Azure

"Holy that smells amazing!" Jeongyeon hollered as she came out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel wrapped around her body. 

"Yeah I added my 'special ingredient' on top of the- HOLY JEONGYEON PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!" 

I panned the noodles onto two pink plates, before reaching into the refridgerator to grab four fresh chicken eggs. 

"You know, I would appreciate it if  you gave me something other than this ugly looking pink panther shirt." Jeongyeon snarled as she put on the clothes that I had hand-picked for her. The shirt wasn't ugly, in fact, it was pretty and feminine-ish, it only looked ugly on her because Jeongyeon in pink just doesn't work out. 

"Excuse you? That's one of my nicer looking shirt. Would you rather be wearing Sana's ugly yellow bumble bee shirt instead?" I snapped back, mocking my best friend's fashion sense.

Jeongyeon stood where she was and started to ponder. "Is this a Japanese thing? To have a favourite color and then have ugly looking shirts of that color?" She then continued her analysis, "Sana mostly wears yellow to school and you mostly wear pink."

The short haired blonde walked up to where I was, scanned the kitchen and suddenly shouted, "EVEN YOUR GOD DAMN PLATES ARE PINK WHAT THE HECK"

"Pink is pretty..." I mumbled. Pink's my favourite color, although I gotta admit, I might be a little bit too fanatical and crazy with the color itself. My bed sheets, pillows, blankets, toothbrushes and almost every other thing I had owned were pink. I didn't dislike the other colors. It wasn't anything of that sort. It was just, a preference. Pink looked pretty on me, and it's just such a sweet and girly colour it makes me feel soft and all.

I cracked and beat the eggs before cooking them up on the pan.

"This has got to be a Japanese thing." Jeongyeon clapped her hands and confirmed her suspicions, "The other time I went to Sana's house for a project, she had an absurd amount of yellow in her house too. The only Japanese person I've seen not be obsessed or crazy over one particular colour is Mina."

Mina....

My heart started to sink upon hearing her name.

"G-go grab a seat in the living room or something, you're a nuisance over here in the kitchen." I ushered Jeongyeon to leave the kitchen. My voice was shaky.

It didn't take long for me to scramble the eggs. I scooped the eggs over to the two plates, resting them on top of the noodles. I then opened up the top drawer, pulled out a ketchup bottle and squirted out inks of it all over the scrambled eggs. The topping of ketchup over the scrambled eggs makes the taste of the eggs much more appetizing, and also it adds on to the flavor that was missing in the noodles. I had only known of this little useful tip from Mina a few months back.

"Chef Hirai Momo at your service," I announced as I carried two pink plates, one in each hand over to the dining table Jeongyeon was at in the most majestic and extra way possible.

I laid down the two plates onto the table, took off my apron (it was pink as well) and laid it over my seat and sat down, waiting for Jeongyeon to start eating.

Jeongyeon stared at me in a questioning way, as if she was waiting for me to do something.

"W-what?" I blurted.

"Am I supposed to eat the noodles with my hands or something?" She snarled yet again, this time raising both her hands, gesturing the use of utensils.

"Oh right the utensils!" I shot right up from my seat and rushed over to the kitchen to snag 2 sets of utensils before returning to the dining table and passing a set to Jeongyeon.

Jeongyeon sighed as she took the utensils from my hands. My utensils were of course, pink as well. Jeongyeon was definitely going to make fun of me for that again.

"Don't. Say. A. Single. Thing. And. Just. Eat." I said in an intense yet sturdy manner, before Jeongyeon could manage to utter a single word or complain about the color of the utensils.

We then began to start making pigs of ourselves, devouring everything that was on the plate.

"Imhseeymmomupmutkmetchupmontmopofscmrmambledmemggsamswell" Jeongyeon attempted to speak with full of noodles and ketchup all over her face.

Unable to understand her gibberish talk, I chugged a cup of water to clear my throat and asked, "Sorry, what?"

She did the same, and repeated her words, in a much clearer and audible manner, "I see you put ketchup on top of scrambled eggs as well." Twirling up another fork of noodles, she went on, "Mina does that too. You know, putting ketchup over scrambled eggs and basically every other thing she eats. I guess that's her obsessive Japanese side."

"Oh..." I replied mildly, "She was the one who taught me to put ketchup over scrambled eggs, so ... yeah... haha" I tried to laugh it off, but ended up making the already gloomy atmosphere even worse than it originally was.

Jeongyeon, who only realized what she had brought up a few seconds too late, immediately apologised, "oH MY GOD Momo I'm sorry I didn't meant to do that."

"It's fine," I tried to reassure her, before switching up the topic in an attempt to enliven the atmosphere, "How's the food? Is it to your liking?"

"To my liking? This 's insane! This is the most delicious I've ever eaten in years!!" Jeongyeon glorified my food.

My lips curved up and I revealed a smile, "Of course it is, you're talking about food that has been made by yours truly, Chef de Cuisine, Hirai Momo. The Hirai Momo that can make bland and boring instant noodles turn into glorious goodies that is rumoured to rejuvenate and bring life back into the dead warriors of the Qin Dinasty."

Jeongyeon rolled her eyes and then resumed bolting down dinner. She had this idiot smile on her face the whole time she was eating, I bet you she really enjoyed what I had dished up for her.

I had lived alone since I was 13. so having to learn how to cook healthy meals were essential. Naturally, through the course of cooking meals for myself for over a number of years, my cooking skills eventually got better. I wasn't the smartest of students, but I was a pretty good cook if I do say so myself.

"Wah this is really delicious oh my god!" Jeongyeon illustrated a thumbs up in the air, before chucking another forkful of noodles into her already filled mouth and muttering something incomprehensible. 

"Sorry what?" I inquisited, immediately bringing into existence a sense of déjà vu.

"Do you want to play league after this?" Jeongyeon spoke with free of food.

I held up my fork and cheered in response, maybe a little too enthusiastically, "SURE!" My hands were itching from not having played in a couple of days.

We both then finished our dinner. Jeongyeon insisted on washing the plates because she feels bad for having to freeload and stay over for the night. I tried to argue with her, saying that she was my guest and that I had to be the one to wash the plates instead but she wouldn't live with that. Eventually, Jeongyeon washed the plates and I went to take a shower.

Thousands of lukewarm drops trickled down my back, engulfing me in a warm and comfortable temperature. The sound of the beads hitting the floor and my body, accompanied by the steamy vapour filling the room, made me feel at ease. I spend a few minutes in this sublime ambience, and pondered.

What exactly is Myoui Mina's favourite color?

"Momo you're a bottom right?" Jeongyeon articulated thoughtlessly.

My eyes shifted away from the computer screen, widened and landed on Jeongyeon, "I'm a wHAT?"

Jeongyeon laughed at the absurdity of her words, before clarifying herself, "I mean, you play bottom right? You know, like you play the bottom lane in this game?"

"Oh, right. Of course you meant it that way. No I'm fine with all lanes, it just so happens that Sana plays support so I end up going bottom every game so that she can't complain about laning with someone bad." I answered, before posing back another question, "You play top mostly right? Like top as in top lane."

Jeongyeon cracked up even louder this time round, nodding her head in acknowledgement.

"Alright let's win this one!" I sounded off, and Jeongyeon clapped in response, roaring out a "YEAH LET'S DO THIS!" before we transversed off into the land of internet gaming.

Jeongyeon wasn't a bad player. In fact, she probably plays better than Sana. She responds to pings and calls much quicker, has better map awareness and also is vocal on what she's going to do, making it easy for me to correct her plays or thinking. However, Sana has a wider variety of champions to choose from, as compared to Jeongyeon, who only specialises in just one champion.

I have to admit though, Jeongyeon has been getting exponentially better since the first time I've played with her. Her grades however, has been descending aggressively as well. Every so often, I feel guilty for playing with them, because I probably affected their grades a bunch.

Nayeon was the same. She had decent grades before she had met me and Sana. Recently she's been passing up on playing with us because she has to better focus on her studies. 

Sana however, seemed to be able to maintain her grades somehow, which was miraculous, considering how much time she had spent each week playing with me and Jeongyeon.

Necks frozen, eyes glued onto the screen, fingers moving hastily and meticulously, with the periodical opening of mouths to call out or gesture plays. This carried on for the next few hours.

"12:32 A.M.", the digital clock on the bottom right of our screens read.

"That was intense!" I excruciated as I massaged my benumbed neck with one hand and rubbed my tired eyes with another.

"That's what she said," the short haired girl witted out, earning herself a well-deserved 'really jeongyeon?' face from me. She then stood up and stretched, revealing a little bit of her belly button as her pink panther shirt got lifted up.

My eyes sparkled and the corner of my lips leaked a grin. Not letting this opportunity slip by, I dived towards Jeongyeon's direction and poked her straight in the belly button, causing her to tumble backwards, triggering a tyrannosaurus-like "YAHHH". Before she managed to get back up on her feet, I immediately commenced my 'Run-Away-From-Jeongyeon Operation' and started to run around the house.

Jeongyeon got right up seconds later and springed off to catch me, seeking her revenge. My house wasn't big, not at all. It didn't take long for Jeongyeon to poke me right back in my belly button (or at least she thought she poked me there). She retreated after landing a poke on me, and then we switched roles. I was on the hunt now, and Jeongyeon was my prey. This never-ending cycle repeated for a couple of minutes, two idiots running around a humble living room in the middle of the night.

Eventually, we both got tired and I called truce after getting poked by Jeongyeon for the nth time. Jeongyeon seemed like she would've been able to continue this childish tag forever and I wasn't planning to die from exhausting myself in a babyish game like this, at least not today.

We collapsed onto a king-sized bed after truce was called. 

"Really Momo, a 19 year old with all these?" Jeongyeon asked rhetorically, as she started punching one of my Tony Tony Chopper doll in the eye, before picking up Peachy (what I call my barbie doll) and attempting to pull off her left arm.

"Eighteen going Nineteen," I corrected her, before rescuing my Peachy, snatching her away from the short haired monster's hands. 

"Your room is absurdly pink I swear, thank god your celing isn't pink," she scanned the room while sitting cross-legged. 

"I had wanted to paint it pink too but I figured it wasn't worth the time and effort I had to pour in. Also, I ran out of pink paint after finishing up the last wall over there," I pointed at one of the four walls in the room which was of a significantly lighter shade of pink as compared to the others. I switched the lights off.

Jeongyeon cracked her neck and stretched once more, before leaning backwards, eventually laying horizontal on top of the pink covered mattress. "Are you going to school tomorrow?" She asked with her eyes locked onto the ceiling.

The atmosphere in the room had changed.

I lay down as well, and stared at the ceiling. I didn't know how to answer her question. It was a simple 'yes/no' question but I wasn't able to answer for sure. I kept my eyes on the ceiling, hoping she would ask another question or just fall asleep.

"I... don't know if I'm ready to go back yet," I conceded ultimately. I don't know if I'm ready for school yet, or more specifically, I don't know if I'll be able to manage seeing things that will make me hurt. 

"Oh... Come back when you're ready I guess..." Jeongyeon said heavily. She didn't pursue the issue, but instead, fell calmly asleep.

I kept my eyes wide open throughout the night, staring at the blank white wall. The eerie darkness of the night accompanied me as I mulled over unanswered questions.

What's her favourite color?

Did anything interesting happen to her in school today?

What is she doing right now?

Does she ... miss me at all?

I cleared my throat soundlessly, and mouthed out softly, "Jeongyeon."

"..."

There was no response from the taller individual. She was dead to the world.

"Jeongyeon," I called her name in a much louder voice to confirm she isn't awake.

"..." Still no response

I pushed the blanket away from me, and then tugged it closer to Jeongyeon, ensuring that it covers the entirety of Jeongyeon, keeping her warm. I then placed Peachy beside Jeongyeon and muttered, "Keep Jeongyeon company for a bit, Peachy."

The sour and vile taste slipped into my mouth, nullifying me, throwing my senses away. It was a source of comfort. I seeked warmth, regardless of what harm it might bring. 

I opened up a second can of beer, and attempted to answer a few of my questions myself.

Mina's favourite color is red ... Or is it black? Probably the latter. I wasn't drunk, yet. She hates the color green, that much I know. 

I chugged down a big gulp. My cheeks starting to grow hot.

We have a Law class today too.. She probably slept through the lesson... I giggled tipsily. That dumbo hates the Law class...

I took another sip, this time round concentrating my eyes on a singular pen, in an attempt to regain my senses. I then reached across the sofa for my phone. "3.31 A.M." 

She's probably sleeping right now... I concluded with what little brain power I had left. This is so ing unfair, why am I the only one suffering, and then she gets to sleep as if nothing happens.

I threw my phone back onto the sofa and my eyes shifted back onto the table. I snagged the first empty can of beer and crushed it. 

She... she probably ... I took another sip. She probably doesn't miss me at all.. I nodded to myself. Yes that's right, she doesn't miss you at all. 

I finished another can.

It... hurts... I cried out, opening my third can, and taking a sip everytime my eyes are about to close.

I drowned myself in alcohol, my throat burning as I do so. I lost track of time subsequently. The last thing I had remembered from the night, was me throwing a fit, throwing the empty cans of beer onto a wall.

I woke up in my pink king-sized bed with a wet towel on my head. Jeongyeon was no longer here.

The smell of beer lingered throughout the entire room, my mouth was sticky with saliva. As I attempted to sit up straight, I felt a cracking headache. "Arghh" I excruciated out in pain.

I massaged my tempest as I turned my head to find my phone laying flat beside me, along with a post-it note that read 'Ya boy YJY has left for school! I may not be the best of cooks, but hey! I know a thing or two about cooking eggs! Loves, Jeongyeon'. I then unlocked my phone, skimming through all the irrelevant messages, and opening up my chat with Jeongyeon.

Jeongyeon: (06:42): I cooked up a couple of scrambled eggs for ya, I placed it on the dining table.

Jeongyeon: (06:43): There's also a stack of homework that I had forgotten to pass to you yesterday LMAO we were so engrossed in playing league that I had forgotten about my side mission. They're on your laptop.

Jeongyeon: (06:43): Cheer up baby, rest well for today and I'll see you when your feeling better :D

Thanks Jeongyeon. I thanked Jeongyeon in my head. I didn't bother to reply her messages, or rather, I didn't know how to reply her messages yet.

I clung to the wall for support as I walked out of the bedroom and into the living room. There was indeed, a plate of scrambled eggs on the dining table. The cans of beer from last night were gone as well.

I scratched my head and tried to recall what had happened last night, but I could only manage to draw out images of me getting dragged across the room on someone's shoulders and also me vomitting in the toilet. I probably woke Jeongyeon up in the middle of the night, and then she took measures to take care of me.

I slumped onto a chair and started gorging on the scrambled eggs. There wasn't any ketchup on them. I finished it up in an instant and left the plates on the sink.

I snugged onto the sofa and groaned. I was feeling ty. I pulled out my phone and opened up my chat with Jeongyeon again and started typing away.

Momo: (11:14): Heyo thanks for taking care of me last night man. Your scrambled eggs were delicious (not). I'll be coming back to school tomorrow probably maybe presumably. Have fun in school today :) 

Momo: (11:25): Sorry for making you worry by the way.

I typed in the last message, and I rested my eyes. I didn't mean to rely on Jeongyeon to ease my pain. I wasn't expecting myself to get KO-ed so easily last night either, I had wanted to just drink a few cans of beer, and then go back to sleep right after. I didn't want Jeongyeon to worry, but I ended up doing the exact opposite.

After lazing around for what, a good entire hour, I got off the sofa and walked over to my laptop. I picked up the stacks of worksheets and notes that were on it, and scanned through them. It was nasty and boring accounting homework.

Undoubtedly, my eyes locked onto the top of the pages, and I saw the name that was written on it, or more specifically, the way it was written.

Written with a beautiful and elegant font, it spelled H-E-R-A-I M-O-M-O

The spelling mistake wasn't a prank or anything. It was a genuine mistake. I had known with just one glance. I knew who had written that.

It was Myoui Mina