‘This is actually frightening,’ Sunny says to break the silence, rubbing her arms to smoothen them from goosebumps.

Seohyun shakes her head to break free from shock.

‘Unnie, what about Yuri-unnie’s things?’

‘I—well,’ Sunny takes a peek at the kitchen and spots Yuri’s coat hanging behind the kitchen door, ‘maybe they’ll come back?‘

‘Were they fighting, unnie?’ Seohyun innocently asks.

‘I’m not sure,’ Sunny honestly answers, ‘but who knows right? Maybe they’ll be back, made up and holding hands and—‘

The entrance door bursts open and Yuri stomps through, dragging Yoona by the hand.

Seohyun and Sunny fall silent once again.

‘Excuse me, unnie, Seohyun. I’ll be hiding her here in the meantime,’ Yuri says as she passes by the two other café personnel.

Seohyun and Sunny remain silent, until the older girl decides to break it with another assumption.

‘What if—‘

Seohyun immediately grabs Sunny and covers with one hand, ‘—enough, unnie! Please!’

.

.

.

Yuri seated Yoona on one of the café’s spare plastic stools stacked in the kitchen.

She then paces around with her hands on her waist, considering her possible options.

‘I’m sorry, but—‘ Yuri stops right in front of Yoona, ‘—I’m not really sure how this is supposed to work.’

Yoona straightens her posture and folds her arms, meeting Yuri’s gaze with an unyielding one.

‘Right,’ Yuri places a hand on her temple, ‘that’s very helpful.’

For two minutes that felt like an eternity to Yuri, they remained like that, until Yoona decided to break it initially with a scoff.

‘You’re doing nothing?’ the celebrity asks, tone as demanding as ever.

Yoona raises a brow.

‘Nothing at all?’ she tries again.

Yuri looks up as if waiting for a miracle to fall from the heavens.

‘Okay,’ Yoona stands up from the stool and meets Yuri at eye-level, ‘nothing—‘

Yuri gulps at their slowly decreasing proximity.

‘—at all?’ Yoona leans in, making the older girl step back.

And with barely an inch separating the two of them, Yoona stops completely, only looking into the other girl’s eyes as if looking for a button that she can push.

Nothing.

Yuri does nothing; she remains wide-eyed and anxious in front of Yoona even with just an inch space.

Yoona deeply breathes in and steps back. She then slowly exhales and looks away in what she felt like a tiny hint of shame.

This was indeed strange for one like Im Yoona, so strange that she could even hear an odd ringing in her head.

‘Um—‘ Yuri raises a finger like a shy kid at kindergarten.

‘What?’ Yoona hisses.

‘I think your phone’s ringing,’ Yuri bends her finger toward Yoona’s jacket pocket.

Yoona clicks her tongue and fishes the device out of her pocket.

‘Yes?’

Yuri could here a raging female voice on the other end of the line, but Yoona looked unfazed so she wasn’t sure whether the celebrity was in trouble or not.

And then, like the situation she was in wasn’t a combination of confusing and surprising enough, Yoona smirks and cuts the conversation.

‘Where do you live?’

Yuri only stared at Yoona, expecting the other girl to change her question like she got it wrong the first time.

‘Excuse me?’ Yuri asked.

‘I said,’ Yoona runs a hand through her hair in obvious annoyance, ‘where do you live?’

‘Um, why?’ Yuri asks, smiling nervously, ‘am I getting a package?’

Yoona chuckles.

How Kwon Yuri could only wish she was getting a package.

.

.

.

‘Are you sure about this?’ Sooyoung asks  worriedly.

‘Not really,’ Jessica puts her phone back inside her purse.

‘Wow,’ the taller girl says in mock admiration, ‘you are such a genius.’

‘I’m not betting on my genius with this,’ Jessica answers nonetheless.

‘Is this luck we’re counting on?’

‘Yep,’ Jessica answers almost immediately.

‘You aren’t exactly the luckiest person in all of Korea,’ Sooyoung points out as she secures the lock on the car door to her left. ‘Your last lucky streak was when you found Yoona, convinced Yoona to audition and got Yoona the part – that’s it.’

‘Since it involves Yoona then maybe this time luck will come around again,’ Jessica defends, ‘besides, this isn’t for me; I’m trying to make it up to that kid.’

Sooyoung eyes her companion, sensing how her voice was barely audible somewhere at the last sentence.

‘You still think you destroyed her life, huh?’

Jessica looks at Sooyoung, allowing the other girl to break through her cold façade, letting her see through her eyes.

Nearly caught off guard by the conflict in Jessica’s eyes, Sooyoung offers her smile, ‘I believe that Yuri is a good person.’

Jessica could only nod.

.

.

.

‘Don’t you have enough money to pay for a hotel?’ Yuri asks, genuinely confused, ‘or maybe hail a cab to get you home?’

‘I have a house,’ Yoona answers, strangely without a hint of sarcasm though, ‘but it’s not a home.’

‘But you see—‘ Yuri wanted to argue into getting Yoona to stay at a hotel suite instead of their tiny apartment, but the sharp pain that gathered at her toes cut her off, letting her elicit a sharp yelp.

Sunny wasn’t sorry she had to hurt Yuri with her small but heavy feet, all she was hearing was the opportunity that Yuri was going to waste.

‘—what Yuri is trying to say here is you are most welcome to stay in our apartment!’ Sunny chimes in.

‘Where did you come from?’ Yuri asked bitterly, ‘last time I checked you were at the counter with Seobaby.’

‘Seobaby?’ Yoona asks, voice suddenly stern and arms signaturely folded again.

‘Yes, the tall kid outside is our baby!’ Sunny answers for Yuri.

‘Our baby?’ Yoona’s questioning voice only got a pitch higher, alarming Yuri.

‘What she’s trying to say is that Seohyun is our youngest flatmate—‘ Yuri says a slowly as she could, intending to get every word clearly into Yoona’s unpredictable head, ‘—she is no one’s biological baby. She is just our flat’s baby.’

Yuri throws a glare at Sunny, intending to let her understand that she was making false implications –  one that the older girl only realized a second or two later.

‘Ah!’ Sunny begins nodding her head, ‘yes, yes. She isn’t my baby, not Yuri’s either, but our baby.’

‘I don’t think that helped,’ Yuri whispered to Sunny who she tugs closer to her.

‘Why is she possessive anyway? And you told us you weren’t in a relationship!’ Sunny hisses back.

‘We aren’t!’

‘Well, seems to me like she’s—‘

Yoona clears , reminding the two girls that she was in the kitchen with them.

‘Ah—‘ Sunny clears and smiles brightly at Yoona, ‘Yoona-sshi, for your utmost comfort, you can sleep in Yuri’s room.’

Yuri who had only managed a smile suddenly turns wide-eyed at Sunny as the idea dawned on her.

‘M—my room?’

.

.

.

‘You know, unnie,’ Yuri said as she scratched the back of her head, brows furrowed tightly, ‘I don’t know if you’re insensitive but we are not exactly good and we might have been in some rage kind-of tension.’

‘Oh-ho-ho,’ Sunny chimes sarcastically as she pops out of her and Seohyun’s room with two pillows in amrs, ‘trust me, if there’s any sort of tension between you two, I don’t think it’s anywhere near rage.’

Yuri looks at her unnie disapprovingly.

‘What?’ Sunny asks, making it seem like she was innocent.

Getting no change of response from Yuri, she just shrugs the impending issue off and puts the pillows in Yuri’s grasp.

‘I still don’t get why she has to stay here,’ Yuri says under her breath as she knocks on the door. She even rolls her eyes at having to knock on her own bedroom’s door. ‘Can I come in?’

She doesn’t get an answer.

Seeing that the door was slightly left ajar, she pushes it with a free hand and peeks in just to be sure.

She spots Yoona, who already took her place in her bed, sleeping like they hadn’t just arrived twenty minutes ago.

She seemed tired.

Yuri sighs, places the pillows on the floor, intending to make that her new bedspace. She then pulls a fresh blanket out of the cabinet and carefully throws it over Yoona.

‘Night then, your highness,’ she says as she settles herself on the floor.

Unbeknownst to Yuri, Yoona’s eyes slowly opens, not aiming to see anything in particular. She stares blankly at the sight before her – the girl lying on the floor in her stead.

She wished she could think of the good Yuri had in her or a dozen more things that could bother her.

But the only thing in her mind was her Jessica-unnie’s words over the phone a while ago.

She knew this wasn’t freedom, or if it was, it wasn’t the kind that she wanted because she knew it wouldn’t last.