Sana says ‘I love you’ too easily, and Mina doesn’t know how to feel about it.

Maybe it’s just the kind of person that Sana is. She’s naturally sweet and unabashedly affectionate. Of course, she’d be the type who could throw that word around like it’s no big deal.

Not that Mina has ever heard Sana say it to anyone else.

Still, she finds it easier to believe that it’s just part of Sana’s flirty personality than to believe that Sana actually means it when she says it.

Sana says it every chance she gets, including but not limited to the times when Mina blurts out the lightest compliments, when Mina gives her the mildest words of encouragement, and when Mina does the smallest favors for her.

That’s why Mina already expected those words when she got back to their table holding two glasses, both filled with lemonade from the restaurant’s drink bar.

“I love you!”

She already expected it, but her heart still skips a beat like it always does when she hears it.

Mina wants to tell Sana that she should be more careful about saying that, especially in response to words and actions that she could answer with a simple ‘thank you’ like a normal person.

Instead, she flatly replies, “I know.”

“Do you?” Sana asks. Her eyes never leave Mina’s as she takes a sip of her drink and tilts her head slightly. “How do you know?”

Mina raises an eyebrow at her friend’s silly question, and Sana rests her elbows on the table and places her chin on her hands, looking at Mina expectantly as if to say that she’s actually waiting for an answer.

“Because you know everything about me—the good parts and the bad—and you’re still sticking with me.” Mina starts, deciding to humor Sana. “You’re always there for me, and you’re always patient with me, and you always believe in me, and you always go out of your way to make me happy.”

Then she stops, suddenly feeling the weight of the truth behind every single reason.

She didn’t even have to think about the things she just said.

Mina realizes that just as easily as how Sana tells her those three words she convinced herself were empty, she could tell all the ways that Sana proves otherwise.

“I thought you were gonna say ‘because you say it a thousand times a day,’ but yeah,” Sana says with a chuckle, interrupting Mina’s thoughts. “Those are valid reasons, too.”

Mina laughs along with a laugh that’s somewhere between a sincere one (because Sana knows Mina is uncomfortable with emotional conversations and tries her best to keep things light whenever they’re about to cross a line, bless her heart) and a nervous one, and she only gets even more nervous when she hears—

“Can I ask you something?”

At this point, Mina is too anxious to verbally say yes. She nods, even though she is dreading the question she is about to be asked, which she figures is about—or at least significantly related to—how she feels about Sana in return.

“What else can I do?”

Mina blinks, confused. “What?”

“What else can I do to make you believe that I love you?”

And Mina still hates it, how Sana can effortlessly utter words that make her heart flutter.

“You can get the drinks next time,” Mina teases, making Sana chuckle again.

“Got it,” Sana replies and, to Mina’s relief, switches to a lighter topic and maintains small talk until they finish their meals.

Mina doesn’t think she can say it back, not yet, at least not in words.

But she pays for their dinner, offers to walk Sana home, and holds Sana’s hand until they arrive at Sana’s door. She says good night, but Sana doesn’t say it back.

Instead, Sana leans in, and Mina smiles against her lips.

Mina thinks Sana got the message.

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