After spending an hour on their choreography, the dance teacher chose to let her students use the remaining amount of class time to practise whatever they wanted. As long as they were moving, the woman didn’t care much.

Mina chugged down half a bottle of water before wiping away her sweat with her small towel. The bottle was then stolen by her good friend who came to check on her before they started their individual practises.

“So what are you going to work on?” Sana asked curiously as she took a big gulp, placing it back into Mina’s bag for her, “Your performance for the ceremony?”

“Yeah. It’s in two days and I feel like I’m not prepared enough.” Mina sighed while playing the demo on her phone, “It’s hard to find a mutual time to practise with my partner since our schedule’s pretty different.”

“Partner, you say?” Sana instantly wriggled her brows mischieviously, earning a nudge from the timid dancer, “So that’s what you call Jeongyeon, hmm?”

“Dance partner.” Mina expanded her wording, already knowing where her friend was going with the topic. She quickly switched it back to where she wanted it to be. “We have a part where we’re supposed to dance together, but we’ve only had the chance to practise it a few times in her class. Other than that, I’ve only tried it alone.”

“Then why don’t you snag all the chances you can get within the last two days to practise with her?” Sana questioned, “I know you’re the type that requires perfection before heading on stage.”

“But I don’t want to bother her so much…” Mina fiddled with the hem of her shirt shyly, “What if I become a hindrance? I’m sure she has other things to work on other than our act.”

“Yah, you’ll be saving her by making her practise with you! If she screws up on stage from the lack of preparation, she’ll regret it!” Sana reasoned firmly with her arms crossed. “I know you’re a considerate girl Mi-tang, but sometimes you need to take the lead.”

“I know, Sa-tang…” Mina pouted from her friend’s advice, “I’ll try…”

“You better! If you don’t send me at least 3 different proof shots of you and Jeongyeon practising, I’ll go kidnap her myself!”

“You can’t just abduct my friend!”

“Why? If she can’t even be a good partner for a school performance, how am I supposed to trust her to be a good partner to you in the future?!”

“Sana- we’re not like that!” Mina’s cheeks blushed instantly as she smacked her teasing friend on the arm, who then ran away with her tongue stuck out.

“Remember, proof shots!”

With her main source of distraction gone, Mina focused on rehearsing her own movements to the father-and-daughter dance, yet she couldn’t help but to think about her cheeky dance-classmate and her performance partner’s words- well, for Jeongyeon it was her texts, to be exact.

With a determined mind-set, she continued to dance enthusiastically until the school bell could be heard ringing across the whole campus.

“Anything else for you, Your Highness?”

“Oh yeah, can you grab me a bottle of coke?” Chaeyoung grinned happily while her roommate sighed in disbelief.

“I’m only doing this because of your goddamn ankle, okay?” Tzuyu mumbled before heading towards their mini fridge, grabbing the cool drink from within.

She carelessly chugged it towards the injured student, who shrieked loudly as she barely caught it in hand. “YAH! Is that how you’re supposed to treat a dying girl?!”

“Stop being a dramatic-.” the tall female scoffed, “You still have your other foot to hop around with, so stop acting as if you’re immobilised.”

“Yeah alright sassy Yoda, thanks for your care. You may leave now.”

“Wait, really?”

“I’ll just call you whenever I need your assistance.” Chaeyoung smirked as Tzuyu groaned in frustration, stomping away from the artist’s bed. The artist’s roommate grabbed her bag and keys before heading towards the door.

“Don’t you dare summon me back just to bring you something that’s three steps away from your reach.” she hissed while making an exit, leaving Chaeyoung alone to focus on all her schoolwork.

Chaeyoung’s half of the room was bombarded with art supplies and unfinished paintings; with small cans of paint loitering around, canvases leaning against the walls, and smaller pieces of sketches scattered across the desk and floor, it seemed impossible for anyone to function properly in such a space- yet for the little artist, it was her safe little heaven.

Although she was quite a social animal, she also treasured her alone time. She could spend a whole day without setting foot outside of her dorm and just work away on all her different art assignments.

While her roommate nags at her occasionally about how their room always smells of paint, it was because of the artsy atmosphere that got her engine going. She makes sure Tzuyu’s side of the room remains art-free as she worked so that the younger wouldn’t have too much to complain other than the scent.

As Chaeyoung painted leisurely on her bed with an icepack on her twisted ankle, the peaceful silence was suddenly disrupted when her phone broadcasted out a loud chime; she finished a few before placing her paintbrush down to check on her device, but she wasn’t expecting for what she had received.

A text from Mina read, “Hello Chaeyoungie, how are you feeling? School just ended for me, and I was wondering whether I could visit you at your dormitory. Would you mind giving me your room number?”

Chaeyoung stopped breathing as she reread the text 5 times over, before letting out a scream that would’ve gave her roommate a heart attack if she was present. Thankfully, no one came knocking on her door.

She placed her artwork gently onto the floor before checking her screen again, making sure that she wasn’t hallucinating. To her luck, the text indeed exists.

The artist felt her whole body tremble in both nervousness and excitement as she slowly composed a cautious, detailed, and heartfelt reply:

“159”

Mina giggled from her friend’s bluntness which contrasted from her true character. She could guess that Chaeyoung was probably panicking, and that thought alone made her want to squeeze her for her cuteness. “So is it okay if I paid you a visit?”

“Like, right now?”

“Right now.”

Chaeyoung quickly scanned around the room before gulping. “But my room’s really messy”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind.”

“But it reeks of paint in here”

“You can just decline my offer Chaeyoungie, it’s fine.”

The artist mentally slapped herself for creating a small misunderstanding from her awkwardness. “Nonononono”

“No?”

Chaeyoung took a deep breath before sending her next reply. “Please come”

Mina caught herself smiling uncontrollably once again. “Will I be a bother to your roommate if I came without informing her prior?”

“She’s out right now, so no worries”

“Then I shall see you in around 10 minutes.” Mina sent, before starting her hunt for room 159.

Although she found herself lost within the building for a bit, Mina eventually arrived in front of the entrance to her friend’s room.

She bravely gave the door a few knocks, and instantly the sound of clattering and slow stomps followed from the other side, causing her to smile subconsciously. She could imagine what was going on in there.

She took a step back as the door swung open abruptly, revealing a dishevelled Chaeyoung who was already red-faced; the girl was standing on her uninjured feet, one hand on the door knob while the other supported herself as she pushed against the wall. She was biting onto her paintbrush as if she was a puppy retrieving back a stick, and Mina just couldn’t help but to laugh at the few of paint on the girl’s cheeks. It was an instant giveaway that Chaeyoung panicked.

“S-Sorry if I made you wait, it’s kinda hard to hop around my messy room without stepping on something.” Chaeyoung grinned sheepishly, “Come on in!”

Automatically, Mina’s arm wrapped itself around the artist’s waist to assist her back to her seat; her gentlewoman-like gesture made Chaeyoung’s body burn up from shyness which she prayed the older couldn’t feel through her thin shirt.

After settling back in, Mina examined the unfamiliar room while Chaeyoung hid beneath her covers, absolutely embarrassed to have her crush suddenly visiting while her room looked like a warzone. Mina was purely curious about the dorm as she herself didn’t live in one; she had no intentions of judging her friend based on her tidiness, and actually found the mess charming in its own way since it reflects the room owner.

“Told you it was messy…” Chaeyoung chuckled awkwardly as she watched Mina look around, “You can take a seat anywhere you’d like. Make yourself at home- even though it looks more of an art studio here than a bedroom on my side.”

“Don’t worry about it, it really shows off your artistic personality.” Mina comforted the flustered room-owner, “May I look at some of your artworks?”

“Go ahead.” Chaeyoung answered before distracting her pounding heart with the assignment she was working on.

Mina went to her desk which had various mediums of artwork scattered across. As she admired them individually, the observant dancer’s eyes soon caught sight of a particular piece of paper which had a sketch of someone whom seemed a little too familiar.

Not wanting to embarrass the little artist any further, she decided to remain silent about it and moved on to the canvases that were lined up along the walls. She couldn’t help but to express her amazement as she knelt down, inspecting the effort that was put into them all.

Chaeyoung was truly an incredible artist, and Mina felt honoured to have known someone like her.

Mina soon reminded herself the reason to her visit as she went back to her friend’s side, examining the girl’s swollen foot. She picked up the icepack which she felt was already lukewarm; she decided to speak up about it. “Is there another one of these?”

“That’s the only one we have. It’s okay though unnie, I shouldn’t ice it for too long anyways.” Chaeyoung replied, “Can you throw it back into the fridge for me, please?”

Without a word, Mina did as she was asked before sitting herself down onto the end of Chaeyoung’s bed, still staring at her ankle. Chaeyoung could feel her gaze and that alone prevented her from focusing on her art; she felt like she was going insane thanks to the realisation that she was alone in her own room with her crush, who was now on the bed with herself, blankly staring at her body part.

“Does it still hurt a lot?” Mina asked softly, “It’s quite swollen.”

“Not as bad as this morning, but it’s still pretty nasty.” Chaeyoung answered truthfully, “I’ll just let it rest whenever I can. I don’t really want to go to the infirmary just for a twisted ankle.”

“Why? Are you scared of places that are like hospitals?” the dancer joked, but she realised she was actually spot on from seeing Chaeyoung’s widened eyes.

Mina’s fondness for her increased; she had the urge to protect the petite friend of hers. “Aww, you’re so cute.” she giggled while Chaeyoung felt her pulse stopping from the random compliment. The situation was really bad for her weak heart, and Mina’s loveliness was making it worse.

“S-Shush.” the artist mumbled as she hid her face with her project; her actions attracted Mina’s attention to the artwork she was holding onto, making her shuffle closer to Chaeyoung’s side in hopes to take a peek. As soon as Chaeyoung lowered her canvas to her legs, Mina’s curious face was unveiled from behind.

Chaeyoung swore that if she had the guts, she’d confess right then and there- the look of Myoui Mina was too irresistible.

Still, the room owner had to force herself to stay calm as she showed her guest the work in progress with her shaking hands. Mina was looking at her work with admiration, giving her a thumbs up afterwards.

“As expected of Chaengcasso.” Mina nodded in awe while the artist failed to hold in her laughter.

“‘Chaengcasso’?” she repeated while chuckling nonstop at her sudden new nickname. “Where on Earth did that came from?”

“Because you know, you’re really good at art and the first famous artist I could think of was Picasso, so…” Mina hastily explained out of her own embarrassment. She didn’t know her comment would trigger her friend to laugh so loudly, but honestly she didn’t really mind being laughed at. Chaeyoung’s laughter was really refreshing to the ears.

While Chaeyoung wiped a tear away from cackling too hard, she gave the dancer a huge grin.

“Thanks, I love it! That’s going to be my official nickname from now on.”

Unsurprisingly, that made Mina’s heart flutter.

Who could resist such an innocent, tiger-cub-looking person?

The answer is definitely not Mina, since she couldn’t resist anything adorable to save her life-

And Chaeyoung was just that.

Since the artist was incapable of working with Mina’s presence, she eventually gave up completely and started chatted with her caring guest. They got to know more about one another’s past and interests, which brought them closer to each other than before.

Chaeyoung didn’t know what she had done to deserve this moment, while Mina was keeping mental notes of the information she was learning about the girl- since she was on an undercover spy mission for Jeongyeon as well as being a good friend to the both of them.

Before they knew it, the sun was already beginning to set, which startled Mina as she didn’t keep track of how long she had been there for.

She hastily asked,

“What time is it?”