Until Hell Freezes Over

CHAPTER 22

NAYEON'S HAVEN

MERCREDI 16:45

Nayeon, Momo, Sana drinking beer while watching Carol. Mina did not touch any can of beer, she submerged under her deep thinking.

"You have been like that since we got here," Nayeon said. They gathered an hour ago. "Spill it already. How can we help you if you can't voice your thoughts?"

Mina look at them with questioning eyes. She said in a doubtful tone: "Will she really stay?"

Nayeon guzzled the last morsel of beer and opened another can:  "Her eyes are different from others. She doesn't look like someone who tells a lie."

Mina shook her head lightly. She gathered her knee close to the chest, hugged them and rested her chin. "Someone had said it to me before, yet the word stay lost its value."

"It is about Irene, right?" Nayeon kept the talk. "Maybe it is time to tell us the real reason. We are sisters, right?"

The older girls kept lowkey about the past Mina holds. They know a little but they don't know the entire story. The girls have been there throughout time. Maybe Nayeon is right. Maybe it is the right time to tell them the truth.

Mina paused for a second and said in a forced tone: "We were supposed to be best friends for life."

Mina kept that fact because she felt so betrayed to even accept that person that has been a part of her past or even be proud of that person that they shared beautiful connection.

"Gosh, I really hate to mention anything about her." She buried her face on her knee. "Our friendship was not typical..."

A deafening second reigned before she raised lift her chin to continue.

"I got no father. My mother is not always there. I live with my grandparents every day, but they don't understand my feelings because they are old enough to handle teenage matters. Irene came into my life when I was in middle school..."

She reminisced the first time they meet. Her arms tightened around her knee.

"She made me feel the happiness and love that I was seeking for someone. We become close and eventually become best friends because she shared a lot of interest in life... She was my sunshine and starlight, however, she stopped shining on me."

Mina paused again. Her lips are shaking. It is painful for her to bring back the past that shattered her world.

"One day, on the meteor shower night, where we supposed to wished together about our friendship to last forever, she did not appear."

Water started forming inside her eyes: a spring of anger is about to overflow.

"Our friendship fall along with the falling stars... She left without a proper goodbye, no words she disappeared in my life. I cried like a goddamn babyㅡ"

"You are right now," Nayeon said, witnessing the tears of the younger.

Mina was crying like a baby upon recalling the memory. Their friendship is like a flood that can not be returned back to the mountain.

Momo and Sana immediately cage her between their arms.

Mina continued as tears flow: "That time I felt the universe hate on me. The universe doesn't love me like how I want the universe do to me."

"You should have said your feelings to us back then," San said in guilt tone: feeling that she could have done better as an older cousin. "Although we are apart, you know we are always on your side."

"Sharing my weakness is not my thing. You know that."

"Right." Sana pulled away. "But you shouldn't carry pains alone."

Momo mapped the tears of the younger. "Don't do that again."

Mina takes a deep breath. "It's so hard for me to trust again."

Nayeon went on: "We stayed with you without promises. We are not best friends, but we are your sisters. Family is stronger than any friendship. Give Chaeyoung a chance."

Mina shook her head. "She is out of our league. She can not bear witnessing my life like this. She will eventually leave me."

"Don't speak with end yet. Let's test her innocence." Nayeon crossed her arms: having a naughty plan in her head.

"How?"

"Do the things that you thinkㅡwill make her leave. Let us see if she can really tolerate your lifestyle or leave you in the end. How you like that?"