Chapter Text
They were tired. They had just returned to their dorm after the award show and they were tired.
Or so Nayeon kept repeating.
Which explains why the car ride home was comparatively quiet. Well, as quiet as TWICE could ever be.
Which also explains why they immediately headed to their rooms as soon as they came back (only after grabbing a snack from the refrigerator). Within a few minutes the floor was silent, everyone dozing off to sleep after their long day. But Chaeyoung was up. She kept thinking about the MC reading a letter submitted by a fan that said "Go MiChaeng!"
It wasn't the first time she had heard about it. When she first got to know about ONCEs "shipping" her with Mina she was shocked to say the least. But as time went by she slowly got used to it. Doesn't mean she wasn't flustered everytime she heard someone mention MiChaeng. But she got used to playing it cool. Constantly putting out the word MiChaeng to portray that she merely thinks of them as friends or maybe just to see how Mina would react.
But at the same time she was curious why the fans thought they'd be a good couple. She would spend a good amount of her free time wondering was there really "chemistry" between her and Mina as the fans said? And if there is, does Mina know about it too?
And that's exactly what Chaeyoung was up to this particular night. She flashbacked to when they first met. It was in the SIXTEEN era when Mina wasn't much fluent in Korean and was a newbie. She admired Mina and her ballet skills from a distance. She wanted to go up to her and tell her how amazing she was, to make her see that she has people who adore her but for some reason she couldn't. She always found an excuse to rather not talk to the japanese girl, mostly because she made her feel nervous. Or maybe because she had her school and their timings almost never lined up (or so she told herself.)
But she couldn't avoid Mina either. The girl had an unexplainable charm that simply couldn't be ignored. And so Chaeyoung found herself interacting with Mina at certain occasions without ever remembering what is it that they talked about as whenever they were in close proximity Chaeyoung would get distracted noticing her features. Luckily they didn't have much to talk about then due to their busy schedule as they were in SIXTEEN so Chaeyoung could get away with her distracted nature.
But that was it. And she had forgotten (or perhaps elected to ignore) those moments until recently when she was reviewing her relationship with Mina. She still didn't know what to make of it. But she had also felt something similar while she was in school with her classmate so she decided to not stress on the "why"s of that particular phase.
It had also been pointed out to her recently that her behaviour changed when she was with Mina. Frankly, it had been no secret to her that she treated Mina a little differently than she treated the other members. She knew she did, ever since day one. But she didn't think it was anything concerning until the fans pointed out that her actions didn't just changed they softened. (They also pointed out the amount of time she spent ogling the penguin without realizing it.) And just like tonight, she had spent countless other nights wondering why it happens. Because she doesn't voluntarily choose to constantly make the ballerina feel special, it just happens. It's like Chaeyoung doesn't know how to treat Mina except with utter care and affection.
A familiar sound of someone falling down in the hallway (10 bucks says it's Sana) pulled her out of her thoughts. She checked the time and realized she had been up for quite a while and decided to sleep. Contemplation about the infinte unexplainable feelings towards Myoui Mina would have to wait. (She dreamt of Mina and waffles) ___________________________________________
Chaeyoung had always been the kind to read articles about herself. Most of the time their managers forwarded blogs about TWICE and it's members to them but Chaeyoung always doubted they hid some other articles and so she'd search them up herself. At this point, it had become a sort of a past-time.
So since TWICE were expected to have a break of a month starting tomorrow, the only schedule for the day was to work out. Chaeyoung had gotten a small break and was going through the articles when she read a title saying "Is Son Chaeyoung gay?" Curious, she clicked on it to read. It wasn't the first time she had been accused of being gay. Even in school, her classmates assumed she was in love with her then bestfriend and labelled her as a lesbian. She may have lost her friend and may have had a hard time dealing with her bullies but it's all in her past now so she pushes the thought away. There was some stuff about her liking certain "lesbian" songs, getting a haircut inspired by Kristen Stewart and some other MiChaeng moments. (Obviously, she blushed while reading the MiChaeng parts of the article.)
Overall the article was kind of detailed and definitely not a clickbait. Which led her to wonder are the reasons she repeated to herself for liking those songs and getting a new cut after Kristen Stewart really true? Before she could dwell on the topic, Jeongyeon called her to go out for lunch. The lunch went as noisy as expected. All nine of them were discussing about their plans for the break. Chaeyoung only caught the bit where Mina said she's going back to Japan. While Chaeyoung is happy about Mina going back to her hometown to meet her parents and not for a tour, it certainly didn't help the fact that Chaeyoung would miss her terribly. It's not like she can't call her or talk to her but she would feel bad for imposing when her unnie is supposed to spend time with her family. The day dragged on and since their trainer let them go a little early (4 minutes 13 seconds early so like, a big deal) they decided to have a small party at the dorm. Which is how they found themselves wasted from the exhaustion. Just lying. Making snow angels on the floor. Someone got up, Chaeyoung suspected it was Momo who got up to get food but the sound of someone banging their toe against the table confirmed that it was actually Sana. Eventually, she passed out and slept through the night.
___________________________________________
Finally she got up in the morning only because someone had left the curtains open and the sun was shining right at her face. Rubbing her eyes in hopes of casting away her sleep somehow, she noticed that there were only five of them in the room. Mina wasn't one of them, so she headed out the room only to find Momo eating the leftover pizza.
"Momo unnie~" she called out.
Momo merely looked in her direction, still munching on her pizza.
"Where's everyone else?"
Momo pointed in the general direction of what would be the big room. She mentally facepalmed that she didn't check there first. When she entered the room she found Jihyo adjusting the blanket on Sana, but still no sign of her Minari.
"Chaeyoungssi, you seem to be awake. Mostly." Jihyo commented, bursting Chaeyoung's bubble of thoughts.
"Yeah, Unnie. Dahyunssi left the curtains open."
Jihyo smiled at her, playfully smacking on her head as she left the room.
Chaeyoung followed her out and asked, "Unnie, where's Mina unnie?"
"What time-" Jihyo quickly checked the clock and said, "she must be at the airport right now. She has a flight to Japan today."
Chaeyoung eyes widened. She completely forgot Mina was supposed to go back today. Jihyo smiled mischievously at her and said "You might want to check your room, Chaeyoungssi."
Chaeyoung nodded and left. Saying she was disappointed she didn't get to bid Mina goodbye would be an understatement. She was already going to miss her unnie and now that she missed her chance to even say goodbye she's sure her break isn't going to be as well as she wanted it to be.
Once inside the room she looked around to find a paper bag placed on her bed. She opened it only to find a box of her favourite waffle store. On top of it there was a note stuck. It was Mina's handwriting and she would deny to her grave but a smile was already plastered on her face as soon as she saw it. She pulled out the box to read the note. It said,
"I'm sorry I couldn't wait for you to wake up Chaengie but I got you waffles to make up for it. Take care. Love, Mina♡"
Chaeyoung immediately plucked out the note and stuck it in her "art book" instead which was really just a collection of her drawings and writings. She dropped a text to Mina thanking her for the breakfast. She then proceeded to savour the waffles for all that they were worth while thinking of her Minari and her honey sweet voice.