A Painful Memory

Nothing But a Game
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Since Kris Wu, Jessica has had no other boyfriends. For now, she’s enjoying her single freedom - her singledom, as Jessica would call it - and diverting all her attention on her new business, which is flourishing to her astonishment. The store is always busy with groups of teenage girls flocking in groups to mature women carrying their little puppies in their purses to elderly women entering with their daughters or granddaughters. Normally, Jessica would remain in her office in the back of the store, creating new designs or overlooking business documents. Sometimes she would reread her textbooks from fashion school to brush up on her skills.

 

Today is no different from the other days.

 

Jung Jessica flips through her old sketchbook, the one she used for her Designing 101 classes, as she tries to get inspiration from past designs. “Ms. Jessica,” the designer glances. It’s her assistant, Bang Minah, with a clipboard in hand. Jessica would like to note that Minah’s hair is tied up in a large bun with a butterfly hair tie and is wearing her lens-less glasses per usual. “I have been notified by Mr. Lee Minho that it is Park Shinhye’s birthday this weekend. Shall we celebrate it?” Minah smiles.

 

A birthday, Jessica muses. “That sounds like a good idea, Minah,” she nods. “Call Panda Inn to book a table at 7 p.m. this Saturday.”

 

Minah quickly scribbles down the notes on her clipboard. “Will you bring your sister along?” she casually asks.

 

“I’m not sure,” Jessica answers while skimming through a stack of papers that needs to be sign, “but I’ll ask her. I definitely will be bringing at least one person though.” She stops thumbing through the pages, bodily movements pause, and looks to Minah. “When booking the table, just say six to seven people are expected to come but the number is flexible and we would have the exact number by Friday night. Tell the employees that this is a work related celebration and the only ones allowed to bring a guest are Shinhye and myself.”

 

“Arasso,” Minah salutes before bows and leaves right away to spread the good news.

 

 

Minah zooms to the front of the store, excited to tell her amigos, and sings out loud for the whole store to hear, “It worked!” Customers raise an eyebrow and weirdly stare at the singing girl, whereas, the employees drop whatever task they were doing and high five Minah.

 

“What worked?” Shinhye asks, folding jeans, the only employee to remain working. “Oh, those jeans are half off,” she informs a customer without pausing in folding the jeans.

 

Minah eyes the men, mentally cursing at them, and the men simply whistle and return to their duties. Turning to Shinhye, Minah sighs, and then says through gritted teeth, “We told Ms. Jessica that it’s your birthday this weekend.”

 

Out of surprise, Shinhye releases the stack of jeans she previously picked up. “My birthday? But it isn’t my birthday!” A male customer sees the fallen jeans and immediately helps to pick them up, but Shinhye, being a dutiful employee, reassures the man that she has the task taken care of and thanks him for his kindness.

 

“We know,” Lee Hyunwoo, one of the male employees, says after helping another customer find what she wanted, “but we wanted to have a company party, and knowing Ms. Jessica, she would have agreed right away if it involves a birthday.”

 

“So why my birthday among everyone’s?” Shinhye crosses her arms, angry that they would use her as an excuse without getting her prior permission, because if they did, then she would have been fine with the idea. But nope. They went ahead and used her as their excuse for what? A party? A dinner? Either way, Shinhye finds the lying to be unworthy.

 

Lee Minho, the hunk of the store, the one all the girls admire and to ask for help from, steps up when the others can’t. “Shinhye, Shinhye,” he says, getting close to her, “take one for the team. Ms. Jessica is going to pay for dinner, and she might even throw in something special for you. Maybe a huge gift.”

 

Tiptoeing to meet eye to eye with him, Shinhye monotonically says, “I don’t want a gift from Ms. Jessica if it involves lying, you babo.”

 

“Lying?” Everyone turns to the source of the voice to discover Ms. Jessica glaring at them. “So Minah,” she says in a sugary, sweet voice, scaring her poor assistant and making her feel incompetent and small, “you lied to me about Shinhye’s birthday?” Minah shamefully nods. Jessica sighs and thinks for a moment. “Panda Inn. Saturday night. I expect all of you to be there at 7 p.m. If not, you’ll be getting a cut in your paycheck as a punishment for lying.” And with that she sashays out but without forgetting to say on her way out, “And I won’t be paying for your meals.”

 

Minah her head to the right. “I should have distracted Ms. Jessica by telling her that someone by the name of Lee Donghae sent her a bouquet of roses,” she says while pointing to the beautiful, huge display of red roses on the cashier counter.

 

Astonished, Minho quietly repeats the male’s name. “That’s the name of a member from the country’s national soccer team. Do you think - ”

 

“Nah,” interrupts Shinhye, smiling, thinking Minho is an idiot for suggesting that Ms. Jessica could possibly know Lee Donghae, the nation’s MVP. “There’s plenty of Lee Donghae’s roaming around in South Korea. Ms. Jessica is popular in the entertainment circle but Lee Donghae is a far cry from fashion. I’m sure it’s another Lee Donghae.”

 

 

Tiffany peeks into the living room and catches sight of Nichkhun watching a foreign movie. His eyes are zoned in on the television, and it seems as if he’s lost in the movie. Peeking further in, Tiffany notices that the movie stars Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler and recognizes it as Fifty First Dates. Awe, Tiffany thinks as she remembers of how much of a romantic person Nichkhun is at heart.

 

“Hey there.” Tiffany falls at Nichkhun’s voice. Standing up, she hears Nichkhun chuckling to himself. He probably thinks Tiffany’s an idiot now; but oh well, Tiffany is over him, which is what she tells himself, and she can’t let him get to her. “Hiding from me now, huh?” He chuckles even more before bringing his can of coca cola to his lips.

 

“Where’s Jessica?” Tiffany brushes the dirt off her skirt. Without glancing away from the television, Nichkhun informs her that Jessica is at her store. “Could you write down the address? I want to visit the store but I forgot where it is, and I’ll just be taking a cab.” So, Nichkhun gets up from his comfortable seat on the sofa, finds a note pad, writes down the address that he has etched in his brain, after being forced by Krystal to drive her there plenty of times, and hands it to Tiffany before returning to his movie. He’s at the part where she first learns of her amnesia.

 

In a way, their love is the main characters’ from Fifty First Dates. One day, they are completely in love; but the next day, one of them forgets about their love. In Tiffany's case, someone has competely wipe their love away from his mind that he gets engaged to another girl.

 

 

The store is buzzing when Tiffany enters. All the employees know who she is, learning from Facebook and the stories Krystal has no problem sharing. What Minah, Shinhye, Hyunwoo, and Minho know about Tiffany is that she had fall outs with Jessica, Yonghwa, and Nichkhun - they know him from the times he came to drop off Krystal - and is currently dating Choi Siwon, whom they know as a huge jerk. Siwon came by the store one day while Ms. Jessica was out, and he had a pretty lady in his arms. Krystal had shown them pics of Tiffany, so they know the girl was definitely not Tiffany. That was a long time ago. They never told Ms. Jessica what they saw because they had no proof and did not want to cause another fight between the two girls.

 

Walking in, Tiffany feels like a piece of art that was being scrutinized by the public. She can feel people staring at her, wondering what she was here for, but when she looks around, she sees that it was all in her imagination, even though the employees are tota

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Comments

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000521
#1
.I really like this story
Mary178 #2
Chapter 41: One year later... I'm still waiting, update soon :(
Mary178 #3
Chapter 41: Still waiting.....:(
Mary178 #4
Chapter 41: update please :(
CamaiP
#5
I swear I love this so much :P
zicky_yun #6
Chapter 20: More monents Haesica please
vinarinako
#7
Chapter 41: Omg! Siwon is back!! O___O
MariHyun
#8
Chapter 42: Oh Gosh~ my feels...sure, go for it girl and then when you get a good grade you can come back~ see ya soon (I hope)!!!
MariHyun
#9
Chapter 41: OMG HaeSica is 100% alive here... :3 I just love it <3333
And who could it be? Like, who's disturbing? >~<
Please write the next soon...hahahah Can't wait!!