Nayeon can feel the flush on her face, as the camera zooms in on her, and she hopes to God that her make up is thick enough to cover it. She can feel her heart beating out of her chest, and she starts seeing in tunnel vision. The only thing that she registers clearly is Jeongyeon’s loud laughter, across the table from her.

Her. Blame her.

Momo reaches for Nayeon’s hand under the table, and squeezes it, in support or maybe as a reminder to keep it together as she’s currently being streamed on live television.

Great. The entire of Korea just watched me make a fool of myself. What was I thinking?

She wasn’t, that was the truth. She’d been so consumed with the moment; she hadn’t properly processed what she was about to do. She had an immense admiration and, yes, a slight obsession with Sana that was now over one year old, yet Nayeon never thought she would actually act on it, because God knew that despite her outgoing personality, she was actually a complete nervous mess when around people she actually admired. The best that she’d been able to do was small talk when they happened to be next to each other on music shows, and even then she’d managed to sound way too enthusiastic about strawberry season (in a weird way). 

That night, to her dismay/excitement, the solo singer had been sat in the Awards table just next to hers, and Nayeon had spent the entire time both glancing over at her and attempting to ignore the continuous teasing of her members (who were very privy to the, okay let’s call it, crush she had on Sana). So far, that evening, Sana had been called up to the stage twice, and Nayeon was sure she was acting like a deranged fan girl jumping up to her feet whenever Sana was announced, and bowing enthusiastically whenever she walked past her (with the Japanese singer bowing in return, a slight amused smile playing in her lips). It was on Sana’s third award win of the night that, suddenly, Jeongyeon grabbed a flower from their table’s centerpiece and handed it to Nayeon.

“Give it to her.” The tall girl had instructed, with an urgency in her voice that tricked Nayeon into thinking she needed to do it, and she needed to do it now.

She tookthe flower, stepped out of her table and stood in Sana’s way, as the singer made her way to the stage again. Sana was surprised, momentarily, but her eyes quickly squinted and her lips formed a smile as she delicately accepted the flower Nayeon was extending her, bowing her head slightly, before continuing on to accept her award.

Nayeon was left paralyzed, finally understanding what she’d done. She didn’t quite remember making it back to her seat, but her senses rushed back to her as she sat down and felt the entire world watch her.

What would Sana think of her now? 

There were a million ways she could’ve approached the singer in a totally normal, professional way but she had been too chicken to do it; yet now she’d just given a flower to a girl she had barely ever spoken to.

She dared a glance up at the stage, where Sana was still accepting her award, and making a summarized version of the speech she’d made two times that night already. She was holding the award with her right hand, gesturing with it for emphasis. On her left hand, resting limply against her body, intertwined across her fingers, was the flower.

Maybe Nayeon wasn’t such a fool after all.

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“Oh, well, I’ve been waiting all night to do that.” Jeongyeon commented from the backseat of the van, as she removed her heels. 

“Didn’t you take them off under the table?” Jihyo pointed out.

“Right. So I’ve been waiting to do that since we walked back to the car.” Jeongyeon corrected, with a tiny shrug. She sighed. “Honestly, I love award shows, but why do we need to dress up for them? It’s award season, my feet are made up of calluses at this point."

“Poor Jeongy,” Nayeon pouted, doing her best aegyo. “I’ll give you a foot rub.”

Jeongyeon regarded her weirdly. “Why is she being so nice?” She asked, with a suspicious frown, before her face relaxed to an expression of realization. “Oh. I know why she’s in such a good mood.”

“Why?” Jihyo, the eternally nosy leader, enquired.

“Because Sana took her flower.” Jeongyeon reminded them, with a teasing smile. “And she carried it with her the entire night.”

Nayeon flushed immediately, knowing Jeongyeon was right, but feeling somewhat ashamed at it. Yes, she was through the roof that Sana had held her flower for the remaining of the show, and had taken it with her when she left, but no, she wasn’t ready to admit that such a tiny thing had definitely made her night (specially when her night was comprised of 2 award wins for which she was also really proud of).

“Shut up.” Nayeon warned. “I’m actually really pissed at you for instigating it.” She wasn’t really,

Jeongyeon laughed whole-heartedly, probably remembering the look of instant regret in her face just after she’d handed Sana the flower, but also knowing fully not to take Nayeon’s rage seriously.

“Why aren’t we moving?” Tzuyu, who had nodded off against the van’s window as soon as they sat down, groggily enquired.

“We’re stuck in the exit cue.” Len, their manager, explained, from the driver’s seat, drumming his fingers against the wheel.

Tzuyu groaned, before closing her eyes and zoning out again.

A soft knock on Len’s window woke her moments later, and they all watched as their manager lowered his window with curiosity.

From where Nayeon was sitting, she could only really make out it was a man standing outside their car due to the suit he was wearing. A folded white piece of paper was extended at Len, and the men exchanged a few words.

Once Len closed the driver’s side window, everyone’s eyes were on him. He lifted the piece of paper over his shoulder. “For Nayeon.”

Nayeon grabbed the paper confusedly, and unfolded to see the neat handwriting scribbled inside.

“Thank you so much for the beautiful flower, I will cherish it. Hope you had a lovely night, and congratulations on the much-deserved awards. I hope to see you soon. Sana.”

Under her name, there were numbers scribbled, and Nayeon’s heart stilled at the realization of what had just happened. Sana had just passed her her phone number.

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When Sana finally got to her beautiful apartment on a high-rise building in Cheongdam, she was exhausted and ready for her bedtime routine, which involved making some tea, sitting out in the balcony with the great view of Seoul, sometimes with some music, a podcast, and other times with just her thoughts to keep her company.

She accommodated the flower she’d received that night on a thin vase on top of her coffee table before anything else; her cocktail dress came off next, and she replaced it with a comfy pyjama, before grabbing her mug, a blanket, and heading outside.

Even from high above the city, where she was on the umpteenth floor, Seoul was alive throughout the night, and you could still hear the hustle and bustle of the city below her. Sometimes she slept with her room’s balcony door opened, allowing the breeze and the noise to lull her to sleep. She liked the noise, it comforted her in moments of loneliness when she remembered that her entire family, the ones she loved the most in the world, were in a different country than her, and she pondered whether this life – this life of comfort, success and music – was worth spending all that time away from them.

That night, her thoughts were louder than the city. She had had a fabulous night; 3 award wins, including Best Solo Artist, in which she had been against many other singers way more established than her, and it marked the first of “non-newcomer” awards in her collection. She was finally not being held to lower standards than others; she was being recognised as an artist in her own right, and not just the best new thing. She liked that.

But she would be lying if she said that those award wins had been the biggest event of the night. No, the beautiful performer sitting on the table next to hers had been the truthfully best part of the evening.

Sana had known that Nayeon was a fan of her music. She’d mentioned it in interviews before, given song recommendations through her Instagram to her fans, she’d even been spotted wearing a concert t-shirt once or twice (Sana had wished she had known that Nayeon had been at that concert, she would’ve made sure to invite her backstage or something). And no, Sana wasn’t spending her time tracking down which public figures were fans of her music or not, but she checked her twitter mentions enough to have seen many comments that revealed Nayeon to be one. It was incredibly flattering to Sana, evidently, especially with Nayeon being a seasoned performer, with vast experience in the industry that far exceeded Sana’s. However, despite her outgoing demeanor to other idols (from what Sana had observed at events, and from Nayeon’s reputation), whenever Sana and her had spoken, the Korean girl had seemed awfully withdrawn, if not a bit shy. It was a reminder that Sana was still a newcomer in K-pop, and that she still had a lot to learn about idols’ public image and private life. Just because Nayeon liked her music, it didn’t mean she wanted to be friends, or that she was even interested in her on a personal level. Sana couldn’t take offense to it, she was sure Nayeon had developed a wall between her professional and personal life after as many years as she’d been in the industry. Sana herself had only been in the highlight for a year and she had already had some lessons about how people react to fame, and how careful she needed to be with the people she surrounded herself with and let in to her life; she could imagine Nayeon to be much more reserved due to her being heaps more famous and successful.

But, then, that night, without any warning, Nayeon had stepped over that professional life she had kept drawn during the year they had sort-of known each other. Sana had been shocked when the girl had unexpectedly given her a flower, and she had to contain her giddiness as she attempted to recite an acceptance speech that referenced the award and not the flower.

She’d been waiting for a sign that Nayeon wanted to get to know her, for real, and she believed this was it. She was touched by the gesture, and she could not contain her curiosity regarding the publicly extroverted but privately introverted performer. She wanted to get to know Nayeon as well.

She’d spent the rest of the night hoping for an opportunity to walk over and thank her personally. But such never came up; there were always people around, and Sana had hoped to catch her on her own. The end of the award show came sooner than expected, and before Sana really made a plan, her manager Bin was already ushering her out the door and into the car.

Sana had thought she’d lost the opportunity to approach Nayeon, at least for that night, until she realised their car was stuck a few cards ahead of Twice’s van. She’d quickly wrote a message on a paper, and convinced Bin to walk out and take it to Twice’s car. 

Bin hadn’t been sure whether the singer had been in the van, but he handed the note to Twice’s manager and warned Sana that it may never get to Nayeon, as some managers were known for their share of meddling in idols lives. So Sana wasn’t attempting to keep her hopes down.

However, who was she kidding, when her phone dinged announcing an incoming text, Sana reached for it a little too eagerly, and read the short message sent by an unknown number.

“Would you like to grab coffee sometime? -Nayeon”