Taeyeon's POV

"Taeyeon?" I heard Yuri's voice through the other side of the door followed by three consecutive knocks.

"Come in." I replied almost automatically. I wasn't doing anything as of the moment anyway.

Yuri came in and carefully closed the door. When she turned back around, she surprised me by running towards me and jumping on the bed.

"I missed you Taeng!" She hugged me so tight that I almost couldn't breathe, but my arms managed to escape her hold and hug her back.

"Aw, aw! be careful!"

"Why, what's wrong?" She broke the hug and checked on me. That's when she noticed my arm sling. Don't even ask me why she wasn't able to notice it in the first place. "Oh my gosh, what happened?"

"I broke my arm"

"Who did this to you? I swear I wi-"

"Yul, I broke my arm during the challenges. It's not like I physically fought with anyone." I noticed her frown.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'll take this off after this week." I showed her a smile, just to assure her that I'm okay. My smile might have been contagious enough that she smiled with me and I was surprised when she attacked me with another hug.

I noticed that she had her backpack with her, which was making it harder for my short arms to hug her. She giggled before she broke the hug, then she crossed her legs for a more comfortable position, facing me. Yuri took her bag off her shoulders and opened it. I watched as she reached for something inside, and when she pulled it out and placed it in front of me, I reached for it almost immediately out of joy and placed it on my lap.

"Thank you so much for taking care of this, Yul. I really appreciate it." I smiled.

"No problem. Anything for you. I know how much it means to you." Yuri returned my smile and I felt so thankful to have someone like her by my side. "Oh, I noticed how dusty it was. I know you haven't touched that thing for a long while so I also wiped the dust off the exterior. But don't worry, I didn't open it, rummage through it or something."

I let out a smile. "Thank you. If I happen to sleep earlier tonight before Yoona comes back, tell her I said thanks too." Yuri's smile faded and I suddenly remembered the phone conversation we had in the bus. 

"Is there something wrong, Yuri?"

"I just... do you think Seohyun's been visiting way too often nowadays?"

"What's with the question?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking that- nevermind. Yes, I'll tell her."

"Do you have something against Seohyun?"

"Not really. I'm just finding it weird that I've been seeing her around more these days." I stayed quiet for a few seconds.

"Are you sure that this has nothing to do with seeing Seohyun being so close to Yoona? Are you jealous, Yuri?"

I saw open to reply but my phone suddenly buzzed and all it took was a nod from her for me to pick the call up.

"Hello?

"Hello Taeyeon unnie?"

"Oh Yoona, what's up?"

"Are you home now?"

"Yes, I just arrived earlier today, why?"

"I missed you so much that I just thought I'd invite you over for dinner today? My treat."

"Dinner? Sure, I would love that."

"Great! Oh by the way, is Yuri home? You can ask her to come too." 

"You're asking if Yuri's home and you want her to come too?" I asked Yoona's question out loud as I looked at the girl in front of me. Upon hearing what I just said, her eyes were about to buldge out from their sockets as she shook her head. Yuri was mouthing "Tell her I can't go" while at it.

"Umm.. she's not here. She told me she had something else to do later so I don't think she can go."

"Oh. Is that so? Okay then. But if you happen to talk to her again and she changes her mind, please tell her that my offer is still open."

"Okay. I will."

"I'll see you later. Bye unnie!"

"Bye Yoong." 

The line went dead.

"Why didn't you want to come?"

"I dunno. I was nervous."

"Why were you nervous?"

"I dunno."

"I thought you two were okay."

"We are. It's just... is Seohyun gonna be there?" I sighed. This is getting nowhere. 

"Are you sure you really don't want to go? You know how busy she is these days, right? It's not everyday we get to have dinner with Yoona." She let out a sigh and I know she's contemplating. 

"Yuri..."

"Hmm?" I waited for her to look up and meet my eyes before I continued. 

"Are you still trying to pursue her?" I was certain that my question caught her off-guard.

"I dunno... I mean... by the way, how was your vacation?" I didn't fail to notice how she changed the topic of the conversation and although I still wanted to know, I decided against it and respected her decision, so I took her bait.

"We both know it's not a vacation Yuri."

"Then how about telling me about you and Jessica? " I unconsciously turned my head towards her when I heard the name.

"W-what do you mean?"

"How about you two? Did anything happen back there?" We became roommates, partners, teammates, we fought like cats and dogs, she's the main reason why I broke my arm, we wished upon a star, we kissed...

"Nothing."

"No improvements? She still can't remember anything about you?"

"None."

"That's too bad." Yuri looked down on her right hand playing with the sheets.

"Her personality now is so much different from the Jessica back then. Now all we ever do is fight."

"Yeah, sounds far from the Jessica I used to know too." Now she started the bed sheets after crumpling it a while ago. 
"By the way, I'm curious..."

I held my breath as I waited for what Yuri has to say.

"Are you still planning to pursue her?"

I didn't know that getting a taste of your own medicine would choke me this much.

"I dunno... I mean..."

"Don't dare change the topic, Taeng"

"Hey, no fair! You did it earlier." She laughed.

"But come on, I really wanna know. Do you think your feelings for her will come back?" I let out a huge amount of air out from my lungs and thought for a while about what I should say.

"I guess right now, I'm trying to test the water. I don't wanna scare her or anything. And well it may sound weird but... my feelings for her never really faded."

"I know." I looked up to see Yuri genuinely smiling at me. "And don't worry, I don't think it's weird at all."

"Is it because you share the same experience?" A smirk formed in my face and I watched as her expression changed as she deciphered what I was trying to say.

"H-hey.. y-you... aargh! I'm going out." Yuri hit my face with the pillow before she headed out but I let out a hearty laugh of victory afterwards. Oh Yuri. If you still really want to, you have to do something.

 

-

 

"Taeyeon unnie! Over here!" I looked towards the direction of the voice who called me and proceeded towards my cousin who was happily waving at me. I took the seat opposite to her.

"I'm so happy you were able to come."

"Of course. We're barely seeing each other nowadays." I laughed and her eyes darted towards my arm sling.

"Oh unnie, what happened?" She rose from her seat and took the one next to me. Her left hand carefully held my elbow while her right hand touched my hand, seemingly inspecting it.

"I kinda injured myself while we were there."

"Unnie, I told you to be careful." Yoona playfully slapped my arm and a pout formed on her face. 

"I'm gonna be fine, don't worry, Yoong" I smiled and hoped it would ease her worry. "Hey now, you can go back to your previous seat."

"If it hurts, tell me. Okay?"

"Yes, mommy" I earned another slap on my arm before she returned to her seat in front of me.

"By the way, I already ordered for you. Is that okay?" 

"Of course. I don't know half the food on their menu anyway." We both laughed as I pushed the menu away from me.  "Did you invite Seohyun as well?"

"I did but she told me that she had something important to do." I nodded.

"So, what's with the sudden dinner invitation?" I noticed that she  took a deep breath.

"I got promoted."

"Wow, really? That's awesome then! Congratulations!" I took Yoona's left hand with mine since I couldn't really reach using my right hand, earning a shy giggle from her.

"Thanks unnie."

"That's really something worth celebrating. Too bad Yuri and Seohyun couldn't make it tonight." The food arrived and I said a short prayer before cutting the food and placing it into my mouth. When I looked up, Yoona was staring blankly at the food served in front of her.

"Why are you sad then? Aren't you supposed to be happy? You got promoted, Yoong. This is gonna open up more opportunities for you." I tried cheering her up as I sliced another piece of steak.

"I know, unnie. That's why... they're assigning me to another location." I stopped cutting my food and looked up.

"They're asking if they could send me to China. I.. guess they picked me to manage it there since they know that I took up Chinese as my foreign language when I was still studying."

"And what did you say?"

"I said I'd think about it." She wasn't looking at me when she decided to speak up again. "It's n-nice and all, and they're g-gonna raise my pay for sure and-" I placed my hand over hers that was currently on the table, effectively making her look at me.

I smiled. "Then what's stopping you?" 

"But... I don't wanna leave you guys here. I mean, especially because you guys are basically the reason why these things are happening to me right now."

"That's not true. You've worked hard for this. We're just here to support you."

"But without you guys, I wouldn't be able to achieve these things. You're the reason why I pushed myself to be better. I wanted to make everything you did for me to be worth it. I know you personally asked to work for Uncle Kwon and Auntie Kwon when we were still in school just so they would continue sending us to school and give us money for our expenses, even if they told us that you didn't have to. If I only knew about this earlier, I would've asked to do the same."

"I wouldn't let you do that though."

"I know." A lone tear made its way down her cheek. "And that's why I wanted to make you guys proud. You're my family now. Especially you, Taeyeon unnie. You always believed that I can achieve something great in life. I don't know how I could ever repay you."

"You don't have to. Just seeing you succeed like this already makes me happy."

"It's very tempting indeed, but I hope you guys know that I'm very much happy and contented staying here, with you guys. And I don't know if you would approve of it."

"You're an adult now, Yoona. You can make your own decisions. But if you ask me...I won't stop you, if that's what you're afraid of. You'll do great there, I know. Sure, it would take away one more annoying and irritating person in my life-"

"Unnie!"

"..and my life would be more peaceful without an alligator nagging me to eat my breakfast on time. But if ever you decide to accept their offer, I will miss you for sure."

"Since when did you become so cheesy?" Yoona whined before she took a table napkin and wiped her cheek.

"Just follow your heart. Don't worry about us. Besides, who knows if some scout or talent manager would discover you there and make you an actress? You've always wanted to become an actress right? Who knows, you might achieve that in China."

"Yah! H-how did you know about that?"

"You didn't think that your voice was loud enough whenever you would watch dramas and recite the lines of the main characters, huh? And we all know that you were once part of the drama club. You even got the actress of the year award." I wiggled my eyebrows just to more.

"Unnie, stop that."

"Why? We all know you're a campus crush. Anyone who saw you would surely cause them to double take." She was almost glaring at me to stop and so I did.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop there. Until when do you have to decide?"

"They gave me a month to think about it so I guess I still have more time." 

"I see. By the way..." I looked around before I leaned in to whisper "Thanks for taking care of the treasure chest while I'm gone."

Yoona nodded. "It was no problem, Taeyeon unnie. Besides, Seohyun helped me too." I suddenly remembered what Yuri told me but I decided to shake it off my thoughts for now.

"Is there anything that would convince you to stay though?" Yoona played with the wine glass. "or anyone?" I might have caught her off guard with my question causing her to almost lose grip of the wine glass. She carefully placed it back on the table before her eyes met mine. "Why? What's wrong?"

I didn't fail to notice how her hands were shaking and the way she placed them on her lap for me not to notice it.

"About that... there's something I'd like to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Seohyun..."

What is this? Did she notice the same thing as Yuri or-  "I have feelings for her."

My jaw dropped at that. Not because I didn't see this coming because apparently, I somehow did but the way she frankly said it surprised me. Oh my Yoong. Did I hear that right?

"Aigoo my baby cousin is a big girl now." I reached over and pinched her cheek. I might've exerted more than enough pressure and she hissed.

"Aissh, unnie!" She rubbed her cheek. "I'm serious though." I know. I wiped the smile off my face and replaced it with a serious one. "And she also asked me to be her girlfriend."

Okay, I choked on that. I may have expected that she liked her but this one, surely caught me off-guard.

"Are you okay, unnie? Here, drink some water." I chugged it down until the last drop and placed it back down.

"What did you say to her?"

"I told her I'd ask you first."

"Are you serious?" I unconsciously laughed at that. Who does that these days? I mean, Seohyun must be pretty mad at me or something. Hahahaha. Yeah, I'm just overthinking things.

"Yeah, I told her that I better ask you about it first."

I looked at my plate, contemplating about what to say.

"Are you happy?"

"I'm happy"

What should I tell her? What about Yuri?

"Then that's all that matters to me." 

Yoona had a blank expression on her face which made me think that she didn't expect what I just said.

"Y-you're not joking, right?"

"Nope. I'm serious. She's a good girl. If you're happy with Seohyun, then I don't see any reason why I should stop you." There it is, the alligator smile.

"Oh my gosh!" She covered her smile with , containing her squeal.

"Yeah, I know I'm gonna finish up fast so I can go home and you can tell her your answer." I scooped 3 mouthfuls of rice into my mouth before she could stop me.

"Hey, hey unnie. I didn't tell you anything like that. Slow down. I don't want you to choke again." 

I sipped some water before opening my mouth to speak. "I know that you're gonna say yes to her even if I objected."

"I just wanted to know that you're gonna be okay with it. You know that your opinion matters to me, right?

"Okay, quit smiling at me like a lovesick alligator and finish your food. It's getting cold and you haven't quite touched it yet." 

"Okay. I will. But first, I need to go to the washroom."

"Sure." I watched her stand up to go to the washroom. I shook my head while smiling, noting how cute and happy my cousin looked. While waiting, I decided to look around the restaurant. It's quite fancy if you ask me. My eyes stopped on a person reading a newspaper two tables away from us. I couldn't see the face because of the newspaper but I could see that the person was wearing a hat. My eyes went back to Yoona as she made her way back to her chair. 

"Shall we resume our dinner, unnie?"

"Yeah, we should."

 

-

 

There was no one but me inside the house. Yoona, as usual left early for work. I'm not sure about Yuri. She wasn't here last night when I came home either. Maybe she left early too. I was holding a bowl of popcorn while watching a drama called The K2. The plot is good. The leading man is handsome, and the leading lady is beautiful. I can't help but imagine Yoona in the place of the leading lady. If she became an actress, I know she'll fit the role better.

A knock disrupted me from my thoughts and I walked towards the door to open it.

"Oh, Seohyun."

"Hey there, Taeyeon."

"Come on in."

I lead her to sit