CHAEYOUNG’S POV 

It wasn’t love at first sight, that I am sure of. My feelings towards Mina isn’t something that happened one fine day, or through a touch of shoulders when we pass each other down the hallway, or by a brush of fingers as I help her keep the door steady at the cafeteria when a group of rowdy teenagers ignore how it is made of glass and runs ahead anyway. It’s not like a snap of a finger and BAM! I’m in love. No, I refuse to fall under that cliché.

My love for Mina is more like a collection of moments. Page by page, section by section, she fills my days of thoughts about her, of her, and then I knew …

Okay, I don’t know when exactly it happened. But I know how.

She will be sitting there at the bleachers looking at the soccer team’s star player. She never misses a game or a practice. Her face will always light up as soon as Nayeon looks at her, her cheeks will blush when the athlete hugs her closely after a win. I notice how her head will hung low as she tries to hide her eyes with jealousy whenever Nayeon talks with other girls. I know how her smile falters a little while the senior turns to introduce her latest girlfriend to her.

You see, it became my habit to look at Mina looking at Nayeon.  

One day at practice, Mina isn’t at her usual spot, and it’s unsettling. Instantly, I’m feeling queasy, with an uneasiness bubbling right there in my gut that I can’t explain. Nayeon wasn’t at the field as well.

Knowing something’s amiss, I went looking for Mina. And true enough, I saw her with Nayeon, the latter scolding her about something I didn’t bother to understand. All I see is how Mina stifles a sob, tries hard, as Nayeon walk away red in the face and annoyed, a girl grabbing at her arm, a satisfying smirk on her lips. New girlfriend I presume.

I saw Mina at her usual place the following week watching Nayeon, again. I walk over and smiles at her. I took out a note and handed it to her. She was surprised, even blinked a couple of times, and mouthed a wordless question ‘for me’.  I nod my head and moves the piece of paper closer to her, waving it slightly. She smiled and looked at me suspiciously but reaches for it anyway.

Mina passed me a folded paper the next da