Sitting at her grandmother's funeral, surrounded by every person she ever met growing up and her entire extended family, there's so much sympathy she's drowning in it. Jessica stands at the wake next to Yuri, her closest guy friend who is solid and stoic in the midst of her emotional chaos, but when she sees Tiffany, her best friend and lifetime confidant, shooting Sooyoung, her first love and one true love, a gentle look from across the room, her chest hurts.

She's never felt more alone. She felt as if she had lost a vital part of herself but she had her heart. She was drowning but nobody saw her struggle. Does he even care? Do they even care? She felt lost inside herself.

Its three weeks later, while she's still warily waiting for her life to turn back from what it used to be, that Jessica receives a phone call from an extremely enthusiastic gentleman on behalf of Vogue. She listens with vague disinterest, wandering aimlessly around Yuri penthouse' rooftop over viewing the entire city below.

The guy over the phone mentions something about a Chanel deal and something about Los Angeles, and Jessica's prepared to rebuff him­, Seoul is her home, her mother’s  here and Yuri and Tiffany and…..Sooyoung. The man pauses in his ranting, and Jessica opens to say no when she spies a sweater hanging off the edge of the couch in the living room, and the familiar ache of heartbreak chokes off her declination. It's a faded blue, but she knows it was navy when she'd first brought it for him in junior year.

But why is it here of all places? And she got her answer seeing her mother with Yuri and Tiffany in the living room. Tiffany might have brought it back to return it to her. Sooyoung’s always loved that sweater. Or so she thought she did.

Jessica steps out of the balcony into the living room where everyone’s sitting. She briefly asks the agent how long does he want her in L.A and he answered for a couple of years. And it just sinks in now, she’s gonna have to move out of Korea for good if she ever accepts the offer. The thought of it sends chill all over her body but she’s been trying to get her life back and maybe, just maybe, this could be the start of it. So she closed the deal, deciding to start fresh.

Her mother is proud first and foremost, and though Jessica offers to stay if she needs her, Jessica waves her off and instead embraces her tightly. It's an opportunity of a lifetime, and she thinks it would be good for her daughter to get out of the city for a while. Her daughter agrees.

Yuri's eyes are warm and supportive, though his smirk knows and when he hands her a drink in celebration he gives her a meaningful look, as if quoting, 'good for you'.

The reaction she receives from Tiffany is awkward, to say the least. She smiles in a way she doesn't mean and asks Jessica how long she's gonna be away. Jessica shrugs and hopes Tiffany, for once, would just be happy for her.

“'I'll miss you,” Tiffany says , brown eyes sincere.

 Jessica nods, "Yeah, me too…” and it's all Jessica can do, not to cry or yell or both.

She wishes she meant it more. But she’d be lying to herself and to Tiffany. They both know their friendship’s already at its breaking point ever since Tiffany stepped out of line on Valentine’s Day.

Packing has never been something she's good at, and she stands in her room at the penthouse, surrounded by her clothes wishing she was sixteen again and could just take off without forethought. But this is different; this isn't a trip to Greece or a weekend in Paris. This time, Jessica isn't sure if she's ever coming back.

She starts on the drawers at her bedside table and the first thing she pulls out is a five by seven old photo frame. There's a girl in a gold dress and a boy with a matching vest, and they're kissing on the dance floor.

Jessica feels hurt bubbling up inside her as she looks at them, so young, so happy, and so gone.

Jessica throws it on the bed, pulling tights and stockings from the drawers when there's a slight knock at her door. She turns with a handful of clothes, bracing herself for her mother’s endless crying.

But it's the boy from the photo, sans the vest. Jessica's throat dries and her heart constricts in her chest. Go away. They haven't really spoken since Valentine's Day, and certainly haven't been alone since. Jessica's standing uncomfortably in the doorway, his brown eyes perusing the mountain of stuff strewn across her bed before looking at her face. Jessica's still and neither of them are sure what to do with this awkward, foreign chasm that stretches between them.

Sooyoung shifts, hands in his pockets, "Hey."

"…hey." Jessica wants to strangle the soft sadness in her voice, but he's standing there looking like he doesn't belong, and it reminds her in excruciating detail of all the time he was her boyfriend.

He gestures at the clothes piled on her bed, "So I guess it's true."

Jessica throws the clothes in her hand into the suitcase, taking an imperceptible step away from him, don't come closer.

"Yeah, it is."

Jessica nods slightly, and she recognizes the look on his face. There's a firm set to his jaw, lips pursed and brows slightly knitted above eyes that reflect his confliction. Jessica looks at the floor, the bed, the wall, anywhere but at him, and her gaze falls on the picture sitting on her comforter. It's face up, and it rends at her failing strength to see it again while he's here, so close yet so ing far away.

Sooyoung sighs, mouth open for a moment silently as he grapples with the words,"Why?"

Why?

It's a soft sound, its kind and a little despairing, and Jessica feels the all too familiar sensation of tears betraying her, "Why not?"

Sooyoung can tell she's upset, and he wants to comfort her, but she's withdrawn further and further since he walked in. Jessica's handling a shirt, folding it over and over in her hands, and he wishes she'd look at him.

When Yuri told him about Jessica leaving, it brought forth a storm of emotions; Anger, guilt, sadness, and he think maybe he shouldn't be feeling these things for her. He loves Tiffany, their relationship’s always been so relax and so mutual. Unlike his and Jessica’s, it’s full of drama, it’s complex and it’s a roller coaster ride. But it was real and...it's been a wonderful one. That Sooyoung's sure of.

Sooyoung's so certain of his feelings for Tiffany that he's blindsided when the first instinct he has when he hears Jessica's leaving is to beg her to stay.

"Why…Jessica, your whole life is here, you can't just leave." He's treading on very thin ice, because he so badly wants her to stay but is in no position to ask.

You can't stop me. Jessica aches, and him being here is only wounding her further because not only is he someone else's, he's Tiffany's, her best friend.

"I don't have any reason to stay."

"That's not a reason to go!" Jessica knows he's getting heated, but he's a direct person and dancing around what he wants to say is frustrating him. Jessica sighs; she's hurt and tired and sick of being sad and just wants to leave this city and everyone in it.

"I'm going, Soo, I have nothing keeping me here."

She zips a bag shut, walking around the bed. He can't tell her not to go, he has no right, but he cannot imagine Seoul, his life, without her, and he grasps her by the hand as she passes close.

Jessica stops abruptly, the familiar sensation of his hands in hers inspiring a fluttering in her chest she's missed; Immediately afterwards it serves to do nothing but make her realize how much she loves him, how much she's lost to Tiffany, and she tugs gently as she whispers brokenly, "Let go."

"Stay," Sooyoung leans to look at her face, which is a cataclysm of pain and bitterness, and he feels guilt rise in his throat, you cannot ask her this, "Please, please stay?"

Jessica feels a single tear roll down her cheek, but an indignant anger kindles within her, and she looks at him, brown eyes open and pleading.

"Do you love Tiffany?" The set of his brow falters, and she doesn't need an answer. Sooyoung swallows, "Jess­"

"You do. You love Tiffany, and that means that you don't get to ask me to stay!" She can feel more tears rolling unbidden down her cheeks, but she's too angry to care. Sooyoung knows she's right about Tiffany, but still he frowns, "Is that what this is? An ultimatum? I'm with you or you leave?"

Jessica balks, choking back a sob and feeling her hurt and anger yearn to break free and tear into him. She looks away again, composing herself a moment and sees that ing picture of them at prom, still sitting on the bed.

Jessica loved him then, and she loves him now; She loves him more than anything else in her world. Irrespective of what she tells Tiffany, it matters that she still loves him, it matters that Tiffany is her best friend; Somehow, his happiness matters more. And what makes him happy right now is Tiffany. Her anger slips through her fingers, and she just feels empty, lonely.

"It isn't about me. You love her, Soo, and that's…..that's okay," She hopes it's the hardest thing she ever has to say, because the words practically strangle her on the way out.

 "But I can't be happy for you. I can say it, but I can't feel it." Jessica's brown eyes gaze softly into his, and Sooyoung really feels something for her in that moment, something scary. "I want you to be happy, but I can't be here, in this city, and be happy for you. Don't ask me to."

Sooyoung just stares at her for a minute, and it's like he's seeing her at high school all over again. She did everything for him. Sacrificing what plenty she had just to be with a nobody like him. She’s looked at him the way Tiffany or any other students at that elite school never looked at him. She looked at him like he’s the only person in the world that matters. It's the most selfless thing a girl has ever done for him, that anyone has ever done for him, and suddenly she's so much more than what he thought she was. He knew it in high school, he knew it last year; somewhere in the last twelve months, he lost that. Looking at her, broken and weary, he realises he's lost more than that.

Jessica tugs at his hand again, whispering with a finality that transcends her words, "Let go, Soo."

He keeps his grip on hers a moment more, and allows her to slip free from him. As she turns her back to him, Sooyoung feels that same scary feeling in his chest, only this time it's tinged with heartache. Sooyoung loves Tiffany. But when he turns to leave and sees a photo sitting on the bed, a gold dress and a sweeping kiss, a warm, familiar sensation swells within him.

He loves Jessica too.