Tiffany woke up not knowing where she was. A good three seconds passed as she blinked and stared at the creamy white ceiling decorated with a strange smattering of stars. How weird was that. To have a bunch of stars stuck on the ceiling like a kid’s room. Then she turned her head and there she was—the sleeping rock singer.

Right. She was in Taeyeon’s room. Again.

She had never spent two nights in a prospective girlfriend’s bedroom before. The key word being prospective. Because as sweet as Taeyeon’s talk was last night, they were still just two people who barely knew each other. And even though they had kissed twice, they hadn’t even held hands yet.

Just how weird can it get?

And now, she was waking up in Taeyeon’s room again because Sunny had insisted she stayed the night—again.

“Arr.”

Tiffany giggled.

“Arrrr . . .”

Tiffany giggled again. Taeyeon had some strange habits. Like the way she tended to start her smile from one side—essentially a smirk—before pulling the other side up into a proper smile. And the way she liked to sit with one leg propped up on the other. This weird early morning growling was one more quirk of hers.

Her giggles stopped but her smile remained on her face. Lying here looking at Taeyeon like this was nice. Lying here in this room on this quiet morning. There were some early morning noises like the sounds of traffic and the city waking up outside. Closing her eyes, she listened to them. And drifted off again.

o|v

“Wake up, mana.”

Tiffany frowned. There was a reluctance to open her eyes but the incessant poking in her arm irritated her into flinging them open to glare at the perpetrator. “Kim Taeyeon!” she yelled, startling the woman, causing her to roll backwards onto her .

“Ow . . .”

The rock singer was on the floor, groaning, but she decided to ignore her. “I know you can get up by yourself.”

“I was only trying to wake you up for breakfast.”

Tiffany tried not to fall for the pitiful pout on Taeyeon’s face. “Thanks for telling me. I’ll wash up and be right there.”

“Aren’t you gonna help me up?”

“No.” She stepped over the rock singer’s legs to get to the bathroom and locked herself inside, ignoring the protests that followed.

o|v

Taeyeon sulked at the breakfast table. Mana was too heartless.

“Quit moping and help me,” said Sunny.

“I’m depressed.”

“You’re not. Don’t be an idiot.”

“Have pity for a handicapped reject.”

“Who rejected you?”

“Mana.”

Sunny rolled her eyes. “What do you expect when you call her like that?”

“It’s a thing.”

“What’s a thing?”

“Mana. It’s a thing between the two of us.”

“Only in your mind.”

“I explained it to her.”

Sunny put a plate of fried eggs on the table and stared at her. “And did she accept your explanation?”

“She didn’t take to it too well.”

“Of course not. Who’d like to be called mana?”

“Well, it’s not much fun calling her by name.”

“That’s what you think.”

“Why can’t she understand that ‘mana’ is close to my heart?”

With a shrug, Sunny set a plate of toast on the table and said, “Maybe you can offer a trade.”

“A trade?”

“Like have her call you something rude too.”

“I don’t mind. In fact, I think it’ll be y.”

“Like idiotae?”

Taeyeon turned to face the new challenger who just entered the conversation. “Are you sure that’s what you want to call me?”

Tiffany grinned but it looked more like a lioness grinning at its next meal to Taeyeon. “If you wanna call me mana, then I’ll call you idiotae.”

Taeyeon’s jaw fell open. Idiotae? Is she seriously gonna call me idiotae in front of everybody?

“Make no mistake, I’ll call you that at the bar and I won’t care who hears it.”

Often, pride would cause great falls. Taeyeon was fully aware of the pitfalls of cradling too much pride but it there were to be one flaw in her otherwise flawless personality, it would be this.

“You’re on,” Taeyeon heard herself saying and it was too late to stop herself.

Tiffany’s eyes gleamed like a lioness that had gotten its claws on its prey. “You got it.”

All Sunny did was giggle.

o|v