Drip...

Drip...

Drip...

It was everywhere.

It formed a puddle under you.

So.....much

So.....warm

So....RED

BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Your eyes snapped open and you sat upright stiff as a board, glancing to your left you quickly grabbed your phone and read the time. 5:20 A.M flashed upon your screen as you switched off your alarm and sat there unmoving and breathing heavily.

That dream....you shook slightly trying to reign in your emotions as you felt your eyes dilate. You absentmindedly up and down your arms which have long since remained covered by long sleeve shirts or jackets.

No...not a dream, a memory.

You sat there for a few minutes trying to slow your breathing and attempt to remove the dark thoughts that was plaguing your mind from memories long thought to be burried.

'Don't think like this Y/N...you've changed and your life is different now, it's better, you can beat this.' You repeated this mantra in your head over and over hoping for some comfort in the empty words, however that monster deep inside you; the one that always told you to do it, like a miniature devil whispering in your ear; guiding you to your own demise would whisper softly, 'nothing has changed and nothing is better...those girls...if they ever find out they will abandon you. They will think weak of you for your pathetic past.'

People were right when they said it's hard to climb back up the cliff after you had attempted to take the plunge. Once you do it the first time it always seemed to become easier to try and try again.

Eventually you managed to shake off your depressing thoughts just enough to make yourself stand to go to your shower, however when you got off the bed your feet touched carpet. You were confused as your apartment had wood floors not carpet, that's when the memories from yesterday started coming back.

You met Twice and chatted for hours, You flirted with Sana and managed to cause the snake herself to blush, and alcohol...lots and lots of alcohol was involved. Most people would have woken up with a splitting headache however you never got hangovers either from natural resistance or the alcoholic genetic mark you got from your father....you preferred to believe the former. You always had people say how lucky you were for not getting hangovers but there was a downside to it. You simply didn't have a stopping point, most likely from said genetic mark....so usually your nights of drinking ended with you vomiting somewhere snd probably being silenty judged by so called friends.

Fun times indeed.

"I must have gotten lucky last night....or soju actually settles well with my stomach." You snort quietly to yourself as you grab your suitcase and throw it on your bed. While you were grabbing everything you would need for a shower and deciding on your attire for the today it truly hit you that you would be staying a month here with not only 9 incredibly beautiful and talented girls but these were the girls you had looked up to for years.

The day before seemed so unbelievable; so surreal that you almost dismissed it as a dream, but waking up in a completely different bedroom one that you know is in the Twice dorm seemed to fully cement into your head that you were in fact not dreaming.

Surprisingly enough though you weren't nervous though, you were slightly awestruck yesterday but that quickly faded when you got to sit down and talk with the girls and experience them as just....girls.

'Although having alcohol involved probably helped with your precious bonding.'

'Is there ever going to be a day where you leave me alone? A single day where you can just let me be?'

'Sorry cupcake you're stuck with me, not that I'm happy with it either.'

The voice....it's always there, a constant in your life. Usually the voice would just have snarky quips and one liners with the occasional arguments between you two....but there where times where it became hateful...harmful and seemed to want nothing more than your own destruction. You can't place when exactly the voice appeared, it was always just there. Always observing, always commenting.

'You know exactly when i came about and why...'

You wanted to agree, to say "of course i do" but you don't, you always feel like you have a general idea of when it came about but everytime you pursue that thought it's like you hit a mental brick wall, like your brain is preventing you from continuing down that thought and you would always end up with a horrible headache of you tried to push past that barrier.

You decided it was way past the time to move away from these potential thoughts and conversations with yourself, grabbing your clothes and cologne you head towards the shower out in the hall, thankfully it was still very early as you had always been an early riser so all the girls were still asleep.

Of course at first you were confused that they were still asleep, considering they were idols and you had heard that they had to wake up before the sun was even out, but you just assumed the girls didn't really have anything to do today.

As you showered you realized that while you had chatted with the girls yesterday you didn't particularly learn anything new about them, mostly it was the standard stuff of favorite color or what type of music you all listened to. Some of it was new information, they talked a bit about how their trainee days or how they felt in certain situations but for the most part it was just small talk.

Though you didn't exactly provide much information yourself so it wasn't like you had room to talk.

(A/N: Maybe it's because the author doesn't know how to right a damn story....just maybe.)

Of course you all had just met each other so it's not like life secrets were going to be spilled then and there, all and all other than some....awkward conversations about certain anatomy you felt that it was a good icebreaker.

'Just gotta remember not to get drunk with sana again....i swear the girls must be the most pent up human beings with how last night ALMOST ended up'

...

...

'Hello mr kettle my name is pot.'

As you continued to think back to last night you not only realized how little you got to learn of each other but you also realized a fair amount of the girls didn't say much the entire night, thinking a out it Sana, Nayeon Jihyo and Jeongyeon were the main speakers of last night. The other members may have said things here and there but for the most part they were quite.

'Well I'll see a out spending time with the more quiet members and open them up a bit.'

'Oh I'm sure you could definitely ope-'

'SHUT....UP!'

Finishing up your shower and getting dressed in a black long sleeve turtleneck and simple blue jeans you make your way to the kitchen and you're surprised to see a figure sitting down at the dining table sipping slowly on a cup of coffee. Looking closer you noticed it was Mina and once again you couldn't help but take a minute and just stare.

Wearing a royal blue pajama top and bottoms that hugged her body way too much to be considered sleepwear, her dark brown borderline black hair that reached down to the middle of her back was flayed around her face, sticking up in every direction imaginable if there was any indication she just woke up that would have been your first clue.

And then there was the look....you never could figure out if Mina was so innocent and introverted that she just never realized what she did to people or if it was a ploy along and she did it on purpose....you were seriously leaning towards the latter with the look she was shooting the table.

Eyes half lidded and glazed over from what the rational part of your brain assumed was asleep. A small half smile half smirk placed lazily on her lips which also happened to be more plump then you remember and you weren't exactly ashamed with the fact you knew how plump her lips usually were.

Deciding it was time to stop playing stalker for the day you slowly move your way fully into the room and sent Mina a small smile which she returned shyly before returning to her coffee.

'The duality of this girl is inhuman.'

You moved into the kitchen and grabbed yourself a mug before pouring yourself a cup of the liquid gold yourself then proceeded to sit down across Mina where you two sat comfortably and quietly while sipping on your lifeline that was the coffee.

It was a comfortable silence, one where two somewhat reserved people sat and drank their coffee at an attempt to wake up fully, it was peaceful and calm but you knew that not starting a conversation with the girl would never get either of you anywhere and you truly wanted to spend everyday to the fullest while you had the opportunity to be with these girls.

'Besides i did say i wanted to chat with the quiet ones....i don't think i could have gotten a better person for said task.'

"Good morning Mina, did you sleep well last night?" You tilted your head slightly while going back to your coffee as you watched Mina jump slightly as she looked up from the table and sent you a quick startled look before blushing and smiling at you.

'She must have been day dreaming or something....'

"I slept okay Y/N thank you for asking....did you sleep well?"

"I slept alright, still trying to remember everything from last night though." It seemed Mina remembered it well enough if the blush on her face was any indication, in truth you could remember most of last night except when you began drinking which is usually how it went for you when you consumed too much alcohol.

"Ugh i swear we need to take Sana to an AA meeting after last night..." Mina groaned softly as she laid her head down on the table and rubbed it softly.

You chuckled softly as you quickly stood up.and went to your room to grab a bottle of aspirin you carried around with you during the summer as your allergies would always lead to a severe headache that you got sick and tired of dealing with.

Returning to Mina you placed the bottle in front of her and returned to your coffee, sinking back into the comfortable silence. Mina looked at the bottle for a couple of seconds before popping the bottle open and taking two tablets and leaned back into her chair.

You were about to say something when Mina quickly sat up and looked at you with a pained expression.

"Mina are you oka-"

"Y/N..." The tone of her voice caused you to shut up immediately, it was troubled and scared....you couldn't imagine what it is that was bothering her, luckily you didn't have to wait long as Mina quickly spoke up slightly stumbling over her words.

"Y/N last night.....that was....we....I'm sorry if you had a horrible first impression of us, we do try and be at our best but at times we relax and sometimes it gets taken too far."

Oh

You internally breathed a sigh of relief as it wasn't as serious as you thought. It did make sense to you though why she and probably the rest of the girls would be so bothered by it, after all they had spent the past 3 years always upholding a certain image especially to their fans and even though you had told them it was fine it of course would take time for that to sink in for them especially when you considered they took actual classes on how to behave around others and in public.

'God this industry is so weird...'

'I think demanding is a better term to describe it.'

"Hey Mina don't worry about it at all, it's like I've said i want all of us to just be who we are, get to know the real us and have fun while doing it and last night was definitely fun, a bit embarrassing but fun." Mina sent you a thankful smile and nodded her head before giggling slightly that could have woken you up instantly.

'She has to be doing that on purpose.'

Something that you thought about earlier came to the forefront of your mind and you couldn't help but dread the answer but decided to ask anyways.

"All of the girls are gonna feel the same way you did about last night aren't they?" You groaned heavily as Mina's melodic laughter filled the room, resting your head in the table you waited for the inevitable answer that you couldn't escape the cruel fate of reassuring all the girls that being themselves is fine.

"Haha sorry but most likely yes they will, but you clearly know how to cheer at least me up." Mina smiled at you sympathetically as you sighed heavily resigned to the fate the cruel mistress of life delt you.....le sigh.

Smiling slightly you looked towards Mina and asked, "is there anyone I'll have specific problems cheering up? Anyone who would take it the hardest?"

Mina tapped her elegantly long finger agaisnt her lips as she pondered the question. "Most likely Sana or Jihyo, Sana while she flirts is actually very concerned about how people see her. It's not that she ie conceded about her image more so..." Mina trails off as she seems to have a debate with herself on whether or not to tell you whatever it was she was about to say.

"We can drop the topic if you want."

"No it's okay...I won't go into details that's Sana's story to tell but, comments do get to her....whether it's from other idols or fans she is really good at hearing what people have to say to her. She always smiles and brushes things off like it's no big deal but words can definitely hurt especially if it's from people you work with. No matter what is said though she always just smiles away, she usually doesn't even tell us how she feels about anything that is said." Mina had a sad look on her face as she finished, you just nodded your head in understanding.

Truthfully there wasn't much you could say, you could understand how difficult it must be to always act perky and happy and make it seem like you never had a care in the world while secretly absorbing everything that is said about you.

'Maybe that is why she drinks so heavily...' you made a mental note to talk with Sana about it if you ever got the chance.

"With Jihyo it's more about the fact that she trained for so long to be a certain way in public as well as she is just concerned about how the group takes comments from everyone." That made sense, she really was a good leader especially to these girls, and with how Twice formed in the first place you could understand how they could be protective of each other.

Sighing slightly you asked Mina if she wanted breakfast which she happily accepted before getting up and starting what would most likely be the biggest breakfast you will ever had made in your life....after all you were cooking for 9 girls who's metabolism probably burned twice the amount of calories you consumed in a week, and you weren't a slouch when it came to being a food vacuum yourself.

"Say Mina...what exactly do the girls like for breakfast?" If the look of pity that Mina sent you meant anything it was probably that you were about to wish you had stayed in bed.

~~~~Timeskip~~~~

You didn't wish you stayed in bed.

You wished you stayed in America.

Apparently the girls didn't have a simple 'food' that they liked, it was actually easier to make a list as to what they didn't like.

Eggs, bacon, crepes, miyeokguk, kongjuk, kimchi fried rice, waffles,
Tteok-bokki and pancakes, rice, jokbal, ramen....RAMEN!!

'Who the eats ramen st 7 am?! Seriously half of this stuff belongs in lunch nor breakfast!'

(A/N: I did my best to research some standard Korean dishes that are prepared for breakfast and i couldn't find too much, being American i had no idea what to look for or type up. Apparently breakfast is done as something called a banchan which is just multiple side dishes with rice or some type of meat but i wanted to actually type out some breakfast items instead of just saying banchan...sorry i tried.)

Being the overly nice guy you were you set yourself the tedious and painful task of creating everything for the girls so they could have a nice breakfast...

Problem with that? They didn't have everything or barely anything the girls liked, and with it being so early in the morning no stores were open...except for one 24 hour convenient store 2 blocks away.

Lovely.

By time you got back and after spending a good amount of the cash you had brought with you (the rest being on a special international card you had to pay extra for from your bank) it was shaping up to be a pretty stressful morning. But you considered it worth it if the girls enjoyed it.

Mina had tried telling you it was fine and that you didn't need to go spend your money on some big breakfast when they had plenty of stuff to fix, you had told her to consider it a thank you for them letting you have this opportunity with them. She couldn't exactly refute it other than saying it wasn't a big deal so with a small blush in appreciation she went to go shower as you made the trip to the store.

By time you got back you had a little under an hour to get everything ready before the girls were to wake up, thankfully Mina had offered to help you prepare the meal which was truly a life saver since you didn't know how to fix some of the dishes the girls liked.

While you guys were making food neither of you said much except some small talk about stuff like tv shows, music and games. You were surprised with how many opinions of games you had in common, you both loved MMOs but Mina enjoyed mobile games more than you did. You both were abysmal at fighting games although secretly you vowed to challenge Mina after she said she was really good at racing games.

All in all you learned some minor things about each other but it seemed to be a great ice breaker as Mina seemed to start to open up with you more and vice versa, it wasn't anything major but she did talk about some difficulties she had when first joining the industry as she basically relearned how she looked at dancing, transitioning from ballet to traditional dance choreography and the countless hours she spent in vocal training refining her voice were also pretty gruelling.

You told her how hard it was for you to originally pick up dance and singing as you had no prior experience in either field and as you tried to sing in Korean it took you a lot longer to get around the learning curve. Speaking it wasn't so much of a problem but when it came to singing and drawing out pronunciations and putting twist on certain syllables it was a bit rough in the beginning for you.

Chatting with Mina really made the time fly by and so with the girl's help and a few articles online to assist you with the Korean dishes you guys managed to get everything prepared with about 5 minutes to spare.

As you guys were setting the table you realized that you didn't exactly know what the girls had planned for the day since it was their day off, you figured if anyone had to know it was going to be Mina so you decided to ask her.

"Hey Mina do you know what the girls exactly plan on doing today?" Mina took a few minutes to respond as you assumed she thought over the question most likely remembering exactly what the girls had planned.

"Well i know Sana, Chaeyoung, Tzuyu and Nayeon planned on going shopping...Jihyo and Jeongyeon are going to go see a movie and Dahyun and Momo are going to go spend the day in Incheon." You were confused that Mina wasn't a part of any of their plans, you knew she could be a bit introverted but you had figured that at least one of the ideas the girls had interested her.

"What about you Mina? Don't you want to go with any of the girls? Mina shook her head lightly as you guys finished setting the table and moved over to the counter top to finish your conversation.

"Not really, fashion is fun at times but Nayeon and Sana always go shopping and at this point I've got too many clothes that i don't even wear so why would i spend anymore money on something that would most likely never be worn? Besides Nayeon and Sana are the main shoppers but if fans or the media start seeing all of us shopping constantly they would either start assuming we are either A:insanely filthy rich or B: we are burning the companies money away, either way we would be judged for it and watched under a
microscope...well more so than normal"

You could definitely see the logic in that, with how quiet the girl is you would tend to forget that Mina was usally the second level headed member of the group. Mina just has this aura about her that screams confidence and professionalism always seems to relay the message "we got this". And while you knew this girl was intelligent it really did amaze you how much she managed to look at situations from all angles.

'You know this girl is actually a genius.'

'I don't disagree with you but how do you figure that?'

'Look at it like this, in public and on television she acts shy and innocent and introverted but she is actually confident and very business savy. She shows versatility and that she knows how to play up and audience while being all professional behind closed doors. I remember you telling me most fans jokingly say Nayeon would be the next CEO of the company but if i had to place my bets on anyone it would actually be Mina.'

'Huh....i....never thought about it like that.' You also didn't miss the fact that the voice had actually remembered the girl's name which is something the voice never did, even with friends and coworkers he never bothered to learn or remember their names. You stored that information in your mind for a later date.

Even though you had just finished setting the table you felt like you had managed to squeeze out a whole hour worth of conversation with Mina in the span of a few minutes and you really enjoyed it. But as you had thought about continuing the conversation with her you heard the beginnings of the other members slowly waking up and you realize you most likely weren't gonna be able to have a 1 on 1 conversation with her once the other girls were awake.

'I want to keep talking to her though....' you kept trying to come up with a solution to your problem but as the noises started getting louder you noticed Mina started walking back towards the table, with no time to think you blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Hey Mina i enjoyed our talk....would you want to hang out today and continue after the girls leave?"

'Eh not too bad at all.'

'You've done worse.'

'...'

'Why do i even bother having any internal thoughts....?'

Mina stared at you for a couple of seconds before smiling and nodding her head, you returned the smile and then heeded the kitchen to grab something to drink, that's when you heard footsteps enter the room. Turning around you saw Jihyo, Nayeon and Momo walking groggily towards the kitchen, eyes almost completely closed and their posture reassembling that of a zombie.

That is until the saw the table full of food. You saw their jaws drop open and their eyes widen as thwy stared at the mountain of food in front of them.

"Good morning girls, did you sleep well?" You couldn't help but tease them slightly...it was just too easy.

"What.....what is all this..?" Jihyo had finally spoken up, still shocked at the amount of food adorning the table.

"Ah this is breakfast of course, i heard you liked Tteok-bokki Jihyo?Nayeon?" The girls continued to stand therr with their mouths open however before you could say anything you heard more footsteps enter the room, looking up you saw Chaeyoung, Sana and Dahyun enter as they too stopped and stared wide eye at the food on the table.

"Alright girls sit down and wait while i go get Jeongyeon and Tzuyu before the food gets cold." The girls tried to protest and ask questions but you just told them to wait for a minute. Turns out Jeongyeon was already up and just tying her hair up in the bathroom. However she did inform you that Tzuyu was still alseep in her room.

After you told Jeongyeon that breakfast was ready you moved towards the maknae's room a couple of doors down, quietly entering you had a sudden thought.

'Why the hell did i come wake her up? I'm pretty sure one of the members would have done it but i just charged in and did it....'

'Didn't know you were that desperate to see them sleeping.'

'No one likes you.'

'No one knows i even exist except you.'

'...'

Ignoring the fact you yet again lost a battle with the voice you quietly moved towards a big lump that eas currently on the bottom bunk bed to the left of the room, moving closer you see the lump which was wrapped up tightly in a blanket shift slightly causing the blanket to move down.

If there was one word to describe how a sleeping Tzuyu looked after a night of drinking.

Ravaging or delicious would be your contenders.

Tzuyu instead of wearing pajamas an attire most people would wear to bed she chose to instead wear and overly baggy t-shirt that had a cute panda as a design on it.

Her hair, instead of the tame straight style she normally had it in was messy and tangled in multiple areas and was sprawled out all across her pillow. If you were allowing yourself some of the more depraved thoughts you had it kind of seemed like she had a far more entertaining night last night than just having a few drinks.

Her more was slightly open as she cutely drooled from her slightly lips that still had a nice fullness to them even without makeup, no she wasn't Mina's level of plump but these lips had a different allure to them.

Almost has if they were a forbidden fruit...

You hadn't realized that you were starting to lean down towards said lips until you were practically leaning on top of her, shaking off the line of thoughts that nearly put you in a very terrible position if anyone had come in you refocused on your task of waking the little savage maknae up.

You lightly shook her as you called out her name, a cute whine was rewarded as the maknae tried to roll onto her side to continue her sleep.

"Come one Tzuyu it's time to wake up." You shake a little harder and this Time Tzuyu grabs her pillow and buries her face in it.

"Nooooooo~" God her whine does things to you that nothing else in this world could accomplish.

Drawing back slightly you tried to think of a way to get Tzuyu up and and about for the day, meanwhile as you were sitting on the bed Tzuyu had difficulty tossing and turning on the bed and would press her body against you causing you to stiffen momentarily before she continued wiggling around.

An evil and completely hilarious idea came to your mind as you noticed Tzuyu was laying on her stomach and appeared to actually be trying to go back to sleep. As quietly as you could you stretched your fingers ans slowly brought them down to the girls midsection.

"HAHAHA STOP STOP PLEA- HAHAHA PLEASE!" As soon as you started tickling the girl she flipped around and burst out laughing, tears immediately falling down her face. Not being merciful you continued tickling her as you ignored her pleas.

"HAHA PLEASE I-I HAHA I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE!" Suddenly Tzuyu reached up and grabbed you by the collar and yanked, unprepared for the pull you toppled over onto the bed....right on top of Tzuyu.

You noticed two very crucial things you wish you had noticed earlier.

One, while Tzuyu had a big baggy t-shirt on....that was all she had on her top, she was wearing no bra and since it was chilly this morning you noticed two very pronounced harden s now pressing slightly against your chest.

Two, she was only wearing underwear as her bottom and when you had toppled over you leg went right between her and was now firmly, and comfortably if you dared to add against her core.

Your faces were inches from each other as you stared wide at each other, both of you frozen in place with Tzuyu sporting the biggest blush you had ever seen.

You recovered first and attempted to move off of her, the problem was that she had wrapped her arms around your shoulders so when you tried to pull up her arms locked and you got pulled right back down onto her.

What you didn't expect was that when you got pulled back down it caused your knee that was still in between Tzuyu's legs to move up and press into her slightly.

"Mmmmmm~!" A soud you had never in your entire life expected to hear from the maknae flowed out of has her face flushed further and her eyes started to glaze over as she put her hand on your knee to try and move it.

However you couldn't help the natural reaction you had after hearing such a perfect sound from the maknae, but you wish you had moved Tzuyu's hand on your leg when you had the reaction.

You felt like if there was some god or goddess if bad timing they were having a field day with you as you sat there and try to process exactly what was happenin. Sadly it was futileas you didn't know how it got to this point.

What you do know however is that Tzuyu definitely felt your as she had her hand directly over it when you got hard. He eyes widen again and she instinctively gripped her hands closed....which one just so happened to still be on your causing her small hands to attempt to wrap around your member and cause a surge of pleasure to ripple through you as she squeezed.

You stopped breathing as the pleasure rippled through you causing to slightly grunt. Immediately however as the situation finally caught up to you, you bolted out of bed wide eyed and as you stood there you could almost physically feel your heart plummet into your stomach.

'We practically just molested each other the second time we have ever interacted....'

Now you weren't dumb you knew that both you and Tzuyu knew it was an accident and both parties were at fault...well you were probably mostly mostly to to blame but you knew Tzuyu wouldn't see it that way, but you also knew this also still risked any chance of friendship with the girl because of how uncomfortable this could make her feel.

"God I'm so sorry....I'll just.....there's uh....breakfast in the kitchen.....god sorry..." you bowed deeply and quickly left the room where Tzuyu still sat frozen in.

Moving back to the kitchen all the girls asked if you were successful and that it took you a while, you just threw on a smile and tried to bull your way through the conversation as you tried to battle the multiple emotions that were rushing through you at the current moment. Having a panic attack seemed like the most likely thing going on with you at the current time.

Tzuyu came in a few minutes later with a normal sleepy look as she sat down at the table, she took a glance towards you and smiled slightly and nodded her head trying to communicate a thousand words into one action.

It seemed like not only did she not hate your guts, but also said with that one gesture that. 'It's okay and we can talk about it later.' At least you figured that's what you thought the nod meant.

That didn't stop you from hating yourself for letting it happen.....or for liking it.

You were really good at hating yourself.

"Wow Y/N this is a lot of food.....i didn't even know we had this in the fridge." Chaeyoung had broken your line of thought however you were so out of it you didn't hear the question fully. As you were about to ask what she said it appeared that Mina was there to save you as she started speaking.

"He went and bought everything we needed to make this food." All of the girls turned towards you and you shrunk slightly under their gaze until Jihyo spoke up.

"Y/N...did you spend your own money? By the tone of her voice you knew that somehow even though you cooked them breakfast you still did something wrong. You nodded your head meekly.

"Y/N...How much momey did you spend?" Your eyes widened once again as you tried to plan your escape route, forget yelling for a second if you told them just how expensive this breakfast was Jihyo was likely to beat you.

"Ahhh not much really it was all surprisingly cheap."

"Y/N....How much? You began sweating, you honestly didn't think they would care if you spent money on them for food. Sure Mina tried to stop you and tell you that they already had food but to think that Jihyo might be upset at you spending money on them never crossed your mind.

"I-i mean does it really matter how much i spent? As long as i was able to make you guys breakfast right?" You were really hoping that they had just started eating without questioning anything but even Momo had not touched the food and instead gave you a hard look as if you were a child being scolded.

"Y/N..." you looked to Sana who had spoken and gave her a questioning look. "You're our guest so we feel bad if you spent your own money on food for us....even if we didn't have this stuff in our fridge we could have gotten the company to go buy the ingredients when we woke up instead of you spending your own money."

"I wanted to though, besides if you guys were awake how was i gonna surprise you then? I made this breakfast as a thank you for letting me stay with you guys for this month. Of course i didn't do it alone, Mina helped me a lot with it." You smiled slightly at Mina who returned the smile while the other girls sighed heavily but still smiled at you softly.

"Regardless Y/N....how much did you spend?" You knew Jihyo would continue asking until you finally broke, you sagged in defeat in your chair and rubbed your face tiredly before sitting up straight and clearing your throat.

"For everything that i fixed plus some extra stuff for later it was.....₩57,000." You heard gasps from all the girls who looked at you with wide eyes while Jihyo was shaking her head slightly.

(A/N: that's about $50 but I'm gonna be honest i have no idea if that's a lot of money for food in Korea, i don't know what the genral pricing is there so I'm just gonna say you bought the best of the best and if I'm still wrong then....sorry.)

"Y/N....you really didn't have to do that for us. But thank you for this amazing breakfast but don't think we won't pay you back for this." Jihyo finished off with a smile that was mirrored by the other girls. You smiled back at them as you guys began to dig into the huge breakfast.

You all had relayed your plans for the day and when you informed them you would be staying the day with Mina Nayeon and Jeongyeon wouldn't relent on the teasing and you thought Mina would never stop blushing.

As you all finished up your breakfast and started washing dishes you couldn't help but think today was going to be a really fun day. You couldn't contain the smile on your face as you finished up the dishes.

~~~~Timeskip~~~~

You were sitting on the couch scrolling through your phone while Mina was Finishing getting ready, the other girls had left for the day and after some debating between the two of you, you had suggested the aquarium and Mina agreed happily especially when you had found out the aquarium had recently opened up a penguin exhibit.

By this point you were slowly getting use to the idea of being around these girls, chatting at breakfast really pushed the idea of comfortable around them further home. Surprisingly none of the girls had mentioned the previous night although when you brought it up to Mina she said that due to a combination of their plans today and embarrassment they probably weren't going to bring it up today and that you might have to mention it to them to get the ball rolling.

That thought didn't excite you as you were probably just going to have to repeat 'it's okay' and 'don't worry about it' however the fact that you guys were able to joke around and move past anything embarrassing from last night was a good sign.

Then again maybe you just panicked about it over nothing, after all you and Jihyo talked it through last night and you were known for overthinking things.

'Guess it's a wait and see.'

You heard footsteps approaching and trying to mentally prepare yourself from any breat taking look that Mina could have come up with you look up and regardless of your mental warning you were still slightly blown back by her looks.

She stood there in a simple navy blue skinny jean that absolutely did her thighs justice, and a slightly oversized purple hoodie. Her hair was in a ponytail that had the white extensions in it that was covered mostly by the Yankees cap she was wearing and a nice pair of low tops to accomplish the entire look.

It probably didn't help she was flashing you her infamous gummy smile....

'Seriously does she want me to ravage her or something?'

"You look great Mina." You recieved a wonderful blush for that one, maybe you should start doing that more.

"T-thanks....are you ready?" You nodded your head as you both headed out to have an aquatic adventure.

~~~~Timeskip~~~~

Arriving at the aquarium you both got  out and started making your way to the entrance, while doing so you decided to start a small conversation with Mina.

"You were excited to come to the aquarium, have you always liked animals much?"

"Yeah....when i was younger my parents took me to a petting zoo, i got to see all different kinds of animals and they even allowed me to pet an elephant they had there. Ever since then I've loved all kinds of animals." You guys continued some small talk on the matter as you entered the aquarium and looked over the map.

"Hmmm where do you wanna go first?" Mina had this shine to her eyes like any kid would when they were boiling with excitement. It dawned on you that the girls didn't get to this stuff really at all and since Mina enjoyed animals so much....you figured you deserved a pat on the back for picking this out.

"Let's save the penguins for last. Mm how about salt water first?" There she goes again tilting her had slightly and just looking absolutely stunning. You nodded with a smile as you both move towards the exhibit.

"Have you been to any zoo or aquarium in a while?"

"With all of our promotions and combacks we don't really have much time to do anything, and when we do none of the girls want to come to the aquarium or zoo with me." Said Mina who was now pouting slightly.

"Wait but....don't some of the other girls love animals too?" You were genuinely confused why the girls wouldn't want to accompany her to see cute animals.

"They do but....it's different, sure Tzuyu likes animals but her love for them is more towards dogs rather then a big range of animals like my love for them. Nayeon likes them too but since up until recently there hasn't been a zoo or anything with animals near by she never found it worth the effort." You felt sad for Mina considering it truly seemed like she wanted to spend time with her members.

Before you could say anything though she spoke again.

"It's not like we don't do anything though in fact we have gone to a zoo before as a group, it's just been a while is all." You nodded at that as you two entered the salt water exhibit.

As you stood in front of a tank filled with some yellow tang, spadefish and a few other species you had no idea the name of you were struck with sickening feeling of nostalgia.

You and your mother...

"Have you ever been to an aquarium before?" You heard Mina's words but they didn't have much meaning to them as images from your childhood began flashing in your head.

"Yeah..." did you say that outloud? You couldn't distinguish reality and memories at this point.

Wet...

Cold...

The scars...

The bruises...

'Don't make a scene in public, you will ruin my image.'

Right...her image, because what she did to a child in public didn't ruin it already.

"Really? Did you go with your parents or something?" Someone was talking again, unfortunately you were so focused on your memories you started auto piloting again.

That seemed to happen a lot.

"Unfortunately yes i did go with my....parent" as if you could ever call her mother again...not after the she did.

"Unfortunately? Do you not like your parents?" That seemed to snap you out of your trance, looking in surprise towards Mina you noticed she was wearing a slightly worried expression on her face along some other emotion.

'What is it something i said?'

'Don't most Koreans consider fanily super important? Don't they teach kids early on to always respect their family and elders?'

Oh

Well me

You sigh slightly before looking Mina intensely in the eye. "My dad died when i was young from alchohol poisoning, my mother has never been...pleasant towards me." You shuffled on your feet anxiously, this was not a conversation you wanted to get into especially in public.

"Not pleasant to you in what way?" The look in Mina's eyes were killing you, she seemed worried and suspicious at the same time. You knew she was smart hell most people were especially when you say a parent wasn't pleasant most people could easily figure out what you meant.

That still didn't mean you were ready to admit it.

"Sorry I'm...I'm not ready to talk about it, not yet anyways and not here. I've never talked about my childhood to anyone so it's difficult...i hope you can understand." You didn't expect her to push you knew she wasn't like that. However you also didn't expect the girl to take your hands and squeeze slightly while giving you a soft understanding smile.

"Take all the time you need." You smiled at each other before walking down a hallway and headed towards what you believe was the freshwater exhibit.

"You know...." you looked towards Mina who had a contemplative look in her face as if she was battling herself whether or not to speak.

"I've had some issue with my parents in the past too, i love them don't get me wrong but they....they always wanted perfection." Mina grimaced slightly which was something you had definitely never expected to see come from the introverted girl.

"They were the ones who put me into ballet, and they kept me in it for as long as they did because they figured the longer i was in it the more prestigious i was...sometimes i thought they saw me as a trophy more than a daughter."

Minor shock was and odd thing to experience you decided.

You knew that her parents could be a bit pushy but they also seemed like nice enough people. Of course she did say she still loved them, you just never expected them to be so...pretentious.

You squeezed her hand that you were apparently still holding and in turn she turned towards you and smiled.

"You are way better than a trophy, sure people may say you're introverted but you genuinely care for your members and fans. Plus you're incredibly generous if you knitting hats for kids is any indication."

It was cheesy you knew, but sometimes people needed to hear it regardless of how bad it sounded.

Mina's cheeks turned a pretty pink and went silent as you continued walking. You started to think you embarrassed her too much and was about to apologize when you felt her apply pressure on your hand squeezing it tightly, you smiled at her which she must have saw as her blush got worse cause you to laugh slightly resulting in a playful slap in the arm.

~~~~Timeskip~~~~

"Mass Effect Andromeda wasn't that bad."

"It completely derived completely from previous mass effect games one which waa depicted as a masterpiece among the fans, it had 2d flat characters where 1-3 had characters you could genuinely get attached to, to the point where you had a mental breakdown if they died. The game was clunky to the point where you could say mass effect one played better and overall was just boring since they mainly focused on planet exploring which that in itself was fine since mass effect 1 did it but the way they executed it was just pitiful."

"Yeah but people hated mass effect as well so it's not like their last one was superb."

"People hated the ending when they first discovered it, people will tell you the actual gameplay was more refined than 2 and they enjoyed the stort up till the ending. And even with the ending if you ask people now they will say it was fine it's just that people were upset at the time that they would have to say goodbye to their favorite characters. Which if you think about it bioware did a really good job if they made players feel those emotions by saying goodbye."

You don't understand how you two got on this conversation, Mina had asked if you played video games, when you told her you played them religiously she immediately asked what your favorite game was and you responded with mass effect 2 as one of your favorites and that sparked this entire debate with how Andromeda wasn't as bad as people said.

(A/N: I know i shouldn't be selecting your favorite game when I'm not...you know you but that's why i said it's ONE of your favorites, if i need to directly mention a favorite game i won't select what it is obviously....you gotta admit though Mass Effect 2 was a literal masterpiece.)

You two had wondered around the freshwater exhibit before heading to the main lobby and were currently petting the stingrays they had in the open tank as you had this....frankly pointless debate.

"Anyways Mina you know one of my favorite games what's yours?" Mina tapped her lips as she pondered the question, you don't know what you were expecting honestly. Maybe an MMO?

"Mmm honestly? I would have to say Kingdom hearts." Well then....that's surprising.

"Which one?"

" Kingdom hearts 1.5, 2.5 was good though i enjoyed it slightly less. I haven't heard many people talk about 3 after it released so I'm assuming it wasn't great." Where did this women find the time to play all these games? You figured it was bettee not to think about how many things Mina probably pushed off to game and instead decided to check the time on your phone.

You guys had arrived at 2:00 p.m and it was now displaying 5:30 p.m on your phone, three and a half hours staring at fish...not too bad at all.

"It's 5:30 right now. Do you want to look around a bit longer or head to the penguin exhibit?" You asked Mina, mentally thankful you had remember the penguins after being so engrossed in conversation with Mina.

"Let's go see the penguins!" As you were dragged along by the supposed quiet and reserved one you were once again reminded just how little you knew of these girls and how amazing  of an opportunity you were given by getting to learn who they really were.

"It's crazy you know how time flies by, it feels like just yesterday that you guys were celebrating your three years as a group and now it seems like 4 years is already upon us." Mina smiled at that and looked towards you with a fond expression gracing her face.

"It is crazy....it feels like yesterday i was crying my eyes out on sixteen, now....now people consider us the nation's tour group and we are working on some things that i never expected." You didn't know what these 'things' were but you weren't going to press that just yet. Besides there was another question you had on mind.

"How do you feel about it all? I mean having as many fans you do and coming such a long way in only 3 years?"

"It's....overwhelming, when we first debut we obviously had no expectations. Truthfully i was surprised i was even put on Twice at the time, sure people say I'm an elegant dancer but to go from ballet to regular dance choreography it was...challenging to day the least. Then it took a while to actually get use to the intense level we trained in, i honestly thought i wasn't going to do well on sixteen." You nodded your head and placed your hand on her shoulder for support as you two kept walking. You could begin to see the penguin exhibit coming closer.

"I guess i felt undeserving to be on the group for a long time, especially because i was so reserved while everyone seemed so outgoing. But with time and a little bit of talking with the members i began to see my place in the group and could begin accepting the love from members and the fans." It was so surprising but also touching to hear her views on how she has felt over the years.

Here was a girl still young in her life who deserved the world yet she saw differently, she didn't think she deserved to be on twice. She didn't  feel like she deserved the love and support from the fans and most likely took a long time attempting to accept the love when she spent a good amount of time putting herself down.

"You definitely deserve everything you've received and more. I know how it feels though to feel like you're undeserving. Going through my childhood i felt like i didn't deserve what i went through, i felt as if life was being unfair to a kid. When i reached the beginnings of my teenage years i felt....i felt as if i was undeserving of love or any forms of affection and that i deserved what i had received over the years." You'd figured you would give Mina a bit of insight on how you've felt over the years since she let you in on her life.

You didn't mean to sound so lifeless when speaking though and you were surprised when you felt hands grip your shoulder and turn you around. Looking at Mina you saw a glint of determination and fierceness shine through her eyes and you would swear to your grave her eyes were slightly glistening.

"How do you feel now?" It was a simple enough question, but simple questions always did have the most complicated answers.

"I...I'm in a better place now i suppose...i still have some issues I'm not over but i main issue i suppose is fighting the past. Once you step into the darkness it's hard to escape, and if you do escape it's easier to fall in a second time....so i guess I'm working on staying in the light." You tried to smile at the cheesiness of your words but only managed a weak one. Suddenly you felt arms wrap around your torso as you felt a soft body impact you in a surprisingly strong hug.

"You can beat it Y/N....and if you need help we are here okay? I'm here Y/N." Once again you weren't surprised she seemed to understand more than you originally intended, she was smart and knew how to read between the lines. A part of you wanted to be more vague with your thoughts while another part wanted to scream your issues out to the world.

'The never ending battle...'

'A battle you know you're losing'

'Whatever you say...'

You truly were not in the mood to deal with the voice currently so you focused on returning the hug with Mina. Squeezing her tightly for a second before letting go, you smile down at her before offering your hand which she accepted without hesitation and made your way to the penguin exhibit.

Sharing wasn't so bad you thought as you have Mina's hand a squeeze.

~~~~Timeskip~~~~

After spending 30 minutes silently watching the penguins while making small comments here and there you both started heading towards the exit of the aquarium all while still holding hands.

Overall the aquarium was a success as you both learned more about each other and even got a few nice pictures as memories for down the road. However there was one more thing you wanted to do before today ended.

Apparently there was this Japanese restaurant about 15 minutes from the dorm and frankly you had been craving Japanese for the past 3 days.

"Hey Mina are you hungry?" As she was about to answer a gurgling noise resonated from her stomach causing the poor girl to blush as you laughed slightly.

"Come on, their is a Japanese restaurant not far from the dorm if you're up for it." Mina nodded eagerly and just like that you both set off towards the restaurant.

A little while later you both arrived at the restaurant and thankfully it wasn't as packed as you expected, in fact you figured you wouldn't even have to wait in a queue to get in.

'You sure do enjoy blowing money on food don't you? Hopefully you don't anger the girls because you are screwed if they kick you out.'

You really didn't want to think about the girls kicking you out so you tried to make your mind go blank as a hostess led you to an empty table.

'Well at least i was right about not having to wait...'

'Eh you have your moments from time to time.'

'Ugh God i hate you.'

'Yeah that doesn't actually mean anything to me.'

At this point you considered bobbing for apples in a pot of scolding oil was a valid option.

Focusing back on the food you ordered a plate of kitsune udon and a plate of tenmusu while mina ordered Motoyaki with a side of agemono and two orders of Dangojiru soup.

While waiting you and Mina began a small conversation about today and how enjoyable it was but it quickly turned to wanting to pick up your earlier conversations about the past.

"So you went to Urizip Dance School to learn more modern dance right?" You had read something about her attending that dance school. Right as you asked the question your waiter came by with your drinks, you both got water and decided to share a bottle of awamori to commemorate the day.

"I did, it was really nice actually. The instructors were very understanding and willing to work with you at your own pace." You nodded your head and you took a small sip of your water.

"What about you? You've mentioned you knew dance. How did you learn?"

"Ah I'm mostly self taught although there was a local dance studio where i live so i would rent it out from time to time and practice there instead of my room, eventually i guess an instructor saw me and started helping me from time to time." Mina nodded her head as the waiter came out with your food.

You both grabbed your glass of awamori and raised it in the air as Mina began to speak.

"To a wonderful day of learning new things about each other."

"To a wonderful day of learning new things about each other." You clinked your glasses and downed the alcoholic beverage before refilling the glasses and begin attacking your food.

You two sat in silence for a few minutes simply enjoyed the delicious food before you decided to continue on the dance topic.

"So what originally got you into K-pop?" Mina chewed her food slowly before swallowing and taking a sip of water before she acknowledged your question.

"I did a cover of a girl's generation song for a friend of mine and from there it just escalated to the point where i wanted it as my career." You nodded as you took another bite of your food. Mina sure was a nice friend to do a cover....lord knows if anyone asked you to do a cover of anything you'd most likely smack them.

"What about you Y/N? How did you get into it?"

Ah...well this will probably be embarrassing.

"Actually....it was you girls that got me into it."

"Really?" Mina seemed truly surprised at your response but not in a bad way which was a good start.

"Really....i got into k-pop when you girls released Cheer Up and ever since then I've been hooked."

"Wow...that's really sweet." Mina smiled before beginning to chuckle slightly, confused you asked her what was funny.

"It's just....i find it kind of funny that got into k-pop because of us and here you are now 3 years later making friends with the group that got you into the genre." You smiled hard at that, you still couldn't wrap your head around the whole thing but you were damned if you weren't going to seize the opportunity. You raised your glass of awamori towards Mina.

"To new friendship then."Mina's smile could have lit up space as she clinked her glass against yours.

"To new friendship."

~~~~Timeskip~~~~

You were slightly lightheaded, which was impressive considering your normal tolerance.

After you and Mina had managed to probably split the bottle of awamori perfectly between the two of you, you learned that the drink was actually hanazake a variation of awamori.

Which was 120 proof.

'God why the would you call it awamori if it was actually hanazake...'

'Well technically it was a variation of awamori so you could pro-'

'Don't.....just don't.'

Poor Mina, she didn't have the tolerance you did, she wasn't smashed by any means...most likely because she opted to start sipping the alcoholic beverage after your second cheer where you just....chugged.

That being said she was still somewhat drunk, not that you were fairing too too much better. Using each other as support you finally neared the dorm where Mina attempted to punch in the code wben she wasn't softly giggling to herself.

Finally after a few minutes she punched the code in and you were able to enter the dorm where you were greeted with 8 othed girls sitting on a couch going through the various things that they bought or chatting about stuff you couldn't quite catch...probably something they did today.

"Oh hey you're back, you guys were out long." Ah Jihyo leave it to the fearless leader to greet us and immediately attempt to subtly pry into our day.

Man were you drunk....

"Ah yeah sorry, we stayed at the aquarium until 6 and then went to dinner." You sat down in one of the vacant chairs where as Mina sat down on the floor in between Nayeon and Sana, softly giggling to herself. Jeongyeon noticing this quickly turned towards you with her eyebrows raised.

"So...we may have had too much to drink." The resounding groan spoke volumes of irritation and amusement.

You spent a few hours chatting away about your days, apparently the mall Nayeon, Sana, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu went to was having a huge sale in a few stores they liked so they made some major purchases at half the price.

Which explained the 30 bags around the dorm....truly, truly overkill.

Jihyo said her and Jeongyeon saw Avengers: Endgame, you were never really interested in the avengers but she said it was good so you were happy that they at least enjoyed their time.

Momo and Dahyun spent most of the day eating and sightseeing which wasn't much of a surprise but they had also eent shopping for some knickknacks and got one for everyone including you was surprised you to no end as you weren't expecting to be included but were happy none the less.

After a while the girls began getting tired and eventually it was just you and Mina in the room who had sobered up quite well, apparently she had some mediation technique that sped up the sobering effect....you weren't jealous you swear.

You stood up and cracked your warily and sore bones snd looked towards Mina who had also stood and was smiling softly at you.

"Today was really, really fun Mina...i can't wait to do thie again with you....that is if you want." Mina stepped forward and wrapped her arms around you and pulled you into a hug which is something you definitely was not expecting even though only hours ago the exact same thing happened. However you began to hear Mina whisper something into your shirt.

"I had a lot of fun today too Y/N, thank you for taking me out today. I would love to do this again with you." You smiled and pulled her closer for a tighter hug and stayed there for a few minutes simply enjoying each others presence.

After a while you pulled back as did Mina and stared into her eyes at arm's length, mesmerized the colorful pools that showed so much emotion and oddly enough affection. It caused a weird knot in your stomach but not necessarily a bad one.

"Goodnight Mina." Mina once again disarmed you with a bright smile however as you started pulling back Mina threw you for a loop as she stood on her tiptoes and planted a soft kiss on your cheek.

Blushing Mina kept her smile on her as she replied. "Goodnight Y/N" and then turned around and headed towards her room.

You stood there foe a few minutes before you regained your senses and as you felt your heart pounding a thousand miles a second you couldn't stop or control the small fist pump you did since no one was looking. Still caressing the spot Mina had kissed you began getting ready for bed.

As you laid in bed and caressed the spot where Mina kissed you, you reminisced about your day from the kiss goodnight to sharing stories with each other and overall growing closer.

"Hopefully tomorrow is just as good as today." And with that you turned off the lamp on your bedside table and fell asleep.

Where you went on to dream of a certain penguin.