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“nicha, look at the dandelions. if you can blow all the seeds off at once, the person you love will love you back.”
as minnie gazes at too-pretty cho miyeon, laughing in all her princess-like glory, it seems as if the only thing minnie can think of are those words her mother whispered to her when she was a kid.
and minnie wonders.
she wonders if miyeon is made of dandelion seeds; her every movement seems just as delicate. she wonders if the “i love you” miyeon whispers to her, on chilly nights where they share a bed, means the same as the “i love you” minnie whispers back. she wonders if she should let go of the silly notion of loving miyeon; there's no way that she's into her too, right?
a hand is waving in front of minnie’s eyes, drawing the thai from her self-imposed daze. doe-like brown eyes gaze intently at her. miyeon’s too-pretty face is hovering inches away from her own, and minnie feels her face flush.
“yah, kim minnie! did you even hear anything i said?”
minnie chokes back the reckless words that bubble up her throat — words that would’ve sounded something like “cho miyeon i’m so in love with you” — and forces an eye roll at the older korean.
“your voice was too boring to listen to, so no.”
lies; minnie knows she would do anything to listen to miyeon speak, just to hear her angelic voice.
minnie doesn’t know what she’s doing when she leaves a small cutting of purple lilacs on miyeon’s pillow.
okay, maybe she does.
certain feelings can’t be placed into words, minnie knows that all too well. but she also knows the flowers speak louder than words ever could. they proclaim of first love — sappy, minnie knows, but she can’t help it. not when she’s far too aware of the way her heart rate spikes whenever she glances over at miyeon, not when she dreams blissfully of miyeon every night.
miyeon doesn't say much — if anything at all — about the lilacs, avoiding soyeon's teasing words, shuhua’s smirks and loudly protesting yuqi's exaggerated theories regarding the flowers.
(some of aforementioned theories included a stalker obsessed with miyeon's beauty, a secret admirer, and miyeon having a secret boyfriend; all of which earned the chinese a smack on the head and a "song yuqi! if you don't shut up…")
and minnie, with her own half-hearted jabs at the matter, feels her traitorous heart almost explode out of her chest when she sees the pale purple blossoms arranged neatly in a vase on miyeon’s desk.
oh, miyeon is going to be the death of her.
the next time minnie leaves flowers for miyeon is when she falls sick.
it isn't long after i am promotions have ended when miyeon almost collapses during vocal training, requiring minnie and yuqi to carry her weakened body out of the studio.
(miyeon hypothesises that the thrill of their debut had caused her temperature to spike. minnie, tucking stray hairs away from miyeon's warm forehead, chuckles softly and tells her to go to sleep.)
minnie spends all her free time — between her ever-demanding schedule — hovering in the older korean's room, wringing a cold towel over her head and feeding her seaweed soup soojin had made.
“minnie-yah,” miyeon whines that night as she tugs at minnie’s arm, pulling the thai to sit back down beside her in her bed. “stay, please?”
and minnie can’t resist, not when those too-pretty doe eyes are staring at her as if she’s some kind of saint. she tries her best to suppress the stuttering of her heart when miyeon wraps her arms around her waist, delicate fingers burning holes into minnie’s flushed skin.
when she's sure miyeon's fallen asleep, minnie pulls herself away from the korean despite her heart’s reluctance. it doesn't take long — not while her brain is running amok with so many words she would love to say to miyeon — for her to write lyrics for the chorus and come up with a title;
dahlia.
the next morning, miyeon awakens alone — to a faint, fleeting memory of minnie pressing a kiss to her forehead, and a pot of azaleas at her bedside with a yellow post-it note. with bleary eyes, she registers the familiar handwriting and initials, confirming a sneaking suspicion she’d harboured long before their debut.
there's a cup of noodle soup for you to reheat on the dining table, my dear! take care of yourself today <3
- MY
they're stuck in some sort of in-between; neither platonic nor romantic, hanging on a thread. seemingly unknown to either, but glaringly obvious to those around them.
it's most evident to a certain song yuqi, who's getting tired of their roundabout games. she's always been impatient, even more so when it came to love. hearing minnie’s voice soften into melted syrup as she says “我喜欢她，我喜欢 miyeon” ("i like her, i like miyeon") through the phone on a vlive right next to miyeon; god, it was just unbearable.
yuqi rolls her eyes as minnie continues to bicker with her, and she doesn't think when she asks, "so did you tell the public about your relationship?"
back in minnie's room, the duo freeze. tense silence crystallises between them, only broken by their simultaneous cries of "what?"
"why her?"
minnie feels her heart drop at the two words miyeon added, barely hearing yuqi laughing at their obvious panic. she doesn’t know whether to be upset or thankful that miyeon had moved away from her; she might've grabbed her and shaken her and screamed "what the hell do you mean by that?!"
both of them don't mention it after.
they've just argued, over something so petty minnie can barely remember what it is. she just knows she'd been… frustrated, very much so.
nowadays, when she looks at miyeon, her heart wrenches in on itself; she can't think of anything other than what miyeon had said. she's made up countless excuses just to worm her way out of a conversation with miyeon, because she can't bear the dull ache in her heart.
she's been working on dahlia day and night (to the point where even soyeon got concerned; ironic!) yet she just can't seem to get the music to flow, or the lyrics to sound right; everything sounds so wrong.
minnie hadn't realised it, but she's drifted away from her studio to soojin's dorm room, an automatic comfort since their trainee days. the younger girl had a way of saying exactly what she needed to hear in difficult times.
hesitantly, she knocks on the ajar door. soojin is on her phone, and from the lopsided smile on her face, she's probably texting shuhua.
(a pang of sharp pain stabs minnie's heart. would her and miyeon ever be like them?)
(probably not. at least not when minnie’s bent on avoiding miyeon so her fragile heart won’t break all over again.)
swallowing the knot in her throat, minnie softly calls out. "soojin-ah?"
"hm?"
"i have a… hypothetical situation for you."
soojin tears her eyes away from her phone, cocking her head at the older girl entering her room. "sure."
minnie sinks down on soojin's bed. "let's say before you and shuhua started dating, you weren't sure whether she was interested in you."
"uh huh," soojin says, a lilt of amusement in her voice. minnie understands why; she couldn't imagine shuhua ever not liking soojin.
"but then, after a while, something changed and you're not sure whether you're friends or… more? and she suddenly says something that makes you sure she doesn't even like you that way-"
minnie meets soojin's knowing gaze and groans. "look, i don't know! feelings are so… confusing."
"i know," soojin laughs, patting minnie on the knee. "and i also know this is about someone called cho miyeon, isn't it?"
"is it that obvious?"
soojin raises an eyebrow, almost as if saying seriously, nicha? seriously? "that you've been absolutely smitten with her since we were trainees? or that she's also totally into you, and everyone can see it but you?"
pick a struggle, minnie thinks bitterly.
then the last sentence hits her like a japanese bullet train. her head jerks up in surprise as the words click into place. "i- huh?"
"miyeon is very, very much in love with you too.”
minnie blinks stupidly at her, and it takes her what feels like forever just to shakily ask, "how would you know?”
“she came to me half an hour ago with a ‘hypothetical situation’ just like you, and ended up lamenting about how much she loves you and how sorry she is that she said such a reckless thing.” shaking her head, soojin laughs. “you two are really two peas in a pod.”
minnie doesn’t even hear most of what soojin had said; her mind is stuck on she loves you she loves you she loves you.
and suddenly it’s crystal clear what she has to do. minnie mumbles a quick “thanks soojin, i love you” before she’s gone.
when miyeon finally returns to the dorm after her busy day, the first things she sees are bright blue hyacinths on her desk and the note tied to their stalks.
meet me in the studio at 6? i’ve got something to show you.
- MY
“what’s your favourite flower, minnie?”
“i love dahlias. people always say roses are the flowers of love, but i think they’re really dahlias.”
“oh, why?”
“dahlias symbolise commitment and beauty, and they’re able to bloom when other flowers have died. don’t you think that’s way better than prickly roses?”
“you’re right, i think now my favourite flower is the dahlia too.”
“you copycat!”
minnie writes like she’s never written before, the pent-up emotions of the past few days, months, years spilling into her music. how had she never seen the glaring signs that miyeon (apparently) liked her back? she has no idea how, but she finally, finally finishes dahlia in less than an hour.
slipping her headphones off her head, she sighs and leans her head against the desk. maybe she could get some rest before-
a beep sounds at the door. “…min?”
it takes a minute for minnie’s weary brain to register that it’s miyeon talking, and it takes another minute to for her to drink in the sight of miyeon looking absolutely perfectly adorable in her pink bunny onesie. there’s a shyness in her gaze that minnie’s never seen before.
“hi. you’re… early.” her voice cracks in a way that she knows gives away too much.
"yeah, sorry," miyeon blinks and glances away. "what did you want to see me for?"
minnie wordlessly holds out her headphones, and — she doesn't even need to say anything — miyeon's already walking over to slip them on her head.
(minnie pretends not to see the adorable way her hair sticks up where the headphones are rested. she pretends not to see anything; maybe that’s why she never noticed how miyeon liked her back.)
she presses play.
the three minutes and ten seconds that pass feel agonising, yet minnie forces herself to stare blankly at a wall instead of meeting miyeon's piercing gaze.
"min?" the headphones are cast aside, and miyeon inches closer.
minnie hums under her breath, scared to meet miyeon's eyes, scared of seeing what's in her gaze, scared of-
"minnie, look at me."
and when minnie looks up, miyeon's so, so enticingly close. so close she could just lean forward and kiss her-
miyeon's lips are touching minnie's. her hands are running through minnie's hair.
oh!
oh.
minnie's brain stops. the only thing she registers in the moment is how miyeon's soft lips taste just like strawberry.
they finally separate to catch a breath, staring at each other with wide, star-struck eyes.
"oh."
"happy anniversary, minnie!"
"these… how much did you spend on these dahlias?"
"that's not important. but what is important is that i love you."
"i love you too, ramyeon. to the moon and back."