Momo realizes she is in love.

Cold hands cover her much colder ones, in the midst of winter with the snow pelting hard against their shared umbrella. They laugh together when Nayeon pretends to puff on an imaginary cigarette when the warm breath fogs at the touch of cold. Nose sniffles with each step, the cold bites against their skin but they are perfectly warm at the mere thought of being there with each other. Their hands may be cold, but their hearts are warm.

---

Momo realizes she is in love.

It’s the middle of winter holidays; lights are being strung across her roof (Jungyeon is on the ladder while Tzuyu seems to be directing the former). Sana smells of the fresh baked cookies that Momo has been eyeing for a while. Mina nudges her shoulder as she walks in through the door, a gigantic bag at her disposal (probably the decorations for the tree). Momo doesn’t turn her head, but her heart thrums just a tad bit harder. And despite the cold air that sweeps in when the door opens, Momo feels her cheeks flush, her ears warming at the gentle ‘Hello’ spoken by the figure behind her.

Nayeon doesn’t hug Momo until she’s done so with everyone else.

(Nayeon lingers a moment longer in her arms).

---

Momo realizes she is in love.

Momo does not receive many calls from anyone except for Sana. Thus its a surprise when the screen lights up with the name ‘Nayeon’. her phone buzzing incessantly on a Sunday night (the night before school starts up again). She blinks once, twice before she realizes the name on the screen doesn’t change and then swipes the screen to answer the call.

“Momo? Were you sleeping?”

Nayeon sounds a bit guilty, thinking that she had disturbed Momo’s peaceful slumber.

“Oh no, I wasn’t sleeping”

Momo could feel dry up suddenly, words seemingly disappearing from her head.

“Ah, that’s good. How was your day, Momo?”

They fall into a meaningless conversation, one that drags on from the quick brushing of her uneventful day to the memory of a four year old Hirai Momo attempting to buy ice cream with the monopoly cash she had found lying around her house.

Nayeon’s laughter is contagious, the kind that makes one feel unimaginably happy for being the cause of it. The kind of laugh that make you want to hear it more.

“Momo...I was wondering if you could pick me up tomorrow?”

Momo doesn’t miss a beat to say yes. Nayeon whispers a gentle ‘thank you’ before they fall into another hour of soft giggles and exaggerated gasps.

Momo does fall into the most peaceful slumber she’s had in ages.

---

Momo realizes she is in love.

It becomes a routine: Momo picking up Nayeon from the Im residence (which might as well call itself Im Palace). Momo sets her alarm an hour earlier than she usually does. She carries an extra hand warmer for Nayeon, the girl always seems to forget hers. Momo always gets to Nayeon’s ten minutes early (but she doesn’t let Nayeon know), mostly because she can’t wait to see her again.

Nayeon walks out the gate elegantly, her strides longer and steps quicker till she stands in front of Momo. They share a bashful smile before they gather each other in their arms. They sigh against each other, Momo against the mesh of Nayeon’s strawberry scented hair and Nayeon in the crook of Momo’s neck, against her haphazardly pulled collar.

Nayeon fixes Momo’s tie when they get to her locker. Carefully looping through, and gently pulling it into its proper length and form. Momo is almost always trying to look away from Nayeon’s lips (Nayeon has a habit of biting her lips whenever she is concentrating on something).

Nayeon rests her hand against Momo’s chest, her fingers then drawing a lazy heart which Momo is too distracted to notice.

Nayeon then quickly fixes her collar before moving away.

Momo is almost sure that she saw a tinge of pink on the older girl’s cheeks.

(Nayeon stutters while saying “see you later”).

---

Momo realizes she is in love.

She’s in the detention room- again. Momo really can’t help herself to falling asleep during the seemingly never-ending literature lectures. Literature has never been Momo’s forte, only tuning her ears whenever Mina does her weekly poem reading (Momo has always been fascinated with how well the words roll off of the otherwise quiet girl’s mouth). Momo and Sana always take it upon themselves to cheer as loudly as they can whenever Mina ends her performance with her signature bow.

But today was a Wednesday, which means no Mina performing, which means no reason to listen, which usually always transcends to her sleeping in class (though Momo argues that sleeping wasn’t really in her agenda, but was merely a side-effect). Therefore she isn’t all too surprised when the professor passes her a detention slip with an angry huff after class. Momo let her friends know with an innocent shrug while they shake their head mockingly, yelling after her to stop staying up all night on the phone with Nayeon.

She finds Nayeon waiting outside the classroom. The girl gathers her backpack and gives Momo a once over (Momo had loosened her tie and ed the first few buttons while she cleaned up the classroom to serve her punishment). This time around, Momo is sure she notices the elder’s flushed cheeks as her hands fidget ever so subtly.

“Let’s go home?”

And so they start walking. The winter had given way to spring and fresh soft pinks of Sakura surrounds their way home.

“Why did you wait for me?”

Nayeon glances at her briefly before looking ahead again.

“Because I wanted to. I wanted to go home with you. I was hoping I could come over for some time”

Her voice lowers towards the last part but Momo hears it clearly. A grin growing on her lips way too fast for her liking.

“You can come over anytime, Nayeon-unnie”

Nayeon looks at her with an equally disarming grin, shoving Momo gently before picking up her pace and looking back at Momo when she’s a good few feet away.

“Last one to home cooks dinner”

Momo opens and closes it, caught off guard by the sudden playfulness, before running behind Nayeon.

“I’m not cooking dinner! Not today!”

(Nayeon wins that race. Nayeon cooks her dinner).

---

Momo realizes she’s in love.

This also becomes their routine. Instead of the phone calls that lasts till the break of dawn and the subsequent instant messaging throughout the day, Nayeon suggests that she come over to Momo’s for the weekend or the latter to her’s. Momo as usual had no plans to say no, and by now Mrs. Hirai has come to make enough to serve the welcome addition to their dinner table, and makes it a point to let Momo know to clear one of her shelves for Nayeon’s clothes she has to leave behind after their sleep overs.

They climb onto Momo’s bed, comfortable in their PJ’s for the night (Momo in her grey cotton shorts and tank top, Nayeon in one of Momo’s old basketball jersey and a barely there cotton shorts). Momo does everything in her to keep her eyes away from Nayeon’s exposed thighs and legs, although that does not end up all that well. They set up the movie for the night and pulls the covers to their laps.

Momo notices that Nayeon moves closer to her.

Halfway through the movie, Nayeon rests her head upon Momo’s shoulder and her hands move to gently rest upon Momo’s knees.

Momo stiffens at the touch initially, before sighing contently at the warmth permeating from Nayeon’s palm. The older girl was always a tad bit warmer than Momo and she found that she liked that very much.

It was halfway into the movie when Momo realizes that she hasn’t paid much attention to the screen in front of her but