A Kiss
-ANONYMOUS

She walked towards the manager’s office, opening the door as a soft “Come in,” commanded her inside. A blonde-haired woman greeted her sight; she looked quite young to be the dormitory manager.

“Name?” the woman asked, looking over her records book.

“Kim Taeyeon, she replied. “Are you the dorm manager?” she added to satiate her curiosity.

“Do I look like an old maid to you?” the woman replied, sending chills down Taeyeon’s spine.

“Sorry.”

“Hmph,” the woman muttered to herself. Words like ‘minding her own business’ and ‘I’m not that old’ were heard over the unintelligible blabbering. Taeyeon cleared to bring the person back to earth. “O-oh, now where was I… 203.”

Her fingers stopped at the room number, and Taeyeon saw her name and another one written down below hers. Before she could make out the words, the blonde finally looked up at her. Taeyeon read the information on her id (Jessica Jung, Student Assistant) until the look of surprise on Jessica Jung’s face registered in her brain.

“What?”

“Do you want to switch rooms? There’s still a vacant bed in 316 and 318.”

“What?”

“Are you dumb or something?” Jessica asked in a cold tone. “I’m asking if you want to transfer.”

“Wha—why?” Taeyeon caught herself before she repeated herself for the third time.

“You see, Tiffany Hwang will be in the same room,” the blonde-haired woman answered as if the name explained everything.

“So…?” How ironic. The woman who hated her for mingling in her business was now doing the same.

“So…” a hint of worry flashed in Jessica’s eyes. After a pause, she added, “Never mind. Just answer if you want to transfer.”

“No. Why would I? Is this Ti-ppany a klepto? Or a murderer?” Taeyeon joked.

“She’ll steal your heart after killing your innocence.” the SA whispered.

“What’s that?”

“N-nothing. Fine,” she rummaged through the drawers, took out a silver key and shoved it unto Taeyeon’s hands. The latter was about to turn and go out when a hand grabbed her by the wrist.

“Word of advice. Don’t let her sleep next to you.” There was that hint of worry again. Taeyeon only nodded as she headed out of the room, sighing once she was outside. Let Tiffany Hwang sleep next to her? How odd. What’s the use of having two beds to a room, then?

“What a weird woman. There’s nothing to worry about, Kim Taeyeon. Hwaiting!” she mumbled, pumping her fist and striking quite a ridiculous pose. She climbed up a narrow set of stairs until she reached room 203.

“Hello,” The woman named Tiffany Hwang greeted her, no doubt attracted by the loud creaking of the door hinges when it opened.

“H-hello,” Jessica Jung’s advice (and everything else that she said) flew out of Taeyeon’s head as she stared at the woman in front of her. She wasn’t the type to be befuddled by a person’s looks, but there was something about Tiffany that made her heart seemingly skip a beat. Was it those puppy eyes? Plump lips? The way her short hair excellently framed her face? Taeyeon blushed as she realized how shallow she was being.

“I’m Tiffany Hwang, nice to meet you! Let’s be good roommates, okay?” Tiffany said rather loudly, taking Taeyeon’s hand in hers for a handshake. Pleasant warmth slowly spread over the shorter woman, from her arms down to her toes. The taller woman smiled, and her silly heart the skipped a beat now doubled its speed, akin to a runner who had been running for miles.

There’s nothing to worry about, right?

~

The weeks passed by swiftly and Kim Taeyeon couldn’t have been more pleased with the way things had turned out. Except for her borderline obsession with pink (as the walls, her bed, and her cabinet would silently attest), Tiffany Hwang was a very lovely person to be roommates and friends with. The two didn’t even encounter the initial awkward phase, talking and laughing as if they had known each other for a long time. They turned to each other for academic help and problems that bugged them personally, and bonded over their common love for music.

Tiffany was like a mushroom; out of the blue she would invite Taeyeon to some random location, and the latter would suddenly be in an opening of a new restaurant, or a promo for beef meals. Then sometimes she would text Taeyeon while in class for her opinion on something (gummy bears or gummy worms?) only to come back bearing gifts later. Bit by bit they came to know each other’s likes and dislikes and strengths and weaknesses. They also fell into a habit of eating breakfast and dinner together except Thursday and saving each other a stall so they wouldn’t be late in taking a bath.

The initial fluttering feelings that Taeyeon felt lowered to a minimum, but she still liked observing her roommate whenever she had nothing to do. It was fascinating how Tiffany’s eyes would disappear and form into crescents every time she smiled, how she would pout like a puppy whenever something bothered her, how her eyes would shine whenever she talked about a dance she nailed in a practice, how her voice would always have that hint of amusement every time she calls her ‘Taetae’, how she would silently laugh and clap like a seal whenever she found a joke funny, how she would freeze when their fingers accidentally grazed each other when they pass the food, or when their arms would brush when they go into the room at the same time…

If there was one flaw in Tiffany that Taeyeon could pinpoint, it was their skinship. No words were shared, but Taeyeon knew that the other avoided contact at all costs. Except for the handshake at their first meeting, Tiffany never initiated contact. It bothered her at the beginning; there was an instance when they laughed so hard at a joke that she slapped Tiffany’s shoulders and the woman stopped, looking at her with an unreadable expression on her face. As time passed, however, she learned to just ignore this. It wasn’t a matter of importance, anyway.

A great roommate and the fact that she was getting good grades gave Taeyeon a reason to be satisfied with her current situation. Life couldn’t be any more perfect.

If only she realized that life couldn’t always be perfect, that there would come a time when it would change, for better or worse.

~

Two months into the semester a storm passed by the country. Compared to the latter years, the current one was a year of drought, so most people rejoiced as the first few raindrops fell upon the ground, cooling the wilting leaves and sprinkling the drying rice fields.

Taeyeon, who had a group meeting up to 9 pm, ran back to the dorm as the rain increased its ferocity (she didn’t have an umbrella with her), opening the door to her room. She halted in her tracks when the lack of music hit her; there wasn’t a day when Tiffany wouldn’t turn on the speakers and listen to music.

“Fany-ah?” she asked, cautiously approaching the quivering lump of blanket on her roommate’s bed. Tiffany lifted her head out of the blanket and Taeyeon was surprised to see the beginnings of a tear on the corner of her eyes, her face sweaty and hair dishevelled.

“What’s wrong?”

“Taetae, I—eek!” she began, shrieking and hiding under the blanket as the lightning marked a jagged line into the sky, accompanied by the boom of the thunder.

“Are you afraid of thunder?” Taeyeon asked. She wanted to joke to lighten the mood but the distress that Tiffany was displaying stopped her. The blanketed woman nodded, sobbing in her fright.

“Why don’t you listen to music? If you make it loud enough it will mask the noise,” she suggested.

“N-no! Turning it on will mean use of electricity. I don’t want to be grounded.”

Taeyeon wanted to point out that the lights were on but using logic might not be enough to calm Tiffany. Instead, she asked, “Why would you be? That’s weird.”

“Well, when I was young I—“ she bit back another scream as the sky lighted up again. “I was using my father’s laptop. It was raining back then, and the windows were open, suddenly the lightning entered the room and boom! The laptop died, and my hand got shocked so badly. It was like getting slapped to the bones,” Tiffany explained. “Taetae…” she added in such a forlorn voice that Taeyeon felt her heart clench.

“I’m sorry. Shh… it’s okay,” she replied in a soothing voice. “Why don’t you sleep it off? A good night’s sleep never failed to cheer me up.”

“I can’t sleep. I’m so afraid—what if the lightning hits me while I’m sleeping? Or if it crawls on the walls?” Tiffany was nearing a point of hysteria that Taeyeon had to speak out quickly or she would be dealing with a nervous breakdown later.

“Why don’t you sleep with me? I won’t touch you, I promise on my dead body. Just… just so you won’t be alone tonight. I’ll take the side near the wall, okay?”

Tiffany had that unreadable expression on her face again, but the boom of the thunder left her with no choice.

“Okay.”

Taeyeon quickly towelled her rain-soaked hair and clambered onto the bed. With their backs turned against each other, Tiffany whispered, “Sorry for inconveniencing you, Taetae.”

“It’s fine. Sleep well, Fany-ah. Goodnight,” she replied, trying to stick to the wall like glue. She stayed up, talking and humming in a calming voice to make sure that Tiffany would fall asleep despite of the rain. Finally, her roommate’s breathing fell into a rhythmic pattern signalling her sleep. Taeyeon yawned and closed her eyes.

~

Taeyeon was having a weird dream. She was in a theme park when suddenly a giant lifted her like one would a toy and placed her into one of those crane games, next to the pink bears. The flashing of the neon lights and her abrupt fall winded her; she was massaging the painful area on her abdomen when a certain short-haired girl appeared.

“I’ll get you, kid!” Tiffany shouted, inserting a coin into the machine. She controlled the knobs and lowered the crane. It grabbed one of the teddy bears, depositing the bear into the chute, sliding out of the machine. For a moment she looked distracted (probably by how pink the bear was), but a scowl of displeasure appeared on her face.

She tried again. And again. And again until nothing but one coin remained. A pile of bears were next to her but Kim Taeyeon was still inside the machine.

“This better be good,” she shouted again, kissing the coin for good luck. Taking a deep breath, she operated the knobs again, closing her left eye and sticking her tongue out as she tried to be exact on where she would drop the metal pincers. A few more seconds later, she pushed the button to lower the crane. Taeyeon decided to help, jumping unto the crane to grab the pincers. She missed but the pincers grabbed onto her waist instead. The two girls gave a shout of delight at their success; Taeyeon’s turning into a pained shout as the grip steadily tightened. She tried to force them to open by grabbing the metals. Weirdly enough, the metals were soft to the touch, and running her hands lightly on them she counted five slender fingers.

Why would metal pincers be made up of hands?

Hands?

Taeyeon’s eyes fluttered open. It took her a few seconds to realize that she was resting on her bed and not hanging inside a machine, and another couple of seconds to realize that the metal hands she was touching were Tiffany’s hands instead, her arms around the former’s waist. It was stronger than any brain stimulant Taeyeon ever ingested; her sleep-filled mind was instantly cleared. Suddenly, she was all too aware of Tiffany’s breathing on the back of her neck, and the way her hands slightly moved higher…

“F-fany-ah,” she said in a choked voice. Her face burned.

“Hmm?” Is she awake?

“Your hands are… er, you’re touching me.” Why was it suddenly so hot in the room?

“So?”

Hard as it was, Taeyeon cautiously turned around so she was face-to-face with Tiffany. The latter’s eyes were closed. Here breath hitched at as she realized for the first time how long the taller woman’s eyelashes were.

“Are you awake?” she whispered. No answer. Instead, as quickly as possible, Tiffany’s hands moved up and pressed Taeyeon’s cheeks.

“Fany-ah, what the heck are you doing?!” she cried in panic.

“Shut up.” With that, Tiffany closed the gap between them, placing a firm kiss on Taeyeon’s lips. If her mind was a jumbotron. It would be displaying !!!!!!!!!!! on rainbow colours, flashing lights all over the room. Taeyeon was trapped; she couldn’t move back her head any further as it was already touching the wall. She tried pushing Tiffany instead, but the motion seemed to have triggered the devil in her roommate, moving her lips to lightly on Taeyeon’s lower lip, gripping her cheeks tighter.

“Ppany-ah, stoppit,” Taeyeon mumbled. She was slowly losing control of her pronunciation as a jolt of desire ran through her body. The left side of her brain advised her to give Tiffany a kick on the legs so she could stop stealing her first kiss while the right side of her brain calmly told her to relax and enjoy what was happening in the moment.

Then, as if to surprise her further, Tiffany moved back to the centre, using her tongue to pry open Taeyeon’s unresponsive mouth. Her mind went blank with shock. The left side of her brain was swept away by a flood of yearning, depriving her arms of the strength needed to push Tiffany away. Despite the fact that she had never kissed or been kissed before, Taeyeon could tell that her roommate was one hell of a kisser. What other explanation could there be for the passion that found its place inside her, telling her to kiss back?

She closed her eyes and kissed back, trying to emulate her roommate’s moves. She couldn’t hold back a moan as Tiffany gently mapped the contours of . It was probably how heaven felt.

They kissed for what seemed like a long time. Taeyeon wondered if it was the right time to try and let her hands wander on Tiffany’s body when a particularly loud bang of thunder echoed outside.

Tiffany broke off, her eyes opening for a moment. Then she let go of Taeyeon’s cheeks (which was red from the pressure and her blush) and her back.

What the hell was that? Taeyeon thought, breathing heavily. As her senses and her rational side returned, she realized that a sleeping Tiffany Hwang just captured her first kiss.

~

Taeyeon wasn’t able to sleep afterwards, alternating between holding her lips and muttering ‘what the hell’ while staring at the ceiling.

“Taetae~” Tiffany said in a sleepy sing-song voice, stretching her arms and yawning. The sun had risen, washing away the memories of the rain with its golden rays. “Thanks, I—“ she halted as she saw the shorter woman, her eyes bloodshot and clutching her lips.

“Why are your lips swollen? Did the lightning enter the room?” she asked fearfully. Taeyeon looked at her, only managing to shake her head. It probably would hurt less if it was actually the lightning, she thought tiredly. Then she said in a hoarse voice, “Did you get a good sleep?”

“Um, yeah. Thanks.” Taeyeon was too tired to notice the flash of realization on Tiffany’s face. “I’ll… I’ll take a bath,” she said. Another tired nod. When it was Taeyeon’s turn, Tiffany had to knock on the shower door a few times because she forgot her towel and her toiletries.

What the hell, Taeyeon though for what could’ve been the hundredth time since last night. Her mind was still blown. How could someone who shunned skinship be a kissing machine when sleeping? Was it even possible to kiss while sleeping? What if Tiffany was faking it? Taeyeon paused as she realized she was soaping the same area of her body for a while. She cast a dark look on the drain, contemplating on putting her foot on top of it so she could drown in the shower. It would be better than to face her dilemma right now. Then she thought of how people would react once her dead body was found in the bathroom? Will they cry over her? What about Tiffany? Will she cry? Will she kiss me again with her stupid mouth and that goddamned to—

“Taetae?” Tiffan