Taeyeon sneaked a glance at the pink-hooded figure to the left of the studio, who by now was had gone through her dance routine for what seemed like the thousandth time.

The rest of the eight girls had already broken for lunch, and she already had to slap away Sooyoung’s and Yoona’s hands a couple of times to protect Tiffany’s share of food.

The taller of the accused was now spread eagle-wide lounged on the studio floor, one hand rubbing her stomach and the other clasped over as she released a loud yawn.

Yoona had her head rested on the thigh of her fellow mischief-maker-in-chief, using it to prop her head into a better position as she furiously pushed the buttons on her DS while yelling profanities at her opponent: the blond-headed short hair sitting across the studio, who was doing likewise with Hyoyeon egging her on.

Jessica had retreated to her space in the front of the air-conditioner after lunch, and was now in deep slumber, her body covering the vent of the unit that was blowing at full blast.

Taeyeon groaned.

She had the feeling she would have the “honor” of waking up the ice princess in half an hour when their break would end. Pulling her half-eaten bento closer to her, she gulped down another spoonful of rice and started to poke at her chicken chop for a bite-size chunk of the meat.

A loud thud of body hitting floor and a belated groan pulled her attention back to the studio.

Tiffany was hunched over on the floor, face scrunched in pain and her hands rubbing her ankle.

Taeyeon’s heart skipped a beat.

She flew to Tiffany’s side, pushing Tiffany’s hands away from her ankle and gently rolling the latter’s black trek pants up to reveal the slightly red and swollen skin. A veteran to ankle injuries herself, she sighed in relief after realizing it was a minor injury that would heal in a day or two.

Tiffany has had much worse. Yes, she had had much worse.

“Does it hurt much…?” she said anxiously.

Her hands wrapped around Tiffany’s ankle, rubbing it this way and that experimentally.

She would call in SM’s sports doctor to take a look at it immediately, and in the meantime they could probably get some of the mediated lotion, and she would help Tiffany rub it down, and then she would work on persuading Tiffany to take a break for the rest of the day… which would be probably be the hardest of the three to do, considering how insistent Tiffany was about having enough practice…

“Seriously, you’ve got this choreography under your belt. Why do you always have to push yourself so much?” Taeyeon muttered under her breath

“…”

Taeyeon looked up only to be greeted by the familiar mega-watt eye smile.

“What…?” Taeyeon couldn’t quite meet that dazzling smile.

She averted her gaze and let it dropped back to her hands that were gently caressing Tiffany’s swollen ankle.Her fingers grazed over Tiffany’s skin. It felt warm to her touch.

“Nothing, just enjoying you fussing over me,” Tiffany grinned.

“I’m fine Tae... just hungry. Let’s eat.”

Tiffany struggled to her feet, attempting to use her hands to prop herself up. She got herself three-quarters upright before a feeble attempt at putting some weight on her left ankle tripped up her efforts. She let out a hiss of pain, and would have stumbled if not for the lean but strong arms that circled around her hips, supporting her and giving her strength like it always has been for the past 7 years.

“Seriously, Fany-ah… you need to take care of yourself.” The shorter girl released her grip on Tiffany’s hips and came to stand by her side. She wrapped Tiffany’s arm around her own shoulders, prompting Tiffany to lean some of her weight onto her, relieving the pressure off her swollen ankle.

The duo made their way to the corner where the other seven girls immediately swarmed up to Tiffany, words of concern mixed with words of teasing passing through them as they poked, caressed and massaged Tiffany’s ankle.

Tiffany rubbed her arm feeling the sudden loss of warmth when Taeyeon left her side after settling her down in the care of her other seven sisters.

A bento set was stuffed in front of Tiffany’s face.

Tiffany looked up to see Taeyeon looking at her with a steely glint in her eyes.

“Eat.”

“Okay Taeyeonie. You too.” Tiffany grinned as she pulled Taeyeon to sit in front of her so close that their knees knocked together.

She held Taeyeon’s own bento out for her.

Tiffany chuckled as she watched Taeyeon stuff her face with plain rice after failing yet again to wrestle a chunk of meat from her large piece of chicken chop. Pinching the chicken chop off to her own bento, Tiffany proceeded to cut it delicately into bite-sized pieces before dropping them back into Taeyeon’s set.

“Fphannnks Ppani-ah,” mumbled Taeyeon, the words stumbling out of still chock-full with food. A trail of gravy traced the corner of her lips where she had tried to stuff the chunk of chicken into .

Tiffany reached over with a tissue and gently wiped the stains off Taeyeon’s lips. As if on cue, Taeyeon jutted her jaw out and tilted her head slightly to facilitate her movement.

It was all second nature to them.

“Oh Tae you big baby.”

Their eyes met and Taeyeon felt her lips curl uncontrollably into a smile in respond.

“Your baby.”

Taeyeon said it because she knew she could get away with it - with treading the fine and dangerous line between friendship and flirting.

She always did.

It was much better to have Tiffany like this, than risk losing the precious friendship that they had.

It was the truth. She knew it. She had been repeating it to herself over and over for years.

So why did it still hurt so much?