Jeongyeon excitedly walks inside MacLaren’s, her and her best friends’ favorite hangout spot in New York. Christmas spirit is upon New Yorkers and it’s crowded and freezing outside so Jeongyeon had to ditch wearing one of her prized tailored suits and settle for a beige turtleneck, red hand knitted scarf covered in her black sheepskin coat paired with her black skinny jeans and black winter boots. When she moves her gaze inside the bar to find her friends, she is instantly hit with a rush of nostalgia.

The outside of MacLaren’s is still the same as it was from 5 years ago, but the inside is now completely different. The tables and arrangements are now leaning in to a more sophisticated and modern look, a great contrast to the dingy, sports bar atmosphere it had before she had her last drink of scotch in here years ago. She looks at the bar area and it was no longer Carl, their favorite bar tender before who tends to the customers. It’s now just some random dude who looks like he is in his mid twenties whose parents probably now owns the place.

“Jeong!” She tears her gaze away from the bar to look at the person who owns the bubbly voice and that person is now hugging her like crazy, sobbing, almost wetting her coat from all the crying. “I missed you too, Sana.” Jeongyeon gently pulled back from the hug and Sana giggled while wiping away her tears, pulling at her wrist to lead her to their table.

“Did you get fat or is this the pregnancy?” Jeongyeon noticed that there’s a baby bump on Sana and she can’t help but old friend. “Hey!!! You know Momo got me pregnant again, we sent you a virtual card announcing another little Hirai coming in our family. Speaking of, we will reveal our baby’s gender today since we got the results from the doctor earlier. We were so giddy for the reveal and you just have to come in here... fashionably late as always.” Sana gives her a pout while looking at her from top to bottom but then she giggles again afterwards. She is still the same old Sana she met years ago when she stumbled upon their group of friends here at the exact same place, 12 years ago. Jeongyeon used to tell them that it was her who took these dorks under her wings and elevated their redundant, no-fun life before her but it is known that they were the exact people who took Jeongyeon and her weaknesses and still accepted her in their little group of friends and for that, Jeongyeon will forever be grateful.

When they finally reached their table at a much secluded part of MacLaren’s, Jeongyeon saw figures already seated and waiting for her. She was first greeted with a bear hug by Momo, Sana’s wife who has exactly the same reaction as Sana with all the crying she did in front of Jeongyeon. Then Nayeon, the person Jeongyeon called her best friend for years, still is, stood up from her seat and gave Jeongyeon a warm smile and a tight hug full of unspoken words between them.

“How are the kids? Chaeyoung and Tzuyu? I hope they still like my gifts like they used to.” Jeongyeon asks Nayeon about her daughters with her late wife, Wendy.

Nayeon swore Wendy was her redemption in this ty life but sadly life isn’t that easy, Wendy died from cancer three years ago leaving Nayeon to care for their two young daughters.

“They’re fine. They’re at home with their babysitter. You should stay at my place if you haven’t booked a hotel yet, we have to catch up on everything.” Nayeon offered.

“You know I still own an apartment here.” Jeongyeon said as a matter of factly, making everyone at the table tense up for unknown reasons.

Sana and Momo are quick to ask their daughter, Dahyun, to give her long lost aunt a hug which the girl immediately gives to Jeongyeon.

Dahyun was 3 years old when Jeongyeon left New York and now she is a tall and healthy 8 year old girl. It warms Jeongyeon’s heart of just how much she grew up. “I have a gift for you waiting at home. I will give it to you tomorrow, Dahyunie.” Jeongyeon said as she lets Dahyun sit back on her chair.

“Aren’t I getting any hugs?” And Jeongyeon finds herself standing in front of the girl she’s been dying to see and avoid at the same time. The girl who has never left Jeongyeon’s mind after all these years. The girl who has been the reason why she has to move to another state, 6 hours away by plane from the city she has grown to love the most. The girl who made Jeongyeon believe in true love and the same girl who made her realize how love isn’t enough for two people to stay together. Standing before her clad in all luxurious signature clothing is Myoui Mina, used to be Yoo Mina - for only 3 years -up until the judge has finally announced their divorce 5 years ago.

It was a mutual decision to end their marriage. They were two adults who had the same views on marriage and life and Jeongyeon thought they fit really well. Before meeting Mina Jeongyeon didn’t even, not for one second thought of getting married and settling down with only one woman for the rest of her life. Jeongyeon on her younger years was kind of a player who changes her bed sheets every night as she sleeps with a different girl frequently but Mina made it seem like marriage and monogamy isn’t a bad thing. Mina didn’t believe in marriage because the girl was already married to her career before anyone else.

All of their friends laughed at their strange relationship but the two proved just how well they are in love with each other until they couldn’t stop fighting everyday. Mina can’t live a life without being a hailed reporter, always traveling the world for some news worthy scoops and Jeongyeon can’t live a life in the suburbs where people are “no fun and annoyingly polite”. Jeongyeon decided to move to Huntington Beach, a city in California, for good after their divorce. She purchased a luxurious beach house worth 2 million dollars for the purpose of turning it into a family home with Mina even before they got married but they never got to live in it because Mina will never quit her job as a reporter just to be a wife to Jeongyeon.

Anyway, it’s now a good deal for Jeongyeon because Huntington is where girls are y, have daddy issues and will readily sleep with her on a whim. It’s a sin city and she’s loving the life she’s living there until she received an email from Sana three days ago, asking her to come to New York for their baby’s gender reveal. Jeongyeon couldn’t find it in her to deny another request from her friends and she felt like she can now face Mina and move past their divorce so here she is now, standing face to face with her ex wife who is apparently holding Nayeon’s hand.

It’s a really funny story how Mina was first Nayeon’s girlfriend but Mina ended up falling in love and marrying Jeongyeon (out of all the people) and now Nayeon and Mina are probably back together again based on how close they are on their social media posts which Jeongyeon refuses to see sometimes. Nayeon sure made it clear that Mina is her true love way back then but she had to give Mina up to Jeongyeon, her best friend, on their wedding day. It makes Jeongyeon think that her marriage with Mina was just a big boulder to Mina’s relationship with Nayeon, they must’ve been soulmates after all.

Jeongyeon automatically smiled at her ex wife, gives her a nod and hugs her, wants the hug to linger but decided to pull away to keep her own sanity.

“Take a seat Jeong. It’s been what, four years?!” Nayeon exclaimed.

“Five.”

Jeongyeon heard Mina shyly respond.

“Yeah almost five. It’s good to be back New York! I’ve missed the food and women here the most. Women from the west side are all sun kissed, not like a typical busy New Yorker locked in a cage called offices.” Jeongyeon tries to joke but notices their table starting to quiet down.

As usual it was Sana and Momo who tries to break the ice by pulling out their test results.

“Alright everybody are you ready???” Momo says in between giggles with her wife. Jeongyeon rolls her eyes at them but proceeds to make drum rolling sounds by tapping at the table, resulting to Sana and Momo’s pleased faces. “It’s a... boy!!!!” Sana squeaks and hugs her wife who’s crying tears of joy.

Momo then stood up from her seat to carry Sana, kissing her in front of their daughter who looks like she’s already used to her parent’s antics and just smiles. Everyone from the table started hugging both Sana and Momo, congratulating them for their additional family member on the way.

As soon as the euphoria from the baby news tones down, they catch up about their careers and current life for hours like they used to.

Most of them started asking Jeongyeon questions, trying to catch up. After all, it was only Jeongyeon who has left the city and cut connections with their friend group. All of them except her are updated with each other.

“Everything’s been great. I invested on a beach resort and luckily it pays off good to allow me to live comfortably without actually working since I have a partner who manages the resort.” Jeongyeon smiles at her friends.

“Partner?” Mina absentmindedly asks. “Yeah.. business partner. I don’t know if you remember her, but it’s Irene. She used to be our neighbor from our old house.” Jeongyeon can see that Mina starts to get agitated with the way her hand that’s resting on the table balls into a fist.

“What is she doing in California? Don’t tell me I was right that you’ve been seeing her behind my back when we were married and she followed you in Cali to continue your romance once our divorce was finalized.” Mina’s voice is icy and serious, it made Jeongyeon gulp down on her beer.

It’s the kind of voice she often used on her whenever she comes home to Jeongyeon and Irene hanging out at their place. Irene and Jeongyeon met when Irene and her husband moved next to Jeongyeon and Mina’s house in the suburbs. It’s natural for Jeongyeon and Irene to get close to each other since Jeongyeon was often left alone in their house to do her blogs while Mina is in god knows where country doing her job as a reporter. Irene on the other hand had quit her job as a realtor to be a dutiful wife to her husband so both of them would often spend their time together doing random house chores or just talking but Jeongyeon can swore on her mother’s grave that she and Irene never fooled around.

Jeongyeon knew and thought about it - a hundred times, before she proposed marriage to Mina that she should give up her womanizing habits and focus on starting a family. Mina just can’t get past her trust issues, knowing her wife used to write a playbook of tricks on how to hook up with women so the both of them would often argue about Mina’s jealousy with Irene or just a random waitress hitting on Jeongyeon.

Not that it matters anymore.

“You know that’s not true.” Jeongyeon only managed to say, not wanting to claw deeper at their past. Jeongyeon sees the way Nayeon’s hand moves to Mina’s back and Jeongyeon noticed that everyone at the table is awkward, aside from the noises Dahyun is making while playing with her mom’s phone.

“Should I get us a round of scotch for the road? I’m actually really tired and would rather sleep. I can come over at your place tomorrow Momo, before I head back home in the afternoon.” Jeongyeon then stood up from her chair and walked to the bar, feeling a little queazy. She was ordering glasses of scotch each for her and her friends when somebody hugged her from behind.

“Hey!” She turned around and saw that it was Sana. “Are you still mad at Mina?” Sana blurted out.

“What? No! Who said I was ever mad at her?” Jeon