“Soonkyu buddy! Good morning!”

“Sorry wrong number.”

“Yah shorty!”

“No buddy of mine will ever call me at seven in the morning on a Saturday. Goodnight.”

“Yah don’t go back to sleep, I need your help.”

“You got thirty seconds to explain thoroughly, failure to achieve comprehensible delivery of your request within the time limit means I hang up and turn my phone off. Deal or no deal?”

“Deal!”

“one two th-“

“yah yah yah!”

“four five si-“

“I need Tiffany’s phone number.”

“Transmission success. Contact you later Taeng.”

“Thanks Sunny-ah! . . . Aish she hung up already.”

It’s not that Sunny’s a master hacker or something, no that’s not the reason Taeyeon asked for her help. Taeyeon did so because Sunny is practical. She always gets the contacts of those people in whichever class she’s in that are essentially able to connect her to the entire classroom if need be in the first few weeks of every school year. There is no doubt Sunny Lee can get her what she needs fast.

Taeyeon needs Tiffany’s contacts because they forgot to arrange their meet-up later, as far as Taeyeon knows the other girl does not know her exact address. But that’s just what Taeyeon thinks, Tiffany actually knows one of the two, Taeyeon’s phone number? Taeyeon’s exact address? Guess which. Hint: the creepier option.

Meanwhile, Tiffany’s sound asleep at the moment. Today’s schedule was in the afternoon after all.

Not even thirty minutes of waiting and Taeyeon’s phone buzzed.

Sunny: Tiffany +82-02-6433****

            Don’t call to say thanks, I’m going back to sleep. Lunch is on you on Monday.   

           You’re welcome.

Taeyeon: Thanks Sunny-ah! :)

At the bus-stop already, Taeyeon is about half an hour early. She started playing with her phone to kill time while also struggling to contain her nervousness and excited feelings.

Granted it’s something for school, still it’s the first time for her to spend time with Tiffany outside the learning institution, well except the bus ride they shared two nights ago which was nothing compared to this, but that nothing got her very flustered so she is very worried how this something could cause her further distress. She can embarrassingly recall how she lost the ability to talk and was reduced to a blushing mess not even halfway to Tiffany’s stop.

In all honesty she doesn’t really mind the awkwardness and embarrassment. Getting to spend time with Tiffany no matter the situation brings her very good feelings after all. But she also realizes that she has got to keep her head in the game and be present lest Tiffany dismisses her as a total weirdo and she’ll lost any chance to further whatever relationship she has with the girl.

Taeyeon’s aware of her deep crush and non-platonic feelings for Tiffany. She has long admitted and accepted it. But she has no hopes of Tiffany having romantic feelings for her one day. She knows it’s a very long shot. All she really aspires is to be at best a friend the girl can depend on, a positive existence in Tiffany’s life.

Her attention brought back to her now dark phone screen by the noise from the friction between the tires of a vehicle and the pavement, she looked up to see the bus she’d been waiting for parked carefully by the stop she’s at, its passengers alighting one by one. Somehow brought to a state of calm by her reveries, Taeyeon waits for Tiffany. Her heart’s previous incessant thumps of nervousness now reduced to gentle calm beats of eagerness.

“I’m back!” Taeyeon announced, Tiffany cautiously followed her into the house.

“Welcome home.” Mrs. Kim entered the living room from what Tiffany assumed was the kitchen to welcome them. Tiffany immediately greeted Mrs. Kim.

“Anyeonghaseyo, I’m Tiffany Hwang Taeyeon’s classmate. These are for you ma’am, my mom baked them.” Tiffany bowed, politely introduced herself, and offered her mom’s cupcake to Mrs. Kim with her best smile on display.

“Hello Tiffany, welcome to Kim HQ. Ah what a pretty girl.”

“Umma please don’t weird her out.”

Tiffany merely smiled. She didn’t expect Mrs. Kim to be so laidback and fun. She wasn’t surprised to see an attractive and young looking Mrs. Kim stepping out from the kitchen. Taeyeon is attractive, very attractive and is very young looking so she expected it to some extent for those physical traits to run in the family. But for Taeyeon to have a somewhat funny mother who is spontaneous and confident is another thing. Tiffany couldn’t have possibly guessed that but it’s a nice surprise, now she’s excited to meet the rest of the Kim’s.

“It is very nice to meet you Mrs. Kim.”

“Nice to meet you too Tiffany, please just comfortably call me eomeoni.”

“We’ll be in my room umma.” Taeyeon told her mother and led Tiffany upstairs.

Taeyeon told her that her room is actually her little sister Hayeon’s room as well.

“She’s a nice kid, can be a little overexcited at times but she listens well. And we can always send her downstairs if she gets too distracting.” Taeyeon told her about the seven year old.

“Hayeon-ah it’s unnie, I’m back.”

Tiffany heard a chirpy ‘come in!’ from inside the room after which Taeyeon opened the door, entered and gestured for her to do so as well.

“Hayeon-ah this is Tiffany Hwang, she’s the classmate I told you about last night. The one I’ll be making a report with today.”

“Hi Hayeon I’m Tiffany, you can call me unnie if you want.”

Hayeon’s bed is positioned against the wall and the girl is sitting cross-legged on top of it with her eyes on the kindle on her lap. The girl looked up and Tiffany mustered all willpower in her not to spazz.

“My gosh! She is a Kim Taeyeon mini-me! Aaahhhh so cuuuuuuuute!”

Tiffany extended her hand for a handshake, Hayeon looked at it and looked at the older girl’s smiling face again, then she looked at her Taeyeon unnie who smiled at her and gestured that’s it’s okay to take Tiffany’s hand but Hayeon turned her head from left to right signalling she doesn’t want to. Tayeon and Tiffany looked at each other and the latter smiled apologetically to the other girl.

“Hayeon is just a little shy Tiffany.”

“It’s fine, I understand.” Tiffany tried her best to maintain her smile but inside she’s worried Hayeon dislikes her.

“Um…” The sudden sound from the girl got the attention of the two older girls and they both turned to Hayeon.

“Go on Hayeon-ah, you can say it.” Tayeon encouraged her little sister, her instinct tells her Hayeon likes Tiffany, she is just very shy around strangers. She turned to Tiffany and mouthed ‘shy’ with a smile to encourage the girl while subtly gesturing towards Hayeon.

“Um… Can I get a hug instead of a handshake unnie?”

“Sly kid.” Thought Taeyeon looking on with a smile as Tiffany gives Hayeon a hug.