(Taeyeon’s POV)

“Sorry I didn’t mention that I was bringing Sica and Krystal. They decided they wanted to tag along,” I told Sooyoung.

“Oh, no problem, unni. You’re the one who wanted to meet up, you can bring who you like, “Sooyoung replied with a smiled.

After lunch the day before, I thought about it again and I realized how obsurd I was being. It felt wrong sneaking behind Fany’s back even if it was just to ask Sooyoung about Fany’s family.

What’s the matter with me? What’s so wrong about asking about your girlfriend’s family that you can’t let your girlfriend find out?

I blame Sica… Yes, Sica brainwashed me…

“Uhm… yes still, you must have been surprised. I know I might have felt like I was being ambushed or something…” I babbled.

Sooyoung laughed. “Don’t worry about it… Although, if I knew Jessica unni was coming, I would have brought Yoong with me.”

“Wait, so are you and Yoona unni…?” Krystal left the question hanging but raised her eyebrows and gave a cheeky smirk.

“Nah… We only went on a few dates. We’ve become pretty close though. Actually, she’s now with a guy. Sweet guy, a few years older,” Sooyoung revealed.

The three of us let out the faintest of gasps.

“Wow, really?! But Yoona unni was so completely infatuated with Jessie…” Krystal remarked.

Sooyoung nodded with a wide grin. “I am too actually…”

“You’re what?” I asked.

“I’m dating a guy, quite a few years older but really sweet and kind,” she clarified.

“That’s great… The gender of the person you love shouldn’t matter. If there’s a connection then there’s a connection…” Sica said. I caught her staring at Krystal as she said that which I thought was the sweetest thing ever.

“Yeah, but Yoong does mention that she’s curious about how you’re doing, unni,” Sooyoung told Sica.

“Me? Why doesn’t she just text me?” Sica asked, slightly surprised and confused.

“She said something about not wanting to bother you…” Sooyoung shrugged.

“That silly girl… She should have really just text me or something… I’ll give her a text when I get home or something,” Sica said.

“Hey, you know what, if you all don’t mind, let me text her and see where she is. We’re supposed to meet up later anyway.” She looked my way as she said that.

“Yeah, sure… I don’t mind…”

Everyone’s alsready here anyway… only Fany’s missing…

I felt a nudge from an impatient Sica when I took a little too long to get down to the point of the meeting.

“So, uhm, you must be wondering why I asked to meet up so randomly, right?”

“Hmmm? Oh, yes well, I think I know why…” she replied as she finished sending her text.

“You do?!” I was surprised.

How does she know?! What does she know?!

“I mean, it has to be something about Miyoung, no?” she wondered. “By the way, I never officially apologize to you directly about that whole thing I did to you… I didn’t mean to hurt you like that, I just needed to prove a point.”

“It’s alright… After Fany explained to me what it was all about, I guess I could understand. But next time, please don’t take it that far, okay? And, uhm, yes there’s something I wanted to ask you about Fany… Actually it’s… about her family…”

“Oh really? What about them?”

“Uhm… well, the thing is…” I started rambling.

“Oh for God’s sake… Sooyoung, could you possibly tell us what you know about the Hwangs? Tiff always keeps family related stuff to herself and Taeng here has only ever met her siblings once in all the years they’ve known each other,” Sica answered for me.

“Ahhh… I see… Honestly, it’s not her siblings you have to worry about. Miyoung’s sister actually adores her even though it seems like their relationship is a little strained right now. Her brother is a bit of an oddball but he just mainly keeps to himself and is mostly indifferent about everything. The concern is really her father. He’s never been too friendly with me either. I’m sure adults have their own issues but I’ve always been an outsider to that family. I never told anyone this, not even Miyoung but I’ve overheard my stepmother, Miyoung’s aunt, her father’s sister, say that even she had trouble getting along with him at some point. I heard that he used to be different before Miyoung’s mom passed away,” Sooyoung told us.

“That’s a lot of drama for one family…” Krystal commented.

Sooyoung nodded. “It is. And it’s rather sad.”

“But what’s the deal with Tiff and her father though?” Sica wondered out loud.

“So, apparently he was quite different before Miyoung’s mother passed. But I only knew her mother for about a year and a half before she passed, and she was truly a lovely lady. Miyoung is a lot like her. We were still quite young then so I can’t remember much more than that. But by the time I left, I could see that Miyoung’s relationship with her father was already broken. I can’t tell you for sure what exactly happened but Miyoung’s theory is that it has something to do with her mother and the fact that she reminds her father of her mother.”

Everything that Sooyoung had told us was absolutely eye-opening. There was this whole side of Fany that I never knew about and that she had kept to herself. What I couldn’t believe was how heartbreaking it was to have that kind of relationship with her father, yet she was always such a cheerful person.

“Sooyoung, do you think Fany will be mad if she found out that you told us all this?” I asked her since I didn’t ask Fany’s permission to dig into her family issues. Of course, I would have preferred for all this to have come from Fany herself but I came to Sooyoung because she’d kept all this from me all this time.

“I can’t be sure. Probably more mad at me than you…”

“Then why are you telling us all this?” Sica asked directly.

“Because I think Miyoung is stupid for not sharing this with Taeyeon unni, and because I really want to help,” she answered. Then she turned to me and said, “I think you two are great together and I know that Miyoung loves you more than anything else.”

I was a little taken aback at how open and honest Sooyoung was being in this conversation. She answered all our questions without holding back and she gave us her honest opinion.

“Sooyoung, thank you so much for all the help… You have no idea how much I appreciate it. I’m only sorry I couldn’t hear this from Fany directly. I wish I knew about all this before…” I told Sooyoung.

“I’m sorry Taeyeonie. I didn’t realize it meant so much to you to know…” Fany’s familiar voice suddenly appeared from behind me.

I stood up and turned around to see Fany standing right there with an apologetic expression.

“Fany-ah…?! W-What are you doing here?! Wait, no… How long have you been standing there?” I asked in complete shock. How did none of us realize that she was there?!

“Jess, Krystal…” Fany greeted them.

“Nice entrance…” Sica greeted back.

“Uhm, hi unni…” Krystal nodded to Fany.

“Sorry, Taeyeonie. I’ve been here all along… sort of…”

“Sooyoung, you’re in on this?! You told her?” I was a little angry that she had told Fany about our meeting when I had told her not to.

“Don’t be angry at her, Taeyeonie… I was there when she received your text so the cat was already out of the bag…” Fany explained.

“W-What?!” My mouth gapped open, unable to grasp the fact that she had basically known about it since yesterday morning, before she met up with us at the Jungs.

“You’re not angry, are you? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you… I just thought it was better not to get you involved,” Fany pleaded her case.

“I’m not even… In fact, I thought YOU were going to be angry with me… I should have just asked you directly and told you that I wanted to know…” I admitted.

“I would never… We’re in this together aren’t we?”

“Yes. Exactly. What yours is mine… including your family… I can’t avoid them forever….”

“And I want them to know you. No matter what they think, they won’t change how I feel about you…”

“Oh just kiss her already…!” Sooyoung exclaimed.

Fany and I both laughed.

The Jungs joined Sooyoung in egging us on. “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”

“Oh shut it, you kids…” I told them.

“Oh, my two favorite unnis… You are too cute…” Krystal squealed and then squeezed us both into a hug.

“I guess no one in this group knows how to mind their own business and keep secrets to themselves… We ALWAYS end up in this same situation…” I sighed.

“That’s what we do… Me meddle in each other’s business and take it upon ourselves to solve a problem that needs solving,” Sica said smugly. “You can’t say it hasn’t worked for us so far…”

“One day this will all blow up in our faces… but until then, I guess… I’m quite thankful for all you meddling kids…” Fany said.

“Oh hey, Yoong said she’s here…!” Sooyoung interrupted with the news.

And just a few moments later, Yoona joined our little group reunion. We hadn’t all been in the same room since the night of the dinner gala. And even though Yoona was now happily dating, she still looked at Sica with the same fondness in her eyes.

“Jessica-shi…! It’s been a while…” she greeted Sica first before everyone else. Walking over to give her a hug. I looked over at Krystal and she had the cutest jelous expression on her face when Sica didn’t really seem to hate Yoona’s affectionate greeting.

Even though Yoona was basically still the same around Sica, Sica was a lot more relaxed and casual around Yoona now.

“You silly girl, why haven’t you texted me all this while? And you can stop calling me Jessica-shi… Why don’t you just call me unni like Sooyoung does?” Sica asked her.

“Sorry… unni… I just didn’t want to bother you… You didn’t text me either…” she smiled innocently.

“Ah, yes… Guilty… I was a little preoccupied…” Sica confessed.

“So, you’ve been good otherwise, I reckon?”

“Yes… You must be too… I heard you’re dating someone now.”

Yoona turned a little shy. “Uhm, yes… He’s really sweet…”

“I’m glad to hear that. You should bring him out some time…”

“Sure, unni. How about you? Whatever happened to you and the girl you were in love with?”

Yoona’s question had Sica, Krystal, Fany and I all looking at each other nervously, anticipating how Sica would respond to her question.

“Well since everyone’s here… I think… I should tell you two the whole truth. It seems like you two are in our group for the long haul and I have nothing to hide anymore…” Sica declared. “I think everyone should sit down…”

“Huh? What’s the big deal about it…?” Yoona asked, confused.

Everyone sat back down including Yoona even though both Yoona and Sooyoung looked completely nervous, like we were about to give them a jury verdict.

“Okay, so as you both might know, Kryssie and I aren’t actually related,” Sica began.

Both Yoona and Sooyoung’s eyes widened and jaws dropped, quick to catch on to what Sica was trying to tell them.

“PLEASE HOLD ALL QUESTIONS AND OPINIONS UNTIL THE END!” Sica exclaimed, wanting them to listen to the whole story before having to having to deal with answering questions. “I found out early on that Kryssie and I were completely unrelated biologically. We’re both test tube babies. Even at a young age, Kryssie and I were inextricable. There was always an undeniable connection between us…” She proceeded to tell them everything that Fany and I already knew. “I know it’s unconventional and it may seem wrong but we’ve both tried to deny it and not to give in to it but we were miserable. So now you both know… I’m crazy about this girl…” Sica took hold of Krystal’s hand and intertwined their fingers as Krystal leaned her head on Sica’s shoulder.

Yoona and Sooyoung looked at each other for a while and then turned back to look at Sica and Krystal.

“So…? Do you have any thing to say? Or questions?” Krystal asked.

“Do your parents know?” Yoona asked.

“Not yet… We’ll tell them when they get back…” Krystal answered.

“Don’t you have anything else to say?” Sica asked instead when everyone kept silent.

“You owe me twenty, Yoong…” Sooyoung said to Yoona.

This time it was Sica, Krystal, Fany and I who were perplexed.

“When Jessica unni decided not to go Japan with us, Yoong told me about the conversation she had with Jessica unni and Miyoung telling us about their unique situation, I made a bet with her that it had something to do with Krystal,” Sooyoung explained.

“So you both already knew… Sort of…?” Krystal commented.

“Well, let’s say it’s no real surprise…” Yoona replied.

“And it’s not creeping you both out?” Sica asked.

“Who are we to judge? I think it’s sweet…” Sooyoung said in response.

“Actually, I was quite shocked when I first thought about it but then I realized that your circumstance shouldn’t matter. I could tell you two are obviously really happy…” Yoona admitted.

“We’ve been so lucky to have such understanding friends… So now everyone knows…” Sica said.

“See and you were so worried at the beginning…” Fany mumbled, still a little annoyed that we kept it from her for as long as we did.

“You can’t just expect us to expect everyone to accept our situation right off the bat…”

“We did…”

“Well we are all a bunch of weirdos here…”

“It’s true…” I agreed.

“Anyway, back to you both… What are you planning to do about your family situation?” Sica asked Fany.

Fany turned to me. “Taeyeonie… are you up for meeting my family? I think it’s time…”

I swallowed hard from nervousness but when I looked into Fany’s eyes, all I saw was reassurance. “Yes… Let’s do it…”