Nine... (1/1)

Did you ever think when the satisfying stage of sleep happened? Was it when you sleep? But you were practically unconscious the whole time you were sleeping, so how could you feel good during that time? Was it after the sleep? But it was technically over, so how could you feel good? Was it before you sleep? But it hadn't happened yet, so how could you feel good when you hadn't done anything? The whole arguments made Sooyoung decide that sleepiness is one form of sickness, and sleep is the only cure available for it. The only cure she desperately needed, but couldn't do now. She rubbed her eyes and yawned widely, taking about ten seconds for her yawn to end, making Taeyeon who was seated across her to chuckle. "You're that sleepy, huh," commented Taeyeon when Sooyoung had refocused—well, just slightly—to the stack of papers in front of her. "'m alright," said Sooyoung in a delayed tone. "Totally not... sleepy," and she couldn't help but ended her sentence with another yawn. Taeyeon rolled her eyes. "Just admit it, giant, you're sleepy. It's not like I'd report you to my father for sleeping through work." At the mention of her boss' name, Sooyoung jolted up more awake than before. She blinked her eyes once, twice, and then thrice, before averting her gaze to Taeyeon's innocent face. She took an expression of a wounded puppy, "Please don't do that." "Do what?" "Reporting me to your dad." Taeyeon laughed. "That's why you shouldn't be sleepy at work. You'd catch the wrong part of people's words." At Sooyoung's bemused look, she shook her head and shrugged. The shorter between the two fished out her phone and made a call, gaze flickered to Sooyoung who's already back to her sleepy state again as someone picked up her call in the other end. "Hello? Um, yeah, Kim Taeyeon here—can I get two cups of coffee, please? Two spoons of sugar each. Yeah, I'd like that. Thank you. I'm at Sooyoung's office, surely you know where it is? Yes? Good. I'll be waiting!" Sooyoung watched as the short woman—but don't you dare tell Taeyeon about that!—put back her phone into her pocket. Out of curiousity, she asked, "I thought it's me who's sleepy, but why are you the one who order two cups of coffee?" Taeyeon threw a pen at her. "One is for you, babo! Besides, I'll get scolded by Seohyun if I really about to take two cups of coffee." She shuddered at the thought of facing Seohyun's lectures about the correlation of coffee and dying early. Nah, she definitely didn't want to face that. The younger could be so terrifying sometimes. Sooyoung was going to throw the pen back, but some knocks were heard. Taeyeon spun around and yelled 'come in!', resulting the door to be opened, and a raven-haired girl peered in. Sooyoung thought she had some kind of déjà vu. "Um... Taeyeon-sshi? You ordered two cups of coffee, correct?" said the girl slowly. "Yes, yes! Come in!" The girl seemed to hesitate for a second, but in the end decided to do just so. She stepped into the room and looked at her back. And as if on cue, someone appeared from the unclosed door. Sooyoung suddenly felt one hundred percent awake, and Taeyeon wanted to run for her life. "TAEYEON UNNIEEE!!" *~;:>o<:;~* Yoona looked at the remote in her hand. Her thumb hovered above the power button for the nth time, her mind contemplating whether or not she shall watch the wheather forecast today. "EXACTLY SEVENTY SEVEN OUT OF ONE HUNDRED!" As Sooyoung's raging words rang in her mind, Yoona sighed softly. She put the remote to the table and leaned into the couch. Today she had no schedule, no classes, and she was trapped between wanting to watch the wheather forecast or succumbing into the gloomines called memories. "Yul," the name involuntarily escaped her lips. She looked up and gazed into the ceiling, trying hard to push the clenching pain in her heart. But her mind decided that it was the right time to nudge some memories, much to her unsurprised sigh. *~;:>o<:;~* It was another night with the two rooftop conquerers clutching at their respectives white boards. 'You okay?' scribbled her companion.  Little Yoona fiddled the marker in her hand, hesitating. She wanted to blame Mr. Moon for shining oh so brightly today, resulting the raven haired girl to notice Little Yoona's puffy cheeks and red eyes. She sighed. Slowly, she jotted down several words on her white board, before showing it to the other girl. '50% okay...' The raven haired girl frowned. She wrote rather hurriedly, shaking head, erasing here and there, and then rewriting it. With a nod of approval, she turned the board so the other girl could see. 'Did someone hurt my Yoong?' Little Yoona blinked, surprised at the sudden warmness she felt because of the affectionate words. She looked up, finding the other's eyes staring back at her with an amount of concern she couldn't count. It somehow made her smile. 'Aniya, unnie.' Little Yoona had known that her companion was older than her. They exchanged all kinds of information about themselves last week. Birthdays, favorite foods (Yoona shyly admitted that she liked all kinds of foods), hobbies (Yoona was estatic to find the other girl loved books as much as she did), favorite colors, et cetera. 'Then where does the other 50% go?' Little Yoona bit her lower lip. She didn't want to appear weak in front of her companion. Before she could decide, however, the Yul girl already scribbled down another words and showed them to her. 'You can tell me, Yoong.' Some erasing, a little bit scribbling, and another word. 'Please?' And Yoona's argument had died down since long ago. How couldn't she, though? Just looking at the genuine worry in the other girl's face made her dismissed her earlier thought. She needed to get it out her chest, anyway, and this could be her only opportunity to share. Little Yoona opened her marker and began writing. 'This evening Appa brought me...' 'to the park...' 'I had hoped that I could meet you.' Little Yoona lifted her gaze and studied the other girl's expression as she showed the words. The Yul girl smiled that smile again. A smile she couldn't decipher its meaning. A smile that contained sadness, but also something else. Something she didn't know. Little Yoona continued her story. 'I didn't meet you, of course.' 'But I met this fatty boy...' There, Little Yoona hesitated, but a quick glimpse and an encouraging nod from her companion successfully persuaded her to write the continuation. 'He... called me Ugly.' Little Yoona took a deep breath. She erased the words and wrote down the next. 'And soon, several other followed.' 'They chanted 'Ugly' at me.' 'Appa brought me home.' 'But I couldn't resist crying.' 'I'm weak, right unnie?' 'I know I am.' Little Yoona brought down her marker, and stared up at the sky. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, not quite dared yet to see the other girl's reaction to her story. Maybe she'll laugh at me? Or maybe she'll tell me that I need to be stronger. She closed her eyes, counting to ten slowly. One... two... three... four... five... six... seven... eight... nine... t-ten... As she reached the number ten, she brought her gaze to the girl across her. The first thing she saw was the patient smile the raven haired girl was giving her. Then the raven haired girl pointed at her board, signaling Little Yoona to read what's written. 'Can I tell you a secret?' Little Yoona furrowed her brows. Of countless what ifs she had formulated about her companion's response, it definitely wasn't this. She produced a confused nod, and she watched as the raven haired girl erased the words and scribbled the new. 'The secret is...' 'You're beautiful.' Little Yoona felt her lips split into a huge grin as unbelievable loads of warmness crept into her heart. She lifted her gaze and found the other's eyes staring back at hers, accompanied with a soft, loving smile. A kind of smile that made Yoona believe that the raven haired girl really meant her words. That she didn't write it just to make her feel better. Suddenly, the distance between two roofs seemed so far as Little Yoona had an urge to jump at the Yul girl and hug her tight. Instead, Little Yoona settled with a sincere sentence written in her white board, added with a tiny symbol of heart. 'You are beautiful too, unnie ♥' *~;:>o<:;~* After a train of Seohyun's lectures about coffee and its effect on vertical growth (much to Taeyeon's disbelief and Sooyoung's amusement), the chaos in Sooyoung's office finally died down—if you ignored Taeyeon's constant grumble, that is. Sooyoung picked her coffee and drank it slowly, while Taeyeon sulked without touching her cup. "Um, Sooyoung-sshi, Taeyeon-sshi, am I allowed to leave, now?" asked the girl who delivered their coffee. "Oh no no no!" It was Seohyun who answered. "Wait a minute, here." She approached the girl and pushed her nearer to the table. "Taeyeon unnie, Sooyoung unnie, do you know who she is?" "Yura-sshi, isn't it?" said Sooyoung. "Your Personal Assistance, right?" added Taeyeon. "Spot on. Now who can tell me what her favorite food is?" Sooyoung and Taeyeon looked at each other with raised brows. "I don't know," replied Taeyeon finally. "Her birthday?" Sooyoung furrowed her brows. "I don't know." "Her address? Her favorite season? Her life's motto? Her height?" The girl in question shuffled uncomfortably in her feet as Seohyun continued to bombard Sooyoung and Taeyeon with questions regarding her. "Ok, ok, so we don't know her apart from her name and her position," Sooyoung said with hands raised in surrender after Seohyun asked how old Yura was. "I get it." Seohyun nodded her head, satisfied that she got the point across. "Right. We need to change that, as Mr. Kim said that there must be a bond between his employees, didn't he, Taeyeon unnie?" Taeyeon could only nod as she hadn't known where this conversation was heading to. "And every once a month, we do have a bonding time, don't we?" Sooyoung snapped her fingers, finally understood the case. "Yeah, we usually gather around one's place—you, me, Taeyeon, Jessica, Tiffany, and Hyo. Isn't the next bonding time scheduled, er, to...day?" "Correct!" Seohyun was practically bouncing with excitement now. "How about we invite Yura along?" "Good idea," agreed Sooyoung. "Jessica told me she'd miss this month's bonding time as her sister will come to visit. She's absent today, isn''t she? Yura-sshi can attend on her behalf." "Um," the said girl cleared her throat awkwardly. "Actually, I promised my unnie to accompany her all day for our bonding time. I rarely see her except for weekends..." "Your unnie can tag along," suggested Seohyun. "Hyoyeon unnie has a dancing matter too, so her spot will be vacant. It's only for a day too!" Yura looked torn. "I-I don't know, what do you do in your bonding time, anyway?" "Anything. Cooking together, eating, movie night, sleepover, anything really. It depends on who's being the host," explained Taeyeon. "Speaking of the host..." "What?" asked Sooyoung as Taeyeon gazed at her. "Don't tell me you've forgotten that this month is your turn to host the bonding time, giant." "It is?!" exclaimed Sooyoung, eyes widened. "Oh shoot, I have to tell Yoong!" As Sooyoung excused herself to the corner of the room, Taeyeon rolled her eyes and turned to face the girl they'd come to know better tomorrow. "So," said Taeyeon, "how about you inform your unnie first, Yura-sshi? Who knows, she might be interested to come. Sooyoung's cooking is unbelievably delicious." Yura glanced to where Sooyoung animatedly spoke to her phone. "Okay, I'll try..." As Seohyun and Taeyeon shared a high five, Yura walked to the other corner of the room and fished out her phone. Inserting a number, she took a deep breath and dialed it. It took a few seconds before someone picked up the call. "Yoboseyo?" "Yul unnie? I... I need to tell you something..."