“The usual?”

Tiffany nodded and scanned the café while waiting for her coffee, taking in the view of this café’s regulars. Near the window was the man with grey hair sipping his coffee. A bagel sat on a white plate next to the steaming brew. Tiffany smiled at the familiar sight. Adjacent to the aged man was a lady of her age, reading the paper while chomping on a sandwich. She looked around a little more and spotted another regular patron of the café but there was an absence in the dark corner where a woman with a cap pulled low over her eyes would usually be seated.

“Where’s the woman who’s always at the corner?” she asked the barista when her coffee was done.

“The one who draws?” The barista shrugged his shoulders. “Didn’t come in today.”

“Oh.” Tiffany took her coffee and muffin set and smiled. “Thanks.”

“Have nice day, sweetie.”

Tiffany found herself wondering about the woman in the corner as she drove to Yuri’s restaurant bar. Was she sick today? Had she found another café to go to for coffee? It was strange how she had never spoken to any of those people in the café but was affected when one of them was missing.

o|v

“Why are you still in bed?”

Taeyeon raised her eyes to meet her housemate’s. “I’m tired.”

“You’re not sick or anything like that, are you?”

“Not sick.”

“Okay. Well, lie there for the rest of the day while I go out and work hard for a living.”

Taeyeon smirked. “Sure thing. Work hard, Sunny.”

Her housemate rolled those big round eyes and left, leaving Taeyeon alone in her room, lying listlessly in bed with her sketchbook. The sketchbook. Taeyeon groaned. Of all the pages in her sketchbook, why did that woman have to see that page? And it looked like she was going to be working at the bar. . That woman had better not get any funny ideas about it.

So…r we on for today?

Taeyeon wrinkled her nose at the message that just came in. It was the tenth message asking about their tentative date and it was only eleven past eleven in the morning. This girl was getting too clingy for her liking. Best to end it before things got too serious.

o|v

Taeyeon stuck her hands into her denim jacket’s pockets and smiled as she approached the girl she had been dating for the past month. “Hey.”

“Darling, you’re late.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. Traffic was bad,” Taeyeon lied while trying not to shrug off the girl’s arm that was looping around hers.

“It’s okay. I got our tickets.”

“Great. Let’s go in.”

“Don’t you want popcorn?”

Normally, Taeyeon liked popcorn for movies, but the girl had insist on feeding her popcorn the last two times and she didn’t want to go through that anymore. It wasn’t even the act of feeding her popcorn that disturbed her. It was how the girl liked to linger a finger on her lips after feeding the popcorn. It had only been their second date when the girl first did that and Taeyeon had felt like snapping at the girl’s finger but decided against it. The girl was probably going to misconstrue that as interest and take things further.

“No.”

“But why? I thought you like popcorn,” the girl whined, her voice rising a few notches above what was normal.

Taeyeon cringed. If there was anything she hated most, it was the ‘cute’ act that too many girls liked to do when they wanted something from her. “Not today.”

“But I want popcorn.”

“You can buy it after the movie. Come on. It’s gonna start soon.”

The girl pouted but followed her past the snack counter. Now, to get through the movie. And the ending speech after. Taeyeon sighed in her chest. What a hard life she led.

o|v

“A-Are you breaking up with me?”

Taeyeon cringed at the shrill voice. “Linji, I’m sorry.”

“Why? Why?”

Taeyeon was beginning to regret initiating the break up with Linji for all the wrong reasons. But at least they were in the basement carpark and nobody else was around to witness the eye-rolling dramatic antics of Linji. “We’re not compatible.”

“We’re not? I think we’re very compatible. We’re meant for each other.”

“Linji, we’ve been out five times now. We just got back from the sixth. That’s not enough to know we’re meant for each other.”

“Neither is it enough to want a break up,” retorted Linji in a rising tone.

“It should be pretty clear to you that I’m not feeling it.”

“I thought you were enjoying yourself with me.”

Taeyeon heaved a sigh from the depths of her guts. “I really wasn’t.”

“Then why did you go out with me again today?”

“I—”

“I know! You wanted to take advantage of me before breaking up with me.”

Taeyeon’s jaw fell open. “What?”

“Yeah, I know your type. You just wanna get the best of a girl before moving on.”

Ridiculous. “How are you even—” Taeyeon shook her head. “Whatever. Technically, we weren’t in a relationship. We were just dating. And now, I’m just telling you I don’t wanna go out with you anymore. So long as you get that, you can think whatever you want of me.”

“How typical. Suddenly, we weren’t even in a relationship. All the messages I sent you count for nothing. All the time I spent on you. All the effort I put in—”

Taeyeon lifted a finger. It wasn’t the middle one even though she wanted very much to lift that one by now. “One piece of advice. You might wanna cut down on your messages with your next date.”

“You’re a heartless . You may not know how to appreciate my messages of love and devotion but tons of other girls out there do.”

Taeyeon raised both hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. I’m sure that’s the case. I’m just gonna go now. Bye.” She got back into her car, and kicked it into reverse. Linji’s middle finger greeted her as she was pulling out which got her temper going. “ you, Linji, you crazy woman,” she swore in the confinement of her car and drove out of the carpark.

And that was that.

o|v

“Ready to meet the band properly?”

Tiffany smiled at Yuri and nodded. “Totally.”

“Great. Follow me.”

Tiffany followed Yuri out of the office to the band’s booth where the ladies were putting their bags.

“Tiff, meet our resident band, G Gen.”

“Ladies, this is Tiffany, our new PR manager.”

Tiffany smiled at all of them, noting how sketchbook girl’s eyes refused to meet hers. Something was definitely up with this woman. “Hi, I’m Tiffany. I’ll be in charge of promoting the gigs here and scouting for more bands to boost the scene so I look forward to working with you and getting to know you better.”

“You already met Taeyeon yesterday, she’s the vocalist,” said Yuri, gesturing at the woman who seemed determined to study the intricacies of the concrete floor they were standing on.

“Nice to meet you,” said one of the taller band members. Tiffany noted her gentle voice. “I’m Seo. I’m the keyboardist.”

“I’m Hyo, the drummer.”

“I’m Sooyoung. I play the guitar.”

Tiffany put on a wide smile for them. They seemed like nice, friendly people. Hyo had a wild look, what with her striking blonde hair and on-the-edge green jacket and yellow shorts but her smile was warm. And Sooyoung was probably the tallest of them all but her smile was welcoming too. They were all fine. Except Taeyeon.

“Who’s the leader of your band?” she asked, hoping to find out more about the enigmatic singer through the leader.

“Taeyeon,” Seo informed her and Tiffany almost gasped.

Taeyeon? How did she become the leader? “I see,” she responded as naturally as possible, laying on her smile thick. “I would like to start off with the leader to find out more so Taeyeon, do you mind if we chat out at the back?”

“Why can’t we talk here?”

“I want it to be private,” Tiffany said with a smile, looking around the band members. “I will be talking privately to each of you as well. I hope you can spare me a few minutes to do that.”

“Sure,” said Hyo. “Taeyeon, you’re the leader. You go first.”

Tiffany saw the glare Taeyeon shot Hyo before dragging her white sneaker on the ground.

“Fine. Make it quick,” Taeyeon relented at last.

“Great. I’ll be sure to make it as quick as possible,” Tiffany promised. “This way, please.”

o|v