If someone were to ask Minatozaki Sana why she always got clingy with the other members of TWICE, she would probably say that it was just her way of showing the eight most precious people in her life how much she loved them.

That, and she secretly (obviously) loved seeing her members' reactions too, whenever she randomly planted kisses on their faces or smothered them with tight hugs.

Tzuyu would look at her with a deadpan expression and pretend to hate it, but the dimple on her cheek when she'd smile always told Sana that the gesture was not unwelcome. (She lived for the very scarce moments she'd actually get a kiss back from the maknae.)

Chaeyoung would try brushing her off at every opportunity, but for all her softness, always gave in anyway the moment Sana would give her one of her signature pleading looks. ("Just don't overdo it, okay?" she'd sometimes grumble. "And if anyone asks, I like Mina unnie's cuddles more than yours.")

Dahyun always had the most varied reactions, and it entertained Sana to no end: sometimes she'd get daring and try kissing Sana first, other times she'd get flustered with a single stare. (There was a reason why she was Sana's favorite target.)

Mina and Jihyo, both having long understood that Sana was just eager to show her love to the sisters she'd never had, were always happy to give her as much as they'd been given, if only to let her know that her presence was never unwanted.

Momo, for her part, treated it as some sort of competition; when she got one kiss, she would try to give two back, and then some.

Jeongyeon, who oftentimes could not hold back a cringe at the prospect of cheek kisses, had somehow made an exception for Sana by being resigned to her fate and accepting that there was just no escaping the younger girl whenever she got affectionate.

And Nayeon... 

Well, for some reason, Sana tried not to read too much into the way Nayeon would react (or not react) to her clinginess. 

But whenever she did, it always bothered her. 

Sana had a nagging impression that Nayeon's reactions to her lately were somewhat superficial. The oldest member was like Momo in the way she'd never fail to flirt or kiss back, but she somehow managed to do all that while still keeping Sana at arm's length. 

Sana didn't doubt that Nayeon loved her as much as she did the rest of TWICE, though, far from it, in fact. She always felt her unnie's presence the most in the rare times she was too emotionally weak to muster even a smile. Nayeon would be by her side, holding her hand, hooking an arm around her waist.

Nayeon anchored her to the ground whenever she drifted too far into the thoughts that made her vulnerable.

But she would be gone as quickly as she had come.

And that bothered Sana more than she would admit.

-----

Strangely enough, it was a conversation between Sana, Dahyun and Tzuyu which first forced the older girl to think about the hazy, grey area in her mind that was Im Nayeon.

"Sana unnie," Dahyun whined, as she was wrapped in yet another one of Sana's boa constrictor-like hugs. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Not really, you're just so cuddly, Dahyunnie!"

Tzuyu sat on the side of her bed, trying not to bore a hole into Sana's head as she watched Dahyun being buried in blankets and one other TWICE member.

"Sana unnie," the youngest girl spoke, "What Dahyun unnie is trying to say is, she doesn't want you to be so touchy with her anymore."

The struggle between the two girls on Dahyun's bed stopped abruptly as Sana peeked out from the back of Dahyun's shoulder. 

"Really?" she said, the beginnings of a pout forming on her lips.

Dahyun's gaze darted briefly to Tzuyu's before shyly answering, "Um, it's just... Tzuyu and I... we're..."

"Oh!" Sana slowly peeled herself away from Dahyun, finally comprehending the situation. "No wonder you've been staring at me like that, Tzuyu-ah."

"Like what?"

"Like I've been stealing your bread."

"I guess," Tzuyu muttered, her turn to be bashful, "You have been stealing my dubu and I don't like it."

Sana all but leaped at Tzuyu, hugging her instead, much to Dahyun's annoyance.

"So cute, Chewy! I'm so sorry, I didn't know!"

"Sana unnie," she whined again. "You can't be touchy with me or Tzuyu anymore!"

"Aww, that's no fun," Sana complained, but nevertheless let go of a frazzled Tzuyu, who made a beeline for Dahyun's bed and hooked a protective arm around her. "Who else am I supposed to be touchy with, then?"

The couple on the other bed shared a similar look—like they knew something Sana didn't. 

"Isn't there anyone on your mind, unnie?" 

"Umm... N-Not really?"

"You're lying! See, you're actually blushing!" Dahyun said smugly. "You do know for sure who you want to be all cuddly with."

"I—I don't know who you're talking about!" Sana stuttered, wide-eyed and suddenly nervous, red heat rapidly rising to the tips of her ears.

"Unnie, I'm sorry to say this," Tzuyu said seriously, "but please figure it out soon and leave hugging Dahyun unnie to me from now on."

"Okay, okay," Sana half-raised her hands in defeat, hopping off Tzuyu's bed and making her way to the door. "I'll go, but I still don't know who it is."

"Figure it out!" the maknaes yelled together, just as Sana closed the door behind her.

It turns out they were right. A part of Sana did know who they were talking about. 

And as was always the case when thinking about Nayeon, her first instinct was to shove it on to the very corners of her mind and never actually speak of it out loud.

-----

She was never really comfortable by herself ever since she became part of TWICE. So even if she was sulking, Sana would rather do it around her members than alone.

Which was how she found herself on the group's living room a few nights later, hugging her knees on the sofa while not quite watching the game Mina and Jeongyeon, who sat on the floor, had hooked on to a console connected to the TV. 

Chaeyoung was on the other end of the sofa, pencilling what Sana was sure were the beginnings of a masterpiece that could easily be put on as their next album cover. 

Sana absentmindedly twirled the ends of her then-shoulder length orange hair. She knew better than to disturb Mina when she was in her gaming mode, and by extension, she couldn't bother Jeongyeon because it was a multiplayer game.

And disrupting a Chaeng-casso while she was in her zone was a no-no, if Sana wanted any chance of staying on her good side.

She let out a frustrated sigh. It felt like all the members had hung an "off limits" sign over themselves the past few days; and right then, Sana wasn't exactly in any mood to get rejected if she asked for a hug—or ten. Which resulted to her keeping her hands to herself ever since Tzuyu and Dahyun admitted to being a couple.

"What's wrong, Satang?"

Of course, Mina was an observant friend first and a gamer second, so she definitely noticed the glum aura surrounding the usually bubbly member. While she couldn't fully turn towards Sana, the younger girl cocked her head in her general direction.

The question caused Jeongyeon to do the same out of concern, and even Chaeyoung looked up from her sketchbook.

Sana, not one to keep her thoughts to herself for very long, was quick to answer. "Tzuyu and Dahyun won't let me cuddle with them anymore," she said with a pout. 

"It's because they're just starting out, unnie," Chaeyoung explained. "They won't want to be cuddly with anyone else except each other for now."

"Why don't you find someone else to willingly accept your hugs and kisses?" Jeongyeon suggested. "Just not me."

"Or me," the shorter girl of the group added quickly, glancing at Mina, who gave her a grateful smile before turning back to her game.

"There's me, Momo and Jihyo unnie," Mina said offhandedly. "Oh, and Nayeon unnie—"

She had her back turned, but she somehow managed not to miss the way Sana hugged her knees even more tightly at the mention of Nayeon's name.

And right on cue, the eldest member of the group appeared out of the bathroom door, as if hearing her name being called. 

"Oh, hey guys!" she said cheerfully, in all her bare-faced glory, a towel slung around the back of her neck. "What's going on?"

"Mina's teaching me this game," Jeongyeon replied, focus returning to the TV. "Oh, and Sana's being pouty because she thinks no one wants to cuddle with her."

Nayeon blinked once, before a pout that mirrored Sana's formed on her lips. "Aww, come on, that's not true," she said, and plopped down next to Sana, who by then had buried her face on to her knees in a rare show of embarrassment. She wrapped her arms around the other girl in a tight embrace that was much like the way Sana would hug everyone else on a normal day.

"You can always cuddle with me, Sana-yah," she assured her, placing a kiss on to the top of Sana's head. 

Sana could feel the heat on her cheeks and a tingle on her head where Nayeon's lips had been. She rarely got genuinely shy anymore, but right then, there was no way she could deny how flustered she had gotten at the affection that was suddenly being given to her by the last person she (thought she) expected.

Still, a hug was a hug, and she shoved all other pesky thoughts to the back of her mind and relaxed, taking a deep breath and smelling Nayeon's shampoo in the process. Having the older girl this close to her was both nerve-wracking and exhilarating at the same time, but she figured she'd let future Sana deal with those feelings.

"Oh my God, you two, get a room," Chaeyoung said in mock disgust. 

"Does Chaeyoungie want a hug from her beloved Nayeon unnie too?" Nayeon teased, her voice dripping with aegyo, effectively making the younger girl cringe. 

"No thank you!"

Jeongyeon snickered from her perch in front of the TV, but stopped abruptly when she felt Nayeon's eyes on her.

"Yah! Yoo Jeongyeon! It's your turn to use the bathroom. Are you going or do you want me to drag you there?"

"But we're still playing—"

"I'm sure Mina won't mind, right?" Nayeon said suspiciously cutely.

"Of course not, Nayeon unnie," Mina replied just as sweetly, secretly trying to stop herself from laughing at Jeongyeon's plight.

"Great!"

Turning to Sana, who Nayeon still had in her arms, she softened. "Feeling better?"

Sana looked up and nodded with a nervous laugh. "Thanks, Nayeonnie."

With one last smile, Nayeon pulled away and proceeded to chase Jeongyeon to her room, using her towel as a makeshift whip and trying to hit the other girl on the with it.

"Ahh! Help! She's crazy!"

"Stop screaming or Jihyo will come for you for being noisy!"

"Running around and laughing like a madman isn't exactly helping me keep quiet!"

By then, Mina had turned her game off and quietly sidled next to Chaeyoung, who was looking up at her with what Sana could swear were heart eyes.

Sana sighed, her second one that night. Everyone seemed to be so happy in their own little worlds these days, and she felt as though there was no place for her in any of them.

"Missing Nayeon already?" Mina said softly in Japanese, giving Sana a light nudge with her elbow. 

She was too sullen to even defend herself with a response. 

She was also too preoccupied thinking about what it might be like for Nayeon to make room for her in her world.

-----

"Momoring?" Sana whispered a few nights later to a groggy Momo.

She'd snuck into Momo and Jeongyeon's shared room and climbed on to the younger girl's bed as silently (and as less clumsily) as she could.

"Mmhh?" Momo grunted, already beginning to drift back to sleep.

"How do you know that you," Sana lowered her whispered voice even further, and it would have been inaudible if she weren't lying right beside Momo, "like someone?"

"Huh? But you like everyone," Momo said with a yawn, still not fully awake.

"Yeah, but... How do I know if I like one person more than everyone else?"

"Hmm... More and more."

"What? Why are you talking about our comeback?" Sana asked, dumbfounded.

"It's the lyrics. You just want that person more."

"Want that person?"

"Yeah," the blonde-haired girl answered, and Sana could see sparkles of moonlight in her eyes as she spoke, blinking away the rest of her sleepiness. "You want that person to notice you more, be with you more, fall for you more, know that you're thinking about that person more. Much more than anyone else."

By the time she'd finished, a lopsided smile had made permanent residence on her lips.

"You look like you're speaking from experience," Sana commented. 

Momo patted the other girl's cheek. "And it all starts with taking the first step."

"But—But what if that person doesn't want to take that step?"

"You don't stop until she does!" Momo said, louder than she meant to. Both she and Sana stiffened as they heard Jeongyeon shift on the other bed in the room. In a quieter voice, she continued, "That's what More and More is all about, you know."

"Yah! I never said it was a 'she'—"

"Just go and tell Nayeon unnie you like her," Jeongyeon groaned, grabbing her blanket and covering her head. "Everyone else already knows."

"H-Huh?" Sana spluttered.

"She's right. You're not exactly good at keeping secrets. Or hiding your feelings."

(Case in point: Sana had failed to switch to Japanese while she was talking to Momo, and right then she was starting to regret it.)

"W-What feelings?"

"Come on, Satang," Momo said with a huff. "It's so obvious that you get a lot more giggly when Nayeon unnie gets close to you. And not the happy giggly type, but the one you do when you're scared."

"And you look like a deflated balloon as soon as she leaves or pays attention to someone else," Jeongyeon, whose voice was muffled by the blanket, added. 

"Doesn't help that that 'someone else' always happens to be you, Jeongyeonnie," Momo commented with a snort.

"But I—I never said I like Nayeon unnie like that!" Sana insisted, shooting up and glaring at the lump of blankets that was Jeongyeon; the heat on her face and the shakiness of her response so painfully contradicting her words. "And I'm not jealous," she said in a much smaller voice.

"So in denial," Momo said, to which Jeongyeon agreed with a hum. "Go to sleep then, if you're just gonna keep lying to yourself."

"Give me a good night kiss first!" Sana said halfheartedly, grabbing at Momo's cheeks. She wouldn't leave the room without one, at least.

"Not if you're going to imagine I'm Nayeon unnie!"

"I'm not!"

"Whatever you say, Sana," Momo said, unconvinced. "Whatever you say."

-----

Dance practice the next day was just about to drive Sana insane.

Since her conversation with Momo, she couldn't help but become hyper-aware of the song lyrics to their title track. And the fact that they needed to do some parts over whenever someone made a mistake (she was responsible for one or two because she was so distracted) did nothing to get her confusing thoughts out of her mind.

You're gonna say more more more more more and more,her own perky voice kept taunting her every time the chorus played. 

And just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, the formation on the first few parts of the song required her to always be next to Nayeon and always have a clear view of the back of her head, or the side of her face, and since when did she look so pretty with her hair cut short like that?

The middle of her body was burning where Nayeon would lay her hand at the beginning of the song, and it kept stinging long after they'd changed places and the older girl was no longer next to her.

Just go and tell Nayeon unnie you like her...

You want that person to notice you more, be with you more...

Missing Nayeon already...?

Figure it out...

Sana shook her head almost violently, as if she could shake off her members' voices ringing in her head, or the ever increasing turmoil weighing heavily on her chest.

"You okay, Sana?"

Of course the reason for her distraction would be the first to notice that something was not quite right with her, as soon as Jihyo called for a ten-minute break and cut the music.

"Yup! I'm fine, unnie!" Sana said a bit too brightly, a giggle escaping her before she could stop herself. Okay, maybe Momo did have a point about her nervousness around Nayeon being way too obvious.

"Mmm... If you're sure," Nayeon said, almost slurring, and almost falling off balance if not for the other girl being quick to get a grip on her arm.

This brief moment allowed Sana a few more seconds to stare at Nayeon, noticing how some of her hair stuck to her sweat-laden forehead, how her eyes seemed a little unfocused, how her cheeks looked like they were burning up, how paler her lips looked than usual...

Maybe Sana should have been the one to ask if Nayeon was okay.

Before she could do just that, she saw the other girl's eyelids flutter closed, knees giving way and falling straight down.

"Nayeonnie!" Sana yelled, holding on to Nayeon before she could hit the floor. 

Jihyo was next to Sana in a matter of seconds, cupping Nayeon's cheeks. "It's a fever," she muttered. In a louder voice, she asked, "Can someone get manager unnie?"

"We'll go," Dahyun volunteered, quickly stepping out of the room, Tzuyu trailing not far behind.

The rest of TWICE sat around Nayeon in a protective circle, too concerned about her to continue practicing. Sana laid Nayeon's head on her lap and moved her hair from her face, while Jihyo poured a bottle of water on a face towel and laid it on the sick girl's forehead.

"Aish, this pabo, she should've asked to stay home if she was sick," Jeongyeon mumbled worriedly. 

"Well you know how Nayeon unnie is," Jihyo replied grimly. "We should all go home, but someone needs to watch her and make sure she rests." She paused. "Sana unnie?"

"Sana would be glad to do it!" Momo chimed in all too eagerly, earning a glare from the orange-haired girl who guessed what her intentions were. (And as if that wasn't enough, Chaeyoung and Mina—these traitors, she thought—nodded vigorously in agreement.)

Sana turned her attention back to a sleeping Nayeon on her lap, and she knew she couldn't refuse. She knew she would never be at ease leaving the other girl with anyone else, anyway. 

"Yeah, I'll stay with her."

-----

"I've filled this warmer with soup. Make sure Nayeon unnie drinks it when she wakes up. Oh, and there are some fever patches and medicine inside that drawer," Jihyo told an attentive Sana, pointing to Nayeon's bedside table.

Sana nodded. 

"Mina will probably be staying with the maknaes tonight, and I'll room with Momo and Jeongyeon," the group's leader continued.

"Okay," the older girl agreed. "Don't worry, Jihyo-ah," she said, her eyes drifting to a Nayeon that was safely tucked in bed, blanket under her chin. "I'll take care of her."

Jihyo gave her a small, teasing smile. "Oh, I know you will. Oh, and Sana unnie?"

"Yeah?"

"I think you already know this, but Nayeon unnie has a hard time being straightforward about how she feels."

"U-Um, I guess that's how she is, but... Why are you telling me this?" Sana asked, not sure where their conversation was going.

"So you'll understand that you need to do more and more to get through to her!" Jihyo said confidently, utterly convinced that her word was truth. (In most cases, including this, it was.)

The other girl exhaled, rubbing a hand on her face. "Great, now it's not just Momoring throwing our title track's lyrics at me."

"Good! Now, make sure you don't stop until Nayeon unnie tells you exactly what she wants," the pink-haired girl told Sana, commanding round eyes staring right at her. "I swear you won't regret it."

Sana nodded again, conceding, even though what Jihyo was saying wasn't making much sense to her right then. "Give me a hug for good luck?" she said, arms extended hopefully.

"Of course, come here."

-----

Sana woke up a few hours later to a soothing hand running through her hair. 

It was almost like the way her mother used to do it to get a younger Sana to fall asleep—soft, slow, gentle, almost lulling her right back to her dream of lying next to a slumbering Nayeon, head on the older girl's arm, face nestled at the crook of her neck...

Wait, Nayeon—

Her eyes flew open. This was no dream. She really was breathing in Nayeon's scent right then. 

"Yah! Stop blinking, it tickles."

Hoping Nayeon couldn't feel the erratic beating of her heart in her chest, Sana slowly drew back to face the girl beside her.

"Nayeon unnie?" she said groggily, taking a few seconds to focus her gaze on the other girl's face. Then, remembering how Nayeon had passed out in the dance practice room earlier, Sana dove right back into Nayeon's arms. "We were so worried!"

"Sorry," the short-haired girl answered with a small laugh, her long fingers back to combing through Sana's hair. "I'm okay now. Just a little cold."

Not long after Jihyo left the room, Sana had stuck a fresh fever patch on to Nayeon's forehead. Right then, she was standing over her bed wondering if it would be okay to lie down next to her. 

Just to make sure she was warm enough.

"Maybe it's not such a good idea," Sana muttered to herself, the quickening pace of her heartbeat seeming to agree with her.

She adjusted Nayeon's blanket, took one last look at her sleeping face, and decided to watch her from her own bed across the room instead.

Before she could take a step away, though, she felt a warm hand grab on to her retreating one.

"Nayeonnie? What is it?"

"It's cold."

"Oh, I'll turn down the air conditioning—"

Nayeon, eyes still shut, tugged weakly at Sana's hand, trying to pull the younger girl towards her. "It's cold," she repeated stubbornly.

"Okay, I get it," Sana said with a light chuckle. She heard a whine as she let go of Nayeon's hand, then a contented sigh after tucking herself under the blanket and letting herself get hugged by the other girl like a stuffed animal.

"Better?" she asked softly, gently tucking some stray strands of hair behind Nayeon's ear.

"Mm-hmm," Nayeon hummed, snuggling close enough for their foreheads to touch, and for Sana to hear her own heart pounding in her ears.

Between the physical exhaustion after their dance practice, and the irregular sleep schedules they'd all had since preparing for their comeback, not to mention several days of having Sana's emotions all over the place because of the girl beside her, it didn't take too long for her to drift off to sleep and leave her predicament yet again for a future Sana to sort out.

"Nayeon unnie," Sana said sternly, pulling back once more but still not leaving Nayeon's embrace (because she said she was cold, Sana reasoned with herself), "Why did you even go to dance practice today?"

Nayeon pouted, looking very much like a child who was getting scolded. "The choreography is so freaking hard! If I stayed in bed, all I'd think about is how much time I'd be wasting."

"But you ended up in bed, anyway," Sana replied, poking at Nayeon's nose. "And it goes without saying, but obviously we can't go back to dance practice for a few days."

Nayeon's lips curled into a smirk, as though getting a fever was part of some master plan she'd created. "I gave us a little break, though, isn't that great?"

Sana rolled her eyes playfully. "I think it's time for you to take your medicine," she said, moving to sit up, but not really getting anywhere due to Nayeon's surprisingly tight hold on her. 

"Later," was all Nayeon said to explain her actions as she started running a thumb along the back of Sana's hand. 

Neither of them said anything for what seemed like hours. And Sana, being Sana, was never really good with awkward silence.

Nayeon seemed to sense her discomfort and decided to speak first. "You know, I thought it would be Jihyo or Jeongyeon nagging at me when I woke up."

A dejected frown formed on Sana's lips before she could think about hiding it. "You didn't want it to be me?"

"It's not that. It's just," Nayeon hesitated, eyes lowering, "It feels like you've been avoiding me, so I wasn't really expecting you to be here."

"I didn't mean to, unnie, honest," Sana said hastily. Guilt gnawed at her for making Nayeon feel she'd ever been ignoring her. "I just—I had to figure out some things."

Nayeon's eyebrows quirked up in curiosity. "What things?"

"Well..." Sana bit her lip, considering her next words. "Everyone's been telling me that I like you."

The older girl instantly brightened, flipping her short hair as if it could go over her shoulder. "Who wouldn't like me? I'm irresistible."

Sana found herself smiling fondly at Nayeon. "Yeah. You are."

"So, is it true then, what they've been saying?"

She took a deep breath, steeling herself for the conversation that was to come. "I've thought about it, actually. I've been trying not to, for a while, but I guess I've always known."

"And?"

"And," Sana whispered, daring to lean the tiniest bit closer, "I really, really want to kiss you, Nayeonnie."

Nayeon had always known how forward Sana could be with her feelings (as soon as she stopped denying them, that is), but her words still didn't fail to surprise her.

Her lips parted, but she was unable to say anything in response. Sana rested one hand on Nayeon's cheek. "I won't if you don't want to."

"I don't..." Nayeon trailed off weakly, looking away from those honey-brown eyes that had all the power to her right in if they wanted to.

"Oh," Sana paused, managing a pained, tight-lipped smile and starting to pull away. "Then let's just forget what I said—"

"I don't—I don't want to hold you back," Nayeon cut in, ironically doing just that by refusing to let Sana out of her arms. "You wouldn't be you if you weren't so—so physical with the other members. I just don't want to get in the way." She nervously tugged at the other girl's sweater sleeve. "That's all."

"But... What about what you want, Nayeon?" Sana asked gently, remembering Jihyo's words from earlier. She took Nayeon's hand and intertwined her fingers with hers. "Isn't that important, too?"

"Sana..." 

"Try to avoid my eyes," Sana sang softly, bringing their entwined hands to the side of Nayeon's face, "Try to hide how you feel, try to run away from me, no, no..."

Nayeon slowly looked up to meet Sana's gaze, her eyes burning with determination, as though she was out to win some sort of game.

Without another word, she pulled Sana by the collar of her shirt and pressed her lips on the other girl's.

Sana really had no choice but to melt into the kiss, the feel of Nayeon's soft, full lips on hers very quickly turning into something she would never be able to live without. Nayeon seemed to have the same sentiment, if the tiny moan she released was any indication.

"I want you," Nayeon admitted, after they had parted for air and laid with their foreheads touching, "All of you. I want all your attention on me. I want you to think of me as much as I've been thinking of you, and just so you know, I've been thinking of you in this way for a long time now."

Sana, heart fluttering wildly at the confession, couldn't hold back a happy giggle. "Really?"

"Really."

"Then I'm all yours, Nayeonnie," Sana promised, her eyes holding such overflowing affection that Nayeon still couldn't quite believe was all for her.

"Can I really do this?" Nayeon asked, more to herself than the girl in front of her. "It feels so... so selfish, to want you this much."

"Im Nayeon," Sana said firmly, "It's not wrong to be selfish sometimes."

"I think I'm only ever going to be this selfish when it comes to you."

"Then don't hold back."

As an afterthought, Sana said, "Let me be selfish about one thing, too."

Nayeon, eyebrows raised, wordlessly urged Sana to continue.

"Stop flirting with Jeongyeonnie all the time."

"Only if you stop flirting with everyone else all the time," Nayeon shot back playfully.

"If you keep kissing me like you did just now," Sana said slyly, "I'm probably going to forget about everyone else, anyway."

"What a sweet talker. I hope you don't say that to all the girls."

"Absolutely not! You're my only girl now!"

"Oh yeah?" Nayeon challenged. "Prove it."

Sana pulled her in for a kiss that was slower but deeper than the first, and she could care less if she'd catch Nayeon's fever after this, because finally being with this girl after peeling back all the layers of denial inside of her was worth it.

The kiss left Nayeon dazed and unable to stop the grin from forming on her lips. "We're going to be an annoying couple, aren't we, Sana-yah?"

Sana peeled off the fever patch that was still on Nayeon's forehead, and replaced it with a soft kiss. "Are you kidding?" she said, breaking into a laugh.  "The members will love us!"

-----

It was eerie how Nayeon felt seven pairs of eyes on her as soon as she stepped into the living room the next morning.

After a beat or two of stunned silence, the TWICE members' voices were bouncing off the walls as they all tried to talk at the same time.

"Nayeon unnie! Are you feeling better?"

"I was so scared!"

"You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"I'm so glad you're okay."

"Please stay home the next time you get sick, unnie."

"You really need to take better care of yourself, you grandma."

"What's with that weird smile on your face, Nayeon unnie?"

"Shhh, keep it down," Nayeon told them, turning her head towards her shared room with Sana, Mina and Jihyo. "Sana's still sleeping. And I'm fine now, sorry for making you all worry."

"Sana better not have caught your fever," Jihyo said warningly.

"Oh, I think Sana's caught a different kind of sickness, Jihyo-ah," Momo teased, eyebrows wiggling suggestively. 

Nayeon's grin reappeared, even more brightly than the first. "Me and her both."

"Jagiyaaaaaa!" a familiar voice floated through the house not even a minute later. Tzuyu felt Dahyun flinch next to her on the living room sofa.

"Don't worry, Dahyunnie," she whispered into Dahyun's ear, a reassuring smile on her lips, "I'm pretty sure it's not you she's coming for. But if it is," the maknae added solemnly, "I'll do my best to protect you."

"That's sweet, Tzuyu-ah," Dahyun said back, resting her head on the other girl's shoulder. "But knowing Sana unnie, she'll probably come for both me and you, and then get Nayeon unnie to join in."

Tzuyu visibly cringed. "Let's not give them any ideas."

Meanwhile, a half-awake Sana had made her way to the living room and shuffled towards Nayeon, wrapping her in a hug as soon as she was close enough.

"Jagiya," she muttered on the older girl's shoulder, voice still thick with sleep. "I missed you."

"I'm right here Jagi," Nayeon answered, playing along with the endearment while trying not to laugh at the other members' scrunched up noses (specifically Jeongyeon's). In a lower voice, she added, "And, um, so is everyone else."

"Oh!" Sana squeaked, blinking away the sleep from her eyes and finally noticing that she and Nayeon weren't alone. "Good morning, everyone!" 

If someone were to ask Im Nayeon what her favorite sounds in the world were, she would say she loved hearing the cheers of their ONCEs the most.

Sana's cute, little giggles, as she showered Nayeon's face with kisses right then, in usual Sana fashion, would come at a very close second, though.

So would the sound of her breath hitching just before Nayeon pulled her in and landed a tender kiss on her lips.

(Even if she could barely hear it above the collective groans of the seven other girls in the room.)