never | h.rj

11.

The bell for lunch had just rung and Mina decided to use this time to replace her melted bag of ice.

After three years of attending this school, she was surprised when she realized that she didn't even know where the nurse's office was. So, she asked her personal GPS, Jeno, for directions.

Upon arrival, she noticed the door was slightly cracked and she heard two voices coming from inside. She recognized one of them and she figured the other one was the school nurse.

She heard the voice she recognized, referring to the other woman as "mom".

That's when Eunbin walked out, barely sparing a glance in Mina's direction.

Slowly, the short-haired girl walked into the room. She voiced a greeting to let the nurse know she was entering the room.

The nurse greeted her with a big warm smile.

"What can I do for you, dear?"

"I just need my ice replaced," Mina replied. Her eyes dropped to the gold name tag that had "Nurse Kwon" engraved on it.

Nurse Kwon turned to the two-in-one, refrigerator and freezer, and placed a few ice cubes into a plastic bag, then wrapped the makeshift ice pack with paper towels.

"Thank you so much," Mina voiced gratefully accepting the ice being handed to her by Eunbin's mother.

"No problem, come back anytime!" She flashed another bright smile.

As Mina left the room she was still befuddled by her discovery. In her mind, there was no way that a woman so kind could give birth to a daughter so...Eunbin. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. After all, Eunbin was practically the spitting image of her mother.

Now sitting next to Jeno at the lunch table, Mina was bombarding him with questions.

"Did you know that Eunbin's mom was the nurse?"

"Yes," The boy replied, never taking his eyes off of his plate. "I actually visit the nurse quite frequently, I am an athlete..." he stated as if it was obvious.

"Why did I not know?" Mina knitted her eyebrows together, really giving it a lot of thought.

"Mina...you didn't even know where her office was. How would you have known who she was?" Jeno said, once again stating the obvious. This time he looked up at the girl beside him to give her a "duh" look.

"Oh yeah, you're right..." she dropped her head. Mina was book smart, there's no doubt about that but when it came to common sense she was just a little bit on the slow side.

"Aren't you going to get lunch?" Jeno nodded to the line at the front of the cafeteria.

Mina's eyes followed his gesture, then she shook her head. "I don't want that. I left my lunch at home today." This was partially the reason she was upset this morning. Well, until she was hit by a locker.

"You have practice today, though. You need to eat something if you don't want to pass out."

Mina mentally said "again." Jeno didn't know about her trip to the hospital and she didn't want him to know. All she told him was that she decided to play hooky.

The boy slipped a hand into the pocket of his white hoodie and pulled out two granola bars with chocolate chips.

"Here, eat these," he said sliding them to her. "I originally brought one for me and one for you but since you forgot your lunch, you take both."

He gave her a small smile before turning back to his plate.

"Thanks, Jeno," Mina feigned a shaky voice. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gave him a light squeeze. The boy couldn't help but laugh at her and it warmed his heart to see her in a good mood.

She may not have told Jeno the truth about why she missed school but that didn't stop him from making a pretty spot-on guess. He knew better than to think Mina would just skip school for no reason. One, she would never risk getting in trouble with her parents, and two, she valued her education too much. He had also been paying attention to her eating habits which wasn't hard since they always sat together.

The last thing that gave her away was the sickly look on her face when he saw her at the cafe. He didn't want to assume anything so he took her word and left when she said she was fine. Jeno figured out that that was a mistake when she didn't show up the next day.

~

"Hustle! Bend those knees, ladies!!" Coach Nayeon shouted. "Nice form Mina!"

Practice had been going on for only about twenty minutes, but Mina was already starting to feel it. She knew her eating habits had a lot to do with it so at this moment, as she pushes through the pain, she declared that she would live up to her promise to Nurse Joy.

Lucky for her, Coach brought snacks for the girls to celebrate the first volleyball practice of the year.

After cleaning the gym up and gathering their gear, the girls were told to meet with Coach Nayeon for the celebration and to discuss the practice schedule.

"You girls did well today even though this was the first practice since last year. I can tell you've all been practicing in the off-season which is excellent!" She gave us all a big smile that displayed her proudness.

"In order to keep this momentum so we can beat Euntae in the Union Games, I've decided to change practice from two days a week to three."

Huh? Mina thought to herself. A familiar feeling was beginning to stir inside her. The same feeling she had when Ms. Bae was explaining the project details.

"Mondays,"

No

"Wednesdays,"

Please don't say it

"and Fridays."

Great.

~

Mina wanted to curse. This new practice schedule just interfered with her project schedule. Now, she and Renjun would have to work out a new schedule. Not to mention, he also started practice for archery, so that's just something else to be considered.

"Mina!" The girl turned around at the sound of someone calling her name. She had just reached her car and was about to climb in. Her eyes landed on her favorite person to dislike.

"Yeah?" She replied, using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. The gesture and the person calling her name gave her an eery sense of deja vu. 

"We can't meet this Friday, or Fridays at all anymore. I have practice on Fridays now." 

"What?" Mina said in disbelief.

"I don't know what made Coach switch us from our normal schedules. Instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have to come on Mondays-"

"Wednesdays, and Fridays?" Mina finished his statement for him. "Yeah, it's the same for the volleyball team." 

Renjun threw his hands up in exasperation and dropped them. 

"Well, that's just perfect now isn't it?" he pinched the bridge of his nose, looking down at the ground to think for a minute. Mina shifted her weight from her right leg to her left, also replacing the hand which was blocking the rays of the sun from burning her eyes. 

"I know it was our goal to minimize time spent on the project but we might have to start meeting two days..." Mina voiced, saying what neither of them wanted to hear. 

"Fine." He breathed. 

With that, the unwilling partners walked to their cars, not even glancing at one another. 

...Okay NOW the plot should start to pick up lol. I promise to get to work on more updates really soon and tysm for your patience and support <33 it means so much to me T_T