A/N: Inspired by the tumblr prompt "formal events are not my thing these shoes are new and this is a very long staircase at least you were at the bottom to break my fall I’m so sorry."

The first time Jessica meets Taeyeon, she falls for her. Literally. Or maybe it’s more correct to say that she falls onto her.

Jessica doesn’t know who invented heels, and she’s sure they’re long dead by now, but she’s still cursing them. Not only are heels uncomfortable and hindering, they’re downright dangerous. She’s already tripped three times and came close to spraining her ankle one of those times.

She’s thanking the heavens that she hasn’t actually fallen when she does – right down a staircase. Fortunately, it’s a short one with only a few steps, and fortunately (for her), someone breaks her fall as she tumbles right into them and knocks them down, the two of them ending up as a tangle of limbs on the landing.

Jessica would be spluttering apologies but she got a knee right in the ribs so she’s heaving for breath and incapable of forming words.

It’s her human cushion who speaks first. “Hey, are you okay?” she asks, staring at Jessica with wide eyes set in a pale face. A cute face, framed with blonde hair that has a single streak of pink.

“I—” Jessica rolls away from her and almost ends up falling down the next flight of stairs. Cute Human Cushion grabs her around the middle and hauls her back, which makes Jessica press right against her again. God, can Jessica be any lamer? She kind of wants to kill herself, preferably in a manner not involving stairs.

“Be careful there,” the other girl says. “The next flight is a lot longer and I don’t know if there’s someone at the bottom to soften your fall.”

“I’m really sorry I’m such a klutz are you okay did I hurt you I’m really sorry,” Jessica blurts out in one breath.

“I’m okay.” A quirk of lips that’s not quite a smile. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Jessica feels sore from the knee in the ribs but otherwise surprisingly fine. She would have expected to be a lot worse off after falling down the stairs. Well, she’s sure she would have been had she not landed on Cute Human Cushion. “I’m okay,” she says, and follows it up for no reason with, “I’m Jessica.”

“I’m Taeyeon.”

“Taeyeon,” Jessica tries out the name and decides she likes the sound of it. “It’s nice to meet you.”

She’s never seen Taeyeon before – she’s sure she would have remembered a face like that – and she wishes that they could have met under nicer circumstances. Like through friends, or at a party, or pretty much anything other than falling down the stairs and onto her.

“I can’t say I ever met someone like this before,” Taeyeon says jokingly. Jessica flushes, mortified. Taeyeon adds, “I can cross it off my bucket list.”

“You have being landed on by a person who fell down the stairs on your bucket list?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t everyone?”

Jessica thinks that Taeyeon’s being serious at first, and then she sees the teasing sparkle in her eyes. She rolls her eyes but she can’t help the upward curve of .

“Hey,” Taeyeon says. “It’s cozy here with you and all, but do you think you can get off me? I think my legs are falling asleep.”

“Oh! Sorry.” Jessica didn’t realize how she basically had Taeyeon caged against the bottom step with her body. Or maybe she did and she didn’t mind it so she never thought to move. She rolls away from Taeyeon, more carefully this time, and stands up, offering a hand to her.

“Thanks,” Taeyeon says, like Jessica is the one who did her a favour. She’s so nice. Jessica thinks about telling her that but it’s too awkward, she’s too awkward, so she just apologizes again.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Really, I’m sorry.”

“Really, it’s okay. Those shoes of yours look really dangerous.” Taeyeon eyes Jessica’s heels. “Maybe you should practice walking in them on flat ground first.”

“That’s what I was practicing! It’s just… The flat ground led me to a staircase.”

“It…” Taeyeon trails off, blinking, like Jessica’s words have rendered her speechless. Jessica does that a lot to people. Her friends even made up a term for it: The Sica Effect. “Yeah, I guess they do that sometimes.”

“This is why I prefer flats,” Jessica grumbles.

“But heels are so exciting. They can help you bump into new people.”

“Trust me, with my coordination flats can do that too.”

Taeyeon grins, and a dimple pops out, not in her cheek but near her chin. Jessica’s never seen someone with a dimple there before, and that’s definitely the only reason she stares for a beat too long.

“Hey so, why are you in heels today?”

“The Halloween dance is coming up,” Jessica explains, “and I thought I’d practice wearing heels before going there in them. I mean, I thought it’d be safer in the hallway without many people around than in the gym with half the school.”

“Oh yeah, this has been very safe.”

Jessica blushes again, lowering her head to hide it. She hates how easily she colours, and she wishes that she could control it, but she’s never been good at controlling her emotional tells. She’s never been good at hiding how she feels.

“What are you going as?” Taeyeon asks.

Jessica raises her head a fraction and sees Taeyeon looking at her with a curious expression. “It’s a secret,” she says impulsively.

Taeyeon smiles, dimple making itself known again. “Well, there’s still two weeks before the dance, so you have time to practice.”

“What about you? Are you going to the dance?”

Taeyeon shrugs. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Do you want to go with me? The question forms in Jessica’s mind with no warning, resting at the tip of her tongue. She swallows it back hurriedly, almost choking on it.

“You okay?” Taeyeon asks. Jessica’s dilemma must be showing on her face. She really needs to work on not being so obvious.

“Yeah, I’m just… I zone out a lot. It’s a problem.”

“As long as you’re not crossing the street or walking down stairs or something.”

Jessica makes a face. “Can we never mention stairs ever again?”

Taeyeon laughs, and Jessica very determinedly keeps her eyes away from Taeyeon’s chin. “Sorry, I forgot it was a sore spot.” Her eyes flicker down to Jessica’s chest, and Jessica’s face threatens to turn full-on tomato. “Speaking of sore spots, do you have any? I know I hit you with my knee. Sorry about that.”

“Why are you apologizing? I should be the one apologizing.”

“You already did,” Taeyeon says, amused. “Multiple times.”

“Well, I landed right on you. It couldn’t have felt nice.”

“It wasn’t agonizing,” Taeyeon says. “You’re bony but at least you didn’t skewer me with one of those heels.”

Jessica shudders at the mental imagery. She’s watched too much 1000 Ways to Die. “Still, I’m sorry. And thank you for, you know, preventing me from falling to my death.”

Taeyeon looks like she’s holding back her laughter, and it may be working for but not her eyes. “I don’t think you would have died.”

“I didn’t thanks to you. You made a good cushion.”

“Thank you,” she says solemnly. “That’s my dream in life – to be a good cushion.”

“Well, you’ve achieved it.”

Taeyeon really does laugh this time, and another dimple pops out, in an even more unexpected place – below her eye and above her cheekbone. Jessica wonders if she has more dimples and where they are.

“Yes, I crossed an item off my bucket list and achieved my dream in life. It’s been a productive day for me.”

“And you saved my life.”

“I don’t think it was that dramatic,” Taeyeon says, “but hey, I’ve always wanted to save someone’s life so let’s go with that.”

“Let me…” Jessica wets her lips and works up her courage. “I mean, I think I should at least treat you to lunch for that.”

Taeyeon looks apologetic. “I don’t think I can make lunch.”

Jessica tries not to let her face fall, but she doesn’t think she succeeds. “Oh, okay. That’s fine.”

“How about dinner?”

Jessica tries not to let her face light up, but she doesn’t think she succeeds. “Sure! Dinner it is.”

Taeyeon smiles, dimple settling itself in her face and in Jessica’s heart. “I’ll pick a place that doesn’t take stairs to get to.”

Jessica doesn’t need another flight of stairs to fall for Taeyeon. She’s already fallen.

A/N: I don't know why every time I write a TaengSic fluff AU I always put Taeyeon's dimples in lol. I didn't even find out about her other dimple until this weekend.

Taeyeon's chin dimple:

Taeyeon's other dimple: