"Are you trying to burn a hole through that door?" Sooyoung whispered to Taeyeon who was seated beside her. "I've already checked with my sister. Your girl is on night duty today."

"She's not my girl." Taeyeon snapped back but in a controlled low voice as she did not want to attract her sister's attention. She even turned momentarily to Irene, who was busy chatting with Yeri, to make sure that their conversation is safe. "Why did you even ask your sister about that? She might get suspicious."

Sooyoung chuckled while shaking her head. "Don't worry. I'm good at covering up my tracks. Unlike you."

Taeyeon just rolled her eyes before looking back at the door. Part of her were hoping that Tiffany would walk in through that door to Yeri's hospital room but another part were also praying that she would not bumped into the doctor, especially after what happened at her house a week ago.

"Lately, I don't feel so bored anymore." Yeri said to Irene as Taeyeon just listened in to their conversation. "Fany-unnie has been lending me books to read. She should be here soon. She told me she would come in slightly earlier before her night shift today to pass me more books since I've finished the ones that she had brought over last week."

The moment Yeri finished talking, Taeyeon eyes darted to the door as she stood up and paced around. Looking at her watch, Taeyeon bit her lips as she tried to guess the timing that Tiffany might arrived.

"Are you guys hungry? Do you need me to grab any food?" Taeyeon suddenly blurted out as everyone looked at her. Yoona and Seulgi had a blank expression on their faces while Sooyoung had to stiffle her laughter. 

"Unnie, we just had lunch together in this room about an hour ago." Irene reminded her sister as she looked at Taeyeon, with questioning eyes. "You're hungry again?"

"Not me. Sooyoung was telling me that she's still hungry." Taeyeon quickly kicked the sides of Sooyoung's leg, as if giving her the signal to play along to which Sooyoung just nodded her head. "How about drinks? Iced Americano anyone?"

Yoona and Seulgi immediately raised up their hand before giving each other a high-five while Irene and Yeri requested other drinks. Yoona was about to stand, thinking that she needed to get the drinks when Taeyeon stopped her.

"It's okay, Yoona. You and Seulgi should stay here to keep watch. I'll bring Sooyoung along to get the drinks." Taeyeon pulled up Sooyoung's collar, motioning her to follow. "If you guys need to add orders, just give me a call."

Taeyeon walked out the room quickly without waiting for any reply as Sooyoung followed from behind. By the time, both of them reached the lift, Sooyoung could no longer control herself as she laughed out loud. Taeyeon knew that her friend would start making fun of her but all she could do was just let out a heavy sigh.

"That was sooo smooth, Taeyeon. If you need to add orders, just give me a call." Sooyoung imitated Taeyeon's words earlier in a teasing tone. "It's so obvious that you were indirectly asking them to contact you once Tiffany arrives. And stopped using me as an excuse."

"It was not an excuse. I really thought I heard your stomach rambling." Taeyeon tried to defend herself. "And extra orders doesn't necessary mean that it's for Tiffany."

Sooyoung continued to chuckle as Taeyeon pouted and tried to punch her shoulders but Sooyoung managed to avoid it. They ended up facing each other, throwing punches into the air and dodging each other's weak attempt to land a punch as both girls were grinning at each other. They were so absorbed in their pretend boxing fight that they did not noticed the door of the lift had opened.

"What are the both of you doing?"

Tiffany's voice distracted Taeyeon's attention as she did not manage to dodge Sooyoung's incoming hook and it landed near her jawline.

"Arrgghh.." Taeyeon's hand immediately held her jaws as Sooyoung stood frozen while Tiffany rushed to her side.

"Mianhae, Tae. It was not on purpose." Sooyoung quickly apologised as Tiffany stood in front of Taeyeon, asking her to remove her hands.

"Gwenchana? Let me see." Tiffany's concerned look was so captivating that Taeyeon just stared at her, allowing Tiffany to hold her chin and looked at the area where Sooyoung had punched. "Your lower lip is bleeding."

It was when Tiffany's thumb brushed against her lips that Taeyeon finally snapped out from the gaze and moved back slightly. Her actions also caused Tiffany to be taken aback as the doctor quickly pulled her hand away.

"I'm fine. I must have accidentally bite my lips when the punch hits me." Taeyeon used the back of her hands to wipe away the blood before turning her attention to Sooyoung. "Yah, did you have to use so much force when we were just joking around?"

Taeyeon were surprised when Tiffany slapped her shoulders lightly.

"Follow me to my office so that I could disinfect and clean up that cut for you. This is a doctor's order. You too, Sooyoung." 

Tiffany turned to walk away as Taeyeon pouted and turned to Sooyoung who just shrugged her shoulders. The two childish friends followed Tiffany to her office in silence but continued to shove each other with their arms.

Taeyeon sat down at the chair in front of Tiffany's table as Sooyoung just stood at a corner near the door. They watched as Tiffany hanged her handbag on a stand, placed her paperbag on the floor and grabbed her white doctor coat to put on.

"Do you still feel any pain?" Tiffany asked as she grabbed her seat and sat down.

"Huh?" Taeyeon blinked her eyes before turning behind when she heard Sooyoung chuckling.

"Someone is caught daydreaming." Sooyoung said as she stuck her tongue out in response to Taeyeon, who did the same thing to her. 

"Let me see that lips again."

Taeyeon suddenly felt a rush of hotness in her cheeks with Tiffany's choice of words as the doctor rolled her chair towards Taeyeon while grabbing a first aid box nearby. Taeyeon immediately diverted her eyes elsewhere, the moment Tiffany was right in front of her. As Tiffany's hand held her chin, Taeyeon prayed that the person in front of her would not notice the blush or even hear the fast beating of her heartbeat. 

It felt like time had stopped when Tiffany was cleaning up the blood on her lips and applying some lotion to it. She even touched Taeyeon's cheeks and jawline to ensure that there was no swelling. Taeyeon could only sat still while Tiffany checked on her.

"Seems like everything's good. Luckily, it's just a small cut." Tiffany said as she rolled back to her original position, facing the computer. "Both of you should be careful when playing around, especially in the hospital."

Taeyeon wanted to rebutt but decided against it as she just pouted.  Tiffany then asked if they were both here to visit Yeri and Sooyoung immediately replied before Taeyeon had the opportunity to answer.

"We are actually on our way to get some drinks for the rest of them. Do you want us to get you one?" Sooyoung continued to ask the question, preventing Taeyeon to even open to say anything.

"No, I'm fine. You should go ahead and grabbed the drinks. The girls must have been waiting." Tiffany replied, with her eyes still fixated on her computer.

Taeyeon reluctantly stood up and glared at Sooyoung who didn't noticed it, since she was busy saying goodbye to Tiffany and opening the door. With a sulky face, she walked to the door and was about to exit.

"Take care, Taeyeon."

A smile immediately appeared on her face as she turned to face Tiffany and bowed her head. "Thanks, Tiffany."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tiffany's POV

The moment the door closed, I could finally let out a sigh. 

"Damn it. why did my heart beat so fast earlier? I hope she didn't notice my blush." Placing my hands on my cheeks to check if it was still hot, I leaned back into my seat. "Was it my cheeks or her cheeks that felt a little hot earlier? But seriously, did she have to look so hot when close up? Her jawline is so sharp and those lips.."

I ended up shaking my head, in an attempt to erase the memories but I ended up thinking more about her as I thought back to our first meet-up at her house.

(Flashbacks)

"Tiffany-ssi, I apologise for my rude behaviour. I'm sorry."

I was expecting her to apologies half-heartedly but instead she did it sincerely, with hands clasped in front of her and even bowed her head slightly.

"It's okay. I was in the wrong too. I guess this whole idea of an arranged marriage just feels like a curveball thrown at me."

"At both of us." Taeyeon corrected my sentence as I saw a weak smile from her. 

It was then that I realised that Taeyeon might have just found out about this arrangement recently. For a moment, silence filled the room before Sooyoung suddenly clapped her hands once to get our attention.

"All right. Since now both of you have calmed down, shall we start our discussion or sharing session? Will that be okay, Tae? Or do you want Fany to start first since you've been concerned about what Fany's opinion was on this whole marriage arrangement since you left your Grand-Aunt house that day."

'She has been concerned about me all this while?' 

I turned to look at Taeyeon, who was looking down and frowning a little, as if she was in deep thoughts. Turning to Sooyoung, her tall friend could only shrugged her shoulders as I remembered her words about how Taeyeon would usually not share much about her life with others. But I was surprised again when Taeyeon voiced out that she would start first. 

"Tiffany-ssi, before I begin, may I know if the reason that you are against the marriage is because you are currently attached?" Taeyeon threw me an unexpected question, which surprisingly caused my body to react quickly with me shaking my head.

"It's not because of that." I paused a while when I saw Taeyeon's confused expression. "I mean it's true that I have a boyfriend but the reason why I'm against it is because I want to marry someone that I truly am in love with. Someone that I'm willing to spend my whole life with."

"Ouuuhhh... okay. As long as it is not because you hated me or something, Tiffany-ssi. Because I know I have the habit of making a bad first impression on anyone." Taeyeon had a silly grin on her face before she let out a short chuckle.

'Why is she trying to act cute?' That thought cross my mind as I shook my head.

"You can just call me Tiffany or Fany, Taeyeon. Tiffany-ssi is too formal and it creates further awkwardness between us." I tried to lighten the mood as Taeyeon nodded her head before I saw her taking a deep breathe.

"I'm going to start now. You might want to standby a pen or something for your questions because my family history is totally ed up." Taeyeon tried to make it sound as if she was frustrated but I sensed a little sadness in her tone.

(End of flashback.)

"No wonder she ended up being so hostile to almost everyone she just met. She had put up such a high wall around herself in order to protect her ownself, thinking that there's no one she could fully trust. But her family history is really messy." I tried to analyze Taeyeon's character based on the stories that she told me that day. "Oh no, I keep forgetting to ask her abou those beers in her fridge. I remembered Sooyoung telling me that she has a sleeping disorder and that she's not a heavy drinker so..."

I tapped my fingers on my table, trying to link the pieces when my train of thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of my handphone. Seeing the name, Mick, appearing on the screen, I quickly answered the call.

"Hi dear. I have bad news to tell you. You know how I said I will be coming to Seoul next week? There's some problem with my travelling documents at the moment. I'm not sure how long it's going to be resolved but I was thinking that maybe we could meet up here in my country instead?"

 "Problem with your travelling documents? I thought you told me that you had just got back from Germany two days ago and the week before, I remembered you said you were in Australia?" A frown appeared on my face as I tried to remember correctly the details.

"I mean I was able to travel previously but starting yesterday, there were issues. So I'm not able to travel out at the moment."

"Hhmmm.. I have to check with my roster if my schedule permits me to take leave. Even if it's possible, I may not be able to stay long. The hospital is currently a little shorthanded."

"Sure, sure. I understand. Maybe you can check and get back to me on that so that I can arrange your stay here and put time aside for you. I've missed you so much." Mick said before he hurriedly mentioned that he needed to end the call as he needed to attend a meeting soon.

The frown on my face did not go away even after the call ended. "Put time aside for me? Why does he make it sound like my presence is a hassle for him and why is he always so busy?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taeyeon's POV

The moment I noticed a familiar looking paperbag on the bedside cabinet, my heart sank. I had half-expected it since we were stuck in the traffic jam for almost an hour after getting the drinks for the girls but I was still hoping to bump into her again.

"I guess Tiffany had stopped by earlier." 

Everyone in the room turned to look at me as I realised that I had said my thoughts out loud. I quickly explained that I had noticed the paperbag, which was not there earlier and presumed that those are the books that were meant for Yeri.

"You are right, Unnie. Fany-unnie stopped by earlier and chatted for a while. She left about 10mins before you arrived. I guess you missed her by a whisker." Yeri answered innocently as I just nodded my head but the glare from Irene didn't go unnoticed by me.

"I think it's time we should make a move. It's almost 6pm and we've been here since 1pm." I saw Yeri pouting and felt a little bad. "You need to rest too, Yeri and since Tiffany is on night duty, I believe she would drop by again to check on you."

Her expression lightened up a little as she immediately requested a hug from Irene and bid farewell to everyone.

As the five of us made our way to the lift, Irene suddenly wrapped her hands around my arms and gave me a questioning look. She leaned her head and whispered to my ears.

"Is there something going on between you and that doctor?"

I pulled my head away and looked at her, trying my best to put on a blank expression but the look on Irene's face clearly showed that she's not buying my pretense. The lift door opened and all of us entered.

"Tae, for tomorrow's meeting, I don't have to attend the ones in the morning right? So, can I take half day tomorrow and report in after lunch?" Sooyoung's question gave me some time to avoid answering Irene's question. "Sunny wants to meet up for a while before she opens her pub."

"Sunny? Since when do you guys meet outside of the pub?" I tried to tease Sooyoung but was surprised when she told me that she has been meeting up often with Sunny lately. "Really? How come I'm not aware of that?"

"What's wrong with Sooyoung-unnie meeting her girlfriend outside of the pub? And why do you need to know when they are dating?" Irene's question caused Sooyoung and I to look at each other momentarily.

"I was just teasing her. Nothing wrong with that." I replied with a chuckle.

"Unnie, I know you are lying by how you laugh after your sentence." Irene glared at me just as the lift door opened to the carpark. "And you still owe me explanations with regards to Tiffany-unnie."

I saw Sooyoung fidgety eyes as she quickly made her way out of the lift. Saying her goodbyes to everyone, she waved at us and smirked at me before walking towards her car. Suddenly, my phone vibrated to indicate an incoming message.

I'm so glad that I drove today. Good luck with your explanation to Irene. Word of advice: Don't try to lie to her. - Sooyoung

After we entered our car, we remain in silence for the next 10mins as Yoona drove out of the carpark. Seulgi was seated in the passenger seat, looking out of the window while Irene was doing the same but with folded arms.

"I'm sorry if I was lying to you, Irene. But there are some things that it's better for you not to know as it's a little complicated."

"And just continue being oblivious about everything around me? No matter how complicated it is, I want to know what is going on and I will decide on my own if it's complicated or not." Irene's words felt like dejavu as I was reminded of Tiffany. "Ever since that private meeting that you had with Grand-Aunt in her study room along with Fany-unnie, her dad, Mr Im and Sooyoung-unnie, I've been waiting for an explanation from you. Although I understand that it must have been something very confidential, I'm still a little upset that I was excluded from it, especially since you brought me all the way there. It makes me feel like the only reason you brought me along is to avoid suspicion from Oppa."

I swallowed my saliva as everything that Irene said almost hit me straight in the heart.

"I didn't bring you along to use you as an excuse. Things didn't go as planned when we were in LA. I didn't expect that the person that Appa had chosen for my arranged marriage is actually Tiffany."

"MWO??!!!"

Three pairs of eyes were suddenly locked on to me as I realised that even Seulgi and Yoona were not present during the private meeting at Grand-Aunt's house. Although all of us did ate lunch together but Grand-Aunt had requested for only selected people to join her in her study room for further discussion. Therefore, the three of them were not around to witness the scene where Tiffany had rejected the marriage arrangement.

"I'll explained everything once we reached home. I promise."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How long have you known this Mick before he asked you to be his girlfriend, Fany?"

Tiffany, who was about put the food in , stopped before showing 5 of her fingers to Hyorin.

"Five years. That's quite..." Hyorin paused when Tiffany shook her head and mouthed something. "Five months? And you actually agreed to be his girlfriend? Are you desperate?"

Tiffany almost choked on her food as Hyorin quickly handed her a glass of water. Both doctors were on night duty shift and were having supper at the cafetaria during one of their breaks when Tiffany started complaining about her call earlier with Mick to Hyorin. 

"Like I said before, he seems like a nice guy when we were friends. Furthermore, I didn't hear any bad rumors or stories about him from our mutual friends and they also keep trying to pair us up every time we met up in our groups. He did confessed a few times that he liked me throughout those 5 months and we were getting along fine. So I thought, why not just give it a try?"  

"Give it a try? Sounds like you are not even sure of your feelings for him. Besides the fact that he's a nice guy who treats you well and has confessed his feelings for you a few times, is there anything else that actually attracts you to him?" Hyorin asked as she observed Tiffany pushing her plate away since she was done and waited for her friend to take a sip of her drink.

"Attracts me to him?" Tiffany placed her fist on her cheek and her elbow on the table, in a thinking position. 

"Yes. Things that made him different from just a normal friend. Like without having to say anything, when you are close to him, you felt your heart beating fast or when you see his lips, you just feel the need to kiss him. That's how I felt when I see my boyfriend in the early stages of our relationship." Seeing how Tiffany's eyes suddenly widened, Hyorin let out a sigh. "Are you sure he is not your first boyfriend?"

Tiffany immediately grinned awkwardly before looking guilty while biting her lips. "To be honest, he is my first boyfriend after a long time but not my first relationship. My two relationships before him were with girls but most of my relationships does not last more than two years. I'm sorry I was not being truthful to you, Hyorin when you asked me before if I was into girls. I was afraid that you might judge me since I was informed before coming to Seoul about how same-gender relationship is not accepted here. So I was being careful about showing people that I'm biual."

"Legally, yes it is not accepted but I do have friends who are like you or only interested in the same gender and I'm okay with them. It's all about your own personal preference and I have no right to judge anyone." Hyorin gave a warm smile before stretching out her hands over the table top, asking Tiffany to hold in. "After getting to know you, I know that you are a good person, Tiffany. Never be afraid to show your trueself. If people want to judge or criticise you, let them be. You don't loose out anything, as long as you know your true worth and always love yourself."

"Thanks, Hyorin for the kind words. I'm glad I got the opportunity to be honest with you. Anyway, your question does make me reflect on my decision to agree to be his girlfriend. Did I  really rush into it or maybe I need to get to know him better? Should I just accept his offer and visit him in his country?"

"Well, that is for you to decide. If you need to meet him to get this sorted out, please go ahead. Don't have to worry about the workload here as I'll be around to help you cover them." Hyorin smiled when Tiffany kept saying thank you to her. "But please be back in a week. My boyfriend cannot last more than a week without seeing me."

With that, Hyorin flipped her hair with a pretend arrogant pose before both of them broke out into laughter.