I woke up to welcome another day once again. Zero seemed ready for the morning already as he my cheeks. I got up from my bed, stretching my arms upward as I gave a huge sigh of relaxing relief. Zero was wagging his tail right in front of me.

"Ready for your morning walk?" I asked him cutely.

"Arf!" he barked happily and twirled around.

I did some morning stretches to relieve my body of any air pockets and in order to wake my muscles up. As I hopped out of the bed, Zero did as well, following me towards the bathroom as I did my morning business before taking him out to the dog park.

As soon as I was done brushing my teeth, I put on something comfortable enough to go outside real quick. Zero was waiting patiently by the exit door as I got myself ready. When I picked up his leash, he immediately danced in glee.

"Someone's excited," I .

I leaned over and put the leash on his harness. Thankfully, it was another nice day outside. It would have if it was raining.

When we passed by Jessica's apartment, Zero sniffed from the space beneath the door. I guess he was looking for Jessica.

"Come on Zero. She's probably sleeping," I told him as I tugged onto his leash a little to redirect his attention.

The smell of warm coffee was emitting through the halls, which made my stomach yearn for some immediately. It smelled something like caramel and coffee, sweet yet bitter at the same time.

Zero looked up at me, curious what I was thinking possibly. With that noted, I led him over to the apartment stairs so we could go to the little dog park.

Upon reaching the dog park, I closed the little metal gate behind me before unleashing Zero so he could do his business. I turned around in curiosity to see if Jessica was on her balcony, but to my dismay, she wasn't. I sighed and turned my attention back at Zero. That caramel coffee does sound nice right now, even if I wasn't too fond of caramel.

"Here."

A hand slipped through from behind me, handing me a mug of warm coffee. The same smell from the apartment halls welcomed my nose once again. I turned around to see who it was. Speaking of the devil.

"I knew you'd be here this morning, as usual," Jessica smiled at me.

I took the mug off of her hand and sipped on it while she walked around to go inside the metal gate. The smell of caramel macchiato was coming from her apartment after all. The sweetness hiding away the bitterness of the dark roast.

"Figured you would want some pick me up while you take Zero outside," Jessica told me with a bright smile on her face.

Little did I know that small gesture was going to be an everyday thing.

Days passed and Jessica and I were back to how we usually were before things got awkward between us. Jessica never missed a beat on brewing morning coffee for me during the mornings when I take Zero out to go potty. Everyday was always different although there were some days where she would brew the same coffee, understandably because I know she's tired and she loves her sleep. Indeed, I have learned that Jessica usually sleeps through the day if there was nothing important going on with her that day. However, she sacrifices her sleep time during the early morning just to brew me a morning coffee.

"Hope your day goes fine today," Jessica bid me farewell, taking the empty coffee mug with her to go back upstairs to her apartment and probably catch up on her sleep.

I know she had done a lot of sweet things for me. I just never bothered paying attention to them until I decided to give her a chance to penetrate into my cold, lonely heart.

Jessica also knew to leave me alone for the most part. I still had college works to do. Even if it was online learning, it was still tedious and fast paced so I had to concentrate a lot. Sometimes, she would drop by just to make sure that I have eaten, since she learned that I forget sometimes. With her not being a good cook, she usually gave me a bowl of ramen from the convenience store nearby.

Jessica walked to the convenience store everytime she learned that I did not eat, just so I could have something for my stomach. That is how loving Jessica was. Until all of a sudden, she had stopped doing it altogether.

Maybe I was taking advantage of the fact that I was getting free food from her hence why she decided to stop. At the same time, she had been missing work consecutively.

"You should probably check up on her," Yuri suggested while I was washing the glasses, "did you not find something odd?"

I shook my head in response, "I didn't think much about it to be perfectly honest."

"My god," Yuri scoffed, "do you not pick up hints at all?! I wonder what Jessica saw in you."

"Same question I have," I sighed, "there's nothing interesting about me."

"Maybe," Yuri nudged on my arm and teased, "she's the only one who can see what's so special about you."

"Yah!" I slapped her arm, "are you saying I'm a boring person?!"

"You said it yourself, I didn't say anything about that," Yuri laughed.

After work, I decided to drop by to the convenience store and buy bowls of ramen for myself. I also bought some more to repay Jessica from all the ramen bowls that she had been giving me from the start.

As I walked back to the apartment building, I passed by Jessica's room and decided to know just to see if she would respond, but to no avail. It was 2AM so she was probably sleeping away. Maybe I'll check on her tomorrow. However, the door knob shifted, which terrified me a little.

The door soon opened to reveal a Jessica who looked unwell.

"Hi Taeyeon, sorry I haven't dropped by in a while," she smiled weakly.

"What's wrong with you?!" I exclaimed as I pushed her inside, closing the the door behind me with my foot.

Jessica coughed a little and fainted upon my arms. She was definitely burning.

"Stupid," I muttered underneath my breath as I dropped my groceries and reached for my phone.

I dialed in Yuri's phone number, to which thankfully she replied immediately.

"It's late at night, did you leave something at the bar?" Yuri asked through the phone.

"Come over here quick! We need to take Jessica to the hospital!" I yelled through the phone in panic.

"! Alright, I'll be there shortly!" Yuri told me in panic as well and hung up on the phone.

I watched as Jessica breathed heavily. Her body felt like fire. Sweat sparkled along through her body from the moon that was shining through her glass doors. I gathered up all my strength and wrapped her arms over my shoulder, walking her to her bedroom.

When we finally reached her bedroom, I laid her down softly on the bed and rushed to the bathroom. I grabbed the nearby hand towel and doused it with cold water, squeezing it a little afterwards. I rushed back to Jessica and wiped her sweat with the towel. I ran back and forth from the bathroom, repeating the same steps to cool her body down. However, I knew that I should also cool down the rest of her covered body.

"I'm sorry Jessica," I muttered under my breath as I quickly took off her shirt.

Jessica jerked all of a sudden, covering her body with her arms.

"It's... cold..." she said weakly.

"Your body needs to cool down Jessica," I told her and wiped her back with the cold towel.

"Are you... trying to kill me?!" Jessica snarked at me.

"Do you realize that you've been burning?! Why did you not call the hospital?!" I yelled at her as I grabbed her arm to wipe it.

"I don't like hospitals..." she cried.

"But you need to go to the hospital," I told her as I turned her body towards me.

I paused for a moment as I gulped down while seeing her bare body. Only her bra was covering her.

"You need to focus, Taeyeon," I told myself as I tried to shake off my thoughts away.

My phone suddenly rang while I was wiping Jessica's bare chest. I fished my phone out of the pocket, stopping from wiping Jessica's body, and responded immediately to the call.

"I'm here Taeyeon, are you over at Jessica's?" Yuri asked.

"Yes," I told her as I rushed to the door.

This was not the first time Yuri had been inside our apartment building after all. I remembered that time when Jessica got too drunk and we both carried her all the way to her room. This time, Yuri and I are not in Jessica's room because she got too drunk. This time around, it was serious.

As soon as I opened the door, Yuri barged in and rushed to Jessica's bedroom, with me following her from behind.

Yuri turned around to face me and asked angrily, "did you seriously not pay attention to her?! Taeyeon?!"

Guilt succumbed through my whole body as I stood there frozen while I watched Yuri carry Jessica off her bed. She rushed to the door and turned around to face me once again.

"Are you going to just stand there?!" she yelled.

"S-Sorry," I apologized and opened the door for her.

It was definitely my fault for not paying attention. I should have taken notice when Jessica was nowhere to be found. I knew she would always check up on me just to make sure I was alright. Meanwhile, I failed to do my part. I should have made sure she was fine as well.

Yur