Momo's eyes flickered as if they had forgotten how to work through her sleep. was still sore and her head throbbed, but it was better than before. While all of her body screamed to just drift back to sleep, her mind craved nothing to move again. With as much willpower as she could muster, she brought her hand to pull off the covers above her and the towel she found on her head, now just slightly dampened and warm. She smiled to herself before placing the towel on the space by her pillow.

Bringing her legs across the bed, her feet touched the soft carpeted floor. Her joints protested with unfamiliarity as she made her way to the kitchen. It was night, for all she knew, and her mind ached with pain as she made the considerable effort to prevent herself from walking into anything else. Reaching the kitchen, she poured a glass of water and grabbed the pills by the side of the counter. Her find fuzzy and blurred, she pushed the pill through the foil packaging it was so enclosed in. Bringing it to her lips, she felt her hands tremble, struggling to hold something so small so late in the night. Quickly, she popped it into , the pill resting on the tip of her tongue. It felt as if everything was acting on its own now, her hand grabbing the water. With anticipation, she bought it glass to , the water shaking to and fro through the see-through glass. As it touched her bare lips, the coldness jolted her awake, welcoming the cool liquid that seemed to just flow down her parched throat, quenching the thirst she didn't know existed. Without stopping, she downed the whole cup, forgetting where and what time she was in as the glass hit the table with a thud.

Her heart stopped, her whole body freezing as she held her breath. Slowly, she turned her head to the direction of the couch, where Mina now resides. Momo internally cursed herself before carefully returning to a standing position. With the silence in mind, she gingerly took small steps back into the direction of their shared room. Slowly, one at a time, watching one foot move in front of the other. Paying attention to the softness below her as she reached the living room. Her sweaty palms clenched.

"Momo?"

Instinctively, she turned her head to the voice through the thick coat of darkness lingering in the building. The pain crept slowly up like poison to melt her head as she remembered why turning your head at such speed while you still have a pulsing headache was not a good idea at all. Grimacing, Momo clutched the side of her head.

"Oh my god, Momo are you alright?"

Momo opened her eyes back up, only to be greeted with Mina looking at her with those same concerned sincere eyes she has seen too many times that says something about herself. Mina's eyes pierced right through the suffocating darkness of the room, unwavering in the midst of Momo's lack of thoughts and clarity inside her mind. It was only when she'd actually stood up, revealing a loose nightdress and letting Momo see Mina's face a bit closer did she finally snap out of her seemingly everlasting daze.

"Uh, yeah. I'm alright. Just thirsty. Sorry."

She cleared as she felt the sheer vulnerability and intimacy of the situation she was in right now, looking away before Mina could see the creeping red up to her face.

Mina seemed to stop once she realised Momo wasn't in immediate danger, though she wasn't sure how she could have been in the first place. The two of them stood like that for a while, Momo leaning against the cold crisp counter and Mina standing still gazing right back at her with her hands still clasped on the tip of her blankets.  

It took a few seconds before Mina broke the silence.

"You know," she started, her voice so soft and melodious like a whisper. "Next time you can just call me."

If it weren't for the silence that had them encapsulated together, Momo would have missed the quiet words that drifted across the moonlight from the girl a few metres away from her.

Momo looked back at Mina, her eyes softening.

"Thank you."

And soon, she found herself back between the jasmine-scented blanket of the bed as well as in the arms of another jasmine scented body, together entwined as the rhythm of their breathing becomes lost through the coated night.

_______________________

"Oh come on, Mina. There's no harm in coming."

Mina held up the flask in her hands, swirling the clear concoction as she listened to what Nayeon had to say.

"I'm not sure, you guys don't even know her," she replied, not taking her eyes off the solution in front of her as she placed a thermometer into the flask.

"She has already agreed anymore, so there's no point in you trying to refuse so."

At that, Mina finally tore her eyes off the experiment at hand and perked an eyebrow at Nayeon, trying to discern whether or not she was bluffing.

"What, hasn't she told you?"

Mina pressed her lips together. She and Momo haven't talked much since she caught her one night taking her medicine dosage. It wasn't like they were avoiding each other, she thinks, but neither Momo or Mina had been making the conscious effort to strike up any conversations. They were just strangers.

"I'll think about it," Mina replied after a while of thinking.

Nayeon scoffed in playful mocking.

"So that got your attention. Whipped."

"Shut up and write down 31."

_________________________

Jungyeon and Mina sat in the room together, sorting out the scrunched sheets laid out on the tables. The soft rustling and unfolding of the papers echoed through the quiet room as the two sorted them into piles and checked off names.

"Are you coming to the party next Saturday that Nayeon's holding?" Jungyeon spoke up, not stopping her activities.

"I don't know."

"Why not?"

Mina stopped and though for a bit. Jungyeon was right. Why not? It's not like she was busy, she had nothing to do and she's always enjoyed the company of the other girls, so why was there something there that gave her so much unease?

"Who invited Momo?"

There wasn't an immediate answer, signalling that Jungyeon was thinking about her answer. With a click as she laid the pen on the table, she leaned back into the chair of the meeting room. At that moment, Mina hadn't seen the girl who she's known for two years, the foolish, fun and kind girl but the captain of the track team, the upcoming year's sports captain, a talented well rounded organised person. Mina followed her actions and placed her papers down without any sound as she sat back upright to hear her answer.

"It was the time when you had dance one lunch or something when Sana was telling us about Momo and Nayeon wanted her to come along." Jungyeon paused as she looked at the girl, only to be met with no answer. " She insisted she comes so all the girls could get to know her better."

Mina nodded, her posture remained at its stiff position. Her face blank, she too leaned back into the soft support of the chair.

Jungyeon hesitated, looking painfully uncomfortable as she wondered what to do next. While she's known Mina long enough to know that if the girl had something to say, she would require a specific atmosphere and readiness from the other but Jungyeon never seemed to know how to act without being too overbearing or too casual and negligent.

Mina looked at the girl fondly, appreciating how she's making an effort after picking up the signs even if it was indeed a terrible attempt and decided to put her out of her misery.

"How did you know you loved Nayeon?" She asked, her eyes glazed, fixated to a spot on the wall in front of her.

Jungyeon shifted in her seat, her eyes wandering in thought.

"I have two answers," she said after a while, her eyes landing back to Mina.

"The first one is, one time I was eating an ice cream I bought from the cafeteria and I bumped into her on my way to meeting someone else in my class. We'd known each other for maybe a month or two at this time, so we weren't awkward nor were we completely comfortable. It was when I offered her a bit of my ice cream and the way her face  just lit up as if she was a child seeing a Christmas tree and the pure joy in her voice as she thanked me when I found myself being hit with a wave of adoration for the girl."

Jungyeon stopped halfway as she reminisces the fond memory. Mina listened tentatively at everything she was hearing, from the content to the wording to even how Jungyeon's inflections seem to change as she spoke softer, slower. It wasn't hard to tell that the girl in front of her was beyond infatuation.

"And my second answer is I simply didn't. It's as if it just progressed into my heart, filling it up without me knowing. I can't simply put a time, a registered moment because it isn't enough to encompass everything I have felt. And really, love is a measure that is unique to everyone. Who knows if Nayeon's' feeling of love is even close to mine. Basically, you can't ask me to put a time and place."

Jungyeon looked back up at the blank unwavering face of Mina, masking all her thoughts.

"Does that make sense?"

Mina opened , before closing it again.

"A little bit. It's just a bit contradicting yet somehow it seems to fit."

Jungyeon smiled at the lost girl in front of her who had already changed so much in the past few days, yet still seemed to stay the same all the while,

"If it made sense, even if it was purposefully contradictory, then I think you're at least on a path."

It came to no surprise this time when Jungyeon saw the empty but thoughtful face of Mina. Mina truly was something else.