December 2019

"I'm gonna give you to the count of three, to get your lousy, lying, low-down, four flushing carcass out my door. One. Two." There was a repeated gunshot sound and a man laughing maniacally.

"Three." The man finished his counting after firing his gun.

"Merry Christmas, you filthy animal!" 

"MERRY CHRISTMAS, YOU FILTHY ANIMAL!" Jessica, Yuri, Yoona, Klaire and Krystal shouted in unison at the same time as the man on the television.

More gunshut sounds followed after. "And a Happy New Year."

"AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!" The girls finished, laughing as maniacally as the man in the movie.

They were watching 'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'. It used to be a long-standing tradition of theirs every winter holiday season. The movie was almost always being played on TV each year sometime between before and after Christmas Day, although this year they streamed it on Netflix instead, at Jessica's house rather than the dorm, and this was the first time they watched it together since 2013. And together meant almost half of the members of Girls' Generation, with an addition of f(x)'s very own Krystal Jung.

"Sica unnie, can I use your computer? I need to check my email." Klaire asked Jessica in the middle of the movie.

"What happened to your phone?" Jessica asked, not really wanting to tear her eyes off the screen.

"I got this Google security alert, I think someone tried to sign in to my account and now my acccess is blocked. I have to log in from another device to reset the password." Klaire explained.

"Urgh.." She groaned, popping popcorns into before getting up from the couch. She beckoned the maknae to follow her to her study.

Behind them, the other girls were shouting ridiculous and inappropriate password suggestions. Klaire stuck her tongue out at them.

"Here you go." Jessica let Klaire sit on her expensive leather office chair after typing in the password to her iMac.

"Thanks. You can go back to your movie now." Klaire smiled at her rather mischiviously, which earned a suspicious look from the computer owner.

"You're not going to send my nudes to all my mail contacts, are you?" Jessica asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Ew, gross. I don't want to go to jail for causing visual pollution." Klaire pretended to gag.

Jessica grabbed the stapler on her stationery box and walked scarily towards Klaire, acting like she was going to staple the poor girl's head, who was screaming in horror instantly asking for forgiveness.

"You filthy animal!" Jessica said, copying the movie character again, before leaving Klaire to deal with her email problem.

She was in the middle of laughing at Kevin McCallister's antics while munching caramel popcorn when Klaire disturbed her one more time, calling her from her study.

"What?" Jessica barked as soon as she stepped into the room. Klaire was standing near her desk, eyes down looking at something intently that she quickly recognized as one of four dust jacket design samples for the hardcover version of her very first self-written novel, 'Shine'. 

"What is this?" Klaire asked, raising her hand to show Jessica the thing she was holding.

Klaire knew exactly what that was, she was aware that Jessica was trying her hand at writing. She was excited to see Jessica attempted yet another new thing and she even gave her her full support. Klaire also later found out that the fictional novel was based on Jessica's personal experience training and working in the K-pop industry for more than a decade, which was understandable. What she didn't know were the little details that Jessica had never mentioned to her before, which she had just read from the synopsis written at the inside flap of the dust jacket.

"Yes, Miss Editor? What comments do you have for me?" Jessica challenged with a slight harsh tone, all of sudden feeling provoked.

"A Korean-American in a 9-member girl group? Sounds familiar, Rachel ?" Klaire asked sarcastically, referring to the main character's name in the story.

"Uhm, yes. I literally told you the book would be based on my experience. Me, a Korean-American. Debuting in a 9-member girl group, also my life story." She answered non-chalantly.

Her matter-of-factly tone irked Klaire, "Are you kidding me?" 

"No." She shook her head, closing the door to avoid the other people in the living room hearing them as Klaire's voice was getting louder. "What's your problem?"

"Are you ing kidding me?" Klaire asked her rhetorical question again, now accompanied with a curse word for maximum impact.

"What the is wrong with you?" Jessica pushed back. 

"What the is wrong with me? What the is wrong with you?" She raised her voice, slamming the dust jacket down on the table, much to Jessica's annoyance.

"Don't crumple it!" She warned.

Klaire ignored her warning, knowing full well the corner of the jacket was already slightly folded. "Is it really necessary to make it a 9-member girl group? Why can't it be like 4 or 5 or freaking 13?"

"Well, the fact that you're making it a big deal right now is exactly the reason why. It gets people talking." Jessica explained, her tone was friendlier now. She didn't want to fight with Klaire, not during all this Christmas festivities, and especially not while Yuri and Yoona were in the other room.

"Is that all you care about? Sales? Numbers?" Klaire asked, seemingly disappointed by the explanation.

"It's just business, Klaire. Like how SM made Tiffany's debut to clash with mine. You understood that one very well, didn't you?"

"Unnie, you do realize that every single fictitious thing that you wrote there would be twisted and interpreted however people want, right?" When Jessica only shrugged, Klaire continued. "People would assign each of those characters to us. Rachel is you, A is Taeyeon, B is Tiffany, C is Yoona, and so on. If you write that Rachel and A don't get along, they will start selling the story that you and Taeyeon didn't get along in the past. If you say that B is bullying Rachel, then  they will assume that you were bullied by Tiffany."

Jessica sighed. "Klaire, this is just a fictional story. You need to exaggerate to make it interesting. People who followed us for years would never believe that Tiffany was bullying me." She gave a small laugh, finding the thought hilarious. "No matter how great of actors we were, those things that we said to each other, the affection we had for each other, the way we interacted with each other couldn't just be faked so perfectly that way. If they believe that, then they're just dumb and I honestly don't give a about those people. They're already making s up since five years ago anyway."

"Well, I don't like it when people talk about you." Klaire said, her voice slightly shaking with a sincerity that made Jessica almost regretted writing her novel.

They both turned their heads when they heard a knock, Krystal's head peeked around the door, eyes looking at them questioningly as she probably could feel the tension in the room.

"Soojung doesn't like it when people talk about you." Klaire added, looking back at Jessica while her palm pointing at Krystal, also known to be Jessica Jung's vulnerable point.

Jessica looked at her sister intently as if she was taking her into consideration for the first time. She shook her head in the end. "Well, it's my book. If you're not happy with it, write your own." She said before walking herself out of her study back to the living room to join her two friends.

"What is it again this time, unnie?" Krystal asked Klaire with an accusatory tone when Jessica was out of earshot.

Klaire looked at her, contemplating whether she should complain about Jessica to her sister. "Do you know about this?" She asked, raising the novel's dust jacket for Krystal to see.

Krystal squinted her eyes as she was still standing near the door, quite far from the desk in Jessica's spacious study. "Ah, I think I know which part you disapprove of."

"So you knew." Klaire concluded. "And you're okay with that?"

Krystal swung her forefinger left and right. "No, no, no. You're not dragging me into this. I've told you before not to ever use me against her."

It was Klaire's turn raising her opened-palms up, remembering the last time Krystal almost -slap her for purposely bringing up to Jessica the sisters' failed duo project due to Jessica's departure from SM. She could never forget Krystal's terrifying death stare when confronting her about it. "Sorry." She apologized weakly.

"Unnie, can you stop doing this?" Krystal said, practically begging. "You come here, pick a fight with her and you leave. How fun." She said with a heavy sarcasm. "I, on the other hand, live here. I don't get to just run away. You do know that I have to deal with the aftermath, don't you?"

"Sorry. Maybe you can try locking yourself in you room and avoid her at all cost." Klaire tried to joke.

Krystal rolled her