It had all happened so quickly. One moment Momo was walking down the street minding her own business, and the next, she was floating in mid-air as a bodiless spirit. Momo looked around in bewilderment, trying to regain her bearings. She spotted her own body walking between Mina and Sana.

“Eh?”

Her body stopped in place, right in the middle of the sidewalk. Whatever was in her body now looked at her arms and legs in amazement. “Wow! I did it! I actually pulled it off! Oh! My voice!”

Sana and Mina continued walking on, completely ignorant of the scene behind them. Sana was speaking animatedly about...something. “And she said, ‘Oh, I’ve never done this with a girl before’. She must have been lying, because I swear I’ve never felt like that before. Not even with Nayeon. It’s good that the two of them are getting along…” Mina tapped Sana and the shoulder and pointed at Momo’s body. “Um...I think something’s wrong with Momo…”

The body thief peered into the reflective surface of a nearby shopfront and gasped. “Oh my gosh, I’m so cuuuute! This is just perfect!”

Sana edged over to Momo’s side and tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey, not that I disagree, mind you, but are you alright?”

The body thief grinned, hands on her hips. “I’m absolutely fantastic! I feel like a brand new girl.”

Sana nodded slowly through a strained smile. “Uh-huh. That’s nice. Now are we going to go get something to eat or what?”

The imposter shook her head emphatically. “Nuh-uh. I’m going on a diet, starting now.”

Momo’s eyes widened. “Ehhhhh?!”

Sana was taken aback by Momo’s uncharacteristic aversion to food. “W-what? You’ve never turned down a meal for as long as I’ve known you! What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

Momo swooped down to Sana and grabbed her by the shoulders. “That’s not me, Sana! Something’s just stolen my body! Don’t let her fool you!” Unfortunately, Momo’s hands passed right through Sana like she wasn’t even there. Sana shivered and rubbed her shoulders. “God, it just got really cold all of a sudden. Do you feel that?”

The imposter shook her head. “Feel what? There’s nothing there.”

Sana shrugged. “I must be imagining things, then.”

Momo screamed and charged at the thing that had stolen her body. She reached into her body’s chest and grabbed ahold of the intruder’s spirit. She pulled and pulled, to no avail. The thing would not budge. The being inside of her body grinned and slapped Momo’s spirit. Momo was forced far, far away from her body, high into the sky.

Sana frowned. “What was that?”

The thing that was not Momo shot Sana a cheeky grin. “Absolutely nothing. Just a minor annoyance.”

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Yoo Jeongyeon was having a pretty good day, all things considered. She had woken up at noon, showered, had  a good breakfast. The package she had been waiting on had even come in on time. Mornings like this were one in a million for her.

Of course, it was all ruined when her ex-girlfriend’s spirit flew through her apartment’s front door. Jeongyeon liked to keep up a cool front in front of all her friends, but truthfully, dealing with the afterlife freaked her out. Especially when it came to her ability to see ghosts.

So when Momo burst through the door, Jeongyeon screamed and dropped her mug of tea right onto the carpet. Oh, that was going to stain badly.

“WAAAAAUUUGHHHH!!!”

Momo tossed her hands up into the air and screamed too. She kept screaming, even after Jeongyeon stopped. Jeongyeon just sort of stood there awkwardly until Momo realized the action was over. It took her a minute, but she got there.

Jeongyeon raised her eyebrows and gave Momo’s ghostly form a once over. She was a transparent blue. So, not a ghost, then. Jeongyeon sighed in relief inwardly. She didn’t want Momo dead, even if she was a jerk. Still, this was a bad situation to be in. Disembodied spirits didn’t last for very long, especially in this city.

“Momo?”

Momo turned wide eyes on Jeongyeon. She looked scared out of her wits. Jeongyeon felt something inside her stomach turn at the sight. “Jeongyeon!”

Jeongyeon walked a circle around Momo, examining the frightened girl with an expert’s eyes. Her outline hadn’t started to fade yet, so they still had time to talk. “What happened to you, Momo? Who did this to you?”

Momo began to explain, her arms moving around frantically as she did. Curiously, the wisp of a tail that passed for legs in this form never moved an inch. “I was just walking down the street when I suddenly felt really cold. Like, super cold! The next thing I knew, I wasn’t in my body anymore. I was just...floating. I tried to get back into my body, but whoever was in there wouldn’t let me. I tried talking to Sana but she couldn’t even see me! Jeongyeon, I’m scared.”

Jeongyeon gave Momo’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Well, you came to the right place, Momo. I’ll do everything in my power to help you out--” Jeongyeon almost said ‘honey’, but she stopped herself just before she could. They weren’t like that anymore. Momo had made that very clear when she broke up with her.

Jeongyeon looked down at her open palm and slowly closed it into a fist. She wanted to yell at Momo, to scream at her for breaking up with her over text and then refusing to talk to her for the past month, but she couldn’t. Not now. Not when she was so vulnerable.

“Momo.”

“Eh?”

The girl leaned in, the funny expression that Jeongyeon had fallen in love with written all over her face. Jeongyeon gave the girl a small smile.

“Follow me into my office.”

Jeongyeon’s office was basically just a broom closet where she kept her witching materials. She took out a ceramic pot and several sticks of incense and set them on the table in the middle of her living room. She instructed Momo to ‘sit’ on the side of the table opposite her. Momo did so obediently. The silence was awkward and stiff. It seemed like Momo had realized exactly what she had done by running to her ex-girlfriend for help with an issue.

No, Jeongyeon wasn’t bitter. She wasn’t bitter that she’d proposed to Momo and instead of getting a flat-out rejection, her girlfriend of two and a half years had flown back to Japan and broken up with her over text. She wasn’t bitter that it was a single sentence that didn’t even have the decency to address her directly. I can’t do this. That was the only thing she had had to hold on to for a month. Jeongyeon wasn’t bitter.

Jeongyeon swallowed and looked up at Momo. Even like this, she was beautiful. It honestly hurt Jeongyeon’s heart to see her so frightened. Jeongyeon would be sure to give the evil spirit a piece of her mind once she found them.

“Did you get a look at the spirit before it...hijacked your body? Did you get a look at its color?”

Momo shook her head. “It was too quick...and I can’t see spirits anyway. Besides myself, I guess.”

Jeongyeon nodded and lit the incense. Momo jutted her chin out at the sticks. “What are those for? Is it some kind of summoning ritual?”

Jeongyeon raised an eyebrow. “No. They’re to make the room smell better. I’ve neglected cleaning this place up for way too long. I need to focus. Now, where were you when the spirit attacked you? Where were you exactly?”

Momo furrowed her eyebrows, concentrating hard. “Uh...I don’t remember. It was just a street, like any street. Oh! Wait a second! I was in front of this really nice American place... Lily’s Burgers, I think. We were just about to head inside.”

Jeongyeon nodded. That was a place to start.

“We? You were with someone?” I’m not jealous. “Yeah. Sana and Mina. They were welcoming me back to Korea with a food tour. Guess that didn’t go as planned.”

Jeongyeon breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. So we’ll start in front of Lily’s Burgers and go from there. But first, there’s something I have to do.”

Momo leaned back apprehensively. She was clearly expecting Jeongyeon to start interrogating her about her time in Japan. But that wasn’t the priority for Jeongyeon. Right now, the only thing on Jeongyeon’s mind was making sure Momo stayed alive.

Jeongyeon pulled the lid of the pot off and let the vapors of the potion inside float up and around the room. Momo peered at the solution curiously. “What’s this for?”

Jeongyeon looked up at Momo seriously. “This potion reinforces your spirit form. It’ll keep you from fading away for a bit longer than you would have otherwise.”

Momo’s eyes widened in alarm. “Fading away? Is that what’s going to happen