Taeyeon couldn’t remember the last time she dolled herself up for anything. Lately the days seemed to blur together, and her mental capabilities stretched itself thin just like the hours that crawled on by. The setting sun hung just between the flaps of her blinds and Taeyeon haphazardly flung a portion of her fringe over her eyes. She could’ve sworn the afternoon was wretched hot even with the open windows, but her toes curled at the sudden whoosh of the evening breeze just few hours later.



She felt pathetic. She felt trapped in the sheer normality of her life, the somewhat lonely plane of existence she called reality. Nothing interesting happened anymore, and the only people she met these days were her colleagues from work. The same people who would always be in a rush to make plans with her in theory, and then never follow through. The truth was, Taeyeon had no friends. Well, almost.



Taeyeon had one friend. One best friend. One person whom she wouldn’t trade in for the world. And also the same exact person that she hadn’t spoken with in two full days. . She really didn’t know what the hell was wrong with herself. Why anything she tried to do to break the unbearable boredom of her life seemed futile, why spontaneity just disappeared from her life. Things were fine though, but it always remained at just that. Fine. No passion, no pain, no noticeable level of exertion at any point- just level enough to survive the days.



The blonde fringe over her eyes swayed against her face in the dusky breeze. That made Taeyeon briefly wonder when she had washed her hair last.



“Whyyyyyyyy am I like this…” Taeyeon kicked the duvet on top of her. The wind was too cold, and she was too lazy to get up and close the window. Taeyeon started to roll her eyes behind her closed lids in thought. This funk wasn’t going to go away by itself, and it certainly didn’t help that she spent most of her time nestled in beneath her sheets, either browsing on her phone or sleeping. Absolutely unproductive in every single way.



‘Should I go shopping and spend some money?’ Taeyeon rubbed her feet together under the covers while she began brainstorming different ways to make herself feel better. ‘That would involve walking though. And going out,’ She scoffed at her own laziness.



“…”



Few moments of silence were all it took for her to kick her duvet off of herself. Now it was too hot to be underneath the blanket. Nothing would please her at this point, she just felt fickle and emotional for no reason. She momentarily paused to count down the days to her period and realized it wasn’t because of her period either- she wasn’t due for another 2 weeks. She was beginning to annoy herself more and more by lying down on her bed, searching aimlessly for any spots that stood out on the ceiling.



Blowing the hair out of her face, Taeyeon stretched out her hand to her nightstand for her cell phone. Her thumb hovered over the home button, and realized that it was already nearing 8 o’ clock. She opened her photo folder and browsed through various pictures of hipster Starbucks cups, selfies, and pictures of herself with Tiffany, her one and only best friend. She scrolled one picture after the other, but her thumb faltered when her screen was filled with a group photo, and inconspicuously in the background, with Tiffany smiling wide at a boy she didn’t recognize with a hand on his knee. She quickly navigated to the recent call list and scrolled through for her name.



“Ayo Taengoo,” Jovial but still in a wondering tone, Tiffany answered the call. She would never tell Taeyeon outright that she was always suspicious of Taeyeon’s motives each time she called in the middle of the evening out of the blue, especially after being MIA for more than a day or so. She never called her out on the fact that Taeyeon only did this when she felt particularly needy or moody or sentimental about something vague for no reason at all. And she never did this because first of all, she wasn’t insensitive, and second of all, she knew how not to scare Taeyeon off.



“What you up to?” Tayeon asked with a heavy sigh. Being a part of her life for more than a decade gave Tiffany an exclusive insight on Taeyeon’s personality- you never wanted her to get defensive because it was always ended being more work to bring the walls down in the end. It was more smart to prod and persuade.



“I just finished washing up. You?”



“Nothing. Like. Seriously, nothing.”



Taeyeon felt her insides inflate at the sound of Tiffany breathing out a chuckle, and the same sound brought her attention to the question of since when she had started to call Tiffany during each and every one of her funks. She really didn’t remember. Nor did she remember just how each and every time Tiffany had made her feel better, she just remembered calling her friend just made things a little bit more bearable for a while.



“If you weren’t going to sleep right away, you wanna come out for a walk?” Taeyeon didn’t understand exactly why she always felt so shy and defeated each time she asked someone out to do something, the worst they could say was no. But her heart itself felt like it was shrinking, or more accurately, cringing at just how lame she sounded and felt.



“Sounds good, I could use the exercise. Big dinner.” Tiffany’s brisk reply was partially muddled by the background noise of Tiffany sliding open her closet to fish out a cardigan.



“Okayyy,” Taeyeon let go of the breath that she didn’t even know she was holding in and ambled down from her bed to pull on some socks while giving out a drawl of a reply. “Meet you at the entrance to the park?”



“Yass, be there in 10.”



After she heard the dual tone signalling that Tiffany had hung up, Taeyeon suddenly felt another wave of fatigue and overall laziness. She regarded her feet with newly put on socks, squirmed her toes underneath the fabric once, and then twice, before bringing herself up with an exquisitely hearty groan. She was the one who asked to take a walk. She couldn’t back out now, she invested a level of commitment by asking Tiffany first.



The only upside to this situation was that she just really liked seeing and hanging out with Tiffany in general, and that their apartment complex shared the same open trail park. “If you trip and fall from front door of the lobby, your nose would reach the park!” Her brother jokingly said when they had moved in this new neighbourhood a couple of years ago. She didn’t have anything to add on to that joke aside from the fact that she was just excited to be living in the same complex as Tiffany.



As she opened the lobby doors that led outside, the cool night air blew off her hoodie from her head. Shivering more from the fact that it was windier than she expected than from the cold, she jogged lightly to the main entrance of the trail while zipping up.



Turning a corner, Taeyeon could see Tiffany hunched over by a streetlamp, the fluorescent lighting creating a soft halo against her silhouette. Tiffany looked up from tying her laces and met eyes with Taeyeon who joined her underneath the streetlamp.



“Ayo Taengoo.”



“Ayy.”



With the greetings out of the way, Taeyeon let Tiffany hang her arm over and around her shoulders as they walked on the trail, listening to the distant traffic noises and the closer sound of the night breeze whistling through the trees. Each streetlight they passed by, Taeyeon studied the colour of Tiffany’s dark hair change into light brown, its gradient shifting with every step they took.



“Oh, thanks again for the organic honey combs you brought back from Jaeju. Daddy won’t shut up about them.” Tiffany smiled through her words, and Taeyeon nodded in tandem.



“Thought he’d like them. How is uncle though? Good?”



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