Jessica knocked Tiffany’s door.

“Who is it?” Yuri’s voiced echoed from inside.

“It’s Jessica.”

“Oh hey Jessica!” Yuri greeted Jessica with a smile. “Come in.”

“Is Sooyoung here?”

“No..? Why?”

Jessica bit her lip and sighed. Her heart had never been heavier. She had searched for Sooyoung everywhere and now Tiffany’s house, her last hope was still no help.

“Oh Jess. What’s up?” Tiffany came out from the kitchen.

“Hey Tif.”

“She’s looking for Sooyoung.” Yuri said.

“Sooyoung? Isn’t she on her business trip?”

Yuri shrugged. Jessica sat down on the couch and let out another sigh.

“Mind telling us what happened?” Tiffany broke the silence.

-------

Sooyoung was laughing hysterically with a glamorous glass of red drink in her hand.

"Yo mama's so fat we took a picture last Chirstmas and it's still printing!!!!"

"Hahhahahhahahhah" The tall girl laughed for another round and was exhausted after that. She wiped the tear on the corner of her eye and drank her third glass of drink.

"What's your name?" the blonde barmaid asked.

"Me? Hmm..." Sooyoung narrowed her eyes for a moment and said. "Ohhh… It'ssss Sooyoung. Choi Soooooyoung."

"I'm Kim Hyoyeon."

"Sweeeet...." Sooyoung stupidly smiled and swung her hand almost making the liquid to fall out. She was completely drunk. Her eyes were dreamy and she just kept smiling at everything Hyoyeon said.

Suddenly a man came up and talked to Hyoyeon. "Miss Hyoyeon, it's time to leave."

"But the bar is not closed yet!" Hyoyeon said to the man.

"You're only here to have a look at the bar, not working, Miss! Your father wants me to take you home now."

"But how can I take over the bars for him if I'm not allowed to work?"

"Areee chuu leavinnn...?" Sooyoung asked.

"Who's this?"

"She's a customer." Hyoyeon took Sooyoung's hand and smiled at the girl who immediately returned it with a toothy smile.

"Did you give her the Twinkle drink?" the man said doubtfully.

"Yeah. She needed it. You gotta see how miserable she was. She cried uncontrollably as soon as she sat down on the stool."

"But it is only for people with high drinking tolerance! Someone who rarely drink might-"

"Get killed if they drink it too much. I know. I'm not first place in my bartender class for nothing. And to me this girl looks just fine. She's just drunk and having fun." Hyoyeon watched Sooyoung who was playing with the glass of drink in amusement. Then suddenly the tall girl's face darkened, she dropped the glass and started to tremble.

"Oh my god this is not good." the man said.

"Sooyoung!" Hyoyeon amazingly jumped over the bar and caught the falling Sooyoung into her arms. Sooyoung was sweating and trembling with her eyes closed.

"Get me my bag!!" Hyoyeon shouted. The man hurriedly took Hyoyeon's J.Estina bag and gave it to her. Hyoyeon took out a pill from the bag and shoved it into Sooyoung's mouth. However, Sooyoung refused to swallow the pill and split it out.

"You have to take the pill Sooyoung!" Hyoyeon was panic. "Oh my god what do I do now?? Oh yeah right!!"

Hyoyeon searched her bag and took out a small bottle of black liquid. She poured the liquid into Sooyoung's mouth but again the latter didn’t want to swallow it. The blonde girl tried her last bet. She poured the black liquid into her own mouth and crashed her lips on Sooyoung's. Fortunately, the liquid flowed down Sooyoung's throat. The girl finally calmed down and fell asleep.

"How many glasses did she drink?"

"...three."

The man dropped his jaw. "If she could get to the third glass, how come she's like this??"

"I don’t know." Hyoyeon hugged the tall figure close to her. She was still scared thinking of the fact that Sooyoung could have lost her life just a few minutes ago. 

"We should call her family."

"Yeah right." Hyoyeon searched Sooyoung's pocket and found the mobile phone. She dialed Home but no one answered the phone.

"Maybe she lives alone. And why aren't there Mom or Dad in her contact list?"

"Try calling her friends." The mam suggested.

"There's Sicababy less than three. That's the last person she called. Maybe it's someone we can rely on now."

"No... Don’t call... Sica..." Sooyoung muttered and opened her eyes slightly. She seemed to have regained consciousness and was out of the drunk state but she was still ill.

"Why not?" Hyoyeon asked and to her surprise, hurt was clearly shown in Sooyoung's eyes as a tear escaped.

"Don’t... call Sica..." Sooyoung pleaded weakly.

"Okay okay. I'm not calling Sica. It's okay." Hyoyeon wiped off the tear on Sooyoung's face and hugged her. "How about Yuri? I'll call Yuri okay?"

------

"..."

Silence filled the room after Jessica told Yuri and Tiffany about the event. Everybody was deep in their own thoughts.

"So where is she now?" Tiffany asked.

"I don’t know. I searched everywhere..."

"I'm really mad you know." Tiffany frowned.

"I'm sorry." Jessica lowered her head.

"So do we go look for her now or give her some time?" Yuri questioned.

"I just want to know if she is safe..." Jessica said.

"Hmp. I can’t stand it here. I'm going to my room now. Sorry, Jessica." Tiffany said with irritation in her voice and went to her room.

"Don’t worry she's just mad for a while.." Yuri assured Jessica.

"No... I am the one to blame. It's all my fault."

"Aish... You weren’t in your sound mind when-"

Ring ring~

"Hello it's Kwon Yuri speaking." Yuri picked up her phone. "Yes. Oh my.. where is she now? Just tell me the address I can memorize it.... Yeah... Yeah... Okay I'll be right there."

"What is it?"

"Sooyoung is at a bar. She needs picking up."

"I'll go with you." Tiffany stormed out of her room and put on her jacket while Yuri quickly grabbed her keys. Jessica was found following them.

------

"I'm sorry but could you come to the Soshi Apartments instead? I brought Sooyoung to my apartment since she was in quite a bad condition..." Hyoyeon talked on her phone.

"Sure. Please tell me the address." Yuri answered.

"It's apartment 1132 block Dancing Queen, Soshidorks Street."

"Got it. I'm on my way."

"I'll see you later then."

"Okay bye."

Hyoyeon put her phone back ito her pocket and sat down on the edge of the bed and look at Sooyoung. The tall girl was having a fever and sweating. Her breathing was heavy she looked totally helpless with her eyes closed. Hyoyeon wiped the sweat on the side of Sooyoung's face and put a cool towel on her forehead. Then she carefully adjusted the blanket covering the younger girl.

"...no" Sooyoung sleep talked.

"It's okay." Hyoyeon squeezed Sooyoung's trembling hand. "Your friends are coming. It'll be alright."

"... no..." Sooyoung frowned slightly and continued to sleep talk.

-------

Jessica turned her car abruptly following Yuri’s car. She wondered why Yuri changed the direction so suddenly but she brushed it off immediately and replaced her thoughts with ones about Sooyoung. They drove for another fifteen minutes then  Yuri parked her car in front of a high class apartment. Jessica stopped her car behind Yuri’s and stepped out.

“I thought we were going to a bar?” Jessica asked the two friends who were getting out of their car.

“That person brought Soo to her apartment. She said Soo was too ill…” Tiffany said. “Let’s go. It’s apartment 1132 block DQ.”

Jessica’ heart skipped a beat worriedly. She quickly went inside the building and led the way to the elevator. The ride was quick and the door opened after reaching the eleventh floor. The trio stormed out looking for apartment 32. 

“26, 28, 30, …32 is over there!” Yuri said pointing at a certain door.

“Hello?” Tiffany knocked on the door engraved the number 32.

“Yes!” A short blonde opened the door and greeted the three. “You must be Sooyoung’s friends? Come in!”

Jessica made her way to the front and followed Hyoyeon to the bedroom where Sooyoung was found lying on a huge bed. She ran over to her girlfriend and cupped the latter’s face. Her heart sank as her hands felt the sweat and the heat coming from Sooyoung.

“Sooyoungie…” Jessica tried to wipe off all of Sooyoung’s sweats but they kept streaming unstoppably.

“What happened?” Yuri asked.

“She drank at my bar… I gave her a rather extreme kind of drink and she was knocked out.” Hyoyeon showed guilt on her face.

“She drank? But she can’t drink alcohol!” Jessica said and shook her head. “She can’t stand the strong taste of it. That’s why we only eat ice cream and never drink…”

“So she never drink? That explains the weird reaction then…” Hyoyeon nodded.

“How is she going to recover?” Tiffany asked in concern.

“The doctor came and gave her necessary treatments. She will have a fever for a few more hours and hopefully she will be recovered by tomorrow morning.”

The room was filled with silence. Tiffany and Yuri came to Sooyoung’s side and held her hand. They worriedly watched their best friend sleeping in the fever. Sweats were all over her face and her difficult breathing could be heard easily.

“So… do you have any idea who Sica is?” Hyoyeon broke silence.

Jessica tensed up upon hearing her name. Yuri and Tiffany exchanged looks.

“Why?” Yuri asked.

“I don’t know… I saw that person’s name in Sooyoung’s call history and was about to call her, but Sooyoung told me not to. So I called Yuri instead.”

Jessica felt her heart throb in pain. She loosened the hold on Sooyoung’s hand gingerly. She had lost the permission to be by Sooyoung’s side…

“…it’s me.” Jessica stood up. “I think I should leave now.”

“Not so fast, Jessie.” Tiffany spoke with a commanding voice causing Jessica to stop midway. She turned to Hyoyeon and asked. “So should we bring our friend back or…”

“Nah, don’t. It’s partly my fault. I insist on letting Sooyoung stay here until she’s fully recovered. Transferring her is very complicated and inconvenient.”

“Thank you very much. We really appreciate your kindness.” Tiffany bowed lightly and Yuri and Jessica followed suit. “Now Jessie. Stay here and look after Soo. That’s the least you can do to make it up for her.”

“But she doesn’t want me to-”

“And you'll just leave her like that? Seriously Jessie.”

“No of course not! I won’t leave her!” Jessica was again at the edge of tears. “I will stay!”

“Good. If anything happens to Sooyoung I will never ever ever talk to you again.” Tiffany put her tongue out teasingly to ease the tensed atmosphere. “Yuri and I will come back tomorrow.” With that, Tiffany grabbed Yuri’s hand and walked to the door with Hyoyeon.

“So she’s Sica?” Hyoyeon whispered after closing the bedroom door and made sure Jessica couldn’t hear.

“Yeah. She’s Jessica, Sooyoung’s girlfriend.” Yuri nodded. “By the way, I’m Kwon Yuri and this is Tiffany.”

“I’m Kim Hyoyeon.”

“Thank you for everything. We’re sorry for causing you troubles.”

“No worries. It’s also my fault anyway…”

After Yuri and Tiffany had left, Hyoyeon peeked inside the bed room and saw Jessica sitting on the edge of the bed holding Sooyoung’s hand. “If you need anything just tell me okay? My room is next door.”

Jessica was startle a little then she nodded. Hyoyeon closed the door and left the two alone.

--------

Sooyoung's dream (also flashback)

A blurry scene of two figures standing in the garden talking to each other.

“I want to tell you something.” The taller person said with a happy smile.

“Why are you smiling? Is it something really good?” The shorter person anticipated.

“Mmm. Maybe?”

“Tell me! Quick!” The short girl said eagerly.

“Jessica –ah..”

Sooyoung held up her hand and caressed Jessica’s cheek.

“I love you.” She said softly.

Jessica widened her eyes in shock. Then she flushed madly and her heart pounded nervously. Sooyoung leaned closer and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek. Jessica closed her eyes and smiled shyly, waiting for the touch.

------

“….uhnnn….” Sooyoung groaned startling Jessica who was about to fall asleep on the sofa.

“Sooyoungie..” Jessica hurried over to check on her girlfriend. She placed her hand on the latter’s forehead and felt the fever getting worse.

Sooyoung frowned in her sleep and swung her arms uncomfortably. Then as if she wanted to sweat more, Sooyoung grabbed the blanket and pulled it up to her chin, drawing her body together, slightly trembling.

“Sweetie, are you cold?” Jessica wiped the sweat on Sooyoung’s neck.

“… Sica…” A lone tear escaped Sooyoung’s eye and dropped onto the pillow.

The sight of the droplet broke Jessica’s heart. She covered so prevent a cry. Sooyoung stirred and lied on one side, turning her back to Jessica. She pulled herself together along with the blanket. Jessica climbed onto the other side of the bed and lied down in front of Sooyoung. She put her arms around Sooyoung and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Sweetie ah, are you cold?” Jessica sobbed and squeezed Sooyoung.

As if the tall girl could sense the presence of her girlfriend, she immediately calmed down and stropped trembling. She followed the sweet scent and snuggled up to source of warmth.

“Sica…” Sooyoung brushed her cheek against Jessica’s chest and put her arms around Jessica’s waist.

“I’m sorry, sweetie…” Jessica gave Sooyoung a long kiss on her head. “I’m such a bad girlfriend. I’m sorry.”