Yuri has already stopped crying but they stayed that way until Yuri cleared . “Do you want to go to an ice cream parlor nearby?” Her voice was still hoarse and her eyes were swollen.

She pulled away from the hug and looked down, waiting for Tiffany’s answer.

“Sure. Give me your keys. I’ll drive and you tell me where to go.”

They got in the car and Tiffany started driving. “So where are we exactly?”

“Daejeon.”

“Seriously? You live here?”

Yuri nodded.

“Wow, you live in the ‘Silicon Valley of Korea’. That is so cool. I wish we live here, too. If I didn’t go to IU, I’d probably be studying in KAIST.”

She was trying to talk to Yuri but the girl was still unresponsive. All she got was a nod.

“Baskin Robbins,” Tiffany squealed. “I haven’t been able to eat ice cream there for a very long time.”


---


Tiffany volunteered to order for them and Yuri tried to look for a vacant seat. It’s a good thing there weren’t a lot of people considering that it’s a weekend.

She placed the ice cream fondue on the table and sat down across Yuri.

Yuri pulled it closer to her and noticed Tiffany’s stare. “What?”

“We’re supposed to share,” she said and placed it back to the center of the table.

Yuri released a grunt.

Tiffany picked up an ice cream ball using her chopsticks and dipped it into the chocolate fondue and Yrui did the same. They were quietly eating it ‘til Tiffany suddenly spoke.

“I lost my dad when I was a kid. He got into an accident,” she said as she lightly poked an ice cream ball.

Yuri looked at her and listened.

“I saw my mom broke down when she heard about the news. She was even confined in the hospital for about two days. She said I didn’t cry even though I understood what was happening.” She paused and ate a strawberry.

“Every time I wanted to cry because I missed my dad, I go to the bathroom and I cry my eyes out. I didn’t want people to see me cry. Not even my mom. Then there were times when I’d sneak up to her room and stare at her before I go to sleep.” She saw Yuri smiled. “I know it’s creepy but I was a kid. I was afraid that I’d lose her, too so I checked up on her to see if she was still breathing. Just so you know, I’ve stopped doing that already.”

Yuri sniffed and smiled again. She continued eating while Tiffany told her the rest of her story.

“I would sometimes get jealous when I see kids with both their mom and dad but I never told my mom that. I don’t want her to think she wasn’t enough or she wasn’t doing enough things for me. Then she met Uncle Ryan, Jessica’s dad…my dad. I felt happy again because I know she’s happy. Having Jessie as my sister is somewhat a bonus.” She poked an ice cream ball and put it in .

“I bet my dad and your mom are watching us right now, don’t you think?” It caught Yuri’s attention and she looked up and stared at her. “I bet my dad’s nudging your mom and telling her ‘I think your daughter likes my daughter and I think she finds her gorgeous’.” She smiled widely.

Yuri giggled, “I doubt that. I bet my mom just gave your dad a whack on the side of his head and said ‘I think that’s what your daughter thinks about my pretty daughter’.”

They both laughed at how silly their thoughts were.

“For a second there, I thought you were saying those things because you wanted to be better than me,” she joked.

Tiffany just chuckled. She was thankful that the Yuri she knows is finally with her again. Frankly speaking, she wouldn’t know what to do anymore if what she told her roommate didn’t lift her mood.

“You’re like an ice cream cake, you know that?” said Yuri.

“Why?”

“I’m not talking about an ice cream shaped like a cake. I’m talking about cake and ice cream layered together. You could be totally cold sometimes but…spongy at the same time…and sweet. The kind of sweet that’s bad for you.”

Tiffany snickered, “What?”

“You know what I mean,” she said and dipped her chopsticks in the fondue.

“Well, you’re like a spumone.”

Yuri gasped. “You know what a spumone is?”

“Yah! So what if I know what it is? Did you think I didn’t know anything about food?”

It was Yuri’s turn to laugh. “To be honest, yes. That was definitely a shocker.”

“Whatever. I still think that if you’re a food, you’d totally be a spumone. You’re cold but sometimes I don’t mind. Sometimes I do though, especially when you’re being such an a**. You have different layers just like a spumone.”

“You just copied what I said about you,” teased Yuri.

“I did not.”

“Whatever.”

They finished the ice cream fondue and headed out.

“Where do you live?” Tiffany asked and gave the keys to Yuri.

“Three miles from here. You want to go there?”

“Okay.”


---


Jessica was woken up by the smell of bacon, coffee and toast. 

“Morning. My mom told me to bring you brunch.” She placed the bed tray beside Jessica. “By the way, I won the bet.”

Jessica raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“My mom totally disregarded me this morning. She told my brother to wake me up but she let you sleep even though we both slept late. So I win.”

“No fair. I have to see it with my own eyes that she would treat me better. So no, you haven’t won yet.” She took a toast and munched on it.

“Fine. Put off the inevitable.”

After Jessica finished the meal, they went downstairs and saw Taeyeon’s mom busying herself with preparing lunch. 

“Jessica, you’re awake.” She turned to Taeyeon and said, “Taengoo-ah, go to the fish market and buy these.” She handed a piece of paper to Taeyeon.

“But mom” Taeyeon pretended to whine.

“Now, Taeyeon. Jessica, dear, you could stay here and just watch tv or do whatever you want.”

Taeyeon looked at her with a playful smirk. “I win,” she mouthed.

“Mrs. Kim, can I go with Taeyeon?”

“Are you sure? I mean, have you even gone to a fish market before?”

“Yes,” she lied.

“Okay. Taeyeon, take care of Jessica—“

“Mom, I will. We’ll go now. See you later.”

They both changed into a more appropriate outfit and headed out. Once inside the car, Taeyeon showed her signature dorky grin to Jessica. “Told you I’d win.”

“So what do you want me to do then? You have three seconds to tell me. If you fail to do that, whatever crazy thing you’re thinking about wouldn’t be valid anymore and I will not do it. One…”

“Go to the Busan Aquarium with me and you have to do whatever it is I tell you to do,” Taeyeon said quickly.

“Fine. I’m only doing this because I kinda feel sorry seeing your mom treat me better than she treats you,” she said with a chuckle.


---


Yuri and Tiffany finally arrived at the Kwon Residence. When they entered the house, the first person they saw was Yuri’s brother,

“Oppa?” Hyuk Joon was lying on the couch.

“Yuri-ah, what are you doing here?” He noticed Tiffany and said, “This is your roommate, right? Tiffany?”

“Hi,” said Tiffany.

“Why are you sleeping here?” Yuri smirked. “You did something stupid again, didn’t you?”

“Ugh…shut up! You’re not even supposed to be here,” He looked at Tiffany. “You’re very welcome here though.”

“Where’s dad?”

“Backyard. Playing with Minhyuk,” he said groggily.

“We have spare rooms, oppa. Why don’t you sleep there?”

He rubbed his eyes and sighed, “She told me I can’t sleep in any room. I could only sleep here.”

“Just say sorry. You look…pathetic, sleeping in the couch like that.” She held Tiffany’s hand and pulled her. “Come on, Fany-ah.”

“Your brother’s really cute obeying her wife like that. It makes me wonder if you’re submissive, too.” 

Yuri scoffed. “I will never be as love-sick as him.”

When she saw her nephew, she immediately called him. “Minhyuk-ah.”

She ran towards them with Tiffany in tow. “Hi, appa. This is my friend and my roommate, Tiffany.”

“Hi, sir,” Tiffany greeted then bowed.

“Annyeong,” he greeted back. “Aigoo~ my back hurts.” He was helping his grandson to walk since he couldn’t do it by himself yet.

“Yuri-ah, can you and your pretty friend here take care of Minhyuk while I cook lunch?”

“Sure, dad.”

“Have you gone to your mom’s grave, Yuri-ah?” her dad asked.

“Yeah.”

“Oh. We’re going to go there later. You two could stay here then.” He walked back inside and let the two take care of the little boy.

They sat on one side of the mat and waited for the baby to crawl towards them. Yuri was trying to lure him by clapping her hands and stretching it towards the baby. Tiffany just stared.

The baby crawled towards Tiffany. The baby seemed to be in a good mood and was smiling widely. Tiffany also had a bright smile on her face up until the baby reached her and started to reach out for her leg.

Tiffany started to panic as soon as Minhyuk placed both hands on her leg. “Yuri-ah, get it off me!” she squealed.

Yuri furrowed her eyebrows, “It’s not an it. It’s a he. He’s a HE!” She took the baby in her arms and play with him.

Tiffany continued to stare. “He’s so small.”

“Of course he’s small. He’s a baby, dummy,” Yuri snorted.

Tiffany pouted and said, “I’ve never experienced having a baby in the house. When I had my sister, Jessie, she was already big. Heck, she’s even older than me.”

Yuri put him down and tried to make him crawl towards her. Tiffany, on the other hand, thought of a not-so-brilliant idea. When she saw the baby quickly crawling towards Yuri, she hugged Yuri and tried to block the baby’s path. Yuri tried breaking free from Tiffany’s hug by shoving her face away but it was no use. Tiffany wouldn’t budge and was stuck to her like glue.

“Merong,” Tiffany stuck her tongue out. It was the last straw for baby Minhyuk. He sat up, lips started to quiver and then it happened. The baby broke out into a crying spree. 

“Aish! He’s upset. Make him stop crying.”

Tiffany approached him and knelt. “Mianhe. Noona’s sorry. We can share Yuri of you want.”

Yuri just shook her head and went to the baby’s side to try to cheer him up. “Pabo-yah,” she muttered.

“Guess who,” said a new guest who sneakily covered Yuri’s eyes. When the two girls were busy playing with the baby, she stealthily went near them.

“Vic,” said Yuri. She removed the guest’s hands and turned around only to receive a kiss on the cheek.

Witnessing the scene made Tiffany incredibly jealous. What the heck? She doesn’t even let me hug her? Who the heck is this Victoria?

“Bleck! Victoria!” Yuri whined. “You know I hate being kissed.

Ha! That’s the Yuri I know. She hates being hugged, too. She smirked.

“Oh, please. You love getting kisses from me.”

She loves what now?

Victoria looked at Tiffany and smiled. “Hi.”

“Oh, Victoria that’s Tiffany, my annoying roommate,” Yuri grinned. “Tiffany, this is Victoria, oppa’s friend. She’s basically part of the family since we grew up with her. She’s like the unnie I never had.”

“Hi.” Tiffany managed to show a small smile.

“By the way, why Is Hyuk-joon sleeping in the couch? He looks like a homeless person that you guys took in.”

Yuri shrugged, “No idea. Whatever the reason is, I’m on my sister-in-law’s side.” 

The two laughed while Tiffany sat there feeling left out. Yuri and Victoria continued to talk while Tiffany looked at the baby who was also left out.

At least you have an excuse to be left out. You’re a baby and you can’t even talk, for crying out loud but I’m not and I can certainly talk and yet here I am talking to a baby. Well, I’m not really talking, I’m just thinking. So here I am hoping you have some mad Professor Charles Xavier power so you could read my mind and we could communicate. She sighed loudly but to no avail.Telepathy. I wish those X-Men stuff were true. That way I could tell this Kwon Yuri to stop talking to Victoria and pay attention to me, as well.

Her phone rang and didn’t even bother to excuse herself when she answered it. What for? Yuri and Victoria were too engrossed in their own conversation to even notice her and the baby.

It was a video call from Sooyoung. “Hi, honey,” she greeted.

Sooyoung gave her a confused look, “Honey?”

“Is it corny?”

Sooyoung shook her head while giggling, “A little but it’s fine. You could call me ‘poop’ for all I care. If it comes out from your mouth, I’m pretty sure I’d like it. I didn’t know our place had such a nice landscape. Where are you?” She also noticed the baby which is currently crawling towards Tiffany yet again. “Whose baby is that?”

This time ‘round, Tiffany didn’t freak out. Instead, she put the baby in her lap and showed it to Sooyoung. “It’s our baby,” she smiled gleefully.

“You have a baby?”

Tiffany nodded. “Our baby?.”

“What?? Why?! How could you get pregnant? You gave birth already? How can you even conceive? We haven’t even…I don’t even—I’m not even a guy. We’re both girls.”

“Chill, Soo. This is Yuri’s nephew. I’m at Yuri’s house in Daejeon,” she said in between her giggles.

“What are you doing there?”

“Long story. I’ll tell you on Monday. We’re going to have lunch now. I’ll talk to you later. I love you, Soo.”

“I love you, too. Bye.”

With that, the three of them plus the baby, who was now carried by Yuri, went inside to eat the meal prepared by Yuri’s dad.


---


“Welcome to Jagalchi Fish Market,” Taeyeon said to Jessica with a wide smile plastered on her dorky face. “Be careful, you might slip.” She held Jessica gently by her forearm and they wandered around the fish market.

“Taengoo?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s scary?”

“What is?”

“That long fish and that flat thing.”

“Good thing those aren’t on the list then.” Taeyeon saw something interesting and decided to show it to Jessica. “Sica, look.”

It was a bunch of pink creatures moving around a basin filled with water. It doesn’t have eyes and it only have what seemed to look like a mouth.

“Eww,” Jessica cringed and quickly moved away as soon as she saw it.

“These are sea cucumbers. Cool, right?”

“That just added up to the reason why I should despise ‘cucumber’ more. Taengoo, NO!” she shouted when she saw Taeyeon’s attempt to touch it. Taeyeon couldn’t comprehend why Jessica didn’t want her to touch it.

“Don’t touch it, you idiot! You might get killed!” Jessica yelled.

“By touching a sea cucumber?” Jessica nodded as if what she just said is an absolute fact.

“I just wanted to try what the ahjussi did. I want to squeeze it and see if water will come out of its mouth.”

“Kim Taeyeon, don’t even think of coming near me if you dare touch those things,” Jessica warned.

Taeyeon pouted but grinned when she thought of something. It’s as if Jessica read her mind and said, “Don’t even think about convincing me to touch those. The only time I’ll probably hold something like that would be when I want to scare Tiffany. That might not even work because those things are pink.”

Taeyeon sighed, “Fine. Come on.”

So they continued walking but neither of them talked. Taeyeon was still upset about the whole ‘touch-the-sea-cucumbers-but-stay-the-hell-away-from-me’ situation earlier. Jessica, well, she just didn’t know what to say. She was overwhelmed with all the live creatures surrounding them.

Taeyeon checked out one of the stalls and looked at the clams they’re selling. Jessica busied herself with looking at other stuff.

Soon as the ahjumma handed her the bag that contained the clams she bought, she heard an ear-piercing scream. Sica!