Chapter 16 – Can You Give Back To Me My Heart?

YoonSicTae’s house – Yoona’s room

When did Jessica start to have feelings for her more than a best friend? How could Jessica fall for the type of person like her? What did she accidentally do to make Jessica feel this way? What should she do now that she knew what Jessica was feeling toward her? How could she face her best friend from now on and act like she knew nothing?

Yoona couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t sleep at all last night. Even now, early in the morning, she was still pacing back and forth in her room, looking for an answer for those questions kept forming in her mind slowly one by one. And she doubted if she could ever have the answer she wanted to all of them.

Advices. She wanted some advices from someone, anyone. Yoona rushed to her phone which was placed on the nightstand next to her bed. She dialed the person who was the first came to her mind when it came to advices.

“Hyunie, hyunie… pick up, pick up, pick up…” Yoona tapped her foot impatiently on the floor while mumbling to herself as she waited for Seohyun to pick up the phone.

“He...llo…?” Came Seohyun’s drowsy voice through the phone. As expected from someone who was half-asleep.

“Thank god, you pick up. Hyunie, everything you said was right. Everything I’m telling you! She scrunched her eyebrows, stuttering and looking away when I’m leaning closer to her, acting overly happy. I really don’t know what to do now. What shou-” Yoona spoke non-stop.

“Yoona-unnie!” Seohyun shouted in the phone to stop her unnie’s rant. Early in the morning, half-asleep, she didn’t even have a chance to make out what Yoona was saying let alone give an advice.

“Huh? What?”

“Can you tell me what happened slower?” Seohyun still sounded sleepy.

“Oh… sorry… I woke you up, didn’t I?” Yoona quickly apologized as she noticed the drowsiness in Seohyun’s voice, she knew that she had interrupted the young girl’s peaceful slumber.

“No… actually I will have to get up soon. What happened?” Seohyun sat up in her bed as she yawned while rubbing her eyes in a tired manner.

“Jessica! Her reactions are exactly the same as you told me. She does feel something for me. I… I… I don’t know anymore, Seohyun-ah.”

“Now you know that she loves you, don’t you?”

“No!” Suddenly Yoona strongly denied that statement, “She doesn’t love me, Jessica doesn’t love me, my best friend wasn’t in love with me...” She tried to convince Seohyun or maybe herself.

“How do you explain the way she acted then?”

“That’s… Well, like I said, probably she does feel something for me. But it isn’t that strong, it isn’t love. She can’t love me, Seohyun-ah. She can’t…”

“Why can’t she?”

Yoona was frozen. That question was right. Why? Why couldn’t Jessica love her? Why was she in a panic mode when she knew Jessica saw her more than a friend? Why was she trying so hard to deny the fact that Jessica was in love with her? Because she didn’t know how to act when she was around Jessica if she knew that the latter had that kind of feelings for her.

Why did she not know how to act then?

Deep down inside, Yoona knew the answer was simple.

Because Jessica was her best friend. 

It would be much easier if Jessica didn’t feel anything as strong as love toward her. Because it would be much less painful when Yoona rejected her, she knew she would do that if Jessica confessed to her that she loved her. She couldn’t rejected her best friend directly and not care about her feelings like she always did to those random girl she met at the bar, willing to throw themselves at her just for a smile on her face in return.

Yoona knew that she would break her best friend’s heart sooner or later because she couldn’t accept the girl’s feelings, she couldn’t give Jessica her heart as a whole, she knew she wouldn’t. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t since it had been taken away by a certain tanned girl three years ago and that girl refused to return it back to her ever since. 

“Unnie… Are you still there?” Seohyun asked as she didn’t hear anything on the other line, “Unnie!” She raised her voice to call out to Yoona. 

Seohyun’s call pulled Yoona out of her thoughts, “Huh? Wh-what did you just say?”

“I don’t understand why you’re acting like this, unnie. What’s so wrong if Jessica-unnie is love with you? Best friends who grow up together, fall in love with each other is the most natural thing ever in this world. Personally, I find that love is really beautiful.”

“Hyunie, I… I can’t let her love me. I don’t want to hurt her. I’m… not good enough for her.”

“Why’re you not good enough, unnie? You’re the best person I’ve ever met. I know that you’ll bring happiness to Jessica-unnie if you two are together.”

“You… you don’t get it, Hyunie.”

“Unnie…” Seohyun bit her lips, she wasn’t sure if she should say this or not. Somehow she understood why Yoona didn’t want Jessica to love her. Her unnie didn’t want to break the blonde’s heart, “You… you already have someone else in your heart, don’t you?”

Yoona stayed silent. Seohyun knew? Why were all the things supposed to be her secrets yet everyone knew about it? Was she that obvious?

“That person is… Yuri-unnie, isn’t she?”

Great… another secret was exposed. She was supposed to say something to deny that but she decided to keep shut because the person she was talking to wasn’t some random stranger, it was Seohyun. And she believed that it was impossible to hide anything from this young girl, she was too smart to fall for her lies.

Yoona heaved a sigh, “How… how do you know?” Her question could be considered as her way to confirm Seohyun’s assumption.

“Guts feelings… maybe?”

“What should I do now?” 

“May I ask you something first, Yoona-unnie? It’s kind of personal.” Seohyun hesitated.

“Hyunie, we’re way past the formalities right now. Are you seriously asking me that?”

A soft chuckle left Seohyun’s mouth, “Figures. Still, I need to ask you first because I think that you might feel uncomfortable answering my question. Uhm… I feel like this thing between you and Yuri-unnie is… something happened in the past.”

Yoona scrunched her eyebrows, she had a feeling that what Seohyun was gonna say wouldn’t be something pleasant to her ear, “Hyunie, I don’t get what’re you trying to say here.”

“You know the saying ‘Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a misery but today is a gift that’s why it’s called present.’ If you ask for my opinion, I will say that you should hold dear to yourself what you have in hands at this moment rather than hold on to something that isn’t yours anymore. What happened in the past, why don’t you just let it go?”

Yoona didn’t say anything as she listened to what Seohyun was saying. Let it go? Easier said than done. If she could let the past go easily like Seohyun said, she would’ve done it a long time ago. The point was she couldn’t do it, every time she saw Yuri, memories of those 7 days kept coming back in her mind like a video stuck on replay. It was hopeless at forgetting Yuri. Yoona herself was hopeless.

“I have to admit that I really don’t know exactly what happened between you and Yuri-unnie, I suppose it must be something unforgettable. But Yoona-unnie… you’ll never know if you don’t try. I really don’t want you to miss this chance. Jessica-unnie… is a really, really, really good person. More than anyone, I think she’s worth a try. Maybe Jessica-unnie can help you… forget.”

Forget? The question was whether she wanted to forget Yuri or not?

“I don’t know, Hyunie. Maybe I’ll think about what you said but right now, I want to enjoy my single life.” Yoona said to divert Seohyun from digging deeper into this matter. “Either way, I still need more time to think about this. What do you think I should do when I have to face Jessica later?”

“Hmm… If you want to have more time thinking then just acting like you don’t know anything about her feelings yet. Try to act as normal as possible.”Seohyun suggested.

“What if she confesses to me that she likes me? What should I do then?” Yoona asked Seohyun as if the young girl was a love doctor.

“Around that time, if you already have your answer, I suggest you boldly say it to Jessica-unnie. Whether accept or reject, just say it because it’ll do no good for Jessica-unnie if you’re lying to her about your feelings. If you don’t have a clear answer then just tell her you need more time to think. How does that sound to you?”

Listening to Seohyun’s advice, Yoona couldn’t help but widen her eyes in shock, “Woah… Hyunie, I didn’t know that you’re this… experienced.”

Yoona could hear Seohyun’s soft laugh on the other line, “Well, now you know.”

“Thanks, Hyunie. I really don’t know what to do without you. By the way, I couldn’t get any sleep last night all because of you.”

“Why is that?” Seohyun asked, confused.

“If you didn’t tell me about Jessica yesterday maybe I would be still sleeping soundly in my bed right now. Not pacing back and forth in my room thinking about this.” Yoona whined.

“I don’t think so. If I didn’t tell you about Jessica-unnie beforehand, you would be completely caught off guard when she says that she likes you. God knows what you’re gonna say to her when you’re startled. Isn’t it much better this way?” 

Yoona smirked as she listened to Seohyun’s reasoning, “You’re fully awake now, aren’t you?”
Seohyun chuckled, “Bingo. Wide awake indeed. Thanks to your wake-up call this early in the morning.” 

Yoona took a glance at the clock placed on her nightstand before saying, “Well, it’s already 7:30 anyway. It’s around time you get ready for work, right?”

“Right, after staying awake for almost an hour.” Seohyun said in sarcastic manner, “I should get ready for work now. I guess I’ll see you later at work then?”

“I think so… once again, thanks Hyunie.”

“It’s really nothing, unnie. I’m always here, ready to help anytime you need me. Well, except this early in the morning. My mind works much better if I’m not sleepy, you know?”

“Done noting that down. There won’t be next time, I promise.”

Later, they bid goodbye to each other on the phone then Yoona hang up. After talking to Seohyun, she was feeling she had been able to lift a tremendous weight off her shoulder. Yoona stepped into the bathroom to start her new day with a cold shower while chanting to herself a spell ‘Everything is gonna be okay.’

&&&&&&

STS – In front of Siwon’s office

Yuri knocked on the door, waiting for some kind of answer that granted her access. Hearing Siwon’s ‘come in’, Yuri took a deep breath in as she put her hand on the door knob. She didn’t know why she always got this uneasy feeling when she was called to Siwon’s office. Something bad was gonna happen to her because of some Siwon’s crazy ideas for promoting the cruise ship and that something most likely involved Im Yoona.

No more delaying, Yuri turned the door knob to enter the room just to find out that oh-so-familiar back facing her. Yoona was sitting on the seat placed opposite Siwon and the seat next to her was seemed like waiting for her to sit there. Yuri walked in casually as she took the seat next to Yoona. Their shoulders were only about fifteen centimeters away. Some might find this hard to believe but this distance between them was the closest one ever since the met again.

Siwon clapped his hands to get his employees’ attention even though there were only two of them in this room, maybe this was one of his habits, “First thing on the list, I want you both managers to know that my sister who is the founder of STS will stay in LA for another month because of some unsettled problems there which also means that I’ll be your boss for another six weeks.” Siwon grinned, looking ecstatic while announcing the news. 

Yoona lifted an eyebrow at her boss, wondering what the reason why he was acting so hyper was. There was only one word if she was to describe Siwon: ‘odd’. Yuri, on the other hand, tried to hold back the groan when she heard the news. She missed her shikshin friend so much. Aside from that, Siwon always came up with plan which she had to collaborate with Yoona which wasn’t a really good point for him as her boss at all.

“Is there anything else? I don’t think that you call us to come here only for announcing Sooyoung-sshi late comeback.” Yoona questioned.

Siwon smiled broadly, “You know me too well, Yoona-sshi.” He pulled one of the drawers under his desk open to take out a digital camera and placed it in front of Yuri and Yoona. “This is the main reason why I call you guys to come here.”

“A camera?” Yuri raised her eyebrow at her boss and Yoona also did the same. Did she mention that her boss was odd?

“Yes, as you can see… a camera.” Siwon smiled.

“But… what do we need this camera for?” Yoona asked as she was getting impatient as Siwon kept on dropping hints like this.

“I’ve come up with a brand new idea about promoting our cruise ship.” Siwon said in excitement.
‘Come up with a new idea’ was the phrase Yuri was afraid of the most when it came from Siwon’s mouth.

“Tell us your idea then.” Yoona asked.

“Well, as you guys might know from the last meeting. Our main theme for the Goddess cruise ship is ‘love’. Rather than introduce our customer to those same old sightseeing. I want you guys to find a brand new sightseeing about our main theme. Some romantic places I suppose.” Siwon said.

“Then what does this camera have to do with us looking for a new sightseeing?” Yuri asked as she pointed to the camera lying on the desk.

“Take it easy, Yuri-sshi. I haven’t finished telling you my idea yet. I’ve also thought of the slogan for our theme ‘Seven days on cruise ship, seven days of love’. Each day, our customers will experience something new about love while they spend their time on the cruise ship and in LA. You guys will use this camera to record every romantic place or romantic things that couple usually do in LA which involves the new sightseeing. And I will use this video as the main key to lure our customer into this dreamland full of love. What do you guys think?”

Like what Yuri had said before, she was truly afraid of Siwon’s new idea. The most obvious evidence was here right in front of her eyes. He even thought of the slogan ‘Seven days of love’. How ironic was that?

Unlike Yuri, Yoona thought of a much more serious matter than Siwon’s slogan and his theme, “Wait, does this mean that we have to go to LA… together?”

Yoona’s question successfully broke Yuri’s train of thoughts. According to what Siwon said, they indeed had to go to LA together to film this promotional video.

Siwon snapped his fingers excitedly, “Bingo, you always get what I mean, Yoona-sshi. That’s why I’ve always liked to work with you.”

Yoona and Yuri both leaned back in their seat as they fell back in shock. Yoona was silently hoping that this was a nightmare since she hadn’t gotten much sleep this morning. Unfortunately for both of them, this meeting with Siwon was as real as ever.

“Is it a bit unprofessional if we film it ourselves? Why don’t we just hire a crew to do it? I’m sure it’ll look much better that way.” Yoona tried to reason with Siwon so that they could back out of this ‘brilliant idea’.

Siwon shook his head slightly, “No, no. I want this video like a documentary kind of thing. It’s more like an experience as a customer. It can’t be filmed too professionally.”

“Bu-but this promotion thing was something taken care by the Marketing Department and we’re both in the Sales and Reservations Department. We-” Yuri also tried to protest but she was got cut off by Siwon’s voice.

“This… is all about trust. You guys are the only one who I can put my trust in, in STS that can bring back to me the most wonderful promotional video I want.” 

“How can two managers of one department go on a business trip at the same time? Who’ll take care of our work?” Yoona asked while Yuri was nodding repeatedly beside her, agreeing with her.

“No worries. That’s why I have Seohyun-sshi as Yuri’s PA so that she can get used to how things work around here. I believe that she is capable of managing this department while you’re gone. As for your business trip, I’ll have Jessica-sshi to tag along with you guys so that she can assist your work. Is there anything else?”

Yoona and Yuri couldn’t say anything anymore. It seemed like Siwon had planned this carefully for a long, long time. They found it was pointless to refuse any offer came from Siwon.

“How long will we go on this business trip then?” Yoona asked, defeated.

Siwon shrugged as he laced his fingers together, “Well, I don’t know… it depends on how fast you can find the new sightseeing. In the beginning, you’ll go on the cruise ship to go to LA. During that time, you guys will record everything on this cruise ship. When you arrive at LA, I’ll arrange for you guys a hotel so that you can stay there as long as possible, filming all the things that I want.”

“When do we start?” Yuri asked as if they took turns in asking.

“Tomorrow.” Siwon said casually.

“Tomorrow?” Both Yoona and Yuri raised their voice and said in unison.

“I know, I know. It’s kind of rush but I want to improve the sales as soon as possible so this promotion must be done soon.” Siwon tried to soothe his employees.

“How can we handover our work to Seohyun-sshi within one day?” Yoona asked.

“Please try to work this out for me guys. Maybe you’ll stay late for work today but I guarantee that if this promotion is a success, I’ll raise your salary by 50%. And I’m a man for my words.” 

Yoona and Yuri finally nodded to Siwon’s offer. It wasn’t like they had any other choices or anything.

&&&&&&

STS – Yoona’s office

“So… we’ll have to go on this business trip with that girl tomorrow?” Jessica summarized everything Yoona just told her.

Yoona nodded, “As far as I know of.”

“And you also have to stay late for work today?” Here goes her dinner and movie treat.

“I think so… I guess I have to blow our movie and dinner again. Sorry…”

“It’s okay. You can’t help it.” Jessica said even though she couldn’t hide the disappointment in her voice. “But… what about Gyuri?”

“What about her?” Yoona asked, confused.

“Didn’t we plan for them to meet tonight?” 

Yoona smacked her forehead, with all the hectic surrounded her and Jessica, that plan just naturally slipped her mind. Probably it wasn’t important enough for Yoona to remember.

“Then cancel it. I don’t think she has the mood for going to bars tonight even if she wants. There’s a lot of work that we need to do before we can handover everything to Seohyun. Being a responsible person like she is, she’ll try to finish everything before going on this business trip.”

Jessica her chin, it had been such a long time since Yuri and Gyuri met for the first time. She really didn’t want Yuri to forget the first impression Gyuri left on her.

Suddenly, Jessica snapped her fingers as she thought of something, “Yah! I heard from the weather forecast that it will rain heavily tonight.”

“So what? She has a thing called the car, you know?”

“It can be broken from time to time, right?” Jessica said as she placed a hand on Yoona’s right shoulder.

As soon as the contact was made, Yoona moved a little bit to the right in attempt to shake Jessica’s hand off her shoulder while trying to make it as natural as possible so that Jessica couldn’t notice any differences in her behavior. Despite Seohyun’s advices, Yoona couldn’t ignore the fact that she knew about Jessica’s feelings. Honestly, she didn’t want to lead her best friend to believe in anything so the least she could do at this moment was avoid contacts with the blonde as much as possible.

“Uhm… I just carelessly bumped my shoulder against the rack in the shower this morning. I have to admit, it was hurt as hell.”

“Oh…” Is there anything else that Jessica could say at this moment? This morning, she had sensed something was wrong with Yoona. She always kept her eyes on Taeyeon, avoided eye contact with her as much as possible. Maybe Yoona could hide her emotions in front of everybody but Jessica could see right through the latter as easily as she could see through lead. She was sensitive about everything that involved Yoona who she had claimed to love for years. As easy as it sounded, Jessica could see that Yoona must’ve known about her feelings toward her more or less.

“I guess I’ll call Gyuri to inform her about this change of our plan.” Jessica said as she walked backward to zoom out of the room before Yoona say anything else.

&&&&&&

STS – Yuri’s office 

“Is there any way I can go with you?” Tiffany asked her best friend who had her eyes fixed on the computer’s screen. 

“Fany-ah, this is a business trip, not a vacation. You really can’t go with me.” Yuri tried to persuade her best friend. Most of the times, Tiffany’s protectiveness was quite useful for her but at times like this she just hoped that her best friend would at least have some faith in her.

“Tsk, I have a bad feeling about this, Yul. A really, really bad feeling.” Ever since she made that pinkie promise with Taeyeon, she was even surer that Yoona was up to something really evil. Her best friend had had enough, Tiffany didn’t want her to get hurt anymore.

“I know you do, Tiff. But you have to trust me, okay? I promise I’ll never let my guard down when I’m around her.”

Tiffany gave a loud sigh, “If you say so.”

“Aside from that, I think this is a good opportunity that I can visit my parents since last time I can’t.”

“But Yoona will also tag along, what if she meets your parents by chance? Last time you also said that.”

“Nahh… I don’t think LA is that small. I’ve thought about it, during daytime we’ll have to go from places to places to film stuff. Even if we do meet them, since we’re together, I’ll have my way to cover the truth. At night, she’s probably tired from all the things we do in the morning so the only thing she can do was sleeping. When we have our free time, I’ll stick to my parents’ side. So the chance for her to meet my parents is almost zero. Don’t worry.” Yuri went on telling Tiffany about her well-planned scenario.

“Well, expect the unexpected, Yul. You’ll never know what’s going to happen.”

“I think I’ve covered every possibility. My parents will never know what go down between me and her.”
Tiffany shrugged, “All I can say is good luck, Yul. And I think that you’re gonna need it.”

“Uh… Fany-ah, I think I’ll have to stay late for work today. Later, you can take my car and go home first, don’t need to wait for me.” Yuri said while digging around her bag for the car keys and handed it to Fany.

“Is there much work left? I can stay to help you if you want.” Tiffany offered, willing to help her friend.

“No, I’m fine. I can handle this myself. These work are nothing compared to those I’ve done for those slacker out there.” Yuri said in an amused tone.

“Oh, so you know that they’re slacker? It’s such relief to hear.” Tiffany said as she put her hands on her chest.

Yuri chuckled, “I’m smarter than you think, right?”

“Yeah, you don’t know how surprised I am right now.” 

&&&&&&

STS – Break area

Yoona stretched tiredly as she waited for the coffeemaker to finish brewing. She glanced at the clock which was hanging on the wall and it read ‘6:15’. Jessica had gone to Gyuri’s house to prepare something which she didn’t know exactly since she paid no attention to Jessica when she was talking about this plan. Yoona rubbed her forehead, wondering how long it would take for her to finish all these work. All thanks to Siwon and his sudden inspiration.

The doe-eye girl turned around to lean against the counter, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her eyes wandered around the small room to look for something to focus on while waiting for her drink to be done. All the lights in the office was turned off since the employees had gone home at this hour. Then the faint light from Yuri’s office caught her eyes. 

“She hasn’t finished her work either.” Yoona mumbled to herself.

Still staring at the closed door, Yoona started to recall everything had happened between them, three years ago and the last few weeks. If there was someone counted all the days that Yoona saw Yuri’s face, added all of them together they would see that the amount wouldn’t pass the number 30. Yet, no one could deny the fact that Yuri played a big part in her life.

“Kwon Yuri, when are you gonna give me back my heart which you have stolen?” The tall girl questioned in a low voice to the person who couldn’t hear one bit of what she said.

Yoona shook her head, trying to get the thought of Yuri out of her head. She shifted her attention back to the coffeemaker. She poured the hot liquid into her cup. It was filled but there was some coffee still left. She was about to pour the rest into the sink since she thought that no one was gonna drink this anyway but something crossed her mind all of a sudden.

“Aren’t we friends again? How about bringing a cup a coffee to her? This’s just basic manners.” Again, she talked to no one but herself, Yoona quickly grabbed a cup from the cupboard and poured the rest of the coffee into it.

Holding up two cups of coffee in her hands, Yoona started to walk toward Yuri’s office. As soon as she was out of the break area, she stopped herself abruptly.

“Aishh, what am I doing?” Yoona asked herself as she closed her eyes, trying to stop herself from doing something that her mind was telling it was wrong.

“Uh… can you please… move out of the way?” A voice said, pulling Yoona out of her thoughts.

Yoona immediately opened her eyes to address the owner of the voice. Even though she was quite sure who was talking to her since there were only two people still in the office.

“Yu-yuri!” Yoona said aloud.

Watching Yoona’s reaction, Yuri wondered why every time she looked at her, she acted like she was seeing a ghost, “Uh… I want to go in there.” Yuri said as she pointed to the room behind Yoona’s back.

Yoona realized that she was standing at the break area’s entrance, blocking Yuri’s way, she hastily moved out of the way so that Yuri could get in. “Oh, sorry. I was just making these coffees.” She said while holding up the coffees in her hands.

“I can see that.” Yuri walked in the room then she started to make coffee too. Done preparing, she turned around to find that Yoona still stood there holding two cups of coffee, “Are you gonna drink all of that?” She asked out of curiosity.

“Uh… actually…” Yoona looked down at the two cups of coffee in her hands, “I love coffee.”

“Ah… that’s why Luna used to bring a cup of coffee to your office every morning.” Yuri nodded, understanding.

“Uh… I should get back to work. Guess I’ll see you later.”

“Guess so... later.” Yuri said.

Yoona chuckled awkwardly to Yuri before sprinting to her office, carrying two cups of coffee in her hands.

&&&&&&

“STS – Yoona’s office”

“Done!!” Yoona shouted in relief as she clapped her hands together then stretched her arms over her head. Finally she had finished her work, ready to handover to Seohyun in any time. She looked at the digital clock on her computer and it read ‘7:25’. “I can’t believe that I work till this late at night.” 

Yoona quickly tidied the mess on her desk then walked out of her office while pulling the door closed behind her. The sound of the door clicking caught her attention she hadn’t closed her door yet. Yoona turned around to find that Yuri also closed the door. Looking like she had finished her work too.

“Did you finish everything?” Yoona asked as something she called ‘manners’.

Yuri nodded tiredly then both of them walked to the elevator and got in.

“Parking lot, I presume?” Yoona asked since both of them have their own cars.

“No, actually… it’s ground floor.” Yuri answered as she pressed the button indicated the floor she wanted.

“I thought you have a car.” Yoona asked again as confusion washed over her.

“I gave it to Tiffany. I don’t want her to catch a taxi because of me staying late for work.” Yuri explained.

After Yoona’s nod as a reaction to Yuri’s explanation, nothing but the boring silence filled the small space. It was only broken by the sound of the elevator door opening, meaning they have arrived at the ground floor.

Yuri stepped out of the elevator. As soon as the door closed, Yuri let out a snort while pouting her lips unconsciously. “She didn’t even offer me a ride home.”

It was raining heavily outside. Yuri heaved a sigh as she looked at the weather. After working non-stop in the office, Yuri swore that she could collapse from exhaustion any moment now. Tomorrow she had to wake up early so that she could get ready for the business trip. If she didn’t get home now she doubted she would be able to on the cruise tomorrow. Unfortunately, there was no sight of any taxi on the road.

Made up her mind, Yuri decided to run home in the rain rather than waiting for it stopped. She raised a hand to shield her forehead, prevented the rain from getting into her eyes. Then she ran as fast as she could to get home.

Yuri had to close her eyes while running because of the heavy rain kept pouring down on her. Just a few blocks away from her house, Yuri increased her speed a little bit more so that she could get home sooner. As soon as she accelerated, she found herself bumped into someone causing her to fall on her on the ground.

The person who was holding an umbrella immediately bent down to see if Yuri was alright, “Miss, are you okay?”

Recognized the familiar voice, Yuri looked up to confirm her guess, “Y-you again…”

The girl scrunched her eyebrows as if she was trying to remember something, “Ahh… you’re that girl at the intersection that day.” She said while helping Yuri to get up. “Why’re you running in the rain like this?”

“Uh… I don’t have a car and I can’t catch a taxi either and I think that this rain isn’t gonna stop anytime soon I need to get home now so…”

“You ran home even though it’s raining heavily like this?”

Yuri nodded helplessly. She felt kind of embarrassed how this girl always caught her when she was in a bad condition like right now, soaked to the skin.

“You can catch a cold if you keep running in this heavy rain. How about this?” The girl said as she took Yuri’s hand and placed the umbrella she was holding in the soaked girl’s hand, “Take this and go home. My location is only a few meters away I think I can handle this rain.”

“No, no.” Yuri protested when the umbrella was handed to her, “I can’t take this and we only meet twice. You don’t even know my name.”

The girl let out a soft chuckle, “Then what’s your name?”

“Huh?” Yuri was caught off guard because of the sudden question.

“I asked you what your name was.” The girl repeated her question.

“Yu-Yuri. Kwon Yuri.”

“My name is Gyuri, Park Gyuri. Now that we’ve known each other’s name, is that considered knowing each other like you wanted, Yuri-sshi?” Gyuri reasoned.

“We-well, it’s… ahh, seriously I can’t take this.”

A small smile played on Gyuri’s lips, somehow this girl’s persistence when she was unable to find a reason to deny Gyuri’s offer, made her looked somewhat adorable in Gyuri’s eyes, “Come on, it’s just an umbrella. Don’t make such a big fuss about this. I still have plenty of these at home. Just take it, I don’t mind.”

“But how ca-”

“No buts. I’ll be mad if you don’t take this. I really hope to see you again, Yuri-sshi.” Gyuri cut in to stop what Yuri was about to say. Before Yuri could say anything else to protest, Gyuri had strolled away, left Yuri behind holding her umbrella.

Yuri gave a sigh as she continued her mid-sentence to no one in particular, “But how can I return this umbrella to you?”

Yoona’s car

Jessica snapped her fingers, “Mission accomplished. Great job, Gyul.”

“Seriously, Icy-ah… give her an umbrella in a heavy rain? That’s totally lame.” Yoona shook her head 
at her best friend for her lack of plans when it came to making a person fell for someone else.

“I don’t care as long as it works. Just look at her.” Jessica smiled satisfied.

Yoona shifted her eyes to look at the person who looked in Gyuri’s direction, mumbling something to herself. Did Yuri really feel something for Gyuri already? Why was there a throbbing pain her chest? She thought that her heart had been taken away already.

“Hmm… don’t you think that Gyuri should go on the cruise ship with us?”

“Well, I th-”

“I know, right? Third time is a charm. That’s it. I’ll arrange for Gyuri to go on this cruise tomorrow. I think I’ll have to call her.” Jessica cut short what Yoona was about to say because she knew that the latter was gonna say something to protest. She pulled out her cell phone, dialing Gyuri’s number. “Hey Gyuri, I…”

Jessica’s words fell on Yoona’s deaf ear as the girl drove her car away. If this continued, she didn’t think she could carry on this plan anymore.

TBC