Jungyeon sat on the edge of the table, fumbling around with the wooden chopsticks. With her cold container of noodles in her other hand, Jungyeon had been waiting for Nayeon to finish up with her forms. With a new year group gone, most of the drama club’s authority and power had been shifted onto Nayeon as well as the paperwork, hence why she was doing her best to try to decipher the documents in her hands. 

The sounds of flicking paper and scraping chopsticks could be heard in the room. Other then that, it was oddly silent, the only other sounds coming from outside the classroom near the cafeteria. 

Jungyeon hadn’t thought twice when asked to accompany her girlfriend as she filled out some forms. It was free air conditioning and a quiet room for themselves. With the warm weather, the track team had taken a temporary break much to most of the members' delight. Even Jungyeon admits that it was starting to get difficult to even look enthusiastic about unending drills in the blazing sun. 

Unfortunately for Nayoen, the opposite could be said. With the year ending, the drama club must start promotions and budgets as soon as they could as requested by the council members. This left Nayeon with a lot more responsibility and reading than she had initially hoped for. 

She laid out the stack of papers and booklets in front of her. For whatever reason, each preceding president had kept a sort of log about the clubs activities and progress and it seemed like the tradition would not end with her. Her worries continued as she scanned through the budget list, quickly realising the amount of planning she was set out to do in the next few months. 

She flipped the page over and looked in the direction of where Jungyeon was sitting. With her newly dyed blonde hair, Nayeon wasn’t going to deny that she had caught herself staring at Jungyeon more than usual these days. She wasn’t the only one to notice either, of course, considering the small tug in the corner of Jungyeon’s lips which she totally not looking at. 

“You alright there?” Jungyeon had asked between a bite. 

“Swallow before you speak, you child,”

Offended, Jungyeon jumped off the table but was unable to say anything back. The scene with Jungyeon standing in such a defensive posture, cheeks stuffed with food and eyes bulging, and brought a chuckle to Nayeon. 

Her laughter died down as the girl rapidly chewed her food, a sight that Nayeon found more adorable than comical. As soon as Jungyeon was done, Nayeon opened , silently asking for just a taste of her mum’s famous noodles. Without even thinking, Jungyeon immediately fed some to Nayeon, having already forgotten about whatever comeback she was about to prepare. 

She held the chopsticks in front of Nayeon’s mouth, her other hand hovering underneath in case they made a mess. Nayeon smiled to herself at the considerate action, as well as the expression of concentration on Jungyeons face and took a bite. It had been a while since she had eaten something and the taste was starting to rouse her appetite. 

In the midst of all this, a thought popped into Nayeon’s mind. 

“Let’s go somewhere during the holidays.”

“Yeah sure.”

“No, I meant actually go somewhere.”

With that, Jungyeon halted her movements and looked up from her lunch, placing the container on the table. 

“Like a road trip? Or are we going to have to book flight tickets for this?”

“I was thinking of just a weekend retreat somewhere. Maybe another city?”

Jungyeon seemed to contemplate the thought. Nayeon admits that it was a rather sudden idea and perhaps she should have let it churn inside her head a little longer before she let it out but she couldn’t help it; the thought of it excited her greatly.

“The tickets would be a bit pricier around this time, but that depends on where we’re going.”

“But you’d like to go right?”

“I mean, yeah of course.”

Nayeon smiled. That was all she needed to hear. 

“Good. I’ll come up with something soon. Unless you have somewhere in particular you were thinking of?”

Jungyeon simply shook her head and left whatever decision making to Nayeon. While the two have been on trips together, it had never been longer for a day nor had it been just the two of them. It brought her joy that Nayeon was keen about the thought and inside, Jungyeon was already thinking about the possibilities. 

But for now, the two sat in the classroom, waiting for the end of the school year to arrive. 

_________________________

Mina’s footsteps hurried. Her shoes pounded against the floor, echoing through the corridor. Approaching the stairs, her hand hovered over the metal railing just in case she were to trip. She watched her feet as she quickly ran down, making sure not to slip. As she reached the ground, outside onto the pavement, a lump formed in . 

She was doing it. After all the years of imagining the moment and all this time spent playing out the situation, Mina could hardly believe she was about to tell someone how she felt. 

Was this how it was meant to be? The pounding feeling inside her chest and the small nagging fear at the back of her mind? Her thoughts were distorted and her feelings were blurred. Maybe it was all this running she was doing that was starting to take a toil on her body. 

She was short on breath which she was certain it wasn’t just because of her mini sprint. Her calves were sore from the sudden movement and her back was still aching from yesterday's routine which went on for much longer than Mina had anticipated. Her left knee clicked with every step she took and her pace started to falter as she stopped thinking about her pain but rather what was to come.

Is this how it had felt for all those guys who had confessed to her? Had all of them been this nervous, this scared? How on earth did they overcome this shadowing fear, the shaky hands and the broken eye contact? Was it even possible? Is this meant to be how you go into the talk, with all these feelings bubbling at the surface, threatening to erupt?

And how did it feel to go through all that just to be rejected?

Mina wasn’t sure she could do it. 

But she had to. She was pretty much already on her way. She had already reached the back of the school. Her legs were already carrying her down the familiar pathway. Her ears could already hear the bustling noises from the main entrances of the school fading out. She could already smell the faint scent from the growing flowers planted in the area. She could already see Momo sitting by herself, looking at her with an expression of both confusion and slight dread. 

Her footsteps slowed and eventually came to a halt. Mina had stopped only a few metres in front of her. 

Momo was looking right back at her, large eyes glimmering in the midday sunlight. Her hair fell nicely past her shoulders with a few strands lying close to her face. The few clips pinning her hair back had missed some and even in her state, Mina felt the urge to go fix it up immediately. Her shirt, however, brought a bit more satisfaction to Mina as it was cleanly ironed and tucked into her long jeans, a style that she remembers showing to her not so long ago. 

Still, being in her presence, seeing her after days on end of pretending that she didn’t care and feigning ignorance to Momo, she was awfully aware of how her mind stopped working simply to focus on the girl. If Mina was nervous before, then she was about to pass out now. 

It wasn’t long before her gaze fell, her eyes suddenly very fixated on the patterns of the brick pathway. 

It only then did Mina realise how impulsive she was being. Hell, she hadn’t even told Momo she was looking for her after so many days of not talking. Poor Momo had no idea what was happening and as soon as Mina had realised that, her worry almost doubled. 

She clenched her fists beside the seams of her skirt. Mina opened to speak but hesitated immediately. She gulped, not knowing where to begin at all. Instead, she stood there, still too afraid to make any eye contact with Momo. 

It was after a few seconds did Mina catch sight of Momo moving. The girl had stood up from the wooden bench and was now wearing an unreadable expression. Mina looked further in, trying her best to at least catch a glimpse of whatever Momo could possibly be feeling. 

It was anger, Mina could tell. But she wasn’t completely pleased. There was something sad in her eyes that Mina couldn’t place her finger on. Pity? Disappointment? None of those seems right.

Momo chose to break the silence first between them. 

“Mina, I,” she paused halfway. Mina wondered if she was feeling the same lump she was. “I’m sorry.”

Regret. Mina caught onto the tone in her voice. Yet it didn’t seem like the whole picture. 

Momo soon shifted her eyes to her right. It was only when it had been broken that Mina notices how long she had been looking straight at Momo. The thought made her heart beat faster and she soon realised how uncomfortable and suffocating the awkward interaction had become. 

She pushed aside her dignity and pride and spoke. 

“I’ve missed you.” 

“I miss you as well”

She hadn’t needed to wait long for a response. It was instant, almost natural for her and Mina could tell she had meant it. She hopes that Momo knew that she had as well.

Her mind whirled for the next thing to say. She did not want a prolonged string of silence where nothing happened. She wanted to be clear on everything she had avoided for the past few days. She wanted to voice out her feelings exactly and tell Momo to her face all her emotions and thoughts even if it would end up hurting herself. She wanted to know if she had been dreaming about all the moments they had shared together by herself, if she had been delusional the entire time or if Momo understood even just a snippet of what she was saying. 

But having Momo opposite her, those ideas seemed a lot harder to accomplish than anything she has ever yearned for. 

She averted her gaze to face Momo again. 

“I wanted to ask, why didn’t you come?”

She let move before her mind could catch up to what she was saying as she knew there was no way it would have come out otherwise.