The Last Straw

It used to be another boring day after the other before. But Mina felt like it will never be like that. Everyday felt like a new obstacle; if she was going to make it into work earlier than usual, was she going to get home safe, who was going to ruin her day this time?

What sucked about all of this was that she didn’t want her life to change this way. She just wanted something ordinary to happen. Like finding the book she had been looking for at the local library or getting a discount for fish at the market since she had been buying from the same vendor for years.

But alas, the universe decided that she wouldn’t have an ordinary, boring life anymore. It wasn’t even the good kind either.

And now she had live in a constant state of fear and misery, just like that one ridiculous song Nayeon kept playing in their apartment a week ago.

She wanted to say she regretted a lot of things, but she wasn’t the type to do that. Everything had a lesson to learn, mistakes were inevitable and all she could do was to accept it, maybe try to be better at handling it. She just wanted the paranoia to be over.

Mina was trying to type on her computer, but the ticking of the clock was making her feel antsy. She used to be excited to go home, but at the moment, she was just worried that she was going to be followed again.

She sighed, leaning her back on her seat and stared at the paneling on the ceiling. She ran a hand over her forehead and felt vulnerable. It didn’t help that she was too overwhelmed by her date with Chaeyoung, she ended up blurting something out while she was hanging out with her friends.

“Feelings suck,” Mina suddenly said as they finished watching a cheesy, romantic movie on Momo’s television.

“Tell me about it.” Sana threw a piece of popcorn on the screen when the credits still showed the couple still kissing.

Nayeon shrugged. “I’m doing great.”

“Ugh, stop rubbing it in.” Momo rolled her eyes and ate a piece from the popcorn bowl. Then she turned to Mina. “But what happened this time, Mitang?”

Mina sighed and slumped further into the seat, letting herself cuddle more into Sana’s chest. “Just discovering more about the notorious Son Chaeyoung of the Dong Sok. Turns out that she’s just a big baby.” She groaned and covered her face with her hair. “And that she makes really great spaghetti.”

“Clingy, romantic and knows how to make spaghetti.” Nayeon counted with her fingers and wiggled her brow at Mina. “Keep seeing her and soon she’ll be your baby.”

“Fuck off.” Mina glared at her.

“Mitang, language,” Sana scolded, patting the top of her head gently and Mina pouted.

Momo narrowed her eyes towards Mina. “Are you saying you have feelings for Chaeyoung?”

“I don’t know,” she answered soflty, playing with the sleeves of her sweater. She knew that' was a lie because she did like Chaeyoung. It just felt scary letting other people know about it. Maybe she should deflect it somewhere else. “But she made it clear that she likes me.”

“Then what’s stopping you?” Momo quickly asked back.

“Uh—” She raised her hand out and grimaced. “The fact that she’s a gang leader?”

“And? Suits are hot?” Nayeon decided to add, making everyone roll their eyes at her.

“No! I can’t.” Mina tried to be firm with her decisions. It was just one date. It was just one kiss on the cheek. It' wasn't enough to outweigh the cons. “I don’t want to worry about the next time she’ll be brought to the ER again. Or end up in jail. Or dead—” The thought made her heart ache. “No, I don’t have the time and energy for that.”

“Sounds like you care about her to me.” Momo shrugged. “I mean, you went out of your way to bring her to the hospital because she got injured and it’s obvious that you were worried about her—"

“Momo!” Mina interrupted her, a deep blush was forming on her cheeks and then she threw her head back on the couch. “Ugh, not helping.”

“How about you sleep with her?” Nayeon suddenly asked and it made everyone whip their heads at her. “What? Maybe that’s all you need. To finally get laid again.”

“Nayeon!”

“What’s with you and getting laid?” Sana couldn’t help but giggle at her.

“Dahyun and her fuck regularly now and she won’t shut up about it.” Momo rolled her eyes again and shoved Nayeon harshly away from the couch when she leaned in with a big smirk.

Mina and Sana dropped their jaws and gaped at Nayeon. “What?!”

“What? Suits are hot.” The older friend shrugged again, throwing a piece of popcorn in her mouth. “Plus, I thought you guys would put the pieces together when I told you that we were dating.”

“With a gang member?!” Mina asked out loud, her face was so distorted, she could feel the lines on her forehead leave marks on her skin.

Nayeon glared at her and Sana, then finished the rest of the popcorn on the bowl, patting her hands clean and then pointed at them. “Okay, can you and Sana actually look me straight in the eye and tell me that you don’t want to fuck or make out with Chaeyoung and Tzuyu?”

The question made them blush hard and as expected, they both looked away.

“My point exactly.” Nayeon shrugged and laid back on the couch to pick out a new movie.

“Thank god I’m out of this.” Momo raised both hands and sighed.

But then the thing with Sana happened and her best friend hadn’t been the same since. She barely ate anything, she still watched rom coms on their television but she couldn’t do it without crying at every scene where the couple would touch or kiss.

Mina knew deep down inside she couldn’t be mad at Tzuyu. They put the pieces of the puzzle together and realized that the only reason why Tzuyu was mad was because she felt betrayed. That Sana didn’t tell her about Kazuha. But then again, they tried to reason with their friend that they weren’t even a thing. However, it didn’t really make things better for her friend.

But Mina being her over protective self towards Sana, wanted to just go up to the person and tell her the absolute truth.

Seeing Sana this sad was too much for her heart. This was probably worse than the first time, Sana looked like she was in so much pain and it made Mina’s heart break to see her like that.

There was a part of her that wanted to fix this. Maybe ask Chaeyoung to help clear things out with Tzuyu so that she and Sana could talk properly and then make up.

Then there was a part of her that felt like this was a good thing. Having Dahyun be involved in their normal lives as Nayeon’s girlfriend was already stretching it out. She couldn’t have another person from the Dong Sok meddle with their lives anymore.

Tzuyu was already making Sana dive into great emotional turmoil and Chaeyoung—she sighed; Chaeyoung was hard to trust again.

She was dangerous. All this time Mina thought she could trust her, and she did, she even let her in her house several times already. Mina should have believed in the signs, the thing with Joon, the stabbing, the kidnapping, the stalking. It all involved Chaeyoung.

It didn’t help that deep down inside she had become soft for that person as well. She knew that she was inevitably attracted to Chaeyoung. She knew that it was probably becoming a deeper kind of attachment.

Chaeyoung said she was beautiful, she was gentle with her, and she showed in several occasions that she cared for Mina. The two had a connection, it was undeniable. Maybe the kind that Tzuyu and Sana had. But theirs felt different.

There was a sudden comfort that Mina felt when Chaeyoung was there. She didn’t like to open up to people, but with Chaeyoung it felt easy. Sure, she was skeptical at first, but the more they saw each other, it made Mina tear down her walls bit by bit.

Genuinely, she would like to know Chaeyoung even more. Like talking more about her mom, her childhood, her art, or maybe they could do something together, that was… normal.

At the moment, it seems like a pipe dream. She didn’t know if she could even have a normal life with Chaeyoung. She didn’t even know if she really wanted to have her in her life. Mina had other important things to think about.

Like Sana, or what to cook for their dinner later and if she was going to go home safe that night without any more stalkers.

When the clock struck five, everyone around her scrambled up to leave their office, but this was the first time Mina didn’t rush to leave.

She thought that maybe if she took longer inside the office, it would throw off the Dong Sok members. She knew they were the ones stalking her. It was all too obvious.