many months later.

Nayeon pressed the towel to her neck, sighing in relief as the cool sensation spread through her skin. She was incredibly hot – not as in attractive, though that she certainly was – and as she walked out of the main practice center, she wanted nothing more than to peel her clothing off and sit in an enormous ice box. (Even though she was only wearing a crop top and shorts.)

The hallway surrounded by individual practice rooms was eerily quiet, Nayeon thought, as she headed through it and down to the very last rooms, where her room was, along with her teammates’. They, clearly, weren’t there. If they were, Nayeon would’ve heard pounding music and laughter, and before long she would’ve seen them sitting in the hallway, lazily lounging against the wall, their excuse for this being they were “tired.”

\

There was one room, however, from which soft classical music was drifting out. Nayeon entered that room, stopping and pressing herself to the wall, to give the dancer space. Said dancer was none other than Mina herself, bounding and twirling and being utterly captivating. Nayeon normally found ballet boring; doing it herself was fun but watching someone else, oddly, was dreary, yet with Mina, her eyes never left the other girl.

Mina abruptly stopped, her gaze landing on Nayeon. She waved, smiling, and turned the music off, shrouding them in silence. Nayeon could hear Mina’s breathing, hard and heavy, and she could hear it slowly taper off as Mina calmed down. Once Nayeon deemed Mina fine, she spoke. “I didn’t think you knew yet, so I came over to tell you. The other girls are all at some club. Chaeyoung persuaded them all, or something like that. I told Chaeyoung to try and not get Tzuyu too drunk, because we all know she’s going to peer pressure Tzuyu the most, and she said she wouldn’t, but we’ll see about that.”

Mina laughed, running her fingers through her hair and grabbing the bottle of water beside her bag. She took a long drink from it – Nayeon was absolutely mesmerized – and set it back down, still chuckling. “I’m sure Jihyo and Jeongyeon will take care of them.”

Nayeon could only agree with that. She leaned against the wall, her head tipped up as she imagined the two mom friends worrying over the younger girls. Jihyo would be shooing Chaeyoung away from Tzuyu, while Jeongyeon would be snatching Sana’s drinks away from her and gulping them down herself. Nayeon couldn’t help but roll her eyes; Jeongyeon’s reputation among them wasn’t the greatest – she was like an older version of Chaeyoung – but when it came to it, Jeongyeon knew what was right and what wasn’t. Even if that meant getting drunk herself, she knew when to stop the others (read: Sana and Momo) when they had drank one too many shots.

Looking back at Mina, Nayeon noticed the other girl packing up. She slung her bag over her shoulder, getting to her feet. “Oh, you’re done?” Nayeon asked, leaving the wall and over to Mina’s side. Mina nodded, rather regretfully. “I can’t spend too much time. After all, we have a match in two days.”

(Both girls stifled their laughter, with great difficulty.)

“Well...” Nayeon tied her hair up, grinning at Mina. “There’s a bit of time now. You wanna help me with positions?”

Surprisingly, Mina only smiled mysteriously – though the knowing glint in her eyes gave everything away. “I’ll do better than that.” Before Nayeon could do anything, Mina’s arms were trapping her against the wall on both sides. She was cornered. And she definitely wasn’t complaining. She smiled widely, raising her eyebrows. “Are we going to do this again?”

Mina flashed her gummy smile, something Nayeon loved more than anything in the world. She nodded, leaning in close to Nayeon, the tips of their noses touching.

“And this time, we’re going to do it right.”