With a groan, Momo lifted her body up and into a sitting position. She yawned and rubbed an eye, looking out at the sliver of light that crept through the curtain. It was early morning and she had been awakened by nature’s call. She stifled another yawn, looking over to the sleeping form of Mina. There were still hours before they would have to get up and start the day and she didn’t want to wake the other girl. Stepping into her slippers, she walked down to the eerily silent bathroom and did her business. There was a steady drip of a loose pipe somewhere as she sat on the toilet seat and the sound echoed between the stone walls. After washing her hands and flushing the toilet, she walked out to the still grey sky. The sun was only beginning to rise and she felt her sleepiness linger.

Sitting back on her bed, she wondered why she hadn’t gone back to sleep. She had slept late the previous night as she was stargazing and there was still time enough to catch some extra z’s. A soft moan caught her attention and she looked to the bed opposite her but Mina was still asleep. Tapping a finger against her thigh, she considered trying to sleep again but abandoned the thought as she pulled out a pencil and pad and began to draw. Writing and drawing were something she did when she wanted clarity of thought, peace away from the noise of the world. She doodled absentmindedly on the paper before she was alerted to a change in the weather. The pitter patter of raindrops falling came in from the window and Momo was glad that she had woken early. She would’ve had trouble walking to the toilet block in the rain and she pressed her back against the wall for warmth.

‘Doesn’t look like we’ll be able to do much today.’

Momo turned to see Mina awake and looking out to the window with a grimace on her face. “Mm, the rain kind of puts a damper on the plans,” Momo agreed. She frowned at the expression on Mina’s face but shook aside her concern, returning to her doodling. She imagined the rain falling elsewhere in the world and drew out a scene of a person standing in the wet. Pausing as she considered her work, she became aware of Mina staring at her. Making eye contact, she started to ask what was wrong when there came a knock on the door. One of the girls of the group popped her head around the door. “Se-yoon says that due to obvious reasons, we’re just going to have to stay in until the rain subsides. You’re free to do whatever you want until then.”

Momo nodded and the girl left. She turned back to ask her question but forgot what she wanted to stay and instead added the finishing touches to her drawing. Rubbing a finger over the pencil lead, she shaded in some shadows and held up the notepad to admire her work. On the paper was the view of an empty street intersection, grey buildings lining the sides. On the corner of the street stood a lamppost and beyond it a nondescript store with light leaking out. Frowning as she wondered what had possessed her to draw what she had, she lowered the notepad and set it aside.

Resting her chin on her knees, she picked at a loose thread on her blanket and thought about how best to use up her free time. Without her carefully planned itinerary, every activity that was available seemed dull. She sighed and left the blanket alone, shifting her body so that she was lying on her back. She threw an arm behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling and was reminded of the little sleep she had gotten and closed her eyes. Listening to the calming sounds of the falling rain, she nestled deeper into the covers.

~

Mina breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the soft snoring from the bed across her that indicated the sleeping state of Momo. She felt hot and bothered being in the same space as Momo and was put at ease with the other being asleep. Rubbing a spot on her arm, she thought back to the previous night. It had been a night of revelation and she felt a sense of completion at the certainty of her feelings towards Momo. It explained the motive behind a lot of her previous actions including her emptiness during their two year separation. A hint of fear wormed its way into her thoughts as she wondered how the other girl felt about her.

There had been hints of mutual feelings in their interactions in the past but given Momo’s decision to put some distance between them, it was more likely that Mina was just biased in her thinking. Glumly sighing at the disconcerting thought, she willed away the worry and replaced it with some hopeful thinking at how Momo might return her feelings someday. She had had a long think while staring at Momo working on her notepad and had declared to herself that she didn’t care that Momo might not feel the same way about her, deciding that Momo’s happiness was what made her happy. Sure, being loved back by the person you liked was great but that wasn’t always the case and Mina didn’t want to indulge in fanciful thinking. her chin, she abandoned her internal conflict and considered her progress with her father’s project.

Since making a start on her brainstorming a few days ago, she had formed the image of the product in her head and now all she needed to do was put the idea onto paper and finalise her idea of what she wanted. There were multitudes of products that had been and were being sold by her father’s company and she knew that her father was counting on her to make inroads with her product. Their new office in California would be more tuned to catering to the American masses and it was her job to design something that appealed to the occidental taste for its opening.

A buzz from her phone distracted her and she raised herself on her elbows to read it, smiling as she saw that it was from Tzuyu. Leaning into her pillows, she typed back a reply.

Sunday 10:04 a.m.

Hey, how’s your trip going so far?

Good. What are you doing right now?

Typing this

Aside from that

Eating. Im bored. Talk to meee

I’m bored too. It’s raining now. The prof cancelled our activities

That . Wish it were raining here. Then I’d have an excuse to not be doing anything

Mina laughed then quickly covered and looked over to where Momo was still sleeping. Reminding herself to be quiet, she imagined Tzuyu sitting at her desk with nothing to do.

Nobody’s going to blame you for being a homebody. Enjoy the fact that you dont have any homework or studying to do

My parents don’t seem to care that semester is barely even started. They’ve been pressuring me to study for the mid yearexams all day

What a shame. Anyway, I wanted to say..

what??

You were right. I do like someone

Praise the mighty Gods above. I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING

Mina grinned and paused, thinking about how to proceed. She tapped out a reply, deciding that the best thing to do was to just be direct.

There’s not much to tell. But I was just watching her look at the stars last night and when we made eye-contact, it seemed as if my heart skipped a beat and I wanted to watch her forever in the moonlight. Like you said, everything she does makes me want to smile

That is so cliché. But cute. Who is this amazing girl?

Not telling you.

Don’t be a spoilsport. Me wants the juicy informations

Tough luck

You’re evil. Gtg, mum’s calling me for something.

Catch you later

Mina put down the phone and lay on her side, hugging a pillow. Covering her face in the blanket, she worried her bottom lip and tried not to think about how she should act when Momo woke up. She found herself imagining multiple scenarios where she embarrassed herself and tried to focus on the logic that it was unlikely she’d do anything untoward given her sensible upbringing. “Guess we’ll just have to find out,” she thought, hugging the pillow tighter and wishing it were something else.

~

Momo frowned as she felt someone nudge her and resisted the urge to open her eyes. If she did so, it meant she would be awake and that wasn’t what she wanted. Her bed felt too comfortable and more like a black hole that wouldn’t let her get up. She resigned herself as she felt another nudge and opened her eyes to Mina’s face looking down at her. “What is it?” she asked, wishing that she were still asleep. “It’s time for dinner,” came Mina’s reply. Momo jolted awake at the mention of food and rubbed her stomach. Her gaze darted towards the curtains and the dark sky indicated that Mina wasn’t lying. Stretching, she sat up and slowly changed into some presentable clothes.

They seated themselves at the table as Se-yoon served up their plates of food. Digging in, Momo ignored the conversation that was going on, concentrating on her meal. She had to make up for her two missed meals. When dinner was finished and the tablet cleared, their professor took out a tub of ice-cream and served it up to much delight. Watching as the students ate, Se-yoon took out a bunch of cards with an elastic band wrapped around them, starting on their evening’s activity. “Alright. When you’ve finished stuffing yourselves with food, form up in groups of four or five and choose a couch. We’ll be starting our Trivia Night soon.”

Momo spooned the last of her dessert into and pushed her bowl away, unable to eat anything more. She sighed contently and leaned back to relive pressure on her stomach, patting her belly. She watched as Mina tidily finished up her own bowl then turned as Se-yoon spoke again. “Sorry to interrupt again but I’ll need someone to volunteer to help out with the questions. Since I’ll be emceeing, I’ll need someone to operate the projector. Our TA is already helping with the music player so if anyone wants to- ah, thank you Mina.” Momo flinched slightly as an arm flew into the air beside her. Mina had volunteered before Se-yoon had managed to finish his sentence and his quota filled, clapped his hands together and walked to the living room.

Momo got up from the table with Mina close behind and followed the professor into the next room where it had been set up. The couches had been split up across the room; one for each group. “You can click any button for the next slide and the videos should play by themselves when we get to them.” Se-yoon pointed at the screen of the laptop, giving Mina instructions to her task. He straightened up and found Momo, smiling as he beckoned her. “So you will be seated next to Mina and make sure that she doesn’t give any undue advantage to any of the groups and here’s this.” Se-yoon handed Momo a disc player that would play a variety of songs for the music segment of the trivia.

Although she had helped put together the schedule for the trip, Se-yoon had prepared the trivia by himself and Momo was curious to what he had in store. Their professor had already proven himself to be unpredictable and it wasn’t unexpected that his unpredictability would surface in the questions. However, as the rest of the group filed in and separated into their teams, Momo found herself wishing that the trivia night would hurry up and finish, regretting for the first time since taking the job that she was the TA.

Sitting beside Mina was almost unbearable. Every time Mina switched her attention from the professor to the laptop, her hair would swing and Momo would catch a faint scent of peach and raspberry. Occasionally, when someone said something comical, Mina would flash a rare smile, causing Momo’s heart to beat erratically. Her skin felt prickly at Mina’s proximity and especially so when Mina’s body brushed against hers when she leaned past to connect the disc player. By the end of the night, Momo was frustrated though at what she wasn’t sure. She let Mina clean up the area around where they were sitting and headed up to their room first. Quickly changing into her pyjamas, she collapsed into the bed and willed herself to fall asleep before Mina came up.

~

The next morning, the group bade farewell to the lodge and left in the early hours, hoping to avoid the traffic jams. As it was, they were unable to speed ahead and became stuck in the endless line of cars travelling towards Seoul. The members of each car were as the journey to the lodge and Momo was forced to endure another couple of hours seated in the back with Mina. Fortunately, Mina seemed subdued on the trip back and Momo was given time to ponder her strange reaction to the other girl the previous night. As far as she could tell, she hadn’t been undergoing a heart attack and she had done no strenuous activity to explain her quickening pulse.

Eventually, as they neared the busier streets of Seoul, Momo put her missed meals during the day as the reason for her body’s reactions. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for the body to be behaving strangely after waking up disoriented and hungry and she dismissed her concerns, giving it no further thought. They arrived in the parking lot of the university in the mid-morning and the trip members quickly dispersed for their individual classes. Although they had left early with the first class of the day being Psychology, the heavy traffic meant that their travel time took much longer than expected and they ended up being late by a wide margin.

In the car, Momo opened her eyes as they pulled into a parking spot, yawning and looking around to see where they were. She had taken the chance during the drive to catch up on some sleep, feeling tired and lethargic. Turning to the side, she shook Mina awake and smiled adoringly as she watched Mina rouse herself groggily, her features soft from slumber. Momo stared for a good few moments before she shook her head and regained her composure. Staring at Mina was unproductive and she had places to be. She collected her bags from the trunk of the car and waved goodbye to the professor, hurrying on towards the cafeteria. Leaving early in the morning meant that she didn’t get the chance to eat.

Luckily, the kitchen was still serving breakfast and she ordered a bacon and egg muffin. She seated herself at one of the many empty tables and started into her muffin. It was delicious and topped with barbecue sauce and after checking to see that no-one was watching her, Momo guiltily her fingers. It was almost a crime that a muffin could be that tasty and it helped offset any distaste at her actions as she dabbed at her sticky fingers with a wet towel.

Running through a mental checklist of things she had to do, Momo checked her phone and was surprised when she saw that she had a few messages. Clicking the most recent one, she read the message from Sana, smiling as she hovered a finger over the keyboard. It was hard to reply to the nonsensical messages that Sana frequently sent and after a second’s thought, decided against. It was better that she didn’t get dragged into a conversation as she wouldn’t be able to continue it when she had to work later in the day. For the moment she looked at the area around her table and satisfied that she hadn’t made too large a mess, got up to leave.

She pulled her suitcase behind her and wondered if the gloomy weather h