When Taeyeon opened the door to her apartment, she was greeted by yet another silence. She thought she had grown used to it but, in reality, she had not. She removed her shoes at the doorway and then slowly stepped inside the house.

The sight of the woman sitting on the coach, thoroughly engrossed in her work, stopped her in her tracks. She stood still, unsure of how to greet the other woman.

Tiffany took a brief glance up when she sensed that Taeyeon had stayed immobile for some time in front of the doorway. Their gazes met, and Tiffany turned her attention back to the laptop.

Taeyeon exhaled deeply and cleared . “Have you had dinner?”

“Yeah.” The response was short.

“Okay.”

“You?”

She gave a little nod, then came to the realization that Tiffany wouldn't be able to see her response since the woman wasn't looking at her. “I have.” After a moment of silence, she dragged her legs towards their bedroom before getting into the shower.

That night, while she was lying on the bed, unable to sleep, she turned to face the woman who was soundly sleeping next to her. She observed the woman’s back and wondered what went wrong.

They hadn't been acting like themselves in the last few weeks. She couldn't tell if they were trying to be cautious so as not to hurt each other or if they were deliberately acting recklessly to hurt each other.

Their interactions had gradually decreased with each passing day, matching the deterioration in their physical affection. She was unable to recall the last time that she had kissed her. She stopped doing that when none of the kisses were as passionate as they used to be, and she knew that Tiffany could sense it too and was silently agreeing with her.

Her heart ached as she thought back to that one morning when she woke up and find that Tiffany had quit her habit of snuggling up to her in her sleep. But then again, she was also responsible for that because the urge to pull Tiffany close to her had long faded.

She sighed inwardly, rolled over onto her other side, and tried to get herself to sleep.

The following morning, she woke up with an empty space on the other side of the bed. She heard a clatter, knowing that Tiffany was the reason behind the sound. She huffed and rubbed her eyes in an effort to shake off her sleepiness and frowned when she realized that her alarm hadn't rung that morning.

Taeyeon took her phone and looked at the screen. It’s Sunday. Maybe today? she thought to herself.

She'd been bracing herself for days in case Tiffany would drop the bomb on her without warning. She figured that since Tiffany was home and they weren't in haste to get to work like they often were, it would be the perfect day for Tiffany to ask for a breakup. Or maybe she will avoid being in this house like she has for the past few weekends.

She got out of bed, slowly made her way out of the bedroom, and walked towards where Tiffany was.

"I'm making pancakes. Do you want any?" The woman who was standing in front of the stove, facing away from her, asked. That was probably the longest sentence Tiffany had uttered in the last few weeks.

Taeyeon stopped herself just in time to prevent herself from nodding, aware that Tiffany couldn't see her response. "Yes."

She quickly went to the bathroom to relieve herself. When she returned to the kitchen, she noticed that a plate of pancakes had already been set on the dining table while the other woman was still preparing another batch of pancakes for herself. “Thank you.”

A small hum could be heard coming from Tiffany.

Taeyeon sat down at the table and contemplated whether to start eating or wait for the other woman. Does she even want to share the same table as me? She sighed inwardly and decided to be polite and wait for Tiffany to finish preparing her own breakfast.

As soon as Tiffany had finished what she was doing, the woman made her way awkwardly to the table, placed her plate down, and sat across from Taeyeon, all the while attempting to avoid looking at the latter.

Taeyeon had to stop herself from sighing out loud. She started eating while scrutinizing the woman in front of her. Shortly after, she saw Tiffany hesitantly open to say something, and her heart stopped, thinking that it was truly about time for Tiffany to put an end to everything. She was puzzled when the woman closed and resumed eating.

Why are you hesitating? Taeyeon frowned.

She had considered discussing their relationship with Tiffany, but there was a fear that there would be no way to fix it once they talked things through. That would be even more devastating for her. Besides that, she didn't want to be the one who brought an end to the relationship between the two of them. Despite the fact that their current circumstances had become emotionally draining for her over the past few weeks, she didn't want to voluntarily let Tiffany go.

She then wondered about the next steps that should be taken following the breakup. She had plotted the way to react in case it really happened because that was all she had been thinking about, making up all possible scenarios in her head on how Tiffany would ask for a breakup and how she ought to handle the situation. But the thought of what should be done after that had never crossed her mind.

Now that she was thinking about it, it dawned on her that if they split up, it meant that one of them should leave. She made up her mind right then and there that she would be the one to pack things up because she didn’t want to live painfully in a place with a full memory of them.

Believing that she would need a lot of time to get used to living without Tiffany, she made a mental note to start looking for activities that would distract her from thinking about the woman. Then, she began to wonder whether her best friend, Sunny, would let her move in and take her as a roommate.

The sound of the chair being pushed brought her out of her thoughts. She looked over at the other woman, who had begun washing the dishes. "Leave it there, I'll take care of it later," she said, speeding up her eating.

“It’s okay. I’m almost done,” Tiffany said.

When Taeyeon stood up from her seat and moved towards the sink after she had finished eating, Tiffany reached out for her plate.

“I will do it,” Taeyeon said, causing the latter to pause in her movement.

Tiffany responded with a nod before turning off the water and walking past Taeyeon.

Once Taeyeon had completed washing the dishes, she went into the living room, where she found Tiffany watching TV. "Are you not planning on going out today?" she questioned, trying to make small talk.

Tiffany just shrugged without taking her gaze from the screen.

Taeyeon waited for a while and let out a sigh as it became clear that Tiffany was not interested in continuing the conversation.

She moved to sit beside Tiffany and tried to focus on the show but couldn’t do so since her thoughts were preoccupied with the woman next to her. She turned her head and stared at Tiffany.

She was positive that she had done nothing wrong because things had happened out of the blue. They didn't get into any arguments, and she knew she hadn’t offended or upset Tiffany because if she had, the woman wouldn’t let her live in peace. It would be better if that were the case instead of being left hanging like this, not knowing the reason behind the unspoken things between them.

It felt like watching a movie where the couple had fallen out of love, she thought. Yet she didn't think they were out of love, at least not in her case, because the thought of losing Tiffany still terrified her, no matter how much she had prepared herself. She wanted to blame Tiffany, but couldn’t, knowing deep down, she was a major contributor to what had taking on between them as well.

Tiffany turned her head and raised her brows when she sensed Taeyeon's eyes on her.

Taeyeon shook her head and rose from her seat, making her way to the bedroom. She couldn’t stand the tense atmosphere and decided to clear her mind by taking a long, hot shower.

After taking a shower, she returned to the bedroom while glancing swiftly at the still woman on the couch. She took her phone from the bedside table, lied down on the bed and began researching exciting activities that she could participate in to get her mind off Tiffany once they ended their relationship.

About an hour later, Tiffany entered the room and headed straight for the closet to change her clothes.

“Are you going out?” Taeyeon asked.

A nod.

“Alone?”

Another nod.

Taeyeon got out of bed. "Can I tag along?" she asked, halting the other woman’s movement. The prolonged period of silence that followed left Taeyeon somewhat discouraged until the other woman finally broke it with an "Okay."

"Let's head to the mall and get some lunch later," Tiffany suggested as she stepped out of the apartment and towards Taeyeon’s car, where it was parked.

"Sure," Taeyeon replied, trailing silently behind Tiffany.

The ride to the mall was deafeningly quiet. Taeyeon began to think that maybe spending some time around Tiffany was a bad decision. The lunch was awkward as well. They completed their meal in silence, probably giving the impression to those who were witnessing the two together, that they were strangers who were forced to sit at the same table. Heck, even total strangers could at least make an effort to strike up a conversation with one another, Taeyeon thought.

"Do you want to go somewhere else?" Again, Taeyeon was the first to speak up.

“Can you drop me at Sooyoung’s? I’ll be back after dinner.”

"How are you going to get home?" Taeyeon asked as they were entering the car. She silently wished that Tiffany would ask her to fetch her up.

Tiffany shrugged. “I’ll ask Sooyoung or take the subway.”

Taeyeon suppressed a sigh and started to drive in silence to Sooyoung’s house.

Later that night, as Taeyeon was getting comfortable in the bed, she glanced at the sleeping woman's back. She let out a sigh of relief, as nothing heartbreaking had transpired on that particular day, and she was able to keep Tiffany by her side for at least another day.

----

Taeyeon leaned back on the seat and shifted her body into a more comfortable position. She gulped as she recollected what had taken place less than three hours ago. She sighed and stared into space, ignoring the people around her.

“Taeyeon!”

She jerked at the familiar voice and searched for the source. She looked to her right to see Tiffany sprinting towards her and let out a curse when she felt a strain on her neck.

"Are you okay?" Tiffany anxiously asked as she approached Taeyeon, noticing the cast on her left arm.

Taeyeon nodded stiffly to avoid putting pressure on h