Chapter Eighty-Four
 
The engine was running noisily under the hood as the old car sped through the dirty sand road in its fastest speed––which wasn’t exactly fast at all.
 
Tiffany was humming to the song on the radio as she drove the car, which they rented from a nearby town, joyously. No words could describe her happy mood now. She felt as though she could fly to the sky any minute now if only wings grew on her back.
 
However, on the other hand, Taeyeon’s mood was completely opposite from hers. She became unusually quiet ever since they boarded the car, and it was as if her skin wasn’t fair enough, her lips were as pale as snow too.
 
She looked like she was having constipation.
 
Giggling took over the humming when Tiffany noticed Taeyeon’s expression through the rear mirror. She released one hand from the steering wheel and grabbed hold of Taeyeon’s hand, “Relax! I know this car is old, but it’s not going to kill us.”
 
Taeyeon could only give her a hesitating nod with her lips tightly sealed.
 
It wasn’t about the old car and its noisy engine, but she was extremely bad with transportation.
 
In other words, she was having motion sickness.
 
………
 
………
 
“You should have told me you’re not good with car when I said I’m going to rent one.” Tiffany offered a bottle of mineral water to Taeyeon as she rubbed sick girl’s back gently. “Are you feeling better now?”
 
Taeyeon hastily gulped a mouthful of water and gargled. She spit out the water after a while and leaned against Tiffany restlessly.
 
“I… am alright…”
 
“No, you’re not.” She wouldn’t have panted through her words if she was really like what she said. Tiffany shifted a little and pulled Taeyeon down to her lap, “Let’s take a rest first.”
 
Taeyeon struggled immediately and got up. “I don’t think that’s really a… good idea?” They are like in the middle of nowhere, sitting under a tree? Taeyeon rather stayed in the car than to let Tiffany sit in the wilds with her.
 
The ex-hunter let out a helpless sigh. She crossed her arms and asked, “What do you want then?”
 
“Let’s get back to the car.” The sorceress suggested.
 
“And watch you vomit again?” Taeyeon immediately shut and looked away embarrassedly.
 
It must be rare for someone her age who couldn’t ride a car.
 
Tiffany chuckled but sighed shortly after. “But you still have to ride the car later. We can’t leave it in the wilds like this. The least we can do is to send it to its branch in the nearest town.”
 
She felt her stomach churning again.
 
“And where is the nearest town?” Taeyeon asked. She was feeling a little dizzy too.
 
“Hmm…” Tiffany ran through the information in her head. “The last time I’ve checked, we are about an hour away from the next town. And if I remembered correctly, they do have a branch there.”
 
“Oh god…”
 
An hour is like… waiting to see her vomit like a volcano eruption?
 
“I have a suggestion though.” Taeyeon turned her pale face towards the direction of her girlfriend. Tiffany flashed her an eye-smile, “Maybe if you sleep throughout the journey, you will feel nothing?”
 
“That is if I fall asleep.”
 
“I’ll make you.” The ex-hunter said confidently.
 
Taeyeon eyed Tiffany suspiciously, “How?”
 
A grin was formed on the ex-hunter’s face.
 
“You’ll see.”
 
*
 
The ex-hunter didn’t manage to put the sorceress into sleep eventually, but her plan did somewhat eased her lover’s motion sickness and Taeyeon actually wished the ride was doubled from the information Tiffany shared with her.
 
It was surprising, Taeyeon thought to herself. Tiffany didn’t really do much. All she did was to lay her head on her lap and she kept her hair while humming softly to a melody which she had no idea what song it was. It was nice, though Taeyeon doubted she would appreciate it had Tiffany not hummed it.
 
They reached the town near noon. Taeyeon was still lying comfortably on Tiffany’s lap, counting the teeth of zips on her lover’s leather jacket when Tiffany nudged her lightly and pulled her up.
 
Discontentment was immediately written over her face, but as soon as it appeared, it faded away when Taeyeon realized they were not in the wilds anymore, and there were people standing outside their stilled car looking at them.
 
Redness crawled to her cheeks as Taeyeon shunned from the stares and stepped out of the car with her head hung low.
 
She is definitely not used to receiving attention from unwanted people – strangers.
 
“We’re here to return the car.” Taeyeon heard Tiffany talking. She looked towards the direction and found Tiffany standing near a table where behind it was a plump old guy, who wore his metal-framed spectacles with lenses so thick that they could pass off as magnifying glasses already. “Our destination isn’t supposed to here, but we thought it will be great if we can stay in this town for a few days, so we decided returning the car is a better choice.”
 
“Is the payment done yet?”
 
“Yeah, I’ve got the receipt with me.” Tiffany pulled out a piece of paper from the back pocket. “We don’t need the refund. We just want to return the car and its keys.”
 
The plump old man glanced at the crumpled paper without moving his head. “You may leave the keys here and go now.”
 
“Thank you.”
 
The conversation ended and Taeyeon watched Tiffany strolled towards her with her infamous eye-smile carved into her eyes.
 
“Shall we go?”
 
Honeymoon. This word had been appearing in Taeyeon’s every few seconds whenever she stole glances at her smiling angel or disregard all her senses expect her sense of touch whenever Tiffany entwined their fingers tightly together.
 
Taeyeon couldn’t remember she ever went on a journey like this one with Stephanie before. They were always in the house, or sometimes Sunny’s place, because Stephanie had to hide from her family’s pursuing and she herself loved to stay in one place and never moved.
 
This was an entirely new experience, if she excluded the one she shared with Sunny and the others when they left their village more than a century ago.
 
Back then she sneaked out of the village along with her best friend, who was secretly trailing her lover’s sister (Narsha) that got chased out of the village due to a certain ridiculous reason, it led them to a journey with no hopes of return.
 
Taeyeon wouldn’t call it a bad experience though, nor would she say it was fun. There was no goal in their journey and it didn’t ended until Narsha found a nice village to live in which eventually became their homes.
 
“What’s on your mind?”
 
Her voice broke her train of thoughts.
 
Taeyeon looked up from her half-eaten dish and realized she had daydreamed in the middle of their lunch.
 
“I was thinking of us and my past.” She answered honestly. There was no reason to hide. “I am glad that I decided to follow Sunny out of the village that night, or else I wouldn’t have met you and would be pondering through my life what good will it does to me if I were to stay.”
 
Tiffany smiled at Taeyeon’s thoughts. The Crystal Tear in her had done its job in allowing her to know what Taeyeon was referring to.
 
“You would have done the same too if you stayed in the village. Pondering what good will it does to you if you were to sneak out with Sunny.” Frown became visible on her forehead. Taeyeon wasn’t exactly pleased with Tiffany’s comment. “But I’m happier than you. If you never sneak out, I will be escaping from the claws of my father till who knows when?”
 
“You’re only happy for that?” The scowl deepened. Her explanation wasn’t helping at all.
Tiffany laughed in amusement before she stood up and leaned forward, capturing Taeyeon’s lips with her own ones and kissed her till their lungs screamed for help.
 
“I am blissful,” Tiffany cupped Taeyeon’s face gently. She stared into her eyes and whispered loud enough for the both of them to hear, “Because I met you.”
 
Taeyeon noticed the use of her tenses and it was more than enough to send grin onto her face and kept it in place for at least half of the day. Whenever Tiffany turned around and looked at her lover, she would definitely catch the sorceress grinning like a kid who had gotten ten lollipops.
 
“You really need to wipe that smile off your face because it is starting to creep me out.” Tiffany stated as she put back the accessory to its designated location and walked out of the shop with Taeyeon.
 
“Will it kills your blissfulness if I don’t?”
 
“No.” There was no hesitation in her answer.
 
“Great.” Her grin grew wider. “That means I can keep it on.”
 
Tiffany chuckled at her words, but not before she rolled her eyes at her. Her hand found its way to Taeyeon’s face and her fingers gripped hold of the chubby cheek tightly, “I don’t like a mischievous Taeyeon.”
 
“And I don’t like a violent Phanie.” Taeyeon retorted playfully and stuck out her tongue at her lover.
 
It only made Tiffany pinched Taeyeon harder.
 
“Yah! Who are you? You’re not the romantic Taeyeon I know anymore!”
 
“Yah! Who are you? You’re not the gentle Stephanie I know anymore!” Playful Taeyeon tried to imitate her girlfriend, but it let to the instant release of her cheek. “Phanie?” The sorceress looked over and found that the smile on Tiffany’s face had vanished.
 
“Taeyeon,” Tiffany addressed with a tinge of seriousness and unhappiness in her tone. “I am Tiffany.”
 
It was then Taeyeon realized the so-called mistake she had just made. She called Tiffany ‘Stephanie’ instead of ‘Tiffany’.
 
But why would it matter?
 
Taeyeon didn’t quite understand that part.
 
They are the same person. Tiffany is Stephanie.
 
“I’m sorry.” The sorceress apologized anyway, even though she never got the rationale behind Tiffany’s explanation for her upset. She didn’t want to ruin the happy moments they finally built up once again because of trivial matter. “I didn’t mean it, Tiffany.” She read out her name fully this time, as a form of reminder to herself not to call the wrong name again.
 
“That’s okay, I understand.”
 
She was smiling, but Taeyeon could tell it wasn’t reaching her eyes.
 
“You know something?”
 
This was definitely a result Taeyeon didn’t want. She wanted them to be happy and not repeating the unwanted history.
 
The ex-hunter looked over and saw the eager expression on her lover’s face. “What something?”
 
“How I feel about this trip?” Her eyes reminded Tiffany of puppy.
 
Amused, Tiffany chortled and asked, “How you feel about this trip?”
 
“I feel like…” She paused suddenly and slipped her hand into Tiffany’s, pulling the amused lady closer to her. “We’re on honeymoon. I proposed to you, you said yes. We went on a journey, I had motion sickness. You took care of me like a wife taking care of her sick husband. And we continued with our journey. I lay on your lap, you my hair. I enjoyed your warmth, you hummed to me…” Her steps came to a sudden halt and she turned to her lover who was listening to her attentively. “We’ve never gone on a trip together before and this is our first time.”
 
The happiness reflected in her eyes was genuine. Tiffany could sense and feel it deep down to her heart. It was influencing her emotion as well. The depression in her had faded away. She even forgot why she was depressed in the first place. All it mattered was Taeyeon and she only had Taeyeon in her eyes now.
 
“Are you happy?”
 
Taeyeon asked. The voice was as gentle as the wind that was blowing against them.
 
The corner of her lips lifted and she replied, “I am.” Tiffany slipped her arms across Taeyeon’s shoulder and buried her face into the nook of her neck. “I am very happy, Taeyeon. I am happy whenever I’m with you.”
 
Definitely, her grin was not going to stay there for half a day, but throughout a day now.

“But I don’t feel like I’m on a honeymoon.”
 
“Wha–What?”
 
Alright, scratch that. Tiffany had just peeled that grin off her face successfully and pasted it on herself.
 
“If we’re on a honeymoon, we supposed to have a room to stay in, and not wandering on the road aimlessly.”
 
Oh? Now, that was too easy to understand.
 
Tiffany felt Taeyeon’s lips pressing against her ear. She could feel how they stretched into an up curve even without looking at them.
 
“I shall get us a room now.”
 
Her whisper was seductive, but Tiffany knew she loved it as much as she wanted it.