Tiffany was looking around in the grand ballroom, but there was no sign of Taeyeon or Sooyoung.

“The ‘golden couple’s late”, they said.

“We’re having an open competition tonight. It’s a friendly match… do we have any volunteers?” The MC for the night asked, looking around at the grand ballroom where all the different artistes were gathered tonight.

They looked like gods and goddesses; perfection all rolled up into one – the people that is.

They were prim, polished and they shone like mad.

Especially, Taeyeon and Sooyoung who had just arrived, in Taeyeon’s flashy car – no less, Tiffany thought.

“I’ll volunteer Sooyoung,” Taeyeon said playfully and Sooyoung’s eyes widened in surprise but she took the challenge.

It seemed suicidal to compete against Taeyeon’s ‘new girl’ – she’s Taeyeon’s! Obviously, Sooyoung will win – seeing as how no one would dare to vote for the other contestant…. Which would ultimately make the other contestant look bad.

Therefore, no one dared to volunteer themselves.

The MC looked pathetically from left to right, “Anyone else up for the challenge against Sooyoung or I’ll declare her a winner.”

A lone voice spoke up, “I’ll sing.”

It was Tiffany’s.

---

Everyone knew who was going to win this.

First, Sooyoung’s album did better in terms of sales compared to the ‘disgraced artiste’ Tiffany. Secondly, no one had heard Tiffany really sang before, therefore – rumours were rife that her voice was god-awful.

And so, when Sooyoung sang perfectly, and prettily, everyone was sure that she would be the winner…

However, while Sooyoung received a standing ovation with claps all around, everyone froze when Tiffany started singing…

---

“My god….” Someone whispered, “I’ve only heard this kind of voice a couple of times in my entire years of being in this industry…,” an older veteran said.

Tiffany sang her heart out. She sang about how much it could hurt to love someone this much, especially when they didn’t love you back.

She ended the song by looking at Taeyeon who was placing a coat over Sooyoung’s shoulders.

Her own shoulders sagged, did she mean so little to Kim Taeyeon?

While here she was singing her heart out to Taeyeon, Taeyeon herself only had eyes for Sooyoung…

She stood on the stage awkwardly, and she felt a sense of dread crawling upon her, suddenly, the lights seemed too bright and the air seemed too suffocating. She took a step back, and even before the MC could step up to greet her, she hurriedly went away from the stage and into the backstage to a waiting Jessica….

Really now, where did it all go so wrong?
---

Taeyeon closed her eyes. She grabbed onto Sooyoung’s jacket tighter than she should and Sooyoung looked at her, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. She’s left the stage already, hasn’t she?” No prize for guessing who ‘she’ is.

Sooyoung nodded her head. She eyed Taeyeon knowingly, “If you care about her that much, why don’t you show it, Taeyeon?”

Taeyeon blinked, “I care about her?” she scoffed, “Tiffany means absolutely nothing to me. I cannot care less if she lives or dies...”

And just like that, Jessica smiled when she heard that.

Perfect.

---

“Who’s that girl?” Many older shareholders were looking at Tiffany who was standing quietly at one corner. She shone easily even though she did nothing.

“Oh? That’s Tiffany…” Jessica said to the group of curious shareholders, an idea forming in her head, “She’s my assistant.”

It also didn’t take very long for them to catch on that Tiffany was a ‘disgraced’ artiste seeing as how the great Taeyeon had ‘blacklisted’ her before…

Jessica nodded her head knowingly, “I know… It’s bad to go against Taeyeon, isn’t it? If you ‘groom’ her….. but trust me, Taeyeon wouldn’t mind it. She hates that girl anyway…”

Jessica noted as their eyes brightened up in an all too familiar gleam.

In other words, it didn’t take very long for the wolves to gather around Tiffany like predators fighting for that bit of flesh.

“I’ll make you famous…if you’re able to do what you said you would…” one of them, the bolder one proposed to Jessica.

With a nod of her head and a pill in her hand, she nodded.

And so the plan went on…

---

A/N: Thank you my faithful commentators. ^^ Keep them coming!