A/N: I wrote this in June 2014, and I had originally posted it here. I just came up with the title recently; it comes from a line in Time Spent Walking Through Memories: Today, I still live in the traces of you. Lbr that song was basically written for TaengSic.

Taeyeon isn’t a stranger to insomnia. She’s not afflicted with it enough to seriously worry about it, but it does come by every now and then, an unwelcome guest, an inescapable shadow.

Some people have a warm drink when they can’t sleep. Some exercise. Others count sheep, or read something, or resort to medicine. For Taeyeon, there has only ever been one treatment:

Music.

And so she finds herself shuffling out of her room, shrugging on a light jacket and walking quietly down the hallway. She walks past a student struggling with the vending machine and a couple making out, and then she’s out the door and heading towards her favourite building, the Music building.

It’s not particularly late. In fact, she would still be up if she didn’t need to sleep early to prepare for an important presentation tomorrow for her management class. Half her group members are deadweights; she isn’t even sure how they got here, one of the most prestigious universities in Korea.

She tucks her hands into her pockets, welcomes the light touch of the autumn breeze on her face. It’s a nice night out; she’s surprised there aren’t more people out, but she’s grateful for it. She’s never really been a people person. That’s part of why she hasn’t really made any friends yet, along with the other obvious reason.

Before she knows it, she’s at the Music building, which is thankfully open 24/7. There are countless places to practice, but she favours the small, private practice booths set up with a piano and a chair. She could spend hours there, just playing and singing, with only the music and her emotions for company.

She takes a familiar turn, and she’s about to walk past the bigger, less private rooms when she hears someone singing.

A girl, with a clear, sweet voice, accompanied by the piano. She’s singing a song Taeyeon has never heard before, her voice resonant and beautiful, reverberating with a depth of emotion Taeyeon has heard from very few people.

Hope, that beautiful stranger
Hope, that distant friend
I wish I could let you go
But you’re like a ghost,
Forever a fleeting imprint
That comes back to haunt me

Taeyeon, stunned and entranced by that voice, stops in her tracks, and she stands still and just listens.

Love, that beautiful stranger
Love, that distant friend
I wish I could hold you close
But you’re like a mirage,
One second so close to me,
And the other nothing but a fantasy

The song ends there on a wistful, echoing note, followed by a long sigh. Taeyeon thinks about her own worries, her struggles to balance her double major and her parents’ expectations weighing her down, and she can’t help but sigh too.

She hears papers being rustled and the sound of a chair scraping against the floor. Then the door is pushed open and she sees a slim silhouette framed in the dim light.

“Who’s there?” a quiet but clear voice calls out.

Taeyeon thinks about leaving; it wouldn’t be hard to sneak away. She doesn’t feel inclined to have a conversation with a complete stranger, especially since it’s late and she might be thought of as a creeper.

For some reason though, she steps forward and speaks up.

“Hi, I was just passing by. I didn’t mean to intrude. You have a really nice voice.”

The girl comes closer, until she’s in view. She looks around the same age as Taeyeon and just a little taller with long, wavy hair that frames a pale, delicate face. Her eyes are a little startled, and she eyes Taeyeon with cautious wariness.

“I’m Taeyeon,” she says, offering her hand.

The girl doesn’t take it. “Jessica,” she replies succinctly.

“That song you sang, I’ve never heard it before. What’s it called?”

“It doesn’t have a name.”

“Oh. Who’s it by?”

Jessica’s mouth curls up a little, not really a smile. “Me.”

Taeyeon’s eyes widen. “You wrote it yourself?”

“Yeah.”

And here Taeyeon always thought she was far from talkative. Jessica seems even more reserved than her.

“It’s really nice,” Taeyeon says sincerely. “Is there any more to it?”

“Not yet.” Jessica brightens a little bit. “Do you really think it’s good?”

“I think I’d have to be tone deaf not to think it’s good. And it’s not just the song, you have a great voice. Are you a music major?”

“No, business, actually.”

Taeyeon is taken off guard by that piece of knowledge. With a voice and composing talent like that, it seems like such a waste for Jessica not to be a music major.

“I am too. Well, double major.”

“I’m guessing the other one is music.”

“Yeah.” Taeyeon gives her a curious look. “How’d you know?”

“Well, you did come to the practice room in the middle of the night,” Jessica points out.

“So did you, and you’re not in music.”

A shadow falls over Jessica’s face. “It’s not exactly a practical major.”

Taeyeon thinks about all her parents’ protests, their veiled threats of cutting her off if she decided to pursue her dream instead of theirs, her long hours spent toiling over all her assignments and tests.

“Yeah,” she says quietly. “I know.”

“It must be a lot of work,” Jessica says offhandedly. “A double major. Business is stressful here already. I don’t know how you handle music too.”

Taeyeon gives a faint, wan smile. “That’s the price for balancing practicality with dreams.”

Jessica looks at her for a long moment, her eyes dark and scrutinizing. Taeyeon feels like Jessica’s trying to look inside her, and she suddenly realizes that she isn’t worried about getting found out as Kim Taeyeon, heir to Kim Corporations, not even a little. They hadn’t had much of a conversation, but it was one of the most refreshing, genuine ones she’s had in a long while.

“Did you come here to sing?” Jessica finally asks.

“Yeah. Sometimes I get this urge – it’s like I have to sing, you know?”

Jessica nods, not saying a word, her expression enough to show that she understands.

“I haven’t written any songs though. We’re learning about composing right now, but I don’t have a knack for it.”

Taeyeon isn’t sure why she’s telling Jessica this, why she’s told Jessica everything she has already. It’s not like her to open up to people, not even her friends, and here she is, doing it to a complete stranger.

There’s something about this night, she supposes, some unnameable, whimsical ambiance. She feels a little like she’s not completely awake, like she’s sleepwalking or she dreamed this whole encounter up.

“Practice,” Jessica says simply. “Talent is one thing, but hard work can get you a lot of places. You said I have a ‘great’ voice. Well, my first vocal teacher told me that I would never be anything more than mediocre.” She smiles a little. “I shocked him at music night.”

Taeyeon chuckles. “His face must have been photo-worthy.”

“My dad did take a photo.”

Something flashes in Jessica’s eyes: something dark and sad and painful. Taeyeon finds herself having to look away.

“It’s getting late,” Jessica says quietly. “I should go.”

Taeyeon glances at the clock. She’s surprised at how late it is. Has she really spent so much time here?

“Well,” she says, awkward now. “Good night.”

“Night.” Jessica gives her another thoughtful look, and then walks away.

Taeyeon walks into the practice room and sits down on the piano bench. She pauses with her fingers hovering over the keys, wanting to play, to sing, and yet saddled with a strange, inexplicable hesitance.

Then she notices a sheaf of papers on the piano: some are sheet music and others scribbled sheets of lyrics, full of crossed out lines and random doodles along the margins. Jessica must have left them here.

Taeyeon is struck by a different kind of hesitance. She can’t help but want to go through the music, especially the songs Jessica wrote, but it would be an utter invasion of privacy.

But it’s not like she’ll find out, she tells herself. How will she know?

Wait. How is she going to get this back to Jessica? Jessica will no doubt come back for it, so should she just leave it here? But what if someone else comes across it first?

Taeyeon picks up the pieces of paper that fell to the ground and gathers them all into a neat pile, stacking them on top of the piano. She decides that she’ll hang onto them and give them to Jessica when she sees her again.

Somehow she’s sure that it will be when and not if.

A/N: This was supposed to be a multi-chaptered fic that alternated between past and present, with this chapter being from their past. However, I actually never made it to their present and so we're just left with this.

Oh and I wrote those little song snippets, just in case you're wondering. I don't know what is with me and writing songs for TaengSic hahha I wrote one for my very first TaengSic fic too.