Mina wipes the sweat off her brow as she takes a breather. She rests her hands on her hips as she looks at the remaining customers of her restaurant. She lets out a sigh of relief when she checks the time – rush hour is officially over. She has another half an hour before her restaurant closes and she can see a few people remaining. Mina cleans her hands, rubbing them against her white coat as she decides to talk to the customers about their reviews of her dishes.

“You really like hearing the compliments out there, don’t you?” Tzuyu teases Mina, who happens to also be her boss and close friend.

“A little bit of their comments make my day, okay? It really helps after beating rush hour.” Mina rolls her eyes and throws a hand towel on Tzuyu’s face. “Get ready to close up. I know you can’t wait to come with me anyway.”

Tzuyu flushes and grumbles, hating how Mina always turns the teasing around on her. That’s why she possibly hates the fact that she’s dating Mina’s girlfriend’s best friend. She’s stuck with the teasing at work. Mina chuckles at her misery before heading towards the customers.

She can’t help the smile that forms on her lips when she sees her favourite customer at the back of the room. Mina approaches her first, crouching to talk to the precious woman.

“Grandma Lee, you came!” Mina greets the elderly lady with a huge smile. The little girl sitting opposite her giggles too and Mina ruffles her hair.

“Oh, dear! Mina. You scared me!” Grandma Lee slaps Mina’s hand lightly.

Grandma Lee is one of the first few loyal customers that Mina ever had in her entire life of being a chef and running a restaurant. She met her when Mina started in the small town with a food truck. Since then, she’s come far to own the five-star restaurant she runs today. And, Grandma Lee has been there for her throughout the long and eventful journey.

“As always, your cooking is lovely Mina dear. You never disappoint with what you make.” Grandma Lee chuckles, pinching Mina’s cheek.

“I’m glad to hear that Grandma! How about our little princess here?” Mina wraps an arm around the little girl.

“Risa loved her food too!” Risa claps and Mina can’t help but kiss the top of her head.

“You’re closing soon, right? Are you going to meet Momo? Tell her I send my love her way. And you two need to come over! I have some kimchi I need to pass on to you two.” Grandma Lee scolds Mina for not visiting her.

“I promise we’ll come by soon. We’ve just been a little busy since Momo started a new class this month.” Mina justifies her girlfriend’s actions. “I’ll see you tomorrow Grandma!” She hugs the elderly woman before approaching a few other customers. They all give Mina positive feedback and it leaves Mina grinning widely. She makes her food to perfection so that her customers enjoy it to the maximum.

Momo always talks about her trademark line, “if you work hard, you can delicious food” and had Mina attach it to her restaurant as her promise. She thinks it’s probably the wisest decision she’s ever made because it’s the best motivating factor. Serving delicious food means that she can also make that delicious food for herself. And that’s the biggest bonus that comes out of being a chef.

(especially a five-star chef)

There’s still another ten minutes remaining. Mina chases everyone in the kitchen to clean up and put everything away. Leftovers are packed for anyone who wants to take some home and Mina makes sure to grab a container for her girlfriend. She gets fussy when she doesn’t get Mina’s cooking every few days or so.

She’s alarmed when she checks her phone for a quick second. Mina’s been bombarded with messages and missed calls and she has an itch to check her notifications. But, work is almost done, so she decides to put it back in her pocket. Tzuyu sidles up to her once everything is clean, sighing heavily and resting her heavy head on Mina’s shoulder. She rolls her eyes and feels like being mean, pulling her shoulder down. Tzuyu only whines and Mina laughs, consoling her and letting her rest for a little bit.

Mina greets the rest of the workers as they leave, half look exhausted while the other half look like they’re about to go out for drinks. As soon as everyone leaves, Mina locks the till and pulls Tzuyu out of the restaurant, locking it up.

“Didn’t you sleep enough last night?” Mina teases her.

“No, we’re planning our trip abroad, remember? She wants to put everything down and organise it a month in advance.” Tzuyu groans.

Mina worries over Tzuyu then, being completely aware of what Tzuyu’s girlfriend is like when she goes into stress mode. Tzuyu’s been working extremely hard all day and Mina feels a little bit guilty for not checking in earlier. Dating Nayeon is definitely a task of its own and Mina commends Tzuyu for being able to keep up with that (occasionally) bipolar girl.

Her phone beeps in her pocket again and Mina remembers the stream of notifications from earlier. She unlocks it and her eyes widen as she reads all of the messages. Mina stops in her tracks and gasps. She facepalms. A part of her expected it to happen sooner rather than later anyway but she sighs upon finishing the text message from Nayeon.

Apparently, Momo over-exerted herself while she was teaching her new class and sprained her ankle by the time she finished. She’s still being overlooked by the nurse at the hospital next to the dance academy and they’ll be there until Mina comes to pick up her girlfriend. She scowls because she remembers talking about this just last night, when they were about to go to bed. Momo has a tendency to push herself more than she needs to when she starts a new class, thinking that it’ll be beneficial to show more enthusiasm from the start of the class. After all, if the teacher isn’t enthusiastic, how will she gain the attention of the participants?

Mina agrees about being enthusiastic. But, she doesn’t agree with over-exerting. It’s a whole process that starts from overthinking. Doubts that brew because Momo thinks she can’t do it, which leads to her practicing her moves more, which eventually leads to injuries or extreme exhaustion. Honestly, Momo doesn’t get injured that often, but it was bound to happen with her constant strenuous workouts.

Tzuyu realises that Mina isn’t walking anymore and turns around to face her boss, wondering why she’s still behind. She walks back and bumps her shoulders into Mina’s, which brings her out of her daze.

“Momo?” Tzuyu asks, asking about the phone.

“We’re going to the hospital.” Mina grumbles, pushing her phone in her back pocket.

“What happened?” Tzuyu panics and Mina almost laughs at the bubbling concern. It’s cute; Tzuyu reserves her worry when no one else is around.

“That doofus of mine just strained her ankle. It’s not Nayeon.” Mina laughs when Tzuyu turns red.

“You know that’s not why I was asking!” Tzuyu whines.

Mina laughs harder, wrapping an arm around Tzuyu’s shoulders. Sometimes, it’s just too easy to tease Tzuyu – and she definitely can’t let those chances go when she looks so cute being embarrassed and flustered at the mere mention of Nayeon’s name.

“You know that I was worried about Momo.” Tzuyu sulks as they reach Mina’s car.

“I just can’t resist teasing you sometimes, okay? You’re so cute.” Mina coos, squishing Tzuyu’s cheeks.

“Are you going to continue to be like this?” Tzuyu groans. She’d rather take the bus at this rate!

(not really)

“Why? Do you want me to drop you at the bus stop a few blocks away?” Mina snickers when Tzuyu is quick to shake her head, climbing into the car once Mina unlocks it.

The bickering continues in the car, all the way to the hospital. It’s mainly filled with Mina teasing Tzuyu about her love for Nayeon and her being about as red as a tomato the entire time. It astounds Mina that out of all the places the two of them met, Nayeon and Tzuyu met at a pet shelter. They could’ve met at Mina’s work, since Tzuyu popped in sometimes or Momo’s work or their parties but no, they met at a pet shelter. Tzuyu was just volunteering at that time but she immediately felt drawn to Nayeon, who went after the loneliest dog in the shelter.

It melted Tzuyu’s heart.

A few months later, Mina met Tzuyu when she picked Momo up from her dance academy and heard about her liking for cooking and inability to find a job. She trusted Nayeon and Tzuyu was a familiar face, so she gave her the job immediately.

“Are you going to give her hell?” Tzuyu asks when they park the car at the hospital.

“Me? Giving Momo hell? I don’t think so.” Mina shakes her head. “I’ll probably just laugh at her and about it.”

Tzuyu shakes her head and unbuckles her seatbelt, following Mina as she walked inside the hospital.

“Hi, I’m looking for Hirai Momo.” Mina speaks with the woman at the front, who directs her to the correct location.

As soon as Mina spots her girlfriend, she crosses her arms. She seems pretty relaxed with her foot up, eating a cup of packaged diced fruit. Nayeon spots her first and waves, gaining Momo’s attention, who has the audacity to look embarrassed. Mina hugs Nayeon first, who dives straight into the embarrassing story of Momo’s fall. Momo’s cheeks turn red at the recap and she hides her face in the pillow of her bed, wanting nothing more than to push Nayeon off a cliff somewhere far away.

“Don’t you have to go home and plan your holiday? Shoo.” Momo grumbles. Tzuyu facepalms and looks like she’s about to murder the girl as she reminds her of the stupid planning. Here comes another sleepless night for her.

“Why? I want to hear more about how you were trying to do a cool move and slipped.” Mina teases, tapping Momo’s hand so she shuffles over on the bed. She sits down beside her and kisses her forehead. Maybe a little bit of affection wouldn’t be a bad treat for her poor baby.

“Oh, you haven’t heard the best part.” Nayeon gasps, remembering what the doctor said. “Momo has to use crutches and she can’t teach classes for at least three weeks.”

Mina struggles to hide a laugh upon hearing Nayeon’s words. “Crutches, huh? And you have to rest? How will you ever survive?” She runs her hand through Momo’s hair as she continues to grumble at Mina’s constant teasing.

Momo doesn’t say anything though, she just snuggles into Mina’s side, sighing over the eventful day she’s had. Mina senses her tiredness and feels like Momo should probably be discharged by now. She calls the doctor and signs off all of the discharging papers. He comes back with a pair of crutches and Momo’s eyes widen. She doesn’t know how she’s going to even use them.

“You can use the wheelchair to take her to the car, but she’ll be needed to use crutches for any movement in the house and outside from tomorrow. She’ll need to come back for more check-ups in a week’s time so we can see how progress is.” The doctor informs.

If looks could kill, the crutches would be a pile of ash on the floor. Momo doesn’t want to use the crutches, but if she wants to get better, she knows she’ll have to.

“Come on, big baby. Let’s get you home.” Mina smiles, helping Momo onto the wheelchair with Nayeon and Tzuyu’s help.

(a lot of oohs and ahhs later, they managed to get her on)

Mina thanks them both when she gets Momo in the car and they hug her before leaving. Momo feels anxious as Mina remains quiet all the way back home.

“What?” Mina finally asks when she realises Momo’s been staring at her.

“You didn’t scold me.” Momo points out.

“Do you want me to?” Mina smirks when Momo immediately shakes her head. “I know you had a tough day. We did talk about it last night, but you can be stubborn. I’ve learnt to live with it. I think you have a big enough punishment since you have to use the crutches.”

At the mention of the horrid item, Momo groans, not wanting to go there again. “Can’t you just carry me around?” She pouts.

“I have to work, remember?” Mina rolls her eyes. “You’ll be fine.”

Momo mutters under her breath and Mina reaches over to hold her hand. Her shoulders relax and she sinks into the seat.

When they reach their home, Mina is quick to hand Momo her crutches. She earns a glare from her girlfriend, but Mina shrugs.

“How about this. If you make it to the door on the crutches, I’ll give you a kiss.” Mina offers.

Bingo.

Momo’s eyes light up immediately and she nods. Mina has to hide a scoff at how she has to bribe her girlfriend just to use the damn crutches. She props herself on her crutches and wobbles a little bit.

Mina tries.

But she can’t stop herself from giggling.

Momo groans but feels more confident as she holds onto the torturous wooden sticks. Mina smiles at the effort Momo puts into taking her steps, her brows were furrowed and tongue peeking out of . Of course, Mina isn’t going to be standing far from her even though she said to walk to the door. Trusting Momo with crutches right off isn’t a good idea. She’s within an arm’s reach of Momo the entire time as she walks forward.

She succeeds in getting to the step before the door before her right stick gets caught on a rock. Her stability crumbles but Mina is in front of her and holds her still.

The conditions aren’t’ met, but Mina believes Momo deserves a kiss anyway. She cups her girlfriend’s cheeks in her hands and presses her lips against hers gently. Momo forgets about her crutches and they drop to the floor when Momo rests her hands on Mina’s waist.

“Oh, I think it needs some getting used to.” Momo rubs the back of her head as she hops on a foot.

Mina rolls her eyes and picks them up for her, making sure Momo is leaning against the door first. “Let’s get you inside before you break something else.”

Momo lets out a whine of disapproval but Mina is quick to silence it with another kiss.

At least they manage to get inside without any further injuries. Mina just hopes there won’t be any more sprains in the future.

(or injuries that are worse)