Close To Midnight

Chapter 32

Nayeon walked the velvety night under the moonlight, her fingers intertwined with Mina's. Every now and then, Mina would stroke the back of her hand with her thumb and look at her with a soft smile on her face.

"My parents are coming to visit next month Nayeon-chan." Mina began tentatively, glancing at Nayeon to scrutinize her reaction. "I've told them about you. Been telling them about you since I was eight." She laughed softly.

Nayeon nodded, toying with the dog tag necklace around her neck.

"They want to meet my knight in shining armour." Mina joked, trying to dissipate the nervousness that was blatant on the older girl's face. "You will meet them, right?" She stopped, turning to look at Nayeon with her doe like eyes.

Nayeon removed her hand from Mina's grasp and slid her arms up to hold her waist. "I-" She swallowed hard. "I haven't had family in a long time. I don't know how to behave around one." She turned to the side, looking at the shadows in the distance. "What if they want to meet my parents? I have no family, no background."

Mina felt her heart breaking at her words. Squeezing her arms, she put a hand on Nayeon's cheek and turned her face to gaze into her dark shining eyes. "You have me. I'll be your father, mother, best friend, girlfriend all in one."

"How do you make everything seem okay?" Nayeon whispered, taking Mina's face into her hands, stroking her cheeks with the pads of her thumbs.

Mina smiled up at her. "Min-Jun said and I quote That's because I'm like an angel or something."

Then something more magical than the moonlit night and the summer breeze happened right before Mina's eyes. Nayeon smiled. Her lips quirked up and parted, revealing a set of pearly white bunny teeth. Her smile extended deep into her soul, lighting up her dark eyes, reflecting the innocent and pure ten year old still alive inside her.

"Nayeon-chan." Mina breathed. "If you don't kiss me right now, I might die of a heartbreak."

"Anything to save a pretty girl." Nayeon surged down to meet Mina's lips in a kiss that was sweet and perfect. Mina looped her arms around Nayeon's neck, stumbling a little, laughing into the older girl's mouth when her back hit the wall of an old building.

"I love you." She whispered when they broke apart for air. She sighed as she nestled her face on Nayeon's shoulder, her eyes fluttering shut as she pulled the older girl tighter into her body.

She felt Nayeon's lips curve into a smile on the nape of her neck. Her chest fluttered with a surge of affection.

Her gaze directed to the right as she saw something dark move from the corner of her eye. "Someone's following us." She whispered into Nayeon's ear so as to not alert whoever was out there to the fact that they were aware of being followed.

Nayeon pulled back and turned around slowly, stretching her arms out in front of Mina.

A bullet fire sounded. It narrowly missed them and bounced off the wall next to Mina.

Nayeon didn't have time to think. "Come." She grabbed Mina's arms and they ran to hide behind a huge metal dumpster.

They crouched on their knees on the ground. "Stay here, don't come out until I ask you to." Nayeon panted, trying to catch her breath.

Mina tugged on the lapel of Nayeon's leather jacket. "Please be careful."

Nayeon nodded, laying a haste kiss on her forehead. She picked up a stone, throwing it to her left. It landed on a bike parked on the sidewalk. Another gunshot sounded. A bullet bounced off the two wheeler.