AUTHOR’S POV
Once upon a time in August 1989, there lived a happy family with one daughter. They lived happily and very fond of each other, the couple loved each other so much, and their happiness got even bigger after their first daughter was born. But then when their baby girl was just almost 4 month old, news came to them that their best friends died in car accident while taking their baby back home from the hospital.

They were so shocked because the wife of the family was talking to the wife of that family, yes, Mrs. Jung was telling Mrs. Hwang how to feed her baby well since Mrs. Jung felt like more experienced than her best friend, but it turned out that, Mrs. Hwang’s warning to her husband, told them something more than just a mere shout.

That was the last shriek Mrs. Jung ever heard from her best friend. The two died while God blessed their daughter so much, she lived because of the safety belt she wore and she barely had any scratch, it felt like God loved this girl so much.

Mrs. Jung and Mr. Jung ran to their car, telling their babysitter as they went out, then leaving little Sooyeon alone at home, taking her little nap, not knowing about things that happened around her, that she would get someone new in her house, in her life.

Later that day, the couple went home with a baby in their arms, the fragile baby was looking around and started crying, she didn’t feel like it was her usual room in hospital, but as soon as she looked at the other baby, she stopped and staring. The other baby stared at her blankly as her cheek was caressed by Mr. Jung big index finger, “Sooyeon, this is going to be your younger sister, Miyoung.”

The two babies just stared at each other, until Sooyeon broke their stare and slept again. Since it wasn’t predicted, Jung family didn’t have any preparation for Miyoung, they put Miyoung beside Sooyeon in the same bed, magically, Sooyeon didn’t even protest, nor Miyoung, the two slept together in a bed, calmly.

“They are going to be fine, right?” Pecking his wife, Mr. Jung nodded, “Yes they will, they will love each other so much, don’t worry. Let’s keep this as a secret between us.”

Julia hugged her husband, “Poor Miyoungie…”

-

1 year later

Little Miyoung was following her older sister, wherever she was, but a few month gap made Miyoung lacked in many things compared to Sooyeon. Sooyeon could run while Miyoung couldn’t, Sooyeon could jumped and climbed the chair while Miyoung couldn’t, but Miyoung drank faster, eat more than Sooyeon did, Miyoung had a healthier feature than Sooyeon. It was not just once Sooyeon gave a little from her portion to Miyoung, “I can’t be fat no matter how much I eat, she can, Mummy.” That was what Sooyeon said to her Mom if her Mom asked, no wonder, Miyoung grew healthier and Sooyeon grew thinner as time went by, but Sooyeon always took care of Miyoung well even though her body was smaller than Miyoung.

“Sooyeon Unnie!” Miyoung followed Sooyeon to the bathroom, the babysitter stopped Miyoung but Miyoung pouted, she sulked while sitting on the mat in front of the bathroom. Sooyeon couldn’t let her younger sister be sad like that, she sighed as she tugged her babysitter’s pants, “Let her in.”

Grinning in happiness, Miyoung immediately stood up and rushed into the bathroom, “What is Unnie doing?”

“I’m going to take a bath, Miyoung.”

The little girl pouted again, she closed the lid of the closet and sat there, “I don’t like to be called Miyoung.”

“Alright, Mimi.” Miyoung grinned wider, “That sounds nice, can I call Unnie, Yeonnie?” Sooyeon shook her head, “No, call me Unnie.”

“Me don’t want to! Yeon Yeon Yeon!” Stubbornly, Miyoung crossed her arms in front of her chest and chanted her newfound nickname to her older sister.

Sooyeon chuckled, “Alright, Princess, call me however you want.” Then Sooyeon lifted her arms, letting the babysitter to take off her clothes, Miyoung watched the entire action until Sooyeon was all , “I want to take a bath too…”

The babysitter shook her head, “No, Miyoung, you have taken your bath earlier…” Little Miyoung scratched her head, she watched her older sister sat on the bath tub, she followed and splashed some warm water from it to her own clothes, “How about now?”

Sooyeon stifled her laugh as the babysitter sighed, clearly tired with the stubborn Miyoung, but she couldn’t do much, she couldn’t let Miyoung wet like that, she would catch cold if she was left like that, especially when it was almost evening.

“Alright, lift your arms.” Miyoung happily lifted her arms, she even kicked her so in less than a minute, she was also and joined Sooyeon in the bathtub, she grinned when Sooyeon shook her head in disbelief, “Why do you always follow me?”

“I want to be with you, Yeonnie. I love Yeooonnniieee!” The sincere answer came smoothly but nor of them understood it actually, the babysitter smiled at the sweetness of the sisters, then Sooyeon didn’t answer her, she was busy filling her two palms with water and splashed it onto Miyoung’s face, “Water war!”

Miyoung shrieked then giggled when they were already playing with each other, “OMG YOU TWO STOP!” The babysitter was now wet too because of the two baby girls, they giggled even louder.

-

5 years later

It happened at the first months of 1994 when they woke up, Miyoung crawled at the spot beside her, she pecked Sooyeon’s cheek, “Yeonnie wakey wakey!”

Sooyeon grunted as she turned her body to the other side, letting her back faced Miyoung, Miyoung pouted, she kept bugging her older sister, “Oh my God! MIMI! Stop annoying me!”

“No, I don’t want to! Wakey wakey Yeoonnniieee!” Sooyeon covered her ear with the pillow but Miyoung tugged her arms, “Wakeeeyyy uuuuppp!” Sooyeon shouted in desperate voices, “ALRIGHT!”

“I love you, Yeonnie!”

All the anger gone as soon as Miyoung stared at her with the round brown eyes, the hazelnut colored orbs were just too innocent to be ignored, Sooyeon sighed, she ruffled Miyoung’s hair and pecked her cheek, “Morning, Mimi.” Miyoung was actually sad because never once her sister replied her ‘Love You’ but she was happy because the peck showed how action talked more than just words.

They got ready quickly since that day they have classin the morning, so that day, they bathed together again.

Walking down the stairs, they settled down on the chairs, took breads and glasses of milk for them as breakfasts. Suddenly, their Mom vomited, a lot in the morning, the two sisters just stared confusedly as they continued eating their breakfast.

“Mummy, are you okay?” Little Miyoung asked when Mrs. Jung came back while wiping the corner of her wet lips, “I’m okay, Tiffany.” Yes, after some arguments, they decided to use their American names since they lived in America and they had to enter schools, they decided to get the two sisters be used to their American names.

Side hugging his wife’s waist, Mr. Jung looked up from his newspaper, “Are you sure? Have you got your period this month?” Mrs. Jung nodded, “I’m okay but this month has just started, alright, don’t give me that look, I know you always want more child, okay okay, I will take the test.”

Mrs. Jung walked away back to her room while the two sisters stared at happy Mr. Jung with widened eyes, “Daddy, what was that mean…?”

Mr. Jung smiled as he patted Sooyeon’s head, “It means…Uh, it can be wrong, it’s better to not having my hopes up… Alright, Tiffany, have you drunk your milk?”

Tiffany nodded, she pointed to the empty glass beside her, Mr. Jung smiled as he gave Tiffany a thumb up, Tiffany grinned in happiness, she was always happy when her Dad gave her thumb up, it showed how the only guy in the family appreciated and proud of what she was doing.

“OMYGOD! IT’S POSITIVE!” A shout came from the room their parents shared, Mr. Jung threw the newspaper away, running into his room and shouted incoherently, Jessica and Tiffany looked at each other, “I want to know.”

Jessica ran into her parents’ room, “Me too! YEON!” Tiffany followed Jessica by throwing her bread back onto the plate and rushed into the now crowded bedroom.

“I can’t believe it!”

“Oh my God thank you, God!” Mrs. Jung hugged her husband then pulled Jessica and Tiffany into a group hug, “Jessica, Tiffany, you two will have a new sibling!”

Jessica and Tiffany blinked for a few times confusedly before jumping up and down together, chanting, “WE GET A SIBLING WE GET A SIBLING!”

Mr. Jung lifted Tiffany onto his shoulder and jumped together with Jessica, they were so happy.

“Wait! You can’t jump, Julia. Now, go back to the bed, let me take care of these kids.” Jessica and Tiffany suddenly behaved as they held each their Mom’s hand, leading her back onto the bed, “No guys, I’m fine. Kids, I’m fine! Hey!” Tiffany and Jessica pulled the blanket while Mr. Jung took their schoolbags, “Alright, girls, you guys are so going to be late, let’s go!” Jessica and Tiffany pecked Mrs. Jung’s cheeks then went out, following their Dad.

Mr. Jung pecked Julia’s lips, “Take care, baby.”

“You too, honey.”

Then they waved at each other, Mr. Jung held his daughters’ hands as he walked out of the house to the car while Mrs. Jung prayed to God, being thankful. Not forgetting to mention Tiffany in her pray, “Dear God, please don’t take our happiness away. And don’t let them know about her real identity, I am happy being like this, please just make it stay like this. For forever.”

But God knew the best.

-

10 years later

Tiffany grew into a beautiful bubbly girl while Jessica was more composed and calm, but the two were equally loved by their friends, because their family was wealthy, nice, they always brought more lunches for their friends, it lured many people to be their friends but there were 7 who became their bests.

Taeyeon, Sunny, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun were their best friends, they met since the first day of their primary school, and gradually, thank you to Tiffany, they became best friends, all 9 of them. Some of them were closer to some but eventually they were all like sisters, except for Jessica and Tiffany who they knew as real sisters.

But they were just still innocent primary students. Not that innocent until their biology teacher taught them about reproduction.

“So, pregnancy takes 9 months and 10 days until almost 10 months normally. The fetus grows as… blablabla” Their biology teacher went on and on while a group of friends chatted, “Aaah I’ve known about this, Krystal was in Mom’s tummy for 9 months! Right, Tiff?” Tiffany nodded as she was agree with what her sister just said, but that ended up not so well since their friends were around and started to ask.

“If that so, then how about you two?” Taeyeon asked as she got curious, now to mention that if one pregnancy took 9 months, their birthdates weren’t even apart that far.

“Huh?” Jessica creased her brows as Tiffany got silenced, “Yes, you were born in 18^th of April while Fany was born in 1^st of August, are you two twins?”

The innocent primary students started to guess and soon became a ruckus, their biology teacher asked from where he was standing, “Hey hey! Ms. Kim Taeyeon-ssi, what is happening there? You’re supposed to keep the class quiet since you’re the class president!”

Taeyeon hung her head down, she blamed her curiosity, but kids tended to be more curious, weren’t they?

“Nothing, Sir.”

“Hhh, okay, let’s go on. Oh? Yes, Ms. Jung Tiffany-ssi?” The weird teacher used the surname and the honorific because there were more than 1 Kim and 1 Jung in that class.

Jessica felt her heart was beating so fast, yes, at some points she was curious too but she didn’t want what she feared about coming true, she held her sister’s other hand, but the free hand kept flailing in the air to get the biology teacher, when the teacher noticed Tiffany, Jessica felt her heart would burst if Tiffany really asked what she was afraid of.

“If two children were born in different months, are they twins?” The biology teacher laughed, along with other students, but not with the 8 around Tiffany, they hung their heads down, they knew what Tiffany meant.

“Of course not, twins are born almost at the same time, either they were minutes apart or hours apart, or even seconds apart. What’s wrong, Tiffany-ssi?”

“So I’m not Jessica’s younger sister…?” Weakly, Tiffany asked, the expression of the teacher changed as soon as he realized what Tiffany meant.

The other students also stopped laughing, they got silenced as soon as Tiffany asked her second question.

“…Let’s move on to the next page…”

“Teacher-nim, please answer me.” The teacher stopped as the students were also curious, they stared at the teacher to give clear explanation.

“I don’t know about that, you can ask that to your parents.” Clearing his throat, he turned around to the board and started to write.

Tiffany cleaned up her desk, taking everything she brought, giving Jessica a last sad glance as she stood up and ran out of the class.

“What the…”

“TIFFANY!” Jessica followed what Tiffany did and ran to where her sister was heading.

“Jung Jessi… Wait! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS GOING?!” The teacher was more than surprised when he saw that the other 8 were also standing up, getting ready to run out.

“This is a mess that I started, Teacher-nim. Let me fix it. I’m sorry.” Taeyeon ran out.

“They are my best friends, Teacher-nim. I’m sorry.” Sunny followed Taeyeon out.

“They cheered the loudest when I dance, Teacher-nim. I’m sorry.” Hyoyeon bowed then ran as fast as she could, following Sunny.

“They are my first friends, Teacher-nim. I’m sorry.” Yuri left the shocked biology teacher.

“They give us more lunches, Teacher-nim! We’re sorry!” Sooyoung and Yoona took their lunch bags with them and ran out.

“No, not you too, Ms. Seo!! You have your nice student predicate and…”

“They are my Unnies, Teacher-nim. I care about them, I’m sorry.” Then Seohyun bowed very politely, calmly walked to the door but right after the door was closed, quick footsteps were heard, Seohyun ran to her Unnies.

-

“TIFFANY!” Jessica was always slow, she was weak at running, she wasn’t an athletic one in the group but her sister was running, crying and confused. She knew nothing but catching up with Tiffany.

Jessica followed wherever her sister ran off, eventually Tiffany got slower, since she was also crying, that drained her energy so much then she sat on the bench, still crying.

Slowly but sure, Jessica walked to Tiffany, sat beside her, saying nothing, she waited until Tiffany got calmer, she took a hold of Tiffany’s hand, rubbing her thumb on the forehand of Tiffany, making Tiffany sniffed even more, their sisterly bond was just too tight to be broken at that time.

“Why did you follow me? I’m not your sister…” Tiffany retracted her hand from Jessica’s hold, the older girl could feel her heart was slammed with a hammer, how could her younger sister did that to her?

“You are my sister.”

“No, I’m not. You heard what our teacher said. We aren’t even twins! Pregnancy takes 9 months, what are we, then?!” Jessica was now facing Tiffany, they stared at each other, one was hurt while the other was hurt even more because the other was crying.

“I don’t care with everything he said, you’re my sister and nothing can’t change that fact.” Tiffany shook her head, she slapped Jessica’s hands when the older girl wanted to hold hers, “You know nothing! You are a Jung! Indeed because Soojung is almost a carbon copy of you! You guys have that sharp feature while me don’t… It is true then… I’m not even a Jung… Who am I…?”

Jessica stared at her reddened hands, she hugged Tiffany, “You’re Jung Tiffany. Jung Miyoung who is my younger sister, nothing can change it, nothing, I say, nothing. You will always be my little sister who is bubbly and loves to annoy me. Please don’t say that, Mimi, it hurts Yeonnie.” Tears ran down on Jessica’s cheeks, she only used those nicknames if she was really serious.

Tiffany cried even more, “Did you know…?”

“What?”

“Did you know about me already?”

Shaking her head, Jessica replied, “No, I don’t. Never once I think of you as someone else other than my younger sister. Please don’t think that way, I’m your Unnie, I’m your best friend, please… I love you, Mimi…”

The confession sounded so right, yet so calming, “But I’m not your sister, Yeonni… I’m a stranger…” The hug became tighter, “Sssh, you are not. You are Jung Miyoung, please believe me, the biology teacher is wrong. Ssh…”

“I believe in you, Yeonnie…” They hugged each other and calming each other, soon, when Tiffany had stopped crying, the other 7 came, they panted, “THERE YOU ARE!”

“Tiffany! I’m so sorry for asking you that, I i…” Taeyeon couldn’t finish her words because Tiffany smiled at her, “It’s okay, Taeyeon. I… I will ask my parents about this.”

“Don’t!”

The 8 girls turned their heads at Jessica, “Please don’t add more problems to them, please, just… I don’t know… But… Uh…”

The other 7 hugged the confused sisters, “Mimi, are you sure about asking Mom and Dad?” Tiffany nodded, “I want to know about the truth, Yeonnie.”

“…what if the truth is, you aren’t my real sister…?”

As tears went down, Tiffany answered with a bitter smile, “Then I will still be your younger sister as you always say…”

Jessica pulled Tiffany into a big bear hug, “Please don’t leave me, Mimi… Yeonnie loves Mimi…”

Whispering inaudibly, “Mimi loves Yeonnie too… But what about Soojung? She deserves your full attentions, she is your real younger sister…”

“Tiffany Unnie, please don’t go, we love you.” Yoona suddenly said that made the others followed, telling Tiffany to not doing stupid things.

In the group hug Yoona whispered, “You are her sister, she loves you, please don’t go.” As if reading Tiffany’s mind, Yoona patted Tiffany’s shoulder before letting go of the hug.

Tiffany nodded as she smiled, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. She still had to ask their parents about the truth. If the truth had to be ugly,  she would always have Yeonnie, right?

When Tiffany turned her gaze, there she found, Jessica was staring at her, with the stare that could be mistaken as a lover’s gaze, no, it couldn’t be…?

TBC

It is supposed to be one shot. But should i continue...? Can't continue soon though...