Pre-chapter notes: Hello lovely readers, I've received a few comments directed towards a part of the previous chapter. Just in case, I think I might have been a tad unclear, lemme clear it up here (because I'm a little too tired to edit anymore). On the last chapter, Yoona mentioned having "moved on". It wasn't about Jessica, in fact no relationship reference here! It's just about the experience of being bullied, and she no longer dwells on it :) Okays, on to this chapter! Hope you guys like it~ 

Part Twelve

Tiffany was late.

Jessica paced in front of her car only to glance at her watch and phone every few seconds. Calls and text messages went unanswered, which only fueled Jessica’s annoyance.

Jessica would have gone to drag Tiffany’s slow out the dorm herself, but she didn’t want to face the creepy dorm mate with a psychopathic grin and voice which never failed to send her skin crawling. It didn’t help that the strange girl had her canine teeth sharpened in a lousy replica of fangs.  

“She reads too much Twilight,” Tiffany had explained to Jessica once, “She’s a walking Twilightpedia. But I admit that it’s a pretty interesting read.”

Jessica had been disgusted by the statement.

“Jessi~”

The light chirpy voice had Jessica turning her head to the sight of Tiffany bouncing toward her in a floral dress of bright red flowery patterns on a black base. Riveting. Except to Jessica.

“You. Are. Late.”

Jessica almost growled out the words, eyebrows already scowling.

“Tsk, tsk,” Tiffany tutted, wagging a finger, “You’ve been sooo snappy recently, Jessi.”

“I wouldn’t be if you weren’t late.”

“Oh really? Doesn’t explain that you’ve been miss pissy hissy for three whole damn weeks.”

Jessica pushed down the urge to ramble. There wasn't a mention of her behaving abnormally throughout the weeks, so she had smugly thought that all the inner turmoil was kept under covers. In hindsight, as her emotions gradually recovered, she had probably been too absorbed to notice anything.

Tiffany tapped her foot, waiting for that smart or snarky retort. But unknown to her, Jessica found no motivation to refute those claims. A switch of topic was the best she could do.

“Where’s Sunny? Wasn’t she supposed to come along?”

It was just a fleeting moment, when Tiffany lost her usual cheeriness and sass, and it seemed that something foreign flittered through her gaze. The many times she implicitly hinted at the nature of the relationship with Sunny popped into Jessica's mind.

Tiffany seemed to catch herself and replied with a dramatic pout.

“She got spirited away. By aliens or something. No ing idea.”

“Was the ing meant to be a pun?”

“No!” Tiffany laughed, lighthearted again, and raised her eyebrows, “Well… Maybe? Anyway, let’s get going. Lee Soonkyu left me the contact of that property agent friend of hers.”

“She’s probably at the salon changing to a rainbow colored hairstyle,” Jessica shrugged as she unlocked her car.

“Bless her, then. I hope she turns bald from the insane number of dye jobs.”

“You’ll get her more wigs than I can count if that really happens,” Jessica giggled when Tiffany sent a glare over, "It’s true! Both of you are insanely appreciative of each other.”

“I’m the one who’s tolerating her insanity, okay. Now, drive, Jessica Jung.”

***

After going through five supposedly ridiculous apartments, the sixth finally scraped a pass. Comments of a leaky tap, horrible lighting, low ceilings, peeling paint, or too tiny rooms ceased and just in time, for the agent seemed ready to explode over Jessica’s incessant nitpicking. Tiffany managed to keep everything under control with her well strategized eye smiles and soft touches on his arms, but it was getting increasingly uncomfortable, for the guy had started hitting on her.

With a quick glance, Tiffany spied Jessica walking into the bathroom. Something told her that Jessica had picked on asymmetrical tiles in the bathroom as a reason for ‘this apartment is unacceptable’. It was really no wonder that the apartment hunting had ended in failure each time.

“Seriously, Jessi,” Tiffany managed to extract herself from the agent but was almost as frustrated as he was. Jessica was really looking at the tiles critically. “This apartment is totally fine. Sunny knew you had a hard time and she said this friend of hers totally has the best deals on the market.”

“Uh huh…”

“At least trust Sunny!”

“Go on, you can trust her,” Jessica dismissed Tiffany with a wave, “Your trust for her is enough to fill the ocean.”

“You. You horrible catty woman!”

“Meow.”

Tiffany ran a hand through her hair, annoyed, before stomping away and planting herself on the sofa. Even the furniture in this apartment was nice. Tiffany had never probed but whatever was going on within Jessica’s mysterious mind seemed even more unpredictable than usual.

“Jessica!” Tiffany shouted.

“Hold on!”

“Your friend’s a tough cookie at this apartment hunting thing, huh?” Yongjun the property agent sat down beside Tiffany with a slightly forced smile.

“Sorry, I’ll buy you a drink later. She is kinda picky.”

Yongjun shook his head, “Nah, I’m good. I’ve faced worse customers, and at least I’m serving two pretty girls.”

Tiffany pushed an obligatory laugh out of and wondered if Sunny could predict that this Yongjun would start hitting on her. Her fingers clutched at her phone, tempted to type complaints to Sunny when Yongjun stepped into the realms of personal questions.

But Sunny was probably in outer space right now, and with some alien Tiffany did not approve of.

“This place is pretty good,” Jessica popped out of the bathroom to save Tiffany from skirt-chasing Yongjun, “but…”

“Oh my god. Jessi! Another ‘but’?”

“It’s a little far from the school.”

Yongjun looked at Jessica quizzically, “Sooyeon-ssi, although this apartment isn’t right beside SNU, I believe it’s just a ten minutes drive away. Surely that’s convenient enough?”

“No, it’s not close enough to the high school.”

The high school.

The proverbial bulb in Tiffany’s brain lit up, and she let out a little ‘oh’ in recognition.

But of course, it had always been about little Yoongie. The apartment, the size of the room, the low ceiling that shouldn’t bother Jessica and even her recent snappy mood was probably caused by Yoona. Tiffa