“I like you.”

 

Jessica pressed a hand against her chest, willing the chaos in her heart to calm and her breathing to ease back into the proper tempo. It felt like she was underwater with the way her head felt like she wasn’t entirely there but there was a consistent pressure all around her that was almost suffocating.

 

She blinked back the sting in her eyes, taking in the handsome smiling face before her and the large mix of pretty pastel flower bouquet clutched in outstretched hand. The smile hitched higher to one side as the handsome admirer wavered, the hand holding out the bouquets lowering slightly as embarrassment took over her. “Sica-yah, I like you so much.”

 

Jessica could feel tears springing from the corners of her eyes and she covers to hide the ridiculously large grin. Finally, the confession she had been patiently waiting for coming from the one that made her feel light all over yet completely grounded her to Earth. She had waited for so long and now… there was no way she was going to screw this up.

 

She reached for the bouquet, a shy smiling playing at her lips. “Yuri-yah…” she stuttered. Her lips trembling too much for the following sentence to flow out naturally and she had to press her lips together to compose herself.

 

Her chest started to constrict and a heavy feeling took over, crashing over her and drowning out the elated feeling she had been happily basking in, making it a little hard to breathe.

 

 

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

 

She brushed her cheeks with the other hand, but they didn’t feel wet. Strange, wasn’t she just crying tears of joy?

 

She looked to the smiling face before her. Now that she has a proper look Yuri doesn’t look all that well with her pale complexion. And.. was she even fading away?

 

“Yuri?” she called out cautiously, grasping instinctively for her nearly transparent arm. Her heart was wildly beating in her chest, but for an entirely different reason. Chills ran up her spine, washing over her like an ice bath in the middle of winter, freezing all motor movements as she watched in horror the quickly disappearing wisp that was once flesh and blood.

 

“Si-ca?” she hears a broken voice behind her and Jessica instinctively turns.

 

A fresh batch of tears falls from her eyes and she catches what would’ve been a blood-curdling scream in at the beaten looking Yuri staring helplessly at her. There were scratches all over her arms and face, dark red liquid seeping out of the cuts like an endless river, slowly pooling around Yuri’s weak form. She seems to just now realise the state she was in as she looks over her arms down to the red stain on her hands. She looks up to Jessica, her eyes slowly turning glassy before she pushes herself up and slowly turning around and walking away, leaving Jessica to stare petrified after her limping form.

 

“No.” This wasn’t supposed to happen.

 

“Yuri.” She couldn’t just walk away like that. Jessica wouldn’t let her just leave like that without explanation or anything.

 

“Yuri-yah!” She was hurting.

 

“Yuri!” She was hurting and Jessica didn’t know what to do.

 

“Come back!” It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. This is not fair.

 

Her legs go into action, pounding on the solid surface to try and gain ground. But try as she might, the distance between them only seems to grow wider and wider. Yuri’s name falls from her lips like a desperate plea that goes unheard as the form in the distance fade into the backdrop of the grey space, like a ghost melding into the mist.

 

“Yuri!” She screams as her legs collapse under her. Her arms push out to catch her fall and she squeezes her eyes shut. This can’t be happening.

 

She brings her fist down to the ground.

 

And again, as begins to sore at the pained scream.

 

 

 

 

 

“Stop!” The slap to her face jolts Jessica into wakefulness, and had it not been for the cold palm pressing against she would have surely woken the rest of the floor from her loud scream.

 

She blinks into the darkness, letting her eyes get accustomed to the lack of lighting and focusing onto the irate face of her younger sister looming over her. She swallows drily, just then realising the haggard intake she was unconsciously doing. Her pulse slammed wildly against her clammy skin and she lets her eyes squeeze shut in relief.

 

It was just a nightmare.

 

“It’s too early to get jittery. Calm down would you?”

 

“Little Jung.. shhh.. not so loud in the morning.” A groggy voice chimes up from the other side of the room. If not for the heaviness of her head and the erratic beating of her heart she would have laughed at the irony.

 

“It wasn’t my fault.” Krystal whines, her body falling lifelessly back onto the mattress, making the old springs rub against each other. The ear-grating creaking is responded by a low groan and the subtle shuffling of cloth being pulled off.

 

Jessica lifts her head long enough to follow the hunched silhouette of her roommate lazily gather her things and shuffle towards the bathroom.

 

“What got you so worked up anyway? You’re usually so hard to wake at any time.” Krystal mumbles her question. It doesn’t take long for Jessica to return into her role of a personal human bolster as Krystal’s long limbs draped across her stomach and chest, snuggling closer to her side in search of warmth, or familiarity. Whatever it was Jessica’s grateful to have the familial comfort to help ease her anxiety.

 

“I don’t.” Jessica responds softly, brushing her tongue between her dry lips. “Bad dream.”

 

“Since when did you even get dreams? You sleep like the dead.” Krystal comments snidely, too sleepy still to fully comprehend the short answer.

 

A hollow laugh falls past her lips as she pushes off the bed. Krystal’s whines fall on deaf ears as Jessica crawls over her and off the bed, teetering on her wobbly feet for a split second before her gait reorients itself.

 

“Too early!”

 

“It’s not that early, Soojung. It’s..” she checks the time on her phone, wincing at the half depleted battery life at the right topmost corner. “almost half past 7. My class starts at 830.” She mutters the rest of the sentence, as she shuffles to flick the light switch. Her eyes instinctively shut at the sudden introduction of light and remain squinted as she shuffled right back to the shared table to begin her day.

 

“Urgh.. I don’t feel like I slept much.” Krystal intones, using her arm to block the florescent light from her eyelids.

 

“It’s called puberty.”

 

“It .”

 

“Get used to it.”

 

“You .”

 

“Not a very good comeback. You’re slipping Soojungie.”

 

“Shut up. It’s too early to be a smart .”

 

“There’s the Jung snark.”

 

“Oh my God!” Krystal whines, thrashing about on the bed. Jessica gets a kick out of it, smiling tenderly at the familiar sight. She reaches to touches the top of Krystal’s head, running her hand down slightly before retracting. “You know I love you.”

 

“Whatever.”

 

“Krystal.”

 

Krystal sighs, turning to send her sister a dreary look and an eye roll before muttering back a proper response. “You , but I love you too.”

 

Jessica snorts at the typical reply. Baby Jung always trying to goad her on to get a reaction out of her and get her into trouble. She guesses this was just what siblings did, and though she was outgrowing the fun she once had of constantly picking on her younger sister she would still play this silly little game of theirs until they both tire of it.

 

“What are you going to do now? Tiffany and I will be going to class for a couple of hours.”

 

“Sleep. Come get me when you’re done please.”

 

“What about breakfast?”

 

“What about it? You and I don’t usually have breakfast anyway.”

 

Jessica slaps a notebook on Krystal’s hip, earning a yelp from the younger girl as she rolls inwards and away from her abusive ways. A scowl instantly twists her sleepy feature as she rubs at the spot she was hit. “That hurts.”

 

“It’s an important meal of the day. You’re coming with us for breakfast.”

 

“Where is all this coming from? Before you would have haggled to stay in bed for a few more minutes…” Her brows unfurrow as she looks quizzically at Jessica’s side profile, the older Jung ignoring the blatant staring to get her things in order.

 

“Ah.. it’s because of someone isn’t it?”

 

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

“Nope. No need to hide it. Anyways, I got your back. Who’s the greatest sister in the world?” Krystal reaches out to slap one cheek, grinning and winking suggestively before giving up all pretence of subtlety and pointed at herself.

 

“Great. All you need now is a big sign board.” Jessica scowled as she rubbed away the slight sting on her .

 

Krystal drops back on her side, but the smug smile retains on her teasing face. “Is this the thanks I get after all I’ve done for you?”

 

“What have you done?” Jessica asks, her mind wandering back to the odd way Yuri had been reacting, or rather the lacking of her reaction followed by an overreaction, from yesterday’s dinner. Her jaws set into a grimace and she turned a wary look over to the smug face of her sister. “What did you do?” she asks gravely.

 

“Trying to help my sister out. You know, mom and dad are getting pretty worried about your lack of…romance. Okay, it’s mom, mostly. She’d been kind of hinting at dad to set you up on a blind date with the son of a colleague or something…” Krystal waved her hand dismissively, almost as if to swat away the ridiculousness of the thought. “It’s medieval, forget I said it cause it’s totally not happening. Anyway, I thought I’d help you out with your love problems. So, here I am, at your service.”

 

Jessica smiled patiently at her haughty sister, fondly ruffling her bangs as she moves past her. “I don’t need help, Soojung. I can manage my love life on my own.”

 

“Oh yeah,” Krystal scoffs, pushing her ruffled hair back into place one swift motion of her hand. “your track record of having zero dates is inspiring.”

 

“I have been on dates.” Jessica replies evenly, just managing to hold onto her biting tone.

 

“How many?”

 

“More than enough.”

 

“It’s not a date if there’s more than two.”

 

Jessica pauses in her rifling through her things, self-consciously running her thumb through the laminated cover of her text book. She managed to stop her head from turning and giving her sister the pleasure of knowing she was getting under her skin. She kept her chin held high, double checking the things she needed for the day and slipping them into her bag. She’s grateful Tiffany takes a relatively long time to wake up in the bathroom. The girl didn’t need to know anything about what they were openly discussing.  “Fine, one.”

 

“It’s also not a date if the other person doesn’t call it a date.”

 

“Oh, what do you know about dating?” Jessica spat back, exhaling soon enough to defuse her rising temper.

 

“Apparently, more than you.”

 

“How would you know? You’re fifteen.”

 

“For your information, I’ll be sixteen in a month and I have gone on more dates than you. And not just as a lame study date.” Jessica looked over her shoulder, eyes narrowing at the sight of Krystal’s teasing smile and following cheeky tongue stick.

 

“I was not a study date.” She huffs, dropping her bag on the floor before reaching for the edges of her shirt and discarding it into her over spilling laundry basket at the edge of her bed. She ignores the wolf-whistles her sister was making as she goes through the remaining clean shirts in her closet, eventually deciding on an old printed grey-shirt.

 

“Seriously, unnie? You’re going to class in that? No wonder no one’s ever asked you out.”

 

“Shut up. I haven’t done the laundry for weeks. I’ve been busy and it’s been raining the last few days. Give me a break.”

 

“Mom would so talk your ear off if she knew.”

 

“IF” Jessica rounded on Krystal, pointing at her and narrowing her eyes warningly. “You don’t say anything to her about this, got it?”

 

Krystal mockingly holds up her hands, nudging the full basket with her sock covered foot. “Hey, it’s not my problem what you do with your clothes. But isn’t there a laundry room here?”

 

“It’s off campus. Even if I wanted to wash them I have to make sure it won’t rain, otherwise what’s the point in washing them?”

 

“There’s this thing called an umbrella.”

 

“And as you can see, I only have two hands.” Jessica shot back, rolling her eyes. “I’m not that strong or limber.”

 

“You forget you’ve got two additional ones.”

 

Jessica her head at the suggestive brow raising Krystal was doing. “What are you…”

 

“You forget tall, dark, and… well.. I guess she is pretty handsome for a-”

 

“Oh, my God. You’re a piece of work, baby Jung.”

 

Krystal unabashedly flips her hair. “I know.” She chirps. But her smile quickly defuses as she scrutinizes her sister unscrewing a bottle of cream and carefully applying the flesh coloured paste onto her cheeks. “You aren’t actually going out without taking a shower… are you?”

 

Jessica doesn’t even take her eyes off her reflection, carefully applying the flesh tone over the darkening patch under her eyes. Stress was definitely taking its toll on her, even if she refuses to admit it. “Tiffany takes a long time waking in the shower. I’d be running late if I take one after her. It’s why I showered in the evening. Saves me more time.”

 

“Ew.”

 

“I wasn’t even doing anything after my evening shower.” Jessica defends, rolling her eyes at the grimace Krystal was pulling at her. “Stop overreacting. I’m clean and I smell fine.”

 

“That’s what you think.”

 

“Says the girl who was practically on top of me last night. I’m not your personal bolster, you know?”

 

“Not my fault you’re cushy.” Krystal retorts teasingly, manically laughing at the shirt pitched at her face. She drops the shirt on the floor and rolls back onto her stomach, propping her head over her tented arms. “What’s up with you anyway?”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“I’m talking about how you and Yuri aren’t going out on dates. You’re usually straight forward with whatever you want. Not this wussy shy type you’re pretending to be. So what gives?”

 

The tube falls out of Jessica’s lax grip, cluttering on the table and spilling a little. A curse slips past Jessica’s lips as she hurriedly pulled a few sheets of tissue paper from its box, dabbing away at the spill. Her skin begins to crawl at the piercing stare Krystal was giving her and she was absolutely sure she was turning red from the neck up, she could feel herself steaming up.

 

“I don’t know what you’re trying to imply, Soojung but-”

 

“You know I’m fine with whomever you like, right? As long as they treat you right, I’m cool with it unnie.”

 

“Mind your own business, Krystal. Before I get really mad.” Self-consciously tugging at her shirt, Jessica watched her sister’s reaction from her peripheral, careful not to meet her gaze even through the reflexion.

 

Krystal shrugs. Rolling to the edge of the bed she pushes up to sit, pulling her knees up to her chest, eyes stuck to her sister’s back as Jessica goes over her morning routine. “Seriously though, if you don’t go after her someone’s going to swoop in and take her away.”

 

“Where’d you get that from? Some cheesy romance film?” Jessica snorts, hoping to distract Krystal away from the direction she seemed keen on taking.

 

“Mom… She probably got it from some old sappy movie though.”

 

A gentle knock on the door has both simultaneously look over the closed door. Krystal creeps a bit over the edge of the bed in curiosity, switching from the now silent door to the older Jung in anticipation.

 

“Someone’s at the door.” She whispers when Jessica stays rooted on her spot. As if they both hadn’t heard the clear rapping on the wood.

 

“Yeah.” Jessica her head slightly to the side, brows knitting down the middle as she heads towards the door. “I heard.” It takes a couple of seconds for Jessica to cross the short threshold, hand wrapping around the cold metallic knob. She hesitates, focusing on the muffled whispers on the other end of the barrier.

 

She rolls her eyes at the familiar muffled bickering, yanking the door wide open to greet the surprised looks of the cousins with slight disdain.

 

“Since when have either of you knocked?” she asks curtly, leaning against the doorframe to bar entry for the two innocently smiling back at her.

 

“Uh, since we both have our hands full.” Yuri answers, raising her two hands into view. She held two familiar brown paper bags. Taeyeon lifts her own, showcasing the takeaway cups of hot drinks.

 

It’s all Jessica needs to see to relax her stance and move out of the way and the duo scrambles inside.

 

“What happened to good old fashioned home cooking?”

 

“Ah, that.” Yuri smiles sheepishly as she plops onto the floor. She give a nod hello to Krystal, the younger too focused on the closed bag of food to give a proper reply.  “The dorm mother kinda… found it.”

 

“I had to sit through a lecture with Yuri. This jerk sold me out.” Taeyeon grumbles as she follows Yuri to the floor, careful not to spill anything. She gives Yuri’s leg a slight kick as soon as they settle. Yuri retaliates with a slight nudge, smirking as she pulls out the boxes of pancakes.

 

“This is what family is for.” She then pats the space next to her invitingly. Jessica doesn’t think too much and lowers down right in between Yuri and the bed Kyrstal was still laying on. She ignores the look Krystal gives her, breaking into a wide smile when Yuri passes an open box of pancakes to her and settles a takeaway cup by her side. Yuri does the same to Krystal, much to her delight, and Jessica can’t help but feel her chest warm at the thoughtfulness. “I figured Krystal would love pancakes too since you like them so much.”

 

“You’ve got good sense.” Krystal throws a thumb up at her before focusing on slathering maple syrup all over her steaming pancake.

 

“Also, I wasn’t sure if you like coffee, so I got you hot chocolate instead. But if you want coffee you can have my latte.”

 

“Hot chocolate!” Krystal motions for the drink. Jessica sends her a warning glare and a small pinch of her leg. The younger Jung yelps and pouts down at her older sister before sighing. “Thank you, unnie. I’ll have the hot chocolate.”

 

Jessica nods her head, accepting the takeaway cup Taeyeon extends to her. Krystal takes the chance to subtly give a suggestive raise of her brows, eyes darting towards the oblivious Yuri passing around the plastic cutlery. Carefully, Krystal shuffles forward, leaning close to Jessica’s ears so she could safely whisper her thoughts. “I like her unnie. She’s good to you.”