Chapter 1

Playing Dead Fish

***

 

 

It wasn’t everyday that Jung Jessica would decide to slap a complete stranger who just happened to crawl into bed with her and kiss her senseless. Because really, she was just so much more logical than that and rather study the situation and understand it before completely throwing her palm against an obviously drunk stranger’s face.

 

Huh.

 

Maybe it was the “drunk” factor that made her lose all her senses in less than a span of five seconds and slap the stranger who was pinning her down to the makeshift bed onto the floor. The unknown person reeked of alcohol and had transferred the horrid taste of bitter, cheap wine into the moment they had stumbled through the steel gate of the basement of a never-sleeping club and forced their clumsy lips onto her own unaware ones.

 

Jung Jessica didn’t do alcohol; she absolutely hated it. The taste, the smell, the taunting look of it; it made her want to puke at times, especially when people’s actions were affected by it.

 

But that probably didn’t excuse the fact that Jessica extruded more than a simple slap.

 

Slap!

 

“Urgh!”

 

Slap!

 

“Ouch!”

 

Slap!

 

“What th-?!”

 

Slap!

 

“Stop!”

 

Slap!

 

“Fu-“

 

Five slaps in total; Jessica should be considering to control her shock a bit better. Three years ago, Tiffany, her always happy-go best friend, decided it’ll be okay to throw Jessica a good ole “surprise party” which include plenty of melons and cucumbers on her birthday.

 

Least to say, they never mention the incident; never.

 

Her hand still stung, the tingling pricking that ran up and down her palm was irritating yet also a bit painful while her arm was still in mid air. Jessica couldn’t really put anything in words as she stared at the dark eyes that were still in a drunken trance. She watched as the orbs slowly widened and became clearer. Her small hand trembled in front of the unfamiliar face that she just hit and the cheek it had impacted was flushing, a red hand mark forming on the other’s tanned face.

 

“Oh. My. God.”

 

Jessica gasped at herself.

 

The tanned woman looked at Jessica with a confused gaze, bringing up a hand to touch her swollen cheek. She winced in pain and tentatively touched the red patch of skin.

 

“Am I…bleeding?”

 

The woman asked quietly, a husky tone laced underneath all of the hesitant in her voice.

 

Jessica furrowed her brows.

 

“No…?”

 

She had just beat boxed the woman to the point her own personal hand print was tattooed onto the side of the woman’s face and yet all the stranger could say was whether she was bleeding? One would think the victim would go ballistic by now. Could a slap even cause someone to bleed?

 

Jessica watched in confusion as the tanned woman chuckled happily and sprawl her long body on the floor. The woman still held her hand against her beaten cheek.

 

“Thhat’sss guud. Af I’m nut bleeding thaan I’m stell alivee!”

 

Jessica wrinkled her nose in disgust.

 

Of course.

 

The stranger was still drunk and it caused her eye to twitch as she glared at the giddy drunkard.

 

“That’s it!” Jessica exclaimed exasperated, throwing her hands up, “Get out.” She pointed towards the steel gate of the basement.

 

The woman on the floor, her black hair wildly placed all around her head, laughed and shook her head. She looked at Jessica with slanted, amused eyes and waved a finger at the dark haired girl.

 

“Ahhhh nooo. I’mm amn now im your cuur ‘till Hyorengi cums and piks meh uup! Caaall huur!” The raven hair woman slurred her words, making it hard to put in understanding. The woman was just too out of it at the moment.

 

Jessica growled in frustration.

 

There was no way she could talk in civil with a totally wasted person. Jessica would know. That’s why when Tiffany goes out drinking and come back, Jessica would keep the distance between them large just to be safe that they won’t bump into each other and get into a mess of English curse words and a glare war. There was nothing worse than getting into an argument with a stupid, loud, red head that didn’t know how to shut up sometimes…or most the time. The only other person that one shouldn’t get into a argument with was her little cousin, an uptight little, adorable, yet sometimes awkward, punk.

 

The younger girl would comeback with the scariest things and shut you up in a instant.

 

Jessica sighed heavily, running her hand through her soaking hair that was now officially drenched in sweat. She glanced at the woman who grinned dorkily back at her and frowned in return.

 

There must be a way to get this person out of here so she could have some actual sleep for once.

 

But how?

 

The woman was way taller than her and sure looked a lot heavier than Jessica could carry from her bed to the far outside of her basement. And she was already tired so the carrying option wasn’t even on the pending list.

 

Jessica looked around and found her phone by her worn pillow. She reached for it and looked at the time which read in bright numbers, 1:03 am. She bit her lip and went to her contacts, scrolling down the short list. She reached a familiar name.

 

Maybe calling Tiffany would help her ease the situation? No. Tiffany’s phone probably wouldn't even be heard with all the bass from the club above and there was no way in hell Jessica was stepping into that dirt hole to ask for help. Plus, what could Tiffany do anyway? She was about as helpless as Jessica. The only thing different was that Tiffany could socialize without scaring the other off.

 

A slight movement from beside her box bed caused her to move her attention from her phone to the woman on the floor and Jessica rolled her eyes at the now closed eye face, that stupid grin still plastered happily on her face. Jessica placed her phone down and got off the bed, standing in front of the body.

 

She resisted the urge to kick the girl and roll her all the way out of the room, and instead kneeled down to talk properly to the girl.

 

“Aish, I hope you know how much of a trouble maker you are stranger…” Jessica mumbled under her breath, lightly pushing the woman until she was on her back. She tilted her head in curiousity when she completely saw the woman’s face.

 

The stranger was pretty, blessed with tanned skin and a nice pair of lips (that too bad were hated by Jessica because they were tainted by alcohol), and had a slender jaw line that guided its way towards the latter’s long neck. Jessica hummed in approval.

 

It was such a shame to let such a potential face be stupefied by easy temptation.

 

A faint hand print was still present on the left side of the woman’s face and truthfully, Jessica did feel a little bad for slapping the woman thoughtlessly. She traced the outline softly; lips tight as she pressed her palm slightly on the wound, hoping her cold hand would soothe the throbbing she felt still emitting from the tanned skin.

 

The woman stirred, but didn’t say anything and Jessica wondered why; the stranger was just blabbering words a few minutes ago. She shook the woman.

 

“Yah…wake up.”

 

Silence.

 

“Yah. Wake up, right now.”

 

Still nothing.

 

“Right now! N.O.W.!”

 

Jessica yelled; the careful hand she was just using wacked against the unmoving woman’s shoulder in an attempt to get the woman up.

 

It didn’t have an effect and still, the figure was frozen.

 

It took Jessica a few moments until she finally realized what had happen.

 

“You fainted on me?!”

 

***

 

It would be an entire understatement to say that the red-haired woman in front of Taeyeon was crazy; she was wild, a total freak that had way to many drinks tonight.

 

“Put yo’ hands up!”

 

Taeyeon chuckled at the sight of an awkwardly partying red head, who was pleasantly surrounded by most of the clubbers who enjoyed her bright presence. Their bodies moved against each other from the limited area and the bass that blasted from the large speakers beside her DJ-ing station bounced from wall to wall. She momentarily paused in her staring and turned the knob for her volume slightly up, grinning when she heard the familiar yell of a drunken red head.

 

“Whoo! DJ, put it back on!”

 

Taeyeon laughed loudly, her funny laughter covered by the loud music.

 

This woman was so entertaining.

 

She had never even met the bright woman, but from the looks of it, she was a good load of fun to be around. Taeyeon didn’t want to be called a stalker, but she had been studying the red head for the past few days. The way the latter would bounce into the club, a ball of energy, and from the start order a drink before making her way to the middle of the dance floor caught Taeyeon’s attention.

 

She was always ready to party; there was no denying the obvious fact.

 

Taeyeon gripped on side of her headphones against her ear and turned her mic on.

 

“Alright guys! We had the bass, we had the volume, we had the right type of music, but I haven’t seen any dance challenges! Do we have anyone up for a little dance off?” She said excitedly through her mic, grinning when the crowd cheered and immediately pointed towards a fist pumping red head.

 

Taeyeon’s grin widened when the woman gave a thumb’s up at her. Taeyeon was almost tempted to jump of her platform above the stage and meet up with the girl. She wanted to get to know her. She’s never been so interested in someone in her life and never less, swayed by a complete animal who liked danced the night away.

 

Taeyeon pointed back to the woman.

 

“We have one challenger! Anyone else have the guts to face off in a little fun battle?”

 

Another round of cheers was voiced and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blonde move to the middle of the dance floor, already lightly dancing towards the beat. Taeyeon chuckled when she realized who had walked up.

 

Kim Hyoyeon; the dancing queen, one of her close friends.

 

She glanced back at the jumping red head and shook her head amusingly when the latter poked out her tongue at Hyoyeon, who just shrugged and grinned.

 

“There we have it! Kim Hyoyeon and miss?” Taeyeon questioned, hoping the catch the red haired woman’s name.

 

“Hwang Tiffany!”

 

Taeyeon’s heart skipped a beat when the woman eye-smiled up at her from where she was.

 

Tiffany.

 

Tiffany.

 

Tiffany.

 

Tiffany.

 

Oh Taeyeon liked the name too. It sounded foreign and when Taeyeon look another careful glance at the red head, she found that the name entirely suited the latter.

 

Feeling the blood pump through her veins and the sweat drip from her brow, Taeyeon quickly put both head phones on and her fingers nimbly pressed all the right buttons and turned the right knobs to get the right type of music on.

 

She couldn’t really hear anything, just the faint cheering of the crowd from below and the exhilarating music explode in her ears. She nodded with the beat and slide up a knob on the sound bar, her lips in anticipation until she heard the right type of cheers from the crowd.

 

The louder and crazier the cheers, the closer Taeyeon was to the perfect dance music.

 

She turned a knob to the right while her other hand pressed a blinking button.

 

The cheers weren’t loud enough.

 

Narrowing her eyes, she spin the disk board around once and pressed another button that caused a huge boom to emit from the speakers.

 

Loud, but not Taeyeon’s type of loud.

 

Sweat trailed down her jaw and she bit her lip in concentration, liking the current beat.

 

Louder and louder.

 

“DJ! Put it back on!”

 

Her ears picked up on the red head's heavenly voice through all of the electronics and the pulsing bass and it caused her heart raced. Taeyeon’s senses were lost and her fingers accidentally slipped on a bar.

 

But the cheers didn’t falter.

 

They became ecstatic.

 

Taeyeon smiled and pumped her fist in the air.

 

She looked out into the circle of people and watched as Tiffany had the time of her life while Hyoyeon easily popped and locked her muscles to the beat. Taeyeon already knew who had won; it was obvious that Hyoyeon was the dancing queen, but as she watched Tiffany jump and twist around, open in laughter, Taeyeon wondered if the dance battle was even necessary.

 

Reaching up for her headphones, she pulled them off her head and placed them down onto her DJ-ing board. Taeyeon ran a hand through her matted, auburn strands, brushing them out of her eyes, before turning around. She walked towards the tiny stair case that lead her from the platform towards the dance floor below and she took a deep breath to calm her racing nerves.

 

She wordlessly pushed through the crowd, ignoring the friendly pats on the back, and thoughtlessly made her way towards an unaware red head.

 

Suddenly, a large body of people obstructed her view and when she was finally able to get them out of the way, the red head was gone. Taeyeon furrowed her brows in confusion.

 

“Wha-“

 

Someone tapped on her shoulder.

 

“Hey.”

 

***

 

“Hey.”

 

Jessica poked the unconscious stranger in the cheek that didn’t get hit by her fierce slap.

 

“Wake up.”

 

Jessica sighed.

 

“Please?”

 

Jessica frowned.

 

“I hate you.”

 

Jessica stared at the unmoving body, still so very tempted to roll the body out of her room and leave her by the trash cans outside the club. If a cop asked her anything, she could always lie and say she had no idea how such a person got from the club entrance to the back of the club.

 

Jessica heaved another sigh, gripping her phone tight in her hands. She didn't want to resort in the last option, but the unwelcomed guest gave her no choice. She unlocked her phone and pressed in the numbers, waiting as the other line rang.

 

After the third ring, a click was heard.

 

"Unnie?"

 

Jessica smiled weakly at her younger cousin's voice, the calmness the girl carried relaxing her shoulder just a bit. The girl always had a way with words and it calmed Jessica to know that she could trust the younger one.

 

"Hey Juhyun-ah."

 

"Sica-unnie, is there something wrong? It's awfully late to be calling..."

 

Ah, Seohyun was always to the point; there wasn't going to be any dilly dawdling.

 

Jessica bit her lip and poked the motionless body beside her again.

 

"Well, I guess you could say that," Jessica started, fearing what the younger girl may accuse of her, "Let's just say there's a stranger in my bed and they fainted and now I need help getting rid of them." She rushed her words, determined to get the situation through before her minutes were wasted.

 

"Unnie..." Seohyun's tone was disapproving.

 

"It's not what it sounds like I swear," Jessica reassured, "Just meet me by the night club. You know, the one Tiffany always drops by."

 

"Huh? Why the club? I thought you just said you were in bed?"

 

"I'll explain when you get here," The exhausted girl sighed, "It's a long story." Jessica shot another glare at the tanned stranger. “Aish…”

 

"Um...alright then unnie. I'll be there in a few minutes. Luckily I'm already close by the club..."

 

Jessica's head snapped up.

 

"Huh? You're near the club? When? How? Where exactly are you Juhyun?"

 

There was an unsettling silence before the latter replied again and if Jessica wasn't so tired already, she could've picked up on the faint, familiar beat of a bass.

 

"I'm already at the club unnie."

 

Jessica shot up to her feet, her phone pressed up against her ear just in case she didn't hear right.

 

"What?!"

 

"I'll explain later Sica-unnie. It's a long story."

 

---

I got the next chapter up a bit earlier than planned so it may include a few grammar mistakes here and there. Please go ahead and tell me if there are and I'm hoping you guys caught some interest with the first chapter? Thank you for all the subs and it'll be awesome to see what you guys thought of the chapter. Thanks alot again and I'll see you later~