightly on the arm, "I want to, plus you seriously look like you need a break."
Mina nodded softly, looking past Nayeon at the girls sat impatiently in Nayeon's car, scowling and waiting for the woman. Nayeon chuckled, "I should head out, I'll send you a text when we're coming back."

Nayeon waved her goodbye and headed out to her car, hopping into the driver's seat and looked back at the two girls, "You two buckled up?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds great, let's go do something fun."

"Like what?"

"You'll see."

Both girl's went quiet at that, and Nayeon started driving. It wasn't long until they pulled up to the ice cream shop Nayeon hadn't been to in years. It was old, and had a retro feel but the food was amazing. She helped the girls out and they walked in, ordering three bowls of ice cream; cookies and cream for Yeji, and strawberry for Nayeon and Ryujin. They found their way to a small table, and started to enjoy their meal.

"You know, Yeji, you can't be yelling at Mina whenever you don't get you way."

"..."

"You hurt her feelings doing that, do you want to do that?"

Yeji just brought the spoonful of ice cream to , but Nayeon could see the gears in her head churn. She absentmindedly let the spoon hang in , before taking it out. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you need to apologise to." Nayeon stated softly, bringing her own spoon to . Ryujin looked like she was sorry as well, slumping her shoulders and nestling into Nayeon farther.

"What if she wants to get rid of us?" Yeji suddenly asked anxiety laced into her tone, eyes snapping up to meet Nayeon's, "I don't want to leave."

"She's not." Nayeon assured, nothing but confidence in her voice, "You two are just stressing her out, nothing more, how about screaming you talk to her? I think she would appreciate that."

"How?"

"Why were you screaming today?"

"Because she said I could have a cookie as a snack if I got an A on my spelling test. I got an A, but she wouldn't give me the cookie till after dinner."

Nayeon nodded, "but you were going to get the cookie, couldn't you wait?"

"She promised, so I studied really hard. I didn't want to wait any longer."

"Are you happy with the cookie and cream ice cream then?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because, MINA promised, not you."

Nayeon understood now. It wasn't about cookies or what time she got it at, it was about validation. Yeji worked hard because she wanted to impress Mina, and when Mina didn't give that award right away she felt betrayed. Maybe Yeji didn't fully understand what she was feeling, and Nayeon didn't expect a nine year old too anyways, but the cookie was being used as a symbol.

The woman hummed, before taking another bite of her ice cream, "How about next time instead of screaming, you explain what's going on. If there is one thing I know about Mina, she is good at listening."

Yeji nodded, "Okay."

"I know this is stressful for all of you. When Mina was in my house as a kid, she was a lot, made me loose my mind a few times. But you need to talk to her okay? She loves you."
Nayeon looked over at the girl's now empty bowls, "should we start heading home? Mina is probably starting to get worried by now."

Both girl's nodded slowly, and Nayeon offered them a smile getting out the small booth and walking out of the dinner hand in hand.

-

Mina let out a happy sigh as she relaxed into the couch, closing her eyes enjoying the silence blanketing the house. It wasn't that she didn't want the girls there, but just the peace and quiet was nice every once and a while. Especially after their temper tantrums earlier.

Ring

SANA is

calling...

Mina clicked accept and held the phone to her ear, before she had the opportunity to say hello Sana's worried voice blasted through the speaker, "Mina? You okay? You called me earlier."

"Yeah, everything is fine now. I was starting to panic because of the girls."

"Being rowdy again?"

"Yeah." Mina hummed, sitting up on the couch when she saw Dahyun walk in the front door. She silently waved and pointed at the phone, Dahyun nodded and walked past her into the kitchen, "Sana, you know you should come over this weekend. I haven't see you in a while, actually now that I think about it I think we hung out twice since my wedding."

"I'm busy this weekend."

"Do you finally have a date?" Mina asked excitement tinging her voice

"No."

"You know I can always set you up with a girl I work with. Ever since you winked at her when bringing my lunch that one time, she keeps asking about you."

"Set it up then."

"Really? You never wanted me to set you up on a date before."

"Yeah, I don't have anyone to wait on anymore."

"I'll text her about it, I should probably say bye now, Dubu just got home from work."

"Okay, say hi to dubu for me."

"You betcha, love you Sana."

"Love you too."

Mina hung up the phone, throwing it down on the couch before getting up and heading to the kitchen to see Dahyun taking some food out of containers, "Did you cook for us again?"

"You bet, tonight's dinner is delicious. Our girls will like it this time, for sure. Speaking of, where are they?"

"With Nayeon."

"Really? Why?"

"Dubu, it's been a long day."

​​​​