Humming, Jihyo tapped her foot to the beat of the music flowing into her ear as she stood at the high school’s front gate. Beside her, with the other earbud stuck in her ear, Mina nodded her head along to the same melody. Sana stood behind Jihyo, playing with her brown locks, while Momo and Nayeon giggled on their phones. Jihyo absentmindedly watched the middle school students enter the school across the street.

“Yah, where’s your girlfriend, Sana?” Jihyo tilted her head slightly to direct her question to the girl behind her. Nayeon and Momo’s giggling ceased as soon as the word “girlfriend” left the brunette’s mouth.

“I dunno,” Sana finished the braid she was working on and started a new one, “She said she was gonna meet us here, right?”

“Oh, there she is,” Mina pointed across the street. Everyone followed the direction of Mina’s finger to see Jeongyeon jogging toward them, calling for two middle school students to follow her.

“Why is she at the middle school?” Momo squinted, “And who are those two?”

Nayeon perked up, a warm smile breaking across her face, “Oh my gosh, is that-”

“It’s Chaengie and Dahyunnie!” Jihyo finished the older girl’s exclamation and rushed up to meet the three approaching girls. Nayeon sauntered after her, arms open for a hug.

“Jihyo unnie! Nayeon unnie!” the two younger students broke into a sprint and ran past Jeongyeon, straight into Jihyo and Nayeon’s waiting embrace.

“Look who’s finally back!” Jeongyeon caught up to the little reunion huddle.

“How are you two?” Jihyo pulled back from the hug, “It’s been, what, two years since we’ve seen you?”

“You guys grew so much!” Nayeon ruffled the dark hair of one of the girls.

“Chaeng didn’t grow that much while we were away,” the dark-haired girl’s eyes formed crescents as she laughed mockingly at the obviously short girl next to Jihyo.

“Hey, shut up! That was uncalled for!” the short girl’s eyes furrowed and her lower lip jutted out. “Jihyo unnieee, tell her to stop,” she whined.

The dark haired girl continued to wiggle her finger teasingly in her direction, earning a high-five from Jeongyeon. The shorter girl responded by sticking out her tongue at the both of them.

“Still lively as ever, I see,” Jihyo wrapped an arm around her and rubbed her shoulder.

“Where’d you go again?” Nayeon questioned.

“We were studying in the countryside,” the dark-haired girl heaved an exaggerated sigh, “Chaeyoung wanted to ‘get away for a while.’” She made air quotations.

The apparent Chaeyoung punched the other girl on the shoulder, “No one asked you to come. You only came because if I left, you’d have no friends to hang out with.”

“Ugh, so not true! That girl in our music class was my friend!” The dark-haired girl shot back.

“You wish! She was just the other pianist. She had to sit next to you.”

“Ahem.” Everyone turned to face the three girls still standing by the high school’s entrance.

“Oh!” Jeongyeon ran over, grabbed Sana’s hand (Momo didn’t miss the way their fingers interlaced) and led them over to the rest of the group. “This is my cousin, Son Chaeyoung,” she gestured toward the short, cute, pouty girl next Jihyo then turned to the pretty, dark-haired girl by Nayeon, “And her best friend, Kim Dahyun. They go to the middle school across the street.”

“Hi!” Momo and Sana both raised their hands in greeting, bowing their heads slightly.

“That’s Momo,” Sana shot a finger gun at the bob-haired girl.

“That’s Sana,” Momo fired back.

“And this is Mina,” the duo each rest a hand on the younger girl’s shoulders.

Nayeon’s jaw dropped, “What the hell was that?”

Sana’s eyes rounded, “What? It’s just a little greeting we came up with.”

“You guys practiced that?” Jihyo stifled a laugh.

“Yeah! Even Mina has a part!” Momo nudged the younger girl forward.

Nayeon, Jeongyeon, and Jihyo’s curiosities peaked. They’ve come to know Mina as a rather reserved girl that rarely put herself in the spotlight (except if it was for a ballet recital, of course) or did anything that might prove to be even remotely embarrassing. But they also knew that she loved Momo and Sana so much she would do almost anything they asked of her.

All eyes were on Mina as she bowed her head in pre-embarrassment. She brought her right hand up to her head with her pinky, pointer finger, and thumb sticking out as she recited in a barely audible voice, “In the name of the moon, we will punish you.”

Momo and Sana made the same hand gesture and posed awkwardly on either side of her.

Nayeon and Jihyo just stared at the trio in shock, secondhand embarrassment causing their fingers to curl.

“Pfft,” Jeongyeon broke into a cackle, “When did you guys come up with that? When you were like six?”

“No!” Sana pouted, “We were eight, actually.” She slapped Jeongyeon’s arm. The tall girl grabbed her hand and pulled her in closer to whisper something in her ear, earning another mischievous shove from Sana. Jeongyeon placed a quick kiss atop Sana’s head as the light-haired girl interwove their fingers once more.

Momo eyed the couple, unconsciously clenching her jaw. Nayeon cleared to get her attention. Their eyes met and Nayeon raised an eyebrow. Momo gave a small nod in return and immediately began coming up with an excuse for not being able to join the group at break later today.

Dahyun clapped enthusiastically, “Well, I thought it was cute!” She smiled and caught Mina’s gaze. The shy girl smiled warmly back. “What about you, Chaeyoung-ah?”

Chaeyoung didn’t answer. Her eyes were glued to the beautiful girl next to her cousin, watching them exchange hushed whispers. She stared at their linked hands and felt a warmth creep across her chest.

“Chaeyoungie?” Jihyo pulled the younger girl out of her thoughts. Her face went blank for a couple seconds as she blinked a couple times.

Dahyun recognized the gesture; Chaeyoung always did it when she was trying to clear her head. She wondered what her friend was thinking so hard about and made a mental note to ask her about it later.

For now, she’d focus on trying to make a good first impression. “Yah! Son Chaeyoung! Are you just going to ignore your unnie’s question like that?” Dahyun jokingly teased.

“What?” Chaeyoung finally answered.

“Say something to our new friends!” Dahyun jerked her head toward the three girls, then turned to face them and smiled sweetly.

Momo giggled at the contrast between the girl’s gruff command and her cute smile.

“Oh,” Chaeyoung’s expression brightened, a toothy grin finding its way onto her face, “It’s nice to meet you guys! Let’s have fun this year.”

“Oh my god, you are adorable!” Sana stepped forward, reaching her hands out to cup Chaeyoung’s face. “Why didn’t you tell me you had such a cute cousin, Jeongyeon?” The shorter girl’s smile faded and a deep blush spread across her cheeks.

Dahyun noticed and drew over Sana’s attention, “What about me? Am I not cute?” She brought her hands up to her chin in a V-shape as she batted her eyelashes.

“Ugh,” Nayeon pretended to gag. Dahyun frowned and shoved her away.

Sana chuckled and removed her hands from Chaeyoung’s face to pat Dahyun on the head, “Of course, you’re cute too!”

“Okay, okay,” Jeongyeon grabbed Sana’s elbow and dragged her back to her side, “Dahyun,” she raised a threatening eyebrow, “Stop flirting with my girlfriend. And Chaeyoung?”

The younger girl looked up at her cousin nervously.

“Stop being so charming.” Jeongyeon winked.

“Ew,” Jihyo interjected, “I never want to see Yoo Jeongyeon wink again.”

Jeongyeon looked over sleazily and shot the brunette another wink.

“And with that, I think we should all be heading to homeroom.” She turned to the two middle schoolers, “See you two later!”

Nayeon ruffled the two girls’ hair, “Yeah, I better see you kiddos more often now that you’re back!”

“Don’t worry! You will.” Dahyun ducked away from her hand and called out, “It was nice meeting you guys! Let’s have fun this year, like Chaengie said!”

Chaeyoung elbowed Dahyun’s side, “Nice meeting you guys!”

“It was nice to meet you too,” Mina bowed.

Momo and Sana followed suit and bowed their heads, coming up at the same time, “Let’s have fun this year!” they said in sync.

“Whoa…” Dahyun’s hand grabbed Chaeyoung’s elbow instinctively. “How’d they do that?” she whispered.

“It happens all the time.” A shiver ran down Nayeon’s spine, “You’d think we’d be used to it by now, but it’s still as creepy as the first time.”

~

“Nayeon?” Momo poked her head through the bathroom door.

She gasped when she was suddenly pulled inside and shoved against the wall, the older girl assaulting her lips. Momo’s surprise dissipated as she melted into Nayeon’s frenzied grip on her waist, kissing her back with the same desperate fervor.

These secret make out sessions had become a regular thing for them. They used to only take place every so often, when Momo would go to Nayeon’s house for a study date. But Nayeon had recently discovered a forgotten bathroom at the end of a long hallway on the far side of school, leading to more frequent meet ups.

“So, what was the excuse this time?” Nayeon managed to ask between heavy breaths.

Momo pulled back, “I’m helping the new kid, Lucas, with the new routine for the dance team.” She leaned in to take Nayeon’s lips before pulling away once more, smiling mischievously at the way the older girl whined when she did so. “What was yours?”

“Studying,” Nayeon answered quickly and dove back in, wrapping her arms around Momo’s neck to ensure she wouldn’t pull away again.

Momo chuckled, “We sure are eager today.”

“After seeing you get all worked up watching them flirt this morning?” Nayeon smirked. “What can I say? Jealous Momoring is hot.”

“Jealous Nayeon isn’t so bad herself.” Momo simpered. “Just thinking about how you looked the first time you told me you liked-”

Nayeon jerked her head away from the younger girl’s, “I thought we agreed we wouldn’t explicitly say it?”

“Sorry, you’re just so cute when you're annoyed.” Momo dipped her head to bring their lips back together.

Their meet ups weren’t always like this. Back in middle school, they really did start out as study dates, going to each others’ houses and cafes to cram for upcoming quizzes and exams. But shortly after they entered high school, Nayeon decided she and Momo had grown close enough for her to confide in the bob-haired girl.

It was after a study session that had run much later than they anticipated; Nayeon had told Momo to just sleep over so she wouldn’t have to go home in the dark. They were in Nayeon’s bed, ready for sleep to find them, when Nayeon spoke into the darkness, “Momo?”

“Mm,” Momo lazily answered.