The next time they met, it was at the Seoul Music Awards, where Twice won themselves three trophies, so Mina was in an especially high spirit. And Sehun was too, since his group won a daesang. Still, Mina was understandably shocked when Sehun approached her with Suho tagging along, throwing a casual ‘Chukkae’ and a nod to her and Jihyo.

She didn’t respond. She was too stunned. But she noticed that something was different about Sehun that night. He seemed a little bit .. softer? It was not much but at least he was making progress.

Mina went to bed with a smile at the end of the night.

//

Mina couldn’t remember the last time her mom feed her. Or rather, she couldn’t remember exactly when. Maybe it was when she was completely swamped with late schoolwork as a result of all those dance recitals. But then again there were so many dance recitals that she partake in. She said as much to Mrs. Myoui, who laughed and gave her cheek a pat, and promised Mina that she’d feed her as soon as they got home.

They were in the airport, too engrossed in nostalgia and small talk, when Mina heard someone calling her name. She turned to the sound and was stunned to see Park Chanyeol dashing the arrival area towards her. He was wearing a big grin on his face, a black snapback on his head.

“Sunbaenim,” she greeted him as soon as he stopped in front of her.

Chanyeol smiled, bowing to her parents before catching Mina’s gaze with his own. Mina was a bit frazzled, not knowing what to do since she didn’t know the meaning of the code that Chanyeol sent with his eyes. Finally, Chanyeol half-whispered in Korean, “Don’t you want to introduce me to your parents?”

Oh. Of course. Yeah that would be nice, Mina thought dumbly. She should’ve known what to do since the very moment Chanyeol yelled ‘Mina-ssi’ from the distance and Mr and Mrs Myoui already eyed each other with far too much interest. Not gonna happen, Otousan, Okaasan. You both should stop trying to find yourselves future son-in-law. I’ve got a three-year dating ban.

She turned to her parents, exaggeratedly smiling to say please don’t embarass me and explained to them that Chanyeol was one of EXO (her mom exclaimed ‘That EXO?’) and that they’ve met each other several times during award shows. Chanyeol smiled the entire time even though Mina was sure he didn’t understand half of what she’s saying. Mina had always thought that he was a serious sweetheart.

After a few minutes of introduction moderated by Mina, she finally asked him what he was doing in Japan, and Chanyeol gave her a soft laugh.

“I’m here to lay low for a bit. This year’s been too busy for us. Thought it’d be nice to spoil myself a little.”

“You’re on a vacation? That’s nice. You definitely deserve it,” she replied, ignoring her parents eyes on her and Chanyeol. She hoped Chanyeol didn’t notice all the staring they were doing.

She brushed a strand of hair out of her face, looking up at Chanyeol, noticing that he wasn’t carrying any bag or suitcase.

“Are you by yourself, sunbaenim?”

“Ah, no. I’m with Sehun, actually. We kind of promised each other some time ago that we would go to Japan together when we have free time. That was quite a long time ago but we hadn’t had any free time until recently,” he said with a frown which Nayeon would find adorable, but Mina just couldn’t concentrate on anything he said after Sehun’s name.

He’s here? What?

“Sehun-sunbaenim is here?”

“Yeah. Why? Is there a problem?”

Crap. Her face must be at it again. Being uncontrollable whenever a certain mean, tall, sharp-faced, guy was mentioned. Mina quickly regained her composure, though.

“Ah, no – of course not. I just –“

“Hyung!”

And like in every other story on earth, the devil showed up when he’s mentioned.

Sehun was running, a snapback identical to Chanyeol’s clutched tight in his hand, and the other hand was holding a white plastic bag. He ran so fast he almost colided with Mina and Mina was thankful that it didn’t happen since she didn’t want their accidental meeting to turn messy like that time with the water bottle. And that was when he noticed her.

“What are you doing here?” Sehun asked, not unkindly. Mina was relieved, but still surprised that he acknowledged her at all.

“Eh – It’s Japan?” She tried, hoping that it would come across as articulate when it was totally the opposite.

There was something flashing across Sehun’s face before it morphed into one of recognition.

“Oh, of course – You’re on a break?”

“They’re given a break just like us. She’s here to see her family,” Chanyeol butted in, craning his neck to look at the doubled interest on Mr and Mrs Myoui’s faces. They were spying on the newcomer like hawk, and Chanyeol finally finally noticed. He smirked down at Mina and said, “Hey, why don’t you introduce Sehun to your family too? They seem worried that another stranger is taking up all your attention.”

“No, they’re just curious, probably,” Mina quickly denied. Ugh why are you both like this...

“You still need to introduce him, though.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Mina blurted out. Knowing how much Sehun probably dislike her, doing that would make it even worse. “Besides, don’t you both need to go out? See Japan? Be a proper tourist? Have you even booked a room yet?”

But even after all those reasons she sputtered, the law of the universe just had to ruin Mina’s only chance of saving her face, because Mr and Mrs Myoui just had to approach them, which in turn made her had to introduce Sehun (who was surprisingly chill about it, wow) to her parents, which somehow led to a dinner invitation to the hotel the Myouis were staying at.

“We’re originally from Kobe. We live there, but we were planning to spend a few days in Tokyo before flying home. It’s so nice to see you both and we want to make sure you enjoy your stay in Japan,” Mina translated her parents’ words, verbatim, with a straight face. God, why did it end up like this?

They parted ways, then. Mina latched onto her mother’s arm with sharp whispers that said ‘why did you do that?’ and her mother just smiled without looking at her. The dinner was tomorrow evening, and Mina was dreading it, but somehow kind of excited for it.