35th Piece of the Puzzle

 

MEMORY LANE

 

"Your hair smells nice. It's addicting. What's your shampoo, jelly?"

"Tae! Let's be serious now, shall we? And why would I put jelly on my hair?"

"Who knows, you might be doing it on purpose just so I could eat you." She smirked.

"What? Unbelievable!" Tiffany nudged her by the arm and stood up from the bench.

"C'mon I was just kidding." Taeyeon gripped her wrist tightly, pulling her back to sit again.

"Let's get back to business."

 

Tiffany handed out a piece of paper and a pen. "This is serious stuff."

Taeyeon sat up straight and raised her right hand. "Yes, Atty. Hwang!"

The younger one chuckled. "Not yet."

"Okay then! Smoothy Hwang."

 

"Now, write what I say." Tiffany placed her paper on an empty spot on the bench and so did Taeyeon.

"On this day forward, I, write your name."

Taeyeon paused for a while and looked at her serious girlfriend.

"Write your real name, dork. Not literally write-your-name!"

"How'd you even kno-"

"I know exactly what's on your mind." Tiffany lightly poked her girlfriend's temple."Telepathy?"

 

She continued, "...promise to comply with all the following conditions."

 

"First, I will always be faithful to write-my-name. And never ever look at other boys OR girls."

Taeyeon stopped writing and smiled at her. "So what now, I'll just close my eyes forever?"

"Let me finish okay?" She hissed.

 

"...the way I look at her." They both smiled sheepishly.

 

"Second, Constant communication is a must. We both have iPads so there's no excuse not to video call."

Taeyeon continued writing. "Third, Be honest about everything. 'Nuff said."

"Hmm.." Taeyeon nodded.

 

"Fourth, Set her photo as my wallpaper. And display her pictures inside my bedroom so she's all I'm gonna think about before I go to sleep." Tiffany held the paper with both hands, pulling her face away to check if it's good enough.

 

She then continued, "Contract effective until..." She stopped to think about a certain date. "Whatever. Whenever. Don't mind this."

"What kind of contract is this? So informal." Taeyeon shook her head, chuckling.

"Let's see after four years, TaeTae! Your nose is so gonna bleed at my formalities by then."

"I think it's cute though." The older girl heaved out a deep sigh."The thought of you becoming a lawyer is scary."

"Yah! You think I'll be scary once I become a lawyer?"

"A smokin' hot lawyer? I won't mind."

"Byuntae." Tiffany rolled her eyes.

"But you love it. You're blushing." Tiffany lowered her head, trying to hide her reddened face.

 

The couple signed their names on each other's papers. "I love you, Fany-ah. We don't even need this contract."

Tiffany smiled and leaned in to kiss her lover on the lips. "Just want to be sure. You're mine. Mine only." They stayed that way, smiling like idiots with their foreheads touching. "I love you, Tae."

 

*****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

"Taeng, stop this, will you? You have to move on. You have your own life. You better live for yourself!" Sooyoung was sitting at the edge of the miserable girl's bed. "It's been a month! Stop bumming around and stand up." She kept shaking Taeyeon's shoulders as the latter lay there, lifeless.

 

"What did I do? Tell me... Why is life so cruel to me?" Taeyeon sat up, wiping the growing tears in her eyes.

"Life is not just cruel to you. It is cruel to everyone. You just have to learn how to deal with it in your own way." She patted Taeyeon's back. "It's not the end of the world. We just graduated for Pete's sake!"

 

 

***

 

"I'm just concerned, Tiffany. If you don't mind me asking, ever since we got here, you've been so gloomy. Why?" Siwon walked beside Tiffany as they headed towards the University Cafeteria. 

"I hurt someone. And I'm hurting too, just as much." Tiffany was looking down, trying to hide her tears from her new friend.

They walked in silence. Siwon tried to bear with the pace of the girl who was walking as if she's in the moon.

"Tiffany, whatever or whoever the reason is behind your tears, just bury them in the ground." He tried to comfort her but failed.

 

Tiffany was being stubborn. "No, I can't do that. And I don't want to."

 

"Fine, but let me just help you bring back that beautiful smile of yours, okay?"

 

***

 

 

  "Taeyeonnie, why don't you just take over one of our businesses? You don't need to work as a band man