Chapter 10: For You

I had never really experienced romance before. As a teenager, I never really had a sweetheart relationship with any boy at school. In fact, I never really even took interest in boys at that age. I had never really got butterflies for someone, or found myself melting like putty in someone’s hands, like you see in the movies. I had never gotten lost in the depths of someone’s eyes, or felt a type of longing or want to be with one certain person. Even with Donghae...I loved him…it just wasn’t the type of love I had fantasized about.

I guess I’m just not the romantic type. But even with me saying that…I do wonder what it’d be like if someone did something really special, romantic and cliché for me. I had always wanted Donghae to take me on a surprise holiday to Europe, to Paris, the city of love, or even simply just tell me how much he loved me. Something…anything.

When I first met Donghae, he was nice…handsome…Just not romantic. In the beginning, he would do small things like give me flowers and chocolates, random kisses in public. But now…sometimes when I looked at our relationship…it seemed that we were only together for convenience. Because it was easier.

My father liked him, his parents liked me. We received blessings to get married almost instantly.

The way our relationship worked was kind of like a well-oiled machine. It ran smoothly and we worked and cooperated extremely well. It seemed like things were just falling into place for us, and we already had everything we needed.

We already had a nice house, stable jobs, a secure relationship, approval from our families…but that was it.

I loved him of course, but it seemed like our relationship had no substance. We didn’t really fight that often, which I suppose could be seen as a good thing…but that was only because we didn’t really spend that much time together anymore. The way our schedules worked meant that we would never be at home at the same time through the day…we would only be together at nighttime. But by the end if the day we were both normally very tired and ended up sleeping instead of spending real quality time together. We simply had nothing to argue about.

Our lack of arguments could be seen as a good thing, but didn’t that also mean that our relationship lacked passion?

I had always thought that my love life would be like a fairytale and have several ups and downs…but my relationship with Donghae had stayed at the same speed and height since the beginning. We were…comfortable with each other.

I could picture a future with him, getting married, our honeymoon, having our first child and growing old together. I could imagine it all, but I wasn’t sure if it was because I had never experienced any other type of love besides the one Donghae and I share with each other. I hadn’t had any other type of romance…so I had no idea how it felt.

I sighed, plopping my body down on the soft cushions of the couch.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted romance, I was comfortable where I was right now.

I leaned my head back, closing my eyes and inhaling deeply, clearing my thoughts of romance and whatnot, only for today’s events to come flooding back into my mind.

Taeyeon.

My day had been mainly filled with Kim Taeyeon. And we had made some really amazing progress.

For a start, I made her smile. Well, I wasn’t exactly sure if it was me that made her smile, but she still smiled. It had been small and shy…like she didn’t want anyone else to see. It was cute…adorable even. And I felt happy that I had been able to see the rare smile that belonged to the mysterious Kim Taeyeon.

She apologized to me, and admitted the fact that she had a tendency to push people away because she felt that it made things easier for her. She had unconsciously given me a tiny bit of insight as to how her mind and way of thinking worked. This would provide me with a few more methods and ideas to help her open up a bit more.

And then came the hug. Probably one of the most important interactions between humans to portray emotion between one and other. There are so many different meanings to a hug, but the one that Taeyeon had given me was filled with so much emotion. Like she really meant it, like there was this whole other story and meaning behind it, but I wasn’t really sure what she was trying to show me.

I wasn’t expecting it. She had left me in daze and wondering if what she had done was real. It was only when I got back to my car, did the realization sink into my skull that she had just hugged me.

I sighed again, but this time in happiness. The progress. It was speeding up and I found that I was slowly beginning to gain some understanding as to who exactly Kim Taeyeon was. But I still had such a long way to go.

A smile tugged itself onto my lips. We were finally getting somewhere. I just hoped that things would keep on moving like they were now.

I could feel the vibration of my phone in pocket, rattling the fabric of my jeans. I groaned slightly, heaving out a sigh and lazily slipping my hand into my pocket and retrieving my vibrating phone.

I lifted it to see the caller ID. I furrowed my brows when I saw Sooyoung’s number flash across the screen.  Why would she be calling? Had I done or said something wrong? Was something wrong with Taeyeon? But I had just been with her like an hour ago. Confusion was causing a riot in my brain as I cautiously answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Tiffany?” Her voice sounded urgent. “You need to come to Taeyeon’s school right now.”

“What? Why? Has something happened?” I questioned quickly, scenarios running through my head.

“Taeyeon’s gotten herself into trouble. Just come as soon as possible.”

The line went dead, and I removed my phone from my ear, staring at it for a moment.

Trouble?

Taeyeon didn’t seem like the type of person to cause mischief or trouble. What had she done to make Sooyoung sound so urgent?

* * *

I had just entered the principle’s office, and already I could feel the heavy tension hanging and weighing down on the air. It was stiff, uneasy and I could tell that whatever Taeyeon had done, must have been a serious matter. She was not going to get off the hook easy at all.

The principle was sitting behind his desk, hands clasped as he sat in his rather large brown leather chair, his mostly bal