Sunny panted heavily as she juggled fumbling with her keys in the lock with one arm and carrying a large bag of groceries in the other. 

As she heard the lock slide open, she sighed in relief and quickly used her shoulder to push the door open, promptly dumping the large bag next to her feet once she kicked the door to close it. Pulling off her beloved Jordans and hanging her jacket up on the coat stand, she dumped the bag of groceries on the dorm’s kitchen counter before making her way to her room. Hearing someone calling out for her name, Sunny sighed and turned to walk towards the living room instead.

Two tall, lanky girls sitting on the couch looked up at Sunny as she walked in. “Sunny unnieeeeeee, I’m hungry.” Sooyoung pouted and Yoona nodded vigorously along with her friend. “Haish, you two shikshins cleared out the fridge in two days?!” Sunny grumbled making her way back to the kitchen with Sooyoung trailing behind her. “Sorry unnie, but we’ve been stuck at home for the past two days since me and Yoong got sick you know.”

Taking the groceries out of the bag, Sunny started preparing the ingredients to make samgyetang. “Yah, you two be grateful that I’m here cooking you two chicken ginseng soup for your sick butts when I was having a good time earlier.” Sooyoung watched Sunny as she placed a pot on the stove and started boiling the chicken. 

“A good time? Unnieeeeeeee, do you have something you want to tell me?” Sooyoung sat down on a barstool and propped her chin on one arm while grinning at Sunny and wiggling her eyebrows. Sunny glared at Sooyoung, “None of your business.” Sooyoung pouted and continue pestering an annoyed Sunny until they both heard the front door open and close. They both watched Taeyeon walk tiredly into the kitchen and took a seat next to Sooyoung. “Rough practice again?” Sooyoung asked their kid leader as Taeyeon shrugged off her leather jacket.

“Don’t remind me about it.”

Sighing, Taeyeon poured herself a glass of water. Sunny watched her close friend with eyes full of pity. Taeyeon was top in her class and took her studies very seriously. Recently, their university president placed her in a friendly inter-university singing competition and having parents who were renowned singers in their time did not help ease the growing pressure she felt. Tiffany had joined the competition as well, hoping to take some pressure off Taeyeon but it just seemed to cause Taeyeon to work even harder. 

“Where’s Pany anyway?” Sunny asked as she stirred the pot and added the ginseng into the broth. Rubbing the dark circles under her eyes, Taeyeon mumbled something about Tiffany staying back to wait for their maknae, Seohyun since her classes end the latest due to the amount of modules she had piled into her schedule. Just as Sunny was about to pour the samgyetang into the bowls, the three of them heard the front doors open and close once more. 

“Hey everyone!” Tiffany exclaimed in English.

Taeyeon glanced to see that Tiffany had walked in with Seohyun and Yuri. Tiffany bounded happily towards the kitchen and hugged Taeyeon tightly. Taeyeon looked slightly taken aback with the sudden skin ship but her expression quickly softened to a smile. “Smells good Sunny. What have you got there?” Yuri said as she opened the fridge to pull out a bottle of Ma Juice and proceeded to chug down her juice. Sooyoung scrunched her nose at the smell, “I still don’t get how you’re able to stomach that.” 

“It’s good for your health Young-unnie. Plus, Yuri-unnie is always staying back late for her drama classes so it helps her dry skin,” chirped Seohyun as she peered over Sunny’s shoulder as she poured the last of the soup into a bowl. Sooyoung scoffed, “I don’t see you drinking it everyday.” 

“I eat a healthy diet daily and combined with regular exercis-“

“Alright, alright! I get it.” Sooyoung sighed, throwing her hands up in defeat. Sooyoung realized one of them was missing. “Where’s Hyo?” she asked the maknae. Just then Yoona walked in, holding her phone. “She said she’ll be running late since she had to finish her teaching report for the day.” Sunny picked up two bowls and moved to place them on the dining table. With Seohyun and Sooyoung’s help, they placed all eight bowls at their respective places on the dining table. 

While Yuri and Yoona helped set the banchan next to the soup bowls, the sound of the front door closing brought in their dancing queen, Hyoyeon. Throwing her bag to the floor and pulling off her cap, she smiled at her friends who had waited patiently for her to return before starting on dinner. 

As they dug in to dinner, Taeyeon turned to Hyoyeon, “How was the first day of teaching a substitute class at Sungkyunkwan?” Hyoyeon took a sip of her soup and complimented Sunny’s cooking before turning to Taeyeon, “Pretty good actually. There was a girl who was young although she didn’t really look it, but she’s got great potential. I heard she graduated high school at fourteen due to her high IQ.” 

That caught Sunny’s attention. “Wait. Did you say she had a high IQ? What was her name?” The rest of the girls turned to Sunny surprised. Hyoyeon looked at Sunny curiously, “Ji.. Young? Yoon? Yeon? Something along those lines. Why? It’s not like a few of us haven’t skipped a couple of levels, yourself included.” 

“Jiyeon. Is there another girl in your class by the name of Hyomin or Sunyoung?”

Hyoyeon scrunched her forehead trying to recall the names of the students in her class. Shaking her head, “Nope. Don’t think so. What did she look like?” Sunny proceeded to describe Hyomin to her friend but her Hyoyeon shook her head. “Sorry Sunny, no one matches your description. Besides, if she’s as hot as you’ve described, I would have definitely noticed,” Hyoyeon said smirking at her friend.

Yuri turned to Sunny, “Why the sudden interest Sunny?” Seeing their friend turn bright shade of red, questions suddenly fired across the table accompanied with giggles and catcalls. Trying to fend off the teasing, Sunny turned her puppy eyes towards her childhood friend and mentally begged Taeyeon to save her. Taeyeon chuckled at her friend’s embarrassment and asked, “Have you finally found a girl worthy of your interest, danshin?” Sunny glared at her friend, “YAH! You’re no taller yourself! And how is this helping me?” Taeyeon shrugged, “This is the first time I’ve seen you taking interest in girls from Sungkyunkwan.”

Sunny sighed, “Fine. Yes. I’m interested.” A chorus of oohs and aahs emitted from the friends around her and they resumed their interrogation. Sunny then told them about how she had first bumped into Hyomin at the supermarket and how the beautiful brunette had been on her mind until she saw her again at the park earlier. Tiffany emitted a giant squeal, much to everyone’s annoyance, when Sunny told them about how she saved Hyomin from falling and received a thank you kiss for it.

“Explains why you sounded so upset when I called you earlier,” Taeyeon grinned.

Sunny turned to glare at Sooyoung and Yoona, “If it weren’t for these two shikshins, I might have gotten more-“. She stopped herself, her face quickly imitating a tomato. The girls sniggered and Tiffany piped up, “Well, did you at least get her number?” Sighing, Sunny shook her head explaining that she had been floating on cloud nine after that kiss and ran off before she could remember to ask Hyomin for it. Tiffany gasped in horror and the other girls looked at each other. Sooyoung and Yoona hung their heads knowing that if it weren’t for them, Sunny would have gotten to know Hyomin a little bit better.

“Since Sooyoung and Yoona were at fault, why not make them get her number for you?” said Yuri casually as she picked at her kimchi. All eyes turned to Yuri in confusion. Yuri looked around the table, “What? Sooyoung is in a dance course too and I’m sure there’s bound to be one or two of her classmates who will know this Jiyeon girl. If you can get to her, then you might be able to get Hyomin’s number.” 

“W-what?! Why me?” exclaimed Sooyoung. Taeyeon looked at Sooyoung with daggers, “Because it was technically your fault that you bugged me for dinner and I was in rehearsals so I had Sunny do it for me. Besides, it’s not like Sunny can visit the university herself to look for this girl.” Sooyoung looked skeptical but when she saw the hopeful look in Sunny’s eyes, she sighed guiltily and nodded. “Fine. But give me at least a week.” The rest of the girls nodded in agreement and continued to talk about their days.

—————

Sunny stepped out of the shower and looked at her snoring roommate who had fallen fast asleep after she dinner. Sunny smiled and fixed the blanket that had fallen off Yoona’s shoulder. Rubbing her damp hair with a towel, Sunny walked to the window to look out at the moon. “I wonder if she’s missing me the way I’m missing her.” 

ACHOO!

Sunny clapped her hand to and quickly turned to see if she had woken up her dongsaeng. Yoona continued to snore peacefully. Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned back to the beautiful crescent moon. Deciding that she needed a glass of water before sleeping, Sunny quietly left the room and headed to kitchen. 

Feeling around the dark kitchen, Sunny suddenly heard soft sobbing sounds coming from the outside the kitchen window. Trying to make out who it was, Sunny peered out into the small garden behind their dorm and saw a faint shaking outline of Yuri sitting on the porch footsteps. Gently pushing the back door open, Sunny approached the sobbing mess and sat down next to her. Sunny looked down at Yuri’s hands and sighed when she saw the three year old photograph she held.

There were the nine of them in the picture and Sunny clearly remembered like it was yesterday when they took that photo. They had just finished their final examinations and were smiling happily at the camera as they dug into the ddukbokki that Jessica’s mum had prepared. Yuri’s arm was curled around Jessica’s waist while latter had her arms wrapped around Yuri’s neck in the photo.

“She left me Sunny. Was I not good enough? How is my cousin any better than me?,” Yuri choked out with tears streaming down her face. Sunny slipped her arm across her friend’s shoulders, “You know it’s not your fault Yuri, she just had a change of heart and not even you could have predicted it.” Wiping her friend’s tears from her face, “Besides, you knew that Sica’s mum was not happy when she found out about the both of you. She’s was trying to hide the both of you ever since then.” Sunny sighed guiltily knowing that this was necessary pain to help her friend get over her ex-girlfriend. 

Yuri had slowed her crying and croaked, “But what hurts is that she had to pick Tyler. My own cousin. Could she have broken my heart anymore cruelly?” Sunny patted her Yuri’s head softly and hugged her friend. She had no explanations or words of comfort for her friend, since she had never been in love before. She could only sit out here and rock her friend gently in her arms hoping that her friend would make peace with herself over Jessica’s sudden departure a long time ago.

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Author’s Note:

So what did you guys think about this chapter?

It was super fun on my part to describe the SoShi girls interactions, I hope I got most of them right! ><

And to all the Sica fans, please don’t kill me! 

I had debated with myself about whether to make the group 8 or 9 but since it’s been so long since Sica left, I thought it’d be for the best to let her sit this one out.

Please do leave me comments on what you thought of the chapter! I love reading them! :)

Until the next chapter!