Hirai Momo always had a certain fear when it comes to things she could not control. Why leave something to chance when you can rig the results yourself through your own efforts? A specific example of this is when she got randomly roomed together in college with a certain Minatozaki Sana. 

“You must be Momo!” Sana greets with an overzealous tone. 

“Hi,” Momo greets back as plainly as she could. Aside from that excessively large suitcase on one of Sana’s hand, Momo wonders about that strangely gift wrapped sphere tucked between the other girl’s arm and hip. 

“I hope you don’t mind,” Sana continues as soon as Momo closed , “but while I was on my way here, I saw this really cute goldfish looking at me from the pet store window and I was sure it was choosing me as an owner so I had to take it with me!” Instantly, the wrapper turn crumpled and lay on the floor like some sort of professional magic act, revealing the fore mentioned goldfish inside a twelve inch diameter bowl.

Momo wanted to decline. Having a pet to take care of during college won’t be easy. “I-“

“Great!” Momo steps back, aghast at the sudden burst of peppiness. “Hold her for a while I still have some luggage outside be back in a jiffy!” Sana orders and announces without breathing between her sentences, leaving Momo with a third resident against her will.

All was said and done before Sana even managed to take one step inside their new dorm room, too. This will strike Momo as her weirdest first conversation ever. It’s also the beginning of Momo’s investigation on the mystery that is Sana’s head.

Still flabbergasted, Momo looks down between her hands and she sees the fish looking back at her with its ugly eyes, bubbling in its own business as if its mocking her.

She hates the damn fish already.

“Why?” Momo screeches, forcing Sana to cover her ears for a second. “Why did she have to die so young?” She cradles the bowl, a lifeless figure floating in the middle, water spilling all over the bathroom tiles.

For twelve months, the two friends kept that creature with utmost love and care. Well, at least the love part. Who knew they had to buy a filter to keep the fish kicking? All this time they thought it was just some stupid decoration to make an aquarium look pretty with thousands of little bubbles.

“Momo,” Sana, the more composed between the two, repeatedly pats the crying girl’s back for emotional support, “we have to let her go now.” She nudges Momo towards the open toilet, gesturing for her to pour the contents in. “She has to go to fish heaven.”

“Can’t we just bury her behind the dorm?” Momo protests as she recklessly wiped her tears with a palm, hugging the bowl tighter and Sana felt a little scared that it might shatter. “I’m not comfortable saying goodbye to her in the same place we take a .”

“She’s a fish.” Sana tries again, softly caressing the length of her roommate’s arm. “She needs to return to the ocean.” (Not all sewers connect to the sea).

Reluctantly, and almost half an hour of impromptu eulogy, Momo poured the contents and flushed the toilet before she had the urge to scoop the fish back out. 

Sometimes, the things you hate are also the things that you love.

Her head was fuzzy and her eyes were exhausted. It was a long night of lonely crying that it felt like it was her first heartbreak. A little, just a little, Momo finds it funny that her heart got broken by a fish of all the things in the world. She partly blames Sana for introducing it to her in the first place, but is mostly thankful that she did.

Feelings are a dangerous kaleidoscope, unexpected and lasting. No one can control it. Momo fears it the most.

She spits her toothpaste on the sink and rinses afterwards. Her eyes involuntarily glances at the toilet beside her and her heart tugs a pint of pain. “Stupid,” she says as she bangs her head on the mirror (it was also kind of stupid to hit her head, brain cells dying and all), “crying over a fish.” She laughs for a second before exiting the bathroom.

The smell of bacon and eggs fills the place and Momo’s appetite automatically grumbles at the sense.

“Momorning!” Plates clink on their wooden table as Sana rushes to Momo with her daily morning snuggle. Momo wears an annoyed face but Sana knows she likes it anyways.

Sana only ever cooks if there's a special occasion, this being an effort for getting over their dead pet. She’s not doing a good job though, with the cream on their coffee shaped like a fish (must have asked Chaeyoung to teach her how to make it).

They have a week off from school, something about their cafeteria nesting dozens of rats and is under inspection. She’s sure Nayeon and Jeongyeon have something to do with it since they kept saying they’ve wanted to take a week long vacation for their anniversary.

After breakfast, Momo wanted to sleep more. She couldn’t sleep much last night and the drowse is catching up to her. Just after she started walking towards her room, something caught her eye.

“What’s this?” She asks, heading towards the supposedly empty fish bowl on their coffee table, now slightly filled with a bunch of neatly folded white papers.

“It’s a surprise for the both of us!” Sana expresses joyously, appearing yet again around Momo in a hug as if she has teleportation magic. “I had a thought last night,” she whispers against Momo’s ear like they’re not alone in the room, “and I felt kind of bad that we never took her out to the world.” (Not like you can leisurely carry a bowl in the park for a walk).

“And?”

“So I asked the others, where do you think a pet fish would want to go?”

“By others, you mean Jeongyeon and the rest of the gang?” Momo deadpans. The question itself is already idiotic, she wonders what their answers are - most probably nothing good.

“Yup!” Sana jumps excitedly. She finds everything exciting. “So I asked them to write it down and I pit them all together and here we are.”

A fishbowl of mysteries, Sana dubs.

Momo doesn’t like where this is going. “What are we supposed to do with them?”

“We open them once a day and go do whatever it says!” Sana jumps again, clapping repeatedly like an eight year old. “We have nothing planned for the week anyways.”

“I don’t know,” Momo trails, trying to figure out the dumb answers their friends wrote. Nayeon probably wrote something erted, Tzuyu must have wrote something offensive, and who knows what Chaeyoung’s thinking.

“Come on Momoring~” Their hands connect and it makes her warm, more than hugs. “Life is so short, let’s enjoy it!”

“Why do people keep saying that?” Her nose scrunches with sudden knowledge. “It’s actually the longest thing we humans get to experience.”

“That’s definitely not you.” Sana quips. “You’ve been spending too much time with Chaeyoung.” Momo felt quite hurt at the remark. But honestly, she did steal that line from their philosophical friend.

“Alright!” Momo whines, rocking their locked hands sideways. “I’ll do whatever the paper says.”

“Promise!” Sana smiles exploding stars. You could see the shimmer in her eyes. “No rejections, okay?”

Momo has a certain fear whenever it comes to things she can’t control. Now, she’s giving her reins away. She’s not exactly sure why.

“I promise.”

“I. Want. To. Back. Out.” Momo couldn’t stress her feelings enough at the moment. “Why would anyone, in any world, take their pet fish to an amusement park!?”

“Apparantly,” Sana bites back a smile, seeing Momo baffled makes it hard to, “Jeongyeon would.”

“No, she wouldn’t! She’s just messing with me this time. The letter clearly says so.”

They decided that Sana gets to pick first. She swirled her hand inside the bowl, picked the one that was talking to her, unfolds it, and voila.

Go to the amusement park, Momo needs to learn they’re more fun than your fish. With much love, Jeongyeon.

P.S. I better not find my refrigerator empty when me and Nayeon come back!

“I’m so gonna ransack that fridge of hers like it’s the last source of food left on Earth.” Momo grumbles and Sana just finds her funny. “I’m gonna leave her pillows on the floor and-and-and fill her trash cans with trash. That’ll show her!”

“You’re so evil, Momo.” Sana says sarcastically but Momo fails to notice. 

“I am, huh?” Arms crossed and a smug appears on Momo’s face.

Sana takes a firm but soft grip on Momo’s wrist, leading her to the carousel entrance. “Let's go! We can start something slow for you.”

The first few rides went without a hitch - given they were all for children. Carousels, bumper carts, spinning tea cups. It’s when Sana had asked Momo to ride a roller coaster with a vertical loop that made things chaotic.

“Anything but that, Sana.” Momo said teary eyed filled with despair.

“You promised, no rejections.” Momo doesn’t say anything, instead, takes a step back and would probably runaway like a scared puppy if not for Sana's hold. “How ‘bout this. Let’s ride this, and I’ll help you vandalize Jeongyeon’s place.” With that, Momo reluctantly agrees. But it didn’t help lessen her fear of the ride.

The whole two minutes, Momo closed her eyes and hid her face on Sana’s arm, tightly squeezing for security (ignoring the purpose of the safety bar in front of her), screeching until her lungs practically imploded from lack of oxygen. Sana went deaf on one side for the rest of the day, but it was worth it.

That night, all the soap from Jeongyeon’s room just mysteriously vanished.

Go to the aquarium. You two need to learn more about fishes. I told you a million times to buy a filter.

- Mina

“Do you remember her saying that?” Sana asks, honestly confused.

“I heard her say, one time, that it needed to get fitter since I feed it too much.” Momo scratches the back of her head. “I don’t actually remember. It’s hard to hear her sometimes.” Most of the time, she wanted to say instead.

Within this elegant and astonishing underwater maze, Momo locks hands with Sana again from fear of getting lost. Although child minded, every now and then they pretend to be mermaids floating with the gifts of the sea. 

This is only the second day, yet, Momo can’t help but think they’ve been doing a bucket list for couples. 

Go out and fish! There’s plenty of fish in the sea!