"TaeTae, were you listening, byun?" I asked teasingly.

"Nope, I just came up to get you two. We're heading to the studio to record some tracks for our album so you two have to hurry and get ready. I'll be waiting downstairs in the van with the rest of group," she replied before leaving.

"Jessi, you go clean up and let's hurry up."

"Neh," she replied, slowly dragging her self into the bathroom to wash up. "Tiff, pick out an outfit for me, I'm too lazy to do anything right now."

With that, I watched her disappear and set myself to work on what to wear. I wanted something comfortable and loose as for Jessi, I'll worry about that later. I rummaged through our massive closet; I pulled out Jessica's graphic tee with a cat face and the word "Meow" plastered below along with these nice navy blue ombre jeans. Happy with my selection, I laid it out on our bed then went back into the closet to get my outfit. I reached in, pulled out my white LA Girl tank top along with faded wash jeans and my studded denim jacket. Moments later, Jessi came back in and smiled at my selection before going back into the closet to grab her signature leather jacket and sunglasses.

“Baby, I can’t wait you forgot these two,” she pouted before smiling and kissed me on the cheek.

“Aish. I only forgot this one time,” I replied grabbing my phone and purse.

We both quickly scrambled down to the stairs and outside to the waiting company van. Seohyun slid the door open to let us in; our driver revved the engine and took off with lightning speed. Once we arrived, we were rushed into the recording room. Our sound manager running over what songs we were to record and who’s doing what part, et cetera, with that we got into our positions, placed the sheet music out in front of us and placed our headphones on. The hours passed since we started, our manager signaled for a lunch break and we all sighed in relief. My throat was starting to bug me so I drank some water before walking over to the table with the rest of the members to inspect what we had for lunch. The two shikshins’ mouths were already watering as we popped open each takeout container. There was kimchi jjigae (this came in a medium size metal pot), rice, pajeon and mandoo along with a container full of banchan.

Sunny handed out the paper plates, wooden chopsticks along with plastic spoons as we all settled around the pot of jjigae, dipping our spoons in and scooping out as much soup as we can. Meanwhile, Sooyoung and Yoona had seized one takeout container each (each container had a portion of rice, pajeon and mandoo) as the rest of the members shook their heads watching them devouring their food with such ridiculous speeds; it was hard to believe how those two manage to stay so skinny. They reached for another container while we were just finishing our small plateful. After an hour, recording resumed. It was 2:30AM when we finally wrapped up with all of us completely energy and sleep deprived. We stumbled into the van and went home to our cozy dorm to call it a night though; we’ll be up in about 5 hours to start our schedule which will be more album recording and commercials. Luckily, our manager oppa didn’t schedule any variety shows for us this month or else, I would look like a walking Tiffany zombie. The next few days, we were mainly at the studio, my throat wasn’t doing any better; actually it has become more and more uncomfortable. I found it very hard to hit any of the higher notes and occasionally, my voice would crack in the middle of the sessions, prompting our recording crew to pause and re-record if necessary. Taeyeon walked up to me after our crew said that we were done for the day, she looked the most worried next to Jessica, and she patted me gently on the shoulder.

“Fany, I think we should take you to a doctor to get your throat checked out,” she suggested.

“Tae, I’m fine. Really,” I replied before coughing a bit.

“Unnie, you’re not okay, your voice cracked 10 times during our recording and you’re coughing now,” Seohyun stated.

“YAH! Tiff, just go to the doctor’s. We’ll accompany you if you like!” Sooyoung boomed.

I looked around at all the girls as they nodded their agreement. I sighed. It was eight against one. Looks like I have no choice now. It was either I go to the doctor’s willingly or get dragged there by HellSica. Not that I’m afraid of my Sica or anything but that girl when fuming mad, she was the devil reincarnated and let’s just say Sica is very scary then. I got up and headed towards the door with my purse, the rest of the members followed. I got into the front seat next to our driver as the rest of the girls filed in when the last member got in and slid the door shut. Our driver turned to me.

“Where to, Ms. Hwang?” he asked.

“Take me here,” I replied handing him a piece of paper.

“Not feeling well?”

“Neh, my voice cracked 10 times when I tried to hit my vocal range.”

“Ah I see. Well let’s hope the doctor can fix it.”

With that our driver took off in the direction on the paper to my uncle’s house. He was a renowned herbalist in the countryside area and I thought it would be best if I saw him first before I go see Dr. Shin. We were reaching the outskirts of Seoul and I can see that the girls were confused about where we were headed since they assumed we were going straight to a doctor’s office. I felt Jessi slid her hand onto my shoulder and gently pressed it firmly. She only does that when she wants an explanation. I turned my head around to face all the members.

“We’re going to visit my uncle first,” I said. “I want to see if I can get a natural remedy for my throat.”

“Oh we see. He’s the best, isn’t he?” Taeyeon said acknowledgingly.

“Neh. By the way, thank you.”

“For what?” Hyoyeon asked and got a light whack in the head from Seohyun.

“Sorry unnie, I had to,” she said apologetically. “It was obvious what Tiffany unnie is thankful for.”

I giggled, my eye smiles making all the members squeal at my natural aegyo. We arrived at my uncle’s village and strolled up to his house with Jessi glued to me. There was a few barks before Ben Ben, my uncle’s dog came running out from the backyard to greet me. I handed my purse to Jessi as I bent down to pick him up. He my cheek and whimpered happily. The wooden door creaked as it opened, my uncle smiled as he saw me and all the girls. He waved us over. All of us bowed to greet him and he quickly waved it off, saying to drop the formalities as it was not necessary. He walked inside, using his cane to keep himself stable and carefully walked to his chair. I placed Ben Ben down and helped him. My uncle pulled out a piece of paper and a pen; he jotted down what looks like an analysis of how I look to him. My uncle is a very silent man, barely talks and when he does, it’s usually just instructions to the patients about how their medication should be prepared, how much to take each day, etc. He motioned at all of us to sit down and we did.

“Tiff, is he always this quiet?” Hyoyeon whispered to me.

“Neh, that’s just how he is,” I replied.

“Miyoung, sit here,” my uncle motioned to the stool right in front of him.

I moved to the stool. He then reached out and gently poked my throat a couple of times. I winced. He nodded, turned to the paper on the table and jotted down more things. He opened his mouth, telling me to do the same, as he reached over to grab a small flashlight and shine it into my mouth to see what was wrong. He squinted as now had a popsicle stick pressing my tongue down, I can see him frowning, clearly upset that he couldn’t see what the problem was. He scribbled more things down and handed me the piece of paper. I look at what he wrote at the bottom. It was a prescription for lemon and honey herbal tea. He got up and went over to his herb shelf, plucked a small bag of herbs from it and handed it to me. He smiled then pointed to what he wrote below that. It read: “Go to Myjongji Hospital, tell the nurses you want to see Dr. Jeong and tell them that Hwang Hyun-Ki sent you.”

“Thank you uncle, I’ll go see him right away,” I said.

He nodded then stood up, patted me on the back and walked me and the girls to the door. My aunt came out then with a bag and handed it to Jessica before retreating back to the kitchen to finish her cooking. My uncle waved his goodbye as our manager pulled up and we all climbed in. The time was 7:30PM. Manager oppa drove us straight to Myjongji Hospital. He dropped Jessica and I off but not before the rest of the girls protested which oppa replied with a darkened stare and of course, Taeyeon was the first one to retreat along with the girls, who then pouted, wishing they could come along with the both of us. Seohyun sat there, praying that her unnie will be okay, Taeyeon was curled up on Sunny’s lap, clearly worried and hanging onto her last string of hope and the rest of the girls tried their best to keep calm and just pray for Tiffany. Their ever-so-happy Fany Fany Tiffany.

**

We walked into the hospital and headed towards the elevator, going up to the ENT clinic to meet Dr. Jeong. I held her hand tightly, most likely too tight since I can feel her trying to pry my hand off of hers. Our eyes met and she looked at me deeply, as if she was searching to see what I was thinking or something. Of course I was worried, I don’t know what we would do if she couldn’t sing let alone perform again. Okay, Jessica. Deep breathes. Deep breathes. You don’t know if there’s anything wrong yet. Do not get ahead of yourself. Okay, okay. Now slowly get go of Tiffany’s hand before they have to surgically remove it due to lack of circulation. The elevator door dinged as we arrived at our floor, Tiffany walked up to the nurse’s table and requested to see Dr. Jeong. The nurse looked through the recommendation letter that her uncle wrote, there were a few clicks and the printer whirled to life, then all of her medical records were printed along with a hospital band. The nurse pointed to the waiting area and handed Tiffany the forms to fill in and sign. Two long painful hours passed since Tiffany signed the forms. We were still waiting. Apparently, Dr. Jeong is quite the popular doctor at this clinic so she always has a long waiting list of patients. She was the best at Myjongji after all.  

“Number 102. Patient number 102. Ms. Hwang Tiffany. Hwang Tiffany!” the nurse called.

“Here!” she replied and stood up, I followed immediately.

“Please follow me, miss. The doctor will see you right away, if there’s anything you need, do not hesitate to call if the doctor hasn’t arrived,” the nurse said as she showed us to the examination room.

Great more waiting. We sat down in the chairs, Tiffany instantly wrapped one of her arms around me as I leaned my head down on her shoulder, my eyelids struggling to stay open. She kissed my forehead a few times before telling me to just give in and sleep for bit.

I can hear chattering as I came to. The doctor was already in the room, taking a look at , I sat up and watching tentatively. Dr.Jeong turned towards me and smiled before taking the popsicle stick from my hubby’s mouth. She wrote down some things in Tiffany’s records and then turned to the both of us, with a slight smile. Seems like there was some bad news and good news, I subconsciously started to nibble the inside of my cheek, hoping it wasn’t something really, really bad.

“Doctor, please give us the news,” I found myself saying.

“Well you want the bad news or good news first?” she asked.

“Good news, if that’s okay with you.”

“Okay, luckily, the problem that Ms. Tiffany has can be fixed.”

“What’s the bad news?” Tiffany asked, cringing a little.

“You’ll have to get surgically removed, there’s a 50-50 chance you might not survive the procedure and if you do, you will not be able to hit your normal vocal range anymore and your voice may become more huskier,” she replied.

~~

Sorry guys for ending the chapter on a sad note.  Trust me I was close to tears myself...Tiffany hwaiting!