Chapter 54

After finishing her phone call, Jessica stood in her spot and sent a text message to Li Jingming. Jin Taeyeon and Tiffany, not seeing any movement after a while, thought Jessica had already left, so they started to play and laugh without restraint, even discussing the matter. They didn't realize that Jessica had heard everything.

Breaking through the barriers of society? If it weren't for her lack of strength, Jessica would have wanted to strangle Tiffany. Was this some twisted story of sibling love?

"Xica, I was trying to eavesdrop, no, I just intended to eavesdrop, no, I, I just unconsciously eavesdropped... I didn't really pay attention to eavesdropping..." Tiffany, unable to continue, hung her head in repentance.

Only then did Jin Taeyeon realize that her best friend was telling the truth, and she started to stutter out of nervousness...

"Last time it was you, and now you've even brought a partner. Next time, are you planning to do a live broadcast?" Jessica looked at Tiffany with dissatisfaction, wondering why she liked to eavesdrop so much.

Tiffany cared about her, and Jessica knew that, but she wasn't in a relationship. Pan Yi, this imagination-loving person, was already starting to think of TV drama plots.

"We just happened to pass by, hehe." Jin Taeyeon couldn't let Tiffany bear Jessica's anger alone, "We were just going to the bathroom."

"Um, right, the bathroom." Tiffany, afraid that others wouldn't know she was lying, kept her eyes darting around, not daring to meet Jessica's gaze. Jin Taeyeon, standing to the side, grinned. If only Pan Yi had kept her mouth shut, it was worse to have a teammate like this than an opponent. She had been deceived again, and now Jessica would be furious.

The expected storm of anger didn't come. Jessica just glared at the two for a while and then said, "I won't be eating at the company for lunch. If I'm not back by two, please take a leave for me and Hao Lei oppa."

"Are you going to have lunch with that person?" Tiffany, forgetting to look innocent and pitiful, suddenly looked up and asked.

"It's with Xiao Shuijing. This morning she came to our practice room and pestered me to eat beef. You all knew about it, right?" Jessica didn't mention that Li Jingming would also be there, but Tiffany and Jin Taeyeon had heard it.

"You just called and said..." Tiffany was still confused.

"Hey, you." Jessica suppressed her anger. Eavesdropping on her phone call was one thing, but now she was questioning her? Jessica, trying to be patient, explained, "Because he treated me to a meal and bought me clothes, no, he gave me money to buy clothes."

"Ah?" The word "sugar daddy" popped up in Tiffany's mind again.

"It was the payment for my appearance in the MV. In short, that person is Xiao Shuijing's friend, and since we're having lunch, I'll go with them." Jessica clarified.

"But I watched that MV, how come you weren't in it?" Tiffany had watched two episodes of the "TV series MV" and hadn't seen Xica at all. She didn't know that the friend Jessica was talking about was Li Jingming, but now she had to ask. If he was a qualified boyfriend, how could he let someone else shoot the MV? Although the female lead was beautiful, Xica wasn't bad either.

"I'll appear at the end." Jessica had watched it in the dormitory over the past two days, sitting next to Tiffany. The trainees' dormitory had a large communal TV, but Jessica never spoke while watching and her gaze was always "distant." Tiffany didn't realize that Jessica was actually watching her own MV; she thought Jessica just liked the song.

So, Jessica had seen her acting like a love-struck fan these past two days? Thinking of this, Tiffany's face turned red. She secretly glanced up, feeling embarrassed for fawning over someone else's boyfriend. No wonder Xica was looking at her with such a cold, almost murderous gaze.

Jessica was a bit angry because of the "eavesdropping" again, but she insisted it was for another reason.

"Can I have a signed photo of him?" Tiffany asked timidly. She really wanted one. She had planned to meet him during lunch, but thinking of Jessica's gaze, she decided to settle for less.

"I'll ask him for you." Jessica agreed readily, surprising Tiffany, who thought she would refuse.

"Thanks, Xica." Tiffany leaned in to kiss Jessica's cheek, her way of expressing happiness and affection.

Jessica usually liked such intimate gestures between friends, but today she pushed Tiffany away with a look of disgust, "It's so hot, and if I catch you eavesdropping on my phone calls again, you know, hmm."

When Jessica left with her unique "Zheng Bingzhang" stride, Jin Taeyeon let out a long sigh. She wasn't afraid of Jessica, but she felt guilty. Seeing that Jessica was really gone, she curiously asked Tiffany, "Is that a senior who has debuted?"

"You mean Li Jingming? Yes, he debuted the day before yesterday." Tiffany happily introduced him, "He's really talented, even better than the company's seniors. Most importantly, he's Xica's boyfriend."

"Ah, Xica said it's just a collaboration for the MV." Jin Taeyeon didn't have the habit of overthinking. When she heard Jessica was treating someone, and with Tiffany's exaggeration, she thought Jessica was going on a date. But after Tiffany's explanation and Jessica's clarification, she understood the situation.

"Xica is just shy, you don't understand her." Tiffany stuck to her opinion. She and Xica were both from America and had been together for a long time. She had never seen the usually indifferent Jessica think about someone, especially a man, so much. She would think of him during meals and even while watching TV. Jessica had smiled at Li Jingming on TV yesterday, a detail Jessica might not have noticed, but Tiffany had. At first, she thought Jessica just liked the "singer," but now it was clear that Jessica liked the "man."

"Is Li Jingming really that talented in singing?" Jin Taeyeon wasn't interested in such things. She was more career-oriented, or rather, at this stage, she was particularly concerned about her and her teammates' future. After all, she had promised Jessica to lead them to success.

"Of course. I'll show you his videos when we get back to the dorm. The song 'I Don't Want to Miss You' is of very high quality." Tiffany now looked like a typical teenage fan introducing her favorite idol to her friend.

Jin Taeyeon had already made up her mind. If Li Jingming was really that good, she would ask him for advice. That day on the Han River Bridge, Li Jingming said that when the emotions were right, the song could be expressed well. It wasn't that the senior didn't focus on singing techniques; it was that his skills had reached a level beyond technique, on par with Teacher Jung Sun-woo. Although everyone said Jung Sun-woo was very kind to her, Jin Taeyeon always felt a lot of pressure during singing lessons. Her recent progress had been slow, and she was stuck in a bottleneck, which made her very anxious.

At noon, Li Jingming drove an A8 from LAD Company to the S.M. Company trainee dormitory area and called Jessica. After a while, the call was answered.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end didn't sound like Jessica.

"I'm looking for Jessica. Is she there?" Li Jingming asked.

There was a moment of silence, then, "Sister is in the shower. Who are you, and what do you want with her?" Jessica's sister, Krystal, saw the number on her sister's phone, which was saved as a single capital letter J. Jessica was sometimes lazy, but she always kept her phone organized.

"Didn't she say she was going to have lunch?" Li Jingming asked, puzzled. It was almost twelve.

"Oh." Krystal didn't explain but walked away, and Li Jingming could hear her footsteps, followed by a knock on the door, the sound of running water, and then a sharp scream: "Jung Sooyoung!"

"Sister, I didn't take a photo this time." This was Jessica's sister's voice, making Li Jingming sweat. This time not, meaning she had before?

"Then why did you bring your phone in?" Jessica angrily demanded. She had been threatened by her sister with nude photos before, which were only deleted after a big meal.

"It's a call from Senior Li Jingming." Krystal said.

Li Jingming hadn't introduced himself to Jessica's sister, so how did she know his name? He was curious if Jessica talked about him at home.

Jessica glared at her sister with a murderous look, "Hang up quickly. Don't you know to wait until I'm done before calling back? How could you just barge in like this?"

"Beep beep..." The call was obediently hung up. Li Jingming was speechless about the two sisters. Were they both actors? They ended calls without saying goodbye, just hanging up. In movies, characters always ended calls with a cool press of a button. If Li Jingming hung up on his mother like that, she would definitely call back within seconds, "I wasn't done talking, and you hung up. Are you growing up and getting so bold that you're impatient with your mother?" Then would come the moral lecture.

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