Jungsoo edged onto his seat with a bit of difficulty. Taeyeon helped him along, but he waved her away. “You should take a seat, too.”

When Taeyeon sat down, Jungsoo had a menu opened for her. “Here, order something.”

She looked at him curiously. “Why are you being so nice?”

He grinned. “I can’t mistreat a maid, can I? Now do as I say, and order something. It’s my treat.”

They dug into their ice creams a while later, and she realized that he was making it up for infuriating her in the morning. “You’re doing this to appease me, aren’t you?”

He choked on a nut. “What?”

“When you called me Taengoo in the morning.”

“Uh…”

“Come on! I overreacted to someone calling me a name I really dislike. It doesn’t mean anything. I’m not angry.”

“It wasn’t a pretty sight to see you peeved, though…”

“So you ARE trying to appease me!”

She threw her spoon back into her sundae, spewing a few bits of strawberry ice cream onto the table. He sighed and put his spoon down. “Why is it that you can’t accept my good-natured offer?”

“Because I’m not angry, and I don’t want you to think I am.”

“Alright, then take it that I’m treating you to ice cream because I want to.”

Before she got to retort, he put a finger to her lips. “And by the way, I do want to.”

She flung his hand away. “Aren’t you curious at all why I overreacted to that name?”

He thought about it for a while. “Well, even if I am, we agreed to leave it behind us, didn’t we.”

“You do know why, don’t you.”

He scratched his nape. “I don’t think it’s something I can just… un-know, if you know what I mean. I just thought that you’ve already forgotten about it. I mean, it did happen ages ago.”

She resumed her consumption of ice cream. “I’m not the type who forgets things this easily.”

He watched her for a moment or two, and decided that it was better to leave certain things unsaid.

After all, a secret between them will always remain a secret between them.

=

At night, Stephanie received two different calls that put her in different moods.

The first one was Hyoyeon, who called screaming, possibly with the intent to burst her eardrums. When the shrillness ended, Stephanie had to check if her hearing ability still existed.

“What the hell, Hyoyeon?”

She could hear Hyoyeon gasping for breath over the line. “Seriously, please don’t tell me you just called to scream.”

Hyoyeon was still gasping when she tried to form a reply. “Okay, Fany, I gotta go, bye.”

“Hyoyeon!”

The line was cut before she could even finish calling her name. She wondered what was up with her friend, and then moments later another call came in. It was Taeyeon.

She silently prayed that Taeyeon wouldn’t call with a scream, but Taeyeon always seemed like the one who would do the scream thing more than Hyoyeon did. Fortunately, Taeyeon called with a plot to pitch for their essay.

“Fany, I got the perfect plot.”

“Tell me about it!”

“About unrequited love… A girl falls in love with a guy, her childhood sweetheart of some sort, and as they grow up her feelings for him grow as well. But somewhere along the way, the guy had to leave, and she let him go without confessing. When she believed that the guy would come back to hear her out, he comes back with another lover instead.”

Stephanie pondered over it for a while before snapping her fingers. “Ah! So it’s like an ‘almost’ kind of thing, huh.”

“Exactly. So how about we write this out? We can focus more on the bit where she loses her chance, and when he comes back and she realizes that she lost her chance again.”

“Alright! We’ll work on this. Where did you get this plot from?”

Over the phone, she could hear Taeyeon starting to be deep in thought. She waited for an answer, but definitely failed to expect what was coming.

“From someone I know,” Taeyeon answered.

=

Friday came.

=

Donghae was at lunch with the usual group of boys. He had a salad instead of his usual burger, and this attracted weird looks from everyone around the table.

Hyukjae threw a judgmental glare at Donghae. “What, are you on a diet?”

Donghae frowned at him. “I’m eating healthy.”

“He has to maintain his S-line,” Kyuhyun teased. Everyone erupted into giggles, and Donghae sighed.

“You guys would never understand why I’m doing this.”

“Clearly it’s because you have to meet a girl,” Jungsoo suggested. “And that’s why you have to look good. No flabby fats for her to squeeze, right?”

Siwon rubbed his chin. “Donghae, you’re like the one person in this gang who has zero fats. Negative fats, actually.”

Donghae dug into his salad again, doing his best to block out everyone’s jeering. “Well, if I’m going to be spending time with Jessica tonight, I want to make sure that everything’s perfect. Including my fat rate.”

=

Krystal went over her evening schedule.

To create time for Jessica and Donghae, she would agree to going on a dinner date with her parents, and make an excuse for Jessica that she’d be too tired to join them after cheerleading finals.

Then she would use her brains to leave Jessica home alone for as long as possible.

Now she just prayed that Donghae had something planned for her.

=

Before her parents got ready, Krystal snuck out of the house to go to Donghae’s house. Donghae was already waiting behind his door, all dressed up and ready.

“Wow, snazzy,” Krystal praised.

Donghae flashed a thumbs-up and a silly grin. Krystal ruffled up his hair, patting him on the shoulder for emphasis. “There, good luck to you tonight. You better do well.”

“Got it!”

She skipped away to rejoin her parents at her own house, but right before she left a thought hit her. She turned back to Donghae and held a fist out. “One more thing, Donghae.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t get my sister laid tonight. We don’t have that much time.”

Krystal swore she saw a hint of disappointment on Donghae’s face as he spluttered and denied even having that thought. She chuckled and went back to her own house.

=

Jessica made a spectacular finish at her finals, which unfortunately resulted in a cut on her calf that she couldn’t cover up with anything. She swore when she saw it in the mirror as she washed up after the competition – which they had won champions for, again – knowing that it wouldn’t be a pretty sight for her date with Donghae tonight.

Or rather, quality time, as he’d called it in a phone call two days ago.

She couldn’t wait to see him face to face again, after a long week. She’d been missing him more than she thought she would, and she found it funny but interesting how she was so taken by this adorable boy who lived next door.

She mused that it must have been silly, being neighbors but only feeling that spark when they were both invited to a pizza outing. She guessed it was fate.

Though, if she had to be honest, she felt the spark at the karaoke session during the new year countdown party. She wouldn’t ever tell anyone, not even Donghae, but as they counted down to the last few seconds of the year, her eyes were trained on him.

Technically, he was the first person she saw when the year began.

And secretly, she hoped that the same would go for the following year.

=

Donghae was leaning out the windowsill when a huge black sedan drove up the street, stopping right between his and Jessica’s houses. He stuck his face up against the window to get a clearer view, and saw that the black sedan was driven by a handsome young man, not as young as he is, but young nonetheless.

And the passenger who got out next to him… was Jessica.

Donghae wasn’t sure if this was supposed to happen, but there was a burning sensation at his gut and a sour feeling in his chest. He bit on his tongue to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating, and, well, he really wasn’t.

His brain had been asking who the man is.

But that hadn’t been his first thought.

His first thought was instead: ‘get away from Jessica’.

=

Before the car even revved up and left the street, Donghae had bounded out the door, almost knocking it off its hinges, as he struggled to reach Jessica in the nick of time. Jessica saw him sprinting his way towards her and grinned, stepping out of the way before he collided into her. “Wow, you’re so excited to see me?”

Donghae caught himself, tried to focus, but failed because he caught sight of the beautiful grin on Jessica’s face. He snapped out of it and tried to form an audible sentence.

“That… That man… The car… You… Who… Why… What… How.”

When Jessica erupted into sweet giggling upon hearing that, Donghae’s first thought was that she got reminded of the man who drove her home. The sour bit in his chest was rising and he felt almost scared. Scared of what?

Then the burning sensation in his gut overpowered everything and he felt a scowl coming onto his face. “Why are you giggling?” His tone was getting unhappy, and as much as he didn’t want it to be, he couldn’t help it.

Jessica stopped with the giggling, surveyed him for a while, and stifled her next bout of laughter. She poked him in the cheeks. “Are you talking about that really cute guy you saw earlier? The one who drove me home?”

Donghae almost swatted her hands away, but knew he had to be a gentleman. He nodded, evading her touch with one swift duck. He folded his arms. “Who is he?”

She sighed, folding her arms as well. “Oh, Donghae, I like you so much, you wouldn’t ever find out how much I like you.” Her words and her expression were cryptic, and he was suddenly left figuring out if he should be confused, or peeved as he was a moment ago.

She skipped away, hands swinging in both directions – of his house, and her house. She turned with a spectacular spin and landed with a jump, showcasing some of her cheerleading moves. Donghae took this as a distraction he had to ignore, but how could he ever ignore a Jessica who was strutting her stuff in front of him?

“Your house, or my house?” she asked, a cheeky undertone to her question. He tried to block out the innuendo in the question, and decided that any ual references could come later. Much, much later.

He kept quiet, his lips quivering as he tried to resist giving his answer. He had to maintain his angry stance until she broke her defenses and admit to him who the hell that guy was.

She took the initiative to pull Donghae into his house, swiftly putting the two of them within the boundaries of his residence in a minute’s worth of time. They were now standing by his closed door, staring at each other at a loss for words.

He cleared his throat. “Are you going to tell me who that guy is now?”

She smiled and went to sit on his couch. “Not yet.”

“Why?” He scurried over, hopped and landed beside her with a huge thump on the couch.

“Because I want you to answer my question first.”

“What question?”

“Tell me how you feel right now.”

Donghae shot her a look and pursed his lips. “There’s a sour feeling in my chest. And a burning sensation in my gut. And it’s getting worse by the minute. And I don’t like what I saw.”

Jessica leaned in, almost too close for comfort, and Donghae tried not to lean in as well. He fought his temptation, and leaned back away from her. “What are you doing?” he asked, a little panicky all of a sudden.

She scrutinized him with her twinkling eyes, and he fought not to call her beautiful. Stay angry, he told himself. He was angry, though he didn’t know why, but he was, and he wouldn’t let her beauty change that away. “I’m just trying to take in as much of this scene as possible. You never know when such a beautiful scene can come by again.”

Donghae flipped and swatted her away. “What are you talking about? I just wanted to know who that guy was!”

“Okay, I’ll tell you everything if you answer my next question.”

“No fair!”

“Do you want your answer?”

“Fine,” he concurred, a little too begrudgingly.

She leaned in again this time, and he made no initiative to swat her away. He just stared, trying his best not to kiss her and break his walls down.

“Are you jealous?” she asked, in a voice not higher than a whisper.

He hopped up from the couch, literally hopping mad, and ran over to the far end of the living room. “NO I’M NOT!”

Jessica watched as he shook his head, hard. She was almost sure his head would detach from his spine and come rolling down any moment now. She smiled and advanced towards him. “Really?”

He pouted and turned his back on her. “Yes, really!”

“Are you really not jealous?”

“Yes!”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“Not jealous?”

“Yes!”

“So are you jealous?”

“Yes!”

Uh-oh.

“Wait, I mean no!”

She laughed hard, poking him in the gut. “You are so jealous! Gotcha!”

“That was a trick question!” he snapped, back still facing her. “I’m not jealous!”

As soon as he made his final statement, he felt a pair of arms wrapping around him, from behind him. The arms continued to unfold his folded arms, and he let them go limp beside his torso. He felt his stiff back soften as she leaned on him, her body weight almost pressing down on his back. He took a deep breath and reached up to hold her hands in his.

“Okay, I am jealous,” he admitted.

Her grip on him tightened, and though he was close to asphyxiation, he couldn’t enjoy this more than he did. He felt her smile into his back, and he felt a smile coming to his face as well.

“I know,” she responds.

=

Mega update for a merry christmas :-)