im nayeon’s guide to obtaining a glucose parent

Chapter Text

Step 3: LURE

Nayeon sits on the number in her phone for a full two days before she finally decides to try and type out a message.

It takes her longer than she’d like to admit to find the number because Sana, who apparently wants to make Nayeon’s life as hard as possible, didn’t save it under her own name. After scrolling through her contacts, however, it was quite obvious what Sana saved it under, and Nayeon is not impressed.

[Nayeon] i hate u

It takes a long time for Sana to reply, a fact that surprises Nayeon. She had guessed Sana would be the type to text back almost instantly. 

[sugar mommy ;)] Who is this?

[Nayeon]: u know who 

[sugar mommy ;)] I really don’t

[Nayeon]: yeah ok sugar mommy…

[sugar mommy ;)] Really who is this??

[Nayeon]: can’t even remember your own sugar baby smh

[sugar mommy ;)] Did Sana give you this number? I don’t know what she promised you but I am not going to be your sugar mommy

Nayeon pauses when she reads this, a strange sense of dread coiling in her stomach.

[Nayeon] wait is this not sana

[sugar mommy ;)] No I’m her friend. Who are you?

Please no, Nayeon prays in her head. Surely Sana isn’t that cruel, is she? 

[Nayeon] i’m nayeon

[???] Oh hi Nayeon

[Nayeon] hi?

[???] This is Mina

“Motherfucker,” Nayeon hisses, throwing her phone across the room.

She’s gonna murder Sana next time she sees her.

“So Nayeon,” Jihyo begins. “I got a text today about a party happening on Friday from a random number signed Sana. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

Nayeon blinks, a piece of pasta hanging from her mouth. How the fuck Sana even found out her friend’s number, she’ll never know. Finally, she mumbles out a hesitant, “no?”

“No?” Jihyo repeats, tilting her head in faux innocence. “I feel like I remember hearing about a Sana recently. Do you remember, Jeong?”

“I think I do,” Jeongyeon responds, and there’s a hint of a smirk ghosting over her lips. “Something about being a friend of Grocery Girl?”

Nayeon hates how they’re always ganging up on her. Fucking couples. “I have no idea who you’re talking about.”

“Huh, strange,” Jihyo says. “I guess you wouldn’t care if we went then, right?”

“Isn’t this Friday date night?” Nayeon says quickly.

Jihyo waves her off. “Sana had made the party sound so fun. It’d be a shame to miss it.”

Nayeon huffs, a little desparate. “Well what about the last party you guys went to?”

Jihyo’s eyes narrow at the low blow while Jeongyeon looks about two seconds away from launching herself over the table and strangling Nayeon.

A quick backstory: The last party they all attended, Jeongyeon and Jihyo went a little wild. People kept hitting on Jeongyeon, and Jihyo, after drinking a tad too much, finally got fed up and pulled Jeongyeon onto top of the table to make out with her. Heatedly.

Nayeon had been the one to drag her friends down before they could give everyone a free show, and the Uber home had been traumatizing — Nayeon in the passenger’s seat with a middle-aged man who looked like Jesus while Jihyo and Jeongyeon sucked faces in the backseat, complete with smacking noises and all.

“I thought we agreed to never mention that again.”

“You were groping—”

She’s silenced by a piece of broccoli. Literally. Jihyo somehow managed to perfectly throw a piece of broccoli in her open mouth. Nayeon sputters as it lodges itself dangerously far in her throat.

“Anyway,” Jihyo says calmly, like Nayeon’s not choking four feet away. “I assume you’ve already been invited, so we should go together.”

Nayeon hacks up broccoli bits into her napkin before scowling. “I don’t want you to come.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“Watch me,” Nayeon says, waving her fork threateningly.

She doesn’t trust her friends, not if there’s the potential of them ganging up on her with Sana, and especially not if Mina’s going to be there. They’re only going to that party over her dead body.

Nayeon walks impossibly slow up to the door, feeling like she’s being led to her execution. She hears the loud music thumping and the voices of countless people inside, and the pit of nerves in her stomach grows a tiny bit bigger.

“Knock already,” Jeongyeon mutters after a solid twenty seconds, smacking her in the back for good measure.

Nayeon shoots her a dirty glare. “Hit me again, Yoo, I swear to God…”

Jeongyeon hits her again. 

Nayeon lunges at her and they begin to grapple in the middle of the hallway, trying to gain the upper hand.

“Children,” Jihyo sighs. It falls on deaf ears.

“Yield,” Jeongyeon demands when she manages to get Nayeon into a headlock.

“Never,” Nayeon hisses, trying to flip Jeongyeon over her back like she sees in all the movies. She only succeeds in lifting Jeongyeon up a few inches off the ground, leaving the other girl balancing precariously on Nayeon’s back. “God, why are you so heavy.”

Jeongyeon gasps and begins to thrash around. “You little—”

There’s a dull thud as Nayeon collapses, taking Jeongyeon with her to the ground. She wheezes as Jeongyeon lands flat on top of her, knocking the air out of her lungs. That doesn’t stop the impromptu wrestling match though. Nothing will until someone yields.

The door swings open, and Sana stares down at Jeongyeon sitting on top of Nayeon and shoving her face into the floor while Nayeon hurls muffled insults at her.

“I thought you were single,” Sana says after a second. She tilts her head curiously at the sight.

“That one is my girlfriend,” Jihyo says, stepping gingerly over the two. “Nayeon is very single and very lonely. It’s quite sad.”

Sana grins, her eyes glinting in a way that Nayeon knows is not good. “So you must be Jihyo. I think we’re gonna be good friends.”

They both enter the apartment, leaving the other two behind on the floor.

“Yield, Im,” Jeongyeon says without letting up on Nayeon’s head.

At this rate, she’s gonna get a nasty case of rug burn on her face AND breakout in the morning. How attractive. “Fine,” Nayeon grits out. “I yield.”

Jeongyeon immediately rolls off of her, smug victory emanating from every pore of her body. Nayeon wants nothing more than to smack the dumb grin off her face. 

“This is what, my thirteenth win?”

“I hate you,” Nayeon says, flipping her off for good measure. She walks through the entrance before trying to slam the door in Jeongyeon’s face.

The scuffle lasts a few long moments, with Nayeon trying to prevent Jeongyeon from coming in while Jeongyeon throws her entire body weight against the door to stop it from closing all the way.

“Nayeon?”

A familiar soft-spoken voice has Nayeon turning to meet Mina’s eyes. Then she tries not to choke on her own spit when she sees what the other girl is wearing. It’s nothing elaborate or flashy, just a crop top that shows off her toned midriff in a way that should probably be illegal.

Jeongyeon shoves open the door at that very moment, hard. It knocks right into Nayeon’s shoulder, and she stumbles away with a pained groan. Holy shit, that was going to bruise in the morning.

Jeongyeon runs her hand through her hair and ignores Nayeon clutching her shoulder and glaring daggers into her. She grins at Mina instead. “Hi, I’m Jeongyeon.”

Mina muffles her laughter through a small cough. “Mina.”

“Ah, so you’re the infamous Mina. Nayeon talks about you a lot.”

That bitch.

Mina’s eyebrows arch in curiosity. “She does?”

“I think I see a frat boy hitting on Jihyo in the kitchen!” Nayeon interrupts before Jeongyeon can open her big mouth again.

Jeongyeon curses and takes off with a quick goodbye to Mina.

“Works every time,” Nayeon says once Jeongyeon is a safe distance away, shaking her head.

“So you didn’t see a frat boy hitting on Jihyo in the kitchen?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny that.”

“What?” Mina’s expression turns teasing. “Scared she was going to expose all of your secrets or something?”

Nayeon’s saved from answering by a shot glass being shoved into her hand. She turns to see Momo looking at her expectantly.

“Entrance fee,” Momo explains with a grin. “Unless you don’t drink, which I totally support—”

Nayeon downs the shot.

The liquid scorches her throat going down, but it’s what she exactly needs to be able to talk to Mina without staring at her collarbones every five seconds. Still, the bitter aftertaste has her resisting the urge to gag.

“That was disgusting,” she manages to say. “What the fuck was that?”

“Burnett’s,” Momo says cheerfully. At Nayeon’s betrayed expression, she shrugs. “The entrance fee shouldn’t be good vodka. Now c’mon, you’re just in time for Boom Cup.”

Chaeyoung and Dahyun, as it turns out, had gotten here a little earlier and are both at the table already. Chaeyoung’s discussing something with Jihyo, and a blushing Dahyun’s warding off a clingy Sana, who looks like she’s trying to give her a fat kiss on the cheek.

Nayeon raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything. She’ll give Dahyun tons of shit the next time she sees her anyway.

Sana takes the time to explain the game, but Nayeon tunes her out. She’s twenty-two, of course she knows how to play Boom Cup. In fact, she’d say her years of practice has made her fairly good at the game, a feat considering she’s notoriously terrible at anything involving hand-eye coordination.

Mina nods at the unoccupied space where they’d squeeze around the table. “Right or left?”

“Right?” Nayeon answers after a long moment. Then she wouldn’t be gunning for Mina to drink every time she got the ball. Call her chivalrous or whatever.

“Oh thank god,” Tzuyu mutters from her spot — directly to the right of where Nayeon has claimed. She fixes Nayeon with an indecipherable look. “You’re in for a surprise.”

“Should I be scared?” Nayeon asks.

Mina just shrugs. “Boom Cup isn’t my best game.”

Nayeon tries not to think too hard about the vague answer. Like she said, she’s pretty good at the game, able to keep up with even Jihyo sometimes. She should be okay.

The first surprise comes early in the game, right after Jihyo slots the ping pong ball into the cup on her first try while Nayeon’s fumbling to get the second ball into her own cup. Figures, Jihyo’s always been a beast at this game.

“GET HER!” Jihyo screams with the rage of a thousand people as she slides the ball across the table to Mina.

Only a second later, Mina slaps Nayeon’s cup to the floor.

“Fuck,” Nayeon says. She drinks accordingly and resumes the game. Okay, so she might be a little rusty. It’s not like she plays Boom Cup often anymore. She just needs to warm up.

The second time Nayeon gets the ball, she doesn’t even get a chance to attempt to bounce the ball into the cup before Mina slaps her cup away.

Nayeon swallows thickly before downing another cup of beer.

When the same thing happens for the third time, she turns to Mina with betrayal in her eyes. “Are you some kind of Boom Cup god?!”

“No,” Mina says, right as Tzuyu, Sana, and Momo chorus a loud, “yes!”

Nayeon tosses back another cup of beer.

The cups in the middle are dwindling quickly, and there’s only six more cups before the Bitch Cup. She’s 99% sure Sana made it, and that alone has her praying that she isn’t the unlucky soul to drink it.

Nayeon barely avoids drinking as she and Mina make it in at the same time.

She makes it in before Tzuyu and smacks her cup away. Five more cups now.

It goes around the entire table, with Jeongyeon and Dahyun drinking. Three more cups left, then the Bitch Cup.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Nayeon chants when she gets the cup. Her fingers fumble around the plastic ball as she misses the cup three times, and she tries not to panic at the sight of Chaeyoung sliding her cup to Mina.

Nayeon drinks. Again.

Two more cups. Nayeon’s palms are sweating.

Her turn is coming way too quickly for comfort, and she half-hopes that someone else will have to drink the Bitch Cup before it even gets to her. But she’s always had shit luck.

Chaeyoung drinks after Dahyun makes it in, leaving one more cup of beer. 

Mina drops the ball and it rolls under the table. She retrieves it quickly, but not quick enough. Chaeyoung slaps her cup to the ground just as Mina straightens up.

“Oh shit,” Nayeon says, and then Mina’s sliding the cup to her while simultaneously drinking the last cup of beer. There’s nothing left between her and the Bitch Cup now, and Mina’s gearing up to royally fuck her over. Once Mina is done with that beer, no one can save Nayeon except God himself.

“GO MINA!” Jeongyeon and Jihyo shout, pounding on the table. “DESTROY HER!”

So much for roommate solidarity. Nayeon’s first shot bounces off the rim. She scoops up the ball, tries again.

She sees Mina set the newly-empty cup onto the table from the corner of her eye. Mina positions the ball, preparing to end the game, and end Nayeon along with it.

Nayeon takes a deep breath, a wave of calm overtaking her. It’s now or never. Her fingers curl around the ball and flick downward. It’s a perfect shot, hitting the table at just the right angle. It seems to happen in slow motion, sailing perfectly through the air toward the mouth of the cup…

Mina smacks her cup so hard that it flies across the room.

Cheers erupt in wake of her cup’s launching, and Nayeon watches the ping pong ball bounce against the table again and again until it finally stills. 

“I thought Boom Cup wasn’t your best game,” Nayeon says to Mina.

“I got lucky,” Mina says.

“Lucky,” Nayeon repeats, tone somber. 

“Drink up, Nayeon!” Sana says, motioning toward the Bitch Cup. 

It’s filled to the brim with an electric blue liquid, and Nayeon’s stomach is already churning at the sight. She grimaces and holds it up to examine it. “What the fuck did you put in there?”

“Oh this? It’s just an AMF.”

“Ah,” Nayeon says. It sounds familiar, just at the tip of her tongue, but she can’t place the name exactly.

Sana nods with a grin. “Don’t worry, I’m quite the talented bartender.”

Despite Sana’s reassurances, Nayeon hesitates when the rim of the cup touches her lips. It smells sweet and fruity, but it doesn’t cover the strong scent of liquor. Nayeon takes a deep breath and tips her head back to take a tentative sip.

It actually tastes good. That’s her first mistake.

Nayeon chugs the rest of the cup easily. After that shot of Burnett’s and multiple cups of cheap beer, this was child’s play.

That is her second mistake.

“Woah,” Jeongyeon says, as Nayeon brandishes the empty cup in victory only a few seconds later.

“Woah,” Chaeyoung agrees. She sounds like she’s in awe.

“What?” Nayeon asks. Everyone just stares at her, and she wonders if did something terribly embarrassing, like spilling on herself.

“Do you know what AMF stands for?” Mina asks.

“No?”

“Adios Motherfucker,” Sana breathes out. “And you chugged it in like five seconds.”

Nayeon blanches as her eyes dart between the empty cup and Sana, horror unfolding in her stomach. Now she remembers what an AMF is. 

Oh shit.

It’s pretty much a blur after that.

They all take a shot together — it’s not Burnett’s this time, thank God — before playing another round of Boom Cup. Nayeon makes Mina stand to the right of her this time and she only drinks twice because of that. Chaeyoung is the unlucky soul stuck with the Bitch Cup, which is made of some different concoction that Sana dubs as the Irish Trashcan.

Then came an obligatory game of Beer Pong, which Nayeon and Chaeyoung get completely demolished in. Tzuyu is ungodly good at it, and although Chaeyoung swears she’s not into jocks, Nayeon was sure she was about to drop to one knee and propose right then and there.

She thinks she takes more shots after that, but she can’t really be sure because the alcohol started to kick in a while ago. All she knows is that the AMF did most of the work, and any shots after is just the cherry on top.

“Another shot!” Nayeon says, slurs really. “Jello shots!”

“Jello shots!” Jeongyeon choruses, leaning over to high-five Nayeon. They fail miserably.

“No more shots,” Jihyo says vehemently, the most sober of the three roommates. “It’s going to be a nightmare getting you guys into the Uber.”

“But Jihyo,” Jeongyeon says, her bottom lip jutting out in a way that Jihyo is weak for, and completes the look with her sad puppy dog eyes.

Nayeon’s pretty sure Jihyo would smack the shit out of her if she ever pulled that expression, but Jeongyeon has Jihyo melting slightly. “Fine. One jello shot.”

They cheer like the children they are, and Momo already has them covered because she’s shoving the jello shots into their hands only a moment later, raising her own jello shot for a cheers. It goes down smoothly, or as smoothly as a jello shot can. 

Oh, Nayeon is so fucked for tomorrow. She’s going to have a raging headache at best, and puking her guts out as soon as she wakes up at the worst. 

Nayeon pushes that out of her mind for now and searches for the main reason she came tonight (not that anyone has to know that). She doesn’t see Mina right away, but she does find Sana mixing something by the counter. 

“Hey!” she says, raising her voice to be heard over the music. “You know where Mina is?”

Sana smirks at her knowingly. “Perhaps.”

“You owe me!” Nayeon says, outraged. “I called Mina my…my sugar mommy because of you!”

“You should thank me for that,” Sana says and rolls her eyes. “She’s out on the balcony. If you fall off, it’s not my fault.”

Nayeon thanks her and begins weaving through the many bodies toward the door that Sana points out. It’s sweltering hot and more than one person stomps on her toes, but she makes it there relatively unharmed. 

The balcony is private, overlooking a small park with a lake and clusters of trees. The cool air feels nice on her skin, and now that she’s separated from the party inside, she feels her thoughts clear just a little. There’s two chairs out, with one already taken by someone. 

“Nayeon,” Mina says, surprise coloring her voice. Nayeon spots the glass of wine in her hand. How fancy, especially for a college party.

“Sana told me you were here,” Nayeon says. She nods at the free chair. “Can I sit?”

Mina nods. “Parties aren’t really my thing,” she says in lieu of an explanation. “Too crowded and loud.”

“Yeah?” Nayeon tilts her head curiously. “What is your thing then?”

A beat passes. “I like games.”

“What kind?”

“Video games, board games, any type of game really.”

“Should we play a game then?” The alcohol running through her system allows her to be a little bolder than usual. “Twenty Questions maybe?”

“Twenty Questions?” Mina looks amused at the proposition. 

“So I can get to know you better,” Nayeon explains. “All I really know is that you’re twenty, you like piña coladas, and you secretly give people hundred dollar bills sometimes.”

Mina laughs at that. “I don’t give just anyone hundred dollar bills. You’re special, Im Nayeon.”

Nayeon blames the alcohol for the flush on her cheeks and the warmth spreading throughout her body. “What’s your favorite color?” she blurts out.

“Purple. What’s yours?”

“Beige, blue and khaki. Favorite animal?”

“Penguin. Yours?”

“Are you gonna ask whatever I ask? That ruins the point of the game.”

Mina arches an eyebrow and takes a careful sip of her drink. “Isn’t the point of this just getting to know each other better?”

Nayeon doesn’t have a response to that. She would blame that on the alcohol too, but it’s probably her just being unreasonable. “I…well…no repeat questions!” 

“Okay, Im Nayeon,” Mina says with a smile. “I’ll agree to your terms.”

Nayeon can barely see the other girl through the darkness, but her heart still skips a beat at the familiar gummy smile, lit up by the colored light streaming through the window behind them. She pointedly ignores it, takes a swig from her own drink instead. “Okay, Myoui Mina, if you could take any of your friends to a deserted island, who would it be?”

“Tzuyu,” Mina answers with barely any pause. “Momo would cry and Sana would wander off on her own. I’d have the best chance of survival with Tzuyu for sure.”

“I’m telling Sana and Momo.”

“Well who would you choose between your friends?”

Nayeon gasps dramatically. “I thought we said no repeat questions!”

“You said that!”

“And you agreed to my terms!”

Mina rolls her eyes. “Let’s say it’s just a fun question then.”

Nayeon ponders the question for a few long moments. Jeongyeon is an immediate no, they’d probably murder each other before anything on the island could. Jihyo’s a potential candidate, but it’s also Jihyo, one-half of the bane of Nayeon’s existence. Chaeyoung’s too tiny, and Dahyun’s too unpredictable…well. “I’d survive on my own.”

“You?”  

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Remember when I had to rescue you in a grocery store the first time we met?”

“Rescue is a strong word.”

“If the shoe fits,” Mina fires back, and Nayeon can practically hear the smirk. “And what about the time you went on that terrible date? The one I paid for?”

“How do you know it was terrible?” Nayeon says petulantly, crossing her arms. “It could’ve been the best date I’ve ever had!”

“Okay, what’s the worst date you’ve ever been on?”

Nayeon scowls. “I’m not answering that.”

“You have to! It’s part of the game that you wanted to play!”

Nayeon holds out for a full five seconds before she manages to mumble out, “The one that you paid for.”

Mina laughs. “I know. I just wanted to hear you say it.”

“How?”

“Because I was sitting near you. How do you think I was able to pay for you?”

Nayeon…did not think of that actually. She was so wrapped up in finally learning Mina’s (last) name that she didn’t even stop to think about how Mina managed to pay for her in that exact moment at that exact place. “I—”

“And don’t even try to tell me that was a good date!” Mina continues. “You guys were so loud. I could hear everything.”

Dread fills Nayeon to her very core. “Everything?”

“Everything.”

Fantastic. So Mina overheard Nayeon being asked to a threesome with her date’s boyfriend. She resists the sudden urge to throw herself off the balcony and clears her throat, trying to maintain what little of her dignity she has left. “Well what’s the worst date you’ve been on then?”

“What happened to no repeat questions?”

Damn Mina for throwing her words back in her face constantly. Nayeon is so not sober enough to come up with any comebacks. “It’s a fun question?”

Mina mimes zipping up her lips. “I can’t say.”

“You’re no fun.”

“I know,” Mina says. “It’s your turn.”

“Well since we’re on the topic of dating…” Nayeon is about to ask a very stupid question, but she’ll blame this one on the alcohol too. “…who’s your favorite ex?”

“Favorite ex? Is that a thing?”

“You know, you have exes you absolutely hate and wish you had never met, right? It’s like the opposite of that.”

Nayeon has no idea why she’s asking because at this point, it’s pretty obvious she’s into Mina, so why the hell would she be asking about exes? Does she even want to know the answer?

Yes, she does. She’s always been too nosy for her own good.

“I’ve only seriously dated one person,” Mina admits after a few seconds. “But we’re still good friends, so I guess she’s my favorite ex.”

Nayeon’s heart skips again when she hears the word “she” leave Mina’s lips, and she hopes Mina doesn’t notice how fucking happy she is to hear that Mina is single and into girls.

“Don’t tell Tzuyu that though. She’ll never let it go.”

Nayeon freezes at the name. “Tzuyu? Like…the Tzuyu inside right now?” The world famous model that consistently reps brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton? The one who won Most Beautiful Face two years in a row? The one who Chaeyoung swears she fell in love with at first sight?

“That’s the one.”

“Wow.” Nayeon rubs the back of her neck and goddamnit, why did she do this to herself? “You must have high standards.”

“The highest,” Mina says with a laugh.

Nayeon’s saved from the dangerous conversation when the door to the porch opens, Sana and Jihyo poking their heads out.

“Ah, there you are,” Sana says. She grins when she catches sight of them. “Are we interrupting?”

“Not at all,” Nayeon says.

Sana opens her mouth, but Jihyo elbows her in the side indiscreetly, shutting her up. Nayeon is grateful, because Sana has a glint in her eye that she doesn’t like at all.

“Boom Cup round three,” Jihyo says before Sana has the chance to speak again. “We’re starting in two minutes if you two lovebirds wanna join.”

They disappear without another word, Jihyo tugging Sana away. Nayeon pointedly ignores the lovebird comment and stands, offering a hand to Mina. “Boom Cup awaits.”

Mina’s hands are soft and cool, but Nayeon feels impossibly warm when they make contact. They linger for a long moment before Nayeon drops Mina’s hand.

“We’ll have to finish our game another time,” Mina says.

“Deal.” Preferably when Nayeon is stone cold sober and not asking questions about Mina’s past relationship. “Also, I’m not standing next to you.”

“And here I thought we had such a strong connection.”

Nayeon flushes. “Shut up.”

“Shutting up.”

She can hear the teasing grin in Mina’s voice, and if her stomach does a little flip, no one needs to know.