"Honey, why are you so immersed in that phone of yours while I'm here to visit you?"

Chaeyoung's mother was finally free after the hectic schedule she had. She held an important position after all. But now, she went straight to visit her precious daughter as soon as she was cleared from all the workload she had.

The girl who sat on her bed happily tapped her thumbs away as she smiled while looking at the small screen she held in front of her. She seemed to not notice her mother's question since she was too busy being a giddy little teenager.

She chuckled lightly, catching her mother's attention. "Who's keeping you so busy, hmm?" Her mother sat on her bed and tenderly caressed her hair, startling her in the process.

Chaeyoung turned her phone off, setting it aside and faced her mother. "Just my friends being silly," she half lied.

"Are you sure?" Her mother interrogated, not fully buying her response. "You're not hiding anything from me now, are you?" She playfully nudged her teenage daughter.

"I promise I'm not," Chaeyoung lied, yet again.

"You can't even look at me in the eye," her mother pointed out, "were you texting your girlfriend?" she wiggled her eyebrows in a teasing manner.

"W-what—" the younger stammered, "g-girlfriend?! Mom, I don't have one! A-and, w-why a girlfriend..." she faked a gag. She hasn't really opened up about that topic with her mother.

"I'm just kidding, sweetheart," her mother chuckled, "and what's with that reaction? I know you like girls. I'm your mother, Chaeyoung, I can sense it."

She was taken aback with what her mother just said, but was glad to know that she was okay with it and felt a huge relief. "You're okay with that...?" She asked, just for confirmation.

"Of course, honey, it's your life; love whoever you want as long as it's what your heart desires." Her mother leaned in and pecked the younger's forehead. 

Chaeyoung smiled wide and reached in to embrace her mother lovingly. She was very thankful to have a mother like the one she has right now; may be a little overprotective but very caring and open-minded about things.

"Thank you, ma." She pulled out of the embrace to see her mother smirking slightly. Uh oh.

"So, you do have a girlfriend?" Her mother asked with a slight tease lacing her tone.

"N-no! I d-don't... I... W-we just met..." She shyly said as her voice gradually lowered.

"Well?" Her mother smiled, curious about her daughter's love life since she has never introduced anyone to her but her friends only. "Is she pretty?"

Chaeyoung subconsciously nodded and sank deeper inside the sheets once she noticed what she just did.

"Awww is my daughter shy?" Her mother cooed, unable to contain her happiness over the fact that someone's making her baby happy.

"Moooom stop it," Chaeyoung whined while blushing really hard, the thought of that certain person creating irregular beating patterns inside her chest.

Was it infatuation? Maybe not that much, but she couldn't deny the fact that she was possibly crushing hard on a girl who she hasn't heard the voice of. But boy, judging by her angelic face, she knows her voice would've sound heavenly.

"Why? I just wanna know who's making my daughter all giddy and shy," her mother said. "May I know who this wonderful girl is?"

Chaeyoung scratched her not-so-itchy nape, feeling extremely shy all of the sudden. "Her name is Mina," the way the said girl's name roll out of her tongue made her feel butterflies inside.

"She sounds lovely," her mother said truthfully, "I hope to meet her someday."

"Actually, she stays at this hospital."

Her mother raised a brow at the information given to her. "So you met her pretty recently? Have you been fooling around instead of focusing on healing your leg?" She playfully asked in a jokingly reprimanding tone.

"Probably, so I can stay here longer," she muttered.

"Is that why you've been slacking on school work lately? A teacher of yours reached out to me," Oh crap, right, school still exists, Chaeyoung mentally smacked her head.

"I-I..." She didn't know how to respond.

Her mother wasn't mad, perhaps a little disappointed, but not mad. She knows her daughter thinks rationally and wouldn't jeopardize her academic career and this one was just a slip up.

"It's okay, honey," her mother reassured, "I get that crushes tend to distract us and such, but don't let it get in the way of school okay?"

Chaeyoung nodded guiltily. Well, she wasn't that behind in school work, okay, maybe she was, but who could blame her? Being at the hospital and laying in bed for most of the time while working on school stuff is extremely boring and mentally exhausting. She couldn't help but seek a bit of comfort from her hospital neighbor.

And yes, the two have gotten undeniably closer within a few days of visiting the girl or them occasionally running into each other whenever Chaeyoung decides to go to the hospital rooftop for fresh air. Though none of her friends knew about her newly formed friendship with Mina, except for Sana who surprisingly kept it a secret for privacy's sake. 

The door opened revealing two familiar figures that came to visit their friend. Her mother smiled softly upon seeing her daughter's friends, ushering them to come in.

"Good afternoon Ms. Son," Jihyo politely greeted followed by the other.

Her mother returned the greeting and stood up, prepping herself to head off. "Well, I have to go now. I still have paperworks I need to take care of," She pecked her daughter's forehead one more time before bidding the four goodbye.

And as for Chaeyoung, Jihyo dropped off more notes earning a groan from the younger. More notes meant more homework which meant minus hours of time she gets to spend with her— I mean, it meant more stress for her.

"We were assigned to do a project for English class so we'll be staying here for awhile," Jihyo stated as she got up to open the door, revealing Sana.

Chaeyoung groaned again. "Don't tell me we have to watch a documentary?"

"Sadly we do, we have to analyze it and see how it correlates with what we're learning," Dahyun said while Sana immediately went to sit beside Dahyun and mercilessly poked the girl to get her attention.

"Aww you poor babies," Sana cooed. Being a year ahead of th