Dancing in the dark

Chapter 33

"I don't know what to get her." Mina pulled at her hair, nibbling a bottom lip between her teeth as she watched a live show of the girls' performance on the television, her eyes mainly focused on Nayeon.

Ari stated matter of factly, "Nayeon-tan is in love with you. She'd like anything you give."

Mina eyes squinted to look at her younger sister, "Why do you say things like that?"

"I heard her telling her bandmates." The kid shrugged, turning around on the couch to fix her with a look, "You know I don't lie."

When Nayeon's birthday rolled around, and after the girls had showered her with gifts, Mina approached Nayeon hesitantly, "I didn't get anything for your birthday. "

Nayeon's eyes twinkled with amusement, "I have you, that's more than enough."

The love and fondness she found in those eyes seemed to unsettle Mina for a moment, and before she could stop herself she blurted, "Are you in love with me?"

Nayeon took a step back to lean against the walls on the rooftop terrace. "I- who told you that?"

Mina's eyes bored into hers searchingly, "Is it true?"

The silence she got in return was confirmation enough.

Mina let out a soft breath as their gazes met, "I'm damaged." Her voice came out soft and broken. She reached out a hand to interlink their fingers, "You-"

"You deserve someone normal. I'm not!" She continued only to be stopped by Nayeon's hands on her lips.

"You could never be normal." She agreed, her eyes skittering across the younger girl's face, which fell slightly. "Because you're extraordinary Minayah." She spoke in a low breathy voice.

"Nayeon-Chan," Mina whimpered when the weights of the word hit her, "You told everyone you're in love with me, why couldn't you just tell me?"

Nayeon's eyes turned downwards to look at the floor, "I was scared, I still am."

"About what?" Mina lifted her face with a finger to her chin. The tears she saw in them affected her as well.

Nayeon blinked couple of times and took a deep breath, admitting softly, "That you might not feel the same way."

"Nayeon-chan," Mina's eyes glistened as she took a step closer to the older girl. "I'm in love with you."

"You are?" Nayeon gasped, finally having the courage to meet the brown eyes that were gazing at her with warmth and love.

She shook her head as if to shake herself out of a dream, unable to believe the words she'd just heard.

Mina cupped the older girl's cheeks with a dainty hand. "You kissed me when I was a nobody." She gazed at the older girl, her thumb gently stroking her lower lip, "How could I not fall in love with you?"

"Nobody?" Nayeon chuckled, closing her eyes to push back the tears that had welled in them.

She opened it again to see Mina looking at her with a softness and fondness she had always seen in her. A voice at the back of her head said that maybe Mina had always loved her back as well, and she had just been too dense to notice.

"This is how you make me feel," Nayeon lifted her hand to cover the ones cupping her cheeks, and brought them down to lay on her chest, to make her feel how fast her heart was beating, "You're my everything Minayah!"

Mina worried a quivering lip between her teeth as she listened to the erratic beating of her heart, her own heart starting a matching rythm when their eyes met again.

"It's starting to rain," Nayeon said with a shaky breath, as she wiped away a drop that had fallen on Mina's beautiful face with a gentle finger, "We should get back inside."

"We should." Mina agreed, but made no move to go. She removed her hand from the loudly beating chest, and lifted them up to tuck Nayoen's dark hair behind her ears.

Nayeon shuddered slightly at the intensity of the gaze, "You're going to give me a heart attack if you continued looking at me like that."

Mina looked away shyly, and when their eyes met again Nayeon knew she had no choice but to close the gap between them and kiss her because every cell of her being yearned for it, and there was no way she could stop herself.

She found herself leaning down a little, holding the younger girl's waist with her shaking hands and releasing a shuddery breath when their eyes looked searchingly into each other.

The distance between their faces became shorter and shorter, their hearts beating faster with every second as they finally met in a slow and languid kiss when their lips brushed against each other.

Nayeon's eyes fluttered shut as she tasted the rain droplets on Mina's full lips, and she felt her lips smile against hers. All around them rain fell, those tiny little magical drops mingling with their kiss, washing away every little of the doubt, and pain they ever had.

"Operation Minayeon hadn't been a complete failure after all." Jihyo mumbled happily in a hushed tone to her bandmates and a little kid who were hiding behind the curtains, "Let's give the lovebirds some privacy now."

She shooed them away and watched with delight as they scrambled on their feet.