|12|

“How’s your day? Had any sleep?”

“We had a little trouble with some of the stunts but overall, today’s take was fine. And no, I hadn’t slept much. Anyway, how’s yours?”

“Had a hard time with Krystal. She’s been out of it lately.”

“Don’t be so hard on her.”

“I’m not. It’s just, she couldn’t focus well on remembering the choreography that we had to end up starting all over again.”

“Why not talk to the manager and ask them to give Krys some time to spend with her sister?”

“I’m not sure if they’ll allow that since Soojung had already spent a lot of time off overseas with her sister…”

“But the kid’s clearly worried about her sister’s state now. Jessica barely responded to her when she arrived here and she hadn’t seen her sister awake.”

“I guess I’ll need to talk to Soonkyu about this. She had visited the little sergeant, right?”

“Hmm. Soonkyu was lucky enough to visit her.”

“Yeah, but she told me that Jess had a bad case of nightmares that time. She and Taeyeon weren’t really able to sleep much after Jess had her episode. Poor Soonkyu had to show up at the meeting with the Board in such an exhausted state the next morning.”

“Hyo, I think we should drop by our favorite bakeshop. Tiff had just messaged me that Yoong, Soo, and maknae are over at the dorm.”

“I guess this means two boxes of velvet cupcakes?”

“Make it three. Who knows how much Jessica misses eating them.”

“Question is: who will buy them? Either you or me. I’m driving, so I guess it’s you, Yul.”

“Yah! The paparazzi might see me and follow us around. They mustn’t know that everyone’s over at our old dorm. Well, save for Soonkyu and Tiffany. Sunny is still in her office while Tiffany’s on her way to her Psych class.”

“So, any other plans?”

“I think we should just head to the back of the shop and ask the owner a little favor, Hyo.”

“Hmmm, good idea.”

+++

Choi Sooyoung rubbed her eyes twice. The scene before her was close to impossible when she saw Jessica and Yoona lounging at their spacious foyer whilst watching a movie from their huge television.

“Oh! Good evening, Soo! I couldn’t sleep well so I asked Yoona to accompany me while watching TV.”

Had Jessica not been clad in a hospital gown with an IV attached to the back of her hand and some freshly applied dressings placed over her injuries, Soo wouldn’t have thought about how much the Jung had gone through. The Choi would’ve treated this as normal just like old times, but no. The wheelchair sitting right next to the couch, close to Jessica, reminded her that things weren’t the same.

“Shouldn’t you be resting in your room, Jung?” Soo pretended to scold the older girl, her arms akimbo.

The sergeant only grinned.

Sooyoung shook her head at the response.

“Unnie got bored and she couldn’t sleep.” Yoona told Sooyoung.

Just as Sooyoung was about to make her rebuttal, the door to her shared room with the sergeant suddenly burst open, revealing a frantic Taeyeon with a serious case of bed hair.

“Where did-” Taeyeon’s question was cut off when she saw the second oldest casting her, a questioning gaze. “Oh my, I thought you were gone!” Taeyeon flailed her arms in relief, amusing her audience of her cute gestures.

Jessica’s blank expression transformed into a silly grin at Taeyeon’s actio