"Silent Peach" | Momo x Male Reader

YOUR POV

The first day of classes has arrived. Of course I get to our classroom as early as I can to avoid embarrassing myself in front of my students and my new teacher this school year.

It's a good thing I arrived only 20 minutes before class began. I walked into the room and sat down where I was supposed to.

There's some girl who's sitting beside my seat already. I walked closer to approach my spot, but to my surprise this classmate of mine isn't really familiar to me.

She appeared to be in her own universe, reading a book intently while surrounded by noise and chaos. Her hime cut hair was flipped back behind her shoulders, where the breeze from the windows caught it. As I looked at her out of curiosity and confusion over who she was, I crunched my forehead.

I bravely grabbed her attention to try to figure it out and learn more about her.

I waved at her and said, "Oh, hello. Good morning!" with a smile on my face, making a really good impression on her.

She didn't say anything in response to my greeting; all she did was bow and wave her hand timidly, trying her best to avoid looking at me.

"I haven't seen you around here, are you a new student?", I ask her, pointing my finger at her.

She just gave another nod in response. She doesn't speak, which baffles me, but I don't mind. She must be quite shy, so I tried my best to make her feel at ease when speaking with me.

"Called it.", I said, putting my bag on the back of the chair that belongs to me classmate who sits in front of me.

"Well, our other classmates around here were all my previous classmates also so you're the one I don't recognize at all.", I explained to her.

She started writing as soon as she picked up a pen and opened her notepad. She then raised it and pointed out what it said to me.

"I'm a transferee.", my mouth just formed an 'o' at her own reason even though I actually called it already that is a newly added student here in our section.

"Welcome to our school then.", I said to her then I smiled.

She responded with a bow again.

"Can I ask what's your name?", I was about to wait for her answer but suddenly the teacher arrives and placed her bag on top of her desk as we slowly stood up all at once to greet our new adviser and second mom as a respect.

Ten minutes later, we went around the class and introduced ourselves one by one. The majority of us did this for our new teacher because, with the exception of the new girl sitting opposite me, everyone else in this room is someone we already know well.

My female seatmate entered the classroom and spoke before mine. From my seat, I observed her getting up without letting the stares of those there bother me. Nearly all of them are gasping, and some were simply staring with their eyes wide open as if they had just witnessed a mythological creature. While carrying a notebook, she moves carefully across the board before turning to face the students.

As she stepped in front of the class, she then raised her notebook which says "Good morning, I'm Hirai Momo. 18 years old, Japanese.",

I turned to look at my classmates, and it seemed that they didn't think it was strange or unusual. Like this new girl, whose name was revealed to be Momo, the environment remained completely silent. I just continued to stare at her, wondering if she wasn't genuinely shy and mute because she wouldn't have introduced herself to us in writing if she weren't.

"Oh okay! Thank you so much Momo. You can go back to your seat now.", Mrs. Oh exclaimed, giving Momo an understanding smile. Maybe she just adjusted herself instead and didn't forced her student to speak because she knows that there must be a reason too. They both exchanged bows at one another before Momo heads back to her seat.

She finally sat down and maintained her focus on the board and Mrs. Oh as our classmates continued to gawk at her and mumble amusing things about her. I then turned to face her and made a remark in response to her recent introduction. I made an effort to settle her down because I can see that she is shaking somewhat as a result of all the attention she is receiving, which I assume makes her uncomfortable.

"Your name is cute by the way, I just wanna say that.", I said to her. What I received made me quite shock after.

"T-thanks.", this time she speaks, but with a stutter and a soft high pitched voice. I gasped a bit as I looked at her in confusion. So she IS actually can talk... but why didn't she used it when she presented herself?

"Well, nice to meet you, Momo. My name's YN.", I extended my hand to her in anticipation of a handshake. She accepts gladly, but she moves slowly, and when our hands come together, she glances away from me once more, just like she did before. I simply laughed because I thought her nervousness was endearing.

However, aside than that, she is really mysterious. I'm aware that she is more than meets the eye. and I feel compelled to make an effort to be close to her.

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It's break time, so several students-including myself and my buddy Myoui Mina, whom I'll be eating lunch with-left the classroom for a while to get to the cafeteria. We took a seat here and began eating after receiving our meal orders, exchanging our experiences thus far throughout the firsthalf of class hours on this day.

"How's the new girl in our class?", my friend Myoui Mina asked me after she took a bite on her sandwich. I shared to her about our new classmate who is also my seatmate.

"Momo? She's good. Definitely quiet.", I said my first impression to her after I took a sip at my mango shake.

"I can see that too. Got me really puzzled earlier why she introduced herself using a notebook.", Mina said, confirming my thoughts about them earlier on what they must have thought about Momo when she did that. "But I just neverminded it. She's interesting anyways and... maybe she can't really speak at all so I respect that."

"She actually can speak.", I corrected her.

"Oh? Jinjja? (Really?)", she reacted in disbelief.

I told her, "Yeah. She's too bashful that's why. I can tell that she's trying her best to communicate with me." I can still recall Momo's earlier actions that stood out to me, such as the way her eyes avoided me and the delay in her speech.

"Maybe she has social anxiety," Mina speculated, which caused me to twitch.

"That's fear of interacting with other people, right?", Mina nodded to me after.

"Yup. That's why as you can see from what you told me about her that she's doing an effort to talk to you is because she's really not that used into communicating with people. She's scared and nervous on socializing which she can clearly show through the way she acts.", Mina explained to me; making it all too clear and understandable to me now why Momo is being like that to me. "And for us, we will think that she doesn't want our presence or whatsoever, but we should not mistaken her for that because it doesn't mean that she's not speaking, she doesn't want to socialize. She still is..

... yet the only problem is that she's struggling due to her fears, right?"

"Exactly."

"Okay, now i'm fully enlightened.", I said to my genius friend here who I won't doubt about her climbing onto the overall school academic ranking. Mina is really just that smart.

As I consider what Momo would have gone through with this, I feel horrible for her. She must have found it very challenging to live that way. She is undoubtedly making an effort to overcome her worries, but I wonder if anyone is supporting her in this struggle.

"You must be lucky.", Mina said while not looking at me.

"Eh? Why did you say so?", I blurted in confusion.

"Didn't you noticed a while ago? All of us especially the boys were looking at her with an obvious admiration in their eyes.", Mina said as she chuckled. I noticed it too, but I didn't think about myself about that though. " I easily felt the immense sense of jealousy in the atmosphere of our room too when you became her seatmate.", she said. I gulped as I imagined what could've they looked like earlier while me and Momo are interacting at each other. They must have very deadly and burning aura in their eyes all connected at me as they feel extremely jealous at me for sitting beside a very beautiful woman like Momo.

"That makes me get scared a bit, you know that?", I said to Mina while caressing my arms to show that I somewhat got goosebumps about that.

"Well, you have someone with you that captures everyone's attention. You must be really tensed.", Mina said as she squirted another amount of ketchup in her hotdog.

"Meh. Don't really care. That won't stop me still for trying to know her well.", I said while showing how unbothered I am. "I don't know why, but there's inside of me that's receiving something like a signal which makes me want to get closer with her.", I said while I'm indicating my heart by tapping my chest. I sighed after.

"Maybe you found her like... she needs some sort of, help?", Mina shared her guess.

"I guess so? Wait, maybe you're right... I mean, she doesn't have any friends aside her family for sure which makes her hard to escape these fears she's having on people.", I said to Mina as I can feel once again what I mostly felt on Momo a while ago when I observed that she looks quite uncomfortable having me with her which made me adjust myself and started to think of words to tell her that will make her calm down.

Concern.

Worried.

Anxious.

These are the exact feelings I'm mostly having while facing her earlier.

...Speaking of help...", as I cast my gaze across the dining hall, I happened to notice something that caused me to stop and simply look at her once again while still feeling the same emotions I did previously.

It may seem like Momo is fine with this, but I know deep down she wants to try something new other than this, and that is to get in with everyone else around her. I saw Momo sitting at the very end of the cafeteria, about to eat her lunch in her lunchbox. What makes me frown is that she's the only student here who is eating alone. Like literally her space is very wide, but she's the only one sitting there.

Now that made me even push myself more to the point that I should do what I must do to this new classmate of mine after having these thoughts and feelings all concerning about her supposed to be problem, courtesy from Mina's theory. It led me to the conclusion that...

I want to help Momo.

" Follow me.", I swiftly said. Mina only watched me with her perplexed gaze as I got up from my seat and collected my tray.

As I was ready to step upon Momo's seat, she noticed and knew that I was about to do so, so she asked me in shock at what I was doing.

"Wait, you're really gonna do this?!", Mina stood up and followed me from behind.

" Yeah? Why think about it twice? It's not that she ates people to get terrified though.", I shrugged my shoulders as I said that.

After just a few steps, me and Mina are now standing in front of Momo's position. She was about to scoop a spoonful of rice and some veggies when a pair of shadow figures covered her. She looked up and she saw me and Mina standing with our trays.

I saw her eyes widened and then she immediately lowered down her head to avoid looking at us.

"Hello, Momo. Can we?", I asked her while pointing to the spare chair she has. She nodded after so me and Mina took seat together in front of her.

"Sorry for how sudden we appeared hehe.", I said while scratching my nape. Momo looked at me finally. " I just noticed that you're alone here so since as your classmate, I'm gonna join you here if you don't mind.", she then lets out a sound that maybe it tells that she's thankful at me for doing that and nodded again after.

"Good. Oh by the way, this one right here with me, she's my friend and also our classmate.", I looked at Mina and pointed at her.

" Hi. I'm Myoui Mina. Nice to meet you, Momo.", Mina introduced herself with her soft voice while waving her wing... oh sorry I mean, hand. Well, I always tease her that she's a penguin because... she cleaely resembles and acts like one.

"H-hi.", Momo greeted her back after with a very embarassed hi.

"You're also Japanese right? Don't be scared, you can be comfortable to talk with me through our native language. ", Mina continued.

"O-ok."

"Now, let's eat first?", I looked at them both. " We can talk and if you want, Momo. Feel free to join us or you could rather listen to our stories.", Momo flinched at my mention of her name. She just complied with a nod after.

The three of us starts to eat. During our time me and Mina started sharing some topics about ourselves. Some were about the time when me and Mina met each other in high school, Mina's reason why she studied here in Korea which is because of her brother who went college here and our own experiences when we had entered here in the campus for the first time.

Ofcourse, we didn't let Momo just listen to us. We gave her freedom to talk and share a story too with us while Momo was the one responding to them. Fortunately, she did it but still through her notebook. But it's fine to me, we didn't force her anymore to speak instead because I know she's still not get used to just speak instantly at people she just met and interacted with.

What we learned about her is that Momo studied here because of her father transferred to work in Korea as a chef. We also asked what she's feeling so far in her first day today in their campus, and there she said that she's nervous and anxious, enough for me and Mina to be clarified that Momo really has a social anxiety... which also makes me really understand more on what should I do for Momo.

3 hours later, the end of class finally came and all the students started to went home. I just left the classroom and I saw Mina now wearing her bag on her back with her officer shirt on her hand, remembering that Mina has a meeting today with her fellow student council officers.

" Bye, YN! Have a safe way home!", Mina waved her free hand at me after she saw me in the hallway.

"Bye Mina! See you tomorrow!", I waved back at her. She starts to turn back and focus on her direction towards their office while me on the other hand continue to walk out of the campus.

After I finally stepped on the streets of Suwon, I started to walk on my way home when in a blink of an eye, I saw a familiar figure through the distance.

I am definitely not mistaken as I saw Momo about to take a turn onto another street which is where I am heading too. Realizing that she's alone by herself, I quickly ran to catch her.

"Momo!", I shouted her name after I am just few steps away from her. She quickly stopped on her tracks as she straightened her body even more, shocked at the voice she heard that for sure had her guessed immediately who might be the owner of it.

"Hey! Sorry if I scared you.", I finally reached beside her and prodded her on the shoulder, making her wince. "I was going in this way too and I saw you here. What area are you at?"

She then pulled her phone from her pocket and began to type. She later showed me what she had entered on the screen.

On her screen, it states, "In Changrun-ro."

"Oh really? I am just next at your place then.", I gasped after I found out that Momo is actually just my neighbor. She also lets out a sound, clearly indicates that she was also amazed at it. "That means our houses are just near at each other. Shocking, right?", she just nodded after. After that, she started to type another one on her phone and showed it to me.

"I thought Mina's with you?"

"Mina's part of the student council since last year. She got reelected and they have a meeting today. Maybe about their newly set schedules for this school year.", I explained to Momo. "Also, even if she doesn't have one I can't be with her on our way home. Hers was far from mine."

"Well fun fact, Mina is from a rich family so they live in a subdivision.", I said to her, making her purse her lips. "Since we are kinda neighbors anyways, could we just go and out of the school together? Is that okay to you?"

"Y-yes.", she answered me using her small girly voice again.

"Great! Let's start tomorrow then.", I grinned at her. We continued to walk until we finally reached her two storey house which was very nice looking with it's white and black painted walls.

"So, this is your house. It's nice, just like ours too.", I smiled at her which made her look at me and smiled too. "Well, this is where we part ways now. Bye, Momo!", I started to take a few steps away her as I'm about to start leaving her in front of her gate.

"B-bye.", and then Momo starts to enter her house. But as she was ready to unlock their door, I remembered something and gave her one last call.

"W-wait! Momo!!", we both turned around to face each other. Her expression is filled with uncertainty, while mine is slightly stiff.

"Uhm... since we're starting to be close with one another, can you consider me as y-your friend now?", I scratched my arm, embarassed and scared at the same time that she won't accept.Well that won't gonna easily escape my mind since I know she's probably not really into this thing called building a friendship.

She just stood still and stared at me in shock when I asked her about my request. Through her eyes, I can see that she is essentially asking why I would want to be friends with someone so boring. She must have been surprised as well because this is so unfamiliar to her.

"O-okay, I- I guess you need some time to answer. It's fine, Momo. I can wait!", I just bowed my head and about to walk away again when a seconds later, I heard her slowly talk as she pours a lot of effort onto it just to share what she finally decided at my request.

"Y-YN... I- w-want... t-to... b-be... y-your friend... too."

My breath stopped a bit as my excitement and happiness starts to take over my body. As I went back to exhale when I processed on my mind that she literally accepted my offer of frienship to her, my face enlightened and my lips starts to curve upwards.

I actually felt more lucky than her because I can't believe I made a person with fear of socializing have even a bit of a trust to accept being friends with some average guy like me even if we just met hours ago. That made me want not to disappoint her even more.

"T-thank you, Momo! Seriously, thank you. I will do my best to be a great friend. I swear!", I started to bow repeatedly like an idiot in front of her. I heard her giggle which made me happy even more that I know I made her feel like that.

Her face turned fully beet red as she felt extreme embarrassment as I caught her laughing. She quickly went to open her door and shut it, leaving me here with a large grin on my face.

Meanwhile, after Momo just closed the door, she slowly slides her back on the surface of the door until she finally sat down on the floor as she covered her face with both of her palm, trying to calm down herself and get rid of her blush on her cheeks while her mother approached her and tried to inspect on her if there's anything wrong.

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2 WEEKS LATER

After that day where Momo accepted my offer of friendship, I started to act very nicely towards her; sticking to my oath that I should must never disappoint her for being her very first friend, as what she mentioned to me.

It went pretty well, we can still understand each other and have fun together even if she's still communicating through either her phone or notebook. I also got her acknowledge Mina as her another friend too, which the latter didn't even hesitate to accept it.

Based from what she also told me, she can easily notice people around her find her to be intimidating and scary; making them pull theirselves away from her even more and also making the chance of her trying to interact with others drop every measure.

To be honest, she's honestly pretty good. My experience of having a friend like her is completely different than Mina. I also even like the fact that she's unique from others, which makes me even more proud to have a friend like her to me. I just hope also thinks and feels the same as me for that.

2 weeks later, I am in my classmate's house along with my groupmates as we're about to make a group activity based from what our teacher assigned us to do; which is to make a huge illustration and explaination of how the plates move here on Earth.

"All clear guys?, our leader and my classmate Karina asked us again after assigning us our parts.

"Yup.", we all answered, except for Momo who just nodded like she always does.

Oh yeah, I just forgot to mention that Momo is also my groupmate. As usual, we both went together to our leader's assigned meeting place to gather.

" Now let's go and start so that we can finish our task and rest early.", she then clapped as a go signal and then we finally start to do what we must do in our activity.

10 minutes later, as I'm drawing the surface of a mountain; I noticed Momo who is spacing out. Feeling concerned, I went beside her.

"Uhhh, Momo.", I gently shaked her body by grabbing her on her shoulder. "Hey, you good?", I asked as she looked at me. She nodded, with her hidden message being "I'm okay."

" You don't seem like it." I shook my head, giving a doubt over her obvious lie. I don't want her to think that I'm gonna get angry for hiding something to her as a friend so I just took this pretty smooth and soft for her to avoid panicking and start overthinking.

"Hey, don't be shy. Tell me what's wrong. You've been staring at that colored paper you're holding for a minute now.", I said to her as I continue to comfort her. She slowly lowered down her head.

"You can write it down for me to understand if you are nervous. Don't worry, I can adjust for you, you know that.", she then took out her notebook and started writing on it.

"I want to suggest an idea to them but it's hard. I'm scared that they won't like it."

I formed an 'o' shape on my mouth as I finally understand what she's worrying for. "Oh so you want to suggest something?"

She nodded.

"Tell me yours, I got your back.", I said to her. " I'll be the one to share it on behalf of yours Momo."

She wrote again on her notebook.

"Are you sure about this? I don't even know if my idea will be good."

"We won't know unless we try, Momoring.", I said to her with a comforting smile. She blushed when I called her by my own version of her nickname to make her feel that everything's gonna be okay.

Just as while Momo got finally convinced at my persuading and she started writing her idea on her notebook, our leader Karina called my attention.

"Hey, YN? Are you done in your par so far?"

"H-hey Karina, uhh it has progress now.", I said as I nervously smiled and pointed at the part of our work which is mine while I also switch my gaze on Momo. As she finally finished her writing, I took it and gave her an assuring smile and a nod.

"Uhm, can I tell you something?"

"Yeah sure spill it out.", I then went beside her and leaned forward near to her ear.

"You see, Momo here can't communicate pretty well because of her social anxiety so she's too shy and scared to talk to others. She just told me that she has a suggestion to give about our work here so far, but yeah due to her problem she can't share it so mind if I tell it for Momo then?", I whispered to her.

"Oh yeah, sure YN!", she gave me an understanding nod. She then went towards Momo who's already avoiding Karina look at hers because she's definitely embarassed and tensed about her suggestion.

But to her surprise, that ended up opposite. "Don't worry Momo, everything's fine. We all understand. It must be really hard and we are here to tone it down so try to train yourself to talk with us. As a leader and your classmate too, I want to best for my groupmates.", she said as she pats Momo's shoulders while smiling. Momo just nodded and smiled back.

"Thank you, YN by the way. You're very kind to her.", she turned her head at me.

"No prob, anything for my friend here.", I said as I looked to Momo who smiled and looked away with a red tint on her cheeks.

"So, back to what I am saying. Can I have what you wrote Momo?", Momo then gave the notebook on Karina. While she's reading it, I took the position to discuss and explain to her what I understood about Momo's suggestion.

"And there you go. What do you say?", I said, placing my fists on my waists.

"Actually it is pretty good, yeah. I think this could really work out on presenting and making sure that everyone who sees our work will have their eyes glued on this.", Karina said as she double checked again what Momo wrote on her notebook. "Momo, seriously this is a great idea.", she said with an impressed tone. Momo smiled shyly.

"Okay everyone, we have a change of plans here. Listen.", Karina gathered the attention of our fellow classmates who are busy at their parts to share what Momo suggested to our leader here.
To her success, Momo made all our groupmates here approve of her idea and since majority always wins, Karina starts to assign everyone what changes should they make.

While our leader is busy doing her role, I looked at Momo and smiled proudly at her. "Good job, Momo.", I patted her head which made her giggle.

"T-thanks...", she said while blushing hard.

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It's been half an hour later and our activity is now complete and all done, thanks to the great teamwork we showed. We all looked at our work and it just looks fantastic, thanks to our efforts and to our combined ideas, which we mostly followed Momo's own.

"Bye Karina! Thanks for the time!", I waved goodbye at our leader after we are the last one to exit her house. We stayed a bit longer to help her clean the mess our group made.

"Bye guys! Be safe! See you tomorrow!", me and Momo waved back at her again before we finally turn our bodies around and walk away from Karina's place.

"Ahh wow I'm excited to present our work there. You really came up with a very interesting and bright idea earlier.", I said to her confidently.

"YN...", she got me alert very quickly when she called my name. She doesn't do it very often, so that's why. Also, if she does that, I shall not waste that moment and I must give her the attention she deserves to have.

"Hmm?"

" I-I'm sorry, if i m-making you h-hard to assist m-me....", Momo replied carefully, bending her head as she battled her stammer to say what she wanted to convey for what I did earlier and to the other days where I assisted her on various things.

It made my heart warm and smile impressively by how Momo is now taking the efforts to try speaking her thoughts and feelings like I wanted her to be good of.

We stopped as I turned around to face me and I held both of her shoulders and look at me straight in the eye to show how serious I am of this. "No, it's all fine. Don't say it. Don't think that you are a burden to me okay? You're not. All of what I did for you was wholeheartedly and willingly. It's not forced or with a mix of frustration. No.

I told you I want to be your friend so as of that, I want to make sure that I can help my friend and not let her struggling. What I did earlier, they deserve to know because... that's my way to make them avoid looking at you weirdly and think different about you like you're just nothing to them.

So next time, please don't ever apologize about this. I know what I put myself into but I don't care. What matters here is that you have a friend whom you can be comfortable with which you haven't had in your whole life, and that's me.", I pointed at myself after. I smiled at her and hummed if she understood it clearly which she only replied with a nod, already enough for me to take it.

"Now, cmon let's go. The sky is getting dark looks like it's raining.", I gestured for us to continue walking even faster to reach our respective houses after I looked up to the sky.

What I didn't know at that time is that after I said those very sweet, friendly and touching words to her... she's secretly developing a different feeling for the first time which is towards me that started slowly covering her heart and create another function and meaning to the way it beats when I'm around her.

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3 DAYS LATER

It's Tuesday morning and I arrived exactly 20 minutes early again in our classroom.

I stepped inside and waved my hand at Mina who greeted me a good morning before heading back to talk to our classmates.

I reached my seat and placed my bag on it. Now that I'm done, I looked at Momo and oh.... she looks.... very different.

"Hey, good morning Mo-", I immediatly halted in my position as I stared for a minute because I got stunned at what I saw from her.

I didn't know that I unintentionally made her worry and panic so she grabbed my arm and gently shaked me so that I could be awakened back into this reality.

"D-did you cut your hair?", I said as I gulped after how embarassing I looked in front of her.

"Yes, y-yesterday.", Momo answered as she lowered her head to hide her face which she thought that it looked bad and hilarious on her that's why it made me act weirdly earlier.

"Wow you look.... you really look beautiful today, Momo.", I said to her to end her negative thinking about herself. I made he slightly raise her head and look at me with her eyes upwards. "Seriously, I never thought this will make you ever prettier with this new style."

"T-thanks.", Momo gratefully took my compliment towards her. She was blushing hard also because I didn't know that it was also her first time to experience a guy to praise her looks face to face and very sincere to her.

"Also, please continue doing your best to speak more. Your voice is just as heavenly as the way you are.", I smiled at her. Never had any idea that she has her heart beating abnormally already due to my rapid shots of sweet words towards her.

"Anyways, you're welcome, Momo. Let's do well today! Fighting!", I gestured to her by raising my fist and smiled at her. She also did the same and then we both focused on our own business. I didn't notice at that time that Momo was actually taking glances at her secretly, as another sign of how much she's already admiring and falling in love with me which I haven't noticed from her yet at this time.

Uno reverse card though, during classes I can't help but to look sideways at her just to see this perfect side angle of her godly face structure along with her newly hairstyle that gives me 100% Japanese aura vibes.

My chest felt heavy, and my heart was racing. As a result, I found it much harder to comprehend the lesson my teacher was trying to teach us because Momo was the only image that kept popping up in my mind.

Sadly, the world was making a fun of me when Momo caught me staring at her, I immediately went back at my book and acted like i'm listening to our teacher and pretend like nothing just happened. Momo on the other hand, was smiling softly while blushing at me; thinking that my embarassed face was too adorable for her.

And through that, it was enough for me to be convinced that I secretly do grown likeness as more than a friend to Momo. Days passed and my feelings went up and up until I just only know that I love her and she's my ultimate crush.

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3 MONTHS LATER

MOMO'S POV

It's just another simple day as I need to go to school again. Right now I'm inside our classroom reading the final part of the storybook I'm reading. I chose to close my eyes for a little since I was starting to feel drowsy and bored. However, when I looked up, I was shocked and confused to see that it had already been 30 minutes since I had arrived, and YN was nowhere to be seen.

I immediately frowned as I felt the growing emotion of sadness inside me. My mind started to think of different possibilities and reasons onto why YN wasn't here yet and the class is about to start. My body is slowly shaking as I'm panicking deep inside what might happened to YN right now.

I am aware that I am overreacting, but I can't help myself. I simply cannot have YN on my side. Because I adore YN so much, I especially can't stand to be apart from him for even a minute, hour, or day. Even though I am aware that we are friends, I can't help but adore you so much. He is a truly ideal man, a wonderful person, and a boyfriend material. He was the only person who could handle my personality, and he kept his promise to stick by me until I could act independently around other people.

He was one of the reason why my day goes already complete. He was my battery, my source of energy and happiness. Without him, I feel like I'm lacking something within me which I'll be waiting for him to come back just to make me full again. He was the one who is slowly making me recover from my weakness and my heavy problems so that I can finally be okay. Thanks to him I am able to speak slowly and maintain myself relaxed while communicating. He's just that very important to me.

I want to tell him how much I love him, but I'm terrified and worried what will happen if he doesn't reciprocate. What if he only thinks of me as a friend? What if my obvious symptoms are simply how I typically react? These are the ideas that are always running through my mind, and as a result, I am compelled to conceal my emotions while I work to gather my thoughts and calm down before I attempt to engage and take the risk.

I was drifting off into my own thoughts when I felt YN's chair stir, bringing me back to reality. I swiftly turned around to see Mina standing in front of me with a gummy grin.

"Ohayogozaimasu (Hello, good morning), Momoring!!", she greeted me.

"G-good morning.", I greeted back and smiled at her.

"Oh, such strange that YN wasn't here. The class is about to start in two minutes.", she said as she take a look at the clock hanging in the wall of the classroom. "Maybe he's gonna be late but really... he never does.", I just gulped when she realized what I am thinking about right now.

I then felt something vibrating on my pocket. I pulled out my phone and looked it up where I saw a message notification coming from YN himself. My body quickly responded and moved by itself as I quickly pressed it and prepared myself to read it.

" Y-YN texted me.", I said as i finally opened our chat box.

"Oh really, can I see?", I just nodded and Mina leaned her face closer beside my head as both of us are now looking intently at my phone's screen to read YN's message to me.

"Hello Momo! Can you please tell Mrs. Oh that I can't come to class today? I don't really feel so good right now due to fever. Thanks and enjoy your day!"

Oh no.

A morning without him already and will end up until the end of this day, just like what I thought.

As what i said, I felt myself got weakened a bit and my mood dropped a half when I finally learned that he isn't gonna make it for today because he is sick.

Now that made me worry even more for him. How is he right now? Is he somewhat doing pretty well? Did he take medicine? Oh my god my thoughts are now attacking my mind and it's making my head hurts.

"So he really is absent today. That's sad.", Mina sighed and pursed her lips. " Please send my prayers that I hope he'll get well soon, Momoring.", I just nodded and smiled tiny at her before she leaves my side.

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Our class just ended and I finally made it to my house. I quickly ran towards my bedroom and slumped myself onto my bed. I picked up my phone and finally released what I've been holding to myself for hours in our room by texting YN immediately to ask him how he is doing so far.

Momo: "How are you?"

YN: "Not really okay. My head aches so bad and it's so hot in here. Kinda hard since i'm alone rn in the house hehe."

Because of what I just read on his message, especially where he revealed that he's just all by himself right now while being sick made me changed my clothes so quickly for the first time in my entire life.

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YOUR POV

After I just drank my glass of water and placed on my table. I heard someone just knocked on my door. To my curiousity, I went to see who it is after I wore my mask properly to avoid spreading the virus I have in me.

"Hello? Just a sec. W-who is it?", I opened the door and what I just saw made my eyes bigger because I really did not expect this one to arrive in my place right now.

"M-momo chan? What are you doing here?!", I exclaimed to Momo who's standing at my door very worriedly while gripping her bag tightly. "You might get infected.", and to my surprise she didn't listened as she just pushed me gently aside and went inside my house. I tried to stop her and convince her to get out as a way of protecting her to avoid getting sick too but I just end up failing. I have no energy left with me so I just let her instead and surrender.

"Thank you for coming, Momo. A lot, even though you don't need to.", I dizzily went to my bed to sit. Momo placed her bag on the living room and went towards me to put the back of her hand on my forehead. When she felt that it's really hot, she startled at how bad my fever is. "I'm getting worried that you might get sick too.", I said to her as I look onto her precious face who's looking very concerned at me.

She just shook her head to imply that she won't. She helped me lay down on my bed after as she went to my kitchen. I was amazed when I found out that she's literally gonna cook something for me. I just let her do what she wants as I let out some couple of coughs while feeling really badly at my burning temperature

She then comes back to my bedroom now with a bowl of cream of mushroom soup in her hands as sg=he carefully served it and placed it on my mini table beside my bed. She gestured me to stand up to eat. I grabbed the spoon and took my first bite of it.

"Wow this soup is very delicious.", I hummed in satisfication of it's taste. Wow, Momo literally impressed me of her cooking.

She then took the spoon and scooped another amount of the soup on it. When I figured out that she's gonna help me eat, I dodged as I felt emebrassed at her. Momo starts to shake a bit, maybe I made her think something different at my action. My bad...

"I-just want to h-help you this t-time, YN. Let me do it.", as I remembered what I said earlier that I'll just let her do what she wants, I just nodded in response and let her continue putting that spoonful of soup in my mouth. She did this until the bowl goes empty and during that, I am just looking at her attractive face as she's taking care of me while i'm falling deeply even more for her.

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MOMO'S POV

I fed YN and made him drink his medicine before allowing him to pass out on his bed. I made the necessary adjustments to his pillow and blanket to ensure that he could sleep peacefully and comfortably.

After I finished, I noticed his pale, still hand with an open palm lying near him. My attempts to grip his hand instantly came to memory. I was surprised, and my whole body trembled in terror and panic as I wondered if he would catch me.

But my overthinking doesn't help me at all as it only made things worse for me when my loving eyes landed next on his forehead. Now my crave of making him show and feel my love for him by not noticing it just increased until finally, in an unexpected turn of events I just let my heart and mind choose what it wants this time.

I locked my hand onto his warm and sweating hand and then went closely to his face as I planted a peck of a kiss on his forehead. I blushed intensely at my action and grinned widely.

"Get well soon, my YN. Bye."

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5 DAYS LATER

YOUR POV

Three days ago, my fever entirely disappeared, primarily due of Momo, who looked after me on behalf of my parents, who are usually too busy at work to be with me at home.

I'm not sulking and yelling at them. In reality, because what they're doing is also for me and my future, I understand them instead because that's all I had to do anyhow.

Speaking of family, it was fortunate that my parents were all present when Momo shyly announced that her parents had invited my parents and me to dinner.

My mother was the one who agreed the fastest because due to me and Momo's closeness, our mother's got introduced to each other and at some times they are meeting and having some talks together which made them form quite a bond together.

Now we are here tonight in Hirai's residence, sitting in front of their table. Our arrangement was me facing Momo who's improvement from her social anxiety is clearly being shown in front of me as she looks less embarassed having many people around her.

Although I don't see that much scared and shyness on her, what's more obvious on her is that she's feeling nervous having both our whole families interacting with each other all at the same time for the first time tonight.

So back to what's the arrangement of our sitting. I'm sitting in front of Momo, my mother is facing Mrs. Hirai and my father is facing Mr. Hirai. Actually, Momo has a sister named Hana but sadly she can't join us because she's a dance choreographer working in abroad.

"I'm really glad that we are all complete here. Thank you so much again for accepting our invitation.", Mrs. Hirai said as she shows her grateful smile.

"It's nothing.", my mother waved it off and chuckled. "After all, we kinda needs this as we should since we need to be close to each other well... just like our son and daughter's bond."

"I'm really really thankful that your son was my peach's first found friend in high school.", it's Mr. Hirai's turn to speak as he took a glance at me while he's smiling, which made me get shy a bit at his kindness. Also, I just heard something from him like some sort of a nickname. Peach? That's what they call Momo? That's actually cute.

"I've heard so many things about YN here helping our daughter through her anxiety when it comes to people.", Mr. Hirai continued. "You two really raised such a great child."

"We are also really proud that YN is showing how pure his heart is.", my father said as a response while ruffling my already fixed hair which made me got annoyed a bit, but still I let him be because I simply love my father especially that he's showing to everyone how proud he is of me being his son. "Good manners is one of the important things for us parents to teach for their child, right? So i'm glad that YN cherished it and used it very well not only for himself but for others around him.

"Also, I wish for a better progress of improvement over your daughter's recovery.", he then took a gaze at Momo while wearing his soft smile.

"Don't worry, dad. She can speak way better now compared to our first meeting.", I said to him confidently. "Right, Momo?", I looked at her after.

"Yes, i-it's true.", Momo said, having a bit of a stutter in her word because I know and understand that she's still feeling nervous at this moment.

"And that's all because of you so thank you so much again YN.", Mrs. Hirai said to me gratefully.

"As we said Mrs. Hirai, it's no problem.", I smiled.

"Just call me okaasan, please.", I just followed what she requested to me after since I know she did that to make me feel comfortable interacting with her even though I'm already fine calling her with an honorific. "Oh my daughter is really lucky to found such great man like you are.", Mrs. Hirai said as she looked very lovingly to her daughter as she stroked Momo's short straight hair.

" You know, if there's ever a chance that you two might level it up... you know, develop feelings at each other... I won't protest.", I then choked on the water I'm drinking as I rudely splattered some water coming from my mouth on the table. My father chuckled as he gently patted on my back to help me calm down while the rest laughed, except Momo who's looking really red and smiling uneasy at how sudden and embarassing her mother just said to us.

"I agree. You two match perfectly together! Why don't you two give it a try if there's one?", now my mother joined the chaos as she pointed at me at Momo. We both looked at each other and seriously we are slowly melting in embarassment right now.

Since we both can't take it anymore and tried to end this so that they can move on to another topic, we both exclaimed together. "Mom stop it please! We're just friends!"

"Okay, if you two said so.", Mrs. Hirai as she rolled her eyes, definitely not believing us. "Well, let's not make the foods here wait. Everyone, eat!", and we started to pick some foods and devour it on our plates.

2 hours later, my family decided to spare the free time to continue having some long conversations with each other at the living room while me and Momo decided to hang out in her bedroom.

"I-i'm sorry about earlier. Mom just loves to t-tease that's all. ", Momo chuckled while caressing her arm.

" It's fine. Your mom is really funny and nice.", I laughed a little at what she said. I then sat at the edge of her bed and she joined me after, occupying the space beside me. "Well, should we not waste any more time now?"

"Do you want to w-watch a movie?"

"Oh sure! You can choose what you want though.", I said, pointing at the large flat screen TV in front of us.

"Be right back. I-i'll be getting some snacks.", she said to me and then she went out of the bedroom. She came back after with popcorn and chips in her hand along with canned softdrinks.

We then started to watch a movie based from her own choosing. She picked Monsters Inc. and there she hugely fell in love with one of the characters in the animated film, which is a little girl named Boo. She even muttered that one day if she had a dog, she will name it also the same as the character.

After we watched the film, we then played Among Us after since it was the only multiplayer game she has on her phone. I adjusted for her so I downloaded it too to join her.

"It's violet! It's violet! The impostor!", I shouted to Momo after I just got killed by this monster disguising as our co- spacemate in our spaceship.
"I saw from the storage he killed orange through vent."

" You sure?", Momo asked me as our phone then shifts on showing the emergency chat box to start discussing who's the killer.

"Trust me, I'm walking at the hallway when it happened.", I said to her, trying to make her convinced which at the end I succeeded.

"Okay, then let's vote for violet.", then Momo starts to inform it to other players and gave some detailed and reasonable explainations why she's blaming violet for my death, even though at the same time she's nervous that maybe they'll just kick Momo instead. Fortunately, the players believed Momo and they kicked out violet out of the ship.

"See! Told you!", I said with all happiness to Momo as the screen shows a message that violet is the imposter. Momo just laughed at my action.

"Nice game. You got some sharp eyes.", she smirked at me.

"Eh not really, it just made me aware instantly", I replied to her. I heard a sigh after coming only from her.

"Looks like somebody is sleepy~", I teased her as I playfully bumped her shoulder.

"Definitely.", Momo lazily said.

"That's our last game now.", we both turned off our phone. I stood up on her bed so that I can give her all the space to lay down. "You should sleep. Guess I'll be go-", before I was about to finish my words, she interrupted me to instruct me something.

" Wait... c-can you open that star projector on my desk?", she then pointed at it.

"This? Oh sure...", I picked it up and gave it to her. She turned it on and set it on top of her bed's headboard, illuminating the ceiling with lights that resembled the many various colors of stars. I had the impression that I was actually inside a planetarium station.

"Wow, it looks amazing. It almost looks real," I exclaimed, still in a state of awe.

"I always turn t-that on when I sleep.", she said as she stuttered, making me guess it already that she's quite shy sharing it. " My father gave it to m-me as a gift."

" He sure did picked well for you.", I smiled at her. I tried to say goodbye to her after taking a few more seconds to gaze at the projected stars above us. "I guess I should l-," but she stopped me off again just as I was about to continue, and what she said next left me speechless.

She grabbed my arm to stop me from turning away from her and asked, "Can you remain for a while?" She replied to me, "I-I simply... want to experience what it feels like to... see the stars above with someone special with me," which sent my heart racing.

"Sure, Momo.", is all what I had to say to her. I just can't believe I'm gonna have a moment like this with my friend slash crush with me right now.

I laid down beside her and we both stared at the ceiling to watch the projected stars flashing in our eyes.

"Well, how was your day today?", I asked her to ease down the awkwardness in our atmosphere.

"Great. Yours?", she replied.

"Same.", I smiled. "Our families straight quickly got along really well, especially our moms. They do share the same vibe.", we both laughed after that. Then again, we both once fell into complete silence as the awkward atmosphere is starting to cover us around again.

"YN...", she called my name, thinking of starting another topic.

"Hmm?"

"Thank you. For everything.", she said. I smiled and I looked at the side view of her breathtaking face which her clear white skin is being reflected by the stars above. " You were the o-only one who managed to h-help me slowly face this p-problem i've been facing for years now. I g-gained confidence little by little and I l-learned how to face my fears because of you. You m-made me experience many new t-things in my life that I really wanted to h-have. What it's like to properly communicate, to s-share what do you want to say, to interact with o-others... and most importantly, to have a f-friend.

If I never met you in the f-first place, I will never be able to be better a-again unlike what am I today. From the bottom of my heart, t-thank you for being my support, my savior, my friend.", she said slowly as she expressed all her gratitude for what I did for her which definitely made my heart melt in an instant.

"That's actually sweet, Momo.", I smiled softly. "You're welcome and also thank you for giving me this opportunity to be friends with you. Always take this to your mind that I will do everything for you, now that you see clearly my worth as a friend to you... it made me really careful not wanting to disappoint you with my mistakes I am avoiding to make."

"I know, YN... and I won't, b-because I believe in you.", she then teasingly pinched me in the cheek which made me groan in pain but at the same time I liked it, enough to form a blush on my cheek. Quite a masochist, am I?

Things then changed as I abruptly altered the topic of our chat to something that needed to be taken very seriously.

I made the decision to attempt telling her I love her. I don't know why, but I just felt that this would be the best method for me to accomplish it. A chilly night, a relaxed mood, being alone yourself with her... and there are such lovely sights all around us.

If she might react anything different from what I'm gonna say to her, I'm still here to help her calm down and do something quickly because I already know the risks of doing this anyways.

"Can I ask something?"

"Sure."

"What we said to our parents about them teasing us earlier, do you mean it?", I asked her, making her furrow her eyebrows and look at me as I'm finally getting onto my point. "T-that... we're j-just friends?

" I... uhm... w-why did you ask?", she confusedly asked me.

"I just want to know if you're just the same as me.", I rotated my body and laid sideways, now facing her. She looked at me and I can tell she's getting embarassed at what the hell am I about to say next about. "T-that mine's not real at all. I lied.", Momo's eyes got bigger as she got shocked at my confession to her.

"Momo... I- I actually like you more than just us as friends.", I said, now revealing my feelings for her. " I see you completely as my crush. As someone I once liked and now i'm deeply over the heels for.", I sighed and I avoided to look at her for a second to wait how is she gonna respond.

"R-really? H-how?", she asked me, feeling puzzled.

"I can't really explain that much. It just... happened.", I shrugged, slapping my thigh. " But I can remember that it developed more at that time when you got this haircut that perfectly suits and showcased your beauty and Japanese look.", I then looked around her face after.

"I can't take my eyes off you, it happened also where I actually didn't want to blink anymore. Everytime you show up it's like I can already tell that my day will already be good.

Until days passed, the more we spend time together the more you occupy my heart and mind. Now I mostly think and live for you, Momo. I just really love you that much.", my voice gets a bit shaky because of how sincere I am at my feelings as I flow all of my heart at every words I say to her. I smiled after, knowing that I successfully explained to it all.

"YN...", she called me again with that damn adorable voice of hers that I always love to hear 24/7.

"Hmm?"

"You don't know how very happy I am right now hearing this from you.", she said as she grinned shyly at me.

" W-what?", I said, whuch I'm actually shocked at because I thought she'll respond worse. "Oh, t-thanks."

"Because... I finally know that my crush also likes and especially... loves me too.", my eyes went big as I gasped heavily at her when I heard those words I'm literally did not expecting from her. Am I hearing things correctly or what? S-she... loves me?!

" YN I didn't meant what I said during the dinner too earlier.", she laid her body sideways, now looking straight back at me. "I was shy ofcourse, had a thought that maybe you'll react differently when you found out and then you'll just gonna distance from me.

You know that I'm scared being alone again. I don't want you leave me.", she then holds my hand which made me shiver from her warm touch.

"But now we both know the truth now, eh? We don't need to be afraid and overthink of what could be the consequences and possibilities cause right now...

...what's important here is that you and I both know that we share the same feelings for each other.", I raised our intertwined fingers and kissed her knuckles and gripped it tightly.

"I love you, Momo. I really do. I promise that I will do my best to be there by your side where I could take care of you and shower you with all my love, as what you earn and deserve from me. This won't gonna be the same as before anymore, Momo, as long as we have each other.", I then gently caressed her shoulder as I smile at her very sweetly.

"I love you too, YN.", she breathily said to me. I noticed that her eyes are starting to form tears around it. " I'm l-looking forward to it. Thank you so m-much.", and then we didn't want to miss the opportunity already as the gap pf our faces slowly gets narrow until finally the moment I've been wanting to have, came true. We kissed with nothing but pure love is all we can taste from each other. After half a minute of passionately kissing, we spread apart our faces to take some time to chase our breaths.

"They're right. It feels g-good.", Momo smiled shyly.

"Yeah it really is.", I chuckled which made her do the same.

"Okay, now lay yourself comfortably first before I sing you a lullaby so that you can sleep well.", she followed me after and then she adjusted herself to lay at the center of her bed as I wrap her thick white blanket around her. I started to sing "With A Smile" by Eraserheads as a lullaby for her which I thought this pretty much suits about her so well so I chose this.

Lift your head, baby, don't be scared
Of the things that could go wrong along the way
You'll get by with a smile
You can't win at everything, but you can try

Baby, you don't have to worry
'Cause there ain't no need to hurry
No one ever said that there's an easy way
When they're closing all their doors
And they don't want you anymore
This sounds funny, but I'll say it anyway

Girl, I'll stay through the bad times
Even if I have to fetch you everyday
We'll get by with a smile
You can never be too happy in this life

'Cause in a world where everybody hates a happy ending story
It's a wonder love can make the world go round
But dont let it bring you down
And turn your face into a frown
You'll get along with a little prayer and a song

Before I was about to repeat the lyrics, I noticed that she finally fell asleep with a smile on her face.

"Goodnight and let's meet in our sweet dreams, my silent peach.", I called her by using her nickname based from what I heard to her father earlier which was fascinating. "Thank you for embracing my love for you.", I kissed her forehead before I finally left her bedroom and join my parents and her parents on the living room.

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