Taeyeon’s POV

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make myself faint. Although I felt like fainting, my brain was probably melting by now thanks to the fact that I was alone with Tiffany. Did you hear me? Alone with Tiffany. Seriously, there’s only so much I can take. Besides my brain dying, my heart was beating about a hundred beats per second. Any second now, my heart would probably jump out of my chest. Basically, I was nervous, really nervous. I was so ing nervous. Hell, my palms were starting to sweat too.

I took a few quick glances towards Tiffany’s direction. I probably looked pretty stupid. I was wearing a thin white jacket with blue sweatpants. Besides that, I was sitting on a chair holding an ice pack up to my head thanks to Jessica bashing my head with a door. Yup, pretty stupid-looking.

Now’s your time to man up, Taeyeon…or woman up or… it. “Do you need anything?” I squeaked. I quickly placed my hand over my mouth. Oh, . My voice went pretty high there for a second. . That’s embarrassing. I hope to God that she didn’t notice.

“No,” I heard her say. “Is something wrong? Your voice seems kind of weird.” Well, me.

I cleared my throat a few times just to make sure my voice came out normally. “I-I’m fine. The door hit me pretty hard. Must be the aftereffects,” I said.

“Door? You got hit by a door?” said Tiffany, with concern in her voice.

“Yeah. It’s okay though. I’ll probably just end up with a giant bump on my head by the end of this,” I joked. “How’s your fever, anyway?” Alright! I was getting pretty comfortable talking to Tiffany from this distance.

I was sitting in the kitchen and Tiffany was sitting on her bed, staring at me. Man, I swear her stare was intense. I think she could’ve burned a hole in my face. I avoided her gaze, focusing on the ground instead.

“It’s almost gone… but are you sure you’re okay?” she asked me. “Let me see.” Tiffany started to get off of the bed.

“Wait! You don’t have to get up! I’m fine,” I reassured her. I did not want her to get out of bed. What kind of person would let a sickly person move out of bed? Not me.

She stopped mid-track then she laid back down on her bed. “If you really think I’m that annoying…” she said sadly.

I suddenly blurted out, “Oh, no, no, no. You’re not annoying at all!”

“Yeah? Then why don’t you come closer?”

I would, Tiffany, I really would. But you don’t know how you make me feel when we’re so close to each other. Like I said, it was bad enough that I was alone with her in the first place.

“Because I look stupid,” I said.

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t.” She paused then continued, “I think you’re cute.”

I blushed at her compliment. “C-cute? I think you mistook me for Sunny.” For all the days that I knew her, which was about a few weeks, I designated Sunny as all-powerful aegyo queen. And being ‘cute’ was the last thing on my list of things to be. Oh, but it still felt nice to be complimented…especially by Tiffany.

“But you are cute,” said Tiffany.

“No…you’re cuter,” I blurted out.

Tiffany hid her face under her pink blanket which was cute, of course. What made me happy, though, was the fact that Tiffany actually responded to my compliment.

Tiffany peeked out from her blanket and said, “I’m not cute. You are.”

“Umm…no. You’re the cutest thing in the world and the prettiest and the most beautiful and…God. I’m probably scaring you right now,” I blurted out. I don’t even know why but the words just came out of my mouth. I felt blood rush up into my face as my words finally sunk into my brain.

Tiffany didn’t say anything for a while. Nice, Taeyeon. Scared her again. Seriously, I really didn’t learn anything from last time. Suddenly, something hit my face. Hard. Well, not really hard since the object was pretty soft but it still hurt…kinda. The object dropped on the floor after slamming into my face. It was…Totoro? I picked up the gray stuffed animal, stared at it, and looked at Tiffany.

“Did you drop this?” I asked in a sorry attempt to make a joke. Tiffany’s face was red, like really red. And her face really made me want to , so I did. “What was that for?” I waved Totoro in the air. “Guess I’ll keep this with me since you handed it to me so nicely and all.”

“Wait! Toto’s mine! You can’t have him,” I heard Tiffany say. Her voice was muffled thanks to the blanket in front of .

“What? Can’t hear you,” I cupped my ear in her direction to exaggerate. I hugged ‘Toto’ closer to my body.

“Yah! Taeyeon, are you really teasing a sick person right now?”

“Ah, sorry. You’re just so cute. I can’t resist,” I said. I was pretty impressed with myself. I was spitting out compliments like no tomorrow. All of my nervousness disappeared.

“You’re doing it again. Quit it. You’re embarrassing me,”

I swear I was about to explode in cuteness. The way she pouted and the way she tried to hide her embarrassment by hiding in her blanket…kill me now. “Is it that embarrassing? I bet you get tons of compliments.”

“From you, it is.”

“Me? W-why?” Crap, maybe Sooyoung was right when she told me that I was naturally embarrassing.

“…You really want to know?”

“Yeah.”

“Then how about not standing a mile away from me? Come over here,” Tiffany ordered. She patted the bed to tell me to sit there.

Of course, like the obedient little girl I was, I did what she said. I was a bit reluctant but who ignores orders from the one and only Tiffany? Not me. I slowly walked toward Tiffany with Totoro in my arms. I left the ice pack on the table. It didn’t really matter, all of the ice melted anyway thanks to all the heat going into my head.

I sat on the bed. Well, not Tiffany’s bed but the one next to it. Probably Jessica’s since the bed wasn’t even properly made. Upon closer inspection of their dorm, you could really tell that Tiffany’s side of the room was much more colorful…as in much more pink. Man, she was not lying when she said she like pink. Pink, pink, pink. Not that I didn’t like it or anything, in fact Tiffany looked pretty hot in those pink pajamas…if that was possible.

As I sat down, I noticed Tiffany’s arm stretching out towards me. Could it be? She wanted a hug? From ME?! I quickly stood up and hugged Tiffany tightly.

“YAH?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Well, that wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. My heart tightened a bit after her outburst.

“I thought you wanted…a hug?” I weakly smiled.

“N-no. I wanted Toto back. So…y-you can let g-go now.”

I still had my arms wrapped around her with my head on her shoulder. Her head was turned so I couldn’t see her face. I didn’t want to let go. It felt so…nice. It’s hard to explain. But this was where I wanted to stay for the rest of my life. I think I was going crazy. “Why?” I started brushing Tiffany’s short hair with my fingers. I was the ing daredevil at this point.

“W-what do you mean why? I’m sick!”

“I don’t mind.”

“Aigoo,” she sighed.

“Well, I don’t see you resisting,” I pointed out. Despite her complaints, Tiffany wasn’t really doing much. She was just sitting there with her arms stiffly to her side. She was turning really red. I could almost feel the heat radiate from her. I was kind of happy that I made her react that way. I’d really like to think she had some kind of feelings for me but that was as possible as Sooyoung going on a diet. That fever must really be getting to her.

“W-well, th-that’s because…” She paused probably trying to think up some excuse.

Whatever excuse she was trying to think up, I would probably ignore it. With Tiffany in my arms, I collapsed onto the bed dragging her with me. She let out a cute squeal. We were both lying on the bed, staring at each other. Well, I was doing most of the staring, Tiffany was pretty much avoiding any sort of eye contact. “Sorry,” I apologized. “Did I scare you?”

“N-no. Just a bit surprised,” she said in a shaky voice. “A-anyway, what’s wrong with your hand?”

She was pointing to my hand with a bunch of bandages on it after I had punched a wall about a week ago. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

There was pretty much silence after that. She wasn’t bothered by it so I started to comb my fingers through Tiffany’s hair again. I started to hum the tune of L.O.V.E. out of habit.

“What song are you humming?” Tiffany asked me.

“Oh. It was L.O.V.E. by umm…Natalie King Cole, I think. Sorry about the random humming. I’ve been singing that song for so long, it’s just reflex now to sing it,” I joked.

Tiffany clapped her hands and with a childish look, said, “Oh! I want to hear you sing!”

“T-That’s too embarrassing,” I said, shyly.

“Pleeease,” she begged me.

Like I said before, you can’t resist Tiffany. Especially when she puts on that adorable pout. “F-fine. But I’m singing another song. It’s called “If”. I’ve been practicing this song for a while now.” I sat up and started to clear my throat.

“Go. Go,” she said.

(If you guys want to listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaf4wpGaZqI)

If I were to go

If I were to get close to you

What would you think?

I don’t have the courage.

If you were to go

If you were to leave

I don’t know how to send you away

That keeps scaring me.

* Chorus

Because I am a fool

I can only look at you from the distance

Maybe your heart will turn away

And so like that, we would become distant again.

Because I’m really foolish

I can’t say ‘I love you’

Maybe waiting for meeting again would be painful

And I’m afraid my days would become sad.

*End Chorus

If you were to come

If you were to come close to me

What should I do?

I really don’t know.

*Chorus x2

After finishing the song, I heard Tiffany clapping excitedly. “Wow! You’re so good!” she said in awe. I quickly bowed.

“I’m not that good,” I humbly said.

“No. You’re amazing,” she continued to praise me. “You can sing way better than me.”

“I want to hear you sing!” I told her. “Maybe when you’re better, we can go karaoke together,” I suggested.

“…Sure!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“It’s a promise then,” I said. I stuck out my pinky finger.

Tiffany stared at my finger. “Now, who’s the one being childish,” she teased.

“I’m a child at heart,” I joked.

She giggled and we connected fingers once more. She raised her head to look at me. Goddamn, she was gorgeous close up. The way her bangs swept across her forehead, the way her smile spread across her face…you don’t know how difficult it was for me not to pounce on her at this moment. Best of all, was the way she stared at me with her brown eyes…I mean pink. …Wait, what? I stared at her eyes and blurted out in surprise, “P-PINK?!”

“What?” She looked around her. “What about pink?” she asked me.

“Y-your e-eyes. They’re p-pink,” I pointed to her eyes.

In a flash, Tiffany’s smile vanished and a complete look of despair flooded her face. Her eyes…they also changed colors, from pink to grey. None which were her natural brown. So I wasn’t hallucinating when I saw her eyes change colors back at the lab. Or maybe I was hallucinating right now.

“D-don’t look,” she said weakly. Her head was down staring at the blanket she was sitting on. She was covering her face with her hands. “Go away,” she told me. Then in a louder voice, “GO AWAY!” She was sobbing at this point. In between her sobs, she would tell me to go away.

“N-no. Why would I leave you alone now?!”

“Because I’m a freak! A FREAK!” she yelled despite her hoarse voice. “Who wants to be near some girl whose eyes change colors?! WHO?!”

“Obviously me then! You’re not a freak!” I tried to convince her.

“Shut up! Shut up! Stop lying to me! Only Jessica, Sunny, and Yoona would stay with me…only them. They’re the only ones who know what I’ve been through!”

“...How could an angel like you be a freak?”

“A-angel?”

“Ever since I first saw you, I’ve wanted to get closer to you. You don’t know how much I worry over whether or not you hate me. The only thing wrong about you is that you’re too beautiful. Every time I look at you, I feel like I just went to heaven. And every time I see you cry, my heart feels like it’s being ripped into a million pieces. I promised you, didn’t I? I’ll protect you with my life. If some guy makes you cry, I’ll beat him up for you. If I make you cry, I’ll make sure that I get what I deserve. I’ll be your very own bodyguard. I’ll never betray you. And don’t you dare say no, I’m not going to listen to you. So your eyes change color? Big ing deal, I’ll still think you’re the most beautiful thing in the world. And to me, you’ll always be the most beautiful thing in the world…whether or not you like it, I’ll protect you.”

I sat there on her bed, tears coming out of my eyes. And she was just there, taking in my words, her hands still covering her face. Her sobs, however, stopped. I didn’t know what else to say. Everything I told her was just the simple truth. I hate to say it but my thoughts were exactly what those sappy love songs always talked about: ‘Even if you turn your back on me, I will always love you’.

I wiped my tears with my shirt sleeve. Slowly, Tiffany took her hands off her face. She looked at me, with hot tears wetting her face. She cried, “T-Taeyeon. D-don’t l-leave me. Save me. Save me. I-I’m scared. I don’t…I don’t know what to do. Taeyeon…”

I grabbed her in a tight hug with her head in my chest. “I’m always here for you. I swear…the only time you’ll be crying is when you’re crying tears of happiness…Tiffany…I love you. Saranghae.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No one’s POV

A few hours later

Jessica and Yuri were both in front of their dorm rooms both carrying shopping bags, the latter carrying the most. Their hands were still interlocked and Yuri was reluctant to let go. “Guess I’ll see you later,” said Yuri.

“How about a goodbye kiss?” asked Jessica after their hands were separated.

“What?!” asked Yuri, surprised. She blushed, “W-well…”

“I was kidding,” teased Jessica who giggled at the taller girl.

“It’s too late for that,” said Yuri. Yuri pulled Jessica toward her and their lips connected for a brief moment. Hurriedly, Yuri quickly said goodbye and ran into her dorm room.

Jessica, left dumbfounded, turned several shades of red. As she was opening the door to her room, she was reenacting the very quick kiss with Yuri. “If you’re going to kiss me, then at least make it worthwhile,” she thought.

As Jessica entered the room, she yelled, “Hey, Taeyeon! How’s babysitting?”

No answer.

As she was walking to Tiffany’s bed, a large smile began to creep up onto her face. Taeyeon and Tiffany were both sleeping on the bed, extremely close to each other. Tiffany, especially, was tightly clinging onto Taeyeon’s shirt.

As Jessica was watching the two sleep, Sunny and Yoona entered the room. “Hey, Jessica!” she heard Sunny and Yoona yell in unison.

Jessica placed her finger in front of to silence Sunny and Yoona. She walked over to them and pointed toward Tiffany and Taeyeon. “Let the two lovebirds sleep,” she whispered to them. “Now, where’s that camera?”