Jessica looked at the empty seat in front of her. Taeyeon had been gone for almost 15 minutes and she was starting to get worried. She checked her phone to see if Taeyeon had left her a message but she did not. Frowning, she left her seat and headed towards the toilet. The cubicles were empty. No one was there. No sight of Taeyeon.

"Where did she go?" Jessica murmured. When Taeyeon left for the toilet, she did not look well, in fact, she looked like she was about to choke. She scrolled down her contact list to Taeyeon's name and just as she was about to call her, a message popped up.

"I wasn't feeling well so I left straight from the toilet. Sorry to keep you waiting. You can take your time to look at the details of the project before giving it to me."

Jessica's frown deepened at the message. Left straight from the toilet? She left her bag at her seat and she left straight from the toilet? If she was not feeling well, where could she go without her bag? Jessica rushed back to the table and took Taeyeon's bag. She ran out after paying the bills and saw Taeyeon's Mercedes still parked at the same spot. Jessica was certain that Taeyeon had not gone far away because how far could a person who was not feeling well go in such a short time?

"Hello? Taeyeon?" Jessica said as Taeyeon picked up her call.

"Uh, yea, Jessica?" Taeyeon mumbled. She sounded breathless.

"Taeyeon, where are you?" Jessica asked, walking towards her BMW parked a few hundred metres away from the restaurant.

"I'm..." Taeyeon trailed off and all Jessica could hear was her short breaths.

"Taeyeon? Taeyeon? Are you okay? Taeyeon?" Jessica looked at her phone to check if Taeyeon was still connected. She was but no reply from her. In a short moment, she was overwhelmed by panic and worry. All she could do was to call out for Taeyeon repeatedly.

"I'm here..." Taeyeon dragged out the two words. "I'm fine."

"No you're not, you don't sound fine. Where are you?" Jessica started the engine.

"I'm at Yoris..."

"Where is that place?" Jessica had never heard of that place and the first thing that came to her mind was, "What kind of name is that?" Again, there was no reply from Taeyeon and Jessica pursed her lips together, slowly getting impatient. Taeyeon left without informing her and now she had to look around for her because she left her stupid bag in the restaurant. Jessica made a mental note to herself to slap Taeyeon if she ever found her fine, but that thought stopped there because Taeyeon did not sound fine.

"Kim Taeyeon, for heaven's sake, get up on the bed!" A distant voice shouted. "Who are you talking to? Hello?" 

"Uhm, hello." Jessica greeted as the distant voice became clearer. A female voice.

"You're..." The voice trailed off and Jessica guessed that she was probably looking at the caller ID. "Jessica?"

"Yes, I am. Is Taeyeon alright?"

"Uhm, she is- Come on buddy, get up. You need to lie down properly. Do you need me to get you some water?" The woman at the other end was distracted. "I'm sorry. You were saying? Is Taeyeon alright? No, she's not. Uh, she's kinda, uhm- Oh my goodness, Kim Taeyeon, don't tell me..."

"Sorry, but can you tell me where are you now? She left her bag with me," Jessica raised her voice a little bit higher to catch the other party's attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Yoris. I'm the owner of Yoris." The woman told her the address and Jessica realised it was just around the corner. No wonder Taeyeon could leave without her car.

"Thank you, I'll be there in a few minutes." Jessica ended the call and drove off around the corner to find Yoris, a small and classy looking cake shop beside a chain store of K.EMP. Jessica was welcomed by the jingling of the sapphire blue windbell hanging by the door. It was a nice, cosy, little shop with minimalistic black and white furniture against the wooden interior. It was really neat and it definitely caught her attention. Behind the glass display were rows of cakes, beautifully decorated and deliciously appetising.

"Welcome!' A head popped up from behind a wall which appeared to be a pathway to rooms at the back. The woman had her hair tied up loosely, strands of her dark brown hair fell by the side of her head, looking like a mess. She had a black apron on, covering her navy plaid shirt. A stylish woman, but tragically messy, as if a hurricane had happened all over her. "Jessica?"

"Yes, I am." Jessica raised Taeyeon's bag and waved it around. "Is Taeyeon around?"

"Uh, yes, she is. I'm Yuri, by the way," the woman introduced herself, smiling a bit shyly. Yuri looked scanned Jessica briefly from head to toe. Another madly stylish and rich person. She had plenty of those people in her shop but Jessica was unusually outstanding. Of course she had heard of the person standing in front of her before, she was on the cover page of almost all magazines. She was quite surprised when she saw her at first because she expected her to be another Jessica, someone who was... normal, not the CEO of the rising fashion label but then she thought of the reason she was here. Taeyeon. That made more sense. Taeyeon, being the CEO of K.EMP had a lot of projects going on and it would be understandable if she had a project with JDOT. "This way please."

Yuri led Jessica to the back of the shop where a few rooms were located. They entered the one furthest away and the first thing Jessica saw was Taeyeon lying on the bed, her face pale. Taeyeon had natural fair skin but that complexion she had on then was nothing in comparison to that. It was beyond pale, it was ghostly.

"What happened?" Jessica asked Yuri who was sitting on the bed beside Taeyeon.

"I don't know. She turned up at my shop like this. Thank goodness there wasn't anyone around, if not they would have ran away." Yuri touched Taeyeon's face and she opened her eyes to look around.

"Ah... Jessica?" Taeyeon's eyes landed on Jessica and her chest tightened again. She escaped from the restaurant because she did not want to see Jessica anymore. She knew something was wrong and she needed to flee. She sniggered at herself. Running away was what she did best anyway.

"You left your bag." Jessica raised it for her to see and left it beside the bed. She felt a bit uncomfortable when Taeyeon was looking at her. Out of all the times she had seen Taeyeon, her eyes were clear, bright and she liked looking at it but earlier on at the restaurant, the clarity was replaced by something almost ominous. It was unsettling, as if something was troubling her. She also noticed that she seemed soulless throughout the entire lunch hour. Taeyeon's eyes were still on Jessica and she registered a slight hostility in it making her shift a bit behind Yuri. "I guess I should be going right now."

Taeyeon dropped her gaze and turned her back to Jessica, softly saying, "Yuri, I'm tired."

Yuri looked at Taeyeon and patted her back. From that short moment, she could already guess what was going on in that small and loaded brain of Taeyeon. "Jessica, I'll see you out."

They left the room and made their way to the shop. Yuri could feel the tension in Jessica, though she did not know why. "Taeyeon..." Yuri spoke.

"Is she alright?" Jessica asked, genuinely concerned. She did not know how to react to Taeyeon's change over such a short span of time. She sounded perfectly fine in the phone last night, still bidding her sweet dreams and then suddenly, she was a total different person. Had she done something wrong? 

"She, uh, has some conditions," Yuri replied softly.

"Mental?" The word escaped from Jessica's mouth before she could even swallow it in.

"What? No!" Yuri laughed lightly as she pushed open the door to her shop. She did not expect Jessica to think that way of Taeyeon but she could understand why Jessica felt that way because sometimes, Taeyeon's mood could change as fast as a snap of the fingers. "She will be fine."

"Really?" Jessica asked, raising her eyebrows.

Yuri nodded, "I think it's the stress. She took over the company not too long ago so it could be taking a toll on her. I don't know. She never talk much about her work to me anyway. Do you want to bring some cakes home?" 

"I was thinking of buying some cakes."

"I can give them to you," Yuri smiled, "Just take it as... A thank you gift on Taeyeon's part for bringing her bag over. That kid can be a burden sometimes."

"I don't think that would be nice of me to take your cakes." Jessica looked at the cakes behind the display. "They look expensive."

Yuri glanced over to her cakes and snorted. "How expensive can they be when the cost of what you're wearing is equivalent to my profit for almost two years? I will pack some for you."

Jessica smiled sheepishly and muttered a "thank you". Yuri was a unique person. She could be shy sometimes but she could be really friendly too and Jessica wondered how Taeyeon befriended her when clearly, their personalities were almost polar opposite. Though Taeyeon could be appear cheerful at times, it seemed more like lapses from her usual personality. She gave off a slight melancholic feel but Jessica liked it, it reminded her of Harvey. And Yuri, on the other hand, could make people feel at ease.

"Here you go." Yuri handed the box of cakes over to Jessica. "Sorry for the trouble caused."

"It's alright. I'll come over another time. I like your shop."

"Thank you and nice to meet you, CEO Jung," Yuri emphasised on the word 'CEO'.

"Nice to meet you too."

Yuri looked on as Jessica left the shop and walked towards the white BMW parked outside her shop. She saw the diamond ring on Jessica's finger the moment she raised Taeyeon's bag and when she saw Taeyeon's reaction when Jessica walked in, she knew something was up. Despite appearing gloomy most of the time, Taeyeon rarely looked half as bad as she did when she appeared at her shop just now. It threw her off her feet for a moment because it felt almost as if that day was happening again, or it had already happened.

The door to the rooms opened and Taeyeon poked her head out.

"She left," Yuri said simply, answering Taeyeon's doubts. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah, much better." Taeyeon patted her chest and took a deep breath. The pain in her chest was gone and she could breathe smoothly again.

"I thought there's no more problems with your heart?" Yuri pointed to the position where Taeyeon's heart was located.

"I have no idea."

"Taeyeon..."

"Don't use that tone on me Kwon Yuri, I know what you're going to say," Taeyeon warned.

"What am I going to say?" Yuri crossed her arms and looked questioningly at Taeyeon.

"I'm not going to make that mistake again," Taeyeon said, skilfully avoiding Yuri's question yet at the same time, answering it.

"From what I've observed, it's a bit too late, isn't it?" Yuri lightly kicked Taeyeon with her feet.

"I know what I'm doing, Yuri, it just... caught me off guard," Taeyeon's voice softened to a whisper. "And it feels terrible."

Yuri looked sympathetically at her and sighed, "It sure did, didn't it? To have you almost going-" Yuri stopped when she saw the change in her face. "Just make sure you don't do it again."

"I know, I've learnt," Taeyeon muttered.

"I know you have, Tae, you're smart. I just want you to be happy. You deserve to be. Come here let me give you a hug." Yuri stretched out her arms and Taeyeon smiled sadly as she walked towards the former. She was glad to have Yuri always by her side, especially when many people had given up on her. "I just want you to be happy. You deserve to be." How she wished too. All these years luxury goods had been like normal goods to her, but happiness, on the other hand, had always been a luxury to her.

-

A/N: Update! It's a rather slow chapter, not much insight into the whole story but you can infer :)