“Taetae, I’m tired. Can’t we just stop for a bit?”

            “Fany, you were the one that said you wanted to go for a walk. Besides, we are almost home” I said, not bothering to look back.

            “But my feet hurt,” she said, pouting. “Please Taetae, let’s rest.”

            “There’s no use in trying to use your aegyo to convince me. Come on. If you stop complaining I promise I’ll let you try the hydro massage tub.”

            “Really?” her voice brightened when she heard my words and, as if her energy had been instantly refilled, she started running. “Let’s go Taetae. You’re falling behind.”

            “I thought your feet were hurting,” I said, maintaining my pace. However Tiffany looked so adorable running up the hill that I couldn’t resist to follow her.

            After a few minutes we reached the house.

            “I’ll go set everything for the hydro massage bath,” she said, while running through the corridor and into the bathroom.

            I smiled at the sight of the excited girl in front of me. And, just like that, a thought hit me. That could be the chance I was looking for. I just had to make sure she stayed long enough on the bathroom in order for me to have time to get everything ready. I had been planning to confess for a long time, but still hadn’t found the perfect moment.

            “Taetae, can you help me with the tub?”

            “Sure. I’ll teach you how to work with it,” I said, smiling brightly. “So, you can control the speed of the water with this switch and you press this button to turn the hydro massage on and off, okay?”

            “Okay. Thanks Taetae.”

            “I’ll leave then. I’ll have dinner ready when you come out of the bath,” I said before closing the door.

            “Can I stay here as long as I want?”

            “Sure. Just take your time enjoying the hydro massage bath,” from the outside of the bathroom, I already was planning what to do.

            “Are you sure you don’t want help with the dinner? I can take a quick bath and go help you.”

            “There’s no need. Just enjoy a long relaxing bath. I’ll call you when I’m ready.”

            “Okay, if you say so,” she said, while entering the bathtub.

            Hearing the soft splash that her feet made when she entered the water, I ran to the kitchen. In order for everything to work I had to be as fast as I could in preparing everything.

            “Ok, so let’s start this,” I said while taking the ingredients of the fridge. “This has to boil before I had anything else.”

            While I was waiting for the water to boil with the meat, I started setting the table.

            Since I wanted everything to be as perfect as possible, I had already packed all the things I needed. Almost running back and forth, between the kitchen and the dining room, I got everything set in short time.

            As I was setting the last candlestick, the water started boiling.

            “Perfect,” I said to myself, while smiling.

            The rest of the cooking went smoothly. I was not an eximious cook, but the recipe was not that hard to follow and so, after a little more than 30 minutes, all that I had left to do was to light the candles and change clothes.

            “Fany, there’s been a problem with my cooking. I guess I messed up the food. Can you please get out of your bath and go put on something fancy so we can go eat out?” I asked from the corridor.

            The sudden noise of agitated water came through the door and a few seconds later it opened.

            “Are you okay?”

            Tiffany was standing in front of me, wrapped in a pink towel, her hair, soaking wet, dripping onto her bare shoulders

            Just when I thought she couldn’t get any more beautiful, there she was.

            “What if I skip the whole dinner thing and rip off her towel now?”The thought came to my mind so appealing. “No, I have to make the right way.”

            “Taeyeon! Is everything okay?”

            “Uh, what? Yes, yes it is. I just got distracted with the TV and the dinner ended up burnt.”

            “But it smells so good,“ she said, sniffing the air.

            Indeed there was a pleasant smell in the hair, but I didn’t want her to know that there was nothing wrong with the food, so I rushed in making an excuse.

            “I know it does but it tastes terribly. Believe me.” In order to make everything more convincing I made a disgusted face.

            “Okay, if you say so.” She flashed her eye smile at me. “I’ll go put on something nice then.”

            Nodding slightly, I moved aside to let her pass and enter her room.

            As soon as I heard the door click, I ran to my own room. Taking off the clothes I had on as fast as I could, I ran to the closet to take some clothes that would be nice for what I wanted to do. If I was going to confess to Tiffany I had to dress a little nicer than usual.

            “Ah, come on! Why can’t I get this damn thing right?” I swore under my breath. I just didn’t seem to be able to get the tie knot right. “I can’t believe I’m wasting so much time with this.”

            Finally I managed to do the knot correctly. Tugging the tie inside the black vest I took a look in the mirror. Black was always what I thought to be the best to wear to a date or something of sorts. Tugging the red shirt inside my black pants, I fixed the tie one last time and ran to the corridor.

            “Taetae, are we going somewhere refined? I don’t think I have clothes to go to a very fancy restaurant.”

            “Just dress something a little more formal than the usual. That’ll do,” I said while I tried to find the lighter.

            “You gotta be kidding me. Now I can’t find the lighter?”

            “Are you smoking?” Her voice seemed nearer the door than the last time.

            “No, I’m not. Don’t worry Fany. I promised you I wouldn’t smoke again,” I stopped moving. My heart beat faster at the thought of her opening the door and finding out everything before it was finished.”

            When the noise of clothes being moved around the closet and drawers being opened started again inside of Tiffany’s room, I realized that she wasn’t coming out of the room and resumed the search for the lighter.

            “Ah, there you are!” This time I was careful not to speak too loud.

            As fast as I could, I lighted every one of the candles I’d laid on the corridor. As I reached its end, I headed for the candles in the four candlesticks that were on top of the table.

            “Ok, it’s all set,” I said, looking at the dining room and at the corridor.

            “Taetae! I can’t decide which dress to wear,” Tiffany’s voice came from inside the room so loud that I thought that she was on the corridor.

            “Close your eyes and choose one of them,” I said, resting my back on the wall. “You look good in anything for me.”

            My voice was so low that it was almost impossible for her to hear it and that was why I was so startled when I heard the door open.

            “What did you say?” She was looking through the one inch gap between the door and the door frame.

            Startled, I looked at her.

          “Uh, I said you look good in any of them. It’s not like you to buy something that doesn’t make you look good.”

            “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She flashed her eye smile at me again and disappeared behind the door once more.

            After a brief moment of silence, the door knob clicked and the door opened. I had to mentally force myself not to let my jaw drop. Tiffany was still inside of the room, the light from the lamp giving something like an aura around her. The light pink fabric of the dress adjusted perfectly to the curves of her body. Her dark hair flowed in waves that framed her beautiful face perfectly.

            “So, what do you think Taetae?” She looked at me in expectation. It almost looked as if she was asking for my approval.

            “I told you you’d look good.” That was not the answer I wanted to give her, but then again, words could not really describe what was going through my mind at the moment.” You look beautiful,” I added after seeing her slightly disappointed face.

            Her eyes disappeared into two curved lines and I could not help but smile at her happiness.

            “Now, come on. I’ve got something for you.”

            Leading her to the candle lighted corridor, I let her stare for a moment in awe.

            “Taetae, what is this?”

            “Just go on; let’s go to the dining room.” I grinned at her. She was so surprised she couldn’t even close .

            When we entered the dining room she looked at me. I couldn’t really tell what her expression was since the candle’s light casted trembling shadows on her face.

            “Fany, is everything alright?”

            “You did all this while I was taking that bath?”

            I nodded.

            “For me?”

            “Well, of course it is for you silly. To whom else would I have set all this?” I said smiling at her, although I didn’t know if she could see it or not.

            “Why?”

            That question got me by surprise. After all the years we had spent together I thought that she would know me better.

            “Well, I was saving this for after the dinner but I guess I can do it now. Can you please sit on the sofa with me?”

            She nodded and moved to sofa. Following her, I allowed her to sit first and then sat next to her.

            “Fany, the truth is that I…Think I might sort of…have feelings for you.” The words didn’t come out as I thought they would. Scratching nervously the back of my head, I looked at her.

            Without any warning she threw her arms around my neck and pushed me into an embrace.

            “It took you long enough,” she said, her warm breath tickling my neck.

            “Sorry?”

            “It took you a very long time to admit that you like me Kim Taeyeon.” Her eyes were once again turned into two curves as she teased me.

            “Yah, Fany-ah! You knew?”

            “Of course I know. Everybody knows.”

            “Then why didn’t you say anything?” I was astounded with what she had said. All that time I’d thought that no one knew what I felt and now I’d found out that is was of common knowledge.

            “I wouldn’t have all this if I’d said something” She explained, pointing at the table and the candles in the corridor.

            I looked at her for a moment. She did have a point. If I knew she already knew about my feeling, possibly I wouldn’t have put so much effort in setting the whole romantic dinner scenario.

            Without any of us noticing, our heads leaned forward and our lips met. The kiss got deeper as we both shortened the gap between our bodies.

            “I love you Fany,” I said, when we broke the kiss to catch our breaths.

            “I love you too Taetae,” she said, leaning towards me again.

 

 

End