Chapter Thirty-Eight

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

The question had completely caught Yuri off-guarded. Her body rigid right on the spot with her hand still holding onto the knife. It was fortunate that she was holding onto it tightly or else the knife might just fall on her feet.

Sooyoung sighed and shrugged, “I know you won’t have an answer.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t understand you.” Yuri finally regained her composure. She spun around and swung the knife in her hand at Sooyoung. “And stop spouting nonsense!”

“YAH!” Sooyoung backed off swiftly. “THAT’S A KNIFE YOU’RE HOLDING KWON YURI!”

Yuri sneered at her and got back to her work.

Sooyoung waited for awhile. After she assured Yuri was not going to wave that knife at her again, only then she continued with her question.

“I always thought Fany and you are real.” Sooyoung paused when she heard a loud thud coming from the chopper board, right under the knife Yuri was holding. She slowly backed away again. “But when I saw how panic and protective you are towards Jessica, I doubt my thought.”

“What are you trying to say?” Frustration was obvious in her tone. Yuri directed the knife towards the chopper board, causing the knife to stick permanently on the surface of the board with its handle facing diagonally upwards.

“Make up your choice, don’t be a two-timer.”

Yuri swore she was about to hack Sooyoung with that knife, but the sentence came right after stopped her.

“You’re going to hurt them eventually if you continue to maintain a vague relationships with them like this.”

Yuri retorted back immediately, “I won’t!” Perhaps it was guilty conscious which triggered her. “I’m not in love with either one of them––” She paused abruptly, recalling what happened between her and Jessica just moments ago.

Her face blushed unknowingly.

Sooyoung noticed that instantly. “Gotcha!” She hopped next to Yuri, “So you do know who you like huh?” She asked excitedly.

“Shut up! Mind your own business!” Yuri pulled the knife out from the board. “Go do whatever you want and stop pestering me! If I see you linger around here any longer, I will not hesitate to use your flesh as ingredient!”

Without saying any more words, Sooyoung scrambled out of the kitchen as fast as she could – not forgetting to grab another bag of chips which was lying on the table.

“Ugh!”

Yuri ruffled her hair in frustration.

“Kwon Yuri, you’re not in love with Jessica! You’re not in love with Jessica! Ugh! Stop thinking and prepare the dinner now!”

*

Dinner was almost ready just as Jessica got out from the shower. With a towel hanging around her neck, she paced around the corridor on the second floor in search of her savior. She ruffled her wet hair with the towel and climbed down the stairs. A thick scent of aroma was coming out from the kitchen as she moved across the foyer.

Jessica strolled to the kitchen’s entrance curiously, only to find the person she was looking for was laying plates of cooked dishes on the dining table.

“Yuri!” Jessica happily called out to the hunter who had not noticed her appearance. She skipped to the dining table and peeked at the dishes. “You made these all by yourself?” She exclaimed, amazed by Yuri’s culinary arts.

“Hey Sica!” Yuri put down the pan and wiped away the greases on her hands with her apron. “I don’t know what you like, so I prepared quite a few dishes for you. I hope you like them.”

“I’ll love them absolutely as long as they are from you!”

The praise from Jessica made Yuri shy. She scratched herself on the head and lowered her vision to hide her blush away. But this particular action had not only failed to ease her shyness, it colored her cheeks even redder.

Oh gosh…

Yuri quickly turned around and dashed to the sink. She the tap and washed her hands mindlessly.

Oh gosh… oh gosh… oh gosh…

Yuri twisted the tap to its full blast and splashed the cool running water onto her face.

“Yuri, are you alright?” Jessica watched worriedly. They were in the midst of chatting when Yuri suddenly dashed to the sink. From the way she washed her hands and face, it just didn’t seemed right at all.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Yuri replied without looking back. “I’m just doing a little bit of wash-up. We can start dinner as soon as Sooyoung and Yoona arrive.” The moment Yuri finished her sentence, she buried her face into the sink again and splashed the water at her face.

Oh gosh… Oh gosh… Oh gosh…! I can’t believe even my hands are working in a erted manner on their own!

“Are you sure…” Jessica was obviously unconvinced.

“Hey Yuri! Are you done with the dinner yet?” A loud voice boomed from the outside and interrupted the awkwardness-rising scene in the kitchen.

Both Yuri and Jessica diverted their attentions to the entrance and watched Sooyoung made her way into the kitchen.

“I assumed dinner is ready, right? ‘Cause I smelled them––Oh! I saw them!” She her lips and dashed straight to the table.

“Yah! Sooyoung! Have you washed your hands yet?” Yuri turned off the tap and quickly pulled Sooyoung back by her collar, preventing the shikshin from stealing their dinner. “And where is Yoona?” Yuri looked around them, but saw no traces of their little dong-saeng.

“She’s still in her room. She said she want to take a shower before dinner.” Sooyoung tried to struggle out of Yuri’s grip. “Yah, I’ve washed my hands already! Can you stop holding me like a chicken?” She shot an annoyed glare at the tanned hunter, only to realize the girl was partially wet. She raised an eyebrow at her, “What’s with the water on your face and hair? Is there a leakage or what?” She took a quick glance at the ceiling.

Nope, it looked perfectly fine to her.

Yuri released Sooyoung immediately and flipped her hair as though nothing happened. “I… um… I was washing my face! You got a problem with that?” She couldn’t possibly tell Sooyoung that she was trying to calm down her agitated hormones by splashing cold water on herself.

Sooyoung gave her a nasty look and mumbled to herself. “Weirdo.” She pulled her vision away from Yuri and caught sight of the silent blonde who was standing near the entrance of the kitchen. “Hey! Jessica! You’re here!”

………

Yuri rolled her eyes when she heard that sentence.

That shikshin… Jessica was here way earlier than her! But she was too focused on the foods that she failed to notice Jessica’s existence!

“Hello.” Jessica greeted Sooyoung back awkwardly. She shared the exact thought as Yuri even though they did not project it out loud.

“Why aren’t you wearing any pants?”

Sooyoung pointed at the pair of slender fair legs that were exposing in the air.

“Huh?” Jessica looked at her body out of reflex. “Uh… I am…” Her face flushed. Jessica tried her best to pull down the tight pant that was hidden beneath the oversized shirt, but they kept on going back to the original position right after Jessica released.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I just saw that.” Sooyoung finally noticed the little piece of black clothing underneath the shirt. She turned her back towards Jessica and scanned through the delicacies on the table as she casually asked, “Geez, where did you get that pants from anyway? I can hardly see them with the shirt you’re wearing.”

Food… Food… Food…! Are they going to start dinner soon!

Yuri felt utterly embarrassed at Sooyoung’s words.

Jessica was embarrassed too. She pouted and shot a blaming glance at the initiator who didn’t dare to look at her.

But luckily for Yuri and Jessica, Sooyoung was too engrossed with the dinner that she didn’t realize the abnormal interaction they were having.

“Sorry for the waiting unnies!” Yoona suddenly came, running from the outside. “I’m done––Jessica unnie? Why aren’t you wearing pants?”

Great, Yuri thought she should just dig a hole and hide under it.

How on the earth did I chose the shortest pants in my closet for Jessica?!

And dinner started, with the embarrass duo seated next to each other while the two shikshins sat on the opposite side of them.

Sooyoung was grabbing the dishes in a hurry for herself as though she starved for a thousand year. Afraid that her masterpieces would be finished by that hungry shikshin before Jessica could taste them, Yuri quickly followed the suit and picked the rest of them into Jessica’s bowl.

While the two friends were busy with their silent competition, Jessica spotted Yoona dazing off with her chopsticks poking into the bowl of untouched rice unconsciously. She also noticed the rather gloomy expression on her face. Sensing something was wrong, Jessica leaned forward and held Yoona’s hand in hers.

“Yoona?”

Yoona woke up from her daze and looked at the worried Jessica. She immediately realized what she was doing and replaced the gloomy expression with her usual cheeky smile.

“Yes unnie?” Yoona asked cheerily, as though nothing had happened.

“Are you alright?”

“Of course I am!” Yoona replied, purposely drawing her smile wider to reassure Jessica that she was alright. She pulled her chopsticks away from her rice and balanced them by knocking their bottoms against the table. “I’m starving––” Yoona was about to grab the vegetables for herself when the sight of empty plates prevented her from doing so. “Eh? Where are all the foods?” She exclaimed and her attention was quickly shifted to her partner who was sitting right beside her.

Sooyoung stuffed her last piece of meat, together with the last spoon of rice, into . She munched on them as fast and hard as she could and swallowed them down .

“Why are you looking at me? I’m not the one who finishes them!” Sooyoung pointed at the ‘mountain’ in front of Jessica. “Look at her!”

Yoona followed the chopsticks and her vision automatically landed on the obvious ‘mountain’ in front of Jessica. Her eyes widened in surprise, woah! She never knew Jessica could eat that much! That was like five times her dinner last night.

Jessica was as surprise as well. When and how did the dishes got into her bowl?

A soft coughing could be heard from her side, three pairs of eyes immediately diverted their attentions to the tanned hunter who looked unusually uncomfortable. Sooyoung, who was the first-hand eye witness to the food-snatching, shrugged and leaned back on her chair.

This is so going to be interesting. She has never seen Yuri acted like this when they are with Tiffany.

So it is Jessica huh?

Jessica called out, “Yuri?”

“Uh, yes?” Yuri tried to act ignorance.

Jessica asked, “Was it you?”

“Um…” Yuri scratched her head, hesitating whether she should admit or deny it. She looked up and her eyes immediately captured the playful smirk on Sooyoung’s face.

Ugh! It would be too obvious that she lied about it!

“Yuri?”

“Um… Yeah… I am the one who put them into your bowl.” Yuri secretly shot a glare at Sooyoung.

“Why?”

“Why?”

Jessica and Yoona asked in unison, while Sooyoung continued to smirk away.

Yuri saw it and immediately delivered a kick to the shikshin’s leg from under the table, “’Because this shikshin is trying to savor all the foods!” She kicked her once more. “Yah, can you stop acting like a refugee? Our foods are more than enough for everyone in here!”

Sooyoung did not say anything but looked at Yuri for a brief moment. She then took a quick glance at the blonde sitting next to Yuri, before shifting her gaze back to Yuri again.

“I’m sorry.” She apologized. “I will take note of that next time.”

Her apology took Yuri and Yoona by surprise. Knowing the shikshin’s personality, both of them thought Sooyoung would retaliate and ‘fight’ with Yuri instead.

Jessica, who was clueless about everything, started to picked up the meats and vegetables with her chopsticks one by one and returned them onto their designated plates neatly, making sure that they looked just about the same as when they were just cooked.

“I hope you guys don’t mind, I haven’t touch them, they’re all clean.”

Yoona picked up one of the dishes and put it into . She munched and replied at the same time, “I don’t mind. Let’s start ea…ting…” Her munching was slowing down as her sentence reached the end.

Tiffany is not here yet, should she get her?

Jessica was also thinking about the same question. She nudged Yuri and asked, “Um… Yuri? Where’s Tiffany? Will she mind these foods?”

Sooyoung went to the rice cooker to refill her bowl when she overheard Jessica’s question. Understand that Jessica was quite sensitive with Tiffany’s reaction towards her, without waiting for Yuri’s reply, Sooyoung answered the question for her instead.

“Fany won’t be coming back for the dinner tonight. You don’t have to worry for her.”

Jessica was surprised by that answer. She had been here for two days and Tiffany missed her dinner in the dormitory for two days. She quickly turned to Yuri, “Yuri, did… Tiffany left because of me?” Guiltiness filled her eyes. She would not believe this was a coincidence.

Yuri explained, “Don’t be silly, Fany went for self-training at the training ground. She already told us beforehand that she’s going to have her dinner at the cafeteria.”

“Really?” Jessica was not convinced.

“It’s the truth.” Sooyoung came back to her seat after she scooped the rice into her bowl. “I was there when she said that. She looked perfectly alright, not pissed off or angry or whatsoever, so don’t worry about it.”

Yuri nodded at Sooyoung’s words and patted Jessica’s hand with a warm smile, assuring to the girl that nothing was going on. Seeing Yuri’s gentle smile, it made Jessica momentarily forgotten all her worries and eventually started her dinner with Yuri (and Sooyoung) happily.

However, there was one more person who had yet to be convinced.