Chapter 18: Lesson Learnt   Jessica opened her eyes in a painfully slow manner when Sooyoung had stopped the kiss. It was then that her mind had started working. She just kissed Sooyoung.   With wide eyes, she quickly got off and backed away from Sooyoung who was also standing up.   “Jessica,” she called out softly and took a step forward.   “D–don’t.” Jessica said out shakily as she took another step back.   Sooyoung grew worried but she stopped nonetheless. “Why?” She tried taking another step but Jessica had a hand placed forward, telling her not to go any further. “Look, if it’s about the kiss, then I’m sorry, alright?” She ruffled her hair in frustration. She expected at least a slap if Jessica had rejected her, but not this. Not her avoiding her. “Do you have to avoid me? Can I not get close to you anymore?” Sooyoung asked, she was hurting inside.   “S–stop.”   “Let me speak first? Please?” She was panicking by now.   Jessica shook her head, “this is wrong.” She said out softly but Sooyoung still caught what she said.   She quickly went forward to Jessica before she could even react. She placed both of her hands beside Jessica’s head so that she couldn’t escape. “This isn’t wrong. Love isn’t wrong.” She whispered.   Jessica didn’t want to look at Sooyoung so she turned her head away. “You’re a vampire...”   “So? What’s wrong with that?” She raised her voice.   Jessica closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “You’re a vampire.”   “Are you... afraid of me? Are you afraid that I might hurt you because I’m a vampire?” Sooyoung felt her arms starting to get heavy. It dropped down and she looked at the ground. “I will never hurt you. I love you too much to ever hurt you.”   Jessica gasped softly at what Sooyoung said, but she still couldn’t bear to look into those hurtful eyes.   “Jessica, I may have loved others before. But, you’re the first that made me smile without any reason.” She smiled albeit a little sadly.   At those words, Jessica then couldn’t help but to look at Sooyoung. Those eyes. So warming and so... hurtful. It looked so hurtful too her right now and she felt like beating herself up because she’s the cause of it.     “I... I love you, Sica, and I...” She gathered her courage and grasped both of Jessica’s hand in hers. She looked her deeply in her eyes. “I want you... to be my girlfriend. Will you?”   She waited for an answer but all the waiting was making her anxious. Nothing, no answer came from Jessica and her hopes were vanishing slowly but firmly. So, in the end, she reluctantly let go of her hands. Those hands that she thought she wouldn’t have another chance to hold onto.     She forced out a smile and tears were threatening to spill out of her eyes so she turned around so that Jessica wouldn’t see it. “It’s okay. I understand. We can still he friends, right? I’ll see you around.” She said everything out in a rush and was in a hurry to get out of the room.   As soon as her hand had touched the doorknob, a pair of arms came around her waist and embraced her as she stayed frozen on the spot. “I haven’t answered you yet, why are you in a hurry to go?”   Jessica said out shyly. She breathed in before saying, “y–yes...”   Thinking that she might have heard wrongly, her hand slowly left the doorknob. “P–pardon?”   “I said yes, silly.” Jessica let go of Sooyoung and used both of her hands to cover her face in embarrassment and mostly to hide her red face.   “You’re answering my question from earlier, right?” Sooyoung asked.   Jessica deadpanned behind her hands before she brought down her hands to show a dark face. “Why are you so dense?”   “You haven’t answered me yet!” Sooyoung started to whine and stomp her feet around like a kid.   “You’re not supposed to be the whiny one in this relationship.”   She stopped and looked at Jessica with a grin that kept on becoming bigger. “Relationship?”   Jessica blushed. “Y–yeah, you asked me, didn’t you?”   “So you’re agreeing with me?”   “I’m not gonna repeat what I said because I’ve already answe–”   Sooyoung suddenly leant down and plant a kiss onto Jessica’s lips. “Thank you.” She smiled before enveloping her in a hug. “Girlfriend.”   Jessica smiled as she snuggled into Sooyoung.   ---   “Meet me in the kitchen after you’re done.”   Those were the words that TaeYeon had said to Tiffany when she went to her bedroom door still half awake. She walked out the room and was out to climb down the stairs when she heard some chattering behind her. She turned her head and saw Jessica and Sooyoung laughing while talking.   “Hey,” she called out and watched as the two got surprised. At first, she had thought that she saw the both of them holding hands but decided to shake away those thoughts by thinking that she might have seen wrongly.   “H–hey, Fany.” Sooyoung smiled awkwardly before she pointed at the kitchen. “I’ll be there first,” and then she went away in a hurry.   Tiffany raised her eyebrow, “what’s wrong with her?”   “Nothing. It’s just that she disturbed my sleep so she’s probably trying to escape from me.”   “Escape?” Tiffany repeated sceptically. “But you guys were laughing...” She couldn’t have heard wrongly. Even though there was a possibility of her seeing things wrongly, but there wasn’t any possibility of her hearing wrongly. She swore that she had heard that familiar high pitched laughter from Jessica.   A smirk started to grow on her face as she looked at Jessica. “You’re hiding something from me, Jess.”   “Pshh, h–hiding?” Jessica laughed it off. “You’re overthinking.” It’s not that she didn’t want to tell the truth to her best friend but it’s just that she finds the timing to be not right and besides that, they had only started their relationship not very long ago.     “I’m not. I swear that I heard your laughter.”   “You must have heard wrongly. Maybe you didn’t sleep well last night, or you didn’t have enough sleep, or...” Jessica trailed off. “Spea