The basics of life had always gotten the better of Tiffany, her curiosity would lead to impulsive behaviour and actions.

Food.

A substance the body needs for it to operate and survive another day. But such an essential factor of life is hidden away, guarded from the needy as only the privileged could acquire the vital elixirs of life.

The privileged had what looked like ordinary paper to Tiffany, with detailed faces printed on them. An interesting piece of paper that her mother seemed to be devoid of.

It was because of that paper that her father had left. It was because of that paper why her mother cries by herself sometimes. It was because of that paper why Tiffany let her curiosity get the better of her. She needed to know what the importance of that measly paper was, and how by the mere sight and ownership of it, that brought such joy to her mother.

The paper her mother calls money is exchanged for food. She hasn't had food in so long, but not as long as her mother.

So Tiffany allows her curious mind to wander, her limbs responding to its commands.

It was because of this paper, the crucial need of food, her mother's happiness and her curiosity that Tiffany later finds herself standing in front of an unknown door, where her mother left her, persuading that she'd be right back with food and to stay put.

There was no food and her mother never came back. The unknown door opened and Tiffany was ushered into her new home.

~*~

Young children to late teenagers ran amok in the small, rickety two story house. Tiffany was sharing a room with more than a dozen younger kids her age, a person couldn't walk without stepping on a donated lego or spilt food.

Since her abandonment, Tiffany has never talked.

The other children thought she was weird, mute. The nice old lady running the house thought so too, assigning her to bunk with someone whom she thought could empathise with her. The kind thought aside, Tiffany never went out of her way to talk to her bunk bed buddy.

She thought it was strange, how she was a plague to the other kids because she was 'mute' but the so called girl who was suppose to share a similar trait as her, was the life of the party. When everyone rounded up to play ball, the girl atop her bed would be yanked away to play. New colouring books and crayons came in? She would be the first few who were given the lucky opportunity to grab the items.

Tiffany never met the girl face on, only from behind as she ran away from their beds.

Fall had just come and gone, marking the first winter she was to spend without the comfort of her mother's warm hugs and whispers of consolation.

Having a popular bunk bed buddy (based on being in similar situations), Tiffany was given the front row seats to eerie shadows, traced by the unknown objects just outside the window she lies next to. The wind howled, tree branches thudding and scrapping against the glass, giving the susurration of menacing tales where nightmares were the light at the end of the tunnel in their wake.

Tiffany couldn't get a wink of sleep, her body trembled and not giving her any rest. When the looming sky roared, grey clouds clump together to form array of rain infested pests, storms of the outside's coldness falling from it's entrapment.

The scratchy cloth served as a blanket itches her skin as she ducks her head under it, curling into a ball as she palms her ears, humming a light lullaby she was taught. Her breathing quickens as her bed shakes, the monster of the night after her she imagines. The trembles coursing through her body violently increases when she feels a pat on her shoulder, followed by two more. She can feel burn as she begins to hyperventilate, her tears never-ending.

Her blanket falls slightly harder on her, before the icy cold air meets her already goose-bumped skin. Eyelids screwed shut as tightly as she could muster, she holds in a yelp when her mattress dips, a pair of arms encircling her shivering body.

“It's okay, nothing's going to get you when I'm here. The storm will pass soon.”

A soft voice whispers into her ear, the warmth of their breath slowing her breathing, chin tucked in the crook of her neck and arms around her calms her panic. Even if she never talked to the girl, Tiffany identifies the distinct voice as her bunk bed buddy.

The girl is Taeyeon, given up by her shallow parents.

~*~

They had been graced with coloured papers by Mrs. Lee, the owner of the house. Sitting on the top bunk, Tiffany couldn't stop the continuous eruption of giggles she held in from before, when Taeyeon had played cute so Tiffany could grab a stack of paper.

“Hopefully no one saw us,” Tiffany voiced in a hush tone in between her giggles.

“It was a flawless plan,” Taeyeon grins in confidence.

Like it was second nature, Tiffany watches as Taeyeon rips the paper in perfect procession, folding it into shape to create an object without any hitch. Since that faithful night when Taeyeon hugged and hummed Tiffany to sleep under their shared blankets, Tiffany began talking again as she had found her first friend and saviour from the lonely days and nights.

Grabbing her pick of the coloured paper, Tiffany sets out to make a pink heart. Since her mother's disappearance, Tiffany had been down, feeling as if she was robbed of love and compassion. The months she had spent at the house, hidden away from any human contact, had worsen her state of mind. Tiffany wanted to make a heart, one that would depict the one her mother had taken from her when she had run off, never to be seen again.

Biting her lip as she tries to mould the paper into the curves that was the top of the heart, Tiffany looks up to watch as Taeyeon has a content smile plastered on her face.

“Let me help you,” it was an absentminded statement from the girl in front of her, but Tiffany sets her bottom lip free as a smile also forms on her face.

Not being able to take her heart back from her mother, nor would she want to, Tiffany wanted to make a heart for Taeyeon. Not being able to give Taeyeon her real heart, she wants to give it her all to create something just as beautiful for the small girl who had given her life hope once more.

Her short and small cradling arms had replaced the absence of her mother's, giving her the protection from the terrifying foreign world surrounding her. Her days were filled with adventures with Taeyeon, learning the ropes of how the house worked and the secret places of wonders that were hidden in plain sight. Her nights were no longer filled with tears that caressed her to sleep, but of stories and future plans as Taeyeon would bring her blanket and pillow down to share the bed with Tiffany. Her days were no longer grey with Taeyeon around.

When her old life was pulled from under her that faithful day when she had let her curiosity take over, the fabrication of her new life was made.

Her new life that was opened up by Taeyeon, filled with Taeyeon and one she wished to be alongside and walked through beside Taeyeon.

“Here you go,” a neatly folded and detailed blue heart is placed atop her pink lopsided paper in her palms.

Her eyes travel from the mesmerising blue heart to Taeyeon, catching the girl looking at her with a soft smile. “Promise me you'll take care of it and keep it forever?”

The sudden quest had Tiffany puzzled, her eyebrows furrowing as her small fingers close on the blue heart to keep it cradled within her palm. “Of course I will.”

Her determined answer widens Taeyeon's smile, revealing her straight top row of teeth, perfectly fitted with her baby teeth and a few adult ones.

“Good, I'll hold you to that promise and expect to see you with it in the future.”

The solemn tone and missing glint in Taeyeon's eyes get's Tiffany's heart pumping, nerves jittering. She knows these two signs very well, the same tone and look replaying in all of her nightmares.

Tiffany sees her mother in Taeyeon, and that scares her.

“What are you talking about Taeyeon? You're going to be with me every step of the way through my life, you'll make sure yourself that I'd keep the heart safe.”

Tiffany is on her knees, leaning forward to get closer to the girl leaning on the wall their bunk bed was pushed against. Panic ensues her body, her voice shaking and tear ducts beginning the small spitting leading up to a large storm.

“I heard that we're having guests today when I was sneaking around to steal us cookies.”

Her eyebrows raise in hope, but the sad smile she sees etched on Taeyeon makes them drop faster than a bowling ball falling to the ground.

“No,” Tiffany confirms by herself.

A small chuckle mixed with a sigh passes through Taeyeon's lips, “what do you mean no?”

“I'm not leaving you. No.”

“It's not my choice Tippany, it's theirs.”

Taeyeon's downcast eyes angers Tiffany. She's angry at the girl for already giving up. She's angry at her parents for giving up such a perfect human being. Tiffany was mad at many things. At herself for creating pain in a girl that deserved everything but. At having to meet Taeyeon due to such circumstances. She was infuriated at why Taeyeon was never chosen, why she was given up and why the girl never believed in herself.

Before Tiffany could give the girl smiling at her a piece of her mind, Mrs. Lee appeared in their room, ushering them both to the front of the house.

Tiffany never left Taeyeon's side. She held tightly onto Taeyeon's small hand that melded perfectly into her hand like Cinderella's foot and her glass slipper. The desperate children were cluttered at the front of the crowd of kids, trying to capture the guests eyes first. Even though the both of them were short, Tiffany made it her mission to hide behind the teenagers, shielding both her and Taeyeon from any guests' peripheral vision.

“Tiffany, Taeyeon, stop kidding around,” Mrs. Lee grabs Tiffany's spare hand, pulling both girls to the front of the performing pack.

Tiffany avoided eye contact, not wanting to fall for anymore phony adults that want to buy love. Her plans come up short though when she hears a squeal and is enveloped in a stranger's tight hug.

“Honey! We found her!”

Expensive perfume. That's all that Tiffany can make out when her face is stuffed into a nest of silky hair.

“Her name is Stephanie Hwang, 8 years old.”

“Mrs. Lee, you're making my husband and I the happiest people in the world.”

Her face is given space again when the woman leans out of the hug, arms still around her though. Large hands fall onto her head, giving her hair a ruffle before a neatly groomed man in a body fitting black suit squats next to his wife and into Tiffany's line of sight.

He smiles at her whilst the pink bow she's wearing on her head is fixed by the woman. The hypnotising eyes she finds herself trapped in shatters when she feels the small hand still held in her own squirm to be freed. Panic floods her as her hand is left empty.

“N-no!” She barely stutters out, hand grasping the air for her best friend.

“Honey, Stephanie, what's wrong?”

Tiffany doesn't answer the concerned stranger as her body turns by impulse, in search for that smiling face that calms her anxiety attacks.

“Taeyeon!”

Sight beginning to blur, a cry bubbles up from before her body is pulled into a familiar hug.

“Please don't cry Tippany, it's fine.” The circular motion rubbed into her back calms her hiccuping, “It's going to be okay, really.”

“And who might this charming friend of yours be, Stephanie?”

Her eyes opens as large saucepans, this is her chance. Her and Taeyeon being together forever relies on what is just about to occur. Stepping back from the warm hug, Tiffany tightly grips onto Taeyeon's hand to make sure the girl doesn't get away.

“This is Taeyeon. She is the most wonderful-est person in the world. She can sing, draw, paint, fold papers to make what ever you like, make you laugh and scream, she can do anything and everything. We're a two piece item, if there's me then there's also Taeyeon too.”

The man nods his head, impressed by Tiffany outburst as the woman walks, on her knees, closer to Taeyeon.

“Hi Taeyeon,” the woman holds onto Taeyeon's other hand. “Aren't you looking dapper,” she says smiling as her eyes dip to look at the small girl dressed in a white shirt hidden under denim overalls. Her hand rises to Taeyeon's fallen fringe from her eyes before playing with the rest of her fringe which is tied up in an apple hair.

“I guess, Tippany is the one that chooses my clothing,” Taeyeon smiles as memories of Tiffany fretting over what she wears rolls in.

“Does she now? Well I think she did an amazing job at choosing a cute outfit for a cute girl.”

Tiffany's hopes are high, the woman seems to be taking a liking in Taeyeon. But Taeyeon does something, something that always deters people from her, only that Taeyeon can't help it.

Taeyeon raises her free hand, it moves in a twitch like motion before she rests it on the woman's shoulder. The small hand slides up the woman's shoulder to her neck before resting on her check; her fingers doing a sensing dance all along the way.

Tiffany stares at the confusion painted on both the man and woman's face, her hand beginning to tighten around Taeyeon's hand even more.

“What are you doing, dear?” The woman asks in curiosity as Taeyeon at her cheek.

“I'm seeing you.”

It was simple to Taeyeon, as it is now to Tiffany. But to others, especially those seeking for the 'perfect' child to call their own, it was terrifying and at any costs, needed to be avoided by.

Mrs. Lee steps in for the couple who stays in their confused state, lying a hand to pat at Taeyeon's small head sympathetically.

“Taeyeon was born with Glaucoma.”

~*~

Tiffany dabs her wrists onto her neck, spreading the perfume she just sprayed. Looking over herself in the full body mirror, she grabs at the hem of the dress that was neatly laid on her bed, before gently tugging down at it. She ran her hands along the large belt strapped at her waist, making small checks to see if it sat snugly on her before a few knocks on her door indicated her appearance is needed.

After final adjustments to her outfit, she heads out. The hallway is empty, the small echoes of chatter rebound off the walls. Letting out a deep breath, she steps into the light that trickles in from the large open space of the top of her staircase to her opened space living room. Simultaneous clapping reverberates as the crowd cheers from below the staircases rails.

As her assistant presents to her a tall glass of champagne, the crowd hushes, ready for her speech.

“Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends, I am over ecstatic that you all could join me for the celebration of the recently, successful company project.”

The cheer roars back ten fold, the long and stressful weeks of finishing off the highly important and company expanding project was finally over.

“So without further ado, please enjoy the party!”

Glasses clink before they mimic Tiffany who raises her glass, addressing a toast to everyone's hard work.

The night is left with happy mingling and wandering around Tiffany's grand estate. Her formal smile and light talk is cut short when a small crowd at a particular part of a wall catches Tiffany's attention. The person at the back of the gathering notices Tiffany's presence, voicing out everyone's curiosity.

“These paintings you have decorating your interior are fascinating, but not as much as this one. It's not a painting, but what seems to be simply a framed item. I can't see due to everyone's head, but my eyes did catch little bits and pieces. Did you buy this or did you frame it yourself?”

Analysing, something needed in her profession. She didn't mind her clothing being analysed and talked about, but having someone poking at her personal life didn't feel all too good.

Tiffany knows what's hung at this particular wall. It's hung to be perfectly hit by the light from her chandelier, greeting her in the morning as she steps foot off the staircase to leave for work, and bidding good night as it's the last decoration she sees before heading back to her room.

Encased in a golden frame and thick glass to protect it if anything, the hung up frame is the most important possession Tiffany owns in the whole world. Designed to carefully hold the item, right in the middle of the large frame is a blue heart, in the same state as the day it was made and given to her on that bunk bed oh so many years ago.

A nostalgic smile graces Tiffany's face, everyone's breath around her stolen as they get to witness the eye capturing smile that has taken the world by a storm up close. The crowd moves, paving way for Tiffany as she walks up to the frame.

“I put it up myself, actually. The paintings given to me in my house may be worth millions of dollars, part of antique collections, but this, this fragile blue heart right here,” Tiffany's hand the glass frame just where the blue heart is, “is purely made of paper but holds the greatest love I've ever known. It's priceless to me.”

“I may not be with you anymore Tippany, but with this, this blue heart you hold in your hand, is proof that you'll always have my heart in your grasp. Please promise me that you'll take care of it for me.”

~*~

In more casual clothing, Tiffany traces the steps on her map to a house that holds her childhood and the origins of where she gathered her strength to hope.

The young woman carefully walks up, making sure not to step on the cluttered toys painting the grass and footpath, she takes in a deep breath before shakingly letting it out. Knocking on the door, she waits in anticipation. She doesn't know what she's expecting, but anything is better than nothing.

The door opens, Tiffany is greeted by a chocolate stained face. Squatting down to be leveled, she smiles at the boy still munching on a melting chocolate bar.

“Hi little one, may I talk to the person running this place?”

He continues to chew away, dribble of saliva mixed with chocolate falls from the corner of his lip as he nods his head.

“Mama, Tae!”

The first syllable of someone dearest to her heart has Tiffany straightening up, dusting her clothing of nonexistent specks.

Followed by a hoard of children tripping over her ankles is a girl, a little taller, more beautiful, but just the exact same girl ingrained in Tiffany's memories. She comes to a slow step only a few meters from Tiffany before a large grin shines Tiffany's way. The smile reveals her straight top row of teeth, perfectly fitted with now only adult ones.

“Hi Tiffany, I knew you'd come back one day.”

The basics of life had always gotten the better of Tiffany, her curiosity would lead to impulsive behaviour and actions.

So when she reaches out to yank Taeyeon into a long waited hug, she finally smiles a smile that has been lost for so many years.

Tiffany finds it amazing how her world was given colour, life and how her world was opened for her to venture through by someone who was given the scrappings of the bottom of a barrel. No one knew her more than the girl now chuckling in her ear as she returns her hug.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Taeyeon was able to see the beauty in her even when she couldn't see any beauty in the world.

Maybe her curiosity that led her to steal money was a blessing, for she was given the chance to find the essential factor of her life; Taeyeon.

Sight or no sight, Taeyeon saw Tiffany for who she was, could be and is.

"Light always overcomes darkness." In which Taeyeon is the light that helps Tiffany overcome her darkness. 

Anyone actually made it to the bottom here?

Haha, anyways, I hoped you liked the story, and give my friend, RavingJenny, support for her stories as well :D 

Who knows, maybe she'll edit more of my drabbles, and if she does, I'll post them up. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

Until next time, I'll adopt Taeyeon anyday!