“Fine! If you want to live as strangers and throw away our friendship like it’s nothing then let’s do that!” Tiffany yelled.

“Fine! I’ve been doing it for 7 years already! What’s a life time more?!?” With that, Jessica walked off leaving Tiffany in tears.

“Strangers?!? Fine I can do that.” Jessica muttered after leaving Tiffany. Jessica took the next taxi home and arrived after 15 minutes.

Once she reached the apartment, Jessica keyed in the code to get into the apartment and entered taking her shoes off and setting them on the shoe rack.

“Sica! You’re home.” Sooyoung called from the kitchen dining table. She, Hyoyeon, and Sunny were studying at the table as usual. “Can you help us with the assignment for--”

Before Sooyoung could finish her question, Jessica walked straight to her room without a word.

Hyoyeon and Sunny looked at each other with worried expressions on their faces. Sooyoung looked at the two and nodded.

The three stood up from the table and walked towards Jessica’s room.

“J?” Sunny knocked on the door. She tried to turn the knob but the door was locked.

Sunny looked at Sooyoung and Hyoyeon and shook her head. “It’s locked.”

“J open up…” Sunny says.

“...”

———

On the other side of the door, Jessica had her back against the door. She was well aware of Sunny, Hyoyeon, and Sooyoung’s presence on the other side of the door. It didn’t help that they were there ready to console her. Jessica never liked to make others worry about her. She promised herself a long time ago that she wouldn’t cry in front of others.

Instead of responding To Sunny’s voice, Jessica dropped her backpack on the floor and slid down to the ground with her back still pressed against the door for support. As soon as she was on the floor, Jessica pressed her legs towards her body and folded her arms over them burying her face against her arms to suppress the tears.

———

“Come on, let’s leave her alone for a bit.” Hyoyeon says to the other two. “She’ll come out when she’s ready.” Sooyoung and Sunny nodded and followed Hyoyeon back to the dining table.

They couldn’t do work. How could they when their friend was hurt?

“Do you think it has something to do with Tiffany?” Sooyoung asked breaking the silence between them. It was very rare for them to see Jessica like this. Over the years, Jessica has gotten very good at controlling her emotions, but ever since Tiffany has come into their lives Jessica’s control was slipping. They hadn’t seen her this upset since 5 months ago.

Sowoneul malhaebwa~

“It’s SooJung,” Sunny says when she reaches for  her phone.

“Sunny Unnie? Is Unnie at the apartment? We were supposed to meet up after she had lunch with you and the others but she never came to my dorm.”

“SooJung-ah, could you come to the apartment? Sica needs you.” Sunny says. If they couldn’t get through to her, maybe Krystal could.

“Is Unnie alright? Is she hurt?” Krystal asked. It was evident that she was worried.

“She came home and locked herself in her room. She won’t talk to any of us…Maybe you could…”

“I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”  The younger Jung says before hanging up.

“So is SooJung coming?” Hyoyeon asks.

“Yeah,” Sunny nods. “I just hope she can get through to her.”

“We all hope so,” Sooyoung says.

As promised, Krystal arrived after ten minutes. Sunny briefed Krystal on the details of their late lunch up until the moment Jessica walked into the door.

“Maybe you could get her to open up…she wouldn’t let us in when we asked her to open up.” Sunny says.

“I can handle this Sunny Unnie. Just leave it to me.” Krystal says reassuring the older girl before walking over to Jessica’s room.

Knock knock

“Unnie?” Krystal knocked on the door. “It’s SooJungie.” She didn’t need to reveal her identity. Jessica could already tell by the voice that it was her baby sister.

“…”

“Unnie? Can I come in?” Krystal a