After waiting over thirty minutes, Tiffany was wondering if the girl was ever going to come, but what could she do, she was meeting with a very busy star today. “Manager Hwang?” A sweet angelic voice was heard calling Tiffany’s name and she looked up to see a beautiful bombshell of a blond standing over her at her table.

“You must be Jessica Jung. Please sit.”

“I heard that you are Yuri’s full time manager now. That makes me feel better, but what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Well, I don’t know how to bring this up,” Tiffany looked at the blond nervously, “But the boss said that you and Yuri were engaged to be married this past spring…”

Jessica’s smile turned emotionless, “That is right.”

Even though she knew the boss wouldn’t lie to her, Tiffany didn’t quite believe the words that Yuri was engaged until it came from Jessica’s mouth, “Well relating to that…I thought she didn’t get over Yoona. How did you two…”

Jessica knew where the conversation was going, “It doesn’t look like you know Yuri very well.”

Tiffany let out a nervous laugh, “Haha well that is why I wanted to see you. She won’t let me get to know her.”

Jessica looked at Tiffany with an icy stare that made her even more nervous, “Yuri and I were close because we were both close to Yoona before the accident. We both sought out each other’s company after the death but we broke up because she couldn’t get over Yoona and well I couldn’t get over my first love either. Is that what you wanted to know?” Tiffany liked that Jessica was direct with the answer but her emotionless glare made it seem like Jessica didn’t want to share this information or it was too painful to bring up again.

“So how do you suggest I get close to Yuri?”

“Why are you asking me something that is so simple?” If it was a simple answer, Tiffany wouldn’t be desperate to get the help, but she listened to what Jessica had to say. “Just show her you care. Don’t be afraid to talk about Yoona. If you know her past, you will understand the present Yuri better.”

“Isn’t bring up Yoona painful for her?”

Jessica chuckled, “She does it practically every day with the psychiatrist. We were told not to keep the memories to ourselves.” Tiffany saw the ice on Jessica’s face slowly melting as she started to reminisce about her past with Yuri, “It wasn’t until we both started to talk about Yoona that Yuri and I developed feelings for each other. It also made us seek one another’s company even more. It is better to not forget a lost love or you forget what love was like to begin with.”

Tiffany was at a loss for words. Listening to Jessica made her realize that Yuri was so cold because she was doing the opposite of everything that she should have been doing all along. “I see.”

Jessica placed her elbows on the table and looked at Tiffany intently, “Have you ever loved and lost before?”

The topic seemed unrelated to the whole conversation but Tiffany answered, “I have dated some but I don’t think any of them turned into love…”

Jessica leaned back in her chair and smiled, “No wonder you seem so lost…” Jessica turned her attention to her phone to look at the time, “I have to go, but I will leave you with some advice. Before getting to know Yuri, you should first try to understand her pain.” With those last few words, Jessica left leaving Tiffany at an empty table in her thoughts.  How do I understand something I never experienced before?

 

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Tiffany was back to Yuri’s side but the whole day she was caught up in her own thoughts of how to bring up Yoona. It didn’t seem like a normal conversation to just bring up out of nowhere. Yuri caught that her manager seemed out of sorts today and started to wonder what happened to her yesterday when she wasn’t with her. “Tiffany…” The manager almost jumped out of her seat from the voice of the girl who hadn’t talked to her in weeks. “Is something wrong?”

Tiffany didn’t expect this sudden start of a conversation by Yuri of all people, but even more so that it was concern she was expressing. “Ah no…just thinking about how busy your schedule is today.” She didn’t want Yuri to really know that she was actually thinking about plans of getting close to her.

“It didn’t seem worse than normal,” Yuri said subtly to herself.

Shortly after the conversation ended the two arrived on set and they greeted the director, “We are having some electrical problems so we can’t use the stage at the moment. Do you two mind waiting an hour or so? I will call you when we are ready. I am sorry we couldn’t didn't conact you before you came.”

Tiffany looked at Yuri and saw no reaction so she answered the director, “No problem. A break would be nice.” The director left the two, “Did you want to wait here or go somewhere?”

Yuri thought about how tired she was, “Maybe we can go to the café we passed on the way here? I am a bit tired.”

Tiffany beamed with excitement like she was going on a date with Yuri, “Ah sure! Let’s go then.”

 

Tiffany left the table to grab the order and handed Yuri her coffee which she happily accepted. “This is nice…” Tiffany was confused if Yuri was refereeing it was nice to be with her or not, “Having a break is nice.” Yuri looked up at her manager, “You know I don’t know much about you. You are always with me but I know nothing about the person I completely rely on every day.”

Tiffany was happy that the silence she was getting accustomed to was breaking down slowly and Yuri finally expressed interest in her presence. This was her chance to get close finally! “I guess you are right.”

“You’re from Korea right?”

Tiffany was a bit nervous that all the questions were going to be directed at her personal life because she still needed to know more about Yuri, “I moved here almost a year ago, yes, but I was originally from the states.”

“It is nice to have another Korean by me…” Tiffany wasn’t sure if she heard it right, but was Yuri saying she liked having her around?

“So you like me as your manager?”

Yuri looked up into Tiffany’s eyes, “Mmm yea. I like speaking Korean.” Yuri smiled at Tiffany which made her heart flutter but sink at the same time because she only liked that she was using her for her language skills.

Tiffany was trying to think about a natural transition into bringing Yoona up but she could only come to one conclusion, “Yesterday I met Jessica.”

Yuri looked up immediately at the name of the girl she had been closest to the past year. “How did you meet her? At the company?”

Tiffany regretted that she brought this up because it now put her in a weird situation so she decided to just lie, “We just ran into each other and talked about you…” Yuri was now interested in the conversation involving one of her now closest friends, “and Yoona.”

Yuri felt her heart tug a little but the mention of the name of the girl she once loved didn’t bring pain anymore. “Oh yea?”

Tiffany was relieved that she finally was able to bring up the topic, “How did you three know each other?” She kind of knew the answer to that but she couldn’t get into personal questions right away. Maybe using Jessica as a third wheel in the conversation would seem less personal.

“Well Jessica knew Yoona first from college and I met Yoona after she moved here because she and I did an audition together. Basically I got to know Jessica when she moved here also because I was to show her around the company. It was funny how Yoona knew both us and we grew closer because of that. For a while we were called the Royal Family.”

“Royal Family?”

“Yea Yoona and I were doing a production at the time together but Jessica almost lived on set with us because she kept visiting. The three of us never spent much time apart.” Yuri was smiling the whole time that she was telling stories of her past. Tiffany was happy that Yuri seemed so open to telling her stories which made her much more comfortable following Jessica’s advice.

Tiffany’s phone rang which broke the two out of their laughter to stories of the Royal Family’s past adventures. “Hello? A yes we will be there right away.”

Yuri was smiling brightly, “We have to go back don’t we?”

“That was the director.”

“Has it been an hour already?” Yuri said showing a cute pout.

Tiffany looked down at her watch, “Almost two hours already…” That surprised both of them that they ended up spending that much time talking together.

“Oh really?”

“It seems so. Are you ready to head out?”

Yuri seemed reluctant, “Not really, I was having a good time. We need to spend more time like this together.”

Tiffany was excited to hear that Yuri and her were getting closer. More like Yuri was starting to open her heart to the manager finally.