A/N: If you realized that this is a Signal!Sana x WIL!Nayeon fic, you get a cookie. Enjoy.

Some things happen in an instant.

It can be something that comes out of nowhere, surprising you with its presence, overwhelming you so badly you don’t know what to do about it. You can’t explain where it came from and how it got there, but all you know is now it’s there, and you have to deal with it.

This is how Sana fell in love.

Sana doesn’t know much about relationships. It’s a given that she has no experience in romance, but she has little knowledge on relationships with others in general.

She remembers practically nothing about her parents since they passed away when she was twelve and were never home when they were alive since both of them were Supers. Her father had super speed while her mom had super strength, and in their last heroic act, they saved a lot of people during a massive earthquake. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to save themselves, so Sana had to grow up inside the Academy instead of a home.

Having Mina was the closest thing that Sana had to having a family, and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. They’ve never fought about anything and took good care of each other. The relationship she had with Mina can be considered intimate but platonic, unlike the one she now has with Nayeon.

“I didn’t know you were the affectionate type,” Nayeon comments as Sana wraps her arms around the former’s waist.

Truthfully, Sana didn’t know that either. She figured she’d be more awkward about this whole thing considering how clueless she is, but somehow everything with Nayeon had been easy so far.

For them, being this close feels natural, and it shows in the way Nayeon leans further back as Sana rests her chin on Nayeon’s shoulder. Sana sighs in contentment (even if it’s not the most comfortable position since they’re sitting on separate chairs in front of Nayeon’s desk) and peeks at what Nayeon is typing on her laptop as she replies, “What are you talking about? I’m just practicing. I’m trying to make your whole body disappear.”

Sana starts peppering Nayeon’s left cheek with kisses, making Nayeon ask, “And the kisses are also part of it?”

“Yup,” Sana answers with a giggle. “I can’t cover your entire body with mine. I’m trying to make your face disappear with my lips.”

“You’re cute,” Nayeon comments as she looks away from her laptop to face Sana. “And distracting.”

“Oh, sorry,” Sana apologizes as she leans back against her own seat.

At that, Nayeon pouts. “Who told you to stop?”

“You have work to do, Nayeonnie,” Sana reminds her… girlfriend? Not-girlfriend? They haven’t talked about that yet, so Sana isn’t sure.

“I’m multitasking,” Nayeon argues. “I’m studying and helping you with your powers.”

“But I don’t wanna distract you.”

“It’s fine, I promise,” Nayeon insists. She pulls Sana’s arms so she can put them back around her waist.

Before she can get back to work, however, Nayeon feels Sana pulling her back. “Come here,” Sana says as she pulls Nayeon to sit on her lap. She pushes Nayeon’s computer chair away, so she can wheel her own in front of Nayeon’s laptop, then puts her arms back around Nayeon. “Better?”

Sana feels more than she hears Nayeon laugh as she presses her cheek against Nayeon’s back. “Better,” Nayeon answers before returning her focus to her schoolwork.

Indeed, everything is better with Nayeon, and Sana couldn’t wish for anything more. She only wishes that she never has to lose what she already has.

Some things happen in an instant.

It can be something that you’ve been waiting for in a time so long that you’ve given up on it. You’ve already lost hope, but then it comes out of the blue just when you least expect it.

This is how Sana got her powers.

Sana has no idea when it started. All that she remembers is the first time she noticed it.

She has just woken up from the third (fourth? eighth?) time she “accidentally” fell asleep in Nayeon’s room, and she slides out of the bed as carefully as superhumanly possible.

It’s still more than two hours before their first class, Sana discovers when she checks the time on her phone, so she figures she should slip out and let Nayeon’s alarm wake the girl up. She stretches to wake herself up a bit more, then walks towards Nayeon’s dresser so she can see herself in the mirror and make sure she looks decent enough to walk on the dorm corridors.

The problem is she can’t check her reflection if it isn’t there.

At first, Sana thinks maybe she’s just dreaming or maybe her eyes were just playing tricks on her. After all, she finally sees her reflection just fine a few blinks later.

However, her power continues to appear at random times, so Sana really can’t deny that it’s there. Out of nowhere, strange things happen to her like suddenly dropping things because her hand vanished or suddenly tripping because her foot disappeared into the ground. There was even a time when Sana woke up under her own bed, and since she normally sleeps very still, the logical explanation is that her whole body somehow went through the bed while she was sleeping.

Thankfully, no one has noticed anything even after all of these incidents. Sana knows she’s already pushing her luck as it is though, so she skips her classes when she can and tries not to go out of her room unless it’s absolutely necessary. If no one is around to see her whenever her powers appear, then no one will discover that she has it.

What upsets Sana the most about this situation is that one of the people that she has to keep this from is Nayeon. She cuts their after-class hangouts short, especially the part where she practices her magic, because it’s not about making her powers appear anymore. Now, it’s about not making them show, so Nayeon won’t find out.

(She even starts holding Nayeon’s hand less after that one time her hand became invisible while Nayeon was holding it. Fortunately, it didn’t disappear completely. That would have been hard to explain.)

Instead of spending time with Nayeon, she spends more time on her own, trying to practice controlling her powers, and although she is making progress, she can’t seem to be happy about it because she misses Nayeon terribly.

The solution to all of this, of course, is to tell Nayeon everything. Sana knows it’s what she should do, but she doesn’t know how she ever could.

Telling Nayeon would mean talking about what’s going to happen next, which is Sana going back to the Academy and leaving the best thing she’s ever had in her life.

Sana isn’t ready for that yet. Sana doesn’t know if she will ever be.

As Sana keeps worrying about not losing Nayeon, however, she fails to realize that she already is.

“Do you wanna go to the park this weekend?” Nayeon asks as they walk up the stairs to her room.

“Park? What park?”

“The Haven.”

Sana narrows her eyes, stopping behind Nayeon who’s unlocking her bedroom door. “Isn’t that far?”

“A hundred and eight miles away actually,” Nayeon says precisely. She walks inside her room, and Sana follows. “It’s quite far, but it’s the nearest one, and you don’t have to worry. I’ll buy us bullet train tickets.”

Sana can’t remember the last time she’s been to a park. There is a greenhouse inside the Academy as well as a forest behind it, which are both useful for students with nature-related abilities. She hasn’t seen a single tree nor any kind of plant since she left, however.

(Sometimes, she wonders how the world was like back when it was a greener, back when the main concern of superheroes were villains, not natural disasters.)

Going to the park seems like a blissful idea for Sana. She finds it more and more wonderful the more she imagines it—Nayeon’s hand in Sana’s as they walk and breathe in the smell of flowers and grass mixing in the fresh air, Nayeon’s lips against Sana’s cheek as they lie down under the trees with branches swaying with the cool breeze, Nayeon’s head on Sana’s shoulder as the former dozes off on the train ride home.

Theoretically, that could be the perfect date.

Realistically, it could turn out to be the worst.

Sure, the garden is quite relaxing, but Sana is highly uncertain about how well she’ll be able to keep calm in a foreign place full of strangers. She’s getting better at controlling her powers, but for all she knows, she might accidentally make a tree disappear. Sana figures the anxiety won’t do anything to help control it either, so she knows she has to decline no matter how badly she wants to be with Nayeon.

“That’s a great idea, but maybe we can go somewhere closer and with a bit more privacy?” Sana suggests as she sits on the bed while Nayeon is lying down.

Nayeon lets out a tired, disappointed sigh. “What, like my room? We’re always here, Sana. We never go out of campus.”

“That’s not true,” Sana disagrees. “We eat out and go out for movies all the time!”

“All the time? We haven’t done that in a while.” Nayeon says, sitting up, and Sana is suddenly reminded of how little time they’ve been spending together since her powers appeared. Before Sana can start apologizing, Nayeon continues, “We haven’t gone out in a while, and you don’t even hold my hand anymore. Are you… are you ashamed of me?”

“What?” Sana asks in disbelief. “Why would you think that?”

“How can I not? You’ve been so distant lately.” Nayeon pulls her legs to her chest, and Sana feels like her stomach is tied in knots. “I don’t know if you got bored of me or if you got tired of me and you finally came to your senses about dating the ugliest girl in school, but please stop avoiding me. Please just tell me. I swear I’ll understand.”

“No, you don’t. You don’t understand.” Sana’s face feels hot, and her chest feels heavy. She can feel the tears threatening to spill from her eyes, too. She tries to hold them back, but her voice cracks as she asks, “You really think that’s how I feel for you?”

“You don’t like me anymore,” Nayeon replies, with her eyes meeting Sana’s. “That’s what I think.”

“You know what? You’re right.” Sana starts, and Nayeon flinches. After one deep breath, Sana continues by confessing, “I don’t like you anymore because I’m in love with you. I love you so much, and I have never been more scared in my life. I’m scared of hurting you. I’m scared of losing you. I’m scared of screwing this up.”

As Sana pours these words out, the same happened with her tears, and she wipes them clumsily as she keeps her head down, terrified to know how Nayeon is going to respond.

“So that’s what it was?”

“What?” Sana asked, confused.

“You’re feeling all of this for me even if you’ve only known me for a while, and you think we’re going too fast, so you’re pulling away,” Nayeon elaborates. “Is that it?”

Sana wants to say that that wasn’t it. Sana wants to tell Nayeon the truth. Sana knows Nayeon deserves to know the truth, that the way she’s been acting lately has nothing to do with Nayeon and everything to do with herself, and yet—

“Yes,” Sana lies through her teeth. “There’s no harm in taking things slow, right?”

“Right,” Nayeon nods. “I’m sorry for saying everything I said. I was just really worried.”

Sana couldn’t feel any guiltier. Everything is Sana’s fault, but Nayeon is still the one apologizing. Nayeon is too pure, and Sana is too weak, which is exactly why Sana feels so much for her, too much to tell her that she has to leave her. “Nayeon, I’m the one who needs to apologize.”

“No, you’re right. We should take things slow.” Nayeon reaches for Sana’s hands and gives her a weak smile. “We have all the time in the world.”

--

Some things happen in an instant.

It can be something that you have to do suddenly, without thinking much about it because you know that if you do, you definitely won’t ever get through with it. You opt to do it quickly, thinking that it will hurt less if you do it that way, like ripping off a band aid, only to realize that in the end the pain is just the same.

This is how Sana left.

She spent hours and hours trying to figure out the best way to break it to Nayeon. She made a million plans inside her head, and each scenario somehow ends in the same way. No matter how she’d tell Nayeon, Sana knows exactly what the girl would say.

Nayeon would tell Sana to leave.

For Sana, that is the worst part.

For Sana, that is the part that makes all of this so difficult.

For Sana, that is the part that makes it impossible to leave.

When Nayeon offered to help Sana with her powers, Sana didn’t think it will actually work. Sure, she liked the idea of reaching her full capacity, but she never gave much thought about what’s gonna happen after that, especially not after she got so close with Nayeon.

She thought the best case scenario was that she’ll develop her powers little by little, but instead, her full powers appeared just like that, and Sana doesn’t know what to do.

Sana knows that if they part, Nayeon would have it just as hard as her. Sana knows Nayeon won’t mention that if she ever confesses about her powers. Sana knows that Nayeon will tell her to do the right thing. Sana knows that Nayeon will tell her that everything is going to be alright. Sana knows Nayeon will tell her all of these because Nayeon is too good and that’s what Sana loves the most about her.

Sana loves Nayeon.  She can’t look Nayeon in the eye and bid her goodbye when she’s the one thing Sana doesn’t want to lose.

Then, she realizes she can choose not to.

Before she can change her own mind, Sana writes down all the thoughts and feelings and secrets she’s been harboring for weeks, leaves the long letter on Nayeon’s bed, and does the one thing she’s been desperately trying to do her entire life.

She disappears.

A/N: Yes, I’m writing a multi-chaptered fic just so I could use the phrase “as superhumanly possible.”

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