Taking her permanent red marker, she eagerly crossed out today's date on the calendar.

I can't believe it, she whispered to herself.

Today was the day Siwon was finally going to be home. It's been a long couple of months but Jessica got through it.

She felt like she had so much to do today that she just couldn't figure out where to start. But since she still had to work today she might as well just try to get through work and hope that time would move as fast as possible.

At work Jessica was impossibly fast. She cleaned tables like lightning and her rushed greetings toward customers came off as a bit too enthusiastic. When she walked behind the bar, immediately tossing the dishes into the dishwasher, she came back out from the kitchen and started shining glasses with Yoona.

Jessica's hands were so fast they were blurring in Yoona's eyes. Yoona just laughed at her unni.

“Unni, unni!” she said, grabbing Jessica's hands, afraid she might drop a glass. “Calm down.”

“Mianhae Yoona sshi,” Jessica said wiping the bead of sweat off her forehead. “I'm just too excited. You know what today is, right?”

“Unni, you've told me a million times. Siwon's coming home today,” she said, taking the glasses from in front of her over-eager unni.

“Siwon's coming home today!” Jessica suddenly exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air.

A few customers sitting at the bar stared. Yoona giggled at her and pulled her arms down to her sides. “YES. I'M FULLY AWARE.”

Jessica realized how silly she was being and scratched the back of her head. “I guess I am a little too hyper-active today.”

Yoona bobbed her head up and down. “You need to relax. You shouldn't wear yourself out. Siwon wouldn't want to come home to an exhausted girlfriend,” she said wagging her finger.

“You're right, you're right.” Jessica took in a deep breath then let it out slowly. Her heart was finally slowing down to a normal pace.

“So what do you two plan on doing this evening?” Yoona said gathering more dishes into a bin.

“Well, once he comes here, I want to have a really nice dinner with him,” Jessica explained as she put some dishes into Yoona's bin.

“Sounds great! Where are you off to?”

“Oh no, I plan on cooking. I want to make all his favorites. Eomandu, geomandu, bibim naengmyeon with gochujang, and some meat. I also want to bake him a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting – it's one of our favorites.”

“Jinjja?” Yoona's eyes widened.

“Why do you look so surprised?” Jessica laughed, grabbing the bin from in front of Yoona to bring into the kitchen.

“That's just so much food! Are you sure you can do it all by yourself?”

“Are you doubting me?” Jessica said placing the dishes into the sink and then placing her hands on her hips.

“Hey, I'm just saying that's a lot of food for one person to make in one night,” Yoona waved her hands.

“No worries Yoong,” she said. “I'm like a full catering service. I already bought all the ingredients and supplies.”

“That's great Sica,” Yoona said. Yoona could see how happy her unni was. She hasn't seen her this happy in a long time.

“Unni, I have a question,” Yoona started.

“Neh?” Jessica said as she carefully scrubbed some dishes.

“A few weeks ago...I think I saw you...getting on a bus to Incheon.”

Jessica's dish washing slowed down and she casually looked over her shoulder at Yoona.

“Oh? What about it?”

“It's nothing. I was just..I was confused at first.”

“Why is that?”

“For a while you were acting so strange. I almost thought that...”

“What did you think?” Jessica asked, pretending her concentration was fixated on her dish washing skills.

“I thought that you were seeing someone else.”

Jessica almost dropped her dish. “Oh...”

“But I know you weren't. That was just me being anxious and worrying about you. Seeing how happy you are today made me realize that you obviously weren't that kind of person and I shouldn't have even let that thought slip into my mind in the first place.”

Jessica turned around to her worried dongsaeng and smiled. Yoona was relieved. Jessica hugged her tightly. “Thank you.”

Yoona smiled with her chin resting on her unni's shoulder.

–

Jja-jjang! Jessica said as she finished frosting the red velvet cake in front of her. It was perfect. It was two layers of round red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting between them and all over them. She placed a few pieces of freshly cut strawberries on top and then she wrote on the off-white frosting surface, in red sugar frosting, Welcome Home!

She left the cake on the counter and went back to the table to make sure everything was perfect. She had so many dishes of food that even she couldn't believe that she had cooked it all.

There was eomandu, geomandu, bibim naengmyeon with gochujang, and some grilled beef with sauteed vegetables. She carefully arranged the dining ware on the table and then lit two candles. It was perfect. It looked like they were about to dine at an actual restaurant.

After cooking everything, Jessica decided to take a warm shower. As relaxing as the warm water was against her tense muscles, she jumped out as soon as she could and did her hair and make up.

She dawned on a lovely white lacy mini-dress with a black velvet belt around her hour-glass waist. Siwon's favorite colors were black and white. No matter how much she tried to convince him that black and white weren't real colors, he never gave in. She then put on a y pair of black patent leather stilettos and began to walk around the apartment to make sure she could actually still walk in them.

Anxious, she didn't know what to do next. All she could do was wait for him. It was about 5 o'clock now and her heart just raced in her chest.

–

“Jessica,” a voice whispered. “Jessica, wake up,” a familiar voice said as someone shook her her shoulder.

“Hmm?” she said, lifting her head from the table, her eyes barely opening.

Her eyes were like small slits, barely allowing light in. She finally realized who she was looking at. It was Donghae.

“D-Donghae?”

“Neh,” he said, gently rubbing her back.

“W-what t-time is it?” she stuttered, looking around.

“It's almost 1:00 in the morning,” he whispered, sitting down next to her with his hand caressing her arm.

Jessica immediately rose up from resting on the table. “1:00? Are you sure?” She got up from her seat and looked at the clock on the microwave. The digital clock read 12:58 AM in bright green – clear as day.

“Oh,” she said, sinking into her seat slowly.

“I'm sorry Jessica,” he said.

“He never came, did he?”

Donghae shook his head.

“Do you think...do you think something bad happened?”

Donghae just shrugged his shoulders. “I'm not sure what happened. But I'm sure he's alright.” Donghae bit his lip. “Come on, you should go to bed.”

Donghae got up from his seat and waited beside her. When she finally rose up from her seat he placed his hand in the small of her back and guided her to her bedroom.

He waited outside of her room until she got dressed into some pajamas and went back into tuck her into the covers.

“But seriously, you think he's okay?” she asked, nervously.

He sat on the side of her and rubbed her hand. “I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he's just late. He also has to travel a bit. You can never be too sure of his arrival. You should go to sleep. You're tired.”

As Donghae got up from the bed, she grabbed onto his wrist. Surprised, he looked at her and her weak grip. “Don't leave,” she pleaded quietly.

“Jessica?”

“At least...not until I fall asleep.”

Donghae looked into her sleepy eyes and let out a sigh. He nodded his head and sat back down.

“You promise?”

Donghae giggled and held out a pinky. She lightly wrapped her pinky around his and then closed her eyes.

She drifted off.

--

[a/n]

Check out my recently released fanfiction The Tragedy of Carmen, starring Jessica, Siwon, Bae SeulGi, and Taecyeon. It also features other korean stars as well. The story is loosely based off the Georgez Bizet opera, Carmen.

Promotional Youtube Video (click)

Link to story on Asianfanfics (click)