Club lights flashed and Mina stumbled her way through the crowd in her heels. Her feet were hurting and she could feel a headache coming on. She had had too much to drink and now it was coming back to bite her. A person entered her field of vision and she looked up to see a guy her age standing in front of her. “Hey beautiful. Wanna come back to my place? I can show you a good time,” he suggested. Mina ignored him and continued walking. The guy grabbed her wrist and held her back, turning to face her again.

‘Come on, it’ll be fun.’   

‘Piss off, jerk.’

Mina pulled her hand free from his grip and tried to block her ears as he laughed her off.

‘Whatever floats your boat.’

She managed to exit the clubhouse without further incident and called her chauffeur. It was a school night and she didn’t want to worry any of the staff if she didn’t return home. With the assurance of a ride home, she sat on the kerb and rubbed her throbbing temples. Time passed and she looked up at the night sky as she waited. It had been another beautiful night like this when her mother had left her.

Her parents had been arguing over some trivial matter and her mother had suffered a sudden . She’d always had high blood pressure and a blood clot had travelled from her heart to her brain, cutting off her oxygen and she had been rushed to the hospital in a comatose state. Mina had been in primary school at the time and she had watched as for the rest of the year her mother lay still in a bed and the chances of her living slowly faded away. Her father had become a changed man, having all the money in the world and not being able to change a thing.

The crunch of gravel approached and Mina looked up to see the familiar car she was usually driven in. She waved awkwardly to her chauffeur as he exited the car and he gave no reaction as he helped her up and sat her in the back seat. She thought about her father in Japan, about how he was doing and whether he was thinking about her before drifting off to sleep.

~

Mina woke up and immediately groaned before it was cut off as she resisted the urge to vomit. She had drunk too much alcohol the night before and her hangover was now making her pay. She got out of the bed and padded over to the bathroom where she gripped the sides of the sink and peered through a haze at her reflection. Her cheeks were all puffed up and her normally graceful demeanour was ruined by the pale pallor of her face.

She tugged at the taps and bent down as the water streamed out, drinking in some water to gargle out the dryness of . It was a mistake as she straightened up and her stomach heaved as whatever she had eaten or drunk the night before escaped. When the contents of stomach were emptied out, she lay back in bed and called for her maid to bring some tea and a bowl of scrambled eggs.

There was a short wait before the maid walked into the room with her order and she sat up gingerly at the smell of food. She wolfed down the eggs as she sipped her tea and she felt her developing headache begin to disappear. With her body replenished, Mina glanced at her bedside clock- 10:31 a.m. She groaned and fell back onto her pillows before smiling at the realisation that she had no reason and no one to force her to attend school. She pulled up the covers to her chin and slept.

~

‘See? This is why you should move in with me. It’s a pain to have to drive so far just to see you.’

Momo stopped chewing and raised her head slowly to look at Heechul. She finished chewing her mouthful and replied back, “I’m not forcing you to come here and I’m going to say it again. I am not moving in with you.” She went back to eating and there was silence for a few moments before Heechul spoke up again. “So how’s school going?” he asked. Momo put down her chopsticks and sighed. “I don’t know,” she began. “Not really the best at the moment. Heechul stopped eating, surprised at her giving a different response to this question he had asked at least a thousand times before.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘It’s not really a big deal but my things have been starting to go missing again. My books disappear from my locker and turn up in random places around the school but the worst thing is that I don’t have any idea who it is this time.’

‘Huh, that’s a pretty big deal.’

‘Yes, yes it is.’

At that, Momo picked up her chopsticks and continued eating and the silence settled again. They finished off the noodles then Heechul’s phone pinged with a message. “Sorry,” he said. “I have to get back to work.” Momo smiled at him, nodding in understanding and he left, the room feeling empty without his presence. She set aside the rest of the noodles and cleaned up, getting some books out of her school bag. She wanted to get a head start on her school project and worrying about the maturity level of her classmates would not help.

She searched online about a tea shop in the heart of the city that dated back to the 1950s, having been established in 1953. Its name was Fragrant Tea Leaves, specialising in traditional brews of Korea. Knowing her group, it was likely that her other partners would b