Nayeon doesn’t know what love is.

By rom-com protocol, the nerdy outcast girl is supposed to be a “dignified headstrong individual” and as the movie goes on, the football jock who is supposed to be leagues away from her reach falls for her nonchalance and care-free attitude. That, or, the nerdy outcast girl is a bumbling and shy mess that the out-of-her-league football jock initially laughs with his friends at. But however, he ends up falling for because of her scattered-brain and timidness all thanks to the fate of a forced partnered group project. (Extra rom-com points if the footballer is a secret theater geek and they’re paired to play Romeo and Juliet by random draw.)

According to the rom-com checklist, Nayeon has got the “bumbling and shy mess nerdy outcast girl” thing down. Check.

But here’s the thing. Boys reek of desperation for validity and hurt man-pride and even then, boys just weren’t her type even if they didn’t stink of Axe. “Being straight”. Unchecked, and will never be checked if girls existed.

So. Great. The rom-com love life Nayeon has fantasized about ended before it could even start.

But, senior year, Nayeon learns that maybe rom-coms don’t need to be followed to the T for them to be possible. Nayeon doesn’t know what love is but she thinks she gets a pretty good idea of what it is the first time she sees Sana Minatozaki.

Sana Minatozaki, a Japanese transfer who somehow has the ability to have the whole world in the palm of her hands, has Nayeon sitting right in the center of it. In fact, Nayeon can recall the exact moment where she (figuratively) sat cross-legged, chin handed it, and decided to spend her time focusing her gaze on the the girl.

Nayeon has a routine every morning. She wakes up, eats, brushes her teeth, changes into her too-big uniform handed down from her sister, and leaves for school via motor-scooter. (She’s working on getting that licence; she’s tired of arriving to school out of breath and sweating under her blazer. Motor scooters don’t work well on an incline; Nayeon learned that when she attempted riding up the hill to school and ended up just falling on her .)

On a good day, Nayeon’s hair isn’t a complete mess when she arrives to school but good days are basically a myth to her. Most times, she’ll arrive with her hair flying in different directions and her red hair clips lost somewhere in that mess. On especially cold days, it’s worse. She’s usually later than usual—her bed beckons her to tap on snooze when her phone goes off even when she knows fully well she doesn’t have the time to. (Nayeon usually has to forfeit the time attempting to tame her hair for extra sleep.) The cold mixed with her internal body warmth increasing due to running up the hill with her heavy motor-scooter, towards the doors of her heated school, and rushing to her locker in order to get her books for her next class just ends up fogging up her glasses to the max.

She pretends not to hear the snickers that follow her.

Once arriving at her locker, Momo Hirai, Nayeon’s only friend usually awaits her.

(When it’s cold and her glasses are fogged, Nayeon knows it’s Momo because of the blur of black from her hair and the abrupt shine of white that sits on top of her head. Momo loves her white headbands. She says it enhances her face shape. Nayeon doesn’t agree but she digresses. Without preamble, Momo’s hand will reach for her glasses to pull them off and wipe them with her cotton polo shirt since untucking and tucking Nayeon’s too-long-dress-shirt is a lengthy process, and plus, her buttoned shirt does bupkis at cleaning her glasses.

(Momo detests button ups. She says there are too many buttons and too little time to fasten them. She claims she’s not good at doing things fast but Nayeon has seen her dancing. Momo transcends and fascinates anyone watching—it’s a shame that only Nayeon cares to look.))

On the particular day Sana Minatozaki transfers, it’s frigid enough to get one’s tongue stuck on a light pole if they so choose to do so. Nayeon only knows this because Momo wanted to try it on a day as cold as this one.

(Nayeon abhorred Momo’s decision to the light pole and insisted that she should change her mind but Momo can really be stubborn. Momo spent four minutes panicking about being unable to unstick her tongue—a good three minutes of it was whining about how she would never be able to have jokbal again. Nayeon had to sacrifice some of her hot chocolate sitting in her thermos to unstick Momo. The days where Momo wears her polo shirt with faint coco stains to school are usually happy days for Nayeon.)

So this is how the scene starts, Nayeon is late shivering and she thinks no matter how much Momo wipes at her glasses, they’ll just fog up again. Despite that, Momo reaches for them and wipes anyways.

“Momo, you can wipe all you want but they’re just gonna fog up again.”

“I’m really good at wiping them. They won’t fog up.” (They fog up again. Momo wipes again.) “Anyway, did you hear that there’s a transfer coming? She’s really pretty. And apparently Japanese.”

“If she’s Japanese maybe you can make a friend out of her. Bond over food and that one anime you like. What was it? Sailor Moon?”

Nayeon sees Momo’s blurred lips at a slight upturn at the thought before they fade into a frown.

“I don’t think so, Nayeonie. I saw her with Jihyo and Mina.”

Jihyo and Mina. They were as close to rom-com “football jock friends” as Nayeon could get. Except they were prettier. And smelled of flowers with an added odd scent of financial comfortability. Honestly, Jihyo and Mina proved to be infinitely better in general. Really, there are no similarities other than the fact that the “football jock friends” and the two were popular and universally seen as attractive. And not to mention, intimidating and uninterested in anything that wasn’t a part of their world.

Nayeon and Momo were not a part of their world, heck, their universe. There’s “out-of-their-league” and then there’s “completely-nonexistent.” If there happened to be a greater separation beyond that, that was what Momo and Nayeon were to Jihyo and Mina.

And this is a fair reminder that Nayeon’s life is not a rom-com. Whatever classes Nayeon shared with the two, it definitely wasn’t theater and teachers these days just allow students to pair up on their own. It’s always Jihyo&Mina and Nayeon&Momo . Two separate entities that just ended up sharing the same universe.

Across the hall, Nayeon hears Jihyo and Mina before she sees them. But she also hears something new. A light, yet high airy giggle. Nayeon has never heard an angel sing but she thinks this sound might be in one of their songs.

Truthfully, Nayeon wishes she could say she saw how beautiful Sana was at her first glance but really, she was just a blob of blue and black.

Momo was still wiping at her glasses.

A triumphant cheer from Momo breaks Nayeon’s heaven-induced haze and a pair of black-rimmed glasses are shoved onto her face. One of the temples sits outside her ear and the other tangles in her hair. Her glasses are no longer fogged up and Sana Minatozaki looks a little disoriented but when Nayeon hurriedly adjusts her frames, it is obvious to see that Sana looks bright and beautiful as clear as day (and in correct orientation). The freezing air appeared to be less frigid and it seemed as if the sun decided to leave and allowed Sana to take its place.

Perhaps it is a bit tragic that a simple laugh roped Nayeon into a hopeless crush. As Nayeon peers timidly behind her locker, Sana’s disposition is a ray of light in the bleak school halls as she laughs along with Jihyo and Mina. For a flash of a moment where Nayeon’s life turns into a rom-com and Sana glances her way, it is as if Nayeon’s vision tunnels solely on the bright smile adorning Sana’s face and the kind eyes that look her way.

But as quickly as she glances over, she glances away.

A quick moment turns into a reminder for Nayeon that her love life is not a rom-com. Not only was Sana friends with people outside of her trajectory, Nayeon also fiercely believed in “straight until proven gay” and with Sana’s unattainability, there would be no way for proof to be given. As the cookie crumbles, Nayeon did what she swore she would never do.

She fell for a straight girl.

Damn it.

~.~.~

If Momo was her only friend, life liked to prove her wrong. Apparently Murphy and his damn law were her friends too.

Nayeon concludes that her life must be some low-budget queer indie film that Sundance rejected at the glance of the first page. Poorly written by the straight male, messy, non-linear, and recorded with the technology of an iPhone 4, Nayeon couldn’t even catch a break.

There isn’t even some decency to record with at least an iPhone 6.

Nayeon would say that the iPhone 4 was the most luxurious thing she could have in that array of items and that Momo was her iPhone 4, but, Nayeon deems Momo to be far better than any iPhone that could be made.

Unless that iPhone had Sana Minatozaki’s number then, maybe, Momo might have some competition.

However, since Murphy’s Law was her friend, an iPhone with Sana Minatozaki’s number in it would not be hers.

Like all millennials, Nayeon liked to whine more than she should and complained when her life was far better than others. Nonetheless, as a teenager growing up in a society that highly prioritizes beauty, she couldn’t help but to nitpick at her appearance.

Her hair was too curly and untamable (Momo loves how they bounce whenever Nayeon makes any movement possible), her freckles were more obvious than she liked (Momo loves them and calls them stars but Nayeon digresses), and her goddamn glasses fogged up more than she would like (for some reason Momo finds great pleasure at wiping them for her).

Nayeon figures that with a friend like Momo, karma was bound to tie her to unfortunate luck.

Nayeon wouldn’t trade her for the world.

But sometimes, she wished that at least some luck would be on her side. Momo says that whatever luck Nayeon had was put towards the very composition that made Nayeon up.

Nayeon doesn’t understand how Momo sees it as luck.

When Momo goes to Japan with her family for winter break, Nayeon truly thinks Momo and Murphy’s Law are her friends. Nayeon isn’t necessarily losing Momo, but she isn’t seeing her for three weeks and Momo is quite awful at texting back. It’s almost like Momo disappears, if it weren’t for the lingering emptiness and slight depression that constantly reminds Nayeon about Momo’s lack of presence. At the vacation of Momo’s leaving, luck takes her place. Nayeon’s aunt that flew in for Christmas was a skilled cosmetologist and agreed to settle Nayeon’s insecurities without cost.

On the rare night where Nayeon reaches Momo over Kakaotalk, it’s one in the morning and Nayeon counts her blessing that Korea and Japan share the same time. If it were Momo and Nayeon were contacting her, it could be one in the morning, two, four, or five and Momo wouldn’t have any qualms on replying.

 

Nayeon : my aunt says she doesn’t mind doing it for me and i’m really happy that she’s not charging me. i don’t have the money to just...pay for a perm but she’s fine with just. .. ...doing it for me and she said that she would teach me how to put makeup on to cover my freckles and recommended me this one brand of eye contacts for my glasses. Think it started with an “a” or something…..

Nayeon: and to top it off, my mom finally has time to hem my skirt and my aunt offered to buy me dress shirts that actually fit me!! a concept!!

Momo : you know i think you look pretty no matter what; but do whatever makes you happy, nayeonie. you deserve it :)

 

Nayeon would never admit it but having Momo’s acceptance meant everything to her. Without even asking, Momo reassured her in the matter of two sentences.

(Momo is far too kind for her own good.)

Momo comes back two days before winter break ends and insists on seeing Nayeon despite the fact that school resumes in two days and that it was nine at night.

 

Nayeon : momo, you don’t need to come over. i’ll be seeing you soon anyway!!

Momo : nope! i need to see how you look!! I bet you look so pretty that everyone at school is just gonna :o when they see you!!

~.~.~

Momo is often wrong, but this time, she is nothing but right.

No longer is Nayeon an unlicensed driver, or curly headed and visibly freckled, nor fogged up from her glasses. With hair much straighter than her uality and contacts in, it is as if the world its axis for her. Even more than that, she seems to glide as she walks.

(Minus the minor incident of her key lanyard getting stuck in her car door which yanked her back to it as she turned to leave towards the school entrance.)

What is more important, however, are the stunned looks Jihyo, Mina, and most especially Sana send her way. Perhaps Nayeon found a place within their universe. Jihyo, with her ever present unimpressed cool look slackens her jaw just the tidbit while Mina looks wide-eyed and shocked. Sana seems frozen in her position, with her eyes shell-shocked and unblinking.

(Nayeon is familiar with that look. It’s the look she knows she gives gave Sana.)

After Nayeon playfully struts around in her room the night Momo sees her, Momo tells Nayeon that she adopted the “walk of confidence” that female leads in rom-coms have after getting a makeover. Nayeon especially notices how Momo slouches with her shoulder slumped and posture hunched, afraid to confront the world when Momo looks up at her from her bed.

Nayeon hopes that one day she will see Momo do the same, rise up with her shoulders squared and unthreatened by the world. Momo says that confidence is found from within and not from outside compliments. Momo says she’s working on herself and Nayeon wonders if Momo has ever really seen herself dance. Her confidence reaches astronomical values. Nayeon wishes Momo would care to look at her the way she did.

(Momo is far too critical of herself for her own good.)

If only Nayeon knew Momo thought the exact same of her.

~.~.~

Jihyo&Mina&Sana begins to change and it starts like this.

Nayeon would meet up with Momo at school (Momo’s mom insisted to drive her there if Nayeon were to drive her back home), they would gather what books they needed for their first two periods, and converse like they usually would while they waited for the first bell to ring.

Nayeon did end up having a place in Jihyo and Mina’s world after all. As the pair would walk by with Sana usually in the middle of them, the two would call Nayeon’s name and wave. The first time this happened, Nayeon wondered if her contacts had shifted by some odd chance and instead of waving back, Nayeon dumbly nodded back.

(She is still a bumbling mess after all.)

This is when Nayeon’s life starts morphing into some odd queer coming of age rom-com.

Nayeon and Momo are forced decide to join theater together through the hands of two of their classmates, Tzuyu and Jeongyeon. Apparently the school’s production of Romeo and Juliet needed more extras, and plus, it wouldn’t hurt to have Momo help with choreographing and organizing the dance. Nayeon prides herself on being Momo’s hypewoman and praises her as the dance master. Momo just blushes and shakes her hands and head in denial. Tzuyu and Jeongyeon trust Nayeon enough to give Momo the leading position in teaching the choreography. (If there was one person Nayeon knew better than herself, it was Momo.)

Momo later whines to Nayeon on the phone.

 

Momo : i’m so nervous. i’ve never had such a big responsibility before!! how am i supposed to lead a Whole Group of people in a dance I!!! don’t even know!?!? ?! ?!?

Nayeon : moguri, i believe in you. if there’s one thing you can do in one night, it’s learning, memorizing, and mastering a dance number. i’ve seen you memorize and master call me baby in the span of three hours and that dance is way harder than the one in the movie. believe in yourself, momo!! fighting!!

 

When the two head towards the theater room the next day, Momo’s eyes ignite a spark that only comes alive in front of the mirror when she dances.

Through her eyes, Nayeon knows that Momo can dance the ball scene half-asleep and with her eyes shut. When Momo stands front and center of the stage facing the back of it and gathers the students together and introduces herself as the choreographer, the door to the theater room slides open and welcomes in three unfamiliar faces. Momo looks to Nayeon in faint curiosity as to who came in as all participants on the role sheet were present. The way Nayeon’s jaw unhinges propels Momo to look behind her.

Lo and behold: Jihyo, Mina, and Sana. Nayeon has to blink twice to ensure herself that she is not hallucinating. Swiping a quick alarmed look at Momo, Momo is already looking back to her with the same shock in her eyes. No doubt the rest of the room looks identical to the two—no one expects to see popular girls anywhere near the premise of a theater. Jihyo is the first to speak.

“Jeongyeon told us she needed more extras and to meet her here.”

Nayeon is not sure which rom-com this is exactly, but this feels like a twisted High School Musical , just, without all the basketball and pressure to choose between singing with their lover and playing ball. And sure, Nayeon and Sana may not be the leads of this play—Jeongyeon and Tzuyu has got that covered—but this feels eerily like déjà vu.

Jeongyeon calls the trio over, obviously overjoyed at the thought of having more hands on deck.

“You came in good time. We’re about to learn the dance in one of the scenes.”

Jeongyeon gestures towards Momo’s position on stage.

“Momo’s a genius and perfected the dance in one night.”

A whoop comes from the center right beside Nayeon and it’s Dahyun Kim. Another whoop echoes behind her and Nayeon has to shift her position to see Chaeyoung Son peering over Dahyun’s shoulders with her chin rested on her shoulder.

Nayeon doesn’t know these two, presumably a junior and sophomore, but she already likes them. Whoever gasses Momo up is an automatic friend prospect to her. Nayeon looks at Momo in time to see her lips quirk up in pride.

Nayeon feels it—feels Momo’s confidence being built up by each person willing to trust her.

~

While instruction is in full swing and the full dance has been taught and students have been grouped off in level of ability, Nayeon finds herself somewhere at the lower-caliber level. A perm, makeup, and contacts won’t change the fact that Nayeon is an uncoordinated mess. It comforts her to see Dahyun and Chaeyoung in the same group as her.

Surprisingly, Jihyo, Mina, and Sana find themselves in the most capable group of practicing the dance without supervision. (Go figure. As if being pretty and popular weren’t enough. They also had to be blessed with coordination).

Nayeon loves Momo. But especially in this moment, Nayeon loves her as Momo pairs off the more coordinated with the less coordinated so to help more people in less time. Momo sends Nayeon to Sana, Dahyun to Mina, and Chaeyoung to Jihyo.

First interactions in rom-coms are either matches made in heaven or complete disasters.

Murphy’s Law likes to remind Nayeon that he considers himself a friend to her and Nayeon’s first initial interaction with Sana works a lot like a circle trying to fit in a square hole.

They are both awkward beyond compare, Nayeon’s hands are clammy and sweaty and her heartbeat feels so loud that she can feel her pulse pounding against the temple of her head. The only one talking is Sana and that is just to count out the beats. If this is what love was like, Nayeon feels her heart might give out.

Nayeon stumbles through one of the formations and accidentally steps on Sana’s toes. She feels like she wants to shrivel from the embarrassment but Sana beams at her and reassures Nayeon that her toes are, in fact, in tact.

(Nayeon feels that anytime Sana smiles, a flower blooms somewhere around the world, as if it was just a natural cause and effect of the world.)

Usually in rom-coms, the female lead is much shorter than the male lead but Sana happens to be the same height as Nayeon so when Nayeon looks down to hide her rosy cheeks, Sana is already lowering her head to look up at Nayeon with the most attentive eyes in the world. Nayeon feels as if Sana were holding her by the cheeks and assuring her just by a simple gaze.

“So this is why the whole school is in the palm of her hands. Her power,” Nayeon thinks off absentmindedly.

Sana has to call Nayeon’s name twice to bring her back. If it were possible, Nayeon’s cheeks fall into a deeper pink. She can feel her ears burning in embarrassment. Nayeon stutters through an apology and re-focuses her attention to the choreography. The giggle that rings out of Sana’s lips is warm-hearted and fond.

~.~.~

It would take a complete idiot to not see Nayeon’s crush on Sana. Heck, Sana had a feeling Nayeon liked her since before winter break, if the constant gazing on Nayeon’s part was any indication.

(The only reason Sana knows how often Nayeon looks at her is because Sana is already looking back.)

It would be a lie if Sana said she minded it and that she didn’t play with the thought of Nayeon in that way. It would also be lie to say that Sana is confident in her uality no matter how affectionate she is with girls. She is, as Jihyo calls her, “a panicked confident gay...who just also happens to be sitting in the closet.”

Sana didn’t understand at first but she considered how easy-going and generous she was with giving affection to other girls but how shocked and flustered she would get when affection was given back. Panicked would be one word to describe the mental circus her mind runs through. Sana recalls the moment she felt such panic seep into her subconscious.

It was after winter break and school had resumed. Sana, Jihyo, and Mina were conversing and waiting for the first bell to ring to indicate the start of class. The usually buzzed hall fell into a low murmur as a figure glided through it. As the figure looked her way, Sana immediately recognized the bunny teeth that peeked through her smile. She felt her body freeze at the sudden change of appearance. She was Im Nayeon, the girl in her AP Literature class that sat with the short haired girl who always wore a white headband. Except, this Nayeon had long straight hair, a uniform that actually fit her, no longer donned fogged up glasses, and hid her freckles (Sana thought that was a shame. Her freckles were cute and looked like constellations to her.) Certainly Nayeon was cute before this drastic change, but this Nayeon could make anyone fall to their knees for her.
Sure, Sana had wanted to go up to talk to Nayeon before but Nayeon was always with Momo and Sana was always with Jihyo and Mina. It is normal for Sana to come on to any of her friends, especially if they are girls. But if the girl is Nayeon, a girl who Sana definitely maybe has a crush on, she could feel her nerves twisting in her stomach at the thought of talking to her. She didn’t even know if Nayeon was into girls like that. The risk, Sana thought, was too great.

But call it societal conditioning or media conditioning, at the thought of people advancing towards Nayeon, Sana felt a twinge of uncomfortability, and unrightfully so. Nayeon was not hers nor was she a prize to be won, but Sana couldn’t help but to think how nice it would be to be hers and interchangeably.

She wanted even more so to confess to Nayeon. If only she could gather the guts to.

Sana knows she has to accept herself. She buries the thought.

“And hence, Mina, this is why our Satang here is a panicked gay. Im Nayeon is the same girl she was three months ago and just because she changed her appearance doesn’t mean she has changed everything about herself. Nayeon isn’t the type to humiliate and embarrass. Her eyes are too kind.”

Of course, Jihyo somehow knew (almost) everything. She carries herself with nonchalance and disinterest but it is incredible how wrong a perception can be. Jihyo has learned to hear all the right things, analyze just enough without breaking privacy, and learned to be a fly on the wall. It’s not that she actively seeks out to hear people’s business. It’s just that people love being loud storytellers.

And Nayeon, no matter how little she talked to Jihyo, was the one of the loudest. From how she hides behinds her locker to look at Sana to how she subconsciously takes Momo’s bag from her hands so that Momo could rifle through her bag for her lunch without even asking for help, Jihyo could see a shy girl with a heart big enough to love the world.

If Nayeon was loud, Momo was screaming.

Even though Momo shrinks herself to be smaller, Jihyo sees an infallible strength within her. Jihyo has seen it anytime Momo fights the fog on Nayeon’s glasses, seen it when Momo got her tongue stuck on a pole and laughed after she became unstuck despite hot chocolate staining her uniform. Momo’s stubbornness to refuse to fail and instead prove others wrong can be her downfall. But it is also her kind heart that moderates the stubbornness into strength rather than letting it manifest into pride and ego.

Jihyo sees within Momo’s eyes loyalty and commitment and it is Momo’s strength that listens to Nayeon’s self-deprecation and reassures her. It is Momo’s strength that steels herself to listen to Nayeon when she rambles on about Sana. Jihyo sees love in Momo’s eyes and there is nothing fabricated or illusioned or imagined in it.

Jihyo has seen Momo loving Nayeon ever since the first time Nayeon stumbled into her with her fogged up glasses and unkempt hair their sophomore year.

Momo is love and Jihyo knows it.

Jihyo is waiting for the day Nayeon will know it too.

~.~.~

The rehearsal session for Romeo and Juliet was nearing its end and while Momo helped the last stragglers with the choreography of the ball scene, Sana had decided to stay back to further help Nayeon with the footwork.

 

Strike number one.

Sana places a bet with herself. If Nayeon made her smile more times than her fingers could count in the span of time it would take for her to get the hang of the choreography, she would confess.

 

Sana realizes that one: she is already whipped for Nayeon’s bunny-tooth smile, two: that Nayeon could make her smile just as easily as it was for Sana to count to ten, and three: Nayeon’s coordination is absolute . Perhaps she underestimated exactly how light Nayeon could make her feel and overestimated how capable Nayeon was at dancing.

That’s strike number two.

 

Rehearsal ends and Sana and Nayeon are cleaning up abandoned water bottles and poking holes in the cap (with the pen specifically used to make notes on the script) to squirt water at each other like immature fourth graders do.

(They are already too comfortable.)

 

And strike number three? The play by play goes like this:

Sana tries on Juliet’s wings and Nayeon calls her the cutest person in the world. (Since when was Nayeon such a smooth talker?)

 

Sana says Nayeon is wrong. (This is where she winds up too early.)

 

Nayeon then asks Sana who in the world could be cuter. (The ball has yet to reach the plate.)

 

Sana panics but impulsively says, “You as my girlfriend.” (She swings and the ball is lower than her knees.)     

 

(Sana in Disaster Mode as the “Panicked Gay.” Classic. Outs herself on a ball.

Except, the catcher happened to be resident bumbling mess Nayeon and she fumbles the ball from her glove. Hitter, sprint to first base.)

“You think I’d be cute as your girlfriend?”

Sana is too flustered to reply. Only barely nods.

“I think I’d be cute as your girlfriend too. But how about you take me on a date first?”

(Honestly, where is this suaveness coming from? Is this really the same Nayeon from today who tripped over herself walking past Sana because she was too busy noticing that she changed her hair part?)

Sana smiles and it’s like the sun breaks through the clouds.

“I can do a date. How’s Friday night?”

(Sana hears the umpire shout, “safe!”)

~

It isn’t possible for Jihyo to know everything. She wasn’t an oracle or anything of that matter. So when Sana bounces up to Jihyo and Mina the next morning after theater practice, like literally bounces on the balls of her toes to them, and tells them that she confessed to Nayeon after yesterday’s theater practice, Jihyo finds herself at a crossroad. Of course, she’s happy that Sana finally confessed to Nayeon and it isn’t like Nayeon would refuse, she is bound to say yes anyway. But Momo, Momo would bear the pain and move forward like the supportive and loyal friend she is.

Momo’s strength would be her downfall as both her strength and her heart would be working to protect who she loved. The love Momo has for Nayeon wouldn’t turn into spite and hate and her heart would just accept the burden that comes with having to see Nayeon be happy with someone else.

Nayeon’s rom-com was Momo’s romantic-tragedy. Unrequited love is a lonely road to travel, yet, Momo would do it for Nayeon, to be the friend Nayeon deserved. Momo had enough love in her heart to spare others from knowing how cruel the world is.

(She wishes she wouldn’t have to run herself dry for the expense of others. But Momo knows Nayeon would do the same for her.)

(Momo is far too kind for her own good.)

~.~.~

Jihyo&Mina&Sana slowly turns into Jihyo&Mina & Sana while Nayeon&Momo turns into Nayeon&Sana & Momo thanks to the extentuous hours spent together for the school play. About a month and a half has passed since Jihyo, Mina, and Sana joined the play, about a month and a half since Sana confessed.

(It’s been about a month and a half of Momo looking at Nayeon being someone else’s.)

(Nayeon does her best to remind herself that her world revolved around more than just Sana and her.)

(Stil