Mina’s job is hard to define.

 

People would probably describe her as an assassin or an agent, but she isn’t fond of those terms.

 

She prefers calling herself a “fate keeper.”

 

Her duty is to make sure everything happens the way they are meant to happen, and okay, it mostly involves killing people, but Mina would rather not focus on the negative.

 

The point is that Mina has a very important job, and she’s good at it.

 

Of course, she can’t take all the credit. Without Nayeon’s unrivalled dedication, the pair wouldn’t be the best team at the Commission.

 

Sure, there were other exceptional ones too, like Five, the ex-agent on the run whom Mina and Nayeon are currently pursuing. Still, Mina believed they were just as skillful as Five who’s considered a legend by everyone at the Commission, so she thought they could actually finish their current mission easily when they found their target alone in a doughnut shop.

 

Except he wasn’t really alone.

 

As Nayeon moves closer to Five who just ducked under a table, Mina sees someone swinging the door from the kitchen half-open. Judging from the apron that the girl is wearing as well as the cup of coffee in her hand, Mina deduces that the stranger works there.

 

The girl is frozen in fear, as anyone would be if they saw two armed people firing bullets right in front of them. Behind the huge animal mask that she wears when she’s pursuing a target, Mina can’t really mouth words to communicate, so she hopes that using her head to gesture towards the door behind the innocent woman would be understandable.

 

Thankfully, the woman is smart enough to get the message and takes a step back into the kitchen to hide.

 

By the time Mina turns her attention back to the task at hand, Nayeon declares that Five is gone.

 

Mina tells herself that she shouldn’t feel guilty. Besides, it’s not her fault that Five has teleportation powers and can disappear into thin air.

 

She finds it kind of hard not to feel guilty about being distracted when Nayeon starts tossing and turning in her sleep hours later.

 

Nothing about this is new—the unused bed whenever they rent a room for two and the night terrors that Nayeon have in the middle of the night.

 

This has all happened before, but Mina knows they won’t talk about it the next morning.

 

They never do.

 

This is probably one of the reasons why Nayeon is so motivated to finish entire missions all in one day. Mina is the only one who ever sees Nayeon vulnerable, and while Nayeon allows it to happen, that doesn’t mean that she’s entirely comfortable with it.

 

As Mina pulls Nayeon closer and feels her sharp breaths against her neck, she makes a silent promise to complete the mission soon for Nayeon’s sake.

 

She stays wide awake, even as Nayeon’s breaths get calmer and calmer, planning her next course of action and thinking about the bullet holes she left on the walls of the doughnut shop.

 

She doesn’t find any sign of them when she visits the shop that morning, however.

 

Mina did not have that much time to look around when she was here the night before, but she can still tell some of the differences. On the outside, the sign saying “Momo’s” that is bright neon red at night is now unlit. On the inside, it is definitely a lot busier. There are also some posters that seem out of place, like they’ve been plastered there thoughtlessly just to cover up chipped paint or… maybe some bullet holes.

 

She doesn’t find any sign of last night from doughnut shop girl’s face, either. With a huge smile instead of the look of terror that Mina was more familiar with, the girl asks what she can get for Mina.

 

At that moment, Mina decides two things: one, her order, and two, that cheeriness suits the girl way better than fear.

 

“Just coffee. Black.”

 

“How about a doughnut?”

 

“I’m good,” Mina insists, and the girl nods.

 

When she comes to give Mina her order, however, she places a small plate with a doughnut next to the cup of coffee.

 

“On the house. Don’t tell anyone though. This is a very special promo for beautiful girls who seem like they had a long, long night.”

 

Mina blushes as the girl ends that with a wink, but she turns away so fast to attend to other customers that Mina doubts she even noticed.

 

She takes a sip of her coffee, telling herself that she was about to have a long, long day too.

 

---

 

“Where have you been?”

 

Mina doesn’t have to ask Nayeon the same question. With all of the guns and bullets lying on the bed in front of Nayeon, Mina safely assumes that her partner spent the entire day acquiring new weapons.

 

“I went back to the doughnut shop and found Five’s tracker on the pavement,” Mina starts as she closes the door to their room before anyone else can get a glimpse of Nayeon with her new purchases. “Then, I went to the library to do some research on The Umbrella Academy.”

 

“His superhero team with his step-siblings?”

 

Mina hums in response. She retrieves her laptop from the closet, places it on her lap as she sits on the unoccupied bed, and waits as it reboots. “Their address wasn’t hard to find. They really should have worked more on their anonymity.”

 

From across the room, Nayeon grins. “Their loss is our gain.”

 

“I sneaked into their mansion and installed trackers on all of the vehicles inside. I also put small cameras outside the house, so we’ll know if Five goes out and uses any of the cars. We’ll be able to track him then.”

 

“Wow, you’ve been busy.”

 

For a few minutes, Mina offers the clicking and clacking of keyboard keys instead of a response. She only gives an actual answer after showing Nayeon the laptop screen with the surveillance footages. “We still have to hope Five won’t use his powers to just teleport in and out of the house. I wanted to install cameras on the inside too, but the house wasn’t empty. Do you think I should have taken the risk?”

 

“No, you did good, Mina,” Nayeon replies with a wide smile. Mina supposes buying all the guns and bullets they’re probably not even going to use put Nayeon in a good mood. “Did you eat anything today?”

 

“This morning, yes.”

 

At that, Nayeon’s grin was replaced with a concerned frown. “Do you want me to go out and buy you something?”

 

“You don't have to. I can go out myself since I already set this up anyway.” Mina sets the laptop down on the bed with the screen facing Nayeon so she can monitor the streams from where she’s sitting. “Want anything?”

 

“I’m good. Just get back soon.”

 

“Will do,” Mina calls out before slipping out. She half-jogs to her car and drives, deciding that she can just grab something from the nearest convenience store.

 

However, when she drives by Momo’s on the way to the store, she finds herself pulling into an empty parking space.

 

Like the night before, the shop was empty aside from the doughnut shop girl.

 

(Mina really should stop referring to the girl as that. Maybe her name is Momo?)

 

“Black coffee?” The girl asks before Mina can even reach the counter.

 

“Please,” Mina says as she pulls a chair and takes a seat.

 

She isn’t that much surprised when her order comes a few minutes later with another unsolicited doughnut.

 

“You didn’t finish the one I gave you this morning, so I’m gonna make you try another flavor.”

 

“Oh, sorry,” Mina says, embarrassed about possibly making the girl upset by not finishing the free pastry from earlier. “What flavor is this?”

 

“It’s chocolate.”

 

“What about the one you served me earlier?”

 

“Strawberry,” Sana replies slowly. “Huh. My doughnuts must taste a lot worse than I thought if you didn’t even know it was strawberry.”

 

“No, it’s not that,” Mina denies. “I’m just… not used to having anything sweet.”

 

Mina’s chest suddenly feels a lot heavier, and she doesn’t know whether it’s because of the unconvinced frown on the girl’s face or because of the memories rushing back from when she wasn’t a Fate Keeper yet.

 

Back then, she was never allowed to eat a lot of sweets because of her medical condition. Not that limiting her diet ended up saving her anyway. She was already on her deathbed when The Handler offered her a job at the Commission.

 

Between dying barely twenty years young and having a new body as an incentive for working for someone, the decision was easy to make.

 

The feeling of something on her lips snaps Mina back to the present. She’s not typically a messy eater, but she didn’t expect the filling to be much runnier than the one from this morning.

 

 Before she can ask for a tissue, Mina feels Sana brushing the side of her lips with her thumb.

 

For a moment, Mina forgets how to breathe.

 

“I… I have a question,” she says dumbly, and the moment was gone.

 

Sana’s hand leaves Mina’s face, but the warmth on her cheek is still there.

 

“Hmm?” Sana hums, waiting as if Mina is about to ask the most important question in the universe.

 

“Umm… Are you Momo?”

 

Sana chuckles, a bit relieved that Mina wasn’t asking her the meaning of life or something. “Momo is the love of my life.”

 

“Oh, so you’re married?” Mina asks, wondering why she sounds so disappointed.

 

“No, no, she’s in Japan and I haven’t seen her in years.”

 

“Ah.” Mina nods. “Well, long distance relationships aren’t easy.”

 

Sana laughs again, seemingly very amused. “Momo is my dog. She’s a shiba inu.”

 

“Oh. Oh.”

 

Sana’s laugh quiets into a smile. “And my name is Sana. If you’d like to know.”

 

“I’m Mina,” the other woman replies. “If you’d like to know.”

 

“I’ve been wanting to know since this morning,” Sana easily confesses, and Mina’s cheeks get even warmer.

 

“Then you should have asked.”

 

“I was planning to keep giving you free doughnuts until you tell me yourself, but yeah, I should have guessed that that would have worked, too,” Sana agrees, then gestures towards Mina’s half-eaten doughnut. “Do you like it?”

 

Mina nods. She still hasn’t grown to love sweets yet, but she thinks this is something she can get used to.

 

She finishes the entire doughnut this time, then reluctantly leaves as Sana gets ready to close up.

 

When Mina gets back to the hotel room, the lights are already out, and Nayeon’s sleeping form is illuminated by the laptop screen lying beside her on the bed.

 

So much for getting back soon.

 

She walks closer and moves the laptop onto the nightstand so she can lie down on the same bed. Nayeon stirs, and Mina lets the girl drape an arm around her waist before eventually letting herself drift off to sleep.

 

---

 

Mina doesn’t know why she finds herself back at Momo’s after another long night.

 

They were able to follow Five into a department store thanks to the cameras and trackers that Mina installed the day before, but they were still unable to capture him.

 

It scares Mina a little, how Nayeon says “we're breaking into his mansion tomorrow” and nothing else when they got back to the hotel.

 

She understands Nayeon’s frustration. It’s already their third night, and they still got nothing. They both aren’t used to failure, and Mina doesn’t know how Nayeon is coping with it.

 

(Maybe seeing Sana is becoming Mina’s coping mechanism.)

 

“I was hoping you'd come,” Sana greets as she walks to the door behind Mina and flips the sign to say CLOSED, before ushering Mina further into the empty shop.

 

“You were?”

 

“You didn't this morning so I wasn't sure if you'll stop by tonight.”

 

“Did you miss me?”

 

“That's not what I said.”

 

“Then why'd your face light up like that when you saw me walk in?” At that, Sana drops Mina’s hand that she didn’t even realize she was holding, then continues walking.

 

“Whatever. Just follow me.”

 

Mina obeys and follows Sana into the kitchen. The layout is simple but more spacious than Mina imagined. There were fridges and tray racks lined up neatly in one area for storage, while the rest of the room is for the preparation. In the middle of the ovens, counters, and various baking equipment is a kitchen island where Sana places a small cake.

 

“You said you liked the chocolate doughnut from last night, so maybe you’d like chocolate cake, too?”

 

Mina blinks as she approaches Sana. “Did you bake this just for me?”

 

“No, it’s actually my birthday today, so I kinda made it for me too.”

 

“Wait, what?” Mina asks, surprised with this new information. “Happy birthday!”

 

“Thank you,” Sana replies. “I know that you have no idea, but I’m so glad you came. My entire family is in Japan, so I don’t really have anyone to celebrate it with.”

 

“Okay, this is unacceptable,” Mina starts, shaking her head. “I don’t have a gift for you, so I have to take you out for dinner.”

 

Sana bites her lip, looking like she’s fighting back a smile. “Oh, is that how it works?”

 

“Absolutely yes. We can go back and eat the cake later for dessert.”

 

“You don’t have to, Mina,” Sana declines.

 

“Yes, I do. We have to make this day special for you.”

 

“And why is that?” Sana asks, slightly tilting her head. “You just met me, you know?”

 

“You were gonna share your birthday cake with only me, and you just met me, too. Why is that?” Mina counters.

 

“Okay, touche,” Sana relents with a chuckle. “I don’t know. I just… have a good feeling about you.”

 

Mina smiles, her long frustrating night all forgotten.

 

“I have a good feeling about you, too.”