love comes wearing disguises

and this is how it starts

Nayeon grumbled as she leaned over to pick up another empty Twinkie wrapper, delicately removing it from the potted plant and shaking off the excess dirt. Her trash bag was full of hot cheetos bags, seltzer cans, and takeout containers. This was the third time this week she had to do this, she couldn't stand garbage in the shared living room space. Her head whipped around when she heard the door open.

"Again?" The figure by the door hung her keys and took off her shoes as she moved to start helping Nayeon pick up trash.

"Sana we've gotta do something, I can't keep living like this and I refuse to spend my summer as an unpaid sanitation engineer," Nayeon whispered, gesturing at the line of oreo crumbs on the coffee table. "At this rate, we should start splitting rent with the ants, too."

"You know, that might be to our benefit. The more there are, the cheaper it gets for us." Nayeon and Sana had been friends since childhood, drifting apart for several years when Sana moved back to Japan, and they had reconnected in college.

"Ha ha very funny, I'm serious!" Nayeon shoved Sana, jostling the cans in her garbage bag. "Also, do you think we can make a trip to the recycling plant soon? I think we are sitting on some rent money here."

"No, I'm worried, too. It's been six months since the break up and I thought things were getting better for a minute but it's gotten bad again. And yeah we can probably swing by after our next grocery run."

"Bad? Bad is when she was locked up in her room crying. THIS is catastrophic. I don't think it's legal to consume this many Hostess snacks in 24 hours." Sana tried to hold her laugh as Nayeon started sorting through the bag, eyebrows furrowed as she tried to count.

Both of their eyes shot to the kitchen area as they saw a girl trudge through it. The vibe of the whole room shifted, as if a rain cloud had followed her in. Her hair was disheveled and it was unclear if the robe she was wearing was originally gray or had become gray from not being washed recently. They could hear the glass clinking as she pushed around the items in the fridge like she was looking for something.

"Do you think she can hear us?" Sana whispered to Nayeon as they watched from the other room.

"Yes I can hear you, have either of you seen the ketchup?" The girl rested her head on the counter as she looked over at them, a worn expression on her face.

"Yeah, it's over here, Momo," Nayeon sighed, holding up the warm ketchup that had been left on the coffee table for at least 24 hours.

"Thanks." Momo walked out of the kitchen and over to the living room, acknowledging both of them with small nods before grabbing the bottle and walking back to her room. Nayeon had met Momo in her anthropology class freshman year, and one day while they were studying at Nayeon's, Sana came by. As fate would have it, Sana and Momo had been friends in Japan. They kept hanging out and as each of their leases were about to end, Sana decided they should all live together. Now they were about to be seniors, Nayeon majoring in advertising, Momo going pre-med, and Sana studying history.

"Someone just texted your phone, which girl is this?" Sana grinned as she grabbed Nayeon's phone and waved it in front of her face, just out of her reach. Nayeon lunged forward, knocking over Sana in the process.

"Will you please just-" Nayeon was flustered, she hated getting teased about her dating life but there didn't seem to be an end to the material.

"I will when you finally save a girl's number to your phone!" Sana pushed Nayeon away, getting up and gleefully reading the text. "This girl is like in love with you oh my god?"

"Yeah I need to talk to her," Nayeon mumbled, laying down in defeat as Sana tossed her phone onto her stomach.

"Maybe you should try and set her up with Momo," Sana joked.