Nayeon was merrily chewing, snacking on her tuna sandwich. Across her was Dahyun and Momo nagging at each other. Every now and then, Momo tried to flirt with Dahyun, throwing a subtle compliment. The pastel-haired girl returned Momo's coyness with an annoyed eye roll, not bothering to entertain her. She went back to her food, reeling Momo to boost her game.

Watching her two friends go at it and knowing it was all in good fun warmed Nayeon. A small smile and little chuckle would come from her stuffed lips. The preoccupation on her friends was pulled away by her own girlfriend.

"Hey, babe. You never told me about how you did on th—"

Jeongyeon could see the teen girl coming in their direction but thought that staring was rude, turning her head away instead to indulge in a conversation with her girl. The thought didn't play out and she was actually stopping in front of their table, butting into their space.

"HEY, uhh..you guys. HI. I was wondering if you knew if this is actually Tzuyu Chou's shoe. I mean I heard that she was a size 9 but wore 2-inch heels that are 2 inches thick in width but my friend says it isn't. So I'm going around trying to prove a point."

She proudly held out the black shiny high heel like a dog presenting its fresh kill to their human. The entire group stopped themselves and turned their heads, quite disheveled with her claims. They couldn't take what just came from and the bizarre manner she took while invading their space was ludicrous.

Is this girl serious? Jeongyeon thought to herself, her eyes darting from her girlfriend to DahMo and then the heel.

Her eyes finally landed on the girl with an intensive toothed smile. The heel appeared to bedazzle with glitters in the cheap and jading cafeteria lights. A couple of minutes had already passed but the girl had her twisted smile in place, releasing an awkward air around them. She looked desperate to prove her friend wrong but the rest didn't know whether to play along with her or not.

Nayeon had been listening in to the conversation, noticing that a whip of tater-tots and low-end Victoria Secret's Sweet Seduction invaded her nostrils. That scent didn't belong to any of her friends so she became queasy. Her eyebrows naturally scrunched together in a puzzled expression.

Are we even allowed to say it's Tzuyu's? Momo looked between her girlfriend and Jeongyeon who had the same tense stare. As much as she wanted to piss the jock to get a kick out of her, she was already at wit's end with Jeongyeon and didn't want to make their situation worse.

The girls were in their own thought bubbles, deciphering within themselves whether to go along with this girl or break it to her. Someone had to eventually, why can't they?

"So do you think this could actually be Tzuyu's hee—"

The ditzy girl's excitable question was interrupted by the ringing of Nayeon's cellphone. She frowned from everyone's attention going to Nayeon. Jeongyeon caught the caller ID and blurted the name of the caller before Nayeon could tap the screen for voiceover to read it for her.

"It's Dr. Fan, babe."

"Ahh.." Nayeon mumbled, uncertain as to why it would be her doctor calling at this time.

Swiping across the answer, "Dr. Fan?"

"Yes, Nayeon. Hello."

"Hello," Nayeon replied, louder this time. Her eyebrows knitted together in a confused stare at the table.

Her friends had lost interest in the blonde girl from earlier and paid attention to Nayeon's phone call instead. The girl huffed, stomping a foot and stormed away to another table filled with teens to ask the same exasperated question. Momo snickered, looking behind her to check the girl and faced forward again.

"I apologize for bothering at such an off hour but I have some news and would like for you to come to the hospital at your earliest convenience. You may bring your parents, if you will."

"I..." Nayeon's heart slightly felt weighted, twitching a bit. "Is it good news?"

Dr. Fan paused for a second. Her ear pressed to the cellphone. She glanced down at her clipboard just to be sure and then up, cracking a smile that Nayeon could hear through the phone.

"Yes, girl. It's good news. Don't worry."

Nayeon let out a sweet breath of relief, chuckling along with Dr. Fan. The girls all looked at each other, sending each other questioning stares. They were intrigued by Nayeon's rapid change of facial expressions.

"Alright. I'll be there right after school. Thank you, Dr."

"Okay, bye bye~"

Once Nayeon ended the call and put down the phone, the buzzing questions came right after. Jeongyeon was the first one to ask.

"What was that all about?"

"Okay so—"

"Is it good news? PUH-LEASE tell us it's good news. We love that ," Momo stated in mid-chew. Dahyun rolled her eyes, her chin laying on her folded fingers, elbows propped on the table.

"Well—"

"I say, you two stop badgering Nabongs and let the girl finish her sentence."

Jeongyeon and Momo both chortled after sharing the same awkward looks. The three pointed their heads to Nayeon who laughed to thank Dahyun for backing her up. Nayeon stuck out her bottom lip, blowing a puff of air.

"Dr. Fan told me to go to the hospital because she has some good news for me, apparently. But I can't quite map out what she would have to tell me."

Jeongyeon immediately knew what Dr. Fan could possibly have in mind. The four of them actually discussed this a few days after. Dahyun and Momo had the same idea of looking at each other in a sense. The couple shot Jeongyeon the same wordless stare, all of them wondering if they were thinking of the same thing. 




























 

"Hello, Nayeon Im. I was called in by Dr. Fan."

The lady behind the counter shot Nayeon a reciprocated smile. It was the same woman that was familiar. Seemingly, the lady was only on shift when Jeongyeon was with Nayeon and Nayeon was the one to speak at the counter. Jeongyeon was internally befuddled by that, but kept it to herself.

"Heyyy, sweetie. Dr. Fan will be right with you. You know the drill."

Nayeon smiled at the lady. The second she was about to whirl around, Nayeon leaped forward. From the side, Jeongyeon saw Nayeon wasn't following her to a seat and turned around. Just then, she gestured for Jeongyeon to come towards the desk. She looked at Nayeon, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, and Martina, this is my girlfriend Jeongyeon. Jeong, this is Martina. She has been at the front desk since I was a little girl."

Jeongyeon raised a hand as if to validate her presence during class with the essence of a kindergartner. She slowly put it back then, standing around like an elephant in the room. This was actually the first time Nayeon introduced Jeongyeon as her girlfriend to someone outside of their friend group. Jeongyeon didn't know how to take it, feeling giddy inside and absurdly smiling.

The lady smiled at the young couple then went back to typing something into the computer. Nayeon was about to tug in Jeongyeon's sleeve and haul her to an empty seat but was stopped by Dr. Fan walking through the doors with the same black clip aboard glued to her arm. She halted the two in their tracks.

"Hello, Nayeon. Jeongyeon. Both of you look rather ill-at-ease."

Dr. Fan took a rapid close look at the pair. Appearing to have a blue face and attire, she could only make out that they haven't been looking well and taking care of themselves as good as she'd hoped. This made her quite bothered, but not wanting to say anything further to bring down their undisturbed mood.

"Thanks, Doc. You're looking spiffy yourself," Jeongyeon factly blurted.

She couldn't get a proper chuckle out of it when Jeongyeon was lightly jabbed in the stomach by Nayeon's elbow. She clicked her tongue, displeased with the timing of Jeongyeon's joke. Dr. Fan laughed at the two, telling them to follow her right after.

The couple followed the doctor to her office or own official room. Jeongyeon held Nayeon's hand, although she was perfectly well on walking with her cane, and Jeongyeon knew that indefinitely. Yet she wanted to have an excuse to hold Nayeon's hand and Nayeon didn't mind that at all.

Doctor Fan opened the door for the two but Jeongyeon allowed Nayeon to go first, standing at the side and aggressively motioning with her hands.

"I'm gesturing with my hands for you to go in first."

Nayeon giggled, shaking her head, secretly adoring Jeongyeon's manners and humorous ways of showing it. She entered first, Jeongyeon right after, closing the door behind them.

Nayeon tapped her way over to the examining table, hopping on it. She folded her cane and sat it beside her, waiting for Dr. Fan's instructions as routine. Jeongyeon took her place in a chair in the corner, looking like a little kid being put on time-out. Subconsciously, Nayeon swung her legs back and forth, getting sidetracked for a second.

Turning around, her eyes intensely on the clipboard, Doctor Fan broke the silence.

"The good news, Bugs...the one I was talking about...was..."

"Woah woah, doctor. I don't think I'll be able to handle it. It's been a minute! Can you...slow down?"

Quickly after Nayeon said that, she clutched her chest, grilling the collar of her shirt. The upper part of her body was tightening, like a snake had constricted Nayeon's source of oxygen. Jeongyeon kicked herself off the chair, swooping in to catch Nayeon about the fall forward. Doctor Fan turned around to see what happened and her eyes grew a size.

"Oh, Bugs! Are you alright? What is it? Let me take a look."

She placed her stethoscope on Nayeon's chest, moving it around and hearing for the normality of her heartbeat.

"No, it doesn't hurt. I just had an inner sense of dread. I can't really take any bad news right now."

"But I told you that I had good news for you, my dear."

Doctor Fan stood up straight when she was finished, putting some distance between her and Nayeon. She looked down at her with sympathetic eyes.

Jeongyeon stood next to Nayeon who still sat on the examining table. She held her hand as Doctor Fan was waiting for approval to finally let them have the news she had been waiting to tell.

"Alright, Doctor Fan," Nayeon breathed out, "Please continue."

"As you know, your friend, Mina Myoui, was a registered organ donor since late September. We already extracted the corneas and have them preserved in the cooling chamber. Now that we have this, we are to schedule a date of when to have the surgery."

Nayeon was utterly at a lost for words. The situation still hadn't been clear to her. She was actually going to be able to see again. But then again, she had an overwhelming surge of mixed emotions over this. A tiny part of her did not want to go through it with it. She felt intensively guilty for Mina's death and did not feel worthy of getting the transplant done. She had to think this through.

"Doctor Fan, I don't necessarily feel right about this whole situation."

That struck the doctor to be odd. She understood why Nayeon was feeling doubtful for her own happiness.

"Nayeon, I know you feel like you're guilty of Mina's death, but you are not at fault here. And I know how much you and your family have wanted this surgery but couldn't afford it nor did we have the technology for it. But now we do and you h