Momo whines as the teacher asked them to hand in their homework, she knows she bombed this; she hates maths with a passion.

“Come on doofus, maybe you didn’t do terribly.” Sana chuckles, patting Momo on the head as she passes her. Easy for Sana to say, she’s almost a maths genius, there’s only two other people in their class that are smarter: Mina and Dahyun.

Momo was not, under any circumstances, asking her crush to help tutor her. Nope, no way. She was not going to embarrass herself that way.

“Hirai. Your homework,” The teacher says sternly, pulling Momo from her mind and causing some of the class to giggle. Momo makes some incomprehensible noises before standing up and shuffling over to his desk. “For your inability to follow requests first time, I’ll mark your homework first.” He says before loudly taking a drink of his coffee and announcing that the class is to work on a page in their workbook.

Momo walks back to her desk, head down and her cheeks on fire. She hates maths and the teacher. Sana giggles again as Momo grumbles as she sits down at their shared desk, she gives Sana her best puppy eyes.

“Please help me Sana-chan.” Momo begs, she isn’t afraid to beg for Sana’s help when it comes to maths or any subject she shares with the younger Japanese girl. Getting no response but a tap of Sana’s finger on the workbook, Momo huffs again and lazily opens the workbook finding the pages that are on the board.

Just as Momo is about to put pencil to paper her teacher’s voice cuts through the silence.

“Hirai, please come here,” Momo lets out another whine before getting out of her seat leaving a giggling Sana behind. “Did you actually make an attempt? It looks like you didn’t use your brain at all.” He starts on Momo loudly, before she even had the chance to get to his desk. She really hates this teacher.

Momo can hear some of the students laughing, hear them talking about her. She’s never been good with studies at school, Momo has always been hands on and learns the best whilst doing rather than reading.

“Sorry Sir, I tried my best with the homework assigned.” Momo sighs staring at the desk, she can hear the other students laughing louder as Sana tries to stop their laughter. “I did miss a day because I had a dance audition, if you remember.” Momo mumbles the ending of her sentence, not that saying that would make her teacher be nicer to her. He hates her as much as she hates him, at least it’s a mutual feeling.

 

She hates math the most.

 

“Yes I remember but that is still no excuse, you should have studied that part in your free time,” the teacher states as he takes another loud sip of coffee, before continuing in a more hushed voice. “I will assign you a tutor, that way you should improve and we can get you a pass on the exam, okay?” He asks Momo, and she is quite shocked he has never once showed any interest in having her pass. All he does is complain and berate her for her attempts in class, then again Momo thinks, he is probably doing this so his student pass rate is higher than other teachers. He instructs Momo to go back to her seat and has a quiet word with Sana, asking her to help Momo with the current assignment while he thinks about who will tutor her. She really hopes it isn’t her crush. As the girls work , Momo thinks that she is maybe, just maybe, getting the hang of it, but then a stupid boy in their class had to open his mouth.

 

“Hey I need help, Momo you’re the smartest here help me.” He shouts smirking at Momo as most of the class erupt into laughter, drowning the teacher’s calls for silence out. Momo can feel the tears building in her eyes, feels Sana’s hand her arm and her calming voice. But all Momo can do is slam her book shut, grab her things and storm out the room crying an apology out to the teacher.

 

She leaves the hallway for the maths department and make her way downstairs, towards one of the female bathrooms, she throws the door open and stops in her tracks. In her haste to open the door and escape everyone she flung the door open onto a girl, who is currently lying on the floor holding her face.

 

“I am so sorry, I am so sorry,” Momo sobs out, her tears still haven’t stopped spilling over her lids but she feels so apologetic to this girl. “Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay?”

 

The girl raises her hand to stop Momo and she croaks something out but Momo can’t understand what she said, so she waits for the girl to do something else. She is small and has blonde hair, she’s also wearing glasses or she should be, they’re on the floor in front of Momo’s feet.

 

“Oh, here are your glasses. I hope they’re not broken,” Momo crouches beside the girl and stretches her arm out, holding the glasses in front of the girl. “I’m really sorry, I truly am. I just wanted to get in here and away from everyone.” Momo says softly, still holding the glasses. Momo thinks, “Just who is this girl?” All Momo can see is the top of her head and the god awful school uniform.

 

“It’s okay,” the girl croaks out, this time Momo hears her and a smile plays on Momo’s lips hearing the girl’s voice, it sounds familiar. The girl reaches forward and takes the glasses from Momo’s hand and that is when Momo notices the spots on blood on the floor. “I’m fine.”

 

“You’re bleeding, please stand up and let me at least clean you up, this is my fault.” Momo says over the school bell signalling lunch, the girl nods and Momo takes a hold of her arms gently helping the girl stand up. She still has her head down. “Okay, rest against the sink.”

 

Momo collects some tissue paper and wets some, she holds the tissue paper in one hand while she gently places her other hand on the other girl’s jaw. “Could you lift your head up?” Momo wasn’t quite prepared for who she had actually hit, and  dropped the tissue paper onto the floor as Dahyun raised her head. Momo cursed as she picked the tissue paper up, disposing of it into the bin.

 

“It isn’t that bad, please don’t worry.” Dahyun insists, watching as Momo grabs more paper towels and runs some water, her actions bordering on frantic.

 

Well who wouldn’t be frantic after hitting your crush with a door? She’s bleeding and Momo feels horrible for doing this, all because she can’t control her emotions when it comes to maths. God, if that stupid boy hadn’t said anything Momo wouldn’t be here. She wouldn’t be about to hold Dahyun’s chin with her hand while she gently removes the blood, she wouldn’t be this close to her crush, she wouldn’t be able to stare into her eyes or look at her lips. No, Momo wouldn’t be here about to have a heart attack if Dahyun looks between her eyes and lips again.

 

“I’m really sorry Dahyun.” Momo mumbles again for quite possibly the twentieth time, her cheeks are still red and slightly tear stained but she has forgotten about crying, she is just so focused on Dahyun.

 

Momo was about to apologise again but everything that she was going to say died on her tongue as she felt Dahyun’s hands cup her cheeks and her eyes met Momo’s own. Gosh why can’t Momo stop blushing either, Dahyun is clearly going to know now that her hands are on her cheeks.

 

“Please stop apologising, it is okay Momo it was an accident,” Dahyun says, but all Momo can think it about how her name sounds coming from Dahyun. “Why were you crying anyway?” Dahyun’s inquisitive eyes meet Momo’s and the Japanese girl is pretty sure her heart just skipped a beat.

 

“Oh,” Momo mumbles, looking down in embarrassment, she knows not everyone is great at maths but Dahyun is a maths genius. “I at maths and a boy in class made a comment about me.” Momo sighs, feeling her mood dampen again thinking about her maths class; Sana must be so worried.

 

“Maths? I can help you, if you want of course. I’m one of the tutors for maths,” Dahyun lowers her hands a little, they’re still resting on Momo’s face but they’re just cupping her jaw and Momo hates herself for it but she feels her natural reaction to lean into Dahyun’s left hand a little more as she nods. “Yeah? Great, let me give you my number then.”

 

Momo had never loved maths more.

 

The two girls had started meeting in the school library three days a week after school, and Momo would love to say that she was beginning to understand maths but she pays more attention to Dahyun than to maths.. Honestly the girl is incredibly distracting. They had encountered each of their respective friends as well, causing both girls to find out that their best friends were dating each other. Momo wondered why Sana didn’t tell her that she was dating Tzuyu.

 

It was a slightly awkward moment, both girls walked into the library to find an empty table, and took a quick browse through the resource books for maths in case they needed any. As Dahyun turned the corner towards to tables at the back she abruptly stopped, Momo bumped into her and apologised. When Dahyun didn’t answer or walk forward Momo’s brow furrowed, what was she looking at? As Momo looked around Dahyun’s shoulder, she felt her cheeks warm and her eyes widen, before her brain could stop Momo had shouted out.

 

“Oh my god.”

 

Sana quickly pulled away from the other girl who Momo had only seen a handful of times.

 

“Tzuyu?!” Dahyun’s hand cups quickly, dropping the chocopie Momo had been bringing Dahyun every tutoring session. She quickly picked it back up as the two girls that had been caught kissing stared wide-eyed at them. Surely their best friends would have told them they were dating someone, or doing something with an attractive girl, but it seems that, that is the last of Momo’s problems as Sana perks up when she realises who Momo is with.

 

The slightly younger Japanese girl jumps up and saunters over to Momo a sly smirk on her lips.

 

“Who is this that you’re with Momoring?” She rocks back and forth on her feet, her eyes darting between the two. Momo feels her cheeks get hotter again, and it is only then that she realises she is holding Dahyun’s hand. Letting go of her hand as if she was burnt, Momo raises her hand to her neck and rubs away as she chuckles nervously.

 

“Oh, this is Dahyun, she’s tutoring me in maths. Well she’s doing her best to teach me it anyway.” Momo replies still rubbing her neck and Sana makes a comment along the lines of if her neck was strained from learning or other activities, swearing she meant dancing when Momo glares at her.

 

“You’re doing great Momo, don’t worry you’ll pass this. You surely can’t be this pretty with no brains right?” Dahyun says as she walks over to a table and starts bringing out their study material, and placing the chocopie on the table too.

 

Momo blushes. Again.

 

“Well you are a genius Dahyun, and pretty too, so you have nothing to worry about right?” Momo says, watching as Dahyun pauses what she was doing for half a second, before tucking her hair behind her ear and continuing emptying her bag.

 

“If you say so.”

 

“I do say so.” Momo says firmly, nodding to herself.

 

“So a study date?” Tzuyu asks more to Dahyun but she asks loud enough for everyone to hear. Both Momo and Dahyun’s eyes meet before they break away looking for other things to do, a tint of red coating both their cheeks.

 

After that meeting with Sana and Tzuyu the two girls constantly teased their best friends about their “study dates”. It also wasn’t missed that Momo constantly gave Dahyun chocopies when they studied, the eldest Japanese girl assured Sana it was to make up for causing Dahyun to bleed, but Sana has other thoughts.

 

As the months go by Momo does see her maths improving, she manages to keep up in classes and completes her homework with little struggle. She still makes mistakes but she’s over the moon with how much improvement she’s had, even her teacher is impressed and he has stopped calling Momo out in class. She feels like she’s winning for the first time in a while. She still has her tutoring with Dahyun three days a week, but the girls have also began hanging out after school when they aren’t in the library and on the weekends. Momo has met all of Dahyun’s friends, she took a real shining to Chaeyoung who had known Dahyun since they were in diapers. Their relationship is extremely similar to her relationship with Sana and Mina.

 

Momo is more comfortable around Dahyun now. She still blushes but at least she is able to get back at Dahyun most times. The two girls are currently sitting on a park bench having ice-cream, or they were, now they’re play fighting trying to get ice-cream on each other’s faces.

 

“Okay okay, you got me good.” Dahyun chuckles, surrendering her loss to Momo. The two look at each other before another round of loud laughter fills the air surrounding the two.

 

“Want me to kiss it off?” Momo jokes, she really doesn’t expect Dahyun to agree, but she lets out a sure before Momo can take back the joke.

 

The Japanese girl can feel her body react before her mind can catch up, this seems to be normal situation around Dahyun, she begins to lean in to the blonde girl her eyes dropping to the ice-cream on her lips. Closer and she looks again. She looks at Dahyun’s eyes again, there is a challenging look in them and Momo leans closer again. She’s so close, so close to kissing the girl she’s had a crush on for over a year.

 

Dahyun lets out a chuckle before backing away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, gosh Momo loves it when she does that. She look so beautiful. Just before Momo can say anything about Dahyun being a chicken, she makes eye contact with Sana who is frantically making kissing faces and hearts above her head.

 

“What are you looking at?” Dahyun asks, turning around just in time to watch Sana making more kissing faces and hearts, the damn girl closed her eyes when she did that. Momo chuckles and shrugs as Dahyun looks at her, the tips of their ears turning red.

 

“Just ignore her, she’s crazy.” Momo chuckles, shaking her head at Sana quickly turning it into a glare when Dahyun turns back around to wave at Sana.

 

“Yeah, crazy about us getting together,” The blonde girl laughs, Sana has made it very obvious she thinks the two should date. There is not subtle bone in Sana’s body and Momo appreciates it as much as she hates it. “I’m not saying that would be a bad thing, I’m sure you have lots of people wanting to date you.” Dahyun says as she finishes her ice-cream and the cone, her favourite part is the melted ice-cream at the bottom of the cone.

 

“I think that’s you Dahyun, at least four people have asked to take you on a date since you started tutoring me. And you said no to all of them.” Momo quirks her brow at Dahyun as she goes to finish her ice-cream, her eyes are still locked with Dahyun’s and Momo manages to completely miss with her ice-cream.

 

Dahyun begins to giggle madly at Momo going cross eyed trying to find where the ice-cream ended up. A smile ends up gracing Momo’s face as Dahyun’s giggles get louder and louder, and more infectious. The two girls end up giggling together while holding each other up as their bodies shake and they start gasping for breath and their vision blurs.

 

Once they calm down, Dahyun takes her glasses off to clean them and wipe away any tears left from laughing. Momo thinks she looks magnificent with and without glasses, yet Dahyun really doesn’t like wearing them, she mentioned it had to do with her childhood and being bullied. Momo happily watches in silence as Dahyun places her glasses back on and looks at Momo, a dopey grin showing itself.

 

“I did reject them all,” Dahyun states as she looks about the park, watching as couples walk about hand-in-hand talking about anything and everything, or nothing at all. Dahyun wants that, she wants to have someone that she can call hers, someone that she can go to and just be around without having to say anything. Just the comfort of having someone there, the mere presence of having another body near her. Preferably one that smells just as good as the girl sitting beside her, Dahyun can’t deny how attractive Momo is, and how good she smells, she really should ask what perfume she uses. “None of them know me, never took the time to get to know me. And I know that’s what dates are for but, I don’t know. They’re just not who I’m attracted to.”

 

Momo does her best to not look hopeful or hurt, she knows the likelihood of Dahyun actually liking her is small, the girl is only tutoring her. Sure they’re friends and are hanging out a lot, and sure they flirt a lot but Dahyun is out of Momo’s league. Momo is sure that Dahyun won’t want to hang out after she stops tutoring her.

 

A few weeks later and Momo is a nervous wreck, she has her final exam for maths. As a result, she has been going over so much with Dahyun in the past week, it’s amazing that Dahyun has been able to study but she has assured Momo that she is fine and doesn’t need to study much. The two are in Dahyun’s room, books and sheets are spread everywhere, even homemade sheets the Dahyun has prepared for the two.

 

“Okay, let’s do one final sheet and then we can stop. You’ve done a lot of work Momo. I’m proud of all the effort you’ve put in.” Dahyun smiles as she places a final sheet in front of the girl.

 

This is it Momo thinks, after this she’ll probably never hang out with Dahyun again, the girl is probably only doing this out of kindness to Momo. But then again, if she listened to Sana’s advice, who constantly tells Momo that Dahyun is interested in her, things might turn out different. She feels confident that she’ll pass but it still doesn’t stop her from being nervous.

 

Dahyun encourages her to do the mock quiz sheet Dahyun prepared. Momo makes her decision.

 

“How about this,” she trails off, she can’t look at Dahyun when she says this, she’ll chicken out if she does. “If I pass this mock quiz, you take me on a date?” Momo asks, staring down at the sheet. She doesn’t want to see Dahyun’s reaction.

 

A gentle kiss is placed on her cheek, soft and sweet. “Sure.” Is all Dahyun says but it’s enough for Momo to ace the quiz and the exam.