Mina’s older sisters Momo, Sana, and Jihyo were all achievers academically. They all graduated with honors from grade school to college. Her younger sister Dahyun is part of the debate team in her high school and expectations are already high that she’ll be the class valedictorian. And Mina, well, she’s just an average student. Although her grade point average every semester never goes below 2.0, it doesn’t make her parents proud. They constantly compare her to her sisters. Their mother is a doctor and their father is a businessman—both were also academic achievers. Mina was never the top of the class. In most of her grade school years, she was always the third in class. High school was a struggle for her because of Mathematics. It’s the subject she loved back in grade school—when math was easy. She liked English because it was the easiest and she started to appreciate Science when she had Chemistry and Physics, although she almost didn’t pass them. Now that she’s in her 4^th year in college, she tries to study harder than the past years.

In her first year in college, she didn’t do very well because she was distracted. She was in a secret relationship with Chaeyoung. No one knew about it except her bestfriend Jeongyeon, who moved to Canada because of her mom’s job. Mina was still trying to get over Tzuyu at that time. Tzuyu was the ex she never had. She was the first girl that Mina fell in love with, who became her standard. Mina thought Tzuyu was the best girl ever and that no one could replace her. She’ll always have a place in Mina’s heart.

Chaeyoung is a very nice girl but she was just not Mina’s type. At first, Mina was not very into Chaeyoung because she was still in love with Tzuyu but Chaeyoung was consistently there for her, doing her best to . She insisted that she’d wait until Mina was over her past. Eventually, Mina started liking Chaeyoung for real then they started dating. Their relationship ended after one and a half years. It was a sudden breakup through text. Chaeyoung said “I love you” to Mina through text. Mina got scared that things were getting too deep for Chaeyoung. “Chaeng please. I can’t do this right now. I have a major exam tomorrow” was Mina’s reply to her message. Chaeyoung just humbly apologized and that was the last text on their message thread. They just stopped talking and seeing each other. No calls, no texts. Mina was just waiting for Chaeyoung to text her but it never came and Mina felt so bad for what she did to Chaeyoung. She was too ashamed that she couldn’t even apologize to her. Three later, the guilt still haunts Mina. She hopes she could apologize to Chaeyoung one day but at the same time, she hopes they’ll never cross each other’s paths again.

Nayeon, Mina’s block mate and bestfriend in college, is a very smart girl. They study together and she helps Mina understand their lessons. Nayeon doesn’t study hard—she doesn’t need to. She’s not aiming for high grades or latin honors. She just wants to pass all the courses and graduate on time—but she gets high grades anyway.

They don’t have classes every Friday. On one particular Friday, Nayeon invited herself to the Myoui house.

“Let’s watch a movie! I’ll come over and I’ll bring snacks. Someone suggested me a movie called Ride or Die. It’s gay and it’s Japanese. You know I love gays especially Japanese women so you can’t say no to this.”

“But I’m studying for the Clinical psych quiz.”

“I’ll be there in an hour.” Nayeon says, ignoring what Mina said and hangs up.

Mina sighs, shaking her head and goes back to reading her book.

Nayeon’s parents fight a lot and she usually goes to Mina whenever she wants to escape their family drama. Sometimes she’d wish that her parents would just get a divorce but they care too much about their professional reputation. They’re both marriage counselors. Clients won’t go to them if they knew they are having marital problems.

//

“Dude, I wanna run away!” Nayeon says as the movie credits roll.

“I want to study.”

“Mina,” Nayeon says rigidly, holding her friend in the shoulders. “Don’t you want to get away from all this academic ?”

“I do, but I’m gonna need my parents’ permission which I don’t think I’ll get so.” Mina shrugs.

“Running away doesn’t require permission from other people.”

“Okay. Even if I agree to this escapade, we don’t have a car.”

“I do.”

“Eh? You don’t have a car.”

“I do. Look out the windows.”

Mina does and opens wide when she sees a car outside. “When did you get it?”

“My dad’s friends visited yesterday. He was just bragging about me and my grades and the next thing I know, he called my cousin who is a car dealer and told him that he’s going to buy the car that he heard me say I liked. You know my dad, he likes showing off." Nayeon rolls her eyes. "I didn’t really want a car but now I do because we’re going on a trip.” She says excitedly, wiggling her eyebrows.

“But we have a midterm quiz on Monday.”

“Well, it's just a midterm quiz, it's not a midterm exam. It won't affect your grades that much and besides, it's Friday today. We can study on Sunday.”

"Sunday?!"

“Yeah. We’ll go back tomorrow then we rest then we study the next day. Don’t worry, I’ll help you. We’ll study together.” Nayeon says coolly, not caring about the consequences of what she’s suggesting to do. “I know you want to do this Mina. We deserve to do what we want sometimes, you know.”

“We’re not running away because you murdered someone right?”

Nayeon laughs. “What a way to say yes Mina.”

//

Mina packs her things and then they go to Nayeon’s house to get her things too. Then they go to the grocery to buy food.

“So, where are we heading?” Mina asks as she buckles her seatbelt.

“I don’t know.” Nayeon reaches for her bag and takes something out. “How about we let this coin decide our destination? We toss it and if it lands with the tails up, we’ll turn to the left and if heads, we’ll turn right.”

“Okay.” Mina takes the coin and tosses it.

//

After driving for 4 hours and tossing the coin about ten times, it led them to a beach.

“Mina, the universe has led us to the right place.” Nayeon unbuckles her seatbelt and steps out of the car.

“. We forgot to bring a tent.” Mina says, worried.

“Don’t worry about that.”

Mina also unbuckles her seatbelt and follows Nayeon outside. She takes her phone out. “There’s no signal here.”

“You can go up there to get a signal.” Nayeon points to a hill nearby. “But we won’t need that.”

“How do you know there’s signal there?”

“My uncle has a beach house here. I’ll ask the caretaker for the keys.”

“You sure we can use your uncle’s house?”

Nayeon winks at her. “Stop worrying Mina. What's the harm of them knowing?”

//

“Great! The stove is broken.” Nayeon announces with a big, excited smile on her face. “I’ll make fire. We’ll cook outside.”

“Didn’t know you’re very skillful in this.”

“Don’t I look cool?” Nayeon chuckles.

“You do.”

Mina watches as her friend does everything. Mina asked if she could help but Nayeon didn't want her clumsy friend to burn herself. “I’ll let you help next time but for now since we didn’t get your parents’ permission, I have to bring you back home as is. So just sit pretty and watch.” Nayeon winks at her.

Mina rolls her eyes and throws a twig at her. “You can’t even wink properly!”

Nayeon laughs.

//

After having their late lunch, Nayeon dragged Mina to the water. Nayeon taught Mina how to make water squirt with her hands, how to swim (which was not helpful at all because Mina is scared of the water), how to “make bubbles” or breath properly under the water, and other things. The caretaker also taught them how to surf. Mina watched from the shore with a phone in hand, recording, as Nayeon practiced in the water and got worried every time big waves caused her to fall. She cheered when Nayeon could finally stand on the surfboard and when she had her first successful ride on a wave.

//

It’s getting dark. The sky is tinted with pink and purple. The two girls are sitting on the shore, watching the sunset while eating hot, sweet potatoes that the caretaker’s wife prepared for them.

“I’ve never seen you this happy.” Nayeon says as she watches the look on Mina’s face that is filled with awe.

“I love looking at the sky, especially when it’s in this color.”

“Hmm.” Nayeon nods. “I’m glad you came with me.”

“Were you planning to go without me?”

“No.” Nayeon chuckles. “I wanted to go with you.”

Mina smiles. “Thanks for taking me with you.”

They smile at each other, taking a deep breath in before looking back at the sun setting in front of them.

“You surprised me with a lot of things about you today.” Mina says after a few minutes. “You got your own car. You have an uncle that owns a beach house. You can make a fire without using gas. You’re a really good surfer. What else do I not know about you, Nayeon?" Mina turns to her.

Nayeon looks back at her and says, "That I'm in love with you.”

There’s a hint of surprise on Mina’s face.

“I've been telling you that I like Japanese girls as a hint that I like you but you never get it.” She chuckles. “I always go to your house or invite you to our house to study together. I study even though I don't want to because I get to spend more time with you. Because the times we spend together in school isn't enough for me.” She looks back at Mina again. “I can't get enough of you Mina and I would do anything to spend more time with you even just as your friend."

Nayeon notices the tears filling Mina's eyes as she continues. "Every moment with you has been the best moments of my life because they were the only times that I felt glad that I'm alive. And I don't know what it is about you that I fell for. You're just you and I love you for that."

"Nayeon," Mina holds her hand. “I love you too."

Nayeon freezes for a second. "Huh?"

"I said I love you." Mina says, watching the dysfunction happening to her friend. Seeing that Nayeon is still processing what she just heard, Mina pulls her in and kisses her.

Nayeon finally regains her senses after a few seconds as she feels warm lips on hers. She kisses Mina back. They kiss until they're short of breath. They pull away and Nayeon could see the shyness in Mina's eyes. She’s so beautiful and the color of her cheeks have turned pink, like the color of the sky above them. She bites her lip as she wonders how someone could look this beautiful. But she's staring at her now, the most beautiful girl in the world. She leans in to kiss the girl again.

“This is the only reality I don’t want to escape."

inspired by the song pink skies by lany and the title is also from this song

let me know what you think and thanks for reading! :))