“Why didn’t I kiss her?.. Why didn’t I kiss her?.. Why didn’t I kiss her?!”

 

“Can you take your self-loathing somewhere else?” Hyoyeon said exasperatedly as she chucked the pen she was using at her pacing friend. The pen bounces harmlessly off Yuri’s shoulder, not breaking her pace or her train of thought. Or her self-loathing. She had plenty enough of that to go around.

 

“Aw, come now Hyo. I thought you were friends.” Sunny chirped from lazing on her bed. She tilted her head to look at Yuri upside down, a small pitying smile pulling at her lips. “Shouldn’t you help her?”

 

“Hyo is being a friend.” Sooyoung, sitting at the edge of Hyoyeon’s bed, pipes up. She sends Yuri a pitying look and shook her head. “Yuri’s just…” she sighs. “It takes a while for Yuri to snap out of that zone she’s in. Does that whenever she’s frustrated or angry, and she looks absolutely stupid.” She ends the last sentence in a louder tone, hoping it would pierce through Yuri’s subconsciousness. Hyoyeon and Sooyoung pass their hopeless friend an expectant look. When she continues her muttering and pacing in front of the door they both shrugged and went back to what they were doing.

 

Sunny looks between the two incredulously and scoffs. “Some friends you guys are, giving up on her already.”

 

“Just leave her. If we can’t snap her out of it she’ll eventually tire herself. Then we’ll talk to her.” Hyoyeon answers, scribbling something on her notebook with the new pen she acquired.

 

Sunny raises a brow as she turns to her belly and settles herself comfortably. “So, what? You’re just going to stare at the wall,” she gives a pointed look at Sooyoung “and… are you really studying at a time like this?” she nods her head at the notebook Hyoyeon was busy scribbling on.

 

Hyoyeon scoffs. “I’m not studying.” She held up her notebook. There was a crude drawing of what looked to be a monkey holding a banana scratching at its with scribbles of ‘Kwon Yuri’ and ‘monkey Yul’ and ‘dark monkey’ among others surrounding the drawing.

 

Sooyoung gave her two thumbs up. “Looks exactly like her. I can’t tell the difference.”

 

“You guys, really?” Sunny sighs.

 

“Well, what will you have us do Sunny? She looks nowhere near close to being tired. She called us up all of a sudden to “tell us something”, but she’s been muttering to herself for the past few minutes. The idiot doesn’t even react to us making fun of her.” They look to her again for a reaction. They don’t get one. Sooyoung sighed. “She’s too far gone right now.”

 

“Well… Have you tried stopping her pacing?”

 

“Yes. It was not a very nice moment.” Sooyoung shuddered.

 

Sunny waited expectantly for further explanation, but when it seemed that Sooyoung wasn’t going to expound on her experience she switched to Hyoyeon.

 

Hyoyeon chuckled. “Yuri grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her until Sooyoung nearly threw up.”

 

“And you guys were just laughing.” Sooyoung sneered, recalling the unfortunate event where she learned her lesson the hard way.

 

Hyoyeon shrugged. “That’s how you know we’re best friends. If it was me, you would have done the same.”

 

Sooyoung continued to glare at Hyoyeon, mentally promising karma would come to bite Hyoyeon in the someday. And when that day came, she would be there, enjoying a hot tub of popcorn.

 

“If it makes you feel any better, we’ll try to snap her out of it.” Hyoyeon sat up straighter and puffed her chest out as she inhaled. “Hey you dark monkey, stop pacing, you’re wearing out the rug.

 

“Black bean, you look like a total weirdo.” Sooyoung all too gladly pitched in.

 

“Charcoal Yul, the building’s shaking from all your heavy footsteps.”

 

“Yah, dark thing, everything you touch turns black.”

 

“Jesus, Yul. Can’t you sit down and just tell us who you didn’t kiss?”

 

“I’m sure she’s grateful you didn’t kiss her.”

 

That stops Yuri. Her pale face quickly flushes red as she bears down a shocked Sooyoung, hands wrapping around the collars of the taller girl’s shirt. “She wanted me to kiss her! I wanted to kiss her, but I ran away!”

 

And just as quickly the blood left her face and she staggers backward, releasing her hold on Sooyoung in the process. “Oh, God. What if she thinks I thought I was disgusted with her? Yuri you idiot! You should have just kissed her!” she began pacing again, this time even slapping her face and arms.

 

It takes a while for the words to sink in for the two friends, Sooyoung still reeling in from the shocking reaction and Hyoyeon by the words that just left Yuri’s lips.

 

“Wait, what?!” Sooyoung was the first to jump from her seat, grabbing at Yuri’s wrist and harshly tugging her towards her. Hyoyeon was not too far behind scrambling up to her two best friends and clasping Yuri’s face in between her hands to make the girl look at her. “Are you ting us right now?”

 

Even Sunny was sitting on her mattress properly, intrigued by the drama that was unfolding in front of her. The three best friends pay her no attention.

 

“Who is this girl?”

 

“You wanted to kiss her? Like lip-locking and tongue and not just a friendly cheek smooch?”

 

“How do you know she wanted you to kiss her?”

 

“Did she actually ask you to? Like..” Sooyoung vigorously nodded her head, as if the motion explained perfectly what she was asking for.

 

“How the hell did it lead up to that?!” Hyoyeon was putting more pressure in her hold, squishing Yuri’s face even more.

 

The two shot her with questions one after another, not even waiting for Yuri to answer- not that she could with Hyoyeon squishing her face. Having enough of their nonsense, she shook her head free from Hyoyeon’s hold and wrenched her wrist free from the near clawing she was receiving from Sooyoung’s death grip.

 

“Get off me.” She stepped back from the suffocating attention, cupping her aching cheeks as she glared at the two. Though she came to them in her panicked thoughts, now that she was there she wasn’t too keen on telling them anything. What she had blurted was accidental, triggered by Sooyoung’s tease. She wasn’t quite ready to be teased of finding a girlfriend when she had blown the opportune chance of actually confessing to (or kissing really) the girl spectacularly.

 

The image of Jessica, her intense eyes challenging her, head tilted up and to the side slightly and teasingly biting her lower lip in a show of blatant flirting played in her mind. And, just like then, she felt her body tense, pulse quicken, and her skin turning hot. She had wanted to kiss her. It was so simple, she just needed to lean down, align their lips and kiss her. Instead, she ran. She ran to another school just to berate her stupidity.

 

She was stupid. So, so stupid. Because Jessica wanted her to kiss her, practically told her to kiss her, but she ran with her tail tucked underneath her legs.

 

“I ed up. I ed up big time. Now she’s going to think I hate her. How am I supposed to face her now?”

 

“Oh, for s sake!” Hyoyeon howls, throwing herself back onto her bed. “Who’s that girl?!”

 

“Okay, Yul, come down. Just.. breathe.” Sooyoung has her by the shoulders now. She’s glad she hasn’t started shaking her like what she did to her the last time. Mentally she starts counting down from ten, focusing on lowering every beat, every pulse, every twitch of muscle from her body.

 

“I’m calm.” She breathes out once she gets to one. Her nerves feel a little less jittery now that her breathing’s in check. “I’m calm.” She repeats, reaching to grasp Sooyoung by her skinny arms. The younger girl takes that as her cue to release Yuri and she steps back, still carefully eyeing her friend in case she goes back to her unhelpful pacing.

 

“So are you going to tell us anything or what?” Hyoyeon casually breaks the silence. She doesn’t even spare the two a glance and keeps her eyes upturned to a singular brown spec at the ceiling.

 

“No.” Yuri flatly rejects the idea. She passes Sunny a glance, finally noticing the girl after her unsightly breakdown. She has the decency to be self-conscious after barging in without a second’s hesitation and proceeded to act like a lunatic in front of a new face. What a way to meet someone.

 

“Er.. hello. Sorry you had to see that.” Yuri bows her head slightly, keeping her eyes on the floor instead of the amused smirk the blond girl had donned.

 

“People releases stress differently.” Sunny dismisses her apology, shuffling her way to the edge for the mattress. “I’m Sunny, by the way.”

 

Yuri’s eyes snap up, widening in realisation and her hand flies up, index rudely pointing at the girl. “Ah! You’re the one with the guy problem!”

 

A loud thwack bounces off the four corners of the room. Yuri grimaces at the dull pain at the back of her head while Sooyoung harshly whispers death threats into her ear, an arm securely around her neck to stop any attempts of escape.

 

“Yul, don’t be ing rude.” Hyoyeon berates from her position. The huge smile on her face doesn’t help sell her disproval.

 

 

 

 

 

Yuri stares at the youthful face glaring back at her. The little hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and her gut does a small flop at the palpable tension in the air. They both stay silent, scrutinizing each other, wondering what the other’s purpose was.

 

Yuri was pretty sure the slaps she received from Sooyoung wasn’t hard enough to give her a concussion. After having visited uninvited and having the occasional slumber parties she was positive she could find her way to the American duo’s room with her eyes blindfolded, nerves or none. But as she stares at the unfamiliar face, she was starting to question how one can consider having a concussion in the first place.

 

“What are you standing around there like an idiot for?” The delivery of the girl’s less than enthusiastic and snarky question seems vaguely familiar to her. She blinks, her mind goes blank and force restarts before she restlessly shifts on one foot.

 

“This is room C… 23?”

 

The girl jerks her chin towards the open door. “Can’t you read?”

 

“Uh..” Yuri says eloquently, leaning backward to get a proper look at the whiteboard hung on the other side of the door. There was no mistaking the slightly faded English cursives that read ‘Tiff and Jess’. They were the only paired Americans in the whole dorm.

 

The girl rolls her eyes and crosses her arm over her chest. “Who the hell are you to suddenly come in uninvited? There’s this thing called common courtesy. Ever heard of knocking first?”

 

“I wasn’t.. I’m here for..” Yuri stumbles over her words, index raised to stupidly point at the whiteboard. She cocked her head to the side, eyes narrowing at the unfamiliar girl, her hands going to her waist as she takes on a more authoritative stance. “Sorry, who are you?”

 

“Yuri?” The familiar tone has her stiffening, her pulse wildly palpitating under her skin. She whirls around, wide eyes training on the pair of confused browns that she wanted so much to drown in. A small, silly grin forms on her face and she knows she’s blushing when Jessica returns a small smile and a shake of her head instead of the hurt and anger she had feared would be the outcome of her stupid action            .

 

“Hi.” The greeting barely comes out of and she feels so stupid yet warm at the same time.

 

“Hey, yourself. I didn’t think.. I’d see you this soon.” Jessica’s voice falters, her eyebrow scrunching a little in thought. Yuri’s heart gives a tight throb and she’s berating herself for having missed the chance to come clean with her feelings for her best friend. Can she really still refer to them as best friends, though? It was becoming all sorts of confusing now, though one thing is still clear. She still wanted to kiss Jessica.

 

And she hopes Jessica still wanted her to.

 

She opens , an apology at the tip of her tongue and a proper explanation brewing in her mind when Jessica holds up a hand. Whatever she was about to say dies on her tongue and she quickly shuts . All the negative outcome that had been plaguing her mind crashes down on her, suffocating her, and she stiffens, waiting for her judgement to be brought down upon her stupid young self.

 

Jessica’s soft smile only slightly eases the tension in her and she mechanically makes way when Jessica moves to get past her.

 

“Krystal Jung Soojung, you don’t even know how big a trouble you’re in.” Besides the slight scrunching of her nose and the small pout of her lips, the girl, Krystal, barely looks like she cares much. She hops off the bed, the corresponding reaction to the berating nothing like Yuri’s first impression of her as she rushes up to wrap her arms around Jessica’s waist and rests her head on her shoulder. It was like watching an angry Chihuahua quieting down as soon as she’s found her usual spot on her owner’s lap.

 

Right next to Jessica Yuri finally notices that the younger girl was actually almost the same height as the older sibling. She tucks the information at the back of her mind, ammunition for future teasing. It was right beside the warming thought of how cute the Jung siblings are being affectionate to each other.

 

“But unnie” she whines, the pitch of her voice almost rivalling that of her sisters. “You didn’t come home for months. I missed you.”

 

Jessica places a hand on her head, gently caressing the soft locks of black hair. Her other arm goes to wrap around Krystal, pulling her closer, if that was at all possible, and presses a soft kiss to the top of her head. “What about mom and dad. They were so worried when you didn’t go back after school. That was not nice Krystal. You didn’t even tell them.”

 

“Because the parental units wouldn’t have let me see you.”

 

Jessica puts on a patient smile, her hands coming to the side of the younger’s shoulder, slowly rubbing them. “That’s because you have school tomorrow.”

 

Krystal nuzzles her face into the crook of Jessica’s neck, her face completely relaxed. “It’s just this dumb annual monthly celebration. It’s stupid that they put ‘month’ in it when they only really celebrate a few days of it.” she scoffs. “I can skip it.”

 

“That doesn’t excuse that you practically ran away.”

 

Krystal makes a sort of mewling whine, her whole body wriggling as she throws a mini-tantrum, upset that her older sister isn’t fully understanding of her side of the story. Jessica looks over her sister’s head, meeting Yuri’s amused gaze. She mouths an apology and a wide smile is quick to form on Yuri’s lips.

 

She completely understands where Kystal was coming from. It was hard when members of the family leave for an extended period of time when you’re so used to seeing them every day. Her eyes drop to the floor, a mellow look replacing her expression.

 

“Well, mom and dad decided you can stay..”

 

“Yes!” Krystal cheers, pulling back and flopping onto Jessica’s mattress and proceeds to throw victory punches in the air.

 

Jessica shakes her head. The soft smile on her face makes her all the more beautiful to look at and Yuri almost forgets how to breathe as she stares, taking in the expression, painting it in the blank canvas and storing it in her mind. She wishes she has a camera right then and there, wanting to capture the beauty into a frozen image, something she could look at on a rainy day.

 

“for the night.” Yuri finally blinks, in time as the younger Jung snaps into an upright sitting, staring at her sister. “They’ll come tomorrow to pick you up.” Jessica finishes.

 

The reaction was immediate. Krystal bounced to her feet, a deadly pout already formed on her lips. “Aw.. unnie, the dumb celebration is for a few more days. I’m not even in any event. I can stay here longer.”

 

“Mom and dad are coming tomorrow. There’s nothing I can do.”

 

“Call them again! Tell them I can stay. I’ve already got a weeks’ worth of clean clothes in my bag. I came prepared for a long stay!”

 

“I’ll um..” The family drama was getting too much, and Yuri felt like she was an unwanted audience. She shuffled on her spot, looking between the two sisters, grinning to herself when Kystal ignores her totally while Jessica shoots her an apologetic look. She juts her thumbs out, pointing to the door. “I’ll just.. step out for a bit. Give you space… hm.. yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” The end was more of a mutter for herself as she moves to step out, hanging by the door outside. Still close enough to satiate her curiosity of how the younger Jung can sway her sister’s decision.

 

“Krystal, you didn’t tell mom and dad.”

 

“Because they would never have agreed!” Krystal huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at the floor by her feet. “You told me it was smarter to apologise later than to regret the rest of my life for not doing something I want.”

 

A light dusting of pink covers Jessica’s cheeks. She throws a look over her shoulder, gritting her teeth and drowning out the cuss at the tip of her tongue when she sees what remained of Yuri moving out of her view. Palming her forehead she brushes back her fringe, carding her fingers down her hair. “That was for once in a lifetime chances.” She says in a whisper, hoping Yuri wouldn’t hear, even though it was too late. She was definitely going to be teased in the future. “I’m going home in a few weeks anyway for break. What you did was just… stupid.”

 

“Stupid? Then what do you call mom and dad throwing you here in this school- in your second year!? Why didn’t they just put me here too? I’m going to high school by the end of the school year anyway. This is stupid.” Krystal growled, sitting back on the bed with her back against the wall, pulling her knees up to her chest, glaring at the empty space in front of her.

 

“Krystal! Stop acting childish.” Jessica berates, moving to sit beside her sister. The moment she does Krystal moves to lay her head over Jessica’s lap. Jessica shakes her head, feeling her irritation melting away at the puppy-like reaction, gently running her fingers through the soft locks. “Come on now. Are you going to keep moping while you’re with me? I thought you came here because you missed me.”

 

“I do!” Krystal whines, wrapping her arms around her sister’s waist. “That’s why I want to stay longer. Please tell mom and dad I can stay. I’ll be good. I’ll stay out of your hair. Just for the week.”

 

Jessica pursed her lips. She ran her index across the younger’s soft cheeks, gently pinching the rubbery skin. “Hm… two days.”

 

“Five!” Krystal quickly argued, jutting her open palm towards her sister’s face.

 

“Don’t push it, Krystal.”

 

“Fine, four.”

 

“Two.”

 

“Okay, you drive a hard bargain. Let’s say we meet in the middle at three. Please?”

 

A toothy smile spread across Jessica’s face. She pinches Krystal’s cheeks a little harder. The younger doesn’t react, keeping her eyes as wide as she could to sway her sister’s decision.

 

“Three it is.”

 

“Starting tomorrow!”

 

“Do you want it to roll back to one?”

 

“Three days it is.” Rolling over the edge Krystal makes a mad scramble to the bags pushed up underneath the shared study table and rummages through her things until she comes upon her phone. An excited sound comes from her as she shuffles back to her sister on her knees, pressing the mobile phone to her awaiting hand.

 

Jessica gives the top of Krystal’s head a gentle pat as she lifts off her bed and makes her way to the door. She meets Yuri’s eyes as she steps out, a shy smile forming at her lips. She intentionally reaches for Yuri’s arm, giving it a firm squeeze. “We’ll talk about that later. Can you keep an eye on my sister while I make a call? I promise I won’t be long.”

 

“I can hear you, you know?” Krystal chimes up from her perch on the edge of the bed. The two give her a quick glance, Yuri smiling unsurely at the glare directed at her while Jessica sighs and rolls her eyes. “I’m not a child. I don’t need no babysitter.”

 

Jessica chose to ignore her sister’s complaint, sharing a look with Yuri that has the latter pulling up a wider grin. She gently bumps Yuri's shoulder, furrowing her brows, silently reproaching her for reacting.

 

“Krystal, this is Yuri. She’s unnie’s… friend. Don’t be mean to her.”

 

“I haven’t even done anything.” Krystal harrumphs, glare darkening though it doesn’t really scare Yuri having had practice with the older Jung’s clipped remarks and rare murderous looks. Not now that she’s gathered her bearings.

 

“I have ears too, Krystal. I heard what you said to her earlier. Be nice.” She gives Yuri’s arm a firm squeeze. Yuri’s eyes fall back on the pair of chocolate browns looking up at her. Her hand reaches to cover Jessica’s, wanting to say everything she wanted to say. To explain why she did what she did. To let her know she does like her in the same way. “I’ll take a few minutes. Won’t be too long.” Yuri settled for squeezing the hand in hers, hoping it would be enough, for now. She grunts, keeping her eyes trained on Jessica’s. She'll hold her tongue from blabbering needless things and, instead, tried to project her thoughts into her eyes.

 

The sides of Jessica's lips quirk upwards, but she’s quick to turn her head down, scrolling through the contact list.

 

“Be nice.” She says over her shoulder, phone already pressed against her ear. Yuri wasn’t sure who she was telling that to though, but she had a feeling it was for the both of them.

 

She throws a glance through the open door, hesitating for a few seconds before deciding to step into the room, keeping the door open- a precautionary decision.

 

“What’s ‘that’?” krystal asks.

 

Yuri her head over to Krystal, confusion in her eyes. She wasn’t pointing or looking at anything in particular. “What’s what?”

 

“Unnie was talking about a ‘that’. What were you going to talk about with my sister?”

 

“Uh… school stuff. It’s boring, you don’t wanna know about it.” She gives herself a pat on the back for the quick excuse. There’s nothing that can get anyone out of your back other than school work.

 

“Bull.” Most of the time.

 

Yuri quirks a brow at the cuss, trying her best to look reproachful though she feels as if her face wasn’t quite working with her and she ends up with more of a smirk.

 

“Who taught you to speak like that?”

 

“Everybody else in school.” Krystal replies flippantly. She rolls her eyes at the look Yuri was giving her. “Oh, please, you can’t honestly think we’re that stupid. We’ve got television, you know?” She scoffs. Somehow Yuri doesn’t find it at all surprising for the younger Jung to have such a strong attitude. And for some reason, she also couldn’t shake the feeling that Jessica would be pissed if she ever hears her younger sister speaking like that.

 

“You talk to your sister with that attitude?”

 

Krystal’s eyes snap to her, a sneer on her lips. But just as quickly, it’s replaced with a look of curiosity- Yuri could tell from the cute tilt of her head, the faroff look and the slight slack of . She had seen that look somewhere before. The thought of it had the corners of her lips pulling up to a smile.

 

Krystal’s posture straightens up and she leans forward. It drops the smile on Yuri’s face in exchange for caution. Her elbows are propped on her knees and her chin resting comfortably on her hands, eyes squinting as if doing so made everything a little clearer to her. “What exactly are you to my sister?”

 

“Uh..”

 

“Shut up.” She suddenly snapped, pointing at Yuri, as if it wasn’t already clear she was talking to her. “Sh! Shut up. I’m thinking.”

 

“But you just asked me a question.” Yuri carefully approached, pausing her movements when Krystal’s eyes flickered over to her.

 

“And I know you’re going to lie to me anyway, so shut up.”

 

Yuri continues her venture, crossing the space between them and settles at the edge of Tiffany’s bed. “And how do you know that?”

 

“Because adults always lie and technically you’re an adult. So, you and my sister…” she continues, diverting the topic back to her million dollar question, which gets an exasperated sigh from Yuri. “you guys are close. No! You’re closer than just friends, right?”

 

“I don’t know-”

 

“See, you’re lying already.” Krystal cut her off, smiling smugly that she was right. She rolls her eyes at the cautious look Yuri was giving her. “Oh, please. I wasn’t born yesterday.”

 

“Well, you sure look it.” Yuri challenges back. The younger Jung narrows her eyes, lips pursing in annoyance. Yuri keeps her grin, knowing full well she couldn’t compete with a Jung’s glare.

 

“I like you.” The hard look soon turns into a crooked grin as Krystal leans back, now comfortable with the presence of the older girl. “Anyway, my sister likes you. Before you ask, I can tell. I have these things, you know, these wonderful pairs that a lot of people seem not to know how to use.” Krystal her lips, leaning forward and motioning Yuri with her fingers to come closer. She looks over their shoulder and Yuri instinctively tense, almost shooting a glance over her own shoulder.

 

“They’re called eyes.” She whispers, nodding her head sympathetically.

 

Yuri pulls back, her tense expression gradually pulling up to an astounded grin. Sarcasm seems to run in the family. “You are just like your sister.”

 

“You mean attractive, graceful and intelligent? Thank you.” She says smugly, flipping her hair to the side. Speechless, all Yuri could do was chuckle and shake her head.

 

“But I digress. So! You and her, what is up between you two. I mean..” she nods her chin towards Yuri’s side of the room. “I know of Tiffany, the loudmouth, bubbly, mothering roommate. Also know of the baby-faced, minion who’s nothing more than a puppy when it comes to Tiffany…” Yuri almost laughs at her cousin’s description. She couldn’t have described Taeyeon any better than that. “but you..” she pauses, looking Yuri top to toe curiously, brows drawing together. “she’s never told me of you. Not till today.”

 

“Well, who knows, maybe she just thinks of me as a nuisance.” Yuri keeps her smile on, though she does feel a little pinch of disappointment that her crushes’ younger sister seem to know their friends, but not her. And she’s thought herself special, having been the very first to do different things with Jessica. Well, falling off the side of the road definitely was a first for the both of them, hopefully also the last.

 

“If she really did, she wouldn’t have let you touch her, much less approach you.” Krystal waved her opinion off, flopping onto her back on the bed with a huff. “She likes you, but she’s never mentioned you to me.. why?”

 

“Who else did she mention, then?”

 

“Well, there was that trio she told me once. During the whole.. what was it? Pranking war during a basketball game. She said one of them reminded her of me. There was also this guy she didn’t want to name that got under her skin..”

 

“Oh, there was this one girl too, from before. An annoying girl who liked to paint.” Krystal pushed up to her elbows, lips quirked in one side as she tried to recall other details she was told of the girl. She was lost to the sudden perking of Yuri’s body. “She said the girl was weird and kept bugging her. But after a while, it sounded like they were becoming close friends. Then, all of a sudden, I never heard her mention annoying painter girl and she’s never given her a name.”

 

She looks to Yuri thoughtfully, silent for a good few seconds before deciding to continue. “Then she started talking about this person she’s started to develop feelings for. She said they were really close friends, but then something changed and now unnie thinks about them all the time. That this person was so oblivious but that was part of their charm, along with their knack of finding the right buttons to push her. Never said their name and she thinks I don’t notice but she’s never actually used gender pronouns. It was always ‘that person’ or ‘they’. But they’re definitely close to unnie. She trusts them enough to go along with their ‘weird’ plans.”

 

Yuri her dry lips, subtly glancing out through the open doorway for signs of life. She couldn’t hear any shuffling of foot traffic or soft murmurs that came with being lumped together in a place with a few dozens of girls sharing the same floor. Just absolute silence, apart from their breathing and the loud beating of her heart in her ears.

 

“I’ve given it some thought and I think… That person and the girl are one and the same. Just that unnie like likes her now, but she’s trying to hide that fact from me whenever I bring her non-existent love life.” Krystal concludes, still staring at Yuri curiously. Then she blinks, lowering her eyes to her hand fiddling with the blanket by her side. “And I’m beginning to think.. that girl’s you.” she concludes softly, most likely meant just to herself.

 

Yuri hears it, but chose to keep quiet. Her mind was now clouded with questions, adrenalin pumping through her veins just at the mere thought of the raised possibility of Jessica actually liking her back the same way. But that was still all speculation. There were hundreds of girls in the school and she didn’t want to be presumptuous that she was the only one Jessica found annoying and charming and had developed feelings for. “What else did she say about her?”

 

Krystal looks up from her fiddling, watching Yuri’s sudden blank face. “She made it sound like she was an average class clown.. except that there were days that she seemed off- her words, not mine. Anyway, the way unnie said it.. it was obvious she cared for that person. Enough to be concerned about her. And that is very different of her. Unnie doesn’t poke her nose in other people’s business if she could avoid it.”

 

“Really?” Yuri mused, recalling the times Jessica helped her or stuck to her side, vigilantly looking after her after she got hurt. She loved every second she had Jessica’s attention solely on her. Just her and no one else. Not even Tiffany or Taeyeon.

 

“Yeah. That’s how she is. So, who are you to her? Or rather, who is she to you?”

 

Yuri discreetly brushes the perspiration around her forehead, clearing to loosen the clenching tightness around it. Her heart was both leaping in joy and dreading the anticipation to finally speak to Jessica. There was also the case of her younger sister, who now seems even more curious of her.

 

“I’m just a friend.”

 

“Really?” Krystal scoffs, smiling shrewdly as she stares into Yuri’s brown eyes. “Last I checked, friends don’t look at each other like that.”