It was empty, quiet, and the entire scene was hopelessly sad. It was a void, an empty void that was blank like an ocean dried up, leaving behind white washed up shores, caught up in an almost cottony soft blue hue that threatened to fade into oblivion. It was muted, empty and there was an incessant hum buzzing in her ears, almost like an alarm.

Inside, she felt hopelessly empty. Like the sea that had been swiped away.

“Taeyeon?” A band member waved at her and she blinked.

“Earth to Taeyeon?” Someone joked but another quickly nudged the person to be quiet. Didn’t they see the news?

Taeyeon had just slapped a girl last night! A girl from their company for god-knows-what-reasons…

And she really didn’t look like she was in the mood for a round of jokes, or much less a smile.

She looked like the devil in the flesh this morning…

She was usually already pretty difficult to work with, but today, if it was even possible, was even worst than before. One mistake and the next thing they knew, one of the band members had been fired.

“At the rate that she’s going, there wouldn’t be any staff left…” Sunny commented to her boss who was eyeing the situation. For each staff that Taeyeon had ‘fired’…Sunny had to grab him/her to console them.

“Who’s the girl from last night again?”

Sunny looked at the file and her eyes widened, “Her name’s…. Tiffany… it says here that she’s managed to get into our top 5 position. And she’ll be starting to record her trial album soon…”

“Interesting coincidence that her name is Tiffany.” Sooyoung’s dad, who is also the CEO of the company, nodded his head, “Call her in tonight.”

Sunny raised her brow, “But Taeyeon will be here… With Sooyoung.”

“We’ll see what happens then.”

---


Tiffany clenched and unclenched her fists, she felt absolutely like a fool waiting outside the studio for the two of them. They were late; the security guard had said that they had gone out for a midnight spin and dinner.

And as if, one didn’t already get the picture that they were together, Taeyeon had to arrive opening the door for Sooyoung in her favourite sports car, no less.

Tiffany wanted to roll her eyes at this obvious display of affection, but she remained absolutely emotionless.

The key to winning this game was to remain as unaffected as possible. Now, if she could only practice what she preached.

“If the two of you have already played enough, I hope the professionalism in the two of you would remember that this is work, and we’re supposed to record a song together,” Tiffany said simply before walking away towards the studio.

Taeyeon nodded her head thinly, “Okay’ and strode in coolly. She sat down on her seat while placing a special seat for Sooyoung to sit beside her, leaving Tiffany out intentionally.

Sooyoung felt embarrassed by this overt display of affection but she wasn’t about to complain nonetheless, besides, she still didn’t know exactly what’s going on. All she could sense was that Taeyeon and this incredibly beautiful girl probably had a history, and that this history didn’t exactly seem like a good one….

“I know it might seem impossible to notice that I do need to sit as well… so, do you have another chair? Or does your studio only cater to two specific people?” Tiffany asked, narrowing her eyes at Taeyeon pointedly.

Taeyeon shook her head lightly with her raybans on, “I’m sorry, but you’re not working in this room with us. You’re going to be in the other one. I need you to record your part first….”

“Fine.” Tiffany said, grabbing her purse to go to the other room. Couldn’t Taeyeon have mentioned it earlier instead of making her stand by the door like a fool watching them while they settled down?

All the better, she didn’t even want to see the two of them behaving like they were now.

….Two lovers caught up in their own private world….

She felt like strangling herself if she so much as stayed in the same room as the two of them any longer. It was suffocating, watching Taeyeon treat Sooyoung that specially.

She didn’t even realize that she had been strangling the music script that Taeyeon had just handed to her until Taeyeon knocked on the glass window separating them firmly twice. Tiffany jumped a little.

“If you’re ready, you may start.” Taeyeon said coolly, her voice echoed through the speakers in the studio.

Tiffany looked at the music script. Her eyes widened a little, seeing that Taeyeon had composed a horrible song for her. It was so bad, that she wasn’t sure if the tune sounded like a tune that anyone could sing.

However, Tiffany wasn’t going to be that easily defeated either. She sighed, ruffled her hand over her hair and she began…

---

Taeyeon watched as Tiffany ruffled her own hair, and she watched as her hair fell nicely over her face as she stood near the mic. She had to literally tear her eyes away from that scene and focus on the music script.

Damn it, she couldn’t believe it but Tiffany still had that nerve-wrecking effect on her.

It was impossible to concentrate. A few times, Sooyoung had to point out her errors and she felt quite unusually inadequate in what she’s normally best at.

True, she had loosely composed, alright intentionally composed a horrible song for Tiffany, but Tiffany had managed to pull it off entirely by changing her style to indie folksy cool.

Effortlessly, Tiffany had managed to turn the song into a possible hit.

Damn it.

“You’re not doing it right,” Taeyeon said stubbornly.

Tiffany looked at her with a murderous look but she ignored that, “I said you’re not doing it correctly.”

“If I do it the way you have written it, I can assure you, not just the entire world would condemn me, even the tone deaf people would too. This song is beyond anything I have ever heard…. in an absolutely horrible way. And I refuse to sing it the way you’ve written it.”

“I see.” Taeyeon said, removing her raybans and eyed Tiffany as she leaned back on her chair, “Then, would Miss Tiffany like to be the music composer instead?”

“I would if I could,” Tiffany said, glaring at Taeyeon through the glass.

“Guys….” Sooyoung interjected uncomfortably, feeling once again, as though she was caught in the middle and intruding onto some invisible ‘war’, “Let’s take a break.”

“No, we’ll only take a break,” Taeyeon said, “When she gets it right.”

If looks could kill, Tiffany had killed Taeyeon a hundred thousand times and more, but she stuck on with it. Two can play this game.

She sang till her voice turned hoarse, till she could not stop coughing. Even then, she still wanted to sing.

She had to.

… To wipe out this miserable feeling in her heart.