“You’re sure he’s alright with this? He knows I’m coming?” I asked, pulling my backpack out of the trunk.

“Yes…” Tiffany said, taking her own bag and slinging it over her shoulder.  She looked at me critically.

“Calm down, Tae.  He’s at work.” 

It was a cloudless sunny day with a warm wind.  The house we were in front of looked humble and comfortable in a nice residential area.  I stood there waiting for her to get anything when a beautiful, tall blonde woman ran by with a dog on a leash.  She smiled at me kindly and I nodded to her.

I couldn’t help staring at her.  Her tan skin and huge blue eyes fit every single stereotype I might consider for a typical Californian girl.  She looked like she was out of a movie.

“…Tae?” She asked.

Tiffany didn’t look pleased.

“Sorry.  She just…” I looked after the woman and realized how bad that probably looked to Tiffany.

“No, it’s not like that.” I muttered.

“Oh, dear.  Should I get you a leash?” She asked, smirking.

“That won’t be necessary.” I snorted.

She kissed me on the cheek before walking ahead.  I followed her after I surveyed the general area for witnesses and then it dawned on me that even if someone had seen, they probably wouldn’t recognize us. 

I seriously needed to relax…

Tiffany bent over at the front door to retrieve a key from under the doormat. She led the way in and  I stopped just inside the door to step out of my shoes.  The entry hall was long with wood floor and led into the living room that was a step below and had deep blue carpet. 

The entire living room was adorned with photographs, the centerpiece being a large portrait over the fireplace displaying her entire family together. Her father, her mother, herself, and her two older siblings, a brother and a sister, whom I knew didn’t live at home anymore. 

Tiffany was an infant in the picture and even then she looked so much like her mother.  She had exactly the same eyes.  I was startled when she reminded me she was still standing beside me by running a finger along my hand.

I felt like I’d just gotten caught staring at something I shouldn’t have. 

“It’s okay.” She smiled softly, leading me away from the picture and up the stairs.  I noticed that she made it a point not to look at it herself.

“Nice house.” I said.

“Thank you.” She came to a stop at a door and turned around to face me. “I’m just warning you, my dad left everything exactly as it was when I went to Korea.”

She grinned, rolling her eyes and giving off the air of embarrassment.  She pushed the door open and I entered the pink oblivion.

Tiffany’s teenage room showed me that her love affair with pink had started a long, long time before I even knew her.  Her walls were plastered with photos, posters, banners and anything else she deemed significant enough to display.  One entire corner of her room was dedicated to plushies.

My mom would have gone berserk if I ever tried to customize my room so much.  She would likely consider it borderline vandalism.

I turned in a small circle trying to absorb it all, aware that Tiffany was watching me. When I thought about our fans, I would consider them having a room like this, except there weren’t any posters of us on these walls.  I smirked when I recognized a DBSK poster and pointed at it, winking at her.

“Shut up.” She said, setting her bag down beside the bed.

“BoA.” I beamed, standing in front of a particularly large poster of the singer.  Actually, now that I noticed it, much of her room had BoA merchandise scattered throughout.

“I wanted to be her.” Tiffany stared up at the singer we were now somwhat friends with.

“I think we all did.” I nodded.

She took my bag off my shoulder and set it aside for me while I continued perusing her walls, looking at pictures of her as a young teenager with people who must have been her friends from high school, along with more pictures of her family.

“Are you tired?” She asked.

“No.” I said, yawning deeply.                                   

She laughed and poked me in the stomach. “Yeah, right.”

“No.” I said, eyes wide. Unfortunately another yawn took me. “Ahhh…  this is all just poor timing. I’m not really tired.” I said when I could speak again, sitting on the end of her bed. 

Her bed was only a twin.  It was going to be like old times trying to fit in it together.

I looked at the time and it was only 11:30 in the morning.  Out of shear habit I started to think about what would be on the schedule today.

“…Fany?  Isn’t this weird?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“…We don’t have anything to do today.” I said.

“We can find something to do.” She said. “I just thought you’d want to rest first.”

“No I mean, there’s nothing we have to do.  No schedule.” I said.

“It’s kind of nice.” She said affectionately.  She stood in front of me, gazing at me contently.  She brought a hand to my face and used her thumb to trace my cheekbones.

“You look tired.”

I let my head fall back dramatically and stuck my lips out in exasperation.  I already knew at this point she was probably going to force me to try and sleep off some of the jetlag.

As soon as I had the thought, she pushed me onto my back and I gave in.  While the bed lacked size, it did feel rather comfortable.  I stared at her ceiling while I felt myself melting into the mattress.  Maybe I was a bit more tired than I wanted to admit.

Tiffany crawled on top of me a few seconds later, reappearing into my peripheral vision and raising her eyebrows at my lethargic expression.

“I don’t know why you bother trying to lie to me.” She murmured, letting her face into the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply.

“I would never lie to you, yoechin.” I mumbled, letting my eyes close.

“You know what I think?” Tiffany said, pulling her head free.

“Mm?”

“I think I need a Taeyeon poster, right there.” She said, completely seriously.

My eyes shot open to see her finger pointing directly above us to her ceiling.

“You’re joking?” I asked.

“I’m going to do it.” She grinned.

“Fany-ah, that’s embarrassing-” I whimpered.

“Yes, maybe the one from the Genie era.” She looked at me and quirked her eyebrow, playfully.

“Where are you going to find that around here?” I asked.

She looked thoughtful for a moment before a small smile crept on her face.

I rolled my eyes and let my head fall back again.

“We’ll just rest today and go out tomorrow.  My dad won’t be home for hours. We’ll have dinner and hang around here and tomorrow you’ll be all caught up with the time.”

“Mm.” I grunted.  My lips mashed together in discontent before I sat up and pulled my jacket off. 

“It’s too hot.  Isn’t it winter?” I asked.

“It is.” She said. 

“Ridiculous.” I muttered, landing on the mattress again. Blankets wouldn’t be a necessity in California.

“I love you, Taeyeon.” She whispered.

“I love you, too.” I said in English.  I opened one eye and smirked at her. “I’ve got to speak the native language.”

“Shh… sleep, beautiful.” Tiffany smiled, running her hand through my hair.

Looking at her had been a mistake.  Seeing her gentle, loving expression made me not want to close my eyes.  Those deep eyes caught me every single time…

“Mm...”

I fought against the numbness that was pressing against body, seemingly forcing me against the mattress, but I didn’t last long.  It felt too good to just be able to drop out and not have to worry about waking up or missing a commitment.  It was the most amazing, effective, dreamless sleep I ever remember having.

When I opened my eyes again I felt well rested but I was empty handed and alone in the bedroom.  The sun was hanging over the horizon outside of Tiffany’s window and it was bright orange, yet beautiful. It splayed directly across my face, dazzling me. If there was one thing I could say about California from the little time I’ve spent here it’s that the sunsets are incredible.

Tiffany had opened the window sometime while I was asleep and the light breeze was teasing my skin and fondling the curtains that danced along with it. It had cooled down substantially since I fell asleep.  The weather felt perfect.

I rubbed my eyes and got to my feet, giving myself permission to leave her room and search the house for her.  When I opened her door I could hear a TV on downstairs and Tiffany’s voice.  I followed it into the living room and saw Tiffany and her father on the couch.  She saw me first.

She beamed.

“Daddy, you remember Taeyeon?” She asked, gesturing to me.  The English they were speaking dissolved into Korean quickly.

He turned to me and the joy on his face multiplied. “Of course!” He got to his feet.

I bowed and awkwardly offered a hand to him, “It is good to see you again, Ahjussi.”

He pulled me into a hug instead.

“No need to be formal.” He said. “It has been too long. Gosh, you’ve grown up so much since I last saw you.”

“Thank you for having me.” I said.  Over his shoulder Tiffany looked exceptionally happy.

“Please sit.” He said, guiding me with a hand on my back to sit next to Tiffany on the couch.

“Want to try this?” Tiffany asked me. 

“What is that?” I asked, eyeing her plate.

“Enchilada.” She said. “Mexican food.”

I’m all for new experiences, but the bite she offered me threw me off guard.  I wasn’t expecting it to taste like that and I wasn’t much for spicy foods, but it wasn’t bad, just different than how it looked.  She must have seen it on my face.

“You don’t like it.” She chuckled.

“I didn’t either at first.” Her father said on the other side of me.  It struck me then how strangely casual this was, for someone having guests over. 

To have his feet coffee table, his shoes lying on the carpet and Tiffany eating in the living room... Things are done so remarkably different in America, it’s staggering.

I was certain if this was my mother’s house she would have cleaned, dressed up and cooked a home meal.  Tiffany’s father had picked this meal up on the way home, I could see the restaurants paper bag.

“He ordered pizza.” Tiffany smiled. “He just brought me this because he knows I’ve been itching for it.”

“Ah..”

“Are you taking good care of my daughter?” He asked me.

“Omo, Dad, it’s not her place-“ Tiffany started, standing up to take her plate to the kitchen.

“…She’s the eldest right?” He looked at her.

“Yes, and I’m doing my best Mr. Hwang.” I said. For some reason I was thinking about exactly how well I’ve ‘taken care’ of Tiffany in the last few months.  A few certain scenarios come to mind that, should he find out about, would give him more than enough reason to throw me out of his house.  I couldn’t look him in the eye.

“Do you have plans tomorrow?” He asked Tiffany, “You know I go into work very early.”

“Yes.” Tiffany said.  “We’ll be fine, we have a driver.”

“Good.” He said.

The evening went without a hitch.  Tiffany’s dad was very easy to talk to.  He was very laid back and while it took some getting used to, I enjoyed his company very much. 

He seemed like such a happy person but I considered it was probably the fact that his daughter was home that made him so chipper.  After he and I ate through the entire pizza, he left us to go to bed after giving Tiffany the longest good night hug I’d ever seen.

It was sweet to watch them interact, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was intruding on something private, like I should have stayed at home to let them enjoy these moments alone together. 

“Let’s go, Tae.” Tiffany turned off the TV and took my hand and led me up the stairs after turning off all the lights downstairs. I followed blindly, staying unreasonably close to her to keep from knocking into anything.

Her arms were around me the second I pulled her door shut.

“I missed you.” She murmured against my head.

I closed my eyes and leaned back against her door, understanding how it was possible to spend an entire day with someone and still miss them.  Her lips found mine and I was happy to greet them.

Behind this door, we didn’t have to put on a charade, though I was still wary about how horrible it would be if we were caught being intimate with one another and the huge of lack of respect I was showing towards Tiffany’s father.

I felt like an unruly teenager, breaking into her house after hours to fool around with her without her father’s knowledge.  As expected, Tiffany was only encouraging this behavior. 

“No, no.” I whispered, pushing her back by her hips when she started leaning into me.

“Taeyeon-ah…” She whimpered.

“You’ve lost your mind, haven’t you?”

“No.” She said, letting me free.

Everything in her room was tinted in gray and blue because of the night sky.  I couldn’t see her expression clearly but I could hear the disappointment in her voice.

“Fany-ah, what happens if he finds out? If he hears us?”

“Tae-“

“He’s been so hospitable towards me, I can’t be that disrespectful to him…”

“…Tae-“

“At the very least wait until he goes to work, I can’t… not while he’s home…”

I frowned and sat on the end of her bed, hoping she could understand where I was coming from. 

She straddled my lap, using my shoulders to steady herself, and I went to immediately object but she covered my mouth with her hand.

“Let me talk.” She whispered.

I sighed heavily against her hand until she removed it.  She waited a moment before speaking, presumably to see if I would obey her wishes.

“While you were sleeping I had a talk with my dad.” She said, softly, running her lips along the side of my neck by my ears.  I closed my eyes.

A chill that caused the hairs on the back of my neck coursed through my body against my will.

“W-what about?” I asked.

“About you and I.” She laughed once, hot breath against my neck.  I pulled away to look at her.

“You told him about us?!” I exclaimed, much louder than I intended to.  She put a finger to my lips.

“Shh. Yes, I did.”

I gasped loudly.

“But… he didn’t eben ay ethin! He ma ni ta-me!” I tried to say.  I pushed Tiffany’s hand away, frustrated, and whispered pointedly this time.

“Why didn’t he say anything? He was nice to me.”

“He… was a little shocked, but I don’t think he was angry.” Tiffany said, thoughtfully.

My mouth dropped open.

“I don’t think he wanted to start a fight. He was just more curious why, I guess.  We talked about it and he was doing much better after that.  I told him how sweet you are to me and well you treat me and take care of me…He just seemed happy that I was happy.”

I stared at her in disbelief. I was just now barely starting to talk to my mother again, and Tiffany already seemed to have approval.

Her hands were already creeping up my shirt.  My eyes had completely adjusted to the darkness and I could now see her face.  I could see it in her lazy, slavish expression that she wanted me.

“He’s all the way on the other side of the house...” She tried bargaining with me.

“I don’t want to disrespect-“

She lowered her face to mine and ran her tongue along my lower lip.  I knew she felt me shudder from the action.

“Taeyeon-ah…” She whispered. “If I thought it was a problem, I wouldn’t allow it, okay? Trust me?”

“I…”  I didn’t know.  I was pretty much just buying time…

She sighed, apparently fed up, and pulled her shirt over her head, revealing that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

“… You… are… such a bad influence.” I mumbled, finding I couldn’t look away from her.

And just like that, she knew she had me.

Game, set, match.

“Wooooo-oooow.” I divided the word into several syllables. “Tipani! I want to be up there one day.” I said, pointing up at a building. 

We were driving down a very busy street that Tiffany told me was famous. The entire side of a skyscraper hung the biggest advertisement I’d ever seen in my life. I was practically sitting on Tiffany’s lap as we gazed out the same window from the back seat of the car.

“Some day.” She chuckled.

Today was a very exciting day for me.  We drove about half hour away from Tiffany’s house to a café she’d found on the internet.  We’d be alone in Hollywood, with no security, no staff, no agenda and I only had her to rely on in this foreign place.

While it wasn’t widely known that we were in California, we were still running the risk of being recognized.  I don’t even go out by myself in Jeonju anymore, this was another ballpark entirely.  Instead of being afraid though, I found the excursion pretty exciting with Tiffany by my side.

“Right there.” Tiffany pointed to the driver.

We pulled up to a curb in front of a modest looking café.  I pulled on the blue baseball cap Tiffany gave me and stepped outside into the hot day.  I pulled the bill of my hat down around my eyes and entered the restaurant behind her.  The driver waited in the car.

The thing that struck me the most about this place was how incredibly clean it was. Everything from the decorations to the color scheme was beautiful.  Even the patrons were all nicely dressed with perfect haircuts and even tans, men and women. 

I felt underdressed to be there amongst them…

A very attractive waiter took us to a table in the corner of the restaurant.  He gave us menus and Tiffany scooted beside me to translate.  I pulled up my hat a little bit and looked at her with wide eyes.

“Tipani, everybody’s so pretty here. It’s unreal.” I whispered.

She smirked at me and continued reading.  I was pleased to find out that they served sushi here so I could at least eat something somewhat familiar to me. I let my eyes wander to the other people, and found people reading books, on laptops, on cell phones… it looked like a place where people would come to spend lots of time, not just to come and eat and leave.

It was a comfortable atmosphere.

“Ladies, are we ready to order?” The waiter returned.

I was surprised with how light and friendly his voice was. His arms were almost completely covered in tattoos and he had really large ear rings in his earlobes, yet his hair was molded into an absolutely perfect faux hawk, as if he’d just left the stylist. 

He was looking at me first.

“Uhh.”

“She’ll have the sushi.  This.” Tiffany pointed out the menu to him.  “She doesn’t speak English.”

“Ah.” He smiled, jotting my order down. “Do you like California?” He asked slowly, smiling down at me.

I grinned.

“Is good, except, too hot.” I said in English, giving a thumb up.

“Oh, she’s cute!” He grinned, turning to Tiffany. “What’ll you have, sweety?”

Sweety?

“Grilled chicken sandwich.” She said, “With fries?”

“Absolutely.” He said. 

“Drinks?” He asked.

“I’ll have iced tea. Tae, what do you want to drink?” She asked me in Korean quickly.

“Coke.” I said.

“Coming right up.” He said, tapping our table before walking away.

I glared after him.

“What’s wrong?” Tiffany asked me.

“Why did he call you ‘sweety’?” I growled.

Tiffany stared at me with warm eyes.  She bit her lip as if she was thinking of what to say. 

“I love you.” She said, finally.

“… I love you, too.” I muttered. “American waiters have no manners. Hitting on patrons…”

“Tae…”

I looked at her.

“Look closely at the people in here.” She said, softly.

I squinted.  Her back was to them, how did she know what I could expect to find? I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Just do it.” She insisted.

I tilted my head to the side and let my eyes wander. 

All I really saw was a bunch of guys and a few women. The restaurant wasn’t very busy.  I didn’t see what Tiffany was getting at…

…Until two more guys walked in… holding hands.  I pulled the bill of my hat down again in order to hide the shock on my face.  This was something you’d almost never see in Korea; Two guys, in broad daylight, showing affection towards one another in a public place. 

Then it all clicked in my head all at once.  Everyone was so clean cut, it was almost feminine.

“…Fany-ah?  Is this a gay café?” I breathed, my entire face was practically hidden.

“…Is that okay?”

I lifted my hat up slowly and gazed at her in wonder.  I knew places like this existed, but I always thought it would be more obvious, that I would know immediately if I was in such a location. This… looked just like a normal restaurant.

Then I remembered who I was and started looking out the window to make sure there weren’t camera people waiting to catch us.

“It’s okay…” Tiffany said, reaching across the table to put her hand on mine.

It actually was okay.  There were no cameras, nobody here knew us, but I couldn’t relax. I needed time to get used to this. I was suffering severe culture shock and Tiffany seemed to enjoy watching it. 

I saw our waiter bringing our food to us and in a knee jerk reaction pulled my hand free. Tiffany smirked.

“Okay, Grilled chicken sandwich.” He set a plate down in front of Tiffany. “And the sushi.”

I didn’t mean to stare at him like I knew I was.  He winked at me as he set my plate down.

“Enjoy your meal, ladies.”

“Tank you.” I said.

“Are you okay?” She asked, eyeing me.

I nodded.

“I’m sorry. I should have let you know where we were going.” She said, starting to eat.

“It doesn’t bother me.” I said. 

It was an interesting experience.

Just being there taught me a lot about the misconceptions I had about the homoual community.  Whether or not I actually felt I belonged there in that café was irrelevant.  I was glad Fany took me there.  Somehow it made me feel more secure about myself and who I was and my lifestyle.

Smart girl, that Tiffany.  I felt that must have been her intention of taking me there all along, to show me how free and open people can live with our type of lifestyle. I didn’t know how to thank her for that.

I still don’t.

The driver dropped us off on the walk of fame next.  Miles of embedded stars in the sidewalk, marking the history of Hollywood actors and actresses.  I’ve seen this before on TV, but being there, walking among the other tourists going completely unnoticed was a new experience in itself.  It felt special to be walking along such a landmark, so many famous buildings that have been there for so long.

This place was huge; way bigger than me.  It was a humbling experience.

We posed next to Johnny Depp’s star for Seohyun.  I got pictures of the Hollywood sign, the Capital Record’s building and the Chinese theatre…  I actually ended up running out of memory on my camera.  There was so much amazing architecture and points of interest and just… people everywhere.  Eventually, I became brave enough to hold Tiffany’s hand in public and it made the entire experience ten times better. I was so pleased with myself thatI had been the one to initiate it.

I couldn’t stop grinning when we got back into the car.  It felt like our first real date. 

“Are you tired?” Tiffany asked me, her arm around my shoulder.

“Not really.” I said, flipping through my pictures on my camera.

“There’s one more stop before we go home.” She said.  She leaned forward to whisper into the driver’s ear.

“I love this.” I said, showing her a picture I took of her with a man in a SpongeBob costume.

“It’s perfect, right?” She chuckled.

I smiled and turned the camera off.

“California’s not bad.” I said.

She smiled widely at me and I took the opportunity to get lost in her eyes again.  Today, I wasn’t an SNSD member, I was just a normal person enjoying a vacation with my beautiful girlfriend.  It was like living another life. 

I noticed we started passing smaller businesses, and strangely enough, it didn’t register immediately in my brain that these businesses were spelled out in Hangul. 

I pointed out the window at one in particular when we were stopped at red light.

“Tipani.  Kimchi. Oh! Koreatown!”

“Yes.” Tiffany nodded.

This is somewhere I was a little familiar with. During the SMTown event we had in LA a few years back, we did visit a few businesses around here on our free time, though we hadn’t really been able to enjoy them as everyone in the world knew we were in LA.  We couldn’t exactly roam freely.

Even now, I’d probably consider it the one place we would get recognized right now.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

Tiffany grinned.

“I’m going to get my poster.”

I blinked at her.

“… Please tell me you’re joking.” My voice cracked.

“Why not?” She asked. “There’s a music store-“

“Tip-a-ni.” I said slowly, “Do you really think it’s wise to go walking into a Korean music store to buy a poster of… me?  The one place we’d actually be recognized?”

“Tae, it’s like two o’clock on a weekday, there shouldn’t be many kids there.”

“Okay, but the store workers will recognize us.” I said.  Did she really not think this through?

“And I’m sure if they were disrespectful or invasive towards us, they’d lose their job.  It’ll be fine.” She said. “We’ll just go in, get a poster and go.”

I didn’t have a comeback.  Defeated, I began digging through my purse and applying makeup.

“It’s not like they’re expecting us.” She chuckled. “It’ll be kind of fun, like surprising fans, maybe.”

“With no security…” I muttered.

“I’m your security.” She grinned.

“Omo.” I breathed.  We stopped next to the store and I could see our Mr. Taxi album was on display in the window.  These people would definitely know us.

“Don’t be scared. It’ll be fun.” She smiled, getting out of the car.

I pulled my hat down and followed after her. The one attendant I could see was tending to someone at the checkout counter. Tiffany and I took an immediate right and headed down an aisle quickly so as to go unnoticed.

I could hear Tiffany chuckling ahead of me.

“You’re crazy.” I muttered.

“Let’s see, posters.” She stood up on her toes and looked around.

“This is so embarrassing.”

She pointed behind me.  “That is embarrassing.”

I turned around to see what she was looking at and found myself staring back at me.  A cardboard cutout.

“Even your life sized cutout is taller than you, love.”

I glared at her from under my hat.

“Can I help you find something?” A man’s voice came from behind me.

I froze.  Tiffany looked at the guy over my shoulder.  I was glad she was wearing sunglasses.

“Where are your posters?” She asked.

“Right over here.” He said.

Tiffany followed the guy and I walked right behind her, keeping my head down.

“Thanks.” She said.

She ran her finger down the catalog book.

“He didn’t recognize you.” I whispered.

“Relax...” She said. “…B-7.” She clapped, walking to the wall of posters and finding the correct one.

“That’s it? They really have that poster here?”  I asked, eyeing it warily.  Even if I didn’t want to be here, I had to be momentarily impressed with the stores contents.  It was nice to know that some American Sone’s would have places like this so they wouldn’t have to pay the ridiculous shipping fees.

“…According to the guide.” She shrugged. “Let’s go.”

That wasn’t so bad, I thought as we walked to the register.  Somehow, it looked like we were going to get through this without incident. 

“Did you find everything okay?” The cashier asked.

“Yep!” Tiffany said. “You’ve got a nice store, here.”

“Thanks.” He said.

I was standing immediately behind Tiffany, pretending to be interested in a display of T-ARA CDs to avoid looking at him.

“… Do you think we can open that before I buy it? I want to make sure it’s the right one.”

“Certainly.” He said, pulling out a knife and running it along the plastic.

He slid it out of the plastic and unrolled it for Tiffany.  I peeked over her shoulder when curiosity got the best of me.

“Taeyeon, right?” He asked her, but his eyes landed on me.

I looked away quickly

“That’s the one.” Tiffany said happily.

“…Y-you have amazing taste, Miss.” He said quickly to Tiffany.

“Thanks.  Can you charge me extra and put it in that empty tube?” She asked, I felt her lean forward like she was pointing over the counter. “I don’t want it to get damaged.”

“Ah… I’m not allowed to sell those.” He said. “We save them for giveaways.”

Sigh.

Somehow, I had a bad feeling that Tiffany was thinking what I was thinking.  I should have known from the very beginning she wanted to get caught all along.  I elbowed her, and she seemed to get the message because her questions ended.

Had I done nothing, I expect she would have revealed herself and offered some autographs for a giveaway.  That sounded like her, anyway.

She paid and we seemed in the clear.  I turned around and she took the poster.

“Thank you.” She said.

“You’re welcome.” He said.

We were at the door when he spoke again.

“Uhh…Congratulations on Music Core, Taeyeon-Ssi.” He said quickly.

I froze.  I could hear Tiffany chuckle.

I turned around slowly to look at him and lifted my hat up.

“…Thank you.”

Tiffany pulled me backwards out of the store and back into the car looking extremely pleased with herself.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” She said.

“…He was very respectful.” I said.  “But I still think you’re insane.”

 “How does that look, is that even?” Tiffany asked.

“Looks good.” I muttered.  I was flat on my back on her bed. She had a leg on either side of me, standing on her bed to reach her ceiling and the view was… spectacular to say the least. 

Admittedly, I wasn’t really looking at the poster.

Tiffany sat beside me for only a moment before shoving me and getting back up again.

“It’s crooked.”

I laughed and picked up my empty glass off the bedside table. Sitting up, I lifted her shirt enough to kiss her stomach.

“Be right back.” I said.

I flew down the stairs and into the kitchen, opening the fridge and pouring myself some more water.  Tiffany’s father came into the kitchen and greeted me kindly. 

I nodded respectfully and went to go back upstairs.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone with him.

“Taeyeon?” He asked.

I turned around slowly feeling nervous.

“Yes?”

“You guys leave in the morning?” He asked.

“Yes.”

He took off his glasses and walked towards me slowly.  I saw pain in his face. 

“I never dreamt my daughter would fall in love with a woman.” He said, softly. “It hurts that I can’t take care of her anymore.  She grew up before I was ready to let go.”

I looked into his face, not knowing what to say.

“But… it brings me comfort that she’s happy and that I know there is someone there to take care of her… even if it can’t be me…”

He nodded slowly to himself. 

“Please be good to her.  Treat her well, she deserves it.” He said. “…Taeyeon, I like you but I swear to god if you hurt her...”

I was started by the mere idea of that. I put my hand up.

“Sir, really I don’t even know how anybody could hurt Tiffany.  It’s just… not in me, to ever do anything… to hurt her.” I stammered, trying to reassure him but I was probably falling flat.

“She’s had a lot of hurt in her life.  She doesn’t need anymore.”

“I understand.” I said.

He nodded slowly and patted my shoulder.  I took myself to be dismissed and fled up the stairs back to Tiffany’s room, a bit shaken from his intensity.

Father’s are very protective of their little girls…

“Yah.” Tiffany said sharply when I reappeared.

“…What?”

“I didn’t mean to read it, but I did.” She glared at me, holding up my cell phone.

I crossed the room slowly and took it from her.

It was a text message from Jessica. I winced at the sight of her name.

“I hope you’re well.  Things are dull around here without you.  I need help, I don’t know what to do about Yuri… Travel safely.  Will see you tomorrow. -Sica”

“I’m going to kill her.” Tiffany announced. “She hasn’t gotten over you yet, has she?”

“That could just be friendly…?” I said.

I could tell by Tiffany's face that she wasn’t buying that. I sighed.

“She’s confused.” I said, slumping my shoulders, “Tipani, there’s no killing either.  Just… let me try and fix it okay?” I asked.

Tiffany gave me the most heart breaking look I’ve ever seen on her face.  I would have much rather seen her in tears than what I was seeing.  It was… blatant fear.  And I couldn’t understand why she was displaying it.  I sat next to her, completely paralyzed by her face.  My senses dulled into stupidity.

“F-Fany, what is it?” I breathed.

“I don’t like competition.” She said.  Her eyebrows were still strung together in what looked like painful desperation. I wanted to pull them apart.  I wanted to kiss this horrible expression away, but I didn’t think it would be enough for her. 

“There is no competition.” I stared at her.  My head was starting to feel light from lack of oxygen.  I was having so many emotions at the same time that the vital ones, such as breathing, took a backseat to my suffering.

“She’s… persistent.” Tiffany said.

“I don’t care!” I said. “Tipani, stop being ridiculous.  You’re the only one for me.”

“You can say that for now, but can you say with certainly you know exactly what you’ll want in the future?” She asked, her head dropping in an attempt to hide her pained expression from me. 

I moved her chin up to force her to look at me.  It would be too easy to tell her how much I really was thinking about a future with her but I knew that words wouldn’t be strong enough right now.

Not even a promise of forever.

I couldn’t do anything but stare at her. 

Action, once and for all, would resolve this.  I vowed silently to settle everything the instant I got home. 

Never again, would I let this expression warp Tiffany’s features.