Chapter 4

Jessica's POV

The aroma of last night's food lingered in the morning air that I awoke to. Trying to block out the scent along with the memories of last night, I pulled my bed covers over my head. As I did so, I felt a numbing pain in my right hand and wrist. The throbbing pain reminded me of yesterday's events and the discomfort extended to my heart. I recalled how I watched Yuri offer to help the other members with their tasks. I watched her complete each task one after another while I scrubbed the stove angrily.

As I thought about it under the dark haven of my blankets, I heard Hyoyeon calling me to wake up for breakfast. Still full from last night's overindulgence, I decided to ignore her. She eventually gave up and left the room. Shortly after, I heard the door open again and felt a light pressure on my shoulder. Thinking that Hyoyeon had returned with a cucumber in her hands, I held onto the covers even tighter to prevent any entrance.

The other person tugged softly at the covers but after a few pulls, she knew that I was purposely refusing to wake up. The weight on my bed shifted and I felt the other person's body on mine. "Sica ah, you ate so much last night and now you've wrapped yourself so tightly in your blanket. Are you trying to turn yourself into a pig in a blanket? Even so, SNSD will never eat you for breakfast."

I released the grip that I had on my blanket to cover my wide smile with my hands. Even before she threw back the covers, I already knew from the voice that it was Yuri.

"C'mon, the bathroom's free now. Hurry up and brush your teeth. Sooyoung's going to be done with her food soon and might start moving onto yours," Yuri said to me with a jovial smile.

All the anger and sadness that I felt just a moment ago quickly dispersed upon hearing her witty comment. Yuri moved her hand from my shoulder down to my hand. As she pulled on it to lift me up, the pain in my hand returned. I winced at the discomfort.

"Sica? What's wrong? Did I hurt you?" Yuri asked me with a concerned look.

I didn't want to reveal that the soreness in my hand was due to last night's scrubbing so I said, "Yuri, you have to learn to be more gentle."

I used her hand as support to lift myself off the bed and ran into the bathroom to hide my grin because as much as I tried to prevent my lips from turning upward, I couldn't.

When I exited the bathroom, I realized that there was no more food on the table. Even though I was full, I did not like the fact that I got out of bed for nothing. "Sooyoung! You have some explaining to do!"

"Yah! Why are you screaming at me for? It wasn't just me that ate this morning, you know. We ALL ate the food. So if you're going to yell at somebody, yell at them." She pointed her finger to the terrified group on the couch before scurrying into her room.

I was ready to start screaming at them when Yuri placed a bowl of juk in front of me.

"Sica, I made this for you. You're not like Sooyoung. You ate a lot last night and you're probably still feeling full. This is lighter and it'll fill you up." She gave me a warm smile before going into her room.

I sat at the table by myself eating the rice porridge that Yuri prepared. Every now and then I would giggle before placing the spoon back into my mouth.

"Ahhh... look at our blissful Sica eating breakfast like a 5 year old," Tiffany said.

I noticed all of them watching me eat and as much as I wanted to give them one of my icy looks, I couldn't help but smile at the group.

After eating, we all headed to the dance room to practice the new choreography. It was different from our other dances; it was much faster, powerful, and had a lot more moves. Even Hyoyeon had a difficult time memorizing the steps.

"Yoong, your hips are supposed to move this way, but your body goes the other way. It's sort of like a wave," SNSD's second best dancer explained to Yoona. She still wasn't grasping the concept of the new move so Yuri went behind her and held onto her hips. She helped Yoona sway her hips to the beat, oblivious that I was looking their way.

"Sica, if you're having trouble with that part too, I could help you," Hyoyeon offered.

"Thanks, but I think I'm ok. You could help the others."

"Oh, Sica unnie, you need help? Yuri unnie is really good at teaching. You should ask her," Yoona called out as she approached me with Yuri's arm around her shoulders.

"Hahaha! Our little maknae is just a fast learner," Yuri replied modestly and gave Yoona a pat on the head.

"It's ok. I don't want to trouble you guys. Plus, Tiffany already offered to help me." I walked to Tiffany and asked her to show me how to follow through on one of the dance moves.

---

We practiced late into the night, taking breaks only when necessary. But as time passed, I started to feel the strain that this dance was putting on my hand.

"Ok, girls! Let's try it altogether one last time as a group and then call it a night. And I don't want any sloppiness. Hard punches, high kicks, and sharp moves. Give me your all," the choreographer said to us.

We were all dancing in sync to the beat until Yuri took a bigger step back and accidentally hit my now swelling hand. I screamed out in pain and everybody stopped dancing.

"Omo, Sica! Are you ok?" Yuri quickly rushed to my side and held onto my hand.

"It hurts..." I said with tears forming at my eyes.

"Sica injured her hand. We can't afford to have it worsen otherwise it'll affect our performance. Can we continue tomorrow?" Taeyeon asked the choreographer who just stopped the music.

"Ok, I don't want anything bad to happen either. You've been practicing all day, you girls must be exhausted. Go home and get some proper rest and Sica, take good care of that hand of yours." Our choreographer left us alone in the room to pack up our belongings before leaving the danceroom.

During our walk back to the dorm, Tiffany was by my side making sure that I was ok. When we arrived at the dorm's entrance, I looked around for the culprit only to find her holding onto Yoona's hand. She gave me a brief guilty look before looking down.

I looked at their hands before screaming, "Yah! Kwon Yuri! Shouldn't you be holding my hand? I'm the one with the injury. The injury that you caused."

I saw her take a step towards me but Yoona pulled her back. Furious at the sight, I ran into the dorm and straight into my room. I pulled out a fresh set of clothes and dashed into the shower before allowing my tears to flow freely.

My tears began to mix with the warm water streaming down my face. I didn't understand why I was crying. But after 5 mins of it, I felt much better and walked back into my room. As the other girls began their showers, I hid in my room and attempted to wrap my hand with a bandage. After a couple of tries, I was finally satisfied and turned off the lights to sleep. Not long after settling into my bed, I heard the door open and a faint scent of strawberries entered the room.

"Sica... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit you. Does it still hurt?" I heard Yuri ask.

"What does it matter to you? I'm fine. I just want to sleep. Go away, please."

She ignored my request and sat on my bed. She pulled my body into a sitting position and smirked. "Who says 'please' after giving a command? Especially one as cold as yours."

She took my bandaged hand and laughed some more. "Are we having some kind of bossam here? Because if we are, all the fillings are going to fall out with your kind of wrapping."

Damn her charming ways... I grinned a bit before pouting again.

"You just smiled. So are we friends again?"

"Yuri ah, it hurts."

"I know. And I'm sorry. I wanted to apologize before but Yoona advised me against it. She told me to wait until you've cooled down before showing my face in front of you. And since the two of you are so close, I decided to wait until now."

Yuri finished unwrapping the bandage. She ran her thumb over the swollen part of my hand. "I'm going to put some medication on it now to relieve the swelling."

I watched her as she gently applied the medication. Friends? were we never friends before? Was that why you treated me differently from the others? I couldn't help but wonder.

After rubbing the medication on my swollen hand, she wrapped the bandage around it.

"There. Much better. Well, I'm going to go sleep now. You should get some rest too." As she was about to turn the doorknob, she looked at me and said, "I'm sorry again. You're probably still mad at me though because even from here I could feel your coldness."

I was about to answer back but she had already left the room, closing the door behind her. Thinking about what she said about the coldness in the air, I gave out a shiver. Damn it Yuri, why did you curse me.

Halfway during the night, I awoke feeling cold all over. 12:16 am the luminescent clock read. I've only been asleep for an hour. Beside me, I heard Hyoyeon tossing and turning in her bed. Guess I'm not the only one who can't sleep. Not knowing much about injuries and its possible effects, I began to worry about how serious mine was and if there was a deeper damage.

"Hyo. Are you awake?"

"Oh... I am," Hyoyeon replied back groggily.

"Hyo, I'm feeling really cold all over. I think there's something wrong with me."

"Really? You and I both then. I'll go turn up the heat again. But I'm pretty sure right before sleeping I had turned it up to 25 degrees Celsius." Hyoyeon got out of bed and walked towards the heater. She placed her hands on it only to feel more coldness.

"Oh no, Sica. I think our heater is broken. That explains why we're so cold. I can't believe I didn't notice it before. I think we should go sleep with Taeyeon."

We both left our winter like room and tried to open Taeyeon's door only to find it locked. "Oh. They must've locked it to prevent her from sleep walking."

I was about to try the next closest room before Hyoyeon exclaimed, "Look Sica! There's still some light coming from Sunny's room. She must still be awake."

"Yeah, she's probably still playing her video games."

Too cold and tired to move, Hyoyeon pushed my body towards Sunny's room. She knocked on it once and almost immediately, the door opened with Sunny's head sticking out of the doorway.

"Oh. Sica, Hyo. What are you two doing here so late?" Sunny asked.

"Do you mind if we sleep with you and Yuri tonight? Our heater is broken and it's freezing cold in there. We didn't want to bother the other girls and I saw a dim light coming from your room and assumed you were still up," Hyoyeon explained.

Fatigue took over me and I leaned against the doorway waiting for Sunny's answer.

"Of course you can! I guess this is my cue to end my video game tonight. I shall save the world some other time." Sunny opened the door wider and I felt a rush of warm air hitting my exposed skin.

"Yuri ah, Sica and Hyoyeon will be sleeping with us tonight." Sunny grabbed onto Hyoyeon's arm dragging her towards her bed. "Hyo, sleep with me. I'm scared to sleep with the Ice Princess."

"Yah! I heard that!"

The two girls snickered before climbing in bed whereas Yuri slowly sat up from hers. Her eyes were barely opened when she reached out to hold onto my hands.

"Sica, baby. Your hands are so cold." She pulled me down onto the bed and wrapped the blanket around the both of us. I felt her tighten her arms around me, pulling me closer before saying with her eyes still closed, "You're so cold."

Of course I am. My heater was broken all night. But instead of stating the obvious, I unconsciously blurted out, "Yuri ah, why do you always smell like strawberries?"

Realizing what I had just said, I quickly pursed my lips together. I looked at her face shining from under the moonlight and silently prayed that she didn't hear me. I searched her face for a sign. Just when I thought it was safe to breathe again, I saw her mouth turn upwards into a smile. Although faint, I clearly heard her whisper, "Because you always smell like kiwi."