There was nothing but silence awful silence flooding the car as Jessica did her best to focus on the road with the figure seated beside her.
“How’ve you been?”
From the corner of her eye, Jessica could see the woman gazing at her. Keeping her eyes centered on the road, she softly replied, “Good.”
“How’s Soojung?”
“She’s fine as well. Do I take a turn here?” The woman did her best to stay as detached from the dialogue as possible.
“Sica-yah, could we go someplace to talk? Haven’t seen you in a bit and I really think we should catch up.”
“Not tonight, Yuri. It’s really late and I have to get up early for work tomorrow. Maybe some other--”
A hand wrapped itself around hers abruptly, forcing her to look the woman in the eye, “Please? For old times’ sake?”
---
The chilly night air made Jessica shiver a little, and she momentarily rubbed her palms together, garnering every bit of warmth she could from the motions. The woman seated beside her on the park bench noticed and removed her jacket at once.
“Here.” Casually wrapping it around her shoulders, Yuri offered a brief, reserved smile.
“What about yourself?”
“No worries. I could use some night wind.”
It grew quiet again and Jessica stared down at her hands, her mind not functioning well enough to come up with a topic.
“Do you always get off work this late?” Yuri began. She had waited well over two hours before eventually deciding to head upstairs to check if the woman was still in the office. Thankfully they bumped into each other at the elevator.
“Yeah, guess so. How did you know where I worked?”
“I ran into Tiffany a couple of months back and we did some catching up. Benefits of having mutual friends.”
“Right…”
“You look skinnier. Haven’t been eating well?”
“I take small, frequent meals.” Jessica responded accordingly, not sure where all the small talk was leading.
When Yuri reached out to brush a few strands of hair behind her ear, the woman flinched a little. It was more of a reflex reaction, one that revealed the resistance that had built up over the years.
“You’re still the same… still not taking good care of yourself… it worries me, Sica-yah…”
“I’m doing okay. There’s no need to worry.” As much as she wanted to sound sympathetic, she could not control the indifference in her tone.
YOU ARE READING
얼음꽃 (Frost Flower)
FanfictionIm Yoona never liked the idea of belonging to just one person exclusively. Anything that had to do with commitment, she hated. Her idea of a nightmare would be having somebody greet her with a good morning text first thing she got up asking if she h...
