God, the day had been going great before Mina arrived with the bags. In fact, it could've been one of the best.

I woke up, made myself a bomb- breakfast burrito, and went to work. All of my coworkers were incredibly tired, but all of them were as cheerful as they could be, so I spent the day chatting with them when I could. I was even treated surprisingly well by the customers that day, which was...incredibly rare. Working in retail is really a most of the time.

When the day was over, I drove home, blasted my music through my car speakers and made myself a huge cup of coffee once I got home. I was absolutely relaxed, positive that the rest of the day would be as chill as the morning. I even thought to myself, “Ah. What could possibly go wrong today?”

You never ask yourself that, because apparently, a whole freaking lot could go wrong.

For starters, I hadn't noticed that Mina was missing; she'd been spending most of her sick days in bed resting up, therefore I assumed that was the case again. She was always quiet, after all, her voice almost inaudible even though she was trying to be loud. The first day of 12th grade, the Bio teacher hadn't heard Mina say 'Here…' during roll call, so she was counted absent for that class, getting her in trouble with her parents. If one took that into consideration, it didn't seem like a big deal that she hadn't made a peep since I’d gotten home.

Being the amazing roommate that I've always been, I made her a burrito with the leftover stuff from that morning, in case she hadn't eaten already. Surely she was starving from a day of resting in bed. I went to her room and gently knocked on her door.

“Mina? Can I come in? I made you a burrito!”

No response. A little weird, but not unheard of. She could be sleeping, I thought to myself.

“Knock knock?” I tapped on the door a little harder, the sound slightly echoing back. “Mina, I'm coming in, okay? I really don't want the burrito to get cold. Hope you're dressed.”

All I found was a neatly made bed, sans Mina. I set the plate down and searched around her room, checking even the smallest nooks and crannies for her. She was nowhere to be found.

I ran to the kitchen and looked for her, not finding her at all. The bathroom, the closets, even my own room… She wasn't behind any of those doors.

Where was she? Was she hiding from me? Was she kidnapped while I was at work? I started thinking about the worst case scenarios, nearly giving myself a self-induced panic attack.

Just when I was really about to start panicking, I heard the front door locks turn and open.

She had been out? I really didn't even care for an answer at that moment. I was just glad that Mina hadn't disappeared into a different dimension.

“Mina!” I shouted from my room. “Why are you up? You’re still sick, you dweeb. I don't care if you have the strength to get up, getting out is still a risk.” I stepped out to greet her, secretly actually super psyched to see Mina out and about. It was probably the first time in weeks since she'd felt the sun on her skin. “Get to your room and I'll give you the burrito I made for you-”

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the bags in Mina’s hands. They weren't grocery bags. No, no. These were giant plastic bags, thick and strong, made to hold heavy items. She was holding them as if they held something incredibly valuable.

“Mina? What’s that? What are the things in the bags?” Yeah, you bet I already knew what was in the bags, but the small and positive lil Chaeyoung inside of me hoped I was wrong, that I was still stressed out from losing Mina for a second, that she hadn’t gone out and bought an entirely new console and Paracosmos.

She hid her face behind her dark hair, a habit of hers that I learned means that she's hiding something or feeling guilty. I stepped closer and tried to check the contents of the bags but she backed away quickly and looked at me with a hint of remorse in her eyes.

“I-I had to get it. I’m so sorry, Chaengie. Here, sorry for pulling away. Look.” She opened the bags and showed me the PlayStation console box and the game she'd been wanting. “I’ve been so depressed, and I n-need something to distract me– I promise I'll find a way to get the money back as soon as po-”

“Damn it, Mina!” I didn't mean to interrupt her, but seeing the GameStop bags in her hands pissed me off. “I told you not to buy it yet! We’re, like, $600 short now and the money we have left was supposed to go towards buying other stuff like groceries. What are we going to do now?”

I could feel my eyes start to well up with tears, which was something I hated about myself. I always cry when I'm angry, but I didn't want to cry. Not at that moment. I wiped them away quickly and smoothed down my short hair. I wanted to look calm and not freak Mina out.

Mina set the bags down and walked over to me, her eyes full of hurt. “Don't raise your voice to hide the fact that you're crying, Chae... I d-don't wanna see you cry. It's just the rent, it's not the end of the world!” She reached for my arms, but it was my turn to pull away.

“Chaengie,” she said with a surprised look on her face, “don’t do that. I know not purchasing it was something we agreed on, but you're n-not home most of the time and I get so tired of waiting for you to get home… Don’t pull away from me…"

Mina never really cries, she just gets teary-eyed, but this time I saw the tears already starting to stream down her face. Seeing her like that made the small ball of anger melt away. I lowered my head in an apologetic bow.

“Mina, I'm sorry. I wasn't really angry. Please don't cry.” Her face was already red and puffy, so I reached out to wipe her tears. She stiffened when I touched her, probably unsure about whether I was actually angry at her.

“Jeez. Lemme wipe your tears, Minari.” I said it with the most gentle voice I could, hoping to calm her down.

After a bit she relaxed and let me wipe the rest of her tears. She tried speaking but she kept choking on her words. It took her many tries, but finally she asked “Chaengie, can you forgive me?”

“Shhh, hey, hey.” I put a finger on her lips, feeling them tremble a bit. “Minari, I'm the one that should be asking for forgiveness. I wasn't really mad. I was more...surprised than anything. I told myself to keep calm but I let my temper show... Like you said, this is not the end of the world.” I got closer to her, putting an arm over her shoulders.

“I still left us with pretty much no money,” she muttered, letting her hair fall to her face again. “I don't know what we're gonna do, Chaeyoung. Because of me, we have to choose between having money to eat and paying the rent.” She sat down at the kitchen table and put her head down. “Oh god, what did I do? I just realized how ed up it was for me to do that.”

“Mina,” I whispered into her ear and rubbed her arm. “We’ll figure it out. Leave it all to me, okay? I'll do everything I can to figure out what to do from here. Go to your room, get in bed, and eat the burrito I made you. I'll call for you when I’ve decided on what our plan of action will be.”

She looked like she was going to argue, but she simply nodded solemnly and left to eat her burrito.

I sat down  on the chair she had been sitting on and stretched, thinking back on my small outburst earlier. It really wasn't like me to get mad for a reason as