Momo was right—the next day at the University, as Mina was walking to meet Jihyo, students were looking at her. Yesterday, they didn’t even bat her an eye. News really travels fast.

“Myoui,” Jihyo speaks as Mina approaches her. It’s what Jihyo has always called her.

“What?” Mina asks, although she already has an idea what her best friend is going to say.

“How long has this been going on?” Jihyo holds her phone up, showing Mina a picture of what seems to be Momo kissing her cheek.

(Mina, of course, knows the truth—that was when Momo gave her the nickname Minari, but there were no kisses on the cheek at all—and now she realizes why Momo purposely did that yesterday. Momo knew someone was watching.)

Mina doesn’t answer Jihyo. Instead, she waits for her to continue.

“I thought you said you’d never date anyone from Twice?” Jihyo asks, feeling betrayed. The two of them always talked about how they hated self-absorbed people like the Twice girls, and that they’d never let the pressure of the group's fangirls and fanboys get to them. It’s been their promise of some sort as best friends. Now Jihyo feels like Mina broke their promise. And Mina understands.

Mina glances behind Jihyo and sees them—Momo and the rest of them. She doesn’t remember the others’ names. She looks straight at Momo, who holds the gaze—it was brief, but Mina knows what Momo is trying to say: Don't tell anyone.

Mina looks back at Jihyo before the latter could notice the interaction. “I’m sorry, Jihyo-yah,” she finally replies, trying her best to show aegyo. She feels like she failed, though; she could see Momo trying to suppress a laugh.

“I don’t know. I guess… I guess I met Momo and I was surprised at her personality.” Well, that isn’t a total lie. “She wasn’t anything like we expected any Twice girl to be.” She’s worse.

Jihyo sighs, accepting the redhead’s answer for now. “Just tell me if she hurts you, alright?”

Mina tries to give a genuine smile, but there’s a knot in her stomach. She’s lucky to have Park Jihyo as her best friend. Unfortunately, she has to lie to her about this.

“You know I will.”

Momo watches as Mina walks off with Jihyo, their arms linked together.

“Yah! Momo!” Jeongyeon shouts to get the girl’s attention.

“Yeah?” was all Momo says, her head turning back to her friends.

“What are you…” Jeongyeon turns to where Momo was looking at, and sees Mina with another girl. “Ah, eyeing your girlfriend, eh?”

“Is Momo-unnie jealous?” Tzuyu teases.

“Aw, don’t be jealous, Momo,” Jeongyeon says, putting her arm around the blonde. “She won’t leave you for that girl. You offered her a billion Won, didn’t you? You had an agreement.”

“Ah, get your arm off me,” Momo tells the no-jam hyung jokingly but removes the arm around herself. “And I know she won’t get together with anyone. Not even you guys.”

“How can you be so sure?” Chaeyoung asks. “We’re the only ones who know that you guys are faking this.”

Momo looks at Chaeyoung, a serious look on her face. “Because you’re my friends.”

Chaeyoung doesn’t reply, and suddenly there’s tension in the air. Jeongyeon notices this, so she tries to lift the mood.

“Come on, Chaeng, I’m sure there are other girls for us out there,” she says, putting one arm around her no-jam dongsaeng and the other on Momo. “Say Momo-yah, that Nayeon girl family friend of yours is single, isn’t she?”

—

Mina finally finishes her last class. She and Jihyo agreed to meet up outside Jihyo’s building so they could go to Karaoke Night together. As Mina scrolls through her phone she feels something hard hit her. She looks up, and suddenly there are a lot of guys and girls around her, staring at her with fiery eyes.

“You stole our Momo from us,” one of them said.

“We don’t even know what she sees in you,” somebody adds.

“You’re worthless!”

“Yeah! And we’ll show Momo how worthless you really are.”

Mina prepares for the worst. The mob starts yelling more petty things about her. She closes her eyes, sure that her body’s going to hurt tomorrow, when suddenly someone wraps her arms around her. Slowly the students hush, and that’s when Mina’s protector and savior speaks.

“You all need to take a look at yourselves,” she says. Mina doesn’t recognize the voice. To be honest, she hoped it was Momo, and knowing that this girl she's with isn’t her has her disappointed a little bit.

“This girl did nothing to you,” the stranger continues. “If I or any of us see you continuing this, we’ll make sure you’ll be expelled from this University.”

The stranger holds Mina’s hand and leads her to what looks like a private lounge. It looks somewhat similar to Momo’s game room, but bigger, and cozier.

“Hi, Mina,” the stranger finally says, causing Mina to turn to her. “I’m Chaeyoung.”