Chapter Text
February. Tuesday.
Im Nayeon stares out the window of the airplane she’s currently trapped in. For the last four and a half hours, she’s been crammed between the wall of the aircraft and some random stranger whose breath smells awful. She regrets not taking the aisle seat when she had the chance, but she wanted to take pictures of the outside world through the window. She wants to take pictures specifically with her camera—the same camera that’s currently in her carry-on bag in the overhead compartment. She has no access to said camera because she would have to talk with the stranger with bad breath to get through, and there’s no way she’s doing that.
Her plane lands at JFK Airport, and she scrambles as fast as possible to get her carry-on bag from the overhead compartment. Once she gets to the gates and can set her things down momentarily, she frantically checks her camera for any damage. There were several moments of turbulence during the flight that had Nayeon, although not a religious person, praying for the safety of her camera. Nothing is damaged, and it’s a relief.
As she heads to get her checked-in luggage, Nayeon recognizes the familiar face of her childhood best friend waiting for her at the arrivals gate. Park Jihyo’s holding a giant sign made from poster board that says “PHOTOGRAPHER EXTRAORDINAIRE: IM NAYEON!!”. It makes Nayeon laugh, and she grabs the sign before her face gets redder.
“I told you not to make a sign.” She snaps while snatching the sign, her tone playful.
“That’s exactly why I made one!” Jihyo pulls Nayeon in for a hug. “Welcome back home.”
“This is not home. LA is home,” Nayeon says as she pulls away.
“You were born and raised here, you can’t forget your roots!”
“Yeah, the suburbs. Not the city.”
“Same difference.”
Jihyo helps Nayeon get her luggage from baggage claim, and they haul everything into Jihyo’s car. As they drive into the city, Jihyo catches her up on everything she’s missed since they last called. Wedding plans are going great. Sana and Jihyo haven’t had a single argument throughout the entire process, despite things not going to plan. The caterer had accidentally double-booked himself, so they struggled to find another person last minute. Thank God for Dahyun and her connections. Speaking of Dahyun, her maid-of-honor speech is supposedly hilarious. Jihyo assures Nayeon that she’ll burst out laughing when she hears it at the reception. It’s also because of said speech that Jihyo has high expectations for Nayeon’s speech. Sana’s still sad that Momo can’t make it.
“Oh, actually,” Jihyo stops talking about how Sana’s still unsure what color she wants the napkins to be to look over at Nayeon for a moment. “How are you planning to get around the city? I know you’re probably itching to get out and take your pictures, but I can’t take you around like I usually do. I have a wedding to finalize.”
“I’m going to take the subway.”
Jihyo breaks suddenly, causing Nayeon to launch forward. She thinks they’re about to crash, the panic rising as a small scream, but her seatbelt catches her. A biker passes in front, shouting curses at them. Jihyo honks and Nayeon’s reminded of why she didn’t rent a car.
“Sorry, what were you saying?”
“I’m gonna take the subway,” Nayeon repeats shakily, only to hear Jihyo laughing hysterically.
“You’re taking the subway?” Jihyo can barely get her words out through her laughter as Nayeon stares blankly. “Nayeon, you can’t read maps at all. You get lost even with your phone telling you directly where to go. There’s no way you’ll survive the subway.”
“That was ages ago! Besides, taxis are extremely expensive, and I watched a YouTube tutorial before I left! I’m an adult now. I’ll be fine.”
Nayeon crosses her arms and huffs as Jihyo lets out another laugh. She goes back to talking about Sana’s napkin dilemma, but now Nayeon’s anxious. Despite what she had just told Jihyo, she has a feeling that her best friend is right. Nayeon can’t read a map to save her life. She always manages to go the wrong way or take a wrong turn, and more than once, she’s had to directly ask someone for help... only to get lost again. It’s a miracle that Nayeon manages to make it back home. It’s not like she has any other options right now, though, because there’s no way she could afford to take a taxi every day.
Soon enough, Jihyo parks the car, and they start walking to a restaurant Nayeon’s never been to before. Nayeon takes a photo of the New York City streets on the way in. Once inside, she takes a picture of Jihyo talking to the hostess. The restaurant is beautifully decorated, and Nayeon now wants to stay at the entrance for hours, taking photos of even the most minor details. The way each flower in each vase is tilted slightly to the right. The way chairs are weirdly placed because people have been sitting in them and forgot to push them back in before leaving. The way the sunlight streaming through the window perfectly accentuates the hostess’s features—
“Nayeon, I’m so glad you could make it!” Minatozaki Sana’s high-pitched, excited voice breaks her thoughts, and she almost falls over when Sana tackles her for a hug.
“Of course! I wouldn’t miss your and Jihyo’s wedding for the world. Besides, I have to see with my own eyes that someone can actually tolerate Jihyo long enough to marry her.”
“I can hear you over there!” Jihyo side-eyes Nayeon, which makes her and Sana laugh. “Sana already agreed to marry me, so I’d say she tolerates me...”
“Nothing is set in stone until vows, Hyo,” Sana chimes in, “and even then, divorce is always an option.”
“Did I miss anything? Sana ditched me while I was parking...” Kim Dahyun enters the restaurant to find Jihyo speechless and staring, mouth agape, while Nayeon and Sana giggle amongst themselves.
“Hey, Dubu,” Nayeon waves and hugs Dahyun, too.
Now that everyone is here, the hostess leads them to their table, where Nayeon finds herself seated between Jihyo and Dahyun. They order their drinks, and catching up with her friends is fun. While she rode with Jihyo, she thought she had gotten a lot of what she missed, but it turns out that Jihyo barely scratched the surface of it. She occasionally takes photos as she listens. Sana and Dahyun strike poses while Jihyo glares at Nayeon but eventually smiles for her pictures. The better part of their lunch is spent catching Nayeon up on literally everything, but the topic eventually shifts to wedding plans. Sana and Jihyo want Nayeon and Dahyun to help them finalize some things tomorrow. The rehearsal and subsequent rehearsal dinner is the day after. The big day is on Friday. Nayeon leaves to head back to Los Angeles on Saturday evening.
It’s only when Nayeon lets out a yawn that they realize how long they’ve been occupying the restaurant’s table. Dahyun paid the bill because she got to it first, while Sana and Jihyo were bickering over who’d pay it. Usually, Nayeon would also participate in fighting for the bill, but she’s too tired from the all-nighter she pulled to catch her red-eye flight. She’ll pay Dahyun back later.
The goodbyes are short since they’ll see each other tomorrow. Jihyo drops Nayeon off at her hotel, but not before telling her what time she’ll be back to get Nayeon for wedding plans tomorrow. When Nayeon gets to her hotel room, she immediately takes a shower. The tension she’s felt since she left washes away with her soap. She brushes her teeth, and she feels clean for the first time since she left Los Angeles. Refreshed. It’s like she can finally breathe now. In less than five minutes, she’s fast asleep.
•••
A few hours later, she wakes up to the loud alarm on her phone. Groggy and starting to regret setting up that timer, Nayeon shuts the alarm off. As she does, she gets a glimpse of the New York City streets through her window, and it’s dark outside. With her trip shorter and busier than usual, Nayeon’s getting dressed before her mind decides what she wants to take photos of. If she can get good shots, they’ll be perfect to sell when she returns home. Her most recent pictures of New York are from about two years ago. An update would do her portfolio some good. She grabs her camera bag on the way out.
Thankfully, there’s an entrance to the subway close to her hotel. It would be a bit embarrassing if she got herself lost on the streets of New York before she even made it into the subway. The machine dispensing MetroCards declined her card on the first try because she didn’t insert and pull it out fast enough. It declined her card the second time because she took too long to type her zip code. The third time’s the charm, and she gets her card but swipes it the wrong way when going through the gate. She hasn’t even gotten on a train yet, and Nayeon already hates it here. She manages to swipe her MetroCard the right way and finally gets through the gate, but stops in front of a giant map on the way to the boarding station.
By now, she’s decided to go to Times Square and take pictures of the enormous glowing billboards at night, but Times Square isn’t written anywhere on the map. Instead, it’s just a bunch of colored lines and color-coordinated letters with the occasional names of the boroughs in New York City. Nayeon’s pretty sure she’s somewhere in Manhattan, but all the colored lines completely avoid where MANHATTAN is written. If all of the colored lines aren’t in Manhattan, there where the fuck is she? What the fuck is this map?
Nayeon rubs her temples as she feels a headache coming on. The text sure is small for a map that’s huge and plastered on a wall. And really close together. And hard to read. She opens her camera bag and pulls her phone out to Google which subway station is in or the closest to Times Square and find out what subway station she’s currently in. Halfway through typing square, she feels a tug on her shoulder.
Instinctively, she grabs the strap of her camera bag but gets pulled to the side, almost knocking her off her feet. Looking up, she sees someone in a black ski mask clutching her camera bag in their hands. They tug again, and Nayeon flies forward, dropping her phone. She jerks the strap of her bag with both hands, fighting against the thief. It's clear she’s losing based on how they’re tugging effortlessly with one hand while she struggles with all her might. Panic is beginning to set in. This camera bag has everything she cares about in it, and her grip is slipping.
Suddenly, there’s no more tugging, but the thief is approaching her, fast and with a blade. They swing, and her reflexes kick in as she grabs the thief’s wrist. She should’ve learned earlier that this wouldn’t bode well for her because Nayeon’s easily overpowered, and the blade cuts her arm. She hisses in pain, letting go of her camera bag’s strap. The thief begins to back away, but not before she knees them right in the stomach. They drop her camera bag as they retreat away.
Nayeon books it for her camera bag, clutching it close to her chest when she manages to get ahold of it. She doesn’t even care that she’s sitting on the filthy subway floor as she rushes to inspect her camera, looking for damage. The lens cap popped off, but it looks like her beanie and gloves broke her camera’s fall. There’s no damage to the outside of it, and as soon as it successfully turns on, she lets out a sigh of relief. She lingers briefly, thankful and relieved as she tries to calm down and slow her breathing.
“Excuse me,” A soft, gentle voice speaks from behind her. “Is this yours?”
Nayeon turns around slowly, partially because she’s exhausted and partially because she’s now scared of strangers. This new stranger—who doesn’t look like a thief—stands above her, holding her now cracked phone.
Great.
“Uhm, yeah. Thanks.” She slowly stands, legs a bit shaky, and slings her camera bag over her shoulder. Nayeon reaches out to grab her phone, but the stranger suddenly retracts her hand, gasping. “Is something wrong...?”
“You’re bleeding.” The stranger says, one hand now over her mouth.
“Oh, that’s—yeah. I was mugged, well, not mugged because they didn’t succeed...uhm. What’s the opposite of being mugged?”
The stranger has now stuffed Nayeon’s phone in her pocket and is invading Nayeon’s personal space to look at her wound. As she gets closer and hovers her hands gently over Nayeon’s arm, Nayeon’s head is racing, full of what she’s considering saying.
This is weird. No, I’m fine! Ever heard of personal space? You’re way too close...
But she doesn’t say any of that. She’s just so tired. If this new stranger also wanted to mug her, wouldn’t she have done it by now?
“You really don’t have to do that,” Nayeon finally manages to say. “I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
“This is a pretty deep cut, and it hasn’t stopped bleeding yet. It’s not nothing. You shouldn’t talk about your health like that.”
Before she can protest, the stranger grabs her good hand and drags her toward the subway station’s exit. Nayeon wants to protest, but the warm feeling of the stranger’s hand in hers is rather comforting... so comforting that the thought of protesting leaves her mind completely. Being dragged through the streets of New York City by a stranger at night definitely isn’t pleasant, but something about this particular stranger doesn’t make it half bad. Her grip is firm and determined but gentle and welcoming.
As they reach a CVS, the stranger tells her to wait outside while she gets some stuff—something about not wanting to get blood on the floor. She’s barely listening, though, because they’re right next to Times Square. It turns out Nayeon didn’t even need to take the fucking subway to get there. Part of her is furious with herself that she didn’t even bother to walk around a little before heading to the first subway station she saw. However, it might’ve been better this way. She would’ve most likely wound up getting lost, anyway. Nayeon begins walking toward Times Square when she hears the stranger’s voice behind her.
“Where are you going?”
“Times Square. That’s where I was trying to go while I was in the subway. I didn’t realize it was this close.”
“You’re not going anywhere with your arm like that.”
Nayeon walks back toward the stranger with an agitated sigh. “Look, this is really nice of you to do and everything, but I’m fine. And also a random person. Why’re you going out of your way to help someone you’ve never met?”
“Because it’s my job.” The stranger replies, her tone kind despite Nayeon’s sudden outburst.
Nayeon never looked closely at the stranger this whole time, but everything starts to add up once she does. Her dark brown hair is tied up in a bun, held together by a large claw hair clip. She’s wearing scrubs underneath her trench coat. Her white work shoes are stained with what looks like dried blood, grime, and who knows what. She’s got her badge clipped to the breast pocket of her shirt. It might have her name, but the font is too tiny for Nayeon to read at this distance.
“Also, I still have your phone,” The stranger interrupts her thoughts. “So, if you want it back, can you let me help you?”
Right. Her phone.
Truthfully, she had forgotten entirely about her phone once she was dragged out of the subway station. She completely abandoned the idea of owning a phone once she saw Times Square. All she wanted to do was take some photos, but nope, that was not what fate had in store for her. Instead, she just had to get (unsuccessfully) mugged and get injured in the process because she was incompetent at fighting.
Nayeon sighs in defeat and extends her injured arm toward the stranger.
“Thank you,” The stranger says as she guides them to sit on a nearby bench.
Nayeon watches in silence as the stranger does her thing. She helps Nayeon get her injured arm out of her blood-stained jacket sleeve before pulling out a bottle that says iodine and some cleaning wipes from the CVS plastic grocery bag. She pours the iodine onto a cleaning wipe and warns Nayeon that it’s going to sting as she cleans the wound. It does indeed sting quite a lot, actually, and she has to resist the urge to pull her arm away from the stranger. After she finishes cleaning the wound, she wraps Nayeon’s arm with gauze and uses medical tape to secure it. She puts everything back into the CVS bag before handing it to Nayeon.
“You’ll want to change the gauze every time the blood seeps through, but you should stop bleeding soon. If not, go to the hospital. You’ll need stitches.”
The stranger fishes Nayeon’s phone out of her pocket and holds it out to her. Nayeon takes her phone and pulls out her wallet from her camera bag.
“Uh, thanks for all of this. I appreciate it. How much do I owe you?”
“Oh no, it’s okay.”
“No, seriously, how much did you pay for all the stuff from CVS?”
“It’s really alright—”
“It’s not fair that you had to pay for all of this because of me,” Nayeon holds out a twenty-dollar bill. “Can you at least let me pay you back?”
“Nayeon, I don’t want it.”
Nayeon freezes, and her blood runs cold. “How do you know my name?”
The stranger also freezes, realizing what happened. Her face reddens, and she bites her lip, unable to meet Nayeon’s eyes. The idea crosses Nayeon’s mind that this stranger has been stalking her, an idea that makes her want to call the police, but her gut tells her that isn’t the case. She would’ve had to be a dedicated stalker considering that Nayeon arrived in New York that morning. This stranger just seemed so... genuine? So kind and caring. She didn’t strike Nayeon as the stalker type.
“Your...your phone strap.” The stranger mumbles at first, taking her time to meet Nayeon’s gaze, although she isn’t any less red. “Your phone strap says NAYEON in lettered beads. When I found your phone on the floor in the subway, I read the name. I figured it was yours because your camera bag has the initials INY engraved into the strap. The NY is NAYEON, right?”
Nayeon looks down at her phone, confirming what she already knows is true. Sana was the one who made and mailed her the phone strap with her name in clear capital letters. On the other hand, her camera bag was a high school graduation gift from her parents. The leather’s worn, scratched, and went soft long ago. Still, her initials are as clear as day on the strap—capitalized in a font suspiciously similar to the one on her phone strap (Nayeon believes that this isn’t a coincidence, Sana knows how important her camera bag is to her).
“Yeah, it is.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No, it’s okay. I guess that’s what I get for plastering my name everywhere.”
The stranger laughs, and Nayeon watches as her eyes crinkle at the corners, a smile forming on her face, too. They laugh together for a moment, but Nayeon wishes she was better at holding in her laughter because she finds that she likes the sound of this stranger’s laughter a lot more than her own. For a minute, it’s like nothing bad happened at all today. As silence falls over them, the stranger bites her lip again and kicks at nothing on the floor.
“I’m Mina.” She says suddenly, offering her hand to Nayeon for a shake.
Nayeon easily takes her hand, and the familiar, comforting warmth is back when she shakes Mina’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mina. I’m Nayeon.”
“I know.”
“Ah, right.”
Mina smiles as she pulls back her hand. “I should probably get going, though. I have to get home and get to bed. I work tomorrow.”
“Yeah, of course.” Nayeon steps back to give Mina the space to leave.
“Take care of yourself,” Mina begins to walk back toward the subway station's entrance. “And it was nice meeting you, too.”
Nayeon watches as she leaves. Now that it's over, Nayeon can’t even believe it happened. Strangers in New York are supposed to be rude. They’re not supposed to be nice or friendly, and they’re definitely not supposed to go out of their way to help someone they’ll never meet again. But now that she knows the name of some random stranger, Mina, Nayeon can’t stop thinking about her.
Times Square is bright and full of life even at this hour. It’s a bit harder to get the angles Nayeon wants to take because one of her arms is injured, but she knows it would’ve hurt more if Mina hadn’t been there to help. People are giving her looks, and Nayeon wonders why at first (is it that obvious that she’s a tourist?), but then she realizes that it’s probably because her jacket sleeve is partially ripped open and stained with her blood. The blood’s on her camera bag, too, but it’ll wash out easier from her bag than her jacket. At least her wound is wrapped up, so her arm isn’t leaking blood anymore, and the blood isn’t on her precious camera.
Thank you, Mina.
When Nayeon finishes getting all the shots she wants, she heads back to her hotel via the GPS on her phone. Miraculously, she doesn’t get lost. The first thing she does is wash and condition her leather camera bag. It takes a bit of arm work to get all of her blood off, but that’s the least of her worries. Nayeon’s sure that her jacket is ruined. The sleeve is torn, and her blood has stained the fabric. Her fears become a reality when she fails to scrub the stain. It’s not as visibly bloody as before, and her jacket’s as clean as she can get it right now, but there’s an evident stain. She considers throwing it out, but the face of a particular stranger she met earlier that evening prevents her from doing so.