Chapter 14 – The Plan

“I’ll be that person.” Gyuri exclaimed with determination. In such a short amount of time, Gyuri had made up her mind and decided to say those words. Yoona was such a good friend to her, Gyuri doubted that if she could repay enough all the things Yoona did to her in this life. Now Yoona was in trouble, she had to step in and help her in any way possible.

“You mean…” Yoona slowly understood what Gyuri was saying.

“You said you need someone to make Yuri fall in love with right? I’ll help you pursuing her so that your father won’t force you with her again.” 

The suggestion caught Yoona off guard. She knew for sure that Gyuri didn’t mean to do anything bad to Yuri, she just simply wanted to get her out of this mess. However the more Yoona contemplated what Gyuri just said the more she thought that this was the worst plan ever. Making Yuri fell in love with her while Gyuri wasn’t in love with her at all, in other words it meant playing with Yuri’s feelings. Was this too much?

“But… you don’t even know her face, Gyul.” Yoona slowly said, trying to find some excuses to cancel this plan.

“It’s not that important if I know her or not. The only purpose of this plan was making that Yuri girl to love someone else so that your father will let this thing between you and her go. And I’m more than willing to become this person. Just to help you.”

“But you have to… be with her while you don’t love her. You really don’t have to do anything for me Gyul, you once told me that you needed to find your true love and marry that person. Seriously, you can’t just give up your dream because of me.” Another excuse was thrown out. A selfish part of Yoona knew the real reason why she was trying so hard to give one excuse after another to oppose this plan had nothing related to Yuri’s feelings at all.

“After all the things you’ve done for me, how can I only think of myself and watching you suffer like that? Please let me help you, Yoong. Who knows one day, I can actually love this Yuri girl for real?” Gyuri insisted.

There were probably millions thing running through Yoona’s head at this moment. Damn Gyul for being too insisted. Did she really want to help her that bad? Did she hear what she just said? Love Yuri for real? Suddenly, Gyuri made Yoona felt regretted helping her just a moment ago.

“Still... I th-” Yoona took her time, tried to make out another excuse to deny Gyuri’s offer. 

“No, I opposed.” Taeyeon exclaimed loudly, cut short what Yoona was trying to say, “Despite whatever happens, tricking someone’s feeling isn’t the right thing to do at all.” Under normal circumstances, maybe Taeyeon would agree this was a good idea but the fact that she had a thing for Tiffany – Yuri’s best friend, there was no way in hell she was gonna let this happen. Tiffany would be totally mad if she found out about this, she knew how much the eye-smile girl cared for her best friend.

Yoona was silently thankful to Taeyeon, thank the girl for opposing the offer which was for Yoona’s own good. Strange, wasn’t it?

“It’s not some stranger we’re talking about here, in this case it’s that girl, Kwon Yuri. Don’t you see how much Yoona was hurt when she knew that Yuri used her as a tool? Who dare to humiliate Yoona in front of everyone by slapping her? Who’s acting so innocent and goes around telling everyone about her past and now they treat Yoona like she was the biggest jerk of the year included her father? She’s the one who forces us to make this decision.” Jessica chimed in. As the person who had quietly watched every Yoona’s heartbroken moment in her own eyes, more than anyone Jessica had the right to say what she was saying at this moment.

“Yeah, that’s true. I second what Jessica said. Think about it, Yoong. You have absolutely no other choices unless you want to marry Yuri again.”

Even though what they were thinking was totally different from each other, both Yoona and Taeyeon grew silent. Taeyeon knew why Jessica was acting like this. It must have been hard for her to watch Yoona getting hurt every single time because of Yuri. Yoona on her part, was thinking in a weirdest way ever about what Gyuri just said. Was it stupid of her to say that right now, she didn’t care if she had to marry Yuri again?

“Well, I don’t have anything to say about this matter anymore. Neither disagrees nor agrees. But if you guys decided to do it, count me out, I don’t have any interest in this plan at all.” Taeyeon said as her final opinion about the plan.

Jessica nodded. She didn’t expect Taeyeon to agree anyway, she was in a relationship with Tiffany after all, “Then we’ll count your vote as neutral. I say yes. You said yes too, right Gyul?” Jessica asked Gyuri and earned a nod from the latter in return, “There’s only you left, Yoong.” She turned to Yoona.

Yoona closed her eyes tightly. She was stuck and lost. Not knowing what to do at this moment. But there was one thing she knew for sure that if she agreed to do this plan meaning her relationship with Yuri from now on would always remain as co-workers or maybe worse, each other’s enemies once Yuri found out.

“You still love this Yuri girl, don’t you?” Gyuri asked out of nowhere. Her statement became the center of attention in the table. “You couldn’t do this plan because you’re afraid. Afraid that Yuri could actually love me and your chance to come back and be with her is gone, right?” Gyuri continued.

All of them knew the obvious answer to that question was yes. Still, that real answer wasn’t matter at this moment, what really mattered now was how Yoona chose to answer this question, deny or admit it.

Yoona took a deep breath in, “No… not anymore, not after what she did to me.” There came her expected denial. She denied because that was the right thing to do, what the logical part in her mind told her to say. Yuri used her so she couldn’t, wouldn’t love Yuri anymore, what could be more logical than that. But there was one thing Yoona forgot, there was nothing called ‘logic’ in love at all, love was supposed to be illogical.

“Then why are you so… hesitant about this plan? I didn’t say that after you can settle things between you and your father then I would dump her. I’ll still be with her if she wants me to. It’s not tricking her feelings if she doesn’t know about my real feelings toward her. If I don’t see her as my lover, I can see her as my sister or my close friend so that I can take care of her the way a lover will. And in the future, if there’s someone truly in love with her then I’ll let her go. Is that fair enough for you?” Gyuri explained.

“How can you stay with her for the rest of your life if you don’t love her? This is ridiculous!” Yoona protested, a little louder than she wanted. Why Gyuri? Why did she have to be so persisted?

“I can. Because I can’t live peacefully if I can’t repay my debt of gratitude to you properly either. I own you too much, Yoong. Please, let me do this. Do me a favor and do us a both a favor.” Gyuri said every word with sincerity.

Seeing Gyuri’s sincerity, Yoona heaved a defeated sigh. Maybe this was a way out for both of them, the ex-lovers. Certainly, they couldn’t go back to the way they used to be while Yoona couldn’t stand her father’s harsh attitude toward her anymore. Let’s put an end to this, no more tears, no more heartbreaks, it was time to let go now, “Are you sure that you can take care of her the way a lover will even when you don’t love her?”

“Yes, I’m confident that I can do it.”Gyuri said firmly.

“Fine.” Yoona lowered her head and said in a small voice, almost inaudible in such a noisy place like this bar. She agreed as another way to hide her feelings, she should be proud of herself now since she had succeeded in doing what she was the best at.

After that agreement, what her friends were saying became muffles to Yoona’s ears. All she did was staring blankly at her glass of wine if there was something more she would either nod or mumble some incoherent ‘uhm’ when someone asked her opinion about the plan. Yoona looked just like a person who had their soul taken away by some evil witches.

&&&&&&

STS’s lobby

“Remember what we planned yesterday, okay?” Jessica reminded the motionless person next to her.

“Uhm…” A short answer came from Yoona as she had her eyes fixed on the floor indicator on top of the elevator.

While they were waiting for the elevator, Yuri and Tiffany walked through the front door toward the elevator. As soon as Tiffany saw Yoona, her bright expression changed into a sorrow one in an instant. Seconds later, the elevator reached the ground floor, all four of them stepped in casually. When they were in, Jessica kept nudging Yoona to walk over where Tiffany and Yuri were standing. According to the plan, in order to make it easier for Gyuri to make a move on Yuri, Yoona and Jessica had to be on good term with Yuri first.

“Fine, I know. Stop hitting me.” Yoona whispered in an annoyed tone to Jessica. She moved a little bit toward the two friends standing in one corner of the elevator. “Uhm… Yu-yuri-ya…uh, no… Yuri-sshi…” Yoona didn’t notice that this was the first time after they met again, she called Yuri’s name. Since they were just co-workers, it was better if she used honorifics.

“What?” Tiffany turned to Yoona as she raised her voice, already switching to defense mode. She answered Yoona as if her name was Yuri.

Taken back by Fany’s behavior, Yoona took one step back. She turned her head to look at Jessica standing behind her, hoping she would receive some kind of signal to cancel her mission but all she saw was Jessica bumped her fist in the air, mouthing ‘Fighting’. Yoona gave a sigh in disappointment as she spoke again, “Yuri-sshi, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“No, not in the mood.” Tiffany answered for Yuri who kept silent the whole time. As soon as the sound of the elevator opening was heard, Fany held Yuri’s twist and dragged the girl out of there as fast as she could.

Yoona grinned as she saw them walking away. Somehow she was thankful that Tiffany acted this way. “Well, I tried.” She shrugged.

Jessica smacked Yoona’s head from behind, “You called that trying?”

“Don’t you see that I’ve tried to talk to her? Look at the way they acted.”

“Then try harder.” Jessica said while pushing Yoona toward Yuri’s office.

Yuri’s office

“Aish, stop dragging me, Fany-ah! What’s wrong?” Yuri said as she tried to shake Fany’s hand off her twist.

“Don’t what’s wrong me, Kwon Yuri. You know I do this just to protect you.”

“Protect? What the hell are you talking about?”

“I know that sooner or later you’ll let your guard down when Yoona acts sweetly to you. Trust me, judging by the way she’s acting right now, she must have been working on some of her evil schemes.” Tiffany her chin while thinking back to what happened in the elevator moments ago.

Yuri let out a scoff, “She just called me Yuri-sshi and you call that acting sweetly? Seriously Fany-ah, you’re just too sensitive sometimes. I really can’t see what she can possibly get from me.”

“Yes, there is. Maybe she can’t stand the way our co-workers are treating her so she has to ask you to do something to change the situation.”

Yuri shook her head, “Somehow I don’t believe that she cares about how those people act around her.”

“Aishhh, I don’t know. But you’d better stay away from her. I’m warning you, Yul, that girl is dangerous.”

“You’re making something out of nothing, Fany-ah. I’m s-” Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the door. “Come in.” Yuri called out.

The door swung opened and entered Yoona. The tall girl tried to ignore those unpleasant glares Tiffany was sending her as she walked toward Yuri. “Yuri-sshi, I really want to talk to you about something. Can I have a minute with you?”

Tiffany raised her voice, “Aishh, you-”

“Fany-ah, I can handle this. Trust me.” Yuri cut Tiffany off before the girl said something rude to Yoona again.

An annoyed snort escaped Tiffany’s nose as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, “Fine.”
Yoona found it hard to say anything if Tiffany just kept sending her daggers through her eyes like this, “Uhm… just the two of us… is that okay?”

Yuri turned to look at Tiffany, silently telling her to give them a minute alone.

Tiffany rolled her eyes, “Alright, I know. Have it your way. I’m outta here.” She didn’t walk out of the room without sending one last glare to Yoona.

“Have a seat.” Yuri offered, realized that Yoona was still standing. Regardless of whatever happened between them, every time Yuri remembered the way Yong appa treated Yoona, guilt slowly piled up her stomach. The least she could do to stop this guilt from growing at this moment was being friendly to Yoona since she couldn’t do anything to change Yong appa’s mind.

Yoona hesitantly took a seat in front of Yuri, “Wh-why are you being so nice all of sudden?” She blurted out as surprise washed over her because of the way Yuri acted.

“Why do you always try to pick a fight with me while I’m trying to be nice here?” Yuri furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance.

“Believe me the last thing I want is to have a fight with you at this moment. You’re the one who always assume things in my sentences which is why we never have a proper conversation.”

A scoff left Yuri’s mouth, “Right, in the end, I’m always the one at fault.”

Yoona closed her eyes, trying to calm her nerves. She needed to keep in mind that the purpose for coming here wasn’t having yet another fight with Yuri, “Yuri-sshi, I really want to have this conversation with you so let’s just stop arguing now, okay?”

“Fine, then talk.” Yuri leaned back in her chair while crossing her arm across her chest, waiting for Yoona to start.

“Let’s be friends again.” Yoona suggested out of the blue.

If Yuri was eating something, she probably had spit it out right the moment Yoona finished her suggestion, just to prove how surprised she was right now. She looked in Yoona’s eyes, trying to find some clue saying that she was joking. Unfortunately, she found none. All she saw was seriousness. Yuri thought back to what Tiffany said just a moment ago. Was Yoona planning on something? Then Yong appa came into her mind. Was Yoona gonna ask Yuri to marry her again? For real? Just to please her father?

“Wh-why? All of a sudden…”

Yoona rubbed her forehead, trying to avoid eye contact with Yuri. How was she gonna explain? She should have expected this kind of reaction from Yuri and prepared all kind of answers. She was like this all because of Jessica kept pushing her toward this room without giving her time to think.

“Don’t tell me you… actually want to… go along with your father’s wish?”

Yoona let out a chuckle, “See? You love assuming things. I didn’t say that we have to get married again to please my father, did I?”

A slight blush was making its way across Yuri’s face, Yoona caught her red-handed. “But you said you wanted to be friends.”

“Yeah, friends. Only friends. The kind of friends which we can say hi to each other in a friendly way, you know? Honestly, we’re gonna be co-workers in one department in the long run so I think that it’s better if we could work together, literally. Not like the last conference, you do it your way and I do it mine. What happened in the past, can we just… leave it there? And…” Yoona trailed off as she was lost for words. In order to accomplish her mission, there was one last thing she had to say, the thing Jessica told her to say. It was part of the plan which she agreed to. One thing she didn’t realize up until now that those words were just so hard to say.

“And?” Yuri urged when Yoona was silent for a good five minutes. Apparently, inside of her was hoping for something else rather than normal friends. Not lovers considering what happened in the past but she didn’t want to be the type of friend Yoona referred to either. In fact, she didn’t even know what herself wanted but normal friends wasn’t enough. Not enough.

Yoona tried to swallow the lump which was slowly forming in the moment she started this conversation. ‘Tsk, whatever just get it over with.’She lifted her head up and looked at Yuri in the eyes, “Listen…” Another deep breath in, “I’m sorry.” Yoona breathed the words out.

“Oh” Yuri said in an utterly deadpan tone. There was only one word but that word was doing such a good job to sum up what Yuri was feeling. Even in her wildest dream, she could never picture the scene where Yoona apologized to her. But here she was, saying sorry for what she did and Yuri for once didn’t know how to act. Forgive her? But she didn’t ask for her forgiveness she just simply said sorry. Or reject her apology? Aish, she was not that coldhearted. ‘Tsk, When am I gonna stop acting like a fool around her?’

Suddenly, a question popped up in Yuri’s mind, the question which she had been dying to know the answer, even though she wasn’t sure whether she could take it or not. 

“Can I ask you something?” Yuri said in a low voice.

Yoona nodded. What else could she do at this time? 

“I want to know why.”

Did this count as a trick or not? Yuri started by asking if she could ask Yoona something, turned out she didn’t ask but she demanded the girl instead, demanded an explanation from Yoona. Even if Yoona wanted to answer, she couldn’t because the request itself wasn’t specific enough. What exactly did Yuri want her to explain? Why did she say she loved Yuri then later cheated on her? Why did she propose to Yuri when she didn’t feel anything for her? Why did she promise to stay with Yuri for the rest of her life while she knew fairly well that she wouldn’t keep that promise? Or a much more simple one, why did she cheated on Yuri? All of a sudden, Yoona realized that she had so much explaining to do. 

“What you want to know… does that really matter at this moment?” Yoona asked as a way to refuse explaining.

Yuri looked into Yoona’s eyes, hoping to see something saying that Yoona didn’t mean to do what she did but she couldn’t see anything. The Yoona she was looking at right now was totally different from the one she saw three years ago. The one she felt safe when she was around, the one who didn’t hide anything from her and the one who she thought loved her with all her heart.

“No… I think I’ve known everything I need to know now.” Clearly, Yoona asked her to be her friend again just because of Yong appa. If it wasn’t for him, Yoona would never regret what she did, she would never say sorry to her.

“So, are we… cool?”

“Cool, we’re cool.”

Yoona nodded as she continued, “Then… I can treat you lunch as a start for our friendship, can’t I? Also my thanks for taking care of my father.”

“Huh? Lunch?” The offer took Yuri by surprise.

“Yeah, lunch. My treat.” Yoona confirmed.

“O-okay.” 

Before the awkward silence could invade the room, Yoona quickly said, “Great, then… I’ll… see you at lunch.”

Yoona stood up from her seat and opened the door to get out, only to find Tiffany was about to fall as she lost her balance because the door which she was leaning against for support wasn’t there anymore. Obviously, the eye-smile girl was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Yoona faked a cough so that she could hold her laughter in. She found it pretty amusing how Tiffany cared for her best friend just like how Taeyeon cared for her.

“Sorry for making you wait for too long, it’s your turn now, Tiffany-sshi.” Yoona said as she walked out, unable to cover the visible grin on her face.

Tiffany gasped as she took Yoona’s grin as some kind of mocking act. She walked toward Yuri while pointing at the position where Yoona just stood a moment ago, “Did you see that, Yul?” 

Yuri let out a laugh which she had been holding in for the whole time, “See what? You eavesdrop on us? I have to admit that it was pretty funny. You really have to see the way you’re about to fall, Tiff.” Yuri held her sides as her stomach began to hurt from laughing so hard.

“Now you’re making fun of me too, Yul? I’m hurt.” Tiffany pouted as she turned away from Yuri.

Yuri quickly stopped herself from laughing by pursing her lips together tightly, “Sorry…” She apologized as she grabbed Tiffany’s shoulder to turn her around but her best friend refused to do so, “I’m really sorry, Tiff. I shouldn’t laugh at you, please forgive me.” Yuri used both of her hands to shake Tiffany’s shoulders gently.

“I’ll let you off this time but there’s no second chance, roger that?”

“Roger.” Yuri saluted her friend. 

“What did she want?” Tiffany asked

“She wanted to be friends again.”

“What?”

“Leaving the past behind and start all over as normal friends.”

“What?” Tiffany raised her voice, louder than before.

“Then she wanted to treat me lunch.”

“What?” Even louder, the word came out almost as a scream.

“And I agree to go with her.”

“Wh-” Before Tiffany could use her ear-hurting voice, Yuri raised her hand to cover the girl mouth. Tiffany shook Yuri’s hand off as she spoke, “Kwon Yuri, are you out of your mind?”
The tanned girl helplessly shook her head, wondering why her best friend was so furious.

“You must be that’s why you agree to be friends with her again.”

“No, I’m not. Isn’t that what you told me to do when she first came to STS? She means nothing to me now, remember? It won’t hurt if I’m friend with her again. We’re co-workers after all.”

“We-well, I did say that but…”

“I know you care about me, Fany-ah. But seriously, I’m over her now, way over. I’m pretty sure I can handle being around her so don’t worry about me, okay?”

“But you have to be careful. I can bet on all of my pink stuff that she’s planning on something really evil. You have to bear in mind not letting your guard down when you’re around her, you hear me?”

“I know. Ah, I think that I can’t join you for lunch though. Since this is her treat so… I feel kinda weird if…”

“Okay, fine. I know, I wonder if I should say ‘have fun’ to you or not.”

“Of course, you should, Fany-ah.” Yuri laughed as she saw Tiffany’s depressed face.

&&&&&&

STS’s lobby

Lunch time

“I just have to say this once again, good job, Yoong. You have smoothly completed stage one.” Jessica said as she patted Yoona’s shoulder.

“Uhm…” Yoona uttered boringly.

“Yah, you’ve already agreed to do this plan so at least show me some more appropriate reaction, will you?”

Yoona heaved a loud sigh, “I’m really not in the mood, Icy-ah. I only hope that Yuri just appear right now so that we can just get this lunch thing over as soon as possible. I’m getting tired already.”

Jessica was gonna talk back but she stopped herself as she saw Yuri stepped out of the elevator. She waved her hands excitedly to get Yuri’s attention.

“Sorry I’m late.” Yuri said.

“It’s okay. I’ve been worried that you won’t come, it’s a good thing that you do. Let’s go.” Jessica said as she smiled brightly at Yuri, the first smile she had ever done for her.

Of course, Yuri was surprised, completely, totally surprised.

&&&&&&

Star Restaurant

“Yah!” Tiffany called out to the girl in front of her.

The girl snapped out of her own daydream as she said “Huh?”

“Why do you keep smiling to yourself? It’s a bit creepy looking at you like that, you know?”

“Sorry, can’t help it because I’m so happy.” The girl replied, the smile was still visible on her face.

Tiffany let out a chuckle, “About what?”

“You know? This is the first time you call me first and ask me out for lunch.”

Now it was Tiffany’s turn to have that silly smile on her face, “Only because of that?”
The short girl eagerly nodded, showing how truthful she was.

“You’re just too cute, Taeyeon-ah.” Tiffany reached out to pinch the girl’s cheek, doing her eye-smile during the process.

“I think I’m gonna faint if you keep doing that.” Taeyeon said, unable to take her eyes of Tiffany.

“What now?”

“Your eye-smile.”

Fany shook her head, she was afraid that if this continued, they wouldn’t be able to finish their lunch anytime soon, “You’re such a sweet talker, you know that right?”

“Not really, I’m just stating the truth.” Taeyeon shrugged as she leaned her head forward, lessened the distance between them.

“Wh-why are you leaning so close?” Tiffany was getting flustered because of the closeness.

“To see you up close. The more you’re closer to me, the more beautiful you look. I have to memorize every little detail on your face ‘cause to me they’re perfect.” 

Tiffany could feel the heat rushed through her cheek at Taeyeon’s blunt words. She quickly lowered her head, hoping to hide her obvious blush, “What about… your café? It should be opened at this hour, right?”

Taeyeon shrugged, “I closed it.”

“Why?” Tiffany asked, surprised.

“Well, it’s not like every day I can have lunch with you. This is one-in-a-lifetime chance. Closing my café for one day won’t hurt.”

“Suddenly you make me feel like this lunch’s so special.” Tiffany smiled.

“It’s true. This lunch is special to me. You always go out for lunch with Yuri, I never expect this day would come so soon.” Taeyeon said as she grinned to herself.

Tiffany’s face dropped at the mention of her best friend. Everything that Yuri did made her feel worried. Especially something that involved Yoona.

“What’s wrong?” Taeyeon asked, noticed the sudden change in Tiffany’s expression.

“Taeng, I’m worried.”

“About what?”

“Yuri.”

“Uhm…” All of a sudden, Taeyeon who had been talking non-stop since the beginning of this lunch became quiet. She knew about her friends’ plan and they probably had started it already. She hated when she had to hide something from Tiffany. Still, she had no other choices.

“Are you hiding something from me, Taeng?” Tiffany asked, Taeyeon’s lack of reaction didn’t go unnoticed by her. Taeyeon didn’t even ask her why she was worried about Yuri. Evidently, she knew something, Yoona was her best friend after all.

Taeyeon looked at Tiffany, this girl was like her next breath now. No matter what happened she couldn’t let her go but she couldn’t turn her back on her best friends either. She was stuck in this huge mess and couldn’t find the way out. 

Taeyeon took Tiffany’s hand in hers, acting as serious as possible, “Fany-ah, can you promise me one thing?”

“What is that?”

“You know what happened between our best friends, don’t you?” Fany nodded as Taeyeon took a deep breath in while tightening her grip on Fany’s hand before she continued, “I really like you Fany-ah and I want this thing between us to grow into something bigger, stronger. I think you’d like that to happen too, right?” Another shy nod from Tiffany. “That’s why I want you to make this promise. For once, I want us to be selfish. Can you promise me that from now on, we won’t let our best friends’ relationship affect ours? Despite whatever happens between our best friends, we will stay out of it, acting like we don’t know anything and just enjoying each other’s company whenever we’re going out.”

Fany could understand where Taeyeon was coming from. Being selfish also played an important part in being in love. She still remembered how hard it was for her to overcome her guilty and choose to be with Taeyeon. It wasn’t an easy decision to make at all. Every time she saw Yuri, guilt slowly ate at her but it didn’t stop her from seeing Taeyeon and yearning for the short girl’s love.

“I don’t know, Taeyeon-ah.” Fany said hesitantly.

“Please, Fany-ah. Promise me.” At this particular time, Taeyeon didn’t know to do anything else expect tightening her grip on Fany’s hand. She was afraid that even if she just let loose the girl’s hand for one split second, Tiffany would slip out of her hand forever.

Watching the desperate look in Taeyeon’s eye, eventually Tiffany nodded. She let out a heavy breath which she didn’t know she was holding, “Fine, I promise.”

Those words worked like magic to Taeyeon’s ears. As soon as she heard Fany’s promise, the forgotten smile was back on her face in an instant and as brightly as ever. “Pinkie promise?” Taeyeon raised her pinky up in front of Tiffany.

“Pinkie promise.” Fany also smiled as she wrapped her pinkie around Taeyeon’s.

&&&&&&

“We’re going to our usual place, right Yoong?” Jessica asked excitedly as they were on their way to the BBQ restaurant downtown.

“Uhm…” The taller girl nodded. It seemed like nodding was Yoona’s only reaction ever since this plan started.

“Yuri-sshi, do you like BBQ?” Jessica asked while turning to Yuri.

Yuri shrugged, “Anything is fine. I really don’t mind.”

“That’s good.” Jessica smiled to Yuri, again. And Yuri wasn’t going to tell how weird it was to look at Jessica acted like that.

As they reached an intersection, Jessica noticed the green traffic light started to blink and she quickly held Yoona’s twist as she sped up in order to cross the road without waiting for the traffic light, “Hurry, Yoong!”

Seeing Jessica sped up, Yuri also began to run after to catch them without looking at the traffic light. She didn’t realize that she was passing the road in a dangerous way as the light had turned red already. The fact only hit her when she heard the shrieking noise came from one of those cars on the road beeping their horn.

However, before Yuri could react to the sound, she found her hands being held tightly as she was pulled back in someone’s embrace because of the sudden force. Her heart was beating so fast because of the unexpected chain of reactions. Yuri quickly looked up to see the person who just helped her. It was a girl, a pretty girl she might add.

The dark haired girl hastily pulled back from their hug, kept their distance seeing that Yuri was now standing safely on the sidewalk. “You should be more careful, it’s really dangerous to cross the road like that.”

“O-oh, thanks.” Yuri said, wasn’t fully recovered from the shock.

Instead of replying the stranger kept her eyes on Yuri, looking like she was looking for something on Yuri’s face.

“Wh-wha-”

Before Yuri could finish her question, the girl raised her hand to touch Yuri’s hair. Yuri could felt that she was taking something out of her hair.

“You got this sticker stuck in your hair.” The girl said as she waved the sticker in front of Yuri.

“Th-thanks.”

The girl smiled warmly at Yuri before looked at the watch on her twist, “I guess I have to go now. Pay attention to the traffic light more, okay?”

“Okay…” Yuri slowly said to no one in particular because the girl had already run off. Her eyes followed the running figure in the distance. It had been such a long time since she got a hug from someone else rather than Tiffany. Frankly, she felt nothing in particular but the hug surely reminded her of someone else used to hug her just like that.




On the other side of the road, Yoona and Jessica were watching the whole scene as they waited for Yuri.

“Why don’t Gyuri say her name?” Yoona asked as she saw Gyuri walked away without telling Yuri her name.

Jessica shook her head as she had witty smile on her face, “I told her not to. First impression isn’t about introducing yourself but making the other yearning to see you again. It’s better if she left without saying anything like that, leaving Yuri wondered who Gyuri is, where she comes from. And when they meet again, Yuri will realize that it is fate bringing them together. Brilliant idea, right?”

“Who told you about the first impression thing?” Yoona asked as she found it was familiar.

“Taeyeon taught me.” Jessica grinned as she kept her eyes on Yuri on the other side of the road.

Yoona widened her eyes, “I thought that Taeyeon said she don’t want to get involved in this plan.”

“She didn’t. The first impression is something she told me a long time ago. Only now I find it is useful.”

Yoona let out a scoff as she took in what Jessica just said. How ironic it was to think that Taeyeon was the one who taught Jessica and she, herself was the one told Taeyeon about the first impression thing when the short girl asked her for some method for getting the girl she wanted quite some time ago.

“What about the car thing? Don’t you think it’s too dangerous to let her cross the road like that?” Yoona asked in an irritated voice.

“Don’t worry, there’s no way that car is gonna do any harm to her. Remember James?”

Yoona scrunched her eyebrows as she tried to remember someone named James, “Ahh, is he the bell boy on the cruise ship who had a crush on you?”

“Bingo. He was the one who sat in that car. I asked him to wait here. When he saw Yuri was crossing the road he’ll start to beep his car horn furiously even though there’s no way his car could hit her with that big gap between them. Only when Yuri was pulled into Gyuri, he would speed up, passing them, making like Gyuri was saving Yuri’s life. Told you that my plan is brilliant.” Jessica grinned satisfied to herself.

“Yeah, right. It’s brilliant.” Yoona said sarcastically.

“I think that it worked perfectly, don’t you see that Yuri can’t take her eyes off Gyuri even though she was already gone?” Jessica said as she nodded toward Yuri’s direction.

Yoona looked at Yuri who was standing frozen in her spot on the sidewalk. She truly looked like she was in deep thought while looking in Gyuri’s direction. The evidence was there, right in front of her eyes, leaving Yoona no choice but to admit that Jessica’s plan had worked perfectly the way she called it.

“Uhm…” And Yoona was back to those uninterested one-word replies again.

“Yuri-sshi!” Jessica called out to Yuri as she waved her hands to get the tanned girl’s attention.

Yuri snapped out of her thought as she heard Jessica’s voice. Looking at the traffic light to make sure it had turned green, Yuri quickly crossed the road to join the duo who was waiting.

“Are you okay, Yuri-sshi?” Jessica asked.

“I’m fine.” 

“That’s a relief to hear. Let’s hit the BBQ now, shall we?” Jessica said excitedly.

This was only the beginning of their plan but Yoona already felt the guilt was piling up by every second. She thought that this uneasy feeling would disappear once Gyuri could fall in love with Yuri for real. But the question of the day was: What Yoona was feeling inside, was it only guilt or there was something else much bigger which was always telling to stop this plan before it was too late?

TBC