Chapter 5

 

“Uncle Hwang. It is so good to see you again.”

 

“It is good to see you too Taeyeon. I hope Tiffany is not giving you too much trouble. I know how that stubborn girl can be sometimes.”

 

“No sir-I mean uncle; she’s not being a bother at all.” Taeyeon said with her best poker face. In fact she was still bothered by the incident that occurred a few nights ago, but she never let it show how it affected her. She would still carry out her duties, and continue her friendly banters with Tiffany.

 

“Oh Taeyeon you are too polite!” Mr. Hwang smiled at the daughter of his best friend as he ruffled her hair.

 

He saw a lot of his best friend in Taeyeon, this was the reason why he offered Taeyeon to move to his native house in the town when he came to know about the accident that killed Taeyeon’s family years ago. Taeyeon was a high school senior back then.

 

He offered her many times to move to the city for college, but the young girl was not very fond of the idea. She said that the cities haunted her.

 

Like his best friend, Taeyeon was fiercely independent and a person of great integrity. On several occasions he has offered to financially support Taeyeon, however Taeyeon has never agreed to receive any help from him.

 

He almost forced her to accept the living space in the town. But that was all she ever accepted from him. Taeyeon was a good student, and on several occasions Mr. Hwang offered to pay for Taeyeon’s college, only for Tayeeon to decline the proposal.

 

Mr. Hwang always thought that Taeyeon’s mom was a gifted cook, and after tasting Taeyeon’s cooking in her restaurant, a couple of years ago, he was sure that the talent was inherent in Taeyeon.

 

Taeyeon fixed her ruffled bangs, and glared at Mr. Hwang’s back.

 

“Don’t think I don’t know you are glaring me Ms. Kim. I know you too well.”

 

Taeyeon laughed at Mr. Hwang’s remark and approached to help with the luggage.

 

She was relieved to see that his belongings were not disturbingly pink like his daughter’s belongings.

 

Taeyeon has always appreciated Mr. Hwang’s support especially during the incident a couple of years ago, when the news about her preference broke into the town, after the messy break up with a girl who was visiting Korea.

 

Its not like homouality is taboo in Korea, it’s just that it is an issue that is still not publicly accepted and talked about. Big cities like Seol are better, but in small towns like this one its hard, to have people that she knew all of a sudden looking at her in a different light, just because of her preference.

 

Mr Hwang was visiting at the time and he stood against everyone, even the elders that he grew up knowing. Taeyeon could never explain how grateful she was and still is to him for that support.

 

She was thankful that her friends never thought of her as any less. It was probably the fact that it is easier for the younger generation to accept such things.

 

It took the people in the town a while, but eventually everyone came in terms with the fact and accepted Taeyeon for the person that she is and not because of her preference and such.

 

Now that Taeyeon thought back to that incident, she wondered what made Mr. Hwang to stand up for her so decisively.

 

Was it because his daughter has the same preference as me? Does Tiffany really like girls, or is she just messing around with me

 

Taeyeon heard that people in the States are a lot more comfortable and accepting toward these kinds of issues.

 

Does she know that I like girls? Maybe that is the reason why she’s messing with me.

 

Taeyoen shook her head at the complicated thoughts.

 

“Don’t think too much Taeyeon! That little brain of yours is going to burst someday.” Mr. Hwang advised the girl, who now concentrated on driving.

 

Taeyeon smiled and nodded.

 

“By the way I like your car. When did you buy it?”

 

“Just last Christmas! I love this car. What do you think about the color Uncle Hwang?”

 

“I think the color is awesome. It is a good change to my eyes, that are always used to seeing pink objects.”

 

Taeyeon laughed at the remark.

 

“I never knew they sold hot pink suitcases. I always thought suitcases are either black or blue, or some earthy color.”

 

“Oh trust me kid! There are a lot of things sold in pink, things that you would never even imagine seeing in pink.”

 

Mr. Hwang cringed remembering the hot pink microwave that his daughter once bought.

 

“Actually in spite of the monochrome of the color choice, she somehow ends up making it look decent. Or maybe it’s just my bias eyes, since she’s my daughter.”

 

Mr. Hwang laughed at his own comment, and Taeyeon laughed along with the kind man.

 ---------------------------------

 

Sonkyu saw Taeyeon’s bicycle and waved at her friend.

 

“Taengoo over here.”

 

Taeyeon spotted her and slowed down and finally got off the bike, she then helped Taemin to get off from the carrier seat.

 

Taemin ran off to where Sonkyu was going, while Taeyeon approached a rather unexpected spectacle a few feet away from where she was.

 

She smiled at the sight. Tiffany was working hard in the field trying to get the weeds out. She somehow managed to get her hands on a pair of pink gloves.

 

 

Taeyeon watched quietly as Tiffany tried to pull out a weed, but it was deep rooted. The foreign girl pouted and tried again, finally giving up with a sigh, wiping off the sweats from her forehead.

 

“Sonkyu-ah this one is not coming off.” Tiffany whined and stood up only to come face-to-face with Taeyeon.

 

Tiffany stumbled a little uncomfortably, probably not expecting to literally face Taeyeon.

 

Taeyeon smiled and stepped back to give Tiffany some personal space.

 

“What are you doing here now? I thought you went to work.”

 

“Yeah I came back to make sure that my best friend is still alive after dealing with you for the past four hours”

 

“Well she’s actually enjoying my company, you can ask her.”

 

“How is it that, when I was here, all you did was whining and crying and now I saw you were actually working diligently?”

 

“What do you expect? You just barged into my room in the middle of the night, claiming that it was already morning, and dragged me in some barn and made me do physical labor. I can’t even lock those stupid sliding door!”

 

Both girls blushed recalling the incident that took place in the earlier hours of the day.

 

Flashback

 

Tiffany was thankful that at least there was internet at the Shim’s house.

 

She went to sleep at 2 o’ clock in the morning, after chatting with her best friend Jessica.

 

It was right when she was really getting into this dream about Inception, she felt someone poking her forehead. She felt elated in her sleep, thinking that finally she was getting grasp of  this whole dream within a dream concept. So good that she can even feel someone poking her head.

 

“Tiffany, Tiffany”

 

She could even hear stuff. The voice was clear and distinct; she was getting almost as good as Leonardo di Caprio.

 

“Tiffany wake up”

 

Tiffany frowned recognizing the familiar voice. It took her a moment to understand that it was none other than Taeyeon.

 

She was confused as to how and why the infuriating shorty was appearing in the dream within her dream.

 

“Yah! WAKE UP” came the voice coupled with a hard poke on Tiffany’s cheek that finally caused Tiffany to open her eyes and see Taeyeon hovering over her.  

 

“AAAAHHH-hmpppph” a very familiar soft palm covered .

 

“Oh gosh! Not that shriek again.” She heard Taeyeon mumble.

 

Tiffany pried Taeyeon’s hand away from and huffed in annoyance.

 

“What are you doing in my room?”

 

“I came to wake you up”

 

“At midnight??”

 

“Its not midnight. It’s 5 o’ clock in the morning.”

 

“5 o’ clock???? Argggahhh” Tiffany felt like pulling her hair in frustration, but she thought pulling Taeyeon’s hair would be a better way to get her frustration out of her system.

 

Taeyeon was still hovering over her.

 

Tiffany pulled hard on Taeyeon’s bang, and immediately regretted her own action as Taeyeon lost balance at the unexpected pull and her face crashed onto Tiffany’s chest.

 

“Yah! You ERT, MOLESTER. Get off me”

 

Taeyeon was flustered and quickly got off the position, and dashed out of the room to cool off her heated cheek.

 

Tiffany shut her eyes and shook her head.

 

She couldn’t believe she had agreed to come to the farm with Sonkyu and Taeyeon last evening.

 

“Tiffany-sshi is everything okay?” came an energetic voice outside her door.

 

“yeah! Sonkyu. I am fine. I will be outside in a minute.” Tiffany replied while getting off her bed.

 

When she came out of her room she didn’t see any trace of Taeyeon but saw Sonkyu with a weird smile on her face.

 

Tiffany didn’t know what to make out of that smile.

 

“what?”

 

“Nothing. At least your face looks less flushed than Taeng’s” Sonkyu smirked at her.

 

Tiffany chose to ignore the comment and followed the vivacious girl, wondering where she got that amount of energy at this hour in the morning.

 

=+++++++++++++++++++++++++++=

 

“ahem ahem”

 

Taeyeon was broken out of her trance.

 

“Oh yeah! How could I forget-“

 

“How could you forget about me noona” Taemin complained.

 

“Yeah how could you forget about him Taeng” Taeyeon turned her head to see Sonkyu looking at her with a teasing smile.

 

Oh yeah! Mission Teasing Taeyeon is on! I have to tell Soo about this.

 

Sonkyu noticed the matching blush on the pair of girls in front of her.

 

Oh no! I don’t want to deal with that teaser right now. She’s definitely going to drag Soo into her team.

 

Taeyeon planned to escape the scene as soon as possible.

 

“Tiffany, this is Taeyeon’s minion. Lee Taemin, and Taemin, this is Tiffany noona. She is from the States.”

 

“Hello Taemin. How old are you? Tiffany crouched down to shake hands with the cute kid.

 

“Hello Tiffany noona! I am 10 years old! You are very pretty, noona.” Taemin blushed when Tiffany ruffled his hair.

 

“Aww looks like our Taemin-ie has a crush on Tiffany” Sonkyu teased Taemin and messed up his hair even more, causing him to pout.

 

Taeyeon helped him his fix hair.

 

Tiffany looked at the duo and smiled. She somehow found the scene extremely cute.

 

Tiffany ended up really enjoying her day out in the field with Taeyeon, Taemin and Sonkyu. Taemin was too adorable to not like. She found it hilarious when Taemin was torn between his loyalty toward Taeyeon and his crush on herself.

 

Taeyeon and Tiffany was working on one side of the field, while Taemin was helping Sonkyu somewhere else.

 

After a while Taeyeon noticed that Tiffany was getting tired and offered her a ride back to the Shim’s house.

 

“You are giving me a ride on that?”

 

“Yeah. What’s wrong with my bike?”

 

“Where am I supposed to sit?”

 

“In the back, on the carrier seat. I put a cushion on it, because that kiddo is always sitting there”

 

“Is that even possible to sit in there?”

 

“Why don’t you try for yourself?”

 

“I don’t want to die.”

 

Taeyeon laughed at Tiffany’s terrified expression.

 

“You are not going to die while riding a bicycle.”

 

“I don’t trust your bike.”

 

“Don’t you dare insult my bike.”

 

“Why are you so protective of your car and now your bike?”

 

“Because I bought them with my hard earned savings. It’s not that easy for me!”

 

Tiffany nodded at the reply. She understood it now. It is just that from a very young age, Tiffany was used to get everything she wanted without even having to ask for it. Money was not something that she ever had to worry about.

 

“So are you coming with me or do you want to stay out in the sun for a few more hours?”

 

“I am coming” came a meek reply.

 

Good thing she wasn’t wearing a skirt today. Tiffany carefully settled herself in the carrier seat and held onto Taeyeon for her life.

 

“Bye Taemin! Bye Sonkyu!” Taeyeon waved at them as she paddled past them.

 

“Yah! Noona! Are you abandoning me?” Taemin yelled at the retreating bike.

 

“I will be back for you after I drop of Tiffany at the Shim’s” Taeyeon replied back while continuing her journey.

 

“I can’t believe noona abandoned me for that pretty noona!” Taemin stomped his feet expressing his disbelieve.

 

“Don’t worry your noona will be back for you in no time!”

 

“Yeah you are saying that so you can make me do your work in the mean time”

 

“That you got correct, Mr. Minion”

 

“NAAAAAAAAAA. I am going to get  back at noona about this!”