“I’ve been continuously tweaking the world grid scans, and trying to add variables to the search, but there’s still no sign of her.” Dahyun heaves a sigh of exhaustion.

“Even the smallest traces of her life force, it’s gone…” Dahyun then wraps her arms around Jihyo’s waist, the latter still looking out.

She plants a light kiss on Dahyun’s forehead “I know you’re doing your best Dahyun and I’m thankful for that.”

Jihyo then sighs and closes her eyes.

“Tzuyu… Where are you?”

----

Ever since the day their parents introduced them to each other, Jeongyeon, Momo and Mina were just, inseparable.

Mina still remembers clearly the day she first met Jeongyeon & Momo.

The latter had been closer by age, only being born days apart from each other and Mina being born four months later.

A 5-year old Mina was sitting beside her parents in a house she’s never been to, somewhere in Seoul.

Her parents were speaking to four other adults about some grown up things.

“Mina here isn’t really much of a talker unlike her older brother, Kai. But once she opens up, I think she’ll get along well with Jeongyeon and Momo.” Mrs. Myoui glances at Mina while her head lovingly.

“Our Jeongyeon can be quite loud most of the time, but we think it’s because Sungyeon likes to rile her up too much sometimes.” Mr. Yoo chuckles while reaching out for his wife’s hand beside him.

“Momo is quiet at first but she’s rather energetic when offered food, so I guess, Mina can use that as an opening?” Mrs. Hirai jokingly says towards Mina.

Jeongyeon. Momo. These names have been mentioned multiple times in the conversation and Mina was aware of it.

“Who is this ‘Jeongyeon’ and ‘Momo’?”

Just as this question pops up in Mina’s head, she notices two sets of eyes peeking through a door on her right. And just as she squints her eyes to see if she saw it right, the eyes disappear from the door’s opening.

“Mina, dear, why don’t you go and join Jeongyeon & Momo? They’re just in that room, playing together.” Mrs. Hirai motions toward the door to Mina’s right, where she saw the eyes looking at her.

Slowly, she gets up from her seat and makes her way to the said room. As courtesy, like her parents taught her, she knocked thrice on the door.

“Who is it?” a cute, nasally voice from the other side of the door asked.

“I-It’s Mina. Myoui Mina.” she answers back while playing with the hem of her white dress that her mom picked out for her that morning.

“What?” a louder and slightly bigger voice asked through the door.

“My name is Mina!” she says again, only this time, a bit louder.

The door opened slowly, revealing two little girls around her age. The one on the left with brown, pixie cut hair was taller than her, looking at her with apprehensive eyes. While the one on the right was about her height with shoulder length hair and was smiling widely at her, eyes forming two cute crescents as she does while holding a bar of chocolate that has smeared all over her tiny face.

“Wow, you’re pretty!” the grinning kid on the right says while taking a step closer to Mina.

“Thank you, you too.” Mina responds, being bashful about being told pretty by this kid she just met.

“You wanna bite?” the kid pushes her bar of chocolate in front of Mina’s face.

The taller girl, who she found out later to be the one named Jeongyeon, speaks after a few moments of staring at Mina.

“Take it. Momo doesn’t like sharing her food… except with ‘special’ people.” the other kid, who apparently is called Momo, proceeds on breaking a piece of her chocolate and puts it on Mina’s now outstretched hand.

“You took it, so now you’re our best friend too.” Momo grabs Mina’s arm and pulls her in to a bear hug. Chocolate from Momo’s face smeared slightly on Mina’s white dress.

But she didn’t mind. She was happy she has new friends.

----

The play dates continued after that first meeting, which blossomed into a full-fledged sisterhood.

Jeongyeon, who was apprehensive of Mina at first because of her quiet demeanor has grown fond of the girl. Realizing that Mina is just really that way: quiet and graceful.

Mina also learned that it was best that Jeongyeon is the guarded and strong-looking one, since Momo tends to be too trusting and nice to everyone she meets and it keeps unwanted people away from the quiet and timid Mina.

Momo, to this day, still strongly insists she only really shares her food with “special” people.

Over time, they got know more about each other and their quirks. Jeongyeon & Momo realized that Mina is incredibly smart, diligent and is very good with puzzles. The former especially bonded with Mina over building legos and playing computer games. While Momo and Mina bonded over dancing and food.

…well, Mina cooks and Momo eats… a lot.

Mina also came to know that despite Jeongyeon’s tough exterior, she is rather clingy, affectionate and thoughtful. She likes to make corny jokes and can be very stubborn at times.

Momo on the other hand, is very welcoming and nice to everyone she meets, sometimes to a fault that Jeongyeon and Mina feels very protective of Momo. She’s immensely hardworking, loyal and focused when she wants to a