Twenty years earlier

“You look beautiful, honey.”

Jessica rolled her eyes as her mother surveyed her after hooking the string of pearls around her neck.

“So does this mean you and Siwon are dating?”

“We’re not dating, Mom.  I just agreed to go to the prom with him, that’s all.”  Another decision she was certain to regret but not going to the prom simply wasn’t an option.  She’d already been voted Miss Calloway and was in the running for prom Queen.  She hoped her very public chagrin over the Miss Calloway title – and her insistence that she did not want the prom Queen title – would get everyone to vote Hara.  In fact, she’d campaigned for Hara.

“Is it true Yuri’s not going?”

Jessica bit her lip.  “Yes.”

“Did no one invite her?  I find that hard to believe.  She’s such an attractive girl.”

“She got invited.  But the prom’s not really her thing.”  No.  It wasn’t Jessica’s thing, either.  Yet here she was, dressed in a formal gown, wearing her grandmother’s pearls, waiting for Siwon Choi to pick her up.

“I just can’t understand how the two of you could go all through high school without having a boyfriend.  It’s just not normal.  Everyone should want to go to their prom.”

It was a theme of conversation that Jessica had been trying to avoid for the last two years.  She’d made up countless excuses and reasons as to why she didn’t have a boyfriend, but it still fell on deaf ears.

“So I should be like everyone else?” she asked.  “I want to go to college and make something of my life.  But you want me to date one of the boys here in Calloway because it’s normal?  You really want me having with any of these boys?”

“Who said anything about ?”

“Well, what do you think happens on dates? They sneak off and have .”  Jessica couldn’t believe she was talking to her mother like this.  The last thing she wanted was to get into conversation about .  After all, they’d never really had the talk.  And judging by the blush on her mother’s face, they weren’t going to have it now, either.

“So you’re saving yourself for marriage.  That’s how it should be.  I’m very proud of you.”

Jessica hated lying to her mother.  Saving herself for marriage?  No, there would be marriage.  Not to a man, anyway.  She and Yuri were both heading to San Marcos for college.  There, they could be themselves.  They could be open with their relationship.  They would meet others like them and not feel so isolated, so alone.  No more sneaking off.  No more lying.  That is, if she could get through the night.  She’d made it plain to Siwon that she was going with him as a friend, not as a date.  And she’d already told Hara that if he attempted anything, she would leave.

~~~~ooo~~~~

‘Oh, my God.  You look beautiful.”

Jessica smiled at Hara.  “No, you look beautiful.  You look like the prom Queen,” she said with a wink.

“Well, sorry, sweetie, but I heard through the grapevine that you and TaeYang won.”

“Me and TaeYang?  I hate this crap.  I don’t want to be the ing prom Queen,” she protested, perhaps a bit too loudly.

“Look on the bright side.  At least it wasn’t Siwon who won.  He’d definitely think you two were a couple then.”

“That’s a bright side?”

“What’s the big deal?  You dance with TaeYang, take a few pictures, let everyone gape at you, smile like you love it.  Easy as pie.”

“I know you don’t understand, but I can’t do it.”  In fact, she was nearly in panic mode.  She was so certain she’d done enough to get Hara voted prom queen.

“You have to do it.”

“The hell I do.”

Hara grabbed her arm as she turned to go.  ‘You can’t just leave.  Have you lost your mind?”

“Why is this happening to me? I’m not a cheerleader anymore.  I’m not supposed to win this crap.  You’re supposed to win.”

“You’re nice.  They like you.”

“You’re nice,” she said convincingly.

“I’m a snob.” Hara pulled her closer.  “If you run away every time you go out with Siwon he’s going to get a complex.”

“That was a year ago.”

“Exactly.  And you haven’t been out with him – or anyone else – since then.”