Destiny

Chapter 21

When Nayeon sleeps that night, Mina watches her with an ache in her heart. She thinks it's a lie how people say when you're done grieving your heart becomes stronger. Maybe she's not done grieving, maybe she'll never be done grieving. A part of her will be gone with Nayeon and the remaining part would never learn to navigate through life without her.

When she had come back home after a long night of partying, exhausted beyond belief, she thought she might have to fight off sleep so she can spend more time watching her beautiful face, but the only thing she has to fight now is the temptation to crawl into Nayeon's bed and take her into her arms.

Are you still upset over your breakup? She remembers Nayeon's concerned voice asking her. Her naive heart had believed that it was born out of concern.

"Nayeon-chan isn't talking much." Momo has said one day when she dragged the older girl to a restaurant along with them while they were still dating.

"Nobody likes being the third wheel Momo."

Now she knows why exactly Nayeon hadn't liked being the third wheel.

It's all theory at this point. She needs a plan, needs to research, to solidify her assumptions. So the next morning she wakes up before Nayeon and finds Momo in the kitchen making breakfast.

She waits for Nayeon to join them. When she does, Mina walks to Momo, rests her hands on the table and leans up to lay a peck on her cheek. "Thanks for breakfast babe."

Through the corner of her vision she sees Nayeon stiffening, and her head drooping like someone's knocked the air out of her chest. Mina should be happy, her theory has been proven right, she's found Nayeon's last wish, instead she feels an overwhelming urge to cry. To pull the older girl by her collar and demand her why she had to choose Momo out of all people.

She wonders briefly if she is not over Momo. She thought she was but why is her stomach churning, why is her heart shattering like it could never be put back together, why is she drowning in a sea of her own unshed tears? What is this feeling of jealousy that's threatening to devour her entire being?

Later that day, they are having lunch after a long day of dance rehearsals and shoots and Nayeon decides she doesn't like the food she has and goes to grab Dahyun's.

"Why do you always take things that belongs to others?" Dahyun crosses her arms over her chest, but the smile on her lips says she doesn't really care.

"No morals." Mina mutters under her breath, as she jerks her head in the direction of the older girl to meet her eyes in a fiery, intense stare.

Mina sees Nayeon flinch, but she quickly masks it and her lips quirk up in the slightest of a grin. Always pretending, always acting like she's invincible, like nothing could hurt her when Mina knows she was hurting until the moment she took her last breath. Never letting anyone see past the walls she had put up, never letting her see past those invisible barriers. "Pff Minayah, morals won't get you what you want."

"Then don't want things you shouldn't." She snaps a little too loudly for her. She's breathing hard, her chest is rising and falling with rapid breaths and the room is filled with complete silence.

Nayeon lets out a tight smile, nods her head, as she rakes her fingers through her short silky hair, "Trust me, I know that better than anyone." Her voice cracks at the end, and Mina feels her own heart breaking along with it.

The girls in the room share awkward glances because this doesn't seem about food anymore.

Mina watches as Nayeon walks out the room with shoulder slumped, hands shoved into her pockets with a gait of a soldier injured in a battlefield. She takes a step forward as if to stop her from leaving, but stops herself instead. She blinks back the tears in her eyes, hates herself a little for the hurt she's inflicted upon the older girl but she's hurting too for some reason.

"I'll be right back." Chaeyoung tells the girls in the dressing room and rushes out in the direction Nayeon had disappeared.