I began to blink my eyes furiously in attempts to clear my blurry vision. I could feel the grogginess of sleep blanketed over my body, yet even though I had slept for a long time, I still felt tired. I craned my neck over the edge of my bed to try and make out the red light of my clock on my desk. Squinting I strained my eyes to try and make out the numbers from the only source of light in my dark room.

10:30pm

I stared at the time, wondering exactly how long I had been asleep. I furrowed my brows in attempts to remember when the loud banging against my door began. My thoughts however were interrupted by the painful pressure against my bladder. I contorted my face into one of discomfort as I rolled off my bed. The moment my feet hit the carpet, I had to steady my wobbling legs. Perhaps I had been in bed for too long since my legs would no longer function. I stumbled along my disastrous room (when was the last time I cleaned?) and somehow found my way into the rest room without falling over. I didn’t dare turn on the light to see my reflection. Instead I opted to remain in the dark, refusing to see the truth. After finishing my business, I began to drag my lethargic body back to my bed. As I neared my destination, the soft sound of pitter-patter against my window began to fill the deafening silence. I turned my gaze over to my window to see droplets of rain splashing against it.

“It’s raining,” I whispered to myself as I made my way over to the window. I leaned against the wall near the window and pressed my palm against the glass, feeling the contrast of the cold window against my warm hand.

I could feel my eyes begin to close as I whispered to myself, “It was raining then also…”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Jessica. Jessica wake up.”

Jessica let out a groan and limply swatted her hand towards the source of disturbance. Just when she was about to fall into a deep slumber, a series of short, powerful jabs began to attack her side. After each jab, a loud and annoying voice would call her name.

“Jessica,”

Jab.

“Jessica,”

Poke.

“Jessica, Jessica, JESSICA!”

Poke. Poke. Jab.

“Yah, Jessica get up. Stop being a lazy and help me.”

Letting out another dissatisfied groan, Jessica willed herself to sit up. Eyes still closed and a pout planted on her face, Jessica began to try to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Finally opening them, she turned her face to glare at the person, only to find a tanned face, graced an irritated glare and pouted lips. Jessica gave one last glare at the tanned girl before lying back down to try and sleep.

“Yah, stop poking me!”

“Then get up! It’s you’re responsibility to help me!”

“Help you with what? You have to legs and a heartbeat. Help yourself and let me sleep.”

An incredulous scoff rang through Jessica’s ears followed by a string of mumbling, “Calm down, Yuri…do not hit her…she is just trying to get a reaction out of you. You are the better person…do not stoop down to her level.”

“Yah, stop mumbling to yourself. You look like a crazy person talking to yourself like that, you know?

“Then get up and help me! It’s your fault I’m like this. Or did you forget already?”

“Forget what?”

“I cannot believe-YAH! Open you’re eyes you rude Ice Princess and take a look at where you are!”

At the sound of her infamous name, Jessica’s eyes snapped open to glare at the perpetrator of her sleep only to find herself glaring at an annoyed tanned face.

“Kwon Yuri, you better have a good reason for-”

“Do me a favor and look where you are first before you start cursing at me, will you Princess?”

“What do you mean look where I-”

Jessica then took notice that Yuri’s face was significantly higher than hers. As vertically challenged as she was, Jessica knew that she wasn’t that much shorter than Yuri. Frowning in confusion, Jessica began to look around her, only to realize that she was sitting in a bed, covered in a blanket and a towel. A confused scowl still plastered on her face, Jessica looked back at Yuri, ready to demand answers.

“Where-”

“School Infirmary.”

“How-”

“You were asleep for almost three hours.”

“Why am I-”

“You brought here with me.”

“Why were we-”

Yuri motioned towards her leg, with one hand, the other supporting her weight on a crutch.

Looking down, Jessica noticed that Yuri’s ankle was tightly bandaged up, to the point where movement seemed impossible.

“Wait, I don’t understand how you having a bandaged ankle has anything to do with me being in the school infirmary.”

“Do you really not remember? Come on Jessica, think!”

“What are you-” Jessica began before her attention turned to the sound of pitter-patter against the window.

“It’s raining…?”

“Let’s play.”

Still in shock of Yuri’s sudden toss, Jessica could only stare at the tanned girl with a confused look.

“Come on Jessica, let’s go. I’m giving you a head start anyways.”

Seeing as there was no other way to escape the situation, Jessica began to walk towards the basketball hoop.

“Yah, Jessica you can’t just walk up to the hoop! Dribble the ball!”

Startled by the outburst, Jessica threw the ball down on to the floor, only to have it bounce off her toe and roll away.  Yuri couldn’t help but shake her head as she watched the older girl try to chase after the ball.

Half an hour later, Yuri let out a frustrated groan and leaned against the pole of the basketball hoop as she watched the older girl lie in the middle of the basketball court, gasping for air.

“Jessica, get up now. You’ve been lying there for the past twenty minutes. We haven’t even really done anything that strenuous. I haven’t even pulled out my cool moves yet!” the tanned girl sighed.

Jessica out a disgruntled whine before rolling over onto her stomach: the only movement performed by the older girl since she unceremoniously decided to make the middle of the court her bed.

Yuri sighed before pushing herself off the pole towards the older girl.

“Aish, this lazy . I don’t know why I even agreed to this…the only thing we’ve done in this game is backwards granny shots, one handed lay-ups, and free-throws. This isn’t even a difficult game…she even made a couple of shots and I gave her at least three tries for each letter…” Yuri mumbled to her self as she dragged her feet towards the unmoving body of mass in the middle of the court.

Squatting next to the older girl, Yuri began to poke Jessica to see if she would let out a response.

“Oi, Jessica. Jessica Jung, get up. You lazy bum get up. If you’re going to lie down, then you’re saying you forfeit. Is that what you want? Come on answer me at least.”

Jessica let out a groan before letting out a muffled response.

“What? What did you say?”

Another groan, this time more irritated.

“Yah, Jessica I cant understand you if your face is on the ground!”

The older girl let out a frustrated sigh and turned her face towards Yuri before letting out a whine, “Air-con.”

“Wait, what?”

“Air-connnn~” Jessica whined louder.

“I don’t-”

“Air-con, air-con, air-con, air-con!” Jessica whined, each time louder and more desperate sounding than the first.

“Yah! If you want air-con so bad, get up and go inside!”

Jessica turned her head as far as could and looked up towards Yuri with an intense, unreadable gaze.

“Wh-what? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Carry me.”

“EH?”

“Carry me, carry me, carry me!”

“Yah! Stop acting like a five year old! You’re older than me!”

“Carry me!”

“Get up yourself!”

“Carry.”

“No.”

“Me.”

“I am not carrying you.”

“Carry.”

“I already said-”

“Me.”

“Jessica-”

“Carry me!”

“YAH! I said NO!”

“Carry me. Now. Right now. N.O.W. Right now!”

“Aish! Stop fidgeting Jessica! You’re going to make me drop you!”

“Don’t you dare, Kwon Yuri! If you drop me I swear…”

“What are you going to do? Sleep on me? Oh I’m so scared!”

“No, but I will scream in your ear.”

“…hold on tighter dang it. You’re starting to slip.”

“Pull me up. You’re letting my bottom half sag here.”

Yuri let out a frustrated sigh before heaving the older girl up again. She wasn’t supposed to be doing this. The bet between them only involved a short basketball game. Yet here she was, giving a piggyback ride to the laziest girl on campus.

“Hurry up! It looks like it’s going to rain.” The older girl noted as she leaned against the younger girl’s back.

“I’m going as fast as I can! You’re just to heavy for me to move at a normal pace.”

“YAH!”

“Aish! Stop it! You’re dolphin screams are going to make me deaf!”

“I’m not heavy! And this is your fault. You’re the one who decided to have this stupid bet at the farthest court from main campus.”

“I did it so if anyone passed by, they wouldn’t see how badly you .”

“Hmph! Too bad I beat you. Are you sure it wasn’t so people wouldn’t see you lose to a non-basketball player?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I won, you nincompoop.”

“No you didn’t!”

“Yes I did! I made the three out of the five shots you did and you only made two out of the five I made. Therefore, I had H-O and you had H-O-R. By the rules of your stupid game, I won.”

Yuri paused mid step and craned her neck over to look at the lethargic girl on her back.

“You’re lying.”

Jessica let out a scoff before using her palm to push the tanned girl’s face away.

“Please, you can check the score sheet that we agreed to use in the beginning. I won. You lost. Therefore once we reach main campus, you will give me the key to the athletic lounge and leave me alone forever. Okay?”

“I can’t believe it…”

“Well hurry up and believe it cause it’s starting to rain. And if I get sick because of your sloth like movements, I will hold you responsible. Honestly, you’re the star of the basketball team?”

Yuri let out a frustrated groan before starting to climb up a flight of stairs before her.

“I can’t believe I even let Tiffany convince me to do this.”

“…what did you say?”

“Nothing, your highness.”

“Kwon Yuri, what did you say about Tiffany? Tiffany asked you to do this? To befriend me?”

“Yeah, she’s in my history class. She’s pretty popular even though she doesn’t talk to other people much so I wanted to be friends with her. Usually she just declines but  today she said if I was going to be her friend, I had to befriend you first; something about not wanting to leave you behind or something. So I agreed after being a bit hesitant. I mean come on: you’re really interesting but in general, you’re a difficult person to approach.”

“So you’re saying that if Tiffany didn’t ask you, you wouldn’t have even tried to approach me? Because you’re intimidated by me.” Jessica said in a cold, emotionless tone.

Yuri paused at hearing the blunt statement and immediately a wave of guilt washed over her.

“Well, I wouldn’t put it in so many words as that-”

“Be quiet and keep walking.”

“A-ah, yeah okay.”

Yuri gulped before continuing her trek up the stairs. She didn’t dare speak or make another snide remark. The guilt inside her churning made her too ashamed to even try to alleviate the situation.

Suddenly, the sky became overcast, and the temperature dropped significantly. The heavy storm clouds began to roll in and the light drizzle became a steady flow rain. Yuri expected the girl on her back to reprimand her or yell at her to move faster, yet not a sound was heard from Jessica. After a few moments of silence, Yuri decided to try and speak again.

“H-hey Jessica-”

“Why would Tiffany do that? She knows I hate it when people try to come near me and talk to me…”

Looking over her shoulder, Yuri saw the older girl looking to her left with an unreadable expression on her face.

“I’m not to sure but you can ask her if you want.”

Immediately Jessica’s gaze snapped to the back of Yuri’s head with a confused glare.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she’s right there waiting next to Taeyeon I think it is? Right there next to the front office. That’s where we are headed isn’t it?”

Yuri suddenly began to lose balance as the weight on her back began to shift.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Put me down Kwon Yuri.”

“Y-yah! What’s your problem? We’re almost there! I just need to go up these last steps! Let me get to the top before I put you down.”

However, Jessica would not stop fidgeting and trying to escape Yuri’s grasp.

“Put me down right now Kwon Yuri!”

“Jessica, please stop! These stairs are wet I can’t get that much traction-”

From across the field, Tiffany halted mid-conversation with Taeyeon as a familiar scream echoed through the area.

“So…”

“You wouldn’t stop fidgeting and you made me fall and twist my ankle.”

“Ah...”

“‘Ah.’? That’s all you can say? You made me twist my ankle! You didn’t even help me to infirmary because you were asleep! Mr. Nora had to help me and carry you to the infirmary. If Tiffany didn’t hear you scream and get him we’d probably still be outside in the rain with no one coming to help us.”

“You should have just put me down when I told you to.”

“You’re seriously saying that to me right now?”

Jessica let out a sigh before getting up and grabbing hers and Yuri’s backpack.

“Come on, hurry up. The busses stop working in half an hour.”

“What are you doing?”
 

Grabbing the umbrella from the nurse’s desk, Jessica gave a small shrug before replying.

“Like you said, I made you twist your ankle. Therefore until it is partially healed, I will be your helper, even though I won the bet and we shouldn’t have to associate ourselves with each other. I’ll help you get to class and carry your books: small things like that.  Don’t look so surprised that I’m helping you. I may be an Ice Princess but I’m not a jerk.”

Yuri blinked a couple of times, before her mischievous grin appeared again.

“That means you’ll help me get food during lunch time.”

“Sure.”

“And sit with me at my table just in case I need help.”

“…I guess.”

“And walk me back home just in case someone tries to take advantage of me because I’m too beautiful.”

“Hey now-”

“And introduce me to Tiffany as your friend.”

“Why does that even-”

“And do my homework for me.”

“You’re seriously pushing your luck and my buttons Kwon Yuri. You’re lucky you’re injured.”

Yuri let out a hearty laugh before moving out of the infirmary.

“This should be a fun experience.”

A/N: hiiiii everyone *cricket noises* I know its been awhile I'm sorry!!!! *kowtows* but yeah I hope you enjoyed this chapter. This is just to help set up the setting of future chapters; they will be more exciting I promise. Comments make the author happy :)