Momo can’t help herself but stare at the sight before her, never mind the multiple girls draped around her, never mind the loud music blasting from the speakers that seem to be built to destroy the eardrums of the patrons in this bar, nothing mattered except for this girl that seem to be terribly out of place.

Momo can’t help herself but stare as the girl cautiously flicked her hair away, taking out what seemed like a keyboard. So this must be the special performance arranged, Momo had concluded, a boring classical performance staged in the middle of this privately arranged bar for what, for the non-existent marriage anniversary, her parents’ of course. But just like every year, not like it disappointed Momo, they would manage to come up with some ed up excuse to not turn up for their own party. Leaving their only child to deal with the aftermath, which involves her turning it into her own private party with her friends, not that Momo minded, okay maybe Momo had minded, but the broken family of hers were like shattered glass left unattended on the floor for so long, and Momo has gotten past the point of feeling numb anymore. Or maybe the ability to feel has long left her body.

But what the are emotions, when all Momo could feel were the hands trailing across her exposed abs, edging dangerously close to the bands of her pants.

What the are emotions, when Momo decided that it was time to move on with the night, pulling a random girl for her to bring home tonight.

What the are emotions, when she starts to hear the fading booming beats be replaced by an emotional classical piano piece that would probably touch the hearts of others, probably, but definitely not hers.

…

Waking up with a body pressed again Momo’s body had been a routine since she was 19, bringing them home had become a routine once she was 21 and finally had an apartment of her own, another 3 years has passed and the only difference was that she was much more busier with the increasing workload, hence, less cuddling time on bed, but it was with a random stranger, so who cares.

Waking up with an arm wrapped around her waist, no matter which they belong to, had become a habit. Momo would die to admit it, but somewhere deep down in that heart of hers, Momo knew that she wouldn’t be able to function in the day without it. Pressing a kiss to the neck of the stranger, Momo got up from her bed, eyeing the once clean white sheets. Scoffing, Momo realised how ironic it was, the white sheets that people would symbolise as pure, covered the very bodies that sinned every night, covered the bodies that would be wrapped against one another as they brought each other to a high that both wished they would never leave, alas, that was impossible. At least it was changed every day religiously by the housemaid.

Reaching for a set of clothes from the drawer, Momo was ready for a nice cold bathe, another routine of hers. But routines can be broken, just like now as she felt a pair of arms wrapped around her waist, bare skin pressing against her back. Momo could feel her skin heat up once again, and all rational thoughts, like pushing the girl away because there is this humongous pile of work she has awaiting her on her desk in her office, was thrown out of the window. It definitely wasn’t Momo’s fault, but damn, Momo definitely picked well last night cause the butterfly kisses that the girl was leaving on Momo’s neck that seem to be progressing to the other parts of Momo’s body was so god damn good. And Momo definitely didn’t want it to stop. Letting out a soft moan, Momo let the girl to carry her back to her bed.

Work will have to wait.

…

Apparently the work didn’t appreciate being waited on, having accumulated itself over the time it spent waiting. Dragging her body over to her desk, Momo plodded through her work. She had no choice anyways, she may not have a perfect family, but she couldn’t let the only platform that’s supporting the shattered glasses of her family crumble into nothingness, fragile it may be, but still there nonetheless. And Momo would protect it at all cost, even if it meant succeeding her dad to be the boss of the company at the tender age of 22. Momo knew she has been doing a good job, with an exceptionally smart head on her shoulder plus a fantastic team behind her, the statistics from the financial side reflected their hard work.

‘YO MOGURI’

An obnoxious shout could be heard as her best friend, Jeongyeon, walked through the doors to her office. Needless to say, Momo had questioned her life decisions to befriend Jeongyeon at the tender age of 5, times where mistakes could be made and repercussions wouldn’t occur. Guess life hated her or something but she must have been insane when she made the decision to be friends with this jobless kid that could do whatever she wanted. Momo probably was.

‘Get out’

Don’t get Momo wrong, but from past experienced, Jeongyeon was seriously of no help to the increasing pile of work, and while Momo had just been laid, a pretty good one to say the least, the good mood she was in would definitely ruined by a snarky Jeongyeon.

‘So the submissive Momo has returned to the bossy Momo, as always, but seriously Momo, you should try to be the top for on- OUCH’

‘Just ing shut your trap’ Momo sighed as she walked out to pick up her pen that she had thrown at Jeongyeon.

‘And what’s wrong with being submissive Jeongyeon, absolutely nothing wrong, you’ve been going on about this for what, ever since I started sleeping around. And I don’t want the walls of my office be tainted, they have to remain pure, so this conversation ends here’

‘But it will continue in a few hours’ time, just wanted to tell you about the gathering we’re going to have tonight, so SEEYA’ With that, Jeongyeon exited the office.

Now the source that has disrupted the peace in the office, allowing Momo to finally concentrate on her work, but somehow, Momo has started to crave for the previous ruckus (Maybe it would make Momo feel less isolated).

So much for wanting Jeongyeon to get out.

…

By the time she has cleared all the work she had for the day, it was already 8pm, and Momo was really tempted to just go home and call for a hookup, but even though it was an unspoken rule, if a person doesn’t come for the gathering for an invalid reason, it breaks up immediately. Sighing, Momo picked herself up, she wasn’t gonna be a spoiled brat and kill the fun just because she was lazy. Besides, her day off for work was tomorrow (before hell broke loose since the company was opening a new sector), she’ll have the whole day to be a spoiled brat and laze around with a tub of ice cream later. She can wait.

Reaching the usual venue for their gathering, that just happens to be this pent suit that overlooked the Han River (bought by the group of 8 girls, splitting the cost equally of course), the smell of jokbal invaded Mome senses. And Momo couldn’t help but let out this loud wail, calling for the love of her life.

‘JOKBALLLLLLLL, THE LOVE OF MY I- OH MY ’

Oh my it is, Momo was not expecting an extra member at the gathering, it was against the unwritten rule that this gathering place would be for the 8 of them and the 8 of them only, the 8 of them that had a history way back then, Momo and Jeongyeon the longest of course, followed by the addition of Jihyo the social fairy (and mum of the group), forming a trio. Jihyo then introduced Chaeyoung to duo, after finding out about her weird sense of humor that fit Jeongyeon perfectly fine. It wasn’t until a year later that Tzuyu the maknae was introduced together with Sana, this pretty blonde Japanese girl that Momo somehow managed to miraculously befriend. It was another year before the oldest of the gang, Nayeon, this bunny like girl joined the tight-knitted gang introduced by Jeongyeon after she shared the same class, eventually the group was completed by this extremely excited tofu (whom Momo had trouble catching up with her energy), Dahyun, introduced by Sana from her Church.

So oh my it is, when Momo catch sight of this unfamiliar girl sitting among the rest of her friends staring at her as if she was the scariest on earth she has seen on earth, but she couldn’t be, all Momo did was declare her love to the object of her affection, it wasn’t a crime was it.

‘Quit being dramatic Momo’

Momo turned to glare at Chaeyoung

‘Are you serious, it’s jokbal, the reason for my existence and you’re telling me to not be dramatic? And who is she anyways’

‘Wow, you forget faces real fast, she’s the one that played for us yesterday, the piano if you can’t remember what I’m talking about, at least for us without you since you went off to be a bottom’

Now Momo could feel her face heating up, no Momo was sure it wasn’t a ing blush, if there was anything that made Momo angry, it would be them making fun of her choice in her life. It wasn’t their damn problem anyway, but they always made fun of her. On normal days, she would refrain herself and simply glare at them, her anger dies down pretty quickly, especially with the help of Jihyo and her hug, but no way can they make fun of her in front of a stranger when they casually brought her into their secret hideout place without her permission, no way can they make fun of her when she has nearly hit the threshold of her patience. Maybe she should have had called it a day, maybe she should have had been a wet blanket and went home anyway without considering her type of friend’s feeling, maybe if she received a little more love or any love at all in fact from her parents and weren’t so needy and tired of being the boss of everything during the day time, maybe she wouldn’t have had been at the brunt of this damn joke that has crossed it’s expiry date.

Maybe.

But maybe wasn’t a guarantee, and at this point Momo couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t be punching Chaeyoung the next minute. And so maybe Jihyo realised that the normally calm Momo that would have had gotten over the joke by now was still standing at the same exact spot with an unreadable expression. But Jihyo was sure Momo was unaware of the now 8 pairs of eyes trained on her, with her usually shiny eyes now glazed. Jihyo honestly didn’t want to be a catalyst to the already growing tension, but everyone else seemed to have no intentions moving from their sit and do any to shift the attention away from Momo. Standing up, Jihyo pulled Momo into a hug, normally completed with a spin by Momo, it was a ritual of theirs, a welcoming best-friend hug every time they met, but Momo didn’t spin her, Momo didn’t whisper a ‘Hello, Godji’ to her. But instead a terribly soft ‘Ji-ah, can we go away from here, I don’t wanna be here’ was what she got.

‘Are you sure?’ Jihyo wasn’t shock given the current circumstances, but somehow Momo was always the last person to leave this type of gathering, and Jihyo knows why.

‘Yeah’

And so the next thing they know, Jihyo was pulling Momo out of the door and driving Momo back to her apartment. The car ride back was silent, a comfortable silence at least since Momo decided to sleep her anger away, it was always the solution to everything for Momo and her feelings, not that Jihyo minded. But sleeping away anger, frustrations and confusion was like stacking them on one top of one another on top of the heart, pressing and putting weight on the muscles that keeps her alive, pressing and putting a constant pressure on her already fragile heart that doesn’t seem to be able to withstand anymore more of those. And Jihyo wanted to tell Momo that, but who was Jihyo to say all those why she didn’t have a solution for Momo, who was she when she can’t do anything when the friends made fun of Momo though she had said to not do so countless of times, who was she when she knows that the Momo that tries to stay so strong for the sake of her family and friends but only to be treated like some , worse still, a joke. Jihyo knew it wasn’t that the group of friends didn’t treasure Momo, it was just that they knew of no boundaries, they were free-spirited kids that didn’t know and understand what the real world was like out there, so what could you expect from kids whom came from exceptionally rich backgrounds with loving parents. But it wasn’t enough to justify their actions towards, especially not to someone with a strong façade whom would allow herself to be the joke for the happy times in the group, especially to someone who had a heart that had been in the similar state as her family was since she was 10, shattered into thousand pieces on the floor, but this time, it gets steps on too. Stepped on mindlessly by her parents, stepped on mindlessly by the directors in her company, and worst still, stepped on mindlessly by the only ones that Momo could and would consider as her family, her friends.

It was 1 in the morning when they finally reached Momo’s home, with a cup of Jihyo’s homemade hot chocolate (Momo used to swear Jihyo would earn a whole load of money if she opened a café) in their hands, they sat on the couch and sipped silently on their drinks.

‘Do you think they’ll think of us?’ Momo had decided to ask, it came out so softly, Jihyo would have had missed it if the apartment wasn’t so god damn eerily silent.

‘Hmm’

‘Do you think they’ll ever stop?’

‘Maybe if you told them why you don’t like it?’ Technically them being friends with Momo for so long should have had decipher why that particular topic was so sensitive to Momo, but they were dense, especially the no jam brothers. But Momo nodded anyways, while both knew that she wouldn’t anyways.

‘Do you think….’

‘Hmmm’

‘Do you think they’ll forget..’

Do you think they’ll forget about me

‘They would never’ Jihyo said it with such conviction Momo was nearly convinced herself, but good things always comes to an end, that was something Momo had realised. Her once happy family had crumbled, her past relationship has crumbled into nothingness, her friendship seems to be on the brink of crumbling too, and they just decided to bring a newbie into a group, an addition had never occurred since Dahyun came, which was at least 7 years ago. To add salt to the wound, the relationships always failed cause Momo prioritised her friends over her partner.

But Momo thought she’ll be able to live without them, if she tries hard enough that is, as they’ll break up eventually, they’ll find better friends out there eventually, they’ll be too caught up with their lives one day, and it was inevitable. Momo knew it, but she couldn’t help but feel that she’ll be the first to be replaced. Besides, she has been easily replaced throughout her life.

‘But if one day they do, I’ll never forget about you’ Jihyo said as she wrapped Momo into an embrace, cuddling Momo harder than she had ever did, even though Jihyo knows it does not suffice to what she wanted to convey, but Jihyo hopes that she hugged Momo hard enough, hard enough to fill the gap that her parents had left behind, hard enough to know that Jihyo loves her very very much (in a platonic way of course).

…

Working up til late at night wasn’t Momo’s intention for the past few weeks, she didn’t intentionally miss the gatherings that occurred over the past weeks. She hadn’t been to any, not ever since the last one, but it really wasn’t her intention. Her life had also been inactive, a sudden cut off should have had been a shock to her body, but with 2-3 hours of sleep everyday consistently for the past 3 weeks, honestly having a release was the last thing on Momo’s mind, besides, she slept on the couch of her office, showered in the private toilet in her office and had her permanently on the chair of her office once the sun was up. Her office had now become her home, but Momo still have her friends drop by, they somehow had managed to come with a schedule to feed Momo, taking turns to visit Momo with food, 3 times every day. It was like the episode (if it was even one) had been long forgotten, but Jihyo dropped by more often than the rest, talking and rambling away about the new events that occurred among their group and their gatherings while Momo shuffled away under the pile of work load she had, considering that the Hirai Company was opening another sector in their business real soon, there was a lot of paper work to be done. So Jihyo had to settle on receiving uncommitted ‘hmms’ and nods from Momo in, but Jihyo knew Momo was appreciative of her actions and that was more than enough for Jihyo. Besides seeing Momo working somehow brought a smile to her face, and her heart warms up and Jihyo wonders whether this was what a mum felt when they see their child successful, but whatever it is, Jihyo was more than contented.

…

In the midst of Jihyo’s blabbers, Momo found out that the stranger she met at the pent suite was called Mina, and was introduced to the group by Sana. Apparently Mina was keeping her equipment when the clumsy Sana tripped and spilled her cup of champagne on Mina’s keyboard, needless to say, the keyboard wasn’t functioning like it was supposed to be, so Sana brought Mina out the next day to buy a new one for Mina, even though Mina protested against that idea, it was expensive after all. But Sana was insistent, and when Sana finally got Mina a piano plus a keyboard (cause Sana caught Mina staring at the grand piano), Mina had to bashfully tell her that she didn’t have space for the grand piano. So they brought the grand piano back to the pent suit where there was more than