Chapter Fifty-Four

Sooyoung knew Yoona never like the infirmary, so she made her left, even though that wasn’t the entire reason. Sooyoung could tell from Yoona’s expression that her partner was getting suspicious of her words. She had to get that girl out before she questioned her again and made her revealed the secret which she hoped no one would ever find out.

How could she possibly allow anyone knew that she was  by that Kim Hyoyeon? She would probably hide in a jungle and never come out again if anyone found out what happened.

Sooyoung lied on her bed and pulled the blanket over her head. She buried her face deeply into the pillow and punched the innocent mattress underneath her in order to vent out her frustrations.

Kim Hyoyeon… Kim Hyoyeon… Kim Hyoyeon!

Her punches were turning rapidly fast and the bed was shaking vigorously due to Sooyoung’s exerted force.

You just left me there by myself after stealing my first kiss!

“Sooyoung?”

You stupid shorty ert!

“Sooyoung! What’s wrong?”

I am so going to kill you if I ever see you again!

Sooyoung felt a hand on her shoulder out of the sudden and Hyoyeon’s image came into her mind immediately. She flipped the blanket over and bolted out of her bed, almost slapping the intruder if she hadn’t seen Yuri’s face in the nick of time.

“YOU PER––EH? Yuri?” Sooyoung’s hand paused in the midair abruptly and changed into a wave. “Oh! Hi there Yuri!” She flashed an extremely wide smile at Yuri. Anyone who saw it would know how forceful and awkward it was.

Yuri frowned at her acting-so-weirdly friend, “Are you okay?” This friend over here is seriously not being herself.

“Of course I am. Do I look like I am sick to you?”

Well yes, you do.

Yuri decided to keep that comment to herself just in case she might agitate the not-so-stable-looking Sooyoung.

“What brought you here by the way?”

Yuri rolled her eyes at Sooyoung’s question.

She is obviously here to visit and check on her! Does Sooyoung think that she is in a hotel now rather than a ward?

Yuri gritted her teeth tightly together and forced her reply out of , “I’m here to visit you, Miss-HOSPITALIZED-shikshin!” If only Sooyoung wasn’t a patient now, Yuri would have rammed her fist on her head.

It took Sooyoung a moment to recall she was in the infirmary.

“Right, I almost forgot about it.” She couldn’t really be blame for that since she felt more energetic than before she even went for patrolling? It was hard for her to even remember that she was in a critical condition before.

“So how are you feeling now?” Yuri asked as she pulled the chair and settled on it.

Sooyoung scratched her head and pondered with an arched eyebrow. “Um… Fine?” Actually, she was better than fine. She felt really energetic and refresh for some unknown reason, but she was too lazy to figure out why she felt that way.

Yuri heaved out a sigh of relief and said softly, “You got me so worried back there, you know that?”

“Tiffany had told me about it,” Sooyoung placed her palm on Yuri’s shoulder. “I’m really sorry about it, Yuri. I have no idea it will be so serious––”

Yuri pulled Sooyoung’s hand away from her shoulder and interrupted, “Don’t be silly, how is that your fault? You were merely going after that person. Speaking of which, who did you met? How did he turn you into this state?”

Sooyoung groaned inwardly.

NOT THIS QUESTION AGAIN!

Yuri frowned at Sooyoung’s silent response and the distressed expression she wore on her face. “Do you even remember what happened?” The doctor said she was traumatized, Yuri was afraid if it had affected her brain.

How can she ever forget that damn kiss?!!

“NO.” Sooyoung made use of this chance and hid the fact whereby she met Hyoyeon. “I don’t remember a single thing.”

She will never let anyone find out about that kiss!

N–E–V–E–R––!

Sooyoung’s hidden intention was obviously unheard by Yuri. When she knew her friend had lost a partial of her memories, she couldn’t help but blame herself for her mishap. “I’m sorry Sooyoung.” Yuri could only lower her head and apologized guilty. She was too ashamed to even face her friend now. “If only I’d reach you earlier, you wouldn’t have become like this.”

“Yah…” Uh, did she go too far with her lies? Sooyoung nudged Yuri cautiously, “You’re not blaming yourself, are you?” Her intention was only to keep that stupid kiss as a secret and nothing else!

Yuri pursed her lips into a straight line and looked away solemnly.

AHHHHH! Great, she had done it this time.

“Yah! Kwon Yuri!” Sooyoung nudged the hunter with a greater force. She shifted away from her original position just to make sure that Yuri could see her. “Yah! Look! I’m perfectly alright now and I am NOT bothered by the fact that I lost my memories.” Because she remembered everything clearly, especially that stupid kiss and that stupid expression Hyoyeon was wearing when she flirted with her! “So stop putting all the blames on yourself! I don’t even care if I had forgotten everything,” Heck! She wished she could forget everything! “So why stress yourself?”

“You are… incomplete.”

Incomplete?

Sooyoung almost rolled her eyes at Yuri if not for that depressing expression she had on her face.

How did that description even get into her head?!

“Are you trying to insult me now?” Sooyoung tried to lighten the mood by joking with a rather lame line. “You are no better yourself, Miss-love-struck! Go make babies with Jessica and complete your life now!”

Yuri shot up in surprise. “YAH! What did you just say?” She pointed her finger at Sooyoung with an unbelievable expression plastered across her face.

“Go. Make. Babies––”

An intolerant punch finally found its way to the crown of the shikshin’s head before she could finish her sentence. And poor Sooyoung, she could only suffer under the fate of torture even when she was a patient.

But well, she was more than willing to suffer rather than to let anyone knew about that stupid kiss.

………

………

And that stupid Kim Hyoyeon.

*

Yoona brought Jessica back to her room right after Yuri left for the infirmary. Jessica skipped to the couch happily when she spotted a particular frog plush toy. It attracted her attention since she came into Yoona’s room for the first time the other day.

The blonde took the frog plush toy and hugged it tightly in her embrace.

“Unnie, you seem to have a great liking towards frogs.” Yoona commented, noted that Jessica was attracted to the exact plush toy when she first walked into her room with a plate of fried rice in her hands two days ago.

Jessica pulled her face away from the frog, but her arms were still hugging it tightly against her chest. She averted her gaze from the frog to Yoona and replied, “I don’t fancy frogs at all.”

Yoona blinked her eyes in confusion.

“It’s just that frog reminds me of someone who is very dear to me.” Her smile was slowly overtaken by bitterness. Jessica couldn’t remember when was the last time she seen that girl, but she knew she missed her very, very, very much.

“Someone dear?” Yoona took a seat next to Jessica. She grabbed one of her plush toys and hugged it just like how Jessica did to her frog. “Your family?” Speaking of which, Yoona came to realize that she knew nothing about Jessica, except that she used to live in Dehan, which was burnt down by Yuri and Tiffany because of the mutants’ invasion.

It must be the quarrel with Tiffany took all her attention away.

“She is not exactly my family, but I do see her like my very own sister.”

“A younger sister I presumed?” The way Jessica described this person, it sounded like how an elder sister doted on her younger sister.

Jessica lifted up the plush toy from her embrace and stared at it intently. “Yeah, a younger sister. She is a funny one, not literally though. She hardly smiles and never laughs since the day I knew her. But her strict and stubborn personality made her look funny at times.”

“Really? How so?” Yoona raised an eyebrow at Jessica curiously. A person with strict and stubborn personality seemed more irritating than funny to her.

It was just a casual question, but it driven the excitement in Jessica as the thought of gossiping behind that hard-headed girl ran through her mind. God knows she had wanted to do this since forever! But unfortunately, her identity didn’t allow her to do so and not to mention, there was no one she could gossip with. Those people she met simply stared at her with a stern expression. They usually spoke no more than five words to her too, so let alone gossiping.

Jessica twirled her body around so as to face Yoona directly. She hugged the frog tightly in her embrace again and began her story enthusiastically, “She got a really unusual interest.” Jessica giggled lightly at the thought of the hard-headed girl’s interest. “She is obsessed with frogs!”

“Frogs?” Yoona shot Jessica an unbelievable look and exclaimed out loud. Her tone filled with uncertainty. It was pretty weird to see a girl being obsessed with frogs.

“Yeah, frogs!” Jessica replied with a firm nod. She drew her index finger to her lips and tapped on the bottom lightly. “Have you heard about The Frog Prince?” She asked.

“The fairytale you mean?”

“Yeah!” The excited blonde snuggled herself closer to the younger girl. “You remember there is a part whereby the princess had to kiss the frog in order to transform him back into a prince? She is totally immersed by that!”

“She doesn’t go round kissing the frogs, does she…” Now, now, now, maybe someone should take Jessica’s dong-saeng to a doctor.

“Eww…” was Jessica’s immediate reaction upon hearing Yoona’s question. She slapped Yoona’s arm in reflex, “That’s disgusting!” (Real) Frogs were disgusting enough to scare her away, kissing them were ten times worse! “She doesn’t do that fortunately! She is quite aware of herself. She forbids herself from doing anything that will ruin her image. And also, I will probably kick her out of the house if she really does that.” Yes, and barred her from appearing in front of her ever again.

Um… “Unnie, your dong-saeng is really… unique? Unusual interest with a self-conscious personality, that’s a pretty rare combination.” Seeing how excited Jessica was, Yoona couldn’t bear to dampen her enthusiasm. She tried to put on a smile, which turned out to be rather stiff with the corners of her lips tugged slightly towards their respective sides.

Jessica didn’t notice that however, bad-mouthing that hard-headed girl might be a fun thing to do, but it only reminded her of the cruel reality.

They are separated from one another now. She doesn’t even know if that girl is still alive and kicking.

“Unnie?”

Jessica snapped out of her thought in surprise and looked at Yoona, “Hmm?”

“You alright?” Jessica looked so depressed out of the sudden. It worried Yoona as she had never seen Jessica acted like this before.

“What are you talking about? Of course I am!” Jessica flashed a cheery smile at Yoona. She pulled the frog plush toy into her embrace again and jumped up from the couch, running to the middle of the room and twirled around. “I love your room Yoona-ah, it’s like a fairyland!”

“Really?” Yoona scratched her head in embarrassment. “Sooyoung always say it made me looks childish…”

“It is not childish!” Jessica pouted and stomped her foot like a child losing temper. Her hands were still clutching tightly to the frog plush toy. “This is every child’s dream!” Especially for someone like her who had never enjoyed a perfect childhood life before.

“Uh…” How is she going to respond to this?

“Wow! What is that Yoona?” Coincidentally, Jessica’s question saved Yoona from going into an awkward situation. She looked up and followed Jessica’s finger, only to find the blonde pointing at her katana which was hanging on the wall.

Yoona got up from the couch and walked to her katana. She lifted it away from the wall and turned to Jessica. “This is a katana, my weapon.”

“It looks cool…” Her eyes were sparkling with lights of admirably. “Can I take a look at it?” She bit onto her lower lip and looked at Yoona with puppy eyes.

“Sure.”

Jessica wanted to drop the frog plush toy right away to grab the sword. But on second thought, she decided to place it on Yoona’s bed before running back to Yoona and take the sword. Jessica examined the katana with her jaw dropped slightly. She had only read about this weapon from reference books before. This was actually her first time coming so close to it and not to mention, touching it.

Yoona chuckled at the scene in front of her. “Yah, unnie… your drools are about to drip to the ground soon if you continue to hang your mouth like this.”

“This looks really cool!” Jessica exclaimed. “Can I pull it out?” She didn’t dare to remove the blade from its scabbard unless Yoona gave her the permission to.

“Umm…” Yoona hesitated for a moment. “Well, you can. But just be careful.”

Request granted. Jessica hopped to the bed happily with the katana in her hands and sat next to the frog plush toy. She pulled out the katana swiftly from its scabbard and held it in front of her. Light shone onto the shiny metal and was reflecting on her face.

“Wow…” Jessica slid her fingers against the surface of the katana’s blade subconsciously.

Yoona could only watch in worries, “Unnie, the blade is rather sharp, be careful with it––” She tried to remind the blonde again, but failed when the edge slit through those delicate fingers at the same time when she announced her warning to Jessica.

“Ah!”

Jessica quickly pulled her hands away from the sword, but an excessive amount of her blood was already rolling down the edge of the blade, staining the shiny metal with its crimson paint.

Yoona rushed to Jessica and took her katana away from Jessica. She slid the blade back into its scabbard to avoid any more accident and attended to Jessica’s bloody finger immediately.

“It’s not a deep cut…” Yoona heaved out a sigh of relief. She lifted up her head and looked at Jessica who was looking back at her with guilty on her face. “Let’s go to the pantry unnie. We will wash the wound for you and apply medicine.” She pulled Jessica out of her room gently and led her to the pantry.

Jessica pursed her lips together as she watched Yoona rinsed the blood on her fingers. There was a stinging pain, but it was still quite bearable for her.

Nothing could be worse than the wound on her back.

“Yoona, I’m sorry…” Yoona was about to apply the medicine on Jessica’s wounds when Jessica suddenly apologized. She looked at the blonde in surprise. She was confused as to why Jessica said that. “You told me to be careful, but I still end up hurting myself.”

“Oh!” Yoona got what she meant. She lowered her head and continued with her job. “Don’t be silly unnie, it’s not your fault. I should have kept a closer look rather than to let you examine my katana by yourself when I already know it is dangerous.”

“Ow…” Jessica whined softly when Yoona wrapped the plasters around her injured fingers.

“There you go, done!”

Jessica lifted up her hand and noticed that Yoona had just given her plasters with cute looking brown bears images printed on it.

A satisfied smile was spread across her face.