Part Eight

“Unnie~Unnie~”

“Gosh, I hate it whenever you start sentences that way. ”

Jessica peered owlishly over her thick academic journal, her gaze challenging Yoona to say anything that went against her.

“Sooooo judgemental, unnie. C’mon, let's go to the beach!”

“No, Yoo- ” Instinct and experience dictated her immediate rejection but she couldn’t believe her ears, “Huh? Hold on, what did you say? Was that or beach?”

“Beach! The beach!” 

Jessica pursed her lips and started tapping her index finger on her chin, “No, that sounds too suspicious; there’s no way you would use that unnie thing if it's only an innocent trip to the beach.” 

“I grew up, unnie. In fact, I grew so much, I'm at leat 5cm taller than you now!” 

Yoona leaned over from her balancing act on the couch’s armrests, using the obvious difference in height to pat Jessica’s head easily with a smug smile, much to Jessica’s annoyance. A resounding smack coupled with a half-playful glare had Yoona laughing, falling into the couch with legs on Jessica’s lap.

“But you're free for a beach outing, aren't you?” Yoona asked once she got her laughter under control.

"Not really…” Jessica smiled wryly at the disappointment on Yoona’s face, “But I can make an exception for you since I’m done with my readings.”

"YESSSS! Let’s go! Deal? Deal? Deal???" 

"Yes, you don’t have to start looping. Mind if Tiffany tags along? She texted me just now saying she’s bored." 

"I do!"

Yoona protested too quickly, which aroused Jessica’s suspicion. Yoona usually fancied Tiffany’s presence, since the redhead would, more often than not, entertain and participate in Yoona’s weird games or pranks.

Highly suspicious.

"And why's that?"

"Unnie~~~" the cringe-worthy aegyo was unveiled yet again; with that, Jessica was sure that there was something more to this beach trip.

"Why? Spill Yoong. Go with your other friends otherwise."

"It’s unnie weekend! I want to spend it with you, not with Tiffany unnie! Unnie~"

Yoona clung onto Jessica’s arm and rubbed her face against it with exaggerated affection; her efforts were paid with only a roll of the eyes followed by a push to the face. Looking past her liking of the affection, Jessica wanted to find out what kid was planning. 

"Nu-uh. Not gonna happen if you don't clear my suspicion." 

"…My crush is at the beach," Yoona mumbled, acting like a shy high school girl. Which she was. Minus the shy part.

Jessica snorted. It was just a crush. Big deal.

“Who is he? That Leewhatshisname?”

“No! You’re outdated, unnie! It’s Yuri!”

“Because you didn’t bother to update me about this Yu-” Jessica paused, the name finally registered, “Hey, wait up. That’s a girl’s name! Or… is it?”

“Bingo! Ding Ding! You’re right, unnie!”

The claps coming from Yoona confused Jessica, the blinding smile and overwhelming excitement had her staring. Jessica read somewhere that coming out was a stressful experience for a lot of people. Of course Yoona was never like a lot of people, but this obvious falling out of category was still unexpected.

“You’re coming out to me, because of a crush?!”

“And you kissed me twice, unnie,” Yoona pulled Jessica up from the couch and started pushing her toward the bedroom, “I like her because she’s amazing, is that gay? Whatever, let’s pack and go!”

***

“Okay so what's the deal with her? Your little miss not-as-attractive-as-described.”

Seated at one of those long benches by the beach, Jessica wore an oversized tee over her bikini top. Beside her, Yoona, in her tiny white tank top, was transfixed by the action on the nearby beach volleyball court.

They had spent a good twenty minutes or so to find Yoona’s crush and this golden spot with a fantastic view of the volleyball action.

Yoona gave Jessica an offended look, as though Jessica had stepped on her invisible tail. 

“Your eyes are deteriorating with age, unnie!” Yoona got a slap on the thigh for that, but she was adamant, “She's so extraordinarily amazingly crazily attractive! First time I’ve met someone more charismatic than me! She’s so epic!”

“That’s a lot of flowery words coming from you.”

“She’s tall, lean, and cute, don’t you think so? The way she flicks her hair and moves her body,” Yoona started to fan herself, “is so hot! Her smile is soooo swoon worthy! She’s really the most attractive person in school!”

“Her hair is up in a bun. Can’t see any flicks.”

“You’re being too critical, unnie.”

“Hmph.”

Jessica stared at Yoona with much boredom behind her shades. The fangirling didn’t make any sense. To her, Yuri girl was just a common high school kid, nothing special. She chanced a glance at the court and saw said Yuri girl fly through the air and hit the ball.

Okay, maybe she’s a little impressive, Jessica conceded.

Yoona was still at it, her verbal diarrhea about the supposed awesomeness that is Yuri didn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.

“…and she’s the team’s spiker!! That’s so-“

“Stop. I heard some alien language. What's a spiker?” Jessica was curious about that term, but her question was reciprocated with Yoona’s look of guilt.

“...I don't know.”

Jessica tilted her shades down, revealing eyes that spoke of disbelief and scorn.  Was it possible that…

“Unnie, she's my crush, not my teammate! I know next to nothing about volleyball except she looks so damn good playing it.” 

Jessica rolled her eyes," Shallow." 

“I know you agree with me deep down. She’s gorgeous, unnie.”

So lost in the banter was Yoona that she only barely noticed when her tantalizing crush was bending down to pick up the wayward ball a few paces away. Yoona’s hand flew to as she let out a yelp and reflexively started shaking an unappreciative Jessica.  

"Hey!” the weird reaction had caught Yuri’s attention and she squinted her eyes before familiarity dawned on her, “You're from my school right?" 

A subtle nudge from Jessica managed to forcibly summon Yoona’s soul back to her body, "Oh! Yeah! Hi!" 

"Hi! I’m Yuri,” Yuri smiled, ball tucked under her arms.

“Yeah! I know you!” that beam was brighter than the sun up in the sky. Jessica wondered if Yuri was dense enough to not catch Yoona’s obvious interest.

“You’re Im Yoona, right? One year below me, I’ve seen you around,” all of a sudden, Yuri turned her attention to Jessica and gave an awkward little wave, “And um hi, schoolmate Yoona's friend? I don’t recognize you, sorry."

Jessica simply nodded without any shift of expression. She was not even bothered to take off her sunglasses as she eyed Yuri behind them. There wasn’t a rule that said she had to be nice to Yoona’s crush, right?

There were some shouts in the background as Yuri’s teammates tried to catch her attention. Yuri flashed an okay sign at them as she jogged back, but not before bidding goodbye to the two of them.

"I'm just here to pick the ball. Nice meeting you guys!"

Yoona was still in a mini daze when Yuri left. Jessica was counting down the seconds, betting with herself on how long it would take Yoona to start spazzing.

About twenty seconds later, Yoona burst.

“Omg O.M.G., unnie! I talked to my crush!!!!!” Yoona gushed and started giggling crazily.

Jessica had an urge to silence crappy-main-character-in-cliché-high-school-plot-with-predictable-love-story Yoona by stuffing sand in . The resulting sandiness might just be worth the trouble.

Yoona was still giggling.

“Congrats. Can we go now, the sun's blazing.” 

“No!”

“Oh god. You’re insatiable.”

***

Somehow, like always, Jessica surrendered and acquiesced to Yoona’s request of staying at the beach. The highly detested hot weather was subsiding and Yoona looked too much like a smitten puppy for Jessica to have the heart of dragging her away. Unfortunately, Jessica could hardly brave her boredom with the mistakenly taken book which involved too many medical terms and untimely deaths of patients.

The action on the court had stopped with the volleyball team sitting around on the sand, mostly chatting, while the rest seemed to be fooling around by playing a weird form of tag involving the thr