365 Days of You

Chapter 3

Two weeks.

Two whole weeks of emptiness.

Nayeon laughs bitterly.

Two weeks of hiding from the members and the world.

She kicks the empty bottle of vodka to a side as she reads through the confirmation paper from the court.

She crumples it into a ball and throws it against the wall as she takes a long swig from a new bottle of vodka.

She has barely eaten anything in two weeks and her gaunt eyes and ribs are beginning to show.

She can't bring herself to care.

She grabs the nightshirt Mina left on the bed. She doesn't know why she's been holding it every single night for two weeks while she tried to sleep.

This thing with Mina is supposed to be just physical attraction. A little more maybe. So why does it have to hurt like this?

"Why do I feel so much for you?"

She asks aloud, like the blonde can somehow hear her from here.

She wonders if the girl is having fun while she is drowning in this misery.

Her eyes close as the effects of alcohol begins to take over her body, lulling her to sleep where no thoughts can hurt her.

Jihyo finds Nayeon in the same spot she had last seen her.

Nayeon is clinging onto a nighshirt, her head bent over her knees, bottles of alcohol scattered all around her.

She has called many times in two weeks but the older girl hasn't been ready to speak to anyone. She's finally had enough and used the spare key Nayeon gave her for emergencies.

She wishes she came sooner.

From the look of things, Nayeon has resorted to alcohol to escape from reality.

"Nayeon. Wake up."

The girl looks up at her with confused eyes.

"Jihyo?"

She scrambles to her feet, swaying slightly from the alcohol.

"I'm going to help you to a shower and then get you some food. Okay?"

Nayeon shakes her head.

"I'm not hungry."

Jihyo refuses to hear any of it.

She sets up a bath, shows Nayeon to it and cleans the room.

She watches Nayeon grab little bites, not really eating, her eyes looking distant and faraway.

"Are you mad at me?"

Jihyo can't give a honest answer to that.

She is mad at Nayeon for many reasons. For ruining the only good thing in her life. For not realising what she let slip right through her fingers. But most of all, she is mad at Nayeon for hurting the girl she has come to love so much.

"No. I'm not mad at you."

"Do you think she's mad at me?"

Why do you care? She wants to ask. But Nayeon is drunk and she doesn't want to agitate her.

She shrugs like she doesn't have an answer to that.

"I'm mad at me." Nayeon whispers.

"Why is that?" She asks carefully.

"It hurts here." The older girl taps a finger to her temple. "Here." She points to her chest. "And I don't know why."

Nayeon you oblivious fool, Jihyo sighs.

It isn't her place to tell Nayeon what she is feeling. She can't push her to come to terms with something only for her to run away.

Nayeon needs to figure this out herself.

And she almost does when she bumps into Geun at a party two weeks later.

"Oppa." She clenches her jaw.

"Heard your ex wife is available on the market now." He winks.

"You think you have a chance after doing what you did?"

She takes a step closer to him, staring him down. "You so much as look her way again, I will destroy you."

Geun swallows thickly.

Nayeon can be quite intimidating when she wants.

"What's it to you? She's your ex wife."

Nayeon feels annoyed with herself when she feels certain sadness at the word ex. Like she hates being reminded that Mina is a thing of the past.

Truth is, she is very much present in her memories, haunting every single one of her thoughts.

"Ex or not, I still care for her. And I'll ruin you if you even uttered her name. Is that clear?"

She steps back making sure he got her message.

He nods once, twice, and leaves quickly.

Nayeon replays her own words in her mind.

She has told Geun she cares for Mina. She realises to her own surprise that she actually meant those words.

Her father has told her Ims don't know how to care.

But she cares.

For Mina.

She leans against the wall, trying to steady herself.

What else has he been wrong about? Has she let her father mess up the one good thing she had in her life?

Six weeks later she finds what else her father has been wrong about.

She is drinking again when she hears the doorbell ring.

And she sees a handsomely dressed older man at the door who strangely reminds her of a girl who occupies every one of her dreams and waking thoughts.

"I'm Mina's father."