September 27

It took Jessica quite a while to calm down after Kyuhyun left. Three hours to be exact.

When she woke up she looked around her confused before her eyes landed on me. I didn’t speak. I didn’t know what to tell her. She asked how long she was out and I answered telling her that most of the other employees had already left. She nodded her head and tried to get up, but she was still dizzy due to the emotional shock. I supported her and helped her sit in the chair behind her desk.

“Sunny, thank you. Thank you for everything. I promise I’ll make it up to you somehow” her voice was low, close to a whisper.

“Please don’t mention it again Jessica. You’ve already done enough for me. More importantly, how are you feeling?”

She avoided my eyes. Instead she looked out the window while her hand was playing nervously with the hem of her dress. For a few minutes we stayed like this. I was looking at her, searching her face for the slightest sign of discomfort and she was staring out of the window without looking at something in particular.

She was the one to break the silence “Sunny, could you please call my chauffeur? I think I’ll take the rest of the day off. I need to… I want to go home” her eyes focused on me and I noticed a few tears threatening to spill.

“I will call him right away. Do you want me to come with you? So you won’t be alone?” I was honestly concerned for her.

 Jessica has never been so open with me. Every emotion, every thought was clearly written in her face. The secretive, mysterious and cold Mrs. Jung had completely disappeared. I could finally see Jessica, the real Jessica, a girl my age with more responsibilities than she can handle, more troubles than she wants the other to know about and more determination than anyone I have ever met.

“Thank you for your offer Sunny but right now I want to be alone” she said. I looked at her a little more before turning to make the call with a sigh. Her chauffer would be waiting for her in front of the building.

“Here let me take you downstairs. Let me at least make sure that you make it to the car safely” I asked.

She shook her head before looking at me and answering. “No. I think I can make it on my own. Don’t worry.”

“Jessica, I know that you feel alone, but you don’t have to be. You can trust me…”

“Thank you Sunny, but I really shouldn’t. I can’t afford to get you involved in this too. There’re too many things at stake”

She thanked me again for staying with her and walked out of the office. I leaned out of the window and waited for her to get in the car. When it was out of my sight I turned my attention to the view in front of me.

Jessica’s office is much higher than most buildings. It is also in one of the best neighborhoods in the city.

The road in front of the building is wide, with tangerine trees plant on either side. Except from the Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of Citizen Protection and the National Bank are also located in this area. The rest of the buildings in the street are either high class stores for a privileged few, or villas. From where I was standing I could easily see the Parliament House.

The Romans said that every road leads to Rome; we say that every road leads to the Parliament House. It is a huge building made out of marble, located in the heart of the city, overlooking the Red Square, the biggest square in the city.

There is quite the history behind the name. It is said that 70 years ago, during the “Great War”, the last battle took place there. So many soldiers died and so many innocents were killed that the ground was painted red with their blood. After the war was over, to pay their respect to the dead and to remind to themselves and to every generation to come (that means my generation as well) of how much we lost during that war, they named it the Red Square.

All the big roads of the city start from that square and reach the city borders. The rest of the roads were built like concentric circles around the Parliament House with alleys connecting them. It looks a lot like a spider web. The richer you are the closer to the center you live. The orphanage, since it’s state funded, is somewhere in the middle. All the ministries are located as close to the Parliament House as possible, while the Ministers live in the villas in the nearby area. Cho Kyuhyun lives in the mansion right across from the Parliament House. His office is also in the same building and it’s from there he watches the military parades during national holidays. Right behind the Parliament House is the Royal Gardens (name origins are unknown, or at least to us), and right in the center of it are the Royal Disciplinary Squad’s HQ.

I looked past the fancy villas, towards the edge of the city. My eyes met the rooftops of small, wooden buildings. I saw smoke rising from a few chimneys and a few figures moving on the rooftops, chimney sweepers without doubt. Recalling the events of the day and everything that I saw yesterday I felt grateful for growing up in the orphanage. Even though everyone is mean and vicious, the food , hygiene is not one of the employees’ priorities and I have to stay with a bunch of strangers, it’s a lot more than most people have.

The people living in those houses probably have nothing. Many families live together in houses ready to collapse, trying to make ends meet. They live with rats, spiders and other insects crawling on them and their food. Many of them die young because of sicknesses or infections. Their only hope is God.

I commanded myself to stop thinking about stuff like that. There is nothing I can do about them so there is no use worrying. I have other people to take care of.

Since Jessica had left and all of her schedule was cancelled, there was no point for me to stay there any longer. I cleaned up a little bit and left.

I knew that Hyoyeon would still be at work so I decided to pick her up. I stood outside the building for a couple of hours waiting for her. At first nobody paid any attention to me but pretty soon everyone glanced at me. Maybe it was all in my head but I could feel their eyes on me, looking for proof that I was doing something illegal. For some reason I was sure that none of them would believe that I was simply waiting for someone. I felt so uncomfortable. Why wouldn’t Hyoyeon hurry up?

Just as I was thinking that maybe I should leave and come back later, Hyoyeon jumped on me from behind catching me by surprise. The high-pitched, girly sound I made didn’t exactly help to avoid attention.

“Sunny what are you doing here? I thought that you are working till lunch” she said, her voice filled with excitement.

“Yeah, well, something happened at work today” I answered, grabbed her hand and dragged her off.

“Eh? What happened? Something serious? Sunny you are hurting me! Where are we going?” she protested and tried to free herself but I wouldn’t have any of it. I just kept running through the crowd until we reached the city borders. We were standing in front of the river, where a small bridge was connecting the avenue with the country road.

“Please explain to me why  we had to come all the way here, in the middle of nowhere?” her tone was accusing but her eyes where smiling. I felt a lot better knowing that she could still joke around.

“Shhh, not here, somebody might see us.” I looked around us suspiciously and signaled her to follow me. We hid under the bridge, among the tall grass.

“If you were going to make me sit in the cold you could have told me to wear something warmer”

“Will you please just sit down?” not that I didn’t like her teasing but I was getting pretty impatient.

“What in the grass?” my glare shut her up “fine, but if I get bitten by a snake you’ll have to carry me all the way back”

Damn that girl. I couldn’t hide my smile. She knew she won…again…like she always does.

She smiled back at me and we moved closer to each other to keep warm.

“So what happened today at the office?”

I explained to her about Kyuhyun and Jessica and how she broke down right after he left. I told her everything I overheard and described him and Yuri. (I did leave out the whole I’ll-steal-you-away thing though)

“Are you serious? Jessica was conspiring against him? Wow that girl has some guts”

“I don’t know if she was really conspiring. What I do know is that the fact that Jessica and Tiffany meet often is so serious that he had to put an end to it himself.”

“So what is Jessica doing now?”

“She went back home. I hope she is resting and not trying to contact Tif…” and then it hit me. This wasn’t just about Jessica.

Hyoyeon reached the same conclusion at the same time. She grabbed my hand and squished with all her strength. It hurt like hell but I focused on the thought that had just crossed my mind.

“Tiffany…” I said again

“Sunny, you are thinking the same thing right? If Jessica can’t contact Tiffany then she has no idea what happened today…”

“And if she has no idea what happened today then she might be in danger” I finished her sentence.

“What are we going to do?” she looked desperately at the river in front of us as if it would answer her.

“There is only one thing we can do. We have to find her and warn her” I told her.

“No. We are not going to do anything. You are returning to the orphanage whileI find Tiffany and warn her.”

I looked at her surprised. Was she serious? I was not going to let her risk her life alone. I was about to protest but she covered my mouth with her hand.

“Listen to me. Kyuhyun saw you there. Maybe he has appointed people to keep an eye on you. Or maybe he has warned the people who are following Tiffany about you, but he has never met me. I am the only one who can approach Tiffany without anyone getting suspicious.”

I couldn’t argue with her. The things she said made perfect sense. My going to find Tiffany would put all three of us in great danger. I still didn’t like the idea that she was risking her life like that and I made it clear to her.

“Sunny, Sunny, Sunny” she sang softly “you worry too much, you know that? Just let me give it a try, ok?”

“Promise me that you’ll come back safe” I begged her.

“Of course I’ll come back safely. Just write about your day in your diary or something while I’m gone. Keep yourself busy and I’ll be back before you know it” she smiled at me again.

We got up and got back to the road. After that we split up. Hyoyeon left to find Tiffany and I returned to the orphanage.

She’s gone for five hours already. She is still not back. I’m worried. What if something happened to her? It’s my fault, I should have never let her go alone.

~ ~ ~ 

DomoChocolate, your wish is my command.

No seriously I had just logged in to update when I read your comment ^^

Here is the next chapter! I also made a map of the city, just in case you didn't understand what I was trying to describe.

Some of the places mentioned in the map haven't been visited by Sunny yet. Also the bridge they were in this chapter IS NOT the bridge marked in the map.

I didn't have enough room for that bridge. I'm sorry. I made it more confusing OTL

Leave a comment to tell me your opinion :)