Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I swear to god, Yoo Jeongyeon. Drop that box with my expensive lamp and I'll burn your entire tennis shoe collection!”

“If you’re so worried then do it yourself!”

Nayeon and Jeongyeon’s voices rang over the neighborhood while six of the house’s driveways were filled with activity. Jihyo could only watch her two closest friends bicker from across the street with exasperation while helping her dad secure her stuff on the back of their car.

“Is it too late to switch to a dorm instead?”

Chaeyoung chuckled beside her, sweat lining her face as she struggled to hold a box properly due to its weight. “I thought you found it funny whenever they fought like that.” 

“Because I know that I have the safety of my own home to look forward to,” Jihyo’s face scrunched up in frustration. “Now I don’t even have that”

“You’ve been complaining all month but never actually switched…” By this point Chaeyoung’s arms were shaking from over exertion.

Jihyo scoffed at her younger friend. “Because Nayeon-unnie kept crying every time I opened the school portal.”

“Couldn’t you have done that wi-”

Her teasing was cut short when her arms finally gave out and sent the box tumbling down, Chaeyoung winced when the top opened and scattered Jihyo’s belongings onto the pavement.

Jihyo clicked her tongue in annoyance before bending down to help the younger one pick her stuff up. “This is why I always tell you to join me at the gym.”

“And I keep telling you that I’m too busy to go to the gym with you.” Chaeyoung rolled her eyes. Prompting Jihyo to raise an eyebrow.

“Busy with what? Laying on your bed like a damn potato?”

“Unnie”

Across the street and a few houses to the right Mina was busy moving her own stuff with a more competent helper.

“Thanks for the help, Dahyunnie,” She smiled brightly at the shorter girl. “This went by faster than I thought, all thanks to you.”

Blushing from the praise, Dahyun coughed awkwardly before smiling, “No sweat Mina-unnie, glad I could help out.”

“You didn’t need to though,” Mina sighed. “I know about your sleepover with Chae and Tzu,” Still struggling to close her dad’s stupidly heavy trunk lid before Dahyun’s hand shot out and swiftly closed it for her.

Mina blinked at the action, momentarily stunned by Dahyun’s new found strength before smiling at her in thanks. “I know you guys were planning to spend the night playing video games and getting drunk on soda. You guys should be focusing on that instead of tiring yourself out with helping us.”

The shorter girl shrugged and leaned her hip on the trunk, stuffing both her hands in her old red plaid pajama pants she never got the heart to throw out.

“It was really no problem unnie,” Dahyun grinned. “We’re all friends and that means helping you guys out whenever we can.”

“I still owe you one,” Mina shook her head. “I’m really glad to have you, Dahyunnie.”

Dahyun scoffed. “Well it was either me or twig arms over there with Jihyo-unnie.” She pointed towards the Park household where Jihyo was waving around a plate in front of a slightly terrified Chaeyoung.

“Hmm I guess you’re right…” Mina’s gaze stayed focused on them for a little longer than necessary while Dahyun’s heart broke in the same breath.

“Mina-unnie I-”

“MINA!” 

Both girls flinched at the loud voice before Mina was tackled from behind. Fortunately for her, Dahyun was quick to grab onto her so she didn’t fall on the concrete face first.

“Sana-unnie! Be careful!” Dahyun scolded while holding Mina upright, her entire focus on her despite addressing the older girl. Sana grinned at the two, not the least bit offended by Dahyun’s lack of attention before hopping off of Mina’s back.

“Are you guys done packing now?”

“We are, yes.” Mina winced slightly when her hip joint cracked as she stood upright, checks burning from embarrassment when Dahyun heard it too and a look of panic crossed her face.

“Don’t worry about her Dahyun-ah,” Momo said from behind Sana, tucking her chin on the taller girl's shoulder while grinning. “Minas bones are just protesting from all the work they’ve been forced to do.”

“I exercise!” Mina pouted. “I was literally the co-captain of your dance crew all throughout high school.”

“Then you spend eighty percent of your time in your room playing video games,” Momo countered. “Tell ‘ehm Sana.”

Sana nodded before going on about a study she recently read about spines and poor posture. While Sana continued on her lecture with Mina occasionally rebuking her points, she was a ballerina for eleven years for heaven’s sake! She did not have bad posture. Dahyun quietly gazed at Mina with an unreadable expression.

She wasn’t wearing anything special really, just a pair of loose sweatpants, her indoor slippers, and an oversized faded band shirt Dahyun was sure belonged to Jeongyeon. Dahyun briefly entertained the thought of the older girl wearing her clothes. Blushing from the thought of Mina wearing one of her oversized hoodies she turned away from the pair to stare at Jihyo and Chaeyoung across the street.

Momo caught the movement from the corner of her eye and grinned up at Dahyun with a raised eyebrow, the girl in question didn’t acknowledge her until Tzuyu’s voice broke their little bubble.

“Jeongyeon-unnies dad wants us all at their house for lunch, are you guys coming?”

Momo was the first to respond and started walking towards Jeongyeon’s house, always eager to eat the food Jeongyeon’s dad cooks for them. Sana laughs loudly at Momo's eagerness before hooking her arm with Tzuyu and following.

That left Mina and Dahyun who looked at each other in amusement. Both chuckled at how fast things tended to go whenever their friends were around. Dahyun sighed bittersweetly before saying softly.

“I’m going to miss you, Mina-unnie”

Mina answered her with a whisper, almost like an agreement to keep this conversation between them a secret.

“I’ll miss you too, Dahyunnie.” 

For all seventeen years of Kim Dahyun’s life, there have always been three facts that remain undisputed.

1. Chaeyoung’s basement as their group's main hangout spot.

2. Jihyo’s meltdowns can be preemptively stopped by a cup of black coffee. Bonus points if Sana is the one who gives it to her.

3. Kim Dahyun’s undeniable crush towards their quietest friend, Myoui Mina.

Secretly, Kim Dahyun knows of another fact that has threatened her sanity and friendship on multiple occasions. One so damning that she spent countless nights staring up at her ceiling, either praying to forget or laughing hysterically at her damn luck.

4. Myoui Mina is in love with Son Chaeyoung.

The first few weeks back at school were a big adjustment. Dahyun was so used to waiting for Momo on her front porch to head to school together that her feet moved towards her house without thinking. She waited for a while before angrily texting Momo to hurry up, getting more frustrated when she didn’t respond. It took until Momo’s mom opened the front door to remind her did the older girls absence finally sink in.

The majority of their friend group had graduated high school and is now a three hour train ride away. When they first told them their college plans the younger three were ecstatic. No more Sana forcing them to join parties with her and inevitably taking care of her whenever she got drunk. No more Jeongyeon constantly nagging them about their ‘messy’ rooms even if it was already tidy. No more Nayeon waking them up in the middle of the night to pester one of them to drive her somewhere, despite being the first one of the group to earn their license.

They can finally live life at their own pace, so why did they find it so hard to?

“It’s not just me struggling right?” Chaeyoung said in exasperation, putting too much force into setting her food tray down on the cafeteria table. “I feel like one of them is going to show up at some point.”

“No,” Tzuyu sighed beside Dahyun, already picking at her food. “Earlier I flinched when a door opened loudly thinking it was Nayeon-unnie about to pester me. So I shouted at them to leave me alone,” She blushed red at the next words. “Turns out it was my physics professor.”

Both Dahyun and Chaeyoung winced in solidarity before the older girl squeezed her shoulder in comfort.

“I waited by Momo-unnie’s house earlier,” Dahyun decided to share. “It wasn’t really that embarrassing until I waited for half an hour. Her mom even had to tell me she wasn’t here for me to remember.”

Chaeyoung shook her head at her friends. “I thought we were happy they were gone! Finally getting some peace and quiet,” She groaned and slammed her head on the table. “Why are we suddenly developing separation anxiety?”

“Maybe it's because we aren’t used to the quiet yet,” Dahyun offered, “Let’s give it another month for our minds to acclimate.”

Chaeyoung’s brow furrows. “And if we still can’t?”

“Well,” Tzuyu started. “We can always visit them can’t we?”

The table was quiet for a few seconds before Chaeyoung roughly slams her palm on the table. “Like hell we will!”

Tzuyu glared at her in embarrassment when she felt all the other students staring at them. “Will you calm down? It's not as bad as you’re making it out to be.”

“And give free ammunition to our enemies?” Chaeyoung shoots back. “Do you know the absolute shit Nayeon-unnie will start when she finds out we missed them after only a month?”

Dahyun nodded. “As loathing it is to admit, Chae’s got a point.” None of them were really eager to have Nayeon make fun of them for this, not when she could so easily tell Jeongyeon and have the both of them make fun of them.

“We can always count on Sana-unnie to call us at least once a day,” Tzuyu nodded. “She’s been really consistent with giving us updates. I can’t tell if that's a bad thing though because I don’t think I needed to know about Momo-uunie’s bathroom habits.”

The other two grimaced at the information before Dahyun added. “We’ll see them in a few months anyways when holidays roll around.” 

“Until then we all agree not to visit them.”

The three took one look at each other before raising their hand to shake on it.

Chapter Text

“Thank you for helping, Dahyunnie.”

Said girl was standing awkwardly by the door of Mina’s room. It wasn’t supposed to go this far, Dahyun thought. She was only meant to look at a distance, as creepy as that may sound. She couldn’t help it when missing Mina was slowly eating her up. So she promised herself while on the train to only take a look at how they (Mina) were doing. Dahyun knew their schedules, the older girls sent it on the group chat when they got it so that everyone knew where everyone was. 

So Dahyun waited by the south entrance of the college until she spotted Mina and followed her from a distance. Dahyun felt sick for doing this but she couldn’t risk Chaeyoung finding out so she didn’t try to get Mina’s attention, content to follow her until she reached her apartment before finally leaving.

That was the plan until Mina rounded a corner and when Dahyun moved to follow, got hit by a beaming Mina who quickly hugged her and asked how she got here. 

Chaeyoung was definitely going to kill her if she found out. Tzuyu wouldn’t say anything but she’d definitely give her one of her judgemental stares.

“It was no problem Mina-unnie,’ Dahyun shook her head. “I was just happy to help.”

“You have no idea how much money you saved me,” Mina laughed in relief as she continued to organize her closet. “When we came here to check the place out we didn’t really pay attention to the closets. So imagine my surprise when I started unpacking and one of the shelves came off.”

The shelf in question was an old wooden plank across the top of the closet. When Dahyun saw the rotted thing she scolded a blushing Mina for not checking the state of her room properly before she went to the store. Thankfully Momo’s dad had given them his old tools so Dahyun was able to attach the new shelf quickly. 

“I’m still wondering why it took you three months to fix.” Dahyun laughed while Mina looked at her with red cheeks.

“I couldn’t find the time to fix it. School started picking up and you know the rest of our friends are. Always demanding attention.” Mina defended herself.

“Alright you got a point,” Dahyun raised both of her hands in surrender. “I’ll check out the apartment before I leave. I don’t want to talk badly about other people but that doesn’t mean some people aren’t desperate for money.”

“I guess so,” Mina agreed. “Good thing I caught you at the right time.”

At this Dahyun finally remembered her predicament and grew nervous.

“Who would have thought one of your classmates owned an apartment near here,” Mina said lightly with a smile on her face. If Dahyun wasn’t so panicked she would have found the sight endearing but instead she was hit with the feeling of dread as the older girl’s wall clock ticked, anticipating the return of the other girls.

Because of course Mina decided to share an apartment with Momo and Sana, one of which lives off of gossip (Only second to Nayeon). So now Dahyun can do nothing but watch Mina fold her laundry while thinking of a way to leave without seeming rude.

“Right,” Dahyun nodded. “Speaking of that, I should probably go—“ Before she could continue Mina whipped her head around and gave Dahyun a pout.

“So soon? I haven’t seen you in months, Dahyun.”

She quickly closed the closet and walked towards the younger girl before grabbing her wrists and gently tugging her further into the room

“The other two have classes until seven,” Mina started while keeping eye contact with a flustered Dahyun. “So we have the apartment all to ourselves until then.”

Another few steps and the back of Mina’s knees hit her bed. She grinned at the feeling before tugging on Dahyun’s jacket sleeve roughly, causing both of them to tumble down on the bed. Dahyun was surprised for a moment before her reflexes kicked in and shot her arms out to brace herself. The action caused Dahyun to be on top of Mina, the older girl's hair splayed out on her mint comforter like a halo. Dahyun was about to stammer out an apology before the older girl's arms reached out to encircle her arms around Dahyun’s neck, pulling her closer until her face was just centimeters away from Mina’s

“I miss you, Dahyunnie.” Mina said, this time whispering it directly onto the younger girl's ear. “Stay for a while, please?”

How could Dahyun ever reject her when Mina said it like that? Her poor heart couldn’t take it anymore and finally collapsed beside Mina. The older girl giggled in victory while tucking her head below Dahyun’s chin while the younger girl’s arms snaked around her body securely. Both content enough in their position to close their eyes and let the hum of the overhead fan lull them to sleep.

Kim Dahyun didn’t remember the specific time she fell hopelessly in love with Myoui Mina. Looking back on it it was highly probable that she was always in love with her. But there was one memory she always defaulted to whenever other people asked her when she knew. 

It was the summer after hers and Chaeyoung’s elementary school graduation. The unnies prepared, well tried to anyway, a surprise party for them. Dahyun distinctly remembers getting dragged around town by a stressed out looking Momo periodically checking her phone every few minutes, presumably to check in on the party's progress. Of course, being the little shits they were, Chaeyoung and Dahyun decided to mess with her just to see how long she could go before cracking.

It was funny at first before Momo actually cried after Chaeyoung asked if we should get a cake and invite our other friends to have a party. It was delivered lightheartedly, not even meant to tease the older girl but she cried anyway. It took us multiple apologies and an ice cream cone before Momo calmed down enough to properly ask us to act surprised. By that point we just willingly agreed.

Once Momo finally got the go ahead text we finally made our way back to Chaeyoung’s home. Along the way she practiced her ‘surprised’ face for when the others surprised them. She was still feeling a bit bad about making Momo cry and tried making her laugh, which worked well enough.

While getting Momo to distract us was probably the worse choice it wasn’t like the rest were doing any better. The three of us could hear loud crashes from the basement and while Momo’s lips thinned in embarrassment Dahyun could only laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.

They didn’t even get to make it half way down the stairs before Sana jumped out of her hiding place while holding hands with a bewildered Jihyo who was dragged along when the older girl decided to tackle and hug the youngest two in congratulations. Soon the party was in full swing after the rest of the group greeted them.

Dahyun was content to watch from a distance. No one was upset about that and let Dahyun have her space, sometimes Nayeon or Sana would come up to her and pinch her cheek or kiss face in affection, sometimes Dahyun would catch Jihyo’s eye and they would nod their heads in understanding before the older girl would get dragged back into the chaos by an enthusiast Jeongyeon. They all knew Dahyun was grateful for the party, she just needed a minute to process before joining in later.

Right now it was Momo keeping her company on the small sofa. They both had a plastic cup each filled with Chaeyoung’s favorite strawberry soda and a plate of Dahyun’s favorite chocolate brand in front of them on the table.

“Dahyunie.” Ah damn it.

Momo snickered at Dahyun’s blushing face before standing up and making her way towards the growing crowd around Chaeyoung not before winking at Dahyun.

If looks could kill Momo would have been dead the moment she stood up.

Once Momo left Mina quickly latched onto her side with her gummy smile.

“Not joining the others?”

“Nah, I could already feel my ear drums bursting. Don’t need to make it worse.” Mina snickered.

“Congratulations again,” She whispered, only for me to hear as the rest of their friends were busy passing around a hyper Chaeyoung drunk on candy and soda. “I made this for you.”

It spoke how distracted Dahyun was to not even notice the paper bag Mina was holding on her lap. Dahyun shakily accepted the medium sized bag, careful to not touch Mina’s delicate fingers lest she embarrass herself by having a heart attack over the contact.

In an effort to not look more like a blushing mess Dahyun focused her attention on the gift. The bag wasn’t anything fancy, something you would find crammed into a drawer in your house, probably from a previous shopping trip. What got Dahyun's attention was the white sheer paper inside the bag. Curious on its contents she slowly lifted the paper and gasped at the thing  inside.

Carefully Dahyun lifted the handmade scarf from its packaging. It was black and white, with a checkered pattern. She remembered seeing this months ago, when she was at Mina's house hanging out. Back then it looked more like a handkerchief. Dahyun had asked her about it and Mina stuttered over her words before saying it was a blanket. The younger girl wanted to keep pestering her because of the cute blush spreading across her face before deciding against it. They spent the rest of the night watching movies on the older girl's laptop, the checkered creation forgotten.

“Mina-unnie, this looks amazing,” Dahyun said. ”You must have spent a long time on this.” 

Mina smiled. “It took me a while but it was worth it. I wanted to give you something special for your graduation.”

The older girl's eyes wandered a bit before settling on the crowd in front of them. Dahyun didn’t need to look since she could already hear Chaeyoung’s laughter loud and clear.

“I’m sure Chaeyoung will love the one you made her too.” Dahyun forced out, feeling the bitterness sink in. 

Mina’s eyes snapped back to look at Dahyun, an unreadable expression crossing her face before she shook her head. “Chaeyoung’s too reckless, she’ll lose it in a couple of days. I only made one for you because I knew you would take care of it.”

And just like that, little Kim Dahyun knew she couldn’t love anyone else.