(Jessica’s POV)

I snuck away for a moment.

Oh God, how am I going to explain this to Kryssie? She’s going to be so mad! But more importantly, this plan needs revising…

Ugh! Tiff, you’re killing me right now…

This is what happens when your boss is your friend… I’m pretty sure this can be brought up as some kind of HR issue… possibly some kind of harassment…

Sigh…!

“Kryssie! Plan is compromised! Abort for now. Talk to you tonight… <3” I texted her.

I got a reply almost immediately. “???!!! XXXXXXXXXX <3”

I giggled at her text. She was just so cute! I suddenly felt a real need to see her…

(Later that day, at the Jungs’…)

I was already home and had gone through the conversation in my head a dozen times by the time Kryssie got home. I really hoped she would understand considering she was the one who was all gung-ho about helping Tiff and Taeyeon.

The moment she walked through the door, she just tossed her stuff on the floor and walked over to me. She wrapped her arms around my shoulder and gave me a peck on the cheek before heading to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water.

“So what happened?” she asked as she walked back to the living room where I was sitting.

She sat herself down next to me but she rested her legs over my lap so that she could sit facing me.

“We have a HUGE problem! Well actually it might be a good thing but the plan definitely has changed… a little…” I told her.

“Okay… how so?”

“We need to break up…”

“WHAT?!” she shouted as she jumped up from the couch and stood facing me with her hands clenched into fists and I could actually hear her knuckles cracking.

“NO! That’s not what I meant!” I immediately retracted my previous statement.

“It better not! Explain yourself Jung Sooyeon!” She crossed her arms and started tapping her foot impatiently.

“I meant PRETEND to break up…” I said as I got up from the couch too and threw my arms around her. “Don’t be angry, Kryssie! I meant to say pretend! There’s no way I’ll ever let you go!” I begged with every last ounce of aegyo in me.

“Hmmm… Why?!” she huffed, obviously still furious I even suggested it.

“But weren’t we going to convince Taeyeon of that anyway…?”

“Stop beating around the bush, Jessie… What did you do?!”

“Uhm… I kind of let slip to Tiff that Taeyeon has feelings for her…” I closed my eyes and braced myself.

“WHAT?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” she barked.

“I-I didn’t mean to… she was telling me she was going to give up because apparently Taeyeon was giving her all the wrong signs or something last night and I got confused and panicked and it just… it just came out…” I tried explaining.

“Ohmigod, Jessie! Ugh! What else did you say?!”

“That Taeyeon’s liked her since they first met…”

“WHAT?!”

“And that she’s in denial and has convinced herself she’s over Tiff when she’s not really…”

“WHAT?!”

“And that she’s using you to get over Tiff…”

“WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! Jessie! Are you out of your mind?! You somehow managed to reveal all the important information and made this whole thing more complicated with your crazy lies!”

“I know… I don’t even know why I said all those things… They just sort of came out before I could think…”

She pulled my arms off of her and started pacing around the room.

“Hey but on the bright side, it made Tiff totally determined to get Taeyeon to go back to her…” I added.

“And how does us breaking up fit into all this?”

“Well she wants me to pretend to be her girlfriend so that she can make Taeyeon jealous in hopes of snapping her out of her denial… So…”

“Oh, no! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No way! I’m not letting you be her girlfriend!”

“But it’s just pretend… it was part of the plan anyway…”

“NO… I said we just had to tell a few fibs to move things along… NO PRETENDING, remember?!”

I gave her a guilty look.

“I’m sorry, Kryssie… Please… It’s just pretend… just for a bit… for their sake… You were the one who wanted to get them together…”

“I guess we don’t really have a choice here…” she said passive aggressively.

“So… you know you’re going to have to pretend to be going out with Taeyeon too right? Or at least seek comfort in her arms…?”

She started huffing again, so much so that I thought she would literally breathe fire. This was the scariest I had ever seen Kryssie. She was definitely not my cute little baby sister…

“Oh, so NOW you want me to throw myself at Taeyeon unni?!” she asked but it wasn’t really a question.

“NO! I didn’t say that!”

“Too late! Whatever happens from now isn’t my responsibility…” she started walking off towards her room. She didn’t even bother going for her stuff she threw on the floor.

“No, Kryssie, no!” I threw myself onto her from behind to stop her in her tracks. I was basically throwing myself at her mercy. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I’ll tell Tiff I can’t do it! Please, Kryssie… Just tell me what you want me to do…”

She turned around so that she was facing me and she gritted her teeth.

“Let’s break up!” she said with a look so serious my body froze.

“No, Kryssie… please! I beg you! Don’t do this!”

“It hurts doesn’t it?”

“So bad I could die!”

“Next time remember this feeling before you mention anything about breaking up!”

“W-What are you saying, Kryssie?”

“We’ll go with the new plan. Pretend break up. JeTi and KrysTae…”

The pain in my heart dissipated but tears began rolling from my eyes.

“I-I thought…” The tears wouldn’t stop.

She pulled me into her arms and rested my head on her shoulder. She started my hair.

“Babo…! Next time think before you do something crazy like this… And don’t ever talk of breaking up ever again… even pretend… I won’t forgive you again!”

“I won’t, Kryssie. I won’t,” I sobbed.

“Good! Because you belong with me… forever!”

I just nodded my head.

Then she kissed me with the intensity that made my tears fall even harder and I kissed her back like there was no tomorrow, because if we were ever really to break up, there wouldn’t be a tomorrow for me…