Chapter Text
Most of the time, Mina wonders why her life feels empty.
When she tells people that, their automatic reply is to remind her that that she 'has it all and is already so lucky.' She can't really disagree with them; it's true. She has a thriving career, a loving family and great friends.
Her life is perfect.
...Yet every night, there's still a dragging weight that keeps her up. A hollowness that gets bigger and bigger with each day that passes and all she wants to know is what it is.
"—you're gonna love it here! Tell her, Tzu, tell her!"
"Well, you'll really like the—"
"Tell her about the tree house!"
"There's this place—"
"Oh! Oh! Tell her about the—"
The storm rages on outside as Chaeyoung excited talks over her girlfriend, and despite talking to her favorite couple and the entrancing lightning sprawling above the mountains; Mina feels nothing.
"Unnie?" Tzuyu's holding the phone now, visibly concerned as her girlfriend tries to get it back. "Is everything okay?"
Before Mina can even reply, lightning explodes above. It illuminates a section of the forest and she sees something—no, someone moving at the top of the hill.
"There's someone out there," she gasps, stepping out into the porch, the heavy rain limiting visibility. "I'll call you two later."
"Unnie, wait don't—"
She ends the call before Chaeyoung can lecture her about making bad decisions, returning inside to grab a flashlight and a raincoat.
The rain is harsh and the mud slows her step, but it's not enough to keep her from searching. Someone was there and they might need help. "Hello?"
Lightning strikes again and finally, she sees them—her.
It takes all of her strength to pull the girl out of the bushes and drag her back into the house. Based on the bruises and the mud all over her, it's easy to deduce that she fell from the hill. The girl is alive, so she throws all logical thinking out the window.
"I feel like I'm gonna regret this."
With a deep sigh, she gets to work on patching her up.
Morning comes with less thunder, more rain, no electricity and a dead phone.
She was too busy rushing to tend to the girl that she forgot to charge it before the lights went out. But now isn't the time for regrets—especially when there's an unresponsive person depending on her—so she focuses on making use of the well stocked house.
She's in the middle of brainstorming what she'll make for breakfast when the girl jolts up with a sharp inhale, eyes wide and frantic as she looks around.
"Where am I?" Her head snaps towards Mina before wincing in pain, "what happened to me?"
Formal Japanese, must be a foreigner. "You're at the base of Mount Kongo. I found you in the bushes last night during the storm, I think you fell off the cliff. When my crew arrives, I'll take you to the hospital." She says slowly, gesturing for her to lie back down, "for now, you have to rest."
The girl furrows her brows in thought, staring so intently at Mina that she has to break eye contact. "How do I know that you're not lying? That you aren't some murderer who abducted me?"
Her injuries might be worse than she thought. "If that was the case, wouldn't you be dead by now?"
"What if you enjoy torture?"
She's starting to regret this. "Well, if you don't believe me, you're free to go." She points to the patio, "you can take the raincoat and the flashlight outside. Good luck."
With a huff, she returns to the kitchen and prepares for breakfast. Chaeyoung was right, her kindness really does hinder her judgement. This is exactly why she never—
"Um," the girl cuts her thoughts short, a look of pain on her face as she leans against the counter. "Do... do you need any help?"
Mina rolls her eyes, "I'm not the injured one here. Just go rest."
The girl looks surprised for a bit before nodding and obediently returning to the sofa. She stays silent all throughout breakfast and lunch, and even as Mina gives her the soaked bag she found (phone and laptop all drenched) she doesn't say a word.
Honestly, Mina doesn't mind—the less info she reveals to a possible murdered, the better!—so she lets the silence continue. And everything is going fine until the girl abruptly sits up again.
"I just realized," she gasps, "I never asked your name."
Mina just stares. She can't be serious.
"If I'm going to be stuck here with you," the stranger says as if she was forced to stay, "I need to at least know your name. So, who are you?"
Chaeyoung's voice is no longer ignored, reminding her of her recent stalking incident that caused this filming to be in the middle of nowhere. Less populated, less chances of danger. Security measures.
(And yet here she is, taking in a stranger in the middle of a storm.)
"I'm Sharon," she finds herself saying, not a lie but not the whole truth either. "And you are?"
"Jisoo," the girl—Jisoo confidently says, hand stretching out to her. "It's very nice to meet you, Sharon-san."
Mina shakes her hand, "it's nice to meet you too, Jisoo-san."
(She doesn't get it, but there's something familiar about Jisoo.)
Next thing she knows, they're in a full blown conversation about themselves over dinner.
They exchange information, Jisoo tells her that she's a foreigner ("oh, so it should be Jisoo-ssi then?" earning a laugh from Jisoo) and start talking in Korean, while she reveals that she's filming a soju commercial here ("oh, that's why there's crates of it," Jisoo notes.) and that the reason why she's alone is because they wanted it to seem like a self documented film.
"If you're a celebrity, should you really be letting strangers in this easily?" Jisoo asks once they're back at the living room. "I could be a murderer, you know."
Mina laughs, "I guess I'll just have to trust you."
Jisoo tells about what happened last night. Of her tent collapsing in the rain, a lone light glowing behind the trees and her determination to seek shelter that ultimately caused her to roll down the cliff.
"I really shouldn't have trusted my best friends," Jisoo groans, both of them watching the rain fall outside, "who the heck plans a camping trip in the middle of the storm?"
Mina hums, "who goes through with a camping trip in the middle of a storm?"
After a rousing (sarcasm) game of twenty questions—in which she learns that Jisoo doesn't have a favorite song or movie or show or childhood memory—Jisoo makes a wild suggestion.
"Let's drink!"
"I don't drink," Mina frowns, watching as Jisoo limps towards her, a bottle of soju and two glasses in hand. "At all."
Jisoo's already pouring her a drink, "it'll be fun, I promise."
Mina opens her mouth to protest but then Jisoo looks up and she instantly gets her urgency to drink. Even with the faint lighting the moon provides, she easily recognizes the overwhelming sadness on Jisoo's face.
Despite vowing to never drink the product again—Tzuyu knows this—she accepts the glass because she thinks Jisoo needs it.
(She now knows why Jisoo seems so familiar.
She shares the same emptiness that Mina feels.)
Sighing, she grabs the glass and clinks it with Jisoo's, "to the start of a new friendship, Sharon-san!"
She really hopes she doesn't regret this.
—
Jihyo regrets a lot of things.
She regrets choosing KAIST over SNU, regrets eating the cheesecake she left overnight, regrets leaving the vice president of the company in charge, regrets trusting Momo and Sana with this trip—regrets actually going through with it—and most recently, regrets coaxing Sharon to drink.
She mostly suggested the game because it was freezing and totally not because she was curious about Sharon. Not at all.
What was meant to be just an upgraded twenty questions turns into a nightmare; Sharon asks about basic questions while she specifically asks why a ballerina is filming a documentary about soju and it all goes downhill from there.
(Mostly because Jihyo once again forgets that not everyone has her tolerance for alcohol.)
"—so I said," Sharon slurs, soju sloshing around as she waves the glass dramatically, "am I gonna do ballet until I die?"
Sharon's story is a fairytale to Jihyo's ears; she comes from a family of successful professionals and felt an immense pressure to continue the legacy. How her parents were so supportive that Sharon pushed herself to her limits until she broke and ran away.
"So did you?" Jihyo winces as Sharon drinks the last of her shot, "quit ballet?"
"No, that's the only thing my parents can be proud of," the ballerina laughs bitterly before looking up at her, "how about you? Were your parents anything like mine?"
Bile starts rising up her throat but she knows it's not from the soju. "They're not—hey," she swiftly grabs the glass from Sharon, "why don't we talk about something else?"
Sharon frowns, "like what?"
"Um... well, is there anything that you regret?" Jihyo suggests, placing the glass and the soju away from her reach. "I regret a lot of things."
Her savior stares at her and Jihyo tries to actually dig through her very long list to think of one that Sharon might relate to. "Well, I guess I regret devoting my life to work. If I wasn't so busy working I would've been married by now."
The soju in her blood does little to water down the memories of someone to come home to—and the shame and nightmares that followed after. "But I guess it's for the best. As the optimists say, things happen for a reason. What about you?"
Sharon slumps against the couch with a chuckle. "I've never really loved anyone—should I take a shot?"
Jihyo has to swat Sharon's hand away to stop her from grabbing her glass. "No, this isn't never have I ever. Wait—what do you mean? You've at least been in one relationship... right?"
"There was someone once... " Sharon starts, "someone who was there and was willing to wait for me. No matter how many times I pushed her away, she always stayed. I was too busy following my dream to properly see her." Then she turns to her, "when I was ready, well... the timing wasn't right and the chance was gone."
"You loved her?"
Sharon laughs wistfully. Bitterly. "It was a love that wasn't meant to be—but she's happy now. She met the perfect girl for her and I love them both. I'm really happy for them."
Despite the darkness that surrounds them, she can easily see Sharon's sadness—realizes that they aren't too different, even if they came from different backgrounds. Her who needed to dedicate her life to her work and Sharon who wanted to; it's all the same, down to the repercussions.
(There's only so much she can regret before the list becomes endless.)
So she makes a decision.
"We need to stop this," she announces, causing the dazed Sharon to startle. "This ends here."
"The drinking game?"
Jihyo sighs, "no, living like all we have is our job! We need to stop being married to our work," she scoots closer to the table, "we should live our life!"
"I've always wanted to paraglide," Sharon hums thoughtfully. "But I'm terrified of heights."
"That's... not exactly what I imagined–" Sharon pouts and Jihyo guesses that it's a start, "—then let's go paragliding! Let's do everything we want to do."
Sharon's eyes widen with a gasp before scrambling to grab something beside the couch. She clumsily tosses a hard object (a notebook) at Jihyo and slams a pen on the table. "Let's make a list!" she slurs, switching their dying flashlight on, "of everything we wanna—no, we're gonna do. No jobs or following dreams, just adventures and all that stuff!"
"Let's live the life we wanna live," Jihyo whispers, Sharon cheering along. She feels a fire burn inside her as she takes the pen—which may or may not be the alcohol finally kicking in—and grins at her new friend.
No more regrets.
"So this is it, huh?"
Jihyo isn't sure what to say, what with her raging headache and Sharon looking at her like there's something she's forgetting—she doesn't know where to start.
She doesn't remember anything after dinner. When they woke up, they were surrounded by soju bottles and riddled with back pain from sleeping on the floor and Sharon's staff already there to take her to the hospital. The doctor said that besides a few cuts, she was good to go—much to Sharon's relief—and now here they were at her hotel, about to say goodbye.
(But why does it feel like she's missing something?)
Sharon frowns when she still doesn't respond and sighs, "just... don't ever camp on hill again," then she smiles all gummy and soft and Jihyo wonders why she never noticed how pretty her savior is until now, "especially during a storm. I might not be there to save you anymore, got it?"
Jihyo nods dumbly, words still coming up empty as the production manager waves Sharon to hurry up. "I'll be there in a bit!" Sharon sighs again, but the smile is still there. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"
No, I don't remember anything about last night but I had a feeling I enjoyed my time with you. So could you please hangout with me a bit longer until I remember what happened? Is what she'll never say.
"Yeah," she croaks, unsure, "I've been alone for so long, I'll manage."
The look of concern on Sharon's face doesn't go unnoticed, "I know what you mean, but just... make sure to be careful, okay?"
"I will. And you be careful with the people you trust," Jihyo lets herself smile, "not everyone will be as innocent as me. The next person you save might be some murderer."
Sharon chuckles softly, "take care of yourself, Jisoo-ssi."
"You too, Sharon-san."
Just like that Sharon is gone and the emptiness that Jihyo's been ignoring for a while now is amplified once she returns to her cold hotel room. Being alone for twenty-seven years is suddenly nothing compared to the few hours she's without Sharon.
"I didn't even get her number," she groans as she flops on her bed, "no point in dwelling in it."
There's nothing else she can do, so she continues on. She gets a replacement phone and contacts her secretary to recover the files lost on her laptop. Then she spends a few days recuperating and trying not to think of how she could've done things differently as the rain rages outside her hotel room.
The rest of the trip goes as her best friends planned but instead of being 'relaxed' she only feels tense knowing that she's missing something—and no, it's not Sharon. Whatever it is stays at the tip of her tongue, taunting her to remember.
Jihyo's already one foot inside the cab when the rain stops. And that's when it hits her.
"I want to go paragliding," she urgently tells the concierge who she nearly scared to death. "Find the closest one."
"Ms. Park, the weather—no, your flight—"
"Rebook it," Jihyo quickly replies as the sky slowly starts to clear, "I will paraglide today."
Despite the incredulous look from the concierge, he gives her a detailed schedule that allows her to paraglide and get back in time to catch the last flight back to Seoul.
("So we've got paragliding, trekking, rollercoasters and a few other extreme activities," Jihyo reads before turning to a grinning Sharon, "is there anything else you want to do?"
Sharon stares at her worriedly, "those are good... but I don't think I'm brave enough to do all of that. Would you do them with me?"
Jihyo places the pen down and extends her hand out to make a promise.
"Of course.")
Here's the problem with Jihyo always regretting everything—it makes her anxious of everything she does. It makes her too afraid to make reckless decisions (such as paragliding when she's supposed to be on a plane to Seoul) or to even take a chance. On anything.
So she spends the two hour drive to the countryside just thinking about everything bad that can possibly happen. What if she crashes somewhere desolate or gets severely injured or worse... dies? She hasn't even seen Sharon again and if she—
"Jisoo-ssi?"
Jihyo startles at the usage of her former name and finds herself already at the base of the hill... and in front of Sharon and her gummy smile.
"Sharon-san!" she ignores the way her savior winces and wonders if she materialized Sharon purely from her thoughts. "What are you doing here?"
Sharon pulls out a piece of paper filled with Jihyo's messy handwriting, "apparently, I'm supposed to paraglide? Wanna join me?"
"Yeah," she blurts out a bit too quickly, then she recovers, "apparently, I'm supposed to go with you."
A playful smirk appears on Sharon's face as she walks past her, causing an unfamiliar feeling to spread across Jihyo's chest. For a few seconds, she wonders if Sharon feels the pull too, and honestly she doesn't believe in fate—and all the other nonsense that Nayeon forces her to care about—
But meeting Sharon here, out of all places, feels like it's more than just a coincidence.
(It might just make her reconsider.)
—
Sometimes, Mina likes to believe that everything that happens in her life is part of her destiny. Has a meaning and a purpose.
Meeting Jisoo for the first time didn't feel too extraordinary, so she assumes that the universe just wanted her to do a good deed, help someone out to temporarily fill the ever growing hole inside her. But finding the crumpled to do list and seeing Jisoo at the exact same paragliding place?
She knows it's meant to be.
"Sorry, ma'am," the instructor bows, "but with the current weather conditions, we can't allow flight."
Jisoo groans, "but the rain has stopped? The sun is starting to peak out?"
The instructor shows them the current weather forecast and explains that they can't allow clearance until tomorrow, when the winds are expected to dissipate. She sees the disappointment on Jisoo's face as they exit the building and decides to cheer her up.
Mina sidles beside her, lightly bumping her shoulder. "Hey it's okay, we can go paraglide tomorrow."
"I'm flying home tonight," Jisoo answers sullenly, "this was really just a last minute thing."
"Oh," is all she can reply, staring out into the hills that they would've glided over had the rain—
"It's impossible to get a cab here," Mina starts, then more confidently continues, "want me to drive you to the airport?"
And Mina honestly doesn't remember much from their night of drinking, but when Jisoo glances up at her, she feels like she's back up in the mountain, a single flashlight illuminating the smile on Jisoo's face.
"Of course."
(The rain interfered once and brought her to Jisoo.
This means one thing; they're meant to do something else.)
After they parted, all Mina thought of was how she could've done things differently. Ask Jisoo for her details and check up on her from time to time. Maybe get to know her and find out why she's so drawn to her. She regrets how she handles things and wished she could have another shot.
This time she does it right.
It's odd but the three hour drive isn't enough for them. They talk about everything they can think of; the places in Japan she's been to (Jisoo), the sights in Korea that she wants to see (Mina), the friends who make life a little better (both) and the list they're planning on completing (she hopes that this will be for both of them.)
She's about to tell Jisoo about trying Jeongyeon's restaurant—exotic food being in the middle of their list—when she realizes they've reached Kansai Airport.
All the confidence she had in doing things correctly dissipates as she parks, hands gripping the steering wheel for strength as she loses her chance again.
"We're here." She tries not to look at Jisoo—something she tried hard not to do during the ride for safety reasons—and watches people unload their bags. "Do you know what terminal you're going to?"
There's tapping on a phone followed by, "uh, terminal one."
She looks up at the sign and curses the universe. She's exactly at the terminal one drop off. "Oh. Then let's get your things."
"Actually," Jisoo chuckles, "I was wrong, my flight isn't until much later. Is there anything we can do to pass the time? Something we can cross off the list?"
It's not over yet.
She turns to mirror the smile on Jisoo's face, "I know just the place."
(Slowly, the crack starts to fill.)
The universe must have planned their meeting well because there's a park near the airport that has a few of the activities on their list.
They start with skateboarding at Sennan Park. Having already learned how to use a skateboard from Jeongyeon—who insisted that it's an essential skill—she teaches Jisoo the basics.
"I think you're ready to let go."
Jisoo's eyes widen. "Are you sure? What if I fall and break something?" Then she gasps, "what if I die? I still have a company to run!"
Mina stifles a laugh and takes a step back, "don't worry, you're already doing well. You can do it."
The teens skating all stop to cheer for Jisoo and helping her boost her confidence as her grip on Mina loosens. "Promise I won't die?"
"I promise, Jisoo-ssi."
With an exhale, Jisoo lets go and pushes off. She maintains her balance and smoothly skates around, "look Sharon-san! I'm doing it! I'm skating!"
Everything goes well until Jisoo tries to copy a flip that a kid is doing and loses her balance— and she thanks the lifetime of ballet for allowing her reflexes to be so quick as she dashes in time to catch Jisoo.
"I almost died," Jisoo huffs into Mina's shoulder, hands slightly trembling as she grips her arms, "I think my life flashed before my eyes."
Mina doesn't think much about how Jisoo's perfume invades her senses or how warm she is as she stabilizes her back up. Dusting her jacket off and smiles, "you actually did great, you just went too fast."
"It's weird," Jisoo starts, eyes going wide as she looks at her, "but I've never felt more alive."
What's weirder is that Mina understands what she means, but she won't say that out loud. So instead she pushes Jisoo's skateboard towards her and gets on her own. "Wanna race around the park?"
(For the first time in a while, Mina feels alive.)
The time they have together is short, but they make the best out of it.
They try kicking a few soccer balls on the field (which Mina adds to the list), eat fresh octopus at one of the restaurants by the beach (they both cross this off) and end the day taking pictures of the sights from the top of the ferris wheel.
An hour before boarding—would this count as 'not being so uptight' on the list?—they're back at the drop off, but this time it's for real. Jisoo's bags are already in the cart and Mina still isn't prepared to say goodbye.
"I really enjoyed today, thanks for taking me there."
There's a small smile on Jisoo's face that Mina can't seem to return. "I had fun, too. I'm glad that we got to cross off some things on the list."
She's contemplating on whether she should already say goodbye (and deal with the overwhelming sadness creeping in at home) when Jisoo takes her hand and shakes it. The gesture confuses her for a second until remembers that Jisoo is the president of a company and is probably used to it.
"I'm really happy I met you, Sharon-san," Jisoo grins, hands still holding Mina's, "thank you for sharing your time with me. Let's continue finishing the list and do it again."
This isn't where it ends—and that's enough to get Mina smiling again.
She squeezes Jisoo's hand before stepping back and letting go. "I'd love that, Jisoo-ssi. You better take care of yourself, we got a list to finish."
Jisoo gives her one last smile before heading into the terminal and Mina feels butterflies swarming her stomach each time Jisoo looks back to wave at her.
She comes home with her cheeks hurting from all that smiling, ten missed calls from Chaeyoung and a hundred messages from everyone else about the pictures of the park that she posted on her account. She's halfway through her pictures when she realizes something.
They forgot to exchange numbers again.
Then Mina chuckles and returns to sending more pictures in the group chat, excited to tell the girls all about the day she had.
Somehow, she knows that she'll meet Jisoo again.
—
After a long day, Tzuyu loves nothing more than cuddling with her beautiful fiancee while seeing what their friends are all up to.
Chaeyoung is already fast asleep on her shoulder—tired from trying to win against the rigged crane machines—so she makes sure to keep her phone's brightness and volume extra low.
Dahyun sends her a video of Sana being chased by Logan, Nereri and Ahri and it's a good thing she muted the video or else Sana's laughter would've woken up Chaeyoung. Jeongyeon sends her a selfie with (an uninvited) Nayeon and Momo trying her latest creation. Mina sends her a nice picture of the sky from what seems to be the top of a ferris wheel and she immediately sends her a picture of her and Chaeyoung at the Kaoshiung Eye.
The last set is a flood of messages from Jihyo who just came back from her trip; pictures of her by the sea, eating live octopus, skating at a skate park and of a ferris wheel—
Wait.
Tzuyu ups the brightness on her phone as she zooms into a corner of Jihyo's picture at the ferris wheel and notices someone very familiar.
"Chaengie, Changie," she starts with gentle tapping, but it's no use, so she goes to shaking Chaeyoung's arm. "Chaengie, wake up!"
Her fiancee grumbles, shifting a little before slowly opening one eye. "What is it, baby?"
"Look at this picture and tell me what you see!"
She nearly shoves her phone in front of a sleepy Chaeyoung's face, who grows more confused with each second that she stares at the picture. "It's Jihyo-unnie at a ferris wheel? What about it?"
Tzuyu amps the brightness even more, "look at it again!" Her fiancee still doesn't get past her drowsy state and she sighs, "Chaengie, doesn't that look like Mina-unnie?"
Chaeyoung blinks blearily, "I guess?"
"Now look at this," she swipes to Mina's photo then back to Jihyo's. She does this three more times before turning to her. "Well?"
The love of her life seems to have woken up a bit, grabbing her own phone and checking the photos from her end. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's Mina-unnie. I guess they met in Osaka?"
"Chaengie, think harder."
Chaeyoung obviously still doesn't get it. "Okay, so an executive and a ballerina, who happen to be our best friends, meet and spend a day together. What could possibly go wrong?"
Tzuyu rolls her eyes—how could she not get it? She's sure that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong with those two. Or at least, as long as Jihyo's involved. "Jihyo-unnie and Mina-unnie meet and spend a day together."
She sees the recognition slowly dawning on Chaeyoung so she stresses, "Jihyo-unnie has met Mina-unnie, aka the person you kissed before our wedding."
Chaeyoung's eyes widen with fear.
"Oh shit."
Tzuyu sighs. Oh shit, indeed.