29 August 2015

Klaire was lying down on her stomach on Jessica’s bed, her right thumb swiped to the left once every few seconds. She was looking through the photos Jessica took during her trip to Hangzhou and Singapore. One particular selfie she took caught Klaire’s attention as she remembered staying at the same hotel before.

Right beside her on the lamp table was a box of Chinese tea set Jessica bought as a souvenir from Hangzhou. Buying souvenirs for Klaire was the easiest thing to do in the world. The girl was madly in love with tea and she drank tea like she was the Queen of England. Jessica always made sure to buy a nice looking set of tea wherever she went, if the time and situation permit of course.

She was admiring the view in Singapore from the photos when Jessica plopped down beside her and snatched the phone. “Time to sleep! No bedtime stories this time. You really need to rest.” She commanded.

“B-b-but.. I micchuuu.” Klaire struck again with her aegyo, pouting her lips and blinking her eyes repeatedly. She did miss her friend. They had not met since early August and sleepover supposed to mean gossiping until at least three in the morning. She was not going to waste such precious night to go to sleep early.

“How’s Singapore?” Klaire asked, trying to stir a conversation when she saw Jessica closing her eyes, pretending to be asleep.

“Fun.” Jessica answered simply. “Lost some money at the casino, but nevertheless it was a fun experience.” She then added.

Klaire laughed, remembering the call she received three days ago asking about this casino game she couldn’t even remember the name of. She once told Jessica excitedly about it when she came back to the their hotel room after she won a few hundred bucks at that same exact casino in Singapore.

“How much?” Klaire asked curiously. She knew her friend could be too generous with money sometimes. I mean, look at her Hermès Birkins and her old collection of almost every colour there was to Balenciaga handbags.

“Not enough to care.” She answered non-chalantly.

“Woah, a big shot founder and creative director of a fashion brand. Can I have your signature, please?” Klaire mocked, gesturing for Jessica to sign on her , imitating the crazy fan girls when they met their favourite rock stars.

Jessica gave her a disgusted face.

“How about a picture?” Klaire continued irritating her, having her duck face pose ready.

Jessica laughed and face-palmed herself, but she grabbed her phone and turned the camera on. “Let’s take a picture!” She shifted herself closer to the girl next to her.

“I was just joking though?” Klaire said, raising her eyebrow.

“What? You don’t want to take a picture with me?”

“No, thanks!” Klaire said, flipping her hair arrogantly.

“Are you scared that my beauty will outshine yours?” Jessica wriggled her eyebrows.

It was not intentional but Klaire burped right after Jessica said that. The two laughed their asses off at the perfect timing.

“Unnie! I can still taste the ginseng at the back of my throat. Ew!” She grimaced at the horrible after taste.

“I did ask you to just drink half of it but you finished the whole bowl. Don’t put this on me.” 

“Urgh.. whatever. I’m going to get a drink.” Klaire got up from the bed, walking at such a fast pace out of the room.

-

30 August 2015

The two singers spent the whole night on Jessica’s bed exchanging stories. Klaire told Jessica about this new café her friend’s cousin just opened in Myeongdong and how she had been spending time composing. Jessica, in return, shared stories from her fan-signing event in Singapore, highlighting a fan banner that says ‘You fill the Blanc in our heart.’ The creative director shook her head at her fans’ creativeness.

“You had so much fun, huh?” Klaire smiled at her, used her foot to tap on Jessica’s leg.

“Yeah, although I was totally exhausted. I haven’t had so many schedules back to back in 3 different countries in a while. Gosh, I’m so sick of flying.”

Klaire checked the time, it was already past midnight. “It’s quite late. Are you sleepy yet?”

“A little bit.” Jessica rubbed her eyes and yawned.

“Do you have anything to do tomorrow?”

“Nope. Free as a bird.” She continued, “I’ll be out of Seoul for a week or two next week. Packed schedules again.”

“Where are you going?”

“New York.”

Klaire jolted up. “New York as in… for Fashion Week?”

Jessica nodded. “Photoshoot with W, Chanel private event and DVF Fashion Show.”

With that, Klaire’s jealousy just shot through the roof. Jessica added furthermore, “And I’m going straight to Bangkok after that for Bvlgari.”

“That sounds so Anna Wintour-ish! I'm so jealous of you. And I miss our Thai fans. They’re always so sweet and dedicated.” Her mind wandered to the past memories when they had schedules in that beautiful and exotic city. The last time she went there was two years ago with Jessica and Yoona for an event for their GiRL de Provence perfume. It suddenly reminded her of Yoona.

“Yoona sent her regards. She said she misses you.” Klaire said as casually as possible. It took at least five seconds before she received a hum for an answer. Klaire secretly rolled her eyes at her. She tried her luck once again. “I think Sooyoung unnie is going to Fashion Week as well."

Jessica turned her head at her, glaring. “What are you, a freaking fanbase who reports all the girls’ activities? I’m pretty sure I have un-subscribed a long time ago.”

Klaire’s mind was working really hard. Her current position was like a president talking to the press after a huge tragedy, no room for mistakes. “Remember when you told me to always be the bigger person?” She started carefully. “You can always go to her first, you know. Could be a start for a reconciliation.”

“Be the bigger person?” Jessica scoffed. “If I wasn’t being the bigger person, I would have sued all of your stinky fat asses already!”

Yup! Klaire pressed the wrong button. She quickly waved the white flag, displaying her best puppy eyes to gain Jessica’s pity. She decided to stop pressing the girl. She remembered those dreadful days when Jessica cut all sorts of contacts with her. She wouldn’t want that to happen again. Never ever again.

“Come to think about it, what were you doing at Music Core today?”

“Well..” Klaire exhaled loudly. “Trying to be a good member by supporting my members.”

“Did they make you go?” Jessica's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Yes. But ‘they’ means the company. Not the girls.” Klaire said defensively.

“That ty company and its publicity stunts and mediaplays. Like announcing relationships and break-ups whenever you girls have a comeback is not enough.” If this was a superhero movie, Jessica’s eyes would probably be shooting red lasers.

The night went on with the two ladies complaining about basically everything bad they could remember about the company. It was a fun night, somehow, before Klaire received a call. When she saw Sunny’s name on her phone screen, she suddenly remembered the texts she received earlier. She was so caught up in sneaking to Jessica’s house that she totally forgot to read and reply to them.

The conversation with Sunny went pretty chill. The petite girl asked how she was doing and why she didn’t reply to any of their texts,  and where she was, which Klaire answered with a silence, not sure what to say. Sunny then quickly figured out where their maknae was. She was sure Klaire wouldn't listen to her but she asked her to go back to the dorm and rest anyway. At least she had done her job, whether Klaire would obey or not was up to her.

Klaire was just about to turn off her phone after she hung up from Sunny when she received another call. Her eyes shot to Jessica when she saw the name of the caller. Jessica stayed quiet and pretended to be busy with her own phone, but she could sense Klaire’s uneasiness.

Klaire got up from the bed, wanting to take the call outside the room but Jessica grabbed her wrist insisting for her to answer it right there.  She managed to see the caller’s name earlier and was curious as to why Klaire was acting so suspicious. She didn’t know what was going on between the two and she was about to find out why.

The poor maknae sighed and picked up the phone. The phone had not reached her ear yet but she could already hear Tiffany shouting from the end of the line, “Aren’t you supposed to be home!?”

Everyone knew how loud Tiffany could be but only her family and friends ever experienced that tsunami of voice hitting directly at their eardrums. For your information, it hurt.

“I’ll be home when I want to be home.” Klaire replied. She was planning to censor things and talk in secret codes earlier so Jessica wouldn’t have to know the feud that was going on between them but she was pretty sure the girl heard Tiffany screamed at her on the phone.

“Do you even think before you do anything, Klaire? Do you? You were