Work Text:
Prompt: “You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, and yet I don’t regret a moment of it.”
(Prompt by m_yogurt )
You don’t know the truth.
“And here I thought you actually liked me!” Mina spat. “Turns out it was just a ruse. A betting game.” She scowls at Chaeyoung, tightening her jaw. “You really are a player.”
“You weren’t supposed to find out…” Chaeyoung tries to reason.
“That it was all a game?!” Mina takes a step toward Chaeyoung. “That- it was all a lie? And you never even liked me? Not one bit?” A tear starts prickling Mina’s eye.
“I did!” Chaeyoung’s hands are in front of her, wanting to hold Mina and hug her tight. “I did like you-”
“Oh! You “did” like me?” Mina cuts Chaeyoung and does air quotes with her fingers. “You probably “liked” playing and toying with my heart.”
“No I swear I wa-”
“You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.” A tear trickles down Mina’s face as she stares at Chaeyoung, as if she was thinking. A few more tears drop and turns around and walks away from Chaeyoung.
“ CUT! ” The director speaks through the microphone.
“I’m sorry! I forgot my next line so I turned around.” Mina raises her hand and laughs, admitting her mistake.
“Are you good?” Chaeyoung walks closer and offers a handkerchief. “I wasn’t expecting a tear to fall.” Mina chuckles, wiping away the tears.
“You girls were doing good,” He turned his attention toward Mina, “I wasn’t expecting you to cry and turn around. I have to say, I was impressed.” He nods at Mina’s acting. “Thank you JYP-nim.” Mina smiles at him.
Both girls get called by the hair and makeup team to get their looks retouched.
“Dang, Mina! I actually felt like my heart was crushed!” Nayeon, their hairstylist, commends Mina, “And the tears!” she grabs a hair brush, “Who would’ve thought that that would make you cry!” Mina smiles and shrugs.
"Nice acting out there, Mina Unnie!" Dahyun shows up out of the blue and commends Mina.
"What about me?" Chaeyoung playfully pouts at them, who smile in return.
"You were awesome, kid!" Jeongyeon walks towards them and gives Chaeyoung a hug.
"Though, why did JYP-nim cut that take?" Nayeon inquires.
"Oh, I missed a line. I even improvised and turned around, walking away." Mina explains as her hair is getting brushed by Nayeon.
"It was a good take though! If I didn't know you missed a line, I would've questioned JYP-nim!" Dahyun grabs her makeup kit and starts retouching Mina's foundation.
They all share a small conversation while Mina grabs her Switch and plays a few games.
"Mina-yah! What's your high score on that game!" Jeongyeon sees her playing.
"I think around 7.5 Million?" Mina continues playing. Jeongyeon blinks in disbelief.
"Girl! I can barely reach 5 Mil.!" Jeongyeon peers over Mina's shoulder and watches her play.
"You wanna try?" Mina intentionally kills her character off and offers the Switch to Jeongyeon, who gladly takes it.
The two talk and play together for a few minutes. Both their shoulders touch as Mina tries to explain what to do and what not to do during certain situations.
Chaeyoung, seeing all this unfold, is very clearly jealous. But the two were too distracted to notice her scowling at Jeongyeon.
"Calm down, Tiger," Nayeon notices Chaeyoung and goes near her. "They're just playing a game."
"But do they have to be that close?"
"Not really," Nayeon sighs and looks at their two gamers, "but don't worry. Jeongyeon is mine, and Mina is yours."
Chaeyoung's ears perk up, and she quickly whips her head toward Nayeon, whispering, "She isn't mine!"
"Uhuh," Nayeon, unconvinced, looks Chaeyoung up and down, "yeah, like I haven't seen you two with googly eyes for each other."
Chaeyoung opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out. Accepting her defeat, she shrinks back into her seat.
"Mi-Chaeng! The set's ready!" A random crew member calls out to their shared trailer.
Mina and Jeongyeon stop playing, and Nayeon and Dahyun pack their brushes.
After retouching both Chaeyoung and Mina's hair and makeup, they head back to the set. While walking back, Chaeyoung strikes a conversation with Mina.
"Did you have fun playing with Jeongyeon Unnie?" Chaeyoung starts. Mina nods saying, "Yeah. I kept beating her during duels," she giggled, "she didn't know what to do!"
"How come you only play with Jeongyeon Unnie?” Without thinking, Chaeyoung’s mouth moved on its own, voicing her thoughts out loud.
“I thought you wouldn’t want to play with me,” Mina looks down, staring at her shoes as they continue to walk.
“Who gave you the idea that I didn’t want to?” Chaeyoung accidentally snaps at Mina, who suddenly got upset at the tone Chaeyoung was using.
“You were never interested when I tried making you play with me!” Mina’s brows meet in the middle, her face filled with anger. “You fall asleep halfway through playing with me!” She points her finger accusingly at Chaeyoung, who had nothing to say.
“I am interested! I just had a long day at wo-”
“Don’t even try. I don’t want to hear your excuses. Just say it. You don’t like being with me.”
Chaeyoung was stunned with that last line. She wanted to tell Mina it wasn’t true. She wanted to reach out to Mina and say sorry.
But she is unable to do all that.
Mina walks faster toward the set, leaving Chaeyoung behind, stunned and perplexed at their argument. Chaeyoung tries to catch up, but eventually gives up, realizing now is not the time for this. They have a job to do.
"Alright girls, we know you messed up the line," JYP starts, Mina looks down and swallows hard, "but!" he notices the change of demeanor in Mina, “but, we decided that we will be going on shooting, with that line. Don’t worry about the script, think of it as an adlib.” He smiles at both the leads.
“And… Action!”
“Peng, I-” Chaeyoung’s character furrows her brows as she tries explaining herself.
“Wow. You still have the audacity to call me that nickname after YOU cheated on me! With her for God’s sake!” Mina’s character yells at Chaeyoung.
It sounded so real…
“And here I thought you actually liked me!” She tightens her jaw a bit early, “I thought you enjoyed my company!,” her brows furrow even further. Scoffing, she continues, “Turns out it was just a ruse. A betting game.” Her face starts to twitch, “You really are a liar and a player.” A tear appears in her eye.
“I- You-” Chaeyoung inhales a shaky breath, genuinely feeling like it was a real argument, “I was gonna tell you the truth! I just didn't think it would happen like…” Her breathing now uneven as she changes her line a bit.
“Like this?!" Mina finishes for Chaeyoung, "That it was all just a- a big scheme? Some sort of game?!” Mina imagines her love life like the game she played with Jeongyeon earlier, a mess and full of fights. “That- it was all a lie? And you never even liked me? Not one bit?” The thought pains her and the tear falls.
“I did!” Chaeyoung reaches for Mina’s shoulder, attempting to comfort her, but Mina brings her shoulder back, away from Chaeyoung’s hand. “I did like you-”
“OH! So you “did” like me?” Mina now takes a step back from Chaeyoung. “You probably “liked” playing and toying with my heart.”
“No I-” Chaeyoung could barely get her line out, she could feel something was up with the way Mina was acting.
“You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, Sonny.” Mina scowls at Chaeyoung and backs away. Not even looking back once.
Chaeyoung didn’t know what to do. She honestly felt hurt. She stares at Mina’s back and a single tear falls.
“I love you…” Her true feelings come to the surface.
She wasn’t acting.
“CUT!” JYP’s voice could be heard once again, cutting the silence that the set felt after their scene, “That was fantastic! It sounded so real!” he starts clapping.
Chaeyoung continues staring at Mina's back, still reeling from their argument. Though it was all an act, she knew those were Mina’s real feelings. And knowing that, she felt daggers poking at her heart.
"It was real…" Whispering the words to herself.
Mina looks up, attempting to stop the tears. She composes herself and finally turns around. She didn’t bat an eye toward Chaeyoung, walking past her to head to her little foldable chair.
Chaeyoung sees this and looks away, swallowing hard and blinking rapidly, attempting to stop the tears prickling in her eyes.
JYP stops clapping when he notices their lack of interaction and decides to end the day. Stating that they’ll be taking a break, so that the editors can start working properly without any more scenes added to the mix. A whole bunch of excuses.
Mina heads to their shared trailer and starts packing her things. Not engaging in the small talks and questions that the other girls were throwing at her.
When Chaeyoung enters the trailer, she and Mina lock eyes for a second. Mina looks away first and goes back to packing her things. Chaeyoung walks toward her and reaches out, “Mina, I-”
Mina doesn’t talk, instead she grabs her switch last and shoves it down her bag. Slings her bag over her shoulder, accidentally hitting Chaeyoung's outstretched hand and walks past her. Leaving Chaeyoung speechless. Again.
The other girls were just watching their unspoken argument and wondered what happened between their two friends.
Mina walked out the trailer, and to Chaeyoung’s dismay, Jeongyeon followed her out. Seeing this, Chaeyoung lowers her arm and walks to her side of the trailer, packing her things as well.
Chaeyoung gets bombarded with questions from the other girls, but she decides to not answer them. The girls took the hint and stopped.
Chaeyoung left the trailer breathing heavily, clearly fighting the tears in her eyes, looking so broken. Leaving the girls dumbfounded, looking at each other.
“What just happened…?” Dahyun breaks the silence. “Did they just…”
“Ignore each other?” Tzuyu finishes for Dahyun, “Yes. I think they just did.”
“Sana, do you think you can get to the bottom of this and reach out to Mina? And Dahyun can talk to Chaeng.” Jihyo asks Sana and Dahyun, who nodded immediately, understanding that this could be a serious issue.
“Nayeon Unnie, can you close your mouth? A fly could get in.” Jihyo smirks at Nayeon who had her jaw to the floor at the scene from earlier. She got a pout and a smack to the shoulder for that.
“Seriously though, what happened between them? They were doing fine earlier?” Jihyo asks the question everyone was thinking. Everyone looked solemn and looked down.
No one answered.
A few hours of attempting to reach Mina, Sana heads to her house.
“Oh! Sana! I didn’t know you were coming!” She tried to sound cheerful, but Sana could see her eyes were puffed and red. She had been crying. “Come in!” Mina invites Sana into her house and heads straight to the kitchen.
“I called you multiple times,” Sana pouts and sits on the sofa.
“Oh… My phone died, that's why I couldn’t get your calls,” Mina tried reasoning out.
If it died, it wouldn’t have been ringing on my end…
Sana didn’t push further. She instead tried to think of a way to ease the topic of Chaeyoung slowly into their conversation.
They talk for a few minutes while munching on some snack Mina took from her pantry.
“About earlier…” Mina starts and Sana knows instantly what she would be talking about. “You might be wondering…” Sana nods to assure Mina she’s listening, “what happened to Chaeyoung and I…”
There it is.
“She… I…” Mina seemed like she couldn’t find the correct words, “I messed up Sana!” She exclaims and flings herself at Sana, hugging the girl tightly. A bit shocked at the sight she’s seeing, Sana promptly rubs Mina’s back in an attempt at soothing her.
“I get it if you don’t want to talk about it, but at least apologize to her…” Sana tries her luck. “I’m afraid of what she might say…” Mina’s voice is muffled by Sana’s shoulder.
Sana smiles and pats Mina’s head, “Minari, what are you so afraid of?” Mina looks up at Sana and furrows her brows, “I’m scared that she might hate me after… I… said that…” Mina recounts her words from earlier and starts regretting them.
“Look, I don’t know what exactly happened between you two. And I won’t force you to tell me what happened. But please know she would never hate you.” Sana smiles down at Mina.
She loves you…
Sana frowns at the way Mina was thinking, knowing full well about Chaeyoung’s true feelings. Being the first and only person Chaeyoung trusts enough to share this secret, Sana really tries her best to not reveal anything. Not to the girls. And especially not to Mina.
“How am I gonna face tomorrow?” Mina lets go of Sana and shakes her head at the upcoming heartache she already feels for tomorrow.
“Just don’t do anything stupid,” Sana chuckles and grabs a piece of candy, popping it in her mouth.
Sana leaves a few hours later saying, “Charge your phone. I’m gonna keep tabs on you,” as Mina closed the door.
Mina sits back on her couch, thinking of ways to explain herself, trying to not be pessimistic and think of the worst that could happen.
“I don’t know what to do Dubs! She just- ignored me!” Chaeyoung throws her hands in the air in defeat as she recounts everything that happened between her and Mina. Dahyun just nods, brows knitted, taking in all the information Chaeyoung spat out.
“I think I messed up. I shouldn’t have said that! My stupid mouth just didn’t cooperate with my brain!” She slaps her mouth, “Are you even listening?” Chaeyoung sighs and slouches when she notices Dahyun’s expression. “Yes, I’m listening. I’m just… thinking…”
“I honestly don’t know what to do tomorrow, Dubs. I’m afraid.” Chaeyoung confesses.
“Chaeng, I think you just need to think of the bigger picture,” Dahyun finally says, “You don’t know what she could have been thinking at the time. She could have just- been in character?” Dahyun offers, shrugging at Chaeyoung who rolls her eyes. “You’re not much of a help Dubs.”
“Sorry,” Dahyun purses her lips, looking down at her watch, “Hey, I should go, JYP-nim needs me to do Jungwon’s make up,” she gets her bag to leave, “Oh! You’re doing a scene with him tomorrow by the way!” Dahyun closes the door.
That night, both Chaeyoung and Mina were googling “how to know if someone hates you” and “what are signs someone hates you” etc.
A knock could be heard at the trailer’s door. “Come in!” Chaeyoung, on her phone, yells out to the person behind the door.
Chaeyoung looks up from her phone to see Mina, carrying her shoulder bag, enter the trailer. They stare at each other for a few seconds then Chaeyoung swallows hard, unsure of what to say, she inhales sharply and looks away, acting as though she was continuing what she was doing on her phone.
Mina slightly frowns at Chaeyoung, wanting to say something. But with Chaeyoung brushing her off, she proceeds to her side of the trailer and sets her things down.
No one was in their trailer except for them. Yet they couldn’t find the courage to speak up.
After each girl gets their hair and make-up done, they wait for JYP’s call.
“Morning everyone! I hope you read and memorized your lines for today.” JYP clasps his hands in front of the actors.
“Jungwon, I’m gonna need you to be act panicked,” He instructs Jungwon before yelling, “Action!”
“Guys… we’re gonna need a distraction,” He looks at the buff guys about to close the door, “Like. Right now!”
Mina slaps Chaeyoung. Hard. Across the face.
“Ow- Hey!” Chaeyoung snaps at Mina.
“It’s all your fault we ended up here!” Mina raises her voice, “We wouldn’t have ended up here if we had just taken a different road!”
“Hey, hey, wasn’t it you who decided to snap and said you’d “take the wheel” and drive us here?” Chaeyoung finger-quoted Mina.
“I did that so that I could get some of your workload off! I know how busy you are!” Mina's brow burrows in the middle.
"You know you could have just told me what you really meant!" Chaeyoung exasperatedly sighs and is quick to flick Mina on the forehead.
“I’m sorry! I wasn’t thinking straight and went out of line!” Mina winces and reaches for her forehead.
“Excuse me ma’am, no need to fight. You will get out of here.” The extra calms them down and leaves the room.
“Was that enough time for you, Yang?” Chaeyoung sighs and tilts her head toward Jungwon, yet her eyes still stare into Mina’s.
“Yup, I managed to cut the card,” He grips the keycard with two fingers and shows the girls, “Let’s get out of here.”
The elevator dings as the doors close and they start rising to the top floor.
“We’re a team,” Chaeyoung starts the conversation, “we’re supposed to trust each other.”
“Yeah, well you didn’t trust me enough to drive the car.” Mina refutes.
“I do trust you!” Chaeyoung’s voice rises, clearly a bit upset at what Mina was implying. “I trust you with my life. Come on, Sharon, we’ve known each other since we were kids. You know how I do things.”
“We may have known each other for a long time, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that you suddenly disappear from my life and suddenly reappear years later just to lie to me. About our relationship. About your feelings...”
“Wait… You guys knew each other before you got together?” Yang asks, cutting in the girls’ conversation.
“Yeah…” Chaeyoung starts, “We were next door neighbors,” she points to Mina, “Went to the same elementary school. Basically got adopted into each other’s families. You know, the whole ordeal…”
“But then, one day, her family just… disappeared…”
“I can explain-”
“Save it for later,” Mina shuts her up, “One day, I got home from school to find a FOR SALE sign outside their house. I asked my parents about it, but they didn’t give me a concrete answer. She didn’t even leave a message, not even a note. She just straight up disappeared.” Their elevator gets halfway.
“After years of no contact, I started to put her to the past and moved on. I transferred schools every now and then because of dad’s work. And to my genuine surprise, the latest school I transfer to, she was there. Captain of the softball team. School heartthrob.”
Chaeyoung starts to reminisce about their past and a tear forms in her eye, so she looks down, avoiding both Yang and Mina’s eyes.
“I cried my eyes out when you disappeared on me, cub. I kept thinking about what I possibly did wrong. What went wrong, and where it went wrong. But I kept getting nowhere. And after what you did to me that fateful day. I don’t know if you’re still the same person I grew up with.” Mina lets it all out and Chaeyoung stays silent, accepting and taking in everything Mina confessed.
*DING*
“We’re here. Let’s finish this… later…” Jungwon tries to loosen the tension and they go back to their main objective.
“We did it!” Jungwon exclaims, hugging both girls, “Couldn’t have done it without both of you Noona’s working together.” His dimple shows up with how big his smile was. “Come on, let’s head back. The others are probably looking for us.”
“I’m sorry…” Chaeyoung tells Mina when Jungwon was out of earshot.
“I’m sorry too…” Mina looks down as they walk side by side.
“AND CUT!” JYP’s voice came from the speakers placed all around the set. “That was amazing, as always. Your argument earlier really felt real. I must applaud you two for that.”
Both girls had their heads down, eyes looking everywhere, pondering their next move.
“Mina, I-”
“Chaeng-”
They shut their mouths to let the other speak.
“You go first,” Chaeyoung nods at Mina.
“Chaeng… I’m sorry for what I did yesterday. I deeply regretted it once I got home. I don’t know what came over me yesterday,” Mina scoffed at herself for her behavior yesterday.
“I’m sorry too, Mina Unnie…” Chaeyoung apologized, “I was being rash yesterday… I’ve thought about it overnight, and it made me realize how I rarely spend time with you…”
“You haven’t called me ‘Unnie’ for a while now…” Mina chuckles at how formal Chaeyoung was with her.
“I should’ve asked if it was okay to not call you ‘Unnie’ anymore! I’m sorry about that,” Chaeyoung apologizes again, “I’ll start calling you ‘Unnie’ again, Mina Unnie.”
“Don’t.”
Chaeyoung tilted her head to the side, wondering what Mina meant.
Mina notices Chaeyoung’s expressions and elaborates, “Don’t call me ‘Unnie’... I’m fine with just ‘Mina’,” she smiles at Chaeyoung, who smiles in return.
“Okay… Mina…”
Both girls walk back to their trailer, still exchanging apologies despite both of them forgiving the other.
“I suppose they made up.” Jihyo notes aloud to the other girls as they see both Mina and Chaeyoung walking toward them with smiles on their faces. “What happened between them, Dahyun? Sana?” Jihyo asks both girls.
“Can’t say… She didn’t really tell me exactly what happened,” Dahyun shrugged and smiled, deciding to let the girls have their privacy. And Sana did the same.
Once both girls were nearing their trailer, Jeongyeon goes to Mina and slings an arm around her shoulders. “You did great out there!” She gives her a thumbs up, “You too Chaengie,” moving her hand a bit to show Chaeyoung her thumbs up.
Though Chaeyoung was a bit jealous at how easy it was for Jeongyeon to do that with Mina, she remembered Nayeon’s words from yesterday, “Jeongyeon is mine,” and relaxed a bit, but she also remembered the next words…
“And Mina is yours…”
Oh how Chaeyoung wished that were true already.
They finish shooting the rest of their scenes and head home.
But before heading home, both girls were left alone in their trailer to pack up their things, Chaeyoung goes up to Mina and asks, “Do you wanna go out for some coffee?” and she gets a gummy smile and a nod in return.
They didn’t tell the other girls that they were going on a little coffee date. They instead lied to them saying, “JYP-nim wanted to go over something with us at the office, you guys go on ahead. I think this might take a while.” The girls ate up their lie and left both girls alone once again.
“I’ll get a Caffe Mocha…” Chaeyoung tells the cashier then looks at Mina, “I’ll just take a donut and a glass of water, thank you.”
“Not in the mood for some coffee?” Chaeyoung asks Mina to distract her and pays for their food and drinks.
“Well, technically it is…” Mina looks down at her watch, “10:30PM, so I don’t think now would be a good time for some coffee.”
“Oh.” Was all that Chaeyoung could say as she looked down at her watch as well.
They slowly progress through the night, chatting and drinking away their drinks. Clearing up some misunderstandings and such, before eventually deciding that they’ve spent enough time there and that they both need to get home and get some sleep.
“Bye, Mina!” Chaeyoung waves at Mina as she gets in a taxi. “I’ll text you later about some ideas I have about the scenes we’re shooting tomorrow!” Chaeyoung yells out to Mina as her taxi slowly drives off into the distance.
“Good morning girls!” JYP greets them as they enter the set.
Dark circles are under their droopy, sleep-ridden eyes. “Good morning, sir.”
“Go get your hair and makeup done,” Noticing their eyes.
“Did you not sleep, Chaeyoung-ah?” Dahyun asks Chaeyoung as she applies foundation on Chaeyoung’s face. Chaeyoung smiles innocently at Dahyun, who sighs in return.
“I guess she’s not the only one who didn’t get sleep last night,” Nayeon’s voice calls out from the other side of the trailer. “Mina’s been falling in and out of consciousness the entire time I’ve been doing her hair.”
Dahyun and Nayeon share a look of mutual understanding. Pursing their lips and nodding slowly when they realize what might have happened between both girls.
After a few days passed, scenes were shot, some laughter shared here and there, they all cleaned their things and started heading out. They had finally finished shooting the movie.
All the girls decide to go to Mina’s place for the night to celebrate.
While the girls start pouring each other drinks in the living room, Mina sits out on the porch with a can of diet coke in her hand. She enjoyed hearing the girls in the background, while listening to the ambience of midnight.
Chaeyoung sees Mina on the porch and decides to take her glass of wine and another can of diet coke with her.
“Hi,” Chaeyoung sits on the seat next to the little table and sets down the drinks.
“Hey, why aren’t you with the other girls?”
“It was getting a bit chaotic in there,” Chaeyoung looks back inside at the chaotic scene, laughing at how these 7 drunk girls were her good friends.
It was silent for a while, both girls silently enjoying each other’s company.
“I just remembered the line I messed up a few days ago,” Mina says randomly, disrupting the silence. Chaeyoung hums in response.
“You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, and yet I don’t regret a moment of it.”
Mina gazes up at the night sky, looking at the stars above. Chaeyoung looks at Mina and licks her lips. The coldness of the night dried it up a while ago.
“I never hated you, Chaeyoung. And I definitely don’t regret a moment of it.” Mina’s heart was beating a million miles per minute.
“I like you.” Chaeyoung suddenly confesses.
Mina, taken aback at the sudden confession, stops looking at the stars and looks at Chaeyoung, smiling tenderly at the girl.
“You beat me to it,” Mina chuckles lightly, “I like you too, you little tiger. I have for a while now.”
They share a look full of fondness. Both smiling placidly at their shared feelings.
All the girls were too drunk and wasted to go to their respective homes, so they decided to stay at Mina’s place for the night.
While the other girls were asleep in the living room, Chaeyoung and Mina were in the bedroom playing on the switch. They finally have a moment together without cameras recording all their movements…