Chapter 17 – Cupcake

“So our personalities are switched now?” I glare at Hyoyeon and the fairy shrinks away nervously. “So I not only look like Sica now but I’m actually going to act and think like her too?” I throw my hands up in the air in exasperation. “You might as well turn me completely into Sica, at this rate.”

“It’s not Hyoyeon’s fault,” says Sica, softly and all eyes turn on her. “What? Why are you all looking at me?”

“You sound so much like Yuri now,” says Yoona and Seohyun nods in agreement.

“Completely,” says Seohyun.

“Well duh. She’s got my personality now. And I’ve got hers. Grumpy and angry when things aren’t going my way. I don’t even like this feeling I’m getting.”

“I’m sorry, Yuri. You probably got the worse end of the bargain in this,” Sica apologizes yet again and I’m stabbed by guilt. I can’t control these feelings well enough and I feel extremely off-balanced which isn’t helping my ‘Sica’ personality right now.

“You don’t have to apologize, Sica. It’s not your fault. You’re as much of a victim in this as I am. We’re like two messed up shipwrecks on an island with no way out, other than to swim back to shore somehow.”

I feel a rush of tingles down my spine just then and freeze for a moment but it doesn’t happen again and I dismiss it as some kind of weird body kink. It’s probably some kind of side effect from all the magic that’s residing in my body right now. And it isn’t even my body! I bury my face in my palms and groan. Things are going from bad to worse. How are we ever going to get out of this mess?

“Why don’t you two have a good night’s sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow. Make plans to solve this. Meanwhile, we’ll fill Sunny and Sooyoung in on the story. Maybe they’ll have some ideas.” Yoona smiles at me reassuringly.

I think it’s a good idea. I’m feeling pretty sleepy anyway. Must be a Sica thing. Sigh.

“Alright. Let’s go, Sica. What we need is a good night’s sleep.”

Sica giggles all of a sudden and I look at her strangely. “What’s up with you?”

“You’re sleepy.” She giggles again.

“Yeah, so? What are you getting at?”

“You’re exactly like me now.”

I growl and stalk off, leaving Sica to follow me in a hurry.

“Hey, wait up!” she calls and I slow down my steps to allow her to catch up with me. I don’t know what it is, but I feel a very strange sense of connection to Sica now. Maybe I’ll be able to figure it out tomorrow. I hope I can.

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“Your cousin is going to get herself into trouble one of these days.”

“She’s not going to get into trouble?!”

Hyoyeon’s father raises an eyebrow at her and she mellows immediately.

“I mean…she…she tried to get me into trouble.”

“You’re already in trouble, whether she casts any spell or not.”

“But…but she did it to get me into more trouble!”

“She can’t get you into any deeper trouble than you already are.”

“But…but she’s evil!”

“She’s your cousin. She’s not evil.”

“She is! She totally is!”

“Seulji is doing great things for fairies, Hyoyeon-ah.”

“I don’t see how that is true,” Hyoyeon huffs and pouts. “You should’ve seen the way she laughed at me.”

“She laughed at you?”

“She did! She laughed at my predicament after switching Yuri and Jessica’s personalities and said that it’ll be fun to see how I get out of trouble.”

“Hmm…” Hyoyeon’s father scratches his chin and his brows furrow in thought. “What we see on our end is just her spell being cast so we thought she’s trying to help you. Do you know that the personality switch spell that Seulji cast is having an interesting effect on Yuri and Jessica?”

“It is?” Hyoyeon is astounded and partly hopeful.

“We’d always thought that there was no counter spell to reverse a body switch. It was also not stated in the book. But the wise fairies have detected some interesting reactions between the two spells and are looking into it.”

“Do you mean…”

Hyoyeon’s father smiled. “Yes. Seulji may have just helped you without realizing it.”

Hyoyeon’s grin was award-winning right then.

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The next day, I sneak out of the house as early as possible (which isn’t as early as I had planned, thanks to my reluctance to get out of bed) to go back to mine, where Sica is. She lets me in and we smile and greet each other rather awkwardly and I can’t help but feel sad about it. It feels like we’ve been thrown on a pendulum and swung to and fro from body switches to personality switches. And while we did make progress in understanding each other better recently, it feels like we’ve taken one step forward and three steps back with this new switch.

Nevertheless, I make us toast for breakfast and we sit and eat together, feeling like we’re the only two people left in our little world. This technically has been the case ever since we first switched bodies but it was made better when we told our friends about it.

And a lot of help they are indeed. While Yoona and Seohyun are at the training facility covering my lifeguard duties, Sica is furiously typing away on the keyboard. She has to write her weekly column with Tiffany and it is due today. She has been communicating through emails and phone calls with Tiffany and as I’m sitting and watching her work, I can’t help but wonder why she doesn’t want to tell Tiffany about our switch.

Ah. But with her personality, she wouldn’t want the complication. She doesn’t like to talk that much because she tends to mess things up when explaining.

And that’s when it hits me. Gosh. I can totally understand her now! Does it mean that we’ll be able to get our bodies back soon?

“Sica, do you feel a special connection with me after Seulji switched our personalities?”

Sica stops typing and smiles at me. “You feel it too?”

“Yes! It’s kinda strange but warm, isn’t it?”

Sica smiles and nods.

“I hope that means we can switch back real soon.”

“Do you think so?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. But I really hope so.”

Sica smiles and says, “I hope so too,” before resuming her work.

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We head to the beach after Sica is done with her work. She’s an efficient writer, I think. It didn’t take her long to finish the article and she even managed to throw in an idea for the following week for Tiffany to ponder over. She’s amazing.

Yoona and Seohyun are glad to see us. Between the two of them, they’ve had to do one and a half shifts and are dog-tired. We settle down and I’m telling Sica about the finer points of spotting a swimmer in distress when Seulji appears and struts before us.

“Hi, Yuri and Jessica,” said Seulji in a sing-song voice, looking at the both of us. “What a lovely evening it is, isn’t it?”

“It was lovely until you came along,” I snap and Sica looks at me amusedly. Do I remind her of herself?

“Touché, touché.” Seulji smirks and I have to suppress the urge to slap her obnoxious expression.

Sica lays her hand over mine and squeezes it lightly, roving her eyes over mine before turning to Seulji and saying, “We’re on duty right now, Seulji. You shouldn’t be chatting with us if it isn’t anything important.”

“Yuri, Yuri…why are you so cold to me? You were so nice to me the last time.”

“I don’t know what came over me but I’m sure you had something to do with it,” retorts Sica and Seulji throws her head back and laughs.

“Very soon you’ll be mine, Yuri.”

“I’m not Yuri.”

“Oh yes you are,” Seulji grins smugly and I’m this close to giving her a good kick in the shins. “I’m looking at Yuri’s hot body and seeing Yuri’s personality. You are Yuri. And very soon, I’ll make you mine. All mine.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, as a surge of panic overthrows my attempt to remain quiet.

Seulji winks conspiratorially and is most frustrating when she shakes her head. “You’ll find out soon enough. I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise!” And with that, she roars with laughter and struts away, leaving us to simmer in bubbling anger.

Sica turns to me and apology is written all over her face.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“You know.”

“Me? What do I know?”

“You saw us.”

Sica’s face is reddening by the second and I’m wondering why.

“What did I see?”

“Us. In the bar. Or club. Whatever it was.”

Then it hit me. Seulji’s arms all over Sica. Sica giggling with Seulji. It was a frightening thought especially after having heard Seulji’s threats. But I’m sure it wasn’t her fault.

“That wasn’t you. I’m sure you were under her influence in some way.”

“But still. We’d only just gotten closer and I like the way we were that night. I like our kiss. And it feels like I’ve gone and ruined it.”

I pat her back comfortingly and hugged her. “I understand how you’re feeling right now and I feel the same way. It feels like we’re taking one step forward and three steps back, isn’t it?”

Sica nods, her chin digging into my shoulder and I rub her back when I hear her sniffing.

“Sica, we’re gonna get out of this. And the first thing I’m gonna do is take you out on a fantastic date and kiss the heck out of you.”

Sica giggles, nods some more and her sniffs cease. “I’ll be looking forward to that, Yuri.”

“Me too,” I say and hug her as tightly as I can.

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We finish what’s left of our shift without any mishap happening, which is a blessing considering the state we’re in, and we’re in Sica’s car, heading back to my place when we hear Taeng DJ on the radio.

“Tonight is the night of love, my dear friends. DJ Sunny and I will be playing songs from you dedicated to your loved ones and I’ll be starting it off with a personal dedication to the sweetest, prettiest, kindest, loveliest and iest person I know. Fany Fany cupcake, this song is for you, baby!”

Our car jerks violently as Sica slams her foot on what must be the wrong pedal and the car screeches to a sudden stop, eliciting a number of angry honks from vehicles behind us.

“Sica!” I look at her in shock and she grins sheepishly.

“Sorry. It’s just…” Sica shudders suddenly, “…what Taeng DJ said was just too sickening for me to take,” she says as she resumes driving, ignoring all the furious glares that drivers are shooting at us as they pass us by.

I grin. “Not one for mushy, romantic lines?”

Sica shudders again and shakes her head.

“Me neither. Looks like we’re perfect for each other.”

And I catch a tiny curl of Sica’s lips just as I turn away.

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Tiffany squeals and palms her face as Taeng DJ romances her on air and Sooyoung loses no time in teasing her.

“Fany Fany cupcakes…aww your girlfriend is such a sweetie pie.”

Tiffany raises her head and shakes her head. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Yet.”

“We’re only dating.”

“For now.”

“Sooyoung!”

Sooyoung laughs and pats Tiffany’s shoulder. “You’re a lucky girl, Fany Fany cupcake.”

“Argh. Stop calling me that.”

“Oh…I’m sorry. Only Taeng DJ can call you that.”

“No! It’s not like that!”

“I never figured you to be such a shy girl.”

“Try embarrassed.”

“But do you like it?”

Tiffany blushes.

“You like it, don’t you?”

Tiffany nods and Sooyoung smiles knowingly. “You’ll be girlfriends in no time, baby.”

“Argh!”

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