“Dad please let go of me,”

 

Mina pleads in a cry.

 

She tries to flee from Jeongyeon’s grip.

 

Because, if she will not follow Sana now, she thinks she will lose her.

 

Sana will be gone in Mina’s life.

 

Mina wants to run to Sana, to hold her and never let go.

 

Mina wants to follow Sana, to assure her and make her believe that she is the most important person in Mina’s life.

 

Mina wants just to be with Sana, to pour her love and just give Sana everything she deserves.

 

Sana completes Mina.

 

That is why….

 

Seeing Sana’s back facing her.

 

Sana walking away from her.

 

Crushes her heart.

 

Mina’s life ended when she heard the loud slam from downstairs.

 

The loud slam of their door.

 

This sound that means one thing…...

 

Sana is gone?

 

Sana is gone.

 

Sana is gone!

 

The message reaches her neurons and…

 

Mina lost everything in that instance.

 

She lost the sight of everybody. All she sees is Sana’s back fading like a silhouette. Getting smaller and smaller every blink she makes.

 

She lost her sense of smell, the refreshing jasmine summery scent that defies Sana is fading.

 

She lost her sense of hearing because Sana’s giggles and ‘I love yous’ are replaced by fainting sobs.

 

Losing Sana means Mina lost everything.

 

Mina is trembling.

 

Her knees gave in.

 

As she fell on the ground involuntarily.

 

Tormented.

 

Shattered.

 

And broken.

 

 

 

Jeongyeon feels Mina sliding down from her hands.

 

She widens her eyes.

 

This sight of Mina wounds her.

 

Her eyes display guilt and pity.

 

What has she done?

 

Jeongyeon can’t take this.

 

So, she clenches her jaw and turns her back from Mina.

 

And walked away.

 

She tries to convince herself, that she has made the right decision and Mina should thank her.

 

Mina will not understand it just yet, but eventually, she will.

 

She will.

 

Jeongyeon says in her mind, though all of her knows that this defense mechanism she is trying to put up is the ‘wrongest’ thing possible.

 

She just says it to reason out to herself.

 

Trying to prove that she is right though factors and evidence state she is not.

 

 

 

Nayeon immediately runs to her sister to hug and comfort her.

 

She shushes Mina, letting her little sister cry in her arms, trying to offer strength and understanding.

 

She wants to ease Mina’s pain but she knows that there is no way she can do it or say anything to make her sister feel better.

 

“Mina-yah, just cry Unnie is here.”

 

Nayeon whispers.

 

This reminds her of their youth.

 

It is normally, Mina who offers rare soothing hugs like this because, between the two of them, Nayeon is always the one who is a cry baby.

 

 

 

Jeongyeon collapse in one of their Lay-Z-boys.

 

There is a heavy feeling in the heart. Jihyo will always say that she is an overprotective and over-possessive father to their children.

 

And she hates to admit it but her wife is right.

 

She is.

 

“Yoo Jeongyeon,”

 

Yeah, right.

 

Just what she needs, a nag from her wife.

 

But Jihyo sounds calm.

 

Jeongyeon looks up to meet the face of her wife.

 

And, Jihyo is serious as hell.

 

Jihyo knows that Jeongyeon realizes how wrong she is, so, Jeongyeon does not need any nagging what she needs is understanding and a little push to admit that.

 

Admit that she went ‘too much’, which could even be an understatement.

 

They look at each other for a long minute.

 

“I love Mina so much,”

 

Jeongyeon confesses.

 

Jihyo nods.

 

“I know and I do too,”

 

Jihyo walks to her wife, sitting in front of her. She holds Jeongyeon’s hand.

 

Rubbing her thumbs on it.

 

“Is it wrong to desire what’s best for our daughters?” asks Jeongyeon, her susceptibility is exposed only to Jihyo.

 

That is what she loves the most about her wife, she can show her everything and Jihyo would still look at her the same way.

 

The looks that offer unconditional love and acceptance.

 

“No, Jeongyeon,” Jihyo shakes her head and smiles at Jeongyeon. “It is never wrong to hope for the best for the person you love, what wrong is imposing what you think is the best for them,”

 

“We raised Mina, we of all people want the best for her, because we both know she deserves it,” continues Jihyo.

 

“That is why Sana is not good enough for Mina,” Jeongyeon reasons aloud, not to Jihyo but to herself.

 

“Who is?” asks Jihyo.

 

Jeongyeon looks in another direction.

 

“No one is good enough for our precious daughters and no one will ever be in our eyes. We stopped liking Momo when Mina and she got official and just started to like her again when they broke up,”

 

Jeongyeon looks at Jihyo.

 

Jihyo feels the same way, she is anxious, nervous, and doubtful to everyone when it comes to her daughters, but she believes in Mina and Nayeon.

 

“I know, you’ve seen the look in Mina’s eyes when she just stares at Sana, the overflowing admiration and affection. The sparks in her eyes when she talks about Sana. When Mina talks about how Sana makes her happy,”

 

Jeongyeon clenches her jaw.

 

Memories of Mina, looking at Sana invades her mind.

 

The smile that Mina gives to Sana, that gummy smile.

 

The way Mina touches Sana.

 

The way Mina will be lost in Sana’s giggles and words.

 

Jeongyeon knows Jihyo is right, Mina loves Sana so much.

 

But this scares her, because….

 

“It scares me too,” confesses Jihyo. “It scares me that we could be losing Mina too, we just gave Nayeon away. But the truth is, we will never lose our daughters. We are gaining two other daughters, that love and cherish our own,”

 

Jeongyeon nods.

 

Jihyo is right, she is always right.

 

“So,” Jihyo lets out a breath. “I think it is time for us to consider what Mina thinks is the best for her, rather than imposing what we think is best for her.”

 

Jihyo squeezes Jeongyeon’s hand.

 

This scene will make her cry so she stands up and decides to let her wife be.

 

She can just tell her to apologize to Mina and also, Sana. But, no.

 

Jeongyeon needs to figure it out by herself.

 

 

“Jihyo,”

 

Jeongyeon calls.

 

Jihyo answers with a hum. She is back facing her wife.

 

“I love you,”

 

This is the three-hundredth time Jeongyeon said it even though they were married for more than two decades already.

 

And same as before, it makes Jihyo smile.

 

Jeongyeon always utters these words in a perfect time.

 

“I know,”

 

 

Mina’s room Approximately 15 minutes later after the incident

 

Nayeon did not leave Mina’s side. She feels how devastated and broken Mina is.

 

She does not say any because she does not know where to even begin. How to even say a word that will not make Mina break more, or hurt more.

 

As a sister, it is really hard for her to see Mina like this.

 

Mina has always been the strongest.

 

So, Nayeon is not sure how to be that for Mina.

 

“Unnie,” calls Mina.

 

“Yes, Mina?” Nayeon tries to sound sweet as she can.

 

“I mess everything up, I lost the person, the only person that makes me happy and accepts all of me, I lost Sana,” Mina cries.

 

Nayeon just caresses her back.

 

“And it hurts so much, I am helpless, I did not do anything for her,”

 

“Do you really love Sana that much?” Asks Nayeon.

 

“I love her more than I thought I could possibly love anyone,” Mina answers honestly and truthfully.

 

“Then you need to fight for her,”

 

“But she was mad at me, and Dad, I don’t even know anymore. I feel like she gave me double of whatever I have given her, and I feel that she deserves to be free, to be away from me. Of all these, I have hurt her so much and somehow, I think she does not deserve all these, she deserves better and that is not me,”

 

Mina speaks her mind.

 

The looks on Sana’s face.

 

The pain displays when she gave her last look to Mina.

 

Mina blames herself.

 

And so, she dictates that fighting for Sana could be another of those unfair moments for Sana.

 

Maybe now, that they will be separated, Sana will be happier.

 

“How can you say that Mina?”

 

“…..”

 

“Loving someone is not like that when the person you love walks away from you, you don’t just let them go, you chase them. You show them that you know you are lacking and you are willing to do compromises, that you are sorry and you will do better,” Nayeon clenches her jaw. When Tzuyu walks away from her, she let her be.

 

And damn, the days without Tzuyu were the worst days of her life.

 

She was one of the lucky ones because Tzuyu came back.

 

But if she can turn back time, she will never let Tzuyu walk away ever again. She will fight for her until Tzuyu forgives her. If that had happened, she would not have experienced the worst days of her life.

 

Mina looks at Nayeon.

 

“I don’t want to lose her,”

 

“Well, what are we doing here? Shouldn’t we go to the airport and follow her?”

 

Mina nods and Nayeon smiles.

 

She scoops her sister’s hand and drags her downstairs.

 

 

 

 

 

Ten minutes later. After JeongHyo’s talk

Yoo’s Lair_ Basement_Jeongyeon’s HQ

 

Jeongyeon is looking at the apple green luggage on her table.

 

She is thinking about what she should do with it.

 

Shall she give it to Mina? Then apologize for the mess she made?

 

Or just let it sit there, wait for her daughter to calm down, then talk to her.

 

Honestly, Jeongyeon does not know how to apologize to her daughter. Or even to Sana.

 

Then, her pride raised up again.

 

Maybe, she will not need to apologize if in case she found something in Sana’s luggage to expose her to her daughter.

 

That maybe she will find something that will make her daughter forgive her, sometimes people do that just a form of defense mechanism.

 

And in Jeongyeon’s case, it is what is happening. She is offering a different explanation for Mina’s perceptions to change, in the face of changing a reality.

 

Freud said it is called Rationalization.

 

Jeongyeon says it is called last resort.

 

So, she uses what she learned from her training in becoming a spy to open Sana’s luggage.

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