never | h.rj

16.

After some hours had passed, Mina found herself waking up. She had dozed off in the most unexpected position: in the arms of her enemy.

She looked up to see that he had also fallen asleep. Not knowing what to do and not wanting to be in an even more awkward position, Mina decided just to go back to sleep.

Nothing bad can happen if I'm sleeping, she thought to herself as she closed her eyes and gently leaned against Renjun's chest.

Now, it was Renjun's turn to suddenly wake up and assess the situation. He yawned and wiped his hand over his face before checking his watch. Shocked to see how much time had passed, he called out Mina's name.

He looked down to see the girl peacefully lying against him, resting. He took a moment to examine how pretty she looked while sleeping. No one ever looks pretty while sleeping, yet there was something about Mina's face being completely relaxed instead scowling at him like it usually was.

After taking about another half-hour to have an inner debate about whether or not he should wake her up, Renjun decided to ignore the part inside him that didn't want to wake her up. He checked his watch to confirm that it was the time she usually left, before carefully nudging her.

Renjun had forgotten how deep the girl slept. He tried shaking her and calling her name, but when she finally stirred she only turned to Renjun and wrapped her arms around him, holding him like a pillow before sleeping again.

"Mina," he called out to her in another futile attempt to wake her.

Then, it hit him. There's one way to wake Mina up that's successful every time. Since his hands were already in place, Renjun didn't hesitate. He tickled Mina on the sides of her stomach, where she was most ticklish. Instantly, the sleepy girl jolted awake. That didn't stop Renjun from continuing to tickle her, though.

As he continued to basically torture her, he enjoyed the sound of her laughter filling the empty house. He couldn't help but start laughing with her. He had always been so susceptible to Mina's laughter.

"Okay, I'm awake! Stop, please," Mina shouted through giggles, begging Renjun to release her.

"Hmm, fine," He replied, smiling at her. "Now that you're finally awake, are you feeling better from before?"

Mina nodded her head.

"Yeah, I guess the medicine finally kicked in and I was too comfortable so I kinda passed out," she chuckled.

"How long was I out?" She yawned, stretching backwards.

"Not too long. About an hour or so," Renjun replied looking at her stomach. The thing is, he wasn't even trying to look. He caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly glanced away before Mina caught him staring.

"I would have left you alone but I noticed the time and thought I'd better wake you up so you can get home."

"Well, thank you," she said, getting up from the sofa to collect her things.

"Seriously, thank you for everything, Renjun," she stated sincerely, now standing outside of his house.

"It was no problem, I just wanted to help so thank you for allowing me to do so," he chuckled. "Oh, and I'm sorry if I startled you earlier when I yelled. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Don't worry, I probably needed it or I would still be on the bathroom floor crying," Mina replied with a smile before walking to her car.

Renjun waited in the doorway, watching as she climbed into her car and drove away.

"What are you doing?" He questioned himself aloud as he returned to the sofa. He sunk into the fabric as he let out a deep breath, letting the recent events flash through his mind.

Before, he knew exactly how he felt about Saito Mina but now...

Now, it was different. He felt confused by all the feelings that rushed through him at the mere thought of her.

While on the topic of Mina, Renjun remembered one detail about her. Whatever was on her stomach. As he allowed his mind to wander, a thought crossed.

"Could that be what I think it is...?"

~

Safely making it home after thinking about Renjun the whole drive, Mina relaxed on her bed. She allowed the events of this afternoon to replay in her mind as well. It gave her the same feeling as the day he took her to get ice cream after her car incident.

"Ugh, no no no Mina," she told herself sternly. "He was just helping then, and that's all he was doing today."

While she denied the possibility that Renjun could possibly have feelings for her, she ran with the idea of them being best friends again and she actually liked it. It was too fresh to say she loved it but she did like it alot. Part of her was also nervous, there is a reason they stopped being friends in the first place, yet she still doesn't even know what that reason is.

~

The next day, Mina was walking through the hallway on her way to practice when she spotted Renjun walking in the opposite direction with Eunbin. For reasons unknown to herself, she felt a slight sting in her heart at the sight of them together.

She took a deep breath before entering the gym. Using all of her recent emotions as fuel, Mina left everything she had on the court, even if it was only practice. It ended up still being worth it because she seemed to please Coach Nayeon and finally make it off of her bad list.

"Mina, great job out there today! I knew you had it in you," Coach said, clapping her hands. "Go home today and get a good night's rest. Make sure you feed yourself well too, you've earned it."

Mina nodded her head as she headed out of the gym. The moment she stepped outside she felt the fatigue settle in. It wasn't much but she knew she would definitely be taking Coach's advice.

~

After feeding herself well as Coach Nayeon told her to, it was time to get that good night's rest. While it was her intention, Mina's mind had other plans for the night. The entire night, her mind was constantly racing and she just couldn't sleep. Now that she thought about it, it was strange how easily she fell asleep at Renjun's house. Normally, falling asleep was just as hard as it was this night.

"What made it so easy there?" She pondered out loud. "Is it an air freshener or something?"

Mina shrugged the thought off before her mind could run with it and bring up something hidden deep within her subconscious.

This chapter was originally supposed to be longer but I lost my train of thought, so enjoy this short chapter while I work on the next :)