"How many boyfriends have you had?"

Good question.

Jessica hummed and thought about carefully. "Two." she finally said.

Taeyeon scrunched her nose and scrutinized the brunette as if she would be able to detect of the older woman was lying. "Just two?"

"What's wrong with two? Two is a good number"

"Yeah but you're 27."

"So?" Jessica was starting to get offended by Taeyeon's line of questioning.

Yes, she's had two boyfriends.

No, they initially didn't know about her work.

Yes, they broke up with her after finding out.

She tried preempting with the potential third.

Never called back again.

"So, don't you think that's kind of…weird? I mean…"

"You mean…?"

"Uhm, nothing."

"Don't nothing me. Are you expecting me to have said a dozen?"

The younger girl smiled. "No…more like…five."

"Why five?"

Taeyeon shrugged. "I don't know. Sounds reasonable to me. You'd have your first boyfriend in high school. Then maybe a couple in your late teens and early twenties. Then two more."

"You're basically giving me a couple or three year intervals." Jessica laughed. "Don't you have faith in my capacity to sustain a relationship?"

"I don't know you well enough to judge that. I just thought it was a logical thing to say."

"Never had a boyfriend in high school."

"Really? You're just like Yuri."

Jessica nodded in agreement. "Then…I had my first boyfriend when I was nineteen. We broke up a couple of years later. Then my next one was during the first year that I moved here to Nevada."

"And you're not dating right now?"

"You're the observant one. Have you seen any man lurking around my home?"

"None. But you could be the type who's very private."

"True. I am. But, to answer your question. No, I'm not dating anyone right now."

"Why?"

Jessica laughed. "What do you mean, why? I just…I don't want to, right now."

"Okay, acceptable answer, I guess."

"Well…how about you?"

"Never had."

"Well, yeah, I mean. Not boyfriend but girl—"

"Never had." Taeyeon repeated.

"You've…never been in a relationship?"

"High school girls—regardless of uality— are generally stupid and shallow. I can't stand both qualities."

"Aren't you the pompous one."

"I'm not—you think I am?" Taeyeon frowned. "I just think that…if I'm going to, uh, date someone, I don't want to spend the whole night listening to her talk about shoes."

"Taeyeon, I was just teasing you." Jessica smiled. "I think it's a right thing that you're looking for something deeper. But. Just because a girl likes shoes, doesn't mean she won't be capable of thinking beyond that."

The artist shrugged in response.

"So…who was that girl I saw you dragging out of your house?"

"Just some girl from school."

"Uh huh."

"She has a boyfriend. Which, I don't really understand since I'm her booty call."

"You just…let her use you like that?"

"I don't let anyone use me."

"But," Jessica's brows furrowed. "What do you get out of it? I mean, okay, there's . But…"

Taeyeon finally stopped working and turned around to face Jessica resting on her Taeri unnie's old mattress. She decided to keep it and stay in her workshop. Good decision.

Taeyeon also decided to let Jessica watch her work while lying down on it.  Great  decision.

"But nothing else." Taeyeon said as she sat down next to Jessica. "To be honest, I don't get much out the , either."

"So why do it?"

"Because it's there?"

"Huh?"

"It's a legitimate reason. Like, why would one eat the marshmallows left in a room? Because it's there."

"Okay. You fail the marshmallow test in epic proportion." Jessica laughed then shook her head. "Anyway, are you sure it's okay that I watch you work?"

"It's fine. It's not confining as I thought it would be." The artist grinned.

"Good. Coz I had planned to just lounge around the whole day. But this is way better."

"You don't have work today?"

"Oh, I took a day off."

"Where do you work, anyway?"

"Travel and tour agency." Jessica breathed out. "I…own it with a friend. I take the night shift."

It's not really a complete lie. They do facilitate tour for their customers.

"Oh, cool. I heard they're mostly for Koreans and Chinese these days. They're taking over the world, you know."

Jessica nodded and chuckled. "True. But we still get Europeans…mostly Russians."

"Russia's weird."

"Why?"

"Because it's not really European, but a part of it is. Then a huge chunk of it is closer to Japan and China. That must screw up their minds something good. I'd go crazy if I live in a place that has a million time zones."

"Well, good for you that we only have 9 standard time zones, then."

"Of which, I don't even bother to remember."

"How did we arrive at talking about time zones?" Jessica chuckled. This is a very peculiar conversation she's having.

"Because you have Russian clients."

"Ah. Right. Well, enough about my work. I didn't take the day off just to talk about it."

"Right. Sorry. I was just curious since you moved here."

"Why?"

"Because you work late at night."

"And?" the brunette held her breath.

"And…I thought you'd be…I don't know, like working in a five-star alliance."

Jessica let out that breath in relief. "A five star, huh?"

"Yeah." Taeyeon stared at her mural and smiled. "But owning a business makes you more amazing."

The brunette cleared , "Yes, well. Anyway, I'm getting hungry. Do you want me to prepare something? We can go to my place and—"

"No, let's just order in."

"Sure, sounds good. But we can't have pizza all day. How about I treat you to dinner later?"

"I need to work on that." Taeyeon said with a hint of disgust as she pointed to the mural.

"Need?"

"It's commissioned." the artist sighed before resting her chin on her knees. "I'm actually way past my deadline. You know some people think a wad of dollars can instantly inspire other people to produce something."

"So why take it?"

"Because I need the money?"

"Really?"

"I mean, not now. But I will. And exhibit paintings aren't really worth that much on face value. But rich people pay a lot for commissioned ones."

Finally. Something in common.

"I sometimes make ex-deals." the younger girl grinned proudly. "My iPhone, for one."

"You got an iPhone for a painting?"

"Yeah, nice, huh?"

"I guess." Jessica chuckled. "I just had no idea it can work that way."

"I let my art teacher pretty much do all the dealings. He owns a gallery." Taeyeon sighed again. "But sometimes, they just go directly to me. I don't say no because I need to bulk up my portfolio. Once I graduate from high school, I'm sure my parents will kick me out, so I need patrons."

Jessica slightly flinched at Taeyeon's usage of the word. "You don't plan to go to college?"

"What for? Fallback? I don't think so. I can't imagine myself doing anything else but this."

"How about art school?"

The younger girl smiled cockily. "Do you think I need it?"

Jessica ignored the overconfident expression and tone. "I don't know if you need it. But I would wish for you to consider it."

"Why?"

"Because you have a gift. And you can't just stop there and think you're already good—even though you are—I think…I think that if you have that kind of talent, you need to continue developing. There's always room for improvement. Not everyone's given the opportunity to follow their dreams and be allowed honing it as much as she can. You have it, Taeyeon. And you owe it to yourself to be the best you can be."

Taeyeon slowly fixed her eyes on Jessica's that made the older girl nervous and, inexplicably, excited. "Okay." the young artist whispered, "I'll consider it."

"Thanks." Jessica whispered back.

"Hello, can we stop the eye-ing for an hour or two? I'm famished. Do we have any food besides sliced bread and banana?"

Yuri.

You .

Taeyeon glared at her friend who just came back from her half-day practice.

"We were just about to order pizza."

"Huh. That didn't look like you had any plans of carbo-loading. Unless that's a new code for—"

"I'm ordering. Now." Taeyeon interjected then quickly stood up and left the room, leaving Jessica confused at what just occurred.

"So…how's practice?"

"Good." Yuri nodded. "I see you've patched things up."

"Yes, I think." Jessica smiled. "Though I'm not very pleased with how you managed to trick me."

"Excuse me?"

"Stark raving nuts, huh? She's finishing a lag work, thus, she had been cooped up in this room in order to get it done. It had nothing to do with me or what I said."

Yuri smirked. "Got the job done. So don't start complaining."

Jessica lolled her head and smirked back. "Yeah, okay. Thank you, then."

"You're welcome."

She didn't leave Taeyeon's apartment that whole day and fell asleep at the mattress while intently watching the young girl work on the mural. To say that she was mesmerized is an understatement. She supposed that there are more brilliant artists out there than Taeyeon, but if she was being honest to herself, she wasn't really paying attention to the painting. She was captivated with the girl at work—her movement and the intensity that was palpable—so she just couldn't find the strength to stand up.

"Hey." Taeyeon murmured. "Jessica…"

"Hmm?" the brunette stirred.

"It's, uhm, 7:30 in the morning."

"W-what?" Jessica rubbed her eyes violently then propped herself using her elbows. "Oh, wow. I didn't realize…"

"I didn't wanna wake you up last night, so I just…uhm….blanket." Taeyeon scratched the back of her head and blushed, remembering how long she stared at the brunette while she was sleeping.

Jessica looked down and saw the blanket draped on her legs before smiling. "Thanks, that was thoughtful of you."

She thought it was a fluke. She hoped it was.

But there it goes again.

For the nth time since they met.

That moment where Taeyeon's eyes lock intently at hers and evoked the same response from Jessica. She wanted to propel herself away but those hazel eyes just won't let her.

"Taeyeon?"

Scoot closer.

"Yeah?"

Tilt head a bit.

"Nothing."

Lean forward. Just a little bit. And—

"Oh my god. Ohmygodohmygod!"

"Jessica…"

The brunette tumbled out of the mattress and got up quickly. "Please tell me that didn't just happen?"

"That didn't just happen!"

"Taeyeon!"

"What?" the younger one sighed.

"I kissed you."

"Barely."

"Still. I. Kissed. You. Do you know what that makes me?"

"Jessica, calm do—"

"A cougar! A e cougar!"

"I'm not twelve. God. I'll be 18 in a few months." Taeyeon rolled her eyes then smirked. "Though, I like that you're not panicking over the fact that we're both girls."

"Oh, trust me." Jessica huffed. "I'll panic about that later. I'm just still on the thing."

The artist's face fell. "You know what? This doesn't make you anythin