Hello! It’s been a while :) Actually I was planning to update after TWICE's comeback promotions haha! So we wouldn’t miss them too much but nah I’m back for now and I hope I can update the next one soon! After this, there’ll be two episodes left :)

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About six weeks later, Nayeon and Jeongyeon are almost set for their big move to Germany. Now the only thing left to do is to start packing their things. And this is why they’ve called in reinforcements one weekend and are now gathered in their house—more specifically, Momo, Sana, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Jihyo.

“Where’s Mina?” Sana asks as she sorts the clothes that Jeongyeon and Nayeon piled up in the living room.

“She won’t be coming,” Jeongyeon answers. “I think she’s nervous because the interview for the team leader position is this week.”

This time it’s Momo’s turn to ask. “Eh? I thought she’s already promoted?”

“Well I’ve set the paperwork in and she’s pretty much all set. It’s just that some representatives from the US branch have to interview her as a formality.”

Momo nods as she continues folding the clothes and sorting them with Sana. Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Jihyo are looking at Nayeon and Jeongyeon’s “to-get-rid-of things” that they want for themselves.

“What are you planning to do with this house?” Momo asks again after a moment of silence.

“Why don’t you guys have it?” says Nayeon, taking Sana in surprise.

“Us?”

“Nayeon and I talked about it,” Jeongyeon tells them. “We wanted to give it to the girls who schemed their way for us to make up.”

“Mina, is, well, Mina—” Nayeon continues, “—and if we offered her the house she might even be insulted.”

Momo laughs too loudly that the couple and Sana give her weird looks. “What? It was funny.”

“Anyway,” Jeongyeon clears , “Jihyo also has her own house, but you and Sana live in an apartment. So it'd be great if you two would move in here.”

Sana’s about to jump from excitement—she’d fallen in love with the place even before she fell in love with Dahyun—but Momo’s answer turns her excitement to irritation.

“No.”

“WHAT?” Sana raises her voice.

“This is a couple’s house,” says Momo, and looks at Sana. “I don’t think you and I could live here, but maybe you and Dahyun could.”

Sana blinks. “What are you saying?”

“I think you know exactly what I’m saying, Sana,” Momo replies with a wink.

The following week at the office Momo notices Mina being more tense than usual. In the past weeks of working closely together Momo has observed that Mina tends to solve puzzles whenever she’s stressed or nervous. The first time it happened was when Mina had to work with a frustrating colleague from Finance, who kept insisting that the cost for the chip was too expensive when the truth was that his calculations were all wrong. Mina disproved him after completing a 10,000-piece puzzle at home.

The next time, Mina bought three 3D mini-puzzles to her desk and Momo kept glancing at her being so focused. Later Momo learned that her parents were paying her (and the company) a visit.

Today Mina’s solving those little puzzles where you have to unlock the pieces. Momo watches closely and Mina doesn't even notice, until she finally breaks the connection of the pieces and Momo cheers for her.

“Oh,” Momo mumbles, chuckling, “sorry.”

“No, no,” Mina responds, shaking her head. She checks her desktop computer for the time.

“7 minutes,” Momo tells her, referring to how long Mina completed the puzzle.

“You were watching me the whole time?” Mina blinks.

“Yeah, it was either that or be productive so I chose to time you instead. Besides, you looked so cute focusing all your energy and attention on that thing.”

“How did you even know I was timing myself?” Mina asks, trying to change the subject, trying to suppress the blush forming on her cheeks.

Momo scoffs at her. “Oh, please. You’re Myoui Mina. You always want to outdo yourself.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Mina retorts, raising an eyebrow, challenging Momo, who simply smirks at her.

“No, I’m just saying you’re already at the top of your game. So I don’t see why you’re being so nervous with this promotion thing.”

“Oh.” Mina sighs. “I’m that obvious, huh?”

“Jeongyeon told me about the interview. She told me it’s this week?”

“It’s today, actually.” Mina lets out another sigh. “I feel incapacitated, Momo.”

“Mina, you’ll do great,” Momo tells her, squeezing her hand. Mina looks into Momo’s eyes and she stays there, staring at her, feeling Momo’s warm hands on her own and she wants to look down and—

“A-And you’ll give me a raise when you get promoted, right?” Momo stammers, but still tries to keep her cool.

Momo speaking after a long pause makes Mina jolt away from her. “And here I thought you were being sincere,” Mina utters.

“I was!” Momo retorts. “But I was trying to have a raise, too.”

Mina smacks Momo’s shoulder, the way she usually does when she’s more comfortable, and Momo’s glad to help Mina shake her anxiety away.

“Hello, Momo,” the two ladies hear from beside them. When they turn around, Mina doesn’t know who she is. But Momo recognizes her immediately.

“H-Hi, Joy,” Momo says, standing up to bow and greet her senior. “Um, Mina, this is Park Sooyoung. Dahyun and I worked with her in California.”

“Myoui Mina, right?” Joy says, confusing Mina.

“How’d you know my family name?”

“I read the file Jeongyeon gave me.”

“Ah, Joy, you’re here,” Mina hears Jeongyeon before she herself could react. “Mina, this is Park Sooyoung—”

“Yes, Jeongyeon, we’ve met already. Just a few seconds ago, actually.”

“Oh. Well, okay, anyway, let’s go to the office to have your interview then.”

Mina gulps. This woman is gonna decide if she gets a promotion or not. And seeing as how she flirted with Momo earlier, Mina doesn’t think that this is gonna be a smooth ride at all.

During lunch Sana and Dahyun are eating alone since Chaeyoung said she was going to meet with Tzuyu. And while Dahyun loves her roommate, she’s happy to be alone with Sana, too. Only this time Sana’s unusually quiet and keeps moving her food around her plate.

“Sana,” she speaks after minutes of just observing her girlfriend. Sana jumps at the sudden mention of her name.

“Geez, you scared me, Dahyun,” says Sana, clutching her chest.

“Are you alright?”

“Y-Yeah.” Sana forces a smile, but Dahyun sees right through it.

“Sana, we’ve been best friends for almost ten years. You should know better than to lie to me now.”

“You’re right,” Sana says after letting out a sigh. “I’m sorry. It’s just… Something’s bothering me.”

“What is it?” Dahyun asks, a concerned look apparent on her face.

“Well, you know how Nayeon and Jeongyeon are moving, right?”

“Yeah?”

“They offered me and Momo the house. But Momo said that… well… maybe I should—I mean we should—I mean I should take the house and move in with you—we’ll move in together.” Sana plays with her thumbs, not looking at Dahyun, and the younger girl finds this cute but waits eagerly. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I love you Dahyunnie, I really do. But even if I’m usually at your place and vice versa moving in is a really big step and I’m scared because, while we have known each other for years now we only started dating, and what if while living together you’ll realize there’s something about me you don’t like and we break up and—”

“Sana, stop.” Dahyun squeezes her girlfriend’s hand and offers a warm smile.

“I’m sorry,” says Sana, her voice almost cracking.

“No, it’s okay. I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t want you to be afraid that we’re going to break up. I love you, so why would I do that? I won’t leave you.”

Sana finally looks up at Dahyun, looks at her with innocent eyes, intently listening to Dahyun’s promise.

“But honestly, I think moving in now would be too fast for us, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I’ve thought of that, too…”

“So I’m thinking, what if we move in with Chaeyoung and Momo in that house? Wouldn’t that be great?”

Sana beams at this suggestion and can’t help but clap her hands. “That’s true! It’ll be like having sleepovers every night!”

Dahyun laughs, pleased at Sana’s now positive mood. “Well, not every night,” she chides. “I still want you alone, you know.”

Mina’s interview with Joy goes well, much to her surprise. Jeongyeon was right, it was just a formality and Joy didn’t ask a lot of questions; and when she did, it was part of those questions Mina had anticipated and practiced answering.

After saying their congratulations Jeongyeon left her office to rush to Nayeon, leaving Mina and Joy alone as they go out as well.

“So, Mina, you know Momo,” Joy says suddenly.

“Umm, yeah, we work together.”

“This may come off as a weird question coming from me, but… Are you and Momo together?”

“What? N-No, we’re not.” Mina suddenly feels sweat forming on her forehead.

“Oh. So that means I have a shot at her?”

“Umm…”

Before Mina could give a proper reply they’re back at the Design Team cubicles where Momo is working, and Joy walks towards her, Mina following closely behind.

“Oh, h-hi again, Joy,” Momo greets her, standing up when she feels a figure watching behind her.

“Momo, you left me at the club in California, do you remember?” Joy says, moving closer to Momo. Mina has no idea what happened between them in California, but seeing the way Joy closes the space between her and Momo is bothering her for some reason. And Mina’s confused by this feeling, so all she does is just stand there and watch.

“I-I’m really sorry about that. I wasn’t ready that time.” Momo looks away from Joy but avoids Mina’s eyes as well. It was about a week or two after Momo had found out about Mina and Jennie.

“So that means… you’re ready this time?” Joy smirks.

“Oh…” Momo looks around nervously until she takes a deep breath and gathers the courage to give a proper reply. “I’m sorry, Joy, but I have a girlfriend now.”

“But Mina said you’re not dating or anything.” Joy points to Mina, making the attention focus on her, and Mina couldn’t be more embarrassed.

“No, no, not Mina,” says Momo. “Her name’s Seulgi. I used to work with her, at the company I worked before going here.”

“Oh.” Joy’s face finally drops. “I can’t say that I’m not disappointed, but at least I gave it a shot. You really left me hanging back there, you know.”

Momo can only let out a nervous laugh in response.

“Well, anyway, I guess I’m going to leave now. It was nice seeing you again, Momo. And Mina, congrats on your promotion.”

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Mina responds, bowing as Joy walks towards the elevator.

“Whoa, Mina, you got the job!” Momo squeals and hugs Mina.

“Thanks,” Mina replies, hugging Momo back, but somehow she isn’t as excited as she expected herself to be.

“So, what do you think?” Dahyun asks Chaeyoung at their apartment when she tells her about moving into Jeongyeon and Nayeon’s place with Sana and Momo.

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

Dahyun frowns at Chaeyoung’s response. “You don’t sound so great.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just…” Chaeyoung lets out a sigh. “I think I messed things up with Tzuyu.”

“What happened?”

“Well, we were talking about future dates and… And I might have told her I was seeing someone else.”

“You what?” Dahyun almost spits the sandwich she’s eating. “I thought you liked her?”

“Yes, but I panicked! I was afraid I was gonna be rejected!”

“You should at least tell her.”

Chaeyoung scoffs. “Yeah, coming from the one who didn’t want to tell Sana she was in love with her, only spilling the beans when she got extremely drunk.”

“You were the one who kept telling me back then to confess to Sana, so why couldn’t you do it with Tzuyu now?” Dahyun retorts.

“Okay, yeah, I’m a hypocrite, I get it.” Chaeyoung lets out a sigh.

“No, Chaeyoung, that’s not what I’m saying. You just didn’t know how it felt back then. You wouldn’t know unless you were put in the same situation. And yeah, maybe you shouldn’t listen to me, but think of what would happen if you confessed to Tzuyu and she has feelings for you too?”

“But what if she rejects me?”

“You’ll never know unless you try.” Dahyun winks.

“Don’t wink like that. Your left eyebrow is too high.”

Dahyun playfully punches her roommate’s shoulder as she whines. “Just… consider it?”

“Yeah,” Chaeyoung says after giving it much thought, “okay.”

And just like that, it’s two weeks later and the girls are sending Nayeon and Jeongyeon off to their airport. Sana couldn’t hold back her tears when she hugs Nayeon, thanking her for all the advice she’s given her and for encouraging her to be with Dahyun. Momo thanks Nayeon as well, for introducing her to the whole department when she was still new, but she does her best to stop the tears from falling. The rest of the girls take turns in saying goodbye and well-wishes to the couple.

Jeongyeon turns to Mina and smiles at her, opening her arms to give the girl a big hug.

“I know you won’t have a problem handling the team, Mina,” Jeongyeon assures her. “And I’m always just a chat away if you need anything.”

“Thanks, boss.”

“Did you get to buy the thing I asked you to?” Jeongyeon whispers to Mina before letting go of the embrace.

“Of course.” Mina looks at the other girls before she carefully pulls out a velvet box from her pocket and opens it in front of Jeongyeon. “13 carat diamond, just like you wanted.”

“Mina, it’s beautiful,” says Jeongyeon, but her expression is worried. “Do you think Nayeon will love it?”

“Yes. Because she loves you.”

Jeongyeon smiles at Mina’s genuine response. “Thank you,” she says as she discreetly hides the box in her suitcase. “And Mina?”

“Hm?”

“I hope you finally admit your feelings for Momo.”

“I…”

“You don’t have to say anything. But you really look good together. She fits you well.” Jeongyeon hugs Mina one last time. “I hope you go get her.”

Jeongyeon’s last words keep ringing in Mina’s head as she and the others go home from the airport.

She may not have answered Jeongyeon, but she did admit her feelings already, at least to herself.

But she also knows, that it’s too late.