mina is panting by the time she gets to the door.

(the art room had oh-so-conveniently been on the other side of the large school building. and after dropping off chaeyoung’s canvas, she had bid the artist a rushed goodbye before dashing back to the detention classroom, but not without stopping by the vending machine of course.)

now, here she is standing at the doorway and a certain brunette is sitting in her seat. the air is knocked out of her chest a second time.

she says “hi,” but it comes out as a bare, nervous whisper and nayeon doesn’t seem to notice. so she clears , and it’s then that the girl finally turns her head to her. mina can’t control how her lips just naturally tug upwards.

when they lock eyes, it feels as if it’s been ages since they’ve last seen each other even though it had only been a few hours.

...

mina counts to a whopping five seconds when nayeon finally speaks and the blonde swears her name sounds so good when it rolls off of nayeon’s tongue.

“myoui mina.”

“hi.” she greets. it’s louder this time. carefully, she approaches the the brunette, soon taking the seat beside her. nayeon’s seat. the close distance between gives her tingles on the skin even when they aren’t touching. perhaps it’s just the aura that the cheer captain exudes.

there’s something different though. nayeon isn’t looking at her now.

mina decides to ignore it.

“i got you this.” she adds, placing the pink milk carton on the desk which brings a small, thankful smile on the brunette’s face.

when nayeon takes a hold of the pink carton, she looks a little tense when she does so. and the next thing she does is quite unexpected. she places the straw into the designated hole but instead of taking a sip, she offers it to mina.

“i forgot to get you your banana milk.” she says, looking down. “plus you look a little tired. so drink up.” nayeon brings the drink just a few inches near mina’s mouth.

it’s such a sweet gesture, mina’s not sure if she could ever turn it down. so she leans a little closer and takes a sip. the strawberry milk is absolutely delicious and has her heart beating.

when she looks up,

nayeon is still looking elsewhere.

mina doesn’t mind it.

but then nayeon takes a sip soon after and mina blushes like mad, words escaping her own mouth without her realizing it.

“indirect kiss.”

nayeon’s shoulders go rigid. mina watches as her cheeks dust a light red. this time, she finally looks at her, but only for a brief second. “i-it’s normal! don’t you share drinks with your best friends too? i mean it’s just a drink!”

“ye-yeah it’s normal.” mina agrees, feeling a new awkwardness settle in the room. so she boldly tries to change the subject.

“how was practice?” she asks.

“it was okay, the usual. prepping for the competition and all.”

nayeon keeps her head straight when she answers. it concerns mina that maybe she’s done something wrong for the brunette to not want to look at her. maybe the other girl just isn’t in the mood.

“are you feeling tired or anything?” she asks.

“just a little bit.” nayeon admits, yet still does not give her as much as a glance.

‘so she’s tired... that must be why’

mina nods, a small smile adorning her face but she does feel a little disappointed. she gets it now. perhaps nayeon’s a little too tired today and isn’t in the mood to go anywhere. mina doesn’t want to force her to do anything.

“do you want to just go home and rest? it’s alright with me if that’s what you prefe—

“no!” nayeon turns to her this time finally looking at mina in the eyes. “i mean, no. i promised you i’d treat you.” she shyly adds, a little softer.

mina blinks her eyes, this is one of the few times she’s ever seen the girl all flustered. the im nayeon she (and probably most of the student body) knew only exuded confidence and charm.

this side of im nayeon is different. this nayeon gets shy and flustered too. mina didn’t like her any less for that. in fact, she finds herself even more drawn to the brunette.

so when nayeon abruptly stands up, muttering a quiet “we should go,” mina is quick to follow suit like the whipped puppy she is.

“okay.” she responds, catching up to the brunette in the process.

-

their walk is unusually quiet until nayeon clears .

“so how was your last day of detention? i’m sorry i couldn’t come visit.”

mina, who had been busy recounting every single one of her actions in any case she had made things awkward between them, is caught off guard by the question.

“i-it was alright!” she stammers. “and don’t worry about it, you were busy and that’s fine.”

after that is silence. mina notices how nayeon has her lips pursed and looks as of she’s in deep thought.

“did you have fun?”

“uhm yes! it was pretty nice.”

another silence follows...

“so you weren’t lonely?”

mina doesn’t know why but she feels a little stressed answering nayeon’s questions.

“no, i wasn’t!”

once again, they are engulfed in silence and mina contemplates whether she should mention the fact that she spent her detention with chaeyoung. maybe then, it’ll facilitate more conversation between.

(because gosh, she misses the way nayeon is so carefree whenever she talks about whatever comes to mind.)

it takes a her a full minute to muster her words.

“i actually bumped into cha—

but she’s interrupted by a grumbling stomach.

the sound permeates the extremely silent hallway. soon, she witnesses nayeon’s face contort into shock matched with a scarlet red coloring her cheeks down to her neck.

“oh my god.” the words leave as a whisper and nayeon brings a hand to cover her face.

“please pretend you didn’t hear that.”

mina’s troubled expression softens at the embarrassed look on nayeon’s face... she wants to tell her that it’s okay and that she doesn’t have to be embarrassed. and that she’s used to it, especially since hirai momo is her best friend who’s almost always hungry.

so, she feigns ignorance.

“hear what?”

it’s then that the blonde knows she’s finally said something right because nayeon drops the hand that had been covering her face and looks at her with wide eyes. after a slow second, nayeon’s lips spread into this gorgeous grateful smile. mina swears she feels her heart almost beat out of her ribcage. to add even more to that impact, the cheer captain lets out a giggle that sounds like a beautiful melody. it makes her feel weak in the knees and washes over her with relief.

mina smiles reassuringly, meeting nayeon’s eyes with her own. she’s getting a whole lot better lately.

but they only make it to five before one of them looks away.

it’s nayeon who does so.

“there’s a noodle restaurant close to the ice cream shop.” nayeon starts. “i’m sorry i can’t drive us but it’s only about a ten minute walk from here. is that okay with you?”

mina thinks it’s more than okay. in fact she can’t even utter a word because she’s so okay with it. she hums in agreement, trying her best to calm the butterflies in her stomach. the more she thinks about it, the more unbelievable it becomes. she’s hanging out with im nayeon. she’s going out to eat with im nayeon. she’s going to eat ice cream with im nayeon.

..

on their walk, mina observes the sky has been tinged with orange and dark purple hues. the sun has decided to turn in for the day to let the moon and the city lights take their turn to shine.

(mina thinks the girl beside her shines too... )

she’s way too shy to say so.

instead, she gathers her courage and starts the conversation with,

“do you like evenings?”

nayeon looks a little surprised when she turns to mina. but then she looks up at the sky and nods with a smile.

“my favorite part of the day is right when the sun starts to set and the sky is all orange. it’s darker now. but i think it’s beautiful too.”

“why’s it your favorite?” mina asks, looking up to see what nayeon sees.

the cheer captain giggles softly, adjusting the bag slung over her shoulder. “well simply because practice starts to end at around that time and it means i can finally rest.”

“oh.”

“what about you?” nayeon returns the question.

mina’s never really thought much about it. but she thinks of nayeon’s description and it takes her to the past few days spent in detention. all those times she’d linger in the classroom just to catch one more glimpse of the brunette before leaving. she remembers how the sun’s rays would adorn the cheer captain’s skin, making her look extra gorgeous. like she was some sort of unreachable goddess. when she thinks of sunsets now, she thinks of im nayeon. so it’s only obvious that she likes them now too.

however, when her eyes land on said cheer captain who’s still quite busy marveling at the sky, she doesn’t see the extremely bright light of the orange-yellow rays making her shine like some ethereal being. no, the streetlights, the moon, the stars, and the tiniest bit of sun are all competing at giving light to her beauty. mina’s favorite part of it all is that she gets to see it up close. as if she could actually reach her.

“sunsets are nice,” she guesses.

“but i like how it looks now.” mina admits.

(and she’s not looking at the sky when she says it.)

-

they end up at the noodle restaurant just a few blocks ahead of the ice cream. one that mina’s never been to. but nayeon insists they make the best ramen so what does mina do?

she agrees and even orders the same thing.

she finds out too late that nayeon’s favorite bowl of noodles is extra spicy and maybe she should’ve guessed it from the name, ‘hot stuff’, but it didn’t stop her.

little did she know she would spend the next minutes feeling like every tastebud in has burnt and wilted, if not washed away by the massive gulps of water she’s been drinking. all the while, nayeon is seated on the stool beside her enjoying every bite so much that she can hear hums of satisfaction.

“isn’t it delicious?”

mina struggles to give her a straight answer because at this point is on fire. it was actually good, but only for the first few seconds that the heat didn’t kick in. it’s unfortunate mina wasn’t blessed with a tolerance for anything spicy.

when nayeon finally turns to her side fully, she looks shell shocked. mina guesses she might have looked like her whole body was on fire too.

“mina you’re so red—

nayeon stops mid sentence, grabbing some napkins to dab off the sweat on her forehead. mina’s heart skips a beat. if this is nayeon’s way of making her less red then it’s surely never going to work.

“was that too spicy for you?” the brunette asks softly.

mina’s barely able to catch what nayeon asks next when she’s so busy staring at her every feature up close.

“just a little.” she answe