A/N: Should I say sorry? Maybe I should. SORRY! It’s been a very hectic week for me. One of my loved ones was rushed to the hospital so I had to either visit or stay with her for a few days.

Anyway, it’s the Holy Week here in the Philippines, which means I have a few days off from work. I don’t need to go to work until Sunday. BUT! I don’t think I can update in those days because I still have to fulfill my duties as a Catholic, and those are far more important, so I hope you understand. I’m planning on writing, though, but not updating. 

Anyway (again), I think this chapter’s a bit lacking? Or whatever, but I’m sure this isn’t one of the best chapters I’ve written so far, but this is needed. This will jump start everything, I guess. I put a bit of YoonYul and SooSic because I feel like I’ve been neglecting them. 

CHAPTER 9

Laughter filled the room as her friends tried very hard to catch their breaths. “He said that?” One of them asked.

She nodded sulkily.

“Wow! I never thought I could love your uncle more until now. He’s the best!”

“Shut up, Jess.”

Jessica didn’t, of course. “Can I live in your apartment for three months? It’s gonna be like a sitcom in there.”

She rolled her eyes. “Stop making fun of the situation, Jess. You’re clearly not helping.”

“Oh so now you want my help? Good start, Miyoung-ah,” Jessica said as her laughter again filled the air together with Yoona’s.

“Oh my God, you two are hopeless.”

“Uh-huh, yeah. So anyway, what did you make her do?” Yoona asked once they calmed down.

She told them about what happened at home. From how she turned to awkward Miyoung to mute Miyoung. 

Laughter filled the air once more.

“Oh my gosh, Tiff, that was so funny!” Jessica said while still laughing.

“Yeah, Fany-ah, I didn’t know you could get so awkward!” Yoona laughed along.

Tiffany pouted then sighed.

The laughter soon died down. Jessica sat beside Tiffany and said, “You shouldn’t force yourself too much, Tiff. Give her simple tasks. Allow yourselves to adjust, otherwise, you’d end up as mute and awkward Miyoung again.”

She sighed again, “I know. It’s just... I don’t know how to ask her to do things for me. It’ll be much easier if she does them by herself, but I think I told her before not to do that, so now she doesn’t. And I can’t just ask her to do it now, it’ll be weird.”

“Oh gosh, the things you do!” Yoona said.

Jessica interrupted. “For starters, how about bringing her to the office? Leaving her at home will only make her sit on the couch and do nothing. At least when she’s at the office, she’ll try to find something to do there? Oooh! How about dropping her hints to make her do something? Like... the way you like your coffee, how you need photocopies of a bunch of papers, or something like those. I’m sure she’ll pick up on them right away. She’s pretty smart and stubborn.”

She looked at Jessica weirdly.

“Find a way to do it subtly. You’re still not asking her to do those things, so don’t go all Ms. Independent on me. You’re just saying the things you like and the things you need done, and hopefully she’ll do them by herself.”

She sighed. “I’m not sure I get what you’re saying... actually, I’m sure I don’t get what you’re saying, but fine, I’m willing to try. I’m not making any promises though.”

This is something I don’t want to miss, Yoona thought to herself. 

---

“I like my coffee with one teaspoon of sugar and 2 creams,” she said out of nowhere.

Taeyeon, Yuri and Sooyoung looked at her, confused. Yoona was trying so hard not to laugh while Jessica’s jaw dropped.

“What?” Taeyeon asked.

“Uh...”

Jessica face palmed herself and let out a frustrated groan.

Yoona found it hard to suppress her laugh longer and ended up laughing loudly while slapping her girlfriend’s arm. Yuri was too confused to even feel Yoona’s slapping. “What did you say?”

Tiffany looked down, embarrassed. “Nothing,” she managed to squeak out.

Yoona was still laughing while Jessica was trying to shut her up.

“What’s happening?” Sooyoung asked while stuffing food into .

“Don’t ask. You’ll be just as frustrated.” Jessica answered after smacking Yoona’s head, effectively shutting up the laughing girl.

Tiffany pouted but was still looking down.

Taeyeon, who was still confused, decided to let it go and continue eating.

---

After dinner, Jessica dragged both Tiffany and Yoona inside her room to talk again, leaving the other three to clean up the table.

“Wow, they left just like that. I’ve honestly never seen Jessica move that fast,” Yuri said before chuckling.

Sooyoung looked at her, “You might not want to say that again. She has ears all over this place.”

Yuri shivered. 

“Anyway, what’s with Tiffany earlier? It would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so confusing.”

Sooyoung shrugged her shoulders while Taeyeon said, “I don’t know. I was confused too, but it wasn’t so surprising since she’s been acting weird since after lunch.”

“Weird? What do you mean weird?”

---

“What was that?!”

She lowered her head in embarrassment.

“I told you to do it subtly not stupidly!” Jessica raised her voice as she couldn’t hide her frustration any more.

Yoona was on Jessica’s chair laughing loudly. 

“I don’t know. I freaked out okay,” Tiffany said.

“Even a child could do it better than you.” She ignored Tiffany’s glare.

Yoona laughed louder and leaned back on the chair. The chair couldn’t support her whole weight while leaning back and eventually gave in. Yoona fell to the ground hard but still continued laughing. 

Tiffany and Jessica looked at her with eyebrows raised. They only looked at her but didn’t bother to help.

From outside, the three other girls heard the thud and quickly ran to the room only to find it locked. 

Worried, Yuri banged her fist on the door. “Yoona! What happened?!”

She pressed her ear on the door, hoping to hear her girlfriend’s voice. When she didn’t, she banged some more.

Sooyoung sighed and pushed Yuri away.

“Jessica,” Sooyoung said with a voice a lot calmer than Yuri’s, “you alright?”

“Yes, babe,” she heard Jessica say.

“What happened?”

“This choding laughed so hard she fell on the floor. She’s fine,” Jessica said nonchalantly.

“Okay.” Sooyoung said as she patted Yuri’s shoulder and walked away.

Taeyeon was a bit worried too, but decided to follow Sooyoung to finish cleaning up.

Yuri knocked. A little softer this time.

“What, Yuri?! I told you, she’s fine. She’s not dead or anything.”

Yuri’s eyes widened. “Woah. How’d you know it was me?”

“Soo knows better than to knock again, and Tae is too shy to even knock in the first place. Choding’s fine. Gosh, I feel like a record player. If I have to repeat myself one more time, you’re going to pay for it, Yul.”

Yuri froze. “O-okay. Sorry. I’ll go now.” She walked away.

---

“Get up, Yoona.” 

Yoona did as she was told. She stopped laughing by now but was still giggling.

Jessica turned to look at Tiffany. “Okay, so about your problem again. I never knew Ms. Independent can also be Ms. Stupid. I thought you could do anything? Apparently, I was misinformed.”

“Yah!”

“Oh come on, you gotta admit that what you did there was kind of stupid, not to mention, embarrassing.”

Tiffany sighed.

Jessica mimicked Tiffany’s sigh. “I guess we have to do it some other way.”

After a few moments of silence, Yoona snapped her fingers loudly, catching the attention of the other two.

“I got it!” she said. “You told me that you wash the dishes with Taeyeon right?”

Tiffany nodded.

“Then why don’t you do the house chores like that? I mean, instead of you doing everything on your own, do it together. That way, you’re not completely letting her do all the work, but you’re still making her do something. You had no problems with it came to washing the plates.”

Jessica nodded. “That’s not a bad idea, actually. Choding’s right. This might work.”

“Well, yeah, because she washed her own plates and not mine. And it’s not like she creates any mess around the house.”

Jessica smacked Tiffany’s head. “You’re making it harder to do this! You want to help her right? Sacrifice something! It’s not like we’re telling you to sell your house or anything. Just do the chores together. Oh my, what I would give for Sooyoung to at least help me around the house.”

“Yeah, Fany. Throw away just a bit of your pride for this. I thought you wanted to help Taeyeon? You don’t even have to tell her to help you. Wake up a little later than usual; allow her to wake up a little bit earlier than you then when you ‘catch’ her doing the chores, voila! Tell her you’ll do it, you know, your usual lines, then I know for sure she’ll ask you to at least do half of it, then BOOM! Agree to it. Problem solved!”

“It’s funny that you know how everything will happen.”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, it won’t be so bad, I promise.”

Tiffany sighed, “Fine. I’ll try.”

“Good enough.”