Destiny

Chapter 27

Armed with the new information, she spends the next day watching the interactions between Nayeon, Dahyun and Sana with the unwavering attention of a predator on hunt.

"Nayeon-chan," Sana smiles sweetly at Nayeon, "Can I have some of your cookies?"

Nayeon's bunny teeth show up as she grins at Sana. "Nope."

"Please?" Sana pouts, bats her eyelashes at the older girl.

Mina grits her teeth.

Nayeon laughs loudly. "Fine, but stop using your aegyo on me!"

When Nayeon asks Mina if she wants some cookies too, Mina gives her a glare which is meant to terrify the older girl. Nayeon mimes zipping her mouth, throws an imaginary key away with an amused grin on her heart shaped lips that tells her she's anything but terrified.

Mina puts her hands on her hips and claims, "You're-" She pauses, searches for the right word.

The grin grows wider. "I am?"

There's that familiar glint in her eyes that tells Mina she's laughing inside. "Impossible." She huffs, turns around, and walks away from the older girl who watches her with a fond smile on her face.

Later that day, their briefing with the producer runs too long to be considered that and everyone is bored, except the two morons who keep themselves entertained.

Mina watches through the corner of her eyes as Nayeon often whispers something to Jeongyeon, sometimes breaks into a dance behind their producer's back when he turns around, like a couple of school kids.

Even Jeongyeon pays attention when he gets to the serious part. But Mina sees that Nayeon is scribbling something on her notepad, eyes often chancing a glance in the direction Sana, Dahyun and her are sitting.

"Nayeon," The producer grabs the note suddenly, scans over it and demands in a stern voice, "What the hell is 13 5 19 13 5 18 9 19 9 14 7?" He crumples it in his hand and throws it in the bin. "Pay attention."

After the meeting Mina casually remarks to Jeongyeon that Nayeon is a coding expert, the taller girl laughs and says, "It's a simple code. The numbers stands for alphabets. We used to use this to pass notes to each other when we were trainees."

"I forgot something in the conference room." Mina turns around abruptly, and sprints towards the room ignoring the baffled expression on Jeongyeon's face.

She opens the bin and her hands easily retrieve the note that's on top. Her heart begins to beat at an increased pace as she smoothes out the wrinkles on the paper and decodes the message.

13 5 19 13 5 18 9 19 9 14 7

M E S M E R I S I N G

The note reads.

A drop of tear makes its way down her cheek on to the paper and smudges the last digit.

She remembers Nayeon looking in their direction while scribbling that.

She's remembers that it was Sana and Dahyun sitting on either side of her during the briefing.

She holds the paper to her chest, lips quivering, shoulders heaving with emotion.

Which one of you had her heart and broke it unknowingly? Which one of you she loved with every ounce of her being that your face is all she remembered even as she took her last breath?

The ink on the paper begins to blur as more tears wash over them.

—

"Nobody is that stupid." Jihyo guffaws at the main character who has his girlfriend's name set as his passcode for email.

Nayeon shrugs as she throws a popcorn in the air and catches it, "I think it's sweet." The other girls pitch in their opinions and soon everyone is talking over each other.

While the girls are engaged in a shouting match and Nayeon who's responsible for the shouting match plays a 'throw and catch popcorn' game unbothered, Mina slips away from the chaos to make a phone call to the restaurant manager's personal number, thanks to a hacker friend from her school days.

"How did you get this number?" The voice asks her with a sigh that indicates their patience is wearing thin. "And no matter how many times you ask, I can't divulge confidential information."

"Please, you have to understa-" The woman hangs up before she finishes her sentence. She throws her phone on the bed, launches herself after it and buries her face in her hands.

The clock strikes midnight.

30/12/2020

The digital calendar reminds, warns.

"Do you want some popcorn?" Someone chuckles behind her.

She grabs the plush penguin toy on her bed and throws it on the charming face, hoping to wipe away the stupid grin that's quirking up full lips.

"I'll take that as a no." The older girl's tone bubbles with laughter and life.

"Nayeon-chan, keep talking and I'm changing my mind about sleeping in your bed tonight." She gets an odd sense of satisfaction when the smile disappears immediately.