Part Four

“It’s okay.”

“You girls go have fun.”

“I’m not feeling very well, yes. Oh, it’s not that bad, I’ll be able to attend class.”

“Thanks a lot, bye.”

Jessica sighed and hung up. So called friends from school were a slightly difficult for her to handle. Her classmates were all two years younger than her, though she tried her best to never reveal her age. Even with all her efforts, talks of ‘America Jessica’ still floated around. She wanted to care —because that was the normal thing to do— about the hissed speculations, the whispers that she was too westernized, or the envy and admirations thrown into her face, but she realized she couldn’t. All those judgments and rumors created by other people were simply pointless to her.

It was a wall she couldn’t climb, even if she bothered to.

Jessica strolled to the kitchen, craving for something sweet, but not having the energy to cook, much less bake.  Kitchen activities used to tire her out since she had never been the best with estimating the time or controlling the fire. But as years passed, she managed to cook without starting a bonfire on her food. She was proud that her cooking had evolved to a point of equal parts polished and edible.  

Today, though, was Frosties day. Jessica rejected the gleaming kitchen appliances’ faces and lazily took the cornflakes out from the cabinet, stretching as she did so. Pouring all the sugar coated cornflakes out amounted to a meager third of her bowl.

Jessica eyes flickered to the food cabinet and the fridge.

Grocery shopping time.

She prayed she wouldn’t bump into any classmates while she was out.

***

Jessica grumbled in a low tone as she made her way to the bus stop. The summer heat had caught up to her merely minutes after she stepped out onto the streets, and now, she could feel herself melting under the intense sunlight.

I need to google who invented sunglasses, I’ll send a flower to their grave.

With that mental note and a silent thanks to the unknown inventor, Jessica pushed her eyewear up higher in a fruitless struggle to provide more shade for her face.

From behind, feet were pattering toward her direction, but she was too lost in the world of lamenting to notice.

“Unnie!”

Jessica jumped, shocked that someone grabbed her arm so suddenly. Luckily, her subconscious had recognized the voice, narrowly preventing a crunching swing of the elbow into Yoona’s elfin face.

“Stop scaring me, Yoongie!”

Yoona was wearing that eternally present lopsided grin of hers, and it happened to one of those rare occurrences that she didn’t have a sweat or grime stained face. Jessica helplessly squished her cheeks a little, how could a twelve-year-old kid be so ridiculously cute?

“Where are you going, unnie?”

It’s this child-like tone at times.

More shuffling of feet and the other kids had gathered around as well with their vague murmurings of ‘hello’ and ‘noona’.

“Grocery shopping,” Jessica smiled lightly at the kids surrounding her and a response of a mix of shy smiles and huge grins greeted her.

“Oh! Unnie, bring me along!”

“Aren’t you going off to play?”

“I wanna go with you! Let’s go!”

But no sooner had those words left Yoona’s mouth when a young boy grabbed a hold of her arm while shaking his head in dismay.

“NOOOO! YOU CAN’T GO!”

Jessica recognized the boy, he was heroic in that battle about five months ago, but the name eluded her once again. What was it? Min…

“Taemin-“ Yoona began, prying her arm away from his grip.

“Je-Jeashikka noona,” Taemin cut in but tripped over the name, “Play with us?”

There were a few nods of agreement. Ever since that water gun battle, Yoona’s group of friends had viewed her in a kinder light, though Jessica couldn’t fathom why. She didn’t need it, but their innocent friendliness was still somewhat reciprocated.

“No no no,” Yoona wagged a finger, warning the crowd of little boys, she wasn’t about to share her unnie, “Unnie can’t play with all of you. She’s busy!”

“Awww,” a collective groan sounded out, with a few whines of disapproval and a few shakes of Jessica’s arm.

“I’ll buy some sweets, for all of you.”

Jessica tried to pacify the young boys, an effort she wouldn’t have put in previously. But the kids Yoona hung out with now were considerably better than before as many of the extreme ones had either abandoned the group or ‘graduated’ from it.

“Let’s go unnie!”

Yoona stretched an arm up and waved dramatically at her little friends before promptly dragging Jessica off in a hurry. The groans and complains trailed their footsteps until they turned the corner and the kids were no longer in sight.

“Yoongie, I gotta call your mom, tell her you’re going with me.”

“No, you can’t! Mummy is having a black face now, she can’t talk.”

Jessica arched an eyebrow, “What?”

“The black face,” Yoona repeated with a very patient tone, as though she was explaining the secrets of the universe to a child, “Mummy says she’d get wrinkles if she talks.”

Putting two and two together, Jessica finally solved the mystery, “You mean a facial mask?”

“Yep, that’s the word! But I like to call it black face.”

Yoona shuddered, nose wrinkling as her lips parted and turned down in disgust.

“Alright, Yoongie, I’ll send a text instead.”

Minutes later, a reply lit up her phone:

Sure, but don’t buy everything she asks for, Sooyeon. Oh, and scare her with this, will you?

Jessica stifled a snigger, “Yoongie.”

“Yep?”

Yoona innocently swung her head towards Jessica, only to let out a loud shriek when she saw her mother’s ‘black face’ up close on Jessica’s handphone screen.

“ACK. OHMAHGAWWWD. UGH. That isn’t funny! Mean unnie!” Yoona pouted and folded her arms, “EVIL MUMMY!”

“Sor-sorry Yoongie, I couldn’t resist,” Jessica managed to stop laughing after much effort, “It was your mom’s idea.”

“I KNOW. It’s always her!”

Yoona grumbled under her breath and sat down on the seats at the bus stop with a huff.

“Aww, Yoongie,” Jessica laughed, but put an arm across Yoona’s shoulder and hugged her close.

“Bleah.”

As her own form of retaliation, Yoona stuck out her tongue but simultaneously leaned into the hug. Jessica’s hugs were always comforting and filled with love. Yoona never could resist them.

Jessica spent the next few minutes poking at Yoona’s side and arm to induce her out of the sulky mood. However, that only earned an indignant ‘hmph’, as Yoona puffed out her cheeks. Tickling, though, did the trick. Bursts of childish giggles and squeals rang out when Jessica’s wriggling fingers landed.

 As if on cue, the ancient bus came chugging into the bus stop at that very moment.

“Unnie,” Yoona dug her hand into her pocket after they found a seat on the bus, “This is for you.”

“Hmm?”

Jessica expected some form of prank for the black face incident, however, all she saw was a harmless sheet of paper, folded haphazardly into quarters, in Yoona’s hand. It was strange; Jessica looked at it cautiously, hesitant about taking it from Yoona.

“What’s that, Yoongie?”

Itchy powder? Spider? Day-old gum?

Jessica couldn’t stop her imagination from running wild, especially with that humongous grin plastered on Yoona’s face.

“Letter for you! Teacher says I’m bad at writing, so she got me to practice.”

“Oh?” Jessica was still a little doubtful, not that she didn’t trust Yoona, but she was wary after pulling a prank on the young girl.

“Yep. We had to write something to our parents as practice, and I wrote one more for you!”

Fully trusting Yoona’s words now, Jessica flipped open the folded piece of paper.

Inked on the paper was a set of untidy handwriting and a badly drawn heart.

Jessica unnie is the best best bestest unnie in the world. I love you! We must be together forever!

“Oh,” Jessica mumbled as she stared dumbfounded at those words, “Oh…”

“Do you like it? Do you like it? You do, right? Unnie?”

Yoona beamed, her eyes expectant, as though her world depended on Jessica’s next reply.

“Yes, Yoongie. I do, yes. I love it.”

Pulling Yoona into a hug, she rested her chin softly on top of Yoona’s head. Eyes slightly moist, Jessica bit the insides of her lips softly, trying her utmost to hold back the tears.

“I really really love it, Yoongie.”

***

“Sooyoungie!”

As she ran, Yoona yelled out, her voice blaring down the aisle. The tall girl a few steps away turned immediately, surprised to see Yoona.

“Yoong? Why’re you here?”

“Unnie brought me! She has to buy food and stuff,” Yoona grinned and greeted Sooyoung with a high five once she was near, “Hello, Sooyoung’s mummy!”

“Well, hello, Yoona.”

“Yoongie! You need to stop-” catching up to Yoona, Jessica abruptly cut herself off mid-sentence as she registered Sooyoung’s presence along with an older woman who sported a short bob haircut.

“Hi! Jessica!” Sooyoung waved naturally, flinching a split second later from the disapproving smack on her shoulder, “Uh, Jessica unnie, I meant.”

Jessica nodded, a little uncomfortable. It was strange to hear that from Sooyoung after they had been talking casually for such a long while. But it couldn’t be helped. With adults around, formalities couldn’t be overlooked. After all, Sooyoung was just twelve, still a kid.

“Nice to meet you,” Jessica searched for Sooyoung’s surname in her head, truly glad that she had grown closer to the young girl to avoid awkward pauses now, “Mrs. Choi. I’m Sooyeon-“

“My unnie!” Yoona butted in, with a big smile, hugging Jessica’s arm close.

“Oh? I didn’t know you’ve such a pretty unnie, Yoona,” Sooyoung’s mom smiled, “Nice to meet you too, Sooyeon. Grocery shopping?”

“Yes, Mrs. Choi.”

“Unnie bought me the same cornflakes as hers, Sooyoung’s mummy!”

Yoona reached over to grab the cornflakes from the shopping basket, shaking it like it was her very own prize, her infectious grin lighting up everyone’s face.

“That’s very nice, Yoona,” Mrs. Choi gave a small but genu