Chaeyoung felt awful because of three things. 

The first one was her failed presentation. She had been really nervous for other presentations before but in the end, everything worked out, this time it had all gone down in seconds. She just froze, there was no other explanation, she left the classroom and that was it. Everything seemed lost and she couldn't stop shaking, it was really scary. But after having calmed down that day, at night she wrote an email to her teacher explaining and asking for another way of getting the mark, or make it up for it, she may be rejected but she had to try, there was nothing else to do. 

The second thing was Sana. She felt awful about this because she was okay with the results of it all but the way she had obtained them was bad. She was better than that, and she felt so wrong making the girl feel sad, she needed to apologize, but how? She had no reasonable way of explaining what had happened. 

The third thing was herself. She felt annoyed with herself because she had not been strong enough, she had cried in front of Mina like a baby and she hadn't been able to calm herself down, but that wasn't the main reason she was angry with herself, no, it was much worse. She was angry because she had liked every part of it. No, it wasn't fun the state she had been in, she felt really bad, but once Mina had finally calmed her down she could see how much she had enjoyed the girl's kindness, her words, her touch, her patience and everything Mina did to keep her sane. She had been even bold enough to ask for more and got on Mina's lap, which made her really lose her mind once Mina did not try to push her out, but mostly when the girl played with her hair. Chaeyoung would be lying if she said that she did not fall asleep thinking of Mina's hand caressing her. She needed to keep her cool, she needed to get it together or Nayeon would be right once again and she would end up hurt. She had all that pretty clear, but her mind just wouldn't stop thinking about Mina. She was doomed. 

One thing was spending time with her roommate, eating together, playing video games, drawing silly things, and joking around, another entirely different thing would be doing all of that while feeling like this, so she needed to forget all that and act the same. Maybe she just felt like that because she was in a bad state. She needed comfort and Mina gave it to her, maybe she was just confusing things. She needed to see how everything would develop now, nothing was going to change if she just let it go.

"Are you even listening!" Nayeon shouted at her. 

"Of course." She had no idea what they were talking about. 

"Okay, then, what was I saying just now?" Nayeon knew she didn't know. Why would she make her look more dumb than she was already feeling? She looked at Dahyun asking for help but the girl just gave her a pitiful look, she then looked at Tzuyu who mouthed the words you are done making fun of Chaeyoung's luck. 

'I'm a mess, they can't expect more from me right now' Chaeyoung thought, feeling bad for herself.

So she just went with the obvious answer. "You were talking about how beautiful you look today," she smiled innocently at Nayeon, who looked flattered but pissed at the same time. She could hear how Dahyun barely whispered works every time. 

"Wrong," she said, "but you're right." 

Nayeon asked them to meet in her room, she was planning Jeongyeon's birthday party, which was in two weeks or so, but she had been stressing about it for a long time now.

"Just explain to her the whole thing again, please." Tzuyu wanted to leave.

"Okay, as I was saying," Nayeon began again, "I'm just gonna mix the two things, Halloween and her birthday party, so you all would have to help me." She was really excited it was cute.

"How could we help?" Dahyun asked. 

"You know," Nayeon answered looking at the girl. "Being nice to me, getting a costume, bringing friends and drinks, buying a present, and getting a place." Only the last part seemed like a real issue to solve. 

"Maybe I can help with the place, I'll let you know," Tzuyu stated. 

"Are you gonna rob someone?" Dahyun asked to make the girl annoyed. Which didn't work.

"At least I want to be helpful."

"Hey, me too," Dahyun complained. "Chaeyoung is the one that hasn't spoken." 

Chaeyoung hearing her name, turned to look at Dahyun. "What?"

"Oh, God, she's broken," Nayeon mocked her. "Who broke you? No, wait don't answer." 

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes. Nayeon was still against the whole Mina thing. She had her reasons, though, but Chaeyoung did not agree. "Please stop that," Chaeyoung begged. 

"Maybe if you paid attention..." Tzuyu was not helping. 'Is everyone against me?'

And as if she was asking for more tragedy, someone got inside Nayeon's room. Someone who owned the room too. 'Great' Chaeyoung thought. She had no idea what she had done but Momo seemed to hate her guts, which was weird because she was sure they had to get along that day at the coffee shop. Either way, Momo was not alone. Mina came inside right after her which made Chaeyoung look down. She did not want to show her red face, she had had enough. 

"Hi, Momo," Nayeon greeted her roommate. "We were just about to leave." She sounded nice, apparently, they had fixed their inconvenient. That was good. Momo smiled and signaled at Mina to sit on her bed. 

"It's okay, Nayeonnie. We might leave soon too." 

'Nayeonnie?' Chaeyoung didn't know how close they were now. 

"Oh, since you are here, I should introduce you guys," Nayeon said while looking at Dahyun and Tzuyu. "Guys, this is my roommate, Momo, I've talked about her," she said to them. 

"Hi," Tzuyu simply said simply, "I'm Tzuyu," she smiled politely. Dahyun on the other hand remained quiet. So Tzuyu spoke for her, "and this is Dahyun, we are roommates too."

"Oh, I've heard about you guys," Momo smiled too and then looked at Dahyun. "Hey," she said waving her hand. Dahyun seemed lost but she waved too. Chaeyoung thought it was weird how no one had mentioned her or Mina this whole time until Momo spoke again. "This is my friend Mina," she said to Dahyun and Tzuyu. 

"We've heard," Tzuyu said with a serious tone. "Not to be disrespectful, Momo, but your friend is a-" 

"Okay!" Chaeyoung got up and cut Tzuyu off by speaking for the first time. "Enough introductions." At that Mina made eye contact with Chaeyoung, making the girl feel weak on the knees. 

"Tzuyu, don't be mean," Nayeon began with a serious tone too. "We all make mistakes." Nayeon seemed really honest while saying that she gave Mina a look as if saying sorry.

'Okay so she makes fun of me and is mad at me but suddenly Mina is forgiven' Chaeyoung was just thinking that because she was annoyed at the girl, but she was glad that Nayeon said that.

Mina got up slowly and cleared . "I know you have heard things about me," she began in a low voice that made Chaeyoung stare at her attentively. "Tzuyu, Dahyun, and Nayeon..." she said the last name looking at the girl. "I'm really sorry for the way I treated Chaeyoung, she did not deserve that." Chaeyoung got completely flushed at those words.

'God, Chaeyoung, get it together' Mina's words seemed sincere. Nayeon smiled a bit at her, letting her know that it was all forgiven. 'Right 'cause she is forgiven and I'm a fool'. Tzuyu just nodded and looked away. And Dahyun tried to lighten up the mood, "It's okay, Mina, I would have done the same thing, Chaeyoung is a pain in the ." 

At that Momo snorted a laugh which made Dahyun laugh too but Mina hit Momo's arm which made Chaeyoung smile. Mina looked at her and they smiled together. Their friends seemed to be on almost good terms now, so that was a win. 

"Wow, thank you," Chaeyoung turned around and looked for Tzuyu. "Let's go now." She knew the girl wanted to leave the room. 

"Okay, I'll text you to let you know details soon enough," Nayeon clapped ending their previous topic. "Let's go." 

Everyone said goodbye to Momo and Mina quickly before leaving, except for Chaeyoung who just said goodbye to Momo. She would see Mina later. Or maybe she was just too shy to approach her without getting awfully red again. 

Right when they were outside the room, Nayeon hit Chaeyoung hard on the arm. 

"Ouch!" she complained. "What did I do now?!" Life was not treating her nicely today.

"Be grateful to me that I was nice to your friend, and get it together, okay? You think I didn't see your flushed face, god, Chaeyoung, I already told you, don't feel," Nayeon said all that real fast and then turned to Dahyun and Tzuyu. "And you," she hit Tzuyu, "don't go around insulting people, she may have deserved it but you are better than that." 

'Hypocrite' Chaeyoung thought. 

"And you," Nayeon hit Dahyun, "you did nothing wrong, I think, but since I hit Chaeyoung and Tzuyu you deserved it too." 

"She called me a pain in the ," Chaeyoung tried to help.

"Oh, but she's right." Nayeon turned to leave the dorms now, Tzuyu and Dahyun laughed at the agreement and Chaeyoung just kept on feeling dumb. 

Well, it could have been worse, Chaeyoung thought that Nayeon had handled everything the right way, she was right in scolding Tzuyu and her and she was somehow relieved that Nayeon was being decent to Mina. She didn't know how much she got along with Momo, tough, but that was nice too. 

"Should we get something to eat?" Dahyun asked looking at the time on her phone. "It's lunchtime." 

"I'm having lunch with Jeongyeon, you guys can come," Nayeon smiled. Things with Jeongyeon seemed to be looking up, Chaeyoung didn't know if it was official yet, Nayeon would have told her, but they seemed closer than ever. That made Chaeyoung smile, she really wanted them to be happy. 

They all agreed and walked to the restaurant outside campus where Jeongyeon was waiting, they went inside and looked for her. The girl was clearly only expecting Nayeon because she was sitting at a table for two, but she didn't seem bothered by the new guests.

"Hey," she said standing up to hug Nayeon. "You brought the kids." 

"We are not kids," Dahyun and Tzuyu said at the same time, causing both of them to turn to each other frowning. 'yeah they're kids'  Chaeyoung thought as if she wasn't herself part of the kids.

"They were hungry, It was the right thing to do, let's find another table," Nayeon explained. 

After an hour or so, they were all at their new table, almost finished with the food. 

"Eat more," Tzuyu suddenly said, leaving some food on Chaeyoung's plate. 

"Thank you, Tzuyu." Chaeyoung liked that apparently someone now was not being too mean to her. Tzuyu was always nice to her, though. Except for when she thought that Chaeyoung was acting stupid, like before. Not that she had changed her attitude much, she was still pretty much lost in thought and had barely said anything. 

"So, are you two dating or what?" Dahyun asked out of nowhere. Not going to lie, Chaeyoung felt like asking the same thing but not like that. Nayeon gave her a looked and Jeongyeon just laughed, which made Nayeon look bad at her too. "What?" Dahyun defended herself. "Everyone wants to know."

"Well that's true," Tzuyu supported Dahyun's reason, it was weird seeing Tzuyu agreeing with her, but this topic seemed to be interesting enough to do so. Chaeyoung just looked at Nayeon expectant. 

"Don't be-" Nayeon was about to say something but Jeongyeon cut her off.

"We are," Jeongyeon smiled. "Step by step, don't pressure us now." 

Chaeyoung saw how Nayeon's smile grew bigger hearing us so she smiled too, she loved love.

"Great," Dahyun began after slurping her drink. "About time we get some love around here, you know, take chances," she said that while looking directly at Tzuyu, making the girl roll her eyes. Chaeyoung was not well informed to get the hidden message, but even Nayeon and Jeongyeon seemed to get it, so she asked. 

"Who has to take a chance?" She questioned with a curious face. 

Tzuyu choke on her food, Dahyun laughed, and Nayeon sent Chaeyoung a look of disapproval. 

'The did I do now?' Chaeyoung was having some day. 

Dahyun seemed really proud of what she had accomplished, but for Chaeyoung nothing was adding up, so she just sighed. That's when Jeongyeon decided to talk. "Chaeyoung, Nayeon told me you've been preparing for a presentation, how did it go?"

"Oh." Chaeyoung had not told anyone what had happened, she would have probably told Nayeon later but this caught her by surprise. "Uhm, it was..." She felt embarrassed. "It was bad," she finally said. 

"What do you mean?" Nayeon got her protective mode. 

"I- I couldn't do it, okay?" Chaeyoung did not want to talk about it, but she knew Nayeon wouldn't let her keep the information now. "I left in the middle of the thing, I don't know what happened."

"So, that is what's been distracting you," Tzuyu said with a sad face. "You should have told us, Chaeyoung."

"Oh, my baby," Nayeon got up to hold Chaeyoung, "and you let me shout at you, I'm so sorry." Chaeyoung chuckled at that. 

"It's okay now, don't worry," she said trying to get rid of Nayeon. "It was awful, but there's nothing I can do now."

"You can ask for a second chance or something," Dahyun added. 

"Oh, yeah, I sent an email after I stopped crying."

"Oh, no, you cried?" Nayeon was now leaving Chaeyoung out of breath of how hard she was holding the girl. "Why didn't you call me?" 

"I barely got to my room," Chaeyoung explained "I was not making sense." She looked down ashamed.

"I feel awful." Nayeon was exaggerating but Chaeyoung knew it was her way of caring. "My Chaeyoungie all alone." 

"Well..." Chaeyoung began but then hesitated if telling them all about Mina, or not all, she did not need to mention her confusing feelings, but enough, although maybe that would make them hate her roommate less so she risked it. "Mina was there."

"Did she say anything bad to you?" Tzuyu asked immediately. Chaeyoung smiled at Tzuyu, the girl was always caring for her, it was really heart-warming. 

"She did not, she was okay." Chaeyoung laughed internally because everything had been more than okay, but she couldn't say much without Nayeon starting to rant again over how she was not supposed to feel. 

"Was she now?" Jeongyeon asked. "How so?" Everyone was looking at her, she was not sure what to explain. Nayeon had already let go of her and was staring at her too, waiting for an answer.

"Oh, you know," she started, "she saw me like that, a whole mess, and just tried to calm me down."  

"Don't smile like that," Nayeon spat. Chaeyoung did not realise but she had smiled recalling the memory.

"I'm not-"

"You were," Dahyun confirmed. 

"She is really nice to you now, then?" Jeongyeon asked. "Nayeon told me something about how she had stopped with the whole division thing, and some yelling and some apologies, but I didn't know she was being nice too."

"They spent so much time together now, that Chaeyoung barely hangs out with us," Dahyun cried.

"That's not true," Chaeyoung argued. 

"It is." Tzuyu did not help.

"Okay, stop that," Nayeon told them and then looked at Chaeyoung. "We'll talk later about this." 

'Oh no, not again'

They dropped the topic and went back to discussing whatever they were discussing before, Chaeyoung was not paying much attention. After some minutes she felt her phone. 

From Only Mina 3:14pm
What time do you get here? I have popcorn. 

Chaeyoung did not understand what that was supposed to mean.

To Only Mina 3:14pm
Dont now yet
what's with the popcorn

''

To Only Mina
know*

"You're doing it again," Dahyun spoke, poking her on the side.

"What?" She was lost once again.

"Smiling like an idiot," Tzuyu answered.

"Chaeyoungie, please," Nayeon begged. "Tell me you're not texting who I think you're texting." 

Chaeyoung kept silent and that was enough for Nayeon to start fake crying loudly. 

"Jeong! she's so dumb," she said while supporting her forehead on Jeongyeon's shoulder. "I swear I can't with this." 

Jeongyeon just grabbed her shoulders and patted her. "She'll be okay, Bunny." She kissed her head.

Chaeyoung would have thought that it was a cute scene, Jeongyeon was so nice to her, but she was annoyed at Nayeon.

"I'm right here," she said in a serious voice.

"Oh, were you now?" Nayeon asked with sass. "You seemed distracted." 

"Nayeon, please," she couldn't take it anymore, "stop it." She was sad.

"She's right, don't be so hard on her." Jeongyeon grabbed Nayeon's hand. Thank god for Jeongyeon, she was always helping Chaeyoung with Nayeon. 

That made Jeongyeon and Nayeon begin an argument through whispers and Chaeyoung checked her phone again.

From Only Mina 3:16 pm
You are really bright
just get here

Chaeyoung was almost certain that was not a compliment. She did not answer, instead she put her phone back in her pocket and looked up. Everyone was looking at her. '' She stood up and cleared . "Well, clearly everyone thinks I'm dumb today, even myself, so there's no other way to say this without getting mocked by you again." She was just so tired now. "I'll be leaving, and yes, I will be in my room,  goodbye." She politely bowed ending her speech. "Thank you for the food Jeongyeon." And she left. It was all being too much. Maybe she had overreacted but, hey, if she had tried to leave with some excuse they would have made fun of her either way. This was not her day. 

Tiny confused Chaeyoung walked around campus for a while, she needed the fresh air. It was cold but she did not mind. She was not sure if her friends had been actually mocking her all day or if she was just too sensitive. She knew she had been distracted but they did not have to bully her like that, right? She is a grown-up, there's no need to tell her how to behave, she knows how. She needed to talk to Nayeon soon, they couldn't keep arguing about the same thing. She also needed to spend more time with Dahyun and Tzuyu, apparently, there were many things that she was not up to date on. 

Then her mind traveled to Sana. She figured that she might as well keep going with the lie, but apologize for the way she had said it. Well, it had not been her but Mina. Either way, she grabbed her phone.

To Sana 4:02 pm
I know I should have told you sooner, I'm sorry. We could still hang out, tho

Was that okay? She was Mina's friend after all, and she was nice. Intense, but nice. Sana's answer came a few minutes later. 

From Sana 4:06 pm
I'd like that and don't worry, it's okay :)

'Okay that fixes one thing at least' Chaeyoung felt somehow better so she started heading to her room. Once she got there she saw Mina over the small balcony.

"Hey," she called for her. 

Mina turned around and gave her a smile. "It took you a while." 

"Yeah, sorry."

"It's okay I just wanted to see a movie, but Momo is out with Sana and I didn't feel like going," she explained with a pout. 

"Ah," Chaeyoung got it now, "so the popcorn is for that." 

"You should be a detective."

"Don't make fun of me," Chaeyoung stated sadly. "Everyone's been making fun of me today."

Mina seemed surprised at that and slightly concerned. "Did something happen?"

'you happened'

"I've just been distracted," Chaeyoung said sitting on her bed. Mina had already left the balcony.

"Well, since what happened yesterday I figured you'd be feeling down, don't worry," Mina said with her sweet calmed voice.

"I guess."

Chaeyoung could feel Mina's gaze on her but she did not want to look at the girl, then Mina moved. "So, would you?"

"What?" Chaeyoung got lost for the hundredth time that day. 

"Watch a movie with me," Mina explained.

"Oh, right, popcorn," Chaeyoung nodded. "Yeah, why not."

"Perfect." Mina seemed excited. She closed the curtains and went to get a bag on her chair and took out some popcorn packages, she handed them to Chaeyoung. "Here, you take these" And then she got on her bed, really close to the wall with her laptop on her lap. "Come" She patted next to her. At that Chaeyoung reasoned that she had not thought through what watching a movie with Mina implied. 

But she couldn't back down now, that would be weird, and she wanted to watch it, she just didn't want to feel funny. So she took one of her pillows and put them on Mina's bed to support her back and be comfortable. Mina put on some psychological criminal movie that had come out recently. Chaeyoung put the popcorn in between so they could both get them. 

"If you don't like it you have bad taste," Mina stated before putting play. "So pay attention."

Chaeyoung laughed and the movie started. It was a really interesting movie, Chaeyoung was really paying attention until she started to feel sleepy and it was getting hard to keep her eyes open. Soon enough it was getting hard to hold her head up too. She was in the middle of fighting all that when Mina said "You can lean on me if you want." 

"What?" That seemed to be Chaeyoung's favorite word today.

"I can see you struggling," Mina explained. "Here." She moved her hand over Chaeyoung's shoulders and guided the sleepy girl's head to lean on her shoulder. Chaeyoung was sleepy but she still got a bit surprised. The problem was that Mina did not remove her hand, she just left it there. 

'Okay you can deal with that' Chaeyoung thought in her sleepiness. It was not that bad, and she felt more comfortable now. But Mina did not stop there, because after some minutes passed, she started playing with Chaeyoung's hair like yesterday. It felt different now that she was not overwhelmed by her failure. And yesterday Mina had done it to comfort her, now she was doing it just because. It felt different. Chaeyoung felt delusional, she needed to get out of Mina's hold, but at the same time, she did not want to be anywhere else. So she closed her eyes, forgetting the movie and just allowing herself to feel. 

When she opened her eyes again, the credits were passing. She did not move, Mina was still holding her. She probably believed that Chaeyoung was asleep. The credits ended and the movie started again. She needed to move. 

"Are you awake?" Mina whispered. Chaeyoung felt tempted to remain in silence but she just couldn't do that so she nodded. "Do you want to move?" Mina asked still in a quiet voice. Chaeyoung shook her head, so Mina paused the movie but no one moved. 

Silence.

The room was slightly dark as the curtains were closed, it all looked like how they had been yesterday, but the vibe was different. This time no one was crying or in need of being held like that.

"Did you even get to see some of it?" Mina questioned. She had not removed her hand, her fingers were still tangled in Chaeyoung's hair. Chaeyoung nodded again, for some reason she did not feel like speaking, and Mina's quiet voice being the only sound in the room was nice. Mina did not seem to mind Chaeyoung's silence because she kept asking yes or no questions.

"Are you comfortable?" Chaeyoung nodded. "Do you want to sleep?" Chaeyoung shook her head. Minutes were passing by but they just stayed there. Mina asked questions between silences. "Do you mind me playing with your hair?" Chaeyoung shook her head. "Good, 'cause I like it." 

'she likes it' Chaeyoung felt shy. She was nervous but it was a nice feeling. So nice.

"It's soft," Mina continued in a whisper, "and you're warm."

Chaeyoung felt like she needed to say something, but Mina seemed to be enjoying speaking her mind. "I'm sorry, by the way, I shouldn't have sent that text to Sana. I don't know why I did it," Mina sighed. "I don't know many things." 

Chaeyoung now moved her head up, to look at Mina. "That's okay," she smiled. "It's okay to not know." Chaeyoung did not know what was Mina thinking but she understands what it is to feel troubled, so she tried to reassure her. Then Chaeyoung realized Mina's eyes were watery, she had not seen that coming. She got worried.  "Hey," she said in the same quiet voice they had been using this whole time. "What is it?" 

"I don't know," Mina simply said. Chaeyoung moved to hug her and Mina accepted, holding Chaeyoung tight, she buried her face in Chaeyoung's neck. 

She had no idea what was Mina going through, but if she could help her now to feel better, she was going to try. "It's okay," she repeated. "It's okay."