Tiffany was walking briskly through the crowd while constantly looking behind her and checking if Taeyeon was following her. It was already getting a bit dark. She looked back and forth, quite worried again. She spotted Taeyeon not far apart. Taeyeon was indeed trailing behind but thankfully, she was unrecognizable from the public. She had her green hood up matched with the green mask. The only portion exposed on her face were her eyes. For Tiffany or probably anyone else, she looked more like a green goopy alien than a hallyu star. Tiffany smiled at the idea of putting two springy antennae on Taeyeon's head to complete the outfit.

Tiffany then slowed down her pace so she would be walking side by side with Taeyeon.

Contrary to the worrisome manager, the little green goopy kid was taking her time strolling. Her hands were positioned at her back as she took big steps observing everything around her. She was enjoying her time so much. She saw families together. Appa, umma and their little kid staring at cute souvenirs at small shops. Groups of friends taking wild and wacky pictures at different rides.  Couples holding hands and sharing cotton candies while walking. Everyone around her were free to do what they wanted.

At that moment, she also felt the same; so free, well, somewhat free, just wandering inside the park. Becoming a hallyu star like her would probably be everything that other teens would be dreaming of at their age. Anyone would gladly give up and trade their lives with what she has right now. However, people don't really understand how the world works. Being famous means they have to totally give up their freedom. 

Stars are born to become public's property. Like the heavenly orbs seen in the nightly sky, they shine brightly. They are situated high above making them close to impossible to reach. From below though, anyone standing on Earth could always observe them with either their eyes or with the help of a scope. Anyone can study them, observe them, peruse them, identify them and know them without exactly coming into contact with them. Artists like her are like that. Stars.

They are stars. They're exposed to everyone until they die and don't shine anymore. Once a star dims its light, everyone forgets about it. Books might register the star's name, identity, date of rise and date of death but no one will be able to tell a tale of how that star glowed, on how it has shone its light on dark nights, on how its warm blaze made somebody else feel that they are not alone. No one would feel that way for a star. Unless...unless one decides to fly into the heavens and reach out to touch a star for real.

Taeyeon was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't notice that Tiffany slowed down and was exactly next to her. Her manager took off her own mask and spoke to Taeyeon.

"Yah. Taeyeon, phase 2 is done. Let's finish this. What do you want for phase 3? I'm really exhausted." Tiffany complained as she tucked the mask into her pocket.

Taeyeon stared blankly at Tiffany and realized her manager was talking to her.Taeyeon pulled her mask to allow her to speak but she still covered half of her face from people passing.

"What? Did you say something?"

"I said, hurry up with phase 3. I'm already tired.", Tiffany whined again dragging her feet.

"Oh." Taeyeon could not think straight. She wanted to extend this day a little more so she could enjoy being normal longer. She wanted to be on Earth,  not a freaking star. 

"I have to think of phase 3. Stop whining and be patient. My 7 days  are at stake here." Taeyeon scowled at Tiffany as she pretended to be the lively prankster again.

Tifanny folded her arms. Her gut feeling tells her that something was wrong with Taeyeon. A moment ago, she was so serious and looked pretty sad yet now, she's all disdainful and ready to pick up a fight. She's either really pretentious with her true emotions or purely crazily bipolar!

Nonetheless, Tiffany brought her hand up and patted Taeyeon on her back and gave her an eye smile, hoping it would encourage her somehow.

"Mwoyah!" Taeyeon flinched at the sudden pat. What the heck is this girl doing? And what's with the eye-smiling? Is this girl going cuckoo?

"What? I just pushed you so you could think faster." Tiffany lied changing her gaze in another direction.

Just then, both the girls heard two distinct grumbling sounds. Both their stomachs groused in synchrony from hunger. They were too indulged with running around and performing all afternoon that they exhausted their bodies and forgot to replenish on their food supply.

"I think pushing me to think was the wrong idea. You just pushed my tummy to growl. I'm hungry. Let's grab something to eat." Taeyeon said while crouching forward and rubbing her belly.

"Aish. Arasso. I'm hungry too."

They walked around more until they saw some of the food stalls scattered around the park. They settled for these food snacks as their make-shift dinner. On one of the stalls, they found churros, a fried foot-long sugar coated puffy bread that children love as a snack. On another, they saw that they were selling corndogs, basically a grilled or cooked sausage made with beef that was dipped in floury batter and fried. Then, on yet another nearby stall, deokbokki and kimbap were sold; spicy rice cakes and rolled up sushi, typical Korean light snacks. Taeyeon salivated at all the different kinds of food items as she tugged on Tiffany.

"Manager Hwang. Buy them for me.", Taeyeon pleaded and pointed to each of the food stalls.

"Yah. Buy your own. Technically, I'm on my break today so I'm really just ordinary Tiffany and I don't have to buy you food." Tiffany greedily said.

Taeyeon placed her hands on her hips. "Yah! But you bought the tickets earlier, and I do have my food allowance which is managed by you so whether it's your break or not, by title, you are my manager."

Tiffany was about to argue again but Taeyeon simply pointed at the green bear mask she was wearing. With one finger, Tiffany again lost her case. She couldn't win this court especially if the jury is the public. She stomped her feet in place, frustrated.

"Aish. Quick. What do you want?"

Taeyeon smiled behind the face mask and pointed to different stalls.

A few moments later, they had every item that the stalls sold. They found a bench close to one of the food stalls and occupied it. They placed all the snacks in between them and the two faced each other for their meal.Taeyeon began to munch on the deokbokki while Tiffany picked up the corndog and dipped it in ketchup before biting into it. Taeyeon was holding her mask on the side of the passersby to cover and she had a toothpick with a spicy rice cake on the other. She saw Tiffany bite into the corndog and immediately wanted to try it.

"Give me a bite of that." Taeyeon commanded her manager.

"Huh? Grab it yourself."

"I can't. I have my mask on one of my hands and the other's quite sticky from the deokbokki. Just feed me."

Tiffany's eyes widened. I am not feeding this kid!

Taeyeon teased with exposing her face by drawing the mask away. Tiffany saw this and quickly lifted the corndog to Taeyeon's mouth.

"Ketchup...please." Taeyeon said with a smile. Hahaha...this is the life! Tiffany's already like a tomato. Wanna give up manager?

Tiffany shoved the corndog into the ketchup and slathered it until it was covered in red. She lifted the corndog again into Taeyeon's mouth.

"UUUHHHHMMMM" Taeyeon munched happily as Tiffany put the corndog down. Oooh! Maa!

People passing by them noticed their actions and smiled at how sweet the two gals are at each other. They looked like they were best friends, or sisters, or more strangely, a couple.

Since Tiffany had put excessive amounts of ketchup on the corndog, some of the ketchup had smeared on the corners of Taeyeon's mouth. Tiffany noticed it and casually told Taeyeon about it.

"You got ketchup on your face."

"mwoseul? what? oedisseo? where?" Taeyeon asked, raising her brow and wiping her cheek with the back of her hand.

"Aish....You're such a kid. Come here."

Tiffany stood up from her seat. She leaned in forward, stooping down to level at Taeyeon's face and held up a tissue on her hand. She wiped the ketchup from the sides of Taeyeon's mouth.

Tiffany's fingers grazed on Taeyeon's lips and she realized what she was doing. She immediately withdrew her hand away, crumpled the tissue and threw it in the thrash bin not far from the bench. She sat back down across Taeyeon and grabbed a kimbap, tossed it in and ate it away from Taeyeon's gaze.

You just wiped ketchup. That's all. No biggie. It's just ketchup, Tiffany!

Taeyeon stopped munching. She froze again. Just like what happened earlier in the car, with the scarf.

Dugeun. Dugeun. Dugeun. Crap. Taeyeon, why's your heart pounding like that? Stop that!

They finished the rest of the snacks without talking. It was awkward once again and they both sensed it. Both were still thinking and denying their thoughts on fluttering emotions. They just met yesterday. They made each other crazy and now their hearts skip a beat for each other? NO WAY!

Tiffany cleaned up after their mess after taking the last bite. Taeyeon stood up from the bench and covered back with the mask.

"Wait here. I'll be back in two minutes."

Tiffany nodded without looking back at Taeyeon and she went on to the thrash again to throw the garbage. As promised, the little kid came back in two minutes. Taeyeon had bought a pack of strawberry-banana flavored twin popsicles from an ice cream stall. She broke the popsicle in the middle, opened the pack and handed one to Tiffany. Tiffany pointed to herself and raised her brow.

"For me?"

Taeyeon prodded half of the popsicle again to Tiffany.

"Yeah. Don't worry. I didn't put wasabi or anything. You saw the package. It was unopened". 

Tiffany accepted the popsicle politely and Taeyeon turned around and pulled her mask to le on the ice lolly.

"Gomawo."

They started to walk around again while slurping on the iced candy delight. Taeyeon had finished her ice lolly and stuck her hand into her hoodie's pockets. She felt two pieces of thin cardboard paper. She brought it out and realized that they were the tickets to the laser light show that evening. She looked at her wristwatch.It was already 6 in the evening and the show was going to start at 6:30. She walked in front of Tiffany, turned around and stopped. Tiffany almost bumped into her if she wasn't paying attention to her steps.

"Yah! watch where you're going Kim." 

Taeyeon held out the tickets in front of Tiffany. The manager inclined her head so she could read the label on the tickets. Laser lights show. 

"Manager Hwang."

"Hmmm."

"Phase 3?" Taeyeon shook the tickets in front of Tiffany's face. 

Tiffany grabbed Taeyeon's arm and dragged her towards the direction of the event location. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's finish this bet! I'll win this for sure. I wanna go home and sleep!" 

Taeyeon's POV

The laser light show began. The tickets that were given by the director were actually tickets to special seats for the show. Everyone else could see the laser lights but just a few number of seats were placed under the laser light globe in the center of the Lotte world pavilion. There were just a few of them in those box seats. A family was in front and two couples were somewhere on the sides. Taeyeon and Tiffany picked the back so noone would take notice. 

Tiffany yawned as she pushed her head back to look at the pavilion ceiling. High above, a colossal screen was put up for viewing. Taeyeon watched Tiffany at the corner of her eye. She still can't get rid of the thought of her heart pacing faster. Even sitting beside Tiffany was now making her uncomfortable. She slouched back at her seat and looked up. The seats were really soft and comfy, comparable to those found in the cinemas.  

The whole pavilion darkened. Oohs and aahs from the people around could be heard as they anticipated for the show. A narration began in English. Taeyeon didn't understand it much and Tiffany translated it.

"He said he hopes everyone would enjoy the show and this is kind of a multimedia enetertainment. The title is Galactic Odyssey and it's about the God Jupiter and his battle with the Titans."

Tiffany settled in her seat and yawned again. Flashes of light flickered on the sides and radiated like spasms.  Thunderous orchestral music boomed throughout the space and the globe above them opened up in slits showing tiny specks of light. Two green laser lights shot out on one end and separated radially. A stream of white laser light streaked towards the sky. The green laser lights  danced and dispersed into gill rakes as an image of the God Jupiter formed on the titanic screen.   Taeyeon heard Tiffany rustle in her seat but paid no attention as she watched the screen.

A few more seconds, Jupiter's image disappeared, replaced by a thousand specks of fireflies in the sky. No, they weren't fireflies. They were stars. How ironic, just earlier, she was talking about stars in her head. About how they're way up in the sky. How they're unreachable. How everyone right now in the pavilion are staring up to them. How they're staring up to a star.........like her.

Constellations flashed on the screens, one after another. Starting with Aries, followed by Leo and the rest of the horoscope signs. Jupiter came out again and said a few more lines in an obstreperous voice. The stars vanished and burst of flames spurted from the railings of the pavilion, providing temporary orange hues to the whole hall.

Taeyeon looked over at Tiffany's side. The sudden sunbursts illuminated her face. Dugeun. Her lips glistened like moist oranges. Dugeun. Her cheeks puffy and her pearlescent skin gleamed. Dugeun.

Taeyeon's gaze moved up. Her eyes closed...wait... 

Her eyes were closed. The pretty angelic face was sleeping in the middle of the show. 

Taeyeon stiffled a laugh and was about to wake her manager up but something in her stopped her. On sheer impulse, she lifted the arm rest that was separating her chair from Tiffany's side up and scooted nearer to her. She raised her right limb and carefully placed her hand on Tiffany's arm. She moved Tiffany's body towards her side and Tiffany's head slipped unto her shoulder. Taeyeon readjusted her back and seated herself more comfortably. After settling to a better position, she herself, then rested her temples on top of Tiffany's head.

The littlle hallyu star then remembered the words in her thoughts earlier while strolling. 

No one would feel that way for a star. Unless...

Unless one decides to fly into the heavens and reach out to touch a star for real.

Tiffany groaned and buried her cheek into Taeyeon's shoulders. The danshin froze, nervous that Tiffany would wake up but the latter peacefully went back to sleep.

Taeyeon managed to smile and whispered to Tiffany.

"I'm sorry Manager Hwang. Phase 3. You failed. You lose."

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gif says it all...

my insomnia kicked in again so i wrote the next update and finished it.