"318...319...320, there we go."

Momo grinned with delight as she fished out her keys and marched in, tray of jokbal in hand. Stopping just inside the door her gaze ran around the small apartment. Everything looked fine. Her moving boxes looked more or less intact and the worn brown couch called out to her, but what really caught her attention was the pretty modern looking fridge in the kitchen. That'd be one less thing to buy and have to move in, thank god for that. A bright blue note stood out from the countertop when she went to put down the tray.

 

Hi! Just a reminder that your bed will be coming in tomorrow. This should be the rest of your stuff, but if it isn't just knock on 310 at the end of the hall or call me and hopefully I can sort it out with the movers!

xxx Park Jihyo xxx

 

After a quick glance to make that all of her stuff was in fact there, Momo went to find Jihyo. Her landlady seemed really nice. It made the sudden move from Japan just a little more bearable. Momo cringed at the memory of lengthy calls back and forth in broken Korean, but at least she got herself a nice two bedroom apartment out of it. And it was close to university, a solid plus. Thankfully, Jihyo had taken her time explaining the situation to her. She'd have to make it up to the patient soul at some point.

---

"Hello?"

"Umm yes hi! I uh, I'm calling about the room on floor three?"

"Alright you're in luck! It's a great room, two bedroom one bathroom with a small kitchen and living room. Just down the street from the Korea National University of Arts and a bunch of other cool places!"

Momo frantically thumbed back and forth through her Japanese-Korean dictionary. Curse her lack of fluency.

"Ano... could you say that again please? And a little slower please, I'm still learning Korean."

"Sorry sorry, of course....?"

"Momo. And you?"

"Oohh that's so cute! I'm Jihyo. Basically we have a two bedroom apartment available that's close to the university. I'm guessing you'll be going there?"

Pages flicked back and forth as Momo scanned through the words. 

"Yes I am. A two bedroom? Do you have any one bedroom rooms? I don't have a lot of money."

The voice on the other end hesitated for a second. Momo heard the low murmer of another voice as she waited. Nervous laughter made its way through the phone. Did she say something wrong?

"Actually we've been having trouble renting this room out. If you want we'll charge you for a single bedroom apartment and upgrade you to this one?"

"Sorry but what does upgrade mean?"

"The extra bedroom is free of charge basically."

"Ohhh okay! I think I'll do that then. Ano... if you don't mind explaining, what's wrong with the room if you can't rent it out?"

"Oh nothing's wrong with the room, it's because of these rowdy neighbors. They're nice enough, they just get into some antics."

"..." Momo really needed to find some help learning Korean. Her thumbs were already wearing thin from the constant page turning.

"Hello?"

"Sorry but uh... rowdy? And antics?"

---

"Thank you for being a great landlady and I hope I will be a good... a good... uhhh."

Oh come on she had it a second ago. Momo yanked the dictionary out of her back pocket and went to a bookmarked page.

"Tenant! Tenant tenant tenant."

Putting the book back, she took a deep breath in. It would be simple. She'd knock, thank Jihyo and offer the food as a gift, then go back to her room to unpack. Easy peasy. Breathe in, breathe out, and knock.

The door opened much sooner than Momo had expected. A young woman only slightly shorter than her smiled with a small bow. 

"Ah Jihyo?" Momo bowed deeply and offered the tray of jokbal. "Thank you for being a great landlady and I hope I will be a good tenant."

Momo felt the jokbal being taken from her hands and grinned. She had spoken so well. A minor victory but it counted, at least in her book. Now she was on her landlady's good side and... eh? She was being hugged. By Jihyo. Not that she minded.

As her arms wrapped around Jihyo, she felt the familiar tug at her senses. She relaxed a little into the hug and felt the ache start to build up in her shoulders to match Jihyo's. Well if it was going to be anyone it should be the extremely kind landlady she was renting from. Tightening the hug just a little, Momo pulled on the ache, willing it to leave Jihyo and come to her, and it did.

And it was a hell of an ache.

"Wow, you give good hugs." Jihyo stepped back and stood a little straighter than she had before. "It's great to finally meet you Momo! You're even cuter in person. I'll be sure to give this to Haejun oppa for you."

Awesome, her landlady didn't notice. And she even though Momo was cute. That's definitely a plu- wait who?

"Haejun?" Momo repeated slowly. "But it's for you Jihyo. As a thank you for helping me out."

Great, she had definitely messed up her thank you. Maybe she had used a wrong word in there somewhere. 

"Who's Haejun?"

Jihyo giggled before tilting her head at Momo.

"Haejun is the landlord."

"What? But... I was talking to you on the phone right? When I called the first time?"

"That was me, but Haejun is the one who owns the building." Her face lit up with realization. "Did you think I was the landlord? No no no I just help out, I live here too."

Momo cringed as the realization hit her. Oh great. Not even a day in and she was already messing something up. Now she'd have to find this Haejun and thank him too.

"I guess I'll stop by his office sometime." She sighed. "Anyways, the food was meant for you as a thank you for helping me so much. With the apartment and the movers and translating."

"Of course, I'm happy to help!" Jihyo was beaming. "Do you want to come in and finish some paperwork? We can always do it later if you're tired."

"Now is good. If you're not busy I mean, I don't want to interrupt you if you're in the middle of someth-."

"Shush you're not interrupting anything." Jihyo smiled gently. "Let's make sure your security deposit went through and we can discuss the lease alright?"

Momo brought the dictionary back out immediately and sped through pages and pages trying to find the words. She'd gotten quite good at locating words in the short time she had it. Jihyo just looked on curiously at the blur that was Momo's hands.

---

"... other than that just try not to feed the animals outside the building. We have a raccoon that keeps coming back. Any questions?"

Momo shook her head before bowing slightly.

"Thank you so much for helping me out, I'll make it up to you somehow."

The girl across from her sent a small gummy smile and Momo couldn't help but smile back. 

"There's no need for that, I went through the same thing when I first moved over here. Just speak it as often as you can and it'll come naturally."

Momo nodded and could only hope her fellow Japanese student was right. It wasn't like she didn't try to learn Korean before moving, it was just hard with all of the particles and sound changes. Plus the huge vocabulary she needed to pick up. At least Jihyo's roommate was a more than capable translator. The first few minutes without her had been painful, with Momo having to look up term after term as her and Jihyo read through the contract together. After a while Jihyo's roommate had come back and gone to investigate the cries of frustration she heard from the living room. Once the embarassment faded and her native language came out, Momo, Jihyo, and her roommate had been able to blaze through the contract. Speaking of which...

"I never got your name. I'm Momo." Her hand extended across the table, speaking in Korean again.

"Mina." The other girl took her hand. When their hands met Momo couldn't help but notice the soreness in Mina's arm. It pulsed through their connected hands and Momo felt it in her own arm.

"Have you been working out?" 

The sentence slipped out before Momo could think through what she was saying. How was she supposed to justify the question that seemingly came out of nowhere? She must seem like an idiot from the way Mina was... blushing?

"She's taken by the way," Jihyo chipped in from next to Momo, amused as she sorted through the papers. "Though I'm sure she appreciates it."

"No no no no not like that!" Momo waved her hands. "It's just that I noticed your arm was sore so I thought it might've been from the gym! I wasn't coming on to you I swear."

"Oh so what, am I not up to your standards?" Mina frowned and the roommates nearly burst out laughing on the spot.

"No! That's not what I meant either I ju-" For a second Momo considered explaining herself but decided the embarrassment was enough already. Instead she just crossed her arms and pouted. Two roommates ganging up on her on her first day was so not fair. The offending pair just laughed at the sight.

"Anyways, yeah I just got back from strength training. I do ballet so my upper body isn't as strong as I'd like it to be. How'd you know I was sore though?"

Momo just laughed nervously. She nearly gave herself away. Luckily for her Mina was a dancer, so she could always pull out that card.

"I dance too. I mostly do hip hop and I condition pretty often so I have a knack for noticing stuff like that. I can help you out with that if you want?"

Well it wasn't a complete lie.

Mina glanced over at Jihyo, hesitating at first. But her roommate nodded enthusiastically.

"Go for it, Momo has some good ju-ju or something. She just gave me a hug earlier and I swear the knot in my shoulder is gone now. "

she noticed after all.

"Sure, what did you have in mind?"

Momo sighed internally. At least they didn't question it too much. It'd make things easier to pass off. She joined Mina on her side of the table and gently rolled her sleeve up to her shoulder. 

"It's just a massage if that's okay?" She didn't want to weird Mina out or anything, but Mina nodded her approval. 

Momo turned her attention to the pale arm in front of her. Ran her hands from Mina's wrist up to her bicep and back down, throwing in some magic words and archaic wiggles of her fingers for show. While the other two laughed at the grand gestures, Momo dug a little deeper to find the soreness Mina was holding. It wasn't too bad, especially considering the workouts Momo had been through, so she latched onto it and started actually massaging the muscles as she pulled, letting the feeling pass through her fingers and into her own.

She could feel Mina staring as she switched arms. She'd gotten that reaction plenty of times when she worked her magic before, though hopefully Mina wouldn't say anything about it. 

"Woah, where'd you learn to do that?" Mina asked, stretching her arm carefully. Her eyes stared incredulously at her limbs, Jihyo looking up from the papers with interest.

So much for not saying anything about it.

"It's just something I picked up." Momo smiled sheepishly. She felt bad for lying to them, but she had only just met them. They didn't need to know yet. "I hope that helped a bit."

Mina flexed her arm a few more times before letting it drop to her side. Her quiet voice raised a bit as she tested her range of motion.

"A bit? It feels like I didn't even work out today! You gotta teach me that sometime."

This was exactly what she wanted to avoid. Momo fumbled with her fingers and stayed quiet, unsure of what to say. 

"How about you start with a 'thank you' at least?" Jihyo arched an eyebrow at her roommate, who had the grace to be a little embarrassed. She stood and bowed slightly before sitting back down.

"Right, sorry Momo. Thank you for the massage."

Momo nodded at the younger girl before smiling her thanks to Jihyo. She'd definitely need to find a better way to thank Jihyo, whether she deflected Mina's questioning on purpose or not. She just smiled back before pointing to a few places for Momo to sign, handing her a couple papers once she was done along with a spare key card.

"The apartment is officially yours. I hope you love it here!"

"I definitely will."

And for once, Momo was completely sure of herself. 

---

A/N: At first this was a throw away idea, but I decided to make something out of it. I don't have any plot in mind, just [very] occasional updates for this "concept" (I can't think of a better word). This chapter is the introduction to that concept I guess ^-^. The story will move very slowly though, because it gives me more ideas going day by day. Hope you like it!