There was nothing special about Mina’s return. No tearful apologies, as Mina begged outside their door in the middle of the night. No call or text saying where she was for the past week, or when she would return. Of course, Sana and Momo fought about it, Sana already strung out and emotional from not only Mina but just the past year. It wasn’t huge, just Sana saying she couldn’t believe Momo told her to leave, Momo defending herself. They both still got home at ludacris hours of the night, Sana taking the bed and Momo the couch. 

Mina just appeared, sitting at the kitchen table head in her hands, elbows resting on the countertop as she stared into a thick law book. She had a list filled with legal jargon next to her, checks next to certain words. She looked tired and skinny. Momo walked past her and started making her cup of coffee, filling up her colorful character mug, drowning the liquid with milk and sugar before taking a seat next to Mina. 

“I was at Joohyun’s,” Mina said, not looking up, underlining a part of her book. She wrote something in the margin, a mix of Japanese and Korean that Momo had to take a second to decipher. “My old boss.”

“Mmm.” Momo hummed, taking a sip of her coffee looking out the small window above the sink at the sunrise. It was a kaleidoscope of reds, pinks, and oranges basking the kitchen in multicolored hues. She took out her phone and flipped onto a random radio on Spotify. A gentle acoustic strummed out. “I was worried about you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Are you hungry?” 

“No.” 

“Okay.” Momo relaxed into her seat further, reading over the textbook. She hadn’t seen Mina read anything like this since her college days, filled with long complicated words that Momo had no idea what they meant. They sat like that, Sana didn’t wake up until a lot later these days, she just didn’t have the energy to. Momo would talk to her about that, but later. Always later. 

“I didn’t mean what I said, the other night.” 

“I know.” Another sip, “Do you want to tell me what’s going on with you?”

“Huh?”

“People just don’t act out randomly, what’s bothering you?” Momo watched as Mina clasped her hands together, a nervous habit the girl had always did. Always needed to be holding onto someone in some way, usually a hand or shirt. Sana used to joke and say it was her abandonment issues, needing to make sure the other wasn’t going to leave, Momo wasn’t sure how much of that was a joke. As a kid she had huge separation anxiety, crying for hours when Sana’s parents would have the couple watch Mina when they needed to go to work. Momo reached out and grabbed Mina’s hand, rubbing her thumb on the younger’s. 

“Everything.”

“You need to be a bit more specific.”

A deep breath, “I don’t want to remember anymore. It all just hurts too much. I’m a horrible person, I hurt Dahyun, I hurt Nayeon, I hurt you two. I don’t know what to do Momoring.”

“You’re not a horrible person. Things just didn’t really work out the way they ought to.” Momo tightened her grip, “Dahyun hurt you too, Nayeon knew what she was doing, and us- We wouldn’t have done any of this if we didn’t want to.”

“I need my job back.”

“Is that why you’re studying?”

“I need to