✽ ✽ ✽

Jessica drew in her top lip anxiously, standing in front of Taeyeon’s apartment door. First, she’d acquired her address based off the neighborhood’s name springing up in conversation. To finalize the rest, she “indifferently” poked for more information, trying to sus out her room number, gaining squat. The godsend known as an outside directory displayed 김태연 on the fifth floor. With an air of conviction and Lennon at her heels, Jessica sauntered into the building without buzzing for permission.

Taeyeon didn’t strike her as a surprise-me-on-a-Saturday-morning kind of woman. A heads-up phone call would’ve probably been a responsible option. Or a text.

However, Thursday had passed without the tiniest blip on her Taeyeon radar. No courtesy ‘work got in the way’ message graced her inbox. Which was quite rude.

Not only to her, but for her dog. Jessica Jung channeled the Grinch, affected by a jilted, lovesick Lens sitting wait from 6:30 to 8 o’clock. Her heart bloated three times its capacity. Lennon missed his fetch partner.

And frankly, so did Jessica. How could she forget Taeyeon’s sorrowful face on Seohyun’s date night, when those sappy eyes burned a permanent brand in her memories? Or the obvious tension between them? Their chemistry; the heat and timidity of Taeyeon saying, “I think you’re pretty, too”? She couldn’t have been hallucinating.

In the hand not strung to a leash, a bouquet of wildflowers softly rustled. Jessica had accepted scores of roses, candies, dating propositions, and the like in her heyday. Switching it up amused her, beneath the thundering nerves.

As Lennon whined fitfully, tangling in the tether as if he knew who should occupy the other side, Jessica knocked.

Twice.

“Ugh, what if she’s out?” Jessica huffed aloud. It’d be a colossal shock, too, since Taeyeon self-described as a homebody. Had she imprinted onto a new dog? Or worse—a new woman? “Over my dead body. These flowers cost a fortune.”

She fanned the fragrant bundle beneath her nose, daydreaming. Taeyeon’s home, in her active imagination, veered onto a safe palette, full of dark blues and greys. Nothing a little lavender and yellow couldn’t spruce up.

Seohyun, on their fateful night, expressed herself explicitly. Dressed for sin in a strapless cocktail dress that complemented enviously long legs and a neckline that’d out-elegant a swan’s. She wanted Jessica. Without the constant subtext, symbolism, and excavating required to crack the Da Vinci code that was Kim Taeyeon.

She and Seohyun ate, polished off a bottle of red, and skipped the formalities of coy . Jessica remembered straddling her gorgeous, willing date. Cupping her jaw, smearing their lipstick and gloss in tonsil-touching kisses. Feeling a steady rhythm build as they writhed on the couch, body primed to take the fingertips digging into her thigh...until she messed up.

Jessica broke the tight seal of their lips to ask, “What did you think of dinner?”

Understandably, Seohyun arched a skeptical brow and initiated another kiss, but Jessica pulled away, adding, “You know I made it myself. Did it...do anything?”

When her y date replied nothing remotely resembling, “I fell in love,” their coupling screeched to a frustrating stop.

Seohyun hadn’t done anything wrong. Though, wasn’t casual the opposite of her preferred endgame?

For some, love tended to be a seamless transition. Jessica assumed she’d have to work for it. And Taeyeon embodied work. Too much work. Maybe—

Lennon’s sharp whimper crashed Jessica’s pity party. The good kind of crash. His pink nose rose in pointed attention, as well as his oversized, comical ears. He sensed his girl.

“Is she in there, Lens?”

Invigorated, she gave two good bangs to the door, for the 708th time questioning why she chose to torture herself.

And all those doubts took a backseat as Taeyeon unlatched the door and squinted at her visitors. Lacking everyday makeup and business attire, the gronde woman might pass for a college student in her ratty sleeping shirt. The burgundy soffee shorts were a yummy touch. She was probably still toasty from the bed.

“Hot,” Jessica murmured under her breath, reddening.

“Lenny, my boy!” Taeyeon squealed, waking up for the dog, at least. “Long time, no see!”

“Accurate. Since you abandoned us.”

Behind a disarray of light fringe, the late-riser sighed. “Have you and Lenny been standing out here long? Last night was a long one. Set up a new account per manager’s orders...I got home past midnight.”

Aw. No wonder she’d been dead to the world. “I’ll assure you I didn’t miss any birthdays.”

“Still twenty-nine?”

This basic knowledge of her age curled around Jessica’s heart, echoing to her lips. “These are for you.”

At that, Taeyeon’s tranquil, rolled-out-of-bed demeanor dissolved into thin air. She stood to eye level with Jessica and robotically accepted the bushel of wildflowers. “Did you think I was ill?”

“No,” Jessica force-laughed. “Lens and I dropped by the market. And their flower selection is...” She did jazz hands. Cringe. “Not roses, but these especially spoke to me.”

“Telling you...?”

“Do you like them, Taeyeon?”

That question racked up a few seconds for the physical pain of embarrassment to ebb. Because Taeyeon, shifting from foot to bare foot, thoughtfully pressed the bouquet to her face. Beyond the nose. Cheeks, closed eyes, a tender smile buried into the colors Jessica intended to splash onto Taeyeon’s walls. Several deep breaths tapered into a contented reply: “Call me cliché, but hand-delivered flowers make my day. Thank you.”

She didn’t head for the hills. Progress. “May I come in?”

“Um,” Taeyeon gazed over her shoulder, expression shuttered to quiet worry. “I never expect guests, so...”

“If it’s messy, I don’t mind.”

“I have a lot of redecorating to do.”

“Lenny wants to learn more about you,” Jessica bribed, tugging Lennon to his stumpy feet. “I promise we won’t judge the clutter.”

“We’ll see.”

...

Taeyeon’s home turned out to be brighter than Jessica had envisioned. Sure, they were mixed amongst beige and aubergine elements—an accent wall, various throw pillows, etc. Non-matching items brought life into the space: a candy-striped lamp, highlighter yellow rugs, superhero prints of primaries, illustrated art books lining shelves and tables. Jessica fingertips along a hardcover copy on Sarah Oppenheimer, suddenly hungry to join Kim Taeyeon’s orbit, to surround herself in this beautiful—yet somehow empty—atmosphere.

“Do you have a roommate?” Jessica smirked at Lennon helping himself to a basket of chew toys. Beside it lay a lavender dog bed and two empty dishes. “My beast is getting his slobber on their stuff.”

Taeyeon had disappeared in the kitchen to brew some tea. Her heightened voice relayed, “No. No roommate.”

Hm. Curious. “So, whose toys are these?”

“My uh, my late dog. Lennon’s welcome to them.”

“Is it some sort of shrine?” Jessica asked, poring over a shelf littered with photographs. Not many people—only a couple could-be friends or cousins.

And a dog.

A very specific dog. A Corgi-Australian Shepherd mix.

Jessica’s veins ran colder and colder during her count of eleven, twelve, thirteen...pictures and the likeness landed on one pooch: Lennon, who’d cuddled into the dog bed, gnawing at a stuffed zebra.

“Taeyeon?” she called more urgently.

Soon, Taeyeon crept into the room. Her eyes had hollowed considerably.

She’d been found out.

“What...” Jessica waved a wire framed photo of Duplicate Lennon in sunglasses and an inner tube. “in the fresh hell?”

Taeyeon parted her lips, then let them slip shut.

“Am I seeing things?” she beckoned, swapping for another photo.

“You are not.”

“Please explain.”

“His name is...um, was Diglett.”

Jessica finger combed her hair from her face, searching for some semblance of restitution. Like, ing duh Taeyeon hung out with her for Lennon. But, this treaded beyond peculiar. And it hurt. It bruised. It humiliated. “That’s what everything was dependent on, huh? You couldn’t get over your dog—”

“Diglett.”

“Diglett’s death. Is that correct?”

Taeyeon swallowed, wildflowers clutched in her tiny pale hand. “I guess.”

“You used me for my ing pet?! Who does that?”

“Not exactly.”

Jessica stared down at Taeyeon’s sunny rug. She’d broken her vow of anti-drama singlehood for this. For somebody who quite literally couldn’t care less if she existed. Any damn person who owned Lennon would’ve culled Taeyeon’s attention, her smile, her moments. “You’re hands-down the oddest woman I’ve ev