Chapter Text
She’s getting used to the new, restored leather pressed intimately against her palms, smooth and precise under her skin and cool to the touch. It still felt a little bit like betrayal to be honest, replacing such a detrimental part of Gus’ character, but her dad has insisted on the refitting when Mina came home with a slice in her finger from a particularly enthusiastic sing along in the old boy where she ran her hands along the torn material a little bit too hard.
It’s a foreign sensation; her hands so used to the bumps and the ridges and the tears under her skin, but she has to admit it feels nice.
“Minaaaaaaaaaaa,” a whiny voice grates through the air inside the vehicle, “are we there yet?”
This feels considerably less nice.
“Momo we literally only started driving 3 hours ago.”
“Yeah?”
Mina doesn’t need to turn around and look to see the pure indignation in Sana’s round eyes.
“We’re going all the way to Texas.”
“Isn’t that like, the next state over?”
“Mina can we please consider dropping her off in New Mexico?”
“Hey!”
She turns the radio up. Maybe NSYNC can drown out the sound of their incessant bickering.
“Give me back my phone lame ass!”
Or not.
“I swear to God Sana I will relegate you to the boot if you don’t stop.”
Momo jeers at the other girl in default victory. Mina hears the sound of skin hitting skin and a muted ‘ouch!’ but she’s far too focused on trying to navigate between the busy lanes of traffic on the highway to pay attention to who hit who.
“After what you’ve done in there? No thanks.”
Momo jeers again, this time louder and Mina feels a blush rise up on her face.
“That was two years ago you ass.”
“Cooties exist forever y’know.”
The sheer restraint to not just slam her head on the steering wheel there and then is astounding.
“I’m booting the both of you out in New Mexico.”
Nasally, brittle whines echo around the jeep, both girls pawing at Mina’s arm in futile attempts to win back her favour and secure their seats all the way to the intended destination. She can see the exaggerated pout on Momo’s face in the rear view mirror, can feel the small hand wrapped around her arm as she tugs on it playfully, and she’s keenly aware of Sana’s face leaning closer and closer to her with her hands clasped together tightly. Two pairs of big, pitiful eyes are blinking pleadingly and she sighs in defeat.
Only another twenty hours to go.
✿
“Minari, let me drive for a bit.”
The younger girl drags her arm against her eyes, wiping with the back of the hand to alleviate the tiredness.
“I’m fine for a bit.”
She sees the little frown appear on Sana’s face in the corner of her eye.
“Stop being a stubborn ass and get some rest,” the older girl insists, reaching across to flick the indicator up next to the steering wheel, “Nayeon would beat my ass if I let you drive the whole way.”
She’s tired but the little bud of warmth in her chest expands just a bit at the mention of her girlfriend’s name. The jeep swerves into a side lane after a few moments, and Sana smiles softly at her from her seat.
“Thanks, I didn’t really want my first meeting with your girlfriend to be her going at me for letting your sleep deprived ass drive the whole way.”
Mina laughs gently, putting on the handbrake as the jeep comes to a stop at the roadside.
“I’m sure Momo would protect you.”
Both heads turn in tandem to look back at the older girl, eyeing her with amusement on seeing she was completely comatose, sprawled across the back seat with her mouth hanging wide open. With the engine off they could hear her light snores, and they both shared a knowing, affectionate look before they got out of their seats to swap around. Mina’s pretty certain arms aren’t supposed to bend that way, but somehow Momo looks surprisingly comfortable.
Dry grass crunches under her feet as she makes her way to the other side, pushing lightly at Sana as she passes by her. She pushes back, and they find themselves in a brief shoving match with giggles and muted sounds of complaint in between. Sana screams a little too loudly when one of Mina’s shoves almost has her lose her footing, and both girls pause as they hear a loud clang resonate from inside the jeep, followed by a soft, whiny ‘ow’.
They laugh together, calling it a truce and climbing back into the jeep to see Momo rubbing her head with a small pout in place. The jeep groans and complains as they slam the doors shut, seat belts clicking into place and Mina settles into the worn leather seat with a sigh. It felt a little strange to be sitting on this side of the vehicle, obviously being so used to being the one in the driver’s seat but she admits it’s nice to sit back and relax, maybe stretch her stiff limbs a little too.
They pull out back onto the highway, Sana’s chair groaning in protest as she tries to move it just a little bit forward so she could read the pedals a bit easier. Mina watches her with an easy grin, eyelids feeling a little heavy. She can hear Momo rummaging around in the backseat, boredom predictably overtaking the older girl fairly quickly.
“Can we change the CD?”
Mina bristles.
“What’s wrong with this one?”
“Listen, I love NSYNC as much as the next girl Mina, but if I hear this song one more time I think my ears are gonna bleed.”
“Blasphemy,” Mina mutters under her breath, watching with narrowed eyes as Momo’s body shoves itself in between the two front seats to press the eject button. Sana sighs in relief, and Mina feels a little bad. Sort of.
“Hurry up Momo,” Sana says, two hands on the steering wheel as she switches lanes, “don’t let it switch back to that terrible country station Mina loves.”
The younger girl sputters in protest as Momo shivers dramatically.
“God forbid.” She shuffles through the CD’s in her hand lazily, nose wrinkling distastefully at a few of the choices. “Ever thought about updating these? Maybe get something that wasn’t made before 2003?”
“I’m telling my dad you said that.”
“No wait!” The older girl gasps, and Mina laughs playfully.
The older girl continues to cycle through the discs, albeit a little less vocal about the range at hand then before, and the three girls settle into a relaxed comfortable silence. The engine rumbles along agreeably and Mina can feel herself slipping into sleep.
“You never told me papa Myoui was a fan of Britney!” Momo says a little too loudly next to her ear, Sana whistling appreciatively from the driver’s seat. Mina’s eye open sluggishly, trying to surreptitiously wipe the sleep out of them whilst listening to Momo pop open the case and insert the disc into the player impatiently.
A familiar song begins to play and Momo throws herself back heavily into the back seat with an excited squeal.
“One, two, three, not only you and me,” The older girl begins to sing along off key, hands clutched to her chest dramatically with her eyes tightly closed.
“Got 180 degrees, and I’m caught in between,” Sana’s light, airy voice joins in, wide smile on her face with her hands tapping against the steering wheel in time to the beat.
Mina doesn’t even bother to stifle an eye roll, but the smile on her face is telling enough. She throws her head back against the headrest and closes her eyes.
“Countin’ one, two, three,” She sings along softly, smile growing wider at the appreciative cheers from the other two girls, and she settles in for the ride.
✿
The sky is getting lighter when she stirs to consciousness, dark hues of black fading into blue. She rubs tired, lazy swipes at her eyes, letting a loud yawn escape as she stretches out all the little kinks in her back. Neck twisting slowly to the right, she sees Sana still sat with her full attention on the road.
“Hey sleepy head.”
Sana’s voice is light and soft, and Mina guesses that Momo is fast asleep in the backseat again. Though to be honest, if the older girl can sleep over the grumbling, sputtering engine and the occasional noisy groan of the frame settling into place, she doubts she’d wake up if Sana spoke at a normal volume.
Mina yawns again, neck stretching to the left.
“What time is it?” She murmurs, tongue still heavy in her mouth.
“Mmm, probably about four.”
That jolts her fully awake.
“Sana, you’ve been driving for about seven hours.”
“Yeah?” She responds curiously, adjusting her glasses further up her nose. She must have put them on when Mina was sleeping, the younger girl thinks, and if she wasn’t so concerned she would have complimented the older girl.
“Pull over,” Mina is already unbuckling her seat belt, gesticulating at the roadside, “let me drive again.”
Sana laughs a little too loudly, waiving off her advances with a flimsy wave of her arm.
“It’s fine Minari,” she chuckles lightly, affectionate smile stretching wide on her face, “I had a little nap at a gas station about two hours ago, I’m fine really.”
“You guys pulled over?” Mina asks in disbelief, not sure how she didn’t wake up with all of the noise of doors opening and closing and bodies clambering in and out of the jeep.
“You were pretty comatose,” Sana laughs again, and Mina rubs the back of her neck sheepishly, “looks like you needed to rest more than I thought. We got snacks too, I have no idea how you managed to sleep through all of the noise.”
“What kind of noises?” She questions suspiciously, and Sana laughs loudly.
“As much as I love Momo, I’m not gonna get my rocks off in the backseat of your jeep while you’re snoring just in front of me.”
“I snore?”
Sana nods firmly.
“Like a tiny, elegant chainsaw.”
She lets out a little ‘huh’ of disbelief, sitting up a little straighter in her seat now that she was more awake. The two girls settle back into a comfortable silence, punctuated by the occasional sputter of the engine and the low lull of Britney’s voice playing from the stereo. Sana hums along quietly, fingers drumming lightly against the steering wheel.
“You might want to check your phone,” the older girl mentions off-handingly, merging into the right lane. It was surprising how much traffic was already on the highway this early. “It was going off like crazy while you were asleep.”
She digs her phone out of her back pocket, pressing the home screen to see a slew of messages staring back at her. She scrolls through them one by one, laughing at the consistent string of updates on her girlfriend’s journey from the East coast.
Nabongs: we just got into south carolina
Nabongs: was i this unsufferable when you drove me over here or is jihyo just being testy
Nabongs: alright nvm maybe i was being kind of unreasonable
Nabongs: jihyo sleeps with her eyes open omg im scared (i pulled over to message u this don’t worry)
Nabongs: [img attached]
Nabongs: fucK NO WAIT THAT WAS A MEME IM SORRY
Nabongs: [img attached]
There’s more messages, each one just as ridiculous as the last and she unlocks her phone to reply.
Minari: you awake babe?
Nabongs: hey!!!!!!! ye :))
Nabongs: before u say anything jihyo’s driving now
Mina laughs, erasing the message that was going to be exactly her about to berate the other girl for potentially texting and driving. Her fingers hover for a moment, debating what to say when another message pops up on her screen.
Nabongs: can i call you?
Minari: of course :))
Her phone barely even rings when she swipes to connect the call, taking a quick glance in the back to see whether or not the piercing ring tone had awoken the sleeping girl in the back. She brings the device up to her ear, wide smile stealing across her face at the familiar tone of the voice on the other end.
“Hey there stranger,” Nayeon murmurs teasingly.
Mina catches Sana smiling at her out of the corner of her eye, face suspiciously innocent.
“Don’t mind me,” the older girl sing songs from the driver’s seat, tilting her head innocuously to the side, “pretend I’m not here.” She hums a little louder to the song on the radio.
Mina appreciates the gesture, as ineffective as it is.
“Hey.” She responds, soft and full of affection.
“We’re not too far from New Orleans.”
“Already?” Mina asks, a little shocked at how far the other girls had already progressed through their travel.
“Jihyo doesn’t mess around,” the older girl laughs softly, and Mina laughs with her, “and I really want to get there soon.”
“Yeah?” Her fingers pick absently at the frayed string on her shorts, the little bud of warmth in her chest from earlier spreading further and further the more she heard Nayeon’s voice on the other end of the phone. “Have anything in particular you want to see when you get there?
“There’s a couple of things I want to do.”
Sana coughs inconspicuously, Mina sure that she heard the exact tone and words of what the other girl had said.
“Sana says hi, by the way.” Mina says before the other girl can continue. Nayeon picks up the warning.
“Hey Sana!” Nayeon’s loud voice echoes through the speaker of her phone, followed by a softer, slightly deeper “hey!” in the background from Jihyo. Sana perks up at the sound of the other girl’s voice, sitting a little bit straighter in her seat than before.
“Hi Jihyo,” she coos playfully, eyes bright and glancing periodically to the device in Mina’s hand, “how are you feeling?”
Mina narrows her eyes. Through two years of countless phone calls and numerous face times with her girlfriend, naturally their friends had gotten nosy and been involved. Sana and Momo were both terribly guilty of this, snatching Mina’s phone out of her hand and running away with it whenever they noticed Nayeon was on the other end, or making lewd and inappropriate noises while Mina was just trying to ask the other girl how her day had been.
Jihyo was much the same, finding a way to always coincidentally walk into her room somewhere in the middle of a phone call or ‘accidentally’ walk behind her when they were on face time. So, overtime, they’d all gotten to know each other quite well and had learned a lot about each other.
Mina, in particular, learned that both of her best friends had developed a little crush on her girlfriend’s best friend. That alone was interesting enough, but the fact that Sana and Momo had finally come to terms with the fact that they each had feelings for each other about a year ago made this little road trip all the more interesting.
These next few weeks in San Antonio would be interesting, to say the least. Mina wonders if Nayeon’s given her best friend at least a little bit of a heads up as to what she’s about to walk into.
There’s silence on the other end of the line for a few moments before Nayeon’s low voice cuts back in.
“Sorry what was that?” She asks through breathless chuckles, Jihyo mumbling inaudibly in the background, “we had a little disagreement about song choices.”
“Is that your job, babe? To disagree with people’s music taste?”
“Absolutely.” Mina hears Jihyo say something again, and then the muffled sound of something pressing up against the receiver and what sounds like some sort of struggle. There’s a few muted noises of pain and a colourful string of curses before Nayeon returns, a little bit more out of breath than before.
“I’ve suddenly developed an appreciation for soft jazz,” she says sullenly, subdued saxophone playing in the background. “Anyway, what did you say before?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Mina laughs, pointing to fingers from her eyes to the girl driving in a silent warning to play nice. The pout comes into play, but Mina’s had years to build a resistance to its power. Nayeon hums softly and Mina wants nothing more than to lean into the sound.
“I can’t wait to see you.” The words are low and tender, a wistful sigh following shortly after. The nervous anticipation simmering steadily in the bottom of her stomach since they’d first begun to talk about the possibility of this trip warmed into something easier and more settled, easing the uncertainty and impatience that had been rampant for the past two years.
Two years.
And here she was, just a half a days drive away from finally being able to see the other girl again. She almost didn’t believe it, but she’d had the countdown on her phone for the past three months, and Sana and Momo wouldn’t let her doubt it for a moment, insistently reminding her that it was happening; it was real, and they’d both be super mad if she didn’t let them tag along.
“Babe?”
She snaps back out of her thoughts, cradling the phone to her ear with a small, tender smile stretching up the corner of her lips.
“Yeah,” she murmurs softly, closing her eyes and listening to the reassuring rumble of the engine by her feet, “just a little longer.”