Author's Note: Take note that this is already day two of Soshi's adventure on the island.

A pair of drowsy eyes slowly fluttered open when the powers of sleep waned off. Dawn has finally emerged after a day of twisted events that happened one after another. Stretching her stiff body and emitting a number of cracks from her joints, Jessica rubbed away the sleepiness from her eyes to take a good look around her. Starting a new day and the sleepyhead had already accomplished something good: waking up before everyone else does. The other girls were still slumbering in the safety of the cave, wandering around in their dreamland and temporarily forgetting about the predicament that they’re facing in reality. Jessica noticed that the campfire in the middle has already been put out. Probably the last person to keep watch throughout the night did it. Whoever it was, Jessica had no clue because she’d still been asleep by then.

The night before, Taeyeon decided that they’ll plan out what was needed to be done first thing in the morning. That included surviving in this unknown, treacherous environment. Survival instincts were all that mattered now. Finding food will be their main priority; the bananas aren’t going to last forever. And with the two shikshins in the party, there was going to be a lot of searching to do…maybe even hunting if things started to get desperate.

Jessica reluctantly got up, threading quietly and carefully around the sleeping girls to avoid waking them up. Exiting the cave, she winced and squint her eyes when the Sun’s rays invaded her still blurry vision. Mornings were never her favourite time of the day, but it was better than trying to feign sleep with an aching head ruining her precious resting time. The waterfall’s spray of water droplets managed to refresh her as she made her way around the edge of the lake.

However, she didn’t expect to see someone else there.

“Yuri?”

Startled, the tanned girl sitting at the edge of the lake with her feet inside the water looked up at the person that called her. “Sica, you’re up early.”

“Had trouble sleeping,” the blonde said while taking a seat next to her friend. “What are you doing out here all alone?”

“Just soaking up my feet for a bit,” Yuri said while making some ripples on the water, “you should try it too. The water feels really nice.”

Quirking her eyebrows and also lured by her own curiosity, Jessica accepted Yuri’s invitation. She took off the flats that she was wearing and placed them next to where the black pearl’s footwear was. Jessica squeaked at the chilling temperature of the water when she let her feet sink into the lake, earning a slight giggle from the other girl. The blonde didn’t hesitate to give a punch to Yuri with only a mere 10% of her strength after hearing the laughter that she got. A smile tugged on her lips though as she did that, and before she knew it, Jessica too couldn’t help but join in with the fun. Now that she thought about it, it had been quite a long time since she’d been with only Yuri by her side. In the beginning, both of them were always stuck together like glue during their trainee days. But nowadays, hectic schedules and other activities took up most of their free time and somehow… they just drifted apart just like that.

Jessica then noticed something out of place on Yuri’s complexion. Concerned, she reached out her hand to turn her friend’s face towards her.

“What happened to your face?” She asked as she gently the long scar on Yuri’s left cheek with utmost care.

“Oh, this? I think it got there when we were still in the plane. Maybe a scrap of metal grazed me or something.” She said as she looked down at her reflection in the crystal-clear water.

“This is going to take a whole lot of make-up to cover it up. Maybe even a tonne of it wouldn’t even work.”

“But don’t you think it makes me look cool in a way?” Yuri joked, posed suavely by doing an ‘L’ shape with her fingers and placing it on her chin.

Jessica fought the urge to roll her eyes in a complete 360 degrees motion.

“Oh, you bimbo.”

Eventually, their laughter died down and both girls shared a comfortable silence between them, splashing the water around with their legs.

“Thank you, Yul.”

“Huh?” Yuri turned towards the blonde with a puzzled expression.

“Thank you…for saving us.”

The raven-haired girl’s lips curved into a bittersweet smile as she looked at Jessica, “You’re welcome.”

“We wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you,” the blonde said and took hold of the other’s hands. ”Did you sleep well last night?”

“I didn’t really…” Yuri’s eyes casted downwards to avoid looking into her eyes.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to talk about? I already told you guys everything last night. It’s just trying to haunt me in my dreams now. As long as I don’t think about it, I’ll be fine.”

“Really?” Jessica asked.

“Sica, don’t make me second-guess myself. You know how much I hate doing that, right?”

“I know, but you went through all that horrible stuff. I’m worried about you, Yul.”

“Don’t be. I can handle this. Besides, we have much more important things to worry about than my traumatising experiences,” Yuri said and gestured at their surroundings.

“Oh yeah, how could I forget?” The blonde scoffed.

“Haha, you’re funny,” Yuri laughed. “You know, you’re actually heavier than you look. I thought I was carrying a sack of rice out of th-“

Yuri didn’t manage to finish her sentence as she was then roughly pushed into the body of water with a frightened squeal. Coughing and spewing out the liquid that got into her respiratory system, it looked like she became some kind of Lake Monster rising from the deep, what with her long locks of hair now stuck and covered most of her face.

“YAH!” A now drenched and soaking wet Yuri yelled at the guffawing girl, “what the hell was that for!?” She never got an answer as Jessica was still busy trying to control her laughter to no avail, making Yuri more and more disapproving of her behaviour. In an act of revenge, she decided to pull the said blonde mercilessly into the water with her. As expected, Jessica’s infamous dolphin scream echoed throughout the vicinity, even amidst the roar of the waterfall. Yuri knew that she was going to get one hell of a beating once she saw the menacing look on Jessica’s face.

“Why you little!”

Jessica waded over to the prankster and gave her a piece of her mind by launching herself at the escaping criminal, and half-strangling, half-pushing her back into the water. Yuri’s efforts in the gym paid off though, as she managed to hold off the overwhelming strength of the little Ice Princess. However, she was then pinned back onto the edge of the lake where they were previously seated. Yuri pried off the small hands on her collarbone and held the blonde by the waist in an attempt to calm her down. She couldn’t see the expression on her friend’s face which was resting on her shoulder, but Yuri knew that Jessica wasn’t going to unleash her fury on her, much to her relief. With the both of them drenched to the bones and no gap in between each other, they could feel their heartbeats pounding due to their rambunctious activity just now.

A muffled giggle broke the silence and Yuri looked over to where the sound was coming from.

Jessica.

“Hey, we’re trying to have a fight here and you’re ruining it.” The raven-haired girl said in mock disgrace even though the urge to smile was getting the better of her.

Once again, Jessica burst into another strings of laughter and lightly using Yuri as a punching bag while doing that. The tanned girl absorbed all of the attacks in disregard until she noticed that they stopped coming. She then felt smooth and soft arms making their way around her neck, pulling her head atop Jessica’s own.

“It’s been a long time you know…since we did this.” Jessica whispered.

Yuri nodded against the crown of her dear friend’s head and tightened the hug, acknowledging what she just said. It really had been such a long time.

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