Chapter One

For a Moment in Time

Sooyoung was on a roll. Level twenty-nine was giving her a hard time though. It was a little too complex than what she was usually bored with that it reminded her of her boss—

—who strolled right into dreamland after crashing out of her stress over their stubborn talent.

‘Curse these candies,’ Sooyoung muttered under her breath.

And just then, the door swings widely open and their jewel walks right in without much of a greeting or acknowledgement to either Sooyoung, who momentarily looks up from the digital pad, or Jessica, who continued to lie sleeping on the couch.

Sooyoung raises her brow in surprise.

‘Well, well, well,’ Sooyoung began as she returned her attention to level twenty-nine, ‘welcome back, jewel.’

‘I don’t like pet names,’ Yoona answered tastelessly as she settles for the chair placed in front of Sooyoung’s desk.

‘Why don’t you ask your manager where she got that then?’

Yoona just rolled her eyes.

‘Mind telling us where you decided to disappear to?’

‘Nowhere.’

The absence of any form of tone in Yoona’s voice finally made Sooyoung look up at her for more than a second and actually put the pad down.

‘If this isn’t PMS then I’m listening.’

Yoona looks up at Sooyoung, eyes stern and calculating, as if reading through the older girl’s intentions.

The actress, sensing no actual cynicism in Sooyoung’s eyes, clears , leans back on the chair and crosses her arms.

‘I got ignored.’

Sooyoung’s brows shot up.

‘This isn’t me we’re talking about, right?’

Yoona’s back remained on the chair’s rest, yet her eyes immediately darted back toward Sooyoung with evident spite.

‘No.’

‘Wow,’ Sooyoung said as she shakes her head, ‘that’s a whole new species of bitterness right there. And now I’m actually interested. Ignored how?’

‘Some commoner downtown.’

Sooyoung smirks the first time this day.

‘Commoner? I haven’t heard that since the Wicked Witch in Snow White,’ Sooyoung pauses and momentarily bites her lip to hold in her laughter.

Yoona notices the other girl’s struggle and she finds herself sitting upright.

Sooyoung lightly waves her hand to dismiss the actress’s annoyance and finally lets her amusement out with a chuckle.

‘Now, now, your highness, what is this about?’

‘No one ignores Im Yoona!’ Yoona exclaims as she slammed a palm on the desk, effectively shaking Jessica out of her sleep.

Jessica would’ve roared at whoever who disturbed her sleep, but seeing that it was Yoona—well, err—the roaring still happened.

She sits up ever so slowly and narrows her eyes at Yoona.

‘WHERE IN HEAVEN’S NAME WERE YOU!’

Yoona just blinked at her, expression unchanged.

A vain somewhere in Jessica’s head did not as much twitch, but probably quaked.

‘GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!’

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Yuri narrows her eyes at the lecture flashed on the white screen in front of the class, struggling to make out the blurring letters and converging lines and curves.

She sighs, but nonetheless leans forward and scribbles down what she can.

‘I can always lend you notes, you know,’ says Choi Minho, that one boy who always seemed to find his way beside her at school.

‘I prefer my notes,’ Yuri answers flatly.

‘I can lend you my phone,’ he offers. ‘You can take a picture of the lecture instead.’

‘I prefer my notes.’

‘Um—I think I said, take a picture. That’d be easier for you and—‘

‘—I. Prefer. My. Notes,’ Yuri cuts him off without even looking at him.

Minho scratched the back of his head and wrote on his notebook begrudgingly instead.

‘Keep treating him like that and I swear one day he’ll think you play for the other team,’ Tiffany whispers, leaning towards Yuri.

‘Let him think what he wants, he never learned,’ Yuri said, rolling her eyes. ‘He’s always known about my priorities.’

‘Nah-uh, I don’t think so,’ Tiffany responded while scribbling on her own notebook as well. ‘You don’t even give him a variety of sentences every day. What makes you think he knows that?’

‘Fany, not now please.’

Tiffany lets out a sigh that bordered between frustration and amusement.

‘It’s just that you’re so serious. We just want you to have fun.’

It was Yuri’s turn to sigh.

‘I can’t have fun when I barely pay for my own education.’

‘Just saying,’ Tiffany says with a slight shrug of her shoulders. ‘It won’t hurt to laugh and be carefree, even just for a day.’

Yuri doesn’t answer. From where Tiffany looked at her, she simply looked like she was too engrossed with note-taking.

Tiffany decided to give up convincing the younger girl, just like she did the days before.

‘Maybe one day,’ Yuri says without looking elsewhere but her notes.

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‘You’re not planning on killing her, are you?’ Sooyoung asked, leaning her upper body slightly towards the person who sat beside her.

Jessica responded with louder sipping sounds, drinking her Frappuccino like she wouldn’t mind letting Yoona crash in exhaustion.

‘This isn’t a form of revenge,’ Sooyoung began, gauging Jessica’s current level of seriousness, ‘right?’

The superstar’s manager and her manager’s most trusted assistant sat at least fifteen feet away from that part of the studio where Yoona was being battered with dance training by Jessica’s recommended choreographer, Hyoyeon.

‘Of all people to pick to train her for that opening number – Hyoyeon,’ Sooyoung went on, ‘that woman kills people with her trainings!’

And there was yet another loud sip from her Frappuccino.

Sooyoung sighs, and just when she was about to give up, Jessica speaks up.

‘This isn’t my idea.’

‘Oh really,’ Sooyoung says, unconvinced.

‘It’s Yoona’s.’

‘That a joke?’

‘No.’

‘Riiiight.’

‘Yes.’

‘May I know why?’

Jessica shrugs her shoulders, ‘she was saying something about not wanting anyone to ignore her.’

Sooyoung’s eyebrow quirked, ‘she thinks she’s not noticed enough?’

‘Honestly,’ Jessica began, ‘I think it’s about wanting someone to not ignore her.’

‘You mean, to notice her?’

‘You can put it that way, but it’s not that way.’

Sooyoung sat back into her chair and pulled out her digital pad.

‘Ugh, let me just be with my candies.’

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Night has taken over the city but Yuri decided to slip back into her café uniform and apron and get back to work, surprising her Sunny-unnie, who was taking an order from a customer.

‘Hey, hey, hey, hey—’ Sunny called for Yuri who walked quickly into the kitchen, ‘—where do you think you’re going?’

‘Um,’ Yuri paused, looking genuinely confused, ‘—the kitchen? Or is there some portal in here that can take me places?’

‘Nope, not amusing. I thought you’re supposed to be home by now.’

‘I don’t have anything to do for school tonight so I’ll just work the time off.’

‘—or maybe sleep the night off?’ Sunny scrunched her nose, ‘that helps too, Yuri-ah.’

Yuri doesn’t respond to Sunny’s statement, instead, she beckons for Sunny to pay attention to the customer waiting across the barista counter.

‘Oh! I’m sorry, sir! What was that again?’

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Yoona was beat, and being the shikshin that she secretly was, she tells Sooyoung and Jessica that she wanted a Frappuccino just like the one with a straw her manager was chewing on.

Knowing Yoona, the two girls knew it wasn’t a suggestion; it was an iron-clad command.

‘So, where’d you get that?’ Sooyoung asks Jessica.

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‘Good evening, Jessica-sshi,’ Sunny bows at the familiar customer who had two other girls standing a few feet behind her.

The café was a few minutes away from closing but Sunny would always make an exception to their ever-so-busy loyal customer, Jessica Jung.

‘What would you be having today?’

‘Oh, one sec,’ Jessica politely bows at Sunny before turning her attention to Yoona who was clad in a dark hoodie and aviators to conceal her identity. ‘Hey, brat, which Frappuccino?’

Yoona shrugs, ‘any will do.’

Jessica then looks at Sooyoung, ‘I just want a sandwich, Turkey.’

‘Get the brat a Mocha Frap, and Sooyoung a Turkey sandwich.’

‘Mocha and a sandwich it is,’ Sunny, after taking care of the payment, proceeds to the order window and relays the request, making Yuri appear into Yoona’s view.

Yoona immediately tenses up.

‘—wait,’ she says loud enough for Sunny, Jessica and Sooyoung to hear.

Sunny comes closer to the counter once more and smiles expectantly at Yoona, ‘yes? Some add-ons to your Frappuccino?’

Jessica and Sooyoung watched as Yoona pass them both by.

The actress doesn’t speak, but she removes her aviators from her eyes, making Sunny’s eyes bulge and Yuri’s brows quirk at the familiar face.

‘I—Im Yoona?’

Jessica’s hand, almost out of reflex, goes to her temple.

‘What’s her name?’ Yoona asks Sunny.

‘H—Her? Who—her?’ Sunny absentmindedly blurted out, still in shock with the superstar’s presence.

Yoona simply tilts her head toward Yuri’s direction, making the tanner girl furrow her brow in confusion.

‘Yuri?’ Sunny asks.

Yoona smiles deviously at the discovery of the girl’s name, ‘Yuri, huh? Come out here.’

Yuri was even more confused. She sensed the familiarity but couldn’t quite point it out.

‘I’m sorry, I don’t believe I know you, ma’am. There must be a misunderstanding.’

Jessica’s hand dropped from her temple, Sooyoung smiles knowingly, Sunny looks at Yuri with disbelief and Yoona clenches her hand so tightly her knuckles crackled.

‘Excuse me?’ Yoona practically hissed.