Early Sunday morning, SM dorm

Amber flew down the hall, newspaper in hand. She saw Sulli watching TV while working out on one of the stationary bikes in the dorm gym. “Sul, have you seen Yuri!?” she asked frantically. Sulli looked at her confused. “No, hyung, I haven’t. I don’t think she’s awake yet.”

All of a sudden Sulli’s eyes widened as she pointed to the television screen, unable to speak. Amber looked at the screen. “! It’s already on TV!  I gotta find Yuri!” Amber took off down the hall toward Yuri’s apartment as Sulli stared at the television screen in disbelief. “Oh, poor Yuri.”

Amber pounded on Yuri's door. “Gēge! It’s me! Open the door!”

Suddenly, the door opened and there stood Yuri half asleep rubbing her eyes. “What’s the deal, Ambro? What’s wrong?”

Amber grabbed her sleepy cousin by the hand and led her to the couch. “Yuri, when did you last speak to Jessica?”

Yuri yawned and mumbled, “She slept over Friday…she had practice Saturday. Oh yeah, I was in the shower when she left me a voicemail message. She was going to sleep at her parent’s house last night. I haven’t talked to her yet today.” Yuri suddenly sat up and was wide awake. “Why? What’s wrong, Amber? Is she okay?”

“Jessica is fine. It’s you I’m worried about. You need to see this, gēge.” Amber opened up the newspaper to the entertainment section, laid it out on the table in front of Yuri and reached for her cousin’s hand. The headline read ‘Girls’ Generation’s Jessica and 2PM’s Taecyeon Dating’ and below it were pictures of the two holding hands and having coffee together.

Amber held her breath waiting for her cousin’s reaction. Yuri suddenly let go of Amber’s hand, stood up, and without saying a word walked into the bathroom and closed the door, locking it behind her.

Amber quickly called Krystal on her cell. “Hi Krys…yeah, I know…I’ve seen the news. I’m here with Yuri now. I think she’s in shock. Can you get Tiffany and come over? Bring some food if you can. I need to stay with my cousin. We need to figure out what’s going on. Okay… sounds good…love you…bye.”

The younger tomboy then walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door. "Yuri, are you okay?" All she heard from behind the door was silence. "Please don't do anything stupid, gēge. When you're ready to come out, I'll be here. Okay? Yuri? Just tap on the door to let me know that you're okay...please." Amber pressed her ear against the door and heard three faint taps.

After she tapped on the door to let Amber know that she hadn’t downed a bottle of pills or slashed her wrists, Yuri sat back down on the bathroom floor and sobbed heavily. The pain in her heart was unbearable. She looked at her phone and searched for Jessica’s number. As she was about to make the call, she stopped herself and put her phone down on the floor. She took a deep breath and sighed, burying her face in her hands.

I can’t believe this is happening. Why Jessi? Why? I thought you loved me. Why did you do this to us? I opened up my heart to you…you made me believe in love again. I wanted to spend forever with you. How am I going to live my life without you? Maybe you never really loved me in the first place…

About an hour had passed when Krystal and Tiffany arrived. They each tried to get Yuri to come out of the bathroom. “Yuri, we brought croissants and your favorite chai tea,” Tiffany said as she leaned against the door. “Yeah, Yuri, come out and eat with us,” Krystal called out, but to no avail Yuri stayed put in the bathroom.

While they waited, the three girls talked over breakfast. Tiffany told Amber and Krystal about the phone call she got from Hyo Yeon the day before and what the girls had witnessed in the mall parking lot. She also told them she called and texted Jessica several times with no response, but that Jessica did text Seohyun last night and told her that she would be staying at her parents’ house for a few days.

“Krys, did Jessica say anything to you about not being happy or that she was planning to break up with Yuri?” Amber asked.

“No, she didn’t. I have no idea what’s going on in my sister’s head right now,” replied Krystal. “She’s not answering my calls or texts either.”

“I can’t believe she’s with Taecyeon,” said Tiffany. “He’s such a player. She’s told me before that she would never date him. Something’s not right with all of this. You guys saw how Jessica was with Yuri. She’s in love with her.”

Amber and Krystal both stayed quiet and nodded in agreement. Amber wondered if Jessica had been playing Yuri this whole time. Nah, they were in love. There’s no way she could have done that.

Tiffany also began to second guess her best friend. I can’t believe that Jessi is doing this. Did she lie to me about her feelings for Yuri?

Krystal was just upset about the whole ordeal. What the is up with unnie?

It was close to dinnertime and Yuri still had not come out. Tiffany had dinner plans with Taeyeon and had to leave. She knocked on the bathroom door. “Yuri, its Tiffany…I have to meet Tae. I promise that we’ll get to the bottom of this mess. Please come out of there soon. See you later, okay?”

Amber and Krystal ordered take out and watched TV while they waited patiently for Yuri. Three hours later, Amber got up and put a blanket on Krystal who had fallen asleep on the couch. About an hour later, Amber heard the bathroom door unlock and Yuri finally emerged. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she was surprisingly calm.

“Hey Ambro, is there any food left?”

Amber ran over and hugged her cousin tightly. “, Yuri! You were in there for over 12 ing hours! I thought we were going to have to break the door down to get you out!”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I just needed to be by myself for a little while.”

“I know you’re hurting, gēge…but don’t forget that you have family and friends here that care about you. You don’t have to go through this alone. What the hell were you doing in there anyway?”

“Just thinking…thinking if there was something that I did to make Jessi leave me. I don’t get it, Ambro. I know she was upset about me going back to L.A., but I told her that we’d figure things out. The funny thing is that I’ve been thinking about moving here because I don’t want to be away from her. I was even looking into working at one of the International Clinics here in Seoul. I would just need to learn some basic Korean and take the Korean medical licensing exam.”

“Did you tell Jessica that?”

“No, but I don’t think it would have mattered,” replied Yuri as she picked through the leftovers.

“Why do you think that?”

"Because I think she used me, Ambro.”

“Don’t say that, Yuri. Jessica loves you.”

“I’m not so sure about that now. I think she used me to see what it would be like to be with a girl, just like I said she would at the very beginning.”

Amber tried to reassure her cousin. “Nah, I don’t believe that. She’s a lot like Krystal you know. You guys were intimate, and that’s a big deal for the Jung sisters. She loves you, Yuri. I know she does.”

“Then why did she leave me without as much as a goodbye or an explanation? She was the one, you know. I wanted to marry her and have a family with her."

“I don't know, gēge. We all want to know what happened just as much as you do. Did you try to call or text her?”

“No. What’s the point? She’s made it pretty clear that she’s moved on. I’m not going to beg her to take me back. It's done...we’re done.”

A couple of days later, Yuri decided to move into a hotel. Being in the dorm with the possibility of seeing Jessica, as well as sleeping in the bed that they had shared wasn’t easy. She continued to hang out with Amber and the new group of friends she had made since arriving in Korea. She visited her cousin daily and tried to make the most of her remaining time with the younger tomboy. After all, Amber was the reason she came to Korea in the first place...not to fall in love.

Yuri desperately missed Jessica, but was not willing to fight for her. She didn’t have the strength…her heart was broken…her faith in love was shattered. As painful as it was to even start to let go, she knew it was time to regroup and move on.