Mina squeezes through a crowd of people stood outside her locker. She was small enough compared to them to not cause much of a bother. The group simply shifted to the side, allowing Mina to gather her things in peace. She sighs and bends down to open up the bottom locker. She has yet to meet the person who owns the locker above hers, she assumed it was someone from another grade level. Mina grabs her necessities and just as she’s about to close her locker, she drops her pencil case - effectively sprawling all of her things onto the floor. She cusses. Passerbyers continue to walk down the hall, simply stepping over the mess. Mina mentally curses all of them as she picks up her pencils one by one. 

In the midsts of her cleaning, the hallways began to clear up and the noise level dies down - the students were all hurrying to class by now. Mina struggles to insert the supplies she had into her hand back into her case, poking herself in the hand every now and then with a sharpened tip. 

Just then, a waft of strawberries slid into Mina’s nostrils. She looks up and sees a beautiful brunette staring down at her. The girl has a couple of Mina’s pencils in her hand - ones she probably picked up when they had gotten kicked around in the traffic of students. 

She levels herself with Mina, causing the pleasant smell to become stronger - causing Mina’s heart to beat faster. Her voice was as cute as she was.

“These are yours, I assume?” She asks in a questioning tone, holding the pencils out to the smaller girl. Mina is in a daze at the girl’s attractive face. She could’ve told Mina that she was a famous model and Mina would believe her in a second - even if she had no idea who she was. That’s how pretty she was. 

Mina blinks once and then she blinks once more. When she realizes that she’s gawking, she diverts her eyes to the pencils in the girl’s hand. “Y - yeah.” Mina answers, “T - Thank you.” She reaches, slipping the pencils into her own grasp. 

She finally manages to get the rest of her supplies back into her case, successfully managing not to stab herself with several pens and pencils all at once. The girl was still stood there, as if she were waiting for something. 

When Mina closes her locker, she quickly realizes that her unknown locker partner was no longer so unknown. It was her. She backs up as the girl starts doing in her locker combination. The late bell rings and yet the girl leisurely continues to take her time. She speaks again, causing Mina to jump.

“You should probably go. You’re already late.” She tosses a glance over her left shoulder to look at the smaller girl, giving her a side smile. Mina blushes and blinks repeatedly. She turns on her heel quickly before darting down the hall. 

...

It takes Mina a couple minutes to realize that she had unknowingly been walking in circles around the whole school. She was probably on lap four already, reeling in to steal that gold medal. With a huff, Mina glances behind her and then turns her head again. It has been one week since Mina transferred to the school and she still had trouble getting around to her classes.

She’s eventually sitting outside her locker after giving up on trying to find her cursed calculus class. She's too shy to ask anyone for help and she's scared of all her classmates and peers.

Mina doesn't realize that someone was walking towards her until the person was right in front of her. She jumps at the shadow that seemed to appear out of nowhere and looks up at its owner. It was her pretty locker neighbor.

"What are you doing?" The girl asks, her head tilted to the right. Mina scrambles to get off the ground, moving off to the side so the girl could get to her locker. She clears and looks around, anywhere but the girl.

"Nothing."

The taller one kinks an eyebrow as she opens her locker. "I didn't peg you as the type to skip class."

"I'm not skipping..." Mina mumbles under her breath. The girl pauses and looks at Mina. Then, she laughs.

Mina struggles not to look at her contracting ab muscles that were revealed due to the crop top she was wearing. She struggles real hard.

"You're lost, aren't you?" The girl says, white teeth showing in a wide smile. Mina’s blushing as she nods. 

“I’ll walk you to class.” The other replies, closing her locker, the noise reverberating through the empty hall. She holds her hand out. “Show me your schedule.” 

Mina blinks confusedly at the girl’s hand.

“Well…?” 

“D - Don’t you have classes to get to?” She asks the brunette. 

A shrug was given in response. “I’m already late so I might as well help you.” She smiles. “By the way, my name’s Momo.”

Mina hands the taller girl her schedule. “I’m Mina.” She says quietly. Momo starts walking and Mina follows, getting into a synced stride with the other one. Momo’s eyes scan down the list. 

“Your class is on the second floor.. Why are you on the first floor?” Momo asks in amusement. The blush that had been dying down on Mina’s cheeks comes back twice as hard.

They start walking up the stairs together and Mina uses her black hair to cover up her face, eyes staring down at her feet. Momo was still grinning as she explains to the new girl. “The room numbers that start with one through three are on the first floor. The room numbers that start with four to six are on the second floor.”

Mina looks up, a little taken aback at Momo’s fierce eye contact. It wasn’t even fierce - but to Mina it was.

“Thank you.” She mumbles. 

“You’re real shy, aren’t you?”

Mina nods her head. Momo just smiles some more. Soon, the two are standing outside of Mina’s classroom. “Here you go.” Momo gestures to the door. Mina hesitates.

“Just tell them that you’re new. The teacher won’t get mad.” Momo assures in a light tone, opening the door for her. Mina could hear how the class quiets down when the door opens and she feels her back go stiff with nervousness. Momo reaches a hand up and squeezes Mina’s shoulder before peeking her head inside the classroom, eyes locating the teacher. Once she sees the old lady sitting at her desk, Momo smiles warmly. It was a different type of smile that she had given Mina. Mina liked Momo's other smile. This one seemed too polite and formal.

“She got lost so I brought her to class.” Momo tugs Mina in. The teacher nods and smiles. 

"She's new." Momo adds in and Mina could feel the girl gently pushing her further into the room. She was still very much blushing.

"I'm aware." The teacher smiles. "Now, get to your class, Ms. Hirai." Mina turns her head just quick enough to see Momo turn and shut the door. The class starts to murmur and Mina hurriedly takes the closest open seat.

...

Mina had figured that Momo was popular but she clearly underestimated the other girl. By third period, every person in her grade knew that the pretty brunette had walked her to class and the volume of chatter would noticeably decrease as Mina walked by. It bothered her and made her more self-conscious, causing her to walk with her head down. 

When she reached her locker, Momo was already there grabbing her folders and notebooks. Mina waits in silence for the girl to finish. Momo closes her locker and jumps when she sees Mina standing there, letting out an, "Oh shi–!" Mina jumps back as well.

"You scared me." Momo laughs it off, placing a hand over her heart. 

"Sorry..." Mina whispers, bending down to get to her locker. Momo stands and watches her, which makes Mina feel a thousand times smaller than she already was. When Mina grabs hold of her History textbook, Momo speaks.

"You have lunch next, don't you?"

Mina pauses before reaching into her pocket to fetch her schedule. "I don't know." She admits, eyes scanning down the rows and columns. She's surprised when she realizes that Momo was correct. How did Momo know that?

"I looked at your schedule before." Momo smiles. "My memory is pretty good." This was the smile that Mina preferred. 

"Oh." 

Mina had never been good at conversations. 

A couple moments of silence pass by before Momo closes Mina's locker using her knee. Mina moves away as Momo leans down. The taller girl took the lock out of Mina's hand, very much in her personal space. "I have lunch with you." Momo says as she locks the locker. Mina nearly faints at the girl's pleasant high pitched voice. She feels a soft hand envelope her own before she's pulled up onto her feet. Everything was happening before Mina could even let it process in her brain. "Let's go." 

<*>

After finishing up her test, Mina rushes out of her chemistry class. Wanting to get home quickly and knowing that the walk home would be long, she's quick on her feet. It was the first time she had stayed after school and she already disliked it. The halls were too quiet and the live atmosphere wasn't there. It could be seen as calm and peaceful, but Mina found it creepy and eerie. 

That was, until she passed by the music room.

There was music playing inside and the bass had obviously been turnt up. Mina slows down her walking as she gets close. 

There's a voice underneath all the music.

"Alright! Break time!"

The voice sounded awfully familiar. 

Footsteps got louder and it was too late for Mina to escape because she was standing right by the doorway when she sees a rather sweaty Momo looking down at her.

"Hi, Mina." She greets, breathing heavily. "What are you doing here?"

Mina doesn't let her eyes linger on the droplets of sweat on Momo's temple nor does she gaze at the girl's wet collarbones. "I was just passing by." She says quietly.

"Just passing by." Momo repeats in playful suspicion. Mina was blushing as she always was whenever Momo talked to her. Momo looks down at her own body. "I would give you a hug as a way to say goodbye, but I'm really sweaty right now." She laughs, looking back up. "So, I guess this'll do."

Before Mina could even ask what she meant, she feels Momo's soft lips on her cheek. She freezes at the warm contact, her eyes widening with surprise. Momo's grinning as she pulls back and Mina's face had turned a whole different shade of red. 

"I'll see you tomorrow morning, yeah?" Momo says and starts heading towards the restrooms without waiting for Mina's reply and Mina figures she did it for the sole reason of allowing Mina to avoid stuttering like she would've considering the complete mess that she currently was. Mina watches Momo disappear around the corner as she attempts to calm her rapidly beating heart.

Momo doesn't mention anything about it after that day. 

<*>

"You're doing work..." Momo leans close to Mina as the girl focuses on her paper. "...during lunch." 

Mina stiffens up, furrowing her eyebrows as if that'll help her concentrate more on her paper and less on the senior who was currently intruding her personal space.

(Not like she cared.)

"This is difficult..." Mina mumbles before adding under her breath,"...and I forgot to do it at home."

Momo giggles and uses one finger to slide the paper in front of herself, pushing her lunch tray away from her as she examines the worksheet. 

"This is easy." She states.

Mina slouches.

Seeing the girl's reaction, Momo speaks up. "I could help you with this stuff, if you want?" 

The smaller one looks up, eyes brightening slightly in a shy way that made Momo's smile widen. "You mean like... tutoring?"

"Sure, why not?" Momo smiles. "Are you free today after school?"

"I'm free everyday after school." Mina's lips were curving upwards.

"Okay, meet me at our lockers after school." Momo says. "I'll be your tutor."

<*>

"So, it's kind of obvious, isn't it?" Momo says as they walk down the empty hallways after what might've been their twentieth session of 'tutoring'. (If you could even call it that. All they ever did was talk about their personal lives and eat snacks in the library.)

"What's obvious?" Mina asks.

"The fact that I like you." Momo replies blatantly. 

Mina stops walking, their interlocked hands loosening. Her heart raced.

"Uhm..." She could feel her cheeks warming up at the speed of light."I.. No... No, it's not obvious. Why do you ask?"

Momo panicks. "It's – I – I'm not forcing you to like me." She talks rapidly. "It's completely fine if you don't like me that way, you know? I just wanted to know that you knew about my feelings so I wouldn't – " She cuts her own self off and bites down on her lower lip. Mina blinks to make sure she wasn't dreaming. "Things are gonna be super awkward between us now, huh? I should've just kept quiet. I'm sorry." She hangs her head low.

Mina could feel her stomach plummet at the sad Momo. She gulps down the lump in and brings a hand up to Momo's chin, lifting the girl's head up. She leans in and kisses the girl's cheek, blushing deeply when she hears the sharp gasp Momo let out. Momo looks at her with wide eyes.

"You like me, too?" She places her hands on Mina's waist, keeping the girl close when she tried to step back.

"Yes." 

"Is it too early to kiss you?" Momo asks and Mina could clearly tell that it was a genuine question. Mina had never done relationship things let alone have her first kiss. She blushes and nods. Surprisingly, Momo immediately backs up, her smile not dropping.

"That's okay. I'll wait."

<*>

Momo held out the sugar cookie to Mina's lips, her legs swinging back and forth as the two of them sat on the counter. Mina blushes and opens . Momo smiles and feeds the younger one before taking a bite of the same cookie. Mina continues to chew the pastry before going back to the ice cream off of her spoon. Momo peers over.

"Can I have some?" Momo asks, looking at the strawberry ice cream tub Mina had. Mina holds out her spoon, trembling slightly. Momo grins and reaches up, steadying Mina's hand with her own as she takes the spoon into . Mina's heartbeat picks up as she notices the smeared ice cream on the bottom of Momo's lips. Momo's hand moves from Mina's wrist to her chin, pushing up Mina's jaw which had become unhinged at the sight of Momo eating the ice cream. 

Mina's cheeks turned red and she looks away. She doesn't look away for long because Momo's hand turns her head back in her direction. Mina didn't realize Momo kissed her on the lips until Momo pulled away. "You had ice cream on your lips." Momo says.

Mina looks down at Momo's lips. "Is it still there?" She asks quietly.

"Yeah." Momo answers.

"Get rid of it for me, then." Momo smiles at Mina's response and gladly leans back into the kiss. Mina sets aside the tub of ice cream and fully welcomes Momo's incoming kisses that tasted of sugary sweets, her hands moving to loosely wrap around Momo's neck as the older girl hopped off the counter to stand in between her legs. Mina, being the inexperience one, followed Momo's lead. She froze when she felt Momo's hand on her bare thigh. Momo stopped as well, removing her hand.

"Slow. Right. Sorry." She apologizes quickly, pecking Mina's lips once more before retreating. Mina takes a moment to calm down and watches Momo clean up the counter, her eyes following her girlfriend's every move. She seemed so calm and composed. 

"Let's go watch a movie in my room."  She suggests, holding out her hand to Mina. "I desperately need to get my mind off of things." Mina takes hold of it and gets off the counter. "Get your mind off of things?"

Momo's eyes flicker down towards Mina's lips. She clears and nods, looking away. "Yeah. Let's go."

It was obvious what exactly she needed to get her mind off of. Mina smiles, her cheeks heating up as Momo took her hand. 

Mina couldn't help the giggle that slipped past her lips. Momo groaned. "Shut up."

She squeezed Momo's hand and stopped walking. Momo turned to look at her, only to feel Mina's lips on hers. She smiles at the innocent kiss and leans back. Mina kisses her once more. "Can we watch Finding Nemo?"

Momo laughed. "We can watch whatever you want to watch."

Mina smiled smugly. "Okay."

 

 

 

She was glad she had gotten lost that one school day.