Quest for Joy

Chapter 14

For the days after that night Jessica grew more curious about her amazing housemate, of just how amazing Taeyeon seems to her now. Of course she didn't make it obvious and hid while observing from a distance, which led to prolonged moments of pointless staring. To her contentment, Taeyeon always leaves her door open because she dislikes being enclosed inside a room, which Jessica kind of knew since that incident in high school. She would tap her fingers on the desk in a steady rhythm or fiddle with a pen while she focused on whatever she was working on at the time.

During meal times, Taeyeon often made soup and drank at the kitchen table. After being around Taeyeon's usual playful behaviour for so long, it is nice to see her drink her soup peacefully while browsing through her phone. The low grunting sound she makes when she has to do an action that required both of her hands, such as typing an answer to answer an unwanted text. After she is done, she would leave some leftovers in the fridge, which Jessica always snuck a few sips after the shorter girl had gone back to her room.

The meeting with Mr. Kim went well, very well. The man had convinced Mr. Jung to sign Jessica up as a trainee, even bypassing the audition since he had already heard her at the celebration party. He asked about the song she sang, which Jessica told him honestly that it was Taeyeon who introduced the piece to her. In her surprise, the man didn't find it surprising at all. Maybe he had heard from my father that she is really talented. She reasoned with herself.

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A year passed and things could not be any better for Jessica, she performed well in almost all evaluations and had one of the most successful debuts, earning her numerous CF shoots, interviews and other events. Despite her tight schedule, hopping between different places, she managed them flawlessly and this was thanks to the discipline her dad had drilled into her since she was young.

And also a big thanks to Taeyeon.

After joining Mr. Kim's company as a trainee, she was nervous, excited, anxious, and sometimes even scared. And whenever that happened, her mind keep turning her attention towards that one annoying kid.

At first it felt like she had to give up a lot of pride whenever she approached Taeyeon for help, whether it was rehearsing a song, a dance and not until much later, to be there just for her company and moral support. And it didn't help much when Taeyeon didn't make it easy for her, and kept on asking for silly tasks, it gets as ridiculous as doing her laundry.

The rehearsals were so she knows that she sounded good, her dance moves flowed naturally or were there any imperfect spots in her makeup. As time went by, even the ice princess herself can't help but notice Taeyeon's sincerity in helping her and eventually warm up to the latter. And now, when she feels like it, she would make up some excuse to get Taeyeon to join her in whatever she was doing.

The same thing, however, could not be said about Taeyeon.

Her strategy of working ahead and then slowly slacking didn't go unnoticed by Mr. Jung. Mr. Jung's expectations grew and asked her to complete more assignments, even more than she could handle on some occasions. Especially now that she is the director of her entire department, she barely have extra time to hang and play around like she used to. Despite all of that, she still finds time to help Jessica, now a rookie soloist, and make time to have lunch whenever she can. When Jessica is happy, she is happy and all she could think of at work was going home to wait for Jessica's return from her schedules. And when Jessica returns she would happily stay up for another hour just to spend some time with whom in her opinion was the most beautiful idol in the world.

Perhaps Jessica was the only reason that she is happy during these tough times for her, because at work it wasn't as simple as it used to be.

Her employees gave her a description that fell on the opposite spectrum of how she treated Jessica. If you were to tell one of the workers that it was Taeyeon who helped their CEO's daughter achieve her dream, they would call you oblivious and even blind.