“Momo…?”

Jihyo opened the door to her friend’s apartment and light from the hallway flooded into the dimly lit room. The blinds were closed and papers, clothes, opened ramen noodle cups and other pieces of trash were scattered around the small apartment complex. It didn’t take Jihyo by surprise though, because for the past few months Momo’s apartment has been a pigsty.

Jihyo closed the door behind her as she stepped inside, not bothering to hang her coat on the coat rack as she navigated herself around all the small obstacles and knocked on the door that led to Momo’s room. Jihyo waited, tempted to knock again, but heard the small shuffles against the carpet in the room make their way to the door.

The door opened and Jihyo felt her eyes well up at the sight of her friend.

It wasn’t like she looked so absolutely terrible and unkempt, but it was rather the look Momo had behind her eyes. Momo took a second to look up from the floor before she directed her gaze to Jihyo, who tried to keep an optimistic aura around her friend. For her sake.

There was a silence where neither knew whether they should speak up first. In the silence Momo’s eyes flickered behind Jihyo to the mess she had been neglecting to clean up for the past… however long it’s been. She sympathized for the older girl, knowing that she had to walk through all that just to get to her room alone.

“I’m sorry for the mess, Jihyo.” Momo apologized and the dry rasp in her voice was evident. Momo didn’t know if it was from the constant crying, or from the fact it’s been so long she’s talked to anybody. Yeah, people attempted to comfort and talk to her, but being the selfish she is, their attempts were ignored. Their endeavors usually ended with a door being slammed in their face.

There were two exceptions to that treatment. Jihyo and Tzuyu. Jihyo because she remained so persistent about it Momo realized it was fruitless to ignore her and decided to let her check up on her for whatever reason she had. As for Tzuyu, Momo would feel too guilty about slamming a door in the young girl’s face; so instead she just softly shut the door to reject her help.

Jihyo turned her head and weakly chuckled. “It’s not too bad this time around,” Jihyo joked. “But that’s not why I came today, Momo.” Jihyo turned back to the younger girl a soft smile on her face.

Momo’s eyes snapped away from Jihyo, her eyes again focusing on her worn out socks that she wore. Momo almost chuckled to herself when she remembered when she and Sana had bought a peach pair of colored socks. Sana had made a joke about it which led to Momo throwing a rolled up pair of socks at Sana. That led to a mini sock war between the two which ultimately got them kicked out of the store.

-

“I’m just glad they didn’t ban us from the store while they were at it you know…” Sana’s hand reached down from her jacket pocket and tugged on Momo’s arm. Momo’s hand slid down and grabbed Sana’s. Her fingers traced over all the lines on Sana’s palm before interlocking their fingers.

Momo smiled as Sana leaned her head onto her shoulder as they walked. “Me too I guess. It would be fun to see how far we could push ‘em before they really do ban us though.” Momo mused as Sana hummed in thought at the idea.

“We actually do buy stuff from there pretty often though.” Sana said softly, her breath turned into a small fog, reminding her of how cold it was. Somehow, just talking to Momo and holding hands with her seemed to warm her up.

The latter shrugged off the thought easily. “We could build a toilet paper fort though, ever consider that option? I remember we loved making those stupid little blanket forts as children. It’d be a good way to leave with a bang