Yuri felt her face getting warmer as she sighed waves of hot air out of her own mouth, she didn’t want to seem bothered, but she was; she overheard Mr. and Mrs. Jung talking about how UCLA was the best place for Jessica to learn business and apply directly in their major firm in the US, and if it wasn’t Jessica they were talking about she would’ve agreed, it’s a nice opportunity, but a little selfish part of her wanted to hang onto Jessica longer, more than just their upcoming senior year in school.

She stood in the campus alone with Mr. Jung while Hyuk Jun was taking Mrs. Jung, Krystal, and Jessica inside since the youngest one needed to go to the ladies room, it wasn’t that boring for either of them since Mr. Jung enjoyed doing small chats with Yuri.

“So what major do you want to study Yuri?” asked Mr. Jung.

“I’d like to study Sociology, sir.” Yuri answered, “I think I’ll enjoy working as a profiler.”

“And what’s that?” he gave an amused smiles, “And don’t call me ‘sir’ Yuri, you’re like my daughter, call me Uncle.”

“It’s studying human society and behavior, Uh- Uncle Jung” Yuri chuckled, it sounded weird calling Mr. Jung ‘Uncle’ for the first time, she had to get used to it. “And a profiler is the person who analyzes people’s actions and could possibly predict it even; I think studying that will help me understand myself and others more.”

“It really does seem like an interesting major, Yuri.” He stated, “And where do you plan on studying?”

“I got offered a full scholarship from SNU if I maintained a good average.” Yuri rubbed her neck; she didn’t want to seem full of herself since none of her classmates were ‘offered’ the same.

“Wow, that’s impressive Yuri.” He praised, “You’re not even in your final year of school, and you’re already getting scholarship offers.”

“Yeah.” Yuri simply replied, not a single expression on her face.

“You don’t seem too excited though, something wrong?” He asked again.

Yuri let out a heavy sigh, she didn’t feel like she had the right to express her current feelings to Mr. Jung; she didn’t want to sound too clingy, but she didn’t want to worry him about her either.

“I overheard you and Mrs. Jung talking about sending Jessica to study here.” Yuri inhaled deeply, “I’m afraid I’ll miss her.”

Yuri felt taking aback by her own words, never in her life did she feel ‘afraid’ of missing anyone, not ever her brother, she was saddened by it, but never afraid. And now Jessica was making her feel this new emotion.

“You really care a lot for my daughter, don’t you Yuri?”

“I do.” Yuri let out a sigh, she did care; she was just afraid of caring too much.

-

Jessica and Yuri walked side by side in the not-so-crowded mall, it was still morning and most people were either at work or in school since winter break was yet to start in the US, Jessica was eyeing every store’s display window and yelped in joy whenever there was something she liked, and just carelessly swept her visa card like it was nobody’s business…

“For the love of god Jessica!” Yuri rolled her eyes, her hands were busy carrying the princess’ shopping bags and was beginning to feel pushed down by the heavy weight, “aren’t you tired of this? I want to rest.”

“Exercise is good for you, Yuri.” Jessica joked, hands free of anything but her wallet purse, “Plus, It’s about time for us to meet my friend, we should be done with school soon.”

Jessica had told Yuri earlier that they will meet her best friend since before she moved to Korea with her family, but since she had school to attend to, they were going to hang in the mall until she came over, and Yuri wished it would be soon so her shopping hell would come to an end.

“What is her name again?” Yuri asked, even though she was sure Jessica didn’t mention it before…

“Tiffany.” Jessica answered with her perfect English, “call her MiYoung if you really want to piss her off.”

“MiYoung? She’s Korean too?” Yuri asked, “But that’s such an old name.”

Jessica chuckled and nodded, she looked at her watch and pointed at the highest floor of the mall, “She’ll be here soon, let’s go to the café over there and find a good table.”

-

“Jessi!” a loud voice caused Yuri to flinch from how high pitched it was, that girl was definitely excited about reuniting with her best friend, Jessica and Tiffany shared a warm hug and Yuri stood up awkwardly since everyone else was already not seated… Tiffany wore a white fitting shirt that was buttoned up in a way that kept her decent but still showed her slender nick and collar bone perfectly, a navy blue mini skirt that showed her nice legs, and topped all that with a beautiful smile that made her face shine.

 “God, I missed you Jessi!” Tiffany squeezed her friend into another hug, “tell me everything about Korea, but for now introduce me to your friend.” She said as she let go and gazed at Yuri’s direction.

“Oh, right!” Jessica said as she stared back and forth between the two, “umm… this is Yuri, Yuri this is Tiffany.”

“Jessi told me SO much about you Yuri… it’s nice to finally meet you in person.” Tiffany cheered, she moved forward to hug Yuri for greeting, but stopped when she noticed how the latter automatically stepped backwards; maintaining the space that was between them.

 “Umm... nice to meet you too.” Yuri replied, she felt bad for her natural reaction to Tiffany’s movement, but she was still not a physical contact person, “Jessica-”

“Jessica didn’t tell her anything about you.” Jessica joked to lighten the mood, and Yuri chuckled… “Who are you again?”

Tiffany pretended to be hurt and sat on a chair that was in front of the round table the two were sitting on a while ago and gave the cutest pout, “Ouch! That hurt’s Jessi.”

The other two followed suit and sat on their chairs and laughed it off, the café was nice and had a good conversation, Tiffany told Yuri she’ll see more of her since she’ll want to visit Jessica a lot and Yuri didn’t object to the idea, Tiffany seemed like a nice girl, but Yuri couldn’t help but worry about Tiffany’s impression of her.

Tiffany dropped Jessica and Yuri off a block away from the Jung’s residence since the two said they wanted to walk a bit before going in, Jessica and Yuri shared the load of carrying Jessica’s large number of shopping bags and used their free hands to hold each other’s, Jessica didn’t know why, but Yuri was always comfortable doing any form of physical contact with her and not with anyone else, and as much it made her feel special, she was still worried about Yuri.

“In the mall,” Yuri broke the silence, “When I went to the bathroom, did Tiffany say anything about me?”

Jessica was a bit surprised at Yuri’s question; the latter didn’t usually give any care to other’s opinions of her, “Why are you asking?”

“I just… don’t want her to think ill of me after I backed away from her like I did.” Yuri answered with a calm tone, “Besides, she’s your best friend so I don’t want to give off a wrong vibe.”

“You really hate physical contact, don’t you?” Jessica asked, even though her hand was locked with Yuri’s it didn’t seem normal how she had a problem with everyone else.

Yuri gave a calm nod and added, “I’m working on it though.”

“I can tell.” Jessica replied, and gave Yuri’s hand a small squeeze, “And oh, Tiffany liked you.”

“I liked her too.”

Jessica was glad to have heard that, she had this plan in her head since she was going to study in the US after school, she’d bring Yuri and Tiffany closer to each other cause the latter will be moving to Korea on senior year and she mentioned applying to SNU too, it would be perfect if they got along, and she wouldn’t worry about leaving Yuri behind.

-

“Hey, Tiffany.” Hyuk Jun greeted, “Leo is your brother? What a small world.”

Tiffany replied his greeting with an eye smile, and nodded to his questions, “you guys are friends?”

“Oh, no… I just know him through college.” He answered and looked at Leo’s direction across the room, and he was having a chat with Mr. Jung, “He’s really popular there, he’s like THE man.”

“You should talk to him and be his friend then.” Tiffany answered, “You’ll probably see more of each other now, since me, Yuri and Jessica are hanging often.”

“Oh yeah? Maybe I’ll go talk to him and see what he’s like.” Hyuk Jun replied, “I’ll go see what he and Mr. Jung are talking about, see you later.”

Tiffany watched him as he went and greeted her brother and wished the two could become good friends, it was odd how Hyuk Jun was so different than Yuri in terms of social but so similar to her in looks and attitude, both very polite and kind looking… her eyes started scanning for her pair of friends among people who seemed to be indulged in conversation, and headed to their direction.

-

A warm pair of arms wrapped around Yuri’s body from behind and locked her into a back hug, it wasn’t hard for the latter to guess who it was since the touch was familiar and safe.

“Merry Christmas, Jessica.” Yuri said and leaned her head backwards to fall on Jessica’s shoulder, “did you open your gift yet?”

“How did you know it was me?” Jessica said as she pulled away, and moved to face the darker skinned girl, “and yes… I’m wearing it, thank you.”

Yuri’s eyes trailed down Jessica’s neck and smiled upon seeing Jessica wearing the silver necklace she got her, she wouldn’t have done it without Tiffany’s help since she needed someone who knows English to go with her to the mall, someone who knows what Jessica would like.

“It looks good on you.” Yuri gave a genuine smile with that comment, “I’m glad you liked it.”

“You still didn’t answer… How did you know it’s me?” Jessica asked, “I kind of expected you to go all jumpy like always since it’s from behind.”

“You’re warm.” Yuri simply answered.

“Jessi’s warm?” a voice chuckled and joined in to their conversation, “She must’ve not told you what her nickname was during middle school.”

“Shut up.” Jessica slapped Tiffany’s arm, it was embarrassing hearing of her middle school days again. “Don’t even dare.”

“Or what, Ice princess?” Tiffany said, and Jessica face palmed, Yuri could only chuckle at the two girls right now.

“She was known as the coldest girl in school, no one dared be friends with her.” Tiffany added, “She was scary to them.”

It had amazed Yuri hearing about this especially that Jessica was the complete opposite of how she is now in high school; she’s everyone’s friend and the warmest person she ever met.

Was she ever going to move on her phase and change too??

She wished she can.