mina has always been the most observant out of all the members. reliable, yet mostly quiet. quiet in the way she speaks and moves. anyone of the girls could argue that her intentions have always been good despite not being as open as their more extroverted members. sana, for example. 

like how she remembers even the smallest things. 

or buys the members gifts, when least expected. each one just as meaningful as the next. 

or conversely, when she openly shows her gratitude for a gift. like how she wears chaeyoung’s designed shoes, or jeongyeon’s necklace wherever she goes. and that time she showed off the earrings nayeon bought for her.

or when she gently prevents the members from doing some things that could have possible repercussions and when she gives quiet reassurances that everything will be alright. 

it would take days and even more for nayeon to compile a list. she knows mina will just come out of nowhere and surprise them with one of her small yet largely thoughtful gestures. 

thoughtful. 

thoughtful. 

nayeon reminds herself constantly that it’s just part of the younger girl’s nature to be so sweet without openly showing it. that it’s just her nature to show her appreciation for her group the way she does. 

that mina is just being thoughtful when the drink that nayeon has been craving the whole day suddenly appears on her dresser in her room after she’s taken a shower from a busy day of schedules. everyone knows nayeon is extremely loud sometimes, and often very vocal with her feelings. so when she whines about an iced hazelnut latte three times throughout the day, the members will probably ignore her and regard it as her being dramatic as always. 

but here she is now, standing in utter awe as she reads the note placed beside the beverage. 

‘it’s not from the exact café you wanted, but the one i went to had really good reviews so i hope you like it anyway’ 

there’s cute little drawing of a penguin that gives away the writer and it does nothing but make nayeon feel all warm inside. 

as always, mina is paying attention. 

—

mina, although soft spoken, speaks loudly with her actions. she’s got every member memorized like the back of her hand. and her patience with each just never seems to run out. 

so nayeon reminds herself once again that mina is just being mina when the blonde takes precious time out of her nap just to teach nayeon how to play animal crossing. all the members have been playing it lately and nayeon had joined in on the craze when it started too. but she gave up quickly because it had been “too confusing.”

a week later, here she is in the living room with mina sitting beside her on their day off, nintendo switch in hand because she wants to get back into the game she had quit so soon. or at least that’s what she explains to mina when the younger girl had curiously asked why. 

she doesn’t mention that she’s been a little envious of momo boasting all about her achievements to everyone, especially mina. and how the two have been spending a lot more time together just because of it. 

mina doesn’t pry though. instead she simply laughs and then patiently begins go through a step-by-step process of how to play animal crossing. 

they’re about an hour through creating nayeon’s village, building homes, and catching fish when nayeon catches mina yawning in a not so subtle manner. the blonde must actually be tired if she isn’t able to hide it so well. 

“mina, you can go to sleep if you want.” nayeon says softly. 

“i’m not sleepy.” mina says. yet she leans slowly until her head lands onto nayeon’s shoulder with a soft thud, as if she could no longer hold it up herself. 

nayeon smiles softly, mina’s hair tickles her cheek like the butterflies tickle her stomach. it feels nice. and mina smells nice. and just being beside mina is nice.

she forgets about animal crossing because within a matter of minutes, she finds herself falling asleep as well. 

...

(and when they wake up, still on the couch, they’re in a mess of tangled limbs and blushed faces.)

—

today the dorm is half full. with sana and jihyo on individual schedules, while jeongyeon and tzuyu are off volunteering at the dog shelter again. 

nayeon spends almost the whole afternoon just rolling around in her bed with the internet’s videos as her source of entertainment. after awhile though, it gets boring and she suddenly craves human contact. and also, she realizes she’s hungry. so she makes her way out of her bedroom to be met with a wonderful aroma of what she guesses is momo’s cooking. 

the group’s resident food lover has been becoming the group’s resident chef and she has only been getting better and better. so far, all the meals she has cooked have been extremely tasty. nayeon can already feel water as her feet move on their own and toward the kitchen. 

she sees momo manning the stove area. but it seems she has two assistants, or rather, two bickering children manning the counter as they prepare what looks like kimbap. nayeon subtly scans the vicinity for one more member but there’s no sign of her anywhere. mina must either be sleeping or busy with her legos right now. 

“oh nayeon unnie! right on time.” chaeyoung acknowledges her with a wide dimpled smile. 

“the final verdict!” dahyun adds excitedly, running to the confused brunette with the shorter of the duo trailing behind. both are holding a slice of kimbap that they quickly urge her to try. 

they’re both looking at her expectantly. 

“i made mine with bulgogi.” chaeyoung beams. 

“i made mine with tuna! and cheese.” dahyun smiles too. 

nayeon chooses dahyun’s kimbap just because she loves teasing chaeyoung, who is somewhat of a baby sister to her. said baby sister only pouts adorably before shrugging it off. 

“it’s fine, mina unnie chose mine.” 

chaeyoung then turns to dahyun competitively. “now we wait for another member to get home to choose which one is better.”

“mina already ate?” nayeon questions, interrupting the staring contest between the two. 

“like fifteen minutes ago.” dahyun answers. 

“oh.” the oldest member says with a tinge of disappointment.

“she’s busy with a new lego set.” chaeyoung adds, and nayeon can’t help but giggle softly. it’s just as she had predicted. 

“kids, come eat!” momo soon calls over, and the three come running into the kitchen. 

momo’s curry, and dubchaeng’s accompanying kimbap rolls are delicious and by the time nayeon’s plate is wiped clean, she’s satisfied and full, patting her tummy with a content sigh. meals cooked by their own members always made her feel closer to home. 

once they’re finished tidying up the kitchen and dining table, momo, dahyun, and chaeyoung make their way to the living room to watch a horror movie. and nayeon being the coward that she is, isn’t a big fan of the genre, so she opts out of it. 

before she knows it, her feet have taken her to the bedroom occupied by the 97liners. 

the door’s half open and she can see a silhouette of the resident penguin of the group. she knocks on the door softly and mina’s soft voice mutters a “come in.”

mina doesn’t turn around until after she attaches a lego onto another. 

“oh, nayeon unnie.” mina’s small smile still reaches her eyes and the brunette’s heart does a brief flip. “did you eat already?”

“yup.” nayeon returns with a grin, sitting down at the edge of the bed just across the blonde who is on the floor with pieces of lego organized all around her. “the kimbap was good wasn’t it? especially chaeyoung’s? ”

mina looks up, catching the teasing tone nayeon’s voice. “i chose chaeyoung’s only because i knew you’d probably choose dahyun’s, just to .”

“you know me too well.” nayeon comments, crossing her arms. mina giggles in response. 

“that building’s coming along fine.” nayeon compliments fondly. 

just then, mina pauses and snorts before shaking her head with a smirk. 

“what?” nayeon tilts her head. 

“nayeonnie, i’m making a pirate ship.”

mina looks up to meet nayeon’s eyes when she laughs and the brunette swears it’s the most wholesome thing she has ever seen today. her smile is contagious so nayeon’s lips stretch too in an ear to ear grin. 

“wanna help me build it?” mina asks, though with a slight timidness in her voice. 

“of course i do!” nayeon beams. 

twenty minutes pass by like a breeze but mina’s progress is severely hindered by nayeon. 

simply put, nayeon doesn’t know how to follow instructions and she has attached random pieces together just to try replicating the picture in the lego box. not only that, she whines because she ends up missing a piece or two. yet she doesn’t want to have to pull her lego contraption apart so she winds up just leaving it like that. 

this is probably the last time mina’s ever going to ask her to build legos with her again. 

“mina i messed it up.” nayeon pouts. 

but the blonde shakes her head fondly. “don’t worry it kinda looks like the picture.”

“but your half of the ship is so perfect while main is...”

...a shipwreck. literally. 

nayeon doesn’t want to call it that though. maybe because she is a little a proud of what she made. it isn’t perfect but like mina said, it did kinda look like the picture on the box. with a few missing pieces and legos that probably shouldn’t be in some places. 

“how can we even put this together?” nayeon asks exasperatedly, lifting up her half of the ship, while looking back and forth at mina’s neat half. 

“i’ll find a way.” mina assures, “i’ll put it together.”

nayeon feels a familiar warmth take over as mina’s hand grazes over her own when she takes a look at her half of the ship. mina’s hands have always been so soft and nayeon doesn’t immediately let go just so she could let the sensation linger for a second longer. 

the brunette observes quietly as the younger girl holds each half of the ship in each of her hands, scanning them with a focused expression. meanwhile, nayeon has to refrain herself from counting the blonde’s moles when she looks at her. 

“it’ll be impossible.” 

but mina proves her otherwise. 

the next thing she knows, the blonde pulls out a box of “15 lego sets worth of lost pieces” from one of her drawers. and that small smirk that decorates her face when she says “don’t underestimate me, im” may or may not have set nayeon’s heart aflame. 

nayeon doesn’t even know how the younger girl does it. her fingers are nimble as she places lego pieces (particularly the yellow ones) in all the right places. the brunette sits there marveling at the sight when she sees two halves of the ship are suddenly joined together with a lining of yellow legos. 

“there’s this thing in japan.” mina starts off. “kintsugi. or the golden joinery. it’s basically putting things together and embracing that it’s imperfect.” she smiles. “i don’t have gold on me but hopefully the yellow legos are okay.”

“it’s beautiful.” nayeon assures and it makes mina smile so sweetly. 

you’re beautiful.

nayeon wants to say, but the words get caught on . 

—

she doesn’t know when it started but nayeon feels her heart skip more often whenever a particular blonde is around. 

she finally acknowledges it when she arrives the dorm after spending a week at her family’s home. how could she not? when her stomach churns and her breath hitches and her heart doubles its pace at the mere sight of mina waving a rushed ‘hello’ before disappearing into her room. 

something in her wishes mina could’ve at least given more than the bare minimum. much like some of her members who are currently bombarding her with hugs, kisses and questions about her bringing snacks from home. surely her presence was missed. even their cold maknae tzuyu had patted her head as a show of affection. 

once she has successfully pried off the super clingy sana, she pulls out her suitcase, revealing just what the rest of the members (especially momo) had really been looking for. 

food. 

...

thirty minutes has passed since nayeon has arrived and mina has not showed up since the short few seconds she waved at her. nayeon wonders if her weeklong absence even meant anything to the blonde. 

because she surely missed her members when she was at home. 

she missed the sweet gestures. 

the soft giggles. 

the clever comebacks.

the gummy smiles. 

the countless moles...

wait. 

she really did miss her members. yet only one person comes to mind above all. 

her impulsiveness takes over. suddenly, her feet bring her to the same door she’s been glancing at every minute for the past half hour. she knocks. 

it’s only then that nayeon feels her stomach twist in  panic. what is she here for? what is she even going to say? why did she come here so suddenly?

“oh hi nayeon unnie. do you need anything?” mina greets her with a smile. 

“i don’t know.”

mina laughs, leaning her head on the doorframe. “what do you mean you don’t know?”

“uh, maybe you needed something?” 

“not at the moment, no.” 

nayeon bites her lip. “oh okay. i’ll leave you alone then, i guess.”

she turns around, her shoulders growing heavy. geez. why is mina so bad at small talk? does the blonde wonder how she’s doing? how her day was? how her week was with her family? she could have even asked how kookeu’s doing too. especially when she’s a dog owner herself. 

it upsets nayeon. more than it should. but she reminds herself this is mina she’s talking about here. since when was the blonde ever good at keeping up small talk? 

she shakes off the slight disappointment from her recent interaction with the group’s homebody and returns to the living room. 

and that slight disappointment keeps her up until late at night when they’ve all returned to their respective rooms. now, she is curled up on her side in a bed that feels way too big for just one person. 

it’s been hours, yet there’s this feeling of dissatisfaction looming over her when she should be happy that she’s back with her members. it had only been one week, her return shouldn’t even be a big deal. 

yet, she replays the interaction she had with mina. over and over again. maybe she could’ve said something else to facilitate a longer conversation. or what if mina could’ve said more. 

frustrated, she begrudgingly gets up from bed. she knows she won’t asleep anytime soon, so she opts to drink a bit of alcohol. she knows it’s not a good idea but she’s sure it’ll take her mind off things. plus she doesn’t plan on drinking much anyway. 

one glass magically(?) becomes three. 

nayeon is probably three shades of red by now but she’s glad her members are all in their rooms at this time. or else she’d either get a huge scolding or angry friends asking why she didn’t ask them to join her. it could go both ways actually. 

she somehow manages to return the expensive wine into its place and she washes up her glass, leaving no trace of her recent activity. she’s glad she’s tipsy. she feels very laidback now. there’s probably even a pep to her step as she makes her way out of the kitchen. 

“nayeonnie?” 

even in her tipsy state, the voice she hears and the sight she sees all cause her to tense up. 

“shh.” nayeon places a finger on her lips. and she smirks. what the heck is she smirking for?

mina looks amused to say the least. she crosses her arms but thankfully doesn’t mention the state nayeon is obviously in. 

instead she asks,

“can’t sleep?”

to which nayeon nods, bouncing her head up and down. it makes the whole world bounce up and down too. 

“did you drink water?”

nayeon shakes her head. the world shakes with it too. she feels like a child under mina’s soft gaze. 

“i drank wine.” she responds without thinking. she definitely didn’t have to say that at all. but mina smiles, all calm. 

“i’m gonna go get a glass. would you like one too?” her hushed voice is beginning to send tingles throughout nayeon’s body. how could she say no? 

she’s barely able to respond when the blonde catches a hold of her hand and leads her back into the kitchen anyway. 

nayeon is sure getting two glasses of water would be much easier using two hands, but mina’s fingers remains protectively laced with nayeon’s own. she doesn’t complain. 

in fact, it does well in doubling her heart’s pace. mina has been really good at this nowadays. 

mina only lets go (much to nayeon’s dismay) to wash the two glasses they had each used. and nayeon patiently waits for the soft warmth to return. 

as it does.  

the brunette holds the blonde’s hand a bit tighter now, knowing mina will let go again but for a much longer time as soon as they both get to their respective rooms. 

it comes quicker than nayeon expects when they’re already standing by her bedroom door, and nayeon doesn’t like it. 

she doesn’t like it when mina lets go. she doesn’t like it when mina tells her to “sleep well.” she doesn’t like it when mina bids her a “good night.”

she dislikes it so much that she blurts out, “my bed feels so empty.”

mina’s expression softens and maybe nayeon’s eyes are deceiving her but she swears she sees a faint pink on her cheeks glowing in the dim light. 

but the next thing mina does squeezes nayeon’s heart so much that her breath hitches and the alcohol does no good in numbing it. 

she leaves her. without even a word. she runs off into her room and nayeon feels like the whole world is weighing down on her now too. so much that she doesn’t notice how mina didn’t close the door of her bedroom.

mina reappears in less than a minute. (yes, she was gone for only that amount of time). she’s holding something behind her back and although she’s curious, nayeon is still a little upset that the girl left her alone without a word. 

“when you were home, i saw something that reminded me of you.” mina reveals a cute medium sized bunny plush with a matching hat and sweater. 

nayeon is rendered speechless so mina continues. 

“i knitted a hat and sweater to keep it warm.” she adds. “i was supposed to give it to you when you arrived, but i hadn’t finished it at the time.”

“is this why you never left your room?” nayeon finally musters up the words to ask. 

the blonde nods apologetically. 

she lifts up the plush just enough to cover her face and with the cutest voice ever she says, or rather, the stuffed toy says,

“bunny-san says welcome back!”

mina bites her lip when she gives her the plush and this time nayeon is sure the girl is blushing, most likely from the embarrassment but it’s enough to turn her frown upside down. 

“thank you, bunny-san.” nayeon says with the widest smile. 

“well now, your bed won’t feel too empty tonight.” mina says. “you can sleep well now.”

nayeon grows silent, however. 

because it’s not enough. 

a bunny plush isn’t enough. 

“can mina-san stay with me and make sure of that?” she asks behind the the soft bunny plush that undoubted smells a bit like mina. she avoids the latter’s eyes in embarrassment. 

...

...

“i can.”

how two simple words could make nayeon feel warm all