Chapter Thirty-Seven

Silence filled the room.

The two stoned figures were sitting on the edge of the bed, doing nothing but staring into space. It was only until a while ago, Yuri then realized she had been holding onto Jessica’s hand for… ugh! She had no idea how and why their hands were together in the first place! She only knew she felt really comfortable when her hand intertwined with Jessica’s soft and warm hand. And if it wasn’t for Jessica’s tomato-liked face, she would not have noticed their connected hands too.

The embarrass duo continued in maintaining their silent and awkward atmosphere.

Yuri thought she was going to suffer a mental breakdown soon. The atmosphere in this room was far worse than when Tiffany went into anger mode.

She secretly stole glances at the nervous blonde sitting to her right.

Jessica was playing with the corner of her shirt, Yuri’s shirt to be exact, since her only white dress was torn and they hadn’t get her new sets of outfit yet. The blonde pursed her lips into a pout, which Yuri thought was extremely adorable, adding on to the fact that her cheeks were still red.

A smile crept onto Yuri’s face unknowingly as her secret glance unintentionally turned into an open observation. Her gaze was so strong that even without looking at her, Jessica could feel the stare on her. She became even more nervous because of that and her cheeks grew warmer and hotter.

Jessica thought she could fry an egg with her cheeks now.

The nervous blonde hung her head low, trying to avoid the intensive, yet inoffensive, gaze.

She knew it sounded wrong if she put it this way, but strangely, she enjoyed how Yuri focused her attention on her. Though it might be awkward for her to a certain extent, but it was nice to know that she actually managed to attract a wonderful person like Yuri.

However, “Yuri…” Jessica tried her best to make herself sounded as natural as possible. “Is there anything on my face?”

No matter how much she enjoyed the feeling of being stared at (by Yuri), she had to stop her now or else there might not be an ending to it.

Yuri finally realized what she was doing and quickly withdrew her gaze. She tried to fake a cough to ease the awkward situation, but both of them clearly knew it was futile.

The guilty hunter coughed once more. Her brain was cracking for ideas to start a new conversation with Jessica. She peeked at Jessica with the corner of her eyes. The girl was still blushing and biting hard on her lips. Yuri felt guiltier. She was pretty certain that her unintentional action made herself look like a maniac ert…

Yuri mentally face-palmed herself and reprimanded herself for acting like this.

“Yuri-ah…” Yuri felt a little tug on her sleeve suddenly. She turned and looked at the blushing blonde. “I’m hungry…” Jessica was looking at Yuri with her puppy eyes, but she looked away immediately when she noticed the awkwardness between them had grown again.

“Um…” Yuri tried to keep her eyes away from Jessica. She looked at the clock hanging on the wall which showed a quarter to six. “It’s almost dinner’s time. I shall prepare the dinner then.” She rose up from her seat nervously and headed to the door. Just when she was about to turn the knob and get out of her room, something got into her and made her turned her head back.

She caught Jessica playing her shirt again – HER shirt to be precise.

“Um… Sica…” Yuri called the girl who was in daze, but entangling the corner of the shirt with her fingers.

Jessica broke out from her daze and shyly replied, “Yes?”

“You may want to take a bath or something first before dinner’s ready.” Yuri noticed the shirt on Jessica was the same one she wore in the morning. “I’ve got new clothes by the way. You don’t have to wear the old ones.” Yuri released the door knob and walked to her wardrobe instead.

She pulled open the door of the wardrobe and was greeted by a series of black outfits. She ignored them and squatted down, pulling out one of the drawers and reached for the white cotton shirt that was still packed within its plastic bag.

However, before she managed to touch it, another hand came in and pulled her, putting a stop to her action.

“Yuri, don’t––” Jessica stopped when she felt electrical currents ran through her fingers and throughout her body when she touched Yuri. She quickly withdrew her hand and looked away.

She felt her cheeks with the back of her hands secretly.

The temperature of her cheeks was rising again.

“Uh… Wha-What did you say again, Sica?” Yuri groaned inwardly when she found herself stammering through the words. She mentally reminded herself to remain calm, though knowing it was highly impossible because her heart was beating rapidly fast!

“I… I mean, don’t take the new ones. I like your old ones. They are… comfortable……” Jessica replied. Her voice eventually became mutter as they reached the end of the sentence.

Jessica was embarrassed by herself. How did she even manage to let those words escaped ?

“Oh… is… is that it?” Yuri scratched the back of her head nervously.

For goodness sake! Kwon Yuri, get hold of yourself!

Yuri faked a cough, “Well then,” She closed the drawer and pulled out the other one where she kept all the clothes which she normally wore in the dormitory. She took out a plain t-shirt and handed it to Jessica without looking at her, “You can wear this. And…” She searched around her wardrobe for the pants. She dug out a similar long pant to the one Jessica was wearing. “Here’s the pants.”

“Um…” Jessica felt kind of uneasy when she saw the pants. She looked up and pushed the pants back into Yuri’s hands. “Yuri, can I get a short one instead? The weather is kinda warm…” After wearing the long track pants for one night, Jessica realized the weather wasn’t as cooling as how she thought it was. She needed to wear something light to ease herself from the warm temperature.

However, Yuri thought otherwise. The moment she heard the ‘short’ word, an image of Jessica revealing her fair and silky legs popped out in her mind.

Pretty… hot… and y!

Jessica waited awhile for Yuri to pass her the pants, but after receiving no reply from Yuri, she nudged her, “Yuri?”

Yuri jumped up from her position, “Uh, yes?”

Yah! Kwon Yuri! What the heck are you thinking! Stop acting like a ert!

Jessica reminded her, “The… pants?”

“Oh!” Yuri knocked herself on the head. How on the earth did her mind produce such a rated image!? She quickly scrambled through the piles of clothes while mentally reprimanding herself. It didn’t take Yuri too long to dig out a pair of rather short pants from the wardrobe.

Yuri placed the pants on top of the shirt in Jessica’s hands, “There you go.” She stood up, pacing as fast as she could to the door. “I’m going to prepare the dinner now. Go get yourself a wash-up! Take your time though, I won’t be fast!” Yuri swung the door open and dashed out of her room. She slammed the door close behind her before leaning onto it and panted as though she was deprived of oxygen.

Wait, she was indeed deprived of oxygen!

This is crazy! Yuri thought to herself. Why am I having this kind of affectionate feeling towards Jessica out of the sudden?!

Yoona’s voice rang in her head suddenly.

“Unnie, I guess I shall pass Jessica unnie back to you?”

Ugh! Im Yoona!

Yuri spun around and stormed straight to Yoona’s door. She had her hand lifted up already and was about to ram right onto the door when she recalled another issue.

If she blames Yoona for causing all the weird affection she has for Jessica now, Yoona would definitely knows she likes Jessica and will like how her brother did––

Craps! Now even she herself thinks that she likes Jessica!

“Yah, Kwon Yuri, what are you doing in front of Yoona’s room?”

Yuri was startled by the sudden voice. She jumped up from where she was and turned to the source of the voice in shock.

Thank goodness it was Sooyoung. She couldn’t imagine what would the end of her if Tiffany saw this. She would definitely get to the heart of this matter.

“I thought you are supposed to be accompanying Jessica, what’s up with the fluster?” Sooyoung eyed Yuri with a raised eyebrow as she shoved the chips in her hand into .

“I… I was just contemplating whether should I prepare Yoona’s share for dinner!” Yuri put up the most natural expression she could make up and combed her hair into place with her bare fingers.

“DID YOU JUST SAY DINNER?” Sooyoung’s eyes glittered brightly, as though there were sparks in them. She had just thrown whatever topic and questions she had with Yuri to the back of her head. “Just prepare it for the benefits of all humans in this world! I’ll finish it up for you if she doesn’t want to eat them!”

Yuri rolled her eyes at her. This shikshin never knew what was limit whenever they talked about food. She glared at Sooyoung who was busy stuffing the chips into the mouth. “Can you like stop eating for at least half a day?”

“Why should I?” Sooyoung gave her a weird look. “That’s my hobby.”

…… Hobby?

Yuri felt the corner of twitched uncontrollably.

“You’re only wasting all the food resources!”

God must be unfair, why is this girl still so skinny despite consuming large amount of food?

“You’re just jealous.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!”

“No, I’m not!”

“Yes, you are!!”

“No––”

“If the both of you continue to block my way and make me waste my time listening to your stupid conversation, I won’t hesitate to flash my blades.”

An extremely cold and icy stern voice pierced through the air, cutting through their loud argument, hitting onto their eardrums, sending shivers down their spines.

Yuri and Sooyoung gulped in silence as they both quickly stopped and turned to face the scariest hunter in Aurales.

“Fany…” Yuri was the first to react. She approached her irritated partner – which Sooyoung thought of that as a brave act – and held her hands in hers. “How are you?” It was only less than an hour ago when she and Yoona had a fight.

Tiffany frowned and pulled herself away from Yuri.

“I’m good.” If you didn’t side Jessica.

Yuri let out a sigh of relief. She was so worried that Tiffany would blame and ignore her because she refused to listen to her advice.

“I’m going to prepare dinner. What do you like to eat?” Yuri smiled at Tiffany cheerfully.

Her eyebrow knitted slightly together upon her partner’s cheerful look.

Tiffany isn’t like Yuri. She doesn’t let things go easily.

“I’m not eating. I’m heading out.” The hunter wasn’t sure if she could retain her composure if she stayed here and faced that Jessica girl.

“What? Where are you going?” The sun is setting already. It didn’t sound great at all for Tiffany to go out under the dark sky.

“I’m only going to the training ground.” Tiffany could have ignored her, but she decided to inform Yuri her whereabouts in case she became anxious again. “Don’t wait for me. I’ll get my dinner at the cafeteria later.” The training ground was part of Aurales’ premise, but it was located on the opposite side of their dormitory. Tiffany would probably only be back around midnight.

Yuri sighed, “Do you really have to do training at night?”

“Yuri, don’t start on it.” Tiffany reminded her. She hated it when people got too touchy with her life.

Yuri tugged the corner of the lips unwittingly, “Fine. Don’t overwork yourself though.” Yuri took Tiffany’s hands again and squeezed them gently. “I want to see you in good shape.”

“Tell that to yourself.” Tiffany removed her hands from Yuri’s grips. She really wanted to stay away from Yuri for awhile. “I’m leaving. Don’t worry about me.”

“Okay…”

As soon as Tiffany left, Yuri went to the kitchen on the first floor of their dormitory for the preparation of their dinner.

Sooyoung was following closely behind her. Her eyes were scanning their surroundings, ensuring there were no other people other than Yuri and herself.

“Yuri…” Sooyoung leaned against the cabinet as she watched Yuri pulled out all the necessary equipments for cooking. She threw the emptied chips bag accurately into the dustbin beside her without shifting her gaze away from Yuri.

Yuri heard Sooyoung and paused whatever she was doing.

“Yeah?”

Sooyoung moved away from the cabinet and shortened the distance between Yuri and herself. She had been pondering about this since Yuri closed her door on her, and when she saw Yuri and Tiffany having a conversation earlier on, she came to a decision that she should really ask her friend this question.

“Who do you like exactly?” She voiced out her query, “Tiffany or Jessica?”