It’s Saturday morning at Mina’s house. Mina is rummaging through her clothes, deciding what to wear for her date with Momo. Should she just wear shorts? Too casual. A skirt? Momo might think she’s trying too hard to be cute. Maybe pants? Not to mention her top—should she choose a simple shirt, crop top, blouse? There are too many options!

 

Mina grunts. Why does she care about her outfit, anyway? It’s not like it’s a real date.

 

Maybe it's because Mina knows that deep down, she wants it to be.

 

“Mina-san, aren’t you gonna come down for lunch?” she hears her mother call from downstairs.

 

“I’m not eating lunch here, mom,” she shouts.

 

Several minutes later Mina receives a text from Momo saying that she’s outside their house. She types her reply.

 

To: Momo

Ok. Be out in a few. I won’t be late this time I promise. ;-P

 

From: Momo

i can wait. :P

 

Momo’s being nice today, Mina thinks to herself, smiling unconsciously at the thought. She takes one last look at the mirror and gives herself a mini-pep talk.

 

“You can do this, Minari,” she says. “It’s just a normal day.” She takes a deep breath. “You are a calm penguin. You are a calm penguin.”

 

At that exact moment Mina hears a violent laughter coming from the living room. She recognizes it as her mother’s.

 

“OH, MOMO, YOU ARE TOO FUNNY! HA HA HA!”

 

Mina’s eyes widen upon hearing Momo’s name. “You are not a calm penguin! You are a panicky penguin!” She rushes out the door to see Momo smiling in front of Mina’s mother in the living room. She gathers her things and hurries downstairs for damage control.

 

“So is she the reason why you’re not eating lunch with us today, Mina-san?” Mrs. Myoui asks her daughter.

 

“Yes, mom, and we reaaaally have to go now, bye!” She turns to Momo with a serious look on her face. “Let’s go.”

 

Momo looks at Mrs. Myoui one last time and bows. “Thank you, Mrs. Myoui. I promise Mina won’t come home late.”

 

“Oh, you can take her home any time of the night—you can even let her stay in your house, if you want to!”

 

“Mom! Ugh. Momo, just ignore her please.” Mina drags Momo out the door.

 

“Have fun, ladies!”

 

“I like your mom,” says Momo as they walk to her car. “She loves me.”

 

“Well, that makes one of the Myouis,” Mina jokes.

 

“Then I’m going to change that,” Momo retorts, and Mina isn’t sure if the older girl is joking or not.

 

Great, now she’s blushing. Stop blushing, Mina!

 

As Momo starts the car and turns on the radio, Mina gasps.

 

“What?” Momo asks.

 

“It’s just,” Mina starts, “when I first rode on your car you weren’t playing music.”

 

“Oh,” Momo mutters. “I always notice you humming whenever I pick you up, so I—I thought it would be better if there’s actual music that you can sing along to.”

 

“Oh…” Mina blushes. She never thought the brown-haired girl actually paid attention to her during their past car rides.

 

Suddenly the song Signal plays on the radio, and both girls sing along, knowing the song very well.

 

“Signal bonae, signal bonae, jjirit, jjirit, jjirit, jjirit!”

 

“Trying to let you know! Signeul bonae, signal bonae!”

 

They laugh as they dance around in the car, amazed that they both know all the steps to the song. Momo parks her Audi near Han River since they will be having lunch at the shore.

 

Momo, Mina realizes, prepared everything for their lunch—she’s got the cloth for them to sit on (she even brought an extra for Mina in case she wore a skirt—which she didn’t but Mina found the gesture sweet), and a picnic basket full of food and utensils.

 

Well, there is one thing Momo forgot, but it’s something Mina always brings with her whenever she goes. She takes it out of her bag and Momo widens her eyes.

 

“Is that ketchup?” Momo asks the ballerina.

 

“Mhm,” Mina replies, nodding her head excitedly.

 

“And you have one stashed in your bag?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“You’re weird.”

 

“It’s not weird!” Mina pouts, and Momo finds it cute. She also finds it hard to stop her heart that’s beating so fast it might as well just jump out of her chest.

 

Momo shakes her head, partly to dismiss Mina jokingly, partly to shake off her feelings. She then starts taking out the food from the basket—there’s kimchi, bibimbap, yukhoe, bulgogi, barbecue, and of course, jokbal.

 

“Momo, this is a lot,” Mina comments.

 

“We better finish this up or Nayeon will get mad.”

 

“Oh, did Nayeon-unnie cook this for us?”

 

“She’s the one I asked to cook, but it seems she asked No-Jam for help. And by that I mean Jeongyeon cooked everything.”

 

Mina laughs. There it goes again, Momo thinks. That heavenly laughter.

 

Momo grabs some yukhoe and mayonnaise so she can pour some over her food.

 

“Wait, Momo-unnie.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“You should put ketchup on that. Not mayonnaise.”

 

“Eh?” Momo raises her eyebrows. “Ketchup? Does it taste good?”

 

“Yes, of course,” Mina replies. “Here.” She opens her bottle of ketchup. She grabs Momo’s hand tightly which is holding the spoon so that she can pour the ketchup on the other girl’s food. Finally, she guides Momo’s hand so she can taste it, and Momo starts to chew.

 

“Well?” Mina asks when Momo swallows the food. “Is it good?”

 

“Y—Yeah,” replies Momo. “Really good.” Of course, part of the reason why it was good was because Mina held her hand. But Momo isn’t going to admit that out loud.

 

The next minutes or so goes by with the pair eating in comfortable silence. Then Momo remembers what Sana told her—that she should open up to Mina. She swallows and takes a deep breath before speaking.

 

“Minari…” she starts.

 

“Yeah?” Mina glances at Momo.

 

“W—When I was three years old, my parents enrolled me to dance lessons. I loved it. But I found out that they did it so they wouldn’t have to take care of me at home—of us, my sister and I. She also took dance lessons with me. We were so excited when our teacher told us to participate in the recital so we told mom and dad. But they didn’t come. Nayeon and her parents did; they supported us. When we came home, our parents said they had a meeting.

 

“We endured a few more years of this until my sister couldn’t anymore. She ran away, but they found her. When she started college, she focused more on dancing than on Medicine. When they found out about this, my dad, h—he slapped her once. The next day, Hana was gone.

 

“I joined a dance group in high school, and that’s where I met Jeongyeon, Tzuyu, and Chaeyoung. We made a dance cover together with Sana. My dad saw this online after a few months. He didn’t slap me like what he did to Hana. But... he told me that I should take up a Business course in college because I was the heir of Hirai Enterprises. And that when I graduate, I should stop dancing.”

 

Momo glances at Mina. The ballerina is looking at her with her full attention, and Momo takes a deep breath and continues her story.

 

“Sometimes I wonder if I should run away like my sister. But I couldn’t leave behind my friends, Nayeon and her family… Yet there are times when I think I’m weak because of it.”

 

Mina shakes her head. “No, Momo. You’re not weak. You’re a lot stronger than you think because you endure that much emotional pain for the people you love. And you’re even stronger for sharing it now.”

 

Momo smiles weakly. “Look, I know seonsaengnim wanted us to be comfortable with each other, so you might think that I’m sharing this just for the dance. But I’m… I’m really comfortable with you, Mina. I know I can trust you.”

 

“Thank you, Momo,” Mina responds, putting her hand over Momo’s, who blushes at the contact.

 

It’s mostly Momo who finishes the food, muttering excuses like, “Well I just shared something personal so I have to eat my comfort food!” or, “Nayeon will kill me if we have leftovers.” Mina’s fine with it, anyway; she enjoys watching the girl eat as if it’s her last.

 

After lunch Momo takes Mina to her house.

 

“Your house, really?” Mina raises an eyebrow. “That’s your idea of a date?” she teases.

 

“Well I like playing games sometimes, and I think it’s a good bonding,” Momo argues.

 

“Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you,” Momo tells her as they go inside her game room, the room where they first met.

 

Mina tries to hide her smirk as she comes up with an idea. “Yeah, you have to teach me first. What game are we playing, anyway?”

 

“Do you know Elsword?” Momo asks her. “So here’s how you play…”

 

A few minutes later, after Momo “teaches” Mina the basics, they set up their characters in their laptops (both of which actually belong to Momo) and start the game. In the end, it’s Mina who dominates the rankings.

 

“Yah!!” Momo squeals. “Why do I always lose to you? First the bet with Tzuyu, now this!”

 

Mina just laughs at Momo’s suffering. “You shouldn’t have bet against me on that first one. But when it comes to games, I learn playing them easily.”

 

Momo grunts. “I don’t wanna play with you anymore.”

 

“Aw, Momoring, don’t be like that,” Mina says, her voice full of aegyo. “Let’s play some more.”

 

“What did you just call me?”

 

“Umm… Momoring. I—Is that—don’t you like that nickname?”

 

“No—I mean, yeah. I like it.” Momo offers a smile, and Mina smiles back, looking into Momo’s eyes.

 

Mina may have seen positive sides of Momo before, but right now is the first time she's seeing the brown-haired girl like—like she wants to ki—

 

“Look, Nayeon-ah, they’re making puppy dog eyes at each other!”

 

Momo turns towards the door to see Sana there, calling out for Nayeon outside.

 

“Sana-chan!!” Momo screams in frustration. She turns to the squirrel-faced girl with a murderous look on her face.

“Nayeon-ah! Help! Momo is going to kill me!”