CHAPTER NINE: Run

Jessica wakes up that morning. She gets up, somehow sad without reason. The melted Ice Princess sits in front of the dresser like she does everyday and touches her cheeks.

“They’re...wet?” she says and recalls her dream last night. “That can’t be true, right?”

And then she thinks of him.

She takes his gift, the necklace, and puts it on.

“I love you too...” She repeats the words she said to him last night, in her dream, and plays with the necklace with her fingers.

She laughs, or at least, tries to. “He could not have said goodbye. I mean, we were together yesterday afternoon at that place...” Jessica shakes her head and sighs. “I’ll go find him later...”

She got into her bathroom and got ready for school. Then, she grabbed her bag and checked the time. There’s an hour left before school starts.

“Maybe I’ll just pick up a Latte on the way to school, today,” Jessica says to herself and heads out the door. She locks it and walks down the street on the way to a nearby coffee shop.

On the way, she bumps into Sunny. “Sica!” She greets her fellow student. “Good morning!”

“Sunny-ah! Good morning.” She says and bows 90 degrees.

“Yah, what’s with the formal shenanigans?”
“You’re my class president?” Sica laughs.

“Well drop them, Jessica~ As your class president, I order you to speak to me informally!” She giggles.

“Okay?” Jessica laughs, so does Sunny.

“What you up to?” Sunny asks.

“Oh me? I was just about to grab a Latte then head over to school.”

“Oh? I just came from there.” Sunny giggled and smiled sweetly. “Well Jessica, don’t let me hold you up.”

“It’s fine, really.”

Sunny laughs. “Haha. Well, I should get going now. It’s 6:40. See you later!”

“See you!” She waves as Sunny walks away.

Jessica reaches the coffee shop a few minutes later. She takes hold of the handles then pushes the glass door open, and the chime sounds. She’s the only person in the store, right now. Well, except for Junhyung, one of the employees.

“Miss Jessica, you’re here early.” Junhyung greets her with a smile. She smiles back.

“Yup. One Latte please!” She giggles and sits down on the chair nearest to the counter.

“So, what you up to these days?” Jessica asks him.

“Nothing. Same old stuff, I guess,” He replies as he prepares her drink. “You want a cheesecake?”

“Oh, no. I’m not really-“

“Freeee~” Junhyung giggles.

“I can’t.” Jessica laughs.

“Come on, you’re sort of a regular here anyway. I haven’t seen you around lately thought.”

It was true. She was one of the loyal customers that came there almost four times a week for a drink with her friends, or when she wanted to do her homework there and study.

It was also true, though, that she hasn’t been there a lot lately. She knew the reason, anyway.

He was the reason.

Onew.

“Junhyung, It’s so...I don’t know. Won’t your boss fire you or something?” She asks shyly.

Junhyung laughs. “You’ve been missing a lot, Miss Jessica,” he says and hands her her order.

She looks at him, puzzled and confused. Junhyung smiles at her.

Then her face lit up. She seemed to be catching on with him.

“Wait. Don’t tell me...You’re the manager? Or wait! You finally married Hyuna?”

Junhyung laughs, amused at the fact that Jessica knew him so well. Well, he did take her order whenever she came there. And they became friends, eventually. Junhyung even asked Jessica about advice on certain situations. She did the same with him.

“Better, I own this place now,” he laughs.

“Really?!” She stands up. “Congratulations! How’d you do it?”

“Boss loved me. I mean, come on. A guy this hot?”

“Yah!” Jessica slaps his shoulder.

“Oww! I’m joking!” He laughs. “He gave me this branch. Just this one though. He needs people to help him manage stuff, and I am paying attention in school...so...”

“Oh...Great for you. No classes today?”

“Nah. Principal Lee’s niece, something happened to her...so yeah he made it a holiday or something.”

“Oh...What about Hyuna then?” She laughs.

He blushes and puts his hand up, flashing the ring on his finger.

“OH MY GOD! You’re married!” She screams. Realizing what she just did, she cups her hands over . “I mean, You’re married?” She says in a lower tone of voice, but with enthusiasm.

“Engaged,” he says.

“Wow! Congrats!” She says once more. “You’re lucky, Jun.”

“I guess you could say that. She’s an awesome girl.” Junhyung laughs and takes a piece of cheesecake from the display cases. “So, how about that cheesecake?”

Jessica giggles. “Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll take it, sir!” She says and salutes him in a mocking way.

They both laugh.

“Oh. And will you please stop calling me Miss?” 

Junhyung gives her the cheesecake and she eats it while having a little chat with her friend. After she finished her food she took her Latter with her, which was also free, and went out the door. Ten minutes left until class starts. She bids him goodbye and congratulates him one more time then heads out to school.

Jessica strolls off happily to school. Her day started great because of Junhyung, although she thinks that it was better yesterday since she started it off with Onew.

‘I love you, more than a friend...’ She hears the voice in her head.

“No way, Onew.” She says to herself as she reaches the gates of the school.

The mood was a bit down and grey, even though the sun was shining brightly in the sky.  Jessica didn’t know why. She hasn’t even entered the school but there’s already this feeling. It was like there was some kind of negative energy surrounding the place. She could feel it.

Jessica sighed, “I’ll never find out what’s up if I don’t go in,” she says to herself and enters the gates. She passes by students, sad and whatnot, not exactly knowing what happened. Jessica proceeds, keeping a tight hold on her book bag as she tries to ignore the weird, gloomy atmosphere surrounding the school. She finds Tiffany and Yuri waiting by her locker.

“Jessi...” they both say to her in a monotonous voice. She her brow and makes a sour face.

“Uh...What’s going on? Did someone die or something?” Jessica asks both her best friends and their heads droop. It seems that something she said added to the tension of the sorrowful spell the school was under.

“Hello?” She says, but gets no response.

Jessica sighs and opens her locker instead to get the books she needed for the first four periods.

Yuri stops her.

“You don’t have to do that, Sica. Class is cancelled.” She says and Jessica closes her locker gently.

“Okay.” She says in her sergeant tone of voice. “Can either of you please tell me what the heck is going on right now? Seriously it looks like-“

“No one told you Sica?” Minho says as he approaches the three girls along with Jonghyun, Key and Taemin. “Baby, it’s okay.” He says and pats Yuri’s back. Yuri hugs him and then hugs Tiffany.

Key and Jonghyun both sigh.

“Noona you really don’t know?” Taemin asks. Jessica shakes her head.

“No one told you?” Key inquires as well.

Again, Jessica shakes her head.

The four boys all look at each other.

Jonghyun finally speaks up. “Jessica-sshi, You know Lee Soonkyu, right?”

“Sunny? She’s in my class.” Jessica replies. “Why?”

Jonghyun sighs and bites his lip.

“She’s gone.”

Jessica looks at him in shock and her eyes widen. She definitely didn’t expect that kind of answer. Well, she was joking when she asked if someone died, but this is too much. This can’t be true.

She just talked to Sunny yesterday on the phone.

She just passed by Sunny on the way to the coffee shop this morning.

“Stop kidding, Jjong.” She laughs, but then she stops and her smile is turned into a frown. She realizes that he’s dead serious about his. It was no joke.

But she still refused to believe that this was actually happening.

“Seriously. Guys? Minho? Key? Taemin?” she says and looks over to the boys who reply to her question with shrugs.

“Fany? Yul?” she glances at the girls who both shake their heads.

“No.”

“She died yesterday. 6:38 in the morning...” Jonghyun said.

Jessica took her phone out and checked the call history.

‘Sunny...6...38?’

“That’s impossible...” Jessica whispered.

‘She even told me about 3:00...She...’

“H- how did she die?”

“She was on her phone...she got hit by a truck...That’s what they said,” Key said.

“Where did she...where did she die?”

“People say she was coming out of the coffee shop when she was hit.” Key sighs and looks down, they all do.

“I do- Jessica?” Jonghyun looks up to find that the Ice Princess already gone. He looks around and sees her sprinting in the direction of the exit.

“Yah! Where are you going?!” Key shouts. “JESSICA!”                  

But she doesn’t look back.

Jessica runs faster, determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. She was confused. She really didn’t know what to think. So she ran.

And in a few minutes, she found herself in the exact spot where she saw Sunny this morning.

“Jessica...”

She heard her friend’s sweet voice...alive as ever.

Jessica turns around. There she is in her school uniform and her nerdy glasses, wearing a bright smile. It was a kind of smile that was bright, just like the sun was.

“Sunny? What’s this? Are you really...?”

She nods sadly.

“I’m sorry, Jessica. “

“No...I...”

“You can see me?”

Jessica nods.

“I can touch you too...I guess. Well, I can do that with my sister but I don’t know. I thought I could only see her.”

“You’re special, Jessica Jung.”

She laughs. “I’m a freak, Sunny.”

“Of course not. That’s a gift...Haha.”

“Still the encouraging class president/unnie/noona to all of us, aren’t you now?” Jessica giggles. “We’ll miss that person...”

“I’ll miss you guys too...” She smiles and hugs the Ice Princess.

“Aren’t you looking for something, Jessica?” Sunny asks.

She shakes her head. “No.” And no, she didn’t know what her ghost friend was referring to.

“Really? I think you are.”

‘Onew?’

“Maybe.” She laughs.

“I knew it~” Sunny laughs. She was referring to Onew. “Well, don’t let me waste your time...once again.”

“It’s fine.” Jessica laughs. “It’s still early anyway.”

“Yeah, and I’m going...somewhere.” She says. “I’ll see you, Jess.”

Right then and there, Sunny begins to fade away from the bottom up, colliding with the wind.

“You will.”

‘Am I looking for something? I haven’t lost anything, right? Or maybe...’ She gasps and suddenly feels her neck. She gives a sigh of relief as soon as she feels the ice princess necklace. It was the first thing she would go looking for if ever anyone asked her if she lost something.

It was something special.

“It’s still here...”

Indeed it was. But the person who gave it to her, where is he right now?

She stood there on the sidewalk with a blank expression. She didn’t know what she wanted to do right now. There was nothing to do, and there was no way she’d go back to school. She just ditched the boys and her two best friends for no reason.

Maybe they think she’s crazy now.

Maybe not.

She sighed and felt the pendant once more in her hands. Then, she had a sudden yearning for him, she wanted to see him.

She wanted to talk to him.

She wanted to look into his chocolate brown eyes and get lost in his world.

She wanted to hear his deep, endearing voice.

She wanted to see his bright smile.

But she didn’t know why.

Was it because she spent too much time around him and she wasn’t used to him not being around her?

Maybe.

Was it because she needed to tell him something about her day? Maybe.

Did she need advice? Probably.

Or maybe she didn’t need a reason. She just sort of wanted to see him, sort of.

So she sat down on a park bench close by and began to list down places at the back of her “reminders” notebook. It was a list of places she knew she might find him in. She put the place near the bridge where they would always go. She thought about his school, but she remembered that he didn’t go to one, so she crossed that out on her list. She thought about where he lived and thought about the apartment he mentioned once or twice in their conversations. And lastly, she put the mall and some other stores and stuff where she thought she’d look for him in case she didn’t find him anywhere else.

“Wow, I know so much about him...”

And it was true. It even felt weird for her. She doesn’t usually care about men, but he’s different.

Jessica looked at her list and began to ponder.

Why was she doing this? Why was she listing down places like this?

No idea. She just wanted to see him.

So she starts her search and runs to the back of the cemetery and past the garden. She starts slowing down as she sees the silhouette of a bridge. Then, she reaches the lake and she looks around. She tries calling his name. “Onew? Are you there? Hey, It’s Jessica!” She shouts.

But she gets no reply.

She walks out of the place with a disappointed look on her face, and crosses out ‘his favourite place,’ on her list.

She starts her next mission- to find his house.

Jessica goes to the 9 story apartment building a few blocks away from the school. There were five of them, actually, so she didn’t know which one to go to first.

She listed all those five buildings in her notebook.

She visited four out of the five, and asked the same question to all the receptionist ladies at the front desk.

“Annyeong-haseyo.” She bows. “Is there someone named Lee Jinki living here?” She asks.

But she would get the same answer from all of them. “I’m sorry, no Lee Jinki lives here.”

She would even try one more time by using his nickname, but it was still a no.

She sighed in disappointment and continued to the last building, “The Blooming Rose.” She entered and greeted the security guard before continuing on to the front desk. She was 99% sure he was here this time, but she prepared herself for another “no,” just in case.

“Annyeong haseyo!” She bows to the lady at the front desk.

“Annyeong haseyo.” The lady does the same. “How may I be of help?”

“Uhm...Does someone named Lee Jinki or Lee Onew live here?” she asks, hoping for an answer somewhere near ‘YES.’

But the lady’s face droops. “L- Lee Onew?”

“Yes.” Jessica says.

“Well, he was supposed to move in two months ago... I guess it got delayed or something, but I’m not sure. I’m sorry miss. There’s no other person I know with that name.”

‘Two months ago?’ Jessica thinks and sighs in disappointment.

“Oh...Thank you for the time...” She says and walks away.

“You’re welcome, miss.”

Jessica crosses out the place on her notebook.

“How can that be? Two months ago? He told me he lived here already...Was he lying to me? And that note... I don’t understand...” She says to herself and looks at the time. It’s 5:00 already.

“Time flies by fast...I’ll just come back tomorrow.” She says and heads over to the garden at the back of the cemetery.

Of course she remembered her little sister.

“Krystal?” She calls out. But she gets no response at well.

“Krystal?” She tries one more time. Nothing.

“Krystal Jung? Are you there?”

She tried asking.

She wasn’t there. Krystal had somehow disappeared as well.

“God, not you too...Are you all gonna leave me like this?” Jessica screams and she falls on her knees.

“Unnie, I wouldn’t leave you.” Krystal says and appears behind her sister, hugging her back. She appeared before the blonde, against her wishes. She’s close to completing her mission, but her sister needed her.

“You’ll have to...I know that. But at least say goodbye first.” Her sister says and hugs her back. “I understand that I’ll need to forget you for you to go up there. The rope tying you to this earth is the connection with me, am I right?” Jessica asks with her head hung low.

Krystal was lost for words. Everything her sister said was true. She didn’t know how her sister found out.

“Unnie, I’m sorry...”

“I knew it...”

“How did you-“

“I just know.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Krystal, promise me something, okay?” She says and slowly stands up.

“Anything, unnie.” Her sister says.

“Appear before me with your last powers when you need to go and I’m not here...I want to say goodbye...”

“I will unnie.”

“And one more thing,”

“Yes, unnie?”

“Promise me, you’ll always be with me.”

“Unnie, I-“

“Promise me, Krystal Jung, that even when I can’t see you anymore, you’ll be watching over me.”

“I promise unnie!” She says and hugs her sister. She sees a drop of water fall to the ground. Was it rain?

No, it was her sister’s tear.

“I love you, Krystal,” she says and gives the younger girl a kiss on the cheek.

“I love you too, Jessica Unnie,” Krystal replies. She tries to be brave, although her voice is trembling, for her unnie. They hug each other tightly.

‘So much...’ They both think. ‘So much...’

Heya~ Here's another update. :D

lol do I take too long?  Sorry~

I'm self-teaching myself how to play the guitar. (Not my fault. Blame Taylor Swift for being so damn awesome.) and I go out a lot lol. XD

Plus I don't want to publish a chapter that's less than 8 pages on MS Word. (Yeah. I'm so...XD Idk. I just like writing long chapters as much as I like reading them.)

But imma inform you guys that there's only like 5 chapters left until this ends. *AWWWW*

Wow I make long authors notes real fast. Why can't I come up with chapters just as fast. XD /shot.

Okay enough, I talk too much. lol.

Anyway, Please comment! ;D 

Love ya~

--author.

EDIT: November 23, 2013