Destiny

Chapter 5

Mina's eyes lingers on Nayeon in between the takes. She takes them away just as the older girl is about to look her way.

"You've been staring at Nayeon the whole day." Sana tells her after they pack up their shoot.

How can she tell Sana that she won't get to do that after twenty nine days? Nobody is going to believe her anyway. Besides, its not like she's allowed to tell the truth.

"I wasn't." She denies.

"I don't blame you." Sana winks at her after raking her eyes up and down Nayeon's body, "She looks hot in that suit."

Mina glances to her left and takes another proper look. She's always known Nayeon is good looking, but she never really paid any attention to it.

"You're definitely checking her out." Mina blushes faintly when Sana bumps her shoulders.

She cooks dinner for the girls with Jeongyeon and Momo. She stirs the sauce in the pan absent mindedly, her head swimming with heavy thoughts.

"I wish I could get into her head sometimes." Momo walks into the kitchen, pointing at someone behind her shoulder. Nayeon sits on the balcony chair, either watching or counting the stars with her shiny eyes. "Like one second she's running around the house with so much energy and another second she sits that there like she wasn't causing chaos before."

Mina wonders how she hasn't noticed this before. They know sometimes Nayeon wants her personal space but for the first time she notices the flicker of sadness behind those bright eyes and bunny smile as she steps into the balcony with a mug of coffee in her hand.

She watches the stars in companionable silence with her for a while, the night breeze caressing their faces gently from time to time.

"Do you know stars are the souls of dead people?" Nayeon whispers, her eyes still lingering on a distant shiny star. "They say when someone dies they become a new star in the sky."

Mina lets out a soft breath. Her eyes downcast to the liquid in the mug.

"Apparently if you're lucky enough to live in someone's heart even after you've gone, you'll be up there shining down upon them." Nayeon points at the glimmering star with a small smile playing on the corner of her lips.

The coffee refuses to go down her throat as it constricts with pain. This conversation is too raw, painful and brutally reminds her of what's going to come.

"I don't believe in all that." Mina swallows thickly, blinking back the tears in her eyes as her heart twists painfully knowing the destiny written for the older girl.

Nayeon stays quiet for sometime. "I don't believe I'll be up there either."

She picks herself off the chair and whispers a goodnight to Mina before shutting the door softly behind her.

Mina plays her words around in her mind, a sad laughter of disbelief leaves her lips when she understands them.

Nayeon actually thinks she's forgettable, if it was that easy Mina wouldn't have spent an year in agonizing pain, wanting to bend time and fate only to have her back, if only for a moment.

She replays what the cloaked figure said to her as she glances at the sleeping girl's face.

She died of a broken heart.

Does she have to take it literally or is there some deeper meaning to them?

Nayeon sighs in her sleep and Mina resists the urge to stroke her face. She continues to look at her until she feels her own eyelids grow heavy and drifts off to sleep.

She sneaks glances at the older girl often again when they play truth or dare in the dorm after another long day of shoot.

She's been here before and she knows the question that was going to be aimed at her very well.

"Mina," Momo begins with a cheeky smile, "What is love to you?"

Despite knowing what's coming, the question still throws her off a bit. She's a very private person and this is not the kind of question she'd want to answer in the open.

"I have no idea." She answers honestly. "You'd just know when you're with the right person I guess."

Momo slaps a hand to her face dramatically and sighs, "You hurt my feelings Minari."

Mina chuckles and swats at her arm playfully.

"You guys are so unromantic." Sana glances up at the roof wistfully. "I want to hear violins playing in the background, bells chiming over my head, fireworks going off behind my eyes, an explosion of butterflies in my stomach when I kiss the person I'm meant to be with."

"Do you want to try it?" Dahyun wiggles her brow at Sana and leans into her pouting her lips into a kiss. Sana laughs and pushes her away with a hand to her chest.

Mina thinks these happens only in films. It's not unromantic to have realistic expectations of relationships.

Through the corner of her eyes, she watches Nayeon biting her lips with a pensive look on her face.

She wonders how she's missed the solemn look gracing the older girl's face when they played this before.

She knows the answer to her own question, back then her eyes weren't always focused on Nayeon and now she is the only thing she sees.