Jessica found Sooyoung mixing paint beside cottage. She waited for Sooyoung to notice her. But Sooyoung seems to be so absorbed on what she’s doing that Jessica finally gave up. She cleared and Sooyoung finally notices her presence. Sooyoung did not show an angry face as Jessica expected. Rather, she just looks surprised.

“How did you get here?” Sooyoung puts the brush down and stood up to face Jessica.

“Sunny dropped me off.” Jessica said softly.

Sooyoung washed her hand before she approached Jessica again. “So why are you here?”

“I came here to…uhm..I came to a-apologize.” Jessica continued, still nervous because Sooyoung hasn’t changed her expression since she started to speak. “Sunny explained everything to me. I was wrong to judge you. Sorry.”

Sooyoung just stares at Jessica and Jessica was getting uncomfortable. “Hey, stop staring.”

“Oh, sorry. I guess I can’t help but stare at your pretty face.” Sooyoung smiled. Jessica blushed.

Before Sooyoung could , “Hey, is that the same line you use to get Tiffany?” Oops, Jessica thought. She realized that this was not the right thing to say. Awkward silence for a few seconds. “I’m s-sorry.”

“Why do keep on saying sorry?” Sooyoung chuckled. “I should also say sorry for judging you without really knowing you.”

“Forgiven.” Jessica smiled sweetly at Sooyoung. She can’t help but smile back.

“So what are you doing?”

“Painting the cottage. Duh?!” Sooyoung while pointing at the paint near her.

“I know you’re painting!” Jessica was irritated.

Sooyoung laughed. “What I mean to say is, I’m painting a soon-to-be kid’s daycare.”

“By yourself?”

“Not by myself. I’m helping the other workers. If I want to clear my mind, I go here. It makes me happy knowing that the kids will benefit from this.”

Jessica’s seeing the kindness in Sooyoung now.

A lady came near them. Jessica doesn’t know the woman but she’s sure she has seen her before.

“Oh, Rosie.” Sooyoung called her.

“Hi Sooyoung and good afternoon, Ms. Jessica.” She bowed to Jessica.

“Hi.” Jessica just smiled in return.

“Jessica, this is Rosie. She’s the wife of one of the workers in the ranch.”

“Hello, Rosie.” She bowed to Rosie and she responded with a warm smile.

Rosie spoke. “It looks like it’s going to rain. They say there’s a storm coming. You can stay and rest at our house for the mean time.”

*

“Where is Jessica? I haven’t seen her since yesterday.”

Sunny hand Mr. Jung a glass of water. “She’s with Sooyoung, Uncle. Don’t worry. They’re working on the daycare.”

Mr. Jung looked at Sunny waiting for a confirmation of what she just said. Sunny nodded while smiling like a kid.

“Jessica and work don’t seem to fit in the same sentence. I’m not even gonna ask more questions.” Mr. Jung smiled at Sunny.

“She just needs more time to adjust, Uncle.” Sunny said before leaving.

“Hmmm…my princess is back,” while smiling to himself.

**

Inside Rosie’s house, Sooyoung comfortably went straight to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Jessica carefully studied the place. It’s actually bigger than she thought and it feels homey, with family pictures hanging on the wall. Rosie noticed Jessica looking around.

“Sooyoung helped us a lot building this house.” Rosie told her. Jessica turned to her. Rosie continued, “We never thought it’s possible until Sooyoung came.”

“How many of you are staying here?”

“Well, there are two more houses. But in this house alone, there are four families living here. It costs too much to own a piece of land these days. Renting a house on town is also not practical since we’re working here and we barely can afford it. Your father, we owe him our lives.”

Jessica suddenly felt proud of her father. Then she thought of how she’s treating him ever since she arrived. She feels sorry for her father and the way their relationship turned out. She realized Rosie is still talking and now she’s talking about Sooyoung.

Jessica cuts in. “So Sooyoung is really my father’s consultant?” Somehow she wants to hear it from somebody else as well, not that she doesn’t trust Sunny. She just wants to make sure because she wants to be sure of what she’ll say in the future.

But instead of getting an answer from Rosie, a voice from behind her answered. “Yup. Not the gardener. And definitely not someone who exists to annoy you.”

Jessica looked at the floor, embarrassed hearing her own words from Sooyoung’s mouth. She really screwed up.

“Here. Drink this.” Sooyoung handed her a glass of water. She was surprised at Sooyoung’s act of kindness despite the coldness in her voice. She stared at it for a while. “Don’t worry. It’s clean.”

“I know it is,” slightly annoyed at Sooyoung. She took the glass of water and drank it.

***

The rain is pouring really hard now accompanied by great wind. There are occasional thunder and lightning. Sunny is getting worried that Sooyoung and Jessica might get stuck on the road. She called Sooyoung’s phone.

“Sooyoung, where are you?”

“What, I can’t hear you. The signal’s choppy.”

“Where are you? Are you with Jessica?”

“Yeah, we’re going home when the rain stops.”

“Sooyoung, just go home tomorrow morning. They said a tree fell down and blocked the road. And it’s dangerous to walk since the rain has not stopped yet.”

Sooyoung glanced at Jessica who is awkwardly playing with the kids. “Okay, I’ll tell Jessica. Just let Uncle know.”

Sooyoung hang up the phone then went to Jessica. Jessica looked up at Sooyoung. “Are we going home?”

“Yes…tomorrow.” Sooyoung said. Jessica was confused. “What?”

“The road was blocked by a tree that fell down. We can’t go home until tomorrow.”

“What?!”

“Calm down, Jessica. No one’s gonna harm you here.”

“But, I will be bored here. I forgot my iPad at home. I don’t even have clothes here.” Jessica whined.

“I do have some clothes here. I can lend you. And you won’t get bored, we’ll play with the kids.” Sooyoung sheepishly smiled.

“Play with the kids? I can’t even make them laugh. They don’t like me.”

Sooyoung turned to the kids. “Kids, do you want to play with Jessica?”

“Nooooo.” They all answered.

“See!” Jessica said. Sooyoung just laughed at her.

Another update. 

I'm so happy when i saw Jessica hug Sooyoung in  1000 song challenge. 

Thanks to that, I got inspired and wrote this chapter.

SooSica <3