I got up from Jessie and walked over to her bed to take a seat. It was time to get serious and come up with a plan.

“Jessie, why are you just sitting there? Come here!” I told her.

“Uhm… okay…”

She got up and started walking over.

“What are you doing? Bring the chair…” I instructed her.

“Huh? Why? Wait, what are we doing?” she asked, confused.

“What do you think we’re doing? We need to come up with a plan… It’s better if we were both seated, it might take awhile.”

“Oh…! That… right… okay…” she rambled as she dragged her chair over, placed it right in front of me and sat down.

“Come on, Jessie! Get it together… your job is to come up with brilliant plans, no? Help me here!”

“Yes, dear… but we’re not a dating service so I don’t come up with plans to get people together.”

“But you know Tiffany unni well… so you got to know what pushes her buttons…”

“I guess… but Tiff is usually pretty calm. Even when she’s jealous she’s reserved. I don’t know how that’s even possible.”

I chuckled. “Not everyone’s hotheaded like you…”

“Don’t pretend you don’t like it when I’m jealous.”

She was right; I couldn’t deny that I loved everything about her including her annoying jealousy and overconfidence.

“Don’t get overconfident now… Don’t think I won’t dump your skinny !”

“You can try all you want but I won’t let you!”

“There you go again… overconfident. Just you wait…”

Contrary to what I said, I rested my feet on hers and started tapping on them affectionately.

I think we both knew that we were inextricable.

“You know… I’ve only seen Tiff so shaken up this once. There’s no way it’s just simple jealousy… Maybe we just need to exploit that…” she said.

“That’s my girl…! So we’re going to give her something to be jealous about?” I gave her an evil smile.

“Ugh! I hate that you’ve got me completely brainwashed, you evil girl! But I guess I can’t do anything about it now…”

I gave her an evil laugh. “That’s right… just surrender to the dark side! Anyway… how are we going to make her jealous?”

“Uhm… I hate to say it but we’ve got to convince her that you and Taeyeon are really an item…”

“What?! I can’t do that! Taeyeon unni is like a sister to me…”

“And I’m NOT your sister?!” she asked incredulously.

“You got me there… That just sounded so messed up…” I smacked myself on the head. “Anyway, you know what I mean… It’ll be weird and Taeyeon unni will be suspicious.”

“Hey, I don’t like it either! You think I want you cuddling up to Taeyeon?! NO! But this is your scheme… I’m just throwing ideas out there… Anyway, it’s going to be pretty easy on Tiff’s side. She doesn’t know we’re together so I can just pretend that you’re going out with Taeyeon by simply dropping hints, plus she’s already pretty convinced about you two already… So you don’t actually have to do anything.”

“And you say I’m the evil one… Okay, what about Taeyeon unni? She’s definitely the more difficult case…”

“Hey, this is your plan, remember? I can’t come up with everything…”

“Hmmm… let’s see… She said that she’s pretty sure Tiffany unni likes someone else and you said she thought you and Tiffany unni had something going on right?”

“Oh, no… I see where you’re going… NO WAY! Nuh-uh! I’m not doing it!” she protested even before I could tell her what I was thinking.

“But you don’t even know what I was going to suggest…”

“Oh, I know exactly what you were going to suggest… Do the same thing to Taeyeon as we’re doing to Tiff except it’s going to be me. No, no, no! I can’t do that to Tiff… I already broke her heart once. I can’t pretend to like her again and then only for her to find out it was all a ploy. That’s downright despicable!”

“Fine, neither of us has to do any pretending, okay?! We just have to… tell a few fibs… that’s all…”

“But Taeyeon already knows about us. I can’t just suddenly fall in love with Tiff… She won’t buy that I would do that to you.”

“Hmmm… true. Then what are we going to do? There’s no one else in the loop…”

“Can we set her up with someone?” she suggested.

“No, no! We can’t drag anyone else into our sordid plan. We just have to make this work somehow… I’ll just have to lie my off… I’ll convince Taeyeon unni that you decided you can’t do this anymore and when Tiffany unni confessed you decided to accept… She has no reason to doubt me if I told her so.”

“You really think so? Sounds too unreal.”

“That’s exactly why she won’t doubt it… No one would tell such an unbelievable lie.”

“Except for you, you sly little devil.”

“Exactly!”

I really didn’t think we had any other options.

“I can’t believe I’m going along with this crazy plan of yours… How did I get caught up in this mess?”

“Jessie… You won’t ever really do that to me though, right?”

“Do what?”

“Leave me because it got too difficult? You won’t ever do that, will you? Because I would die if you did that!” I exclaimed. My emotions suddenly became overwhelming.

“Stop talking crazy! Why are you suddenly bringing this up?”

“Well… It’s kind of been at the back of my mind really… I mean, what are we going to do once we’re found out? Taeyeon unni said that she thought we were a couple the first time she met us… What if mom and dad found out?!”

This question had been weighing on my mind and heart since we got together. It was the one thing that I couldn’t figure out a solution for.

“I’ve been thinking about that too… I don’t care about other people but I don’t know how to explain it to mom and dad. But I really don’t want us to dwell on that right now. We’ll deal with it when it comes to it but right now I just want to enjoy this… us… If it comes down to it and we really have no choice but to end this, I would rather have had this for one second than never at all,” she admitted.

“But aren’t you afraid that people will gossip about us and ridicule us? We’ll be persecuted! And then, it will lead back to mom and dad. We can’t do that to them, can we?! It would destroy them… us… our family! Are we being too selfish?”

I felt so guilty that my happiness would hurt mom and dad.

“Forget about everyone else for a second, even me. I know it seems like we’re being selfish but we can’t let other people’s opinions dictate our lives… What do YOU want?” she asked earnestly.

I knew very well what I wanted. I’ve never wanted anything else… But me saying it would just make me sound like selfish lowlife.

She got off of her chair, knelt in front of me and held my hands in hers.

“So? What’s it going to be? Sometimes you just can’t have your cake and eat it too… But whatever you choose, I will protect you to the end. If you choose this, I’ll take the blame… I’ll tell everyone that it’s my fault. You won’t have to worry about anything except for being happy. But if you want to end this, I will still protect you like a big sister should…” she proclaimed when I kept quiet.

“You always ask me what I want… but what about YOU?!” I asked in return.

She was always so selfless when it came to me. It was so unfair… I never did anything for her nor have I given her anything… She deserved so much more than me.

“You know what I want… I haven’t changed my mind,” she answered. “So make your choice, Kryssie. Just tell me what you want so we can save ourselves some heartache later on.”

Her words tugged at my heartstrings. There was no end to her self-sacrificing.

“I want YOU, Jessie! I just want you! That’s all I’ve ever wanted… I don’t want or need anything else!” I declared.

She got up and pulled me up with her.

She started pulling me closer so I leaned in. But then she pulled back.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“Are you sure you won’t change your mind? Because if you do, I don’t know if my heart can take it…” she said rather timidly which was surprising considering how sure she was just moments ago.

“I’m sure... No matter what’s to come, I swear I won’t change my mind. You don’t always have to be the strong one, Jessie…”

“But I do… It’s my responsibility as the older one.”

I wrapped my arms around her shoulder, drawing her into an embrace. She naturally rested her head against mine.

“No… you don’t. From now on, I will be stronger. We’ll protect each other, yes?”

I felt her nod.

“How did we end up here again…?” she wondered out loud.

“It seems to be our thing…” I sighed.

“Can we change it? I want our thing to be something happier…” she managed to joke.

I gave a slight chuckle. “Would this be better?” I asked as I drew my head back and pressed my lips against hers.

“Mmmm… I’m not sure… I didn’t really feel it…” she said cheekily.

This time I kissed her harder, open-mouthed, making sure she felt every second of it.

By the time I pulled back, she was already panting.

“How’s that?” I asked rhetorically. There was no way she didn’t feel that.

Honestly for me, it felt like the first kiss every time we kissed. The feeling was just as intense.

“I think you’re losing your touch, Kryssie… But I’ll give you one more chance…” she answered with a smirk.

Me losing my touch?! I think not! Fine… I’ll show you!

I grabbed her by the nape of the neck with one hand as I initiated another round of kiss, and slid the other down her back and rested it on her hip. Then when she wasn’t suspecting it, I slipped my tongue into . I think I actually felt her knees buckle because she slipped for just a second but I had her firmly in my grasp. To steady herself, she wrapped her arms around my neck and then she tip-toed a little to match my height. We both waited until it was absolutely necessary to break for air before we pulled apart.

Once she managed to stabilize her breathing, she leaned in again but I held back.

I gave her one last kiss on the forehead and started walking out the room.

“Where are you going…?” she called out to me. “You want to sleep over tonight?” she asked shyly.

“Hmmm… I think I’ll be in my room…” I answered as I continued to walk out. Then I stopped right at the doorway and turned around. “But you know my door is always open…” I told her before going into my room. I left my door open.

Awhile later, she came over to my room as I was just getting ready for bed.

“I hate you!” she said as she shut the door behind her.

I didn’t bother giving her any sort of reaction. I just simply got into bed.

“Switch off the light, will you?” I said.

She switched off the light and crawled into bed with me.