Day 7

[Mina’s POV]

We’re all preparing to leave in 15 minutes. Sana and I are both blending fruits and vegetables for our detox smoothie. We’ve eaten so much last night so we’re doing our final rehearsals before heading to the airport tomorrow. It’s our first out of the country tour for this year. I’m feeling a little nervous.

The maknae line came out of their room at the same time. Tzuyu walked out the door first, followed by Dahyun, and Chaeyoung. I giggled when I saw her. She’s already wearing the scarf I gave her.

She flashed the biggest smile when she saw me.

“Why are you wearing it already? It’s not cold here. Our thermostat is on.” She looks cute with her striped long sleeves and red scarf.

“She haven’t removed it yet.” Tzuyu commented as she opened the refrigerator door. “She slept with it on. She made us sleep in a freezing room so she could sleep with that scarf around her neck. I almost strangled her with it last night.”

She glared at Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung made weird faces.

Their teasing made me laugh.

“Not true! I removed it” Chaeyoung paused, “when I’m about to take a bath.”

Tzuyu looked at me. “That’s not even the weirdest part. She wore it immediately after taking a bath.”

Tzuyu’s eyes widened as she told me that. “Imagine THAT.”

I tried shaking the mental image out of my head. I don’t know how to feel about it.

“ANIEYO! Don’t listen to her!” Chaeyoung pulled Tzuyu away.

“It’s a really nice scarf.” Sana remarked. “Good job, Minari.”

“Gomawo, Satang.”

“Can you make one for me, too?” she leaned towards me and hugged me.

“HAJIMA!” Chaeyoung rushed back from the other side of the room.

She looked intensely at Sana. “Minari made this scarf especially for me. Chaeyoung only. It’s part of me now so no one can have the same exact thing. If someone asks who’s Chaeyoung in Twice, they’ll no longer say the one with the mole below her lip, or the small one. They’ll just say the one with the red scarf. That’s why it should only be for me. Arraseo? Arraseo. Okay. Bye.”

After that she walked out as fast as she could.

“Minari.”

“Ne, Satang?”

“Your girlfriend is weird.” She shook her head as she closed her tumbler of blended apple, lemon, celery, ginger and cucumber.

I nodded. “Yeah. She’s my weirdo.”

[Chaeyoung’s POV]

I’m the first one inside the van. We’re sitting in the same set-up as yesterday since Nayeon and Jeongyeon argued again before leaving the dorm.

Why are my parents so chaotic?

I put on my ear buds and opened my music playlist. I’ll just catch more sleep through the whole ride. Maybe I’ll gain one more cm by the end of the year if I sleep more.

Almost half asleep, I felt someone tug one of the earbud from my ear. I opened my eyes and saw Mina sitting beside me. That woke me up faster than coffee.

I removed the other earbud and sat up straight.

“I thought you’ll be sitting at the other van because of Jeongyeon and Nayeon?” I’m confused but I’m smiling from ear to ear.

“I talked to them before leaving the dorm. It’s their payment from stalking us last night. I traded seats with Nayeon unnie and she immediately agreed.”

“How about Jeongyeon unnie?” She was really grumpy before we left so I figured she wouldn’t budge.

As much as I want to commit to the scarf look, I had to remove it during rehearsals, I don’t want it to be soaked with my sweat.

Mina, Jeongyeon, Nayeon, and I just finished practicing our unit performance for the third time today. But Mina and Nayeon still carried on while Jeongyeon and I sat down, trying to catch our breath.

“How did you manage being in a car ride with Momo and Nayeon?”

“I didn’t. They kept on bothering me the whole ride.” she looked at me seriously.

“Yeah. I watched the vlive.” I opened my water bottle.

“I realized I only have two options. Either I throw them out the van or I jump out of it. I decided to do the latter.”

I almost spat the water I’ve been drinking. “You jumped out of the van??”

“Nah. I’m just being dramatic. I traded places with Tzuyu. I think it worked perfectly.” She smiled menacingly.

“But wait, what really happened between you and Nayeon unnie? Why are you so weird around each other recently?” I’m used to them being chaotic. Nayeon irking Jeongyeon every chance she gets and vice versa. But recently, it’s like they amped it up to 300%.

“That’s a story for another day.” Jeongyeon swatted my question away.

“How are things going with Mitang?”

“Well, things are going pretty well.”

“How well?”

I blushed and whispered to her, “we kissed.”

Jeongyeon’s eyes widened. “Jinjja?!”

“SHHH!!!” I covered . I tried stealing glances at Mina, she didn’t hear us, I think.

I removed my hand from Jeongyeon’s mouth after she promised to stop over-reacting from then on.

“You mean you kissed intentionally?”

“Of course.” I raised my eyebrows.

“Well, I just had to make sure. There are a lot of unintentional kisses from members.” She explained. Well that’s a fair point.

“Aside from that, she told me that she wanted to be more pro-active in our experiment. But I don’t know what to make out of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Does it mean she’s starting to feel the same towards me or does she really think of all of this as an experiment?”
“I’m not sure, too cub. Only Mina could answer that.”

“Should I just ask her?” I suggested.

“NO. Don’t do that.” She responded immediately. “Just wait until the last day. Trust me.”

“Arraseo.”I smiled.

“Oh. Unnie, before I forgot. Can you send me the other pictures you took of us last night?”

“During the dinner? Momo took most of the pictures and I think she already uploaded it in instagram and our group chat.”

“No no no. Not that. The ones you took of us at the parking lot.”

“Haven’t I sent it to you last night?” she checked her phone.

“Yes. But that’s only one picture. I want to see the rest of them. Even if they’re blurred. Maybe you took a more zoomed in photo. It’s also a bit far.”

“Chaeyoung-a, that’s the only picture I took of you guys.” She looked confused, as much as I am. “Nayeon and I were actually puzzled how you caught us when we only took one picture of you.”

She showed me her phone gallery. The last photo was us and it’s only one. I gulped. Okay. Maybe the shutter clicks just echoed in my head. That’s why I kept on hearing it.

I laughed, “Unnie, you should silent your phone if you’re trying to take a stolen shot of someone.”
Her facial expression was unchanged. “My phone was already silent.”

I looked at Mina, she saw me staring and she showed me a big gummy smile. I smiled back, nervously.