Sometimes, you don’t realize how good something is until it’s gone, or, in more fortunate cases like Nayeon’s, until you almost lose it.

When the group was told that they were moving into another dorm, Nayeon’s initial response was to worry. Sure, the new dorm is apparently better than the one they are currently staying in, but moving is not an easy thing to do. She was in her room with her hands on her hips as she stands in front of her open closet, simultaneously fretting and strategizing about the packing that she will inevitably have to do, when a voice from beside her interrupts her thoughts.

“Are you okay?” She hears Momo ask. “You look stressed out.”

“I am stressed out,” Nayeon confirms while looking straight ahead. “Do you see how much stuff I have to pack?”

“Do you want me to help you out then?”

At that, Nayeon finally looks at Momo, her eyes narrowing at the other girl’s suspiciously sweet grin. “You need something, don’t you? Why are you even in my room?”

“Ahh, no, I don’t,” Momo denies, albeit unconvincingly. “I was just thinking about how you and Jeongyeon have been friends for the longest time. I mean, we’re all like family, but I feel like you guys have this really special bond that only you two share, you know? And so I—”

Nayeon puts a hand up as she interrupts, “Just get to the point, Momo.”

“I was wondering if you maybe wanted her to be your roommate once we move,” Momo ultimately asks.

“We can switch?” Nayeon says, confused, as she tries to recall if they were told anything about that.

“Yup. Sana told me she’s rooming with Chaeyoung. They said it’s fine as long as we agree about it.”

For a while, Nayeon ponders on this new information. It was really sweet of Momo to think of Nayeon like that when she asked her if she wanted to be Jeongyeon’s roommate. After all, it wasn’t everyday that Momo does such things for Nayeon.

Unless Momo wasn’t doing it for Nayeon at all.

“You just want to switch because Jeongyeon always nags you about cleaning!” Nayeon exclaims as she realizes the other girl’s ulterior motive.

“That’s not true!” Momo claims for a second until, “Fine, you’re right. She’s been my roommate for years, okay? I can’t handle a couple more.”

“If that’s your way of selling your roommate to me, you’re doing a very bad job.”

“Nayeon, please, please, please,” Momo begs, grabbing both of Nayeon’s shoulders. “Save me.”

“No way,” Nayeon declines. “Jeongyeon already scolds me everyday, and she’s not even my roommate yet! Besides, I’m good with Mina, and I’m sure she feels the same way.”

“Ah, maybe we should ask her then,” Momo proposes as she turns to the bed in the corner of the room where Mina is currently sitting, entirely immersed in whatever she’s playing on her phone to pay Momo and Nayeon any mind. Momo doesn’t even wait for Nayeon’s response and immediately rushes to Mina’s side before tapping her lightly on the shoulder, causing Mina to remove her headset.

Before Momo can even speak, Nayeon already knows she’s screwed. She has no chance if Momo will act adorably, and Nayeon can tell that Momo’s about to use her irresistible aegyo skills on Mina.

“Mitang,” Momo cutely says the girl’s nickname while batting her eyes, “can I ask you something?”

“Uhh, sure,” Mina replies, looking alternately between Momo, who is now moving to clutch at her arms, and Nayeon, who is glaring at Momo with her arms crossed.

“By any chance, do you want to be my new roommate?” Momo asks all while fully invading Mina’s personal space. “I promise I’ll clean up all the time, plus I don’t talk in my sleep.”

“Yah!” Nayeon yells at Momo’s indirect insult. “For your information, Mina thinks it’s cute when I sleeptalk!”

“I’m sure she does,” Momo agrees, her voice dripping with sarcasm, and gives Nayeon a mocking smile before turning back to Mina. “All I’m saying is that I miss hanging out with you because we don’t get to do that often anymore. We always had such good times together, just you and me…” Momo trails off before continuing her dramatic monologue in Japanese that’s too quick for Nayeon to comprehend.

“Hey, now, that’s just cheating!” Nayeon weakly claims.

“Why? What’s wrong with talking with my fellow Japanese in our native language?” Momo says, switching back to Korean as she feigns innocence. “Anyway, Mina, what do you say?”

They both turn to the girl expectantly, and poor, sweet Mina can only quietly reply, “I-I’m okay with either of you.”

Nayeon frowns. It’s not like she expected Mina to choose her over Momo in a heartbeat. Sure, she and Mina did not have the tightest friendship within the group, but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t the least bit hurt. The thought about replacing Mina never crossed her mind since she thought she had the perfect roommate, but apparently Mina does not see Nayeon in the same way.

She makes a mental list of why they are perfectly compatible as roommates, from their sleeping patterns to their showering schedules, but before she can start verbally enumerating them, another person jumps into the conversation.

“Shouldn’t I get a say in this, too?”

The three girls turn to find Jeongyeon leaning on the room’s doorframe and looking like she’s been listening the whole time.

As Jeongyeon enters the room, walking towards the bed and plopping down beside her current roommate, Momo laughs nervously, “Jeongyeon, I can explai—”

“Save it,” Jeongyeon interjects. “I knew this was what you’re going to do. I saw the glint in your eyes when Sana told you about changing roommates. Anyway, I’m against your plan, too. Nayeon is way messier than you are. There’s no way I’m trading you for her.”

At first, Nayeon doesn’t know if she’s supposed to feel happy that Jeongyeon is siding with her or offended because she’s basically been told she’s unwanted. In the end, she realizes Jeongyeon has a point, so she just brushes the rejection off. “It’s settled then. No switching, right, Jeongyeon?”

“Not between the two of you, no,” Jeongyeon agrees, shaking her head at both Momo and Nayeon. “I’d trade Momo for Mina, though, if you want.”

“No switching!” Nayeon asserts, possessively draping both her legs and one arm around Mina. She uses her free hand to shoo the other pair away, reminding them, “Now, don’t you guys have some packing to do?”

“Yep, let’s go, roomie,” Jeongyeon teases as she wraps an arm around a sulking Momo who has to be physically dragged out of the room.

When the door closes behind the two, Nayeon lets out a sigh of relief. Mina, on the other hand, is intensely tense and mutters a soft “umm…” to get the other girl’s attention. It is only when Nayeon turns her head towards Mina and sees how close their faces are that the former remembers how she’s currently clinging onto the latter. She mumbles a quick apology and slowly moves her limbs away from her friend with a nervous chuckle, and Mina laughs a little too before saying, “I guess I’m stuck with you.”

“I’m afraid you are. Disappointed?”

“Not really,” Mina honestly replies. “I’m already used to you, anyway.”

“Good,” Nayeon says, relieved. “I’m already used to you, too,” she adds, and for a second, she considers walking back to the closet to start packing, but instead, she collapses back on her side of the bed, her mind occupied by a completely different matter.

While Mina is already back to being engrossed with her mobile game, Nayeon takes the opportunity to stare—erm, look at her roommate. She realizes that she has never really done much to show Mina how much she appreciated being her roommate even if she considers herself extremely lucky to have her room assignment because Mina is the epitome of a perfect roommate. She is neat, quiet, and considerate, plus she sleeps late like Nayeon does, so they never had to worry about interrupting each other’s much needed resting time. On particularly exhausting days, Nayeon has trouble waking up from alarms, too, but fortunately she has Mina to wake her up when she sleeps in.

There are all of these reasons, and Nayeon hasn’t even counted the best ones yet. If someone were to ask her, her favorite part about sharing the same room with Mina would be those moments where she’s doing things that she normally wouldn’t do in front of other people, things that she is somehow totally okay with doing when Mina is around. One of her fears about living with other people is the possibility of being uncomfortable around them, and yet she has never experienced that with Mina. In fact, she really doesn’t mind living with Mina for the rest of their lives and—

Woah, slow down, Nayeon tells herself, confused as to where that even came from. Still, she was able to rationalize her thoughts as completely platonic, and she never really gave much thought about it until their first day at their new dorm.

While everyone else is cheering and gushing about how big of an upgrade their new place is, Nayeon does not feel as happy at all.

And she doesn’t get it, why she is so upset about having a larger room and a larger bed, when the only plausible explanation is that she and Mina won’t have their beds pushed together anymore.

Back in their old dorm, that was practical to do since it would give them a lot more space for their stuff, but now their rooms are actually roomy, and as if that wasn’t enough, they have a large spare room for additional storage space. Besides, even if Nayeon were to make up another valid excuse, like being scared she will roll down to the floor because she moves a lot in her sleep, they still would not be able to move their beds together simply because they could not, not with how massive their new beds are.

Still, it shouldn’t be a big deal, really. Nayeon does not understand why she’s getting so worked up about sleeping a few feet away from Mina instead of a few inches, but it does not change the fact that she is upset, maybe so much that Mina feels it, too, because she suddenly asks, “Unnie, do you want to share a bed later?”

Nayeon blinks, worried that she may have been saying her thoughts out loud when Mina continues, “I-it’s just a suggestion, but I remember you have trouble sleeping in new places, and I don’t know if that will help but—“

“Yes,” Nayeon stops Mina’s rambling, and she is surprised that she even managed to speak when she’s currently feeling the entire emotional spectrum all at the same time. When they are on tour, they rarely get assigned to the same hotel room, but when that happened once, Mina found out that Nayeon finds it hard to sleep in foreign places. That was so long ago, though, and Nayeon is touched that Mina even remembers. She is grateful, not only for Mina’s suggestion but also for a lot of other things, but all she manages to say is, “Thanks.”

Mina smiles, and Nayeon returns it before they both return to their unpacking, except Nayeon’s mind isn’t really at the task at hand at all. Instead, her brain is busy trying to comprehend why she is feeling all these things, like why she is overjoyed at the thought of sharing a bed with her good friend Mina, and why that turns to nervousness when night comes and she is already sitting on Mina’s bed, and why her heart flutters when Mina bids her good night, and why she’s supposed to be browsing on her phone until she gets sleepy but instead she’s staring at Mina’s sleeping figure, and, okay, so perhaps, maybe, possibly, probably, she does like Mina more than she would like to admit.

It’s not the kind of thought that one can reflect on and accept overnight, and Nayeon is not the type who likes to waste her time, so instead of fussing about emotions that may or may not be existent, she simply puts her phone away and lies down facing Mina, figuring that if she’s gonna lose sleep tonight, she might as well put it to good use.

It’s not the first time that they’ve slept in such a close proximity, and sometimes—most of the time—Nayeon would even end up rolling over to Mina’s bed in the middle of the night. It’s not the first time she’s watched Mina sleep, either, but back then, she would just think that Mina is unbelievably pretty and that would be the end of that. Now, as her eyes trace Mina’s face only to stop at the curve of her lips, Nayeon feels her breath hitch, and maybe sleeping together is not the best idea after all. If anything, this decision is making it harder for Nayeon to sleep, and so she resolves that maybe she should just sleep on her own bed. Before Nayeon can move, however, she sees more than she hears Mina say, “You’re still awake?”

Nayeon feels her face heat up, as expected of someone who was just caught staring at someone else’s lips, and she can only manage to hum in response. She does that again when Mina asks her if she’s about to sleep, and when Mina requests her to turn the lights off, she stumbles twice on her way back to the bed, although it has less to do with the fact that she can barely see anything and has more to do with the fact that she’s flustered as heck.

When she finally reaches the bed, she chooses to lie down with her back to Mina, but then she hears the other girl whisper her name, making her turn back to face her roommate. In the dark, she can only see the outline of Mina’s head moving towards hers, little by little. She freezes, waiting for Mina to stop, but it seems like the other girl has no intention to do so, so she squeezes her eyes shut just before she feels their noses touch, and she waits and waits and waits and—

—and nothing happens.

Nayeon keeps her eyes closed until she feels Mina’s breath go even against her lips. She peeks at Mina with one eye, and sure enough, the other girl has indeed fallen asleep.

Jesus freaking Christ.

She tries to move and fails, and that’s when she realizes that Mina has draped one arm over her waist, and Nayeon can only sigh.

This is going to be a long, long night.

End Notes:

I CAN’T BELIEVE I ONLY MANAGED TO POST ONE STORY THIS OCTOBER EVEN IF IT IS TWICE’S MONTH. I’M SO SORRY. ALSO I HAVE A THESIS PRESENTATION TOMORROW, BUT I COULDN’T CARE LESS ABOUT IT BECAUSE LIKEY IS GONNA BE RELEASED TWO HOURS AFTER THAT. I’M TYPING IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I’M SO EXCITED. ANYWAY, I KNOW MOST OF YOU ARE FOLLOWING ME FOR SAIDA/MIMO CONTENT AND I’M GONNA POST THEM SOON (HOPEFULLY) PLEASE DON’T UNSUBSCRIBE OKAY BYE.

(*backtracks* P.S. I FINALLY have a stan twitter account, so if you have one, follow me @softswerver so I can follow more stan accounts, too. *flies away*)