Two weeks into the job and Jessica was getting the hang of working with her new team. They’ve all been going home late, staying in the office and brainstorming, trying to get as much ideas as possible and milking their brains out for creative juices. So far she’s liking their ideas and the bosses seemed to like it, as well.

Last time she was on a web conference with the big bosses, she saw Mr. Webber giving her a subtle praise by mouthing ‘Good job’ while the other men weren’t looking. They were a little hesitant with how the producers wanted to start it. Instead of starting it off with non-celebrities, they wanted to immediately get celebrities to play saying that it would entice other people to join on its second season. That is if they were lucky enough to get high ratings and have another season.

When they finally got a go, they planned on releasing a press release right after they’ve settled where to hold the game. Jessica was assigned by the executive-producer to choose a place and for the past couple of days, that’s all she’s been doing. She’s looked up online and considered places where other ‘Survivor’ franchise was held.

“Hey.”

She kept her gaze locked onto the computer screen as she greeted back. “Hi.”

“You’ve been awfully busy.” Yoona sat on the edge of her bed and taking a peek on what Jessica was doing.

“Shouldn’t you be busy as well? Isn’t finals week coming up soon? You should be studying.”

“I already have. It’s time for me to relax.” She then lie down and curled up in ball before stretching her limbs, repeating the whole thing ‘til she found a comfortable position. The comfortable position was lying on her tummy, propping herself up with her elbows and staring at Jessica’s back. “I don’t want to seem like I’m clingy but I really miss you.”

Jessica chuckled as she pictured a pouting girl and when she turned to face her, she wasn’t even surprised to see her actually pursing her lips like a kid who dropped a six-inch soft ice cream before she even it.

She stood up and rubbed her eyes a bit before sitting down next to Yoona. “I’ve been really busy with my baby.”

“You call your work ‘baby’ now? You and Taeyeon-unnie are so alike, I swear.”

Her brows creased at the mention of Kim Taeyeon. “Speaking of your sister, shouldn’t you be at home eating dinner with her or something?”

“She’s with the oppas. They’re preparing for their comeback. I hope you don’t mind that I ordered pizza for the three of us.”

“Krys would love pizza. That’s her favourite comfort food and right now she really needs some comfort.”

Yoona shifted a bit and laid her head on Jessica’s lap. “Is this still about Tiffany and Kai?”

“Mm-hmm. Now I’m sure she’s really jealous. Still not sure which one she’s feeling jealous about.” She twirled a few strands of Yoona’s hair on her finger.

“I could talk to Fany so she’d stop all of this. I know she’s just doing it to get back at Krystal. She’s very vengeful. Unfortunately for Krystal, your sister really pissed her off.”

“My sister could be a handful most of the time.”

They stayed a few minutes just enjoying each other’s presence before it was disturbed by the younger Jung saying that their dinner has arrived.

“Let’s do this fairly. You two,” she pointed at her sister and Yoona, “would get two slices each and I would have the rest of it, okay? Okay.”

The two let her be only because they were feeling sympathetic at the time.

“So could you really talk to Tiffany and tell her to stop this?”

Yoona nodded eagerly and chomped down on her pizza. Jessica ended up giving half of hers to the younger girl when she heard her mumbling about being hungry.

---

Jessica watched as her colleagues nodded their heads to her proposition. She suggested three locations but she was honestly leaning on holding it on the islands of Caramoan, located in the Philippines. It was one of the more popular sites for the international franchise of the said show. She thought that it must’ve been extraordinary for the French and American, two of the largest franchise, to choose it as a location.

“Would you be willing to check the place out, Jessica-ssi?”

She wasn’t really sure if she could accept the responsibility of flying to a foreign country and be away for a week. She had her sister that she needed to look after even though the younger Jung has told her plenty of times that she’s capable of taking care of herself. Then there’s Yoona.

She somehow felt the need to ask for the younger girl’s permission even though she didn’t need to.

“Can I get back to you on that, Jaewon-ssi?” The old man nodded and the team proceeded on discussing other agendas.

When the meeting finished, Jessica was the first to leave right after she turned down the offer of having a drink with the other staff. She did have a valid excuse. She’s received several text messages and voice mails from her sister telling her to go home soon because she was hungry and she has no money to buy her own food.

She was in front of the elevator but was busy texting her sister back so she missed getting on it. She had to wait for the other one to go up from the basement and she honestly wished she paid attention earlier.

It resulted to her bumping into the least person she’d want to see. She looked up only to see Taeyeon inside the elevator, alone and staring at her with those unreadable eyes of her.

“Sica…”

Jessica wanted to laugh at her face and say ‘Now, you’re calling me Sica?’ but she didn’t. Instead, she walked away, not quite sure where to go.

“Sica, wait.” Despite having short legs, Taeyeon soon caught up with her. It was probably the result of having to power-walk her way most of the time since her band mates are way taller than her. A step for them is equivalent to two and a half for Taeyeon.

She stopped right in front of Jessica and said, “Where are you even heading to? Are you planning to take the stairs? That’s totally not like you.”

Although she only muttered her last statement, Jessica still heard it. “Do you even know what I’m like? Do you truly know what I’m like?” She sighed and ducked her head. “What do you want from me? What other hurtful things do you want to say to me?”

Taeyeon knew she deserved that. She was supposed to wait for an opportunity to come so she could apologize. Seeing her there, she thought it was the right time to do so but she probably should’ve waited longer and took time to notice the dark circles under the girl’s eyes. You haven’t been getting enough sleep, have you?

“I’m sorry.”

Jessica still had her gaze down the floor and that urged Taeyeon to make her look up. She reached for her face but her hand was roughly swatted away.

“Don’t.”

Her hand fell back to her side as she told herself that she deserved the hostility that Jessica was displaying.

“Please look at me.” It was soft and for a moment there, Jessica thought she would give in to the plea but she didn’t.

“No. If I look at you, I might just break down and cry.” She was already crying and Taeyeon didn’t need to see her face to know that. She could tell from the way she spoke that Jessica was choking back her tears. “I-I…you don’t have the privilege to see in my weakest state anymore.”

She saw Jessica bringing her hand up to her face to wipe her tears.

“You gave that up when you decided to toss me aside like I was nothing but a useless pet. You’re a heartless midget.”

Taeyeon smiled sadly. Still as blunt as ever, I see.

Jessica turned around and walked away and all Taeyeon could do was watch. She thought she knew Jessica. She thought she knew how the girl must’ve felt when she ended the relationship since she was hurt as well but she was wrong. She didn’t just hurt her. She took her heart, ripped it into pieces and left her depending on a life support.

A person in a coma was in a better condition than Jessica. A comatose patient is unconscious and won’t be able to feel any pain. Jessica felt every bit of pain that Taeyeon inflicted upon her both intentionally and unintentionally.

“I just hope you could still forgive me, Sica,” she muttered. She’s determined to apologize and was willing to do anything to have at least a minute to do so.

---

“Fany, you’re not straight.” Yoona put her cup down the kitchen counter and faced the girl.

“I could be bi.”

The younger Kim released an exasperated sigh. “You’re not. I could list a million reasons why you’re not and—“

“Go ahead and tell me those reasons then,” Tiffany challenged.

“You cringe when you see a man. You don’t like huge, muscular dudes hugging you—“

“Kai’s not muscular. He actually has the built of a girl.”

Yoona rolled her eyes at Tiffany’s pathetic excuse. “Why exactly are you doing this? Just to get back at Krystal? Don’t you think that’s too much? Using another person really? Fany, that’s just low and that’s not you.”

“What if I actually like the guy?”

“No, you don’t. You like someone but it’s not Kai so please stop this stupidity.”

Tiffany shrugged and dismissed the topic. She really didn’t need Yoona to tell her who she likes and who she doesn’t like. “So about that annual trip…”

“What annual trip? We do it every summer and I thought you and Yuri went without me.”

She laughed at Yoona as if the latter just said something extremely funny, like Krystal likes her or something. “Don’t be silly. We don’t have the heart to ditch you like that. We’re not like you. You ditched us both just so you’d have a chance to see Jessica-unnie again.”

“It’s not like that—“

“Shut it. No excuses. Yuri and I have already planned this but this year’s annual trip will include other people namely, Jessica-unnie, Kai and Jessica-unnie’s evil sister. Oh and maybe your sister too. Yuri told me to ask her. She was being a shy little school girl again.”

Yoona knew Tiffany was planning something sinister again. If she told that to anyone, they’d think she’s gone crazy and she’d tell them looks can be very deceiving.

Her phone rang and she answered the call with a smile after seeing the caller ID. “Hey, gorgeous.”

“Yoo-Yoong,” came the response that sounded like the other person on the line was having a hard time breathing.

“Jessica?” Yoona was starting to get frantic. She mouthed an apology to Tiffany and the latter nodded understandingly. “Where are you? What’s wrong?”

“I’m…I’m a-at home.”

She got out as quickly as she could and flagged down a taxi, telling the driver to step on it. Jessica didn’t hang up and so did she. All she could hear from the other line was Jessica sobbing.

She got there but cursed herself when she forgot to bring the spare key to Jessica’s house that the older girl gave her two weeks ago so she knocked, hoping Krystal was there to answer the door or Jessica would be able to open it herself. The latter was more plausible.

Jessica opened it and although she looked like she’s stopped crying, her breath was still hitching.

Yoona wrapped her arms around her protectively and they somehow managed to end up on Jessica’s bed. The younger girl was holding her while she gripped Yoona’s shirt tightly.

When she was sure that Jessica has stopped crying, she cradled her face between her hands and asked, “What happened?”

The older girl refused to speak.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Yoona asked softly while caressing her cheeks.

It seemed like Jessica really didn’t want to talk and Yoona thought she couldn’t really force her to do so. While staring at the older girl’s tear-stained face, she thought about this girl who obviously still has a hold on Jessica. She wanted to know her name. She wanted to know where she lives to give her a punch or two and tell her to stay away from Jessica.

But all she could do is to comfort the older girl, to hug her and hope that it would make the pain go away.

“Forget about her.” What she said grabbed Jessica’s attention as the latter was now staring at her instead of having her gaze casted on the sheets.

Yoona grabbed Jessica’s hand with her own and kissed it lovingly. “There’s this amazing and good-looking girl,” she smiled mischievously, gauging Jessica’s expression, “She likes you a lot and I bet my collection of shoes that she’s way better than…that ex-girlfriend of yours.” Her voice trailed off for she wasn’t sure how the girl in front of her would react at her desperate attempt to cheer her up.

“She’s willing to help you get over her but you also have to help yourself,” she stated in a hushed tone this time. “This amazing and really, and I mean, really stunning girl that I’m talking about…” She paused when she saw Jessica’s giggling and she couldn’t help but grin at how adorable her giggles were.

“This girl’s starting to fall  for you real hard.” She paused again, thinking it was silly of her to confess while referring to herself in the third person but that’s that. It’s not like she could take it back.

“All you need to do now is catch her but don’t worry about doing that because you can take your time. She’s willing to wait and she would always be here when you’re hurt, to cheer you up and you know, so you won’t have to be ually deprived.”

Yoona whined as she rubbed the sore spot on her forehead that Jessica just flicked. “That hurt a lot. It stings. Why would you—“

She stopped talking soon as she felt Jessica’s lips on her stinging forehead. She smiled widely and placed both hands on Jessica’s waist.

“Hmm, a kiss stops you from whining too, huh?”

“Your kiss stops me from whining.” She pecked the older girl’s lips.

Jessica wiped her tears away and erased every bit of sadness and anger from her face before speaking. “Tell that amazing girl you’re talking about that she doesn’t have to wait that long because this girl,” she pointed at herself, “is going to try harder to move on this time.”

Jessica stood up and was on her way to grab water from the kitchen but she halted when she remembered something. “This amazing and stunning girl you’re talking about, her name better not be Yoona.” She grinned when she heard a groan from Yoona.

“I have to change my name now. Damn!” she grumbled and followed Jessica.