Sana is pretty sure that her life has peaked.

 

Sure, she has yet to graduate, marry the love of her life, and grow old in a house by the beach somewhere. Still, lazy Saturdays like today make her believe that life couldn’t possibly get any better.

 

She’s sitting on Nayeon’s tatami-covered bedroom floor with her back against the wall, her left hand the back of the mame shiba inu sleeping on her lap, and her right hand holding a copy of There’s No Such Thing As an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura. Mina, Nayeon’s roommate, once gave Sana a bunny origami bookmark which is now covering the number of the page she’s currently reading.

 

The weather is the kind of perfect which lets Sana comfortably wear a light hoodie (which she may or may not have stolen from Nayeon’s wardrobe a month or two ago) and denim shorts at the same time. She can feel the soft breeze coming in from the balcony through the open wooden sliding door. Nayeon’s apartment is on the building's second floor, so Sana can see the cherry trees blooming in the compound’s backyard from where she's sitting.

 

The afternoon is quite peaceful, with the air being filled mostly with silence and occasionally with Nayeon’s sharp intakes of breath when she succeeds in catching a bug in the game she’s playing and her disappointed grunts when she fails.

 

This is how they usually spend their time together, resting against adjacent walls and facing adjacent sides of a low table where Nayeon places her laptop to work on her bi-weekly programming projects.

 

(Nayeon also keeps her gaming console close to help her “reset” her brain when she encounters mental blocks while coding. Sana doesn’t call Nayeon out even when those blocks last for hours.)

 

Meanwhile, Sana usually has her nose buried in a novel (usually a recommendation from Mina) or a reading from the various classes she’s taking as she’s trying to decide on her major.

 

Mina always makes enough food for three every weekday because Sana always walks Nayeon home then, and Sana has the best conversations with her over dinner. Other than that, Mina is usually either busy playing Minecraft on weeknights or out spending time with her girlfriend, Momo, on weekends.

 

It’s normally just Sana and Nayeon together, even when they’re both doing their own thing.

 

It’s nice to find someone you can comfortably coexist with.

 

It’s also a great bonus when that someone is living with the cutest puppy on the planet.

 

Sana thinks about how this is like home even if she doesn’t even live here, and it makes her feel warm all over.

 

… At least until Nayeon moves to tuck her cold feet under Sana’s legs.

 

“My feet are cold,” Nayeon states the obvious in response to the questioning look that Sana gives her.

 

“Your feet are always cold. That’s why I bought you those fluffy bedroom socks yesterday.”

 

“And I’ll use them when you’re not around. I don’t need them if I’ve got a perfectly good foot warmer right in front of me.”

 

Sana sighs. “I should have bought you a kotatsu instead,” Sana thinks out loud, figuring if she bought Nayeon a heated table, then Nayeon wouldn’t have to stand up to get her socks from her drawer nor use Sana’s legs for insulation.

 

“Adorable,” Nayeon offhandedly remarks. At least, that’s what Sana thinks Nayeon said, but the comment was too soft for her to be sure.

 

“What did you say?”

 

“I said make sure it’s durable,” Nayeon says louder, even though her latter sentence seems to be too long to be the same as the preceding one. “I’ve broken a kotatsu heater once.”

 

Sana is just about to ask for more details when they hear the front door opening and Mina’s “I’m home” across the hallway.

 

“Welcome home, Minari!” Sana calls out excitedly then hears Mina’s footsteps as she walks to Nayeon’s room.

 

“You’re here!” Mina says to Sana with an excited grin before turning to Nayeon. “You didn’t tell me Yogurt’s mom is coming over.”

 

“Okay, first, I thought you’d be gone the entire day,” Nayeon starts. “But more importantly, Yogurt is my child.”

 

Mina looks at the puppy in question, who is still fast asleep on Sana’s lap. “Yogurt looks like Sana though.”

 

“Plus Mina’s the one who got her from the pet store,” Sana adds. “If anything, you’re just Yogurt’s roommate.”

 

Nayeon scoffs. “Excuse me. I feed her, I take her out for walks, and I literally clean her poop.”

 

“Ah, so you’re her maid?” Sana teases, making Mina snort and Nayeon narrow her eyes.

 

“Get out of my apartment.”

 

“And let your feet get cold?”

 

“Fine, you can stay.”

 

“And I’m going,” Mina butts in, reminding the other two of her presence. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it.”

 

“Where are you going?” Nayeon asks and chooses to ignore whatever Mina was implying.

 

“Back to Momo’s. I remembered I won a new plushie from the arcade yesterday, and I haven’t shown it to her yet, so I just came back to get it.”

 

“You walked fifteen whole minutes just to get that?”

 

Mina nods. “And another fifteen minutes to go back to her place, yes.”

 

“Ha, whipped!” Nayeon exclaims, making Mina raise an eyebrow at her.

 

“Who are you calling whipped? Your class ends at 3 PM, but you go home every day past five to walk with Sana.”

 

Wait, what?

 

Sana hasn’t even begun to process that new information, but Nayeon is already explaining herself. “It’s because I always forget my umbrella, okay? Sana always brings one, so we can share.”

 

“But you still wait for her even when it’s not raining,” Mina argues, and at this point, Nayeon is crossing her arms defensively.

 

“People use umbrellas when it’s sunny too!”

 

Mina pauses for a few seconds before seemingly deciding that okay she can’t argue with that. “Hmm, point taken. Still think you two should get married, but point taken.”

 

“Bye, Mina,” is Nayeon’s mere reply, and Mina laughs.

 

“Well, I need to go anyway,” she shrugs before waving at Sana.

 

“Take care!”

 

“Will do!” Mina answers Sana before disappearing into the hallway.

 

Sana already goes back to reading while she hears Mina’s light footsteps as well as the opening and closing of Mina’s bedroom door and the front door.

 

At least, she’s trying to go back to reading.

 

In her peripheral vision, she can see how Nayeon has been looking back at her every three seconds ever since Mina left the room, so she finally looks up from her book to ask, “Yes?”

 

“I…” Nayeon starts then trails off. She clears before continuing, “It’s not a big deal, okay? I spend those times studying in the library since I’m more productive there than when I’m here.”

 

“It’s okay, you don’t need to explain,” Sana says as if she’s not going to overthink about this for the rest of the day… and probably even after that.

 

She’s probably going to need more time to wonder about what this all means and to hope that what it means is that Nayeon feels the same way.

 

“Okay,” Nayeon says, but Sana is unconvinced that it really is okay.

 

Sana hasn’t known Nayeon for a long time, but she knows Nayeon well. She can tell how Nayeon is tense when she gets fidgety and squirmy.

 

Plus the biggest indicator that Nayeon is bothered about something right now: she suddenly put her console away and went back to working.

 

“Hey, relax. If anything, I’m more bothered about how Mina never noticed that I own a clear umbrella. She's usually very observant.” Sana chuckles.

 

“Yeah, sorry for making excuses with Mina. I was just worried that you might feel weird about all the teasing.”

 

“Aww, you don’t have to worry about that.” Sana coos. Nayeon was doing that in consideration of Sana’s feelings. Sana assumed Nayeon was just doing it to escape embarrassment. “I’ve always thought you get defensive around Mina because you’re just scared to admit that you enjoy my company,” Sana adds, also teasing Nayeon to show that she’s really okay with it.

 

“I didn’t think I needed to admit anything that obvious,” Nayeon takes Sana’s words seriously, “but for the record, I’m glad you’re here.”

 

Nayeon is right. It goes without saying, especially considering that Nayeon asked Sana to come over today like she always does when she needs company.

 

Still, hearing Nayeon say those words makes Sana’s stomach, chest, and entire body feel a bit funny.

 

“I’m glad I’m here, too.” Sana looks down at Yogurt’s sleeping figure, breaking eye contact with Nayeon in hopes that it will make her heart beat normally again. “I missed this little baby.”

 

“You were here yesterday,” Nayeon reminds her.

 

“I know, but coming here is always the best part of my day.”

 

“That’s nice to hear,” Nayeon addresses Sana, but her eyes are on the shiba inu as she reaches out to lightly scratch the sleeping dog’s head. “Now, say, ‘Thank you, Yogurt.’”

 

“It’s not just Yogurt,” Sana clarifies and decides that if there’s a time to say anything heartfelt, it would be now. “She’s the cutest, but I have a better reason for wanting to be here. You know that, right?”

 

“Oh, I…” Nayeon trails off, and her cheeks are starting to get red when—

 

“It’s Mina. She cooks the best food. Of course, I’d come over.“

 

Sana says all of this with a straight face, and Nayeon’s face falls making Sana laugh.

 

“I hate you,” Nayeon declares.

 

“No, you don’t,” Sana disagrees.

 

“No, I don’t,” Nayeon digresses.

 

Well…

 

“I like you, too,” Sana admits before she even realizes she’s doing it.

 

She’s never found this kind of declarations easy to do whether they’re sudden or planned, but somehow Nayeon makes it all so easy just by being herself.

 

When it finally sinks in, Sana gets nervous not because she’s scared of how Nayeon react but because she doesn’t even know what kind of response she wants to hear.

 

“Do you wanna walk Yogurt with me tomorrow morning? She’s more energetic when it’s early.”

 

Now, that… is the best response Sana thinks she could have received.

 

“Wow, I said I like you for the first time, and you’re already giving me dog-walking privileges? I should confess to you more often.”

 

If Nayeon wasn’t blushing before, she’s definitely blushing now.

 

“Not too often, please. My heart can only take so much.”

 

Sana hums. “How about three times a day?”

 

“Twice,” Nayeon negotiates. “That’s the highest I can go.”

 

“Deal,” Sana agrees, holding out her hand which Nayeon shakes. As Nayeon lets go of her hand, Sana feels her face actually starting to hurt just because of how widely she’s smiling over how silly they’re being right now. “Okay, now, get back to work and stop smiling at me, so I can stop myself from confessing again.”

 

Nayeon turns back to her laptop screen, but Sana can tell that she’s biting her bottom lip to keep herself from smiling.

 

Sana raises her book to hide her own grin.

 

She guesses she was wrong before.

 

Life could get better.

 

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A/N: It's been a while. My twitter handle is minasapple now... Yes, I changed it again...