Mina wasn’t sure how she’d gotten herself into this situation. She’d just been walking home from school, her headphones in, and all of a sudden, she was on the ground, cowering behind a concrete street divider as bullets whizzed by overhead. Glass shattered and someone shouted, and Mina felt tears streaming down her cheeks as she gasped for breath, shivering in terror. Over her, the beautiful woman with short dark hair and a scar by her lip who had just shoved her to the ground, saving her life, glanced around the divider and cursed.

“Damn these guys, did they really not make sure the scene was ing clear before they started firing? They’re trying to bring the goddamn cops down on us!” She grumbled and pulled out her phone, and Mina stared, wide-eyed, at the gun on her hip, blending in with her all-black outfit, a black dress shirt tucked into black pants. What was going on?

“W-who?”

“I’m Momo, love,” the woman said, bringing the phone up to her ear without looking at her. “And you just walked into some mafia business.”

“Mafia?” Mina felt faint. How had she ended up here? She was just trying to walk home, and now there were bullets flying over her head. A loud scream came from somewhere close, and she turned her head to see a man fall to the ground, his gun tumbling from his now-still fingertips. She let out a scream and turned away, closing her eyes.

“Tino, you ing !” The harshness of the woman-no, Momo’s-voice made Mina jump. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? No I don’t give a what they did or said, you almost killed a schoolgirl! You know what happens when you kill innocent bystanders? The ing cops track you down and lock you up!” Whatever the guy said on the other line must have been bad, because Momo’s lip curled up and she snarled. “I’m gonna ing kill you, just you wait. Get this done and over with. I’m gonna take the girl.”

The girl? That meant her, right? Mina’s heart pounded and her mind raced. Was she going to be killed because she saw too much? But if they were just going to kill her, why did Momo save her? She needed to get away, but she couldn’t move or she’d be shot. There was no way she could make a run for it.

“Come with me.” Momo grabbed Mina’s wrist and pulled, and Mina had no choice but the follow. She couldn’t even pull her hand away, Momo’s grip was too strong.

“W-where are we going?” Mina was crying again as she shuffled along the ground behind Momo, but she couldn’t stop. She was terrified. She’d thought this stuff only happened in movies, but now she’d just seen a man presumably die and it was all too real. What was going to happen to her?

“I’m getting you out of here. You’re hurt.”

Mina blinked. Only then did she realize that her hands and arm were burning, and she looked down to see blood. Her hands had been torn up by the gravel during her fall, and her sleeve and arm had caught on something sharp. Once again, she felt faint. “Oh.”

“Come on, just follow me.”

Mina had no choice, so she followed, mentally preparing herself for the worst.

-

She ended up inside an apartment, shaking like a leaf in a kitchen chair as she watched Momo go through a cabinet. Her shirt sleeve was soaked in blood now and she was starting to feel dizzy again, but she forced herself to stay awake and alert. She might have to fight her way out of here, and she’d need to be ready if that were to happen.

“Okay, here it is. First-Aid kit.” Momo pulled a box from the cabinet and walked over to the table, where she opened it up and dug through the contents. She’d left her gun on the counter, but her shirt was still perfectly tucked in, and not one hair was out of place. Mina suspected she’d done this before. “We just need to wipe down your hands and disinfect them. But I’ll need to sew up the cut on your arm.”

“Wait, sew up?” Mina’s eyes widened. “What do you mean? Shouldn’t we go to the hospital for that?”

The woman raised her eyebrows. “And how would you explain how you got that gash?”

Swallowing, Mina realized what she meant. Mafia business couldn’t just be broadcast to the world. “I could just say I tripped and fell. I mean, my parents are going to ask what happened too, my shirt is all torn up and-.”

“Don’t worry about that, we can wash and fix it here. And don’t worry about my skills, either.” Momo gave her a grin as she picked up a wet washrag. “I nurse as my day job. Now sit still so I can get the rocks out of your hand.”

Mina’s stomach dropped and she squeezed her eyes shut, biting her lip to keep from crying at the pain. How did she have such bad luck?

-

Surprisingly, Momo had all the proper medical supplies. She had wrapped Mina’s hands with gauze soaked in something that soothed the pain a little after she cleaned the cuts, and had used some sort of numbing cream to sooth the pain when she sewed up the cut. Soon, Mina was sitting on Momo’s couch, wearing a pair of Momo’s sweatpants and a black t-shirt with a glass of water in her hands, mind swirling. She wasn’t dead yet, at least, but she still had no idea what was going on.

“How are you feeling?” Momo asked as she walked into the room. Her short hair was now pulled back into a little ponytail, and she looked a lot less intimidating than she had back on the road. In fact, she looked a little bit worried about her. Although she was still nervous, Mina gave her a smile.

“Okay. I’m still really shaken up.”

“Yeah, I’m really sorry you got mixed up in all that. They never should have started that crossfire with a civilian there.” Momo shook her head as she sat down on the couch and sighed. “Unfortunately, you’re kind of in this world now.”

Mina swallowed and clutched at the sweatpants, looking down at her feet. “Oh. Do I have to… die?”

“What? No! Not at all!” Momo laughed, but Mina didn’t think it was so funny. “It’s not like you saw anyone’s faces, other than me. Just keep quiet and you’re fine.”

“So I just can’t tell anyone what happened today?”

“Yep. If anyone asks why you were home late, just say you were hanging out with a friend. If anyone saw you with me and asks you who I am, you can say that I saw you take a fall and hurt yourself and offered to help you, and that’s how we became friends. Simple as that.”

Mina raised her eyebrows. “We’re friends now?”

“Don’t push it too far, kid.”

“You’re hardly older than me.”

“But I am.”

-

Momo walked Mina home after her clothes were dry and fixed, and when her parents asked where she’d been, she repeated what Momo had told her to say and went to her room. She wanted to put everything behind her and forget it ever happened. But every time she tried to sleep, she would jerk awake, the image of what happened seared into her eyelids. The sounds of guns, yelling, and shattering glass echoed in her head, and she couldn’t get them out, no matter how loud she turned up her music.

Most of all, though, she couldn’t stop thinking about Momo, with her charismatic smile and the gentle touch she’d used when cleaning her wounds.

The next morning, her mother told her that she was keeping her home from school because there had been a shooting near the school and she was scared to send her outside. Mina wished she could tell her that she’d been involved, but she couldn’t. So she smiled and hid her hands behind her back, pretending she knew nothing.

-

Eventually, her life went back to normal. She still had plenty of nightmares and she still replayed her meeting with Momo in her mind, but she was able to cope better with the things she’d seen. The stitches in her arm dissolved, just like Momo had said they would, but they left a nasty scar, and whenever Mina looked in the mirror, the scar reminded her of everything that had happened. It reminded her of Momo’s small, clean apartment, and the smell of candles that filled the living room. It reminded her of Momo’s firm yet gentle touch.

Still, she went back to normal. She graduated high school, she enrolled in college, and she put the shooting behind her the best she could. She was a normal person again.

When her parents asked her what she wanted to be, she didn’t even hesitate.

“A nurse. I’d like to go to school for nursing.”

-

She was twenty and working in the emergency room when she finally met Momo again. The woman had grown out her hair, but now, the black was matted with blood and her clothes were torn and bloody. As soon as Mina stepped into the room, Momo’s eyes lit up with recognition, falling open in surprise.

“Mina?”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Mina found herself smiling a bit as she worked to find the wounds on Momo’s torso. “That’s me.”

“You became a nurse?”

“Yep.”

Momo was lucky. Most of the wounds were surface-level, bullets burning through the skin as they passed. The internal wounds had missed all vital organs. She had gotten to the hospital, and now she would live. “Well. You’re one person I never expected to see here.”

“Surprise,” Mina said, pulling on a new pair of gloves and checking the head wound. Also surface level. She really was lucky. “But I guess it’s only fair. You saved my life once, and now I’ll save yours.”

“I guess you’re right.”

-

Momo lived, of course. And Mina watched as cops milled in and out of her room, asking her questions and talking in hushed voices among themselves.

“You knew that woman, right?” One of her coworkers, a woman named Nayeon, asked her as they watched the police talk. “How?”

Mina smiled and shook her head, remembering what Momo had told her to say all those years ago. “She saw me trip and hurt myself and she helped me out. After that, we kind of became friends. It was a long time ago.”

“Huh. What do you think they’re talking to her about?”

“I have no idea. But coming in with bullets in you is never a good sign.”

“No kidding.” Nayeon turned away and Mina looked down at patient form in her hand. She had no idea what Momo had gotten herself into this time. But she was sure it wasn’t good.

-

Eventually, the cops left, and Mina ended up in the room during her rounds. Momo smiled when she walked in, sitting up a little further in bed despite her wounds.

“What are you doing sitting up? I told you, you can’t do that, we just took a bullet out of you!”

“I wanted to see you better,” Momo said, but laid back down, huffing a little bit. “Should I not want to see my old friend?”

Mina rolled her eyes but smiled, walking closer to the bed. “You seem to be recovering nicely.”

“I’m tough. This is nothing.”

“You could have died, Momo.”

“But I didn’t.”

Laughing, Mina shook her head. “You’re something else, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told. How have you been these past few years, Mina?” Momo seemed genuinely curious and Mina swallowed nervously. She shouldn’t be this excited to see a member of the mafia, the same mafia that could kill her if she ever let the truth of her experience slip. But she couldn’t help it. Deep inside, she’d been wanting to see Momo again since the day they met.

“I’ve been good. My scars all healed up for the most part. I graduated and got through nursing school. And now I’m here.” Mina waved a hand around at the room. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been better than I am right now. I actually cooled down a lot. Tried to live a calmer life.”

“I see how that turned out.”

“This wasn’t my idea.” Momo shrugged, then winced a bit in pain. “I was ambushed and shot while out with a friend. Thankfully, we’re both quick on our feet. Could have been much worse.”

Mina raised her eyebrows. “Is that the real story?”

“Cross my heart,” Momo said with a nod. “I’m a victim here. The police even caught the guys who did it. Some drug dealers with a grudge.”

“I have to say, I’m a little surprised. But relieved.”

“Relieved?”

“I’d be angry with myself if I was happy to see a criminal again.”

Momo perked up. At times like this, she didn’t look much like a member of the mafia. “You were happy to see me again?”

“Just a little bit,” Mina lied, checking over Momo’s wounds to distract herself. She hoped that her cheeks weren’t flushed.

“Hey. You know, I was happy to see you too.” Momo grinned. “Who would have thought that such a shy girl would end up doing something like this? Were you inspired by me?”

“You wish.” Her ears were red, she could feel it. The older woman laughed.

“Fine, I won’t push it anymore. But maybe it’s fate that we got to see each other again.”

Mina found herself smiling again as her hand lingered on Momo’s. “Maybe it is.”

-

Momo healed fast and was discharged soon after, and Mina couldn’t help but be a little sad. It had been nice seeing the woman once again after so long, and there had been something… there. Something that she hadn’t admitted the first time they met, but something she now recognized for what it was.

For some reason, she liked Momo. She wanted to get to know her better, she wanted to walk and talk with her, she wanted to see Momo’s goofy smile every day, and she wanted to hold her hand. It was weird. Their first meeting had been so terrible, and yet…. Mina didn’t know what to think. Maybe it was because Momo had saved her life, but she couldn’t see her as a bad person.

“I have a feeling this wasn’t the first time that girl had a bullet inside her,” Nayeon said as they put away her patient file.

“Who knows. I didn’t know her that well,” Mina said. There was no hesitation anymore, and she wondered when she’d gotten so good at lying.

-

“Hey, Mina! There’s flowers for you!” Nayeon’s voice rang through the hall from the nurse’s desk, and Mina turned, confused. It had been over a week since Momo’s departure, and her life had mostly gone back to normal. But this was new. Flowers?

“For me? Really?” Maybe her parents, although she couldn’t think of why. She put away the patient file she’d been looking at and walked back to the desk. On the counter was a big, beautiful bouquet, and her eyes widened, dropping open. “Woah! Are you sure it’s not for the other Mina upstairs in pediatrics?”

“Nope, it’s for you! Myoui Mina!” Nayeon grinned. “Looks like you have an admirer!”

Sure enough, when Mina turned the vase around, there was a card stuck to the side with her name on the envelope. With bated breath, she opened the envelope and took out the card inside.

Mina,

Sorry I disappeared without getting your number, I had some things I needed to do first. Also, don’t be too freaked out that I learned your full name, I just asked one of the other nurses. I hope you like the flowers, I was sure to pick out ones as beautiful as you. While I was shopping, I actually saw you on the street, and I took it as a sign from fate that I should get them. Let’s meet up again sometime.

Yours,

Hirai Momo

At the bottom of the note was a phone number scrawled in a careful hand with a smiley face beside it, and a huge grin spread across Mina’s face. She wasn’t so sure about fate, but if it meant seeing you again, she didn’t mind believing in it just this once.

“Who are they from?” Nayeon’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, but Mina just smiled and slipped the card into her pocket, pulling out her phone instead. It wouldn’t hurt Nayeon to wonder a little.

“An old friend.”