-----

Only five days in and Taeyeon was already close to losing it. She was beyond bored and completely unproductive, stuck in her sofa all day eating take out and pizza.

In her boredom, she had managed to rearrange her furniture in several different positions, and for a while it made her feel accomplished because everything looked spacier now, but a few hours of staring at everything had her yanking at her hair again. She gave up and figured she should stop moving everything before she hurt herself, and just decided to order pizza for lunch.

She ate while Ginger was curled in a ball beside her feet, feeling lazy like his owner.

"This break is going to kill me, I just know it," Taeyeon said to no one, shoving the last slice of pizza in . She looked up at the wall clock above the TV and grimaced. She realized she only had half an hour left to prepare for her doctor's appointment.

-----

Without the exhaustion she usually got from work, sleep had been quite elusive lately. Even her dog had been getting more sleep than her—which was a bit sad, she thought, because for someone who had been feeling inexplicably tired, she was supposed to be knocking out for hours and hours. It wasn't the case sadly, so Taeyeon decided she'd ask for some sleep aids from her doctor.

Prior to her accident, hospital visits were one of the things that she disliked. Mainly it was because of the smell, of how everything seemed so clean and sterile, so artificial. It didn't change much after the accident, but she was more desensitized now, as with other things. Her fears weren't as threatening as they were before, and she realized that maybe it happens when you've gotten to stare at Death right in the eyes, and having to walk away alive and unharmed.

For a while it made her feel invincible. Here she was, dead for an hour, and then alive on the next. The reporters and journalists have all regarded her as someone really strong, and she believed it for some time, but somewhere inside of her she knew it wasn't true at all.

'You're really fortunate,' a bunch of them had said, but Taeyeon liked to think that being truly fortunate was getting to sleep peacefully at night without lingering doubts about her existence.

-----

"Hey!"

Taeyeon turned, smiled as she recognized the voice even before she could see the face hidden behind a huge brown paper bag. The pink sweater over dull scrubs was also a dead giveaway.

"Hello," Taeyeon greeted back, walking towards the girl before taking the big paper bag off the box it was dangerously sitting on.

"Thanks for getting that, everything's starting to get heavy."

She finally noticed three more boxes of donuts and pastries underneath the paper bag she just took.

"Is there a party somewhere, you're carrying a lot of food."

It surprised her to see the usually bright girl being all coy and shy. Taeyeon swore she even saw her cheeks blushed a cute shade of pink.

"Oh no, there's no party," the girl said, fixing the boxes in her arms. "I just wanted to bring some snacks for my colleagues, it's... It's my birthday today."

"Oh." Taeyeon surely wasn't expecting that, but she greeted her nonetheless. "Happy birthday!"

"Thank you! But what are you doing here again? Everything okay?"

She raised her small bag of medicine and smiled sheepishly, "I'm having trouble sleeping lately."

"That's awful," the girl grimaced, "I used to take those before when I couldn't sleep from anxiety."

Taeyeon could only nod in understanding. She reached for her scar with her free hand.

They must have been standing there for a while because the people and staff walking by have started giving them weird looks. Taeyeon suddenly had the urge to pull the girl out of the way, but the latter had beat her to it.

"Say," she started, always with that bright smile of hers, "do you have anything else to do today? Somewhere you need to be?"

"No, not really. I'm on a really long break from work."

"Want to help me give these around? I promise to give you a donut after as a reward."

Taeyeon was almost sure that the smile she let out was as wide as hers.

-----

She had to admit, she knew the girl in scrubs was probably friendly, but she didn't expect her to be that sociable.

Soon after she agreed to help her, they were off, walking around the hospital giving away donuts and pastries to staff whom at the sight of the girl walking beside her, had all lit up like a bunch of fireworks. It baffled her but she somehow understood it too; she wasn't exactly immune to the brightness either.

And now Taeyeon found herself in the morgue again, an empty box of donuts on the metal table in front of her, and a very satisfied girl beside her.

She turned to her when she felt a light squeeze on her forearm.

"Thanks for helping me."

"It's no problem. But only because it's your birthday," Taeyeon joked, earning her a giggle and a gentle shove.

'This feels nice,' she thought all of a sudden. Being back in the morgue for a different reason, to celebrate life nonetheless, somehow it felt good.

She looked at the girl who was humming happily, picking up the crumpled paper towels littered around before tossing them in the empty box.

Taeyeon had to chuckle when she realized something.

"You know, I never really get to ask for your name."

The girl stopped, brows furrowing and lips turning into a pout. "Really?" She had asked, to which Taeyeon had nodded.

"It's Tiffany. Hwang."

"Tiffany Hwang?"

The girl nodded.

"My name's Taeyeon."

"I know, Patient Kim. I was the one who tagged you at the morgue." The girl's eyes widened as soon as the words came out of . "Wow, I never thought I'd be able to say that out loud..."

The laugh Taeyeon let out was so rich, she almost didn't believe that it came from her.

Even when it subsided, the grin never left, and for the first time since the start of her vacation, she finally felt relaxed.

Tiffany bumped into her shoulder again, grinning that wide smile she's starting to become really familiar with.

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