Chapter Four:

Letting Her Fly (Part 1)

Jessica Jung hated being inside this overly decorated, musk-scented office, which explained the constant tapping of her fore finger under the table that was immediately calmed by the person closest to her.

Sooyoung reaches for Jessica’s uneasy hand and wraps her long fingers protectively around it. She then glances over at Jessica with a stern expression that was a mixture of two things – “enough” and “I’m here”.

Jessica gulps down the uneasiness down and returns her attention to the older male signing papers and muttering things under his breath.

A minute later he slams his pen on the desk and pushes the paperwork off the center of his desk.

‘So,’ he began as he finally looks up at Jessica, ‘have you thought about my offer?’

‘You see—‘ Jessica began, finding it difficult to suppress her extreme natural annoyance for the man before her, ‘—Yoona has been over-the-top busy lately and we really haven’t talked about it officially.’

‘Haven’t talked about it officially,’ the old man repeated, brows raised.

Jessica’s hand stiffened, alarming Sooyoung who still had her own wrapped around the other girl’s.

‘You aren’t convinced by the benefits.’

It wasn’t a question and it irked Jessica.

‘Last time we checked, the benefits are stacked on—‘ Jessica’s voice was calm, but Sooyoung knew her all too well to know that she was greatly annoyed.

‘—both sides,’ Sooyoung interrupted Jessica. ‘But we haven’t clearly seen that much benefits on our side as compared to Mr. Ok’s.’

‘Ah, Taecyeon is a very career-oriented person,’ the old man assures them, ‘he won’t let the personal delve into the job inscription. But if he does, I don’t see what the problem is.’

‘Well—‘ Jessica wanted to reason out, for she never liked Ok Taecyeon.

‘—word has gone around, Ms. Jung,’ the old man picks up a pencil from his pen holder and starts twirling it in his hands, letting the slightest of anxiety bubble up Jessica’s stomach, ‘that Yoona has been taking a liking to a commoner somewhere downtown.’

Jessica’s hands clenched, squeezing Sooyoung’s intertwined ones in them.

Sooyoung doesn’t flinch; she squeezes Jessica’s hands in return, reassuring her that she had no intention of letting her fight alone.

‘—and, worse, a female,’ the old man clears his throat. ‘Dear daughter, you know how this business is. We can’t let that happen.’

Jessica keeps an expressionless face.

‘But then again, show business has its own ups,’ Mr. Jung continues, ‘nothing is final until the people involved actually say something, no?’

Jessica only nods.

‘So, it’s settled then?’ her old man asks with a smile that he gives just about every business partner and not his own daughter, ‘by tomorrow morning, the world will know that Im Yoona is in a relationship with Ok Taecyeon.’

.

.

.

‘Consider-it-as-damage-control, my ,’ Sooyoung mumbles under her breath as soon as they got out of Mr. Jung’s office, ‘what is even damaged in the first place?’

Jessica scoffs.

‘As far as I know, Yoona is better now,’ Sooyoung adds, ‘that Yuri saved her somehow.’

Jessica could only sigh. She pulls Sooyoung with her as she starts pacing out through the hall that leads to the lift.

‘Crazy old man. No offense.’

‘None taken,’ Jessica almost immediately answers. ‘We’ll have to tell Yoona, but I could care less what she does afterwards.’

‘What if she pulls another running-away act?’

‘Then we let her fly,’ Jessica answers simply.

Something Sooyoung wordlessly agrees to.

.

.

.

Officially, it’s been almost three weeks with the whole coffee routine.

Yoona was told by Sooyoung that she had to lay off the coffee unless the idea was to get herself killed with heart failure during an energetic live performance.

But if no one bought her coffee and she had no choice but to have zero contact with the one she had just recently added to her daily routine, then all had to be reminded that she was Im Yoona and Im Yoona does what she want to do.

She slips out of the studio, aiming to skip the entire day’s schedule, just to complete the objective. Then, she waits for the six to seven o’ clock evening rush to die down before walking into the café.

.

.

.

‘It’s such a pity the issue died down so quickly,’ Sunny says with an exaggerated sigh as she eyed the relatively unhealthy profit for the day.

‘Yeah,’ Seohyun agreed as she cleaned up behind Sunny. ‘We took so much advantage of that Yoona issue. I wonder if company is stopping her or something.’

‘Why would they do that?’

‘I don’t know,’ Seohyun shrugs her shoulders, ‘maybe they found out that Yoona-sshi likes girls.’

Sunny chuckles.

‘What?’ Seohyun stops cleaning and stands beside Sunny, eyeing her unnie, ‘you don’t believe me?’

‘I didn’t say I didn’t,’ Sunny defended, raising her hands in mock defeat, ‘It’s just a little hard to believe.’

‘She likes Yuri-unnie,’ Seohyun insisted.

‘Somewhat, I agree,’ Sunny says with a thoughtful nod, ‘if only Yoona-sshi were here to enlighten us all, and maybe, you know, suddenly step inside the café, ask for Yuri and then run away into the night with her.’

‘Excuse me,’ came the voice of a customer, ‘one espresso please.’

Sunny kept talking about fairy tales and how they barely happen to Yuri, but Seohyun fell completely silent, even poking Sunny on her side. Sunny, though, doesn’t budge, she just kept talking.

Seohyun’s pokes got stronger, irking Sunny this time. The only moment the shorter girl looks up and figures out that it was Yoona that was in front of them was when she takes the credit card and spots the registered name.

Sunny freezes and her eyes darted from the screen to Yoona, whose lips spread into a familiar smile. She opens her lips to say something but Yoona’s finger beckoning her to stay quiet silences her effectively.

‘Is she here?’ Yoona asks in a hushed tone.

Sunny and Seohyun nod, dumbfounded.

A shy smile replaces Yoona’s confident smirk, ‘where?’

The two girls behind the counter stutter for words, but they end up pointing towards the kitchen.

Yoona bows at the two of them and heads to the kitchen, leaving Sunny and Seohyun gaping.

.

.

.

‘Aren’t there any orders coming?’ Yuri asks.

Not getting any answer from her two companions, she decided to take a peek, but was stopped by the presence of a hooded figure that slipped into the kitchen.

Yuri immediately grabs the nearest spatula and aims it defensively at the stranger.

‘Who are you?’ she exclaims. ‘There’s nothing to rob here!’

The figure sighs in an impatient manner and unceremoniously pulls her hood off her head, revealing her identity.

‘This is exactly what I was worried about,’ Yoona thought out loud as she removed her sunglasses as well, ‘I don’t show up for just a week or two and you already forgot about me.’

Yuri wasn’t sure how to react. She narrows her eyes, trying to process the situation and ends up going for rational.

‘Am I obliged to remember you?’ Yuri asks, genuinely in wonder.

Yoona looks at her like she was the most unbelievable prick on earth.

‘You are unbelievable!’ Yoona huffs and storms out of the kitchen.

Yuri’s eyes narrowed even further in her confusion.

‘What did I do?’ she thought out loud as she decides to trail after the suddenly frustrated celebrity.

.

.

.

‘Well, unnie, to give you credit,’ Seohyun began, still at the brink of snapping out of her daze, ‘you got almost all of it right: her coming, asking for Yuri-unnie—‘

‘Except for the running away together part—‘ Sunny wanted to continue for Seohyun, but was interrupted by Yoona storming towards the entrance with Yuri hot on her tail.

The two counter personnel immediately fell silent and paused to look at each other.

‘Close enough,’ Sunny continues.

Seohyun nods in agreement.

.

.

.

Yoona angrily pulls down her hood to cover the rest of her face as she stomped her way through the pavement.

Yuri catches up. She tugs on the celebrity’s hand and turns her around.

‘I’m sorry,’ Yuri apologizes in between breaths, ‘I didn’t know I was doing you wrong, Yoona-sshi.’

‘Oh, so now you remember? You could’ve just done that earlier,’ Yoona says with an eyeroll.

‘Now, I remember so are we done here?’ Yuri asks as politely as she could

Yoona’s jaw opened in a gape, ‘I don’t understand any of this!’

She angrily points at Yuri, shaking in frustration as she can’t find the right words to say, ‘You—you!’

‘Excuse me, Yoona-sshi, but I think I’m the one really lost here.’

Yoona breaks her tentativeness with a groan and was about to walk away, when Yuri grabs her hand one last time.

‘You can’t go—‘ Yuri eyes their surroundings, noticing a couple of people staring, ‘—I think a couple of people have figured out who you are.’

Yoona pulls her hand away from Yuri’s grip, ‘what’s it to you?’

‘I’m just trying to be logical here,’ Yuri insists, anticipating an answer of agreement from the celebrity.

Yoona stays silent, looking defeated, yet she insists on keeping a stern face.

She sticks out her hand to Yuri who looks at it confused.

‘Take me back to the café,’ Yoona ordered.

Yuri cringes at Yoona’s gesture but takes her hand nonetheless.

‘Yes,’ she says with a discreet eyeroll, ‘your highness.’

--------------

Part 2 will follow later! Thanks so much to my readers! :)