It was 09:13 when Mina’s phone buzzed, screen showing the first words of an email from Professor T.

“Hello, Mina.

I’m sorry to bother you. I would like to talk to you about something important before the day ends. Please let me know if there’s any chance of meeting you.

Have a nice day,

Professor T.”

She read the email twice before sending a short answer, setting a meeting late in the afternoon. She took a deep breath and looked around her. Her room was full of boxes of all sizes with her name on them.

Mina moved with Jeongyeon into an apartment near campus where they were both studying. Near was an optimistic way to say that they lived 20 minutes away from campus, but it was way nearer than where they used to live before. Both girls had been friends for years and had stuck together through everything: school, high school, university and now this new page they were starting to write together as PhD. students. Everyone expected Mina to get this far, but if you had gone back 15 years and asked their teacher, none of them would have said great thing about Jeongyeon. Long story short, Jeongyeon used to bring mess everywhere she went, while Mina was quiet and most of the time, all their teachers and Jeongyeon’s parents used, even though she was the youngest among the two of them, as a role model for her friend. Jeongyeon didn’t really care about others’ opinion. She was a ‘free soul’ she had said to Mina a couple of time when the youngest confronted her about not having any plans for the future. Who would have thought they’d be here now. Mina couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought.

“What are you laughing about?” asked a sleepy Jeongyeon entering her room.

“Nothing” Mina looked down at her phone.

“Don’t lie to me.” the older girl took Mina’s phone and raised her hand as much as possible when she tried to reach for it.

“Yah! Yoo Jeongyeon, give me my phone.” the girl screamed very near of the other girl’s ear.

“Not until you tell me.” she tiptoed making it harder for Mina to reach.

“Ugh, fine. You’re insufferable!” she said quitting fighting Jeongyeon and sitting on her bed. “I was thinking about you.”

“Were you?” the mattress moved as Jeongyeon half jumped to sit next to her. “Do you have something to tell me, Minari?” she said with a playful smile as she side-hugged Mina.

“Actually, I do.” Mina turned to look at Jeongyeon not minding how close their faces were. “I’m meeting Professor T. later in the afternoon so I might not be back in time for dinner. Don’t wait for me, okay?”

“You know I don’t mind waiting for you.” Jeongyeon pouted. “I don’t like eating alone.”

“Last time you waited for me I found you sleeping with your head resting on your textbook.” said the youngest girl before kneeling in front of a box and starting to cut the tape that was keeping it close.

“That was one time and I wasn’t sleeping. I was bored and frustrated because I couldn’t memorize anything.” she took one of Mina’s boxes to the desk in the room, grabbing the scissors on it. She tried to copy her friend and cut the tape but with no luck as she felt something weird on the palm of her hand. She hissed when the sensation hit her. She put the scissors down and opened her hand to see a cut on it and some blood starting to come out.

Mina looked at her direction already knowing what had happened. It wasn’t the first time her friend had injured herself doing the simplest thing. She went to the bathroom with Jeongyeon following her.

“Jeongyeon, how many times are you going to hurt yourself before you start being more careful?” she asked not expecting an answer as she cleaned the wound with some water. “You should be more cautious. It could have been much worse than this.” she covered the cut with a band aid.

Jeongyeon didn’t say anything. Instead, the girl looked at the bathroom floor counting the blue tiles. Mina noticed something was off as she turned around after putting everything in its place and saw her friend’s face quite pale.

“Can you walk?” she asked softly as she offered her arm. All Jeongyeon could get herself to do was nodding. Mina took Jeongyeon’s arms and helped her to get out of the bathroom before heading to her room. Luckily their apartment was quite small so the room was only a few steps away.

“Okay, slowly.” she muttered as her friend sitted and then lay down. She took some cushions out of a box and put them under Jeongyeon’s legs. She ripped one of the empty boxes, took a small piece of cardboard from it and fanned the girl in bed. She moved aside the hair from her roommate’s face as well. That should be enough for her to get better, Mina thought as she looked at her friend lying in bed with her eyes closed and taking deep breaths. They’d been thought that a bunch of times. The older girl was never careful, so she always ended up hurting herself and then feeling dizzy. She also had this tendency to get pale real quick. The first it happened was in their first year of university. She and Jeongyeon were living together back then as well, Jeongyeon insisted on making dinner since Mina would cook for them almost every day. Mina had decided to do some homework while the Korean girl started to cut the meat. A little scream and some swearing made her run out of her room to check on the girl. By the time she got to Jeongyeon, the girl was shaking and she was looking at her index finger. Blood started to run down her finger and that only made Jeongyeon freak out more. Mina took a tea towel to stop the bleeding and took her friend to the nearest hospital. Some stitches after, and amused Mina came out of the hospital with a quiet Jeongyeon. The Korean girl almost passed out once the nurse started to treat the wound. “I won’t come near a knife again.” was the first thing the girl told her when she saw the Japanese girl.

“Earth to Mina.” her friend’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

“What?” she said shaking her head and coming back to reality.

“I asked if you’re going to unpack everything today.” Jeongyeon asked looking at the boxes on the floor.

“I was planning to before my meeting with Professor T.” she took the scissors from her friend’s hands and gave her a look that said “don’t even think about it”.

“Did she say what it is about? Something related to your PhD.?” the Korean girl asked with the same curiosity Mina had answered the email hours before.

“I don’t think so, she’s not my tutor, so there’s no reason for us to talk about my research.” the Japanese girl answered as she opened the box Jeongyeon had tried to open an hour ago. She took out a picture. It was already framed.

“Didn’t we take that picture a few days before high school ended?” the older girl asked behind Mina.

“Yeah, look at us!” the younger laughed pointing at the two of them. “We looked like babies. You even had your hair dark brown back then.”

Jeongyeon had always been very caring with her hair. She tried not to do anything that could damage it even in the slighted way. She used to complain about her friends’ looks because all the used to do was bleach it and dye it. “Do you hate your hair so much?” she used to ask every time someone went to school with a new look. It took Jeongyeon a silly bet in their last year of high school to do something with her hair. She did it the first day they moved into their old apartment. They were going to throw a party to celebrate their “first step into the adult world” her friends had said. She told Mina she would go out early in the afternoon to get some drinks, but she actually went to a salon and got her hair bleached. By the time she got home, everyone was being wild. There were cans everywhere, snacks bags open in the kitchen, the music was loud and nobody seemed to notice her arrival. This was not the first party her friends had throw but she still couldn’t figure out how four or five people could make such a mess. She put down the bag with drinks on the kitchen counter and the she heard it. Jihyo’s voice, loud and clear.

“What the heck, Jeongyeon?” she screamed. Jeongyeon could already feel the regret taking over her. As much as she loved her friends, she hated attention even if it came from them, so when she heard some gasps her first instinct was to turn around and run to the door. Mina caught her on time and dragged her to the center of the room where her friends, Chaeyoung, Jihyo and Dahyun, were. Dahyun turned off the music player and everyone just stared at her.

“Do you hate your hair so much?” Chaeyoung mimicked her in a silly voice. Mina and Jihyo glared at her while Dahyun was still shocked because of the sight in front of her.

“This is why I didn’t want to do it. You all know I hate attention.” Jeongyeon whined trying to get rid of Mina’s grip.

After that, they started their peculiar party.

That was how they spent the rest of the morning: between boxes and shared memories.

17:19. Mina checked her phone before locking her apartment door and heading to the nearest bus stop. Professor T. emailed had emailed her during lunch time apologizing because she was going to be late for their meeting. Jeongyeon and Mina’s apartment was twenty minutes away from campus if you took the bus. She put her headphones in her ears and played her favourite playlist on Spotify. After a couple of minutes the bus arrived. It was unusually empty, so Mina didn’t have any problem finding an empty seat next to the window. She checked the time one more time as the bus closed its doors.

A few stops ahead, a blonde Japanese girl was waiting for the bus while she spoke to her friend on the phone.

“I already told you, Sana, I can’t call you tonight. I need to sleep early because I still have a lot of things to do before classes start. I promise to let you know when I’m free.” the said girl explained pressing the phone against her ear and covering the other ear with her left hand to isolate her friend’s voice from the noise of the cars. “. I have to go, Sana.” she ended the call and started to look for some money in her bag. She found her wallet before the last person stepped on the bus.

She spotted a seat next to the window and ran to it almost falling when the bus started to move. Her phone rang in her bag.

“Sana-san 🙄”

She picked up but didn’t bother to put the phone near her ear as she knew what was about to happen.

“Yah! Hirai Momo, don’t you dare to hang up like that ever again.” a high pitched voice came out of the phone before Momo pressed the red button on the screen again with a chuckle.

A few seats away, Mina looked at the scene with a smile until the girl holding the phone turned around and looked at her. She lowered her head and laughed softly embarrassed of being caught staring before it hit her. She hurriedly took her phone from her pocket and texted Jeongyeon.

Mina: Jeongyeon, I think she’s here. I don’t know for sure because I stopped looking right when she turned around.

Jeongyeon: her as in…

Mina: yes.

She looked one last time at the girl who was now facing the window. She wasn’t sure if she was who she had thought she was, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know.

19:12

Professor T. walked fast through the hall heading to her office.

“Mina, hello. I’m sorry I kept you waiting.” she apologized as she opened the door for them to go inside.

“No problem.” Mina answered as the professor gestured her to take a seat in front of her.

“I guess you’re curious about this sudden meeting.” she looked at the girl for a second before adding “I wanted to ask you about a thing that might seem a little crazy.” a chuckle escaped her lips “I’ve been asked to give some conferences in several American universities, which means I’m going to be away for a few weeks.”

“And what does that have to do with me? If you don’t mind me asking.” said the girl scared of sounding rude.

“I want you to teach while I’m away. I understand this might be a bit weird and sudden, but if you’re interested, we can arrange it and you’ll be paid for it.”

“But, I don’t think I’m the right person for that. I mean, I have never taught anything to anyone and I don’t know if it’s something I could be good at.” said Mina lowly trying not to sound scared.

“Don’t worry. I checked your grades and I was impressed by them. I teach calculus. I can send you a detailed program so you can decide what you want to do. I really think this could be a great opportunity for yourself since you might end up interested in being a professor after your PhD.”

“When would that be? I mean, when are you going to be away?” Mina said softly while she drew small circles on her lap.

“In a couple of months. You can think about it if you want but I would like to have an answer as soon as possible just in case I have to look for someone else to do it. I'm fine with whatever you decide, so no pressure, okay?” Professor T. gave a reassuring smile.

“Okay. Can I have this week to think about it?” the young girl shyly asked.