"Yuri..."

"Jessica I'm sorry for everything but please listen to me I'm going insane I--"

"Yuri."

Yuri looked up from the flower bouquet. She was afraid seeing Jessica would make her lost her words, but apparently staring down wasn't a wise choice.

"Taeyeon."

She sighed in disappointment as her cheeks flushed. How embarrassing.

"Is Jessica...?"

Taeyeon shook her head and Yuri's heart sank. When she finally got the address, Jessica wasn't home?

"I'm sorry Yuri. But Sica's not here anymore. She just returned home an hour ago. We tried our best to hold her back but you know how stubborn she is." Taeyeon sighed. "We couldn't really do much either, otherwise she'd suspect. I mean, we were trying to convince her going home all the time before."

Yuri just nodded. She felt too empty to even utter a thanks. It's too late now. How was she supposed to see Jessica if the girl was home already? Jessica behind the Jung residence's doors, that was like Princess Fiona being locked away in a castle guarded by two terribly dangerous dragons - namely the parents. Too bad Yuri wasn't a brave knight, nor Shrek, and there's no Donkey who could come up with an ingenious plan to help her saving the princess. Not to mention the princess didn't want to be saved at all. In fact, the princess wanted to avoid the prince. Or Shrek. Or Yuri. Or whatever.

"Yuwree, don't be sad." Tiffany appeared behind Taeyeon, giving Yuri a consoling smile. "I can assure she hasn't forgotten about you. We will find a way."

Yuri just smiled weakly back at the couple. Of course Jessica hadn't forgotten about her. She's the girl's most hated man's cousin after all. What she wanted to know was if Jessica still wanted to be with her. Because Yuri knew she did. Badly. She knew Jessica had feelings for her. From the gazes, the touches, the kisses - she could tell for sure. But she didn't know if those feelings were enough for Jessica to forgive her, to accept her being blood-related to Kwon Jiyong.

She missed Jessica awfully.

----------

"Honey!"

Her mother fell round her neck, almost tearing up. She hugged the woman tightly.

"Mom, I'm sorry."

"It's okay sweetheart." Her mother released the hug to get a look at her face. "Did you take care well of yourself the last two weeks?"

Jessica nodded. She didn't have the intention to tell her mother about what really happened. Her parents trusted Taeyeon and Tiffany very much - that's why these two were able to kidnap her, yet still didn't make her parents suspect anything. It was the two of them who convinced Jessica's parents to stop searching for her and give her some alone time to think. Jessica was thankful to them, but that was before they trapped her. She took their action amiss; then again, she didn't want her parents to think bad of her (still) best friends. She could 'use' their good relationship with her parents sometime later, who knows.

Jessica was thinking about telling her mom half of the truth. She could tell her parents were still hoping for her to marry soon, and the news of her having a crush on someone would definitely make them happy. Moreover, Jessica really needed some advice from her mom. She wasn't that experienced in love - not to mention the one being involved this time was a Kwon, again. Last time, she decided everything on her own, behind the elders' back, and it led to no good. Jessica didn't want to make the same mistake twice. She wanted to know her mother's opinion and she's sure, it would be the best for her. Because, after all, her mother was still the one that loved her most.

"Dad stayed home today."

Mrs. Jung sat down onto the couch with Jessica and stroked her daughter's hair.

"He is not angry anymore, don't worry. He was very worried about you. We all were."

"I'm really sorry, mom." Jessica said once again, smiling apologetically at her mom.

"It's all good now since you're back, darling. Dad and Krystal are out. Ms Ahn is making dinner, they'll come home soon."

Mrs Jung had just finished her sentence when the door bell rang and the last two members of the family came into the living room. Krystal went straight to her sister, hugging her tightly. Jessica smiled as her dad was indeed not angry anymore. He hugged his two daughters and didn't say a word about the disagreement or quarrel two weeks ago. Jessica had missed this family atmosphere so much. If her stubbornness didn't usually get the better of her, Jessica wouldn't make her parents and sister worry for her this much. Still, they caught her in their arms warmly again and again, forgiving her about every stupid action. She had the perfect family one could only wish for.

The Jungs settled around the dining table a while later, everyone was in a happy mood - even Jessica. The joy of returning back to the family distracted her from Yuri and all the related problems for a while. But she didn't forget it.

"I'm so happy you're back." Her dad said again as they were having the soup.

"Dad's been in a gloomy mood the past few days." Krystal whispered to her, but purposely loud enough for everyone to hear. "It's almost unbearable."

"Young lady!" Mr Jung faked a scolding, serious voice, causing the rest to laugh.

"Your dad was tired because of business," Mrs Jung quickly jumped in defending her husband. "The Kwons are giving us a real hard time."

Jessica immediately tensed upon hearing the name. Luckily, no one really noticed it.

"They're not that good to give us tough time." Mr Jung shook his head. He didn't like the idea of the Kwons being able to provide them difficulties easily. "There's just that never ending, fierce competition between us and them that wears me out."

"But you're not like that all the time." Jessica said. "Did they do something?"

"Do you remember that huge project the Kim Company is putting forth for the big enterprises to bid for contract? It's hugely profitable and we want to get it, the Kwons too. Almost every applicant is kicked out already, it's only between the Jungs and the Kwons now. We lost a project to them last time. Even though that was a small one, I can't let it happen again."

Jessica nodded as she quietly stared onto the table.

"Let's not talk about business, you two." Mrs Jung scolded her husband and eldest daughter.

Mr Jung laughed and leaned over, kissing his wife on the cheek. Jessica smiled and Krystal giggled at their parents. They didn't talk about business anymore, but the topic didn't leave Jessica's mind. She had changed her mind after that little conversation. There was no need to ask her mother for a piece of advice anymore. The Kwons and the Jungs - there was that everlasting battle between them. A Kwon and a Jung together - that was impossible.

Jessica was the Jung that had the greatest hatred towards the Kwons. Because she was the only Jung knowing the fully ugly truth about her family's downfall in the past. Kwons were a bunch of dishonest people, even an insider had had to admit it.

----------

Yuri had improved the last few days. Sooyoung didn't have to yell at her to make her eat anymore. Sooyoung could feel how her best friend was slowly recovering from the bitter disappointment the day they drove to Jessica's apartment. But what worried her was the fact that Yuri had gotten back to her workaholic life and it was worse than before. Despite taking relatively proper meals, Yuri clearly had lost weight. It was because Sooyoung couldn't be there at night to yell making her go off to sleep. Sleep deprivation didn't help sustaining, not to mention gaining weight, at all. The bad thing was, Yuri somehow still managed to work efficiently, so Sooyoung had nothing to force her going to rest.

The food-loving girl knew there was only one thing that could solve this problem. But the more she thought about it, the more desperate she got. Taeyeon had told her things didn't look good from Jessica's side, if not wanting to frankly say it's getting worse day by day. Each time Taeyeon or Tiffany tried to broach Yuri, Jessica either left instantly or shut them up drastically. Ever since that conversation with Taeyeon, Sooyoung couldn't stop sighing in despair. She wondered how long Yuri needed to get over her, if Sooyoung didn't remember wrong, very first love. Maybe the girl didn't even want to get over it.

"Sooyoung."

Yuri's voice startled her. The girl was standing in her room, arms crossed.

"How did you get in here?" Sooyoung asked confusedly.

"Sorry? I can get everywhere within this building. It's my company, remember?" Yuri shook her head. "Anyways, where were you with your thoughts? I need to talk to you. Serious business."

She then pulled a chair in front of Sooyoung's desk and sat down. The other girl sat straight, following her actions with interested eyes.

"I..." Yuri began, but couldn't speak further. "Can you please stop looking like it's tales time?"

Sooyoung immediately knew what it was about. Never did Yuri come into her office to talk about business matters. Either they did it in meetings with the rest of the board, or Yuri would call Sooyoung into her office. That's why Sooyoung was so surprised to see Yuri appearing in her room. Now seeing her best friend not being able to get straight to the point, she knew it definitely was about Jessica.

"Okay." Sooyoung coughed slightly. She couldn't wait for what Yuri was about to say.

"I..." Yuri took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before continuing. "Why is she affecting me so much?"

There was no need to call out the name of 'she'. Everything was so obvious between the two best friends. Sooyoung leaned back into her seat, looking at Yuri while thinking of the right words to say. Yuri wasn't talking much about this issue lately, but obviously Jessica didn't leave her mind one single second.

"Well..." Sooyoung began. "You've probably fallen really hard for her already."

"Do I love her?"

"I don't know." Sooyoung shrugged.

"I don't know either."

Sooyoung sighed.

"Normally, you start being interested in someone. If the interest grows, you're called having a crush on someone."

Yuri nodded, listening intently as Sooyoung continued.

"The person might not fancy you at all. Then your interest is unrequited and you should stop being interested, because you will just end up being disappointed over and over again. But in most of the cases, that person doesn't show you their interest properly, so you will have to make the first move."

Yuri remembered how she picked Jessica up when the girl fell into the water. Was that considered making the first move? That would be a pretty impressive first move.

"You two will date to learn more about each other. You will be able to choose then. Either the person is not what you thought they were and you will have to quickly call it a day, or you'll get more intrigued and you two will see each other on a more regular basis. Then you confess and do all that stuff. Afterwards you two will be kind of 'together' then. Get it?"

Yuri nodded. Their first date was probably the first dinner they had together. It was even a candlelit dinner. A romantic candlelit dinner under the starry night sky. And Yuri could clearly remember how that 'date' ended. She had kissed Jessica on the forehead and carried the girl to bed, again. And because they were stuck with each other, of course they saw each other every moment. So, she could call Jessica her girlfriend already?

"And that's when you can call yourself 'falling in love'. I mean, you two are on the same wavelength and you just enjoy the company of her. You err--probably decide to... you know, sleep with each other. That's what you can do with your girlfriend." Sooyoung coughed and Yuri gulped. "But relationships are never easy. So sooner or later, you two will have the first row. You either break up or trust each other and patch things up. If you withstand that first row, you're probably in love. Withstanding more and more rows, you eventually can say you really love each other. At least that's what I think."

Yuri clenched her teeth, thinking hard. When did they have their first row? As far as she could recall, they quarrelled everyday, then made up naturally. Those quarrels weren't serious enough to be able to tell whether she was in love or not. The day when Jessica run into the forest and Yuri chased after her in the storm was probably the most serious thing that happened. But the result was a confession, rather marking the real start of them 'being together' than proving their love for each other. The current situation would fit a 'first row' better.

"So, are you really falling in love with her?" Sooyoung asked.

Yuri looked her best friend in the eyes. She then slowly, but conspicuously, nodded. She was indeed falling in love with Jessica. And she knew what she had to do now.

"What are you going to do?" Sooyoung worriedly asked as Yuri stood up abruptly from her seat. The young businesswoman walked straight to the door to get out.

"Yuri!"

Yuri stopped in the doorway.

"Where are you going?"

Sooyoung stood up from her seat as well, worry shown in her eyes.

"Patching things up."

Yuri answered before turning around and closed the door.

----------

She had locked the door. She was sitting behind her desk. She stared at the sight in front of her. The desk's surface was covered by multiple stacks of folders and papers, reflecting the busy working life she'd been used to the last few years. Somehow, this sight had grown in her heart. It was a unique trait of a workaholic, Yuri thought. A with work overloaded desk made a workaholic feel truly content inside - if they had time to feel at all.

But Yuri knew what made her happier. A lot happier than her work-filled desk. It was a girl. A certain girl with long, brown-blond hair, with a smile that was sweeter than sugar, with a captivating scent of strawberries. A girl who had pouted at her, looking at her with sparkling eyes, kissing her with passion. Jessica.

Yuri had made up her mind. She was going to do it and she would not regret. It would be tough later on, but she had to hazard the consequences. She simply had no option.

Grabbing the phone, Yuri punched in a number. After the second ring, the other line picked up.

"Jung Enterprises, I'm secretary Han, good day. May I help you?"

"Could you be so kind and connect me to Mr Jung please?"

"I'm sorry but the president is currently in a meeting. Would you please leave your name?"

"I'm the general manager of Iustit. I need an appointment with President Jung. It's urgent."