Jessica woke up an hour after she went to bed with Taeyeon. She gently remove the latter’s arm that was on her waist and quietly got off the bed. She was going to find out why she woke up on an unfamiliar bed and why her shirt smelled like fruit punch.

She changed her shirt, put the pink shirt inside a bag and went out. While walking to the house that she was in an hour ago, she tried remembering everything that happened the night before.

Flashback

“See you later, Taengoo.” She hugged her girlfriend tightly and her back. “Don’t sulk. We’d celebrate my birthday tomorrow, okay? I just have to go that group meeting.”

Taeyeon gave her a kiss and said, “Be careful then. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

She was told which house to go to but she wasn’t informed who resides there. When she got there, several people were outside, she could hear the loud music blasting from the speakers and there was a huge banner mounted on the wall that said ‘Happy Birthday Jae and Jessica’

“Well this is definitely different from my birthday celebration last year,” she thought.

“There’s our birthday girl!” one guy that she’s sure she wasn’t familiar with shouted.

Everyone in the lawn looked at her and shouted ‘Happy Birthday’. She stared at them and with a forced smile, muttered a ‘Thank you’. She recognized a few of them but most of them, she barely even sees around the campus.

She entered the house and saw one of her group mates so she called her. “Fei.”

The Chinese girl who’s considered the best in their class but seemed to be gullible looked at her and waved. Jessica walked towards her and asked, “I thought we were going to have a meeting, who are all these people?”

The girl bowed and said, “I’m so sorry for lying about the group meeting, Jessica. Jaebeom told us it was your birthday so he wanted to throw you a surprise party and seeing his birthday was one week after yours, we all decided to celebrate both your birthday and his at the same day.”

Jessica tapped her shoulder, “It’s fine. I just wish I could’ve at least celebrated it with my other friends, too. Jae lives here?”

Fei nodded. “Jae said he invited your friends.”

Jessica’s reason to be pissed at the guy was piling up. “Oh, he did? Funny because I don’t seem to remember being friends with most of these people,” she mumbled.

“What was that?”

Jessica shook her haid. “Nothing. I’ll go and find Jae to thank him for…this.”

She walked away and spotted the guy at the entrance of their kitchen. “That scheming douche is gonna get it.”

She walked towards him, ready to strangle his neck. Seeing him smile like that made her more furious.

“Sica,” he greeted.

“Don’t you dare Si—“ she stopped speaking when she saw their professor standing beside Jaebeom.

“Professor Yoo?”

“Happy Birthday, Miss Jung. Jae told me to come over along with other members of the faculty. We’ll leave soon though. We wouldn’t want you kids to feel as though you can’t have fun because you have professors around.”

Jessica could only smile in response since she really didn’t know how to act in front of anyone that’s unfamiliar to her. It was hard enough to force a smile but Jae decided to test her patience more by putting an arm around her waist.

“I’m sure Sica’s happy to celebrate her birthday with her friends along with our awesome professors. Aren’t you, Sica?”

Jessica forcefully nodded, her smile turning into an awkward one. It was on the verge of turning into a scowl. 

“This brown nosing sonofabᵢtch,” she thought.

Professor Yoo bid goodbye and went admiring the grasshopper paintings around the house. Why they had grasshopper paintings in their house, Jessica wasn’t sure.

When the professor was finally out of sight, she quickly grabbed the guy’s hand and twisted it. She pulled him in a corner. “What the hell is this? What kind of crap do you think you’re trying to pull here, huh?”

The guy could only wince in pain as the blonde continued to try and break a few bones. 

“I just wanted to throw you a birthday party.”

“If I were you I’d stop lying. You told Fei you’d invite my friends? I don’t see any of them here. I’m only here because I was informed that we’re having a meeting about our project. I’m not even going to blame our group mates for conniving with you. I’m holding you responsible for all of this.”

“And I wasn’t lying about that, after this we’re going to discuss about the revisions that we have to make, I swear. Why do you think all our group mates are here?” he said. “Could you please let go of my hand now?”

Jessica glared at her before shoving his hand away from her. “You better not be lying.”

“I’m not.”

Leeteuk, Jaebeom’s roommate, overheard them and he decided to interfere. “I see the birthday girl is so tensed. Why don’t I get you food and you could go back in the living room, sit on the couch and relax, how’s that sound?”

Jessica, being Jessica, walked away without answering. She sat on the couch, contemplating on whether to leave or to stay. A few minutes later, Jae’s roommate brought a plate full of food and a drink. “Here you go, birthday girl.”

Her shikshin side won over her rational side when she saw the food. “I might as well enjoy the food,” she said to herself. When she finished it, she saw Leeteuk passing by and asked him for seconds, the latter happily complied. There was something about the guy that creeped her out though. He’s just smiling so much and he was too bubbly for her liking. It almost seemed…unreal.

She stood up once she finished eating to help digest all that food she just ate. She looked for the guy she hates the most at the moment and asked him when the party’s going to end.

He answered, “Just a few minutes more and then we could start with the meeting. Fruit punch?”

“No, thanks.” She walked away and sat on the same spot, yawning every two minutes. 

“Feeling sleepy?” asked Leeteuk.

“You’re kind of a creeper,” she said bluntly.

He scratched the back of his head and apologized. “You could rest upstairs. Less noise. Jae could wake you up once the party is over.”

She thought about it for a few seconds and eventually agreed.

“I remember falling asleep on someone’s bed and that’s it,” she muttered to herself. By the time she finished recalling everything that happened last night, she was already in front of Jae’s house. She was going to knock but she noticed that the door wasn’t even shut. “That’s probably my fault.” She doesn’t remember locking the door before she left nor shutting it properly.

She went upstairs, trying to remember which room she stayed in for the night. She saw the room down the hall with its door partly opened. She angrily marched towards that room and saw Jaebeom still on the foot of his bed. He assumed that the lump under the blanket on the bed beside it was the creeper guy whose name she doesn’t remember at the moment.

“Yah, wake up,” she said on a low voice but that eventually changed when the guy refused to budge. “Yah!”

Still no response.

She saw a water bottle on the bed side table and grabbed it, pouring the contents on the guy’s face.

Jaebeom flinched and he felt like he was drowning. He bolted up and saw Jessica towering over him, glaring at him. “Sica…”

“What the hell happened last night and don’t you dare lie. I swear, girly voice, I will punch your throat so hard you’d be crawling back to your mother’s womb and you’re going to stay there forever. If you so much change one detail, I’ll make sure to rip your balls off and staple it to your head for everyone to see.”

Jaebeom was scared. He’s never been this scared of a woman before. “You…I-well…” he stuttered.

“Sheesh, don’t stutter and explain it well!”

He panicked and immediately pointed his finger at his sleeping roommate. “It was his idea, Sica. He said he’d find a way to bring you to my room and he gave me this thing…this drug that I could put in a drink and…and he told me to make you drink it.”

Jessica cracked her knuckles and tried to calm herself by inhaling and exhaling. “You tried to spike my drink?”

“Yes,” Jaebeom said in a hushed tone. When she saw Jessica preparing to strike a punch, he knelt down on his bed and said, “But it didn’t work. I mean, it did…but I never got the chance to use it. When I got here, you were already asleep so there was really no need to make you drink it anymore. I admit I had the intention to do something bad to you…”

“You tried to me?”

“Kind of…?”

“Why you ba—“

“But I didn’t! I…the spiked drink…I drank it accidentally.”

Jessica was now confused. “You what?”

“Right after I sent a message to your girlfriend using your phone I—“

“YOU WHAT?”

“I sent a message to Taeyeon saying you’d stay at a friend’s house for the night. After I sent that message, I grabbed the glass of fruit punch that I set on my bed side table and forgot that it was spiked. I was in the process of ing my shirt but then I felt dizzy so I sat at the foot of my bed and…that’s all I could remember.”

Jessica’s face was as red as a tomato.

“Oh and uh…I think I put the glass of fruit punch beside you and knocked it over. I’m still not sure.”

All that was running through the blonde girl’s head is how to get back at the manipulative jerk in front of her. She wanted to punch the living daylights out of him but that would only leave her exhausted. So she tried to stay as calm as possible.

“Change classes. Don’t even try coming near me. If I see you within a hundred meter from where I stand, I’ll make sure that you and this jerk of a roommate of yours would get expelled from this school. I can also assure you that you’re going to have a hard time getting in another school,” she threatened and walked towards Leeteuk’s bed. “Wake up!”

She pulled out the earplugs in his ears and yelled at the top of her lungs. “Yah! I said wake up right now!”

He got off his bed and yawned. “What’s with all the ruckus this early in the morning?”

Before he even got the chance to open his eyes, he received a kick in the shin. Jessica walked away from him and glared at Jaebeom. She balled her right hand into a fist and punched him square in the face.

“Yah!” he yelled as covered his mouth and his nose which was now bleeding. “I could sue you—“

“Sue me?” Jessica scoffed. “I could sue you for attempted so if you really want to bring this to court then that’s fine with me. Is that what you want? I could call our lawyer and I could even refer you to one.”

Before she got out, she turned to glare at Jaebeom and said, “Remember what I said earlier, girly voice. I don’t make empty threats. Oh and here’s your filthy shirt.” She tossed the bag and left.


---


Aish! That filthy good for nothing jerk.

I was kicking every stone that got in my way. I think the last stone I kicked hit a cat. Oh wait…that might have been Ms. Thor…

Whatever, I’m just so mad right now and my knuckles hurt. His face was rock hard fitted for a thick skinned sonofab— Aish!

I got back and everyone else was still sleeping… Scratch that, not everyone.

“Taengoo,” I called her but she didn’t even respond. She was just sitting in the couch, switching channels but looking blankly at the TV.

I sat beside her and held her hand that was holding the remote control. “”Taeng, why are you up so early?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you the same thing?” she mumbled softly.

Too soft for my liking.

“I just went to my friend’s house to return her shirt.” I lied again. I really don’t see any point in telling her the thing with Jaebeom and his stupid friend and the party and…Ugh! Just thinking about it makes me angry again. If I’m this angry, I could only imagine how Taeyeon would react when she finds out about it. I’m hoping she won’t. I haven’t seen her angry…well, not the serious kind and I don’t really want to know how she acts when she’s mad.

“Seungyeon?”

“Yeah.”

She looked down for a few seconds before looking at me straight in the eye. “I see.”

“How was the group project meeting thingy?” she asked as she held my left hand and looked at it.

“It was exhausting.” She just nodded and laid her head on my lap.

“We should sleep more and later after our last class we could go out and celebrate my birthday.”

She nodded again and stood up.

I tried holding her hands but she slipped both hands into her pocket and walked away.

I guess she’s just tired but somehow I have this weird feeling that she’s mad about something. Maybe it’s that time of the month…I shouldn’t think about it too much.


---


“Soo, chew slowly for crying out loud,” said Sunny who was getting food crumbs on her side of the table.

Hyoyeon nodded. “We know you missed eating Yuri’s cooking but let’s not forget about our table manners.”

“It’s your own fault for being all sulky and ignoring her,” Sunny chided.

Sooyoung had a dumbfounded look as she stared at everyone on the table.

“You think we didn’t notice, unnie?” Yoona asked as she started eating her third serving.

“You’re underestimating us, Sooyoung-unnie,” said the youngest.

Yuri came out of the kitchen, carrying a freshly baked cake. “It’s a new recipe, guys.” She set it on the table and sliced it.

“We’re all going to suffer from diabetes someday, Yuri-unnie.”

“Yuri’s doing this so by the time we graduate, she’s the only one to be looking y and hot and we’d all be fat,” Hyoyeon commented as she took a slice.

“Fany’s still sleeping?” Sunny asked looking back and forth at Sooyoung and Yuri. The latter nodded.

“She has no classes today?” Another nod.

“Soo punched your face last week?” And another nod. Sunny could only chuckle at Yuri for falling into her trap. “I’m guessing that’s why Soo’s okay with you now?”

Yuri could only pout and nod.

“Who says I am?” Sooyoung swallowed the small piece of pancake in and wiped off the crumbs on her face. “I’m still mad at you.”

“What? Why?”

“Because of reasons that you don’t need to know. I demand waffles and pancakes every Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

“Arasseo.”

“Good morning, Taeyeon-unnie,” Seohyun greeted when she saw Taeyeon.

Taeyeon simply nodded and grabbed a piece of pancake.

“Where’s Your Royal Highness, Jessica Jung?”

“Sleeping,” she answered and left.

Sunny sniffed. “Do you guys smell that?”

Hyoyeon and Yoona nodded and grinned simultaneously.

“Another drama.”