Chapter Eighty
 
They stopped in front of the large waterfall which was located at the far end of the lake. Taeyeon removed her arm from Tiffany’s waist and held her hand instead. “Come with me.” She said and slowly glided through the waterfall, pulling Tiffany with her.
 
Though confused by Taeyeon’s action, Tiffany decided to follow the sorceress anyway as she believed Taeyeon would not harm her.
 
Tiffany closed her eyes automatically when she passed through the falling water and opened them immediately when she felt nothing hit the top of her head.
 
“We’re here.”
 
She looked up and saw Taeyeon standing on the rocky ground behind the waterfall. She swam forward and planted her palms on the ground, before pushing herself out of the water with the help of Taeyeon.
 
“What is this place?” Tiffany asked curiously as she observed their surroundings. It looked like there was a cave behind the waterfall and it seemed to be pretty deep.
 
Taeyeon wrapped her arm around Tiffany’s shoulder and slid her hand up and down the latter’s arm, rubbing her, ensuring that she wasn’t feeling cold from the water on her body.
 
“This is my secret home,” Taeyeon answered the hunter’s question while leading her further into the cave. “I discovered it by accident after swimming behind the waterfall one day, so I decided to make full use of it, turning it into my other home in case I don’t feel like staying out there.”
 
“So what do you have in here?” Tiffany squinted and tried to see through this cave, but it was too dark for her to see anything. “I can’t see anything.”
 
“Hold on.”
 
Tiffany felt Taeyeon stopped at her track, so she stopped as well. She heard a faint click from Taeyeon and the cave lighted up immediately. Tiffany looked towards the light source and found torches on the wall of the both sides of the cave.
 
“Come,” Taeyeon held Tiffany’s hand and pulled her close. “The fire can only last for a short while. They will go off one minute later, but we should be able to reach its core by then. There’s an opening at the top of the cave, so don’t worry about the lights.”
 
They continued their way down the path of the cave and reached the destination just as the fire went off. But, just like what Taeyeon had mentioned, the place was sufficient of light. Fire wasn’t needed at all.
 
“Wow.” Tiffany was amazed by the scene in front of her.
 
The cave might not be as big as Taeyeon’s house, but it was definitely a huge one as compared to the regular caves which she had been to. There was a small campfire on the left side of the cave, directly under the big opening which allowed light source to enter the cave. A small dining was positioned right in the middle of the cave. There was a single bed as well, located on the other side of the cave facing the dining table. A large drawer stood a few meters away from it, leaning against the stone wall.
 
Overall, it could be considered as a perfect room for the single since it comprised of the necessary equipment for living.
 
“Let’s change out of our wet clothes first.” Taeyeon led Tiffany to the drawer and pulled out one of the slots. She took out two towels and two sets of clothes, passing one of each to Tiffany. “Good thing I’ve added them in my drawers last week, or else we’re going to shiver till who knows when.”
 
Tiffany took the clothes in her hands and scanned around the cave. No doubt this could be considered as a perfect room, but…
 
“You don’t have a bathroom here?”
 
As perfect as it seemed, the lack of bathroom ruined its perfection.
 
“I didn’t plan to stay here for a long period of time, so I didn’t make one.” Taeyeon shrugged nonchalantly and pulled off her wet shirt over her head. “Besides, I can always go home if I need the bathroom.”
 
“Oh…” True, her house situated right outside this cave. If there was a need of anything, she could always go back home.
 
Taeyeon was drying her upper body when she noticed Tiffany was stoned on her spot, not a single inch moved. Confused, Taeyeon wrapped the towel around her shoulder and approached Tiffany. “What’s wrong?”
 
“Huh? Um…” Her cheeks turned red uncontrollably.
 
Her reaction easily answered Taeyeon’s query. A mischievous grin was immediately formed on Taeyeon’s face as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Tiffany’s waist.
 
“Don’t tell me… you’re shy?”
 
Tiffany’s eyes widened upon the question. She turned away from Taeyeon and looked elsewhere.
 
Clearing , she answered, “I’m not.”
 
Taeyeon chortled to herself and buried her face against the nape of Tiffany’s neck.
 
“You’re still as shy as ever.” She tightened her hold around Tiffany’s waist and inhaled a deep breath out of reflex. “I miss doing this.” She sighed in relief. Despite many years had passed and Stephanie had a new body, she still smelled the same.
 
Tiffany did nothing to stop her. She was secretly smiling to herself for she knew what Taeyeon meant by her previous sentence.
 
“Phanie-ah…”
 
“Hmm?” Tiffany caressed the arms that were around her waist.
 
Taeyeon inhaled another deep breath as she buried her face further onto her nape. She couldn’t deny her feeling anymore. She missed this. She missed her. She missed every single part of her and their original life.
 
“Phanie…” Taeyeon whispered gently as she closed her eyes. Without warning, she pressed her lips onto the bare skin of Tiffany’s neck.
 
“Taeyeon!” Tiffany let out a soft gasp, gripping Taeyeon’s arms tightly with her hands. “Tae… Taeyeon…” Taeyeon’s kisses were taking her breath away. Tiffany held onto her breath unconsciously while enjoying the warm object on her skin. She bit on her lower lip and squeezed her eyes closed, trying to prevent herself from letting out any sound. However, she failed terribly when a familiar object brushed across her skin.
 
“Ah!”
 
Tiffany moaned loudly and gripped onto Taeyeon’s arms even tighter. The sorceress’ arms were turning red from it, but she didn’t seem to mind at all.
 
Her focus was only Tiffany. She loved how Tiffany reacted to her constant teasing.
 
Finally satisfied with the work she done on the nape of Tiffany’s neck, Taeyeon turned Tiffany around and pulled her in for a kiss directly on the lips.
 
Tiffany reacted by returning her the kiss passionately. Her hands, which slipped down to Taeyeon’s waist after Taeyeon turned her around, were roaming around Taeyeon’s bare torso, feeling the soft and smooth skin tenderly which she hadn’t had the chance to do so the previous night.
 
On the other hand, Taeyeon had slipped her hands under Tiffany’s shirt, wanting to caress her like how she did to her, but the wetness of the shirt was hindering her as it was sticking to Tiffany’s skin. Annoyed, Taeyeon broke away from the kiss hastily, causing Tiffany’s beautiful brows to draw together.
 
“Tae…” A pout was formed almost naturally as Tiffany shot Taeyeon a displeasure glare.
Taeyeon smirked and pecked on her cheek, “Hold on.” She reached for the hem of Tiffany’s shirt and pulled it off from her head swiftly without seeking for the latter’s permission.
 
“You––”
 
Wrapping her arms around Tiffany’s waist again, Taeyeon gave Tiffany no chance to speak the second word as she sealed her lips with her own ones. The towel, which was originally wrapped around her shoulder, slipped from her body and fell to the ground, finding a perfect spot next to Tiffany’s soaking wet shirt and laid there peacefully.
 
Taeyeon led Tiffany across the cave without breaking away from the kiss. When she felt her calves touched the soft mattress behind her, Taeyeon spun around and laid Tiffany on the bed gently. She pulled away briefly and looked at Tiffany, whose face had turned into shades of tomatoes because of their kiss and her touch.
 
She grinned at the sight of a blushing Tiffany. She had never shared this piece of information with anyone before and never would she share it with anyone ever, but Taeyeon really wanted to say this out loud.
 
The most beautiful moment of Tiffany (Stephanie) is when she is lying on bed, and underneath her, looking at her with her dazzling half-lidded eyes.
 
“Tae…” Tiffany whispered her name with a tone filled with affection.
 
Taeyeon felt as though her heart was going to explode soon due to the overwhelming love she felt from Tiffany. She couldn’t remember when was the last time she heard her calling her name with this tone. And no, definitely not yesterday, because they were too focused on making up for their make love sessions, which they had missed for years, that the only conversation they had was when Tiffany wanted to stop her from touching her birthmark.
 
Speaking of which… Taeyeon averted her gaze to Tiffany’s rising bare chest.
 
She didn’t have the chance to look at it properly yesterday because Tiffany made her switched off the lights before continuing with their session. But now, with the sufficient lights from the sun, and nothing to cover Tiffany’s chest, she could see the mark so clearly… so clearly that it reminded her of the reason for its existence.
 
Her betrayal to their love.
 
“That is the perfect spot for you to insert the blade.”
 
Taeyeon looked up from the birthmark and saw Tiffany staring at her intently. The affection was still evident in her eyes, but the agony from last night was present as well.
 
The only difference was that she wasn’t stopping her from getting contact with it now.
One mark, one memory and one sentence were enough to dampen the excitement they built up within one second.
 
Taeyeon gritted her teeth tightly and asked, “Is death all you want?” Her voice was louder her usual tone, her expression as well… they all implied nothing but Taeyeon was flaring up.
 
“No.” Tiffany answered her question honestly. “I never want death.”
 
Her eyebrow twitched at Tiffany’s answer. Taeyeon wanted to say something to rebuke her, but Tiffany beat her to it.
 
“But you want me dead, so I’m willing to give up my life as long as it is for you.”
 
Her fingers curled up into a fist.
 
Taeyeon squinted at Tiffany, “So you’re saying I’m the villain now?”
 
Tiffany didn’t answer her, but in fact, she wasn’t given a chance to answer that question as Taeyeon suddenly cupped her hands around her neck, choking her up.
 
“You betrayed me, Stephanie!” Taeyeon pushed her fingers deeper into Tiffany’s neck. “If you hadn’t tried to cheat me with that Jang Wooyoung, why would I want to kill you!”
 
Tiffany grimaced in pain. The extreme tension around her neck was making her cough, but she did nothing to stop Taeyeon.
 
She was already prepared for death, even though that was never an option she ever wanted to choose. But Taeyeon was in pain. If her death was able to heal her pain, she was more than willing to end her life here.
 
Her vision slowly turned dark and she could hardly picture Taeyeon’s feature already. It felt like the other day when Sunny was going to kill her, except that Taeyeon was the one who was suffocating her now and obviously, no one was going to save her.
 
Goodbye Taeyeon.
 
Finally, all of these are coming to an end.
 
“Saranghae…”