Taeyeon didn’t know how it began, the teasing.
 

It had suddenly became a routine for Tiffany to close in on her and flirt with her, taunting her with words and looks and touches.
 

Tiffany would be leaning on her shoulder as the two of them watched a random movie during their usual Friday movie marathon, when all of a sudden the former would lift her head a little and lean in to brush her nose against the back of Taeyeon’s ear. A sharp tingle would course through Taeyeon as she felt Tiffany whisper “You smell really good, TaeTae,” with that incredibly alluring husky voice of hers. Her response would usually be a sharp lift of her shoulder to detach Tiffany from her, or a mean retort like “Well you stink, so back off, Fany-ah.”
 

At times, she would catch Tiffany staring at her lips far too long for her comfort. Taeyeon would retaliate with a well-aimed pillow to the face. “Stop staring at my lips, you byun,” she would say with annoyance. All she got in response was a loud laugh and a teasing “You better stop making them look so kissable then.”
 

Taeyeon knew Tiffany was just teasing her, wanting to get a rise out of her. After more than a decade of friendship, teasing and pranks were pretty much a mundane occurrence for the two of them. She still hadn’t forgiven Tiffany for loosening the heels of one of the shoes she had worn to an important meeting, causing her to twist and sprain her ankle in front of the entire staff present. She may have gotten even though, when she got a large dose of loud hysterical screaming and crying from the brunette as she stepped into the bedroom Taeyeon had decorated with real and fake fish eyes.
 

What Taeyeon didn’t expect was the sudden shift of her thoughts and reactions regarding Tiffany’s teasing. What once made her groan in disgust and annoyance now made odd and unexpected shivers crawl down her spine. She could barely stop a whimper from leaving when Tiffany would softly rake her nails against Taeyeon’s nape while they were leaning against each other during bus rides when they were both too lazy to drive around the city. Every time Tiffany would compliment her lips, Taeyeon wanted to tell her how hers looked kissable too. And soft. And how she bet that they would feel amazing against her own.
 

Taeyeon wasn’t dumb. She knew the way she began to respond to Tiffany’s teasing went beyond platonic. Her frustrated screams were muffled against the pillow as she began to overthink the whole situation, keeping her up most nights. Aggravation regarding the inappropriate thoughts she began to have about her best friend made her want to burst through the latter’s room across the hall and yell at her. Blame her for putting the lusty ideas in her head. And then slam against hers.
 

It was wrong. So, so wrong. Tiffany was her best friend. Her completely platonic soulmate.
 

She knew Tiffany didn’t feel the same way. Didn’t really think about Taeyeon in that way; she only wanted to . Possibly avenge herself for the fish-eyed terror Taeyeon had unleashed upon her.
 

Taeyeon didn’t want their ten years of friendship to be ruined by one practical joke. And so she pretended that the shivers that went through her were shivers of disgust rather than pleasure, that she found the warmth of Tiffany’s breath annoying rather than arousing, and that the sound of Tiffany’s voice against her ear was bothersome rather than breath-taking. But as she faked her reactions, time and time again, she wondered how long she would be able to keep setting her real feelings aside.

--

Tiffany knew how it began, the teasing.
 

It was an accident.
 

Well, not really an accident, per se. Endless nights thinking about it made her realize that the first time was a sudden conscious burst of her subconscious feelings towards her best friend.
 

Taeyeon was ranting to her about the kissing catastrophe she experienced with the girl she just had a third date with. It technically was her best friend’s fault for going into detail like that, talking about how dry and rough the girl’s lips felt against hers, how she felt like she was kissing a loofah.
 

Taeyeon’s rant made Tiffany laugh, but it also made her think. It made her think about the softness and texture of Taeyeon’s lips. Obviously they would be very soft, since Taeyeon was able to feel such roughness from the girl’s lips. She also wouldn’t be able to insult the girl like that if her lips were rough and dry too. That would’ve made her a hypocrite, and Tiffany knew her best friend was anything but that. In fact, Taeyeon could be so brutally honest at times, just like her. That was probably only one of the very few things they had in common.
 

Her thoughts about her best friend’s lips inadvertently brought her gaze to them. They were so pink, and naturally so, since she knew that Taeyeon rarely wore lipstick; she preferred lip gloss or those fruit-scented lip balms that Tiffany always seemed to catch a whiff of when she was within proximity.
 

Her lips were also a little moist, because Taeyeon had this habit of her lips. That was also why she rarely used lipstick, since there would barely be any left after only a few hours, and the lazy dork didn’t want to keep reapplying it.
 

As the words soft, pink, and wet filtered through Tiffany’s mind repeatedly, it was no surprise to herself that she had suddenly blurted out “Your lips won’t be wasted on me,” cutting off Taeyeon, who was in mid-rant.
 

She didn’t realize that she had moved her face closer to Taeyeon’s, mere inches separating them. She broke her gaze from the blonde’s lips to look up and find very surprised brown eyes blinking back at her. Tiffany instantly flushed, realizing what she had just said, and the two of them scrambled back to safer distances.
 

That incident didn’t really put a strain on their friendship, and come to think of it, neither did the succeeding ones.
 

It almost became a game to Tiffany. Okay, scratch that, it was a game. She loved seeing Taeyeon blush and stutter after she let loose teasing remarks she barely even thought twice of saying. Saying those words was almost like a reflex, like she was acting on pure instinct. She also found that Taeyeon was easily more affected by the rawer statements she said, the ones that she really didn’t filter out, so she began to use those more often.
 

She realized too late that the words she had spoken were basically unadulterated musings about her dorky blonde friend. Her once subconscious feelings and thoughts spewed out in the open and spilled over the line between friendship and something more. But Taeyeon didn’t know that of course; she still thought that Tiffany was just messing with her, which she loves to do. Taeyeon didn’t know that the flirty whispers the brunette brushed against her ear were actually screaming out fervent wishes and unmasked desires.
 

Taeyeon didn’t know that every time she would push the brunette away when the latter closed the distance between them, Tiffany’s smirking mouth would falter and drop once the blonde had turned her back on her. Taeyeon didn’t know that every time she would scoff or roll her eyes at the seductive teasing, Tiffany’s eyes would clear up and express the hurt she felt, before she blinked them away.
 

It began as a game for her, to see how far she could push and tease Taeyeon, but in the end, Tiffany was the one who lost, because the game made her realize how Taeyeon looked even more beautiful up close, how her eyes looked like they could show her and give her the world, how Tiffany wouldn’t mind spending an eternity counting her long lashes, and how she wouldn’t mind feeling those lashes brush against her cheeks as she finally got a taste of those soft pink lips that had been haunting her day and night.
 

These realizations scared her because she knew they were simply one-sided. If they weren’t, wouldn’t Taeyeon have already responded positively? The fact that she didn’t caused Tiffany to become afraid of pushing her further. If it were one-sided, then she didn’t want her feelings to develop even more, lest it destroy the friendship between them. And so Tiffany waved the white flag, deciding that if she couldn’t bring back the conscious feelings to the subconscious, then she would at least stop herself from verbalizing them.

--

What Tiffany failed to notice was the barely-there shudder that racked Taeyeon’s body when the former’s lips lightly grazed her skin. She failed to see the quick dart of Taeyeon’s eyes to the brunette’s pink, soft-looking lips. She didn’t catch the quick look of want that filled Taeyeon’s eyes as she wondered what sounds Tiffany would make if she tugged at the full bottom lip inches away from her own pair. How she wondered if the sounds would be different if she used her tongue. She missed how Taeyeon’s heart frantically thumped against her chest as she felt her breath mix with hers.

TBC