It was only one more day before the competition and everyone had been talking about Shindong suddenly leaving; all they knew was that he had to move because of his father’s business. Meanwhile, Jessica kept herself quiet every time he was mentioned, what everybody ignored was that she was the reason behind it. Secretly, she was tracking Yoo and Dongwook, it wasn’t easy but she was patient.

Still, she didn’t have enough time as she spent every day practicing with Sunny the now finished song. She wasn’t going to lie, Sunny was talented; the song was beautiful, touching and full of truth. She couldn’t help but feel connected, every word reminded her of herself.

It wasn't normal for her to be nervous but she was really conscious about the next day, with her singing in front of the whole school and all that. She didn’t want to but Sunny was quite pushy about the matter. Right that moment, they were having their usual lunch, she was sticking up to Taec like always, as Baek and Sunny were having an interesting conversation about games with Tae. Yoona and Yuri were talking among themselves with an engrossed Fany between them reading a book.

Jessica tried always not to look at the latter, so she just thought that the girk was with Yuri just like the past days, until the latter spoke aloud.

“Fany, what are you reading?” The tan girl asked, peeping over the girl’s shoulders and resting her cheek on her head.

“It’s a book that a grandpa gave me some days ago.” She answered without taking her eyes off the page.

Yuri stared at her in astonishment, she had never seen Fany be totally lost in a book. She caught a glimpse of some of the lines. “And you’re barely reading it?” She asked again, this time with round eyes.

Fany just moved her eyes to pay attention to the girl for a little moment. “No, this is the third time I read it. This book is so good but I always end up crying.” She had a pair of sad eyes, she knew that one of the saddest parts in the story was coming up.

It didn’t take long for the mushroom to tear up. Yuri heard a little sniffing and she looked at the girl’s face. “Baby, why are you crying?” She asked before embracing the girl softly. 

Jessica, who had been hearing everything, couldn’t stop herself from looking at the girl. She was sniffing and holding Yuri’s arms that were around her. Actually, everyone paid attention to them. But she only stared at the scene in front of her, noticing the concern in the tan girl’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, Yuri. It’s just that this part always gets me.” Her tears fell down nonstop.

Yuri sighed while caressing Tiffany’s head slowly. “Why princess? What’s the book about?”

Tiffany took some minutes before answering. “I can’t tell you Yuri, you need to read it yourself. But it’s about a couple that’s been in love since years ago. They thought that they were going to be together forever until the guy leaves her.”

Everyone was listening to the girl who was sulking like a little girl in Yuri’s arms. “But why would he leave her? Why not staying with her and face everything together?”

Tiffany detached herself from the girl and sent her a cute glare while crossing her arms on her chest. “You don’t understand Yuri, he couldn’t stay. No matter how much he wished, he had to leave. He was afraid of hurting her more if they stayed together until his departure. I just hope that he would’ve at least given her something to remember him, you know.”

Yuri, Baek, Taec and Jessica opened their eyes in surprise. Jessica felt their eyes on her and tried to look away.

“That book sounds good Fany! You should lend it to me once you are finish reading it.” Yoona said, her big smile showed how innocent she was.

“Yeah, but it that he had to leave her. I mean, I don’t now what I would do if I was in her place. I think it would be too painful to withstand it, at least for me.” Taeyeon blurted out. Jessica heard Baek and Taec swallow a lump in their throats, she tried to calm them down by giving a light squeeze to their hands.   

She never spoke a word, the only thing she did was to listen. Her eyes wandering all over the place, trying to keep her mind focused in something else until she caught a glimpse of the cover. She didn’t know why but it looked quite familiar, she tried to remember where she had seen it but nothing came up.

“What’s the name of the book?” Sunny asked while stretching her neck to take a look.

“Paths, it’s a meaningful title. It really describes the dilemma of the whole plot.” Fany was talking with so much enthusiasm that all of them fell into a laughing fit. Such change for the grumpy girl.

All of them, except for Jessica. She wasn’t moving.

“I really wanted to finish reading it, but I guess it’ll have to wait. You should read it Sooyeon, it’s an amazing book.” 

Paths

She remembered. It looked exactly like the book Seokjin gave her, even the name was the same. She kept herself quiet, she was going to take care of the matter later on.

Baekhyun was worried about her, he would often hold her hand to call jessica’s attention and smile in a cute way when Jessica reassured him that everything was fine. That was their own way of communicating with each other subtlety. The thing was that it wasn’t as subtle as they thought when Taeyeon caught the boy searching for her hand in a very shy way. Thank the Gods that Baek didn’t turn to look at her or else he would’ve felt what’s like to be skinned alive.

Tae couldn’t take it anymore and hurried everyone to start cleaning up. She wasn’t going to stand and watch while he was making his moves on the girl she loved. It was her chance to come clean to her and confess,she knew that it was a huge risk but she was willing to take it.

The awaited day for Sunny and Jessica had come. All the school was going to be at the competition, which was going to be held inside the auditorium. It was a must to be there unlike the previous ones.

Jessica felt a little bit pressured but knew that everything was going to be fine. At least Jonghyun had brought out the card under his sleeve.

Flashback

 Jessica was watching Sunny sleep on the couch; she was tired after practicing her song for hours. It was already 12:00 am and the competition was only a few hours away. Like always, the Empousa was awake, taking care of Sunny while she was out.

Jonghyun stared tenderly at the scene in front of him, sitting down carefully in one of the chairs.

“Soo, I’ve great news!” He whispered cheerfully,  making Sooyeon turn to him. "A week ago, I contacted Huh Gak; he’s a music management teacher at Korea National University of Arts and he was also my mentor. So, I told him that there was this school singing competition and that he should go and take a look because I knew that he’s always searching for new talent. The good news is that he assured me that he'll be there. I’m pretty sure that he’s going to fall in love with Sunny’s song, I bet you my own studio that he’ll make her an offer.” He smiled and Jessica returned the same smile to him, letting out a relieving sigh.

She gave him a hug and they stayed like that for a couple of minutes. Jessica was really grateful, but there was still something bothering her. “I just hope that he offers her a full scholarship. I’m worried about her not being able to cover all of her expenses.”

Jonghyun stared at his friend’s worried face and chuckled a bit. She was still the same, worrying about others before worrying about herself, that selfless Sooyeon. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it covered. In case he doesn’t give her the full scholarship, I’ll offer Sunny a job at my studio. I always get packed with work and I think she would be a huge help to me; she writes and composes well, and she even learns pretty fast.” He caressed Sooyeon’s cheek with love. “So, don’t worry, I’ll take care of her. She will have everything she needs. The only thing I’m concerned about is that she’s going to need her own place where she can compose and play instruments comfortably. When I was in college, I had the freedom to do all the noise that I wanted because of the soundproof walls in my house, but she’ll have problems with it  wherever she stays at.” He turned to look at the sleeping girl that would pucker her lips from time to time.

“I’ll take care of that, I’ll give her everything I can. I…she really wants this Jonghyun, I can’t just leave her on her own.” She placed her sweater on top of the girl. “I need you to come and help me record everything just in case we need to send it to some universities, it’ll be our last resource.”

He gave her a nod and went to look for his best camera, that was probably lying somewhere inside one of the forgotten boxes in his shelf.

Jessica looked closely at Sunny and Tiffany’s face appeared once again, remembering her expressions while talking about the book. “Hey, Jonghyun.” She called the guy gaining his attention and stopping his search for a moment. “Can you do me a favor?” She asked with pleading eyes, receiving a huge smile as his answer. She bit her lip a bit before continuing. “Can you please…”

They were now preparing themselves in Sunny’s room. The girl had wanted everything to be perfect and chose to design their costumes herself.  They were going to dress as two fallen angels; one simple white dress for Sunny that had a set of ripped wings on the back and a light gray one for Jessica. They looked amazing, Jessica’s blond hair matched perfectly with her outfit. She looked a little menacing yet so stunning, while Sunny looked innocent and sweet. They both decided to let their hair down with graceful curls that fell past their shoulders. The angels put on a long coat that covered them almost completely, looking like a pair of elves with that natural make up that they were displaying.

They had told the girls that they were going to arrive later, that they were going to meet them at the competition, so they wouldn’t suspect a thing.

They arrived with Jonghyun being their driver. He was actually prepared to record an amazing video,  but he felt less pressured when he saw Mr. Huh in the crowd. He even informed the girls through text messages about their friends, taking the chance as they didn’t know who he was. He saw them a little excited and cheering when the show began but he also heard them asking about their whereabouts; letting out a snicker every time they did beca