A/N: A side chapter while I fix up the next one

 

[That afternoon with Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and Yoona]

 

Absently stirring the steaming cup of hot chocolate the girl let out light- almost dreamy- sigh. Glassy eyes flickered from the unknown couple having a date a few tables across from where their silent observer sat to the two girls a table diagonal to her. An exasperated sigh follows as she watches the slightly shorter of the two let out an animalistic cry of distraught, hands flying to her jet-black hair before dramatically flinging her torso over the table with a light thud. The taller of the two smiles apologetically as she lightly nudges the girl she was tutoring, leaning over to whisper something that had her tutee letting out a long groan of defeat. Finally, after a few more light prodding the tutee straightened up, cheeks puffed up and her bottom lip jutted out in a pout as she stared blankly at the papers before them.

 

To be young and in love.

 

“I bet you, Yoona’s just acting like this clueless idiot just to get close to her crush.” A monotonous voice pulls the attention of the observer. She glances over to the outstandingly bright blond head opposite her and blinks. Her gaze falls from the eye-catching color to the bored look on her friends face.

 

Chin on her propped up hand Hyoyeon takes a careful sip of her flavored coffee. Her nose crinkles at the first assault of salt on her taste buds then smoothens out as the rich, sweet flavor of caramel takes over.

 

Returning her gaze to the two younger girls, Sooyoung nods. “I already know that. Next move she’ll do is pass her exams with flying colors and shower praises on Juhyun, as if getting nearly perfect marks was an impossible feat for her. Then Yoona would casually extend an invitation masked as a thank you to get Juhyun out on a date.”

 

“True that…” Hyoyeon nodded her head in total agreement. Then, always wanting to crank things up a notch, she wagered “I bet you Juhyun’s going to figure out Yoona isn’t as dumb in math as she’s acting out to be. Before the exam.”

 

Sooyoung lifts a brow. Her eyes shift over to the “couple”, a grin pulling at one side of her lips. “You’re on.”

 

“I bet you..” Hyoyeon holds up a finger, a smirk in place, the previously dull look in her eyes switching to a self-assured glint. Her friend stares at the finger, then scoffs and holds up three of hers.

 

“Game?”

 

“You’re in way over your head, Soo.” Hyoyeon holds up three fingers. “Call.”

 

“Rules. No interfering of any kind.”

 

“Fair enough.” Hyoyeon leans back on her chair, smirk playing at her lips.

 

Eyes squinting in suspicion Sooyoung nudged Hyoyeon’s leg under the table. “What are you smirking at?”

 

“Aw, nothing. Just get ready to trim down your snacking for the next couple of days. Need to save up for my victory.”

 

Sooyoung snorted. “Cocky little shrimp.” She muttered. Her eyes went up to the yellow strands, a smile pulls at her lips and she shakes her head.

 

So much for the hair dye in the shampoo, the bright blond had actually suited the imp. Not that she would ever tell Hyoyeon it was actually her that switched the shampoo instead of her roommate, as the girl had thought. She had barely managed to keep a straight face at the confused look Hyoyeon’s roommate had donned as the girl tried to blatantly show off her new hair color with the thinly veiled sarcasm. It was cute how the roommate had ridden the flow and let the assumption die at that, Hyoyeon still none the wiser.

 

Sooyoung knew the roommate knew it was her. She could see it in the way the roommate would look at her, a small smirk pulling at her lips when their eyes would meet before casually looking away. Unfortunately, they weren’t that close for Sooyoung to really know what the girl has in store for her, even if she has one in the first place. To be safe, Sooyoung had sent her an anonymous gift certificate from one of those play stores. Judging by the rows of cd’s, the small TV and gaming console squeezed into the corner of the room, it was a no brainer that the girl was an avid gamer.

 

Sooyoung shook her head at her wandering thoughts, focusing back on her sweet, hot chocolate. She throws the unknown couple another glance and sighs. “When will I get a boyfriend?”

 

Hyoyeon’s brow quirk at the random statement. She half her seat, following Sooyoung’s gaze she absently scratches the underside of her nose. “You should move to America.” She saw the questioning look on Sooyoung’s face and shrugs off-handedly. “That way your guy wouldn’t have to look up just to have eye contact with you.”

 

She dodges the wild swat aimed at her face and raised both her hands up in a nonthreatening manner. “Just an opinion. No need to hate.”

 

“Oh, very funny, Hyo.” Sooyoung grounded out sarcastically. She eyes the two younger girls and suppresses an eye roll at the blatant staring Yoona was now giving her tutor, paying no attention to what the younger girl was explaining in writing. It was even more incredible that the younger girl hadn’t noticed or even looked up to check if her tutee was even listening.

 

Strange.

 

Does she have that much confidence in her tutees? She couldn’t have, right? Or maybe that’s just her teaching style.. Young, innocent Juhyun wouldn’t actually play the fool, would she? She is smart but…

 

Sooyoung gave a quick cursory glance at the relaxed Hyoyeon.

 

Did she just set her up to lose?

 

“God, damn it.” She muttered under her breath, mentally throwing daggers at her friend.

 

“I want to change the bet.”

 

“No can do.” Was Hyoyeon’s immediate reply.

 

“Fine, a bet over a bet.” She holds up four fingers now.

 

Hyoyeon straightens up on her seat, placing both her elbows to rest on the table, chin resting over her palms. “I’m listening.”

 

“I bet you Juhyun’s going to tell Yoong she knows about her acting in a week’s time.”

 

Hyoyeon chuckled. “Aren’t you going against your previous bet?” she shakes her head. “You can’t do that. I ain’t taking it.”

 

Sooyoung huffs. She glances back at the two girls. Yoona had her head down this time, “trying” her hand at a problem. Sooyoung chews her bottom lip nervously and moves her sights to Juhyun who was watching the progress of her tutee at the side. She stares unabashedly, half of her mind churning out ways to get her out of the bet, and that’s when she catches it. The subtle flicker of Juhyun’s eyes moving from the paper to the side profile of Yoona’s face, the small movement of her leaning away, her eyes returning to the paper, a light pink starting to dust across her fair cheeks. Sooyoung’s lips twitch. She peeks cautiously at Hyoyeon whose attention was elsewhere. Perfect.

 

“I bet you sweet, little Juhyun actually like our Yoongie in the same way.” Soyoung declares softly, putting up five fingers. Hyoyeon’s eyed the slender fingers, her lip twitches in a brief smirk before shaking her head at the proposal.

 

“You’re crazy. Where the hell are we going to get that much? Are you planning to rob a store or something?” Hyoyeon quickly dismisses the idea, waving her hand flippantly.

 

“Fine. I win, we cancel the previous bet.” Hyoyeon’s gaze return to Sooyoung’s serious face.

 

“And if I win?” Hyoyeon asks after a while of calculative silence.

 

“I’ll owe you,” Sooyoung determinedly held up eight fingers.

 

Hyoyeon takes a moment staring at Sooyoung as if she had just grown two additional heads. She throws the tutor-tutee couple a glance and nods her head. “Well, since you’re so adamant about this, prepare to say goodbye to your lunch and snacks for a while. Shake on it.” She finally says, holding out her hand to close the deal. Sooyoung scoffs and slaps Hyoyeon’s hands.

 

“It’s a deal then.”

 

Sooyoung leans back, a little relieved. Her attention returns to the tutor.

 

Aside from the way Yoona had described (with pink-tinted glasses) how Juhyun is, neither Sooyoung nor Hyoyeon really knew the girl to a personal level. Despite them being in a higher level Yoona’s obvious interest in the girl had Sooyoung curious enough. She had kept an eye on the younger girl every chance she had, coming up to the conclusion that she was one of those wallflower types. Smart and musically talented with an interesting selection of reading material, but also very much over looked. Despite being beautiful in her own rights the girl had never shown interest in the opposite .

 

She had just hoped she didn’t misread the subtle action by the younger girl.

 

“Ah yeah, and before I forget,” Hyoyeon suddenly pipes up, snapping Sooyoung out of her musings. She reaches into her back pocket, pulling out her wallet. A frown mares her features as she flips through the small leather material, muttering as she thumbs through the number of cards and papers.

 

“No wait.” Her other hand she reaches for the opposite pocket, and with a little tug and a soft mutter finally pulls out a familiar yellow card. “Sunny asked me to pass this to you and..” she drawls, her eyes shooting upwards as she tries to recall their verbal exchange. “said something like you’ve got to try better than this.” She flicks the card to the table. “That’s interesting… she’s never said no to one of those cards.”

 

Sooyoung sighs as she reaches for the card. She flips it over, checking if the silver seal covering the pin code remained intact. It was. Well, she read one person completely wrong. So much for bribing her secrecy.

 

“Did you do something to her? She sounded a little too chirpy if you ask me. Not the normal one either. I didn’t even know you guys talked to each other aside from the usual hello’s and goodbyes.” Hyoyeon asked slowly, her head resting on one propped up hand, attention completely on Sooyoung’s frowning face.

 

Sooyoung avoids eye contact, afraid her expression might give her away. Being part of the drama club with Yoona, she had trained herself to have full control of her expressions and actions under the spot light (or during a prank). Away from it though she becomes horrible in reining in her emotions, especially when put under scrutiny without prior notice. “Let’s just say I owe her something and leave it at that.”

 

Hyoyeon clucks her tongue, eyes squinting in suspicion. “I smell something fishy.”

 

“Are you sure it’s not your smelly feet?” Sooyoung shot back defensively. Hyoyeon ignores the remark, eyes glinting and lips pulling into a Cheshire grin as she leans forward.

 

“Then why aren’t you looking at me? Only time you do that is if you’re hiding something.”

 

Sooyoung forces a scoff, flippantly waving Hyoyeon off while turning her back to the girl. “I’m an actress Hyo, what makes you think I’m easy to read.”

 

“Because we’ve been friends for so long that I know your acting only works when you’re playing a role. Right now you’re just Sooyoung, my friend who can’t lie to save her life.” Hyoyeon shots back. She reaches over to Sooyoung’s arm, her grip tightening enough to let Sooyoung know she wasn’t going to leave the conversation easily.

 

Sooyoung sends her a withering stare then sighs in defeat. “I may have done… or didn’t do something and got her in a little bit of... trouble. So now I owe her one. Please don’t ask me what it is. I’m a horrible liar, but I’ll spit out all the bull I can to get you off my case.”

 

Hyoyeon snorts. “You know you’re not supposed to say that.”

 

Sooyoung shrugged. “Yeah, but I figured it’ll get you off my back quicker.”

 

After a few seconds of scrutiny Hyoyeon slowly shakes her head, breathing loudly through her nose in amusement. “Fine, I’ll leave it.” she conceded, reclining back to her previous relaxing position. “Just a fair warning to my best friend, Sunny is… not someone you’d want to piss off.”

 

Sooyoung’s face fell. She eyed the solemn look on Hyoyeon’s face. Sunny’s smirk popped into mind and a bolt of electricity ran up her spine to her arms, goose pimples breaking out. She nodded gravely. Never underestimate the silent ones. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

 

 

 

 

“So how did your date go?” Hyoyeon teased as soon as Yoona’s slim body slid into her side of the booth. The “study” date had just ended, Juhyun leaving the premises after bidding her seniors, Sooyoung and Hyoyeon a stiff goodbye. Sooyoung, hid her smirk, lazily waving her hand in farewell, hoping Hyoyeon missed the action.

 

Yoona shoved Hyoyeon’s shoulder, a faint pink dusting her cheeks. “Unnie, I told you. Juhyun is just tutoring me with math. It’s not a date.”

 

“You know we can see you staring at her with heart shaped eyes from over here.” Sooyoung jested, only to receive a hard stomp under the table. She held in a groan, resting her forehead on the table to hide the contorting of her face. She missed the reddening of Yoona’s face before she buried her face into her hands. “Unnie!”

 

“Aw, come now Yoong, no need to hide things from us. We know you’re not terrible in academics, and even if you are you could’ve asked S’young or I for help.”

 

Yoona’s blush deepened and she turned her back to her friends to try and avoid further embarrassment. “I didn’t want to trouble you guys.”

 

Sooyoung made a scoffing noise, head still down, while Hyoyeon slamming her hand on the table once in amusement.

 

“Sooyoung’s not the only one bad at acting outside of character.” Hyoyeon teased. Sooyoung raised her head to throw Hyoyeon a scowl while Yoona stiffened.

 

The youngest forced out a laugh, turning to nudge Hyoyeon non-too-gently by the shoulder. A friendly warning. “That’s funny, unnie. Good joke. Anyway, Sooyoung-unnie, have you tried the cream donut? It’s amazing!” she changed the subject and tried to get Sooyoung involved. The plan worked wonders as she had the tallest girl’s rapt attention.

 

Hyoyeon chuckled, shaking her head. “Your mouth says no, but your body says otherwise.” She grinned at the rapidly reddening face of her junior. Until said junior made a frantic lunge at her. Thin arms stretched out, curling around Hyoyeon’s neck. Hyoyeon had tried to slip her hands in between them to act as a prying mechanism, but realized that she was a second too late when she felt the pressure on .

 

“Stop! I’m sorry!” she choked out, struggling to grab a hold of the arm cutting off her oxygen supply.

 

“Three words, eight letters. Say it.”

 

“No.” The chokehold tightened, Hyoyeon’s eyes bulged from the sockets as her face started to turn red. Sooyoung felt sorry for the poor girl, but Yoona’s embarrassed-angry face and her deadly chokehold had Sooyoung rooted on her seat, partly in fear and partly in amusement. Hyoyeon had it coming. She sent an apologetic smile to Hyeyeon when the girl’s panicked eyes searched for her own. Just as her face was beginning to turn a shade purple Hyoyeon managed to utter the words they were waiting for. “… I… got food.”

 

Instantly Yoona’s arms withdrew and Hyoyeon shot to the farthest corner of the seat, over-exaggeratedly coughing and gasping for air. Yoona clapped her hands once, giving the gasping girl a toothy grin. “You know me so well.”

 

Hyoyeon threw her a dirty look, then sent the laughing Sooyoung one that screamed traitor. It only made Sooyoung chortle louder, longer and hard enough to send her into a coughing fit.

 

“By the way, unnie, do you guys know someone named Taecyeon?” Yoona pushed an untouched glass of water towards Sooyoung. Hyoyeon playfully intercepted, grabbing the glass a millisecond earlier than Sooyoung and placing it farther from her reach. Sooyoung kicked her from under the table, just managing to graze the side of her leg, before reaching over the table and grabbing the water. She downed the liquid as fast as she could.

 

Deciding she had enough rough housing for the day (and curious looks sent their way) Hyoyeon left her alone. She gave her junior a questioning look. “Hm? Your short unnie over at the other school?”

 

“Unnie..” Yoona whined, thinking the older girl was toying with her.

 

“Taec-yeon not Tae-yeon, Hyo.” Sooyoung said. She coughed hard two more times to expel any excess liquid from her windpipes before continuing. “And is it even alright for you to call her short? You’re not that much taller.”

 

“Shut up, Soo.” Hyoyeon growled. “Anyway the name does sounds familiar. Why do you ask?”

 

“Well..” Yoona began, fishing out her phone from her pocket. “This person has been sending me weird jokes. I have no idea what’s going on.”

 

“Weird? How weird?”

 

“Like…” she scrolled through her phone, stopping at a message and reading it out loud for her friends “How does a lemon ask for a hug?” she stops, glancing at the two girls for answers. When neither made an attempt at an answer she continued reading the punch line. “Give us a squeeze.” She scrunched her nose after she read it.

 

“What?” Sooyoung snatched the phone out of Yoona’s hand, skimming through the few messages. “Are you a fruit? Cause Honeydew you know how fine you.. Oh God! Hyo! Listen to this. Are you a banana? Cause I find you a-peeling. I didn’t know people still use that joke.”

 

Hyoyeon grimaced, giving the taller girl a nudge on the knees. “Geez, Shikshin, can’t you skip the fruit jokes?”

 

“Excuse me, I’m just reading whatever’s in here.” Sooyoung kicked back, accidentally hitting the table’s leg instead. The table rattled from the force, spilling a little of their drinks. She raised one hand in apology to the now annoyed looks sent their way, then mouthed sorry to a curious waiter nearing their table. “They’re all fruit jokes.” She whispered harshly.

 

“Yoong, are you sure you don’t know the person?” Hyoyeon asked. Yoona shook her head vigorously, widening her eyes to showcase her innocence.

 

“I swear unnie, I don’t know who this is. And they’ve been sending me fruit jokes twice a day for the last four days.”

 

“If you were a vegetable you’d be a cute-cumber.” Sooyoung read the last message. She then carefully placed the phone down, her brows scrunching together as she stared at the table.

 

Hyoyeon sighed, pushing the phone back to its owner. “Do you have a full name?”

 

“Sorry, no unnie. Just Taecyeon.”

 

“Well, alright. I guess we’ll have to figure this out the old way. So, do you remember giving your number to anyone in the past week?”

 

“No.. I mean there was this sunbae from drama club… and a classmate from Biology, for the project.. there was also that guy from last week, in math, but Juhyun knows him..”

 

“Let’s cut this down.” Hyoyeon interrupted, feeling like it could go on for a long time if she didn’t stop the younger girl. “Any guy that you think might be named Taecyeon.”

 

Yoona thought for a couple of seconds before carefully shaking her head.

 

Hyoyeon pursed her lips before leaning back. “Well… Looks like we need to get you a new number A.S.A.P.”

 

“Don’t care for seafood?” Sooyoung suddenly quipped.

 

Both girls turned to her, confused by the sudden question. She grinned. “They also serve GROUND beef! Get it?”

 

 

 

 

 

[That evening with Taeyeon and Tiffany]

 

“I can’t believe we ate ice cream in this temperature.” Tiffany shivered, pulling her blanket tighter around her.

 

“I can’t believe we did go get ice cream sooner.” Taeyeon replied. She was currently sitting on the single chair in Tiffany and Jessica’s shared room. While Tiffany was all bundled up on her bed, regretting her choice of eating ice cream out in the cool evening without even a thin cotton jacket, Taeyeon merely zipped up her own jacket. Her fingers were cool to the touch and despite acting nonchalant about the whole thing she made sure not to have her freezing fingers anywhere near her flesh. Taeyeon figured it would eventually thaw out and she didn’t want to give Tiffany any excuse to ban her from eating ice cream for the rest of the season. It was going to be hard trying to convince the younger to let her eat the sweet, creamy dessert during the winter season. Shivering now would surely make her lose her chances at that.

 

Tiffany sighed, plopping onto her side. She glanced over to the empty bed, noting the messy state her roommate left her bed. A couple of clothes were strewn over the unmade bed, and if memory served her right those were the same clothes Jessica had changed into when she got back from afternoon classes. The study table was at least cleared of the books and notes Jessica was having trouble concentrating on just a little over an hour ago, all her things stacked neatly to one side.

 

“What are you humming?” Taeyeon asked, tilting over the chair to get a proper look of Tiffany’s face. The latter’s brows raised to her side swept bangs. She pulled herself up, back to a seating position, staring at the stack of books and the folded paper laying at the very top.

 

“I was just wondering where Jessie went. It’s not like her to leave her things on out on the study table… or out of bed at this time in the evening.”

 

“Maybe she went out to clear her mind? She was a little troubled earlier.”

 

“Maybe your right.” Tiffany sighed, plopping right back down her bed. “Hey, Taeyeon?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“Can you stay over the night?” Taeyeon blinked a couple of times. The request was unexpected. It had been a while since they had a slumber party, and they were a little too old to be doing so in the first place.

 

Noticing the lack of response Tiffany felt a little pinch in her chest. She didn’t let it show and just kept laying on her side, staring at the edge of her pillow.

 

“And… where am I supposed to sleep?” Taeyeon finally asked.

 

Tiffany lifted her head, her stomach felt warm and a little turbulent, but it was the good kind. Her signature eye smile made their appearance as she scooted to one end of the bed, until her back hit the wall. “There’s enough space on my bed.” She offered, one hand snaking out of her warm cocoon and patting the now vacated space.

 

Taeyeon chuckled. “Well, I guess it’s fine. Just don’t kick me out of the bed. Or punch me in the face.”

 

“You should speak for yourself miss ‘I tied my feet to my bed once cause I sleepwalk every night’” Tiffany grinned at the reddening cheeks.

 

“That only happens when I’m under a lot of stress!” she protested.

 

“So you’re not stressed this time around?”

 

“No.”

 

“Well then,” Tiffany patted the space again. “hop in.”

 

Taeyeon looked down at her clothes. “I’m not exactly in sleepwear.”

 

“You can use my clothes.”

 

“Nah. It’s alright. I can go to my room and grab a change of clothes.”

 

“Why? I’m already offering you my clothes.”

 

“Uh..”

 

“Besides, it’s not like you haven’t used my clothes- hell my underwear- before.” Tiffany nonchalantly shrugged.

 

“That was one time!” Taeyeon blushed furiously at the memory. Tiffany had forced her to wear all pink pyjamas, even the underwear she lent her was pink. She ran a hand through her heated face, hiding it from Tiffany’s view. “Please don’t mention that to anyone else.”

 

“Why not?” Tiffany teased, fully entertained by the embarrassed, red face of her best friend.

 

“Ppany-ah” Taeyeon groaned. She gave her a look that said ‘you know fully well how awkward that’s going to end up’ and sighed loudly when Tiffany began giggling at her expense. She smiled unconsciously at Tiffany’s light giggles, unable to repress it.

 

“I hope Sica won’t mind me crashing in tonight.”

 

“I’m sure she won’t, now..” Tiffany pointed at the shared closet. “go pick something to change in.”

 

Taeyeon rolled her eyes, but got up from her seat and made her way to the closet. “I hope it’s not all pink.”

 

“I’m making an executive decision that you’re wearing all pink or nothing at all.” Tiffany giggled at the sour look crossing Taeyeon’s face.

 

“You don’t even like other people wearing pink!” Taeyeon grumbled. She scanned through the closet. She shook her head when she saw the how one side of the closet mostly held neutral colors while the other had a huge array of vibrant colors. It was a no brainer which side was Tiffany’s. No matter how chick Jessica looked her color scheme seemed to incline more on whites, dark blues or other earthy tones while Tiffany had more pastel colors to her choice.

 

“Because…” Tiffany paused, waiting for Taeyeon to take out a light pink cotton shirt and its matching bottom. Taeyeon looked up from her scrutiny of the pajama to see a teasing smile on her best friends face. She swallowed. “All pink. Mine.”