A break in the midst of end-of-year preparations.

Wordcount: 1522

 

---

It was another hectic day, with them rushing their schedules and practising for the upcoming Christmas specials as well as the end of year festivals. That was how they spent their days, and while they indeed what they were doing - chasing their dreams and accomplishing them, they were also tired, so the most anticipated time of their day was when they went back home.

So now, as they unlocked the door of their dormitory, they all sighed in relief and exhaustion, before doing their respective stuff as they usually would. While some members went to freshen themselves up with a shower and some used the message chair, the rest returned to their respective rooms to have a short rest before their turn. This included Momo and Mina.

Momo was lying in bed, just thinking about nothing in particular when an idea struck her. Quickly, she unlocked her phone and sent a message.

Hey, do you want to go out for a short walk? 

She did not have to wait long for a reply, and she smiled as she read it. Grabbing her jacket and valuables, she headed out instantly.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

"Hey," Momo greeted as she hooked her arm around the girl's.

"Are you alright?"

Momo looked over to see Mina looking at her with a concerned expression. The girl must have been worried since Momo would usually only ask to go for a walk when she was down or had troubles.

"Yeah, I just wanted to spend some time with you," Momo admitted, blushing a little as she said it, "It's been a long time since we've spent time together, just you and me, the two of us."

"Yeah we've been busy, haven't we?" Mina smiled, pinching the other girl's nose (because well, it's hard to resist a blushing Momo), making her scrunch up her nose. "What are we up to today?"

"I don't know, maybe we could shop a little, or eat jokbal, or-"

"Yes! We got it!" A group of rowdy guys exclaimed, interrupting Momo and also successfully gaining both of their attention. They had just gotten a couple of toys from the crane machine.

"Momo, do you want to try the machine?"

"Shall we?" 

When Momo saw how excited Mina was, nodding her head profusely, she knew she had to get something for her.

"Which do you want? I'll get it for you."

"Penguin! The blue one there."

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

"I'm sorry, Mina."

Momo had really wanted to get the soft toy for Mina, but things did not go as planned.

"It's okay, Momoring."

Momo looked at Mina with apologetic eyes. "No, I'm really sorry I couldn't get it for you."

"It's really okay, Momo," Mina replied, holding Momo's hands in hers and looking into the girl's eyes. "You tried your best and I really appreciate the effort you put in just to get it for me. So now, instead of putting money into this machine that probably will not drop anything out for us anytime soon, how about we go for jokbal?"

Mina really did want the penguin, so there was disappointment when Momo was unable to get it. But she felt worse after seeing Momo upset over not getting it. Maybe she should not have said she wanted it after all. So when she saw the way Momo's eyes lit up the moment she mentioned jokbal, it felt like all the weight had been lifted, and she decided that the soft toy was just a want, but a happy Momo was a need for her.

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

"Mina, how about we play that?" Momo excitedly suggested, pointing to a store that was amidst many others. The store was a game store, offering games like dart and a gun shooting game. It was the kind where if you reach a certain target, you'd be able to get some rewards.

Momo might not be exceptional in games, but she would classify this as sport, which was something she was not too bad at. Seeing as she was unable to get the soft toy for Mina, she was determined to win something from here instead. 

And Mina, knowing Momo so well (or maybe a little too well), knew exactly why Momo wanted to play that. However, she did not want the girl to go all out and spend so much money just for her. "I said it's alright, Momo, the jokbal stall will be closed by the time we reach there if you play this. We can do this later after we eat."

"This game store will be closed by the time we're back if we go eat."

"Then so be it, we can always play this another day."

"We can always eat jokbal another day," Momo retorted.

"Momo."

"Mina."

They were now staring (or maybe, glaring) at each other and for a moment the atmosphere was tense among them. It was however quickly removed once Mina broke the eye contact, looking down instead.

"Alright." 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

"Two games, please."

"Two games?" Mina looked over, eyes widened.

"Yeah, you're playing too."

"Me? I can't play this, Momo, I'll just be wasting your money."

"Says who?"

Mina opened to reply but Momo just would not hear any of it, so she continued talking before any word could even come out of the younger girl's mouth. "Oh look, it's ready."

They were each given 33 bullets. As expected, Momo took a short time to actually get warmed up. By the 10th bullet, she had already gotten the hang of it and was hitting every target with accuracy. She looked over to Mina's lane, only to realise that the girl was struggling to hit any of it.

Temporarily putting down her own gun, she walked over to Mina's side. 

"You need to rest your gun like this," she explained, adjusting the gun for Mina as she talked. "Look through this hole, and then to this point, so it forms a straight line. Then you aim slightly above the target. Try it."

Mina was very grateful that Momo took the lengths to even pause her game just to help her. She must have looked really lousy, especially next to such a good shooter, she thought.

Following closely to what she was told, Mina took in a deep breath and exhaled as she pressed the trigger. To her surprise, it really did knock the target down, and furthermore, it was the one with the highest points.

Mina looked at Momo with her gummy smile, and the other girl could not help but smile back. "Try again," Momo urged.

It was only after Mina had gotten three consecutive hits from the first one did Momo go back to playing her own game. She continued looking over to Mina in between her shots, and was glad that the girl was enjoying herself, now that she knew how to shoot.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

"You may choose any from here."

The points were tallied and Momo made it to get the smallest present - the small 'plush toy' kind of key chain. She took a look and saw that they had a penguin one, not as cute as the soft toy that Mina had wanted, but nonetheless still soft, squishy and reminded her of Mina.

"I'll take this," she told the in-charge as she took it out. She smiled to herself, sure that Mina would like it.

Mina, on the other hand, was unable to get anything. She had hit almost every other target after Momo taught her, but she missed too many at first, so her score did not make the mark. She was a little disappointed, but decided to just mask it with a smile as she walked out of the store, where Momo was already waiting for her.

"Hey," Momo called out. "Was it fun?"

"Yeah." She really did have fun, just that it would have been better if she had won something too.

"So, what did you get?" Mina asked, figuring that she would be able to get over it quickly as long as the topic was not about her. She was still playing when Momo went to collect her reward, but she had heard the conversation between Momo and the in-charge.

Momo grinned when she heard the question. She knew Mina would ask, which was why she deliberately hid the key chain behind her all these while.

"Tada!" Momo excitedly exclaimed as she showed the key chain to Mina. "It's for you."

"You won it, you should've taken something for yourself."

Momo smiled as she placed the key chain in Mina's hands. "No, I won it for you. I couldn't get you the penguin plush toy, so I'll give you this, though it's way smaller and the plush toy is cuter."

"Thank you." Mina gave a shy smile. "Size doesn't matter, I can feel your sincerity."

"You're welcome, Minari~" Momo replied, hooking her arm around Mina's. "Shall we head back now? It's getting late and we still have practice tomorrow."

"Okay. Jokbal another day? My treat."

"You said it!"

Mina laughed in response. Momo was definitely such a kid when it came to her favourite food.

 

 

---

A/N: Sorry for the late update, wanted to get this out during Christmas but I was overseas and it's hard to type on the phone, and I had some things to settle after coming back from my vacation. Hope you guys liked this chapter! For those who read Lost, I'll try to update it asap too, and hopefully go on with longer and more regular updates.