A/N: Inspired by/heavily based on this clip from Jessica & Krystal.

Hyoyeon bought some kind of lie detector toy – “it’s not a toy, it’s totally legit. They used the same kind on variety shows!” – and Jessica insists on trying it.

Tiffany doesn’t think it’s a good idea – she’s already worried enough about revealing too much in front of Jessica without a machine that can detect her honesty or lack thereof – but Jessica had looked at her with imploring eyes and used her please, Tiff voice, and Tiffany couldn’t deny her. She’s never been good at denying Jessica.

Jessica’s first question is innocuous enough.

“Do you want to be friends with Jessica for a long time?”

“Yes,” Tiffany says, putting her hand on the lie detector like a witness being sworn to tell the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth in court.

Pain jolts through her hand and she can’t help a cry.

Jessica looks at her with an expression of utter betrayal. “Come here!” She picks up the nearest cushion and flings it at Tiffany, who instinctively blocks it.

“No, this is weird!” Tiffany frees her hand and pushes the lie detector as far away as she can for good measure. She wonders if it picked up her withholding of the full truth. That doesn’t count as a lie, right? Of course she wants to be friends with Jessica for a long time – forever, if she can have it – but she doesn’t just want to be friends with her. “This thing is weird.”

“I can’t believe you don’t want to be friends with me.” Jessica crosses her arms over her chest and turns her head away. “Our whole friendship is a lie.”

“Of course I want to be friends with you!”

“Tell that to the lie detector.”

“It’s just a stupid toy, Jessi, you can’t trust it.” She wishes Jessica would look at her. “Don’t you trust me over a device?”

Jessica slowly turns around so they face each other again. “Hey, Tiff.” Her voice softens. “Come on, don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I just kicked you or something. You’re the one who hurt me.”

“I wasn’t lying!” Tiffany’s voice shoots up half an octave.

Jessica winces and rubs her ears. “Now you’re just aiming to hurt me all over.”

“I wasn’t lying,” Tiffany repeats, her voice steely.

“Fine. Then answer another question. One with an obvious answer so we can see if the thing works or not.”

What’s Jessica going to ask her now? What if she asks something like “do you want to be friends with Yoona for a long time?” and Tiffany answer “yes,” and the lie detector doesn’t go off?

Jessica narrows her eyes. “Are you scared?”

Yes. “N-no.”

Jessica hands her the lie detector like a verdict, and Tiffany pulls her bottom lip between her teeth, wondering if she can get out of this alive. She looks at the device warily from under her lashes, and then at Jessica, and it almost seems like Jessica jerk her eyes away like she had been caught staring. But then she blinks and Jessica’s looking at her with a raised eyebrow and expectant eyes, and she figures she probably just imagined it. If only Jessica stared at her the way she stares at Jessica.

Tiffany puts her hand in position, feeling like the straps won’t protect her against the upcoming collision.

“Do you love pink?” Jessica asks.

Of course. A question as obvious and easy as it gets. How can she get out of this? Maybe if she says “yes” but thinks “no” furiously…

“Yes,” Tiffany says, trying to say no in her mind but finding it difficult because – it’s pink. How could she lie about that?

They both wait, Tiffany with bated breath, Jessica with intense concentration. Tiffany feels like she can hear an invisible timer tick away, and she wonders how much time she has left.

There’s no jolt of pain, but rather a small beep of confirmation. Tiffany looks at Jessica slowly, hesitantly, and sees Jessica looking back at her with a stony expression.

“So that’s it,” she says like a death sentence. “You were lying.”

“I wasn’t!”

“Well, were you lying about loving pink?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean it’s accurate every ti—”

“You don’t want to be my friend,” Jessica says in a low voice, and there is genuine hurt in her eyes.

“Jessica, I do. Of course I do.”

“Well, are you going to deny that you love pink?”

“No, but—”

Jessica grabs her hand suddenly and clutches it so tightly that she almost lets out a yelp, like Jessica’s trying to squeeze the truth out of her.

“Do you hate fish eyes?” she demands.

“What does that have to—”

“Answer me.”

“Well, yes.”

“Do you like Twilight?”

“Jessi—”

“Do you?”

“You’re hurting me.” Tiffany’s voice comes out small and pained, and Jessica releases her hand instantly, looking stricken.

“I’m sorry,” Jessica whispers. “I didn’t mean to.”

Tiffany drops her hand to her side, resisting the urge to rub her throbbing fingers. “Are you trying to be a human lie detector now? I don’t think it’s working.”

“Tiffany, I’m sorry.”

She manages a smile. “It’s okay.”

“Let me see your hand.” Tiffany only tucks it closer to herself. “Please,” Jessica adds, her eyes and voice soft.

Tiffany stretches out her other arm, and Jessica takes her hand and pulls Tiffany to her with such force that Tiffany practically tumbles into her lap. Heat fills her face and she keeps her head down so Jessica won’t see how red she is.

Jessica takes the hand she had squeezed and gently cups it between her palms. “I’m sorry,” she says again.

“It’s okay,” Tiffany says again.

“Does it still hurt?”

Yes. “N-no,” she says, her voice shaking because of the way Jessica is now individually massaging her fingers.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Jessica brings Tiffany’s hand to her lips and gently blows on it, her breath cool and soothing.

“I wasn’t lyi—”

“So you don’t love pink?”

“Of course I do, but I love you more.”

Jessica freezes, her lips a breath away from Tiffany’s hand. “Yeah, right,” she says with a weak chuckle. “You love pink more than anything.”

“I love you more,” Tiffany says, her voice steady even though she’s shaking inside at repeating the confession she never meant to make in the first place. She reaches for the lie detector with the hand Jessica’s not holding. “Do you want me to prove it?”

Jessica puts a hand on her wrist to stop her, the touch of her fingertips almost as light as her breath, like she’s being very careful not to hurt Tiffany again. “I trust you. I don’t need that toy to prove anything.”

Tiffany gives her an incredulous look. “You almost broke my hand when you thought that I lied about wanting to be your friend.”

“Well, you almost broke my heart so.” Jessica sticks out her bottom lip, looking like a petulant child. “Is your hand still hurting?” She returns to blowing on it, and Tiffany just watches her, utterly bemused and at a loss for words. She usually never runs out of them, but Jessica has always had a gift for undoing her usuals.

“Jessica.”

“Tiffany?”

Tiffany bites her lip, and this time she doesn’t miss how Jessica’s eyes track the movement. “What did you mean when you said that I almost broke your heart?”

“You don’t want to be my friend.”

“You know that—”

“I want to be your—I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine, and you don’t even want to be my friend.”

Tiffany feels like all the air in her body escapes her in one great whoosh. She can’t even breathe, not to mention speak.

“Tiff?” Jessica asks hesitantly.

“I don’t want to be your friend?” Tiffany repeats. “I don’t want to be your friend?! If I wanted you any more, I would explode!”

Jessica looks at her with wide eyes, and Tiffany realizes that Jessica’s still holding her hand, even though she’s not holding it so much as resting against it.

Then they’re launching themselves at each other, crashing against each other like waves at high tide, mouths meeting with a hunger that is finally satiated and that tapers off not into passiveness but rather tenderness. Jessica’s fingers thread into Tiffany’s hair, and Tiffany finds her hands cupping Jessica’s face, keeping her secure and there and hers.

Jessica pulls back a little, not enough to escape Tiffany’s hold. Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes illuminated, and Tiffany doesn’t know if she’s holding her breath or if Jessica has just taken all of her air.

“Tiffany.”

“Jessica?”

“What you said about me and pink. Did you mean it?”

“What you said about wanting to be – to be each other’s. Did you mean it?”

“Of course,” Jessica says solemnly. “Do you want me to prove it?”

Tiffany’s tongue swipes over and. Maybe Jessica does stare at her the way she stares at Jessica. “I might need some convincing.”

Jessica’s eyes gleam. “I wonder how I can convince you.”

“You’re innovative. I’m sure you can find a way.” Jessica smiles, and Tiffany grins back. “Oh, and I did. Mean it. I do.”

Jessica gives her a look of supreme skepticism. “I’m going to need some convincing.”

Well, Tiffany has no problem with that.

Jessica buys the lie detector from Hyoyeon, who had refused to part with it for free, or “out of the appreciation you have for our friendship,” as Jessica had put it, and insists on keeping it on display.

“Why are you treating this like a trophy?” Tiffany asks. “It doesn’t even work.”

“It’s a crappy lie detector,” Jessica says, “but it was a good matchmaker.”

And well, Tiffany can’t argue with that.

A/N: Originally when I watched this clip, I just laughed. And then after What Happened, I cried. Okay, I didn't cry but my soul did. Anyway, this is a much brighter interpretation :3