A/N: A little fluff to cushion the upcoming - 

Thank you for reading, as always. 

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Taeyeon lounged on the blue and white beach chairs on the set, munching happily away at her stick of watermelon as she toyed with the idea of removing her sports shoes. They were at the set filming for Dream Team – the SNSD special, and there were at least twenty cameras on-site and a personalized one following each of the nine members. But Taeyeon was doing a great job ignoring all of them.

She reached for another stick of ice-cream on the side table and rolling over to position herself into a more comfortable but distinctly “ahjumma” pose, side-eyeing the cameraman as he captured her every move.  

She shrugged.

Oh well. Sones already know what I’m like, and the rest of the people… they don’t matter.

Between recording for their upcoming Japanese album, and the relentless variety show appearances, she was frankly exhausted to the bone and couldn’t give a damn about what this one was about either.

She tilted her head to her left to sneak a glance at Tiffany, seating some two seats away from her. Tiffany had her hoodie – grey instead of pink - over her head and was evidently trying to sneak in some sleep before her turn at the game. Her High Cut photoshoot last night had run over so late into the wee hours of the morning. It exhausted her to the extent that she couldn’t even be bothered to wash and change. She crashed onto Taeyeon’s bed in full make-up; the arm Taeyeon found draped around her when she woke up in the morning was still adorned with the rustic bracelets sponsored by J.Estina.

Taeyeon practically had to wash and dress Tiffany herself in the morning in order to ensure they got here on time - pulling out her own gray hoodie from their shared cupboard after trying but failing to find Tiffany’s pink one.

As always, Tiffany caught on that Taeyeon was staring and opened her eyes, giving the love of her life a weary smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

This crazy scheduling had to end.

Taeyeon didn’t even have the opportunity to celebrate their first month anniversary with Tiffany, or take her on a date, or even simply watch movies together – before they were swept up in a furry of activities after their album release. In fact the last time they had shared a kiss was a freaking week ago – and it was only made possible by Tiffany’s new initiatve.

Tiffany had recently taken to abandoning her own room and squeezing in to share Taeyeon’s bed instead - always citing the presence of bugs that Taeyeon could never find when she went over with pesticide. Sunny would roll her eyes in front of the two love-birds when this happened but otherwise left rather willingly for Tiffany’s room with a smirk on her face. But even with the new sleeping arrangements, living in a dormitory with anything from three to seven other woman meant her solo time with Tiffany was often interrupted and they simply had no time or energy to take their relationship any further.

But she was grateful the other members seemed to not have picked up on the subtle changes in her relationship with Tiffany. She wasn't sure she was ready to be confronted with that yet.

Seohyun’s shriek brought Taeyeon’s attention back to the game at hand.

It was one of those ridiculously violent wrestling games where you grabbed onto the handlebar and hang on for your dear life while your opponent tries to pull you down with her legs. Considering the very real possibility of injury, Taeyeon never understood how it ever got their manager’s approval for the show.

Perhaps everyone just liked some girl-on-girl action sometimes.

Seohyun was never a match for Hyoyeon, but Taeyeon snorted to herself as Hyo let her competitive streak show, providing them with a very rare display of their terrified maknae.

Unlike Taeyeon, Seob was always one step ahead of her emotions.

“The competitors for the next round are…”

Taeyeon off the last remnants of her ice-cream as the announcers starting drawing the lots for the next two competitors.

“Taeyeon...!”

She groaned inside whilst arranging her outward facial features to express some semblance of shock and delight. She had no interest in playing with anyone today unless it was…

“with Tiffany!”

She couldn’t stop the laughter from spilling out of .

“Taeyeon and Tiffany please come out.”

Surely they weren’t aware of the connotations of that sentence.

Taeyeon looked at Tiffany. That little nap she caught seemed to have re-charged her a little and her knowing smile as we walked to the handlebars was one that Taeyeon could at least recognize. Over the years, they’ve learnt to function on so little sleep.

They stacked the cushions before the duo and Taeyeon pursed her lips as Yuri’s distinctive laughter rang out when the taller saw that in spite of the cushion, Taeyeon still had to jump in order to reach the handlebars.

Tiffany just smiled and Taeyeon let herself get lost in her eyes, closing her own as she felt legs circling around her waist pulling her closer to…

“YAH!” Taeyeon pulled herself back using all her strength and willpower, feeling the hosts worked to separate them. Tiffany had jump-started the game.

“What are you doing?!” She shouted in faux-anger.

“I just wanted to end this quickly~” exclaimed Tiffany in self-defence.

Taeyeon was sure she meant no harm, but the feeling of her legs around her waist just sent all the right signals down south that made even clinging onto the handlebars a difficult task. Now that she had knowledge on how it felt like to have her waist clasped between Tiffany’s legs, it was all that she could think about.

She couldn’t help laughing as she felt her cheeks reddened from the thoughts that were running through her head.

There was no way Taeyeon could ever win this.

Taeyeon could never win against Tiffany.

What she could do though, is enjoy the ride - and enjoy the ride she did.

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Taeyeon slumped her weary body into the front seat of the van, feeling Tiffany move to give her more space as the van took off for their dormitory.  

After the filming all nine members of Girls’ Generation had their 5-minute talk in the dressing room while waiting for the van to arrive. Most of the girls were exhausted from their back-to-back broadcast appearances and the physically exhausting games they played today were the straw that broke the camel’s back. Between group promotions and individual activities, some members were getting less than 2 hours of sleep a day.

Taeyeon had gone to reflect their wishes for a more comfortable schedule to their managers, who were in a lengthy discussion with the producers over how the program should be edited.

“How was it?” Taeyeon heard Sooyoung asked from behind.

“I really want to, Taeyeon, but we need to fulfill these contractual obligations or pay a huge penalty… same old, same old.” Taeyeon rolled her eyes and ran a hand through her hair.

“I’m sorry,” Taeyeon sighed. She was only the leader in name.

“Don’t be silly,” Yuri’s voice rang out from somewhere to her left. “You did well, our kid leader,” she chuckled.

“Yah~” Taeyeon retorted back half-heartedly. She felt Tiffany clasp their hands together and smiled as the taller woman slump her body lower to snuggle against the crook of Taeyeon’s neck.

Tiffany met her eyes with a smile before closing them to take a quick nap on Taeyeon’s shoulders.

From where she was sitting she could look into the rear view mirror and see 8 other equally weary bodies reflected back at her.

Yoona, whose schedule was packed to the brim with their group activities and her individual CF and drama filming had already knocked out, and was slumped against the car door to Taeyeon’s immediate right, her hair falling over to hide that the face of Girls’ Generation.

Without moving her body to avoid startling Tiffany, Taeyeon slowly moved her right hand up to brush Yoona’s hair away from face.

Of all of them, Yoona really had it the hardest. That face was a blessing as well as a curse. But Yoona was tough. And even with that angelic face of her that could get her anything she wanted, Yoona still approached everything with the hit-it-till-we-win-it attitude of an elementary school kid and Taeyeon knew that no one could pull it off as well as she did.

What did they use to call her? Oh yes. Him Yoona. Taeyeon was proud of her Strong Yoona. 

Across Yoona, Seohyun and Hyoyeon were leaning against each other, Hyoyeon snoring gently away. The ease at which these two got along with each other once they became room-mates astonished all nine of them. Seohyun was such an upright kid, and Hyoyeon was the reincarnate of the Tasmanian Devil. But they balanced each other really well – with Hyoyeon forcing spontaneity and vibrancy onto Seohyun’s life, while Seohyun’s lessons in subtlety and gracefulness rubbed off to exceedingly good effects on Hyoyeon.

Trailing her eyes over, she looked to Sooyoung who had her earphones on and was nodding off to some music. Sooyoung – the gentle giant. She had such a big heart, and she was the ringleader of the Girls’ Generation – the one they all turned to when they had their problems and the one who would always embrace them with open arms. Taeyeon always felt apologetic to her because she felt Soo would make so much of a better leader – but Sooyoung had held her hands and told her that she was perfect as the friend-leader she was and that was all the reassurance she needed to carry on.

Jessica – as expected was already fast asleep across Yuri’s lap. Jessica and Yuri shared a special relationship – much like her and Tiffany. It was like a good thing that Girls’ Generation operated under a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy because she wasn’t sure if the amount of scandals in the dorm were appropriate for maknae’s underaged ears.

Taeyeon’s eyes travelled to the far right and matched Sunny’s soft smile and gaze. Sunny was the toughest of them all. Her best friend was a pillar of strength that held the group up and kept it going even though her efforts went generally unknown by the general public. They would not be here if they were not anchored by Sunny’s strength through the darkest of times in 2008. Taeyeon herself would not be here today if she hadn’t leveraged on Sunny’s clear mind and advice on Tiffany’s issue.

Tiffany… Her brighter-than-gems Tiffany was like a jewel to her. That American girl brightened up the lives of people around her with her almost child-like enthusiasm and her incredibly gregarious heart and yet approached her work and life with a maturity that spoke depths of the hardships she had faced in her road to stardom. The clumsy, blubbering Tiffany who was previously a little too rough-around-the-edges for the Korean society had blossomed in a gorgeous, beautiful lady and she was all her’s. All her’s.

And then there was her. Kim Taeyeon. She - who didn’t know much about leading, but was shoved to the leadership position. She - who didn’t know enough about singing, but was assigned to be the lead vocal of Korea’s national girl group. She – who always straddled the androgynous balance between femininity and masculinity awkwardly but managed to score one of the pretty girls in the whole world.

Somehow, things always worked out for her in this family - things always worked out for them in this family.

She slapped herself mentally for that redundant thought.

Of course it always worked out for them. They were family.