Blooming [A MiNayeon fanfic]

It’s so difficult to not have too many things that you want to do. That was the thought that constantly plagued Mina, someone who strongly desired to simply do nothing. Even on days when she had nothing to actually do, she kind of had so many things to do. Should she eat? But she wanted to sleep. But she kind of also wanted to just roll around doing nothing. But maybe it was time for her to get some cleaning done. Maybe she wanted to write some poetry. Mina, the poet. Who really, honestly, just wanted to sleep. But she was also so hungry. Too much. It was too much for Mina. But that wasn’t all that Myoui Mina had to deal with. She was just about to go into 11^th grade and, well, Myoui Mina wasn’t sure who she was or what she wanted to do. But Nayeon had plans. Plans to find out who Mina is, that is.

            The two girls sat on the cross gabled roof of Mina’s simple holiday home, anticipating the sunrise (as per Mina’s suggestion), unlike the sunset they usually observed during their summers together. Getting onto the roof was an easy climb. First you headed out to the little balcony that was attached to Mina’s room. Then, once you looked to the right side of the balcony you’d see one of the many triangles of the roof. This was to be climbed with the help of metal steps placed there. This was one of the few places that could be used to access the roof for repair work.

The two had been sitting in silence for some time now, taking in the peace of the late hours of night (or perhaps early hours of the morning) as a light breeze blew through their hair. They looked over at the massive garden Mrs. Myoui had had built right outside the backyard the moment they had purchased the property; the space where the two girls had spent all of last evening.

            “You’re totally not a sunflower. No way.” Nayeon spoke, to which Mina raised a single eyebrow in amusement.

            “Right… I’m anything but bright and cheerful.” Mina sighed, a teasing smile playing on her lips.

            “Sure, there’s that,” Nayeon began, her tone light. “But you’re also not huge and weirdly shaped and scary,” she said thoughtfully, before turning to look Mina up and down. “I mean, you’re kind of like a sunflower? They used to be used to heal chest pains, you know? And you’ve always helped me with that,” she said, “but still… not a sunflower. You hit 5’4” and stopped growing, like, 20 years ago. Those suckers are 10 foot.”

            Mina could, perhaps, have responded with a witty diss of some kind. She could have taken offense at the height comment, brought up how Nayeon hadn’t grown a day past 5’4” either. But her brain had long been lost in a vaguely related thought. “Sunflower… do you think it would be good at basketball? If it was a person?” she asked. Nayeon pondered over the question for a moment, trying to picture the scenario.

            “Would it look like Daisy, from ‘Oswald’ with leaves and stems for hands and legs-”

            “Daisy is a daisy,” Mina interrupted.

            “-or more like a sunflower with people limbs?”

            “Hopefully like Daisy.”

            “Hm, let’s see.” Nayeon mumbled, rubbing her chin, eyebrows furrowed as she stared into the distance. Mina watched silently, her eyes focusing in on Nayeon’s hair that was blowing in the wind, looking strangely similar to a Bearded Collie, Ari, she had seen the other day. The dog’s fur, much like Nayeon’s hair, was streaked; chocolate brown with blonde highlights. Mina could never dye her hair. Nayeon had asked her if she was interested once, but Mina had simply said she wasn’t as bold her friend was. “Oh, well, I like your hair black anyway,” Nayeon had then said, smiling bright, her two bunny like front teeth distracting Mina from further thought, like they often did.

Mina fell in love with the streaked dog the moment she met him, mostly because he was a dog, but also because he played basketball. Well, not in a pro, human kind of way, but in a “I can bump the ball into the basket if it’s low enough” kind of way. Kinda like Air Bud, but not as good.

            Sunflower dribbled the ball with his giant leaf hand, his eyes set on the basket. He peeked at Ari from the corner of his eyes, trying to gauge what the dog would try to do. He took a few steps forward, very slowly (not by choice, it was because of his weird, long body), ready to take the perfect aim. But just as he raised his arms (not above his head, his leaf hands weren’t long enough), Ari began to circle him, moving faster and faster. “Wait, what-” Sunflower exclaimed as he turned to see what the dog was doing. His long body began to lean to the left, and Sunflower realized what was happening. “Oh no!” he exclaimed as his leaf hands betrayed him, failing to gain balance and save the man-flower from defeat. Sunflower went down like timber, and Ari got the ball onto his snout. The ball bounced up high into the sky and Ari jumped, making a swift movement with his head, sending the ball directly into the basket. If Ari the Average Dog could beat him, Sunflower probably wasn’t any good, was he?

            “They’re probably good,” “Probably not,” Nayeon and Mina said respectively, at once, then settled into silence once more. Nayeon sighed softly as she looked up at the full, round moon, that was still out to play. The moon had a bright glow to it, almost angelic, a kind that Kobe couldn’t offer, with all of its bright lights.

            “You can forget about daisies,” Nayeon finally said.

            “Eh?”

            “I don’t think you’re a daisy,”

            “Why?”

            “They close at night,”

            “What?”

            “Flower’s whole head closes at night and opens again in the morning,” Nayeon said, earning nothing more than a look of utter confusion, and another “eh?” from her friend. Nayeon smiled at Mina, with a little twinkle in her eye. Mina would have thought it resembled the moon, if she hadn’t been drawn in by Nayeon’s words. She was too busy thinking, wondering what kind of insult she would be receiving in the sweetest of tones.

            “Whose idea was it that we stay up all night and wait for the sunrise, instead of just waking up early like normal people?” Nayeon asked. Mina made an “O” with her mouth and nodded, before shrugging.

            “I’m going to sleep all morning, whether I stay up all night or not,” she admitted.

            “Not a daisy,” Nayeon said.

            “Not a daisy.” Mina agreed. Silence settled once more, and Mina found herself thinking about Daisy. From Oswald. She couldn’t quite remember much about Daisy, other than the fact that she was energetic, and was maybe Oswald’s love interest. She couldn’t quite remember whether or not it was canon, but she certainly remembered thinking they were. Either way, the idea that a daisy and an octopus could fall in love was absurd. But strangely hopeful. Hope that perhaps anything could happen. Nayeon also gave Mina that kind of hope. And that was why Mina always came to the holiday home during the summers, just so she could meet the girl who had helped her from the moment they had first met.

            It was four years ago, just when someone extremely important to Mina had left her side. UL had passed away. She wasn’t an immediate family member or a friend, no. But she was a singer that Mina had loved. Her music, her voice, even just her face had helped Mina process a lot of her growing emotions. UL was important to Mina. A fact that nobody in her family seemed to understand. 

           Mina sat on the little bench that was in the garden behind her holiday home, lips quivering, tears falling out of her eyes in slow trails as she played UL’s songs on her phone, to all the pretty flowers around her. Very, very, softly. She had been doing this for about 4 days now. There was no doubt in her mind that she would never like any other music ever again. Her grief turned even worse pretty soon, because it wasn’t long before her phone died. To be fair, she had been using it all day, playing the songs in this garden. The poor thing was bound to die, it was a wonder it lasted this long anyway. Still, she continued to sit in her garden by herself, when suddenly there was more music in the silent air. A guitar.

            Mina’s first thought, as a 13-year-old, was a question. How quickly could a person be driven to insanity? Had her brain already gotten so tired of the few songs UL had put out in her short life? Had she then gotten too used to the sound of music playing around her? Had that gotten to the point that she was fabricating new music in her head to fill up the empty space? And then she told herself that that was all nonsense and maybe she was being just a little bit over-dramatic.

           A few moments went by when Mina heard the soft voice singing along to the simple guitar strings. Perhaps Mina should have questioned why someone was singing in her garden, but she had gotten too lost in the voice, without even realizing she had. It was slow, and melancholic, and seemed to perfectly fit as the background music for her sorrowful flower watching.

            Mina never asked Nayeon why she was in her garden that night, but unknowingly, Nayeon had shown Mina that maybe she can still enjoy music that didn’t belong to UL. Mina later learned that Nayeon’s family had been the ones who recently bought the farm next door as their summer home. And the two had spent every summer together ever since.

            Maybe Nayeon was a daisy.

            “You could be a lily…” Nayeon started once more, bringing Mina back to earth once more. “Lilies smell nice, and you always smell nice…”

            “Don’t most flowers smell nice?”

            “Hm, yeah. You’re right,” the brunette said, rubbing her chin harder, her eyes squinting more as she looked on at the sky. “Besides, not all lilies are scented, so I guess it doesn’t really make sense…”

            “Aren’t they supposed to bring good luck, or something?” Mina said in an especially soft voice, trying to figure out whether that was a true fact or if it was a weird untrue fact her brain had randomly made up. Like that one time Mina was so sure she had a lovely memory of her grandma giving her milk with a special chocolate powder, back when she briefly lived with her, but everyone else in her family was pretty sure that there was never a time in any of their lives when Mina lived in grandma’s home.

            But yeah, if lilies brought good luck, then there was absolutely no way Mina was a lily.

            Lily sat on the bench at a park near Mina’s home, looking around to see if the person she was waiting for was anywhere nearby. She wasn't an anthropomorphic lily like Mr Sunflower. She was Lily from Mina’s art class. And 14-year-old Mina had the perfect gift for Lily. Earlier that morning, in her backyard, Mina had discovered a single lily growing in the far back, by the white picket fence. She didn’t know it was a lily at first, but her mother had told her it was, and immediately Mina knew what to do.

            Lily tapped at the wooden bench under her skin, rolling her eyes and groaning every couple seconds. Mina hadn’t shown up. The two weren’t really friends, but they saw each other at the park sometimes, and often waved at each other or made small talk. Mina didn’t know why, but she was a little fond of Lily. Looked up to her, perhaps? Probably.

            She couldn’t make it to the bench that evening. Well, she did, but no one was there. It was just Mina, a muddy, sad, crumpled lily, and a chocolate bar.

            In her excitement, the 14 year old had missed the puddle that was in front of her and had fallen dramatically, resulting in the little lily meeting her tragic demise. Mina had to run all the way back home, change into new clothes, and because she couldn’t show up empty handed, had to run out to the store and buy Lily a chocolate bar. Lily didn’t have a phone, so she couldn’t even call her to let her know of the tragic events that had befallen her. Her poor luck had caused her Lily story to end… poorly. They never really spoke after that day, because Mina had been to shy, too nervous, and simply couldn't get herself to approach Lily again, who remained upset for some time before moving away to a new city.

            Nayeon snickered to herself, bringing Mina back to her once more. “What?”  

            “I was thinking about that Lily story of yours,” Nayeon said, and the other girl sighed. “You have no luck, so Lilies are out,” she said. “You’re flirting game is crazy weak too-”

            “How is that relate-?”

            “-because lilies can also symbolize flirtation and you’re a doorknob,” Nayeon said, bumping Mina with her shoulder lightly. The latter furrowed her eyebrows, her cheeks turning red ever so lightly, then turned back to the horizon. She had never really thought about romance. So perhaps Nayeon was right. Probably.

            “The sun’s about to rise, I think,” Mina said, choosing to not comment on what Nayeon had just said. Later, maybe. Right now, the sun was so close to rising. She could see a tiny bit of orange peeping out of the horizon. Just a tiny bit. A very teeny tiny bit, but a bit nonetheless.

            “Roses are probably a no go too,” Nayeon said.

            “Because I’m not romantic?” Mina offered, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Her humor and delivery was often too deadpan, but Nayeon always got it. Nayeon shook her head.

            “It’s the thorns,” Nayeon explained. “Roses smell great, and they’re so pretty, but they have those demonic thorns. I hate them,” she said, tagging the statement with an over-emphasised, full body shiver.

            But Mina loved the flower.

            The Great Rose Heist of ‘16.

            Plot: Nayeon and Mina sneak into Mr. Park Jinyoung’s garden, and steal some rose stems for Mina to take to her home base in Kobe.

            The two girls had been sitting in the little gazebo built into Mina’s garden (the one at the holiday home), and Nayeon had asked her what was the one flower that wasn’t in the garden, that Mina wished she had.

            “I have it here, actually…” she started, thinking of the first flower that came to her. “But it’s a little weird how I don’t have it back home, considering how it’s so popular.”

            “Wait, wait, I wanna guess!” Nayeon had exclaimed, excited to challenge herself with a little guessing game. “Give me a little clue first,” she told Mina, after thinking for a moment. There were so many popular flowers it was hardly a clue.

             Mina thought for a moment before replying. “It’s kinda like you,” she told Nayeon, who responded with a look of confusion. “Everyone loves you, but you can be a little stabby… with your words,”

            “What the hell-”

            “It’s the truth,”

            “But I’m not like that with you!”  

            “I’m not everyone, though.” Mina laughed.

           “Okay, you know what. I’m going to get you roses, and you’re going to take them back home and you’re going to plant them, and love them everyday, and be devastatingly touched by my gesture, and be very sad that you ever even insinuated that I was anything other than just the rosy bit of the rose.” Nayeon announced as she hopped up to her feet.

           Of course, Nayeon couldn’t go buy the stems from a local flower shop, no that simply wasn’t enough of a dramatic gesture. And so, the Great Rose Heist of ‘16 just had to happen. It was the moment Nayeon snipped the last stem off that the door to the house burst open, and a very angry Mr. Park Jinyoung came out. “Who’s there?” he had yelled in his somewhat high-pitched voice, and in a panic Nayeon had grabbed the three stems and held them tightly in her left hand, gripping Mina with her other one as she ran away, laughing loudly in sheer glee. It was only after the adrenaline had worn off that she realized her entire palm was covered in gashes. What followed was a lot of excruciating pain and even more excruciating whining ( excruciating for Mina, that is). Mina had felt a little guilty when she left, because she couldn’t be there take care of Nayeon’s heist induced injuries in person. But to try and make up for that, she called her every day to check in.

            Mina wondered how her sweet roses back home were doing without her. She wondered if Sana was watering them properly, even though Sana had a huge garden of her own and was a completely competent gardener. Mina was still worried that Sana just didn’t have the power to nourish those roses the way she could, no matter how lovely Sana was. She didn’t possess the power that was contained in Mina’s love for her roses. Probably.

            Either way, the sky was now turning a light blue, with more orange and a little red decorating the horizon, light clouds becoming a little more visible as the light reflected off of them.

            “How’s about poppies?” Nayeon asked. It was mostly because the red in the sky reminded her of some poppies.

            “Why poppies?”

            “Poppy opium.” Nayeon said, those adorable front teeth amplifying the cheekiness of her smile, like they always did. Mina rolled her eyes with a small whine that only ended in a smile. “You’re always a little dazed. Drugs can do that to a person.”

            “Oh, is that why you like spending time with me, then?”

            Nayeon cocked her head to a side, and the light from the sky made her eyes twinkle once again. Immediately Mina that her friend was going to do something stupid.

            Nayeon braced herself with her hands, making her best attempt to get on one knee. Her eyebrows scrunched together, her full lips pouting as hard as they could as she made the best, overdramatic, smouldering, brooding look she could muster up.

            “You’re like a drug to me… like my own personal brand of heroin,” she said, making Mina giggle. Nayeon was good with the classics, after all. How could she not quote the cultural phenomenon for a book (and movie; saga): Twilight.

            Nayeon was rather proud of herself for making that reference so swiftly. It was unfortunate, though, that she wasn’t Edward. Because just as she nearly let herself go in loud laughter, right before she could really get into it, her foot slipped.

“Nayeon!” Mina exclaimed, reaching out, as Nayeon tumbled down the roof.

            Well, okay, it was hardly a tumble. Definitely more of a slide. And perhaps “down the roof” was a bit dramatic too, because she only fell onto the mattress in the balcony. The thing was, Mina had already fallen off the roof once before, and had decided she simply wasn’t interested in getting a concussion like the one that haunted her after that fall ever again. Sure, they could just not go on the roof again, but their time together on the roof was far too precious to her for that to even be considered as an option. Instead, she brought two mattresses and piled them on top of each other on the balcony. Which was where Nayeon had landed.

            “Did it work?” Mina asked, calling out. She got a pained groan as a response. She started to get up, wanting to go down and check on the other girl, but before she could, a had stuck up, thumb leading the way. So Mina then began to ask if Nayeon needed help, but the girl had already begun to climb back up to her. She settled down next to Mina, sitting nice and close to her, their arms brushing each other.

            Mina looked at Nayeon’s face as the latter faced the sky. The sky was a bright orange now, with hints of blue up high, the clouds reflecting the deep orange colour as well. The sun sat somewhere above the horizon, soft, light clouds dressing her front.

            “We missed the sunrise…” Nayeon grumbled, a half pout on her lips. She rested her head against Mina’s shoulder with a sigh, their hands sitting close to each other. Mina rubbed the tiles under her finger tips, watching the sun quietly, in thought. She wouldn't even have realized they missed the sunrise if Nayeon hadn't complained. “But that’s okay… This isn’t a one time only event, right?” Nayeon said, and Mina felt soft, plump cheeks rise against her shoulder. Nayeon was smiling. 

            “I think you’re a daffodil,” Mina spoke after a while, ending her sentence with a light yawn.

            “Daffodil?”

            “I wander’d lonely as a cloud,

            That floats on high o’er vale and hills…

            something, something, something

            something, something daffodils. I’m sorry, I forgot the rest,”          

            “That’s okay I know the gist of it…” Nayeon said, and Mina could still feel the smile against her shoulder. “You’re the poet, then?” Nayeon asked, her tone sing song.

            “It’s, um, William Wordsworth’s, it’s not mine-”

            “I know, Mina, my God…” Nayeon replied with a laugh, taking Mina’s hand in her own, intertwining their fingers. Silence settled once more, and the pair sat, side by side, on a cross gabled roof, looking at the post credits of the sunrise rolling over the horizon. There was nothing else there in the moment. Mina knew that she didn’t know much of anything on a normal basis or what she ever wanted to do. But she had an idea of who she was, here, in this moment, with Nayeon. And she knew everything about what was there on that fine morning. The sun, the clouds, and two friends. Probably. 

"...For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils."

- William Wordsworth ('Daffodils')