Chapter 29

AUTHOR’S POV

Love is unmeasurable. One way to express it is through words but love in its truest form can never be caged inside words that we use every day. It’s a bizarre feeling that brings out either the best or worst in people. Love is a catalyst. Love can build or destroy. Love is omnipotent.

Jessica was a smart girl. She was capable of distinguishing the right from the wrong but in front of love, that feeling that enveloped her once, everything she knew got into a black hole. Never to be found again until such time she wakes up from the trance she was put in.

“Tell me was it worth it? Covering for Hyomin and that Daniel?”

Hearing the two names she knew all too well in one sentence really hit Jessica in all the right places. The question itself was enough to send her on her knees but she stood strong. After everything has been said and done, it never crossed Jessica’s mind whether what she did was worth it. She could easily say that it was a mistake and or that she regrets it but in the end she could never truly mean it because she did it out of love. Her reason alone makes everything null and void. It didn’t matter whether it was right or wrong.

“How did you…” Jessica bits her lip. She was already at the edge of her emotions because of Yuri. Adding her past experiences to the equation was Jessica’s one-way ticket to emotional exhaustion.

“Hyomin… I know everything because of her. She was my friend until she decided to take me out of the picture.”

Choa reaches for her pocket and pulls out her wallet. She opens it up and passes it too Jessica. The latter took it with both hands and saw a picture of 2 little girls sitting on a small red swing set.

“That’s me and Hyomin when we were kids. We’ve been best friends for a long time and I honestly thought it was gonna stay that way but then everything changed when Daniel came into play. Hyomin threw everything we’ve been through down the drain just for that one guy.”

Jessica heaves a sigh and quietly says “That makes two of us…”

“Now that’s what I want to know. I’ll help you out with Yuri only if you tell me how you got mixed up with Daniel. Give and take, Jessica. It’s your choice.”

Even up to this day, Choa never understood why Hyomin, a friend that she treasured more than anyone else, would ever betray her without even blinking an eye. Having Jessica answer her question, Choa hoped to understand Hyomin’s actions through someone else’s perspective.

“I did it for the same reason Hyomin betrayed you. I…I was in love.”

--

Flashback

“….I’m Daniel. And to whom do I owe the pleasure of hearing that wonderful compliment?”

Jessica blushed at the way Daniel spoke. She extended her hand and replied.

“I’m Jessica.” She said with a smile

Daniel shook her hand and took his time with it.

“That’s a wonderful name.” Daniel still had her hand in his. He gave her another smile to which Jessica’s heart responded with a few skipped beats.

Eventually, they let go of each other’s hands and silence dominated the room. Both didn’t know how to start the next conversation. Awkwardness started to settle in with the silence. It wasn’t the best combination but it was the most common, especially for first meetings. It was normal at its best.

Daniel stood by the piano, not knowing what to say or do. His eyes rested only upon Jessica. He was captivated to say the least but his reason to be wasn’t exactly in the norms. The familiarity struck him like lightning. He was at awe and with that came the speechlessness on his part.

For Jessica nervousness was spreading around her body. She felt Daniel’s stare on her. She tried to look up at Daniel and meet his gaze but like some sort of reflex, Jessica puts her head down and stares right back down on the floor. In an instant her complex got revealed. Jessica Jung was a nervous wreck. Confidence was not in her vocabulary. It didn’t matter who it was, Jessica Jung was a shy person overall. (Except of course to those whom challenged to break her barrier of shyness)

“You said you signed up for the vocal workshop right?” Daniel asked to confirm what he had heard from Jessica earlier.

Jessica, refusing to take her eyes off the floor, only gave a weak nod.

“I see. Do you know how to play any instrument then?”

“Uh… I can play a bit of the piano.” Hearing her answer, Daniel felt all sorts of excitement ride within him. He had a scene in his head that he wanted to play out in actual life. The only thing missing was the person he wanted to be part of it but now that Jessica was in front of him, he thought of that scene he wanted badly. Daniel turned around and grabbed a notebook from one of the shelves at the corner. He rummaged through its pages and stopped halfway through it.

“Do you think you could sing this for me?” Daniel hands over the opened notebook to Jessica.

Jessica looks over it and sees musical notes. Above them were lyrics to a song she wasn’t familiar with. She got flustered at the sudden request but then she realized that this was what she signed up for so she might as well try to make herself used to the idea of singing in front of other people.

“I…I’m not really that good. I really hope this isn’t a song you wrote because I would only ruin it...” Jessica says weakly

“Oh no. It’s a song I found on the internet and I’ve been really interested in playing it. So are you up for it?” Daniel’s eyes lit up. He had a feeling that Jessica would say yes. The minute he heard that she signed up for the vocal workshop, Daniel felt a surge of excitement. Again, it boils down to the familiarity of Jessica’s face to him.

Jessica nods and with light footsteps, approaches the piano. She stood beside it and held the notebook with both hands. Daniel sat back down and started to play the piece. He had it memorized, all he needed was someone to sing it to him. (CLICK HERE FOR THE SONG)

During the first few notes, Jessica’s voice could barely be heard but slowly she found herself feeling comfortable with everything. Her soft voice gained volume and needless to say she gave the song justice. Her high notes were all on point, the song had a gentle tone to it and it matched Jessica’s voice. Daniel was impressed to say the least. The scene in front of him was how exactly he imagined it to be.

When the song ended, Jessica felt like a new born baby. Somehow through singing she felt this liberating feeling. Singing was the only way for her to step out of her little shell and there was nothing more she wanted than to feel more confident about herself.

“That…that was really good, that was wonderful. Wow….” Daniel marveled at what his ears allowed him to hear just now.

Compliments are reinforcements that help people one way or another but to Jessica they were like a force that pushes her back to her little shell. Does it make her feel good hearing them? Yes, but that doesn’t mean she could openly take them.

“T-thanks…” Jessica stammered. Her eyes fell to the floor again.

“Not a big fan of hearing compliments, are you?” Daniel smiles and stands up from his seat while Jessica just froze in her spot.

Jessica chose not to answer and kept her head down. Compliments didn’t sit well with Jessica. To her, hearing such things were burdening because compliments formed bridges towards expectations and that was something Jessica never liked. The mood inside the room shifted backwards and returned to its awkward state. Daniel felt the urge to fix the situation.

“How long have you been singing?” Daniel asks in an attempt to make Jessica more comfortable.

“For as long as I can remember, I guess…. but I never uhm…sang in front of anyone before…” Jessica makes a sudden confession.

“Oh well then that makes me feel quite honored. Honestly your voice is really good. I’m sure my brother can help you develop it more.” Daniel cheered on

It was then that the door Jessica came in from, creaked open and revealed a man about the same height as Daniel and a couple of other people trailing behind him.

“Daniel? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in school?” The man who just came in approached Daniel, completely unaware of Jessica’s presence in one corner.

“I submitted everything they asked for. All I have to do now is wait for their call.” After hearing Daniel’s reply, the man gave him a nod and finally notices Jessica.

“Uh… who is she?” The man whispers to Daniel

“Oh right. She signed up for your workshop. She’ll be one of your students along with the others.” Daniel gestures towards the group of people that were standing by the door.

Jessica stands still and looks over to the group over by the door. She reckoned that they must be the other people who signed up for the workshop and so she scurries over to their side and stands within the crowd.

“I heard her sing just now, she’s amazing. She’s extremely but I’m sure you can fix that.” Daniel whispers back

The man nods his head and faces the group of people gathered by the door.

“Alright. Good Morning everyone. My name is Dennis and I’ll be your vocal coach for the rest of the summer. This guy here is my brother, Daniel. He teaches musical instruments, most especially the piano.” Dennis ends his sentence with a smile. Jessica sees this and immediately draws the similarities between Daniel and Dennis.

Dennis took everyone to the other room to officially start their vocal workshop. Jessica quietly blends in within the group and walks past Daniel.

“If only Hyomin was a tad bit interested in music…” Daniel says as his eyes sends Jessica off

--

Present Time

Jessica’s POV

“I met Daniel at his brother’s vocal workshop. Halfway through the sessions, I wanted to quit because I couldn’t handle public performances but then Daniel convinced me to stay. I started having feelings for him along the way but even I knew I didn’t have a chance with him. When summer ended, I decided that, that would also be the end of my growing feelings for Daniel but then….”

“but then you saw him again in Daewon….” Choa finishes my sentence.

She was right. The feelings I decided to lock way found me again when I saw him in Daewon. It turns out that he applied to be a teacher there and got accepted. He was the youngest teacher the institution ever had. I found out a lot about him when I saw him again in Daewon which included his relationship with Hyomin. It hit me like a truck when I realized how dense I’ve been the past summer. You see, Daniel always talked about this girl whom I supposedly look like. The only difference we had was the other girl didn’t have any interest in music at all. I guess you can say that I was blinded by everything else that I couldn’t pick up the hints he constantly dropped then.

At first I didn’t recognize their relationship since it was pretty common for teachers and students to be quite close, at least in Daewon. The school had this campaign against bullying and so they made extra sure that all of the staff, including faculty members were approachable. Whenever I saw them talking at school, it didn’t strike me as anything unusual or that there was something deeper between them. Ultimately, Daniel was the one who drew the line for me to see.

“Daniel handled the music subject of every section in my year so avoiding him wasn’t exactly an option. At some point he invited me to a party and since everybody from the workshop was going, I decided to tag along. That’s where I first saw them as a couple. Later that night, Daniel told me everything and he made me promise not to tell anyone about them because if word got out that would mean the end for both his job at Daewon and Hyomin’s spotless record.”

I turn my head slightly to look at Choa’s face. Her expression is unreadable. I guess she’s trying to understand Hyomin more. Maybe telling my side of the story could help her.

“Did Daniel ever know you had feelings for him?”

Another question that hit hard.

“I’m sure he knew but he just never said anything about it.”

“He probably did. He wouldn’t have the guts to ask you to do something that crazy if he didn’t.”

Choa may or may not be right. I don’t know if Daniel asked for my help because he knew I could never say no, not when I had feelings for him or simply because I looked like Hyomin. Whatever his reason was didn’t seem important then. All I knew was I wanted to protect Daniel because…. Because I loved him. Love is a pretty big word and for a 17-year-old to claim it (back then) seems like just another foolish cliché but to me it wasn’t. I felt what I felt. I did what I did. It was that simple.

The pictures of Daniel and Hyomin were all taken from inside the campus, after official school hours. That was what did them in. A student saw them and took the opportunity to snap some photos and even a video. What helped them the most was the fact that Daniel’s face was the only thing 100% recognizable in those materials.

“I saw the photos and the video. All it took was one look for me to know that it was Hyomin. No matter how similar the two of you are, there’s just no mistaking her for you but then again I knew about their relationship so my question is how did you convince everyone?”

“The photos never really had Hyomin’s face focused, even the video’s focus was Daniel. It wasn’t that hard to convince everyone. All I had to do was say that it was me… After I admitted it in front of everyone at school, the one who took those pictures, came to me secretly and apologized. He told me he only wanted to get Daniel fired because like him, this person also had feelings for Hyomin. He only wanted to get rid of Daniel.” I took a breather and paused. Reliving these moments wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, especially when I worked so hard to lock them away inside my memories.

“…Like you, Hyomin is from an influential family. The school would do anything to protect her. Daniel knew this so he went up to the administration to tell them the truth because he wanted them to help me transfer schools. Eventually they came up with a plan.” I continued

Choa lets out a short condescending laugh and says “So my theory checks out then. The administration was on-board with the plan. What a bunch of s.”

“The school called in for my parents. They told them the version of the truth me and Daniel created. Of course my parents wanted me to get out of Daewon as soon as possible but the problem were my records. The president of Daewon made a deal with my parents. They agreed not to put the incident on my record however that would mean that I could only transfer to schools that were affiliated with them because they wanted to contain the consequences of manipulating records within their reach.”

Everything that happened that year revolved around Hyomin. It was in those moments that I felt so alone. Tiffany and Kris were there for me and I could never possibly thank them enough but despite it all, I felt like it was me against everyone else.

“In other words, they wanted to keep you in a leash. To make sure that you don’t talk.” Choa put in the realest way possible.

I gave a weak nod and continued “Since my family just got here and my father couldn’t leave Seoul because of his job and business, I was forced to transfer here, in Whimoon. The only other school that had ties with Daewon that was within Seoul.”

My parents were extremely disappointed, especially my father. It got so bad that I was casted out our house. My father told me not to even set foot within our property until I graduate. I couldn’t blame him for saying that at all. He was just as hurt as I was, maybe even more and that’s why he asked Kris to look after me. Kris’ peaceful life got disrupted by me, all because I was too selfish and caught up with my own feelings.

“Just like any other high school when things like that get out in the open, people tend to twist your words. Rumors of me using Daniel to get my grades up spread like wildfire then from there things just got worse and worse. And now I’m here, next to you telling this sob story of mine.”

A lot of things were said about me in that school. They practically wrote their own stories about me which led to more complicated things like Kris getting into fights because of it. I had to live like that for the rest of the year because I couldn’t transfer during the middle of the term. I cried a lot too. Days felt longer than they are and that made everything harder.

“Why… You know what? Forget it. I still don’t understand it but whatever. Trying to understand your reasons won’t change anything anyway.” Choa mutters as she stands up and looks down on me

“…but still a promise is a promise. I’ll help you out with Yuri.”

I hastily stood up and couldn’t contain myself. I threw my arms around her and sincerely thanked her. We walked out of the music hall together and separated once we got inside the academic building but before doing so, we agreed to meet sometime during the weekend again to talk about Yuri. The way I see it, Choa is the link, Yuri needs to get himself together. There has to be other reasons or some kind of explanation for everything that Choa had told me today. Yuri’s not a bad person, I believe that. He’s not. He can’t be.

--

Yuri’s POV

The sound of my phone ringing woke me up from my little nap. It’s time for class again. I stood up from my place and stretched for a bit. My body feels all stiff and I think it’s because I haven’t trained all that much. I should really get back into my routine but with the things that are happening now, it seems like I won’t be able to do that for at least another while.

I walked back to the academic building and on my way there, I saw Jessica talking to someone. As I got closer, I recognized the other girl. It was Park Choa. She’s from the other section.

Choa, apparently, was the girl I saved last year. She tried to jump from the bell tower and from what I was told, I somehow convinced her not to. I don’t remember that incident well. From what I can recollect, I was with Taeyeon that day and for whatever reason, I ended up at the bell tower. The next thing I could surely remember was waking up at our family’s hospital having no idea at all how I got there. Dr. Kim was the one who filled me in on the other details.

My memory palace is in ruins. I’ve been wanting to rebuild it but it seems like the more I try, the more it gets destroyed. One of the reasons why I prefer being alone is because I want to ensure that I am alive in that particular moment. I’m afraid to lose myself in front of other people. Jessica, on the other hand, makes me feel comfortable enough not to be paranoid about not being alive in the moment. Any moment with her is significant enough for me to hold onto reality. She is an embodiment of reality. With her, I don’t have to worry about losing track of everything.

I stopped walking and just followed them with my gaze. Jessica went ahead to our classroom while Choa went to hers. I stood there for a good minute or two before heading towards our classroom. Once I got inside, Jessica was already looking towards my direction. On my way to my seat at the back, I stopped in front of her desk.

“Did you receive my text?” I asked

“Oh hey, yeah I did. Sorry I couldn’t reply. Anyways, after school, right?”

I gave her a nod. I wanted to ask about Choa but it doesn’t seem like the right place to do so. Maybe later I could ask her. I went to my seat and readied myself for the next set of classes. 

--

HELLO DEAR READERS! SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE! :( I've been busy rewriting chapters over and over and over again. Only had the confidence to post this now. Sorry about that! Please enjoy this very very very very very very cute CHOA GIF. <3 (Confirmed AOA fanboy) (Still a GG fanboy tho)

Tell me what you think about this update!!!

What'd you think about Jessica's past??? Let me know about it down at the comment section! 

THANK YOU.

-ymllama