Dirty Little Secret
Written by: jacqg


A large mass of smoke billowed into the air from afar as Taeyeon was walking home from her job. She was a typical office worker that had nothing special going on for her ever since she finished school. A fire truck siren was heard and she assumed that there was probably a fire.

She walked in the smoke’s direction which was also where her house was located.

Arriving at the scene, she saw a condominium burn by the second with several people loitering nearby. Multiple fire trucks came and extinguished the flames but it was too late. The building looked unrecognizable and certainly was uninhabitable.

A multitude of people cried as they witnessed the scene.

Looking at her clock, she realized that it was already 7pm and it was time for her to go home and work on her papers for tomorrow. However, as she was walking she saw a girl trying to open the backdoor of the condominium.

“Hey! That’s dangerous!” she screamed to the girl.

The girl didn’t hear her and kept on pushing hard to open the door.

Not knowing what to do, she approached the girl and pulled her by the arm. No matter how tired she was today she would not let a random girl get hurt, especially since it was not that hard to do so.

“Hey! What are you doing!” she said while pulling the girl far from the burning edifice.

As she looked at the girl she saw the streaks of burnt ashes on her face, her clothes dirtied and ripped. Taeyeon thought that she may be a victim of the fire.

“The building has burned down now. If you go in you’ll suffocate from the smoke. Did you live there?” Taeyeon asked her.

“Uh…yeah.” She paused before she answered.

“Well it’s too late now. It’s all gone, and ugh, which reminds me. I need to get going. Take care okay?”

It wasn’t because she didn’t want to help but it was true, it was really too late for her to stay and chit-chat because she had a stack of papers waiting in her apartment to be filed. She waved goodbye at the girl as she walked to her apartment.

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It was now 9pm and she was halfway done with her papers. As she felt her stomach grumble, she went to her fridge to check if there was anything that she was able to cook. Finding nothing, she took her wallet and went out for the convenience store.

Walking on the pavement, she sighed as she looked at her shoes. She was bored. Bored with her job as well as her life. She was an office rat who was just running around the wheel like everyone else. Nothing was exciting or interesting anymore. Not like when she first got the job and there were things to learn.

She passed the building again and she looked at the burnt condominium. She kind of wished it was hers just so she would have something interesting to do again.

As she went on her way, she saw a figure sitting in front of the building. It was dark, but she was sure there was a person sitting on the ground.

Slowly approaching the figure, she realized that it was the same girl from earlier.

“Hey, uh, you’re still here?” She asked somewhat unsure as to if she sounded impolite or not.

“Yeah,” the girl said not looking at her.

“I don’t think they’ll be opening this for a while so I think you should go.”

“I can’t. I don’t know anyone here,” the girl replied to her.

She let out a deep breath as she analyzed the situation. Some random girl is homeless because her house burnt down and she was bored with her life. She thought that maybe she could use the company as well as help this girl for a few months.

“Hmm. Did you get fire insurance for your house?” Taeyeon asked.

“Uh, yeah,” the girl said again with the same reserved tone.

“I know this will sound really strange and you don’t really have to, but do you want to stay at my place for a few days or so? Maybe until you get your insurance money?”

She felt uneasy. Although it sounded fine in her head, she didn’t know that it sounded sleazy. She became worried that the girl might reject her then call the police on her.

“Okay,” the girl shot back.

She felt the burden of uneasiness gone from her chest as she heard the girl’s reply.

“I’m Taeyeon,” she extended her hand.

“Tiffany,” the girl said to her.

“Are you hungry?”

Tiffany nodded at her.

“I haven’t eaten too. So let’s get ingredients from the supermarket before going home so we can just have dinner there.”

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They arrived home and Taeyeon set out all the groceries out and started to cook. After they finished she handed out a towel to Tiffany before she went to attend to the dishes.

“Take a shower while I wash the dishes. I know it’s been a long day for you.” She handed over the towel while looking somewhere else.

“Thanks,” Tiffany replied to her.

Tiffany stepped into the shower and Taeyeon heard the water running. Taeyeon didn’t pay any attention to it but she concentrated on finishing her cleaning. She then sat down at her table and started working on her stacks of paper again.

“I’m done,” Tiffany said while opening the shower door.

As Tiffany approached her, Taeyeon was surprised at how pretty the girl was with only a towel on. It was very different from the ash stained face that she encountered a while ago. She began to trace her features with her eyes and after a while, she realized that Tiffany was waiting on her to say something and was obviously catching her red-handed.

“Um…clothes,” Tiffany said to her calmly.

“Oh right,” she responded and quickly turned around to hide the blush she was wearing.

She then handed over a pair of pajamas, a shirt, and underwear to her.

“Don’t worry. Those are new from the box,” Taeyeon said somewhat embarrassed as she saw Tiffany touch the piece.

“Uh no, it’s okay. I don’t want to use yours. I mean, I don’t need to wear any.”

Taeyeon was startled at Tiffany’s response since it didn’t seem something that someone might offer. She thought that it was perhaps out of politeness and nothing like what her erted mind wanted to think.

“No no, I insist. I don’t want you to get an infection or anything,” Taeyeon said as she shook her head and refused the lingerie. She was blushing like mad as her thoughts went wild.

“Okay.”

Tiffany took the clothes and as she was about to drop the towel onto the ground, Taeyeon stopped her just at the nick of time.

“Ch…change in my room,” Taeyeon nervously said.