What the heart wants

Chapter 59

Nayeon stumbles out of the cab and utters a hurried thank you to the driver. She pulls the mask tighter around her face and covers her head with the hoodie on her coat.

And then she breaks into a run, feet kissing the concrete floor of the airport. The pounding noise of her desert boots resonates off the walls with an echo that matches the heart throbbing inside her chest with thick anxiety and fear.

Breathing steady, she opens the glass doors thankful for the pandemic for the first time because it meant very little people at the airport and no paparazzis.

She's sweating when she reaches the bottom of the steps to the departure area. People around her move with ease, flowing from the checkin desks through the departure gates, each one of them heading to their own destinations.

Her eyes scans the plasma screens of departure times on the wall of the airport. It shows Mina's flight has been delayed and she still has five minutes to stop the girl.

Sweat rolls down her skin in thick salty beads as she begins to bolt down past people lined up at the check in desk with their suitcases and baggage. She's vaguely aware of a stinging in her leg but quickens her pace to an all out sprint as she approaches the woman in the counter.

"I'm sorry the flight is just about to take off and we can't make calls now." The woman tells in a non apologetic tone.

Nayeon's lungs feel like they will burst because her throat is dry and parched as she jogs to the large glass window facing the runway. She touches the glass, dropping to her knees when she sees the majestic and enormous airplane take off, kissing the land goodbye.

Tears blind her and she turns, walking with the gait of a wounded soldier, legs numb and unsteady, short brown hair clinging to the sweat dripping down the side of her face.

A taxi takes her back to the dorm as she stares out the window at the dark sky with a defeated look on her face.

She climbs the stairs to the building, eyes burning and chest feeling heavy as if it is filled with lead. All she knew was that Mina was gone, out of her life.

A drop of water falls into her hand and she looks up to the sky and although it looks like it's about to break into a heavy downpour, she knows the water has dripped down from her eyes.

She opens the door to the room, past the girls gathered in the living room, eyes unfocused and blurred with tears and drops to the stool around the kitchen island with a heavy sigh. There, her tears burst forth like water from a dam, spilling down her face.

"She's gone. It's too late." Nayoen sobs into her hands.

She feels a familiar, comforting hand on her shoulder as she tries to stifle her tears. "Nayeon-tan, it's never too late for love."

"But she's gone Okachan." Nayeon's voice cracks with another burdened sob and then her eyes grow when she realizes what she has just said.

In front of her is Mina's mother who shakes her head with amusement and points over her shoulder.

Nayeon stares with wide eyes at the younger girl in the living room. She refuses to look away even as her body trembles and her shoulders heaves with emotion, afraid the person before her is a fragment of her imagination and would disappear if she blinked.

Mina wipes the tears pouring from her eyes, as her lips quirk up in the the most brilliant of smiles.

The other girls wonders if Nayeon is just going to gape at Mina all night. As if to answer their question, Nayeon walks to where Mina is slowly, as if in a daze.

The astonishment in Nayeon's face gives way to a teary smile as she gazes at the girl who's looking back at her with a shyness in her eyes and softness in her face.

There's a loud thud in Nayeon's heart and a noisy buzz in her ears as blood rushes to them.

"Hi." Mina's cheeks are kissed pink, the colour beautiful against her freckled skin.

Nayeon blinks and wipes the tear from her own eyes. The smile on her face grows wider with every passing second. "Hi." She stutters.

They both look away shyly for a fraction of a second, Nayeon trying to compose herself, Mina trying to crush the butterflies in her stomach.

"Hi." Mina repeats, and laughs because it's absurd how ridiculously shy she feels. But when she catches Nayeon's dark and intense eyes again, another blush burns through her cheeks, her face feeling like a hot even.

Nayeon feels a colour coming to her own face as she continues to hold the younger girl's gaze. "You're not going to say anything else?" She breathes out with an unusual shyness in her voice.

Mina looks up at her, her beautiful eyes teary and shining, her face smiling and soft. "I love you."

Nayeon lets out a breath she hasn't realized she's been holding as her heart swells and flutters in her own chest.

"Thank god." She chuckles through her tears, eyes shining brightly as she pulls Mina into her arms, hands wrapping around her, body melting into the younger girl's, every muscle losing its tension and grief to the pleasant night air.

Mina melts in the warm swaddle of the older girl's chest and arms. She doesn't want to leave because the world seems to have stopped still on its axis. This is the love she's waited for, prayed for and she thanks the heavens above inwardly and hugs all the tighter.

"I love you too." She hears Nayeon whisper and smiles with happiness and relief into the older girl's loudly beating heart that matches her owns.

She was finally home.