Chapter 2: Memories
Motivation
I snuck another look at Taeyeon. Her eyes burned holes into the road in front of her, knuckles white from grabbing the wheel tightly, tightly shut in concentration. Whaa, she's so cute!
Taeyeon recently turned eighteen, which means she has permission, from the state, to drive more than 1 non-family member in a car at a time. So, she offered to drive Tiffany and I to the freshmen orientation at Stanford. Since we all went to the same high school, we lived relatively near each other.
Tiffany had offered to have her personal driver to send us there, but Taeyeon, like the gentleman (or I guess, in her case, gentlewoman) she was, told us that she could send us.
"Relax a bit, Taeyeon-ah!" Tiffany's voice called out from behind me, giggling a little. Taeyeon immediately turned a bit red and loosened her grip on the steering wheel, returning a healthy color to her hand again. "Why were you so up-tight?"
"I'm nervous for the orientation ..."
I patted her shoulder. "Aw, don't be worried TaeTae. We'll go through this together, right?"
Taeyeon nodded excitedly. "Deh. Hwaiting!" She exclaimed, letting go of the steering wheel with one hand to pump her fist.
Tiffany and I laughed. "Hwaitaeng!"
0*0*0*0
A tan-colored tower loomed ahead of us, a grass-covered arch showing us the legendary Stanford University. Enormous palm trees lined the sides, dwarfing lamp posts that stood in the middle of the palm trees. A more sheltered way to reach the entrance was guarded by these palm trees, accessible by more open arches. Light-brown benches sat in front of the palm trees.
We took a second to stare at the building. True, we've been here before, but the thought of being a student at the famous Stanford ... it blew my mind. People were shuffling towards the university, some freshmen like us also taking the opportunity to stand in amazement, either at the building or the fact that they are actually at Stanford.
"C'mon guys! Let's go!" Taeyeon said, pulling Tiffany's and my hand. I jumped a little at the contact; her skin was so soft ...
We were dragged all the way to the auditorium by an excited Taeyeon. Some people gave us looks as we walked to there (I mean, I couldn't blame them; think about it. A shorty pulling two taller, older looking girls), but Tiffany just gave them all smiles. I swear I saw someone faint as Tiffany smiled at him.
She tended to have that effect on people. In fact, I think some girls from our high school liked her.
I, however, just looked at them without emotion. Which for me, as I was told, was quite scary. I was nicknamed the "Ice Princess" at our high school because of this.
They noticed me and walked away from us slowly, whispering to each other, probably because of the aura I was giving off. Well, my mom told me to never talk to strangers. Although I don't really see how that allows you to make friends, I translated her advice into something like 'don't talk to suspicious people'.
The exception was Taeyeon.
I first noticed Taeyeon on the first day of middle school during lunch, where she was trying to find a place to sit. The strange thing was, though, was that she kept coming around our table. Tiffany, being the warm-hearted person she is, told her to join us. I wasn't particularly happy at first, but when I got to know her more, I opened up.
But before Taeyeon joined our little 'group', Tiffany and I were the best of friends ever since kindergarden. This was mainly because our parents were good friends, and since they met up a lot, Tiffany and I were almost forced to become friends.
Now that I think back to it, I might have never been straight. I mean, I had a boyfriend or two in high school (the reason I say 'or two' is because he didn't really act like a boyfriend), but I never really loved them. I just agreed to be their girlfriend for the sake of saying that I had a boyfriend.
But anyways, back to what I was saying. When I had first seen Tiffany, even as a kid, she was ... stunning. She still had that warm, brilliant, dazzling, blinding smile that managed to capture everyone's heart, and she was as cute as a child could get. In fact, I can still remember the first day I met her ...
~flashback~ *Jessica is at Tiffany's 4th birthday party*
"Where are we going?"
"Didn't we already tell you?"
"Noo ..." I whined
"We're going to mommy's friend's house," my mother explained to me.
I mentally went over what she had said. Mommy's friend ... and her daughter.
"Oh," I said, still disappointed that I didn't get to spend more time with Donghae oppa. In fact, I had been planning to go to his house today. Normally, my parents wouldn't allow me to just walk somewhere, but Donghae's house was different. We were neighbors with him, so it wasn't a long walk; and since I had secretly walked to his house when mommy and daddy where fighting sometimes, they just sighed and didn't try to stop me afterwards.
As I was putting on my shoes, mommy asked me where I was going, and I responded that I was going to Donghae oppa's house. Instead of smiling and nodding like she usually does, she told me that we were going somewhere.
I whined for a bit, and was about to throw a tantrum when my mom produced a cucumber out of nowhere. I instantly complied.
Cucumbers ... they were so ... unnatural. They were green, but they were long and ... I just disliked them, for whatever reason. My parents used this against me sometimes, which wasn't fair.
So now, I was sitting in the car, bored out of my mind when we suddenly pulled up to a very big house. Shocked, I pressed my face against the window to get a better view of it. It was so big ... and we were friends with this family?
When my dad parked the car, I lazily stepped out into the autumn breeze. The size of the house struck me once again: I have never seen a house this big before. Even the yard was huge: a perfectly mowed lawn lay before my eyes, filled with various flowers, trees, and of course, the greenest grass one could ever imagine.
On that lawn was a girl about my age. She had dark hair, small eyes ...
"Go on," I looked up at my smiling parents. They nudged me towards the small girl. "That's Tiffany. Go say 'hi' to her,"
I complied and began to walk towards her. But before I could reach her, she noticed me and started running. I froze, a bit shocked that someone would come and greet me. Usually, people my age stayed away from me, for some reason. But Donghae oppa always played with me, which is why I like him.
She approached me. "Hi! I'm Tiffany Hwang. What's your name?" Tiffany asked, followed by a smile. But her particular smile was ... breath-taking. While she smiled, her perfect, white teeth seemed to shine as her eyes were lifted into two dark crescents. I stared at her before realizing that I had to respond.
"H-Hi. I'm Jessica Jung," I told her. She laughed a little.
"Hi Jessica!" She greeted enthusiastically. She had a loud voice; usually, I disliked loud voices because they disturbed my peace. But for some reason, I didn't mind Tiffany. "You're funny," she told me. Then, "and pretty." I felt my face turn warm. Pretty? my heart swelled with joy. I had just learned the word when last week, a relative came over and told me I was pretty. I asked my mom what it meant, and she told me 'it means you look especially good'.
Even though it didnt' sound like much, Tiffany calling me pretty made me very happy, for some reason.
I wanted to call her pretty, too, but then, she grabbed my hand. "Come on! Let's go play!"
~end flashback~
From then on, we spent more and more time together. I even ditched my favorite oppa, Donghae, sometimes to spend time with Tiffany. Of course, this could be described by the fact that Tiffany and I were the same gender, and people of the same gender tend to be friends quicker, but Donghae was the first friend I ever made, not to mention my closest one. Well, that is, up until Taeyeon.
"Yah! If you keep walking, you'll hit the--"
My head hit something as I was suddenly flung back, as if an invisible hand wrapped itself arond my stomach and pulled me back. I landed on the ground, but the pain wasn't concentrated on my bottom, but my forehead. "Owh..." I moaned, gripping my head painfully.
Taeyeon and Tiffany giggled. "How do you manage to space out while walking?" Tiffany asked.
Taeyeon patted her shoulder. "Let's not disturb her thoughts. Who knows what could be going on in there?" Tiffany turned a bit red.
It took me a second to process what she just said. "YAH!" I yelled, and chased them inside the auditorium.
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