Five stories below her window, Mina could see people wandering up and down Tokyo, bundled up in their jackets and scarves. She shivered while looking outside, imagining the cold seeping inside when all she was wearing was her bathrobe. Her mother had been calling Mina from her room since two hours ago, telling her to get ready. It wasn’t even five yet. Their reservation wasn’t for another one and a half hour but Mrs Myoui made her daughter and husband felt like they should’ve been on the first floor – where they would dine – already.

Mina’s breath form a small cloud that clinged to the glass when she sighed. She sighed again and again until she managed to gather the courage to search through her suitcase. Her mum brought a black sequined skirt from a long time ago that fits her perfectly, reaching just above her knees. Now all she needed was a simple top. She remembered packing something blue from Korea. It was so deep of a blue that it’s almost black and it matched her mum’s skirt.

Lost in a trance as she was putting her clothes on, she jumped when the bell of her room rang. Mrs Myoui’s smile greeted her when she opened the door.

“My beautiful daughter,” she sing song-ed, placing her hands on Mina’s shoulders. Soon though, she frowned. “Your hair is still wet.”

“Yes,” Mina answered flatly.

“You should’ve dried it well before you put on your clothes, darling.”

“Yes, I know,” she said again, sighing.

Her mum frowned, about to say something, but decided against it in the end.

“We’ll wait for you by the elevator. Okay, sweetheart?”

And she disappeared, leaving only the mist of her magnolia perfume behind.

//

Park Chanyeol and Oh Sehun were ten minutes early. Ten minutes early was the most gentlemanly time to arrive in Mrs Myoui’s book so her thin smile grew by tenfold when the two young men approached them by the revolving door of the restaurant. Mina couldn’t even describe how thankful she was that they decided to catch up before the Myouis were all seated.

Because – well, because – damn, Sehun cleaned up good. Mina was a hundred percent sure she would still think this way even without her on-and-off crush, cause not only Sehun was oh-so-tall-and-handsome-as-hell, but the way he dressed and his eye make-up game is on point. Who even taught him to touch up his already strong eyebrows so perfectly?

That thought led to another and to another until she found herself trying to answer a question: am I attracted to him or just his eyebrows? Because her crush on him seemed to intensify everytime she looked at his eyebrows.

This was getting weird.

Anyway she was thankful, since that meant Sehun – and Chanyeol – had to walk behind her so she didn’t have to look at him all the way to their table. The universe was treating her quite well.

Until she actually bumped into a chair. Fully truly crashed to it and almost fell on her if not for the person steadying her from behind. Wow. Reflex made her turn around and say a small, polite thank you only to see Sehun desperately holding back a laugh and maybe a remark. Mina should’ve known not to jinx her luck by commenting on it before the night ends. This was all her fault.

Noticing Sehun’s hand that’s still on her forearm, Mina felt a weird tingle that went up all the way to her face. Quickly, she exchanged her ‘arigatou’ to ‘hamsamnida’ and made her way to her parents, who seemed oblivious (but Mina knew better than to actually assume that they were actually oblivious) and pulled out a chair.

It was going to be an undoubtedly long night.

//

In the middle of their main course, Mina was already exhausted since she was translating every conversation that took place on their table. She felt like her jaw was going to fall off soon and then her parents would have to send her off to Seoul immediately to get a plastic surgery which, in short is, bye bye holiday in the cruelest way. She hadn’t even met her oniichan.

She continued to act like the perfect translator  until the buzz of conversation got into her head and it won’t go. It happened sometimes, not a big deal, but having to deal with it for more than half of her life meant that she knew exactly what to do, which is finding space to be alone for a few minutes. So Mina was going to do just that.

“I’m sorry,” she interrupted someone – she wasn’t sure who’s talking – in japanese, “I need to go outside for awhile.”

Mrs Myoui looked up abruptly, eyeing her knowingly. “Okay, be here in ten, alright? The dessert will be here that time.”

Mina smiled at her and grimaced nervously towards their guests’ inquiring gaze. “Okay. Uh – bye.”

Dashing through the restaurant, she found an open space decorated by potted palms with a little nook and a wide, european-styled window. She breathed in and out, in and out, until that buzz subsided and all she could feel was wind on her face. God, Mina thought, how am I going to handle a concert if I can’t even handle a dinner with my crush?

She took a few more deep breaths, then walked slowly following the toilet signs. She made sure to use up all the ten minutes her mother gave her.

Inside the toilet, she checked her (thankfully) still immaculate make-up and prepared herself to go back to the table, walking outside as slowly as she did when she slipped inside. There were a few corners to pass on the way to the restaurant and in one of those, Mina saw someone standing against the wall, another person was right in front of him. The one with his back against the wall was a he, but when Mina was about to identify the second person, they walked fast out of her vision, then disappearing in one of the dimly-lit hallway so Mina could only see one of their shoulders.

She took a cautious step forward so now she was under the light. She didn’t know why but she felt like she should’ve expected it. Should’ve expected that the person leaning against the wall was Sehun. Her guest for the night.

“Sunbaenim?” A surprisingly stable voice came out of . Also, when did she got here? Just a few steps away from Sehun?

She couldn’t read Sehun’s face then, all she knew was in the cracks of the blankness of it, she saw fragility. She really shouldn’t pry, she really should not – “Are you okay?”

Sheet.

Half of Sehun’s face was shadowed by palm leaves from Mina’s viewpoint, but as soon as the word ‘okay’ got out, he shifted, lifted his chin so Mina could see him clearly. Mina knew it was him, but seeing him like that somehow made it even realer in her head. The person she saw having a presumably serious conversation with that mystery person was Oh Sehun.

It was him.

And slowly, he looked even more and more like himself as he straightened himself and frowned at Mina. One corner of his mouth further up than the other.

“Why would I not be?” he said with his funny-as-frick-not-so-deep-voice.

He didn’t wait for Mina’s response, smoothly turning to the direction of the restaurant, walking fast like he didn’t want Mina to follow even though he knew she would catch up eventually.

Mina’s stomach churned. Not because Sehun was back to being his previous mean self after being civil with Mina for half a day. But it was because of that shoulder.

It was a shoulder of a woman.