Chapter Ninety-Four
 
She was a loner. She didn’t have any friends. Her life only consisted of two people, her father, who was imprisoned in the same windowless room as her by her mother for a period of time, and that little girl, who was sent to take care of her after her father was taken away. Other than those two, she had never met anyone until she decided to escape from that windowless room.
 
She always thought humans were selfish and cruel – since her mother never treated her like a human – until that day, she barged into her life.
 
She was her prey’s partner. She was an accident which happened out of her control.
 
That night… she recalled the night whereby she stood alone outside that abandoned shrine, expecting the arrival of her prey patiently, the accident appeared instead and took her aback.
 
Her plan was supposed to be perfect, but who knew her prey would make a different decision from what she had been expecting.
 
Nevertheless, she went ahead with her original plan. She was not going to allow that the little miscalculation affect her whole plan.
 
If only she knew that would make her regret today.
 
Knock! Knock!
 
She would have hold back herself before it was too late.
 
“Who’s there?” There was a bit of shuffling sounds from behind the door before the door opened and revealed the tanned woman who was standing behind it. “Sica…” The dilation of the eyes hinted to Jessica that Yuri was surprised to see her.
 
“Are you okay?” Jessica frowned when she noticed how red and puffy Yuri’s eyes were. She lifted up her arm and caressed the swollen eye bag gently.  “Does it hurt?”
 
“No…” Yuri diverted her gaze to somewhere else and answered softly. She vaguely remembered what happened before she lost conscious the other day. She felt embarrassed and shameful to actually allow Jessica witnessed the mad side of her, and when she didn’t see Jessica anywhere after she woke up, she thought the girl was disappointed with her and had left her already.
 
She… wasn’t expecting her to be visiting her.
 
Jessica had no idea what was going through Yuri’s mind, but she somewhat got an idea from the dodging in her eyes.
 
Letting out a soft sigh, Jessica withdrew her hand from Yuri’s face. She did not miss the instant dismay even though it only appeared for a mere second before Yuri hid it away, but she chose to ignore it.
 
The incident on the hallway the other day was an exception. Yuri wasn’t the kind of person that liked to reveal her weaker side to the others.
 
“How’s Yoona?”
 
“She is awake now.” Yuri moved away from the door and gestured Jessica to enter. “The doctor had just done the x-ray for her, but the report is not out yet.”
 
“Hey Jessica unnie.”
 
Yoona was going to get up, but Jessica rushed ahead and stopped her. “Stay still!” The blonde sent a stern gaze to the injured hunter. “I heard you fracture your rib, you shouldn’t be moving about.”
 
“Um… sorry, I’ve forgotten about it.” Strange, although she knew she had rib fracture, she hadn’t felt any pain up till now. It was as if the impact of the injury wasn’t as serious as how she thought it should be.
 
Yuri could feel bitterness growing in her as she watched the scene in front of her. She wasn’t jealous of Yoona of course. She was just… somewhat envy of Yoona for being able to have such interaction with Jessica.
 
“I’ll get us some drinks, be back later.” Yuri didn’t wait for anyone’s reply and headed straight out of the door.
 
She was still embarrassed with the things she had done and was unable to forgive herself for it. She couldn’t bring herself to face Jessica anymore. She wasn’t worthy of her at all.
 
“Unnie, you should take a look at Yuri unnie.” Yoona urged Jessica worriedly after witnessing the gloomly expression on Yuri’s face she walked out of the ward.
 
Since Yoona woke up in the morning, she noticed how shaggy-looking Yuri was when she found her resting her head on the edge of the bed. Yuri had tanned skin, but she looked unusually paler than how she looked normally. Yoona initially thought that Yuri had neglected her own health because she was worried for her, until the conversation they had just before Jessica came in… Yoona didn’t feel good about it. Though she was also depressed with Sooyoung’s accident, she could tell Yuri was suffering a pain worse than her.
 
It was as if she was putting all the blame on herself for the mishaps that had happened to them.
 
“She needs some time alone.” It was an answer Yoona least expected. “My appearance may stress her.” Yoona couldn’t understand why Jessica made that comment. She tried to take a peek at Jessica, but failed helplessly because Jessica was back-facing her, staring at the closed door of the ward.
 
She heard a deep sigh coming from Jessica.
 
“Forget it. I’ll go and take a look at her.” Jessica finally turned around and looked at Yoona. She asked, “Will you be alright alone?”
 
“I’ll call for the nurse if I need any help.” Yoona didn’t want to be a hindrance between the couple.
 
Jessica nodded in understanding. “We will come back as soon as possible.” The blonde pulled the blanket over Yoona’s shoulders. “You should take a good rest now.”
 
“Don’t worry about me, unnie. I’ll be just fine.”
 
As Yoona watched Jessica left her ward, she felt drowsy out of the sudden. Still staring at the door, her eyelids began to drop and eventually covered her eyes.
 
The door opened again as soon as Yoona fell asleep. The person, who should have left already, appeared behind it and stepped into the room again.
 
*
 
The two bottles of mineral water were numbing her hands, but Yuri continued to grasp them and allow the numbing pain froze her palms and fingers. Still, this kind of pain wasn’t enough for the mistakes she had made. A harsher punishment was needed for her. Perhaps… if only she could exchange places with Sooyoung, that would be so much perfect.
 
Her hands felt light suddenly, as though the bottles were gone. Yuri snapped back to reality from her dazing trance and found the two bottles to be held by someone else.
 
“Si–Sica?!” Yuri was astonished with Jessica’s appearance. She thought Jessica was accompanying Yoona now.
 
Jessica took the bottles away from Yuri and sat next to her. A soft sigh could be heard from her and a question slipped into Yuri’s ears, “Are you avoiding me?”
 
The only reaction Yuri had was to bite on her lower lip and swallowed the answer back into .
 
“You’re hurting me, Yuri.”
 
Yuri held onto her breath, but said nothing.
 
“Why are you doing this to yourself?” Jessica asked in an almost whisper tone.
 
Yuri’s breathing grew deeper and louder, but her silence was finally broken. “I’m not the Yuri you know anymore. I’m just a great disappointment.” In other words, she doesn’t deserve Jessica anymore.
 
Jessica swore she almost jumped out of her seat and screamed at Yuri, but her rationality held her back in time.
 
Yelling at Yuri wasn’t a great idea at all.
 
“Do you have any idea what you’re talking about?”
 
“I’m useless.”
 
“What makes you think that way? Tiffany? Sooyoung? Or Yoona?” Jessica paused for a second and continued before Yuri could even open and reply. “Yuri, none of this is your fault. You’re not the one who caused Tiffany to leave, I am! Sooyoung didn’t went missing because of you too, I–– it was the mutants! And Yoona too, if it wasn’t for the mutants, she wouldn’t have fallen from the slope and gotten herself injured!” Jessica got up from the bench and squatted in front of Yuri. She pressed her palms against Yuri’s cheeks and forced her to look at her. “Yuri, you’re the innocent party out of all these mishaps. Stop putting the blames on yourself. That’s not what you should do to solve the problems now.”
 
“There is nothing I can do––”
 
“No, Yuri! This is not the end yet!” Jessica cut Yuri off before she could finish her words. “Sooyoung is not dead unless you find evidence to prove that. Yoona will recover no matter what as time goes by. Tiffany didn’t vanish from this place. We can always get out of here and look for her!”
 
The pair of hesitated eyes stared into the pair of eager eyes.
 
“Have faith in yourself.” Jessica added hurriedly when she noticed Yuri was going to back away from her again. She held Yuri’s face even tighter and made sure that their eyes were still in contact with one another. “I’m here with you, Yuri. I’ll be here to face the obstacles with you. You’re not alone.”
 
“Si––” Yuri was going to retaliate. She had zero trust in herself.
 
Jessica saw through Yuri’s intention immediately and spoke before Yuri had the chance to push her away again. “Do you trust me, Yuri?” The strictness in Jessica’s eyes stunned Yuri. “If you believe me, everything will be alright.”
 
“I…” She definitely had more trust in Jessica than herself, but she didn’t have the courage to believe her.
 
“I guess I’m not that trustable in your eyes after all.” Jessica let out a bitter chuckle. She wasn’t sure if she should be pleased or disappointed about it. As much as she wished Yuri could suspect her like how Tiffany did, it sure didn’t feel good to know that the person she loved didn’t trust her at all.
 
It was… a kind of contradicting feeling that Jessica could only laugh and tell herself, ‘You deserve it’.
 
“I trust you.”
 
Jessica felt a familiar touch around her hand just as she stood up and was about to walk away. That affirmative answer which was transmitted into her brain only made her heart sunken.
 
This was actually worse than not having Yuri’s trust.
 
“Sica, I’m just having doubts in myself.” Yuri explained eagerly when she received no reply from Jessica. She thought the girl was angry with her. “I definitely have my faith in you. It’s just that I… I’m afraid I will bring disappointment to you.”
 
The problem had always been herself, not Jessica and not anyone else.
 
“Sica?”
 
Yuri was getting worried. Jessica had no reaction, not even a simple budge.
 
“Let’s hope I’m not the one who disappoints you in the end.”
 
“Huh?”
 
Yuri couldn’t hear Jessica well as the latter was back facing her.
 
Jessica turned around abruptly and flashed a sweet smile at Yuri. “I said I’ll never be disappointed with you.” She moved her hand to Yuri’s face and caressed her cheek. “And thank you for believing me.”
 
“Sica…”
 
“Hmm?”
 
The hunter moved a step forward and wrapped her arms around Jessica’s waist. She rested her forehead against Jessica’s shoulder and whispered, “Thanks for encouraging me. I wouldn’t have known what to do without you.”
 
There was a pregnant length of silence.
 
“You’re welcome.”
 
If only… you know the truth.

A/N:

My original plan is to reveal the Princess's identity at the ending of this story, but I kinda underestimated the length of this story 

I shouldn't have given my story this name 

P.S.: Btw, seriously judging you guys for suspecting any one other than Jessica ヽ（´ー｀）┌

All the hints are supposed to be directing towards her lmao