Nayeon: The Orphan

 

Sunlight streamed in through the window as Nayeon woke up.

 

She yawned, shifting a little in her bed only to find she couldn’t move much. Mina was cuddled up into her, still fast asleep after her big night out. Nayeon had been upset when her girlfriend had bailed on their rare night off, but understood why Mina had to leave. Her girlfriend often had to disappear at inopportune times due to a sudden vision. Still, Nayeon was happy - their relationship was one of the few stable things in her life. No matter what happened, Nayeon felt secure in the knowledge that Mina would be there when she got home. It was that sort of warm, safe sense of domesticity that Nayeon had craved since she was a child.

 

It’s not that she had never known such things. She had been born in a very loving household - doting mother, firm but fair father, annoying little sister. Honestly, Nayeon had even been a little spoiled. Constant attention from her parents and anything she could ever ask for had led her to be rather rude and entitled. Then, when she was twelve, a friend of hers had invited her to a sleepover. Nayeon’s FIRST sleepover. She had been so excited, so ready to go. Her poor father had been practically shoved the way out to the car to drive her over there.

 

Because that had been the plan, he would drive her there that night and pick her up in the morning. Only her friend wanted to watch a scary movie and Nayeon got scared. She tried calling home, but nobody picked up - strange given that it was only midnight. Usually her father would at least still be awake. So Nayeon tried for an hour to get some sleep but the shadows of her friend’s room scared her. The laughter of whatever movie monster they had heard earlier echoing through her head. She tried over and over to remind herself that monsters aren't real but by 3am she was so worked up she just left.

 

Little Nayeon snuck out of her friend’s house, stuffed bunny in hand and walked the whole way home. In hindsight this was ridiculously dangerous, but that had been lost in the story given what Nayeon saw after getting home. There were people in black suits outside her house - guarding the door. At first they had been rather cold to her when she asked about them, snapping that a little girl her age shouldn’t be out so late. But then, when she said this was her house, they both softened. One sent the other inside and in that brief moment the door was open, she ran forward into the house shouting for her mother. To this day Nayeon had no idea why her instinct told her to run inside but she forever wished she hadn’t.

 

Blood. So much blood.

 

What Nayeon saw that night would forever be engraved in her mind, the focus point of her nightmares. It was that night that she learned monsters were in fact real. Years later she found out it was the act of a demon called the Butcher, but that was a story for another time. After that night she was shipped to an orphanage and met Jeongyeon, eventually she was contacted by Jihyo (who was searching for the Butcher at the time). The rest, as they say, is history.

 

Whilst she would always miss her father, her mother and her sister at least some good did come out of it. She had Mina, the love of her life. She had Jeongyeon, the most loyal friend she could ask for. And she had a job that helped people, helped prevent what happened to her family happening to anyone else. As she pulled her sleeping girlfriend even closer Nayeon was able to remember what she had now and forget, just for a moment, all she had lost.

 

“Someone’s cuddly this morning.” Mina mumbled into her chest,

 

Nayeon smiled, “I’m always cuddly. It’s why you love me.”

 

Mina chuckled and sat up enough to kiss her gently, “Morning.”

 

“Good morning, when do you need to get up?”

 

“Jihyo gave me today off, to make up for last night.” Mina sighed, “Sorry about that, by the way.”

 

Nayeon shifted and pulled her back down to rest on her shoulder, “It’s alright, someone had to keep those three from dying.”

 

“Sana’s technically immortal.”

 

“Yeah, provided nobody has holy water, a steak, silver, garlic–”

 

“Okay, okay.” Mina conceded, “Good point. Y’know she’s not that bad, for a vampire at least.”

 

Nayeon hummed noncommittally. She, for obvious reasons, hated demons with a passion including vampires. Vampires were demons under the rule of a devil named Vladimir, whilst they had a tentative truce with mortals due to devil infighting that didn’t make them harmless. Sana was dangerous and sometimes only Nayeon remembered that.

 

“So,” Nayeon changed the subject, “What are your plans for your day off?”

 

“Well, I had sorta hoped we could stay in bed all morning.” Mina said, “Maybe go out for lunch this afternoon.”

 

The elder girl sighed, “I can’t, Jihyo’s got me helping Chaeyoung with the catalogue.”

 

“Can’t someone else do it?”

 

“I’d ask Jeongyeon but she covered for me yesterday. Sana won't do it and Momo gets too distracted by the pictures. Dahyun won't do it, she hates looking at those old books–”

 

“How about Tzuyu?”

 

Nayeon hesitated, “I don’t know her that well enough to ask.”

 

“Well she’s about to knock on the door,” Mina said, “Breakfast is ready.”

 

“I don’t kn–”

 

Knock, knock, knock.

 

Mina looked up at Nayeon and smirked, “Come in Tzuyu!”

 

The door opened and as predicted, Tzuyu’s face popped into view. The usual neutral expression on her face.

 

“Momo’s made breakfast.”

 

“We’ll be down in a bit.” Nayeon said before Mina pinched her leg, “Ow! Stop that.”

 

Tzuyu just stared at them.

 

Nayeon sighed, “Tzuyu would you cover for me today and help Chaeyoung catalogue the new scary demon books?”

 

“Okay.”

 

Mina smiled, “Thanks Tzuyu. We’ll see you downstairs.”

 

The taller girl nodded and disappeared again, closing the door behind her softly.

 

“God, she’s like a robot.”

 

Mina swatted her, “Be nice, she’s doing you a favour.”

 

“I am being nice!” Nayeon pouted, “I waited for her to leave, didn’t I!?”

 

That earned her an eye roll and Mina began to get up. Nayeon tried to keep her there but the psychic still sat up, moving to get out of bed.

 

“Where are you going?” Nayeon whined, “I was using you for warmth!”

 

Mina laughed, “Well I want breakfast.”

 

“What happened to staying in bed all morning?”

 

Mina pulled on a shirt and turned to look at her, “We can still do that, but I’m getting us breakfast in bed first.”

 

“Oh,” Nayeon raised an eyebrow, “Breakfast in bed you say?”

 

Mina hummed and leant down to kiss her again, “We’ll need the fuel.”

 

Nayeon’s eyes widened and Mina laughed at her expression.

 

Once again solidifying that in some ways, little moments like this made all the pain and suffering worth it. That momentary bliss made up for all the world had thrown at her thus far.

 

That ultimately, right now at least, life was good.