Jessica’s POV

After a while, I inhale and stop my sobs. She holds my hands and makes them let go of her waist, before finally turning back from her first sitting position to face me. Sooyoung places her palms on my cheeks and slowly erase the left tears under my eyes. Her right hand then moves to the top of my head. Using the back of her hand she caresses the left side of my hair gently, fixing the mess I made with my appearance when I snuggled onto her back a while ago. I take a blank look at her face when she places the hand back again on my puffy cheek.

She looks back at me and makes a small smile while continuing to caress my cheeks. I hold the back of her hands with mine before closing my eyes. For a few seconds, or maybe minutes, we stay in the same position again, just like when I back hugged her before. It feels so warm and comfortable.

Her hands, with my hands still grab them, then go down by each of my sides and stop on my shoulders. She gently pushes them as she tries to make my upper body to be back on lying position on bed again. She let go her left hand from mine and pulls the blanket to cover my body until my chest. After that, that hand back to caress my right cheek softly.

Bringing my left hand, which still grabs her right one tightly, to the side of my body, she rises, then places herself sitting down on the floor with her chin on the side of my bed. She brings her other hand to join caressing my left hand, then looks at my face, which never stop eyeing her from the first. The sweet smile never leave her perfect face. I take out my right hand from under the blanket to reach for her face. Her smile grows wider for my touch, and that makes me smile too.

After a few times got hypnotized by her warmth, my eyes start to feel heavy. As the sleepiness eats me up, I feel her hands slowly removing themselves from mine…

“DON’T!!!”

I scream and quickly hold the hand beside me as I don’t want to let go Sooyoung’s hands. When I open my eyes, I realize that I’m sitting on the train. A lot of couples of eyes looking at me confusedly making me just blush and look down of embarrassment.

“A nightmare?” A soft voice I knew very well asks, when I turn to look at her, she’s looking at me worriedly. I smile to her and shake my head, “Aniya..”

It’s a sweet dream actually, a sweet flashback, at least before you left my room on that peaceful night.

Then I notice that I still hold her hand tightly as a result of my surprised by the dream ending. I blush and am about to let go of it and say sorry to Sooyoung, but the sounds from the speaker stop my movement.

“In a minute we will arrive at the final stop. Please make sure you take all your belongings with you….”

“Let’s go.” Sooyoung tighten my grab on her hand while pulling me up and leading me to the platform, making my blush gets worse.

After walking for a while from the station we arrive in front of a huge house. All along the road up until now, I’ve been smiling widely and never take my eyes off of our intertwined hands. Noticing me looking down for a little while, after pressing the bell next to the house door, she tries to find why. Following my gaze, she finally realizes what I’ve been staring all these time, then let go of my hand.

“S-sorry..” She stutters. I frown by the loose of her hand and then look at her face. There is a tint of adorable pink on her cheeks.

“It’s okay.” I smile shyly. You can hold it as long as you want.

Right at the time a woman in around 50 years old open the door, a wide smile crept on her face after seeing Sooyoung, which replied by the same smile from the girl beside me. She quickly takes Soo in her embrace. Sooyoung reciprocates the hug.

“Finally! Happy belated birthday, honey!” The woman said as she kisses Sooyoung’s hair. I just keep silent, not understanding the situation.

“Thank you, Auntie Kim.” Sooyoung pulls off the hug. “By the way this is my classmate.” She introduces me.

“Anyeonghaseyo, Jessica imnida.” I bow to the woman. She looks at me and smiles warmly.

“Annyeong, Jessica. So let’s go inside.” She said as lead us inside after closing the door.

“Kiiiiids! Sooyoung is here!” Auntie Kim shouts as soon as we enter the house. After a second I can hear steps coming towards us, running. About eight kids in around 4-6 years old appear with happy faces, and one of them, a boy, ran towards us before jumping into Sooyoung embrace.

YAH!

“Yah!”

WHO SAYS YOU CAN DO THAT TO MY SOOYOUNG?!

“Who says you can do that to me?!”

“It’s dangerous, Yoo Byungjae! You are already four years old and being heavier every year! What if I stumble down?!” Sooyoung scolds him. Serves you right! But soon after that, the both of them laugh. The Byungjae boy then peck Sooyoung’s lips, making my eyes widen.

YAH!

“Happy belated birthday, Noona!”

Sooyoung puts him down, but not before the boy pecks Sooyoung lips again.

YAH!

“Yah! Stop it!” Sooyoung says as closing his mouth with her palm.

YEAH! STOP IT BEFORE I THROW YOU INTO THE DUSTBIN, CLINGY BOY!

Auntie Kim laughs at them. As soon as Sooyoung put Byungjae down, the other seven kids ran to Sooyoung making a group hug. “Happy belated birthday, Unnie/Noona!” I smile seeing this warm scene.

“Aish!” The girl, who is sitting right in front of me, whines as she pushes some vegetables to the corner of her plate. We are now having lunch with the kids and Auntie Kim.

“Chorongie, you shouldn’t be a picky like that. Eat all the food on your plate!” Auntie Kim scolded.

“But I don’t like them, Auntie….” She pouts.

“Chorong noona is so picky.. Picky..” Playing his spoon and fork to make noisy sound, a younger boy who is sitting next to her, mocks at her acts.

“Shut up, Manse!” She glares at him.

I giggle at the conversation. I hear Sooyoung is laughing too, before she reaches for Chorong’s plate. “Here, Chorong. Let me eat your veggies.” Then she moves Chorong’s vegetables to her own plate.

“Yeay, Sooyoung unnie jjang!” Chorong claps her hands before receiving her plate back.

“You must make a good friend with this unnie, Chorong!” Sooyoung point her thumb at me, who is sitting right next to her, while smiling to the kid. “She hates cucumbers too..” Eh?

“Jinjja, Jessica Unnie? I know right, they’re disgusting!” Chorong says with disgusted face. I chuckle and nod at her words, before turn my head to Sooyoung.

“I never told you I hate cucumbers.”

It made her choked. “I-I just know.” That left me smile again before back to eat.

Author’s POV

“Minguk-ah!! Give my snacks back to me!!!” From the kitchen, Jessica could hear Sooyoung shouted from the living room. She turned around and found that she was now chasing Minguk who was running brought a big package of snacks in his hand. Minguk turned his head a little and grinned cutely.

“Catch me if you can, Noona!” He continued running while munching the snacks.

“I will help you too, Unnie! He stole my biscuits too earlier.” Another girl named Namjoo said with determined tone then joined Sooyoung to chase after Minguk. The ice princess chuckled at the scene.

“They’re always like that when Sooyoung’s around.” Auntie Kim said.

The woman was giving her the clean plate she just washed. Jessica smiled at her and took the plate from her, dried it with rag, then put it on the dishes rack. She was now helping Untie Kim doing the dishes after they had been done with lunch.

“Hmm.. Auntie, can I know where are the parents of these kids? Do they just entrust them here every weekend.”

Auntie Kim looked at her confusedly, then blinked her eyes unbelievably. Jessica responded with the same blank look.

“Jessica-ssi. If you still don’t know, this place is an orphanage. So exactly, the children who live here don’t have parents anymore. There is a board in front of the house, didn’t you realize?” Jessica gasped at her oblivious and blushed.

“A-ah.. I’m sorry I didn’t notice the board.”

Yeah. How could she notice the board anyway, when all she has been staring, from the time they walked from the station until arrived at this place, were just her and Sooyoung’s intertwined hands.

Auntie Kim smiled, “You are adorable, Jessica. From the time you just arrived here until now, you kept interacting with me or the kids, but I can see that you’re frequently glancing at Sooyoung’s acts while smiling heavenly.” She giggled. “Are you both really just classmates?” She teased Jessica while again giving her the washed plate.

Jessica blushed hearing that question. She took the plate while put her head down hiding the red face. Auntie Kim chuckled seeing the girl.

“Hahaha, sorry, Jessica. I’m just curious because this is the first time Sooyoung bring someone here.” Jessica rose her head, feeling interested.

“She has been visiting here often?”

“Frequently, but not scheduled, at least once in three months. And she must come in the weekend after her birthday, if it’s not on weekend, like today. She said she would love to celebrate with the kids.”

Jessica smile grew wider hearing Auntie Kim’s story. It made her fall deeper for the tall girl. She is really worth to fight for. Suddenly, two couple of hands grabbing her both wrists and a couple ones from behind pushing her body to turnaround.

“Jessica unnie. Let’s play hide and seek!” Seohyun pulled her right wrist.

“Neh! Neh! Nolja!” Chaerin pushed her from behind.

Jessica chucked at the kids’ cuteness, “Yah, I’m still helping Auntie Kim. Ask Sooyoung to play with you all..”

“That’s why, Noona… Sooyoung noona don’t want to play with us if you’re not in. She asked us to force you to join the game.” Daehan explained while still pulling Jessica’s left wrist.

Jessica was stunned at his words as she tried to look for Sooyoung’s face. Sooyoung was now standing surrounded by the other kids, probably waiting for the result of Chaerin, Seohyun, and Daehan’s persuasion on Jessica. The beautiful long legged was smiling charmingly at her, making blood raise to her face. She just blushed and bit her lower lip.

“But..” She turned her head to Auntie Kim.

“Just go, Jessica. There is not much left, I can handle it.” The motherly woman winked at Jessica, made her already red face turned redder.

Jessica looked back at the kids clinging on her and smile, “Okay, then.”

“YEAAAAYY!!” The kids cheered left Jessica chuckling.

She then looked at Sooyoung again, and they reciprocated their sweet smiles to each other.

Jessica’s POV

I’m now walking sneakily towards the back of the house. This time is Byungjae’s turn to look for us, and it’s the 7^th game already. I didn’t know that playing with kids will be this tiring. I’m now admiring the parents who have a lot of kids, it must be tough.

I open the back door quietly so that Byungjae won’t be able to know where I am. There is an outdoor playground in the back house. When we played the 3^rd game, I hided upstairs and could see this place. I saw the quite big slides and a huge space below its stairs. I thought that’s a very perfect place to hide.

I then step towards the slides. But when I’m about to take steps inside the space below it, I see that there is already someone hiding there.

“Soo?”

“Oh!” She raises her head at me. “You come here to hide too?”

I giggle, “Neh. I guess I’ll just look for another place then.” But before I turnaround she calls me.

“Wait..” She smiles and moves a little to the right, then taps the ground next to her. “This place fits two persons.”

“I always hide here every time I play hide and seek with them.” Sooyoung open the conversation after we’ve been in silent for a while. “It’s a nice quiet place.”

“Hmmm” I nod at her explanation.

“Look at that.”

She says pointing the beautiful sun that is about to set in front of us. Because the orphanage is located in a quite high place, we are able to enjoy the scenery from the back of the house. And this place, below the slides, is a very strategist to see it, not to mention there is a person beside me to turn the atmosphere even better.

I can see the sky slowly turn into orange by the sunset. The people below start to turn on their city light, which just seen like shiny dots from here.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” She asks me.

“It is.” I smile while looking at her who is still mesmerized by the evening city light.

She smiles.

“Soo, can I ask?”

She looks at me confusedly, “Spill it.”

“Why do you love visiting this place so much? Auntie Kim told me before that you come very often.” She smiles again at my question.

“I came here first 5 years ago. Chorong, the oldest one, was still one year old that day, and Daehan, Minguk, Manse have just been found in front of the orphanage a month before that. It was eomma who brought me here to celebrate my birthday. She told me that I have to be thankful of what I have, by seeing other people’s lack of lives.”

“After a year the other kids being new family members, and as I came again for the second time, I fell in love with them. I want to know how they grew up. I want to be someone inside their circle. I want to share some happiness with them. To make sure they are not alone. To let them know they had family, even it’s not tied by blood.”

“Because they remind me that I’m not the only one who’s lack of parents’ love while growing, because I lost appa when I was little. They even don’t know who their real parents are. I’m much luckier than them, because at least I know appa loved me, and still be loving me from heaven.”

I never leave my sight from her face since she started the explanation. So it’s not hard to notice that her sweet smile slowly became a sad one.

“Are you missing your appa right now?”

Her sad smile goes wider.

“I am.”

I brave myself to hold her hand, and caress the back of it with my thumb. Then she looked back at me.

“It’s okay.” I say. She smiles and reciprocates my hold.

We are in a comfortable eyes battle right now. As the sun goes down, the light makes her face in front of me looks more stunning. I can hear my own heart beats since the moment right now is too much to handle. I slowly turn my eyesight down into her lips. And by glancing for a while, I notice that she was doing the same to my lips. There no words exchanged anymore when we both move our head slowly to approach each other. I feel her grab on my hand gets tighter. She then tittles her head to the right side while I mirror her acts to the opposite side. I can feel her breath already. We are getting closer to close whatever gap between our face and..

“SOOYOUNG NOOONA!! I FOUND YOU!!!”

DAMN!

D to the A to the M to the N!

We stop the movement and take our face and body away to each other as Byungjae appears.

“Eh.. What are you doing? Who is it beside you?”

‘What are you doing?’

Freaking ‘what are YOU doing’, Byungjae?!!!!!

“Woooh! There is Jessica noona too! Wah, it means I’ve found you all!!” He says energetically. “It means….”

“BYUNGJAE!! IS THE GAME OVER YET? LET’S HAVE DINNER NOW!” Auntie Kim calls from inside the house.

“ARASSEOO!!!” The cheeky boy answer. And by that, Byungjae starts running inside, leaving the awkward mess he made before to me and this beautiful creature beside me.

My heart is still pumping non-stop at the moment and I can’t imagine how red my face is. I bit my lower lip hard and just look away, having no courage to see Sooyoung. After a while I can hear her soft heavenly chuckle. I feel her hand grabs mine again.

“Let’s go.” She says as she stands up and leads me to follow.

I just nod while looking down, hiding my super red face with the bangs.

“So that’s it.” She says smilingly.

We are now in front of my bedroom door after taking a quite long time back home.

“Thank you.” I say with a shy smile. “for today.”

“Thank you too.” She answers. “for the gifts.”

“Oh, right. I haven’t said it face to face.”

“Hm?”

“Happy birthday. I mean, happy belated birthday.” I say while looking down again, hiding the tint of pink on my cheek.

“Oh. Thank you.” She chuckles.

“Hmm..” I can’t stop smiling. God, help me.

“Sica, by the way..” She looks at me, a little bit hesitate.

“Hmm?” I try to sound calm, but no, my heart is jumping up and down to every little thing she says.

“There is a new museum opened behind our school..”

“Neh?”

“I would like to know...”

“….”

“… if by any change..” She scratches her back of neck cutely.

“….”

“… if by any change tomorrow you can accompany me visiting there, maybe?”

I’m blushed and taken aback hearing her request. Is this another request to date?

“…….”

“…….”

“I’m sorry. Just forg-“

“I’d love to!” Before she changes her mind, I answer in a little high tone to her face. Okay, almost like shouting. She looks at me blankly.

“O-Oh, okay then. See you tomorrow.”

“S-see you…”

“Goodnight…”

“Night…”

“Have a nice dream…” Exactly, why won’t I when I’ve been with you all day long?

“You too…”

We throw shy smiles to each other once again, not wanting the night to just go.

“Okay then. I’ll just go to my room.” She says finally.

Ugh, is this it?

“Uh.. Soo..”

This is it! I swear I can’t resist anymore!

I grab her hand, then tiptoe to peck her cheek.

I notice she is a little bit stunned for what I do. After that, I quickly turnaround and enter my room before finally closing it in front of her face. Leaning on the door inside my room, I close my face with my both palms. My heart is beating as fast as a jet plane.

WHAT HAVE I DONE???????

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How is it? :D

*Sooyoung's caption on her first Soosica IG post, LOL*