Stupid. Jung Sooyeon felt absolutely stupid.

“Unnie. I don’t think banging your head on the wall will help you solve anything,” Juhyun casually said as she arranged the coffee table to accommodate the ridiculous amount of food and drinks Sooyoung and Yoona brought. “For emergency purposes,” they said. Apparently, their Ice Princess’ non-existent turned existent love life counted as one.

“Let her be, Seobaby. Maybe it’ll finally knock some sense into her.” Jessica whimpered at that. Sooyoung rolled her eyes and carelessly patted her friend on the back as she passed by on her way to sit down beside the maknae.

“Sica-unnie’s just punishing herself for what she did, even though I still find it silly that she thinks she did anything wrong. I say Tae-unnie deserved it.” Sooyoung high-fived Yoona as the younger girl also sat down on the floor, immediately digging in on their generous spread.

It had been about four hours since her major faux pas with Taeyeon inside the practice room. Jessica wasn’t even sure how on earth she got home intact, let alone call Sooyoung for moral support. The younger girl tried to make sense of her friend’s blubbering over the phone before shouting at her to calm down and talk slowly. Sooyoung just sighed when she finally got the gist of the situation and promised to drop by after work with rations and reinforcements.

Jessica pathetically trudged her way towards her living room where the girls were and heavily plopped herself on the couch face first and tried to make sense of what was going on.

Taeyeon kissed her. An honest to goodness, spur of the moment, meeting of the lips. And because she always was one to react first - think second, she did the most sensible thing her clouded mind could come up with at that moment.

“Did you really have to slap her that hard, Unnie? It was a good thing there was no live viewing during our radio guesting earlier. Her left cheek wasn’t easy to hide, even with make-up on.” Sooyoung and Yoona chortled as Jessica groaned loudly.

Jessica Jung was a violent person, yes, but never, even in her wildest dreams, had she thought of physically hurting Taeyeon. Her Kim Taeyeon. On purpose, even though Yoona politically described it as “an unintentional form of self-preservation.” Which honestly didn’t make her feel any better.

“It’s actually quite funny. Never thought I’d see the day when Sica would slap anyone smack on the face. Taeyeonie must be honored to be your first.” The eldest of them grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it at a smirking Sooyoung.

“Be that as it may, Taeyeon-unnie kissing you out of the blue is the real reason you’re acting all pitiful tonight, isn’t it, Sica-unnie?” Dearest Maknae, always on point. Jessica just leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling, deep in thought.

After the shock of finally realizing that her supposed ex had, indeed, kissed her (with a handprint on the face as proof) wore off, Jessica was at a loss. Even after so long, she would never ever forget the feeling of having Taeyeon’s lips against hers. And this one single kiss felt different somehow. Not bad different, per se. Just… different.

“Maybe she was indirectly telling you something, Unnie,” Yoona said, subtly glancing towards the others. Jessica shook her head, not wanting to entertain that thought but failing anyway.

Like her stares, the kiss felt like it had a hidden purpose in it. Jessica knew that detaching herself from Taeyeon would be challenging, but she didn’t even consider that the older girl would deliberately make it harder for her. Taeyeon’s recent bout of attentiveness made Jessica uncomfortable, and frankly, she was too much of a coward to delve deeper into the situation just to find out that she was only being played at in the end.

Jessica hadn’t even severed all her strings yet, but it seemed like her puppeteer was adamant about preventing her from continuing to do so.

“I don’t know if I want to hope anymore, Yoona-ya. I love her, but she’s been controlling me for so long that I don’t even know when everything started and when it will end.” Jessica then turned towards Sooyoung, a desperate yet determined gleam in her eyes.

“Tomorrow night. No backing out. I think I finally owe someone a date that’s way overdue.”

“Sooyeon-ah,” Taeyeon whispered while cradling her swollen cheek gently, staring at Jessica with concern.

The younger girl’s eyes were conflicted yet Taeyeon could see a tiny sliver of hope within. But the hope was instantly overshadowed by the inner turmoil the younger girl was feeling at the moment.

“I-I’m sorry,” Jessica mumbled as she quickly glanced down at her hand before dashing out of the room.

“You really outdid yourself this time, Taetae.” Said girl was startled out of her thoughts when Fany playfully clanked their cups together to get her attention. She and the rest of the members (that weren’t with Jessica) gathered inside their living room at the dorm with open chicken and pizza boxes all over the place, multiple bottles of beer and soju scattered in-between.

“Lap it up, all of you,” the kid leader said glumly. The other girls all wore amused faces, and Taeyeon could only sigh and chuckle at how messed up her situation actually was.

“I didn’t even know Sica could slap anyone above the neck,” Yuri said. Sunny laughed.

“I didn’t know Sica could slap Taeyeon, above the neck or otherwise. Our poor leader-nim.” Taeyeon just raised her cup to that. She knew she would never live the moment down, so there’s really no use fighting it.

“Must’ve been one hell of a kiss, Tae.” While the others continued to laugh at her expense, Taeyeon couldn’t help but go back to that moment of fleeting bliss.

How Jessica’s lips still fitted so perfectly onto hers. How the other’s breath hitched when Taeyeon pressed down more firmly, eliciting an unconscious yet sultry moan that sent shivers down the midget’s spine. How Jessica was about to wrap her hands around the older girl’s shoulders to pull her close. It had really been way too long.

That was until the pain, of course.

But Taeyeon knew the physical pain she received was nothing compared to the pain she had inflicted on the younger girl, based on what the latter’s eyes told her before she ran out.

And that was another thing. Jessica ran away. From her.

Taeyeon was so used to being chased that only now had it fully dawned on her how much her Sooyeon went through just to get her attention. It was never a pleasant experience to be ignored, and, despite all her bravado the past months, she was honestly weighing whether or not she really did deserve Jessica at all. And the scale surely wasn’t tipping in her favor.

It might have started when one cheated on the other, but if everybody were to be scrupulous about the whole thing, that night was only but a small bug in the couple’s already rocky relationship. And that was what’s bothering Taeyeon the most.

“Hey.” Taeyeon was once again knocked out from her stupor, and by Hyoyeon of all people.

“Hey.” Hyo carefully sat beside her leader and took a swig from her beer while fiddling with her phone. Taeyeon was just about to ignore her when the dancer shoved the device in front of her face which made Tae lean back a bit so she could see properly.

From: Choi Sooyoung

“Sica finally decided on a date. Tomorrow night, XXX Bar. Don’t tell the midget *wink*”

Taeyeon looked at the younger girl blankly and was torn between being grateful for informing her or pissed – for informing her. Hyoyeon just rolled her eyes.

“We can’t stress this enough, but we’re not doing this for you, Taeyeon-ah. Yes, we want her to find someone else. But at the very least we hoped she’d look for someone decent. This guy seems to be anything but!” Now Taeyeon just looked at her in confusion, a frown starting to mar her face.

“Uh, weren’t you the one who introduced this guy to her in the first place?” Hyo scoffed.

“I know that I’ve about him, but hell no! She liked the guy I first introduced her to, but then realized he was way too similar to a certain someone that she never gave him an actual chance. This new guy she just randomly met from one of our night outs,” Hyoyeon explained.

Taeyeon’s face was unreadable. The younger girl became worried that she might’ve disclosed a bit too much and made her leader angry, but then Taeyeon suddenly stood up, drank the last remnants of her beer, and then threw the cup across the floor, catching the attention of everyone in the room.

Screw taking it slowly. It wasn’t getting them anywhere, anyway.

“Alright, ladies. I guess we have a group date to plan for tomorrow night, then.”

A/N:

Please don’t hit me, but don’t we just love cliffhangers? XP