Most things come and go, kind of like a smile.

It comes to you for free, and the feeling it carries makes your heart flutter and your insides giddy with happiness and excitement. It's like all the planets are aligned, in your favor, and the stars are twinkling just at you. Only you. You smile, and you feel happy in those few seconds of uplifting the corner of your lips. 

But a smile can be a false one. And a false one does not bring the same joy a real one harbors with it. 

It can deceive a lot of people, false smiles can.

And for Mina, perhaps it's the most pitiful thing that can ever happen to someone.

Forcing a smile and forcing happiness are two synonymous things which people should not do. It'll only make you feel worse, and Mina knows. Faking things don't make it seem real, it only makes it feel even faker and unrealistic.

That's why Mina likes the way Mark smiles. 

She tells him a joke, and sometimes she makes it corny on purpose because he still smiles either way. He smiles at everything she does or say. He's not forcing it or faking it; his smiles are true. They're genuine. And Mina likes that about him, and she doesn't admit this now, but she likes everything about him. 

His smile, especially and obviously enough.

His smile shows his teeth, all of the perfect front teeth and she can even see the back when he's smiling even widely. His eyes twinkle in a way that makes her feel comfortable around him smiling so widely like that. There are wrinkle by his eyes and a small, almost unnoticeable dimple at the lower right corner of his mouth, and both are there every time he smiles and it lets her know that his smile is genuine, and sincere. 

Mina likes the way Mark smiles. She likes it a lot.

It should be his talent, smiling.

It makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside, and sort of proud because this gesture of showing happiness of his was because of her. She made him smile, and just thinking about it makes her smile along with him too. 

"Hey, Mark?" the wind blows by. One second it's there, the next it isn't. It's the kind of wind that reminds you it's still very much winter, even though it's late January. But Mina doesn't mind the cold wind, not when she has Mark's large jacket draped around her shoulders.

He looks at her, already smiling the smile that reaches his eyes and showcases his teeth and that small dimple. "Yeah?" he acts nonchalant, or probably is nonchalant, with Mina he almost always seem so comfortable when in fact he's shy to the bones when it comes to other people and socializing. 

Mina likes how he's so relaxed around her too. 

"I read a book and finished it today," she says. She likes the way how she's so relaxed around him as well. He looks at her now, and she knows she has his full attention. Mark wouldn't admit this but she always has his attention, even just a fraction of it or even for just a second. It shows in the way he glances at her from time to time, when he thinks she's not looking.

But she actually is.

She's aware of everything between them. 

"And?" he asked, an eyebrow raised. His smile is still there, though it's more subtle and it's slowly turning into a smirk.

Mina smirks back. "I found a quote that you defied," she says. "Wanna hear it?"

Under the grey clouds that promises rain coming sooner or later, Mark remains smiling. 

She never really had an adjective to define Mark and his glory, because "handsome" or "awesome" or even "dashing" didn't cut it. They were understatements, but perhaps now, "enchanting" would do it. Maybe for now, the word would suffice. 

"Sure, what is it?" He says, eyes on her. "It's from that gay book you read right? That universal secret book -"

"Shut up," she slaps his arm but he only laughs. She doesn't reject how the book she read was "gay" because it was, the two main guys ended up with each other and she was expecting that from the start, Mark didn't and he couldn't get over it. "Anyways, the quote is..."

"The quote is..." he echoes.

She smiles. "'Smiles are like that. They come and go,'"

As she expected, his smile only widens. And... 

And well, he looked like a prince.

A prince with faded red hair and might probably at sword fighting. 

Mina laughs when she thinks of this and Mark chuckles, probably unaware of the real reason behind her laughter. She just smiles back instead.

"Why? My smile is unusual? It comes and stays?"

She beams. "Exactly!"

He nods. "I guess it does." 

And it really does.

Mark's smile is the last thing she remembers when she sleeps later that night.

hello, hello ~ thank you to the very few people who comment, I always like reading comments to see what you guys think c: hopefully after this, you'll leave one dear reader. I have a small game for you guys, if you name the book that has the quote Mina mentioned (Smiles are like that. They come and go,) then you have the privilege of choosing the next pairing for the next oneshot from the "list" I had on the foreword. All you have to do is name the book. Seems legit? No, well I hope you guys join ~ thanks for reading.