The Im parents handed Sunny a thick pamphlet with all of the rules and regulations to this contract her parents made years ago. She thought it was a little weird having that stack of paper in her arms, those sheets outlining her love life. It seemed artificial and a little aggravating.

But she’s happy that Yoona seemed like an okay person although they didn’t exchange too many words. After they greeted each other, Yoona had to go back to her piano practice and Suzy ended up being the one to her out.

Although the Suzy girl wasn’t directly involved, she seemed to be really excited about the prospect of the two living together. It made Sunny wonder how close the two were.

“By the way, we street passed,” Suzy announced when they’re at the door. She surprisingly goes out with Sunny and even offered to walk her to the bus. “Can we exchange friend codes too?”

Sunny somehow found the urge to laugh after feeling incredibly constipated at the idea of giving up her love life to a contract and she also found herself extremely thankful of the girl with the obnoxiously large special edition Animal Crossing 3DS. Sunny made note of the many animal stickers decorating the device and thought maybe she should put some on her own as well. They exchanged their friend codes before the bus arrived and Suzy tells Sunny to come visit her village soon.

Sunny could only hope that Yoona was as friendly.

By the time she’s home she’s hungry and so within the first five seconds that she’s back inside the house, water is being boiled and a cup of instant noodles is sitting on the counter with a cup of black tea. Not really having much else to do, Sunny waited patiently for the water to boil and decided to read some of the contract while getting her craving fulfilled.

Within the next hour she learns that Yoona’s parents saved her parents from a crisis back in the day and the only thing they asked for in return is for baby Soonkyu’s hand in marriage. Apparently, she was a very healthy looking baby and they trusted her parents, only wanting Yoona to go to a good person. It was a very simple deal that lead to something so complicated years later.

It seemed rather strange to Sunny to be honest, but there was no fighting it now. She could only explain it to Taeyeon and her friends and hope that maybe this won’t be as bad as she thinks it’s going to be.

It’s 5PM when Sunny decided to get ready for her little date with Jessica. They were supposed to go get some pizza at a local restaurant, but was surprised when she heard the doorbell go off.

“We’re ordering in,” Jessica demanded, answering the question that’s so clearly on Sunny’s face. “I don’t really feel like going out and the walk over here was exhausting after standing up all day at work,” she complained, immediately finding her way to Sunny’s incredibly comfortable couch (that felt like heaven to Jessica) and plopped down, face down in the cushiony material.

“Somehow I’m not surprised by this turn out,” Sunny laughed to herself before closing the door and following behind Jessica. “You hungry? Should I order now?”

Jessica limply nodded, causing Sunny to laugh again before going into the kitchen to order the pizza.

When Sunny got back, Jessica hadn’t moved an inch and it took Sunny jumping on top of her to get the girl to wake up.

“Are you sleepy Sunny?” Jessica asked cutely, giving her best pout to Sunny.

“You want to take a nap?” Sunny replied with a roll of her eyes. “You can just say so, you know? It’s not like you’re fooling anyone.”

Jessica could only bounce happily on the couch as Sunny took her hand and lead her to her room.

That was her original intent, but she found herself in her parents’ room instead. Where she had been sleeping with Taeyeon since her parents had died. Something had drawn her there, it was the only place that really felt like home.

“How much do you miss them?” Jessica mumbled as the two got comfortable in the bed. She felt Sunny’s sadness, although her pain couldn’t possibly be even close to what Sunny was feeling. She had known Sunny’s parents since she first made friends with the girl in middle school. They were so sweet and so kind, always asking Jessica if she was hungry and always making sure cucumbers were far away from her food at all times. Jessica had always been over to their house, being close to both Sunny and Taeyeon ever since they could remember. Her parents treated her like she was family as well and they never even questioned her when she was constantly found sleeping on their couches while Sunny was reading.

“More than I can say, but it’s getting better now,” Sunny replied, sighing into the pillows still filled with the scent of her parents. “Taeyeon’s been really strong for me and your occasional sleepy head texts have been cheering me up too.”

She poked Jessica’s nose as the girl scrunched up her face, unsure of what Sunny was talking about.

“You know, the texts you send when you’re half awake and nothing makes sense?” Jessica just blinked at her again, unsure of what she’s talking about.

Sunny rolled over and grabbed her phone, quickly unlocking it and finding the most recent sleepy head text.

He s os tusiid kiek can t seh tjekk thastg  hrd a  bgu ch egtatr

“I’m not entirely sure what it says, but you were talking about the drama you were watching so I guess it wasn’t really that important,” Sunny chuckled before tucking her phone away.

Jessica just shrugged before wrapping her arms around Sunny again once the girl was safely tucked under the covers. “Let’s just sleep, okay?”

The two managed to fall asleep together, getting in a total of half an hour of sleep before the doorbell roared Sunny awake.

It was a powerful bodily reflex to react so strongly to the sound of the doorbell, since her entire family had a tendency of forgetting their keys and Sunny was usually the only one home when everyone else wasn’t.

She rolled out of bed, careful not to disturb Jessica, not that the endeavour took much effort. She ran down the stairs and picked up the money she left on the kitchen table for the pizza boy.

“Pizza!” he chimed the second Sunny unlocked the door. It was Minseok, the same pizza boy they’ve had for the past year. He was tiny, only a bit taller than Sunny and had that goofy, lopsided grin on his face that he’s always had.

“It’s nice to see you again, Sunny.” But his expression quickly changed as he handed over the pizza, playing with his feet a little. “I’m sorry about your parents, they were one of the only customers that didn’t call me out on my height. This pizza’s on me, okay? And I hope you have a good night.”

Before Sunny could even thank the boy or give him money anyway, unwilling to accept the free pizza, he had ran off towards his car. Speedy little guy.

“Pizza’s here!” she called out into the nearly empty house. Why did she even bother anyway? Jessica wouldn’t wake up that easily.

Remembering the beautiful symphony that was Jessica’s snoring and the rumbling of her stomach, Sunny took a slice of pizza and put it on a plate to lure out the sleeping beauty. Although her figure didn’t show it, Jessica enjoyed her meals almost as much as she enjoyed her sleep.

She didn’t even have to sneak into the bed, for the second she swung the door open, Jessica had risen out of bed, a lazy smile on her face. She must’ve caught the scent of the fresh pizza.

“Food’s here?” she asked before yawning.

---

The night zoomed by in the blink of an eye. Jessica forced Sunny to catch up on dramas with her and Sunny forced Jessica to play Mario Kart with her. Eventually, the cycle went around and the two ended up napping in Sunny’s parents’ room again.

Sunny wanted to ask Jessica something because she felt that maybe something was up. It was weird how they never even once mentioned Sooyoung or the fact that she was on a date with Taeyeon right now. Normally, Jessica was always on top of this kind of gossip, but she seemed out of it.

She decided to let the flow of their conversation go naturally, because she also wanted to bring up news of the arranged marriage. It never happened however, and Sunny figured that the night was still young.

They later awoke to the weight of a wriggling body on them.

“Don’t tell me you two were sleeping the whole time?” Taeyeon giggled as both Sunny and Jessica were very unhappy with the strangely moving body that was on top of them.

“Get off!” Jessica yelled, shoving Taeyeon with a strength rarely seen from the other girl. She wasn’t exactly aware of who was on top of her; all she knew was that there was someone trying to disturb her much needed sleep.

Sunny opened one of her eyes and chuckled upon recognizing the tiny figure that was invading their private space. She wondered what time it was and if her other best friend was just lurking around the corner.

“Oh, hey Taeyeon,” Sunny waved at her sister before yawning and stretching the sleepiness from her joints. Taeyeon just waved and smiled at her in response.

“Did you have fun on your date?” she asked, a smirk growing on her face when she saw her sister blush.

“Yeah, you know, it was cool,” she said while rubbing the back of her neck. “We just had dinner, nothing special.”

Jessica still looked out of it and Sunny took it as her not being fully awake yet. What she missed was the little frown on her face that refused to move while Taeyeon spoke.

“So what the hell, explain what happened?” Sunny whined pushing and pulling her sister. “Is Sooyoung downstairs rummaging through our fridge or is she screwing around with our video game collection? I swear, last time it took me a hundred years to find our Mario Kart.”

Taeyeon burst into laughter and hopped right out of bed, “Ah no, she didn’t come home with me actually. I drove her home on my bike and said goodnight to her there.” It felt weird to her too not asking Sooyoung to come over after, or even for Sooyoung to not invite herself over afterward either.

Before Sunny could ask for any more juicy details, Jessica got out of bed and rubbed her eyes before heading to the bathroom silently. She almost tripped when she reached the door but managed to play it cool after her little mistake.

“She usually has to pee after she wakes up,” Sunny explained to Taeyeon. The girl watched Jessica leave in silence and once the door behind her closed, she sighed.

“Is she okay? She must be taking this as hard as us because she’s barely been responding to my texts,” Taeyeon said as she got off the bed as well, offering her hand to let Sunny up. “Or maybe I did something wrong ‘cause Sooyoung said she’s as talkative as ever.” She pouted and Sunny couldn’t help but chuckle at her older sister’s cuteness. Sometimes she questioned if maybe she was actually the older one.

Then Sunny shrugged, “She seemed fine to me? I don’t know she does seem a little out of it, but she did say she had a rough day at work.”

Taeyeon’s mouth formed a thin line before she grumbled. She could only nod as the two followed the girl into the hallway, “Well, I’ll wait for when she’s ready then and ask what’s up.”

The three girls went downstairs to the kitchen where they munched on leftover pizza. Taeyeon had already started heating it before going to wake them up since she knows how Jessica gets hungry after a good nap.

Sunny left them for a second to go get the contract which left Taeyeon and Jessica alone.

Jessica was focused on her phone, texting someone while Taeyeon stared at her. Jessica could see it in the corner of her eye, wondering if the older girl was even blinking.

“Stop staring at me,” Jessica protested, closing her phone and looking up at Taeyeon with a pout. “You’re freaking me out.” She placed the phone down and crossed her arms before challenging the standing up girl with her eyes.

Taeyeon chuckled, “You look really cute when you’ve just woken up. Plus you got some drool on the corner of your mouth.” She took a napkin and wiped Jessica’s face with no hesitation, causing the other girl to whine.

“I can do that myself,” she replied, narrowing her eyes at the older girl. She grabbed another piece of pizza and placed it on her plate, the slight bounce of the pizza showing her clear frustration.

“Yeesh, what’s up with you today Sica? You usually happily let me wipe your face when you got a little something something on it,” Taeyeon sat down next to Jessica this time, feigning sadness and batting her eyelashes at the younger girl. She was glad that Sunny wasn’t there because she hated it when Taeyeon showed any sort of aegyo.

“I’m just tired,” Jessica replied, looking away. “Lately it’s been…kind of rough. I’m sorry for not responding to your texts today.”

“You know you can always talk to me if stuff is bad right?” Taeyeon offered quietly, lightly elbowing the younger girl. “But if it’s difficult to talk about then I guess I could wait too.”

The two sat in silence again, Taeyeon wondering if Jessica had more to say and the other girl absentmindedly scrolling through her messages while nibbling on the slice in her other hand.

“So how was your date with the shikshin?” Jessica asked, a smile finally gracing her features. Taeyeon reflected the smile right back at her, relieved to see its brilliance.

“Not as awkward as I expected,” Taeyeon laughed, thinking about their kind of sort of magical night out together. “I was honestly surprised when she asked me out but I didn’t find any harm in saying yes.”

Jessica nodded a little slowly, “So do you like her back?” She asked a little seriously, not that Taeyeon picked up on it. She almost bit her tongue, wondering if it was too direct of a question.

“I don’t know,” Taeyeon answered nonchalantly with a shrug, “It’s too early to say to be honest. Like tonight seemed more like we were just hanging out like usual, you know?”

Before Jessica could respond, Sunny ran back into the room with a booklet in her hands.

“What’s that?” Jessica asked, distracted by the pieces of paper and relieved that Sunny had returned. And then she remembered that Sunny had an important appointment with some people today. She almost slapped herself mentally, being too preoccupied with her own problems to ask Sunny what had happened.

“It’s a contract of some sort,” Sunny responded before plopping the sheets of paper on the kitchen table. “It’s not as long as it looks.” But then she remembered that both Taeyeon and Jessica weren’t exactly the biggest fans of reading anything other than magazines or comic books. So maybe it’d take a bit longer. Just a bit.

Jessica and Taeyeon flipped through the sheets, their heads starting to feel a little light with all the text everywhere. Not as long as it looks? Sunny, please.

“Is this what that couple gave you?” Taeyeon asked, squinting her eyes and trying to read bits and pieces. It was too late in the night to properly read whatever kind of document this thing was. “Is it a debt our parents never mentioned?” Taeyeon had seen those kinds of documents a lot recently.

Sunny laughed nervously, “Kind of.” She braced herself as the two got closer and closer to the point of the damn thing.

And that’s when Jessica and Taeyeon both feasted their eyes on the main page which read in large, bold letters.

“Arranged marriage?!” the two screamed at once, their voices practically shaking the house. Sunny nearly fell over since both girls also stood up from their seats, almost knocking the table into Sunny’s stomach.

It took a while for Sunny to explain for she kept getting interrupted by both Jessica and Taeyeon. They asked many questions and asked her to repeat herself a lot, despite the arrangement seeming pretty straight forward.

“It’s 2013, there are still arranged marriages?” Taeyeon asked no one as she paced around the table, still processing the whole thing. “Isn’t this kind of sudden too? Why did they have to wait for our parents to die and then suddenly spring this on us? And why didn’t mom and dad tell us anyway? I think you deserved to know as early as possible.”

Sunny followed her sister and grabbed her hand and sat her down.

“Taeng, calm down. Actually, arranged marriages are pretty common nowadays. They never really went out of style it’s just less heard of I think.”

Jessica is still looking through the book, reading it carefully for each and every detail since it was an extremely important document.

“It says here that it’s supposed to start after you graduate high school,” Jessica said out loud, squinting and reading the print. She’s wearing her obnoxiously pink glasses now and looking at the siblings through large eyes. “And well…”

“Oh,” Taeyeon mouthed, suddenly feeling a little down again at the memory of Sunny’s graduation. “I guess this makes sense then.”

Jessica finally placed the book away, her head feeling too dizzy to keep reading onwards. The intense reading only lasted a few pages, not to anyone’s surprise.

“So did you get to meet her?” Taeyeon asked, looking up at Sunny with a hand resting under her chin. “Is she pretty?”

Sunny nodded and smiled at her sister, “She seemed really nice even though we only met for a few minutes.”

“She comes from a big house though and wealthy upbringing,” Jessica stated before taking a sip of water, “She could very well have just been taught to have that kind of appearance. For all you know, she could be some bossy little girl.”

Sunny shrugged before placing a hand on her best friend’s shoulder, “We should have faith, I think. This is probably as weird on her as it is for me. I’m sure as long as one of us is willing to work this through, it could end up really fun.”

Sunny then took out her phone and looked for the picture of Yoona she stole from today’s trip to her house. It almost makes her laugh how no one noticed how sneaky she was when taking it.

She turned her phone over to Taeyeon and Jessica to show them a picture of a smiling Yoona and to Sunny’s surprise, Suzy is in the shot too, giving them a thumb’s up.

“Who’s the other girl? They’re both really pretty what the heck,” Jessica is surprised and very impressed by the picture. “You lucked out.”

Sunny chuckled to Jessica’s response and she’s glad that the two are supportive despite being confused. She’d need their support for this new endeavour, certainly.