Sooyoung was suddenly awakened that morning with the sound of a loud knock at the door. She forced herself up from the bed and slowly walked towards the door. Her head was terribly heavy and the fever was not slowing down, and now she was down with a very bad flu. Ever since arriving in Beijing 2days ago, she had been in the hotel room sleeping and resting. The first concert was only a day away.

She opened the door and saw it was the head of the management team. “Yul, I am so so sorry. I couldn’t make it to the rehearsal and meeting again today.” Sooyoung quickly apologized. Yuri walked inside the room and then sat on the bed. She took a glance around the room.

“I needed a few updates urgently from you.” Yuri said seriously before she looked at her emails on her phone.

“Yes yes I’m sorry.” Sooyoung knew Yuri had sent her an email a few days ago asking for the status on the vendors for the upcoming concert in Thailand which was 2 months away. Sooyoung was really not feeling well that day. Her body temperature was so high and she really felt like dying at that point.

Sooyoung went to her bag pack and took out her laptop because the updates were inside her hard disk. In the meantime, Yuri was still looking around the room and she stumbled upon a pink night wear which she knew exactly whose the owner of it. Then, she also found some other stuff on the desk which was also belonging to the same person.

“Aaachoo..” Sooyoung sneezed softly while was busy looking for the things Yuri requested on her laptop.

“You know that we are on a tight schedule. We should have finalized all these last week.” Yuri said strictly.

“We still have time Yul.” Sooyoung looked at her friend/boss with her red puffy eyes. They used to be closed before. Sooyoung didn’t know why there weren’t talking that much for the past few months. Sooyoung thought it might be due to the stress of the preparation of the tour.

“What do you mean by we still have time? Do you think I have so much time to wait for you Soo?” Yuri questioned. “Do you know how much things I need to settle?? I still have so many other datelines to chase, not just yours.” She added angrily.

“Yuri, this is not the first time I’m doing this, I have worked with these vendors before. We still have plenty of time to get this finalized. You know it yourself.” Sooyoung frowned back.

“You were supposed to report to me yesterday during the production meeting.” Yuri was still not okay. “And you were still not around this morning!” She exclaimed.

“I haven’t been feeling well!” Sooyoung defended herself. That was the first time she ever raised her voice to the head of management.

“I know you are. But we are running a goddamn tour here!! We can’t be waiting for you till you get better. If you still want to do this, you better show up for the next meeting in 2hours.” Yuri stood up and exited the hotel room.

Sooyoung was so surprised to see how Yuri acted with her. The woman never treated her that way before. Although she felt like she was about to faint at that time, she just had to be strong and forced herself to attend the meeting.

The meeting would be at the venue for the concert and at the time, Jessica was already there for rehearsals. In fact, Jessica was already at the venue since early in the morning. She managed to spend the night with Sooyoung last night but she had to leave so early in the morning back to her room so that Yuri wouldn’t notice. Since Sooyoung was not feeling well, Jessica tried her hardest to be with the woman whenever she could.

Sooyoung reached the venue an hour later with a very bad migraine. The moment she went inside the hall, she could hear the most beautiful voice echoing around. Jessica was doing sound checks at that moment and Sooyoung was just watching her girlfriend from a far with the widest smile.

The woman was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her. Although ever since they got together they haven’t been spending much time, but they had so much trust in each other and with the relationship. They were both so matured and independent. That was what Jessica admired Sooyoung the most. Sooyoung was so patient and understanding. They knew they had a different role to play.

The meeting started on time and of course they were a lot of people attending the meeting. Each department had to attend so that everything could be finalized. The head of management and also the singer’s manager was the one who chaired the meeting.

“Jessica will be joining once she’s done with the sound checks.” Yuri said to everyone. Yuri started the meeting with the stage manager, concert promoters and the rest of the departments. Jessica joined in the meeting 30 minutes later. It was not really necessary for her to join but she was the one who wanted to.

“Sorry for being late.” She said softly before she took a seat neat to Yuri.

Jessica glanced around the room and was surprised to see Sooyoung was there. The woman looked so unwell and she was seated somewhere at the back. They looked at each other and Jessica instantly had a frown. They were looking at each other as if like they were communicating with their eyes from afar. Jessica quickly took her phone and sent a text to Sooyoung from under the table.

Yuri at the time was having a discussion with one of the departments. Jessica mouthed the word ‘phone’ to Sooyoung from across the room asking Sooyoung to check on her phone. Sooyoung carefully checked her phone and saw the woman just sent her a text.

Why are you here? You should be in bed!

Sooyoung wanted to reply the text when all of a sudden she was surprised to hear her name was being called out loud.

“I still haven’t received the update on the vendors for the Thailand show Sooyoung!” Yuri exclaimed. She seemed pretty angry. “I personally went to your room just now and practically had to beg for you to send the updates and you still haven’t sent it!” She added.

Sooyoung felt so embarrassed. All eyes were towards her at the time. “I hmm I will send you now.” Sooyoung said as she quickly took out her laptop and immediately looked for the list of confirmed vendors for the upcoming show in Thailand.  

“Yul.. I think the datelines for Thailand are still a few weeks away.” Jessica said to Yuri.

“Jessica, this is your first Asia Tour! We need to be as efficient as we can. Why do we have to wait for the dateline for us to finalize things?” She went on to ask.

“Yuri, you need to chill. Everything is currently still on track.” Jessica replied back softly.

“Have you send the list or not???!!!” Suddenly Yuri screamed out loud as she turned to look at Sooyoung angrily. Everyone was terribly in shock.

“YURI!! OUTSIDE NOW!!’ Jessica exclaimed even louder before she stood up from her seat and left the meeting room. Yuri then followed her after. Everyone in the room was in shock over what happened. And then they turned to look at Sooyoung.

“Soo, when is exactly the dateline for you to send what she asked?” Lisa from the staging crew went to her and asked.

“3 weeks from now.” Sooyoung explained.

“Damn.. Why is she being like that then?” Everyone was clueless. They had never seen the head of management acting like that.

“I don’t know..” Sooyoung mumbled slowly.

******

“WHAT YOU DID JUST NOW WAS DISRESPECTFUL!!” Jessica exclaimed loudly to her manager. Yuri didn’t say a word back. “Everyone is trying their best! This isn’t your own big tour, it’s everyone’s!!” Jessica was really pissed off.

“I’m sorry.” Yuri apologized. “I have been really in stressed.”

“Do you think you are the only one in stress?? The poor girl is down with a high fever, and you still drag her to come to the meeting!! What you did back there reflects back on me too!!” Jessica exclaimed. She just couldn’t control it anymore.

“You better get your back together, or else I don’t have a choice but to let you go.” Jessica said seriously.

“That’s how it is now right? You’re choosing her over me. What does she have that I don’t have?” Yuri suddenly questioned.  

Jessica looked at her with a frown. “I have done everything for you for the past 4 years. I put everything on hold for you.” Yuri muttered. “As soon as you’ve found someone else, you’re just going to throw me aside.” She added.

Jessica just let out a long sigh before she sat on a chair. “I knew months ago that you’re seeing her. You weren’t even home at night. You weren’t even home during the weekend. I even saw your stuff in her hotel room just now!” She added.

“I never meant to hurt your feelings Yuri.” Jessica sighed. “You knew exactly how I felt back then, and you still wanted to go along with it.” Jessica covered her face with her hands. “This is not working anymore Yul..” Jessica took another long deep sigh and stood up from the chair.

 “I love you Jessica.” Yuri mumbled slowly as she just looked at the woman.   

“I love her.” Jessica said out loud. She just didn’t want to have the conversation anymore. She decided to just walk away.

“Jess..” Yuri called out for her. She turned around to look at the woman.

“I will give you my resignation once the tour ends.” Yuri said. Jessica nodded her head and then she just left the area.

*****

The time was 12.45AM and Sooyoung was on the hotel bed watching TV. She was still down with the high fever. She really needed to get well before tomorrow night’s opening show. She wanted to be there at the venue to support the woman of her dreams. Plus, she also had to work that night.

An hour later, the front door was opened and the woman of her dreams appeared in front of the bed with a frown. “Why aren’t you sleeping yet??” She questioned. Jessica just got back from her final rehearsal from the venue earlier.

“Hm I waited for you.” Sooyoung mumbled slowly.

“Babeee.. It’s almost 2am!” Jessica exclaimed softly. Later that afternoon, Jessica decided to bring all of her stuff to Sooyoung’s hotel room. And she requested for Sooyoung’s room to be further away from the rest of the crew. So no one would find out.

“Hmm.. Jess..” Sooyoung mumbled.

“Yes?” Jessica smiled. She took off her shirt as she wanted to shower before joining Sooyoung on the bed. It was an exhausting few days for her.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean for you to be angry with Yuri. I was the one at fault. I didn’t send the list when she asked me to.” Sooyoung confessed. They finally had the chance to talk about what happened earlier that morning.  

“The dateline is 3 weeks away but what she said was true. Why wait when we could get it done faster..” Sooyoung added. “Please don’t be bias towards me. I need you to be able to yell at me whenever I make a mistake.” Sooyoung continued.

Jessica was only wearing a bra at the time when she crawled on the bed towards her sick girlfriend. “Baby, I am not being bias.” She said softly, assuring the woman in front of her.

“You did nothing wrong. She was actually angry at me.” Jessica revealed.

“Hm why?” Sooyoung asked in surprised.

“Apparently she figured about us for months now.” Jessica again revealed something surprising to Sooyoung. “What?? How?? I was being so careful!” Sooyoung started to panic.

“Baby, it’s not you. It’s me. She knew I had not been sleeping at home for the past 4 months. You do know that my car has a location detector which she could track it? So maybe she tracked it every night when Cho dropped me off at your house.” Jessica said as she took Sooyoung’s hand. (Cho – her driver)

Sooyoung didn’t know what to say at that point. “She’ll give me her resignation once the tour ends.” Jessica added.

“I am so so sorry.” Sooyoung mumbled softly.

“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I took advantage of her, of her feelings. It’s without a doubt that she’s really good at what she does. But how can I work with her when I know that she’s holding grudge at me just because I don’t love her back? As much as I want to keep her as a manager, I just can’t.” Jessica said.

“What if one day when things don’t work out anymore between us? I will be out of job, I will lose the house that I worked so hard to buy for my mum..” Sooyoung muttered sadly.

“Baby, what we have is different. This time around the feeling is there.” Jessica took Sooyoung’s hand and placed it at her heart. “I love you Sooyoung, with all of me.” Jessica said softly. “I know being with me has been so hard but I have faith. We will make this work.” She said.  “After the tour ends, I will take a year off and I want to take you to my parents.” She revealed.