He didn’t clap. He didn’t show any kind of reaction when they performed and it was – it was irritating. To Mina, at least. Though he looked handsome in all his stoic, ice prince glory (not that Mina wants to admit), it annoyed her to no end – the fact that she failed to provoke some kind of emotion into his face. What should she do for him to finally notice her? Pretend to fall off stage? Run to him? Slap him?

See, Mina wasn’t usually this easily irked. She’s quite the peacemaker, actually. But this is Oh Sehun – the person she looked up to when she was in her mid-teens covering dances and when she was training and even after she debuted. Everyone was calling her a fangirl goal, living the ultimate fangirl life for being able to finally call one of her idol bias ‘sunbae’. And yes, she has always been attracted to Sehun from Day 1, and she knew that she was extremely lucky. But what were all those for if Sehun didn’t even spare a glance at her?

Anyway, she managed to remind herself that she has more important things to worry about, like practice and cooking and calling her parents back in Japan. God, she missed them so much her chest hurt. It’d been a full six months since she last seen them.

Mina looked up to the mirror in front of her, correcting her frown into smile before hurrying to the kitchen. She was going to make some kick- okonomiyaki for dinner.

//

If Oh Sehun hadn’t hate Myoui Mina before he certainly did now, Mina thinks as she stared down at the front of Sehun’s trouser (not in the way you think). The wet patch couldn’t be more obvious. Luckily he already finished performing, but what if he and the rest of EXO need to come up the stage to receive an award or something? Mina was cursing herself internally, unable to move. She shouldn’t have ran with an uncapped water bottle in her hand, dammit.

It’d been over a month since their MAMA performance and they’ve bumped to each other quite frequently since. And each time they cross path was more annoying than the last. Sehun still ignored her, but lately she’d been thinking about the possibility that Sehun might hate her all this time. It was like he was purposely ignoring her. Mina had lost count of the times when Sehun pretended not to see her bows, pretended not to hear her congratulate her sunbaenims, pointedly looking away when she smiled at the general direction of him. Yeah, Sehun definitely hated her. But why? What did she do? What have she done to make him loathe her existence? He was pretty civil to her bandmates, offering small nods and thin smiles, but not to her? Maybe Mina was imagining it but – but –

Okay, back to the situation at hand. Mina should probably apologize.

“I’m s-sorry Sehun-sun – “

She could hear Sehun’s harsh breath before he said, “It took you that long to finally say something? God, you’re really – honestly – “ he couldn’t seem to decide what to say before settling for, “where have you been? What were you thinking?”

Mina flinched. “I really am sorry, sunbaenim, I’ll go get your manager? So that he can get you new pants? Is that what you want?”

God, why did everything that came out of ended up sounding like questions?

Sehun looked like he was about to knock down some walls when Mina looked up, and he looked so hot angry, Mina had decided. His eyebrows all scruched up and his jaw set. He should be angry more often, as long a his anger isn’t directed at Mina.

“You know what? You can just –“

“Just?” Mina asked, quirking her eyebrow. Sehun glared at the small movement.

“Just go, okay? Go away. I’ll take care of everything myself.”

With that, he stormed away into his dressing room, Mina’s gaze following him until he disappeared at one of the far corners.

//

Mina should really be careful about spending her money on small things like nail polish. She should’ve learned a few months ago when she accidentally bought two of the same colors only to find that Dahyun already have the exact shade of pink back in their dorm. Two weeks ago, she arrived home happily after buying Jeongyeon three different shades of glittery top coats that they can share, knowing their mutual love for shiny nails, but immediately regretting it when Jeongyeon shoved a shopping bag at her with the exact same things inside it.

So now she was being careful. Trying.

But she was currently in a nail polish heaven. She could feel herself relenting already. Nayeon and Momo knew how much of a magpie she was when it comes to nail polish and yet they brought her here? Wow, some unnies-slash-bestfriends they were.

Despite the fact that she knew it was completely dangerous for her to wander alone in a place full of nail polish, she wandered around anyway. Not everyone could see it, but she was some kind of a rebel at heart after all.

She spent the next ten minutes twirling around the isle, trying to find apricot and neon magenta among thousands of nail polish bottles. Right then, something peculiar caught the corner of her eye. What was that tall guy doing near one of the biggest shelf? Planking?

But Mina wasn’t someone who would bother to ruin someone else’s fun. She’d let people do want they want so long it wasn’t hurting anyone. So she walked past him, feigning nonchalance.

But –

Where did she smell this scent before? It was a distinct smell. Musky, breezy, a bit spicy but not too heavy. Yes, she definitely had smelled this pleasant aroma.

Where though?

Mina couldn’t have turned around fast enough. And of course, there he was, standing (planking?) in all his ice prince glory. God forbid Mina to actually live her life without offending Oh Sehun, it seemed. Because even when they accidentally meet outside of award shows, which means Sehun wasn’t wearing make-up (make-up makes his face looks even angrier than it normaly was), he still looked angry. Mina would love to actually see him smile, a big, genuine smile, the one he doesn’t try to control, right in front of her eyes. She’d seen him smile in videos, to the camera, to other people, from the distance, but she wanted to see him smile at her, really smile, just once.

“What are you doing here?”

That was Sehun, speaking from the corner of his mouth, so oddly still and stiff. He didn’t even move anything other than his lips. He almost looked like he was hiding. Mina was torn between asking him back because seriously what is he doing here? But curiousity is a meddling piece of sheet. So she bowed and said, “Good afternoon sunbaenim, how are you? This doesn’t look like a very good place to not be found isn’t it?”

Yeah, did Mina mention that she’s actually a rebel at heart? And maybe a bit of a smug birch sometimes? (She didn’t take being ignored too lightly.)

Sehun glared a too familiar glare. “Can you shut up?” he whisper-yells, so fiercely that some of his saliva landed on Mina’s face. Ew.

Mina calmly fetched a wet tissue from inside her bag, taking time to clean her face before smiling smugly at Sehun. “It’s called acknowledging someone, sunbaenim, it’s a polite thing to do. Maybe you should try it sometimes.”

Dammit. She regretted everything she said as soon as she said it. was running by itself without her control. This has never ever happened before. Mina was calm and collected, a poster child of being cool, where did it all go?

She glanced at Sehun and he looked like he was lemon. Mina couldn’t help the pride swelling in her chest. Another emotion from Oh Sehun-sunbaenim, everyone!

“Go away,” was Sehun’s reply, his face completely shut off again.

Mina was contemplating inside, whether she should just let him be or get her revenge for being treated like she didn’t exist, but , her usually cooperative mouth –

“Who are we hiding from, sunbaenim?”

“Not your business.”

“Ooh, so you are hiding from someone, then?”

Sehun’s groan sounded like pure agony. “Shut up. Go!”

“Are they fans?”

“No! No, I mean – why would I tell you?”

Mina couldn’t contain her smile, then. She was on the verge of laughing out loud when she saw an additional cast to their little quarrel.

“So this is where you’ve been! Gosh! I’ve been looking for you for nearly an hour now, you punk,” Kim Joonmyun chastised, but there wasn’t much heat behind his words. He walked fast towards where Mina and Sehun were standing awkwardly.

Sehun pouted at him, but quickly masking it into a frown once he remembered that Mina was there. “I haven’t even gone for half an hour,” he said lowly.

Wait. So Sehun had been hiding from the leader of his group? Why?

Mina wasn’t planning to ask any of them, really, but suddenly Sehun said, “It’s not him.”

Um, what?

“Not me what?” Suho asked impatiently, as though there were too many questions that he needed to ask, particularly why are you both chatting the day away while I was panicking, thinking that Sehun had been kidnapped by sasaeng fans?

Again, Mina wasn’t planning to answer him, but Sehun did it for her.

“Uh, not who I’m hiding from.”

Suho raised his eyebrow. “Hide? Why would –“

Sehun quickly gave him a look that read as ‘you know why’ and ‘you know who’, and Suho’s shoulders relaxed almost immediately. His annoyance dissipated. Slowly, he reached around Sehun’s shoulders and gave him a pat. “Let’s go,” he said.

Suho turned to look at Mina, smiling. Mina smiled back at him, giving a little nod.

“We really need to go, we have a fanmeeting in a few hours. See you around.”

Not sure how to respond, Mina squeaked a little, “All right, sunbaenim. Good luck with the the fanmeeting.”

“Thanks,” Suho said, his smile widening. They started to move toward the exit, leaving Mina wondering what the freaking-frack-snick-snack just happened there.