Growing up . Growing up means being aware that your heart shouldn't race when you and your best friend do something as simple as touch, growing up is understanding the reason you loved holding her hands so much, growing up is being scared and confused cause you're starting to realize you've been obsessed with that one girl not because you wanted to be like her, but because you liked her. Growing up is also accepting that all of that is OK. But growing up takes time, and Momo and Sana aren't that much of grown ups yet.

Momo is only in 7th grade the first time she starts questioning things. Is it OK to wonder how Sana's lips would feel against hers? Is it normal if friends want to give their first kiss to one another? Are friends supposed to share sloppy first kisses and call it 'practicing'? But asking all of this is pointless, she could never know the answer. Sana was her only friend, Momo knew nothing else other than this so she just assumed that's the way things should be between really close friends.

The next time it happens they're in high school. Sana is the first to start dating out of the two, and she does so with a boy. Momo hated him, she'd tell herself that it was because she was scared he'd hurt Sana. Friends are supposed to be overprotective, right? Sana was aware that her best friend disapproved of her so called boyfriend, but it didn't bother her, to be quite honest she didn't like him that much either, but her mom and everyone around her did.

Sana's favorite part of dating him was that she got to practice with her best friend. She'd tell the blonde haired hair "Hey, I have a date tomorrow. Wanna help me?" And then they'd go on a totally platonic date, which just meant going out to eat together, thing they did all the time but there was something about calling it a date that made it feel special, even if it was play pretend.

They also practiced hand holding.

"Momo, you're doing it wrong!" Sana would whine.

Momo just remained quiet at that, and also kinda confused 'cause she didn't know there was a wrong way to hold hands...but apparently there was, or at least that's what Sana said all the time. She never questioned her friend, she'd just let the other girl fidget with their hands until she found 'the ideal position' and then proceed to rant for 10 minutes about how it's all about 'finding the right angle'.

Another thing they'd practice was sweet talking, which meant just saying sweet nothings to each other. Doing this was Sana's idea after realizing that she could never manage to come up with anything cute to say to her boyfriend, so she asked help from the cutest person she knew, Momo. Someone as cute as her would come up with cute things to say, right?

Doing this was also no more than an excuse for Sana and Momo to be extra sweet to each other, but they never told anyone that.

Any person that walked by them during those 'educational conversations' -as Momo called them- would think that they were the cheesiest couple ever and probably get sickened by it.

There was this one time where a guy that was walking by overheard them and made a nasty comment about it, Sana got really pissed and told him to " off" and that "sadly they were just best friends", the 'sadly' slipped from , but Momo just pretended she didn't hear it, and Sana pretended she didn't say it.

For almost an entire year they practiced being a couple. But it was all fake, of course it was, they were best friends, and best friend don't go on real dates.

They were seniors now. A lot of the things they used to not understand started making sense. Momo no longer asked herself "Why does my heart race like that when I'm with her?".  Sana now understood why she could never stop looking at her best friend's lips during their conversations.

They no longer had questions, but only answers, and for some odd reason that made it all even more complicated, and for once they wished their questions could have just remained unanswered.

What they both wanted the most right now was to go back to being two clueless little girls, doing as they pleased without thinking of the reasons and consequences of doing so. But they were no longer 10 year olds playing with Barbie dolls, now they were playing with feelings. And feelings are scary for 18 year olds. So they just avoided them, and soon that turned into just avoiding each other.

After graduation Momo finds herself with an answer to the question of "How does your best friend turn into a stranger" and this time she hated the question just as much as much as the answer.

It's funny -Sana would think- She used to get frustrated over how close her and Momo were, and now she couldn't stop crying about how far apart they had grown.

Sometimes they'd try to make things like they used to be, one of them would usually text the other in an attempt to have a conversation, but it would just die out after a "how are you" or a "what are you doing". Eventually they both stopped trying, cause just not talking hurt less than being reminded of how broken their relationship was.

Sometimes Momo would type down an "I miss you" but she'd delete it before daring to hit send, and more than often Sana stopped herself from writing an "I want to see you", cause she knew that once her fingers started typing it down it'd be impossible to not send it.

Things stayed like that for years, or was it months? At this point a second without a best friend hurt just as much as a year without one. They both stopped counting after a while.

Momo regretted ever kissing Sana, and every time she thought about it she'd start crying. Somehow the tears and kisses started to feel like rain, rain tears that washed away her pain, and sweet delicate rain kisses that washed away hers and Sana's friendship.

Sana never regretted a thing she did with Momo, if anything she was glad she got to love her friend that way before losing her. Growing apart is a natural part of friendship, and most friends go through it, right? Having crossed the line between friendship and romance was the the best part of Sana's memories with Momo, she got to experience the other girl as a friend and as a lover. Their memories together somehow reminded her of a place she had never been to.

They were in college now, and how they met again is nothing but a blurry anecdote that they would always struggle to recall, maybe 'cause it was so burdensome and awkward that they just shoved it into the darkest corners of their memories for it to never be spoken of again.

All that Momo remembered was saying the words "Hi, stranger" after seeing her best friend for the first time in years.

All that Sana remembered was hearing those words, and somehow finding comfort in them because it was less scary to be called a stranger than an ex best friend.

Being together again felt like being back to an old, empty home. That nostalgic feeling of missing what had once being there, and that longing to have it back. It was a house that had gotten quite cold over the years of being abandoned, but it didn't take more than sharing a conversation and a coffee for the stares to come back, after that the hand holding came naturally to them, and suddenly it was as if they were 15 all over again, with no questions to be asked, and no answers to be given.

Soon enough home started to feel warm and cozy like it had years ago.

They have jobs now, they're each other's best friends, they're also each other's girlfriends. Now they don't have to come up with silly excuses to kiss in the dark, and hold hands when no one's watching. Now when Sana says "I love you" Momo doesn't have to remind herself that she only means it as a friend, now she can just say "I love you too."