Chapter Seventy-Seven

A wide smile was naturally spread across Taeyeon’s face as she watched Tiffany served the cooked dishes onto her dining table eagerly, pretty much like a housewife who was eager to serve her husband.

As soon as Tiffany placed down the last dish on the table, Taeyeon hopped towards her from behind and encircled her arms around her waist.

Pressing her lips against her ear gently, Taeyeon asked softly, “All done?”

“All done!” Tiffany turned around and planted a light peck on Taeyeon’s lips. She flashed a smile at her and her eyes curved into crescents automatically as she pushed Taeyeon onto one of the chairs. “Try it and tell me if you like the taste.” Tiffany pulled out another chair from opposite Taeyeon and sat on it.

Taeyeon took the chopsticks and hit their tips against the surface of the table in order to straighten it. Then, she reached out her arm and picked the nearest dish to her.

She looked up and saw the nervous look on Tiffany’s face.

Letting out a chuckle, Taeyeon asked jokingly, “Why do you look so nervous? Did you add poison in it?”

The nervous look was immediately replaced by the rolling of her eyes.

“Aww… sorry, I was only trying to lighten up the mood!” Afraid that Tiffany would be angry with her, Taeyeon quickly put the food into . “Mmm!” She looked at Tiffany with surprise. “Taste great!” She picked up another meat from the dish again and stuffed it into , “I love it!” Taeyeon was genuinely surprised by Tiffany’s culinary skill as Stephanie was never a good cook. She thought the dish would taste either too bland or too salty.

Tiffany snorted at her, “I thought you said I added poison in it?”

“I will still eat it even if you do that.” Taeyeon replied without hesitation. Her chopsticks went to another dish. She put the piece of meat into , “Mmm! And this too! It tastes so heavenly!”

There wasn’t any response from Tiffany. In fact, the hunter was too astonished with Taeyeon to come out with one.

She thought Taeyeon hates her. She thought Taeyeon wants to kill her more than anyone else. But her answer had just overridden whatever that was supposed to be the truth. Taeyeon is actually willing to die under her hand… which is quite impossible though, because Tiffany knows she will never bear to do that.

Inhaling a silent deep breath, Tiffany reached for Taeyeon’s hand and stopped her from grabbing the food.

“Taeyeon,” Taeyeon lifted up her head and looked at Tiffany confusingly. “I’ll eat any poison you feed me too.”

The confusion in her caused her eyebrows to knit towards one another. Taeyeon couldn’t understand why Tiffany made that kind of statement out of the sudden. She stared at Tiffany in silence, expecting the latter to provide an explanation for that confession.

Tiffany chuckled softly at Taeyeon’s reaction and explained, “In other words, I will gladly give you my life if you ever want to take it away.”

*

After dinner

Yuri ‘chased’ Jessica back into their room while she stayed behind to clear up the leftover dishes in the dining room.

She couldn’t remember the last time they had leftovers… Probably before the shikshins came since they always acted like refugees and attacked the poor foods till they were left with nothing.

Yuri let out a soft chuckle uncontrollably when she remembered those days where Sooyoung and Yoona always fought for the last piece of meat during almost every meal.

It is their principle to finish all the foods and not waste any bits of them. So naturally, they always come out with stupid excuses as to why they should be the one who finish it.

The curve on her lips suddenly turned into a bitter one.

Yesterday’s dinner was still filled with laughter even Tiffany and Jessica were sharing the same table. In fact, for the past few days, they had been having dinner together. And because it was so peaceful, Yuri thought Tiffany had finally accepted Jessica until she witnessed the horrible incident which happened in the morning today.

She needed an explanation. She couldn’t understand why and how did everything changed over one night. She had lost not only her partner, but her beloved the dong-saengs who she thought would always support her.

Yuri dried the washed plates and utensils with a clean cloth and placed them back to their respective locations.

Tiffany had gone. Sooyoung was mad at her. Yoona… though she never mentioned it before, Yuri knew Yoona must be disappointed with her.

Yuri let out a self-mockery snort.

She must be a real failure to watch her precious friends leaving her one by one.

“Yuri.”

Before Yuri was able to respond to the call, she felt a pair of arms wrapped around her waist from behind her back.

Needless to guess, it must be Jessica.

“Hey.” Yuri forced a smile upon her face before turning around to face her girlfriend. “Why did you come down?”

“You took a long time, I am worried for you.”

“Oh… ha…” Yuri faked a chuckle and scratched her forehead. “I hadn’t washed the plates for a long time, so um… I was adjusting myself to it! Heh, yeah um… I’m done now! We can head back to the room already.”

Yuri might have hide herself by putting on a smile, but Jessica knew well enough to see through her act.

“Okay.” Jessica decided not to expose her girlfriend however. She linked arms with Yuri and dragged the hunter out of the kitchen. “Let’s go back, you need a shower.” It was pretty obvious what was occupying Yuri’s mind. They had discussed about it during dinner too, Jessica didn’t want to stress out Yuri by repeating the topic again.

Yuri entered her personal bathroom as soon as they reached her bedroom. Having nothing to do, Jessica plopped herself on the only couch in the room and laid there lazily while waiting for Yuri.

Or maybe I should find something to do… Jessica thought to herself after a few minutes. She got up from the couch and scanned around the room, in hopes to find anything interesting for her to kill time.

Her vision naturally got attracted to a book which was lying on the table. Jessica walked closer towards the table and realized that the book was the same book she read weeks ago when Yuri and the others went for a meeting, leaving her and Yoona behind.

Jessica picked up the book and went back to the couch.

She remembered the last time when she read it, she stopped at the general introduction and history of the Runical. Flipping to the content page, Jessica realized the next topic after the introduction and history talked about the royal family.

The ruler of Runical.

Jessica scanned through the pages briefly.

Runical was a kingdom with an extremely long history. As according to the book, the earliest king was dated more than three thousand years ago, but due to the sudden disappearance of Runical, most of the information was gone and the exact time was left unknown.

Jessica let out a yawn uncontrollably. Sometimes she really wondered why was she even reading this book when––

Never mind.

Jessica shook her head. She rather keep herself busy than to lay down on the bed and do nothing.

Heaving a sigh, Jessica continued to flip through the pages which recorded the boring history of the royal family until she reached the last king.

King Hye-Sung, who was born as Ju––

“I’m done.”

Jessica looked up from the book and saw Yuri standing outside the bathroom door, dressed in her usual bedtime style – a black cotton t-shirt and a short pants. She was still drying her hair when Jessica diverted her attention from the book to her. Yuri saw that and quickly chunked her towel into the laundry basket and approached her.

She sat next to Jessica and hugged a cushion at the same time.

“What are you reading?” Yuri noticed the book on Jessica’s lap. She scooted closer towards the blonde and peered at the book. “Runical?”

“Uh, yeah.” Jessica closed the book and passed it back to Yuri. “I found this in your room the other day. I hope you don’t mind that I read it.” She smiled at her girlfriend sheepishly.

Yuri chuckled at Jessica’s shyness and ruffled her hair. “Of course not! This is from the library anyway, anyone can read it. You can also visit the library too if you want to read other books.”

“Nah… I’ll give it a pass.” An outsider like her should stay within their dormitory instead of walking around the headquarters.

Yuri shrugged and replied, “Well, if you say so.” She stood up with the book in her hand and walked to the table. “It’s getting late now, let’s go to bed.” She left the book on the table and gestured Jessica to come to the bed.

But instead of complying with Yuri’s instruction, Jessica continued to sit on the couch and frowned at Yuri. She pointed out, “But your hair is still wet.” And it didn’t look like it was going to dry up any minute soon.

“Um… I will dry it later.” The truth is she wanted to sneak out to the rooftop to have some time alone after Jessica went to bed, which was why she didn’t bother to dry her hair with the hair dryer after her shower.

“No.” Jessica refused to listen to Yuri. She rose from the couch and entered the bathroom. “I will dry it for you now.” She said to Yuri from inside the bathroom. When she emerged from the bathroom, a hairdryer could be seen in her hand. Yuri didn’t even have the chance to protest against it and Jessica had already pushed her onto the bed.

“Sica––”

Jessica plugged the hair dryer into the nearest socket before turning back to her girlfriend. “Don’t you dare to defy me!” She glared at her girlfriend and warned her fiercely. She ordered Yuri, “Turn around!”

A mad Jessica can be as bad as an angry Tiffany.

Yuri turned back obediently and had her back facing Jessica. Seeing this, a smile spread across Jessica’s face as she sat behind Yuri and the switch.

She slipped her fingers into Yuri’s hair gently as she blew the hair dryer against Yuri’s hair. She turned the hair dryer from left to right repeatedly, making sure that the hot air didn’t reached Yuri’s skin. “Is this okay?”

Yuri nodded relaxingly, “Yeah.” No one had ever dried her hair for her, not even Tiffany, Yuri never knew it would feel so good to have someone running their fingers in between her hair.

“Your hair is smooth…” Jessica commented. Her fingers proceeded to another area which she had yet to explore. “How did you maintain them?”

“I never really maintain them.” Yuri closed her eyes and enjoyed the touch of Jessica’s fingers. The corners of her lips were curving upwards without her own realization.

A gentle Jessica is so… sweet.

The long hair slowly became dry under Jessica’s care. When Yuri heard Jessica switched off the switch of the hair dryer, she turned around and leaned against the headrest of the bed. She watched Jessica pulled out the plug from the socket and twirled the cable nicely around the hair dryer before taking it back to the bathroom.

Somewhat, she really felt like they were a married couple.

“Sica-ah…”

Yuri called for her girlfriend when she saw her settled on the other side of the bed. She got up on her knees and crawled towards her.

Jessica looked at Yuri confusingly, “Yes?” She was unsure if it was her problem or was it Yuri who… looked kind of weird? Or should she say, unusual now. “What’s the matter?” She reached out her arm naturally and pushed the strand of hair that was covering Yuri’s face behind the latter’s ear.

“I…” Yuri hesitated and held back the rest of her sentence.

“Hmm?” Jessica tilted her head a little and had her eyes met Yuri’s ones. “What do you want to say?”

“I… I…” Yuri was at a lost. She had no idea how to put her current feelings into words. “Sica, I…” It just felt weird. She felt like… like…

Jessica looked at her with a pair of confused innocent eyes. “Yeah?”

She is… too attractive.

That was the only thought Yuri had in mind before her lips found their ways to Jessica’s lips.