Mina couldn't explain it. she had never really noticed, much less talked to jihyo before a few weeks ago. now she constantly found herself texting her or looking for opportunities to get out of practice, even for a minute or two, just to pop into jihyo's office and talk to her.
mina really could not explain it, but she felt a connection with jihyo. she felt more comfortable with jihyo, a woman she'd only been friends with for almost for a month, than her mother, a woman she'd known all her life.
this was so incredibly inexplicable to her.
since she moved to korea, making friends had become a rare occurrence. mina was sure the only other close friend she'd had was a girl who moved away six months after starting at the dance academy. and that was when mina was sixteen years old.
the feeling of having a friend, someone to have your back, felt amazing to mina.
but mina still treaded on thin ice. she didn't want to seem over-eager, so at times she kept her distance, though these times seemed to take forever.
and then mina would take out her phone and type out a message to "hyo unnie ❤︎", apologizing for not seeing jihyo's previous texts and asking to meet up for coffee.
in fact, sometimes her friendship with jihyo seemed weirdly special. jihyo, was like honey: sweet, transparent, and she stuck around. jihyo, who didn't know as much about mina as she knew about her, still comforted mina with her smiles and the crinkles in her sparkly eyes.
mina sometimes thought she was overreacting, but then remembered she would rather not go back to the time when she had a grand total of zero friends.
currently, mina was leaned back against the wall outside of the practice room, greedily gulping water from her bottle, eyeing jihyo's office.
then jihyo stepped outside her door. mina quickly snapped her gaze to in front of her. "mina." she heard the older girl whisper. mina looked at jihyo, and saw her eyes crinkle in the way mina had become so fond of.
her smile was especially sweet today. her brown hair was swept into a side braid, some loose curls escaping the hairstyle and framing jihyo's face. mina thought she looked nice. pretty.
jihyo silently waved her fingers at mina. mina waved back with the hand that wasn't clutching on her water bottle for dear life.
mina's attention was then caught to a man who was walking up to he both of them. he was tall, had a lean build. and now he was kissing jihyo.
mina felt something tug at her chest. as she watched jihyo hold both of the man's hands in hers, mina wondered if she was just hungry.
she interrupted her own thought process by calling to jihyo to introduce her to jihyo's boyfriend. jihyo smiles at mina. "mina, this is jung hyungsik, my boyfriend. and hyungsik, this is myoui mina, a close friend."
a small part of mina was elated that mina was given the title of "close friend", and she tried her hardest not to let it show on her face. instead, mina nodded at hyungsik.
"myoui...is that japanese?" hyungsik smiled at mina. his deep voice sounded like the crashing of waves on the beach shore.
he was perfect for jihyo.
hyungsik was the waves, and jihyo was the sweetness of the beach air.
mina nodded. "i moves here for the academy when i was fifteen." hyungsik's eyebrows lifted slightly.
"wow, fifteen. that must've been hard right?"
and so, jihyo, jihyo's perfect boyfriend, and mina made small talk like this for a couple minutes. until headmistress nam called for everyone to come back to the room to finish practice.
the old woman finally stuck her head out of the door of the practice room, and glared at mina. as she prepared to berate mina, she noticed hyungsik.
headmistress nam immediately stood straighter. "who is this, jihyo darling?"
as the headmistress nam talked to jihyo and hyungsik, mina slipped past her into the practice room, and noticed that takada was looking past the doorway.
takada looked at mina and smiled. "he's very good-looking, isn't he?" takada cocker her head towards the doorway. mina just shrugged, and began practicing her positions.
takada continued to look in jihyo's boyfriend's direction for a while, and then began to perfectly go through her positions.
after practice had finished, mina poked her head into jihyo's office. she noticed that the chair hyungsik had been sitting in for most of the day was now empty. jihyo noticed this. "hyungsik went home early, something about meetings for work."
"are we still doing coffee tomorrow?" mina asked softly. jihyo looked up from her papers to confirm this, adding that she couldn't wait.
as mina walked towards the academy doors, her lips turned up in a smile.
then, as she turned another hallway, she heard whispering from one of the wardrobe closets. mina silently turned the doorknob and let herself in. as mina navigated the countless hangers of costumes and props, the whispering and noises got louder.
mina couldn't make out what was being said, but finally turned to a single dressing room, where the whispering and noises were the loudest. mina took a deep breath, summoning all her courage, and pushed the curtain back.
takada aiki had her arms around hyungsik, who was supposed to be jihyo's boyfriend. his jacket was on the floor, and they were kissing.
"what the hell, takada?" mina whispered-shouted. takada broke away from hyungsik and looked at mine from over his shoulder. "this isn't what it looks like-" she started.
"get out." mina heard hyungsik's deep voice rumble. he didn't turn around. mina didn't have the bravery to talk back to him. so, she quietly stepped back and let the curtain cover the prima ballerina and jihyo's boyfriend.
as mina trudged back through the wardrobe, she felt heat rush in to her head, a fatal combination of anger and embarrassment. mina was tempted to run back to jihyo's office and immediately tell her what she had seen.
but what if jihyo hated her for it? mina wouldn't take that risk.
and so she pushed the doors open to the gwancheon frigid air, and stepped outside, letting the cold drift over her skin and bones.
