Nayeon’s birthday was the perfect opportunity to gather the girls at the start of the semester. Granted, it has been a month since the official start of the academic year, but there was never a time when all nine girls were simultaneously free. Thanks to Nayeon’s foresight though, she’d already planned the sleepover two weeks before her actual birthday and threatened everyone to come. Thankfully, no one needed to know what would have happened, because all of them arrived at Nayeon’s house with gifts in hand. And some of them brought drinks for the party.

 

Now it’s the middle of the night and half of them are drunk, the main topic of conversation being college life.

 

“I know that prof,” Jeongyeon tells Chaeyoung when the younger mentions the man teaching her History class. “He’s known to pick only girls during recitation; he’s sleazy like that.”

 

“Hey, Yoo Jeongyeon,” Jihyo calls her attention, her voice demanding. “Don’t scare the babies.” She turns to Chaeyoung. “I know Mr. Kim Heechul, he’s a nice man—he’s nice to all genders. Don’t believe what Jeongyeon said just now.”

 

“What?” Jeongyeon whines. “There’s a part of me that thinks he just wants to flirt with his students.”

 

“There’s no one else that said he only calls female students in his class. Plus he’s actually a good teacher.”

 

Jeongyeon huffs in defeat, letting the conversation go somewhere else, simply listening for the most part. Mina then starts talking to Dahyun about their taekwondo class since the first practical exam is coming up. That’s when Jeongyeon pulls Mina back in her arms, saying, “Where are you going? Stay here by my side,” to which Mina does nothing but comply, resuming her conversation with Dahyun with Jeongyeon wrapped around her.

 

“Ugh, Jeongyeon and Mina are being greasy again!” Nayeon announces, her voice indicating that she’s clearly drunk. Tzuyu stands up to get some water for the birthday girl, while Jeongyeon retorts, “You’re just jealous because you have no one to cuddle with,” her hug tightening on Mina.

 

“Shut up, Yoo! It’s my birthday! You’re not allowed to do that today!” Nayeon yells, her voice getting louder every time. Sana subtly drags to bottle of wine away from her, replacing it with the glass of water Tzuyu got for Nayeon. Mina reprimands Jeongyeon for provoking Nayeon, while everybody else sees this as the official end of the night.

 

“How was I supposed to know Nayeon would react like that?” Jeongyeon tries defending herself, but Mina’s smart.

 

“Uh, because you’ve known her the longest?”

 

Jeongyeon shrugs. “Well Momo’s single and she didn’t seem to care.”

 

“Eh?” The mentioned girl turns her head to the pair, interrupting her quiet drinking time.

 

Mina lets out a scoff at Jeongyeon. “Oh, come on. Momo’s still waiting for the legendary kisser she saw at a party years ago.” She turns to her best friend. “Right, Momo?”

 

2 years ago

 

Momo quietly sips her drink, simply watching the crowd. Specifically, she’s keeping an eye on her best friend Mina, who wanted to get semi-wasted at a party but asked Momo to take care of her. That’s why Momo’s been rejecting ladies left and right who wanted to dance or make out with her. Over the course of freshman year, Momo’s earned the reputation as a Casanova—something she’d also been famous for in high school. She’d always be caught making out with a different girl at every party—except for this one. This one she made a promise she intends to keep. And that promise is to prevent Mina from becoming like those girls Momo ends up making out with.

 

So when she catches Mina surrounded by boys offering drinks at her, she quickly drags Mina out of the house and carries her on the way to their dorm which is just across the street. She thinks Mina’s asleep when she drops the girl onto her bed, but then she hears someone mumble an “Ouch!” and when she turns around, she sees Mina sitting on the bed, intently staring at Momo.

 

“What?”

 

“You didn’t have to do that, you know,” Mina replied softly.

 

“What? You mean drag you away from those erted vultures?”

 

“Well, yeah. They’re boys. I don’t like boys.”

 

“I know. You like Jeongyeon.”

 

“Sshh!!!! She might hear us!” Mina whispers frantically, and Momo chuckles at the sight.

 

“Go to sleep, Mina. You’re drunk. A cute one at that.”

 

“I will if you cuddle with me.”

 

“I have no complaints about that,” says Momo, hopping onto the bed with Mina, who lets out a sigh when Momo hugs her from behind.

 

“How do you know if you like someone?” Mina asks, turning around to face Momo.

 

“Why are you asking me that? I’m not the person to ask that.”

 

“It’s just… How will I know if I have a chance with Jeongyeon?”

 

“Maybe you can kiss her, and she’ll know what she feels for you then,” Momo jokes.

 

“Can you teach me?”

 

“What?”

 

“You heard me.”

 

Momo shakes her head. “You’re drunk.”

 

“So what? I still wanna know how to kiss. Come on, Momo. I don’t want to kiss Jeongyeon with a sloppy kiss! You have to help me.”

 

Momo pauses for a moment before she arrives at her decision. “Fine.” She sits up, and Mina mimics her. “You try and kiss me first. So I’ll know how much I’ll have to teach you later.”

 

“O-Okay.” Mina leans in and connects her lips with Momo’s and starts smooching her—but that only lasts for a second because Momo ends up laughing. “Stop judging me! You’re supposed to be teaching me!”

 

“I’m sorry, that was just too cute,” says Momo, still laughing. She takes a minute to recollect herself and looks back at an annoyed Mina.

 

“Well?”

 

“Okay, no need to be all scary, geez. Just… get a feel of what I’m doing first, then follow my lead. Okay?”

 

Mina nods, and that’s when Momo leans in for the kiss, swirling her tongue. She pulls away after this action making Mina lean after her for more, and she smirks.

 

“Made you want more, didn’t I?” Momo teases, laughing when Mina sticks her tongue out at her. “Okay, now you try.”

 

Mina now copies the action, but Momo backs away almost immediately. “That may be too aggressive for one’s liking,” says Momo.

 

“Oh. Sorry.”

 

“It’s fine. Let’s try again.”

 

Once again Momo leans into Mina and starts kissing her. Mina does the same, more gently now, and it seems like she’s gotten the hang of it. This is nice, Momo thinks, and then Mina picks up her pace—and as if on autopilot, Momo returns the intensity. Getting carried away by the kiss, Momo gently pushes Mina down on the bed with one hand, the other carrying Mina’s arm to rest on her shoulder. Now they’re full-on making out, and Momo unconsciously places her knee on Mina’s thigh when Mina lets out a moan.

 

That’s when Momo comes back to her senses and quickly returns to her side of the bed.

 

“So that’s it! You know how to kiss! You’ve graduated, congrats!” Momo fires random praises as she tries to release the tension, which seems one-sided when Mina simply replies with an enthusiastic, “Thanks, Momo!” and falls fast asleep.

 

When Momo wakes up the next day she can hardly believe she slept at all. The kiss was all she could think about. Sure she taught Mina how to kiss and it was a success, but it was good—too good, that if Momo didn’t return to her senses, she might have done something else. But what’s even scarier is aside from what she might have done, it’s what she felt during the kiss—all tingly and giddy and… right. And surely, Mina felt it too… right?

 

“Good morning, Momo!”

 

Momo whizzes her head to see Mina stepping out of the shower, clad in new clothes. “Well, you’re a chipper.”

 

“Of course, and I have you to thank for that.”

 

Momo clears . “Yeah, about that…”

 

“I hope I wasn’t too heavy when you carried me here, though.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Last night. You carried me on the way home, remember?” Mina chuckles. “You were drunker than me, weren’t you?”

 

“I… You don’t remember anything else?”

 

“The last thing I could remember is me dropping onto my bed.” Mina narrows her eyes. “Why? Did I do something weird? Did I do the chicken dance?”

 

Momo stares at Mina for a while. She finds it funny, worrying about something she shouldn’t even worry about. Mina doesn’t even remember anything, doesn’t remember the kiss that haunted Momo for a good amount of time, doesn’t remember how good it was.

 

So why was Momo’s heart breaking?

 

“Yeah, you did the chicken dance.”

 

“Oh my god! Momo, tell me you didn’t take a video!”

 

Present day, Nayeon’s birthday party

 

“Oh yeah,” Jeongyeon muses, “I remember that this mystery woman left Momo dry and now she can’t get any girl.”

 

“Jeongyeon, stop it,” Mina tells her.

 

“Seriously, though, Momo. Have you ever found her again? I know you’re hung up on her and I don’t wanna see you like this.”

 

Momo smiles; it’s why she couldn’t say anything, couldn’t confess even if her heart threatens to rip itself open—Jeongyeon’s her friend, too, and her genuine care for others is what makes her so compatible with Mina.

 

“It’s probably a lost case. I lost; it’s over.”

 

“You’ll find another girl, Momo,” Mina tells her with a warm touch that sends Momo reeling and she flinches. “You deserve someone great.”

 

“Sure,” Momo replies half-heartedly. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to clear some air. The alcohol is kinda getting to me.”

 

Jeongyeon turns to Mina with a confused stare. “Then why did she go to the balcony with a beer bottle in her hand?”

 

Momo gulps the beer as quickly as she can to try to stop the tears from falling. Maybe Mina’s right, and she’ll find someone else—but right now, all she could think about is how perfect Mina is, and that maybe no one can ever live up to her.

 

Lost in her thoughts, Momo hears a faint sound of the sliding door opening. She turns around and sees a pair coming towards her.

 

“Hey,” says Chaeyoung softly. “We brought more bottles.”

 

“Yeah,” Dahyun chimes in. “You think we’d let you drink in this beautiful balcony alone? This is the only reason we even came to this party!”

 

The duo found out about Momo’s unrequited feelings for her best friend not too long ago—as a matter of fact, right when Jeongyeon told Mina that she liked her in front of the whole group, just three weeks before today. While Jeongyeon and Mina went on their first date for the night, Momo went to a bar alone, only to find Dahyun and Chaeyoung there. Overwhelmed with her emotions and the alcohol, Momo eventually told them her feelings for Mina. Since then, they’ve been doing their best to cheer up the Japanese in any way they can.

 

“Thanks, girls,” Momo says as she accepts another bottle. “You know, I thought that it’d get easier if I saw that they’re happy. But all it does is just remind me how much of a coward I am.”

 

“Momo, you know that’s not true.”

 

“It is, it is. I’ve accepted it. And that’s why Jeongyeon’s better for Mina than I ever will be. She has the courage to actually confess, and she takes care of Mina well. Meanwhile, Mina takes care of me and sees me as a baby like everybody else does.”

 

“Okay, enough of the pity party,” Chaeyoung says. “Let’s drink and have fun for the rest of the night, yeah?”

 

And as if on cue, Jihyo barges in on the balcony to announce the greatest thing of the night. “You guys, Nayeon is giving Tzuyu a in the living room!!”

 

So Momo, Dahyun, and Chaeyoung go back to the living room to watch Nayeon dance on Tzuyu with a passion. What’s surprising is that Tzuyu just lets her, telling everyone else, “Since it’s her birthday.” And Momo decides to enjoy it, and ignore the tightening of her chest when she steals a glance at Mina.

 

Momo does her best to act nonchalant and not at all excited. It’s been a while since she and Mina had lunch on their own due to the business of college, and ever since Jeongyeon confessed, Momo didn’t want to impose her time with Mina. So imagine her surprise when she gets a message from her best friend asking her to meet up at noon. She missed bonding with her, and not just because of her unrequited feelings—she genuinely missed spending time and talking with her best friend.

 

Mina meets Momo at one of the benches near her building. “Where to?” Momo asks, but before she could stand up, Mina stops her. “Momo, wait. I need to tell you something. Jeongyeon and I…”

 

Momo holds her breath for what seems like an eternity. What’s Mina going to say? ‘Jeongyeon and I are officially a couple’? ‘Jeongyeon and I are moving in together’? ‘Jeongyeon and I—’

 

“…We’re over.”

 

Momo blinks twice to make sure she’s not dreaming. “What?”

 

Mina lets out a chuckle, leading Momo to believe that she’s joking. “It’s funny, isn’t it? I couldn’t say that we broke up because we were never officially girlfriends, but it still feels like a real relationship ended.”

 

“Because it is,” Momo assures her. “It was. Don’t tell yourself otherwise. Anyway, though… Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah. We both made the decision. We realized that what we felt for each other wasn’t strong enough to turn it into something more. Don’t worry, we’re good and we said we wouldn’t let it affect the group.”

 

“Okay.” Momo nods. “That’s good. Do you wanna buy some watermelon ice cream? I know that always cheers you up.”

 

“Later—Momo, there’s something else.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“The reason why Jeongyeon and I came to that decision is… because we kissed. It was the first time.”

 

Momo does her best not to flinch as she waits for Mina to continue.

 

“And when the kiss ended, there was nothing. No fluttering feelings. So we ended it. I always thought that my first kiss would also mark the start of my first relationship and not the end, but it did.

 

“Then I realized… It wasn’t my first kiss at all. Was it, Momo?”

 

Momo finally looks up to see Mina staring straight up at her, and it scared her. “W-What do you mean?”

 

“2 years ago, at a party across our dorm. We made out on my bed before I passed out.”

 

“Mina, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I just didn’t think it was necessary—nnfff,” Momo gets cut off when Mina crashed her lips onto hers. Shock initially floods her thoughts, but it’s immediately followed by the need to kiss back when she sees that Mina isn’t stopping anytime soon.

 

When they finally let go for air is when Momo asks, “What… What was that?”

 

“When Jeongyeon and I kissed, it all came back to me. The night that you and I kissed. I asked you how will to know if someone has feelings for me and you told me to kiss them. And I remembered… our kiss. And it was amazing, Momo.”

 

Momo hides her blush at the statement. “I-It was?”

 

Mina nods with a cheeky smile. “So was our kiss just now.”

 

“I’ve been wanting to kiss you like that ever since that night.”

 

“Oh?” This time it’s Mina who blushes, her cheeks getting red. “Do you… wanna do it again?”

 

“I’d do it everyday.”