Jessica and Donghae have been spending the day at Jessica’s place just watching mindless Asian shows that contained plenty of female slap fights, completely expected serendipitous storylines and of course unnecessary amounts of crying. Every now and then, Jessica or Donghae would point to the screen and laugh at the actors and actresses, noticing some of the bad editing that the producers forgot to fix.

“Seiously, how do people watch these?” Donghae chimed in, carefully slurping in a heaping amount of ramyun from his chopsticks.

“I know. These stories are just so ridiculously absurd. I don’t actually believe any of this happens in real life.”

“Well, I don’t know if we have a right to judge these shows though,” Donghae said, putting down his bowl onto the coffee table.

“Oh? Why so?” Jessica asked as she took a sip from her mug.

“Well, I mean, you are talking to a ghost right now. We practically live in a drama.”

“Ugh,” Jessica groaned. “But still, these shows are so…I can’t even explain.”

“Yeah I know what you mean. But you have to admit, they are so addicting.”

“I know,” Jessica replied enthusiastically, bobbing her head up and down. “They’re so ludicrous and unrealistic but I can’t turn my eyes away from the screen, ever. That’s why they make so much money.” The pair looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Suddenly, the sound of a knock on the door resonated through the apartment.

“Who could that be?”

“Want me to go check?” Donghae asked, about to lift himself up from the floor.

“Oh no you don’t!” Jessica commanded, pushing him back down.

“What?” he said, giving her a confused look.

“I’ll go get it. You stay here,” she said as she pointed at him with a condescending look. Donghae jokingly snarled at her while she glared in response.

Jessica walked up to the door and looked through the peep-hole. Through the small lens she saw a pretty, young girl wearing a sundress with a grey sweater on top. She had wavy black hair that flowed past her shoulders and she stood there with her arms behind her back, looking around, and waiting for someone to answer the door.

“Sujungie?” Jessica whispered to herself. She opened the door and the girl looked at her with a huge smile on her face.

“Unni!” the girl exclaimed, hugging Jessica with her arms tightly gripping around her neck.

Jessica, surprised, patted her on the back. “Sujung-ah? What are you doing here?!”

She pulled herself back with her hands still on Jessica’s shoulders.

“To visit! Since you have off, eomeoni and abeoji said I could come visit you,” she explained, her smile beaming.

“All by yourself?”

“I may be your little sister, but I can take care of myself too,” she said, crossing her arms and pouting.

Jessica shook her head and laughed, “Oh Krystal.”

“Can I come in? Are you having company?” Krystal asked as she tried to look around over Jessica's shoulder.

“Um no,” she stuttered. “Come in.”

Jessica bit her lip as she watched her little sister walk into the apartment. She quietly followed after, making sure Donghae was nowhere in sight. Fortunately, he wasn't around.

“Unni, I thought you said you weren't having any company,” Krystal said.

“What do you mean?” Jessica's voice shook. She looked around but didn't see her friendly apparition anywhere.

“Then why are they two bowls of ramyun on the living room table?”

Jessica followed Krystal's extended arm, pointing to the two visible bowls of soup on the table. One was almost empty, while the other was still completely full.

“I was really hungry...” Jessica lied.

“So you made two bowls?” Krystal's eyes were full of suspicion.

“Y-yeah! I was so hungry that I made two bowls right away. But after eating the first bowl I was completely full. Stupid, huh?” Jessica giggled, trying to sound convincing. But Krystal still had a confused look on her face.

“Umm alright..”

“Here, why don't you just make yourself comfortable while I clean this up?” she asked, guiding her to the nearby couch. Jessica picked up the bowls and scurried to the kitchen. She placed the two bowls in the sink and wiped her forehead, relieved.

“Who's she?” Donghae chimed in, leaning against the counter next to Jessica.

“Didn't we talk about this?!” she exclaimed, clutching her chest.

“She looks like you,” he commented.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” Jessica chided, soaking the bowls with water and soap.

“Come on, who is she?” he asked again. Jessica let out a sigh and turned toward him.

“She's my little sister, Krystal She lives in Daejeon with our parents.”

“I want to meet her,” he said, his eyes shining.

“No way. Are you crazy? She can't even see you. You're a ghost, remember?”

“Hmm we'll see,” he chided.

“Ya! Lee Donghae!” she yelled, but he vanished into thin air.

“Unni?” she heard Krystal's voice from the living room.

“C-coming!” Jessica said, rushing out of the kitchen. She sat next to her dongsaeng on the couch who was giving her a funny look.

“Who were you talking to?”

“Oh uhhh no one. I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“Unni, are you okay? You seem a little bit...frazzled,” Krystal tried to say without sounding too harsh.

“I'm fine, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. How are you doing? How's school?”

Jessica listened intently as Krystal went on and on about school. She auditioned for the varsity dance team and became one of the co-captains. She also made the cheerleading squad and has been having a difficult time keeping up with her grades – but she's working really hard. Jessica was really happy about everything her sister was doing. She always misses being at home, spending time with her sister. They used to go out all the time together or just stay at home, watching movies and having girl-time. They were each other's best friends.

Every now and then, Jessica would look over Krystal's shoulder or peek around to make sure Donghae wasn't nearby, trying to listen in on their conversation. Luckily, he wasn't interrupting them, and it seemed like he wouldn't be making a grand entrance anytime soon.

“Unni...unni?” Jessica looked back to Krystal.

“Miahn..what did you say?”

“I asked how you were.”

“Oh umm I'm okay, I guess,” she answered, simply, shrugging her shoulders.

--

At the entrance of the hallway, Donghae leaned against the wall, watching the pair of sisters conversing . He couldn't get over how similar they looked.

“Just okay?” Krystal asked Jessica.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Siwon's been gone for a while.”

Donghae noticed Jessica begin to tense up at the sound of Siwon's name. Her eyes turned away from Krystal and she began to bite her bottom lip.

“Yeah,” she said, her voice hushed.

“I remember how difficult it was when he left. I was just wondering how you're doing now.”

Jessica heaved a sigh. “It's been...hard. But...I'm still okay.”

Donghae's eyes were intent on Jessica's somewhat discontented expression.

“It's kind of hard to really explain how I feel. When he left I cried almost every night. But after a while, I just kept thinking about him coming back and realized that it would be worth the wait. So I guess I'm just...I'm just okay.”

“Do you still think about him everyday?”

“Of course I do. Every moment.”

Donghae seemed to feel a little disheartened.

“I miss him all the time. But I try not to be sad when I think of him. It's funny that you're asking me this. Even though I think about him, I don't really think about how I'm feeling when he's gone. I honestly just remembered that he should be home in about a month. Isn't that crazy?”

Donghae let out a sigh and was about to turn around.

“But even though he's been gone. I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping myself distracted.”

Donghae turned around.

“Distracted?” Krystal asked, her head cocking to the side.

“I'm not forgetting about Siwon. But I'm at least forgetting the sad feelings. I've really been doing okay. I've been spending time with some friends and I even met some new ones.”

Donghae clutched onto the wall, leaning in a little bit toward the two.

“I met this one really cool guy, he introduced me to a lot of new people. He's really great. It's just nice to be surrounded by good people when you feel lonely, you know?” Jessica was smiling.

“That's good. I'm glad that you haven't been suffering,” Krystal said, placing her hand on her unni's.

“Me too.”

Donghae smiled.