BEGIN.

~Cafe.

It was seven in the morning, three deep breaths as she mixed her drink and watched the ice melted on her milkshake, Taeyeon was thinking about what she would eat for lunch until a goofy voice interrupted her daydream.

“Hey, loser,” a girl sat in front of her seat and stole the milkshake on Taeyeon’s hands. Taeyeon was unfazed and that made the girl chuckled and leaned in to tease Taeyeon.

‘I want braised beef, god I’m going to have it later…’ Taeyeon almost drooled until she saw the stupid grin sticking on her friend’s face. 

“O-Oh, Tiffany… Since when were you…” Taeyeon was suddenly aware and self-conscious about the closeness of their faces until Tiffany flicks her forehead.

“Hey, that hurts!” Taeyeon whined as she attended to her aching forehead and Tiffany laughed as she drank the remaining content of the milkshake. Taeyeon’s eyes widened when she saw her empty milkshake on Tiffany’s hands.

Taeyeon pointed out her hand on Tiffany, “That’s my drink!” 

Tiffany gave her a smirk and turned the empty glass upside down to proudly show what she has done to Taeyeon.

No remorse.

“Oops!”

Then, someone walked into the cafe’s door.

A guy with a golden ratio face as Tiffany frantically described Taeyeon and shook her friend’s body.

“W-Who?” Taeyeon asked half annoyed of the fact that she’s a bit dizzy.

“OH MY GOD, HAVE YOU SEEN HIS BICEPS AND HIS PERFECT FACE?!” She followed Tiffany’s eye perspective and saw her friend at work, Minho.

“Ah, him? That’s Minho, my colleague.” Taeyeon calmly stated as she detached Tiffany’s hands on her shoulders.

“You know a hot guy and you haven’t tried to date him?!” Tiffany was in awe as she stared at Taeyeon.

“He...He looks normal,” 

“He’s cute!”

“Aren’t you dating Taemin?”

“We broke up, I asked him for a pizza and he ordered cheeseburger and fries for himself and ate it in front of me. So selfish.”

“It was so hard to get his contacts for you to break up due to that petty reason, I even have to ask the black market for his phone number!”

“He’s too savage for me.” Tiffany shrugged.

Taeyeon looked at Minho and backed at her friend until Minho noticed Taeyeon and called her name.

“Taeyeon!” Minho energetically waved and went towards Taeyeon to greet her.

“Oh, hey. Good morning.” Taeyeon smiled and she saw the looks on Tiffany’s face, she sighed and immediately knew what she had to do.

‘Introduce me,’ the telepathic message said.

“Minho, this is my friend,” Tiffany cut her off, “Hi, I’m Tiffany!” and hand over her hand to shake that Minho took politely. Taeyeon rolled her eyes and said, “Right, so she’s Tiffany, this is Minho, my officemate.” Taeyeon said in a monotonous voice, she just wanted to get over the morning and eat braised beef for lunch.

The guy bowed politely at Tiffany, “It’s nice to meet you!”

And Tiffany gave out a charming smile, “Likewise!”

“Are you going to stay here to have your breakfast?” Minho asked Taeyeon.

“Yeah, Tiffany and I always have breakfast together,” Taeyeon smiled then she saw that annoying look on Tiffany’s face again.

‘Ask him to join us,’ Tiffany’s telepathic message said.

‘Do I always have to play cupid?’ Taeyeon scoffed but did her friend a favour anyway.

“Would you like to have breakfast with us?” Taeyeon asked.

“Is it okay? I don’t want to intrude.” Minho looked at Taeyeon and Tiffany.

“OF COURSE!” Tiffany answered right away and Minho sat beside her and looked at the menu.

“Thank you,” he said.

Taeyeon’s ordered an americano and a strawberry shortcake for her breakfast. Bitter and Sweet. Sweet, because an hour has passed in the morning and she’s getting close for lunch to have her braised beef. Bitter because her breakfast consisted of Tiffany flirting with the Minho, ‘The Guy with Golden Ratio Face’. 

What even is that? So, when Tiffany finally looked at her instead of Minho’s face, she raised her cup of bitter coffee and sent a telepathic message to Tiffany.

‘A toast to me being a legendary third wheel and heroic wingman!’ Taeyeon huffed and drank her americano straight.

When Minho left, Taeyeon was pinched all over by her friend and shook her soul out of her body.

“God, Taeyeon. He’s so cute!” Tiffany squealed and Taeyeon wheezed.

“You owe me a soul, I think it left my body when you shook me,” Taeyeon said lifelessly but Tiffany said the words that made Taeyeon reach the cloud nine.

“Hmmm...Would you like to have braised beef for lunch? It’s on me.”

‘Free food? Free braised beef? Hell yeah! But how did Tiffany know her craving?’ it seems like Taeyeon’s telepathic message was read by Tiffany and the girl gave her a grin, “You were thinking how did I know? You often think out loud, loser.” she teased.

“FREE BRAISED BEEF!” All the excitement was written on Taeyeon's face.

‘I guess, being a wingman paid off!’

***

~Club.

It was Taeyeon’s payday and Tiffany, her best friend, knew what to do. Ask her friend to get down on a downtown bar for free alcohol.

‘Drink til you drop’ that’s how Tiffany coined the term of having fun during payday. Taeyeon seems to be fine about the idea. She would always say in her drunk state, “A person who never loves a short never loves a tall.” That's what she always says every time she gets teased by Tiffany for her height.

Having drinks at the bar, Tiffany saw a beautiful girl on the dance floor.

“She’s cute,” she said dreamily and Taeyeon drank her vodka straight like her liver was made of steel.

“Who?” Taeyeon asked and followed Tiffany’s line of vision.

Tiffany pointed and whispered to Taeyeon, “That girl in pink.”

“Oh, Jessica?” Taeyeon knew the girl in pink and that surprised Tiffany.

“Wait, you know her?”

“She’s my neighbour, my land lady’s daughter to be exact,” Taeyeon said and coaxed the waiter to give her one more shot.

“Wow, can I have her number?” Tiffany pleaded as she leaned in and hugged Taeyeon’s arms in desperation and Taeyeon raised her brows.

“Aren’t you dating Minho?”

“Not anymore, he snores so loud.” Tiffany sighed disappointingly.

“So now, you want to date a girl?” Taeyeon asked and was met with another question by Tiffany.

“What’s wrong with dating a girl?”

Taeyeon was shocked. All her life, Tiffany has been straight. She didn’t know that her best friend could go both ways. A question was starting to pop inside her head until she was disturbed by Tiffany’s grinning face again.

“So, can I have her number?”

“I only know landlady Jung’s number.” Taeyeon hesitantly said and she saw that annoying looks on Tiffany and a telepathic message was received by her stupid brain.

‘Ask her for me, please.’ Then she saw Tiffany’s puppy eyes.

“What should I say?” Taeyeon sighed.

“Tell her you cannot contact landlady Jung for your rent payment so you’ll ask for her number instead.” Tiffany’s ‘smart’ idea formed and the plan was made.

Taeyeon made her way to the dance floor to talk with Jessica, she lightly tapped the girl’s shoulder to call her attention but the bodies swaying hit her and she got all over the place and landed on the top of the girl her friend was pinning.

“ert!” Jessica screamed when she felt Taeyeon’s hand accidentally went on her .

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” Taeyeon stood up immediately and was about to bow in apology until a fist hit her face and she fainted.

The last words she heard were the banters from Jessica and her friend, “Oh my god, Taeyeon?! I’m so sorry! Geez, Yuri. She’s my neighbour!”

“But you screamed ert!” Yuri’s eyes widened as she looked at Taeyeon and Jessica and another girl approached Taeyeon.