“Mina, are you mad at me?”

When Jennie visited Tech Solutions earlier to discuss the Testing Team transition from Rosé, she invited Jihyo to her apartment for dinner with Mina. The whole ride to Jennie, the Testing Team boss kept talking to Jihyo, asking her how the team’s been so far, and of course Jihyo asking Jennie about her health. Mina wasn’t talking at all.

Luckily for Jihyo, she gets the chance when Jennie decides to cook for the three of them, busying herself in the kitchen, leaving Jihyo and Mina in the living room.

“You told Momo to ask me out,” Mina deadpans.

“No, I didn’t!” Jihyo quickly denies, whispering as loud as she can be without being heard in the kitchen. “I just… Well, I guess I encouraged her a bit.” She turns to see Mina glaring at her. “You two were really hitting it off,” Jihyo explains herself. “I didn’t know that Jennie was waking up!”

“Jihyo, that’s not the point. She’s still my girlfriend.”

“Oh please, you two were pretty much broken up at that time. You don’t even remember how caught in the crossfire I was, do you?” Jihyo scoffs. “I love you both, but you two were getting too toxic around each other.”

Mina lets go of her frustration at Jihyo because the latter was right. “Maybe Jennie getting into that accident was a sign for us to stay together, give each other one more chance.”

 “Maybe.”

Mina opens but pauses, hesitating a bit. “How’s Momo?” she finally asks, not looking at Jihyo.

“She seemed out of it today. She wasn’t talking to anyone.”

The Japanese girl lets out a sigh.

“Do you like her?”

Mina turns to Jihyo, smiling with a hint of regret. “Why do you think I took her to Jennie’s and my secret spot?” She lets out a harsh laugh. “God, I am so sick.”

“Hey, you’re not a bad person, Mina. None of us knew if Jennie was even gonna wake up. The doctors said the head trauma was pretty bad.”

“I care for Momo a lot, Jihyo.”

“I know.”

The next day, Momo adjusts to her new schedule of riding with Sana to work.

“You gonna be okay?” Sana asks her best friend as they ride up the elevator.

“I don’t know, honestly,” Momo answers. “By the way, don’t tell anyone about Mina and Jennie. I don’t know if they’ve agreed to go public yet.”

Sana nods in response. When the elevator leads them to their floor the two girls separate and go to their respective offices. When Momo passes by the Design Team’s area she can’t help but look for Mina, sighing in relief when she sees that the girl isn’t there yet. As for Sana, Dahyun’s already in the Applications Team cave, sitting next to Chaeyoung.

“Hey, Sana,” Chaeyoung greets the Japanese girl when she walks in.

“Hi, Chaeyoung-ah,” Sana greets back. She shoots a nervous glance at Dahyun, who she sees glaring at her. Still, she attempts to say hi. “Hey—”

“Until you sort yourself out,” Dahyun says, cutting Sana off, “you can’t talk to me.”

Sana scoffs at this. “I thought you said I couldn’t kiss you; I don’t remember anything about talking.”

“Well…” Dahyun turns red. “You can’t use your mouth to do anything to me. You can’t kiss me, you can’t talk to me, not until you figure out what we talked about.”

“I can’t use my mouth?” Sana lets out a chuckle. “You’ve gotten , Dahyun-ah.”

Dahyun groans loudly and walks away from Sana and Chaeyoung, stomping her feet as she goes. Sana turns to Dahyun with a worried expression on her face.

“What am I gonna do with her, Chaeyoung?”

“You already know the answer, unnie.”

Meanwhile, Mina finishes her design by lunch time and goes to the Testing Room to show the design to Jennie.

“This looks good, Mina,” Jennie tells her, looking at the screen.

“Really? Because I was hesitating on putting that additional buffer there—”

“No,” Jennie interrupts Mina as she turns to look at her, “I was talking about you.”

Mina lets out a laugh that echoes throughout the entire Testing Room that everyone except for Momo turns to her.

“If you keep being this cheesy people might find out about us,” says Mina.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop. Let’s just have lunch somewhere so I can kiss you.” Jennie gets her purse and starts walking with Mina.

Mina glances to the side spots Momo typing away at her laptop. “You go ahead,” she tells Jennie, “I’ll catch up with you.”

She creeps behind Momo, waiting for a few seconds if Momo will notice her. When she realizes Momo wouldn’t, Mina speaks suddenly, her voice low but booming.

“Too busy to eat lunch now?”

The minute Mina says it, Momo jumps up from her seat, almost dropping her phone.

“Kyah!” Momo screams, turning around to see Mina. “Mina, you scared me!”

“Sorry,” Mina mumbles, chuckling. “You were in the zone, I can’t help interrupting your productivity.”

“Wow, thanks a lot,” Momo mutters.

“What are you doing, anyway?”

“Remember when I was making that real-time wireless transfer thing for the testing data?”

Mina nods.

“Well it’s finished now, and uh, Miss Jennie wants me to make a report on the whole thing.”

“Miss Jennie?” Mina snorts.

“Yeah, that’s what she wanted us to call her.”

“Really?” Mina asks, slightly confused. Jennie had let the team members call her by just her name in the past.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Nothing. I just thought you were doing something cool.” Mina smirks as she sits beside Momo.

Momo pouts at Mina, making the latter giggle. Momo realizes how much she misses the way Mina laughs already. What she doesn’t realize is her laptop slipping from her grasp, nearly falling towards the floor. Luckily, Mina notices this and in an abrupt motion she reaches over to Momo’s other side to catch it. Simultaneously, Momo feels her laptop falling just in time, and catches Mina by her face using her free hand.

One second. Momo stares into Mina’s brown orbs, melting under her hypnotic gaze.

Two seconds. Momo tries letting go, but she can’t. Instead, she looks down onto Mina’s soft lips—she knows they’re soft; she will never forget that kiss.

Three seconds. Mina pulls away from Momo.

“Sorry,” says Mina, coughing.

“It’s okay, you just tried to save my laptop,” Momo tells her, even though she knows that that wasn’t what Mina was talking about.

“Actually, no, it’s the company’s laptop,” Mina corrects Momo. “They’ll cut that off your paycheck if you break that.”

Momo chuckles nervously. “I should be thanking you even more, then.”

“Mina?” a voice calls out. Mina turns around and sees Jennie walking towards them.

“Hey, Jennie,” Mina greets her girlfriend, standing up as she does so.

Mina feels Momo stiffen beside her as she stands up as well to greet her. “Hi, Ma’am.”

“Hey, Momo. You better be finishing the report I tasked you to do.”

“Uh yeah, working on it right now.”

“Wonderful. Good job, Momo. I’ll be expecting your report by tonight.” Jennie turns to Mina. “So, lunch?”

Mina nods at Jennie, but not before turning to Momo. “Bye, Momo.”

Momo doesn’t say anything and simply waves goodbye at the pair. She looks away after a second because seeing the two of them is too much for her right now.

“You want Momo to finish the report by tonight?” Mina asks Jennie as soon as they’re out of Momo’s earshot.

Jennie shrugs in response. “I think she can finish it.”

“But she’s gathered a lot of resources to do that, not to mention she has to test some chips, too.”

“Why are you the one complaining?” Jennie mutters, looking confused at Mina. “Momo doesn’t seem to mind.”

“I don’t know, it just seems like a lot.”

“I think she can do it. I heard she works fast, too.”

There was something in Jennie’s tone when she said it that Mina doesn’t quite catch.

Later in the afternoon Momo goes with the usual girls to the pub—only it isn’t really the usual girls, because Dahyun and Sana aren’t talking, so Momo goes with Sana, Nayeon and Jeongyeon, while Dahyun and Chaeyoung go on their own.

“I can’t believe this is happening to you girls,” Nayeon tells them in the shotgun seat of Jeongyeon’s car.

“For the record, I think this is all your fault,” Momo teases.

Nayeon gasps in response. “My fault? I only talked to Sana and gave her advice, not you.”

“You told me to go to Jihyo, who told me I should go for it, and I did, and Mina rejected me.”

“Why did Mina reject you, anyway?” a curious Nayeon asks. “You seemed to like each other, and I personally didn’t think Mina could like anyone.”

“I just… I wasn’t right for her I guess,” Momo lies, glancing at Sana who gives her a knowing look.

“And you,” says Nayeon, scowling at Sana, “I can’t believe you would hurt Dahyun like that.”

“Are we still talking about this?” Sana mutters, arms crossed. “Because I really don’t.”

Nayeon lets out a sigh. “Okay then. Tonight, let’s drink to forget.”

“Have I ever mentioned how much I love being single?” says Chaeyoung. They’re at the pub now, and she’s watching her tofu roommate drinking miserably by her side.

“Hey I’m—” hic “single—” hic “too!”

“Yeah but you’re attached and I’m not.” Chaeyoung takes in a swig of beer. “Speaking of attached, here they come now.”

“I don’t know about you girls,” Sana mumbles to her three companions, “but I’m gonna stay over there at the farthest spot possible from Kim Dahyun. You’re free to join me, if you want.”

Nayeon and Jeongyeon look at each other, having a pathological conversation. They silently agree that Sana needs someone to calm her down and so, they follow her.

“Momo, you coming?” Nayeon asks.

“I’ll catch up with you in a bit,” Momo replies. She sees Dahyun and Chaeyoung and decides to talk to them. She wants to know Dahyun’s insight on the situation since she’s friends with her, too.

“Hey girls,” Momo greets them.

“Hey lover girl.”

“Stop it, Chaeyoung,” says Momo. “It’s not happening.”

“What?!” Dahyun exclaims, beating Chaeyoung to it. “But why? You guys are cute.”

Momo smirks at that. “I could say the same about you and Sana.”

“Unless one of you is a erted psychopath who sleeps around with women, then Sana and I are not like you and Mina.”

“Hey, don’t say that about my best friend—no, scratch that, she’s your best friend, too.”

“Yeah, that was low,” Dahyun admits, feeling guilty. “Don’t tell Sana I said that. I didn’t mean it.”

“Yeah, I know.” Momo offers Dahyun a warm smile.

“So,” Chaeyoung cuts in, “what happened between you and Mina?”

Before Momo could answer, she hears a familiar voice say her name.

“Moguri?”

Momo turns around to see who just called her. “Seulgi?”

“Hey, girl!” the girl named Seulgi exclaims, hugging Momo. Dahyun and Chaeyoung watch the whole scene unfold.

“How have you been?” Seulgi asks. “One day we were on the same floor at work and the next day they said you quit.”

“Oh, uh…” Momo smiles sheepishly. “I got another job. I’m with Tech Solutions now.”

“Oh, really? I hear it’s pretty great there.”

“It is, actually.” Except for the fact that I’m in love with someone who has a girlfriend and that girlfriend happens to my boss, of course. “Anyway, how have you been? How are Yeri and the others?”

“They’re missing you, actually. Well, they miss the avocados you bring to work, more likely.”

“Yah, stop,” Momo whines, pushing Seulgi’s shoulder.

“Anyway, I’m here with some college friends so, I’ll guess I’ll see you around? We should hang out sometime; you still have my number, right?”

Momo nods in response.

“Bye, Momo,” Seulgi says, walking away.

Momo turns back to Dahyun and Chaeyoung, confused by the look on their faces.

“What?” she asks the duo.

“What was that?” Chaeyoung mutters with a hint of accusation. “Were you flirting with her?”

“Eh? I wasn’t flir—”

Momo is interrupted by Dahyun’s scoff.

“Oh please, Chaeyoung. Let her flirt. She poured her heart out to Mina but she rejected her, so it’s natural that she moves on.”

“Don’t project your bitterness onto other people’s problems,” Chaeyoung shoots a snarky reply. “There may be hope for Mimo—”

“Mimo?” Momo repeats.

“That’s you and Mina’s ship name,” Chaeyoung explains to the Japanese girl. “We’ve been calling you guys that behind your back.”

“Stop saying Mimo because it’s Momo’s got a new girl in Seulgi now,” Dahyun grumbles.

“Guys, guys,” says Momo, “I appreciate you trying to help me, even though you have differing opinions. But Seulgi is just a friend and I don’t see her that way. Besides, I don’t wanna get into the dating scene right now. After what happened with Mina, I don’t think I’m ready yet.”

“Spotting Mina at your 5 o’clock, Momo,” Chaeyoung mutters all of a sudden, but Momo simply rolls her eyes.

“Oh ha ha, Chaeyoung, very funny. You honestly expect me to believe that Mina, who has never, not once, gone out with us to the pub, is suddenly here?”

“Momo,” Dahyun speaks up, “Chaeng isn’t lying. She’s here; look.”

And when Momo turns around she does spot her, not missing Mina’s elegant aura simply from the way she stands. Momo’s heart skips a beat when Mina turns and their eyes make contact.

One second. Momo knows she could get lost in those eyes forever.

Two seconds. Momo wants to go there and talk to her.

Three seconds. Mina breaks the contact, linking arms with Jennie as they enter the room together.