I glanced into my room with a towel on my head and a toothbrush hanging out of my mouth.  Sunny wasn't back yet and I was starting to get irritated. I gazed down the hallway and saw that Tiffany and Jessica’s door is still closed.

What is she doing?  She said she wouldn’t tell her anything…

I walked back into the bathroom to spit and take the towel off.  I ran a brush impatiently through my hair and barely took notice of Yuri who was beside me using a skin treatment.

“You’re a good kid, you know that?” Yuri said.

Not in the mood for this.

“Actually, between you and me I believe you’re the kid.”  I bit back.

I felt Yuri staring at me, so I strained my neck to look up at her and realized how unqualified my short self must look saying that to her.  She was wearing a huge smile as she patted me on the head.

“I love you.” She said, returning her attention to the mirror.

“No you don’t.” I smirked.  “If you loved me you wouldn’t give me any grief and you’d respect your elders.”

“When do I give you grief?” She looked at me, shocked.

“Should I make a list?”

She scoffed.  “Calm down, Unnie.  You worry too much.”

“Worry about what?” I said, putting the brush down and folding my arms.

“Sunny will come through.” She said smugly. “You’ll be a happy kid...”

I sighed.

“Should have known you were in on it, too.”

I went to leave and she stopped me, turning me around and hugging me.

“I still love you even if you won’t say it back, Unnie.” She laughed.  “Besides, it was my idea.  Go wait in your room.”

“Eesh.” I rolled my eyes and walked, admittedly, in a dorky way across the hall to my room.  I left the door ajar and collapsed onto my bed leaving the light on.

The one night I had all this time to reflect turned out to be the night I was too tired to think straight. I tried anyway because I wanted to be awake when Sunny came back so I could beat the living daylights out of her.

I rolled onto my back and stared into empty space.  I was pretty happy with the information I got from Sunny today though, whether she gave it on purpose or not.  I wondered if it was true.  I smiled at the prospects if they were.  It was another slightly frightening to think of though.  To take the next step with someone already so important to me would be unimaginable.  

I resorted to puffing my cheeks out and twiddling my thumbs to pass the time.  I glanced over at Sunny’s empty bed and remember what Jessica told me to do.  I got up and pushed Sunny’s bed into mine, pretty much just for something to do at this point, though I still couldn't see the reasoning behind it.

10:14, 10:38. 11:15. The clock was taunting me.

This was getting ridiculous now.  I could feel my eyes starting to sag and I decided to check one more time before I turned out the lights and rescheduled my Sunny beating for tomorrow morning.

I pulled the door open and hung my head out to see if the lights were still on down the hall, but my head collided with something, hard.

“Ugnhh!”

I stood there, clutching my head with both hands, wincing in pain. For all I knew, somebody could have just hit me over the head with a baseball bat.  Surprising me further, I felt a hand remove one of my mine and looked up to see Tiffany holding her own head and squinting at me...

“I’m so sorry!!” She whispered.  My mouth dropped open.

“Omo… What are you doing standing there?!”  I asked.

“Shh... go in.”  She pushed me back into my room and shut the door behind us.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were still awake.”

“Make sure I’m still awake, why?” I asked.

“I didn’t want to wake you up.”

I thought for a moment that maybe I hit my head harder than I thought I did and was perhaps suffering a .  She was making no sense to me, whatsoever.

“I’m sorry...” She repeated. 

The remorseful look on her face made my pain less of a priority.

“Why aren’t you sleeping…?” I asked.

She sighed.  “I got evicted.”

She elaborated after seeing the confused look on my face.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with Sunny tonight but ever since we got home she’s just been on my bed chatting away to Jessi. And that was fine for a while because I had stuff to do before I wanted to sleep.  But… after I came back from my shower she was asleep in my bed.”

My teeth came together.  Was this what Yuri considered a good idea? Keeping the poor girl up half the night on my account?

“Jessi didn’t want to wake her so I just thought I’d see if you were awake, otherwise I’d just sleep on the couch.  I didn’t want to wake you.”

I looked at her and noticed she was carrying a pink blanket with her.  She looked very cute, her hair was up in a messy bun but she looked tired…

“No-no.  Don’t ever worry about waking me up.  Here…” I showed her to Sunny’s bed and cursed the midget in the back of my mind.  

I now understood the whole ‘push the beds together’ thing.  I felt like a complete fool for not understanding this sooner.

“We can move these apart if you want.” I said awkwardly.  She fell into Sunny’s part of the conjoined bed.

“It’s not a big deal.” She said, smiling at me.

I got into my bed beside her and it dawned on me what Sunny’s intentions were.  She wanted to buy me time so I could confess to Tiffany.  My insides went cold and I pulled my blankets up to my neck.  

Am I ready to do this?

Tiffany reached her hand out to me, pushing my hair aside to look at my forehead.

“I don’t think I left a bruise, where did I hit?”

I freed a hand to put it over the exact spot that was throbbing and she moved my hand aside with her fingertips, examining it.

“It’s a little red…” She pouted.

“Don’t worry about it.” I smiled at her concern.  “How’s your head?”

She shook her head at me.  “I’m fine.”

I nodded.  She continued staring at me and I stared back unsure what to say.

“You must be tired.” I said finally.  I wasn’t tired at all anymore.

She shrugged a little.

I turned the light off just to make it less awkward. It would have been easier to talk to her without having to get lost in her eyes every few moments but the moon must have been large tonight because.. 

Instead of hiding her face it merely made her look like a beautiful monochromatic charcoal portrait.  I could still see every one of her features, including the smile she gave me now.  I was the one facing the window, capturing more of the light so she must have seen the surprise on my face.

“I haven’t shared a room with you in a long time.” She said after a pause.

“Yeah...” I said.  “It’s like a time machine huh?” I glanced down between us and noticed we’re both on the edge of our respective mattresses.

Like magnets…

“I don’t think I’ve ever told you this before, Tae…” She paused.

I watched her search for the right words, her eyes were distant.

“When we were little and all this…” she raised a hand and motioned around us, “was just an unfathomable dream for us, I never thought I’d make it.”

She was quiet again.  I didn't know what to say to that; she never gave me that impression before.

“But since I did, I just want you to know how glad I am I got to come this far with you.” She whispered, “If we had been separated I don’t know if I would have wanted to continue…”

I forgot how to speak.

“W-why…?” I asked under my breath.

She shrugged.  “I guess since you took care of me so well, you became a part of me quickly…”

She was examining my face closely.  I wondered if she could see that my heart was about to break out of my chest.

“Fany-ah?” I swallowed hard.  That familiar acceleration in my chest was starting again and my thoughts were no longer making sense.

“Mmm?”

Just…

“C-come here.”  I moved over to make more room on my bed.

She stared at me, blinking a few times and hesitating, but she complied.  I continued leaning on my arms, staring down at her as her head landed on my pillow.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say...” I confessed.  I brought my other hand up to cover the lower half of my face. I could feel it shaking.

“Tae, it’s alright.”  She took my face-covering hand and used much effort to delicately entwine our fingers.   “You don’t have to say anything.”

I felt as though I might start hyperventilating.  Tonight was turning out to be the most intimate night I've ever shared with someone and me being so inexperienced it was easy to panic.  Her face looked so stunning...

“Calm down…” She whispered, pulling me to lie down.

I stared into her eyes, her face was inches away from mine and her eyes were light and friendly.

“I didn’t mean to upset you by telling you that.” She said.

Upset?

I shook my head.                                            

Just say it…

I opened my mouth but nothing came out.  There were no words for this; my vocabulary was quartered.

“You’ve got tired eyes, Kim Taeyeon.” She said under a husky chuckle.

Delicately, she used her thumb to run over my eyelids causing my eyes to close one at a time.  I made sure I had one open at all times so I could see her face as if I was afraid she'd disappear if they did.

Her eyes were disappearing in her smile.  With a deep breath I took her hand in mine, guiding it down to my chest and placing it over my heart.

Her eyebrows drew together.

“Why is your heart beating so fast, Taeyeon-ah?”

Because I love you.  Because you complete me. 

Nothing would come out...  I was starting to get really frustrated and I sat back up.

She sat up with me.

“You look angry…” She said.

“I am.” I smirked.

“Why?”

“I feel like a coward.”  I laughed.

I felt the weight on the bed shift.  She’s was moving closer to me, wrapping her arms tightly around my waist before putting her head into the crook of my neck.

“Please be strong for me, Tae.  I need to hear it.” Her voice was muffled.

The stage was set.  There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind now how she felt.  She was respecting me and holding my hand through this without taking the opportunity away from me.  

She’s… perfect.  She understands.

I turned my head a little towards her and she vacated my neck to look at me.  We shared a small smile but I could see she was biting on her lip hard.  I took one last breath and let my eyes close.  I still felt like a coward for not being able to look at her while I said it…

“I-I'm in love you, Tipani.” It registered after, in my brain, that it came out in English. I found that extremely odd.

Now I was unable to open my eyes.  I sat there for what felt like years just waiting for any kind of response…

Then I felt it.  A small hand on my face was directing me to her.  My eyes came open at the movement to find her face so close to mine. She let a single finger run along my jaw line until it was under my chin and lifted it, tilting my head back.  My entire body was buzzing from her touch.

I closed my eyes again in fear of passing out otherwise.

Finally, I felt her lips brush against mine.  Her breath teased my skin and I loved every second of it.  Kissing Tiffany was like nothing I ever experienced in my entire life.  It was a whole new world in comparison to kissing a boy.  If you could imagine being under water but still being able to breathe… like moving in slow motion but perfectly in synch.  As if you could capture a spinning kaleidoscope and turn it into a feeling.   Behind my eyelids, that was what I was seeing.

There was no gravity. There was no up or down.  I was no longer SNSD’s Taeyeon; I was Hwang Miyoung’s Taeyeon and I would remain hers from now on.

I felt her pushing me gently onto my back.  She took both of my hands in hers and held them against the matress on either side of my head.  Her fingers slid losely in between mine and I could feel her body come to rest on top of me.  It was better than any kiss I've ever seen on TV, better than any sappy love story.  This was like an amazing choreographed dance. Every movement of her lips against mine was slow and deliberate, filled with such gentleness and romance.  I could feel urgency from her actions, as if she waiting a long time for this and I simply couldn't get over how soft her lips were. My senses were overloaded by her.  Her scent.  Her taste.  Her touch...

After what seemed like hours, the kiss broke. I looked up into her eyes, gasping for breath.  She was wearing a satisfied grin and despite the moonlight drowning out all the color in the room, I could tell her face is heavily flushed. Her lips looked a deep crimson.

“I love you so much, Taeyeon-ah.” She whispered.

“Will you be mine?” I asked and smiled lazily up at her.

She came to rest in my arms with her head on my shoulder, her legs becoming entangled in mine.  

“I’ve been yours for seven years.”  She whispered.

I smiled up at the ceiling gloriously.  I rubbed her back while a hundred thoughts were going through my head about what happens now.  About our future, how we’re now a ‘we’.  This is what life is about.  This is what I’ve been missing out on and now I can have both.

I traced little lines along her back and felt her start to laugh against me.

“Tae…?” She asked.

“Yes?”

“You know that’s my , right?”

Oops...

I bit my lip.