The day that Jessica had been anticipating since the beginning of the school year had finally come. She was on a plane to Los Angeles with Taeyeon and the others, determined to kick at the Economics Forum. This was their time to shine and show everyone what they’re made of. Throughout the trip, a lot of different thoughts were running through Jessica’s mind. They were mostly about what happened in the past few days. She’d been spending a lot of time with Taeyeon and with each passing day, the two girls were growing even closer to each other. For the whole seventeen and a half hour trip, Jessica couldn’t stop staring at the girl next to her. Taeyeon was sleeping soundly because they left during the night and she was very sleepy, but Jessica couldn’t do that because that was just how she was. She never could and didn’t understand people who sleep during trips. So she just stared at Taeyeon and admired her sleeping form. Who would’ve thought that the school basketball star would be on the Economics team and would be travelling with them to LA? Who would’ve thought that she’d end up becoming this close with a bookworm like Jessica? The two were a part of different social structures at school, but somehow, they managed to become friends.

When the plane landed and they were finally at the Los Angeles airport, they were greeted by representatives from the Economic Forum, welcoming them to the USA. There was a special bus waiting outside the airport that later took them to the expensive five-star hotel they were staying at for a whole week.

“So, who’s going to be roommates with who?” Mr. Han asked his students with a wide smile on his face. “I mean, it’s obvious that the boys will be together, but what about you girls? You know that once you pick a roommate, you can’t switch, okay?”

“We know that Mr. Han and we won’t cause any trouble, we promise!” Hara told the teacher and then put her arm around her best friend Gyuri’s shoulders, telling him non-verbally that they will be in a room together.

“So, I’m guessing that you two are going to be together in the room?” he asked again just to confirm and both girls nodded. That left Jessica and Taeyeon to be roommates and they were pretty happy because of that fact. This meant that they could spend all their time together, which is exactly what the two girls craved for. Both of them constantly wanted to be with each other, to talk and have fun. They were completely inseparable. For them that was normal, at least that’s what they thought, but they didn’t know that it could mean more than friendship.

When Jessica and Taeyeon later walked into their hotel room for the first time, both felt absolutely amazing. The thought that they were so far away from Seoul was still sinking in. Jessica loved that she was miles away from her annoying mother. This, of course, didn’t mean that Mrs. Jung wasn’t going to call her every five minutes. When Jessica her phone, she saw so many missed calls from her mother that it made her head spin. She had intentionally turned off her phone on the plane so that her mother couldn’t reach her and she was dreading the fact that she was going to have to call her eventually.

“Why so glum, Jess?” Taeyeon asked as soon as she noticed Jessica’s depressed face when she looked at her phone.

“I don’t want to call my mom,” the other girl replied and sighed in frustration.

“Come here,” Taeyeon told her and opened up her arms for her friend, ready to give the girl a nice warm hug. Jessica went into her arms and melted in Taeyeon’s embrace which immediately made her feel a lot better. “You don’t have to call her right now. Let’s rest first and you can do it later.”

Jessica muttered an “Okay” under her breath as she rested her head on Taeyeon’s shoulder. Afterwards, the two girls went to check out the terrace in their room. As soon as they walked outside, they were completely mesmerized by the amazing view that they saw. There was a breathtakingly beautiful garden filled with what felt like millions of gorgeous flowers.

“This is so amazing!” Taeyeon said in awe as she and Jessica moved to the edge of the terrace.

“It’s so pretty!” the other girl uttered as a huge smile formed on her beautiful angelic face.

After a few minutes of watching the view in silence, the two girls decided to sit down on the bench that was situated there on the terrace. It had a cute long cushion on top of it in order for the guests of the hotel to feel more comfortable. The two were sitting close to each other and leaning back on the bench.

“I can’t believe we’re actually here, Tae…” Jessica said quietly and then leaned her head on the other girl’s shoulder. “Can you?”

“I can’t. Also, the fact that you’re here with me makes it all seem like a wonderful dream,” Taeyeon replied and placed her arm around her friend’s shoulder.

“That’s such a sweet thing to say. But why is it so important that I’m here?” Jessica asked curiously and lifted her head up, then looked into Taeyeon’s eyes, waiting for her to speak.

“Because you make everything better, no matter what it is. It’s like wherever you go or do, the atmosphere there becomes lighter, happier. Your joyful personality and your beautiful smile just lights up everything around you, so I guess without you here, I would probably feel miserable,” the girl explained, making Jessica’s heartbeat increase and her face become red with embarrassment. Nobody had ever told her something so sweet and made her feel this way. If Taeyeon was her girlfriend at that moment, she would attack her with millions of kisses. “God, you’re just so perfect and I want to spend my whole time with you…”

“You’re so adorable, Tae. Thank you for these kind words. No one has ever told me something as sweet as this,” Jessica told her friend as both of them continued looking into each other’s eyes.

“You deserve kindness and love, so other people are idiots for not giving that to you,” Taeyeon said and afterwards the two ended up hugging, both happy that they were in each other’s lives.

In the large Conference hall a few hours later, the team