The World Is Big (But It's A Small World After All) [Mina x Sana]

The World Is Big

When Sana was in high school, her world was confined to the people she knew at school. It was only a narrow slice of the much bigger world, but Sana wasn't aware of that. To her seventeen year old self, high school felt like everything. The friends she hung out with, the reputation she had among her peers, it was honestly the most important thing in the world to Sana back then.

It's only when Sana steps out into the real world for the first time, as she stands alone--completely by herself--at her college orientation's social mixer event, that Sana realizes the world is truly big.

Sana takes a sip of her drink and leans against the wall. She spent 3 years of her high school life looking down on people who didn't fit into her crowd of popular kids. The nerds, the geeks, the theater kids, they were all beneath her in high school (especially the theater kids). But without any friends by her side at this unfamiliar college, Sana is now the one who doesn't fit in. She thinks this must be karma.

After ten minutes of looking around the room for a familiar or friendly face that she can strike up a conversation with, Sana feels like too much of an outsider here. She gives up and decides to leave. But apparently a swift exit is too much to ask for and Sana bumps into someone on her way out, her drink splashing down her arm in the process.

"Whoops, sorry," a very gentle voice says.

Sana doesn't bother to look up. "It's fine."

"...Sana?"

Sana looks up this time, surprised that there's someone here who knows her. She finds herself looking into a vaguely familiar, mole-spattered face. The girl's name escapes Sana for a moment as her mind gets caught between memories. Sana knows this person from high school, recalls working on a project with this girl before, a science project that resulted in a C+ much to Sana's delight and much to this girl's dismay. The girl in front of Sana was quite pretentious in the past, quite arrogant and stand-offish, and that project was the last time they ever spoke. Sana was a carefree cheerleader back then while this girl was an overly serious nerd... and then the name finally clicks into place.

"M-mina?" Sana responds hesitantly. She stares back at Mina in surprise even though Mina flashes her an easy grin, as though they're old friends instead of almost strangers.

"Hey, I didn't realize you were going to college here," Mina says. "Small world, huh?"

And Sana truly feels the meaning in Mina's words. Because out of all of the big name schools that the brilliant Myoui Mina was aiming for, it turns out family circumstances led her to come to this middle-tier college that none of Mina's other friends are attending. And Sana, who was originally planning to go to the escalator college* with her friends, ended up passing the entrance exams here and decided to challenge herself for once even though none of her friends were attending this college either.

[*Note: Escalator school systems include high school and college and don't require entrance exams, so it's easier to get into college if you stay within your escalator school system]

It's a conversation that lasts all of ten minutes, a short chat that has more pleasantries than meaningful conversation and includes Mina pouring Sana a fresh drink to make up for the one she spilled down Sana's arm. But it's a nice enough chat compared to the silence that Sana's endured most of the evening. And it comes with an unexpected twist:

"So... I know this is kind of sudden," Mina says as they're about to part ways, "but was I planning to sign up for a random dorm mate since none of my friends ended up going here. Any chance you wanna be roommates with me this year? Maybe go in on an off-campus apartment together...?"

It's an unexpected proposition for sure, but it's not altogether unwelcomed. Sana thinks about how she was also planning to take a random dorm mate, more due to lack of options than anything else. Given Mina and Sana's circumstances and the fact they don't know anyone else going to this college, becoming roommates makes sense. But really, how much does Sana know about Mina? What sets Mina apart from any other stranger aside from a smattering of distant high school memories that, if accurate, actually make Sana think she DOESN'T want to be Mina's roommate?