“Yes, I know. Tomorrow I’ll meet her. I’ll make sure that everything is settled once I get back later…”

Sooyoung was walking through the crowded corridors of the hospital while talking to her colleague on the phone. After almost two months, she became familiar with the place she hated the most. She regularly visited Jessica because she knew the latter was feeling lonely. She basically could do nothing but sleep and eat. Oh, and also practice walking just like a new born baby all over again.

It looked hurt, though. Sooyoung and the others would cringe a lot watching Jessica’s struggle just to be able to walk again. Especially when she lost her balance and abruptly took a hold onto everything that was close to her with her body shook violently. Damn, that reckless driver. It’s a good thing he died already.

And that day was Jessica’s last day in the hospital. She was so happy when Dr. Yoo told her the good news. So Sooyoung came to pick her up, since the others were busy. There was no way she’d let Jessica go anywhere by herself. She hadn’t fully healed yet.

As she reached Jessica’s room, she stopped and ended the call. She put her phone inside her pocket and pushed the door open.

“Sica, let’s--”

But she found no one but an old nurse inside. She was tidying the now empty room, and turned around when she heard Sooyoung came. She smiled but Sooyoung gave her a strange look. Where’s Jessica?

“You must be Miss Jung’s friend.”

Sooyoung nodded.

“She left already with a friend, Miss. She told me to say to anyone who came after she left, that she was sorry and not to feel worried about her.”

“When?”

“Hmm… last night, I think.” The answer made Sooyoung’s mouth hung open but the nurse continued, “She bid her farewell to Dr. Yoo and the nurses before she left. She even bought us flowers and fruits! I didn’t know she’s that kind.” She chuckled.

But Sooyoung wasn’t amused, “What the heck?! Why didn’t she tell me?! She can barely walk, for God’s sake!”

“Miss Jung looked fine actually, Miss. Well, she’s a little bit wobbly but that’s all. I think she’d be just fine. And she looks so excited. She couldn’t stop smiling. She even asked me to wish her luck, even though I didn’t quite get it.” The nurse let out another chuckle.

Wish her luck. Sooyoung knew what it meant.

“What the…” She ran her hand through her hair and murmured, “she can’t be serious.”

“Don’t worry too much, Miss. As a nurse, I can guarantee her condition is fine. She’s ready to go.” She patted Sooyoung’s shoulder before continued her job earlier.

The tall woman nodded with a sigh, “I should’ve known. Jessica will always be Jessica.”

-

Tiffany was grumpy.

She threw her phone to her working desk roughly, making a loud bang but she didn’t care. Groaning, she leaned her back onto the chair’s backrest and threw her head back with her eyes closed. Slowly, she brought her hand to her forehead, massaging it. She felt her head spinning, and her blood boiling.

It all started when one of her colleagues screwed up in a project. The deadline was close but their task hadn’t finished. This made Tiffany and the other innocent ones had to rush in finishing it. In the end, it didn’t go well. It turned out disappointing instead. Tiffany was so angry until she became the scary her.

Today was clearly not her day.

Giving up, she gathered her belongings and exited her room. Well, things happen. There was nothing she could do about it, anyway, it had happened. People make mistakes, that colleague clearly didn’t mean it. Tiffany kept nodding her head in agreement until she reached the parking lot, to her car. Let’s just think about it tomorrow. At least she got to go home early that day. It was a rare advantage.

She the radio to fill the deadly silence. Her mood wasn’t good, at all. It’s a good thing she had her own house, not the Hwang family’s one, where her father lives. She bought her house with her own money because she couldn’t stand being in the same roof as her father. And even though it wasn’t too big, Tiffany felt strangely comfortable.

When she arrived, she grabbed her purse and her phone. She suddenly went frozen. Seeing her phone reminded her that Jessica had been ignoring her calls for the last two days. She thought probably Jessica didn’t mean it, but two days were too much. What did she do this time? Jessica clearly ignored her.

Feeling upset even more, Tiffany decided to just screw it off. She came inside and locked the door, before she walked to her bedroom to put her belongings. She then took a short, cold shower. With a towel on her head, she went to the kitchen to drink a glass of water. The night was still too young for her to sleep, but she felt tired already.

After putting the glass down, she was about to go back to the bedroom before she heard the bell rang.

She frowned in displease. Who the hell came to her house in this hour? Well, it wasn’t late yet but still, no one would come here unless they had an appointment with Tiffany. And if it was Brian, he wouldn’t press the bell because he had another spare key.

Another ringing voice made Tiffany realize the person out there was serious. Tiffany cursed under her breath. She wasn’t in the mood for anything, she just wanted to sleep. Lazily dragging her feet, she walked to the front door, and opened the door without bother to peek who was the visitor.

Her tired eyes shot open in an instant.

-

Jessica didn’t know how to react. She had expected herself to smile her best one then extend her arms, saying ‘I miss you’ out loud and in the end, throw herself to embrace the younger woman in a tight, warm hug. But none of those happened.

Instead both of them stood frozen there, face to face, in silence. Jessica looked fine, although she was tired from the jet lag and her struggle to reach Tiffany’s house, overall she was okay. Tiffany, in the other hand, looked miserable. She was wearing her pink pyjama pants, with a matching pink tee, and a towel on her head with her wet hair crawling out of it, wetting the tee. She had both her eyes widened as she stared at Jessica.

Seconds passed, and Jessica couldn’t stand the confused stare Tiffany gave her for any longer. She cracked a smile,

“Hi?”

With no words said, Tiffany yanked her closer and threw her arms around Jessica’s neck, hugging her as tight as she could. Jessica cringed, because it kind of hurt her, but she hugged Tiffany back with a smile. Tiffany’s scent mixed with her shampoo entered Jessica’s nostrils and it made smile even wider.

“Y-you--”

“Yeah, I’m here.” Jessica nodded, “Hi again.”

“Oh God…” Tiffany sighed, pulling Jessica even closer, her foot was that close to Jessica’s bandaged one and that scared the latter, “you’re here…”

Jessica nodded again, rubbing Tiffany’s back with a cringe.

“But how could--” Tiffany scooted closer again and she slightly stepped on Jessica’s left foot and it made the latter shrieked.

Tiffany quickly let go of Jessica and saw the bandage wrapped around Jessica’s left leg. She gasped loudly.

“What happened?!”

Jessica bit her lip, holding back the pain, “It’s a long, long story.”

She forced a smile and walked past through Tiffany to the couch. She dropped her backpack and herself on it with a sigh. She was so tired. Her steps were still unstable. If it wasn’t for Tiffany she wouldn’t stand the weird and pitying looks people gave her because of her leg. Some even offered help. But Jessica was strong enough to refuse.

Meanwhile Tiffany was still standing there with her eyebrows furrowed, her eyes showing mix of confusion, anger, and curiosity. Jessica knew that look. If she didn’t distract Tiffany, she’d be showered by tons of questions and also, scolds.

“Uh… I’m a bit tired from the jet lag. Can you get me a glass of cold water?”

Tiffany didn’t move.

“Please?”

“Okay, wait here…” She hesitantly obeyed.

When Tiffany walked away to the kitchen, Jessica gaped with no sound, her hand rubbing her foot that was being stepped on by the former. Damn, it hurt like hell. If it wasn’t Tiffany she would’ve screamed on top of her lungs. Jisoon had done the same thing to her accidentally, causing her to let out her dolphin-like scream that did in scaring the little girl to death.

“Here.”

As Tiffany came back, Jessica already had that I-am-okay expression. Tiffany gave her a glass of cold water and she drank it greedily.

“You broke your leg.” Tiffany mumbled, sitting down beside Jessica, still with a frown.

Jessica put the glass down on the table and chuckled, “I didn’t expect that as the welcoming words, to be honest.”

“Jessica.” Tiffany wasn’t in the mood for anything else but explanation, “You. Broke. Your leg.”

Giving up, Jessica nodded, “Yeah, I did. Looks bad, doesn’t it?”

Tiffany kept mum. Jessica knew what she wanted.

“Well, the truth is, I got in a car accident--” Tiffany gasped but Jessica quickly shut her, “don’t panic, listen to me first. Another car hit mine that time and I broke my leg, also somewhere around my left shoulder, I don’t really know. I got bruises, cuts, some scars, but it’s all healed by now, except this one.” She patted her left thigh.

The younger one observed Jessica with her shocked eyes before she slowly asked, “When?”

“The day you left.”

Tiffany gasped again, “The same day?!”

“Yeah…” Jessica nodded her head with her eyebrow raised, “such an unfortunate day, indeed.”

“God, Jessica. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! How could I didn’t know anything?!”

“I just don’t want to make you worried, okay? It wasn’t too severe. I didn’t need much time to be treated in the hospital. And now I’m already here, even though I’m not fully healed, but at least I’m okay now.”

“Travelling this far from Korea to LA with a broken leg is okay for you?!”

“That’s not what I meant--”

“If you told me, I would go there instead of you going here, Jessica! It’s dangerous! Why did you even bother?! And you’re alone! How if something bad happened to you?!”

“I just--”

“Did you even think twice?!” Tiffany cut her off again, clearly didn’t give her any chance to speak, “You didn’t have to do this for me!”

Jessica chortled and gave Tiffany a weird look, “Who said I did this for you?”

“W-what?”

“I didn’t do this for you, FYI.” Jessica shrugged, “I didn’t fly far away from Korea to LA with a broken leg for you, just so you know.”

Tiffany was dumbfounded, “You… didn’t?”

“I didn’t.”

Keeping her expression, Jessica turned her head away from Tiffany’s gaze and drank the remaining water again. She peeked at Tiffany with the corner of her eye and could sense the latter’s hesitation and somehow, her slight annoyance. She held back a laugh. Slowly, she put the glass back on the table.

Suddenly, Jessica sneaked an arm around Tiffany’s waist and pulled her closer, making the latter gasp. Jessica smirked and leaned in, her other hand cupped Tiffany’s cheek as she brought their faces to each other. She then whispered lowly, only millimetres away from Tiffany’s slightly parted lips.

“Another FYI, in all honesty, I did it for myself as a favour because I miss you too much.”

And without any unnecessary hesitation, she meshed their lips to one another.

-

“What does that mean?”

Jessica stopped what she was doing, which was buttoning her shirt, and turned her head back, meeting Tiffany’s curious eyes. She was sitting on Tiffany’s bed. Both of them were getting ready for sleep after Jessica changed her clothes, with so much struggling. She came out from the bathroom while buttoning her shirt.

Things got better when they decided to screw anything else but their feelings to each other. Jessica’s indirect confession was the start of it. She didn’t want them to talk too long about the accident, because it was then, and it didn’t matter anymore. Instead she wanted to get what she actually aimed, which was no other than Tiffany.

The older gave Tiffany a questioning look at the question. The latter then smiled, slowly crawled closer to Jessica, who had her back facing Tiffany. She then tugged on Jessica’s shirt’s collar, pulling it back to uncover Jessica’s left shoulder. It was injured, but there was something else that distracted Tiffany.

Jessica has a tattoo. It read, Carpe Diem.

“Carpe Diem.” Tiffany read it, “I didn’t know you have a tattoo. What does it mean?”

“Ah. I have a friend who’s a tattoo artist. She’s a great artist and has a pretty good taste in art. She offered me a huge tattoo actually, but I didn’t like it. It was that huge it could cover my whole back. Then she asked, ‘how about, a Carpe Diem tattoo?’. She loves that term so much. She said it means ‘seize the day’ or something, I don’t quite remember. It’s in Latin. But then I agreed, so she made it for me. For free.”

“Hmm…” Tiffany nodded, “when did you get it?”

“Two years ago, I think?”

“Is that so…”

“Yeah.”

Jessica was about to continue buttoning the last upper two buttons, before she felt Tiffany’s hands crept from behind, stopping hers. Before she could ask, she felt warm lips pressed on her left shoulder, kissing the tattoo. Jessica suddenly became tense. The atmosphere around them turned upside down.

Things got worse when Tiffany’s lips moved further to Jessica’s neck, kissing it with a slow pace, and Jessica automatically tilted her head with a sigh. She let herself drown in the feelings of Tiffany’s lips on her skin. It was soothing and yet burning her insides. Jessica couldn’t help but heaved a breath at every touch.

Moments later, Tiffany’s hands brought Jessica’s down onto her lap before it went up again, ing the shirt. Jessica’s breath hitched.

Two buttons Tiffany undid, before Jessica harshly stood up and turned around to face Tiffany with a flustered face. Her bandaged leg hit the floor quite hard but she didn’t quite feel it. Instead she looked at Tiffany as if she had just made the biggest sin ever.

“What?” Tiffany shrugged, tilting her head.

Jessica kept silent, didn’t know what to do. But Tiffany still found her y with the partly ed shirt.

“Don’t tell me you never did this after I left.”

“No!” Jessica snapped.

“Oh, so you did? With which girl? Or, girls?” Tiffany smirked.

Jessica frowned, “What are you up to?”

“Can’t you see?”

Tiffany faked a sigh and in another sudden, grasped Jessica’s shirt with both her hands and pulled the older to her, making Jessica fell onto the bed once more, in between Tiffany’s legs. The younger girl backed away a little, her hands moved to Jessica’s lustrous hair, her fingers running through the tresses.

“I’m seducing you, Jung.”

Jessica could feel her mind went blank as once again, their lips met in a kiss, more heated this time. Tiffany nibbled her lower lip, and Jessica did the same with the former’s upper one. Slowly, Tiffany felt Jessica’s weight over her and she leaned fully on her back, with Jessica hovering on top of her, their lips never separated. As Tiffany let out a soft hum and parted her lips a little bit, Jessica plunged her tongue inside.

Tiffany’s right hand moved from Jessica’s hair. She let it explore down from Jessica’s jaw, to her neck, touching Jessica’s collarbone, then to the shoulder, grabbing the shirt’s collar to push it away from the shoulder, and ended slightly scratching her nails on Jessica’s back.

The older pulled back first, gasping for air, before she started kissing Tiffany’s jaw and neck, shivered the younger to no end.

“Tiffany,” Jessica breathed, “I miss you.”

Tiffany nodded, closing her eyes, pulled Jessica closer to her. She understood exactly the meaning of those three words. And no, their parting for nearly two months earlier was nothing compared to the wasted six years longing for each other. The definition of missing you was beyond their imagination.

“I know, I know.” Tiffany whispered, “I miss you too…”

****

Carpe Diem everyone...