Jessica POV

                “This is pretty cliché, isn’t it?” I said nonchalantly as Jay and I wandered forward, my disinterest only emphasized by the fact that I was more preoccupied with my phone than our date.  Jay frowned at me and attempted to peek over my shoulder to catch a glimpse of what I was typing. I noticed rather quickly, though, and tucked my phone away in my purse, “I mean, aren’t we too old for amusement parks?” I continued.

                “No. You’re never too old for amusement parks.” He said in a matter-of-fact manner.

                “And I suppose you’re never too old to be bottle fed either?” I teased.

                “Oh ha ha, Sica.”

                Jay suddenly wrapped his arm around my shoulder, catching me by surprise. But as I opened my mouth to protest that such displays of affection were unnecessary when people weren’t watching, I realized that people were watching. Quite a few had pulled out their cameras or phones to start snapping pictures of us as we continued on down the path. We smiled politely at the cameras as their owners all went on about how cute of a couple we were.

                I hated it. I was getting sick and tired of being praised as the perfect girlfriend for Jay. I hated people following us and taking pictures of us, forcing me to play the part of perfect girlfriend. All I wanted to do was hang out with my friend.

                Though, I have to admit that this had been our plan from the start. There had apparently been talk online about how we had been growing distant lately and how we haven’t been seen together in quite a while. Naturally, Jay’s manager was very insistent on us at least making an attempt at a public date.

                Somewhere along the line, I could feel my smile tugging down into the frown that I was wearing on the inside the whole time. It was becoming hard for me to keep up this act for much longer. Maybe I was out of practice or maybe I really was just that upset, but before the cameras could pick it up, Jay removed his arm from me and took hold of my hand. My questioning gaze was met that same smile of his as we dashed off, leaving all of the camera-bearing monsters behind.

                I struggled to keep up with him, as he seemed to have forgotten not only that I’m a girl, but that I’m Jessica Jung. And I don’t run in any situation. I opened my mouth in an attempt to form words, preferably something along the lines of “Slow down, you moron” or “What the hell are we running from?”, but all that came out were heavy huffs of air every other time my foot hit the ground. Luckily though, he slowed down on his own as he led us to turn the corner, finding ourselves hiding behind an ice cream vending machine. I say luckily because not only did we stop running like idiots, but after that, I figured that I really could use an ice cream.

                “Is there any particular reason for the sudden 100m dash?” I growled at him as I pulled out a few bills and fed them urgently into the machine. His breathing was deep as well, but I noticed he wasn’t the least bit sweaty from it. He seemed to be more concerned with the thought that anyone would have tried to follow us anyway, looking around in every direction to make sure that the coast was clear, then letting out a deep sigh and leaning against the machine.

                “You looked like you couldn’t take anymore, so I figured you were done with the pictures for the day.” Jay looked over at me with a smile. I’m sure he’s the only guy that I’ve met who would respond to my ing with such a stupid grin. I could tell that he was proud of himself for his actions.

                I pressed the button with the picture of a sundae cone twice and waited as two dropped down in a rather rapid succession then reached down and retrieved them, throwing one in Jay’s general direction. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”
                He caught it without even looking. “Of course. As if you’d ever let me forget.”

                “… Thank you.” I said in almost a whisper.

                “You’re welcome.”

                It got quiet between us as we became preoccupied with eating our ice cream cones, but our silence was soon interrupted by the distant sound of someone calling our names. At first, we began to worry that someone had indeed followed us, but as the figures approached, we let go of the breaths that we had unconsciously begun to hold.

Jay POV

                Just as I felt that Sica and I had gotten the chance needed to talk some things out, we saw four girls and a guy-… five girls, I mean, running towards us. As they came closer and we could identify them, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of disappointment. Sica and I hadn’t been talking much lately, since she had been too busy with her schedule and had been spending what free time she did have with Tiffany. I had hoped that she and I could talk about it at least a little bit, or just have a decent conversation, but now it was obvious that it wouldn’t happen.

                “Jessica!” Krystal continued calling as they ran towards us.

                “No one wants you here, Krystal!” I called back.

                “You asked for a rescue, didn’t you, unnie?” She reached Sica, completely ignoring my existence as usual. Really, this girl… Wait. Rescue? I looked over at Jessica with questioning and somewhat pleading eyes, silently begging her to tell me that it wasn’t true only for her to avert her gaze towards the floor, giggling quietly to herself. Ladies and gentlemen, my girlfriend, the ice princess.

                “Great timing, actually, Krystal.” Jessica started, effectively dodging the question. “We just got here a little while ago. We all need to have some bonding time.”

                “Bonding time? Between that thing and I?” The little Jung jutted her finger out towards me with a look of genuine displeasure. What a joy to know they both feel so similar about me.

                Jessica let out a deep sigh, “Well no. I honestly don’t care what you think about Jay.” I wasn’t sure whether to take that as a good thing or a bad thing, but since I already had enough of the latter coming from today, I decided to go for the former. “I mean us and your… uhm… girlfriend.” Sica finished off the sentence in English, as though it were awkward to say in Korean.

                It was only then that I recalled how Krystal had shocked quite a few people when she came out of the closet with her girlfriend Amber. Of course, no one was surprised that Amber was gay. Anyone who didn’t see that one coming probably didn’t even know who she was. But Krystal had been assumed to be dating a member of a boy group for some time now. Jessica and I didn’t have any particular problem with Krystal’s relationship, seeing how Jessica… is… Jessica. However, even her sister felt blindsided when Krystal came out with the news, even before informing Jessica of any of it.

                As if on cue, the rest of the girls caught up and started greeting us. I never really was a big fan of Krystal’s group, but I didn’t particularly dislike them either. Most of them, like Krystal, didn’t really seem to acknowledge my presence at any given time. Sulli was pretty cute, Luna was rather funny, Amber was pretty much what I’d call a bro and Victoria was… pleasant, I suppose. She sort of felt out of place among a group of such energetic girls, but in some cases it felt like a breath of fresh air.

“Right, so,” Krystal began, “Jessica. Jaebeom.” I frowned to myself at the usage of my actual name rather than my nickname which everyone called me by as she carried on with her introduction. “Uhm. Yeah. This is my girlfriend, Victoria.” Jessica and I both shared a quick glance at each other, trying to make sure we had heard her correctly. But sure enough, the woman turned from the other girls who she had been chatting with for a little while upon hearing her name and walked over, wrapping her arms gently around Krystal’s shoulders.

“It’s very nice to meet you. I’m Victoria.” She introduced herself, extending her hand towards Jessica, only to be left hanging. So I went and shook it in her place.

“Oh, you speak English?” I asked, somewhat impressed.

“Oh, no. No she doesn’t. That’s seriously as much as she knows.” Krystal threw in. I couldn’t help but notice the big grin on her face as she reached her hand up to meet the one Victoria had left wrapped around her. It was somewhat uncharacteristic of her, but… somehow at the same time, it suited her rather well.

Victoria looked down at her and pouted a bit, “Why do I get the feeling that you were teasing me just now?” The two went back and forth for a moment, having the most awkwardly cute love fight I had ever witnessed in my entire life as I looked over at Sica who seemed to still be in a bit of shock.

“You ok, Sica?” I whispered to her as I patted her shoulder. She nodded but just continued to stare at the two go at it, both of them smiling the whole time as the other girls seemed to just continue their conversation as though nothing was going on at all. Amber included.

Jessica tapped Krystal on the shoulder, grabbing her attention and effectively embarrassing both she and Victoria who seemed to just then realize that we were still there. “So then what about Amber?” She questioned bluntly. Extremely bluntly. Victoria seemed to agree as our eyes met and we gave each other awkward smirks.

Krystal, however, didn’t seem fazed in the least. I suppose that’s just part of being a Jung sister, or something. I would never be able to understand those types of things. “Cover up.” She stated equally as bluntly as her sister had questioned. “Do you think people would take more kindly to me and a tomboy or me and a e?” Once again, my eyes went to Victoria, but this time she didn’t meet them, as she was covering her face to hide her blush from embarrassment.

“Did you really have to word it that way?” The older woman protested in an attempt to defend herself.

“Well, we have been dating since I was about sixteen, right? How else can we put it?” the little Jung pointed out, hands now on her hips. “But as I was saying,” she went on, ignoring her girlfriend who was clearly flustered and without a proper comeback. “No one would suspect me to be dating Victoria when I’m supposedly dating Amber, right? We figured it would be much safer this way.”

Her older sister pursed her lips, “But it’s not like it’s illegal or anything. It’s not really within social norms, I suppose, but neither is being in a homoual relationship in the entertainment industry anyway.” She raised an excellent point, “It’s not illegal unless you have .”

“… Well…” Krystal’s gaze drifted towards the ground and Victoria, once again, had her face buried in hands as she turned bright red from her blush.

Jessica’s cool exterior now dropped, as did her jaw, and she stood there completely speechless. “Ok, I think we should go on some rides now. We don’t want to leave the other girls waiting.” I quickly suggested before any more damage could be dealt, taking hold of Sica who was in a total state of shock. The other girls seemed to have heard and hurried over, throwing out the names of the rides that they wanted to go on first. Anything was fine with me, so long as we could get out of this increasingly awkward conversation.

Jessica POV

I sat next to Krystal on a bench as we watched Jay and the others play with each other. As they jumped up at Jay, trying to reach the toy he had bought, the air between she and I slowly got more and more awkward and the tension became harder to break. But hell, she was my little sister. Awkwardness has no place between us. “I’ll be honest; I’m a little hurt you didn’t tell me.” I threw out, apparently not catching her off guard. Seeing this, I continued on, “But I’ll accept anyone as long as they’re someone you love and who loves you. It’s my job as your big sister, you know.”

Krystal crossed her legs, rested her elbow on her thigh and her cheek in the palm of her hand, “I know.” She said with a sigh, “That’s why I told you in the end, dufus.” Her eyes followed Victoria as she and Jay had started playing keep-away from Luna and Sulli, Amber sitting back and laughing. Her feelings for Victoria really were rather obvious. I wasn’t entirely sure how I hadn’t caught on to them beforehand. Maybe they were only obvious now that she dropped the barrier and stopped trying to hide them from me. The way she watched Victoria, the way she had acted with Victoria all day, the way she smiled around her… I found myself smiling, just knowing that my sister had found someone who could do that to her.

It did sting a bit, however, when I took into consideration the current situation she was in; a situation in which she had to pretend to love Amber. Today must’ve been one of the few days she could really let her true feelings shine through. I was completely sure this way that Victoria truly did love her. To be able to watch my sister on the arm of a member of her own group despite Krystal really being hers, without the smallest look of disapproval, it really was quite a feat. To watch the one you love pretend to love another, even if it is just for the cameras… it seems like it’d be incredibly painful.

“That’s also why I can’t accept Jaebeom.” Krystal added in, looking directly at me this time.

My sister really was surprising me left and right that day. “You… know?”

She shook her head and stood up, doing a quick stretch before looking back at me, “I’m your little sister. It’s my job to know.” Jay, Victoria and the others seemed to be calling us over. It seemed to be time to leave, which would make sense, seeing as we had done just about everything there was to do in this stupid place and the sun was already setting.

I opened my mouth to explain myself, but before I could, she spoke again, “You can tell me about it when you’re ready. I’m sure you have a good reason for all of this.” We looked over to see Jay currently struggling on the ground as Luna started hitting him in an attempt to make him release the stuffed animal, Sulli trying to pull her off, Amber laughing and Victoria panicking. “… I’m positive you have a very good reason for all of this.”

We shared a quick smile with each other before running after them to save Jay, and then leave.

“I got this for you,” Jay shoved the rather large stuffed polar bear at me and I, a bit startled from the sudden object blocking my vision, accepted it, grabbing it and getting it out of my face. “Those little savages tried to take it, but it’s cute, right?” It was indeed rather cute. “I figured, since you’re the ice princess and all… a polar bear…”

I stopped in my tracks and smiled at him before bursting out into laughter. “You’re a huge dork!” I was barely able to find the breath to say it due to my laughing fit. He seemed just a bit embarrassed but it didn’t take too long before my laughing triggered him to start laughing. Cameras snapped pictures of us and a precious “JaySic” moment, but I didn’t really care at this point.

“Thanks, Jay.” I let out quietly as we finished out giggle fest. “I had fun today.”

“You’re welcome.”

Jay POV

                “Hey, Krystal! Wait up!” I called after her before she slipped into their manager’s car and jogged to catch up to her for a quick talk. She only looked at me, having half of her body in the car, waiting for me to get on with it so she could leave.

                “I wanted to ask you, actually, did Sica really ask for an ‘escape’?”

                She huffed and decided to tie her shoe as we talked, “’Rescue’,” she corrected, “And yes, she called and told me she was going to be stuck on some dumb date today and she wanted me to rescue her.”

                “She called? When?”

                “Last night. Can I go now?”

                “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

                Krystal ducked into the car, shut the door and had her manager drive off without so much as a second look back at me or questioning my reason for asking. Not that I really cared. There was only one thing that really bothered me now…

                Who was Jessica texting then?

No one’s POV

                Tiffany laid there in her bed in her pink bathrobe, having come fresh out of the shower. Her eyes were fixed on her phone that sat next to her head as she suddenly became increasingly aware of the rather large size of her bed, her bedroom and her apartment in general. It felt just a tad bit empty. She snatched up her phone and checked her texts one last time. Plenty from Eunhyuk that she continued to ignore just like the first ten. But none from the one person she seemed to care to be getting them from.

                “I wonder why she stopped replying…” she mumbled to herself, setting her phone back down next to her. She passively wondered to herself whether it was strange or not to have spent her day constantly checking her phone, but didn’t care enough to think about it seriously.

                Just then, her phone vibrated causing her to jump and fumble with it in her hands, then unlock it to read the message. She felt her lips tug up into a smile as she read it.

                “Sorry for the late reply! I tried to reply, but didn’t get the chance to finish it. orz It’s late. If you aren’t asleep, go to sleep! Right now!”

                Tiffany couldn’t help but squeal a bit to herself and even more when she finished reading it.

                “Sleep well, sweetie. <3 Text me back in the morning? – Jessi :)”

                She went ahead and locked her phone, plugged it into its charger and got up to change into her pajamas. It didn’t take her very long and she soon hopped back onto her bed and slipped under the covers, turning out the light as soon as she did.

                Tiffany shut her eyes, still smiling while thinking of the text message she had gotten. She was glad Jessica seemed to have had a good time, and even more glad that it wasn’t any fault of her own that had caused the sudden loss of replies from her friend. She also had to admit that it felt good that Jessi still went out of her way to reply even though it was so late.

                Her right hand slowly drifted up to her lips, remembering a certain sensation. However, she shook her head in attempt to rid herself of those thoughts, blushing just a bit as she found herself drifting off to sleep.

                “Jessi…” she muttered unconsciously.

                And that’s just what she dreamt about that night.

A/N- Then after half a year... a revival! Only not really... it wasn't ever officially dead, I swear. I just had a bit of a writer's block. For half of a year. Sorry 'bout that. orz

I'm going to try to update properly starting now. As soon as I got going, I found this chapter pretty easy to write, actually. But it was one-shotted at 4:30 in the morning, so please pardon any spelling or grammar mistakes.

And thank you, to those of you who commented or subscribed anyway, even though it had been so long since I had done anything here. I'll do my best to keep this going until the end.

Though irrelevant, I feel the need to point out that the original title of this chapter was "Ice and Homos", but I felt like that was just a tad distasteful... Oh well!

Until next time~! ♥ o/