A faint voice was calling out to me.

              “Taeyeon … Taeyeon …”

              What was that? It was a really nice voice, like that of an angel. Why was it calling out to me? Was it trying to wake me up?

              I lazily waved my hand at the source of the voice. “Noo…” I groaned, turning away from it.

              I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking my body. “Taeyeon, time to wake up,” the same angelic voice said.

              I groaned, trying to shake the hand off my shoulder. “I’m sleepy,” I replied, turning around once again.

              I enjoyed a brief period of silence, only to be broken again by the same voice, but carrying a different tone, “Don’t blame me for this, it’s your fault for tempting me.”

              Those words woke me up like a jolt, but by the time I realized I processed her words, it was too late. “Yah, wha-what are you doing?” I said, trying to get up only to be pinned down by Tiffany, who was sitting on my legs.

              “You have a nice ,” she commented as she continued to rub it; it felt good, but I would never admit that to Tiffany.

              “Stop it! I’m awake, ok?” I whined, struggling against Tiffany. Fortunately, Tiffany acquiesced and halted her actions, unmounting me. I breathed a sigh of relief, turning around and sitting up.

              “As I said, it’s not my fault that you tempted me, your was just too cute to not be d,” Tiffany said in a manner that suggested she felt completely justified in her reasoning.

              “How is that even a good ex—” I started, turning around only to realize that she was still completely . I snapped my gaze to the side, feeling the tips of my ears reignite. “—excuse?”

              “Well, if you were in my position, you’d understand,” she stated defensively, “You can me back if you want to.”

              It was then that I understood Tiffany’s sentiment, if only a little; without warning, subconsciously, I pictured myself groping her and what it would feel like. It took me a few seconds to snap out of it, and when I did, I felt even more embarrassed than before.

              “What? No, why … why are you this bold, anyway?”

              Tiffany shuffled off the bed quietly, and I cursed at myself. Stupid Taeyeon. I didn’t even consider that this might be a sensitive topic. Why would I ask that? So much for a psychology minor.

              “Hm, well I guess because your reactions are so cute,” she pondered, although I was relieved to hear her reply in the light-hearted tone she was sporting. “Do you mind? Are you bothered by it?”

              That relief dissipated with her disheartened response. “No no, it’s not like that,” I said in rapid-fire.

              “Oh, so you like it then?”

              “I—what?”

              Tiffany’s unexpectedly cheerful inquiry caught me off guard. Was she acting just then?

              “Wash up and then I’ll take you to my favorite breakfast place,” she said, returning to her bubbly demeanor.

              I sat on the bed dumbly, trying to process our conversation. So, she was just acting and wanted to draw that answer out from me? It wasn’t actually that I struck a sensitive topic? Or maybe she was actually hiding it? Aah, this is why I always told myself to avoid overthinking these kinds of situations…

              “Taeyeon?”

              I looked up at her to see her, thankfully, fully clothed, standing near the bedroom door, peering at me curiously. “Ok, yeah,” I said, climbing out of the bed, “Did you wash already?”

              “Yeah; you can use anything you find in the bathroom,” she said, exiting the bedroom, “But if you want to use the , let me know first.”

              “Ok, thank y—wait what?”

              I froze after fully realizing what she said, regaining my senses a second later to rush out of the bedroom to see Tiffany happily skipping towards the living room.

              “I’m just kidding TaeTae, you don’t have to let me know if you want to use it,” she said in a sing-song voice from the kitchen.

              I silently walked to the bathroom, deciding not to grant her statement a response. I’ve only known her since the day prior, but Tiffany never failed to throw me off guard.

              After I finished everything, something suddenly occurred to me. “Wait, what about work? Do you have a shift today?”

              “Nope, I’m free today,” she replied, excitedly dragging me out of the apartment as soon as I stepped out of the bathroom.

              During the elevator ride down, a thought came to me. How preoccupied must I have been these last two days to not even think about this? A subject matter like this was usually my primary concern; I wanted to inquire about it but also wanted to avoid any topic that might be sensitive. The wording only came to me as we stepped outside the building.

              “Hey Tiffany, why do you feel this comfortable around me?”

              “Hm,” Tiffany pondered, grabbing my hand, “I guess you seemed really sincere to me, and you’re also really cute.”

              I seemed sincere? Really? Tiffany’s first impression of me was when that man—Lee JongSuk—was ‘flirting’ with me, with me being oblivious to the situation. Was I displaying ‘sincerity’ in that conversation?

              A few minutes of walking later, we arrived at a rather homey restaurant. A waitress quickly arrived to greet us and sat us at a table. But, for some reason, Tiffany saw it necessary to sit on the same side of the booth as me.

              “Do you want anything specific?” Tiffany said as she opened up the menu between us, “I’m buying this time.”

              “Not really, you can order what you always do,” I said, trying not to mind Tiffany sitting so close that our legs were touching.

              “Are you sure? What do you normally eat for breakfast?” she asked, turning her head to look at me.

              “Um, it depends, I guess,” I replied, feeling slightly uneasy due to the small gap between our faces, “Mostly Korean food though.”

              After briefly flipping through the menu, Tiffany got the waitress’s attention and ordered. “You know, I just thought of what I would have liked to have for breakfast today,” Tiffany said, reaching over the table to bring the plate laying across the table in front of her.

              I had a bad feeling about this, but I entertained her anyway, “Oh, what is it?”

              “Hm … on second thought, maybe not. I wanted to take you somewhere else today, so I can’t have you barely able to walk.”

              “What?” I said, going over her words in my head, “Why would a meal affect my ability to walk?”

              Tiffany giggled. “You’re so innocent, Taeyeon. It’s so cute,” she said, patting my thigh, “Maybe later, you’ll find out what I mean.”

              No matter how much thought I gave it, I couldn’t pinpoint Tiffany’s thought process; a meal that incapacitates me? Why only me? Or maybe Tiffany didn’t mean ‘barely able to walk’ in the literal sense?

              “Where are we going after this?” I tried, attempting to carefully create distance between Tiffany and me in such a manner that wouldn’t be detected.

              “You’ll see,” she stated mysteriously.

              It took only a few minutes more for the food to arrive: kimchee pancakes accompanied by a glass of milk tea. The plate contained two kimchee pancakes that were approximately 15 centimeters in diameter were prematurely sliced into eight neat, equal parts.

              “Thank you,” Tiffany said; the waitress bowed and departed. “They have a lot of good stuff, but their kimchee pancakes are what they’re famous for,” Tiffany explained, “that’s why they serve them all day.”

              “Tiffany, I can feed myself.”

              Tiffany, who was using the time explaining the restaurant’s kimchee pancakes to pick up a slice to feed me, pouted. “Aw, come on,” she whined, pushing the pancake slice onto my lips, “Just this once.”

              I shook my head, keep my mouth firmly shut.

              “Oh I know,” Tiffany said, bringing the slice to her own mouth, “What about this?”

              I just stared at her as she put the food in and brought it closer to me. What, was she the mother bird and I her hatchling?

              “What do you think you’re doing?” I said, unable to help myself as laughter erupted from my lips.

              “Mm,” she said, pushing the food against my mouth again.

              “Why do you think that this is better?” I inquired, leaning back. This only caused Tiffany to close the gap that I had worked so hard to create, leaning forward. “Ok fine, I’ll let you feed me normally,” I told her.

              Her eyes curved upwards in joy as she removed the food from and once again brought it to my lips. This time, I accepted it, biting down on the kimchee pancake, using my own chopsticks to catch the unfinished part.

              “Oh, and also try their milk tea, it’s really good,” she said, taking a sip of the drink herself. I couldn’t help but notice that the milk tea was also pink.

              “Do you have an obsession with pink or something?” I said after I finished chewing.

              “Huh? I mean, it’s not an obsession,” she started defensively, trailing off at the tail end of the statement to ponder, “… ok, actually, maybe it is, but I mean, you can’t blame me. It’s just a really cute color, isn’t it? Also, their strawberry milk tea is delicious,” she said, offering me the glass.

              Experiencing her passion forced a smile on my lips; it was so pure, unfiltered, and b with excitement, like a child showing her parents her artwork, it felt impossible to resist.

              I accepted it and discovered that Tiffany’s words held some level of merit; it was indeed good, but no more so than I expected it to be. I suspected that Tiffany bias led her to exaggerate the quality of the drink, but I elected to not point that out, nodding enthusiastically after I took a sip. Tiffany smiled, satisfied.

              “TaeTae, your turn now,” she said, pointing to the kimchee pancakes first, then , “Also, just as a note, I prefer the mouth-to-mouth feeding.”

              “I’m not doing that,” I told her, grabbing a slice of the pancake. Tiffany was visibly saddened by this; I chuckled as I directed the food into before realizing something, “Wait, why am I feeding you?”

              “I fed you, so it’s only fair that you feed me,” she stated.

              “But you basically forced fed me,” I claimed, retreating with my chopsticks.

              “Well if that’s how it is, then I get to feed you again.”

              “What? How does that even make sense?”

              My words fell flat on her as she grabbed another piece. However, instead of first attempting to feed me with her chopsticks, she immediately inserted part of it into and approached me.

              “Wait,” I said, scrambling backwards; however, it seemed that I was closer to the wall than I had originally anticipated and found myself unable to retreat. Tiffany, who noticed this, grinned victoriously, her eyes shining with victory as she slowly closed the distance between our faces. “Wait, I’ll feed you, ok?”

              She stopped, carefully dropping the food onto my plate from . “Thank you!” she said, smiling appreciatively, as if she hadn’t just forced my hand.

              I sighed and fed her the kimchee pancake. At the very least, my first few weeks of summer weren’t going to be as boring as I initially thought.

              After finishing our meal normally, Tiffany paid for our food before we got up to leave.

              As we neared the exit, something in my peripheral vision caught my attention. I turned my head and affirmed my suspicions: Yoona.

              As my eyes landed on her, as my luck would have it, she turned and met my gaze. Now trapped, I offered a smile and walked towards the table, Tiffany obediently following suit.

              “Hey Yoona!” I greeted as she stood up. Her companion, a tan female about our age, stood up as well. “How are you?”

              “Hi Taeyeon! It’s been a long time!” she smiled back, “I’m doing well, how are you?”

              “I’m well; you’re still with your boyfriend, I presume?”

              The words poured out of my mouth before I had the chance to think. Why did I say that? What was wrong with me? For someone who thought as much as me, I really was bad about just blurting stuff out, wasn’t I?

              Yoona briefly casted her eyes to the table; even I could feel an uneasy tension between the two of us. Tiffany, who was on my right, shifted, also presumably uncomfortable with the atmosphere. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t know,” she started.

              “You don’t need to apologize,” I told her, “It’s not your fault.”

              “Still…” Yoona trailed off for a second before resuming, “To answer your question, yes, we’re still together.”

              I didn’t know what to think of that. It was in the past, but I could still remember what transpired clearly in my head. “Wow, how many years has it been?” I replied, mustering a happy tone, “I’m happy for you.”

              I meant it; by now, I didn't harbor any ill will towards Yoona.

              “This is Yuri Kwon; she’s a friend I met from college,” she introduced as Yuri bowed.

              “It’s nice to meet you,” Yuri said.

              “My name is Tiffany Hwang, I’m a recent friend of Taeyeon’s,” Tiffany said, jumping in before I could introduce her. I was thankful she introduced herself normally as much as I was thankful of her to take the initiative; I didn’t really know how I would have gone about introducing Tiffany, especially given that Yoona knew of my shy nature.

              “Nice to meet you too,” Yoona and Yuri said, bowing simultaneously. Now that I looked at them, their appearances matched pretty well; if they wanted to, the two of them could probably fool others into thinking that they’re twins. Tiffany and I bowed in suit.

              At this point, I had already run out of topics and was desperately scrambling to find something else; luckily, Yoona saved me as her eyes glanced behind me, “Oh, I think that’s our food.”

              I turned to the direction her finger was pointing to discover a waitress, standing behind me with a tray in hand. “Oh! Sorry,” I said, stepping to the side, “Well, I’ll let you enjoy your breakfast. It was nice meeting you!”

              Yoona reciprocated my words, after which Tiffany and I exited the diner.

              “I don’t mean to pry, but why did it feel so tense between you two?” Tiffany inquired as soon as the door closed behind us.

              “Oh, it was just some high school stuff. You know how it is, right?” I said, shrugging it aside. Tiffany’s eyes remained trained onto me as we slowly walked back to her apartment. Feeling that Tiffany was unsatisfied with that response, I decided to change the topic. “Are we just heading back to your apartment? Didn’t you say you wanted to take me somewhere after breakfast?”

              Luckily, that got her attention. “Oh, right!” she exclaimed, suddenly pulling me in the other direction.

              I readily followed, although I was unsure whether or not Tiffany caught on just how much impact that which transpired in high school had on me.

I hope you’ve all stayed with me thus far; as I said before, the ‘real story’ sort of started last chapter, but here, we get a hint as to some kind of conflict (?)

What do you think happened? What do you think Tiffany thinks of it?

As always, thank you so much for reading! :’) Hope you enoyed!