Chapter 5: “You were the best thing that’s ever been mine- Taylor Swift”

-o0o-

Jinhye was wearing a pink floral dress, flaring like a tutu at the end, paired up with her pastel doll shoes. Her hair was tied neatly into a short pigtail, following her mother from behind. Sunny kept glancing back once in a while to check if her tail had run off somewhere. She simply couldn’t afford losing her daughter in a party so crowded. She hadn’t seen Jessica coming out just yet from her bedroom, nor did she see her other friends. It would seem they too must have been looking for each other.

“Mom, I want chocolates,” Jinhye requested from her, holding her hand firmly.

Sunny smiled, bending down over her level. “Okay, but don’t go off too far. You don’t want to get lost, do you? We are in Incheon, so the people here don’t recognize you like the ones in Busan. Do you understand?” She took out a phone from her purse, showing it to Jinhye. “Press the number one long enough until you hear a beep. That is, in case you don’t know where to go. And then, Mommy will answer.”

Jinhye nodded, a bit confused as she accepted the phone. “Mom, I’m going to get chocolates by the table over there.” She pointed the table just across them.

Her umma gulped. “I know but...I said in case you do get lost and you can’t find me, give me a call, okay? Don’t be long, darling.”

And she did, cautiously running farther away. In shock, Sunny felt tiny hands covering her eyes, as she stood straight. There were patches of light, but despite that, darkness was abundant. She felt the fingers, observing by her sense of touch, feeling a ring on one hand. Surely, the person was married. Nervously, as she smiled, she took them off, staring at the person behind the disclosure.

“Omo!” both of the girls shouted, jumping up and down as they caught attention. Sunny hugged her friend from college, one of her unnies, the closest of them all who was about the same height as she was.

“I can’t believe this!” remarked Sunny. “Taeyeon, you still look...the same! You’re still her! Omo, how are you?”

The woman continued smiling as she replied. “I’m okay. I work at Seoul. I had to come here just to see how Sica’s doing. This is so cool.”

“I live in Busan,” Sunny told her. “Doing well at a small firm. How’s being married?”

Taeyeon rolled her eyes, flipping her hair. “Tell me about it. Teuk-sshi didn’t even come. I hate him for leaving the kids with me.”

Sunny pouted, nodding. “Ah, that’s too bad. I forced my husband to come along.”

They both giggled at this, before Taeyeon made another comment about seeing her old friend again. “You look...skinnier. What happened?”

Sunny pushed her by her shoulder, still playful. “Didn’t gain that much, you could say. I go to the gym every day with Sungmin. We try to stay as fit as possible---”

“Yungyeo!” shouted Taeyeon from where they stood, seeing his boy play with his sister’s hair in the midst of the crowd. Sunny also looked at her direction, watching the twins chase after each other.

Sunny laughed. “He’s a cutie.”

“Who, Yungyeo?” asked the mother. “He takes after both of us, if you would look at him up close. He has his eyes, but my nose. His smile too is Leeteuk’s.”

The other woman nodded. “And the girl? His sister?”

“Yumi’s bound to look like him as well,” Taeyeon answered, as the two ladies approached a table to settle in. “His genes are...dominant. I wanted them to look like me too, so every day I do my best to always be close to them.”

“Why is that?”

Taeyeon sighed. “In old beliefs, the longer a group of people stay close to each other, the harder they are to be distinguished because they look practically the same. Although it’s just a belief, I find it...effective. The twins are a lot closer to me than to Teuk. Well, what’d you expect? I’m the only parent they’ve got.”

Sunny gasped. “You two got divorced?”

Taeyeon chuckled in irony, looking at the fine sky that evening. “I wish. He was born to be a solo man, no chains to hold him back to the things he wants. I know what he wants. And...It isn’t this family.”

“But...why not---”

“We love each other and we’re happy this way,” Taeyeon knocked some sense into the subject. “I can’t afford to see the kids suffer because of a broken family. I never wanted my future family to be like that. So, I’ll do what I can to save it.”

Before Sunny could react to her story, Jinhye came back, her skirt full of sweets and bunch of chocolates. She gave her mother a wide grin as she went closer, Sunny closely carrying her to her lap and introducing her to another lady. Jinhye beamed back at Taeyeon, giving her a piece of lollipop.

“Ah, thank you,” she accepted it, looking up at Sunny. “How old is she?”

“She’s only 4, can’t read much yet,” she told Taeyeon. “Lee Jinhye, say hello to Taeyeon-unnie. Introduce yourself to her.”

Jinhye nodded, getting off her mom’s lap and bowing her head at Taeyeon, the woman clapping her hands in glee.

“Good evening, ahjumma,” Jinhye said blankly. “I am Lee Jinhye. I am 4 years old. I live at Geundok-ji Area in Busan. It is a small but busy town where my Appa and Umma work. Appa is a lawyer and works with Uncle Kyuhyun. Umma is a lawyer too, working in a different office. I go to Daeyung for my music class. I play the violin and the piano.”

“A genius,” Taeyeon congratulated her. “You are well-taken care of, I see.”

Jinhye climbed back to her mother’s lap and began eating each candy she had gathered earlier.

“She’s such a cute kid!” said Taeyeon, pinching one of child’s cheeks. “I enrolled the twins to music classes too. Yumi-sshi has a powerful voice, so she went through with the vocals. Yungyeo is better at the instruments, and he is an expert at writing his own compositions. But both quit their classes. I don’t know why. Yumi is very much in love with playing soccer now. Yungyeo-sshi...well, he stopped playing because he just felt like he is too mature for it.”

“Look! Jessica’s coming out,” Sunny pointed the woman from the front door, accompanied by a very handsome man.

“Isn’t that...Sica’s boyfriend from SMEU?” Taeyeon scrutinized closely, observing the man’s facial features. “Looks like they actually made it through.”

Jessica’s backyard was gorgeous, the venue of her party. It was rather huge that it occupied twenty large tables (having at least eight people seated in it) and a long one for their food. It was an exclusive party, because she placed green hedges at each side. She must have invested a lot to get the area.

The two girls clapped their hands, seeing that everyone else was applauding the celebrant’s entrance. Jessica, her long hair blonde and straight, felt uncomfortable that she walked rather stiffly, not so obvious to the crowd but her partner sensed it, making him nervous as well.

“Take it easy,” he whispered to her ear. “Feel like you’re not getting older or anything.”

She looked up at him worriedly, but a smile was surely present in her face. “Donghae-oppa...it’s not that.”

Her red dress was only about an inch above her knees, her heels making her taller than her normal height. Donghae continued to hold her; surely there for her if ever she collapsed. She had weak ankles, ever since the very beginning and Donghae knew of this flaw. Her knees were wobbly too, overall making her a lousy runner; but that was it. Confidence was the only thing that set her and Tiffany apart.

“Sunye...Sunye-unnie is watching us!” warned Jessica, gazing at her left side. She was right. It was the same woman whom she had met before. Sunye wore her brown hair short this time, her whole dress draped in pink.

“Oppa...oppa, let go now,” stammered the girl.

Donghae looked at her direction, receiving eye contact with his girlfriend. Sunye merely smiled at him, waving lightly. He too gave her a killer wink, entrusting Sunye that his heart was all hers and it belonged only to her from then on. Sunye accepted this gesture with a warm heart, nodding her head at Donghae.

He glanced back at the anxious Jessica who was clumsily tripping in her own footwear. “It’s alright.” He muttered sheepishly, holding her hand very tightly. “She’s cool with it.”

Sica looked back at Sunye. She was standing there, staring at Donghae as he helped Jessica to the front. The elevated area had a table with the three-layered cake, pink and pale like how she was. Beside it were the gifts table, and on the other side were two seats, reserved for the celebrant and her partner. Sica was used to doing fake smiles since she was young, so effortlessly as if nothing was bothering her, she spoke, now being heard by everyone else.

“Good evening everyone,” she said, still in search of another person that should have been there for her. “Thank you for coming over. I thought that nobody would be coming so...I haven’t really prepared much.”

Krystal Jung smirked at this comment, lifting her head as her older sister noticed her. She sat at the front table, along with the rest of Sica’s family whom she haven’t seen nearly a year for they stayed in Seoul while she worked there. The younger Jung was wearing a strapless pale blue dress that reached only to her knees, looking like an inflated balloon at the brims. Her make-up was thicker than Jessica’s; it wasn’t anymore a shock to the rest who knew the girls personally. That evening Krystal felt that Sica was all about bragging; always wanting to be better than her sister, who was favored more because of her wits and social skills. Jessica was Jessica; nothing more to it.

As her opening speech finished, and the crowd was finally lining up at the buffet table, Sica felt tired that she collapsed on her seat, head on the table. Donghae, troubled at her sudden fatigue, shook her shoulders in an attempt to knock her back to reality. Nobody from the crowd seemed to notice her for they were all rushing towards the food.

“Eh, Sica!” Donghae said, trying to hide the fact that he was totally worried. “Come on. Why are you so glum?”

“I’m getting older,” she murmured still kissing the tablecloth, giggling miserably. “Why aren’t they here yet?”

Donghae continued rubbing her shoulder to soothe her. He knew how much this party was important to little Jessica. It actually meant something if the most important person in the world was late in attending it. Jessica’s eyes were already teary when she stared at him, unable to control her emotions. Donghae took her head and laid it on his shoulder, her hair as he took a handkerchief and wiped away the tears.

“No, oppa,” she told him lazily, pushing his hands away. “Sunye-unnie is watching.”

“So what?” he replied. “What’s wrong with this?”

Sica moved, looking up into his eyes. “I wish I knew. But to her, it means everything.”

Donghae smirked, searching the crowd for his girlfriend. He found her, sitting shyly at the far end on one table eating with his Heechul-hyung’s wife and among others.  He once again pulled Jessica’s head towards his shoulder, patting it like how he used to when they were in high school. “She isn’t a jealous kind of girl. You have nothing to worry about. And why would she be jealous of you? It’s your birthday.”

-o0o-

“Can I tell you how much I hate you?” Onew complained, getting off his car and taking off his coat. He looked at the girl with repulsion, wishing he could hurt her now physically.

“I’m sorry,” Sooyoung uttered, biting her lower lip---her eyes on her high heels. She was leaning on the car, Onew staying beside her, arms crossing and looking up at the starlit sky. There was nothing more frustrating than this moment. He hated the fact that it had to be at the center of nowhere, no cell phone signal at all, no cars passing about. Much to his dismay, he ran out of gas here. And it was just eight.

He scoffed. “Sorry your . Where the hell do you think we are right now? Jessica’s going to kill me! I should have been there. I mean...why did I agree in driving you instead? Aigoo, I am so dead. She’ll be ranting about this all through the night.”

Sooyoung pouted slightly, pushing Onew to his side and smiling at him in contempt. “You haven’t told me about your story. How did you two meet?”

“Do you have to know?”

She nodded against her will. Only 75% percent of her was dying to know. The other 25 was wishing to make a run for it, because it had hurt her pride to be even attending Jessica’s party.

Onew curiously looked at her, wanting to tell Sooyoung how he felt after she left with Siwon back then. He sighed, shrugging that he had no other choice but to tell her how it all began.

“It was all because of you,” Onew blamed her, nudging her to look at the stars. “If you hadn’t forgotten that silly handkerchief in my room, I wouldn’t have gotten it back for you. I knew where you stayed then. Dorm 18, right? I went there that same afternoon, hoping you were still there. But you weren’t. And guess who answered the door?”

“Omo, that’s a hard one,” she muttered to herself, smiling. “Jessica Jung.”

Onew grinned. “No, it was the maknae. Seohyun was it? She answered the door and asked me to stay.  Jessica was the one who offered me the snacks. It took quite some time before we started hanging out. But, I had to le