May 2024

After two decades of living in South Korea, Klaire finally bought her very own apartment. She had been capitalizing on the dorm provided by SM this whole time, reasoned that she might want to leave the country to venture to the United States like Tiffany. She was always thinking of going back to her hometown so there was no point in investing her money on property in Seoul and she genuinely thought of doing it every year but never really did it. As banana as people might think of her; yellow on the outside, white on the inside; she had actually grew really fond of her ancestors' homeland. Add that with how well her career had gone as a solo artist the past few years, she felt that it'd be too big a risk to just leave everything behind and start anew in the States.

So here Jessica was, inside Klaire's house worth about 2.5 million USD. She, along with all the other girls were invited for an open house slash Sunny's late birthday celebration slash Yoona's early birthday party. She arrived later than expected, having to send her mother to the airport beforehand. Although she had nothing to worry about because it seemed like the older they became, the less on time they were. Only five of the girls were there, now six including her. The other three were nowhere to be seen, much to Jessica's relief, because there was a certain someone who she hadn't seen in years and although she had been mentally preparing herself for this meeting for weeks, up to that point, standing in Klaire's living room, she apparently still wasn't ready.

This whole set up was weird and uncomfortable for her. She was used to meeting the girls quite regularly these days, but never all of them in complete package. The setting was usually in smaller groups, with a mix and match of different people; three girls in her house, four at the golf course, six for random dinners. Six, was actually the highest number they had gone with; never more that that, let alone nine. When the next person came through Klaire's door, they would have broken their record.

Some of the girls were admiring the view at the balcony, one shikshin was already enjoying the snacks Klaire had prepared for this night of reunion.. slash open house slash Sunny's late birthday celebration slash Yoona's early birthday party. Jessica had been here before, obviously. She was Klaire's self-proclaimed personal property consultant; helping the young, inexperienced girl choosing the perfect place, inspecting the neighbourhood and negotiating the price. She had been to every corner of this apartment and had seen everything, minus a few newly-arrived furnitures and newly-installed kitchen appliances.

"How much did you splurge on this thing?" Jessica pointed judgingly at a shining coffee machine; a proper one complete with a coffee grinder, a steam wand, and all that jazz. The one you could find at coffee shops, albeit much smaller; not the more convenient Nespresso or Dolce Gusto that you only need to put in the capsule and press a button to make a great latte or cappuccino that had been the staple of everybody's house these days.

"Zero won. It was a gift." Klaire said, smiling excitedly.

"From whom? Who loves you that much to buy you a whole coffee machine? Which sugar daddy, exactly?" Jessica asked with a joking skepticism, honestly feeling a little bit jealous for not thinking of this brilliant idea. Klaire had been obsessing over coffee since she took a course for coffee-making with a famous celebrity barista.

"Ooh maknae, you have a sugar daddy? Mommy's so proud of you." Yuri jumped in before Klaire could answer, walking to the fridge to get a top up on her sparkling apple juice.

Soon, the other girls started to gather around them and everyone kept talking nonsense about this non-existent sugar daddy. They were so loud they didn't even notice Sooyoung went to open the front door, letting the three remaining guests come in. They didn't just break their previous record of six, they went straight to cloud nine.

"Hey, es!" Tiffany's signature loud voice greeted them all.

Sunny smiled and waved excitedly at them.

"Annyeong." Taeyeon said calmly. As calm as her name, which literally meant calm in Korean.

The chaotic atmosphere earlier grew slightly awkward as the realization of how monumental this moment was starting to hit them. Not only because this was the first time they were all in one room since ten years ago, but as far she the girls knew, Jessica and Taeyeon had never met since September 2014, which was almost ten years ago.

Jessica actually told Krystal a few years back about their meeting at the supermarket, but she neglected to mention the part that she brought the woman back home with her. Taeyeon had also told Tiffany the whole story one drunken night, minus a few parts where she was being a total jerk, and demanded that the piece of information should stay between them. And both women, Krystal and Tiffany, had respectfully kept this to themselves.

So, here they were, seven years since the supermarket surprise encounter, seeing each other in person again. To say that this was weird and uncomfortable was an understatement. Luckily, Tiffany a.k.a the life of the party was quick to get the conversation going again, shooting compliments at the simple yet classy apartment Klaire had. Everyone then followed her lead, pretending the elephant in the room didn't exist and tried to make the situation as normal as possible.

When they all finally sat down for dinner, Jessica made sure that she was seated far away from Taeyeon, clinging to Yoona most of the evening. Taeyeon herself had been keeping Sooyoung close, or maybe the kept each other close for the same reason, although one's reason was more substantial than the other.

To recapitulate, Jessica had a good relationship with almost all of them. There was Klaire, who she had been constantly hanging with not long after she left the group; Yoona and Yuri, who followed shortly after; Hyoyeon, the easy-going party girl who, after the brief encounter they had at SM parking lot, instantly agreed when asked to join Yuri for lunch with Jessica; And Tiffany, who had been seeing Jessica mostly in the States. They actually went to get a massage together again, Tiffany took turn to pay that time round.

When Jessica met Sunny at Sulli's funeral, it didn't go well. But not long after that, Sunny actually asked Klaire to arrange a meeting with her, explaining how she panicked and didn't mean to ignore Jessica and how bothered she was by that since then. She was forgiven and she soon ocassionally joined the others for meet-ups with Jessica.

Sooyoung, on the other hand, was a difficult case. Jessica was adamant of not wanting to have anything to do with her anymore for years after that disastrous lunch. Sooyoung was just as stubborn. But one sunny day, Hyoyeon and Yuri managed to successfully invite both of them for a round of golf at an exclusive private club just outside of Seoul, an activity which all four of them enjoyed doing in the summer. It was a go-to place for South Korea's billionaires and celebrities, meaning their privacy was ensured. The two didn't talk much that first outing, but it became an annual thing where they only met at a golf course, under the sun, with Hyoyeon and Yuri as the arbiters to make sure they didn't end up strangling each other. Conversation was kept to a mininum and they both refused when the other girls asked them out for another type of ga