“Maybe he got called back for something,” Jessica suggested as she and Donghae walked through the park that evening.

“It's possible,” Donghae tried to console.

“Or maybe he's visiting his parents first, that makes sense, right??” she asked, her voice somewhat shaking, as they sat down on the nearest bench.

“Definitely sounds logical,” he replied.

Jessica heaved a sigh as she turned her worried gaze to the starry sky. “Donghae, it's been a week. You really think he's okay?”

Placing his hand on hers, he looks into her eyes and smiles. “It'll be okay.”

Jessica lets out another sigh as she looks into his sweet eyes. “I'm sorry,” she says, rubbing her forehead. “It's just this is so...”

“Frustrating, I understand.”

“But I shouldn't be bothering you with all of this.”

“Now you stop that,” he demanded, poking her shoulder. “You know I'm here for you.”

“I know, I know. And you've been so good to me. You haven't left my side once since Siwon hasn't come home. You're a good friend,” she said with a smile, looking into his eyes.

The two stare into each other's eyes for a what seemed like a century. It was completely silent except for a slight breeze that passed through her silky chestnut hair, the way the breeze sways through the branches of a tree.

Suddenly, as an act of impulse, Donghae slowly leaned in toward Jessica's face.

Her eyes were shutting tighter and tighter as she could sense Donghae's face inching closer.

But right before their lips can meet, Jessica quickly turns her head away.

“Donghae...I can't..” Jessica said, as quiet as a whisper.

Donghae bit his lip as he pulled himself away from her. Blushing, he stared at the ground, avoiding her line of sight.

“Donghae, I'm sorry. I just...I can't do this..”

“No, it's my fault. I'm sorry,” he answered. “Since we met, we've just been spending so much time together. I've really started to develop feelings for you, I just couldn't say anything.” he tried to explain.

“Oh,” was all Jessica could say as she also looked down at the ground.

“Jessica..”

“N-neh?” she said, looking back at him.

“I was wondering if you..”

“If I what?”

“If..maybe...you started to have feelings for me too?” he slowly turned to face her.

She didn't know what to say. She bit on her lips and for some reason couldn't turn her eyes from his pleading gaze.

“I-I..” she stuttered. But before she can say anything, her phone starts ringing.

Her ringtone broke her gaze as she reached into her purse to take out her phone. She looks at the caller ID on the front. “It's Yoona,” she says quietly.

“Unni~” Yoona crooned.

“N-neh,” she answered.

“Come over today. I'm making some green tea.”

“Um, I'm not sure.”

“Why not? I remember a certain unni who promised to hang out with me a long time ago.”

“Th-there's just some..stuff I need to take care of.”

“Seriously?” Yoona wasn't going to give up so easily. “Come on. It's just tea. I want to talk to you.”

Jessica looked at Donghae who was still staring at her.

“So are you coming or not?” Yoona said into the phone, her voice seeming a bit irritated.”

Donghae nodded his head.

“Yes.”

“Good! I wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer, anyway.” Yoona giggled. “Just come by whenever you're ready. Bye!” Yoona hung up and Jessica awkwardly ended the call on her phone.

“I'm going to see Yoona.”

Donghae nodded his head again and heaved a long sigh. He got up from his seat and vanished as he slowly trodded away.

–

“So he still hasn't come home?” Yoonas asked as she poured some hot tea into Jessica's cup.

Jessica shook her head as she held the cup firmly between her two hands, feeling the warmth penetrating through the glass.

“It's been a week now, right?”

“Yes. I'm afraid that something may have happened to him.”

“Siwon's a smart guy,” Yoona said as she poured herself some tea. “I'm sure he's alright.”

“But what if he's hurt? What if he's stuck in the draft?” she panicked a little as Yoona placed the hot tea kettle onto a mat on the table and sat down across from her unni.

“Then I'm sure you'll be the first to know. Or maybe the second, if he plans on seeing his parents first. Which is still a possibility.”

“He better be seeing his parents first,” she said under her breath, rubbing the cup between her palms. “You know her planned on introducing me to his parents once he came back home.”

“I know,” Yoona said, as she carefully took a sip of her tea.

Jessica couldn't fight off her thoughts of what had happened between her and Donghae earlier. She can't seem to rid her mind of the image of his face moving closer to hers. There was a war between her worry for Siwon and her care for Donghae.

“Hey, Yoona”

“Mmm?” Yoona said, pulling her cup away from her lips.

“Have you ever...had feelings..for two guys at once?”

“Excuse me?” Yoona's eyes widened, freezing.

“You know what I mean..”

“Jessica, what are you talking about?” she asked, placing her cup back onto the table.

“N-nevermind, it's nothing...”

“Jessica, are you having feelings for someone else?”

“No, no, this isn't about me,” she denied. “I just...well a few days ago...I was watching one of those silly dramas on T.V.”

“I see, what was it called?” Yoona asked.

“I uhh.. don't even remember,” she lied. “I just watched an episode or two of it whenever it happened to come on.”

“Okay...well, what was it about?”

“Okay, so there's this girl. And she has been seeing this one guy for a while. He's a really great guy and everything, but he has to leave her.”

“How come?”

“Well...he's going to be with his family in the states. So he can't be with her.”

“Alright, keep going.”

“Well, he promises not to see anyone else and so does she. So after he leaves, it's sort of difficult for them to communicate as much as they'd like to since he's so busy working and being with his family. The girl sort of has a hard time dealing with it, but eventually, the fact that he still loves her, grows on her, and so she decides to wait it out.”

“Got it.”

“At one point, the girl meets this other guy.”

“Go on,” Yoona affirms, nodding her head.

“Now this other guy is a nice guy too. He's funny and witty and the two start to spend time together. So you know, she tells him about her life and her boyfriend and he tells her about himself and his family.”

“So, they become friends?”

“Right. They spend so much time together that she kind of forgets about her boyfriend. It's not like she doesn't love him anymore, but all the pain and sad feelings from not being able to be with him sort of fades away as she spends more time with this other guy.”

“Oh, I see. I understand now.”

“Eventually, the new guy admits to the girl that he started to have feelings for her. But she doesn't know how to react. I never really got past that part, so I don't know what happened. I just can't decide if it's right.”

“If what's right?” Yoona asked, turning her head to the side.

“Well, what if the girl has feelings for him too? That's not really fair of her. She's technically still in a relationship with her boyfriend. What if her boyfriend shows up again? What is she going to do? Just tell him that she found someone else? How is that okay?”

“You've really thought about this, haven't you?”

Jessica giggled a little and scratched the back of her head. “Haha, yeah, I guess. The whole predicament has just been sitting in the back of my head. Wh-what do you think she should do?”

Yoona rubbed her cup between her hands as she thought about it. “That's a tough one,” she pointed out. “But I really think that it's important that the girl be honest with herself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the second guy, knowing she had a boyfriend, clearly admitted that he had feelings for her. Was that wrong of him? No. He was just being honest. I think it's only fair if she's honest too. He asked her if she had feelings for him, so she should tell him the truth.”

“But what if she does have feelings for him? What can she possibly do?”

Yoona sighed. “Well if she doesn't feel the same, then that's that, and hopefully, they can still be friends. But if she does feel the same way, then she should still be honest and admit it.”

“But what about her boyfriend?” Jessica pushed on.

“Well, she ought to be honest with him too. She really needs to think it through. If she has feelings for this guy, it's possible that maybe it's only because her boyfriend isn't around. But it is also very likely that she started having feelings for someone else, because she stopped having feelings for her boyfriend.”

Jessica leaned back in her chair. “I don't know. It just doesn't seem fair to the boyfriend.”

“But it's not fair to the second guy either. What if he feels like she was just using him as a crutch to ignore her feelings for her boyfriend? The best thing for her to do is to be honest with the both of them, and more importantly, honest with herself. Because it's her unsureness and dishonesty that could ruin her relationships with the both of them.”

Jessica was extremely impressed by her dongsaeng's ability to intelligently and calmly explain her resolution to the situation. “Since when did you get so smart?” she smirked.

A smile tugged at Yoona's lips. “It's just comes naturally,” she said as Jessica rolled her eyes.

“Lucky you.”

“It's not a terrible thing to have feelings for two people. That happens. We can't control the way our hearts work. As long as you're honest with yourself, you can still be a good person.”

“It's not about me!” Jessica said, pushing Yoona's arm.

“I know! I was just saying,” she said, teasing.

Jessica knew she would have to think long and hard about this. She was glad she talked to Yoona, who turned out to garner even more wisdom than she thought.

-

thank you for all the lovely comments. I am truly grateful! I hope you're pleased so far.  I'll update as soon as possible.