3 years ago, 2009

Sooyoung woke up with a throbbing headache.

She looked at her surroundings, it was strange and unfamiliar.

Strange, where is she?

It was a neat all white room.

The place had a homely feel to it and it was pretty. There were little home decorations everywhere and photos. Photos of two very pretty girls facing the camera, smiling with big smiles that showed their teeth and the wrinkle of an eye. Their smiles were so wide and happy, even she felt happy just looking at the photos.

“Oh, so you’re awake!” the long hair girl from the picture entered the room, “We were so worried when we hit your car! I mean, Taeyeon and I were fine, but you just appeared out of nowhere and I was quite scared actually, but Taeyeon said to bring you home first seeing as how you do not have any injuries and we’ll send you to the hospital later. She’s quite a decision maker, that girl. I swear she’s too matured for a 20 year old girl.”

“No, I’m fine….” Soo young rubbed her head mildly, was she hearing things?

Taeyeon…. That Taeyeon? But it couldn’t be…the Taeyeon she knows, or heard about, is 23 this year.

Sooyoung rubbed her temples again. It isn’t a possibility…. But could it be… that just perhaps, just… perhaps, “May I know what’s the date today?”

“Oh! Feb 18, 2009, and I’m Tiffany.” The girl with the long hair smiled prettily.

Okay…..so, the impossible had happened.

She had miraculously time travelled back to 2009. She took a moment to calm down. Right, one second. Okay, moving on. (As if time travelling was sucha normal incident in her life, like hopping into a bus)

One couldn’t say that Soo young took things lightly. She was just adaptable like that – yeah right, if you believed that, it seems plausible to say that pigs could fly and do ballet as well.

But it just seems like an easier explanation at this point of time.

Just then, another girl entered the room….

--

Taeyeon…. Sooyoung’s mind went blank.

She was wearing a neat, white tuxedo, and she looked stylishly chic and irresistibly good looking at the same time.

“Didn’t I tell you to change out of your uniform every time you’re home? I don’t want you to look prettier than me!” Tiffany said in feigned pettiness the moment Taeyeon entered the room in her work uniform.

Taeyeon smiled playfully, “I cannot help it, babe, if I’m pretty! But I highly doubt that I can beat you in terms of looks.”

“Oh, stop it, you’re making me blush already!”

“As if you will blush so easily.”

“No, alright, I don’t. But still! We do have a guest….” Tiffany gestured to the girl who was sitting on the bed in a daze, “And my God, we must have hit her so bad, she’s not able to talk anymore! She’s just gaping at us in a stupefied daze.”

Taeyeon placed an arm around Tiffany and examined Sooyoung, “For real? That bad?”

“I don’t know! Oh god, I don’t mind sending her to the hospital… but, there goes our savings. Bye, bye savings. Good bye around the world trip…. Good bye dreams….”

“I’m fine…” Soo young murmured from the background.

Oh god, it Is taeyeon!

Tiffany continued her melodramtic speech, “Imagine, we’ve made it so far away from home… you were so poor and I was no better, what little savings we had, we promised each other that we would make it… and we’re so close…. And now……”

“Guys. I’m fine……” Soo young murmured but Tiffany gave her a long dramatic look, “Do you think that she would ask for compensation…..? And our car that we borrowed from your brother. He’s going to ask us to pay for it, will he….”

“I’ll pass you the money for the accident!” Soo young finally shouted, breaking Tiffany’s trail of melodramatic speech.

Taeyeon smiled knowingly at her girlfriend and then looked at Sooyoung, “No, it’s ok. Tiffany’s just doing all these melodramatic acts intentionally, I’m sorry.”

She nudged Tiffany to stop and Tiffany bit her lower lip with a tragic sigh as if to say: ‘geez, there goes my money making machine…’

“My girlfriend’s a bit…. What’s the word…. Money oriented. She sees the world in dollars and signs the way we see colours and people. It’s as if each person is a walking wallet and she only sees the dollars above them. And, I’m sorry about the accident. It was pretty scary for us as you just appeared out of nowhere! Do you need a ride back? We could send you home.”

Taeyeon offered courteously when Sooyoung bit her lower lip thoughtfully this time, she couldn’t exactly go home seeing as how it is impossible to show up with two Sooyoungs. She wonder how her ‘younger’ Sooyoung will feel about seeing her!

Probably too mind-boggling for her.

She decided it would be better if she stayed with them, besides… she could finally find out exactly what happened to Taeyeon! She seems normal enough now… so what changed her to the current ice cold recluse in year 2012.

“See… the thing is…. I don’t really have a place to stay now. Would it be okay if I stay here with you guys? I’ll pay you $100 a night.”

Sounds reasonable enough to bait Tiffany.

“100 dollars a night? You don’t say…..” Tiffany murmured, falling for the money bait easily, as expected. Her eyes gleamed a little too brightly as she imagined the possibilities of what that amount of cash could do….

Taeyeon just shrugged coolly before saying, “You’re welcomed to anyway.”

She was cool like that.