Sorry if this was longer than usual, I forgot ;-; I really need to get a current story that has depth but I can never get past the first chapter OTL ugh. anyway, here's the chapter~

“You look adorable!” Sooyoung cheered, holding the various pictures in her hands and spreading them out with her thumbs for the others to see easily. 

  Jessica grabbed one of them together at the altar, it wasn’t as bad as she expected. She didn’t have a white dress as she had always wished, it was purple. It also had ruffles at the bottom, something Jessica really disliked in dresses. Not to mention her bright red sneakers completely throwing off the color scheme. What the heck was I thinking? 

  “Look at your eyes, so pretty!” Sooyoung cooed on, pointing at things in the photos with what seemed more enthusiasm than needed.  

  Just to see how a stranger would look at it, Jessica turned to exchange glances with Tiffany. She was holding back laughter, just as Jessica thought she would be. Jessica started to hold a firm stare on her from where she stood on the left side of Sooyoung, waiting for Tiffany to notice. 

  Finally, the brunette blurted out some words. “Y-you look beautiful, really.” Her voice was covered in giggles, but that wasn’t what surprised her acquaintances. Instead of the English ‘really’, she used the Korean variation of it. 

 “You know Korean?” Sooyoung asked out of curiosity, she had been using English for at least fifteen years of her life, Korean sounded almost odd to her now. 

  “Yep! I’m half Korean you know, I thought I had told you that at lunch,” Tiffany replied as she examined another picture, the laughter completely lost of her tone. 

  “Not to be offensive, but I don’t know how many of us were listening to you during lunch.” Jessica admitted, hoping that Tiffany wouldn’t feel to hurt that it seemed nobody cared about every detail of her life. 

  Tiffany simply shrugged and lightly chuckled, “You act like I didn’t know that. I know Sooyoung was the only one who payed attention to me most of the time, and that Sunny and you were too busy wanting to get out of there. I’m not stupid you know.” She says that so easily, she’s so... Jessica fought in her mind about what the right term was to call Tiffany, she had both hawk eyes and keen ears, not to mention a smart mind. Unpredictable. 

  “We know very well you’re not stupid Tiffany, you’re amazing.” Sooyoung commented, handing Jessica another photo. “I think you look the best in this one.” 

  The blonde girl’s eyes began reading over the photograph, she didn’t look much different than the one she had looked at before. “I don’t see why this one would be your favorite,” she remarked as she gave it back to Sooyoung. 

  “Do I have to do everything for you?” Sooyoung whispered to herself, though the words were known to have an arrogant tone, Sooyoung’s was teasingly. She pointed her right index finger at Jessica’s face in the picture, “Look closer, my friend.” 

  “At my face?” She raised the picture closer to her eyes, staring closer at her face. Nothing looked different. “Are you trying to make some joke on my messy hair? Because I’m sure Tiffany here has made about fifty more in her mind on it, you don’t need to make another one.” 

  The tallest shook her head, “You don’t understand what I mean. Look right there!” She pointed directly at Jessica’s lips in the picture, “What are you doing?” 

  At last Jessica understood the action, “I’m smiling. Am I not smiling in any other pictures?” She turned her attention to both Sooyoung and Tiffany, and they shook their heads in unison. 
 

  “Not one,” Tiffany added, pointing at Jessica in every photo. “You seem too focused on something else in this one, what do you think it is?” She changed from showing them all to concentrating on just one. 

  “Probably that I had work the next day and that we should get it done with quickly,” Jessica responded, shrugging her shoulders lightly. “Speaking of getting something finished quickly, are we going to leave here soon? The pharmacy isn’t a place to discuss about wedding pictures.” 

  “Why not? I’m sure a bunch of other couples do this too,” Sooyoung nudged Jessica by the side, bringing up a small grin. 

  “Reminder: I’m not in a real relationship with you, if I would cheat on my boyfriend with anyone, it would be a celebrity.” Jessica kept her straight face, she wouldn’t allow herself to get attached to her ‘wife’ while she stayed in Vegas, it’s not like they would contact each other any more once she left. 

  “I know you haven’t realized it yet, but I’m easy to fall for.” Sooyoung joked still, walking forward closer to the door. “But fine, if you want to leave now, we can. Come along Tiffany,” she continued to stroll to where they had entered. 

  “I’m sorry to say, but it’s about time I started heading over to my Dad’s to help him. He’s just moved into Vegas two weeks ago to root me on and needed some help with the last couple boxes to be put in their places,” Tiffany interrupted any further discussion, walking ahead of them. “Do you have my number yet? If not, let me give it to one of you and they can give it to the other.” 

  Even before they got to respond, she went over to Jessica and bumped into her by the side, her phone in her hand, “My number’s right here. I would say it out loud but I’m afraid of strangers wanting to text or call me.” I’m sorry Tiffany but aren’t I an almost-stranger? 

  Jessica hurriedly obeyed and had ‘Tiffany Hwang’ in her contacts within a minute. “Thanks Tiffany for what you did for me today, I’ll text you soon.” Jessica said, and to her own bewilderment, she had meant it. But why? she wondered, it wasn’t normal for her to mildly care about someone she knew for at most three hours, let alone want to text them. 

  “I really have to go now, have fun by yourselves while I’m gone! Tell Sunny that I’ll surely be at the store tomorrow! You two better be there too or I’ll be disappointed!” She yelled as she quickly jogged through the short walk to the clear doors that opened in front of her with motion. 

  “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to drag Jessica there with me! Bye Tiffany!” Sooyoung shouted in response before the last of Tiffany’s body was gone, her head turning to the only other person that she knew in the vicinity. “And it’s back to two.” 

  “It’s a good thing you’re bringing me back there tomorrow, I need to check it out more. I didn’t get to today because of you people having a habit to grab everybody by their wrist and take them to where you want.” Jessica replied, sauntering forward with the pictures still in the palms of her hands. “What are we going to do about these? Do you have a purse secretly on you or do I have to carry them in my pocket?” 

  “Put them in the envelope and then I’ll put them in my pocket, they can become best friends with the room key.” Sooyoung raised her left hand with the envelope they had come from, and Jessica gently set them back inside it. Following her words, she hid them in the same pocket as her room key. 

  The two friends were now through the front door again, standing out in the semi-warm weather. “What do you have planned for us now, Sooyoung? You always seem to have something up your sleeve.” Jessica spoke as the other woman had started walking the opposite way, back toward the hotel. 

  “Oh! So you finally caught onto my tricks! Though I hadn’t planned any of this other than just simply meeting Sunny, I do have a place to go to now.”

  “And where is that? Another person that everybody here knows? This time a celebrity?” 

  “I’m not amused by the sarcasm, Jessica. We’re going to the next place for you, don’t worry.” Obviously that’s what Jessica just had to do, as long as it was Sooyoung, it had to be something surprising. 

 “What kind of place for me?” It had sparked her curiosity that they were headed somewhere for herself this time, and not a place that somebody had insisted for their needs. 

  Sooyoung twisted back her head at Jessica, sending off a smirk with a wink of the left eye. “I said it’s for you, it must be logical and important right?” 

“We’re here!” Sooyoung interjected jubilantly, bouncing in excitement in front of the four story building. It was about time that Jessica got her examination eyes to work again, and she studied the outside cautiously. It looked short and stout next to the many tenuous and tall brick buildings surrounding, but that was one thing she liked about it. 

  “This is the place where I’m going to do rational and significant types of things?” Jessica queried, curious what sort of location her acquaintance had for her this time.  

  “Sure is! Follow me,” Sooyoung opened up the left of the wide glass door and let Jessica in first, hastily moving in front of the her after she was also inside. Jessica soon began to investigate the interior of the premises also, keeping her eyes on various details throughout the opening walkway. 

  The walls were a dark brown style of wood again, and Jessica couldn’t help but wonder if it was a trend for around there to have a dusky atmosphere. She continued onto the paintings on the walls, all of which were abstract with a diverse hue of colors spread about in different designs. Nothing had caught her interest too much until one artwork made her stop in her steps and stare thoughtlessly at it. 

  “It’s...so...” she found her tongue and mind both in confusion on what to describe the illustration before her. It’s main pigments were of a gentle light blue and a dark purple, the two colors were mixed together in different arrangements, alike of the others in the hallway. But something about how they were ordered that made her question everything, maybe it was the tone the artist was hitting at, or maybe it was just Jessica’s way of thinking. 

  “That one got your attention? That picture always has been my favorite. Don’t know why though, it’s so simple yet it strikes so many different things in my mind. You know what I mean?” A voice startled Jessica, she had been too into the drawing in front of her that she didn’t notice anything around her. Sooyoung had noticed that Jessica stopped and walked backward to see what it was. 

 Jessica shook her head to help regain consciousness, the painting just wasn’t normal. She nodded to Sooyoung once her eyes could be taken away from it, “I completely understand. Do you know who the artist of this is?” 

  “It’s another South Korean named Jang Hyukjin, he lives in the Ulsan area last I Googled him, seems to be a nice guy.” Sooyoung responded almost immediately, and Jessica was taken back from how well she knew the answer, like she knew the artist herself.

 “Do you know him?” Instead of just letting the question rest in her mind, she blurted it out unthinkingly. This picture must’ve done something to brain, I feel strange now. 

  “No, why?” Sooyoung shook her head casually, nothing in her tone that indicating slight lying or anything of the sort. She was utterly honest. 

  Jessica swayed her head again slowly, agreeing to herself that it wouldn’t make sense for her to know the creator when she’d been living in America for a large chunk of her life. Changing the subject, she said, “So what is this place? A therapy institute?” 

  Sooyoung let out a small chortle, “Of course not! It’s an arcade! Don’t you know how smart you have to be able to beat these types of games? It closes at ten, if we hurry we can play most of the games before closing!” For yet another time of the day, she went for Jessica’s wrist to grab again. But this time, they intertwined hands. 

  Jessica was unable to notice the difference, the amount of body heat on her hand was the same as from when she grabbed the wrist, plus her hand felt more comfortable. Sooyoung led the other person up the stairs on the right, jogging up the many steps with ease. 

  The two stopped in front of a vast room at the top, full of games, people, and even pool and ice hockey tables. The view brought back memorabilia, the last time she remembered being inside of an arcade was when she was seven. That day for her was both a good and a bad one, she had lost and won some games, all except the last one. If he wasn’t deceased... 

  “What do you want to play first? I thought of pool first so I could teach you, but since this is your time to shine, you get to pick.” Sooyoung explained, pointing quickly at the pool table ten feet away. 

  Jessica simply shrugged, “That’s fine.” Though her words sounded normal, her eyes were distant and full of memories of the day. 

  “Are you okay? You don’t seem normal...” Sooyoung paused to think of something else to say, “Well, less normal than usual.” Jessica decided her little pun wasn’t funny and kept to herself, silent. “Come on Sica cheer up!” She nudged Jessica’s shoulder lightheartedly, attempting a chance at another smile. Sooyoung didn’t know what had made her new friend in this condition, but she wanted it to stop. 

  The bump had awaken Jessica from her daze and she shuddered lightly in response, “I’m fine. I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, let’s just have fun in the arcade.” Something to distract my thoughts away from that day... 

  With fingers still braided together, they headed straight for the empty pool table, a troubled expression decorating Sooyoung’s face.