Momo woke up to complete darkness, feeling around her. The futon was cold beside her and she frowned as she remembered Sana saying that she wouldn’t be able to stay the night. She wondered what time it was that it was so dark before she realised that her eyes were still closed. Opening them, she immediately closed them as bright morning light filled the room. She reluctantly rolled onto her side, wanting to go back to sleep. However, her bladder had other plans and she stood to go to the bathroom. Hissing as she stepped over the cold tiles, she did her business half-aware and slipped back under her blanket.

She huddled deeper into the fading warmth and drew her knees up to her chest, wishing that there was someone beside her to keep her warm. Maybe Mina would be free in the morning and would pay a visit. It was a fleeting hope as she had been adamant when scolding Mina to stop skipping her classes. She yawned then paused. The first person she thought of had been Mina and not Sana or Heechul. Always, it had been Heechul and then Sana who she wanted beside her and she a finger across her lip as she wondered. Biting a nail, she mulled over the disconcerting thought as her sleepiness lifted.

After some fruitless thinking, she reassured herself with reasoning that the only reason that she thought of Mina so much was because she had spent the previous day with Sana, ignoring the small voice that said it was because she truly preferred Mina. She sighed and shook off her blankets. There was no point trying to go back to sleep when her mind was buzzing with unwanted thoughts. She walked over to her kitchen area to make a cup of coffee when she noticed a small piece of paper lying on her table. She kneeled down and saw that it was from Sana.

Hey Momo, sorry I wasn’t able to stay the night. Stay warm and give me a call if you need anything. Don’t worry though, Heechul should be coming over tomorrow morning to keep you company. Love you

Momo looked at her watch: 8:34. It was still early but a knock sounded on the door. Before she could get up, the door opened and Heechul walked in with his keys jangling. He stopped as he saw Momo at the table, smiling brightly. “Surprised to see you up,” he greeted. “Was expecting you to be still asleep. I don’t know anybody who would choose to wake up early when they don’t have to.” He dumped a bag onto the kitchen counter and beckoned her over. “I bought chocolate croissants and jam donuts. Take your pick.” Momo joined him at the counter and peered into the paper bag full of warm pastries. Taking one, she took a bite and sipped her coffee, feeling much more awake. She sat down as she ate her breakfast, watching as Heechul took one of the jam donuts for himself and spread a newspaper over his thighs.

‘Doesn’t everyone read the news online nowadays?’

Heechul looked up and peered at Momo over his spectacles. “Why?” he asked. “Is reading a newspaper old-fashioned now?” Momo shook her head.

‘Just thinking that everybody had a tablet or device of some kind now. It’s rare to see someone having an actual newspaper.’

Heechul nodded and bit into his pastry. “That’s true I suppose,” he said through a mouthful of donut. “But I find it worthwhile to not have to carry a tablet since the lettering on a phone is too small to read leisurely and having a newspaper discourages other people from talking to me.” He said this last with a pointed look and Momo mock scowled. She knew that Heechul was just joking and if she spoke he would respond. She finished off her croissant and clapped away the dusty icing. She sat there thinking with her hands in her lap, the only sound in the room the rustling of the newspaper.

Why was thinking of Mina bothering her so much? Momo considered the question silently, trying to figure out why she was so conscious of Mina. It seemed that everything around her recently related to the other girl in some way. Even the simple croissant she had just eaten reminded her of Mina. The brunette loved chocolate and always had a block of it in her bag for ‘emergencies’ as she termed it. Her eyes darted towards the paper bag and watered at the thought of another warm pastry. She shook her head and forced away the distraction, focusing back on her dilemma.

Maybe it was because a part of her was still uneasy about Mina’s confession that had appeared out of the blue. She winced softly as she remembered that she had yet to give an answer. Awkward was the only thing she could think of if and when she did give her answer. A random thought popped into her head. You haven’t answered her because you’re still thinking of how to say you like her back. Eyes wide, Momo held two fingers to her temple and tried to tell herself it wasn’t true but the thought stuck stubbornly. So many things had happened that had stopped her from having the time to ponder the confession but now that her grandmother’s passing was blunted by time, her mind was free to wander.

Sure, Mina’s smile was like a spot of sunshine for her and she felt cheered up whenever she saw it but didn’t she feel the same way with Heechul or Sana? And maybe her heart beat a little faster when she was the focus of that smile but that was all. She sighed heavily, unable to find an answer to the questions in her head. She slumped over her table and her eyes rested on the note Sana had left. She it, wondering if she should throw it away. She read it one more time and made to stand up and toss it in her trash can but her gaze lingered on those last two words Sana had written. Love you.

She heard those two words from Sana quite often, the other girl being open in her affections. It was a sort of parting comment she always made and had become a normality. Momo folded up the note then unfolded it to take one last look at the words, wondering what it would be like to hear Mina say them. She imagined the conservative brunette saying the words and was conscious of a smile spreading across her face. And just like that, realisation dawned on her. A feeling of relief flooded her as she was filled with a wave of emotions that finally made sense. Her heart squeezed as she pictured the scene again. Thinking about Mina smiling at her was enough to make her mood brighten.

She pressed her lips together to hide her smile and sat back down, deciding to hold onto the note. She lay on her back and held an arm over her eyes. Love. What a strange thing it was. She felt happy at the thought of being in love and hoped that she wouldn’t become one of those people who became all dopey and love-struck. Her body jerked as she sat up. “Was she happy because she was in love?” she wondered. She looked across the room where Heechul was turning a page of his newspaper and decided that he was someone she could trust to ease her worries.

‘Heechul?’

He didn’t respond and instead grunted.

‘I have something serious to tell you but you have to promise not to laugh.’

‘Ok.’

Momo took a deep breath. “I think I might be in love,” she confessed. She waited nervously for Heechul’s reaction and was surprised when he just ruffled his newspaper and answered without looking up.

‘That’s nice.’

She frowned at his lacklustre response, having expected a stronger reaction. “Aren’t you surprised?” she asked, confused. Heechul shrugged his shoulders.

‘Not really.’

Momo was speechless for a few moments, not sure how to proceed.

‘So you aren’t even curious to who I like?’

She thought this might spark a proper reply, knowing Heechul’s protective nature but he just shrugged his shoulders and repeated his answer. “Not really.” Feeling foolish for having expected something different, Momo clenched her teeth in annoyance. “Well, just in case you do become curious, I think the person I like is Mina.” Heechul nodded but continued reading his newspaper. “So you’re not even going to question the fact that that person I like is Mina?” she asked. Heechul finally looked up from his reading and stared at her.

‘Should I be?’

‘Of course. Isn’t it wrong to be in love with a friend?’

Heechul’s lips quirked up in a smile. “I’m going to humour you since you’re so insistent but you do know pretty much all people who fall in love are friends before they become lovers?” Momo fell silent, thinking about what Heechul had said as he spoke again. “And don’t you love Sana who is also your friend?”

‘I do but that’s different. She’s my best friend.’

‘Well, that’s just how things are. Some friends you love like a sister and others you kiss and do naughty things with.’

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at this and Momo rolled her eyes. A part of her was shaking her head at the immaturity of Heechul while the other part of her was marvelling over the fact that she could be and was in love with Mina. Heechul put away his reading glasses and changed the subject. He rubbed his stomach and asked, “Anyway, I’m feeling a bit peckish for some real food. You want to head out for an early lunch?” Momo nodded eagerly, her appetite unsatisfied with a few pastries. She got up to change but was stopped by Heechul.

‘However, before we go, you should really clean your place up a bit. It smells like junk food and stale laundry. If you are in love as you say, having Mina over with an apartment in this state isn’t a good look.’

He scrunched his nose up in distaste and Momo flushed red. Looking around her apartment, she could see that Heechul was telling the truth. She stood up and started to pick up discarded items of clothing. Heechul helped her, emptying her bin that was full of takeaway containers and boxes.

‘Hey, what’s this? Can I throw this away?’

Momo craned her neck past the load of clothes in her arms and peered at what Heechul was holding up. In his hand was a white envelope and Momo dropped the clothes in a basket to take a closer look. She took the envelope from Heechul and saw the writing on the front of the envelope. Her mind flashed with memories of the night her grandmother had passed away and she swallowed past a lump in . She shook her head. “Thanks for finding this. I’d forgotten all about it. I’ll move it somewhere safer.”

‘Is it important?’

‘It’s the letter my grandma wrote for Mina before she passed away. I put it on the kitchen counter and completely forgot about it.’

‘Oh.’

Waving the envelope, Momo put it next to her alarm clock where she would remember it and resumed her cleaning. Half an hour later, her apartment was finally passable and the overhanging stench of delivery food had disappeared for the most part. She picked out some clothes from her dresser that smelled clean as Heechul gave his hands a thorough wash. She grabbed her keys from the kitchen counter and walked towards the door. A sudden impulse stopped her and she hesitated in the doorway as she thought back to the past few weeks. She couldn’t remember the last time she had stepped foot outside her apartment.

‘Hey, you coming or what?’

Heechul’s voice nudged her mind back to the present and she took one last look at her cleaned up apartment before hurrying down the stairs after him.

‘Coming.’

~

Mina manoeuvred her way through the busy crowd as students headed off towards their next classes. It was an unexpected sunny day and she glanced up at the sky and wondered if she should put on some sunscreen.

‘So did you want me to send you the notes from that lecture?’

Mina turned her attention back to the person beside her and gave a smile of appreciation. “If you could, that would be great. I missed out on quite a few classes so that would save me a lot of time.” Her classmate nodded, rummaging in his bag for a pen and Mina’s smile turned fond as she recalled the week she’d spent absent from school to spend time with Momo. It had been one of the best decisions she could remember making and she wondered what Momo would be doing at this time of day. She chewed on her bottom lip as she weighed up paying Momo a visit or not.

Momo had been clear in her disapproval for skipping classes and Mina was worried that if she turned up to Momo’s apartment, the blonde would ask her if she had finished all her homework which of course she hadn’t. She had heard from Sana about how she had been pushed out of Momo’s apartment with a reprimand that she wasn’t allowed to visit until she had completed all her duties and Mina didn’t want the same happening to her.

Her classmate found what he was looking for and handed her a blank piece of paper for her to write on. Grabbing the pen, Mina leaned over to copy down her email address but something made her look up. She raised her head and spotted Momo walking towards an empty stone table. She called out to her and was rewarded with a turn and a wave. Remembering that she was still holding the pen and paper, Mina quickly jotted down her email. “Hey, sorry I can’t stay and talk. I have somewhere to be,” she said, already looking back to where Momo was waiting.

‘That’s cool. I’ll just send you the notes tonight.’

‘Right.’

Mina waved in the general direction of her companion then briskly headed towards Momo. A smile grew on her face as she approached where the blonde was seated under the shade of a maple tree. Fallen leaves covered the table top and Mina cleared a space on the stone surface as she set her bag down. She made to greet Momo then stopped herself and took a sip of water first. Then taking a deep breath, she asked how Momo was.

‘Feeling a lot bette