“Hey,” Tiffany amazes herself at how calm she can stay when Sunny comes back from class.

“Have you eaten yet? I’m starving.”

Tiffany follows her flatmate with her eyes as she enters her bedroom. “Not yet. I’ve been waiting for you to come back for dinner.”

“Waiting for me? I told you I’d be late, didn’t I?”

When Sunny takes longer than usual to come out in her comfy home clothes, Tiffany rises and goes into the bedroom. “I feel like eating at a really posh place today,” she begins, leaning against the door frame. Sunny, still in the clothes she came home in, is bent at the waist, looking under her bed covers, ruffling through drawers. “What are you looking for?”

“Something.”

“What is it? I’ll help.”

“Er . . . a phone.”

“Isn’t your phone on the table?”

Sunny looks over her shoulder. “Not that one. Another phone.”

“I didn’t know you have two phones.”

“Yeah, I only got it recently.”

“Oh, I happened to see a phone today.” Tiffany holds out Sunny’s phone. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

Sunny freezes in her half-bent position, looking up with big, round eyes. “Yes, that’s my phone.” Taking wide strides, Sunny takes the phone from Tiffany quickly. “Where did you find it?”

“In your room.”

Sunny blinks and for a moment, all is calm. Then, chaos breaks out as she tries to make a run for it. That attempt is stamped out but Tiffany extending her arm to block the entire doorway.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Uh . . . the kitchen.”

“Right . . .”

Arms in the air, the gesture of surrender forming. “I’m sorry.”

“Mhm. That’s not gonna be enough.”

“Dinner, right? On me.”

“At a very nice place.”

“Not too nice, please?”

Tiffany glares.

“Okay, okay, a very nice place.”

“And my laundry.”

Sunny groans. “Have mercy . . .”

“You tortured me for more than a week!”

“I was only gonna scare you for a bit! I wasn’t planning on it going so far!”

“But it did, you .”

“You were hilarious. I couldn’t pass up on the chance.”

“You’re gonna be hilarious doing my laundry too.”

Shoulders slumped and head hung, Sunny gives in. “Laundry. One week. No more than that.”

“Done.”

[o]

“So did you really get the brand of toilet paper she uses or was that a bluff?” Sunny asks with full of noodles.

Seated in a chic restaurant on the expensive side of town, Tiffany is enjoying her linguine as she answers, “I did get it. For real.”

“Really?” Sunny’s eyes are wide open in awe. “You actually found out the brand of toilet paper she uses? I asked for the first craziest thing that popped into my brain and I thought my little joke was gonna fail but you actually went and found that out?”

“Mhm.” Using a fork, Tiffany pulls the flesh of the mussel out from its shell and pops it into . “Mmm . . . this so, so good.”

“It’d better be,” Sunny grumbles, “since it’s gonna eat a huge hole in my pocket.”

A few mouthfuls later, Sunny asks again, “So how did you find out?”

“I asked her.”

“Who?”

With a look of nonchalance that is partially feigned, Tiffany says, “Taeyeon.”

“Taeyeon.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I’m not kidding.”

“You asked her.”

“Yes.”

“Literally?”

“Yeah, I asked her which brand of toilet paper she uses and she told me.”

“Damn . . .” Sunny puts her utensils down and leans back, eyes a little dazed. “Are you friends with her or something? Why would she tell you something like that?”

“Because she’s nice?”

Sunny leans forward and stares hard. “Have you . . .”

“I haven’t turned into her fan.”

“Okay, but what is this weird thing you have going on with her?”

Tiffany shrugs. “I don’t know. But she’s nice.”

“And Smiling Petals?”

“I’ll keep it going.”

“But you’re not her fan.”

“Yeah.”

“Something’s up.”

Tiffany shrugs again. “Nothing’s up.”

“Kim Taeyeon’s being very nice to you, don’t you think?”

“She’s probably nice to everyone.”

“But she told you the brand of toilet paper she uses.”

It’s a good thing she didn’t tell Sunny about meeting Shortae in the bathroom to get a roll of toilet paper or Sunny would never let this go. “She knows I’m Smiling Petals. So maybe she feels alright with telling me stuff like that.”

“But that would mean she knows you’re not really her fan, so why would she be this nice to you?”

“You’re thinking too much.”

“You’re thinking too little.”

“Right now, your questions are ruining my posh dinner experience. Shut up and drink the wine.”

Sunny stops her questions at last, but the questions continue their spree in Tiffany’s mind. She doesn’t know why Shortae is so nice to her but she’s not about to complain. Maybe she’ll find out soon. Maybe she’ll find out tomorrow—when she goes to the radio station.

[o]