(ﾉ ^▽^)ﾉ

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Underneath the glimmering leaves of a marvelous tree, rested three girls relaxing comfortably in the shade.

“This place is so beautiful,” Tiffany ran her fingers through the luscious grass. “It’s like we’re in paradise.”

“Yeah.. Very beautiful,” Taeyeon softly added. “Hard to believe it’s being destroyed by evil.” 

“And we’re supposed to be the ones to save this place..”  Taeyeon ripped up a piece of grass and started fiddling with it. 

Tiffany took note of Taeyeon’s restless movements.
 

“Something bothering you?”

Receiving no response, Tiffany waved her hand in front of Taeyeon.

"Huh? What?" 

"I asked if there was something bothering you." Tiffany  watched Taeyeon fidget like a kid.

“Ah, sorry,” Taeyeon threw away the crumpled piece of grass. “I’m worried... It's just...  Are we even ready? We’re just teenagers.”

“Well, even if we aren’t ready.. We’re gonna have to do this.”

“But this is such a huge role. How can we possible achieve it…”

“Nuh uh uh, Martel says we are not only humans; we have cores inside us, Spirits!” Tiffany made a circle shape with her finger. “Although... I’m still registering what she lectured us with.”

“Right,” Taeyeon brought her gaze forward. “But what if... What if something happens to us..”

Tiffany softened her eyes at Taeyeon.

“What if one of us end up....” 

“That won’t happen, Taeyeon.” Tiffany shook her head compassionately. 
 

"We all have each other. I won’t let that happen, those fools won’t let that happen.” Tiffany directed her finger to the 4 hooligans causing mayhem.

Taeyeon chuckled at her weird, crazy friends on the field. 

“This girl passed out right here won’t let that happen,” Tiffany turned to a sleeping Jessica beside them. “And YOU, won’t let that happen.”

Taeyeon couldn’t take her eyes off the promising girl, but then she awkwardly darted her eyes away from staring at her for a bit too long; she chuckled to herself.

“What’s so funny?” Tiffany pouted.

Taeyeon looked back at Tiffany. “You sounded like a passionate leader there.” Not ignoring that cute pout, Taeyeon reached over and pinched her cheek.

“And thank you for the pep talk.”

Tiffany touched her cheek and smiled shyly with her eyes.

“Your eyes disappeared,” Taeyeon laughed loudly. “ They’re shaped like the McDonald’s yellow arches.”

Tiffany frowned. “They are not.” 
 

“They do, Miss-Eye smiles to the world loud girl.” Jessica unexpectedly muttered with her eyes still closed.

Tiffany looked down at the laying girl. “Weren’t you sleeping? Miss lazy head.” 

“I was. Until I puked in my dream when you two were having eye just now.” Jessica said tiredly.

“W-We were not!” Tiffany stuttered in an appalled expression. “We were only talking!”
 

Taeyeon looked away and pretended there was something fascinating in the opposite direction.

“With your eyes, am I right?” Jessica said in a teasing manner. 
 

Tiffany slapped Jessica on the arm.” Go back to sleep!”

Taeyeon was facing away from the girls, grinning to herself.
 

“I can’t, I’m too mentally disturbed.” Jessica sat up and stretched out her legs. 
 

“Fine, stay awake,” Tiffany crossed her arms. “And we were not!” 
 

Jessica chuckled at Tiffany. “Yes yes, you weren’t.”
 

Jessica gazed at the scenery around them and at the 4 silly girls playing what looked like a game of tag.

“Do you guys think they know we’re missing?” 
 

Tiffany shifted to the random question. “What do you mean?” 
 

“Because we’re not on Earth anymore… Do we still exist or are there ‘Missing children’ on the news?”
 

“Oh.. I’ve never thought about that.”
 

“Like Taeyeon said,” Jessica glanced at the back of Taeyeon’s head. “If we do die, will our families know?”
 

Suddenly, the air kicked in and wind danced around them.

Goddess Martel magically appeared.
 

“I don’t mean to rudely interrupt, but these questions should’ve been asked earlier.” Martel stood tall. 

Taeyeon, Tiffany, Jessica sat there shocked at the magical appearance. They were still not used to all the mystical performances.
 

“To answer your question,” Martel breathed out. “ The body of you girls cease to exist on Earth. But, you are not forgotten. However, when you girls were warped, everything on Earth has been frozen in time.”
 

“The rest of Earth will remain frozen in time until you girls return and this planet is saved. But if you die here in the Digital World, your existence on Earth will also disappear, as if you were never born. Completely forgotten and erased.” 
 

“If that is all, I apologize for eavesdropping.” Martel simply said. “You girls have 15 minutes left. Goodbye.” Martel dissolved and glittered away into the sky.
 

The three girls stared at each other wide eyed.
 

“That scared me.” Tiffany uttered.
 

“Remind me to never say anything bad about her…” Taeyeons squirmed in her spot. “Now I really don’t know how I feel about this whole saving the world thing.” 
 

Jessica sat in a dejected mood engulfed with deep thoughts. Taeyeon sensed Jessica’s mood drop.
 

“Jessica?” Taeyeon shook Jessica’s leg. “Hey, Jessica.” 
 

Jessica suddenly brought up attention at the sudden name call to see Taeyeon’s concerned pair of eyes.
 

“Sica, what’s with the long face?” Taeyeon left her hand on Jessica’s leg.
 

For some reason, to hear that nickname of hers, she didn’t get the same giddy feeling as to when Yuri said it. Besides that, Jessica opened but words couldn’t escape. Taeyeon saw her struggling and placed her other hand on her back.
 

“If we die… We can’t see our families anymore...My sister.. Mom.. Dad.. You guys..” Jessica’s voice was shaking. “Like we never existed…”
 

Taeyeon wiggled and slid next to Jessica. “Didn’t you hear Tiffany’s speech? We’re all in this together. We will kick and save this world.”
 

Taeyeon hesitantly wrapped her arms around Jessica’s waist and hugged her.
 

Placing her chin on Jessica’s shoulder. She happened to get a whiff of her alluring smell. “It-It’ll all be o-okay,” Taeyeon tried to remain composed as she consoled her. 
 

….Mmmm.. She smells really good. Taeyeon thought.
 

Jessica was oblivious to Taeyeon’s stutter and hugged back awkwardly. She was also oblivious to Taeyeon’s curled up smile and redden ears that were hidden in her hair. 
 

Tiffany went closer to the two girls as well. “Yeah! We are not leaving anyone behind. Not even those idiots out there. We’re going to get through this together and return home.” Tiffany grabbed Jessica’s and Taeyeon’s hand, setting them on her lap. 
 

“You do a good pep talk,” Taeyeon laughed like a dork. “It’s nice.” 
 

Tiffany happily smiled and patted herself on the back. Taeyeon chuckled at the action and turned back to Jessica.
 

“Thank you.” Jessica murmured. 
 

“Say what?” Tiffany asked in surprise.
 

“T-thank you, “ Jessica quietly admitted. “For comforting me.”
 

“Oh my god, are you Jessica Jung?” Tiffany gasped. “THE Jessica Jung being shy and grateful!?” She exaggerated a blown away motion.
 

“What what? Is this rare?” Taeyeon confusedly searched for answers. 
 

“Yes!? Taeyeon let me tell you, you are witnessing something that has never been seen before!” Tiffany covered in an overemphasized shocked face.  
 

“Shut up.” Jessica displayed a small smile with her embarrassed expression.

“Annnnd she’s back!” Taeyeon clapped. “Now that’s something I’m familiar with.”
 

Jessica tried to stare them down, but Taeyeon and Tiffany were busy laughing away.
 

“YAAAAAH!”
 

The three girls shifted their attention to their crazy four friend’s out on the field. At first, they were messing around, but now Sooyoung is on the ground while the other Yuri, Hyoyeon, and Yoona were blasting out laughter.


……


“YAAHHH!”

Sooyoung picked herself off the ground. “That was not fair!”

Yoona, Yuri, and Hyoyeon were busy laughing their butts off. 

Hyoyeon squeezed out another laugh. “It’s not our fault you can’t run!”

“And you tripped over yourself!” Yuri fell down laughing clutching her stomach.  

“Ahahah Sooyoung-unnie! “ Yoona tilted back and opened wide her alligator mouth.  “You ran like you have two left feet!”

Sooyoung made an X with her arms and separated them, and made an X again. She repeated this action many times.

“No no no, I demand a re-do!” 

“You can’t have a re-do in a game of TAG!” Yoona snorted out a laugh.

“Then that should be a penalty!” Sooyoung yelled. 

“There are no rules!!” Yoona argued back.

“There is! It’s called ‘Rules of Games’," Sooyoung puffed up her posture. “And I quote ‘If someone pushes another person into the ground then there is a penalty of 50 hamburgers.’ “

“Ok really? That’s a big fat lie!” Yoona disputed. 

“Yoona tagged you before you did some ugly falling on your face!” Yuri continued to replay the scene in her mind. 

“Hey! I don’t fall ugly!” Sooyoung pounced on the kneeling Yuri. 

“WAIT WAIT!” Yuri fell back with Sooyoung on top of her.

“DOG PILE!!” Hyoyeon jumped on Sooyoung, who was on top of Yuri.

“WEEE! “ Yoona hopped in. 

Yoona who was now on top of Hyoyeon, who was on top of Sooyoung; who was above a dying Yuri. 

Sooyoung gave Yuri a struggling head knuckle. “MY FACE IS PERFECTLY FINE!!” 

“Get off me tubby!” Yuri wheezed out in a strained voice. 

“I’m not fat!!” Sooyoung stretched Yuri’s cheek. 

“YAAHH!! Sooyoung!” Yuri thrashed around, only kicking her feet since her arms were tightly squished under Sooyoung. 

Hyoyeon put Sooyoung in a headlock, “Sooyoung, you cheater!!” 

Sooyoung used her other hand and grabbed a handful of platinum blonde locks and began to pull it weakly. 

“Unlock my head!” Sooyoung shouted with her occupied two hands. 

“Stupid! You’re gonna yank out all my hair!” Hyoyeon shook Sooyoung’s head in the headlock.

“Whoaa! WHOAA!!” Yoona was holding on to Hyoyeon like a koala. The girls below her were tousling around festively. 

In the not so far distance, the noise could be heard through the vast fortress. Seohyun and Sunny stood together and watched the ruckus their friends were making.

“Sunny- unnie, should we do something?” 

“Give it a couple more minutes before we separate the kids.” Sunny casually looked at them. 

“How come?” Seohyun asked. “They could hurt themselves, O-OMO! Look at THAT!” 

“Because it’s easier to break them up when they tire themselves out.” Sunny spoke confidently.

“Unnie… I’ve known them for quite a while…” Seohyun looked at Sunny gravely. 
 

“They are forever hyper.”

Sunny slowly rotated her head to Seohyun in fright.

“Still?” 

Seohyun nodded her head sadly.

“Well, let’s head back to Taeyeon then.” Sunny shrugged as they both made their way.


…….


Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Jessica sat in comfort viewing the comical scene just a few distances away. 

“What are they doing?!” Jessica watched their friends on top of each other in bewilderment.

“That’s a dog pile,” Tiffany said with a disbelief face. “But that’s one heck of a clutter dog pile though..”

Taeyeon was baffled. “They seem to play with each other quite roughly.” 

“Poor Yuri, she’s at the very bottom too.” Tiffany hinted with a tiny bit of sympathy.

Sunny and Seohyun arrived to the three girls. 

“We were thinking of separating them.” Sunny’s voice came into the picture.

“Oh, Soonkyu, Seohyun! How nice of you two to join us.” Taeyeon welcomed them.

“Taeyeon-ah… it’s SUNNY!” Sunny scrunched up her nose and pouted. 

“Sorry, Sunny-ah, I forgot.” Taeyeon scratched the side of her head.

“You were thinking of meddling in that chaos?” Jessica went back to Sunny’s comment.

“Yeah, we were,” Sunny continued. “But, Seohyun made me think otherwise.”

“Why?”

“It’s because they’re quite hard to tame.” Seohyun tried choosing the right words, “Hyoyeon-unnie is wild once she gets going, Yoona doesn’t get tired when things are fun, and as for Yuri and Sooyoung...  They definitely add the fuel.” 

Taeyeon wondered if she should join in, “That looks like fun though?”

“Does that actually look like fun to you?” Tiffany looked at Taeyeon in surprise.

The rowdy girls ruckus  volume went up. 

“I think I’ll go break them up.” Taeyeon proposed and got up.

“Unnie, I don’t think that’s necessary anymore,” Seohyun spoke up. “Martel –subaenim is there now.” 

Taeyeon and the girls saw Martel’s goddess figure hovering above them.

“They’re getting reprimanded now.” Jessica watched on amusingly.


…..


Goddess Martel lingered above them with crossed arms. 

“Ahem.”

The boisterous girls in the dog pile didn’t hear a thing.

“Ahem....” Martel cleared a bit louder.

Yuri, Yoona, Hyoyeon, and Sooyoung continued to wrangle on with each other.

“AHEM!!” Martel tapped her foot impatiently.

The ruckus the girls were making had gotten even louder, drowning out Martel’s sound.

“GIRLS!!!”

Martel’s voice boomed and caused the girls to halt their actions. They twisted their head to see an irritable Martel. 

The girls remained in uncivilized positions; Yoona clinging onto Hyoyeon’s back. Hyoyeon’s disheveled hair while tightly holding Sooyoung’s head in a headlock. Sooyoung with a handful of Hyoyeon’s hair in one hand and pinching Yuri’s cheek in the other. And Yuri at the very bottom, barely surviving the quarrel.

Martel graced her fingers around and levitated the four girls in the air to separate them. 

“WHOA WAAHHHH!!” Sooyoung and Yoona dog paddled in the air. 

Martel spun Yuri and Hyoyeon around.

Lowering them to a good height, she dropped them. They all land on their feet. Hyoyeon and Yuri swayed dizzily in one spot.

“Damn, that was awesome!!” Yoona shouted excitedly. “Again!”

“I’ve never seen such behaviour in my life! ” Martel boggled at the girls. “I said to rest, not tear each other apart!” 

“Yo, Martel, chill out.” Hyoyeon said to the distressed Martel.

“Yea man, we were just playin around. “ Yuri added as she caressed her inflamed cheek. 

“Dude, it ain’t like we gonna kill each other.” Sooyoung replied with a confused face.

Martel stuttered and tilted her head at the foreign words, “ Yo? Man? Dude? Chill out?“ She massaged her stressed out head and managed to prevent her veins from popping.  

“What the unnies said!” Yoona skipped up to Martel. “We would never want to hurt each other.”

Martel tiredly looked at the four girls standing in front of her, all with messed up hair. Yoona giddily smiling like a child, Hyoyeon smiling with bedraggled platinum blonde strands flying out. Sooyoung sheepishly rubbed her neck where Hyoyeon had held her. And Yuri with hair strands sprung up as she soothed her redden cheek, giving a thumbs up.

“It looked quite inhuman,” Martel voiced out. “Taeyeon, Jessica, Tiffany, Sunny, Seohyun, please come over here.”

The six girls walked their way across the field and stood together with Sooyoung, Hyoyeon, Yoona, and Yuri.

“Wow, you guys look like you enjoyed yourselves.” Taeyeon picked at Yuri’s sprung out hair pieces.

Jessica subconciously approached Yuri and helped fix her hair by combing through it with her fingers, like she's done this several times before.
 

"Gosh Yuri, why are you so kkab." Jessica scolded her.
 

Yuri looked at her confusedly, "J-Jessica? What are you doing?"
 

"What does it look like?"
 

"But, I thought you could care less about me." Yuri's voice was full of tease. "I knew you couldn't resist me."
 

Jessica's breath hitched. Yuri was right. Why did she tend to Yuri? The girl was incredibly annoying.
 

Jessica scrambled her brain, "I was only trying to be nice. Can't I be a nice person for once?"
 

Yuri gave her a weird look, "Yeah, a person can be nice... But coming from you?"
 

Jessica glared directly into Yuri's soul. For some reason, a part of her felt a bit upset. 
 

"You know what, fine. Don't accept my help. Don't expect it anymore." Jessica's face was evident with hurt.
 

Yuri caught on to her unhappy reaction and quickly tried to appease, "S-Sica, I was only kidding!"
 

"Whatever."
 

Jessica pulled away upsettlingly. Roughly bringing down Yuri's head down too, causing Yuri to lose her balance and bump into Jessica.

Yuri wrapped her arm around Jessica's waist to hold herself from falling over.
 

Jessica was caught off guard by this action and held Yuri closely. Surprisingly, the warmth of Yuri on Jessica gave her the most fluttering feelings.

Jessica stammered shyly. "Y-Yuri." 
 

Yuri blinked excessively in her position. Her arm still around Jessica's waist like it's been there before. 
 

Yuri pulled back and saw Jessica with the same surprised expression. 
 

In this moment, the two looked like they just finished making out. Jessica's one hand tangled in Yuri's hair and Yuri's arm secured around Jessica's waist. The two locked eyes again and it was as though there was a hidden link delivered between the two.

"S-Sorry. I didn't mean to." Yuri looked to the side and slid her arm off Jessica.
 

Jessica also looked away with warm hues gathering on her cheeks. "It-It's okay."
 

"Uhm... Sica..." Yuri said nervously.
 

Jessica managed to must up courage and faced Yuri. Yuri pointed at her hand that was still situated in her hair.
 

Jessica tried to yank it out.
 

“Uhm, Yuri… My  hand’s stuck.”
 

“Ow! Ow! Don’t pull so hard!” Yuri’s head was dragged down by Jessica’s yanking.
 

Taeyeon watched the entire scene. She  couldn't deny the unhappy feeling settling inside her. Taeyeon held the knot of hair as she made brief contact with Jessica’s soft hand. She untangled the knot, smiling with envy at Jessica and her care for Yuri.
 

“You missed out on all fun, midget,” Sooyoung grinned and leaned her arm on Taeyeon’s shoulder.
 

Taeyeon shrugged off Sooyoung’s arm. “I saw and heard enough to feel a part of it.”

Then, Martel came into sight and monitored the 9 girls conversing.
 

“Girls, the 30 minutes are up.”
 

“Let’s begin.”

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