Part Six

“I didn’t think that going out meant out of my house and into yours, unnie.”

Spurts of grumbles and countless paper airplanes to her face later, Jessica finally unfolded her legs and kicked Yoona’s side. Caught by surprise, the younger girl lost her balance and tumbled to the floor, head barely centimeters away from the coffee table.

“Unnie~”

Her foot continued to poke at Yoona’s thigh upon hearing the whines, leaving the younger girl simply resigned to enduring Jessica’s rare act of violence.

“Unnie~”

Jessica raised her head only to roll her eyes at Yoona’s bored expression. This was definitely a failed attempt at getting Yoona to catch up on studying. Throughout the day, she’d been restless with mumbles about weekends and studying breaks littering the air. The constant bombardment of texts to her phone was doing little to alleviate the doomed study session.

“It’s not like I’m failing anything, unnie. Can’t we just go hang out somewhere?”

Jessica threw a severe look over, but Yoona’s head was lolled to the side with shut eyes

Yoona wasn’t wrong. She had been blessed with a rather brilliant brain that was quick to learn new concepts and apply them accordingly. That was the root of the problem. She didn’t have to put in much effort to get decent grades.

“You’re not doing nearly well enough, Yoongie.”

“What exactly is well enough, unnie? Top my school? I could, probably, but no thanks!”

“At least brush up on all the language based subjects.”

Jessica smirked when Yoona couldn’t counter with a smart rebuttal for once. She had hit Yoona’s weakness— languages. She could excel at everything without thought but difficult words could never remain in her brain, and her expression and writing skills had always been awkward.

“I’m not trying to be a writer. Who cares about language?”

“I care and your grades aren’t doing you justice. You’re too complacent.”

“Unnie, you’re so picky. Worse than that lady back home.”

Yoona pouted even though she knew that Jessica had always wanted the best for her and out of her.

“Yoongie, get up. Let me help you in English.”

The phone resting on the table chimed. Ignoring Jessica, Yoona plucked her phone off the table and started typing on her phone.

“Yoongie…” Jessica’s tone was a little dangerous, but anyone would be annoyed by the amount of texts Yoona had receiving, “I don’t care who you’re texting, just stop.”

“It’s Jiho this time, and Hyejin just now. Jiho’s asking me for help, he needs to choose a present for his girlfriend.”

That was the seventh foreign name Jessica heard in the short span of four hours, and that was excluding some crazy video games group guys’ texts. Almost two years in middle school had multiplied the nameless faces and faceless names that led Jessica, even at this point, to only recognize Sooyoung and the heroic little boy Taemin.

Recently, Jessica had been wondering about Sooyoung. The name had slowly faded from their lives and moments of nostalgia often seized her. The young girl with a huge appetite and unusual height who easily transitioned to causal speech stayed in her memories. The talk they shared at her front steps remained fresh even though years had passed. It was the memory of Yoona’s breakdown that was still the most vivid though.

What’s happening with Sooyoung? Jessica could never bring herself to ask Yoona.

The name had come up frequently in the beginning and she enjoyed hearing about her from Yoona. There were even a few times that Jessica slipped in a few sentences in those letters to Sooyoung. But she couldn’t remember when exactly the letters had dwindled in frequency.

Yoona probably got too much on her hands. Maybe Sooyoung as well.

That kid had always been bad with distance. Jessica’s heart hurt a little.

“Yoong, let’s start on your English exercise.”

“Okay, unnie, in a while.”

The nonchalance irked Jessica, chewed some sensitive nerves. She reached across to snatch the phone away from Yoona’s hand, but Yoona’s reaction was faster. As always. She left Jessica grabbing at air and on the receiving end of playful laughter.

Jessica furrowed her brows and slid her bum across the floor to move closer to Yoona. Getting on her knees, she tried to swipe the phone again, but it was another failed attempt accompanied by another cheeky laugh. Jessica ended up flailing and falling onto Yoona.

“Unnie, you’re such a cute little fail,” Yoona said teasingly, one arm on Jessica’s waist to suppress movement and the other raised to keep the phone out of Jessica’s reach. Jessica tried stretching up, but the long arms on the fourteen year old brat was simply too much. She decided to fall back onto Yoona and gave a sigh of defeat.

“Giving up so soon? Unnie, you should try harder~”

Her tone and expression were enough to Jessica into remembrance of the younger Yoona who stuck to her like glue whenever they saw each other. There seemed to be a weight heavily settled into her still presently wild playfulness – a result perhaps of growing up? Or was it that forcible dragging out of her perfectly happy world two years ago?

Jessica didn’t know which it was, but whenever this Yoona appeared, she found herself slipping into the past and letting everything slide. No matter how much Jessica thought of the past and longed for an eternal presence of cute baby sister Yoona, she was already resigned to the fact Yoona was almost already all grown up. Time didn’t stop for her then, and it wouldn’t ever.

“I think I’m flattening you.”

“I’m not that little anymore unnie.”

Silly giggles filled the room and Jessica rolled herself to lie down beside Yoona. All thoughts of homework escaped her mind as she stared at the ceiling. Too soon was the peaceful silence disrupted by the chime of Yoona’s phone.

“Not gonna get that?”

“Nope. But not gonna study English either, unnie.”

“Oh, fine, I guess we could use a little break,” Jessica conceded reluctantly, while in actuality, she was happy to just lie down there with Yoona.

Jessica could hardly keep up with Yoona growing too fast for her; she was trailing in the past where Yoona went to her for everything and whines of ‘unnie’ happened every few days. It hurt to think that Yoona had outgrown those precious moments.

“Yoongie…”

“Yes, unnie?”

“How’s middle school?”

“Huh? Why’re you asking me that all of a sudden?”

Their gazes connected and Yoona’s eyes (so soft, so comforting) tempted Jessica to spill out those many growing uncertainties and fears eating away at her. She looked away though.