We arrived at the Italian restaurant Yuri was talking about. She was accurate enough when she said that it had a homey look. The atmosphere reminded me of the time my family and I visited Italy, years before I trained at SME.

“Table for three, please.” Yuri told the waiter that was standing inside the entrance of the restaurant while she hugged her valuable bear.

“Right this way, Mam.” The waiter escorted us to a table with four chairs.

Yuri and I sat across each other.

“Why did you ask a table for three?” I asked in curiosity.

“Because Mr. Bear needs to sit with us. He can’t sit on the floor, it’s dirty.” She explained, with her voice in a higher tone like she just inhaled helium as she placed her bear in a sitting position beside her and patted its head.

I giggled as I covered my lips with menu folder.

“What’s so funny?” She giggled back.

“Nothing, nothing.” I answered back while placing the menu folder back on the table as I tried to hold my laughter.

“Anywaaaaays, have you decided what to eat yet?” She asked in a pleasing mood.

“I want to eat everything written here.” I exaggerated as I stared at the menu that was placed on the table.

“I have an idea!” She cheered.

“Let’s have the platter meal.” She added.

I stared at her with dropped jaws as she finished her sentence.

“Are you insane?!”

“What do you mean insane? It has almost everything on the menu that you desire to eat.” She evidently pointed at the platter section on the menu folder, to prove that her idea was good.

“But it says here it’s good for 8-10 persons. That is insane! There’s only the two of us. I’m not a Shikshin like Sooyoung, you know.” I argued.

“Then we’ll just ask to fix the leftovers as takeouts so that it won’t be a waste. It’s pleasing because it’s good for two meals for the both of us. We could eat the rest later.” She skimmed back through the menu; her eyes boasting her “amazing” idea.

“Yuri… I left my credit card at home and I didn’t bring enough money for a meal like this since it would be just the two of us.” I explained as I looked worried at her.

“Oh Jessi, Jessi, Jessi…” She placed the menu back on the table and met my eyes.

“I’m paying.” She answered with a simple smile.

I kept quiet.

“Thank you, Yuri.” I smiled toothlessly.

“You’re welcome, Sica.” She smiled back. “It’s just a meal.” She added as she faced her teddy bear.

“Not just for the meal…” I widened my smile.

She faced back at me with a slightly confused expression; the tip of her lips curled to a half smirk.

“Honestly, you were the first person to ever make me happy like this since Taeyeon broke up with me.” I innocently confessed.

“I made a pledge to be your best friend forever, making you smile is… let’s say my responsibility.” She said with a grin.

A few moments later after she ordered the platter meal…

“It’s kind of selfish that I haven’t asked anything about you.”

“So… How’s Tiffany?” I asked.

“Well… She’s not here.” She lost her smile.

“She has to stay a little longer there. I actually got upset because I thought we’d come back home together, and we kinda got into an argument… and yeah. I really don’t wanna talk about it.”

I opened my mouth as I was about to say something …

“No, no, no! Don’t even force me to tell you the whole story. You can’t make me feel sad or uncomfortable. That’s the rule.” Yuri strictly prohibited, losing her childish charm.

I chuckled back in response, raising my hands as a form of surrender.

“Okay, okay. I won’t ask.” I grinned.

“So that’s the rule…” I added.

“You started it, but I have to agree, it’s an important rule for the both us.” She responded.

“So we’ll officially call it BFF rule #1: Never say… or do—

“Wait!” She interrupted.

“We have to write it down! Incase anyone of us forgets.”

She quickly grabbed a pen from her purse and the tissue that lay on the table beside the eating utensils.

“Okay, continue.” She said; focused on her pen and tissue as she was ready to write down the next words I would say.

“Okay. BFF Rule #1: Never say—

“OR DO” She added.

“Okay, okay. BFF Rule #1: Never say or DO anything that would make your best friend feel sad or uncomfortable.” I finished the statement.

“So can we add other people in our BFF relationship?” She asked politely as she was writing down the finishing touches on the tissue.

Honestly, I wanted it to be just between me and Yuri.  It felt a lot more special that way. I’ve never been this childish… ever, and it surprised me that Yuri was the only one who made me expose this side of me that I never knew existed. I maybe selfish but I wanted to be Yuri’s only best friend. But I didn’t want to tell Yuri what I wanted.

I bit my lips as I them inward my teeth and kept looking around.

Yuri looked up at me and noticed my lack of response along with the weird look I showed.

“Okay… This will be just between the two of us.” She responded as she smiled at my expression like she somewhat read my mind.

“Done!” She belted.

She slid the tissue in front of me as I saw her handwriting very neat; I couldn’t expect less from the organized queen.

“If this is BFF Rule #1, it means there would be a gazillion more and I wouldn’t want to memorize all the rules, you know how lazy I am.” I joked at Yuri.

She slid the tissue back to her side of the table and scribbled over the ‘#1’ with her pen. It didn’t look that neat anymore but I wasn’t bothered by it.

“Then it’s just the BFF Rule then.” She smiled.

“If you can see I added the date below to make it memorable.” She pointed at the writing with her pen evidently.

“I see.” I rested my chin on my palm as my elbow rested on the table.

“But wait! What if either one of us breaks the rule? Is there a punishment?” I asked out of the blue.

“That’s a good question.” Yuri said as she repeatedly tapped her head with her finger to think of a good answer.

“I got it!” She broke the silence.

“The girl who breaks the rule will have to give something special to the other person.” She added in excitement.

“That’s fine with me.” I agreed with a pleasing grin and she wrote the rest of the information on the back side of the tissue.

The BFF Rule… Wow, what a good way to distract myself from thinking of Taeyeon.