Chapter 16

Jessica's POV

I have never in my life eaten so much chicken! First, with the chicken that I kept winning from Sooyoung and Yoona. Then I had that huge piece, that could've been considered a whole chicken on its own, from Yuri. Those two Shiksins should've went for the vegetables instead of fighting over meat.

I'm rolling around on the couch, holding onto my now oversized stomach. Just looking at it makes me think that my portion tonight could have fed a whole starving nation. Well, at least I didn't waste the food, so they could thank me for that.

From the couch, I look over to where Yuri is helping Yoona clear the table. They both looked happy doing the chore and it looked simple enough. I was tempted to join them, but aside from my ten pound stomach, I remembered all my previous attempts to help out. Although the cooking is seldom done by me, I do help out with the cleaning --or so tried to. I used to wash the dishes. But Taeyeon had to assign me a different task after she noticed a shortage of them one day.

It was the same story when I was cleaning the plates for the week by tossing out the scraps into the garbage can. By the end of the week, Hyoyeon noticed that there was only enough utensils for 3 people. That night, they almost made me go through the garbage can to look for all the forks and chopsticks that I threw out by accident. Luckily, Yuri offered to run to the supermarket to buy us all new eating utensils.

Then I had to put away the leftovers in containers. But I don't think that went very well either because I had put the berries together with the spaghetti sauce and forgot about it. When we ate it the next day, we all ended up with some sort of food poisoning. Now my only task is to get energy for the group by taking after-dinner naps for them.

"Tsch! You ate too much again, didn't you? You shouldn't have tried to 'mediate' between Yoona and me." I open my eyes and look up from the couch to see Sooyoung standing above lecturing me.

"No. I'm just tired," I stubbornly reply as I bend my knees to let her sit.

In reality, I think somebody would have to roll me off the couch if they wanted me off it because there was no way I am able to get up on my own. Now I understand why pregnant women always need assistance when they get up from their seats.

"Sigh, your future husband is going to have a real difficult time with you." I kick her lightly after hearing her playful comment.

Sooyoung scoots closer and instead of hitting me back as usual, she whispers to me in her mischievous voice. "Speaking of husband, tell me how you imagine him to be. Is he tall, dark, and handsome?"

This was worse than physically hitting me back. Nervously, I look over to where Yuri is. I didn't think that my jealousy rages were that obvious. "No. He's short, fair-skinned, and average looking," I said trying to mislead her.

"Aw c'mon, Sica! You can tell me. Where do you want him to take you as your first date?"

I'm about to tell her to go help the others with the cleaning, but Tiffany comes over and pulls me by the arm.

"Sorry, Sooyoung! I?'m going to have to borrow Sica here for awhile."

"But... but... I was asking her something."

"I know," Tiffany simply said with a smile and dragged me the rest of the way to her room.

Before Tiffany closed the door, I turned around to look at Yuri. Surprisingly to me, she was also looking at my direction and we made brief eye contact before the pale white door full of Kerero stickers disconnected us.

"Jess! Tell me what happened tonight at Prologue!" Tiffany said to me in her usual giddy voice.

"Nothing much really happened at the bookstore, Tiff." Other than Yuri oogling over some guy with muscular arms.

"Oh c'mon, Jess! Tell me everything." She continued to whine. "Did you guys talk tonight?"

"With the owner, Kevin?"

"Obviously Kevin! Why? Is there another person that you're not telling me about?" Tiffany said with one eyebrow raised.

Why are all the girls in this house so nosey? All except for Yuri. It would be nice if she asked me more about my love interest or at least try to find out more about me. Once more, I'm tempted to tell Tiffany who it is that I really like. However, I might have assumed my dinner's personality --I'm chickening out again.

"We talked..."

"And did you ask him about why he's always hanging out with his girl friends instead of his boys?" Tiffany eagerly asked. For somebody who forgets the dance steps so easily, she remembers the gossip from our initial conversation quite well.

"I didn't really ask, but I think they're his sisters," I tell her in hopes to dodge any similar questions in the future.

"So then, what else did you guys talk about?" Tiffany continued to probe.

I tried hard to remember what Kevin said to me but nothing was coming to mind. Instead, I recalled the conversation that I had with Yuri in the park before going to Prologue. Our talk started off awkward, but nonetheless, I found out the type of guys that she's attracted to.

Wanting to know Tiffany's thoughts, I tell her what Yuri disclosed to me about her ideal type. "He said how he's attracted to the sensitive, understanding, and pretty types... I believe that's me."

"Haha! Jess, I'll admit that you're very pretty indeed. But the other two," she shakes her head, "I would have to disagree."

"What do you mean? People tell me that all the time!" I exclaim with a pout.

"Haha! Alright, fine. Sorry Jessi poo!"Tiffany gives me the puppy version of her apologetic look. "What else happened?"

Other than Yuri throwing herself at Kevin, I couldn't think of anything else. Then I remembered that night when she came home late exhausted from her photoshoot. She didn't know that I was hiding in her bed and so she collapsed on top of me.

I resume revealing more to Tiffany while combining it with similar situations that happened at Prologue just in case she verifies the story with Yuri. "Well, at one point, I fell and had to hold onto his waist for support. We also hugged, but Tiff, get this, he ended it almost immediately."

"What?!" Tiffany shrieked. "Okay, there's two possibilities." I'm listening intently to what this sudden love doctor has to say. "One, he's gay."

If only that were true. I must have looked a little bit disappointed because Tiffany rested her hand on my shoulder before saying, "Or two, it was an awkward situation. Cheer up! I'm so sure it was two. Heck! If I had my hands around your waist, I would never let go... except TaeTae wouldn't be so happy about that. So you can continue dreaming."

I laugh at her attempt to cheer me up. "Thanks, Tiff!"

Yuri's POV

I finish taking my shower and notice that the door to Tiffany's room is still closed and the two Americans that went in earlier were not anywhere else in the dorm.

"Hey, did those two ever come out?" I casually ask Sooyoung.

"They never came out, Yul! You have to stop them. It's not fair that Tiffany LEGITIMATELY knows about Kevin Yang."

"Well... they are best friends afterall. So there's really nothing wrong with that," I tell her.

"Unnie! They've been in there for hours! Fany's cheating by using information that we can't use to grab Sica's attention and keep her talking in private for hours. What a conniving--

"Yoong! Watch your language!" I cut her off before she's able to say any bad words.

"--witch,"Yoona finishes.

"Yul, you should be the one in there with Sica. Not Fany."

That's true. Partially true. I would like to be in there, but even if I were really close to Jessica, I canâ??t control who she talks to.

"Unnie, they've been in there for way too long. I think it's time for you to break up this party of two."

Since after dinner to the end of my very long shower, they've been hiding away in Tiffany's room. For a regular person, that's about two hours in time. For me, that is approximately light years in time.

"What if the mushroom is upset that you still haven't given her a point yet and takes revenge by turning Jessica against you?" Sooyoung continues to instigate.

"Tiffany's not the kind of person who would do that. And you guys could always talk to Jessica for hours too if you wanted to." But Tiffany does talk a lot and I'm afraid that the more she talks, the more of my negative points she'll say to Jessica.

"We could. Okay, so say Tiffany isn't trying to turn Jessica against you. What if she's turning her against us? Then it'll make it harder for us to find out information which will then make it harder for us to help you."

"Yeah, unnie. Help us help you." I look at Yoona's sad baby face then at Sooyoung's pleading look. The longer I stand here listening to their arguments, the longer Jessica is spending time with Tiffany.

I left the two girls bewildered as I went into my room. Almost immediately, I came back out with my new English book in hand. "Okay girls, leave this to me." I march over to Tiffany's room and knock on the door.