A/N: Make sure you've read In No Time At All in the previous chapter if you haven't! This wouldn't make sense without having read that first.

---

“Sica! I finally found you!”

Jessica turns around, slowly, and Taeyeon flinches back at the sight of her. The side of her head is caved in, hair plastered to her skull, bits of which Taeyeon can actually see poking through her lacerated skin, her eye barely visible through the damage.

“Tae,” Jessica says, and her voice sounds wrong, the words thick and slurpy, like is full of liquid. Judging from the red that seeps from her lips, it’s rather evident what it is.

Taeyeon freezes. “S-Sica?” Her voice comes out thin and reedy.

“Ah. Sorry.” Jessica squeezes her eyes shut, or rather the one eye she seems to be able to move, and her face seems to blur for a second before the blood and gore vanish and her features knit themselves back together. “I forgot about that.”

“W-what happened to you?”

Jessica looks at her with sad eyes, the exact same expression Tiffany and Yuri had. “Don’t you remember?”

As if the words are a key to some locked off part of her mind, suddenly the lock clicks open and she’s flooded with a wave of memories that almost makes her stagger back.

“No.” Taeyeon isn’t answering Jessica’s question; she’s merely saying the only word she’s capable of at the moment.

Jessica looks even sadder. “I see you do now.”

“No. You can’t be—”

“Dead?” Jessica finishes, with a wry twist of . “I have been for a while, Taeyeon. And it’s about time you accepted it. Not just in moments of lucidity before you return to the façade that Tiffany and Yuri have been helping you maintain, but actually processed it and tried to move on.”

“I don’t want to move on. I mean, I don’t want to forget you.”

“Remembering what happened doesn’t equate to forgetting me. And, Tae?” Jessica’s voice gentles. “Holding on to this fantasy doesn’t equate to remembering me either.”

“Fantasy.” Taeyeon gives a dry laugh. “You mean delusion.”

“You’ve always been a bit offbeat,” Jessica says in that playful tone of hers, “but this may be taking it too far.”

“Sica.” It comes out like a sob. “I miss you so much.”

Jessica’s eyes glisten. “I miss you too, but I can’t see you continue like this. My life may be over, but you can’t let that end yours too.”

“But – I love you.” Taeyeon swallows. “I didn’t get to tell you that, you know. That’s what haunts me. That you left the house that night with the last thing I said to you being angry words. They say that you’re supposed to tell your loved ones goodbye like you’ll never see them again, but who can know that? Who can know that when their loved one walks out the door that it really is the last time they’ll see them?”

Jessica’s eyes fill with tears, and Taeyeon dimly thinks that she didn’t expect that, somehow, she didn’t think you could cry when you were dead. The afterlife should be a rosy, tear-free place, right?

Just as Taeyeon opens to say something along the lines of “don’t cry,” something concerned and helpless, Jessica gives a soft smile and looks at her with eyes shining from more than tears.

“I know you love me. Just because you didn’t say it doesn’t mean I don’t know. We never said it to each other much, did we? But we both knew anyway. I know how much you regret how things happened that day, how bitter and angry our last words were to each other. But I didn’t leave this world with bitter and angry feelings about you, or think that you had them about me.” Jessica looks at her in the way that always told Taeyeon how she felt without words. “I love you, Taeyeon. And because I love you, I can’t stand seeing you like this anymore. Please, promise me you won’t go on like this.”

And Taeyeon can do nothing but blink back tears in reply.

“Promise me,” Jessica presses.

“I promise.”

Jessica smiles again, soft but brilliant, and even before the expression fades she’s starting to do so, her whole body shining with a misty light that looks like it’s pulling her away. Taeyeon’s throat goes tight, and for a second she wants to cry out, to beg Jessica not to leave her again, to stay with her, but she knows she’s been holding Jessica back for too long already and, for both of their sakes, she has to move on.

And even though tears are pooling in her eyes, she manages to return Jessica’s smile as, with one last tender look, Jessica disappears.

 

Taeyeon wakes up to a blurry world and takes a moment to breathe before wiping the tears away from her eyes. Everything clears in front of her, her mind unclouded for the first time in – she doesn’t even know how long.

She glances over at the orange bottle on her bedtime table – her ‘migraine’ medicine – and absurdly, she huffs out a laugh. It turns into a bout of something nearly hysterical, which briefly teeters on the brink of tears before toppling over, and she succumbs to it because she knows that trying too hard to repress everything last time only hurt her.

With every sob, she feels like she’s healing.

 

“Soojung,” Taeyeon says hesitantly, hand tightening around her phone. A part of her almost hoped that her call wouldn’t be picked up, or that it would be the wrong number, but against all odds Krystal’s on the other line. “It’s me.”

“I can tell,” Krystal says, her voice guarded. “If you’re calling about unnie—”

“I know she’s gone.” Taeyeon closes her eyes. “Dead,” she amends, because what’s the point of sugar-coating the truth when she had almost ruined her life in an attempt to evade it? “I know she’s dead,” she repeats, and wonders if it’ll sting less the more she says it.

There’s a pause over the line, and if it weren’t for the lack of dial tone Taeyeon would think Krystal had hung up on her.

“You remember,” Krystal says. It comes out almost like a question.

“I do,” Taeyeon says, and then, “This isn’t the first time I’ve called you, is it?”

“Far from it,” Krystal says, but she doesn’t sound annoyed, just tired. “It’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t even anger me anymore. I’m just worried about you now.”

“I’m sorry, for worrying you, and for reminding you over and over again what you lost.”

“You suffered the same loss I did, Taeyeon unnie. It’s not something I’d hold against you.” She hears Krystal swallow over the line. “Do you really remember? Or is it just…”

“A moment of lucidity?” Taeyeon supplies, borrowing Jessica’s words. “Well, I hope not. I think… I’ve been hiding from the truth, running from it, for too long. It’s time to-to move on.”

She can hear Krystal swallow before she says in a quiet but sincere voice, “I’m sure Jessica unnie would be happy to see you realize that.”

“Yeah,” Taeyeon murmurs. “I think she would too.”

 

It feels a little too familiar, but this time it isn’t raining, and this time Taeyeon’s knocks are more measured and purposeful rather than wild and desperate.

“Taeyeon?” Tiffany says, with the same tired but unsurprised expression, but it dissolves into shock as Taeyeon throws her arms around her. She feels Tiffany stiffen; Taeyeon had never been one for physical displays of affection, and she can’t remember the last time she took the initiative to hug Tiffany.

Wait, she does, it was at Jessica’s funeral. It’s funny how many memories feel like they’re coming back to her when they’ve been there all along, just waiting for a key to be slipped into the lock.

“I’m sorry,” Taeyeon says quietly.

“I-it’s okay.” She can hear the surprise in Tiffany’s voice. “What, um, are you doing here?”

Taeyeon ignores the question for now, knowing that Tiffany expects her to ask for Jessica, as she always does. She can’t imagine how Tiffany must have felt having to answer that question countless times. “Is Yuri here?”

“No, she’s at work. She had to cover a shift for a sick co-worker.”

“That’s nice of her.” Taeyeon takes a deep breath and steels her nerves. “So. I took my migraine medicine.”

Tiffany’s eyes widen. “You what?”

“My ‘migraine’ medicine.” Taeyeon knows Tiffany can hear the air quotes in her voice. “I’ve been feeling pretty lucid but I was worried I could relapse. Don’t worry, I did go see the doctor and he adjusted the dosage for me and everything. I wanted to make sure I was healthier before I came to see you.”

“Am I dreaming?” Tiffany says weakly.

“No, I think that would be me, or how I want to think about these past few months. Like a prolonged nightmare.” Taeyeon’s mouth twists into something between a smile and a grimace. “I’ve finally woken up.”

Tiffany stares at her for a long moment, expression still something akin to disbelief, before it smooths out into something tentative, wary.

“You really know?” she asks in a careful voice.

“I know that Jessica’s dead.” Taeyeon still winces a little as she says it. “And that I couldn’t accept it, I convinced myself otherwise, and you and Yuri went along with it to protect me. And I’m so sorry about that. I’m so sorry for putting you through that, especially when you were trying to recover yourselves.”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” Tiffany says, her eyes bright with moisture not yet b over. “We’re your friends. That’s what friends are for.”

Taeyeon manages a weak smile. “All the times you called me crazy, this is probably not what you had in mind.”

“You’re not crazy, Taeyeon.” At Taeyeon’s incredulous expression, Tiffany gives a wry smile. “Well, you are, but I wouldn’t have you any other way. Mostly.”

“Aww thanks, Fany. Right back at you. Well, maybe with the volume dialled down—”

“Hey!” Tiffany complains, and Taeyeon laughs.

 

“What…changed?” Tiffany asks haltingly.

Taeyeon is hardly going to tell her that she had a visit from ghost Jessica, or a vision of her, it would probably sound like she’s taking a step backward rather than forward. She can’t even be sure what she really saw, whether it was really Jessica or some manifestation of her own subconscious, but she knows it was a wake-up call.

“I can’t really say,” she says, and she’s the one who sounds careful this time. “Whatever it was, I just hope it stays. Maybe in a way I was happier, not knowing – ignorance is bliss and all – but I know I couldn’t have continued on like that.”

Tiffany is quiet for a moment before she says, “I owe you an apology.”

“What?” Taeyeon asks confusedly. “For what?”

“I thought I knew what was best for you, I withheld information from you and actively lied to you and tampered with your things. I did it with your best interests in mind, or so I told myself, but I had no right to do that. I was playing god, and it wasn’t right. For that, I’m sorry, Taeyeon.”

Tiffany’s eyes are filled with guilt and contrition, and Taeyeon thinks back to the memories that are gradually returning to her: the countless times she showed up on Tiffany and Yuri’s doorstep, often in the middle of the night; the appointments they accompanied her to, paying closer attention than she did; the instances they told her the truth and held her when she cried and soothed her when she lashed out, calling them liars.

She’s surprised Tiffany isn’t treating her coldly, not to mention forgiving her with open arms and even apologizing, without a hint of resentment or reproach. No, she’s not surprised, because that’s the kind of person Tiffany is; she’s always been a better friend than Taeyeon deserved.

“Taeyeon?” Tiffany asks hesitantly. “I understand if you can’t forgive me immediately, I’m not asking you to, I just—”

She stumbles back when Taeyeon puts her arms around her and practically slams into her with the force of the hug.

“I don’t need to forgive you. I know you did it for me. I could never hold it against you.”

She hears Tiffany sniffle, before Tiffany returns the hug with equal fierceness.

“If Jessi were watching over us right now, I think she’d be happy,” Tiffany whispers.

Taeyeon closes her eyes. “I think so too.”

 

“I am happy, Tae,” Jessica says from where she’s looking at them, even though she knows Taeyeon can’t hear her. “And I’m proud of you. I knew you could fight through this.”

“Sooyeon?” her grandmother calls, and she sighs. She could never get her grandmother to call her ‘Jessica,’ as the older woman always conveniently goes deaf when Jessica tries to correct her. Maybe this is where she got her teasing nature from.

“Yes, halmeoni?”

“Is that your girlfriend down there?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Which one? Or are they both your girlfriend?”

“Halmeoni!” she splutters. “What do you take me for?”

Her grandmother just cackles. Okay, Jessica definitely got it from her.

“Her name is Taeyeon. The short one. She was my girlfriend,” Jessica corrects, with some sadness but no bitterness. “Tenses are a when you’re dead, huh?” With a nervous glance at her grandmother, she quickly adds, “Excuse my language.”

“You love her very much, don’t you? And she loves you. We don’t need to use the past tense because feelings don’t just die when the person does.”

“I’ll always love her,” Jessica says. “Maybe one day she’ll join us here – hopefully not for a long, long time – and you’ll get to meet her. She’s…incredible, halmeoni.”

Her grandmother smiles. “Of course she has to be, to get my Sooyeon to fall for her.”

“For the last time, halmeoni, it’s Jes—”

“Oh look, another one!” her grandmother says as Yuri approaches Taeyeon and Tiffany. “She’s pretty too. Are you sure she wasn’t your girlfriend too?”

Jessica groans and wonders if this is her punishment. Maybe she shouldn’t have teased everyone so much when she was alive…

---

A/N: This is my best attempt at a happy ending, and pretty much the happiest it can get. My apologies for probably butchering how psychosis works. Also, Jessica's grandmother was lowkey my favourite character.