Chapter One: Cue Ball (Let’s get this started)

Consider your days as normal enough because what Hirai Momo goes through every single day isn’t something a normal person would assume normalcy. Well, apart from growing up with no biologcal family and doing things teenagers wouldn’t usually do when she was their age, the rest that happened to her aren’t exactly what you’d call normal.

It had been six years since she lived alone. Not exactly alone—she had met people along the way and found family in them, and even though her father would’ve told her to live in the moment Momo couldn’t help but ache and still grieve over the two innocent souls she loved so dearly.

But she did find a coping mechanism and at the same time, pay off her parents’ debt.

“Set! Pay up, Jae!” Momo yells as she precisely shoots the black-colored ball into the hole. Jae grunts as he fishes a roll of cash from his pocket and hands it over to Momo. She’s done this for years now, yet she never gets tired of it. Well, that or she needs to. Although losing once wouldn’t hurt Momo’s ego, one thing’s for sure is that; she can’t wait until that fateful day would come.

“Before you start another game, someone would like to talk to you, Motang,” Sana says as she secures the fifteen balls using a triangle. “I think they have a favor to ask of you.”

“Got that. You play for me first,” Momo tells her and kisses her cheek. She heads over to her office, formerly Jinyoung’s office, but he moved out a few years ago. Giving Momo full ownership of the billiards hall— the ballroom as she would call it.

She spots a petite figure sitting on one of the chairs provided for visitors while sipping a glass of their complimentary wine. Momo adjusts herself and puts out the cigarette she was smoking a while ago to make herself somewhat presentable. Not that she already is.

She opens the door and greets her. “Ah! Good day to you, what brings you here?” The woman was just about her age, pretty, paled-skin, wearing a coat, and all, and she seems… anxious(?) and definitely terrified for her life.

“I came here apparently because this is where people resort to when they’ve lost hope,” the woman sips her wine before introducing herself. “I’m Joohyun by the way.”

“Well, Joohyun, you came to the right place! Now tell me what happened, I’m all ears,” and Joohyun does tell Momo. She tells her how a guy from the university she’s going to, has been stalking her and her girlfriend, Seulgi. Whenever they’re in their dorms, they can feel someone watching them. Even though the two have already caught the man red-handed, he still continues on as if nothing happened. “He told us that if we told anybody, he’ll kill us in our sleep.”

“The audacity of this man,” Momo scoffs and grabs a glass, pouring herself some vodka. “How do you want me to handle this guy? Moderately, brutally, or fatally?”

Joohyun laughs at the three categories Momo has given her. “I don’t really know. Just scare him off or something. It’s difficult to sleep without the fear of him threatening us or him possibly breaking in our dorm.”

“Got it. Anything else?” Joohyun shakes her head and asks how much she owes and Momo tells her to pay after the deed is done. “I can assure you that he will regret that he even bothered the two of you in the first place.”

--

Favors like these are easy enough to deal with alone. With Momo giving them out for more than five years now, she can say that she pretty much experienced heists, murders (being the one who cleans after them of course), drug dealing, anything illegal and legal, you name it. She thought of getting a job to pay off her debt, but the amount was more than six place holders that it would take her about fifteen years to pay if she was going to work as a cashier for McDonald’s, or even longer that the killer would’ve already sent out a hitman to shoot her.

And of course, she stood by her father’s words: live in the moment. So, she did, that’s why she’s up in the tree, waiting for her target.

After a few moments, her target arrived, and Momo didn’t hesitate to approach him. She didn’t know if he was armed or not, but one thing’s for sure Momo was. She would be lying if this never scared her—every favor she fulfilled scared her to death. All she needed to do was look up and remember the reason why she was doing this.

“What’s going on in there, huh?” The man startled, he held his hands up surrendering and knowing that he’d been caught. When he turned to face Momo, he sighed in relief. “Oh, I thought you were one of the guards or something.”

“Or something,” Momo smirked and she grabbed one of the man’s arms and twisted it, earning a loud grunt from him. “They already told you to off didn’t they? Why didn’t you listen?”

“Why would I?”

“They asked you nicely,” Momo twisted on the arm a bit harder now. “If you followed, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Okay, okay! Just…” the man grunts and tries to wriggle away from the Japanese girl’s strong grip. “Wow, you’re strong. Please let me go and I promise to leave them alone.”

“Will you?” she then grabs his other arm and twists it the same way she did with the other. He yelped and just nodded in response, unable to form words. Momo slowly lets him go, but not without grabbing him by the collar and points her knife near his throat. “If I ever find out that you’re near them within a two-meter radius, I will hunt you down and devour you.”

She finally lets him go and runs off. Another job well done. 

Momo returns back to the ballroom and sees her friends playing pool. She smiles at them and pours herself some vodka.

“Done already?” Jihyo asks while potting the white ball by mistake. “Dammit.”

Momo takes a sip from her glass and nods. “Men aren’t so high and mighty when you threaten them physically.”

“You got that right.” Jihyo chalks her cue tip, while Sana places the white ball to her desired spot, not without asking Dahyun where to place it first though. “Oh, you missed it by the way.”

“What?”

“There’s this girl who came into the ballroom and I’m telling you, Mo, she’s so precise, beat Dahyun, Sana, hell even me!” Momo snorts and shakes her head. “Maybe this girl is just pretty so you all let her win. Bet.”

Jihyo sighs in defeat. “Tell her, Dubu.”

“Well… she is pretty,” Jihyo glares at her and Dahyun laughs. “No. but seriously, Momo, she’s good.”

Momo sits beside Dahyun and puts an arm around her. “Tell you what, if this girl shows up tomorrow, tell her the table’s on the house.”

“What’s the catch?” Dahyun’s just too innocently cute to punch in the face. Of course none of them would’ve really done that. Momo ruffles the younger girl’s hair and smirks. “She has to beat me.”

--

As usual, the ballroom was packed with familiar people from the university near them. Quite ironic because at the entrance a ALLOWED was put up for everyone to see. Before, Jinyoung was strict about it but he then realized that the reason why the place was so packed; minors. 

They were within the university’s vicinity. Students went to the place to blow off steam by playing, smoking, or drinking, Hell, it even became a place where people with different desires go to meet the infamous Hirai Momo and her gang. 

The moment she started giving out favors, word got around, and she was a student of that university as well. Taking up a business major so that she could run the ballroom more effectively. Same goes with the three other girls, going to college while running the place was deemed difficult, but they managed.

After all, the place is all they have besides each other.

“I’m getting tired of waiting, Dahyunnie,” Momo huffs as she takes a long drag from her cigarette before getting her head back in the game after her opponent scratches the white ball. “Where is she?”

“Your patience is getting incredibly thin nowadays, Mo,” Dahyun teases. “The angels above will start singing once she enters the place.”

Momo snorts and shakes her head. “You make her sound like some prodigy.”

“Well…” Dahyun trails off as she turns her head to the newcomers. “...And there she is.”

Momo hurriedly finishes the game and her opponent grunts and hands her the money. Pocketing them, she whipped her head to the entrance and she was met with someone who looks so… classy. Definitely not a regular who comes to the hall everyday. If she was, Momo would’ve known her, or at least recognize her face.

“I don’t hear the angels singing, but I need a ton of napkins for your drool,” Momo doesn’t want to admit she’s pretty, yet. She elbows Dahyun and walks up to her. “Hey you, let’s play.”

The girl was taken aback at the sudden challenge, but nonetheless she accepts. “Bet?”

“You go do that, uh, I’ll go get some fresh air,” Dahyun gets up and puts on her hoodie.

“You and your friends’ table is on the house for a week, if you beat me,” Momo stares the girl down waiting for her response. “What do you get if I lose?”

“Cash, of course,” Momo laughs as if the answer wasn’t obvious. She still has a debt to pay.

“Who are you again?”

“Momo. Hirai Momo.”

“Ah, the owner who’s also unbeatable. I’m Mina,” The girl eyes her from head to toe. “I didn’t know you would be a girl and this pretty.”

“Expect the unexpected then,” Momo hands her a cue stick, and chalks her own. “Enough talking. You break.”

Mina powders her hands and cue stick to reduce friction on the bridge of her hand creating a smooth flow. She hits the white ball harshly and breaks the triangle of balls, and shoots a solid.

She moves around the table and pots in another solid. Momo standing there, lighting another cigarette, waits patiently for her turn. By the time her cigarette was lit, Mina only had three balls left on the table.

“What the Hell?” Mina smirks and continues on.

Everything happened so fast and what Momo was witnessing right now was unbelievable—well, to her at least. No one she challenged or challenged her was able to shoot most of the balls with