Chapter Forty-Eight

Nicole left for the infirmary again after escorting Yuri back to their dormitory. The still-depressed and guilty Yuri dragged her feet across their carpeted foyer and climbed up the stairs.

She was seriously not in the mood to take a rest or whatsoever now, but it was impossible to disobey Tiffany’s instruction. She didn’t want to disappoint her very own partner, especially after witnessing an almost crying scene which should have never happened.

Tiffany was never the person who would cry so easily, even when Sooyoung was in such a critical condition now. This wasn’t the first time that such accidents happened. There were similar cases in the past and the most critical one involved Yoona. When Yoona just started out as a hunter, due to her inexperience, she was badly injured by a mutant and everyone thought that she wasn’t going to make it. Back then, Tiffany did not shed a single tear nor looked as weak as how she was now. She remembered clearly that Tiffany was expressionless throughout the whole operation until the surgeons said Yoona was fine already.

Something just seemed wrong with Tiffany, but Yuri was too restless to figure out why.

As Yuri opened the door to her room, she was greeted by an unexpected scene in front of her.

“What’s going on here?” A frown was immediately formed on her forehead as she questioned the people sitting on her couch. If her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her, she thought she just saw Yoona comforting the rather pale-looking Jessica.

“Um…” Yoona hesitated. She couldn’t let Yuri found out what Tiffany did to Jessica earlier on. Who knew if they might quarrel again?

Jessica quickly answered for her, “I had a nightmare.” She, too, didn’t want to create conflict between the partners. She was already guilty enough for creating problems between Yoona and Tiffany – although it wasn’t really her fault since Tiffany was the one who wanted to rip her shirt – but she really wished she could do something to prevent it from happening.

“Nightmare?” Yuri breathed out a heavy sigh as she paced towards them. “You okay now?” Yuri tried her best to sound as gentle as possible, but anyone could sense the frustration in her voice.

Jessica nodded her head timidly at the frustrated hunter. Yuri looked kind of scary when she wasn’t in a good mood.

Yoona asked, “Unnie, how’s Sooyoung?” She knew Jessica wasn’t the cause of Yuri’s frustration. The hunter seemed to be in bad mood already when she stepped into the room.

“She was traumatized.” Yuri walked to her bed and sat down on it. “The doctor had injected anesthesia into her. She is currently asleep in the ward. You can visit her if you want, Tiffany is with her now.”

“Unnie…” Yoona left the couch and stopped in front of Yuri. She patted Yuri on her shoulder as a form of comfort, “You don’t look good to me.” She might be anxious for her own partner, but it seemed to her that Yuri needed more help than Sooyoung.

“I’m alright.”

“But…”

“I’ll take a rest, don’t worry.” Yuri shoved Yoona’s hand away gently and lied down on her bed. “Let me know when Sooyoung wakes up.”

Yoona didn’t want to leave yet. Yuri’s condition worried her more than Sooyoung’s. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her arm. Yoona turned around only to find the pale-looking Jessica standing next to her.

“Je––”

Jessica placed a finger on her lips, implying Yoona to stop talking. When Yoona stopped, she pointed at herself then Yuri.

Yoona understood what she meant. Jessica was trying to tell her that she was going to take care of Yuri on the behalf of her… maybe not on behalf of her, because she noticed the worries written in Jessica’s eyes too.

“I shall leave then.” Yoona whispered as soft as possible, trying her best not to disturb Yuri, who had rested her arm across her face, covering her eyes. “Unnie, do let me know if you need help.”

Jessica reassured Yoona with a gentle smile. Although the incident with Tiffany affected her quite badly before, she had pretty much recovered already and she believed she was capable in taking care of a worn out Yuri.

The blonde waited till Yoona left the room, only then she climbed onto the bed. She lied next to Yuri and tilted her body to face the hunter. Sensing the movement on her bed, Yuri removed her arm and turned to the blonde who was looking at her.

“Sica?” The hoarse voice of hers reflected dryness in .

Jessica shifted herself closer to Yuri. “I’m here.”

Yuri’s hand naturally found its way to Jessica’s head and rested on it. She the golden hair gently with her thumb, “Are you feeling better now? Is your nightmare scary?” Yuri tried her best to form a smile on her face. She didn’t want Jessica to feel that she was acting hostile to her and scared her away.

“It wasn’t.” Jessica lied. Having Tiffany ripping off her shirt was a horrible experience worse than nightmares.

“That’s good.” Yuri removed her hand and returned to her side of the bed. But before she could withdraw her hand fully, Jessica suddenly grabbed and held it tightly. “What’s wrong?” Yuri asked, with the forceful, yet gentle, smile still hanging on her face.

“Don’t force yourself in front of me.”

It was just a simple sentence, yet Yuri knew those words meant more than what it seemed to be to her. It struck her like an arrow hitting the target. It hit right on her heart that she could clearly feel the impact from it.

“I’m here for you. You can always use my shoulder whenever you want…”

And she crumbled. The tears she tried to hide in front of Jessica eventually broke through her walls and ran down her cheeks. Yuri buried her face into the nook of Jessica’s neck and cried misery. She couldn’t just rest like how Tiffany asked her to. Their good friend Sooyoung was lying on the infirmary’s bed because of her negligence. How could she rest with ease?

“Yuri…” Jessica hugged Yuri tightly and the hunter’s hair like how a mother would do to her children when they were crying.

“It is my fault.” Yuri said between her tears. “Sooyoung wouldn’t have become like this if it wasn’t because of me…”

“What happened?”

Yuri sniffed, trying to stop her cries. “We met lots of mutants during our patrol…” She slowly loosened her grips on Jessica, but still have her head resting on the latter’s shoulder. “Sooyoung said she saw someone and ran after him… I should have stopped her… if I had stopped or followed her, maybe she wouldn’t have become like this…”

The usual soft look on Jessica’s face was gone in split second. Cold and emotionless were the only words which could be used to describe her expression now, after hearing Yuri’s experience and regret.

“It is all my fault…”

However, the unusual stern expression did not last long on Jessica’s face. As soon as Yuri finished her sentence, Jessica reverted back to her usual self again. She turned over and climbed on top of Yuri.

She straightened her arms with her palms pressing against the soft mattress on each side of Yuri’s head. The golden locks were swaying to and fro freely, touching every part of Yuri’s face yet it did not stop the hunter below from focusing on Jessica.

“Sica…”

“Yuri, it’s not your fault.” Jessica leaned down abruptly and planted a kiss on Yuri’s forehead. Her sudden movement stunned Yuri that it caused her to momentarily forget about her worries.

With her lips still pressing against Yuri’s forehead, Jessica continued to speak, “Blame it on the mutants, blame it on the person who created the mutants, it is never your fault.” She slowly removed her lips from Yuri and cupped her face. “You are innocent.”

Yuri wanted to retort back at her words, but she just couldn’t get those words out of when she saw an unusually depressed looking Jessica.

She wanted to cheer her up, badly.

“Close your eyes Yuri.” Jessica leaned down again, this time having their foreheads stuck together. “Go to sleep and everything will be back to normal again.”

“I…”

The rest of her sentence never managed to find its way out of Yuri’s mouth as Jessica sealed her lips with her own.

It was a gentle kiss, which Yuri never experienced before in her life–– at least for this very moment, she felt like it was her first time experiencing something like this.

This kiss is unlike any other kisses she shared with Tiffany. It touches her heart. She feels warmth from it, and most importantly, she feels bonded with her kisser.

She yearns for more.

The kiss eventually ended when Jessica felt no more reaction coming from the hunter underneath her. She pulled herself away unwillingly and observed Yuri, who was now fast asleep.

Jessica breathed out a sigh and shook her head with a helpless looking smile. She brushed off the hair that was covering Yuri’s face gently and caressed it as though Yuri was a piece of fragile glass.

“Rest well, my love.”

*

Tiffany was in Sooyoung’s ward, sitting on the chair next to the unconscious hunter’s bed, looking after her. But her mind was drifting off elsewhere rather than her injured mate.

Things had been becoming weird for her. It would be a lie if Tiffany said she hadn’t noticed the changes in herself.

She never shouted, unless it was for emergency, but obviously the situation earlier on was nowhere near that. She was as shock as the others when she realized she was screaming at Yuri because of anger and Yuri’s stubbornness. It was as if she had lost control of her emotions–– or maybe, not losing control, she was expressing herself freely unlike how she usually hid it in the past.

She disliked this kind of change. She felt as though she was revealing her weaknesses to everyone.

She felt threatened.

“Tiffany?”

Tiffany snapped out of her thoughts and diverted her attention to the hunter who was standing by the door. It was Nicole who had came back after escorting Yuri back to their dormitory.

“How’s Yuri?” Tiffany got up from her seat and walked towards Nicole.

Nicole closed the door gently behind her as she stepped into the ward. “She is still the same, but I don’t think she’s going to pursue the culprit anytime soon.” Anyone would probably do the same too when they witnessed Tiffany almost cried.

Tiffany heaved out a sigh through her nose, “Hopefully.”

“By the way, I met Kyuhyun on my way back. I think he is looking for you.”

Kyuhyun?

“What’s the time now?” Tiffany asked anxiously.

Nicole took a glance at her watch, “A quarter past four.”

“Craps.” Tiffany cursed under her breath. Sooyoung’s incident had caused her to completely forget about her appointment with Kyuhyun. “Nicole, can you do me a favor?”

The trip to Satron’s headquarters is important, but how can she leaves when Sooyoung is in this state?

“Um… Yeah?” Nicole was surprised. It was pretty rare to see Tiffany asking for a favor.

“This is important. Kyuhyun and I are supposed to go to Satron’s headquarters for the magic-immunization equipments. I hope you haven’t forgotten what that is. It is crucial against the sorcerers if my guess on them involving with the mutations isn’t wrong. But I can’t leave when Sooyoung is like this, neither can I let Kyuhyun goes alone. Can you go on the behalf of me?”

Her eyebrows knitted together unconsciously. Tiffany pursed her lips into a straight line without herself knowing before continuing with the last word of her sentence.

“Please?”

Please was the word. Nicole might not be the kind of person who rejected people easily, but that ‘P’ word definitely created an impact on her. And the way Tiffany looked at her… she looked so adorable and innocent that anyone who saw it would never bear to reject her request either.

“I will go.”

Nicole agreed to Tiffany’s request without a second thought, before leaving the ward in order to search for Kyuhyun. Tiffany made sure that Nicole was already gone, only then she returned to her seat. She was watching over Sooyoung once again, however, her mind also refused to stay again.

What had exactly gotten into her?