chapter 20
Infatuation and Falling For YouI woke up to the blaring sound of my alarm.
Annoying.
I hastily grabbed my phone on the nightstand, switching off the alarm quickly and hoping the body beside me hadn’t woken up.
“Why are you up so early?” she grumbled.
Woops.
I turned to her. She had her eyes barely open and I could see that she was about to fall back to sleep any moment.
“I need to go.”
“Hnn? Why?”
“I need to change for work.”
Her brows furrowed at that.
“Just borrow some of mine.”
“But-”
She shushed me.
“Sleep,” she demanded.
I didn’t feel like going at this hour anyways. Too sleepy. Too comfy.
I happily complied.
I laid back down and pulled the covers over me. I snuggled close to her, smiling when she threw her arm over my waist and clung to me.
After about two hours, the sun had already risen, its blinding rays passing through the glass doors of the balcony. The white drapes didn’t do much to prevent the light from permeating the room.
Sooyoung began to wake up, moving her body carefully to avoid disturbing the sleeping person next to her. She stretched her limbs, opening her eyes and adjusting to the brightness of the sun-lit room.
She turned her head to the side, seeing Jessica still sleeping. She laid down on her side, resting her head on her hand propped on her elbow.
Looking down, she admired the defining soft features of the woman’s face. She caressed her cheek lovingly then proceeded to trace her forehead down to the bridge of her nose with her index finger. Then, she playfully booped her nose.
Sooyoung stifled her giggles when Jessica’s brows furrowed together and scrunched her nose.
“What time is it?” came Jessica’s sleepy voice.
It was low and a bit scratchy.
Sooyoung quickly checked her phone.
“It’s a little past 7 AM,” she answered.
“Still early. Sleep more,” Jessica said as she buried her head face on her pillow.
“Five more minutes then.”
“Twenty,” was Jessica’s muffled response.
“Ten,” Sooyoung said again. “I want to make us some breakfast at least.”
“Fine,” Jessica drawled.
Sooyoung laid back down and settled close to Jessica. She then continued to wrap a hand behind her, pulling Jessica close to her so that her head was nestled on the crook of her neck.
“It’s warm,” Jessica whined. “The bed’s big enough for the both of us.”
“But I want to cuddle,” Sooyoung argued. “You’re so soft and squishy.”
“...”
“...”
“Are you calling me fat?”
Sooyoung didn’t reply.
Jessica abruptly got up and looked down at Sooyoung with a scowl.
“Yah!”
Sooyoung pretended not to hear and refused to open her eyes.
This irked Jessica even more. She grabbed her pillow and began hitting her with it. Sooyoung, surprised at the sudden attack, shielded herself with her arms.
“Yah! Choi Sooyoung!”
Despite being hit repeatedly, Sooyoung found the nerve to laugh. This only made Jessica even more annoyed.
When Jessica’s movements slowed down, Sooyoung grabbed both of her hands. She smirked at Jessica before quickly pushing her down on the bed. Jessica tried to get free but to no avail.
They were slightly panting from the struggle.
“I don’t think you’re fat,” Sooyoung said. “And even if you were, I wouldn’t mind. It just means there’ll be more of you for me to love.”
She blinked at me before saying, “You are so weird.”
Sooyoung felt thankful that she didn’t notice her slip of tongue. And if she did, she didn’t comment on it.
Sooyoung finally let the girl go and sat on her side of the bed.
“You know, we would have had that ten minutes of sleep if you didn’t decide to attack me?”
Jessica widened her eyes at that.
“I’m going back to sleep,” she quickly said.
Jessica quickly pulled the covers over her head.
“Sica~ you need to wake up.”
“It’s your fault I couldn’t sleep more.”
Sooyoung rolled her eyes at her and proceeded to pull the covers away from her.
“Wake up already.”
Jessica clung to the sheets tightly. They played tug of war with the sheets. When Jessica could no longer hold on, she let go, causing Sooyoung to fall backwards and land on her but with a loud thud.
“Ow. Yah!”
Instead of sympathizing with her, Jessica was clutching her stomach as she erupted into a full blown laughter.
It was Sooyoung’s turn now to be annoyed. She stood up and began pulling Jessica out of the bed by her feet. Jessica squealed.
“Are you gonna get up now?” Sooyoung asked, challenging her. “I’ll drag you down the stairs if I have to.”
She continued to pull her out of bed when she saw the defiance in Jessica’s eyes. Even as she clung onto the bed, Jessica couldn’t stop being dragged.
“Okay! I’m up! I’m up!”
Sooyoung looked smug as hell as she looked down at the visibly irritated girl. She finally let go of her feet as Jessica got up from the bed.
“Happy?” she snarked, glowering at the all too smug smirk on Sooyoung’s face.
“Yes.”
In the kitchen, Sooyoung proceeded to scrounge the refrigerator for ingredients.
“Ummm...Sica?”
“Yeah?”
Sooyoung turned to look back at her. She watched amusedly as Jessica had sat and hunched over to lay her head on the kitchen island.
‘How does she even manage to go to work?’ Sooyoung thought.
“When was the last time you went grocery shopping?” Sooyoung asked.
“Ummm...a week...no...two weeks ago? Maybe?”
“You don’t have any food here besides ramen.”
“I have coffee.”
“That’s not breakfast,” Sooyoung argued.
“I have cereal too.”
Sooyoung sighed.
“You can’t cook,” she concluded.
“Nope,” was Jessica’s nonchalant answer.
Sometime in the future, Sooyoung would later on hear Tiffany tell her, “It’s best for everyone if she doesn’t go anywhere near a knife or a stove.”
“Cereal it is then.”
Sooyoung quickly found the box of cereal in one of the cabinets. She got them bowls, spoons, and milk from the refrigerator.
With one arm propped on the island and resting her head on her hand, Jessica poured herself some of the cereal. She then handed the box to Sooyoung and grabbed the milk next. As she poured the milk, she spoke.
“Let’s take my car to work today.”
“Okay. But could you drop me off a bit of a distance from the cafe?” Sooyoung asked.
“Why?”
“I want to avoid having to explain it to the others. They’re insufferable sometimes.”
“Hmmm. You’re not ashamed of me now, are you?”
“Wha- No!” Sooyoung quickly denied. “That’s not it. I just really don’t want to explain why we’re carpooling this morning. Do you really want me telling them I slept over?”
Jessica processed what she said.
“You have a point.”
A couple of spoonfuls later, Jessica spoke again.
“So are we going to tell the others? About us, I mean.”
“Honestly, no,” Sooyoung said. “Not now at least. Sometime later maybe but not right now.”
Confusion was apparent on Jessica’s face.
Sooyoung explained further.
“For now, I just want to have you for myself before we subject ourselves to a world of teasing.”
Jessica couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and the small smirk playing on her lips.
“Keep me to yourself, huh?”
Sooyoung shrugged.
“I’m surprisingly selfish when it comes to you.”
Jessica blushed furiously at that.
“You can’t...you can’t just say those things out of nowhere,” Jessica stated. “It’s not fair.”
“I can and I will because I know exactly how you’d react,” Sooyoung replied with an all too satisfied grin.
Jessica shot her an annoyed glare. Just then, she had a thought.
“So if you were to pick between me and food…”
Sooyoung stopped smiling and had to look away for a moment to think. Jessica leaned over the island to smack her on the shoulder.
“Is that really something you have to think about?”
“But it’s not like I can eat you. I need food to survive,” Sooyoun argued. “I promise. You’re a close second.”
This did not help her situation at all.
Jessica had stopped her car a few meters away from the cafe as requested. Sooyoung surprised her by kissing her chastely on her lips then exited the car. Jessica didn’t have time to react as Sooyoung had already closed the car door and was waving goodbye to her.
“See you at lunch.”
Jessica stared at her retreating figure, her mind finally processing what just happened. She carefully brought her fingers to her lips, recalling the feeling.
She was brought out of her stupor at the sound of honking behind her. She quickly started her car again, looking at the rear view mirror and uttering her apologies. She drove her way out of there and headed to work.
When Sooyoung stepped into her workplace, Sunny didn’t fail to notice the ear-splitting grin on her face. With squinted eyes, she scrutinized her friend who walked towards her office with an obvious skip in her steps.
Getting up from her chair, she followed her friend to her office.
“Looks like you’ve finally gotten out of your funk. Something good happened?”
Sooyoung immediately dropped her smile before turning to face Sunny.
“Not really. You must be imagining things.”
“Oh?”
Sunny didn’t believe one second of it.
Seeing the expression on her friend’s face, Sooyoung decided she needed to say something to get her off her back for now at least.
“I made up with Sica.”
Sunny perked up at that.
“How did it go?”
“It went fine.”
“That explains the sudden change of mood,” Sunny concluded. “Anyways, good for you guys.”
“Thanks.”
Just when Sooyoung thought she was safe from her pestering, Sunny spoke up again.
“Is that...are you wearing Gucci?”
Sooyoung stopped midway from sitting on her chair as she looked at her friend with widened eyes.
‘Damn. I even chose the cheapest looking clothing from Sica’s wardrobe,’ Sooyoung thought.
“Umm...yeah.”
“When did you get into high-end designer clothing?” she asked inquisitively.
“I’m not. I just saw it when I was looking for a gift for Sica. I liked the feel of the cloth and thought, ‘Why not?’,” Sooyoung lied.
“Okay.”
Sunny seemed to buy it as she finally walked out of Sooyoung’s office.
Sooyoung released a sigh of relief once she was out of sight. She consciously brought her hand to the collar of the white silk long sleeved blouse she borrowed and adjusted it to cover a certain spot on her neck. Jessica did great in covering it up with makeup but Sooyoung couldn’t help but be careful.
I made sure to take note of Jessica’s style of clothing.)
Meanwhile…
Tiffany had watched Jessica like a hawk the whole morning. She was itching to know what had turned her best friend’s mood around. She has an idea of course. But, she wasn’t about to call someone and risk being wrong about it.
Jessica was aware she was being watched. Her hand would unconsciously move up to cover her neck a few times. Without the makeup, her sleeveless turtleneck top could only cover half of the bruise. She kept worrying over smudging the makeup and revealing it for everyone to see.
She couldn’t help but curse Sooyoung under her breath.
She was careful not to touch her neck too much.
Lunch came rolling in and Jessica didn’t hesitate to leave her work for once. She was about to call Sooyoung when said person came bursting through her office door.
“Haven’t we talked about knocking?”
“My hands were full,” Sooyoung said.
Sooyoung hurriedly placed the bags of food on the coffee table. She took out the food containers from the take out bags and spread them across the table. As she did this, Jessica took this time to approach her and sit across from her.
They continued on like how they’ve always been on their office lunch dates. They eat, chat, and spread themselves across the couch as they let the food digest.
“You know, Sunny almost caught me earlier,” Sooyoung said.
Jessica raised her head from the arm of the couch to look at her.
“What happened?”
“She noticed me wearing Gucci,” Sooyoung replied as she gestured to the top she was wearing.
“How does that-”
“I don’t really own a lot of designer clothing, especially not something Gucci,” Sooyoung cut in. “I don’t even get how she could tell?”
To Sooyoung, the shirt didn’t look that much any different from other white long sleeved shirts she’s seen and owned.
Jessica chuckled at that.
Just then, Tiffany came in causing the two to turn their attention to her.
“Hey, Jess. I’m going out for lunch.” Tiffany said as she came through the door. “Do you want any- oh. Sooyoung! You’re here!”
Tiffany looked at them in surprise.
“Hi,” Sooyoung greeted her.
Tiffany glanced at the almost empty food containers on the coffee table.
“I guess I don’t have to worry about getting you lunch.”
“Thanks for asking though,” Jessica said.
“Looks like you guys finally made up,” Tiffany said, beaming as she looked between the two. “I’ll leave you guys...”
Tiffany paused, staring at Sooyoung for a moment, before finishing, “...alone then.”
She smiled at them one last time before making her exit.
“You seem distracted,” Taeyeon commented.
“Hmm?”
“I said, you seem distracted,” Taeyeon iterated.
“Just thinking.”
“Good things I hope?”
Tiffany sat straighter in her chair and gave Taeyeon her full attention.
“It’s just that I saw Sooyoung in Jess’s office earlier.”
“Ummm...okay? They finally made up, huh. Sunny told me earlier.”
Tiffany nodded.
“She was wearing this white silk Gucci top.”
“Oh yeah. Weirdly enough, Sunny mentioned that too. Is there something wrong with it?”
Tiffany shook her head.
“No. It’s just, I remember buying a similar shirt for Jess so it sort of struck me as odd. Coincidence?”
At that moment, Sunny slumped on the seat beside Taeyeon.
“So what are you guys talking about?” she asked.
Tiffany relayed the same thing to her. Sunny gazed thoughtfully in the distance from the piece of information.
“Sunkyu?” Taeyeon called her out.
“Just thinking.”
Taeyeon looked curiously at the two girls.
“Okay. What are you guys thinking about exactly?”
Sunny and Tiffany shared a glance, a quiet understanding crossing between them.
“It’s nothing to worry about, Tae,” Tiffany assured her.
“Okaaay,” Taeyeon drawled.
When Taeyeon got called back into the kitchen, these left the two girls to finally have a conversation.
“They made up yesterday, right?” Sunny asked.
“Seems like it,” Tiffany asked.
“And it’s no coincidence Sooyoung’s wearing one of Jessica’s shirts.”
“Definitely not.”
“How did she end up with it?”
“I don’t think Jess would have lent it without reason.”
“And that reason would be?”
“She slept over.”
“What!?” Sunny exclaimed, standing up from her seat.
“It’s the most logical thing I can think of,” Tiffany said.
Sunny had to sit down after hearing that.
“So what now?” Tiffany asked.
Sunny shrugged.
“We watch.”
Days since then, the two found themselves going about their usual business. Nothing really changed much from their relationship except for the few -- okay -- many many kisses in between. They haven’t told anyone yet about the new development between them.
As far as they knew, no one had caught on to their secret.
(“Pffft” - Sunny)
Sooyoung was lounging inside Jessica’s office after their lunch date. She busied herself by flipping through the magazines in Jessica’s office. It didn’t go unnoticed by Jessica how Sooyoung has been hanging around her office even when they’ve finished eating quite some time after.
She doesn’t mind of course. But, she’s pretty sure that Sunny will chew her ear off once she gets back. She’s gotten a glimpse of Sooyoung’s emails and stacked projects so she really wonders how she wasn’t rushing back to work.
“Sica?”
“Hmm?”
“Where do you wanna go on a date?”
Jessica stopped typing on her computer.
“I don’t really care.”
Sooyoung made a sidelong glance her way.
“Really? So you’d be okay if I just took you to some random bar somewhere?”
Jessica shrugged.
“Well, I haven’t gone drinking for some time now.”
“I like how you’re so blase about a lot of things,” Sooyoung remarked.
“Or I just really don’t care where you take me,” Jessica said. “As long as I’m with you.”
Sooyoung grinned as she approached her.
“You’re getting sappy on me.”
“I get it from you, obviously,” Jessica shot back with a good natured eye roll.
“Then we can be sappy together,” Sooyoung said as she pulled her in for a hug. “The super icky gross sappy rom com couple.”
Jessica cringed.
“Oh god. Can we not be that couple?”
Sooyoung just laughed.
“Be ready by 6 tonight.”
“Excuse me? Tonight?”
Jessica was a little taken aback by the abruptness.
“Yeah. I mean, why not? Are you busy?”
Jessica glanced at her computer monitor before glancing back at her.
“Not particularly,” she replied.
“Great. Just dress casual.”
Before Jessica could ask any further details, Sooyoung approached and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek and said ‘goodbye’. She was out of her office in a flash.
“She couldn’t have stayed long enough for me to kiss back?” Jessica thought to herself with a pout.
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