Chapter 23

"Where are you going?"

Jessica turned around at the sudden voice speaking to her.

"I thought you were sleeping?"

"I'm awake now, thanks to you," Jay said, fluffing his pillow before placing it behind his back as he sat up straight and lay against it.

"So..I asked you. Where are you going?" he asked once again, a forbidding frown plastered onto his face.

"Planning to go catch up with friends, why?" Jessica asked with slight bewilderment.

"Isn't today Yuri's birthday? Is that why you're going out?"

"Yeah, I'm going out to celebrate her birthday with a few friends. Is it a crime for me to go celebrate a friend's birthday?" she retorted.

"No," Jay said firmly, "But don't you think it's time we should go back to the States? I'm sure my friend doesn't appreciate us staying at his house all the time."

Jessica leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. Now that she had reconciled her relationship with Yuri, she had no reason to go back to the States. She doesn't want her mom to keep pressuring her to marry Jay faster because that's just not going to happen.

"I'm not going back, it feels great to be in my home country again. I want to stay here, and actually, I have plans to stay here for a while longer too."

Jay scoffed, "Uh, what's that suppose to mean? So you want to stay here while I go back?"

"You can go back if you want, it doesn't matter to me." Jessica shrugged.

"What the hell, you're my fiancee and that's what you're telling me? You know what Jessica? After we've came to Korea, you've been acting a little bit cold to me. When I try to kiss you lately, you push me away. When I try to get a little intimate with you at night, you push me away. Is coming back to Korea just a plan for you to go meet up with Yuri? Or is it that you don't love me anymore?—-and it better not be the latter."

His ridiculous statement made Jessica sneer.

"Aren't you being a bit too arrogant?" she said lastly and without waiting for any comeback from him, she left room and smiled to herself in anticipation to greet Yuri on her birthday. Yeah, she yearned to tell Jay straight up to his face that she doesn't love him anymore, but it's just not the right time yet. A few more arguments between them, and it's then that she can finally say what she wants to.

---

Yuri laid lazily on her bed sleeping soundly when a few whispering voices caught her ears, and she slowly opened her eyes, opening them wider and gasped in shock when the two girls jump onto her bed snuggling with her.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNNIE!" Seohyun yelled out and Yoona as her accomplice blew a party blower, and it hit her on the nose.

Yuri groaned and looked over at her clock, "It's only 10 AM in the morning, what are you girls so hyper for?" Yuri said, pulling the comforter over her head but the two girls quickly lift it away from her.

"C'mon Unnie! It's your birthday!"

"We should all go out and celebrate!"

Seohyun and Yoona said all at once, driving the sleep deprived Yuri into a deranged state of craziness. She quickly sat up and extended her hands.

"Did you get me any presents?" she asked with her eyes closed.

"Not yet, what you want Unnie?"

"Sleep," Yuri said and dropped her body lifelessly onto her bed.

"You know what we should do?" Yoona asked, her lips curling up into a smirk.

"What?" Seohyun whispered.

"Drag her out of bed," Yoona whispered back, "I'll take the arms, you take the legs."

Seohyun nodded and Yoona flipped the comforter off Yuri, who did nothing in defense as she had quickly fallen back to sleep. Yoona quickly hooked both of her arms under Yuri's and pulled the older girl up, Seohyun on the other hand, went to the other side of the bed and grabbed the legs. After they have successfully lifted up the sleeping girl, Yoona signaled Seohyun to the bathroom and they both groaned as they help each other carry Yuri.

"Inside the tub!" Yoona commanded as they both lift the sleeping girl and laid her inert body into the spacious bath tub.

"Is this a bit too much?" Seohyun asked with a bit of worry looking at her Unnie.

"It's the only way to get her to wake up feeling refreshed, so let's do it shall we?" Yoona let out a cackle as she picked up the shower head and aimed it at Yuri.

"Turn the water on."

Seohyun did what she was told and hastily turned on the knobs, creating a mixture of hot and cold water as it sprayed onto Yuri's body—-but the girl had no reactions to the mischievous act. Yoona lightly raised the shower head and re-aimed it at her face, but still, no reaction was found.

"Does she really sleep this much?" Yoona asked Seohyun, who was reaching her index finger near Yuri's nose and gasped when she found out Yuri was not breathing.

"She's not..breathing." Seohyun told Yoona with a horrified look on her face.

"What?" Yoona questioned with a baffled look. Just as she reached in her finger up to the girl's nose to see if she was breathing or not—

"BOO!"

"Ahh!" Yoona and Seohyun shrieked at the same time as the supposedly non-breathing Yuri opened her eyes and scared the heck out of them.

"Aish, what the heck Unnie? Seohyun said, lightly shoving Yuri on her arms.

Yuri chuckled. "My Seobaby was not as mischievous like this before, what have you done to her?" she asked Yoona with a glare.

"Unnnnnnnnie!" Seohyun whined in her cutesy voice.

"Don't worry I'm not gonna do anything to your lover," Yuri said with a smile and playfully shoved Yoona.

"We should all go out! Seeing how a lot of uhm..depressing things have been happening around. We should all go out and get loose!" Yoona suggested as she stood up.

Suddenly, the door bell rung.

"Who is that?" Seohyun asked, looking out of the door.

"It must be Jessica. Go get the door, I'll have to finish up my oh so refreshing shower you two had set me up."

---

It was only early in the morning when Tiffany had to wake up in order to attend her scheduled filming of 'Strong Heart' in promotion of her upcoming movie. So now here she was, sitting on one of those chairs with a many other celebrities beside her for the many hours to come for just one single recording of the show. Indeed, it was tiring for Tiffany who has to juggle around all these schedules being thrown at her and because of these sudden influx of schedules, she barely got 4 hours of sleep last night due to multiple late night radio shows she was guested in.

The red curtain was down in front of her, she could hear the hosts, Kang Ho Dong and Lee Seung-gi, introducing the show to the audience behind those curtains.

"On a count of 3," the filming director told the celebrities; and as soon as the curtain was dropped down, the tired faces of the celebrities was now transformed into bright smiles that melted the hearts of the audiences.

"Welcome everybody to another episode of Kang Shim Jang with our panelist of celebrities who will be sharing their stories with us today," Kang Ho Dong introduced, holding his script cards.

"Yes, interesting story titles I'm seeing. For instance, Hwang Tiffany's 'Scandals overwhelms me'. Our first challenger for the day!" Lee Seung-gi announced and music cued in as the camera zoomed onto Tiffany's smiling face.

"'Scandals overwhelms me', Tiffany you seem to have a lot of scandals?" Ho Dong asked her with curiosity.

Tiffany gave a slight smile and nodded, "Everyone seems to attach me with every single male celebrities or heirs-—and my guy friends to create these ridiculous headlines on portal sites."

"Ah, I myself heard some of it too. Looks like they didn't attach you with me huh?" Seung-gi said and a few laughters arose from the panelists and audiences alike. "Just joking!" He held his hands up.

Tiffany chuckled, "This will be the first time I'm revealing this on air,"

"Everyone, shall we have a listen to Hwang Tiffany's story of 'Scandals overwhelms me'?" Ho Dong asked the audience and a few 'yeses' were shouted out.

"The nation calls me 'Korea's little sister' but I find this title to be very burdensome. Because of my popularity, the paparazzi seemingly never cease to follow me around. When I go to meet up with my old high school friends which includes a few guys I'm close with, those paparazzi takes snapshots of us and suddenly make up these stupid rumors about us dating and a scandal breaks out. If a few male celebrities choose me as their ideal girl, or if I choose one of them as my ideal guy, yet another made-up headline would get blown out of proportions," Tiffany explained while everyone listened attentively to her.

"These days I've been seeing your name being attached with Choi Siwon, do you have anything to say about that?"

"Yes I do, I had a press conference about my new movie a few days ago, and I had explained to the reporters that my so-called engagement with Choi Siwon was called off."

"Really, what happened?" Seung-gi asked further.

"Uhm, due to differences. We figured that we weren't the most compatible people together. It was a clean break up, nothing to worry about."

"Doesn't seem like only males are being attached with you on the headlines. Although this news is a bit old now, the interweb seemed to be fascinated with your friendship with a internet photography blogger by the name of Kwon Yuri."

"Oh right, I met her while on a trip to Egypt for the filming of my movie. We didn't get along much as first, but now we're okay," Tiffany chuckled, earning a few giggles from the audience.

"Continuing on with my story?" Tiffany asked.

"Yes, please continue."

"My parents didn't want me to take this celebrity 'route'. They wanted me to graduate from college and go for a 'proper' job which by their definitions meant that I have to be a lawyer, a doctor, or a business women. I didn't like any of those; I wanted to become an actress not because of fame, but it's because I truly love acting. However, sometimes these paparazzi are too much and the scandals they always create out of my name...overwhelms me a lot and sometimes, I just wanted to give up and quit. I can't do that though, I have to be strong and stand up to them. If I show weakness—-they'll attack me when I least expect it."

Claps erupted from the audience and the celebrity panelists.

"Being a top star is sure hard. You're doing a great job Tiffany." Ho dong clapped his hands.

---

"We're going to a carnival to celebrate my birthday?" Yuri asked as she took off her blindfold. Her quirky dongsaengs had devised up a plan to blindfold her and take her to a place she'd least expected it to be, and it was totally not something she had expected.

"I thought we're going to a restaurant or something?"

"We'll go to a restaurant later tonight okay? I made reservations," Jessica assured her with grin, causing Yuri to smile.

"Since everything is settled, let's go!" Yoona called out, shutting the engine to the car and took the keys with her as she got off the car and quickly linked her arms together with Seohyun.

"Why are you two like this?" Yuri called them both out with a frown.

"What Unnie?" Seohyun asked, a bit bewildered.

"Linking arms in front of me? You know I'm...single." Yuri chuckled, briefly glancing over to Jessica.

"Link arms with Jessica." Yoona suggested with a smile and no more words were needed for Jessica to initiate the action.

"C'mon birthday girl, let's go have fun." Jessica said in English; and every time the girl spoke in English, Yuri would swoon over her delicate phonetics. She slowly crept her hand down and interlaced her fingers with Jessica's, grasping tighter onto her hand as they both followed their dongsaengs walking ahead of them; who seemed to stop at a balloon and dart carnival game stand as they witness a young couple in front of them.

"You say that if I win that Fairy Prince doll for you, you'll be my girlfriend right Jiyeon?"

"Let's see what you can do then, Jownie," the girl enticed her with a smile as a determined Jownie walked up to a girl name Miffy and paid her a couple bucks to get 3 darts.

"The smallest one gets the big Fairy Prince doll," Miffy reminded.

While the determined Jownie was being cheered on by the bystanders including Yoona and Seohyun, Yuri and Jessica walked over to them and wondered what was all the ruckus about.

"That Jownie girl is trying to get that pretty girl right there a doll so she'd agreed to be her girlfriend." Yoona whispered to Yuri and Jessica. The couple nodded and proceeded to cheer on the girl.

'Jownie' was on her 20th dart and she had yet succeeded to break one of the smallest balloons on the board, wondering if this Miffy girl had rigged it or not. She only had one dart left and was on the verge of giving up when she nonchalantly tossed the dart with no hope that she'd win but claps erupted when that careless dart she had thrown had made the small balloon pop. Needless to say, she quickly grabbed the Fairy Prince doll from Miffy's hand and kneeled down in front of Jiyeon with the doll cradled in her arms.

"Park Jiyeon, will you be my girlfriend?"

"SAY YES!!" the four of them and the bystanders cheered.

Jiyeon nodded her head, and they were soon enveloped in an embrace, hand in hand with the Jownie girl smiling gleefully as luck was finally on her side this time around.

"I'll get you that Keroro doll." Yoona gazed at the Green frog hung up in the prizes area.

"For me?"

Yoona nodded and quickly headed towards the stand.

"Mhm, so birthday girl, what do you wanna do?" Jessica asked, her arms were still linked up with Yuri's.

"Anything you want to do because you're more important than the birthday girl herself," Yuri said with a grin, wrapping her arms around the girl's waist.

"Ugh, that's so corny," she said, sticking out her tongue in distaste as she playfully hit Yuri on her shoulders.

"Unnies look what I got!" Seohyun called out and they quickly separated their intimate moment with Yuri letting out a fake cough.

"What?" Yuri let out another fake cough and asked.

"Is there something wrong with you Unnie?"

"Nothing, nothing." Yuri smiled, "Did Yoona get you that Keroro doll?"

Seohyun quickly nodded, "She's getting me the Tamama doll next! Anyway, I just went to buy the tickets and uhm..here! Enjoy~" She handed them the tickets before she went back to the stand where Yoona was.

"Oo—I want that!" A Hello Kitty doll hung up as one of the prizes of the water dunking booth caught Yuri's eyes. She didn't want it for herself of course.

"What is it?" Jessica asked, looking towards the direction of Yuri's eyes.

"That large Hello Kitty doll," Yuri said, pointing to the said doll.

Jessica let out a chuckle.

"I didn't know you like Hello Kitty?"

"I don't." Yuri laughed, "But someone does, and I'm getting it for her."

"Wait, who are you getting it for? I don't lik—" Before Jessica could finish her sentence, Yuri had already walked over the dunking booth and was handing a few bucks to the guy, receiving 3 balls in return. Jessica herself didn't like Hello Kitty, so who else was Yuri getting this for? After a couple teenagers have failed to dunk the sitting girl on the bench elevated above the tank, it was Yuri's turn and Jessica attentively watched her try to strike the target.

Yuri threw her first ball and although it was close, it didn't exactly hit the target.

"Yuri hwaiting!" Jessica cheered her on and Yuri gave her a smile and a nod in return.

Yuri threw her second ball and once again, it missed by a small margin. The girl sitting on the dunking tank were dry as bones; she hadn't been dunk by anyone yet today and Yuri was sure to change that. She was getting irritated by the girl's mockery and arrogance already; saying that no one will be able to dunk her.

"Are you ready?" Yuri asked the girl as she held her third and last ball in hand.

"I'm all up for it," the girl replied back; and like a baseball pitcher, Yuri stroke the ball using a fast ball method of pitching and it hit the target, causing the girl to let out a shriek as she fell into the tank of water. Sad for the girl, the weather was on the verge of becoming 20 degrees fahrenheit. While the girl was bitterly shaking from the cold, Yuri with a smug on her face walked over the guy and snatched her winning prize from him. The prize of course was the large Hello Kitty plush doll with pink overalls, and she knew Tiffany would love it.

"Who's this for?" Jessica questioned her immediately.

"Uhm..Tiffany," Yuri said, almost mumbling the name as she bit down her lower lip.

"For Tiffany?"

"The girl has a weird infatuation with Hello Kitty and she's like...REALLY fascinated with the color pink, and this doll has like...her two favorite things at once, and I just thought she'd like it," Yuri said, over exaggerating a bit—-though it wasn't far from exaggeration.

"I'm sure she'll like it," Jessica said, trying to sound nonchalant with a faint smile.

Yuri noticed her forced smile and frowned.

"C'mon, don't be jealous. We're just friends. Me and Tiffany Are. Just. Friends, you and me...we're more than just friends. Can't you see the difference?" Yuri tried to explain to the unhappy Jessica. "Follow me," she said and held Jessica's hand, leading her to the photo booth; and although Jessica was unwilling, Yuri pulled her inside and pulled the black curtains down to cover themselves.

"Jessica," Yuri started, "Remember, me and her are friends. Me and you, we're lovers...we do something that friends don't do to each other—-or with each other. There's a huge difference."

"And that is?—"

"This," Yuri said and leaned in to capture Jessica's lips with her own.

---

"I told you I'd get you the Keroro and Tamama plushie doll." Yoona said smugly, wrapping her arms around Seohyun's shoulders as the younger girl played with the doll like a elementary kid.

"That Miffy girl doesn't seem so happy...Keroro and Tamama is from a anime franchise so the plushies are more expensive than the others..." Seohyun said with a sigh.

"See? You always care for others, just worry about yourself and your happiness and the fact that you love me a lot more after I got you those dolls," Yoona said, a complacent smile plastered to her face.

"Aren't you being a bit arrogant? I never said I love you." Seohyun stated playfully, wriggling herself out of Yoona's grasp as she walked over to the ice cream stand.

"One cone of a vanilla soft serve, please."

"Make that two cones of soft serve, mine is chocolate however," Yoona said, walking up behind Seohyun as the younger girl try to hide a mischievous smile.

"Here you go, that'll be three dollars," the man said, holding the ice creams. Seohyun took her vanilla cone and went off to sit on a nearby stone bench while Yoona took her wallet out to pay for the ice cream.

"You don't love me?" Yoona finally asked, walking over to the girl as she sat beside her.

"Nope, I don't."

"Oh, okay." Yoona said, sounding unconcerned as she suckled the tip of her soft serve ice cream.

"What? You're not going to say anything about it?" Seohyun asked after a bit of silence overcame them.

"You said you don't love me, what else is there to say?" Yoona replied, not looking at Seohyun.

Seohyun frowned and kept herself busy by eating the ice cream, not making an effort to talk to Yoona after what the girl had said.

Yoona let out a soft chuckle.

"Chocolate is pretty good, you want a bite?" she offered.

"No thanks." Seohyun stated firmly.

"It's really really good?"

"No thanks."

"It's really really really good, it's like orgasm for your mouth." Yoona tried to entice her further, but the younger girl gave her a look of disgust.

"NO thanks! What part of 'no thanks' do you not understand?"

"Are you mad at me?"

"No, I am not," Seohyun asserted.

"If you're not mad at me, you'll take a bite."

Seohyun let out a sigh, giving up to the stubborn Yoona.

"Fine."

Yoona held her cone in front of Seohyun and just as the girl's lips touched the ice cream, Yoona lifted her cone up, smothering her lips with the chocolate ice cream.

"Yah!" Seohyun yelled at her.

Yoona grinned.

"I'll help you clean it up," she said, taking out a piece of napkin and leaned in closer to the girl. However, instead of using the napkin to clean up the ice cream, Yoona gently pressed her own lips against Seohyun's, surprising her as she enveloped her lips over the younger girl's, and softly swirled her tongue around, lightly grazing the lips with her teeth; softly licking up the ice cream before she pulled away and was met with a blushing Seohyun.

"You do love me," Yoona said with a smug as she continued to eat her ice cream.

"Y-yah! What was that for? That doesn't prove anything!"

Yoona chuckled, "If you didn't like me, you would push me away the moment my lips was pressed against yours."

Seohyun pouted, "You won't let me have fun for once huh?"

"Maybe next time." Yoona smiled and reached in to pinch the girl's cheek.

---

A few hours had gone down the drain and Tiffany had just finished a tiring recording of Star King. Now, what she wanted to do most was to drive home and indulge herself in a hot bubble bath. While opening her purse to get her keys, she noticed a folded slip of paper that she either didn't notice or overlooked this morning.

She tentatively took out the small note and unfolded it.

"Hey Unnie, I know you have a bunch of schedules today so I didn't tell you this but today is Yuri Unnie's birthday. I'm out to celebrate with her and Seohyun so I might come home late...or I think I'll be staying at Seohyun's house for the night. After you're done with the recordings, go home and rest alright!?"

Tiffany frowned. Today was Yuri's birthday and the girl didn't tell her anything about it. She huffed as she walked over to her car and got inside, starting the engine before placed her hands firmly on the steering wheel.

"Is it too late to go out and buy a present for her?" she asked herself. She didn't know what to get the girl either.

"—That is why you should get me a kitty, so you would have a puppy that looks like me, and I would have a kitty that looks like you. I'm gonna name it Miyoung."

Her lips curled up into a smile. She knew exactly what she should get Yuri for her birthday.