Taeyeon stirs in her sleep and she lets out an unattractive groan when she feels pain on her back. She cracks one of her eyes open and she sees Tiffany sleeping soundly in her arms; something that immediately makes her open her other eye. The shock in her face is replaced by a smile when she hears a little snore come from the younger. Tiffany had always been gorgeous and the public had always seen that side of her but it’s the childish and cute side that Taeyeon loves most because she’s the only one who sees it, or at least she was the original one. She bites her lip as she carefully removes her dead arm from under the other woman’s head and she breathes out as she slowly and carefully remove herself from the sofa. She grabs the blanket that was on the floor and she puts it over the woman, who was sleeping soundly on the sofa,

            “Sleep well, Fany.” She mumbles as she moves some of Tiffany’s hair away from her face.

            She then turns to the other person in the living room and she smiles widely when she sees Seungwoo gripping on the bars of his crib. The baby then stares at Taeyeon and they engage in a staring battle,

            “You hungry?” Taeyeon asks and she waits for an answer, as if the baby can already talk, “God you’re so squishy!”

            Seungwoo extends his hands to Taeyeon as if he was asking for the woman to carry him and it makes her smile. The woman gingerly approaches the crib and she carries the baby. Seungwoo turns to the other woman on the sofa and he points at her which makes Taeyeon chuckle,

            “Ah, I see you have great taste in women.” She jokes and Seungwoo just tilts his head at her, “I’m kidding. She’s your mom.” She jokes again which makes Seungwoo smile. The baby then tries to wiggle out of Taeyeon’s hold so he could go to his ‘mother’ but she turns away from the sleeping figure, “I’m kidding again. She just looks like your mom but she’s really your aunt.” She stops talking and she furrows her eyebrows, “wow I’m actually talking to a baby.”

            Taeyeon shrugs and she puts Seungwoo back in the crib. She smiles at the baby who then grabs a puppy stuff toy and starts playing with it. Seungwoo was a really nice kid, he wasn’t annoying and he most definitely didn’t cry as much as other kids and Taeyeon is very thankful for that. She approaches the fridge and she checks for some ingredients so she can start cooking breakfast. As she turns on the stove, she starts to hum a little tune she always sings when she’s having a great start. She turns around to get the eggs but she almost jumps out of shock when she sees Tiffany standing there and Taeyeon remains frozen like she had seen a ghost.

            “What?” Tiffany rolls her eyes and she hisses. She was just annoyed that Taeyeon wasn’t there when she woke up.

            “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the…sofa.”

            “Your jokes keep getting worse.” Tiffany whines as she slumps her face on the table.

            “But you love my jokes.”

            “Don’t flatter yourself, Tae.”

            “Fine.” The older huffs then proceeds to cook again.

            Tiffany laces her fingers as she leans on the table. She tilts her head and watches Taeyeon moving around the kitchen, like it’s the most normal thing to do inside the house. She smiles as she continues to check the woman out; her side profile was to die for, her jawline still had the same effect it had on Tiffany the first time she actually stared at that glorious jawline. However, as defined as the woman’s jawline was, Tiffany can’t deny that she’s observed how much weight Taeyeon had lost. It must be because of the mental stress that she’s experienced over the past weeks.

            She sighs but she continues following all of Taeyeon’s actions which don’t seem to bother the other woman. She purses her lip when a question popped in her mind and she thinks carefully if she should ask the older about it,

            “Sooyoung!” Tiffany hollers and her loud voice echoes through the floor which makes the girl who was just called turn around with wide eyes. The younger woman who was holding a huge mug of coffee looks around and she points to herself,

            “Yes you, silly.” The eyesmiling girl giggles as she approaches the girl who was fidgeting like she was hiding something.

            “Where is Taeyeon’s office? I just want to pay her a visit and give these to her.” She holds a food container up and Sooyoung smiles at her. The younger was happy that Tiffany was a very sweet wife but she also pities her because Taeyeon, for the nth time, is not at the office.

            “I’m so sorry, Tiff. Her secretary must have forgotten to remind her to text you. She’s out on a meeting again.”

            Tiffany’s face falls but she quickly regains her composure. She’s put so much effort to make kimbap for Taeyeon and she was kind of hoping that she’d get to eat lunch with her but she guesses that she expected too much. This must be the price she has to pay for marrying one of the most powerful women in the country. It’s not always like this, just recently, when Taeyeon’s company decided to expand to different countries that the woman was required to travel overseas a lot.

            Tiffany just smiles at Sooyoung then she looks at the food container. It would be such a waste to eat it alone so she stares at the younger again and as if they read what the other was thinking, they high fived each other as they entered the younger’s office.

            “Taeyeon’s been very busy lately.” Sooyoung states as she pulls a chair towards the table in her office. She smiles when Tiffany opens the container and the food looked very appetizing. However, knowing Tiffany, she’d have to be careful with the food. She wasn’t exactly the best cook in town.

            “Yeah. I barely see her but I understand that she’s a very busy woman and that she’s doing this for me and for our future.” Tiffany simply answers, “So who is she with?”

            Sooyoung stops stuffing food in to answer Tiffany and the latter wished that she hadn’t asked,

            “Oh. She’s with her secretary, Sunmi. That girl is such a sweetheart. However, they’ve been travelling together so often that it’s become an inside joke here in the office that they might be in a relationship.” She laughs and she almost chokes when she remembers who she was talking to. She immediately shuts when she sees Tiffany spacing out and she regrets blabbering too much, “but that can’t happen. I mean, Taeyeon loves you with all her heart.” She awkwardly adds and she starts eating again. Hopefully, Tiffany forgets that they even had this conversation or at least the part where she accidentally blabbers gets left out.

            Tiffany just smiles but thoughts started to cloud her mind again. Maybe the guy from the other time was right. Maybe there was someone better looking in the office which is why Taeyeon doesn’t go home anymore but she also wants to be rational. She believes that Taeyeon is just busy with work and she trusts her as much as the older woman trusts her. It’s no big deal, just work.

            But the thought of Taeyeon cheating never left her mind again.

            “Tae.” She starts and her heart beats rapidly at the question she’s going to ask. She should move on because their marriage would end soon but she couldn’t because there are questions that still need to be answered,

            “Yes?” Taeyeon stops moving then looks at the woman who looked like she was contemplating about something,

            “I… Please don’t get me wrong. I love yo—… I mean, I’m just curious about Sunmi.” She trails off, biting her lips as she contemplates if she’ll continue asking questions. Her attention shifts to Taeyeon who put a plate in front of her and sad across of her. The older had a gentle smile on which calms the younger and it eggs her on to ask the questions she’s been asking for months,

            “Okay but please eat first.” Taeyeon interrupts. She hands Tiffany a fork and a mug of hot chocolate. She’s always very concerned and caring that it makes the younger blush. Nobody’s done this for her after she left the apartment they once shared.

            Though the food looked appetizing, Tiffany had no appetite and Taeyeon already knew that just by looking at the way she reacted when she put the plate in front of her,

            “Okay here’s a deal, I’ll let you ask me a question for every bite that you take.”

            “This is so unfair.”

            “Hey, I’m just trying to make a deal.” Taeyeon shrugs then smugly smiles at Tiffany when she sees the younger grab the fork so she could take a bite at the food that was presented to her. She laces her fingers and she giggles when Tiffany avoids her eyes while she chews on the food,

            “Okay here’s my first question…” Tiffany swallows the food on and she clears , “Who is Sunmi. You seem very close with her.” She didn’t want her query to sound rude but the tone just comes out naturally when she’s talking about the girl.

            “Hm…” Taeyeon raises an eyebrow and she scratches her head, pretending to think of an answer that would make Tiffany mad but she decides to go against it. Maybe it’s time that they talk about these things. She never really introduced Sunmi as her childhood friend anyway, “she’s my childhood friend. We got separated in college because she had to study in the US and of course, I was left here.”

            Tiffany rolls her eyes at the answer, “okay so if she’s so rich and bright why did she apply as your secretary?”

            Taeyeon chuckles then points at the plate, “not until you take the next bite, babe.”

            “Stop calling me babe.”

            “Okay, honey.” Taeyeon wiggles her eyebrows at the younger and she chuckles when Tiffany shakes her head in embarrassment. She shrugs because the younger seems to like the endearment. She’s called her that twice and not a single complaint is filed,

            Tiffany on the other hand pretends to drink the liquid on the mug as she tries to hide the blood rushing through her face. Of course she loved it when Taeyeon called her something else because it makes her feel special. The older woman had a lot of nicknames for her but there was never an endearment that was exclusive for them both so it makes her happy (inside) when she gets called ‘honey’.

            “Stop flirting with me, Taeng.” She dismisses but Taeyeon laughs when she sees the slight tint of pink on the other’s face, “just answer me already!” the younger groans as she kicks Taeyeon’s shin from under the table.

            Taeyeon winces and she immediately shuts as she rubs the part where she was kicked, “Fine.” She huffs, “she’s my temporary secretary. She applied for a higher position but the position wasn’t vacant so I planned to put her in charge of one of the branches abroad if we successfully expand. She was a really big help during the times when we were expanding across countries since she has a degree in business and she’s also very good with people. In fact she’s due to fly back to the US so she can take over there.” She explains.

            Tiffany on the other hand was dead quiet. She’s got it all wrong. Taeyeon wasn’t cheating, she was just being a good friend.

            “Is that why you always brought her to your trips to the US?”

            Taeyeon hums in response. Of course, Sunmi had to be familiar with everything before she gets transferred which is why she kept on bringing her to their business meetings.

            “But what about that time you brought her to dinner in a fancy restaurant? You can’t even take me to dates because of your busy schedule and when you had a few free hours, you spend it with your secretary. Do you know how awful I felt that night? And there was a ring. I couldn’t forget that.”

            Jessica told her that she’s treat her to dinner because she feels bad that Tiffany basically got left behind while they were at the bar. She promises that she won’t bring anyone tonight and it will be a date between them. They’ve been friends for decades and they always stayed by each other’s side through thick and thin, aside from that night at the bar of course, and Jessica hopes that they’d forget it the soonest.

            “Tiff!”

            Tiffany flinches when she hears a high pitched voice call her from behind. She turns around and sees Jessica waving at her. They exchange smiles and the blonde takes a seat across her.

            “I’m so sorry. Traffic jam was bad and I got busy at the office. There’s just so much to do.”

            Tiffany smiles at her and she shrugs, “It’s okay. Have you seen Taeyeon?”

            Jessica shrugs too, “I haven’t but her office had been closed since a few hours ago. I thought she was home? In fact I was surprised when you said yes to my invitation.”

            The younger purses her lips and she sighs.

            “Is everything okay, Tiff?”

            “Yes. Everything is fine.” She assures the woman across of her who was just a few months older than her. She admires the woman because she was very pretty, wealthy, and very kind. Like, she was the perfect person and Tiffany would always ask her for advice if she ever needed one.

            “So anyway, let’s order. Just forget about Taeyeon first. I’m sure she just went somewhere to buy you something.”

            Tiffany nods her head and she opens the menu on the table. Though she was again, very distracted with her thoughts, she decides to shake it off so she could enjoy the night with her best friend. She puts the menu down on the table and she was ready to tell the waiter her order when something caught her attention.

            Her smile immediately fades when she sees a familiar person on the table at the corner of the restaurant, almost hidden, but not hidden enough. She clenches her fists when she sees one of the people on the table put out a small red box. The person opens the box revealing a diamond ring and the other woman gasps in shock,

            “Jessi let’s get out of here.”

            Jessica is taken aback and so is the waiter who already wrote the order,

            “What?!”

            “Come on!”

            “Oh, that. You saw that.” Taeyeon trails off. Tiffany sees the unsual reaction and she misunderstands again. Maybe she was right all along and she just wasn’t asking the right questions. She tightens her grip on the fork when the older woman was unable to answer.

            “Did I hit the jackpot, Taeyeon?” she asks in a menacing voice that it made the hair at the back of Taeyeon’s head stand up.

            “You weren’t supposed to see that.” Taeyeon defends. She gulps when the look on Tiffany’s face mirrored the same look she had on for the last few months everytime they’d meet. She felt how much anger and hatred the woman had against her and it never failed to scared her.

            Tiffany chuckles the scoffs in anger, “Oh yeah. Of course I wasn’t supposed to see you give a ing ring to your secretary when you can’t even go home to spend some time with your wife. Great, Kim Taeyeon. I was starting to think that this is my fault because I judged you too soon but I guess all this time I was right.” She groans and she lets go of the fork on her hand. She stands up and throws the table napkin at Taeyeon’s face before she tries to go to her room so she could sleep some more and maybe cry a lot too.

            Before she could even step out of the kitchen though, Taeyeon had already grabbed her wrist. She feels that this was a repeat of what had happened with Siwon only this time, Taeyeon was gentle and the grip on her hand wasn’t hard. She stares at the hand on her wrist for a moment and she can’t deny that she feels a familiar jolt of electricity that she somehow hoped Taeyeon felt too. However, her anger was much greater than the sparks she felt because she yanks her arm away and she glares at the older woman,

            “Look, that’s cute and all but it doesn’t work on me, Tiffany.”

            “Don’t touch me!” Tiffany shouts and she tries to run off again but Taeyeon grabs her waist and she hoists her over her shoulder. The younger gasps because this is the first time that Taeyeon had done this and she didn’t look like she could carry her at all. As shocked as she is, Tiffany still tries to wiggle away from Taeyeon until the older drops her on the sofa next to Seunwoo’s crib.

            Taeyeon exhales heavily as she puts Tiffany down. She doesn’t carry people around mainly because she can’t but she guesses that the adrenaline rush made her stronger so she was able to carry her wife onto the sofa. She turns to Seungwoo who was just inside his crib, looking at them both with his innocent eyes,

            “Okay Seungwoo whatever you’ll see will stay between us three, okay?”

            Tiffany stares at her incredulously when she hears the statement. Taeyeon must have already lost her mind. It was her turn to look at Seungwoo now but the baby just kept on staring because of course he wouldn’t understand a thing! She tries to make a run again but Taeyeon was faster than her because she just pulled Tiffany to the sofa again,

            “You, stay seated.” Taeyeon instructs, “Stop being impulsive Tiffany. I never cheated on you. The night that you saw us in that restaurant, I was asking Sunmi about what her thoughts were regarding the ring. She said she thinks she’d love it and that she’d cry if someone proposed to her with a ring like that which is why you probably saw her in tears.”

            “That doesn’t make me feel better!”

            “Shut up!” Taeyeon shouts back. She turns to Seungwoo again who looked like he was enjoying the show so the woman sighs, “okay don’t shout at your future lover okay? It is very bad.” She turns back to Tiffany who was fuming and she sighs again, “I was going to ask you to marry me again.”

            Hearing this, Tiffany’s face immediately softens, then becomes red but she doesn’t let her guard down. She continues to look away from Taeyeon but her heart wanted to burst out of her chest. She gulps and she fidgets, then she looks down on her lap. Taeyeon knew that Tiffany had already let her guard down so she decides to continue,

            “I knew that I haven’t been a good wife during those times but I wanted to work hard so I could give you the life you deserved. I didn’t know that I, focusing on my work more will cost me the whole marriage. Do you even know how hard that was for me to know? All this time I had my mind on making you happy but I failed to recognize the fact that I was slowly destroying you.”

            “You don’t know how much your very own presence made me happy…” Tiffany finally speaks, her tears threatening to fall. After all this time, she misunderstood. Their marriage could have been saved if she waited a little longer.

            “I know but… I was ready. I wanted to have kids running around the house and I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect.” Taeyeon sighs as she plops herself down on the sofa too, next to Tiffany, where she always belonged.

            “You didn’t talk to me about it. I mean, I wanted so much to start a family but we weren’t even mentioning it so I thought we didn’t want the same thing.”

            All this time they lacked communication and they ended up in this situation. There’s another guy. Some rumours about the divorce they don’t want to be publicized, and a baby who just witnessed them being cheesy and dramatic. Taeyeon chuckles when she glances at Seungwoo who was now playing with the stuffed toy on his crib,

            “So what do we do now?”

            Tiffany shrugs then sighs, as she leans on Taeyeon’s shoulder,

            “I still love you.” she mutters, biting her lip as for the first time, she’ll it all up and (wo)man up to tell the older what she really feels. She never meant to cheat. There was always a fine line as to what she would do with Siwon. The absence of the butterflies should’ve been enough for her to stop but that was the mistake she couldn’t take back. She was too blinded by the attention that was given to her and the ‘signs’ that it lead her to destroy the most beautiful thing she’s ever had. It was her fault

“All this time and it’s still you.”

Taeyeon pulls Tiffany closer to her and for the first time in months, she felt contented and happy again. She wanted to cry but she was afraid that Seungwoo would judge her.

“Leave him. Let’s give this another try, Fany.”

Tiffany smiles then closes her eyes. As much as she wants to, she can’t. Not now at least. Taeyeon had to stay out of this because that’s the only time she’d be able to make sure that she’s safe. Taeyeon will remain as she is, the one who needs to sign the divorce papers, that’s the only thing that she needs to be.

“I can’t.” she responds weakly.

“Why not?!” Taeyeon cries out.

            The younger sighs and faces Taeyeon, with a weak smile on her face that it made the older’s heart beat so hard. Why can’t she leave him? It’s not too hard to choose! They’ve made things clear between them already. Tiffany cups Taeyeon face then wipes the tears on the other’s face. She wonders about how many times Taeyeon had cried because of the same reason but she promises that this will be the last time she’d cry because of her,

            “Because I love him too.”