What Taeyeon said made Jessica to shut , no, scratch that, it made her blushed like a maniac but the older girl didn’t notice at all because her full attention were fully drawn at the blonde’s hypnotizing eyes. But Taeyeon is telling the truth that Jessica was the reason behind her effort in understanding and studying mathematics, people who are close to Taeyeon knows how much the latter hates the said subject, so it is really unbelievable that she was able to answer that difficult problem from the quiz bowl she won against the` Business Department's math guru, Henry. It only concludes that having such 'inspiration' helps a person to pursue something impossible.

When Jessica was able to composed herself from that oh-so-high school kind of giddy moment, she noticed that Taeyeon was kind of lost so she took the opportunity to shove her uninjured but with few bruises leg to the latter’s face but Taeyeon was fast enough to grab Jessica’s attacking foot making the blonde yelped in pain.

“Yah! Put it down!” Jessica hissed as she struggled in breaking away from Taeyeon’s hard grip.

“Miss Jung, I supposed that your left leg is the injured one, not this” Taeyeon playfully said as she points her lips to Jessica’s leg. Jessica gritted her teeth in frustration as she was telling the truth, she was already in the verge of crying because of the pain, Taeyeon didn’t know that she was actually gripping Jessica’s ankle really hard, but after a few seconds or so she saw the blonde’s reddening face, and the stupid grin that was plastered on her face starts to falter, she immediately released it and saw the red mark around Jessica’s ankle caused by her hard grip.

“I..uh..” Taeyeon bit her lips and her hand starts to caress Jessica’s foot trying to ease the pain she caused “..I thought you were only acting” she sighed as guilt starts to eat her. Jessica clicked her tongue as her mood starts to change into HellSica.

“Here’s my thing, Miss Kim” Jessica pushed herself up and rested her back on the head board “..everything that comes out from my mouth are true…” she raised a brow before she continue to complete her sentence “..always remember that, okay?” Taeyeon gulped in horror and nodded her head. She can’t utter a word as she was like a scared puppy right now. Nobody ever tried to intimidate or to challenge her, because in the first place she never let herself to be intimidated, she’s always been confident, and the word “defeat” is not allowed in her vocabulary. But why does her wall would always break down whenever she’s with Jessica? Just why?

*Taeyeon’s phone ringing*

She silently thanked her cellphone for saving her from that frightening and awkward situation she’s having. She fished out the phone from her pocket and answered it without looking at the caller’s id.

“Minhyuk, what’s up?”

“What do you mean ‘what’s up?’ Ya! You forgot about today’s performance?!” Taeyeon distanced the phone from her bleeding ears to avoid Minhyuk’s raging voice; she looked at the clock that’s hanging on the school’s infirmary wall and her eyes widened and started picking up her things. Jessica is just silently watching Taeyeon’s panic state as she doesn’t have any idea what’s happening to the older girl.

“I’m sorry! And hey! That’s not how you talk to your senior!”

“Oops, I’m sorry, too, sunbae-noona, but you are badly needed here right now” Taeyeon rolled her eyes when she heard that sunabe noona, not because she hates it, but because the sarcasm in Minhyuk’s voice is obviously present.

“Fine, fine.. I’ll be there in a minute!” she hung up and slid the phone back inside her pocket.

And she was once again trapped in the grave she dug.

“So what is this performance all about?” Jessica, who has been silent since Taeyeon had a phone call, finally broke the eerie silence between them. Taeyeon unconsciously scratched her not so itchy head. She seems to lose her tongue but eventually found it right away.

“Every winning band from the previous intramurals needs to perform during present intramurals, it’s like they are the ones assigned to officially start the battle of the bands..”

“So you and your band were the champions’ last intramurals?”

“Y-yeah”

“You’re the vocalist?” why does this girl keep on bombarding me questions? I’m running out of time here Taeyeon said in her mind.

“No, I just play the guitar…” she took a glance on her wristwatch. Gosh, I’m really late, and for sure I’m a dead meat once I get there.

“I guess you’re in a hurry.. you can leave now..” Jessica motioned her lips towards the door as if sending Taeyeon away.

“I’ll just call Yoona and Yuri to look after you..” Jessica hummed yes as her response. Taeyeon pursed her lips, she don’t want to leave the girl but she’s already committed to something that she can’t ignore.

“I’ll get going now.. see you around” she turned her heels and went towards the door and as she was about to reach for the door knob, a voice stopped her.

“Thank you, by the way” Taeyeon smiled and nodded, and left the room.

“Where have you been?!”

"We’ve been waiting for you for ages!”

“Noona!”

“Sunbae!”

“Taeyeon!”

Those were the things that welcomed Taeyeon the moment she arrived at the venue. She just covered her ears in defeat.

“Guys, will you calm down?” Taeyeon said as she starts to arrange and plug the cable of her acoustic guitar to the amplifier.

“You want us to calm down? Really, noona?” Minhyuk ruffled his hair in frustration.

‘Geez, Hyuk, I’m here now, okay? And we still have some….” She looked at her watch “what?! We only got two hoursprepare?!” she gasped.

“That’s what I’m talking about, noona…”

“I’m sorry, Hyuk” Taeyeon pats the shoulder of the youngest member of the band, she looked around as if she’s looking for someone “..anyway, where’s Hongki?”

“That’s the other problem, sunbae” Chanyeol, Taeyeon’s partner in playing the guitar butts in “..we’ve been calling him but we can’t get a hold of Hongki hyung..” Chanyeol sighed as he once again tried to call their vocalist’s phone, he shook his head as he was still unable to reach Hongki.

The door bursts open startling the people inside the room, revealing an exhausted Japanese girl who tries to catch her breath, it's Fujii, Hongki's girlfriend, she made her way to her boyfriend's band mates.

"Fujii-noona, where's Hongki?"

Fujii who was still trying to catch her breath answered Minhyuk "He won't be able to attend today's performance"

"What?!!" They all exclaimed in unison

"Why? Wh-what happened?!" Taeyeon asked, frustration is starting to eat her system.

"He fell ill last night due to accumulated fatigue, and whenever he's sick his throat is affected, too. And now he can't even speak a word.."

"Now what?" Minhyuk stomped his feet as he walk back and forth, Chanyeol was sitting at the corner, covering his face as if trying to think for a solution.

"I'm sorry, guys.. I hope you understand.. I have to leave now.. I need to look after Hongki's condition" She bowed and left the room.

"Noona" Chanyeol stood up and approached Taeyeon "...I have an idea"

"Spill it" Taeyeon said sounding impatient.

"Why not you sing?"

"What?! Me?! No way!" She slighlty pushed Chanyeol.

"Chan's right, noona. And you are the only one here aside from Hongki-hyung who knows and memorize the lyrics of the song"

"I know that.. but for Pete's sake! It's a male song!" Taeyeon's voice starts to rise.

"You just need to change the emotion, you're good at that. Please, noona?" the two boys clasped their hands begging for Taeyeon to say yes. Taeyeon closed her eyes and exhaled, it's now or never, she never tried singing in front of a huge number of people, and she's kinda nervous, too.

"Agh! Fine!" 

"Yes!!" Minhyuk and Chanyeol started cheering and clapping like teenage girls.

"