Weeks passed and Jessica had slowly but surely felt her own energy being drained from her body. It was tiring to put up a happy front and act like you weren't hurting inside. She had thought that it would be easy-- at least a little bit-- to act like nothing happened. But something did happen, and she couldn't ignore it anymore.

Jessica sat in her first class of the day, staring straight ahead at the girl that was the cause of her constant inner arguements. She narrowed her eyes when Tiffany turned to her friend next to her and gave them her eye-blinding smile. Jessica always sighed and felt her body automatically relax at the sight of such a calming smile. But now wasn't the time to relax, to just gaze from afar at her soulmate, no. 

"You're spacing out a bit more than usual, Jessica," Yuri poked her head out from next to her, "You better watch out before your heart rate just completely stops."

"You shut your mouth." Jessica muttered and slouched in her chair. She fiddled with her thumbs and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling, exhaling sharply before running her hands through her hair. "Yul.." Jessica started with a soft voice, "Do you ever think.. that these clocks are useless?"

Yuri turned towards her friend with a raised eyebrow and tilted her head. "These?" She pointed to her own wrist (which read 39 days, 9 hours, and 48 minutes). Jessica nodded with her eyes still turned to the ceiling. Her best friend seemed a bit caught in surprise considering her friend even paid any mind to their clocks. 

"No, I think they're actually amazing." Yuri shrugged after a moment of thought. "They show you when you're gonna meet the person you're gonna spend the rest of your life with. I think that's wonderful."

Jessica groaned and rolled her eyes again. "Okay, yeah, it does that... but do you ever think it could be wrong?"

"Wrong?"

There was a moment of silence between the two girls, but the sounds of pencils writing and students chattering continued around them. Yuri pursed her bottom lip and slowly shook her head. "No, I don't think it could. I've never heard of it ever messing up." 

Jessica huffed a loud groan and aggressively crossed her arms, kicking her chair back and resting on the back legs. "Hey, watch it," Sooyoung looked over her shoulder and waved her finger at her friend. Jessica gave her the tongue back.

"My god, what mood are you in?" Yuri tried to lighten the atmosphere with a smile, but the only reply she received was a glare.

After classes were over, Jessica was free to go home, where she once again beat herself up over her own feelings. Her favorite position to do so (by far) was curling up on her bed with a body-pillow tucked between her legs so that she could scream muffled curses of frustration without being a bother.

Jessica desperately needed advice and help, but who could she possibly call? The one person that she wanted to confide in was the one causing her internal conflicts, and she didn't dare admit to her friends that she was stressing out over her feelings.  

So, Jessica finally made a choice.

She didn't want help, she didn't want pity, and she didn't want to suffer any longer. She wanted an answer.

Tiffany sat in her room with her cheesy pop-romance music blasting from her laptop. She scrolled through her entire tumblr with no interest at all, reblogging the select few that caught her eye, then going back to the top to repeat the entire process. To be quite honest, even though this was a normal routine for her, she was painstakingly bored this time around. Rolling over onto her back, Tiffany took a deep breath and let her mind wander as she stared at her pink ceiling. 

Tifffany thought about all sorts of things, like what she wanted to eat, what her outfit tomorrow would be, what type of song she should play next-- but no matter what, her thoughts would always wind up settling on a certain brunette that she knew, and suddenly, every "what should I do" became "what is she doing?"

Now Tiffany wondered what Jessica wanted to eat, what Jessica would wear tomorrow, what song Jessica was currently listening to; and no matter what Tiffany did, she couldn't just stop.

"Ugh! What the hell!" Tiffany rolled back onto her stomach with a huff of irritation and stared at her laptop screen. Why was she doing this? Why did she feel so weird when she thought of this? Tiffany expected to be a pro at emotions like this, knowing how to act, what to say, what to think-- but she was terrible at it! 

But why? Tiffany thought, Why is it that this situation turned out the way it did... 

Before Tifffany could even come up with an answer for herself, she heard the muffled sound of her doorbell through her bedroom door. Assuming it was her mail, she hurriedly hopped from her mattress and shuffled her way along her hard-wood floors, skidding to a stop when she finally reached the front.

"Good afternoon--" Tiffany opened the door with a wide smile, but her sentence trailed off when she saw Jessica standing in place instead.    

"Oh, hi Jessi," she tried to play it off like she wasn't surprised to see her, but it didn't seem too convincing.

Jessica studied Tiffany's face for a few moments, searching for a sign that maybe she really shouldn't be there, and maybe she could just run and pretend like she forgot something important. But that was stupid.

"Tiff.. we need to talk." The words finally slipped from Jessica's mouth, and both of them knew that there was no going back now. Tiffany tilted her head with her signature blank stare.

"About what, Jess?"

Jessica took a deep breath through and furrowed her eyebrows. "Damnit, Tiffany, you know exactly what we need to talk about." She raised her arm and yanked the cloth from her wrist, pointing precisely at the clock that read 00:00:00.

A rush of red took over Tiffany's cheeks, and she turned away to look at the ground next to her. There was a pause.

"Jess, can we please.." Tiffany's voice was quiet and hushed, like she was afraid somebody would hear them. Jessica leaned forward and squinted her eyes.

"What, not talk about it?" She finished the girl's sentence for her, "We haven't! It's been weeks, Tiffany! If there's ever going to be a time for this, it's now."

Tiffany pulled back in surprise and shook her head. Suddenly, she felt angry, and for once, she let it show. "It's just a mistake, Jessica!" Tiffany finally raised her voice and turned to face her best friend, "Why can't you let it go!"

"Because," The words felt like every syllable weighed down the pain in Jessica's chest, "It's you! I know it's weird and neither of us could've seen this coming, but I don't want it to be anyone else! It isn't anyone else, and you know it too!"

Tiffany closed her eyes and put her hands to her forehead. "Jessica- now is not the time! It isn't us, and it isn't our time!"

"Then when will it be, Tiff?" Jessica stepped closer to her, reaching out to take her gently, "When will it be our time? You, of all people, believe in these clocks the most. So why now do you choose to fight it? What is it about me that you cant stand?!" 

"It isn't you!" Tiffany yelled, "It's-- I mean-- damn it, Jessica, I dont know, okay?" She shook her head, "I don't have an answer for you!"

"It's simple, you tell me if you want this, and if you don't, we can ignore these stupid clocks, ignore that this happened, and pretend like everything is all back to normal. Just tell me."

Nothing will be normal after this, you know that. Tiffany rubbed her eyes and held her own arms, "Let's just.. please, not have this stress us out like this. We'll find answers eventually. But.. I think right now, more than anything, we just need to think."

Jessica felt like all the pressure she held within herself turned into a block of weights and plowed through her chest. It wasn't straightforward like she wanted, but there was her answer, and all she could do was accept it.

A long silence sat between the two girls until Jessica finally sighed.

"Alright."

Then she turned, inhaled a shaky breath, and walked away.

An inevitable tug of heartstrings was felt between the pair with each step that carried them further and further away.

I'm so sorry for my 5000 year writer's block but here I am!!