The following Monday Jessica was in her office finishing up a couple of designs she’s been working on for Eunbi’s wedding. Chaelin said she had to talk to her about something, she didn’t expect it to be this.

 

    “This is my gift for you and Tiffany, but you must wait for Christmas to open it.” Chaelin hands her a small box, “It’s very important that you’re together when you open it. Okay?”

 

    “Why does it feel like you found an elaborate way of embarrassing me in front of Tiffany even when you’re not around?”

 

    “I don’t know, dear,” she smiles mischievously, “Maybe you should talk about it with a therapist, you do have some trust issues.”

 

    She rolls her eyes, but puts the box in her bag, “I don’t have trust issues.”

 

    Chaelin’s smile widens seeing how Jessica is sulking, “Did you tell your mother about Tiff?”

 

    “Yeah, called her on Saturday when we went out. She was very excited, especially after I told her it was a girl I’m taking home with me.”

 

    “Really?”

 

    “I guess since she loves Victoria she was happy to have another daughter in law.” She notices how Chaelin is staring at her, “What?”

 

    “Are you gonna propose?”

 

    Jessica groans in frustration, “Don’t you have work to do? I’m sure I pay you for a reason, and it’s not to tease me.”

   

    “I only do it out of love, I know you love being teased by me.” She taps her own knees, “I suppose I can reply to some emails now that you’re sufficiently annoyed, but I finish everything early. The reason you pay me is because I’m really good at my job.”

 

    “Sadly you’re right,” she says with no bite to it, “you can leave early if you’re done. Thanks for the gift.”

 

    “You weren’t this soft before, having a girlfriend changed you.”

 

    “Don’t get me wrong, you act like a 5th grader at times, but this company wouldn’t be what it is without you. You deserve some rest.”

 

    “You too, Jess. Go home early, tomorrow will be exciting.”

 

    “I’ll try.”

 

   

 

    Jessica had a hard time falling asleep that night. The anxiety of finally reaching the big day eating her up. What if Soojung or Victoria find out even before they get there? A car ride would be the perfect time for them to work on their story, and now with the girls joining them, they won’t have the chance. 

 

    The girls. The four of them will be in a car together for 3 hours with nothing to do but talk, there are infinite possibilities of this going wrong. Soojung and Victoria can ask things they didn’t consider, Jessica might panic trying to answer. 

 

    Tiffany: I can’t sleep :(

 

    Jessica: That makes two of us

 

    Tiffany: Can I call you?

 

    Jessica doesn’t reply and calls Tiffany herself.

 

    “Hey.” Tiffany’s voice is lower and less energetic than usual.

 

    “Hi, pumpkin,” She greets, trying to lighten the mood, Tiffany’s chuckle is a good indicator that it worked, “Are you nervous?”

 

“Yeah…” She sighs, “I wasn’t, but then I got into bed and couldn’t sleep thinking about tomorrow. I feel like a child before a road trip with their parents. And you?”

 

“I overthink things, I always do. To be honest, before you texted me I was in a bit of a crisis because of it.”

 

“We can still give up if you want… You could say I got sick.” 

 

    “No, no, I don’t. I’m anxious now, but I’m sure we can get through this. And it’s just a week before we can go back to our normal lives.”

 

    “Don’t get me wrong, but I can’t wait for us to get back to Seoul.”

 

    “Yeah, me neither.” She adjusts her head on the pillow, feeling more relaxed since they started talking, “It will be nice to put this ridiculous idea of fake dating behind us.”

 

    Tiffany doesn’t say anything, Jessica can’t even hear her breathing.

 

    “Fany?”

 

    Silence. Maybe she fell asleep.

 

    “It’s getting late. We better sleep.” And she ends the call, leaving a dumbfounded Jessica looking at her phone. 

 

    “Okay then, I guess I’ll go to bed.” She says to the empty apartment. 

 

    Sleep doesn’t come easily, she wakes up throughout the night sitting up in bed, the feeling of having overslept making her stomach drop every time. As much as she had enough hours of sleep, it was so restless that she barely got any rest.

 

The following morning she wakes up with a headache. Her brown hair sticking to odd directions, dark circles under her bloodshot eyes. She hopes Tiffany had a better night of sleep, one of them needs to be in full control of their cognitive functions to keep up with the inevitable small talk.

 

   

 

    When she arrives at Tiffany’s building the woman enters the car in silence, only a nod towards Jessica as a way of greeting before that when they were putting her bag in the trunk. This has never happened before, she always at least tries to be her bubbly self. It could be because it’s still early, but last weekend when they met in the morning she was happy and flirty.

 

    “Bad night of sleep?” 

 

    Tiffany shrugs and starts playing with her phone, ruining Jessica’s attempt at starting a conversation. Better stay quiet.

 

    They drive in silence to Soojung’s place, luckily it’s not far. The awkwardness of just the two of them in the car is getting unbearable, and the worst part is that Jessica has no idea of how to get them out of it, she has never seen Tiffany act like this.

 

    She texts her sister to let them know they arrived and — considering how bad the atmosphere in the car is right now — she decides to ask one of them to drive.

 

    “Fany, would you mind changing seats?”

 

    “Why? You don’t want me sitting this close to you?” Her voice is completely emotionless. Not even angry, even though her words are harsh. 

 

    “What? I thought I could ask Soojung or Vic to drive so we can rest.”

   

    Without another word she walks out of the car and moves to the backseat. Jessica follows after her, worried that this could be more serious than she thought at first.

 

    “Fany?”

 

    She hums.

 

    By now Jessica assumes she is feeling unwell or she is upset. Either way they better use the time until the others join them to fix this. From Tiffany’s reaction she bets on upset.

 

    “Why did you think I didn’t want you by my side?”

 

    Tiffany looks up from her phone and rolls her eyes, “I’m sure you can figure this out by yourself.”

 

    She has no idea and being sleep deprived doesn’t make it any easier to try and find out. The fact that the woman in front of her looks like a sulking teenager is an indicator that she did something bad. Being someone who isn’t particularly sociable she has a hard time understanding what could hurt others.

 

    “I know I must’ve done something insensitive,” she takes Tiffany’s left hand on hers, “I always want you close to me. I apologise for making you think otherwise.”

   

    She doesn’t get an answer, but Tiffany’s hand relaxes. She decides to try her luck. Knowing how the other is a physically affectionate person it might work to express herself without words.

 

    Jessica puts her right arm around Tiffany’s shoulders, pulling her closer. Her left hand resting on top of her girlfriend’s. They don’t have the time to dive deeper into why she’s upset when the other couple comes knocking on the window. Jessica plants a kiss on Tiffany’s hair and walks out of the car to help them with their luggage.

 

    “Hey, Jess. Did we interrupt anything?”

 

    “Babe, don’t tease your sister.” Victoria places a hand on Soojung’s shoulder. “Hi, Jess. Sorry we took so long, Soojungie couldn’t find her Christmas jumper.”

 

    “Hi, guys. It’s okay, we were just talking and it’s still early.” She finishes helping them fit the bags in the trunk, “Would either of you mind driving? I didn’t have a good sleep, neither did Tiffany.”

 

    “Neither of you had a good night of sleep. Did she sleep over?” Soojung asks, wiggling her eyebrows.

 

    “Jesus, no. When did you get such a dirty mind?”

 

    Soojung smiles pointing at her girlfriend. 

 

    “I’ll drive,” Victoria walks towards the driver’s side trying to hide her blush, “we should get going.”

 

    Tiffany greets the girls in a cheerful tone, not quite her usual, but much better than when she talked to Jessica before. 

 

    “Jess said you guys didn’t sleep well. Nervous about meeting the family?” Soojung asks, much nicer with her words when they’re not directed at her sister. 

 

    “I guess, it’s such a big step for our relationship.”

 

    “I’m sure it’s gonna be fine, everyone was nice when they met Victoria.”

 

    “But I get it, I was nervous too.” Victoria says getting ready to drive, “You and Jess can take a nap if you want, we all know that you won’t get the time to rest once we arrive.”

 

    “You are sweet. I would love to get to know you both better, but I do have a bit of a headache.”

 

    “You too, Jess.”

 

    “Okay, I’ll try.” She moves to the seat next to Tiffany so they can cuddle into a more comfortable position to sleep.

 

    “Why did you move?” Tiffany asks quietly, the cold tone back to her voice.

 

    “We couldn’t cuddle if I was sitting there.”

 

    “Own, did you hear that, babe?” Soojung reacts, obviously hearing what Jessica said.

 

    “I did. Who would’ve thought that Jung Boss would be clingy?”

 

    “Shut up, you two. I’ll kick you out of my car.”

 

    Her reaction gets both laughing like school children. It’s useless to get bothered by these kids. Victoria is older than her, but she is nothing but a tall child and Soojung loves annoying her older sister like the good younger child that she is.

 

    Giving up on fighting the girls, she focuses her attention on Tiffany. The seatbelts don’t allow her to get in the ideal cuddle position, so she settles for holding her left hand with their fingers intertwined. As the minutes pass the other couple gets distracted with their own conversation and this gives Jessica the opportunity to talk with Tiffany. She still wants to get the woman out of this foul mood.

 

    She gently holds Tiffany’s chin making her move her face so they’re looking at each other. Their faces are as close as the day in the pub, but now it doesn’t feel as intimate. “Am I making you uncomfortable?” She asks and Tiffany answers shaking her head no, “How about you rest your head on my shoulder and we sleep for a bit?”

    “You really want that or it’s just because you know I like cuddling?” 

 

    “I really, really want to have my adorable clingy girlfriend as close to me as possible,” She moves her hand from Tiffany’s chin to cup her face, gently tracing her cheekbones, “Would that be okay?”

   

    Tiffany nods and Jessica gives her a peck on the forehead.

 

   

 

    “Hey, lovebirds!” 

 

Jessica feels someone poking her, but she feels so warm and comfortable that it is really hard to open her eyes. When she manages to do so, the first thing she sees is blonde hair. Right, she fell asleep next to Tiffany. It seems like they got very cuddly in their sleep, they’re still holding hands and the blonde has her previously free hand on Jessica’s stomach, who is resting her own hand on the other’s thigh.

 

“Good, you’re awake.” Soojung says looking at them from the front seat, “We’re going to get coffee, do you want anything?”

 

“How long did we sleep?” She feels Tiffany squeezing her waist, still asleep.

 

“A little over an hour.”

 

Jessica hums, “I want chocolate, something with caramel… yeah, chocolate for Fany too.” She snuggles closer to Tiffany and starts dozing off again.

 

“Chocolate it is then.”

 

The next time Jessica wakes up she feels well rested enough to fight off the desire to fall back asleep. Somehow they changed positions since the time Soojung woke her up, she is now resting her head on Tiffany’s shoulder and hugging the woman tightly — which can’t be comfortable to her since Jessica’s arm is pressing behind her back — so she moves away carefully.

 

“I really hope you have pictures of this… oh, you’re awake.” Tiffany smiles at her and runs a hand through Jessica’s hair, trying to fix the mess caused by sleep. “Good morning.”

 

“What were you talking about? I heard something about pictures.”

 

“We were telling her about your emo phase.” 

 

“Why? And how does Victoria know about that? It was so long ago.”

 

“Soojung showed me pictures the first time we stayed over at your parents. Lots of pictures”

 

“You did what?” Jessica moves away from Tiffany in absolute shock, “I’ll get you for this, you little . I’m sure I can find some pictures of that time you got gum on your hair and mum had to cut it.”

 

“I’m sure it was adorable. Look at this face, I could never look at her and think she isn’t the most beautiful person on Earth.”

 

“Ugh, fine, I’ll show them to Fany then”

 

“Really, Sica? That’s low. I didn’t have a choice about my hair, you on the other hand chose to have half of your face covered by a fringe every day.”

 

“You embarrassed me in front of your girlfriend, I’m gonna embarrass you in front of mine.”

 

Tiffany laughs at the women in front of her acting like a bunch of children, “I’m way more interested in seeing how you looked with black hair and too much eyeliner.”

 

“Don’t tease me.”

 

“I’m not teasing, princess.” She winks at Jessica after using the pet name, “I think 15 year old me would like to have emo Jess as a girlfriend.”

 

“Fine, but you have to show me old pictures too.”

 

“Deal.”

 

“You’re making it really hard to annoy my sister.” Soojung says looking at them through the rear view mirror, “If the both of you keep being this cute I’ll have nothing to keep me occupied.”

 

“I can think of a few ways of keeping you occupied.” 

 

“Babe!” She slaps Victoria’s shoulder, “Don’t say that in front of people.”

 

“I didn’t say what I was gonna do to you, no need to hit me.”

 

The two of them keep arguing over what is appropriate to say in front of people and Jessica uses their distraction to talk to Tiffany before they arrive.

 

“Feeling better?”

 

“Yeah, I guess I was more tired than I thought.”

 

“But you were also upset and I still don’t know what I did.”

 

“Don’t worry about that, it’s okay now.” 

 

Jessica rests her forehead against Tiffany’s, “I can’t help it, I care about you.”

 

“We will get there in less than five minutes, you could at least wait before you start making out.”

 

“Way to ruin the moment, Soojung.”

 

“You know what? I would like to see her embarrassing pictures.”

 

---

A.N: Next chapter will have a lot more characters so it might take a bit longer for me to update.
Happy New Year, everyone!