“Okay. Rehearsals are over.”

 

The group of girls seated on the edge the stage start dissipating after the director of the theatre club ends her final comments on the day’s rehearsals.  The theatre club was currently rehearsing for the prom musical, the start-up program for their school’s prom night.

 

Mina immediately gets up and cuts through the other girls until she got a sight of Momo and semi-roughly grabs her by the hand.  She pulls her towards the backstage dressing area where Momo just follows lead.  The moment they reach behind the curtains, Mina teased a soft kiss on the edge of Momo’s lips.

 

“You look cute today.” Mina says, seemingly searching for Momo’s eyes behind the glaring lens of her eyeglasses.

 

Momo just stood there, blushing, palms starting to sweat in Mina’s hold, “T-this is literally how I look everyday.” Of course she would stutter.

 

“Well, you’re cute everyday. I just wanted to remind you.” Mina giggles and gently kisses Momo’s nose.

 

Momo couldn’t bear getting more from this cute girlfriends’ behavior Mina was treating her with when they were clearly not dating (although maybe she wants them to so badly be), so she cuts Mina off and just roughly starts kissing her as where these secret meet-ups always end up to be.

 

-----

 

Momo walks Mina to her locker which conveniently is just across her’s and they part ways from there.

 

“Hey, Mina!” Sana, the self-acclaimed school’s head in charge and one of Mina’s best friends, has arrived their locker halls, “Wanna go prom dress shopping with me?”

 

Mina’s going to prom? Momo thinks to herself, overhearing Mina and Sana’s conversation behind her locker door.  With who?

 

“Has someone asked you to prom already?” Mina asks Sana while she discharges stuff from her bag to her locker.

 

“Several, actually.” Sana rolls her eyes as she’s leaning on the lockers next to Mina’s with arms crossed over her chest, “That’s another discussion to be made while we’re picking out dresses! So you need to come with me.” Sana tries to plead with her best rendition of her puppy eyes.

 

Mina sighs, “Fine. But we’re taking Jihyo too. I don’t want her to start sulking and being dramatic about how we left her out again.”

 

“Yeah, okay.” Sana laughs minutely, “Hey, has someone asked you out to prom?”

 

This question rings to Momo’s ears and catches her attention.  She slowly tilts her head a bit to sneak a peek behind her locker door which was facing the two girls.  She only ends up startling herself when she makes eye contact with Mina who was already looking at her.

 

.

 

Momo quickly finishes organizing her locker slightly trembling, unintentionally slams her locker door, which startled Mina and Sana, and paces off to exit the halls.

 

-----

 

“So, Nayeon, you going to prom?” Momo randomly interjects in the middle of their homework meet-up

 

Whenever both of them had a little bit too much homework to do, they would meet up at either one of their houses to help each other with their homework.  Tonight, they were at Nayeon’s place.

 

“What?” Nayeon adjusts her eyeglasses and looks at Momo with the most confused look on her face.

 

Momo shakes her head and the thought of it out her head, “Yeah, sorry, silly question.”

 

“I don’t think we would really blend well with the crowd their Momo…” Nayeon speaks as she’s already back on her homework.

 

Momo hesitates before she speaks, blankly staring at her open book, “B-but they’re just the same people we go to school with?”

 

“Honestly, just the thought of it gives me anxiety.” Nayeon remarks, and Momo just nods and shakes it off.

 

They were on their 10-minute break when Momo hears the rustling of a car being parked outside, “Is that your mom?” Momo moves up to the window to see.

 

Momo squints as she spots a familiar figure exiting the back seat of a car on the carpark next to Nayeon’s house, then she puts on her eyeglasses.

 

It was Mina.

 

There was a sudden rush of excitement running through Momo’s body.

 

“Hey, are you neighbors with Mina?” Momo asks and looks over at Nayeon who was busy watching something with her headphones on, so Momo shrugs it off.

 

She watches as Mina knocks on the door.  So it isn’t her house.

 

Mina had been waiting for the door to open for over two minutes now, and Momo had been watching her, with her head peeping out and forearms resting on Nayeon’s window, for about the same time.  

 

Suddenly she was feeling brave, maybe it was the slight adrenaline from seeing her crush, her crush, at such an unexpected time or place, and the next thing she knew, she was already trying to get Mina’s attention.

 

“Psst! Mina!” Momo called above a whisper.

She honestly did not expect to catch Mina’s attention at just that one soft call, and Mina was already looking over at her.

 

“Momo?” Mina squinted, trying to properly catch a look of Momo’s face that was hidden behind shadows of the night.

 

“Hey-“

 

“Mina?” Their interaction was cut short by a high-pitched voice calling from inside the house next to Nayeon’s.

 

The door opened and Sana let Mina enter her house.

 

Momo wasn’t all that disappointed as Mina bid her an eyebrow raise and a soft smile before entering the house.

 

-----

 

It was getting late and Momo’s dad has been calling non-stop asking if she was on her way home.  Her house isn’t that far from Nayeon’s but the walk could sometimes get creepy late at night.

 

“Don’t forget to bring your Chemistry textbook tomorrow so we can compare answers!” that was Nayeon’s farewell, “I won’t!” Momo replies as she exits to the sidewalk.

 

Sana’s house was on the direction that Momo was taking, and she can’t help but notice that the car that Mina got off of was still parked just behind, what seems to be, Sana’s Mercedes-Benz.  Her walking pace started slowing down for some reason as she passed by that house.  Was it because of the thought of Mina still being inside that house?

 

There was no detection of the slightest activity as she walked passed that house and Momo felt slumped.  Maybe this crush was getting much deeper than what she would like to think.

 

She was three houses past Sana’s when she could hear a car engine start and car light shine up on her periphery.  She just knows it was Mina’s car and so she started frantically pacing hoping Mina doesn’t spot her walking alone.

 

Please turn the other way. Please turn the other way. Please turn the other way.

 

Much to Momo’s hopes of not running paths with Mina on a car and her on a sidewalk, the car lights follow her and it honks to call her with a voice that followed, “Hey, Momo!”

 

Momo winced and stopped at the call and the Audi stopped next to her.  She turned around to see Mina opening the door to her with the open window, “Get in. Let me take you home.”

 

“Uh…I’m fine, really.” she tried to smile and her cheeks creased with dimples behind her large spectacles.

 

“God, you’re cuter when you’re more dorky.” Mina giggles, Momo’s favorite giggle, “Just stop being stupid and get in the car.  It’s late and I know you’re tired and scared.”

 

“I’m not scared.” Momo started mumbling with a frown but got inside the car anyway.

 

“Where’s your place?” Mina immediately asks the moment the car door closed, “Five houses down from here, the first street on the right, and the last house down there.”

 

“You heard her, Lee.” Mina nods to her driver. “Yes, Ma’am.” And the car starts to drive off.

 

“So,” Mina looks over at Momo who was trying to keep busy observing the houses outside the window, “what were you doing at Nayeon’s place?  She’s your girlfriend?” Mina tries to say in a teasing tone but falters a bit.

 

“What?!” Mina got Momo’s attention and Momo was finally looking at her, “Gross…wait, how do you know it was Nayeon’s place and how do you know her?”

 

“I think I remember her from that one PE class we got paired up for badminton or something.  Sana told me it was her house, that they’ve been neighbors since about a year ago.”

 

“Sana knows Nayeon?” Momo seemed more shocked.

 

“Well, duh, I guess?...But anyway, you didn’t answer my question.” Mina poked Momo, “Is she your girlfriend?” she asked in a somewhat more serious tone.

 

“No!” Momo exclaimed, “We’ve been best friends since pre-school.”

 

“Oh, okay.” Mina nods, and Momo thinks she heard her say “Good.” at the end.

 

Before Momo’s mind could wander, Mina speaks again, “Are you two going to prom?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Why?”

 

“It’s not really our thing if you haven’t noticed.”

 

“Notice what?” Mina genuinely asks and Momo looks at her, just suddenly found herself staring into Mina’s curious eyes.

 

Mina broke then weird tensioned eye contact they were having, “Almost everyone in school is gonna be there.  I’m gonna be there.” her tone starts lowering, “Dark empty halls and classrooms are gonna be there.” 

 

Momo gulps.

 

“We’re almost here!” Momo basically jumps out when she spots the tiniest bit of her house.

 

The two minute drive to Momo’s house from there was then silent.

The car stops right in front of a small suburban house.

 

“Thanks for the ride, Mina. I appreciate it.” she says as she starts piling up her stuff.

 

Mina proceeds to grab Momo by the next and give her a soft gentle kiss, her lips enveloping Momo’s upper lip. 

 

Momo is caught in a trance for a good three seconds before she pushes away.  She looks Mina in the eyes, “I thought we were only doing this at school?” she said with a serious, maybe sad, tone, “For fun.

 

Mina sighed, and moved to her side of the car, “Bye, Momo. Goodnight.” she said, eyes out the window on her side.

 

“Night. Thanks again.” Momo adjusted her eyeglasses before she shut the car door.

 

That night, Momo considered going to prom.

 

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a/n sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors! tbh I don't know how this works...leave a comment, maybe?