A/N: As you can probably tell from the title, this song is based on the lyrics of Tiffany's ballad Once in a Lifetime. The lyrics just screamed JeTi to me as soon as I read them.

I didn’t want to believe in anything
Countless encounters and lies
But something astonishing happened
That transformed me
As if I started my first love

Tiffany ends her call with Boa in a state approaching wonder. It’s not like she’s never spoken to Boa before, but there’s something indescribable about being congratulated by the person who is the reason she came to Korea. It’s been so long since she was that tan girl fresh from California with blonde streaks in her hair and accented Korean, bursting with energy and dreams. There’s something quite different about chasing a dream and living one, she thinks. She’s due to perform I Just Wanna Dance in less than an hour, but it’s another song that comes to her mind.

I cross the harsh river of time
(Without fear)
Now I want to fall asleep in your arms

Jessica expects someone to stop her before she can reach her destination, but the coast is all clear, unlike her mind. With every step she takes, her thoughts feel heavier and heavier, weighing her down, pulling her back and pushing her forward at the same time. She knows that she should be preparing for her debut stage, she should be warming up , or practicing her choreography, or taking a nap, even; she should be doing anything but this. And yet, she wants nothing but this, nothing but her.

You are my once in a lifetime
You are a deep and wide ocean
Do you know that when you are breathing
That you will be on my side after this
You are my
You are my once in a lifetime

Tiffany’s eyes are closed as she sings, but it doesn’t stop her from seeing that one person, her once in a lifetime who is no longer in her life. Or…maybe after today, she can’t say that anymore. What is worse, she wonders, for Jessica to not be in her life at all or to pass through it like a stranger? The thought of giving professional smiles and polite bows to each other when they had once sought each other’s arms as haven is almost physically painful. She opens her eyes, lashes heavy and damp, and sees Jessica through a veil of what could be tears or dreams.

I denied at first saying that we aren’t meant to be
Because we were so different
I thank the extraordinary forces
That entwined us little by little
I don’t think anyone will be able to pull us apart

When Jessica had first heard the lyrics, they almost seemed like—not a joke, exactly, because there’s no humour to be found here, unless she were to laugh at herself. At them. Maybe she should. A long time ago, they had seemed meant to be; now, they seem meant not to be. Fate is making fools out of both of them, she thinks, with their debuts being a breath away from each other’s but no air to be found in the space between them. She feels this way now, like a fist is wrapped around her lungs, when she meets Tiffany’s eyes.

In an uncertain distant future
(After a long time)
My heart and my current feelings will be the same

“Jessica,” Tiffany whispers, or maybe she shouts it, she doesn’t know. She can’t tell. Volume isn’t something she can measure right now. Maybe she doesn’t say it out loud at all. Speech isn’t something she can manage right now. The only thing that she can do is look at Jessica, stare at her and try to drink her in like water from a mirage, knowing that it’s futile but unable to break away from the vision. Tiffany tries again, succeeding in squeezing one more word past . “Jessi.”

You are my once in a lifetime
You are a warm breeze
Do you know that when you are breathing
That you will be on my side after this
You are my
You are my once in a lifetime

Tiffany is saying her name. Or maybe ‘say’ isn’t quite the right word. Tiffany is—she’s stopped singing the song that had carved its way into Jessica’s chest as soon as she heard it, but Jessica can still feel the music in the way Tiffany is looking at her, the way Tiffany had breathed her name. Tiffany is right here, right in front of Jessica’s eyes instead of merely on a screen, right by Jessica’s ears instead of merely through speakers, right (still so right) in Jessica’s arms instead of merely in her dreams.

The bright light shining upon me is you
You are the one that bloomed flowers in my desolate heart

Jessica is whispering something, so softly it’s like the words aren’t meant for Tiffany’s ears but to thread into her hair, flutter against her cheeks. Tiffany wonders if she even knows she’s doing it. She tries to catch the words, pin them down and stretch them out, but they slip past her grasp. Maybe it’s not necessary for her to make them out. It has been a very long time since “hey yo partner, no need to say!” but what time does is erode, not erase. And perhaps it has worn them down, but it has not torn them apart. Tiffany will not let it.

You are my once in a lifetime
You are a wide and great universe
You woke me
You are the one person who made me smile again
You are my
You are my once in a lifetime
Once in a lifetime

They sing Once in a Lifetime together. It wasn’t written to be a duet, and Jessica hadn’t thought the song incomplete when she heard Tiffany sing it, but when they sing it together, it’s… Jessica looks into Tiffany’s eyes and finds them bright with more than tears. She reaches out to brush them away, only to realize that her own had spilled over, damp against her cheeks and salty against her lips. Tiffany puts her hand over Jessica’s, fingers tangling together, and then over Jessica’s, tongues tangling together, and Jessica completes their duet. “Steph.”

You are my once in a lifetime. You are my golden sky. You are the only one for me.