“Jessica?”

Sunny called out, uncertain. Why on earth would Jessica be all the way in Shenzhen? Shouldn’t she be in New York City right about now? There was no doubting it however, when the girl in front of her hurriedly pressed a finger to her own lips to signal for Sunny to keep it down.

Jessica made her way across the hall to Sunny’s room and Sunny stepped out of the way to allow the petite American to slip in past her. The shorter member closed the door behind her and turned around to see Jessica standing there facing her with a small smile on her face.

“Hi.” Jessica meekly said.

Without warning, Sunny ran towards her friend and wrapped the girl in a tight hug as if disallowing Jessica to ever leave her arms. For the first time since news of Jessica’s departure was announced, for the first time in the last few months since that day in Hyomin’s apartment, Sunny fully broke down, failing to control her tears as she clung onto Jessica for dear life, a stream of apologies flooding past her lips.

“I’m sorry…so so sorry….”

Jessica just weakly smiled and the back of Sunny’s head as the latter’s muffled apologies filled her ears, ignoring the fact that her friend’s tears were staining her designer coat that probably cost her thousands of dollars.

“Hey. Hey.” Jessica softly whispered causing Sunny to look up at her, puffy red eyes and all. Jessica wiped the tears from her friend’s cheeks and leaned down to gently kiss the top of her head.

“It’s okay. I’m here now Sunny.”

Sunny’s grip on Jessica’s coat didn’t loosen, but got tighter on the contrary. The usually strong Sunny was like a child in Jessica’s arms and the American found it ironic how just a few weeks ago their roles were reversed. It was Jessica crying into Sunny’s arms before, using Sunny’s shoulder as a soft place to rest her head and dry her tears.

“B-but…you shouldn’t have had to l-leave in the first p-place.” Sunny sputtered in between sobs.

Jessica waited for Sunny to calm down a little, both of them stood locked in an embrace in front of the door. Sunny eventually calmed down a little after another 10 minutes of crying, and her brain finally managed to work out a question that should have been the first thing that came out of .

“What are you doing here Sica?”

“Ouch! It’s only been a day but am I already not welcome here?” Sica said with a feigned expression of hurt on her face which caused Sunny to raise an eye brow at her. Sunny didn’t expect Jessica to be able to joke around after all that has happened.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that. What are you doing here in Shenzhen? When did you get here?”

“A few hours ago actually. Came here straight from the airport.”

“Oh really? Why the rush?” Sunny asked, curious. She made her way to the minibar and decided that maybe Cola wasn’t such a bad idea after all. She grabbed two cans and passed one to Jessica who accepted it while answering her question.

“I came to see Yuri.”

Sunny raised another eyebrow at this. She knew the pair of them were close, but for Jessica to rush here all the way from across the world just to see Yuri surely warranted a good reason.

“She…” Jessica began to elaborate, but paused for a moment to take a sip from her drink, keeping an eye on Sunny to presumably gauge her reaction.

“When she found out that I was kicked out of the group, she kind of went berserk. She told me that she was going to leave the group too, and that she didn’t want to be in Girls’ Generation if I wasn’t in it.” Jessica finished, fully expecting the stunned look on Sunny’s face.

“W-what?! No! I mean, we can’t lose her too! That’s just….” Sunny began to panic at the prospect of Girls’ Generation losing Yuri as well as Jessica.

“Relax. That’s why I came to talk her out of it. She’s not going anywhere.” Jessica assured her, and Sunny breathed a sigh of relief.

Sunny took a seat on the nearby armchair and gestured to Jessica to make herself comfortable as well. It felt like they had a lot to talk about tonight. Jessica took a seat on the opposing armchair a few feet away and stared at Sunny, who looked like she was having an inner battle against herself.

“What’s bothering you Sunny? You know you can ask me anything.” Jessica offered trying to aid her friend.

“Umm…I never actually asked because it wasn’t really my place, but were you and Yuri…y’know….” Sunny left the question hanging, but the implications were all there. She wasn’t sure if the question was a sensitive one or not.

Jessica was silent for a moment, eyes fixed on a point past Sunny but the shorter girl was sure that she wasn’t staring at anything in particular. There was a storm of emotions that Sunny could see behind the Ice Princess’ eyes and Sunny wanted to take back her question but it was too late.

“Yeah…we were. It was a long time ago though. A few years ago in fact.” Jessica finally answered and her lips curved into a small, sad smile as her mind went on a trip to the past.

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that.” Sunny wasn’t sure what to say at that moment. Jessica and Yuri still looked very close to each other even though they’ve broken up. Sunny would never have known that they’ve had a past history with each other if she had not asked. It was amazing how it didn’t seem to affect their friendship one bit. Either that or they’re both really good at hiding their emotions.

“No don’t be! It…It was my fault anyway. I ended it between us. I just couldn’t hurt her that way anymore.”

Sunny knew that Jessica was aware she wasn’t obligated to tell Sunny anything. This was all out of Jessica’s willingness, so Sunny listened. She listened because she wasn’t sure when would be the next time she would get the opportunity to sit down with her close friend and converse like this again.

“I love Yuri. I still do, but it was unfair to her because I would be lying if I said that she was the only one in my heart. Yuri knew this as well and she accepted my decision to break it off, although I knew it killed her inside. I could hear her crying in her room late at night.” Jessica said softly. I was almost as if she wasn’t talking to Sunny but to herself instead.

“It was really dumb of me though. Stupid Jessica. Being in love with someone who already has a boyfriend. But I couldn’t help it y’know? She stole my heart from the moment I first joined the group, so I guess it was only fitting that she broke my heart when she kicked me out of it.” Jessica’s voice cracked, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. Her grip on the can of Coke loosening, causing the now empty can to slip past her fingers and land on the carpeted floor.

Sunny’s jaw dropped once realization of who Jessica was talking about hit her.

“Taeyeon?!” Sunny asked in wonderment before she could stop herself.

Jessica slowly nodded her head, biting her trembling lower lip.

“It’s so stupid I know! She has Baekhyun and I really don’t want to get in between them so I never tried anything. They’re so happy together! I never told her, but I’m pretty sure Tiffany suspects it. All this while though, even when I started developing feelings for Yuri, Taeyeon never left my heart. My biggest regret is not telling her how I feel before she started dating him.” Jessica’s tears finally escaped her and Sunny was pretty sure that they were tears of shame and not sadness. Shame for rejecting Yuri’s feelings for a one sided love.

“And Yuri…oh that silly girl. She still loved me after all this time. Even when I was a mess, she still stayed up all night to pick up my broken pieces and tried to put me back together again. She doesn’t deserve someone like me.” Jessica sobbed harder, and this prompted Sunny to reach out and gently her friend’s shoulder.

“Don’t you talk as if you know what’s in Jessica’s heart.”

Now Yuri’s words made sense to her. Now she realised why Yuri had slapped their leader. It was because Taeyeon had betrayed Jessica in the most cruel of ways, and she didn’t even know what she did. Taeyeon thought that she had only betrayed Jessica’s trust and friendship but she had also taken Jessica’s feelings, packed it into a suitcase along with Jessica’s belongings and kicked it out of the door. Sunny felt a sudden rise in anger towards her leader, a feeling that she was sure she shouldn’t be feeling because it was not her place to do so.

“I heard Yuri slapped Taeng.” Jessica stated, causing Sunny to slowly nod to confirm the news.

“Could you have stopped it from happening?” Jessica asked Sunny, who thought back to what she was feeling at the time a few nights ago. Truth be told, she saw the slap coming. She felt the tensing in Yuri’s arm when she was holding it back, and she could have easily tightened her grip to prevent the slap that followed after.

“No.” Sunny answered before taking in a deep breath. Jessica looked up to study Sunny’s face, knowing that there was more to the story.

“I mean yeah, I could have stopped Yuri but if I wasn’t busy holding Yuri back truthfully I might have been the one to slap Taeyeon.” Sunny admitted sheepishly causing Jessica to stare at her wide-eyed.

“Wow. What happened to always being impartial?”

“Well…I get emotional too sometimes.”

Jessica just laughed a small, melodic laugh and Sunny immediately missed it as soon as it went. This girl in front of her right now has been through so much pain and Sunny felt awful for not being there for her. She was too busy getting her own self sorted through Roommate that she neglected helping the girl who has been crying herself to sleep in the room opposite hers every single night. Sunny couldn’t help but feel like scum at the moment.

“I’ve been an awful friend. I’m so sorry for not being there for you Sica.”

“And I’m sorry for making you come up with excuses to management whenever I don’t turn up for work.”

“Call it even?”

“Deal.”

There was that melodic laugh again. Sunny took it for granted when she could have heard it every single day, but now Jessica was not allowed to live with them anymore. Sunny wouldn’t get to taste her friend’s bad cooking, or argue with her over the TV remote, or shake her awake whenever Jessica overslept and was in danger of missing her flight, or laugh whenever Jessica trips over her own feet in the middle of performing a song….

Sunny’s arms went around Jessica again and held her tight, just loose enough to prevent suffocating her friend and tried to memorize and engrain into her body the warm feeling that came with hugging Jessica, burying her face into the crook of Jessica’s neck. Things weren’t going to be the same again after this, and it was going to be hard to continue without the 9^th member of the group so she wanted to hold on as long as possible.

“Sunny, can you do me a favour?”

“mmphh.” Came Sunny’s muffled response.

“Please don’t stay angry at Taeng.”

Sunny tore her face away from Jessica’s neck to stare directly into her friend’s eyes while frowning.

“Don’t look at me like that. You know that she did the right thing in the long run. I would have liked to stay in the group for a little bit longer, but we all knew where this was headed. It’s a bit premature, but I was going to leave anyway. It took me awhile to come to this conclusion, but when I did I guess it’s the right thing to do.”

“Are you sure you’re not letting your feelings cloud your judgement?”

“Maybe I am. Even though I’m hurt I can’t bring myself to get angry at her, and I cant stand the thought of all of you being angry at her either. I know all of you are probably feeling emotional, but can you try not to be? I mean I even flew across the world to prevent Yuri from doing something rash. Please forgive her? For me?”

Sunny stayed silent for a moment, contemplating her friend’s request.

“…I’ll try.”

“Thank you Sunny Bunny.”

Sunny ruffled Jessica’s hair in response which earned her a surprised squeak from the Ice Princess, followed by a whack on the shoulder for daring to defile her precious hairdo. Sunny’s eyes glanced downwards and noticed the shoes that Jessica was wearing.

“Sica are you wearing Toro Bravos?” Sunny commented, recognizing the red pair of Air Jordan IV’s on her friend’s feet as she owned a similar pair. Jessica never wore basketball shoes casually before, so she was taken aback by the sudden style change.

“Yeah. I picked them up in New York. Since I’m not an idol anymore, the cameras won’t be on me as often. I can afford to dress down on occasion now.” Jessica said while wiggling her feet to show off her shoes. Sunny laughed at her friend’s idea of ‘dressing down’. She definitely was a fashionista.

“Speaking of New York, are you going back there after this? What’re your plans? It’s 4am now. Are you going to stay the night?”

“I…don’t know what my plans are. I booked a room on a separate floor in this hotel so probably I’ll just sleep there. As for New York, I think I’ll be going back to Korea first. Krystal should be worried about me. For the first time in more than a decade, I have no schedules. I’m free, but I don’t really know what to do with all this freedom. Well, technically free. I’m still contracted under SM.”

Sunny nodded in understanding. “You know you can come back to visit us any time you feel lonely right? We’re still your sisters.”

Jessica nodded and smiled. “Always will be.”

“Why don’t you stay the night in my room instead? I’ll miss spending time with you.” Sunny suggested, but the hesitance that flashed by Jessica’s eyes did not go unnoticed.

“I…really don’t want to run the risk of bumping into Tae. I don’t know what I’ll do if I see her. I’m kind of torn between punching her and kissing her and I really don’t want to do either.” Jessica sheepishly confessed to Sunny’s amusement.

“I thought you couldn’t get angry at her?” Sunny grinned.

“I’m not angry, I’m just a mess of emotions right now. Besides, I don’t think your girlfriend would be happy with you going all the way to China and sharing a bed with someone not from your group.” Jessica teased.

“Hyomin is not my girlfriend! Not yet anyways. I haven’t asked her yet.” Sunny fired back and Jessica’s eyes lit up at the news.

“You finally made progress?! Alright spill!”

Sunny spent the rest of the night telling Jessica all about the kiss that she and Hyomin shared a few nights ago and in return Jessica elaborated further on her past relationship with Yuri.

Jessica left Sunny’s room an hour later and immediately Sunny missed hearing Jessica’s laughter that was light as air. It was a sheer of luck that she had the urge to walk towards the vending machine and caught Jessica when she did as the latter was leaving Yuri’s room. Girls’ Generation was down to 8 members, but hearing Jessica talk about her future made Sunny realize that maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

It was time for Sunny to start supporting her sister and close friend, not as Girls’ Generation’s Jessica Jung but as Jessica Jung Soo Yeon, the head of Blanc & Éclare.

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I should probably stop making promises and saying that I'll update faster. Sorry for the relatively late update! Schoolwork has been a thing lately. 

Well, before I started writing this story I had a few key scenes already in mind. This scene was actually one of them, and I'm kind of happy at the way it turned out. I added a mess of pairings in this chapter, and I just can't resist writing more of Jessica. I might even sneak in a few more Jessica scenes in this story in future chapters, and I'm even planning my next fic which is going to be a Jessica fic of sorts. I won't get started on a new fic until this is done however. I have commitment issues.

I also can't help but sneak in the Toro Bravo Jordan 4 reference. I'm a huge sneaker collector and that's one of my favourite pairs ever. I also googled "SNSD wearing Jordans" and most of the pictures were of Sunny wearing the Toro's and I'm like "Yay good taste!"

Thank you so much for all the new subscribers and comments! I really appreciate the comments and they really make my day! Keep them coming hahahaha! :D

P/s: Next chapter is the dreaded chp 15 that took me a whole month to write and re-write. It's not bad....I just feel like it's a tad messy. Might do some last minute touch-ups to it.