Turns out, Nayeon was adamant into always being as weird or, whenever possible, weirder than Mina, something about asserting dominance, and that the two were her bestfriends now, and vice-versa. She didn't accept any objections, and the girls learned, early on, that it was best to just agree, if they didn't want the eldest to just go on and do something stupid just out of spite.
Mina, on the other hand, was just socially inept, to put it lightly. She would think too much and then do something totally unreasonable because she focused too much on her objective and forgot the proper process of getting there, cue taking your pants off in front of a stranger to show something she could just pull up the pant's leg for. Jihyo found it endearing, seeing the girl fumble her way through things and trying to avoid much social interaction, simply because she was thinking about what to do. Nayeon would swear she found it annoying, but the other two never believed her.
Jihyo was supposed to be the level headed one, but she was too much of a hopeless romantic and too kind for her own good. She usually found herself being pulled out of trouble, or being barred from giving too much to anyone by her two best friends. She was an innocent and optimistic soul, the one who would give all of herself to assure the ones she loved would never need to be missing a single part, Nayeon and Mina would constantly worry over that, the younger one being much more vocal about her concerns, while Nayeon would be more of a doer.
It was sometime into their second year in middle school when a untimely transferee freshman came by and their little trio became a quartet. Tzuyu was a mysterious beauty, much like everyone believed Mina to be. Two people were very dubious about the newcomer, though, they saw how the young one's eyes filled with mischief from time to time, and a playful smirk would, discreetly, try not to spread on her lips. Nayeon, as expected, was the one to approach the girl first.
"Hello there! I'm Nayeon, and you are my friend, so you sit with me!" She proclaimed during lunch period, seeing the girl was looking a little lost.
"Nayeonnie, will you stop with the screaming that people are your friends all of a sudden?" Jihyo protested, then turned to the tall girl with a kind smile. "I'm Park Jihyo, this is Myoui Mina, it's nice to meet you."
"Chou Tzuyu, thanks for the invite." The girl answered a little awkwardly and proceeded to shake the others hands.
Nayeon, who was behind the newcomer, let out a loud gasp when she shook Mina's hand. The other three were more than confused when they saw her eyes were filled with tears and she had a disturbingly fond smile. Jihyo and Mina got the chills immediately, while Tzuyu was trying to get the girl to calm herself and sit down, other students were looking at them funny.
"Okay, will you tell us why you are like that, now? It's creeping us out." Mina said, still very disturbed.
"Tzuyu is your soulmate, Minguin!" Nayeon manages to let out on a whisper.
"What?" The three synchronized.
"Tzuyu's flower just bloomed when she shook your hand. You must have felt something." Nayeon said in a small protest.
"Well, it did feel different, and I did feel some unexplainable warmth. But I guessed it was just Tzuyu's charm." Mina explained too naturally.
"Okay, and how do you happen to see my flower blooming?" Tzuyu decided to ask something else and not question Mina's answer.
"You do realise you are wearing short sleeves, and your buds are in plain sight." Nayeon explained, gesturing to the girl's outfit.
"Oh, right. I forgot they are there. But did it really bloom?"
"Turn around and lift your sleeve, I'll take a photo and show you." Nayeon offered.
"Can we see it too?" Jihyo asked, truly curious.
Tzuyu just nodded and proceeded to let Nayeon take a picture of her, now, flower. Then just turned around to let the other girls see it, while she was looking at the photo herself. A wide smile spread through everyone's lips, Nayeon and Jihyo were just happy to witness a meeting between soulmates so early in their lives, Mina and Tzuyu overjoyed to have met each other. From then on, Nayeon had another best friend, so did Jihyo, and Mina had a soulmate to make fall in love with her.
"What flower is that, though?" Nayeon asked after contemplating a little.
"Ambrosia. Orange Ambrosia." Mina answered with the most lovable glint in her eyes.
"And how do you happen to know that?" Nayeon insisted.
"I don't know. I just know it is, somewhere in my mind, the information is there." Mina gives a uncommitted shrug.
"And that's the bell. You can question them latter, Nayeonnie." Jihyo says, getting up and being followed by the other two. She did have to drag Nayeon, though.
+++
The four became a rather tight knit group, although they did have their rough patches, they got to know each other and developed this deep connection among themselves. That's why, when Chaeyoung came along, dragging Momo with her, about two years later, they had to adjust and accept that some things would just be a 'them' thing, but that never meant the two were being set aside at all.
It happened in the morning of the first day of Mina, Nayeon and Jihyo's senior year, not that it would change much, seeing the high school division was just across the street, and they would never leave Tzuyu alone (Chaeyoung would be there now, but still). The older trio was heading to orientation, when they heard rushed scolding and the screech of sneakers against the hallway floor. There were still a good twenty minutes to go, so they didn't understand the rush.
It was when they reached a corner that something fairly small came crashing against Nayeon, who happened to be the one in the way. They all heard someone heaving some sort of apology, that's what it sounded like, anyways. And Mina was just laughing at Nayeon's face, while Jihyo tried to calm everyone down.
"What the heck?!" Nayeon exclaimed hater annoyed, her bottom hurt.
"Sorry, I'm sorry. We were late, and Momo was almost sleep walking, and then we still have to get our thing to our classrooms, an-" The small girl on top of Nayeon started blabbering.
"Calm down, let me help you up, here." Mina managed, as she found the girl adorably flustered.
"Oh, come on!" Nayeon nearly shouted, honestly annoyed this time.
"Come on, up with you. What's wrong this time, Nayeonnie?" Jihyo said in a huff, getting the girl to her feet.
"Mina is blooming again." Nayeon points to the other flower blooming on Mina's shin. Said girl was wearing a skirt and short socks for the day.
"She is what, now?! Wait, the kid is blooming too." Jihyo points out to the, then, flower under the shorter girl's right ear.
"The kid is Son Chaeyoung, nice to meet you." Chaeyoung mumbles in a very annoyed huff.
"She is right, though, Chae. Hi, I'm Momo, Hirai Momo." The girl who was being dragged by Chaeyoung introduces herself, as she seems to have regained her breath.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Park Jihyo. Forgive our rude introduction." Jihyo says, while she extends her hands for Momo to hake, and proceeds o do the same for Chaeyoung.
"Im Nayeon. Sorry, I got annoyed." Nayeon says as she holds Momo's hand to be hoisted up.
"You do know you are just blooming as well, right?! Oh, I'm Myoui Mina." Mina says too amused for Nayeon's taste.
"I'm what, now?" Nayeon asks, as Mina points at the older's arm, the vines unraveling themselves down her left arm.
"Well, lucky me, then. I've been looking for you." Momo tries to be flirty... Key word being try.
"Oh! Yeah, are you okay, Ji?" Nayeon asks truly concerned. She knows Jihyo is someone to take these things seriously.
"I'm great, but we should really call Tzu over, she should meet Chaeyoung as well, no?" Jihyo says, honesty very present in her tone, so her two companions relax a bit.
Tzuyu was already waiting for them at the auditorium, so, once they knew that, the other three just dragged Momo and Chaeyoung with them. Sure enough, Tzuyu's other flower bloomed as soon as she shook Chaeyoung's hand. And Mina could not be happier, she had another one to win over, and would get to share her journey with Tzuyu this time.
Nayeon was just amazed that her Ivy vines looked really beautiful, and Momo's yellow Dandelion, that was peeking out at her right collarbone, didn't seem to be that bad either. Chaeyoung, the artistic whore she was, got mesmerized at how the orange Ambrosia and white Carnation completed themselves so beautifully on her neck, while Tzuyu and Mina were giddy for, finally, having their white Lilies bloom so beautifully.
Things began pretty well, it was really a good start, but Jihyo couldn't help the feeling of intruding. She felt like a stranger to the people who knew her so well, like she was sharing a world that was not hers, so, naturally, she began filling her time with excuses to not spend time with the others. She got a part time job, decided to take more singing lessons and volunteered to work with the student council.
Nobody noticed at the beginning, Mina and Tzuyu were busy trying to woo Chaeyoung, Nayeon was happy that Momo wasn't rejecting her, so what was there to notice, really. Four months into the new school year was when Tzuyu, the one fondest towards Jihyo, raised the question during lunch.
"Have any of you been with Jihyo lately?"
"She was in class today, why?" Nayeon brought up, not so interested.
"No, I mean really been with her. I haven't really seen her for months already." Tzuyu insisted.
"Now that you mention it. We haven't talked outside classes since the second week of the semester." Mina remarks.
Nayeon untangles herself from Momo and gets into deep thought. Chaeyoung and Momo felt a bit of jealousy rising, for their partners were worrying for someone else and not paying attention to them. But they, too, were intrigued by the disappearance.
"You two don't know, but I think it's time you did." Mina starts. "You see, Jihyo is a good soul, too good sometimes. She would rather give all of herself for anyone to not hurt them. We worry about her, because she does still takes this 'destined one' thing very seriously."
Momo and Chaeyoung just nodded, signaling they were listening.
"So, the thing about her is, she might be this ball of sunshine and rainbows, but truly she never really had friends before us." Nayeon continues, in a very serious tone. "So, if she is away from us, it's very likely that she is just isolating herself again."
"And that means, she is, probably, working herself too hard to forget that she doesn't feel like she fits in anymore." Tzuyu finishes, rubbing her temples.
"So, you are telling us that she is just isolating herself because she thinks we don't want her around?" Momo asks with a very incredulous expression.
"And that she just thought it was better to fill her time with whatever else instead of talking to us?" Chaeyoung jumps in, just as unbelieving as the former.
"Yup. She is like that. She prefers to isolate herself and not force her presence to others than just come up and say something about it. That's the problem, we were focused on the two of you and never noticed her slipping away." Nayeon sound really exasperated.
"Okay, now I need to find that dwarf and knock some sense into her.... Maybe just knock her head." Tzuyu decides.
"Hey! She is taller than me, what am I, then?!" Chaeyoung interjects, before being shushed by Mina.
"Okay, so I'm going to her house tonight. Chae, Mo, please control that jealousy of yours, but I think the three of us should go and see her." Mina declares.
"We are not jealous." Momo tries to defend herself, but her blush isn't helping.
"It's okay to be, but you two should also understand she is our friend. We will go and reach out to her, and we will not spend the entire time with you." Nayeon ponders.
"Fine, I was jealous, but I know you four have this thing, and I'm trying to not let it get to me, alright?!" Chaeyoung blurts out.
"Good girl. But you two should try spending some time with her as well. She might surprise you." Mina concludes, patting Chaeyoung's head and getting indignant mumbles in response.