Mina took off her high heels as she walked through the stairs to the waiting room. She is in a music broadcast building right now, just finished her first special stage which is a tribute for their long time senior in the industry. She plopped herself beside Momo who was leaning her head on Sana’s shoulder in the corner of the room where the staff put a sleeping mat on. Her eyes fluttered shut right after she rests her head on Momo’s shoulder and wrapped her leg around the older girl’s limb. They got at least forty-five more minutes before they have to go on stage again for the closing ceremony.

She just wants to at least rest her burning eyes and legs for a minute, she has been on a schedule non-stop since yesterday morning and barely can sit her down for five minutes. Momo asked the manager to not crowded the girl with heavy schedule as she knows that Mina is currently the busiest member for this comeback period. The manager however, told her to just hang on for a little bit longer as she can’t just cancel a schedule without putting a bad label on the group’s name. Momo and Sana voluntarily took some of Mina’s upcoming schedule so then the youngest of the group could get at least a little bit of sleep, Mina is really thankful of them as they always take a good care of her.

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung are not in charge right now, the two girls had to attend some meetings for them since they are the ones that really understand the idols’ preferences in stuffs, still not sure if they are going to be here today or not. They are usually the one that prepare things up for the upcoming events in case the other managers can’t meet the three girls’ preferences. So, it’s just so unfortunate with them not around, especially when the other girls didn’t feel so well or just basically needed extra attention.

A pat on her head was the one that make her crack her eyes open, a painful stab shot through her head and she feels her ground spinning. Mina groaned, pressing her palm to her eyes when she feels pair of hands supporting her head. Momo looking worriedly at her, she can’t hear what the girl was saying but she laid her head back to the mat again when Momo’s supporting hand lowered her head slowly to the mat.

“Oh no, you’re burning.” She stated to no one but herself as she looks around trying to find their substitute managers.

Sana kneeled beside Momo when she turns around to look at them. She put her palm on Mina’s cheek and rushed to get the girl a bottle of water. She helped Mina sits up then opened the bottle for her, Mina drank the water in half and give it back to Sana after. The throb in her head was multiplied by ten when she tried to open her eyes completely and she needed to lean her head somewhere desperately, Sana noticed it and put the girl’s head on her chest.

“––no she can’t.” Mina catch some sentences from Momo’s word, the older girl has that defensive tone when she speaks again, if it’s not frustration. “She needs to rests, can’t she just go back to the dorm and sleep? What do you think if the fans see her like this?”

Their other manager agreed and told the other one to just drive Mina back to the dorm since it was just a closing ceremony, it will be worse if she can’t get to the filming tomorrow. Sana kissed her temple, whispering comforting word as well assured her that it will be okay to slack off a bit. Momo helped her standing up by supporting her by the arm, she told Sana to go first as she walked Mina to their van and to wait for her until she gets back before they went to the stage. Momo keeps glancing at Mina and asked if she was okay – she definitely feels like crap and swear could throwing up if she moves her head – and wiping the sweat on Mina’s temple. The other girl opened the van sliding door for her, helped Mina sit comfortably then draped her a blanket with her own face on it, Momo giggles when she stated the fact then caresses Mina’s cheek when she’s finished.

“Oppa, make sure to give her some medicine first before she sleeps. It’s on the drawer in the kitchen, top shelf right beside the band aid kit. Mina’s usual meds is in the blue penguin compartment, Sana brought some of the new ones but make sure you took the one that already opened first.” Momo said as she keeps glancing back at forth to their manager and Mina, just to check on the girl. “Oppa, do you hear me?”

“Yes, yes, I got it on my notes. Go back inside the closing ceremony is about to start.” Their manager waved his hand to Momo.

The girl pat Mina’s head for the last time after making sure that the blanket covers the girl from her toe up her shoulder. Momo slid the door close then jogged back inside the building, attending the closing ceremony then probably telling the other Japanese girl that she had had tucked Mina under the blanket with her face on it. The image of Momo laughing while telling Sana the useless information about the blanket and the other girl’s reaction when she doesn’t know what to make of the information Momo had just told her slip a small smile to Mina’s lips. At least she can depend on the two girls despite them being absurdly foolish and childish at times.

When they arrived at the dorm, their manager told Mina to go change and wat for him to get her medicine before she sleeps. Mina do what she was told and waits for him by sitting on her bed, back on the cold wall of her room. She had her eyes close – fighting the throb in her head – when the door of her room clicked open, instead of the substitute manager, Tzuyu came in with a glass of water, a blue penguin box and a worried face. The Japanese girl exhale in relieve when she saw the younger girl then clung to her arm once she sat down.

“Does it really hurt? Your head.” Tzuyu’s voice is calm despite the worry she had in her head. The older girl hummed a weak answer, she touched Mina’s face then exhale rather harshly. “This is why I don’t like it when we left Unnies under the substitute’s care. Either one of you gets sick or get hurt somewhere else. Here, Unnie, don’t sleep just yet… you need to take your medicine.”

Mina took the medicine from the girl’s hand then put it in , swallowing down with the warm water from the glass. Sighing, Mina lets go of Tzuyu’s arm and lay down on the bed.

“How’s the meeting?”

Tzuyu glanced at the girl as she covered her with a blanket – this one without Momo’s face in it – when she answers. “It’s actually still going, I came right after one of the substitutes called me about Unnie getting sick and rushed here. Chaeyoung said she’ll stay there to finish up the meeting.”

Mina smiled at her. “Thanks.”

“Next time I think either one of us has to stay with Unnies. This keeps happening like this.” The girl sighs then squeeze Mina’s hand. “Unnie sleep well now, we still have tomorrow. I’ll stay here.”

Mina wanted to thank the girl more than just a simple ‘thanks’ but her head doesn’t really cooperate right now, she will thank the girl and her group mate later when she feels better. She remembered Jeongyeon then, she hasn’t heard anything from her girlfriend all day today, or maybe Jeongyeon contacted her since Mina hasn’t check her phone at all today. And then when she drifted to sleep, she wondered where her phone actually is, Jeongyeon might be worried that she didn’t reply her text or picked up her call, but Tzuyu is here, she could tell the girl about her condition right, or maybe Chaeyoung or Momo or Sana would since they’re all friends.

*

Muffled footsteps, wheezing of the air conditioner, cold air of her room, someone was talking in a hushing voice outside; Sana and Momo the girls probably finished their schedule which made the time to mid night by now. She feels the blanket around her body, one of her foot sticking outside of it and she pulled it back in caused by the cold air. Mina wanted to rubbed her eyes to look at the clock when she feels fingers intertwining hers under the blanket. She moves her hands, she can feel a cold metal on one of the fingers and thinks that Jeongyeon has a ring on one of her fingers. Mina opened her eyes slowly, her head didn’t throb as much anymore when she sees Jeongyeon sleeps sitting on the floor, half of her body on the bed and her hand holding Mina’s under the blanket. The younger girl pulled herself closer to the warmth of Jeongyeon’s body and squeeze the hand that’s on her grasp tighter.

Jeongyeon stirred in her sleep, moving slowly before she crooked her neck to look at Mina, the smile was easy on the older girl’s face, the one that ease Mina’s tiredness away. She moves a little backward and signaled Jeongyeon to slips under the blanket with her, it must have been tiring sleeping like that. The taller girl lay herself on the bed, wrapping the blanket around her but mostly Mina who was already making herself comfortable under Jeongyeon’s arm. She snuggled closer to the older girl’s chest, smelling her scent, stealing the warmth she emitted until she feels content.

“How long have you been sleeping like that?” She asked when Jeongyeon rested her head on Mina’s head.

Jeongyeon has one of her hand on Mina’s neck, caressing it slowly as if a little pressure will break the girl. Mina’s skin is a tad bit too warm under her fingers. “Not long.”

“What time is it?”

“One? I think, I’m not sure.”

Mina exhale her breath, resting her face on the crook of Jeongyeon’s neck. “I miss you. How’s your first filming?”

A second, Mina almost feel as if Jeongyeon’s body became stiff but when the girl kisses the crown of her head lovingly, Mina just melts. “It went okay I guess. Just as good as how a first filming is.” Mina smiles, still closing her eyes. “Did you forgot to take your vitamin? You were okay yesterday.”

“Actually, I have a feeling that I’ll get sick, it’s been there but just came out now.”

“You didn’t tell me about it. I could’ve do something to make it better.”

“Like what?” Mina pushed Jeongyeon a little bit to look at her face but not far enough to let the older girl loosen her hold around her.

“Like…” a smile. “a kiss maybe.”

“And how’s that going to make the supposed fever gets away?”

“Well it doesn’t, you just have to hand it over to me because I handle fever much better than you.”

“Oh, aren’t you smooth?”

Jeongyeon just smiles at her girlfriend before she really kissed her on the lips. Mina pulled back after a while. “I meant what I said, Minari.”

And she pressed on her lips to the girl’s mouth until she opened for her. The fever made it five times hotter than it should be and Jeongyeon hopes the blanket could just flew away from their body. When Mina pulled away for the second time, the girl looking more like she is drunk rather than sick. She chuckled at her girlfriend, kissing the corner of before nipping the lips and dive down to again.

“I miss you.” Mina moans.

Jeongyeon smiles in between kisses. “I guess we both missed your first episode.”

“Don’t care, don’t remind me of him.”

*

Waking up the next morning was easy, her head feel lighter and she feels a lot better. Her body temperature almost came back to normal and her head doesn’t even throb anymore. Mina checks the clock on the wall, it’s not morning anymore but not that late to start a day yet. She kicks the blanket, touching an empty space on her bed where Jeongyeon sleeps last night, she walks to the door and was greeted by Chaeyoung’s little wave of a hand. The girl sitting on the floor cross legged, an oversized gray sweater and training pants with a thick black framed specs that made her looks cute rather than nerdy in any way. Chaeyoung grinned at her, a piece of bread hanging from as she handed Mina another one she took from her plate. She sits in front of the smaller girl, biting then chewing on the strawberry jam bread and watching the girl writing on a journal that only has few blank pages left.

“Feeling better?” Chaeyoung asked, peeking through her dark fringe as she wrote. “I can see some colors in your face now.” She continued, making movement with her pen pointing at Mina’s direction.

“Hm a lot better. Are you going to my schedule today, Chaeng?”

The girl shook her head. “I told the filming crew you’re not in any condition to film today, so, today is really just a resting day for you. You’re welcome by the way.”

Mina smiles then giggles, she ruffles the younger girl’s hair. “Thank you.”

Chaeyoung hums. “What do you wanna do today, Mina Unnie?”

“I was thinking of visiting Jeongyeon Unnie’s filming set, but I guess I can’t do that.” Mina catch Chaeyoung stops mid-way in her writing. “What?”

“Nothing.” The girl said, still looking down writing on her journal. “You can just send a food truck of coffee truck or something instead of risking going out and getting caught by some of your filming crews.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“I already did that, figured you wanted to do it.” Chaeyoung grins again, this time a smug one.

“Always one step ahead.”

“Yeah, always.”

“Thank you, Chaeng.”

She nodded when closing her journal and put it inside her backpack. Chaeyoung stood up to take Mina’s medicine in her room and filled the glass with warm water. The older girl took it and swallowed the medicines in one gulp, she’s going to get drowsy and fell asleep again not for long. Mina watches as Chaeyoung sits in front of her again, handing the girl her phone she hasn’t put her hands on since yesterday.

“Oh, you have it, I thought I lost it.”

“Momo Unnie gave it to me last night.”

Mina checks her notifications and she was right, Jeongyeon left her almost a hundred miscalls and text which most of them asking where she is, what she’s up to, and that she was worried because Mina hasn’t responded to any of her calls and texts. She opened her chat room with Jeongyeon and snap a picture of Chaeyoung that was sitting in front of her watching TV.

She found my phone, and we send you a food truck.

Take a picture of it when they arrived.

I’m feeling a lot better, btw.

Thanks to you.

Hope you don’t catch the fever.

<3

And send the text to Jeongyeon. Her girlfriend might be busy at the time, filming is a good way to kill time but never a good thing for catching up on anything since it takes most of your time and left you with none. Mina checks on some news platforms for Jeongyeon’s movie, she remembered not knowing anything about it except that it is a drama movie also, she doesn’t know who her girlfriend casted with. She surfed the internet and it’s not that hard to find the information she needed, the movie director is a dude with a big deal in the industry and Jeongyeon is a very famous actress too – not as much as Nayeon but still famous – so it’s kind of everywhere. Mina tap on one of the news highlights and scroll down the article, she reads slowly then stops completely, zooming in the press taken picture where the cast of the movies do a script reading together.

Her heart sinks.

“Do you know about this?”

Chaeyoung averted her eyes from the TV and looks at Mina, “Know what?”

The older girl gave Chaeyoung her phone, than the small girl just gulped down her breath. She chose her words very carefully. “Oh, yeah. I read this article too.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mina’s voice was flat, constant, there’s nothing in there to judge or to make which is dangerous and if Chaeyoung didn’t know better she wouldn’t know that Mina is actually very close to getting angry. The younger girl studied Mina’s face, the Japanese girl shows nothing, just simply looking down on her phone on the article. Jeongyeon clearly leaving Mina clueless about this movie and Chaeyoung didn’t know what’s worse; not telling Mina about it or let the girl know from an article the news wrote.

“She didn’t tell me about it too. Why none of you tell me about it?”

Chaeyoung gulped when her eyes meet the older girl’s, she is clearly not amused now. The girl’s eyes are cold and disappointed if Chaeyoung has to put a word in to it.

“I thought you knew.” She lied.

“I wonder why she didn’t tell me that Irene is in there too, also they share a kissing scene.”

The younger girl didn’t know what to do with the situation as she watched Mina stood up and grabbed a jacket and a cap. She walked to the front door and told Chaeyoung to not follow her as she needs a fresh air. Chaeyoung just stays there dumbfounded, then dialed Dahyun’s number in a hurry.

Dahyun picks up on the third ring. “Chaeng?”

“Uh… Mina Unnie left, she read the article about the movie.”

She hears ruffles and movement on the other line of the phone, Dahyun whisper to the filming crew to give Jeongyeon a five minutes break after this one take. She told Chaeyoung that she will inform Jeongyeon about it and Chaeyoung told her that she’ll find Mina and that the girl is not in a good condition. They both hang up on each other and Chaeyoung just ran outside the apartment building after she text Tzuyu – who currently in charge with Sana and Momo’s schedule – that she might have just lost Mina.

*

The filming set was busy, as how it should be. Mina waits far enough for anyone to see her but not that far so she can still see Jeongyeon clearly. Mina sniff then shudder under Sana’s grey jacket she took without checking whose jacket it was and her jean short, which she regrets going out without changing her pants first. The night was not that chilly, the wind didn’t bring much cold either since she was shielded by the prop truck. She feels her breath was hot again and her head gets heavier, she thought maybe it was the medicine but it’s not because she’s drowsy, maybe her fever came back.

Jeongyeon came out from the house they’re using for the movie, all smiley and kind, just a normal Jeongyeon. The scene was normally brought a smile to the girl’s face but not this time, not when she saw Irene walking right behind her girlfriend, talking to each other. Jeongyeon spun around once they were outside then continue talking to the older girl, Mina can’t see Jeongyeon’s face but the wide smile on Irene’s was enough to tell about the situation.

she doesn’t want to be that girlfriend who are jealous of everything their girlfriend does with someone else, Mina promise herself that she won’t be that kind of person, but this time it is different. Those two only broke up because of their company regulations, Mina was so sure back then if there are no such boundaries both Jeongyeon and Irene would still be going strong until now. Heck they might be engage looking how sweet they were back in the university. It is so hard not to get jealous when your girlfriend ex-girlfriend is so beautiful and nice, Mina knows she’s not bad herself but Irene is just another level judging by how famous she is even before she became trainee, even before she attended her first modeling major.

Sighing, Mina feels disappointment slowly eating her alive. She can’t help but thinking that something was up with Jeongyeon and Irene looking at how her girlfriend didn’t tell her about the movie at all, leaving her in the dark. Her right mind was telling her that Jeongyeon just doesn’t want to make her worried since Mina is so busy and so occupied at the moment by the reality wedding program, plus the girl was sick which might add to Jeongyeon’s misery and dilemma if she tells her about it. Mina feels ridiculously emotional about the matter, she shouldn’t be like this and support Jeongyeon on her filming just like how the older girl’s do to her with the reality program which actually the real thing that caused problem in the first place.

Mina bit her lip, uneasy, fighting with her inner thoughts and feelings. She looks down to the ground when another wind blows, she tells herself to get her together but it looks like she can’t control it. A drop of tear falls and Mina cussed under her breath, this is not something she should cry about, normally she would be a supportive girlfriend and this doesn’t describe supportive in any way.

“Mina?”

The said girl jumped out of her skin, thinking that someone might see her. but it was just Jeongyeon, jogged to where she stood beside the prop truck. She should be relieved that it was her girlfriend but the sight only made her panic, Jeongyeon shouldn’t not know that she is here, no one should. So, Mina stepped back when Jeongyeon try to reach her hand and missed her by an inch. She shouldn’t be caring about how the older girl must feel by her action because Mina is the one that disappointed right now, and she can be selfish if she wants, but when Jeongyeon startled face shown when Mina stepped away from the girl, her heart drop, Jeongyeon’s has that expression if someone just broke her heart.

The girl retreated her hand, fisted them to her side playing with the knuckles. Nervous and tentative and scared. She caught Mina’s breath hitched and the girl wiping her eyes violently, murmuring something like ‘this is tupid’ and ‘what’s wrong with me’.

“Mina…”

The said girl didn’t answer, Jeongyeon try to make a step closer to her but when the other girl flinch she stops on her track. This is not how Jeongyeon want things to be.

“Mina, I-I’m sorry.” Jeongyeon said groggily. “Hey, are you okay? You have fever, are you feeling better?”

“Stop.” Mina said stern and somewhat cold that make Jeongyeon flinch. She wasn’t meant it to be that harsh but she guessed she can’t lie herself about her disappointment and her insecurity. “I need time.”

There was no reply from Jeongyeon and Mina doesn’t want to see her face because for sure, she will break down right here right now. Not because how the insecurities and that she actually mad at her girlfriend but more like that she feels like she had failed as a girlfriend, that she became that one person she hates and promise not to be. She doesn’t want to see the heart break on Jeongyeon’s face, too. It is too much to handle.

“You should’ve told me!”

“I’m so–“

“No.” Mina shook her head. “I need– I need some air, I need time. I just–“

The girl couldn’t finish what she was trying to say and just started walking away. Jeongyeon was so close to move her legs to run after her but the director shouted to her that they can’t hold the filming longer. Dahyun was running at her direction and told her to go back and let her go after Mina, which she does even before Jeongyeon could process what the girl was saying.

And so, she continued her filming. She couldn’t remember any line she has rehearsed earlier.