Chapter 24

Yuri's POV
"Yuri. Yuri!" Manager oppa's voice echoes in my head. Rubbing my eyes open, I found myself lying on a couch, hidden away in the corner of the lobby.

"Mmm.. Good morning," I manage to say through my yawn.

"Geezus, Yuri! Were you sleeping here the whole night? What happened to the room that was booked for you and Jessica?"

The room. Jessica. As I hear these words, my head starts to hurt with last night's memories rushing in. One minute we were drinking in the hotel room under the celestial moon and the next, I was on the bed kissing Jessica as if she was the oxygen to my drowning air.

I feel my face start to heat up real fast. What did I do last night? Why did I do something so stupid? I'm usually able to control my emotions quite well. If I was sad, I would not show it so the people around me wouldn't worry. My behavior on the other hand is something questionable. And because I never think before acting, especially last night, I must've shocked Jessica by forcing her to kiss me. From the look that she gave me before I ran off, she appeared to be hurt.

Obviously I couldn't tell manager oppa exactly why I ended up spending the night in the lobby. I wouldn't even know how to explain it. "I... Couldn't sleep last night so I came down for a walk. But I forgot to bring my key and I didn't want to wake up Jessica so I--"

"Okay, Yuri. We need to get you cleaned up, fast. Jessica already finished filming and everybody's just waiting for you to show up."

He's ushering me to go to my room, but how am I supposed to face Jessica after what I did. Does she even remember anything? Because she didn't when she kissed me at the door after our first dinner together at Yol Saek.

We're nearing the room and I shift into panic mode. "Umm... Where's Jessica?"

"She's out shopping. Won't be back till much later."

I didn't relax until I walked into the empty room with no Jessica. The champagne bottle was gone, carpets are clean, and the bed has been made. There wasn't a single sign indicating what happened last night. It looked like a normal room.

Without wanting to keep the rest of the crew waiting for me, I took a quick shower and busied myself for the rest of the day with the filming.

----
By now, it's already late into the night and after leaving Jessica a tenth message, she still hasn't returned to the hotel. I haven't seen her all day, which was actually a relief in the beginning but as I continue to pace around the room, a million scenarios are playing in my head. Could something bad have happened to Jessica? I don't know anything about the crime rate here and she is afterall just a girl roaming the streets by herself. Or could it be that she's avoiding me? Even so, she should at least message saying that she's safe.

I decide to send her another text message.

Sica, I'm worried. Where are you? Could you please text or call back letting me know that you're ok?
-Yul

I stare at the phone expecting it to ring soon, but nothing happens. My fingers start tapping away on the keypad again.

Sica, this hide and seek game of yours isn't funny anymore. Call me now unless you want to be locked out for the night and I takeover the giant bed.
-Yul

Still no response.

Sorry, Sica! I didn't mean that. I'll give you the whole bed if you could just give me a sign that you're ok. I'll wait up for you.
-Yul

Another hour passes and I've already made eight trips to the lobby, waiting for her to walk through the doors with her shopping bags. By the fourth trip, I've already began to draw the hotel staff's attention and on the sixth, one of the sweet girls asked if I was expecting a visitor and she could notify me of their arrival instead of having me run up and down. I simply told her that I couldn't sleep and liked the spacious, quiet lobby.

I'm back in our room debating whether I should call the police. I still haven't notified anybody of her disappearance. Maybe I should assemble a search party for her. I'll go downstairs one last time before I do anything drastic.

As I swing the door fully open, I find myself facing a very very rosy Jessica. "Sica!" Relieved and happy that nothing bad happened to her, I pull her by the arms and hug her tightly. "Where have you been all day? I was so worried..." I could smell the alcohol off her clothes and hair.

She pushed passed me and stumbled into the room while I closed the door. I try to help her with her balance but she just pushed me away.

"Don't touch me," she says icily.

Why is she acting like this? Did it have anything to do with last night? "Sica... What's wrong? Why didn't you answer any of my text messages?"

"Were you really sorry, Yuri? Were you really worried? Hah, well, I'm sorry I made you worry, but I wasn't the first to stay out all night without bothering to call or explain why they ran off last night," she scoffed.

Fair enough. I immediately felt more guilty about kissing Jessica. She remembers it. I take a step towards her so I could explain that last night was just a misunderstanding, that I had a bit too much to drink and wasn't thinking. "Sica..."

She shoots me a menacing glare. "Don't come near me."

I could see that tears have already begun to form in her eyes. Not knowing why she was so sad and angry tonight, my only response was to hold her in my arms. She tried to fight me as I attempted to wrap my arms around her. She shoved and slapped at me but the moment I embraced her, I didn't let go. Even when she bit into my neck. To soothe the pain that she inflicted, I moved my hand to her head, keeping her against my neck.

"Why Yuri?" she sobbed into my shoulders, no longer resisting me.

"Shhh... You've just had too much to drink," I coaxed.

"Why?" she asked again, this time more sternly.

"Why what?"

"Why do you treat me this way?" Before I could ask her to clarify, she backs out of my arms and looks deep into my eyes. "Why do you keep making me fall for you only to hate you again? Why Yuri?"

Did she just say that she's falling for me? She must be talking about somebody else. I look away and stare at the ground. With much disappointment in my voice, I tell her, "If you're talking about Kevin--"

"Stop! I'm not talking about Kevin! I'm talking about you!" Jessica screams.

"I... I don't understand..."

"You never understand! You will never understand how much you hurt me last night or all those other nights. You'll never understand who all these tears are for. You'll never understand that it's you that I like!"

I'm shocked at what I'm hearing. This can't be happening. She can't possibly like me. It's a mistake... Just like last night. Yet even as I'm telling myself this, rationalizing her words, my heart is wrenching with an inexplicable pain.

"Sica, baby. Last night... I didn't mean to kiss you. And I'm really sorry if I hurt you. I know that it's Kevin you like."

Jessica turns her head to the side, not looking at me. But even though she wasn't facing me nor was she sobbing anymore, I could still see the tears falling faster from her eyes. Shaking her head, she softly says under her breath, "You didn't mean to kiss me..." Turning to face me once more, she speaks louder. "It was me that kissed you! And fyi, I. Do. Not. Like. Kevin."

Now it's my turn to get mad. I don't know why I'm even feeling this way. She spent the whole week on the phone with this guy, toturing me with her giggles and flirtatious ways and now she's in denial?

"Then why does he keep calling? Why did you go on a date with him?" I walk over to grab the script that's laid out on the table. Flipping it to the last page, I point to the heart. "What's this then? JJ plus KY?" I fling the stack of papers in Jessica's direction and it whips her on her right arm.

I could tell that she's about to answer me from the way she was moving her mouth, to explain her relationship with Kevin. Instead, she just closed her mouth and bit down on her bottom lip. "What does it matter to you?" she finally said. "You don't even see or hear what I say."

"What are you talking about? I hear you!" I'm boiling with anger now to the point where I want to cry. How could I not hear the words of the angelic voice? How dare she imply that I don't listen. I hear everything that she says.

She narrows her eyes at me, causing the tears to spill like a waterfall. "Well, did you hear me say that I like you last night, Kwon Yuri? Or all those other times?"

With my voice raised, I yell back at her. "Yes I did, Jessica!" Oh my god... Everything's starting to sink in now. She said that she likes me. She kissed me, KY, Kwon Yuri. She... likes me?

"And you still ran away. In that case, it doesn't matter why I went out with Kevin. It doesn't matter why we call each other," she says softly.

Now I'm nervous as I put everything into perspective. All her tantrums were her being jealous. She was jealous of Jae, of Yoona, and Sooyoung. Even I was jealous all this time of her and Kevin. I just didn't realize that it was jealousy until now. But, she can't possibly like both Kevin and me.

"Of course it matters... Because... I... I like you too," I confess shyly.

Yes, all this time I've had feelings for Jessica that I didn't even know of. Even from when I was just watching her from afar. When we started talking and getting closer, I wanted more. I wanted more of her smiles, touches, more of her kisses.

Unexpectedly, Jessica merely laughed at my confession. "Do you really, Yuri? Then why do you keep running away? Why do you keep running to Yoona and Sooyoung?" Now she's crying harder. "Why do you keep hurting me again and again? I don't express myself well, maybe that's why the message was never clear. But if you liked me then why didn't you say or do something?"

Oh god, I should just kiss her already. "Then what about you? Why do you keep running to Kevin after everything I've done for you?" I challenged.

"Kevin is gay. His boyfriend is in the States," she said bluntly.

"Oh..." I wasn't expecting that answer.

"And it's you that keeps running away. Yesterday, after the way you romanced me, how could I not confess? You know that I'm a romantic. I was waiting for you to kiss me under the moonlight, but you didn't. So I kissed you and what did you do? You left me there all alone on my birthday! Even if it was some sort of birthday prank, don't you think it was a bit too mean? Shouldn't there have been a special surprise after to make up for it? And now, I just hate--"

I turned off the lights, cutting her off. In the dark, I hear her surprised gasp. I couldn't bear to hear her cry anymore, making me listen to all the ways I had hurt her. All the pain that she's been feeling made my heart want to burst. If I were her, I would hate me too.

"What are you doing?"

I find her hands in the dark and tugged her along as I walked to the glass wall. The moon is shining brightly into our room and I could see her tears glistening. I brush her eyes with my thumbs as she's staring back at me, wondering what I'm going to do next. Leaning in closer, I pull the back of her head towards me until our lips touched. I didn't feel her kiss me back, but she didn't pull away either. I'll take this as a good sign and deepened our kiss, parting her lips with the flick of my tongue.

With our slow movements, I could taste every drink she's had tonight mixed with yesterday's cherry lip gloss that she used. I massage the back of her neck with my thumb as I continue to lazily romance her mouth. Jessica moans and I feel all the anger that's been surrounding the two us disappear.

Breaking the kiss, I cup her face and watch as her eyes flutter open. "How's that for romantic?" It was a rhetoric question, one where I didn't want to wait for an answer. I found myself kissing her again as I pushed her towards the bed.

The soft bed sheets were rubbing against my knee and I began to lay Jessica down while still kissing her. She slid her body up to where the pillows were, pulling me along with her.

I looked down at her pretty face amidst the giant fluffy white pillows. "Sica baby, I don't know if I'll be able to pull away this time."

Her hands are wrapped behind my neck and her eyes begin to tear again. "Then don't." Her lips begin to quiver after saying this and she bites down on her bottom lip, waiting for me to react.

With our bodies pressed together, I feel her heart racing against mine. I really shouldn't take advantage of her while she's intoxicated. What if this wasn't what she wanted? But as always, seeing her pout makes me want to give her the world. I've done enough thinking with my head and where has it gotten me? It's only caused me to push Jessica away, hurting both of us.

This time, I'm going with my feelings. I crush my lips down on hers, licking them open from left to right, as if I was unsealing all our bottled emotions. Even through our kiss I could feel a smile creeping on Jessica's mouth, which only made me kiss her harder.

She raised her bare leg and moved it up against mine. Using it to push me, she turned me over with her being on top now. She moved her kisses away from my mouth, trailing them along my jawline and down my neck. She stopped at where she bit me earlier and planted soft kisses on it.

"Does it hurt?" she stopped to ask me.

"Will you continue to kiss me if I say it does?" I reply back slyly.

"You don't have to... Because I'm going to anyway." Jessica kissed me there again but this time she parted her lips and traced the marks with her tongue.

"Sica..." I moaned in pleasure as I held onto the back of her head.

I pulled her up to engage in another battle of tonsil hockey before rolling her over to lie beneath me. Now it's my turn to taste her. I trailed my wet kisses along her neck, stopping at her collar. I bit down on her bare skin lightly, adding pressure until she moaned my name. I continued to taste the rest of her, removing fabric as I went.

I sucked in a breath of air as I took in the sight before me. "You're absolutely beautiful." I kiss her lips as my hands roamed around her body. "Gorgeous." I felt her fingers brushing against me as she undressed me, fighting with the buttons. But I didn't help her. I kissed her some more as my hands carressed and wandered further down. "Delicate."

Jessica stopped what she was doing and arched her back. "Yuri!" Her breaths became faster as I continued to tease her.

I matched our kisses to the rhythm of our bodies and it wasn't until she bit down on my tongue that I froze. I waited for her satisfied moan before giving her one last kiss and pulled her as close to me as possible.

Wrapping the blankets tightly around our naked bodies, I whispered softly into Jessica's ear. "How's that for a belated birthday makeup surprise?"

"Real special."

I smiled. "Like you."