Chapter Text
“You know, Nayeon might know somebody,” Momo hummed, stretching her muscles out as she laid on Jeongyeon’s pull-out couch. This is the third night in a row they’ve had a sleepover, yet neither of them are tired of one another so far.
Jeongyeon didn’t even try a response, only shook her head from where she leaned on her kitchen counter. Her parents were out of town on a trip, leaving her alone to care for herself. And Momo.
The latter let out a whine. She’s known Jeongyeon for years now, they’ve gone through it all together, and she’s well aware of her friend’s crush on Nayeon. Still, Jeongyeon won’t make a move to ask her out despite how they talk almost every day. According to Jeongyeon it’s all platonic and Nayeon has the hots for someone else, but still.
“Fine, just let our party be shit cause you don’t wanna ask your little crush for some help,” Momo slowly rose from the couch, making her way over to the fridge. Jeongyeon’s dad keeps his beers stocked up constantly, giving the two easy access whenever they have the house to theirselves.
Popping a beer open, Momo took a sip. “See this? We could have endless supplies for the hottest girls in school.” She pointed at the beer, licking her lips as a few drops escaped. Luckily, Jeongyeon has a friend who works at a gas station and lets her buy beer just to restock before her dad gets back. Works like a charm, she’s yet to get caught.
Jeongyeon smacked Momo’s shoulder as she took the bottle from her hands, taking a gulp of her own. “Whatever, Momo. You wanna act pissy? I’ll ask Nayeon if you ask Sana.”
Her comment made Momo’s jaw drop slightly in surprise. She hadn’t told Jeongyeon of her crush on the girl, she must’ve been obvious.
“What? Do you think I’m stupid? Everytime we go to a football game you stare at her ass under the cheer skirt.”
Momo scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Sana would kill me, she doesn’t like smoking.”
“The party wouldn’t only involve weed, there’d be alcohol too! I’ve seen her down—like— ten shots in a row before!” Jeongyeon set the bottle down onto the counter between them, moving to sit on the couch that now resembled a bed. She refused to share her bed with anyone, so even after knowing Momo for years she’s forced the girl to take a couch. Knowing her parents, Momo’s risking bed bugs by sleeping here.
“Sana? Well— she doesn’t mind alcohol, but I doubt she’d go that crazy,” Momo stuttered, taken aback by the sudden comment. Jeongyeon’s been to, and held, many parties but Momo wasn’t aware Sana ever attended one.
“Yup, it was when she was still friends with that Nancy girl. Y’know, the pregnant one?”
Momo’s eyes widened.
Jeongyeon sighed, “oh? You didn’t know that? I think I promised to keep it a secret.”
“Now you have to tell me, come on!” Momo seized ahold of the beer once again, taking a spot right beside her on the couch. Across from them, the TV played a random episode of FRIENDS.
”I guess, but if you tell a soul, I’m killing you myself.”
Mina shifted awkwardly in her seat, eyeing her mother and father for what felt like the twentieth time.
Momo said she’d be home from Jeongyeon’s yesterday night, but all they got was a lousy phone call from her to declare that she didn’t want to return home just yet.
It was obvious that they were fuming, yet both of them remained poking the food on their plates. Mina hadn’t even begun to touch her own food, too nervous for when they eventually, like always, asked her to play spy tomorrow at school.
“Uh, I got a 95 on the practice for my test tomorrow,” she broke the tension in the room, clearing her throat gently.
Their father looked up, their mother did not. He patted his lips with his napkin, closing his eyes. “I expect a 100 on the actual test, then.”
Mina bit her cheek to refrain from a sarcastic remark, nodding her head instead.
Now, their mother looked up from her plate and eyed Mina as if she held all the secrets the universe had to offer.
“Mina,” the woman called gently, letting a forced smile overtake her features as Mina looked up at her.
“What exactly does your sister do when she hangs out with Jeong?”
Their dad sighed gently. Something told Mina that the two of them have debated this topic for a long time. “What?”
Jeongyeon’s a loved figure here in the household, she doesn’t get much crap for anything. She’s practically Mina’s second sister at this rate.
He let out another forced sigh. “Mina, sweetie, we’ve noticed the two like to sneak away at times. When they return, it’s not for a long time and your sister always acts…”
“Weird,” their mother finished.
Mina bit her cheek. She didn’t need time to think, she already had a lie prepared for this very moment.
She wasn’t stupid either, she noticed when Momo would smell like weed at football games after returning from a “breath of fresh air”, or when she’d slur a few words while climbing through Mina’s window at 2AM (Mina’s window is safer and less likely to get her caught after sneaking out). She never questioned it, and Momo didn’t comment despite knowing she caught on, but she did prepare herself for when she went down because of guilt by association.
“Uh, y’know, Momo’s a huge gossip.”
The parents stared in shock. A million things to expect, and this was not one of them.
“Gossip?” The man repeated, eyebrows furrowed in a way that shouldn’t even be possible.
“Yup. She sneaks off to gossip a lot, cause there’s things people do that she doesn’t want just anyone to overhear. Then when she comes back, she always feels guilty and paranoid that one of us will find out just how much she loves to talk about people.”
The pair only stared blankly, the man removing his glasses just to rub his eyes as if this were all just a dream.
Their mother intertwined her hands on the table, her business attitude coming out again. “You mean to tell me.. your sister keeps sneaking away for… gossip?”
Mina only nodded, standing her ground. She’d rather die than snitch on her sister, the very person she used to force to play mermaids with her even when they were middle schoolers and Momo wanted, and failed, to look cool.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have snitched. She might kill me for telling you—“
“Stop.” The man raised his hand to silence her. Mina listened, easily.
“Just- eat your food. Drop this subject, do not repeat this to anybody else, understood?” He glared down at her like he owned the right to boss her around. Technically, he did, but she preferred to listen to their mother before she listened to him. Although right now, she doesn’t want to get whooped at the age of 16, so she zipped her lips and nodded.
She could see her parents exchange a glance before they quietly slipped back into eating. Mina frowned, following their actions. The more food she put in her mouth, the less likely they are to question her anymore.
She knows she needs to tell Momo about this, about how their parents are catching on and how her ass is grass, but she can’t do that without making a call on the family phone which they could listen from any other end. Unless she manages to catch Momo before she returns home tomorrow, Momo is screwed.
Atleast they have school in the morning. As long as Momo doesn’t return home tonight, Mina can talk to her in their passing period.
“Your sister never clarified when she would be home, we are locking the front door at 8PM. If she tries to come home after that and the alarm sounds, she is grounded.”
Mina hummed. She knew they were only telling her of this to brag over the way they would get her in trouble if she were to return at their personal bedtime.
“I’m sure I’ll see her at school tomorrow, I’ll deliver the message,” Mina let out a gentle huff. She brought a bite of food to her lips, cringing at how dry the chicken was. Momo would be happy to know she got to skip this dinner.
“Don’t.” Their father laughed, amused. “I wanna see her try to get away with coming home late this time.”
Their mother let out a forced chuckle, obviously not finding him as funny as she liked to pretend.
Mina didn’t attempt to fake a laugh. She was considered the golden child, the perfect one, but she never even considered doing her own sister dirty when their parents got mean. She couldn’t even fake enjoying their jokes, she wasn’t that type of person.
“When you finish up, give the dogs a bath. Usually Momo does it, but they stink and it’s not waiting another day.”
Jeongyeon groaned in pain as Momo kicked the soccer ball back at her. Three beers down between the two of them, and they got the bright idea to sharpen up their skills in a sport they jointly quit last year.
“Dude, I was watching the soccer game last week, and that one freshman is kinda good!” Momo laughed, retrieving the ball again. Jeongyeon rolled her eyes.
“Real specific, thanks, cause I’m just a pervert that knows every freshman on the soccer team,” she scoffed in disbelief. She held parties, but she never invited underclassmen, so she had really no way of getting to know any of them, let alone little athletes with no fun in their lives.
Momo frowned, dribbling the ball around from foot to foot. “Tzuyu, the really tall one.”
Jeongyeon’s eyes widened in recognition. “Oh, her! Yeah, Chaeyoung is close with her, I figured she’d be more into basketball with all that height.”
Chaeyoung was the freshman Jeongyeon took under her wing immediately, as soon as she saw the girl riding a skateboard she knew she needed to protect her. Jeongyeon was just like her as a freshman, she understood the bullying that the girl was going to face no matter how hard she avoided it. Although Chaeyoung also reads comic books like a geek, something Jeongyeon wasn’t quite weird enough to do.
“Yeah, but our school doesn’t have any girls basketball team. We’re too broke.”
“Volleyball?”
“Maybe, I haven’t talked to her before but I bet she has a good reason for choosing soccer.”
Jeongyeon shrugged. “As tall as she is, she should’ve chose something better.”
Momo’s brows turned in confusion. “Better? Jeong, we played soccer too. Don’t start hating it now.”
“Not that soccer sucks, but usually it’s for short people with lots of speed.”
”I guess so, yeah. She could’ve even chose cheerleading.”
Jeongyeon laughed out loud, earning another glance of confusion.
She shook her head, kicking the ball towards Momo. “Little freak, you spend hours checking out cheerleaders and now you want to say that a 15 year old would be a good cheerleader?”
Momo paused immediately. “What?! Jeongyeon! Come on, you weirdo! That’s not what I meant!”
Jeongyeon continued laughing for a few minutes, kicking the ball from foot to foot with practiced ease. Ten years in soccer, all the way from the age of 6, just to quit as a 16 year old because a rumored drug test scared her. Now she’s 17, huge difference from 16, and she regrets it everyday. But she’s got too good of a party system to join back and put the perfect image back up.
“It’s alright, we all have a type. It’s not bad that you like them younger, my dad met my mom when he was 26 and she was 17, you’ll be fine.”
“26 minus 17 is 9, that’s bad.”
“Average freshman is 14 and a half, that’s bad of you.”
“I’m not into Tzuyu! I just said she has an athletic build!”
“Did you? I didn’t really hear that part?” Jeongyeon teased. She let out a loud cackle at the middle finger she recieved.
“It was implied.”
“If you wanna go for freshmen, just stay away from Chaeng, alright? She’s too tiny, she’s fragile.”
Momo whined in annoyance, hogging the soccer ball all to herself.
“I don’t wanna date, or fuck, a freshman! Sophomores are uncomfortable enough as it is!”
Jeongyeon paused, staring down at the ball as she formed a plan to steal it back. She got serious when she was drunk. “Yeah, those sophomores are odd. How would you feel if I messed with Mina? Would you—“
”Shut up! Don’t even joke about it, Mina’s too pure for you.”
“Maybe the Mina you know. The Mina I know has some secrets she can’t even admit to her big sister.”
Momo bit her cheek, finally passing the ball back.
Jeongyeon only hummed as she dribbled it, passing it back over and waiting to recieve it again.
The younger of the two sighed after a moment, hands resting on her hips. “Y’know, I’m pretty sure she knows we drink and stuff.”
“Yeah, so what? Is she gonna snitch? That’d really stink, honestly. I think my 5% chance of college would become a 1%.”
Momo adjusted her shorts gently, deep in thought as she stared drunkenly at the messy patches of grass.
“She wouldn’t snitch, only if I do something to piss her off.”
“Do me a favor and stay on her good side, then. I wouldn’t put it past her to secretly be a serial killer.”