dahyun’s in the middle of animatedly telling a story about one of their funny practices when nayeon senses the girl next to her isn't listening as attentively as everyone else. but nayeon’s the only one to notice how the youngest of the gang has seemingly tensed up. seated just beside the tall brunette, nayeon could tell there there was something up. she just didn’t know what.

tzuyu has always been quiet and very reserved. the resident ‘idgaf’ friend in the group. that is until she does give a f*** and for a few seconds, she inhales sharply, back straightening with wide eyes resembling a dear in the headlights. there’s only one person that has been able to incite such a response from their stoic tzuyu. 

nayeon can’t help but break into a teasing grin when she follows tzuyu’s line of sight, immediately tracing exactly who she thought it would be. its minatozaki sana. the super touchy but super attractive and super charming cheerleader who tzuyu continuously denies having any interest in. 

except, that same girl is playing with another person’s hood. another girl. someone who nayeon can’t quite put a name to because she only sees her back. sana’s poking fun at the hood and it’s drawstrings with an extremely bright, albeit cheeky smile. if anyone else had seen them without knowing of sana’s natural touchiness, they could easily be mistaken as a couple. especially since the hooded girl is receiving sana’s affection just as naturally, as if they’ve been doing it for a long time. 

the more she looks at them, the more curious nayeon becomes. who is the hooded girl and just what is she to minatozaki sana?

just then, another girl comes into view after standing up straight from (what nayeon guesses is) looking at the ice cream showcase. it’s none other than hirai momo who looks as if she’s in a terrible dilemma. the other two girls immediately bring their attention to momo, and nayeon begins to put pieces together.

it’s either that hooded girl is sana’s girlfriend, (nayeon hopes it isn’t true, knowing just how tzuyu is for the japanese girl)

or most likely, that girl is a third of the japanese best friend trio, consisting of sana, momo, and...

mina. 

the girl who had been repeatedly in her thoughts earlier...

“tzuyu, why are you breathing so hard from your nose? your ice cream’s gonna melt.” jihyo suddenly questions, calling both the attention of nayeon and the mentioned maknae of the group. 

tzuyu starts coughing, choking up in her own spit, and probably also her own nerves. nayeon has never seen the girl so flustered. 

“nothing.” she mutters, digging a spoon murderously into her cookie dough ice cream. 

a few seconds later, their friends shrug it off and dahyun continues her story. 

“anyways...” dahyun begins storytelling once more and nayeon takes it as her cue to look back to the trio in line for ice cream. from her peripherals she can see tzuyu do the same. 

they’re at the cashier now and the hooded girl seems to be the one paying. nayeon doesn’t fail to notice how chaeyoung has on a light blush when they’re talking. 

“ha! i knew it!” dahyun’s sudden outburst is what calls nayeon and tzuyu’s attention again this time. “you guys weren’t even listening!”

“we were!” nayeon defends, blatantly lying. 

“oh yeah? what did i say after ‘anyways’?”

“something about soccer.” nayeon lamely replies. 

“wrong!” dahyun frowns. “in exact words i said ‘anyways, nayeon unnie and tzuyu are looking somewhere that isn’t at me meaning there must be something interesting they’re looking at or my story is boring’”

“your story was boring.” tzuyu hums nonchalantly. 

dahyun’s nostrils are flaring now. “it was not! you know what, i’m gonna turn around and see what exactly you guys have been staring at for the last few minutes and i’m gonna—

“oh look it’s momo and sana!” jihyo exclaims, waving. 

nayeon watches as dahyun turns to the sight quicker than lightning and then turns back around, her face already beet red as she bashfully sinks to her seat. all the while, the girl beside her has frozen on the spot for a few seconds. 

nayeon follows their sight once more, now seeing her fellow teammates waving at their group energetically. sana has on her ever charming smile but this time her eyes are literally sparkling and nayeon knows exactly who they’re for. beside the ginger, momo has on an adorable pout, probably because the object of her affection has cowardly hidden from her sight. 

“come join us!” jeongyeon calls out, gesturing their invite. 

nayeon watches as the two cheerleaders frown, then look at eachother, then turn around to tug on to the hooded girl’s arms, probably trying to convince the girl of something. 

soon enough, momo tugs her to turn around and nayeon doesn’t realize she’s held in a breath. 

it’s dramatically the slowest few seconds of nayeon’s life waiting anxiously to see the mysterious stranger’s face, either to disprove or confirm her previous assumption. 

it turns out,

she was right. 

mina’s eyes land automatically on hers and there’s a sort of triple jump set that her heart makes. nayeon almost forgets about their little staring plan but she catches herself. so she begins to count. 

‘5...’

‘4...’

‘3...’

‘2...’

‘1.’

nayeon quickly breaks off the contact first. letting out a breath she had held in.

she’s astonished that mina can already hold 5 seconds when earlier, she couldn’t even keep it up at 3. it’s great progress, nayeon thinks. maybe they can increase it to 10 now. proudly, nayeon breaks into her best smile, watching as the blonde smiles back shyly, blushing. 

—

nayeon purposely gets up so that sana can take the seat beside tzuyu, who right now, has her unbothered mode which is actually quite convincing. sana on the other hand has no idea what space is and ignores all proximity boundaries with the tall girl. 

jeongyeon all the while, switches with dahyun, forcing the tomato red girl to sit at the outermost side with momo, slipping into the seat beside her. respectively now, they’re squeezed in the 3 person  seat with momo at the edge, then dahyun, then jeongyeon, then jihyo. 

with only one person left standing, nayeon pulls mina’s hand, ignoring the tingles she feels at the touch, and tugs the girl to sit beside her. it’s bold and a little sudden. but it is something nayeon would do. 

she even encircles her arm around mina’s just as she would with jeongyeon, even if her best friend usually tried to flick her off or complain profusely until nayeon removed herself. mina doesn’t do either. she flinches but she doesn’t make an attempt to get rid of nayeon. 

sana and momo are quick to introduce mina to the group although tzuyu and dahyun are the only ones that aren’t too familar with her. jihyo knows mina through the tutoring club that apparently forced all the highest performing students to join. needless to say, nayeon isn’t surprised. 

after the exchanged greetings, the group automatically begins conversing as if they’ve all known each other for years. nayeon notices how her friends even try to incorporate mina into the conversation. and even though the blonde only responds in short statements or nods, they don’t pry, respecting her reserved nature. but seeing, mina conversing with her friends makes nayeon smile. she takes it as a step forward. 

a few minutes a later, the group falls into their own respective conversations, leaving nayeon to the silent mina. 

“are you cold?” nayeon jokes, giggling at the sight of how mina’s hood looks as if it’s swallowing her face. it was an adorable sight earlier but, it’s much cuter up close. 

“... a little hot, actually.”

nayeon giggles, “then you should probably take off your hood. it looks very tight.”

mina turns an embarrassed shade of red, trying to pull off her hood only to realize she has to untie the drawstrings first.

“i’ll do it.” nayeon volunteers, grazing mina’s fumbling fingers as she unties the draw strings and helps mina pull down her hoodie, finally revealing her blonde mane. 

“still hot?” nayeon asks, teasing. although maybe she shouldn’t have because it seemed to have made the girl turn a darker shade of red. 

“thanks.” mina mutters, taking a large spoonful of her dessert, as if to cool herself down.

...

“oh you ordered strawberry?” nayeon verbalizes. mina hums in response, her eyes focused on her own strawberry dessert sitting in front of her.

“i see you did too.” she replies softly, but nayeon furrows her brows, how did she ‘see’ if she’s been staring at her dessert for the past few minutes like it would disappear if she looked away. 

“you would’ve guessed it. is it your favorite too?” nayeon asks, hoping for the girl to continue their conversation while facing her just like they did earlier during detention. 

“no. i like vanilla.”

mina doesn’t spare her a glance, and nayeon starts to worry. her plan may have taken a step forward but now it is seemingly taking two steps backward and she can’t let it happen. she sighs, racking her brain for a way to get mina looking at her normally. 

“why’d you get strawberry then?” she asks. 

“they ran out of vanilla.” 

mina’s still not looking at her. and to make it worse, this conversation isn’t going anywhere. nayeon can feel mina being all nervous and distancing herself even if they’re practically squeezed beside each other. what’s going on weren’t they doing just fine?

‘think, nayeon, think.’

just then, her eyes land on mina’s spoonful of ice cream and a light bulb goes off in her head. it’s something she does all the time with her friends, not just with jeongyeon. a gesture that usually caused her friends to frown in annoyance but at the same time, defeat, because they couldn’t do anything about it... she wishes she would’ve thought of it sooner. 

with incredible speed, she catches mina’s wrist and stops the girl before the spoon arrives to . instead she pulls the blonde’s hand closer to herself and eats her ice cream right off of mina’s spoon. with that, nayeon succeeds in getting the blonde to finally look at her. 

but she also succeeds in catching the rest of the group’s attention as well. 

“nabongs. did you just steal mina’s strawberry ice cream when you have your own strawberry ice cream right in front of you?” jeongyeon asks in disbelief. the rest of her friends mirror the soccer captain’s exact expression. "talk about greedy."

nayeon feels immediate embarrassment from her impulsive action but she’s able throw on her cheeky facade, quickly shrugging it off. there’s a small smirk on her face when she feels mina’s eyes undoubtedly on her. 

“i do it all the time with you guys. mina’s now my friend too, she’ll come to learn that i love tasting everyone’s food.” 

“you better learn to hide your snacks mina. nayeon unnie can sense them from a mile away. they’ll disappear before you know it.” dahyun warns, earning a glare from the older girl. 

the gang laugh heartily at dahyun and nayeon’s short banter and when it eventually dies down, nayeon turns back to mina whose stare has not left her. 

nayeon lets out a snort. “so now you decide to look at me.”

“you sh-should’ve said something to call my attention.” mina falters slightly, her momentary trance finally broken. 

“you were too busy staring at your ice cream like it would grow legs and run off.” nayeon says. “i was trying so hard to keep a conversation with you, you know?”

“you were?” mina asks, cluelessly. 

nayeon rolls her eyes fondly. “oh mina... your people skills are still quite lacking huh.”

mina lowers her head a little bit. “i know.”

nayeon nudges her gently, taking a spoonful of her own ice cream. when mina looks up, nayeon brings the spoon up to the blonde’s mouth. 

“don’t worry, you have me to show you the ropes.” nayeon assures. “now eat this as a truce.”

the expression on the blonde’s face is a mixture of hesitance, embarrassment, and pure surprise. like she doesn’t know what to do next. 

“mina if you don’t take that, i will.” momo threatens out of nowhere, urging mina to open and eat nayeon’s form of a truce — a spoonful of her favorite ice cream. 

so what if she has the same flavor sitting on the table right in front of her.

“yo-you can have some of mine, momo unnie.” dahyun offers suddenly with a shy smile and it immediately turns momo’s pout into an expression that looks as if she’s one the lottery.

“hey, tzuyu. can i try your ice cream too?” nayeon hears from beside her.  it’s sana this time, obviously asking to be fed by tzuyu only to be shot down with a short,

“no.”

but sana is persistent. “well maybe you’d like to try mine.” 

“no, thank you.” 

“i’ll try some of your chocolate ice cream sana.” nayeon butts in, turning to the ginger with batted eyelashes. she can feel tzuyu glaring daggers at her now and the short haired brunette makes sure to send a smirk to the tall maknae. 

“sure, nayeon!” sana smiles enthusiastically, cupping the brunettes jaw gently before feeding her a spoonful of the dessert. 

“that was really really tasty.” nayeon comments, observing how tzuyu’s nose flares up ever so slightly. 

when nayeon turns back to mina she hears the maknae suddenly speak. 

“i’ve had enough of my ice cream. so here.” 

nayeon doesn’t even need to to turn around to know she has triggered her favorite dongsaeng into offering sana a spoonful of her dessert. she smirks. nothing like a little jealousy to spark someone’s affection. 

she returns her gaze to the blonde beside her. mina still has an endearing shade of pink on her cheeks which nayeon figures is from all the attention she’s received from her friends. she can’t help but smile at the bashful blonde. 

“ugh what is this, a couple outing?” jeongyeon groans, bitterly. 

just when nayeon thought mina’s face couldn’t possibly get any redder, it does. by a hundredfold. at the same time though, nayeon feels a heat on