Nayeon paced up and down outside Sana’s hospital room. She’d stayed in there as long as she could, but with Sana sleeping peacefully she couldn’t ignore Momo and Mina anxiously waiting outside. Part of her wanted to just be selfish and hog Sana to herself, but Nayeon was trying to be friendlier with Momo and deep down she knew Sana needed to talk to her friends. Plus, Mina had somehow found the time to make a twelve-page PowerPoint presentation on her phone detailing how the trio were going to fix their friendship, and Nayeon was both impressed and intimidated.

So here she was, trying not to peek in through the door to see what was going on. She knew Sana was awake, and she knew that they were talking. She also knew that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, because last time she accidentally glanced in as she paced by, Mina was crying. Her tears looked like they were made of diamonds, and that distracted Nayeon for a moment as she wondering if crying diamonds was another part of Mina’s power.

Probably not. Who’d become a superhero if they could get rich that easily? She most likely just had pretty tears, unlike Nayeon who’s crying face made her friends burst out laughing even when she was seriously upset. Meanies.

Nayeon loved them.

And she could tell Sana loved her friends the same way. It’s why Nayeon was certain that they would work out their issues. She’d only known them a short while, but even though there was tension between Momo and Sana at the moment, the way they cared for each other was obvious.

So that wasn’t a problem. The problem was what came after they had their talk and patched up their friendship. Sana loved Nayeon. Sana wanted to be with Nayeon. But once she made things right with Momo and Mina, would Sana go back to being a hero? If so, what would that mean for Nayeon?

She didn’t know, and so she paced. Up and down, up and down. One quick glance in showed that Mina had whipped out that PowerPoint presentation and she was tapping one point on a slide insistently. Both Sana and Momo looked shamefaced, and Nayeon almost laughed.

Except you know, that whole worry about her future with Sana was still hanging over her. She really needed a better distraction, because pacing a hole in the floor just wasn’t cutting it.

“Nayeon?”

On second thought, pacing would be just fine.

“Hey, Nayeon!” Tzuyu caught up to her quickly, tugging her into an empty room before Nayeon could get away. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” Nayeon wriggled out of Tzuyu’s grip and tried to make a beeline for the door, but the taller girl blocked her way.

“Nayeon! Why are you so… off?”

“I’m not off! What does that even mean? Why do you care if I’m off?” Nayeon scoffed. “Aha! You don’t care, do you? You’re just deflecting because you’re the one that feels off! Gotcha!”

Tzuyu gave her a flat stare, and Nayeon’s grin wilted.

“Alright fine maybe I’m a little off. Now go away.”

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong. Every time you see me you flinch away.”

“I do not! You’re projecting again.”

Tzuyu raised her fist and made a half-hearted punch towards Nayeon’s face. Nayeon screamed and scrambled away.

“Yep.” Tzuyu rolled her eyes. “Definitely nothing wrong there.”

“Why are you always so deadpan and sarcastic?” Nayeon whined. “You used to be such a cute little kid! Who raised you?”

“Good and loving parents with no patience for bull. So tell me, what’s up? Why are you so scared of me?”

“Well gee, I wonder.” Nayeon laughed sharply. “Maybe it has something to do with how you snapped and pushed Chanmi through like three walls?”

“What?” Tzuyu looked genuinely confused. “But why would that scare you? She was evil! I would never do that to you.”

“Why not? I’m your mortal enemy!”

“You’re really not.”

“We hate each other!”

“We really don’t.”

“You say you hate me like every time we meet!”

“Because you’re always being a pain! But I never mean it, even when you’re seriously annoying.”

“Well I hate you!”

“You do?” Tzuyu gasped.

Nayeon tried to stay strong, but when she saw tears forming at the edge of Tzuyu’s eyes she cracked.

“Fine fine I don’t hate you! I don’t! But can we at least be frenemies? I have to save some of my pride.”

“You never had any pride to begin with but sure, let’s go with frenemies.”

Nayeon sighed, and a quiet calm settled in the room. Tzuyu let it linger for a moment before continuing.

“Nayeon, I would never push you through a wall like that. I know I threaten you a lot but I don’t seriously mean most of it. You may be a supervillain but you’re not evil, not like Chanmi who just wanted to hurt people out of spite.”

Nayeon opened to argue, but Tzuyu waved a hand dismissively.

“And yes, there are a long list of citizens, myself included, that want to sue you for property damage and general criminal annoyance. But at the end of the day, I know that you would never seriously hurt anyone.”

“You don’t know that.” Nayeon mumbled weakly.

“Do you think I would let you keep kidnapping Chaeyoung if there was even the slightest chance you would actually harm her?”

Damn. She had a point there.

“Remember the time you tied Chaeyoung up to a plank headed towards a buzzsaw?” Tzuyu continued. “You said you’d only switch it off if I solved all the puzzles you made for me, but when I started taking too long you got impatient, and in the end, you switched the saw off, untied Chaeyoung, and then both of you showed me how to do all the puzzles I was stuck on. So yeah, I don’t exactly consider you the embodiment of evil. You’re just a lonely .”

“Hey!” Nayeon protested. “I may not be evil but that doesn’t mean I’m lonely!”

“All your schemes are just done to get attention, usually mine.” Tzuyu pointed out. “I still don’t understand why, but honestly at this point I don’t care. You have Sana now, so get your head on right and stop acting like being my archnemesis is your sole purpose in life.”

Nayeon tried to figure out how the conversation had gone from accusations of hatred to Tzuyu being her life coach. When the younger girl had tugged her into the room, this was not at all what she had expected.

 “…Maybe, just maybe, you’re right.” Nayeon admitted begrudgingly. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to apologize for all the supervillain shenanigans.”

“I never expected you too.” Tzuyu rolled her eyes again. “And honestly, tell anyone this and I’ll kill you, but they weren’t all bad.”

“Wow.” Nayeon smirked. “You’re already back to threatening to kill me? You’re such a violent soul Tzuyu.”

“Shut up and let me be soft with you for a minute.”

Nayeon grinned smugly, but gestured for Tzuyu to continue.

“Have you ever been in love Nayeon?”

That was… a loaded question. When Nayeon heard the phrase “in love”, her mind used to go straight to Yeri. To foolishly rushing in and reading into every little laugh and nod, to a whirlwind romance with an abrupt and painful ending, to grand gestures that left her with nothing but an empty heart. To the belief she’d gained, that Yeri was right and her powers made her incapable of falling in love properly.

“We would never work. You and I are on different levels.”

But now she thought of Sana. Sana who eased Nayeon’s every fear and uncertainty with solid, wholehearted love. Sana who fell just as hard and fast as Nayeon, and stuck by her when things went sideways. Sana, who she’d known for a few days, but who had somehow made her unafraid of falling in love again.

“I love you.”

Nayeon smiled.

“Yeah.” She replied. “I’m in love right now actually.”

Tzuyu nodded, and Nayeon was grateful that she didn’t question that statement. She was sick of the whole ‘You’ve known Sana for less than a week’ nonsense. Whatever happened to love is love?

“It’s the best feeling.” Tzuyu said softly. “Because every day, I get to wake up to this amazing girl I love, and every day she chooses to love me back. But at the same time, it can be so terrifying. Because she’s so talented and pretty and funny and she deserves the world but all I can offer her is the risky life of a superhero’s girlfriend. The first time you kidnapped her was the closest I got to ever really hating you, because I was so sure we were going to break up once I rescued her.”

A teeny tiny tendril of guilt wormed its way into Nayeon’s heart, but she firmly ignored it. Jeopardizing Tzuyu’s love life may not have been the nicest thing to do, but it all worked out in the end.

Oddly enough, Tzuyu seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“But we didn’t break up. My crazy life wasn’t a deal breaker for her, not the first time you kidnapped her and not the fifth or the tenth or the… How many times has it been?”

“I’m not keeping track.”

Tzuyu shot her a look, and Nayeon grinned sheepishly

“Ok fine I’ve kidnapped her twelve times.”

“Twelve times...” Tzuyu nodded slowly. “I’m going to ignore how much I want to feed you to Gucci right now because the point of my whole speech is this: Your multiple attempts to ruin my love life actually made me more secure in my relationship. So yeah, your supervillain shenanigans are a pain most of the time, but you haven’t had a completely negative impact on my life, and you’re definitely not evil. I’m guessing whatever had you pacing up and down has to do with Sana, and I don’t know all the details, but whatever the problem is, don’t self-sabotage ok? You deserve to be happy, and it would make my job a whole lot easier if you had someone else to focus on in your life.”

“Wow.” Nayeon reached up to put a hand on Tzuyu’s shoulder. “That is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, but some of it is also complete nonsense.”

Tzuyu looked surprised, but Nayeon kept going before she could interrupt. It was her turn to be the life coach, even if her main policy in life had always been ‘Fake it til you make it’.

“Why the heck would you ever think that you can’t offer Chaeyoung the world? Yeah, she stuck by you despite all the tricky superhero stuff, but you stuck by her despite her changing hairstyles every three weeks. There’s nothing for you to be insecure about. You balance each other just fine kid.”

“That’s not the same! All her hairstyles were wonderful!”

“Ok I know love is blind, but c’mon. Even the mushroom hair?”

“The mushroom hair was cute and I won’t hear another word of slander against it.”

“Well, you’re entitled to your wrong opinion.” Nayeon patted her shoulder patronizingly. “My point is, when she pulls out that ring again, you better accept. I have plans to crash your wedding with Sana, so don’t disappoint me, got it?”

“Shut up, you’re like forty.” Tzuyu mumbled, but her face was red when she pushed Nayeon’s hand away. “Obviously I’m going to say yes, I’m not an idiot. Go back to your girlfriend who loves you and enjoy the fact that you’re not a lonely anymore.”

“Fine!” Nayeon swivelled dramatically and walked towards the door, but she paused at the exit.

“We’re still archnemeses, right? Even if I don’t spend all my free time to coming up with ways to ruin your life anymore?”

“Obviously. And this conversation never happened.”

“Good.” Nayeon nodded firmly. “Either I’ll see you at Jihyo’s this Friday, or Sana and I will come up with some dastardly scheme to target you next week.”

“Or you could just use all the money you stole and travel the world together.”

“Yeah but I haven’t even shown her the shrink ray yet.”

“If you shrink everything in my apartment again-”

Nayeon was out the door before Tzuyu could finish her threat.

That conversation had been… unexpected. But strangely enough Nayeon felt more at peace now. The knot in her stomach still grew tighter as she reached Sana’s room, but she felt more prepared to face what was coming.

She knocked once, smiling at the look of happiness on Sana’s face when she noticed Nayeon. Momo and Mina were gone, but judging by Sana’s cheerfulness their conversation had gone well.

And that was a good thing. Even if it meant trouble for Nayeon, she wouldn’t begrudge Sana the love of her friends.

“Hey.” Sana smiled gently, reaching up to Nayeon’s face when she got close enough. “You have your serious face on. What’s happened?”

“Nothing really.” Nayeon admitted. “But I think we should talk. There are a few things I need to say to you.”

“Me too.” Sana sighed. “I talked with Momo and Mina. We hashed it all out properly this time, and Momo said she was sorry. I feel… better.”

“That’s good.” Nayeon took Sana’s hand, squeezing it comfortingly. “So, you three are alright now? Fight over, friendship back?”

“Yeah.” Sana nodded. “I mean, some of the hurt is still lingering, but they want to fix it and I want to let them. I love them and they love me, you know?”

Nayeon’s hand went to her necklace, one that Jeongyeon had given both her and Jihyo when they had all graduated high school. She thought of her and Jeongyeon mimicking the way Chaeyoung brushed her teeth, of trying to giving Jihyo a piggyback at a Park Bogum concert and failing miserably but laughing the whole time.

“Yeah.” She swallowed the lump in and nodded. “I know.”

If it was a choice between her friends and Sana, who would Nayeon choose?

It wasn’t really a question, was it? Sana would never be cruel enough to force Nayeon to make that choice.

“So it’s all good!” Sana smiled brightly, but then she hesitated. “There is one thing though.”

Don’t self-sabotage. Nayeon reminded herself. She’d known this was coming, even if she wasn’t ready for it. She gave Sana an encouraging smile, because her girlfriend looked far too nervous right now.

Nayeon had anticipated this. So when Sana said it, she didn’t break down or freak out. All she felt was cold, numb acceptance.

“They still want me to go back to Japan with them. They want me to be a part of the Trinity again.”