Sorry for the super late update. Yes, I died. I had to focus on the contest I am entering and I am submitting today. Everyone, please wish me luck! ^^

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The sun rose from the horizon, showing of its bright orange glows across the city of Seoul. The people of the land started to wake up, making their breakfast and coffee, or getting ready for a jog and otherwise. But for a certain apartment in the southwest of the city, the light went through the window’s blinds of Kim Taeyeon’s bedroom, awakening the person.

She slowly opened her eyes, regaining her memories and waking up the rest of her body. After stretching, she sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Thank goodness that it’s Saturday.” Taeyeon mumbled and stretched some more.

As usual, she got up to start her day with the usual routine her lifestyle circled around. It began with a good glass of black soya from her refrigerator.

“What to do, today…” She muttered to herself as she was walking to her kitchen.

But when she was about to go through the doorway, she collided with someone. “Ah!” Taeyeon squealed, realizing too late that there was a person coming outside of the kitchen and ended up pushing both of them on the tiled floor. “Argh….are you okay?” She mumbled, pushing herself off the floor to hover on top of the person.

Taeyeon met eyes with the person below, realizing that it was Tiffany. It was only then that she remembered everything that happened last night. From the lightning’s light reflecting on Tiffany’s face, to the goodnights they bid each other before going to sleep, she finally recalled.

Everything last night probably just happened so fast to the point that her mind wasn’t able to process everything well.

The person under Taeyeon nodded slightly, rubbing the back of her head to remove the small pain.

“Sorry about that, Tiffany. I didn’t realize you were in the kitchen.” Taeyeon said with an apologetic smile, secretly apologizing for forgetting about her as well.

The person on top slowly got up before helping the voiceless girl to stand back up too. They were facing each other once again, not knowing what to say.

“H-Hm…good morning.” Taeyeon mumbled, thinking it’s the best she could do.

Tiffany only replied with a small smile as she fixed her clothes and hair. “What do you want for breakfast?” Taeyeon continued to speak, not wanting any more awkward moments between them.

The voiceless person stared at her for a few seconds, thinking what she would want. And once she had an idea, she walked towards the fridge, grabbing 2 eggs and showed them to Taeyeon with a smile.

“Coming right up.” The shorter person grinned.

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            “Y’know, you have a bigger appetite than I ever expected.” Taeyeon chuckled, watching Tiffany chow down more than half of the food she made. The one who actually made the food, on the other hand, has barely made a dent on the buttered toast she laid on her plate.

Hearing the comment, the latter blushed in embarrassment before slowing down on her pace by nibbling on forkful of scrambled eggs.

The person in front of her laughed and reached over, patting the blushing girl’s head. Tiffany’s heart paused for a second as soon as she felt the palm on her head—while Taeyeon thought it was just a small gesture.

“So do you want to do anything, today?” Taeyeon asked, finally sinking her teeth into the toast.

The mushroom just gave a shrug, mindlessly eating her food in a normal rate.

“But I don’t know what to do either.” A sigh came out of the shorter girl’s mouth, absolutely blank about the day’s schedule.

“Hmm…” Taeyeon looked around, trying to figure out what could they possibly do with such minimal communication and not one single idea about how to spend the day.

When her eyes set on the box of scrabble, she may have had just the greatest idea ever since they met.

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            “Here we go~” Taeyeon smiled widely, setting the scrabble tiles and mat. “Do you know how to play?” Tiffany shook her head with an innocent puzzled expression. The shorter girl just laughed, continuing with her words. “It doesn’t matter anyway. The point of this board game is for me to know you better.” She smiled.

“And if you can’t spell it out with these tiles, try to find the name or word in these.” Her hands grabbed the two books beside her and placed it on the table, revealing that it was a dictionary and a book of baby names. “Are you okay with this?”

Tiffany looked at Taeyeon for a few seconds with a blank expression…but it slowly turned into an eye smile and a completely agreeing nod.

“Okay…let’s take turns, okay? I’ll ask first.” The shorter girl announced before asking, “How long do you plan to stay with me?”

Tiffany looked at her for a few seconds, but she quickly got the laid out scrabble tiles and spelled out her words. “I don’t know.” Taeyeon looked at the sentence, sighing a little bit. When the silent girl saw this, she frowned a little and spelled out another sentence as fast as she could. “Am I a bother?”

The person across her jumped at the presented words and swiftly denied her thought. “No! It’s not like that!” She didn’t want to think that at all. Taeyeon simply wanted to know when could the girl get back on her feet and start a new life—she only cared for Tiffany’s well being. “I-It’s…Just don’t think that, okay? I don’t ever think you’re troublesome or anything. I’m the one that let you stay, right?”

The frown that was visible on Tiffany’s lips disappeared into a small smile as she nodded. Then, it was time for her to ask a question. “Career?”

“Uhm…I’m in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration.”

As Taeyeon had expected, Tiffany just stared at her blankly. Nobody has ever taken the time to know and memorize a job like that, as Taeyeon thought, so she wasn’t surprised at her reaction at all. She just laughed it off. “You’ll regret asking what it is I swear.” The person of the household smiled. “I’ll just continue with my question. Are you really comfortable staying here with me? You probably have some family relative that’s willing to take you in.”

Taeyeon thought that what she said wouldn’t affect the latter as it was only a simple suggestion, but a bitter smile was placed on Tiffany’s expression.

The mute shook her head, reaching for the tiles. “They all hate me.” The older girl stared at the sentence in disbelief. She didn’t know how to react or what to say. What do you say to a person that seems so sweet and innocent but they actually have a past like this? Anger? Judgmental? Unjustified? Taeyeon didn’t know.

“But…why?” The person across Taeyeon just shrugged her shoulders, still with the bitter smile plastered on her face. It made her heart ache.

Why would anyone even land a finger on somebody like her? Has this world completely gone unfair and cruel? Maybe Taeyeon has only known the girl for only a couple hours but that’s the only thing she could think of. While she’s complaining about her repetitive life, a person like Tiffany had been suffering in the place of her own home.

As Tiffany was already forming her question using the small pieces of wood, she paused by Taeyeon’s statement. “They don’t deserve you.”

Her fingers stopped placing the letters down, and chose to turn back to Taeyeon. “They don’t deserve a person as warm-hearted and sincere like you in their family. They don’t know how lucky they are to have a daughter, sister, niece, granddaughter, like you in their lives.” The person across her continued her words. “And you—you’ve been hurt by them…in what ways have they exactly hurt you, Tiffany?”

Silence took over them. Tiffany chose to hide her eyes, not letting the person before her know what she felt at this moment—since a single gaze can let Taeyeon know everything. But slowly, her hand reached out for the tiles, spelling out plenty of words. “Physically. Verbally. Emotionally. Spiritually.”

As Tiffany placed those letters, her heart and mind couldn’t help but recall every traumatizing memory she experienced. Even though she’s far from her family right now, she was still scared. She didn’t want to feel even a slight touch from them anymore. The pain she received from them was too unbearable. And since the memories weren’t too far from her past, her wronged heart suddenly felt the pain of a memorable emotional abuse and tears fell from her eyes.

Once Taeyeon saw those droplets, she stood up and went over to her, pulling her in for a hug. “I’m sorry.” She whispered, hugging her tighter. “I didn’t mean to dwell in too deep, I-I…I just wanted to understand you better.”

Tiffany didn’t care about Taeyeon’s words—just the arms around her, holding her tightly with warmth made her feel okay already. How long has it been since someone has embraced her? She doesn’t even remember. She only remembers the feeling of her mother hugging her tightly and saying that everything’s going to be alright. And right now…here’s the person that saved her from her hell, saying the exact words she wanted to hear. “You don’t have to experience that ever again. I won’t let you.”

Taeyeon didn’t care if this looked too soon. Once she heard the small truth in the person’s life before she came to her doorstep, she felt the urge to protect her. She knew that not even the worst person on the face of the earth deserves this kind of treatment—so Tiffany doesn’t deserve this one tiny bit. And Taeyeon knew that. Now, all she needed was the person in her arm’s approval and she won’t anybody hurt her anymore.

Tiffany slowly wrapped her arms around Taeyeon, embracing her back tightly and burying her face in the crook of her neck, releasing everything out to her.

And Taeyeon did exactly what she vowed that day.