Fault in the Machine

Perfect was just one word to describe Jessica Jung, the oldest daughter of the Jung enterprise, most likely to take over once her parents retire, she couldn’t be any less than that.

Flawless is another word, so beautiful you can’t help but stare at her, so intelligent you wonder why she’s still attending school and so cold yet so warm at the same time.

At least, that’s what Amber Liu thought. Unlike Jessica, Amber had worked as hard as ten armies to get where she is today, but it’s still not enough. She was the top of her class, beating Jessica’s score multiple times, Amber was the nicest person on campus, but it still wasn’t good enough.

Not for her, not for her parents, but in Jessica’s eyes Amber was the greatest person on the Earth, Amber was the only one able to beat her own score and not be cocky about it, she was known as the nicest person on campus, she is unique, Amber is the only who could pull off her look.

The two knew each other ever since they could remember; their families would bring them to company gatherings and brag about their child’s achievements and successes. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone before.

Right?

Denial, now that was a word that could be used to describe both girls. Scared of falling, they denied their true feelings and hoped they would go away.

For two of the smartest people on the campus, it was a stupid thing to think. Love was such an obscure thing for them; affection? They knew affection, fondness of someone –yes, but love? No one in their lives had ever shown them pure, innocent love, other than each other.

No one expected it, not even themselves, the glances in the hallway, the faces Amber made at her when the exam results were released, the way they gave each other the food their secret admirers left in their locker. Isn’t that normal for regular students to do?

Too bad they aren’t just normal students, too bad they have to carry the burden of taking on the family company and leading them to even better successes.

Too bad their families found their “faults” and did everything they could to stop their feelings from growing any bigger.

“Jessica, I have great news for you.” The maid droned on and on about meaningless things, which the said girl tuned out, until she heard ‘marriage’.

“Kim, what do you mean marriage? To who? When? Why?” Jessica felt herself getting angry at the girl, even though it wasn’t her fault.

Kim simply smiled “Jessica, your parents arranged it, but it is mostly your fathers doing. You are to wed Donghae Lee, so both businesses can merge as one. It is to be in the summer of next year.”

“Of all the people in the world, why him? The Lee Corporation isn’t even on the top ten rankings, or even the top twenties! There has to be another reason.” Jessica thought of the tomboy.

“Jessica, you have to obey your father’s wishes, he just wants the best for you…”

“That is not the best for me, he has never wanted the best for me, it has always been for the company and you know that!” The tears began to fall. “The best for the company would’ve been the Liu group, they are just behind us by a few thousand, and the Lee’s haven’t even gotten to ten million marks yet!”

“Jessica, I’m sorry.”

Amber sat on the table, sipping her lukewarm coffee, watching the sun rise above the buildings. When the sun was out and fully in the sky her assistant Henry walked in, “Amber, I got some news for you. I think you should sit down for this one…”

“Is that why you were late today? The news you got for me was just so WOW!” Amber laughed at the older boy, but took a seat nonetheless. “So, Henry…what’s up?”

“Miss Liu…your parents, well your father actually, he arranged your marriage with the son of the Zhang Corporation, Yixing Zhang. It’s supposed to be held the summer of next year.”

“What? Why? I thought I was going to take over the company by next summer!” Amber thought of her only rival, her closest and only true friend. “Why the Zhang’s?”

“Amber, it’s your father’s wishes; he just wants the best for you…please just listen to him.”

The tomboy scoffed “No, he doesn’t want the best for me. He never did Henry and you know that, he put me on the street until I could prove myself that I was a Liu, that I would take up the company myself. So what’s the point in doing all of this!?” She slammed her hand on the table and felt the tears fall. “Why me? Why her? Why now?”

"Amber, it'll be okay, I know you can get through this..." Henry rubbed his friend's back.

Neither of them attended school Monday or Tuesday, leaving their rooms only to use the bathroom and search for food. But Wednesday morning, the two girls found themselves finding comfort in each other’s presence, spending the whole day on the roof of the school, resting on each other’s backs and recalling memories.

“Hey Jessica, do you ever wonder what lives we would be living if we weren’t born into our families? Like, if we were just regular students, with normal problems and families unlike our own…”

“All the time, I mean…all my life, I’ve always had to be this perfect little girl, I couldn’t have any problems of my own; I couldn’t be happy, sad, or angry. I was just this machine my parents had, so they didn’t have to pass on the company to someone else…I’ve always been jealous of those girls, they don’t appreciate what they have, I always hear them talking about how they wish that they could be like us, but our lives are just as bad as theirs are and sometimes even worse.”

“I know right? Those girls don’t understand how easy they have it…” Amber smiled “I had to fight for where I am today, I had to start from the very bottom, and my dad wouldn’t even acknowledge me until I was number one in school. It , I wanted to cry and give up so many times. My dad forced me to become his perfect little doll, in a perfectly imperfect world all alone.”

Jessica pinched the younger girl’s side “I’m right here you know!”

“I know, I know and I’m thankful for it, I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.” She let out a small laugh. “I’m thankful to you, for loving the faulty machine.”

“You’re not faulty-” Jessica was cut off by the campus supervisor, who kicked down the door.

“You two! What are you doing up here? Class is in session! I’ll teach you what happens when you ditch!” He tried to grab Jessica, but Amber was too fast for him, she quickly grabbed the older girl and ran down the stairs, through the hallways of the school before stopping at the main entrance.

“Want to take a walk around town?” Amber slung her arm around the girl’s shoulder. “It’ll get your mind off of things.”

“Are you going to treat me to food also? The supervisor stepped on my lunch, and is most likely eating yours.”

“Alright, I don’t see why I can’t, so any place is fine? We can go back to my house and chill, I’ll cook something up for you.” She suggested.

“I’m fine with that too.” They left the campus and walked to Amber’s house, walking in on Henry singing in his underwear with a mop.

“Whoa! Henry, put some clothes on man, we have a guest.” Amber laughed at her assistant, whose face was as red as a tomato.

“I can see that, I’ll just go now!” He bowed to both girls “Good afternoon Miss Jung! Amber!” Henry scurried off towards his room.

“Good choice in assistant, nice too.” Jessica nodded in approval. “Abs, not so much, he’s getting there though.”

Amber shook her head “You’re so nasty Jessica, if I have to take Henry to therapy; I’m going to drag you with me.”

Over the next months, the two girls grew closer and closer and one day, 27 April 2013, Amber asked Jessica to become her girlfriend, almost immediately, Jessica threw her arms around the girl and gave her light kisses.

“Jessica, what should we do?” Amber noticed the tightened grip in her hand.

“I don’t know, what is there to do?” Jessica moved closer to the younger girl. “Is there a way out of our families’ wishes?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll think of a way.” She gave a reassuring smile “I promise.”

And she did, the next weekend Amber scheduled a meeting with both of their parents in her own building. Sitting at the head of the table with her parents on the right side and the Jung’s on the left, one would believe that she was holding an important business meeting instead of asking for her and Jessica’s freedom and happiness.

She cleared “I guess you’re all wondering why I’ve asked you here today?” They all nodded and so she continued “I am asking you a simple question, but its answer isn’t so simple.”

Amber locked eyes with her mother and gave a sorry smile before turning back to the businessmen. “Why?”

Mr. Jung looked annoyed “You call me here to this little headquarters of yours and ask me ‘why?’ I should be asking you that you little punk.”

“What’s with the hostility all of a sudden Mr. Jung? I just asked all four of you a simple question.” Amber stared him down.

This time it was her own father that spoke up “Yi-Yun, don’t treat Mr. Jung like that, it’s rude and distasteful.”

“My attitude is rude and distasteful? Do you want to know what’s rude and distasteful? Someone leaving their child by themselves, forcing them to make their way to the top, with no help, no communication, no anything! Just leaving their child to fend for themselves in this corrupted neighborhood they had to call home.” Amber glared at her father and sat down. “And what about you, Mr. Jung, you’ve hurt Jessica so much that even I’m surprised she doesn’t hate you like I do. Your daughter stands up for you and protects you in so many ways and you can’t even acknowledge her. What kind of pathetic person are you?”

Mr. Liu tried to keep his cool “Amber, stop making things up, just tell me what you want, you didn’t have to drag Mr. and Mrs. Jung into this.”

“Oh, I’m making things up now also? Stop trying to be someone you’re not, stop standing up for people when you know you don’t care about them, you didn’t even care about your own daughter.” Amber spat. “How much do we have to get hurt for your problems hm? How much do we have to suffer and cry for something we are not responsible for? How much longer for you two to open your eyes and for once, just accept and love your family?”

Amber stood up and walked out of the room, leaving the two men in a stupor. She exited the building and was surprised when she met with an equally surprised Jessica. “Jessica, what’re you doing in this part of town, it’s dangerous here.”

“I got lost and ended up wandering around.” She hooked arms with Amber.

“Why didn’t you call or text me? What if something happened?” Amber bombarded Jessica with questions, but the latter simply ignored the younger girl and rested her head on her shoulder.

“If something happened, I know you would come and save me.” Jessica laughed “My llama knight in shining armor.”

A week after Amber’s meeting with their guardians, Jessica took the same course of action and invited them to her own office and once more, both fathers were surprised to see each other again.

“Sooyeon, what’s the meaning of this?” Mr. Jung smiled at his daughter. “Why did you call the four of us here? You know that we’re busy people.”

Jessica flashed a sweet smile, "I just wanted to ask some questions daddy."

"Then ask them already sweetheart." Jessica could tell that her father was already getting annoyed by the overly happy tone of his voice.

"Could you tell me why daddy?" Jessica stared at her father "Why would a parent that supposedly loves their child with their entire heart do something to prevent them from being happy?"

"Sooyeon, where did this come from?" 

"Daddy, I know you know..." Jessica let out a sad sigh "I'm not a little girl anymore...I can tell when you're disappointed and right now, you wish I never met her."

Mr. Jung laughed nervously "Sooyeon, what are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about dad..." She then turned to Amber's parents. "Mr. Liu, it has come to my attention that you left your daughter to fend for herself when she was a young child. You do know that could've led to behavioral or mental problems as she matured? Or how there was a high risk of her dying?"

Mr. Liu fidgeted in his chair and fumbled with his tie "I don't know what you're talking about Jessica; Amber has been under my close supervision her whole life."

"From what I heard from her assistant Henry, it wasn't until she was in 8th grade you decided to take her back in, but she refused due to the fact that she already had her own part-time job and living area. That was a mere 3 or 4 years ago."

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear from those two, they're quite the pranksters."

Jessica glared at him "Yes, I'm well aware of those two, but they are smart enough to not lie to me in important happenings." She then gave the women a sorry smile and turned back to their husbands. "For the top two business men in the world, you would think you would be smarter in raising your legacies."

She pressed a button on her desk and in walked her assistant Sooyoung her heels clacking on the tiled floor "What do you need Jessica?"

"Please make sure my guests find their way out of the office Soo, much appreciated." 

Sooyoung raised an eyebrow at Jessica's behavior before she noticed who her friend’s guests were. Ignoring both Mr. Jung and Liu, she helped the women from their seats and began to walk out of the office, shooting Jessica an exasperated look, rolling her eyes at the men. "Stay close, if you get lost the security guards won't bother searching." Sooyoung said in a serious tone, causing Jessica to snicker at the look the men shared at Sooyoung’s news.

Settled back in her seat, Jessica connected to the video feed from the security cameras and watched Sooyoung her parents and the Liu’s to the lobby of the office and run back to Jessica. Her cool composure in front of the older adults disappeared as she rushed to get back to her friend for the whole story.

Jessica laughed as she saw the interns running away from her assistant in fear of getting rammed while the older employees watched and laughed at the interns like she was doing. 

Sooyoung finally arrived in her office in a record-breaking time of 4 minutes and 2 seconds, considering that Jessica's office was on the tenth floor and all of the elevators were out of service for maintenance.

"JUNG SOOYEON, WHAT NEWS HAVE YOU BEEN WITHHOLDING FROM ME." Sooyoung's makeup was beginning to drip down her face from her sweat.

"Just this and that, no biggie." Jessica smiled innocently "But if you really want to know, you should clean yourself up first. Your makeup is everywhere."

Sooyoung grunted before excusing herself to Jessica's private washroom to redo her makeup, reemerging looking as she was when she first walked into the office in the morning. "Now tell a home girl what's happening!"

"Ew, Soo don't talk like that." Jessica handed her friend a bottle of water. "Now, what 'news' do you think I'm withholding?"

"Obviously the details of your love life, girl! All I know that a few weeks ago a certain Jung and a certain Liu got together!" Sooyoung winked.

"Short story short, we're trying to end all of this Soo, we're not little kids anymore, and it’s about time we take our lives into our own hands."

"Jessica, do you want to hang out with Krystal and everyone else later?" Amber looked up from the text message and pecked the said girl on the cheek. "Taeyeon says it's a must, apparently your sister is bringing a special someone."

At the final statement, Jessica looked up from her book and snatched Amber's phone. "Oh my god...my baby is growing up." 

"I'm taking that as a yes, let's get ready then~" Amber pushed Jessica off her lap and led her to their room. "Want help with your outfit? Or should I start getting mine?"

"I'll just wear something simple, you?" Jessica took out her favorite yellow dress and some heels and began to strip.

"I'm still in the room you know..." Amber gulped and turned away "And I was thinking of just putting on my black and white button up, since I'm already wearing black jeans."

Jessica laughed "How old are you Amber? We're both girls also, stop being such a baby."

The couple arrived at Yoona's cafe and were greeted by a familiar golden retriever and a round of applause. "They're finally here!!"

"Thank you, thank you." Amber bowed "I'm glad to be here!"

"It's been ages since we last heard from you two." Tiffany crossed her arms and pouted "What's up with you two? Sooyoung told us what she knew but ugh, it's not the same!" 

Jessica and Amber laughed as they sat down beside the pouting eye-smile queen, her whining surpassing even the great Jung sisters'.

“You know Tiff; you could’ve just scheduled a ‘meeting’ with either of us.”

The eye-smile queen continued to pout “Well maybe you should’ve scheduled a meeting with all of US for that matter” emphasizing the word ‘us’ in an attempt to get her point across.

“Tiffany’s right you two” Yuri spoke up “Both of you know that we’ll always be here to support you guys and help you through anything, even if that means going against the most powerful business men ever”

“We know that, but…” Amber was cut off by a shrill scream and through the door, Sulli ran in dragging Krystal behind her.

“UNNIE! HYUNG! I HAVE THE BEST NEWS YOU WILL EVER HEAR IN YOUR LIFE RIGHT HERE IN THIS CAFÉ AND YAAAAAAASSSSSSSS!” Sulli screamed at the top of her lungs and would not stop jumping up and down. “TELL THEM SOOJUNGIE!!”

Beside her, Krystal was fixing her hair and clothes that Sulli ruined while she ran in, a small blush was apparent on her cheeks.

The ‘men’ of each relationship grinned at other and laughed, while the ‘wives’ merely looked at each other and shared questioning glances.

Amber was the first to come back to reality and urge the younger girls to continue their great news “Krystal, what’s the matter? You’re a look a little red”

“Maybe she’s got that virus that’s been going around recently” Yoona snickered.

Seohyun looked shocked “There’s a virus? What is it?”

In unison the husbands screamed “THE LOOOVEBUG! SULLI AND KRYSTAL SITTING IN A TREE!
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

The room was silent for a few seconds before Sulli spoke up, “I’m pretty sure we haven’t sat in a tree yet…but we did kiss”

The small comment from their innocent friend was enough for everyone to burst into tears and laughter, but the young Jung would have none of it. Krystal walked over to Amber (who was unfortunately the closest one to the door) and punched her in the .

“All of you are so immature, oh my god.” Krystal’s red face was in a smile as she pulled up seats to the table.

While everyone was laughing at Amber’s amazing luck as always, Yoona and Sooyoung brought out pizza, fried chicken, French fries, chips and soda from the kitchen so the group could have lunch.

In between mouthfuls of pizza Sooyoung began to bring up their last conversation “What were we talking about before that amazing scene with Sulli and Soojung?”

“The infamous Jessica/Amber situation?” Taeyeon offered.

Amber nodded “Yeah, right. Okay…well, as I was saying earlier, the reason we didn’t reach out to you guys was because we were afraid that our fathers might do something to ruin all of your businesses and reputation.”

“You guys don’t have to worry about anything like that!” Hyoyeon crossed her arms “We can ruin our own reputation by ourselves, I mean just look at Taeyeon! At first, everyone thought she was an amazing, innocent singer, but in reality she’s a dorky ert!”

Simultaneously, both Amber and Jessica’s phones rang and a message from their fathers appeared, stating similar information. 

To: Jessica//Amber

You are going to meet Donghae//Yixing at Café Lune tomorrow at 8:00pm//10:00pm.

Dress up.

“Can you believe this?” Amber read her message out loud and sighed “At least we can finally tell them how we feel about all this crap.”

“Do you think they did it on purpose?” Jessica furrowed her eyebrows.

“Did what?”

“Purposely set it up so that I met Donghae two hours before you meet Yixing, it’s even at the same café…”

“I think that’s hella suspicious” Taeyeon murmured “Maybe the rest of us should go undercover and make sure nothing strange happens…”

The rest of the girls voiced their agreement and arranged with the owner of café Lune to allow them to be on the lookout for their friends throughout the night in case anything suspicious happened.

At Amber and Jessica’s apartment, the lovers were getting ready for their “Date Night” when Henry left a voicemail on Amber’s phone.

“Yo Amber, your father told me to inform you that that Yixing guy is going to be at the café at 6 instead of 10 because ‘A lady must not be out so late with a man’, and just be careful okay? Don’t do anything stupid and call me if anything happens. You and Jessica stay safe tonight okay?”

“Are you serious?” Amber stopped putting on her pants halfway to listen to the message “Jess, did you hear?”

“I did, and I just texted the girls right now to tell them what happened.” Jessica slipped on her heels and looked over at her love “Are you still dressing, or is that how you’re going to meet your date?”

It took a few seconds for Amber to understand what Jessica was laughing about before she pulled up her pants and finished dressing. “You ert”

“Says the one that was about to walk onto the balcony with an ed shirt and her pants only halfway up” Jessica laughed and sat on their bed

The clock just turned 5:30 when all the girls arrived in a variety of disguises, ready to eavesdrop on both couples.

“So Taeyeon and Tiffany will be at the table right between Amber and Jessica, Sunny will act as the waitress, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung and I will be a few tables away and Seohyun will be working with the owner as a new employee” Yoona informed the girls and fixed stray parts of her wig. “Also…Sulli and Krystal will be to the right of Taeyeon and Tiffany; everyone ready?”

They broke their huddle and got into positions when a tall man walked in and was lead to Amber’s table. Upon seeing her already seated, he cleared his throat and spoke quietly “You must be Mr. Liu’s daughter Yi-Yun, it’s a pleasure to meet you after all the things your father told me. I’m Yixing, the eldest son of the Zhang Corporation.

Amber smiled and motioned for him to sit “Uh…well, it’s nice to meet you to Yixing, call me Amber. The only one that calls me Yi-Yun is my father…”

He laughed and nodded in understanding “Same here actually, my friends call me Lay. So Amber, it’s nice finally being able to talk with you. I was really nervous about this whole business thing, but you seem like a really chill and intelligent person.”

“Right, about the whole business thing, you know the marriage? I don’t think that’s going to work out…” Amber felt truly sorry for Lay because he seemed like a nice guy “I mean, you seem really cool and all, but I’m currently in a real relationship with someone I love and care deeply for. This whole thing happened just because my dad was being a jerk…”

Instead of being angry, Lay smiled “To tell you the truth, I’m in a relationship as well, my father found out who he was and just wrote me up for an arranged marriage so he wouldn’t have to live with his eldest son being gay…”

“That’s exactly me and my girlfriend’s position right now, except our fathers aren’t exactly sure what our relationship is.”

“You realize you just outed yourself to me?”

“You did the same Mr. Zhang” Amber grinned “but if you’re in a relationship, why are you here?”

“I could be asking you the same thing.” Lay shot back “But in truth, I decided to meet you at least once before I told my father that I am not going through an arranged marriage. I thought that maybe we could become friends.”

“That’s cool with me…so, who’s your boy?”

“Wu Yi-Fan, I think you know him as Kris though…”

Amber spit out her water “Kris, that freaking giant with an insane deep voice and at basketball; that Kris Wu?”

“Well I would describe him as a nice, tall guy with a great voice that should really find a different sport to play with his friends.” Lay grinned “So, have you decided what you wanted to order?”

“I think I’ll just go with a chocolate parfait and water” Amber waved to Sunny to take their order “What have you decided on?”

Lay looked at the menu for a few more seconds before speaking “Can I have the tiramisu and a green tea please, and she’ll have the chocolate parfait and water. Thanks”

For the remainder of the ‘date’ the two talked and got to know each other better and when it became 7:50, they exchanged numbers and went their separate ways, Lay into a cab and Amber through the back entrance of the café. In the workers room, Yuri helped Amber change into more casual clothes so she could sit with Taeyeon and Tiffany to watch Jessica’s date.

“You think Donghae will be as nice as Lay?”

“If only we were that lucky Amber” Yuri looked through her purse and handed Amber fake glasses “Come out to our table when you’re done with your hair also”

“Will do”

Jessica was sitting at their table texting Amber when she heard a small cough beside her.

“Excuse me, I’m Donghae are you Jessica by any chance?” When she nodded, he continued to speak “I’m sorry I’m late, I uh was um stuck in traffic…”

“Yes that’s nice to know and all, but can we just get this date started with?” Jessica gave him her coldest glare.

“Right well, I guess I’ll tell you more about myself” Donghae cleared his throat once more.

The man droned on and on about his life for the whole two hours they had decided on and he would have continued if Jessica hadn’t intervened. “You know, this is just so interesting, but I need to be somewhere that’s not here right now.”

“Two hours sure went by quickly huh?” He smiled “Shows how much fun we had!”

“Totally, making a girl listen to some assbutt who thinks he’s all that just because his daddy bought him all of his trophies. So much fun” With that said, Jessica picked up her things and walked towards the door when someone pulled her arm roughly.

“Is that really the tone you should be taking with your future husband?” He leered at her. “You didn’t even give me a goodbye kiss.”

“Let go of me you creep!”

Donghae moved his face closer to hers and smirked “Make me”

Their lips were about to touch when a flash of blue sprinted towards them and tackled Donghae to the floor, knocking the rude heir out.

“Jessica are you okay?” Amber pulled the older girl into her arms “Was I too late?”

“You were just on time, my llama in shining armor.”

Yuri walked over to Donghae and handcuffed him “I’m going to drop this creep off at the station and tell the boys what happened. Hopefully he’ll be out of everyone’s hair for a while.”

Everyone thanked the owner and gathered in front of the café to decide what to do for the rest of the night.

“Why don’t you guys come over to our place and sleepover?” Amber suggested “We could watch Netflix and order some Chinese”

“And some ice cream and other sweets?” Taeyeon questioned

“Always”

With their plans settled for later, all the girls went their separate ways to get their supplies ready for the night; each of them packing clothes, their chargers and extra pillows.

Later that night, when everyone arrived at their friends’ apartment and were settled in for their movie, Jessica put her phone on speaker and her father began to speak “Princess, Mr. Lee just called me and told me that his son is going to be at the station for two days? What happened during the date?”

“The jerk talked about how he got whatever he wants and when the two hours were up and I was going to leave he tried to force himself onto me, luckily all my friends were there to stop them and Yuri brought him to the station”

“Donghae told us he was tackled by someone”

“Yuri had Wooyoung undercover in case they tried something funny. So that’s the end of that, bye daddy.” Jessica ended the call before Mr. Jung could continue. “Who’s up for some walnut shrimp?”

“You’re so beautiful” Amber smiled at the sleeping beauty beside her and gave her a soft kiss. “How was I able to get someone like you to fall in love with me?”

The kiss woke up the princess “By not kissing me while I’m sleeping you creep”

“You know you liked it”

“I never said I didn’t like it.” Jessica smiled and returned the favor to Amber. “Want pancakes for breakfast?”

“Why? Are you gonna cook?” Amber sat up.

“Sure, my treat for waking me up so nicely” Jessica winked and put on one of Amber’s shirts.

“Let’s get married” 

Jessica turned to face Amber “I thought you wanted to wait until our fathers stopped being butts”

“Yeah, but wouldn’t it be so romantic if we just eloped and stuff?” Amber grinned.

“I guess so…”

“So it that a yes?”

“Try proposing to me first and I’ll give you your answer.”

With that, Amber jumped off the couch and kneeled down in front of Jessica, pulling out a small box from her pockets. “Would you, Jessica Jung marry me and be my forever girl?”

“I thought I was already your forever girl?” Jessica leaned down and kissed Amber on the lips. “Now let’s

go?”

“I thought you would never ask” Amber carried Jessica to their bedroom “I have enough plane tickets for everyone to go to California tonight”

“I thought this wasn’t planned?”

“Pshaw, that’s what you thought. We need to pack for two weeks; I’ll tell everyone the great news also”

---

“Guys, am I wearing this right?” Amber’s black tie was horrid and her hair wasn’t ready yet.

“What the heck Amber, you know how to tie ties, why is this one so messed up?” Yuri sighed. “Or is Jessica the one responsible for the nice way you dress?”

Amber reddened even more “I’m just really nervous okay? I’m getting married to my dream girl and everything is just perfect”

On the other side of the hotel, Jessica was getting ready with her bridesmaids “How do I look girls?”

“A little red in the face, but you know other than that I’d say you look smoking!” Tiffany laughed.

“Oh shut up! I’m nervous” Jessica pouted.

---

Amber walked out to the hallway to show off her finished look “So, how is it?”

“Damn girl you clean up fine” Hyoyeon and Sooyoung high-fived.

“Then let’s head down to the beach?”

“You guys go ahead, I’m going to check in on the wife” Taeyeon walked the down the hall and knocked on room 22.

“Taeyeon, what is it?” Sunny opened the door for their friend. “We’re almost done getting ready.”

“I just wanted to drop by and see how you guys were doing and to tell you that we’re heading down to the beach now. How’s the wife?”

Jessica let out a dolphin scream “The wife is nervous as frick, I’ve never felt this nervous before”

“That’s perfect because Amber is acting like you right now” Taeyeon laughed “But seriously, hurry up. I think our groom is going to pee herself”

---

The private beach was quiet and calm, with the exception of the groom, who was walking in circles beside her ‘best men’.

When Taeyeon entered the beach she was bombarded with questions from Amber “How is she? Does she look amazing? How long until they’re here?”

“Just get into position you dweeb, she’s coming right now and they’re all absolutely stunning”

Music began to play and Amber closed her eyes and took deep breathes, the time is finally here. When she opened her eyes, they fell onto the most important woman in her life, wearing a wedding dress that was to die for. The couple had tears in their eyes when they were finally standing beside each other as wife and wife, no one could tear them apart now.

“Jessica, ‘I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.’” Amber took another deep breathe “Thank you for loving this faulty machine.”

Another kiss.

“How many times do I have to tell you? You’re not faulty; you’re the most amazing person I know. We’re both imperfect, and that’s okay because we live in this perfect, imperfect world full of strange and wonderful things.” Jessica laughed “But if you really want to call yourself that, then I guess we’re just two faulty machines that fell in love and out of sadness.”

End

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AN: It's been a while hasn't it? But I'm glad I was able to finish this and upload it here, thank you all for waiting, it's been insane the past few months, but I'm ok.