(Jessica’s POV)

“Kryssie… I’m bored… Should we go do something?” I whined.

“I guess I could just do my assignment tonight… What did you have in mind?”

“Hmmm… I don’t know… Don’t you just hate it that when you want to do something, you can’t think of anything to do?”

Just then, my phone started to ring.

Oh, it’s Taeyeon…

“Hey, Taeyeon-shi!”

“Jessica-shi… I haven’t heard from you in awhile…”

“Oh, but I hear about you EVERYDAY… from Tiff…” I chuckled.

“Really…? That idiot…! I apologize…”

“I think it’s sweet… That girl’s head over heels for you…”

“Jessie, is that Taeyeon unni?!” Kryssie asked with a glimmer in her eye.

“Taeyeon, I’m putting you on speaker… your little one wants to join in the conversation…”

Taeyeon laughed.

Kryssie on the other hand gave me an annoyed look and punched me in the arm.

I rubbed my arm in pain but kept silent.

“Unni…! Where have you been?! I haven’t seen you in too long…” Kryssie greeted.

“I know… sorry little one… I’ve been busy. But that’s why I’m calling. I’m free today. Do you two have plans? Shall we meet up?” Taeyeon asked excitedly.

“Good timing, Taeyeon! We were just discussing what we should do because I’m feeling bored…” I told her.

“Yay! I missed you, unni! Wait, where’s Tiffany unni?” Kryssie asked.

Just a few weeks ago, I would have been going crazy jealous when Kryssie said things like that to Taeyeon, but I’ve since gotten used to it and accepted the fact that they had some kind of weird bond which I will never understand. I didn’t want to sweat it anymore, just as long as Kryssie wasn’t sneaking off behind my back to go see her without telling me.

“Fany had some family emergency of some sort, so she had to go back to her parent’s house. I’m all alone for the day…” she made pretend sobbing noises over the phone.

“Oh really? She didn’t mention this to me yesterday… Is it anything to be worried about?” I commented.

“Yeah, apparently she got called in last night… I’m not sure what the emergency is but she said a family meeting? So I don’t think it’s a dire situation…”

“I see…”

“Unni, why didn’t you just go with her?” Kryssie giggled.

“Uhm… I’m good… I don’t think I’m quite there yet…”

“You mean you haven’t met her family before? But you’ve known her since middle school…”

“I’ve only met her siblings once, not her father.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t talk about them much… Or at least she doesn’t give details…” I added.

It had never crossed my mind before how distant Tiff was from her family. When she spoke of them it was always pleasant but there was always a sad undertone as well.

“I’m not sure how much you guys know about her family but it’s a long story… She loves her family but she’s basically the black sheep and they never let her forget it…” Taeyeon told us.

“Awww… poor Tiffany unni…” Kryssie sighed.

“Yeah, I’ve never met any of them… But she always seem a little sad everytime she returned from visiting them…”

“Okay… let’s not talk about depressing things anymore… So, are we doing this or what?” she changed the subject back to our original topic.

“Hell yeah! I’m getting tired of just hanging around Kryssie…” I joked.

“Yah!” she gave me a death glare and pinched me. “Who’s tired of whom?! Unni, let’s just meet up, the two of us… Leave Jessie out…” she said into the phone.

“I was just joking, Kryssie! I’ll never get tired of you… NEVER! It could literally just be the two of us forever and I’ll still be happy!” I told her as I enveloped her in my hug and planted kisses all over her face until she started giggling again.

“Okay, okay… stop it Jessie!”

“Oi! You two… I’m still here you know… And are you saying that it would be fine with you if I wasn’t around?!” Taeyeon laughed.

“Of course not, unni! We’ll never leave you or Tiffany unni behind…”

“Yeah, Taeyeon… She’ll probably leave me behind before she leaves you…” I told her.

“You two…! Don’t even try and pretend for a second that you are even able to go a day without seeing each other…”

Kryssie and I both looked at each other and we just smiled.

“So, let’s meet for lunch. After that we’ll probably just go walk around Myeong-dong…” I said.

“Sounds like a plan. Where do you want to meet?” she replied.

“We’ll come pick you up… no problem. Let’s say in 30 minutes?”

“Thanks. I’ll see you then.”

“Okay, bye.”

“See you soon, unni!” Kryssie yelled just before I hung up. “Wow, Jessie… aren’t you jealous anymore? Is it because she’s now taken?” she teased.

“Well…I have nothing to be jealous about… right?!”

She chuckled and grabbed onto my arm. “Ooooo… my Jessie is so confident now… Me likes!”

I gave her a light noogie. “You rascal! Hurry up and go change…” I told her.

“You want to come help me…?” she asked cheekily.

“As much as I want to… we might end up missing our lunch date if I do…” I smirked.

“Suit yourself…” she walked towards her room and just before she entered her room, she started pulling off her top, revealing her middrift.

That rascal is getting a little too comfortable… Aigoo…

I shook the image out of my head and went about getting ready myself.

Once we were ready, we set off to pick Taeyeon up and then we headed for lunch at a spot Kryssie and I chanced upon recently.

“So how did you find this place again? It’s so hidden…” Taeyeon commented.

“Well, Kryssie and I were just walking around the other day, it’s become our thing now… we just like to get lost in the city and find little hidden places… keeps us entertained… Anyway he just happened to pass by this place and I saw that they did churros… I love churros! So we decided to try it out. It’s pretty good, no?” I explained.

“It’s delicious! It’s crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, it’s sweet… what’s not to like…?” she replied.

“It’s just like Jessie! Except the crunchy bit… I don’t know where that fits in…” Kryssie giggled.

“Kryssie! Don’t say things like that in front of other people…”

“Why? Are you embarrassed? Taeyeon unni doesn’t mind, do you unni?”

“No… It’s just…”

“Oh, you two…” Taeyeon laughed. “No, I don’t mind… If Fany was here, she’d probably be like that too…”

“See… Although if Tiffany unni was here, then I really shouldn’t say things like that.”

“Speaking of which… when are you guys going to tell her? Am I going to have to bring this secret to my death bed?”

Kryssie and I both looked at each other in guilt. We had discussed telling Tiff about our relationship in brief but we always ended up deciding to delay the inevitable. The last time we talked about it, we decided to hold off until the TaeNy situation was resolved and now that it was, we still hadn’t found the right time to tell her.

“No… we are planning on telling her… I just don’t know when…” I answered.

“I love you guys but you know you’re putting me in a tough spot right?” Taeyeon said.

“Sorry, unni… We know… but we just haven’t found the right time to do it,” Kryssie apologized.

“I promised to keep this secret and I will as long as you need me to, but I’m just telling you that you won’t be able to keep this a secret forever. Fany is an understanding and openminded person. Furthermore, you’ve all known each other for awhile now, so you should know what she’s like. You should just tell her… It’s like ripping off a bandaid; quick and painless… Just go for it.”

“I guess you’re right. It’s just that Tiff is the closest person to us after our parents. I’m just afraid that if she can’t accept us, then there won’t be any hope of our parents accepting us either…” I told her.

“I understand… Himne! I’ve always got your backs!”

“Unni… If Jessie and I don’t work out… will you consider dating me?” Kryssie chuckled.

“WHAT?! How dare you say this in front of me! At least have the decency of saying it behind my back…!” I played along.

“Sorry, little one… I’m taken… unless Fany also decides on giving me up but I don’t think I’ll let her…” Taeyeon joked as well.

It was nice that we were finally at a place when we were all able to joke about this and had enough confidence in our respective partners to trust them completely. Well at least those of us in the know…

“All jokes aside… how’s everything with you and Tiff? I mean, she seems pretty happy in the office these days… She’s always talking about you and grinning to herself like a crazy person. I knew she was thinking of you of course,” I asked.

“Well, you know when things are going too smoothly you tend to get paranoid?”

“Yeah…”

“Well I’m feeling that right now… I’m completely happy which means something bad’s going to happen right?”

“Don’t be silly… the bad has already passed… that’s why it’s a happy time now…”

“Yeah, unni. You’ve already suffered enough. So now just enjoy it…” Kryssie chimed in.

“How’s the… ahem… you know?” I asked. I was honestly really curious…

“Ohmigod, Jessie! How can you just ask this outright?! LALALALA! I can’t listen to this…” Kryssie exclaimed as she plugged her ears with her fingers.

Taeyeon just laughed. “One word… mindblowing…! I’m assuming you two have...”

“NO!” we both shouted at her at the same time.

We realized that we had shouted that a little too loudly and everyone around us was now staring. We waited for them to lose interest before continuing.

“No? Really?” Taeyeon asked.

Our conversation was really hitting a new level of trust and honesty…

Are we all too comfortable with each other now? Then again… I was the one who asked first… Oh well…

“Yeah, really! I mean we’ve done stuff… but… we haven’t…”

“OHMIGOD! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Kryssie started freaking out.

I cupped her face to try and calm her down.

“Kryssie, stop making it a bigger deal than it really is… we’re adults, we can talk about this…”

“Yeah but not with other people…” she replied shyly.

“And this is exactly why we can’t go there yet… She can’t even handle talking about it… amongst other reasons…” I told Taeyeon.

“No, I totally get it. I mean it’s got to happen naturally. You can’t force it… Honestly, I was totally embarrassed the morning after… but it felt so right, I got over it quickly.”

“Are we really talking about this right now?” Kryssie asked when we continued with out adult conversation.

I took her hand and held it in mine.

“Well you won’t talk about it when it’s just the two of us… But you know how we are around each other… I think we need some outside advice…” I told her. “But if you’re really uncomfortable talking about it… we’ll stop.”

She thought about it for a moment; she looked quite conflicted, I decided to just stop but then she spoke up. “You’re right… I said I didn’t want us to just be sisters forever. I want us to move past that…”

“Yeah but we don’t have to talk about it now… I can wait till you’re ready.”

“Like you said… you know how we are around each other… We’d better talk about it now.”

“Why? How are you guys around each other? Having a hard time keeping your hands to yourselves?” Taeyeon smirked.

“To say the least…” Kryssie replied, to my surprise.

“Woah… Krystal…”

“What? Aren’t we talking about this?”

“Well it’s a good thing… at least I think so. Doesn’t it mean that you guys are transitioning well?”

“I think so. I don’t know… I hope so… sometimes it’s still the elephant in the room…”

“Well Fany and I are the same around each other. I think it’s a good thing… The most important thing, I think, is to first be comfortable with yourself, then with each other, then with the idea… When you’re ready, you’ll know…”

“Sometimes I think I am, but then sometimes I think I’m not…” Kryssie said.

“If you have doubts, it means you’re not…” Taeyeon responded.

“I agree. I want you to be sure… It’s a big deal for most people but it’s an even bigger deal for us…” I told Kryssie.

“It’s good to talk about it but I think you two are starting to overthink it… Sometimes, you get too nervous when you overthink things… Sometimes you just got to go for it…” Taeyeon concluded.

I was still holding onto Kryssie’s hand and I could swear that I felt her pulse increase.

I looked at her nervously and she looked back at me with her sweet, innocent eyes.

Oh, God… I just can’t… My sweet baby sister…

“I hope you’re right Taeyeon…” I mumbled.

“Me too…” Kryssie whispered.

The conversation was surprisingly open that day, and it was the first time I got to hear what was in Kryssie’s mind. At least now I had a better understanding of how she was feeling.

After lunch, we took a walk around Myeong-dong and continued with our new found fondness for getting lost in the city. It made us feel like a real couple, we didn’t worry about what other people thought about us because no one knew us and there were so many people around nobody cared about two strangers just passing them by. Except this time Taeyeon was with us, but she was basically like the invisible force field that was protecting Kryssie and me, so we loved having her around.

I really liked my relationship with Taeyeon now. After I got over my jealousy issue, it was easier to get closer and she was great to talk to. Since no one else knew at that moment, it was just nice having someone to confide in and who didn’t judge us…