Jungyeon had egged her into coming to that restaurant that just opened in Gangnam. It was supposed to be the hot new place on the block. The chef was said to be pretty famous in Europe. Momo didn’t want to go, would have rather stayed at home and ate the leftovers Mina left in the fridge, but her best friend had basically strong-armed her into her shoes.

“The line outside is unbelievable,” Momo said, settling herself on the chair that was pulled out by a nice-looking young man in a bowtie. “And this place is really posh.”

“It took me a month to get a reservation,” Jungyeon said, browsing through the menu.

“What? Why didn’t you just say you were TWICE? They’d give out tables just like that,” she snapped her fingers. It was truly a privilege. They were at a place in their careers where if they asked for anything, it would be given to them in a second.

“I did,” Jungyeon sighed. “The ‘Nation’s Girl Group’ excuse doesn’t work in this place.”

Momo laughed. “Well, anyway. I hope the food here is better than Mina’s cooking.”

Jungyeon laid the menu and looked over to her with fierce, stabbing eyes. Momo regretfully swallowed in . “Speaking of Mina…”

“What about the penguin?” Momo pretended to sound cool and calm.

“What were you thinking when you offered her to live in your apartment?”

Momo gulped in her nerves again. Of all the members of TWICE, Jungyeon was the most savage when it came to interrogating. Even if she was her best friend, Momo had no escape. When Jungyeon wanted the truth, Jungyeon would personally pull it out of you with her arm inside your neck. She tried to laugh, attempting to cease Jungyeon from murdering her with her stare. Seeing that a waiter was on his way to their table, she felt a little relieved.

“Would you like to take your order, miss?” he asked.

“Can you give us ten minutes, please? We’re still in the middle of discussing my best friend’s recent stupidity.” Jungyeon told him as nicely as she as was horrific in the eardrums of Momo. When he nodded and transferred to another table, Momo could only hold herself still on the chair.

“What were you thinking?”

She never planned on telling Jungyeon, not at least right away. She was actually planning on telling her about it maybe a week later but a month had nearly passed. She had kept it to herself, scared about the conversation she would have which was what she was having in that restaurant.

“I… I was just being a good friend, you know…” She answered, keeping her eyes on the table. “But everything has been good. I didn’t think it would be like this.”

“And I just had to learn about it from Tzuyu. It worries me, Momo.”

“We’re honestly doing really fine. You don’t have to worry.”

Jungyeon looked at her in the most uncertain of ways. The last time she had seen this look was around the time she told Jungyeon she had confessed to Mina and that was five years ago. In that same time, she said the same thing—for her not to worry because it was fine. She tried to convince her that it was truly what she wanted, just like how she wanted for Mina to be there in her apartment.

“Mina could’ve just lived with me, you know, or Dahyun. And she didn’t ask for you to take her in.”

“Well, I offered and I insisted. I’m okay now, Jungyeon. I swear I am.”

She understood why Jungyeon had to be like this. It was hard for her friends to see her after Mina left. It was the worst state she had ever been in, a nightmare, really, for any friend to have. The wounds were cut deeply and it took so much time for the tears to dry. Jungyeon was there every single day as it unfolded.

“I just don’t want to see you sad again, you know. I just hope you know what you’re doing this time.”

“I am!” She protested, slamming her fists lightly on the table. The atmosphere between them was boiling up. Momo normally never fought against Jungyeon in an argument but to her it seemed like Jungyeon was not trusting her at all.

“Well, okay. It’s your life, Momo. But please don’t get your hopes up again. If you’ve let Mina stay with you solely on the grounds of friendship, then that’s good but beyond that,” she paused and sighed. “You’ll end up hurting yourself again.”

“I’m not hurting myself,” Momo turned her head, seeing the other people in the restaurant. “Like I said, it’s good between us now.”

Jungyeon nodded. “Fine. That’s good. But can I be really frank right now?”

Momo scoffed. “You’re always frank, Jungyeon.”

“Right now, that drawing you’re trying to sketch with Mina seems ideal and all but one of these days one of you will miss a and it’s going to be messy.”

 “You’re being paranoid.” Momo shrugged but Jungyeon was always right about things. She was good at foretelling and those words coming from might be true.

***

“Your lyrics are boring and foolish. You call this a title track?”

It was 11 in the evening. Most of them had come from individual schedules. They were all tired, all aching to go home and sleep. Tzuyu, Dahyun, and Sana had arrived from variety filmings. Mina had CF filming. Jungyeon had her radio show. Nayeon had a drama filming. Jihyo was jet-lagged. And Momo just wasn’t in the mood for her lyrics to get ripped to shreds by Park Jin Young.

“PD-nim,” she defended her work. “That was the best we can come up with and we all did agree on it.”

“Well, this…” Park Jin Young lifted the paper and threw it,