By the time Mina and Momo stepped out of the academy, the sun had long gone down. The only light on the streets came from the streetlights while the moon gave off a soft glow. Momo stretched out her arms and yawned, twisting her body until she heard and felt the satisfying cracks. She grinned and opened her eyes to find Mina staring back in disgust. But her only response was to stick her tongue out. The other girl sighed and started walking ahead, listening for the sound of Momo’s footsteps that hurriedly followed behind her.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” Momo asked, turned her head sideways to watch Mina.

The girl didn’t bother looking at her and shook her head, “I’m fine, you can go home.”

Momo laughed and shook her head.

“As if I would go home this early, I’ll walk you.” She insisted again, stepping closer. Mina sighed but didn’t say anything else.

They walked in silence towards the bus stop just a couple blocks away. Both girls seemed to have their mind somewhere else. Mina’s thoughts were on her student council responsibilities and the upcoming meetings. Momo, on the other hand, shot glances towards the girl every now and then, trying to make sense of whatever that was she felt Mina had moved so closely to her just a couple hours ago. For the remainder of the lesson, Momo could only beat herself up internally for tensing up so obviously and prayed that the other girl hadn’t noticed. Shaking the thoughts from her head, Momo realized she had somehow already made it onto the bus with Mina by her side. The bus was filled with other high school students, most likely going home after their extracurriculars and extra lessons. Several stops later and the bus was almost completely packed, forcing Momo and Mina to move closer together. Momo tried to turn her head to the other side but came face to face with a tall boy’s armpit and quickly turned back, almost too fast.

Her face came just a little bit too close to Mina’s and both girls looked alarmed for a moment as Mina’s cheeks turned a light pink. She dropped her head to stare at her shoes while Momo tipped her head back slightly to stare at the roof of the bus, silently praying for the ride to end quickly. Her prayers were answered because at some point Mina was tugging on her sleeve and gently pulling her to the very front. The doors opened for the two of them and they got off, squeezing past a couple other students. Letting out a relieved sigh, Momo scratched the back of her head and looked at Mina.

“Do you...want me to walk you up?”

Mina shook her head, “You’ve done enough, don’t be too late tomorrow please I need the first big meeting to run smoothly and if you-”

“Don’t worry,” Momo smiled and put her hand on Mina’s shoulder, “Just trust me.”

Mina nodded.

“Goodnight Momo.”

“Night, Princess.”

Mina smiled and rolled her eyes, turning to walk towards her building. Momo watched her get smaller and smaller until the girl was inside the building before she turned to walk away, half excited and half worried for the next day’s events.

***

“Hey, hey, hey, Momo wake up.”

There was a loud slam and Momo jumped up, her neck cracking at the sudden movement. She winced and put her hand to the back of her neck, pushing her chair back and leaning forward.

“Jesus, what the hell do you want?”

Momo looked up to find several of her classmates staring at her expectantly, one of them holding up a bundle of papers.

“Our festival event! We wanted to give it to you to present at the meeting.” One of the girls piped up. Momo didn’t really know who the girl was although she had seen her around.

“This is the script for the play our class is going to do! We worked on it all week, it’s a bunch of love stories that take place in different parts of the city-”

“Three different love stories to be specific, one that resembles a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, and the other two were completely inspired by our real-life experiences so if you just review-”

Just before the third girl could speak up, Momo waved them away, “Just give me the booklet and go.”

The three girls eyed each other before shrugging. They gently placed the script onto Momo’s desk and took off before they could manage to irritate the girl any more than they already had. Even they knew that wouldn’t end well for them.

Momo stood up slowly, stretching out her arms and groaning. She turned to look at Dahyun who had been glued to her phone all day. “Where the hell were you yesterday? I forgot to ask this morning.”

Dahyun shrugged, “Nothing important.”

“Nothing important huh, you really won’t tell me?” Momo glared at her, hoping the girl would give in but she didn’t even bother to look up.

She glanced towards Mina and Sana who were talking quietly closer to the front and chuckled dryly, “I bet Sana told Mina why she was gone all day.”

Dahyun glanced up quickly, her body tensing before she relaxed and looked back down at her phone. “Yeah maybe.”

“You’re really no fun today, I’m gonna go piss off Jeong.”

Dahyun didn’t react so Momo kicked her desk loudly on her way out, making it move a couple feet away and attracting stares from their classmates,

Sana’s eyes lingered a little bit longer, even though everyone had already turned away realizing the sound was just the result of Momo’s temper tantrum. The class was used to her acting up so this wasn’t any different. Dahyun sighed and lowered her phone, placing it on her desk and holding her head as though she had a really bad headache. One moment she was alone and the next she was surrounded by a familiar presence.

“Um…as the student council vice president I’m obligated to make sure the students are safe and happy and you didn’t look too good from where I was sitting, are you okay?”

Dahyun opened her eyes and looked up at Sana who looked so serious that she wanted to laugh a bit. But she held back and shook her head. “I just don’t feel well, I did a lot yesterday so I’m a bit tired today,”

Sana whistled and nodded slowly, “Of course, well if you need anything…” She pointed towards her desk before turning on her heel and walking back towards it. Dahyun nods although Sana isn’t looking anymore and she sighs again, picking her phone back up and going right back to what she had been doing before.

***

Nayeon walks into her classroom and finds herself trying to separate Jeongyeon and Momo who somehow managed to get into a fight over their phones or something of the sort. It takes a bite to her hand for her to realize the two were a lot more than she could handle. She finally lets out a groan in frustration and turns to call one of her classmates, “Hey! You with the red headphones!”

The student turns around to look at Nayeon and waits expectantly. She doesn’t even flinch at the scene in front of her. Having the school’s most well-known troublemakers in her grade meant this was a usual sight for her to witness.

“Please. Go get Jihyo.” Nayeon spits out, grinding her teeth as she shoves Momo away from Jeongyeon’s desk.

The girl slides across the floor and lands a couple feet away with a smirk on her face. She holds up a phone to Jeongyeon and laughs loudly before she stands up quickly and sprints out the door. Jeongyeon realizes what just happened and follows quickly behind her, knocking Nayeon over in the process and almost stopping to help the girl back up. Almost. But instead, she just turns her head back