January 30th, 2014

Tiffany was walking down the halls of SM when she spotted a familiar form.

Junghwa.

And she was limping.

Tiffany was about to turn a blind eye when she saw the girl trip over her own damn shoe and cry out in pain.

Sighing, Tiffany walked over to see how badly the girl was hurt.

“Need a hand?” Tiffany asked gruffly, trying hard to sound like she didn’t care much at all.

The older girl whimpered and just clutched at her ankle.

Sighing once more, Tiffany slipped an arm under Junghwa’s armpits and carefully sat her down.

“Stay here!” Tiffany barked, still trying to ‘not care’.

She ran to her locker and retrieved her bag before running to the nearby café to ask the kindly ahjumma who owned the café for some ice in a Ziploc bag. Then, with her newly acquired things, she ran hurriedly back to the injured girl.

Without a word or even the merest of glances in acknowledgment, Tiffany gently untied the laces and removed the shoe, giving all her attention to Junghwa’s already red and swollen ankle and nothing else.

The older girl winced at the pain but didn’t say anything.

Tiffany quickly yet carefully removed the sock and rapidly bound Junghwa’s injured foot and ankle with the tensor bandages she brought with her in her bag, trying to keep the swelling down to a bare minimum. Securing the tensor bandage with little metal clasps, Tiffany then pressed the improvised ice packet to the ankle. Then she wrapped the Ziploc around the ankle before loosely wrapping another tensor bandage to keep the ice packet in place.

Finally finished and satisfied with her handiwork, Tiffany knelt back on the front of her feet and finally looked Junghwa in the eyes for the first time since she had gotten here.

Tiffany decided to just stare at the older girl and say nothing. She didn’t want to be the first to acknowledge what had happened just now. Tiffany didn’t hold a grudge against what the Cheap Plastics had done to her. It was all so juvenile and stupid compared to what she had been through. Yet, she still didn’t want to give Junghwa the impression that she was someone that could be walked all over with no consequences.

Junghwa was the first to lower her gaze, able to stand under the pressure of Tiffany’s intense stare.

“…Thank you…” came the meekest of whispers.

“…” Tiffany said nothing.

“And I’m…I’m sorry…” Junghwa murmured, her voice barely audible to human ears.

“…” still…Tiffany remained silent.

Finally Junghwa looked up to meet Tiffany’s hardened gaze once more.

“I really am sorry,” the older said more definitely, truly sounding apologetic for her past actions.

This time Junghwa forced herself to hold Tiffany’s gaze, and she was glad she did. She watched as Tiffany’s previously rather callous stare softened and became more sympathetic and compassionate.

How had she never seen this side of the girl? How had she misjudged the girl so? Why did she mindlessly listen to those vindictive three girls around her and refuse to see who Tiffany really was?

Junghwa almost cringed at her own shame.

Tiffany seemed to sense this and decided to clear the air between them.

“It’s all forgotten,” the thug said simply.

Junghwa looked at Tiffany perplexedly, not quite following.

“Hi. My name is Tiffany Hwang. It’s pleased to meet you. What’s your name?” Tiffany asked, sticking out her hand roughly in greeting.

Junghwa looked at the proffered hand like it was the strangest thing she had ever seen. It was then that Tiffany remembered that that was not how Korean’s greeted each other. She was about to bow, seeing as Junghwa was her senior both in age and debuting year, when Junghwa grasped her hand in hers, shaking it vehemently as if the strength with which she shook Tiffany’s hand could somehow lessen the terribleness of her past transgressions against the younger girl.

For Junghwa, this rather…uncharacteristic and North American form of greeting actually gave her a sense relief. Here she was, greeting Tiffany in the most casual of manners, like acquaintances chanced by a meeting on the bustling streets. Something about the ordinary, almost humdrum gesture that was native to this American girl, something that was innate to Tiffany and where she came from and not what she had been taught since her arrival here…it seemed a remarkable occurrence of sorts.

Tiffany laughed and Junghwa’s eyes widened.

Who was this girl?! Tiffany never laughs…or at least the Tiffany Junghwa thought she knew…

“How did you bust your ankle anyways?” Tiffany asked curiously, gazing down with eyebrows raised at her improvised work.

Suddenly Junghwa couldn’t look Tiffany in the eyes again.

But Tiffany, being adept at reading unspoken signs and simple body language was almost able to immediately pinpoint the problem.

The way with which Junghwa was reluctant to voice the reason meant it had nothing to do with her own clumsiness. That meant it had something to do with someone else inflicting it upon her. And the slight despondent air around the older girl told Tiffany it was likely someone that Junghwa was wary of. Someone close by. Someone who could have access to continue hurting her if…

Her group members.

“How did they hurt you?” Tiffany asked quietly.

Though soft-spoken, Junghwa did not miss the slight hard edge to Tiffany’s voice and it confused her.

It would seem Tiffany cared for her well-being and was…upset with her being hurt, upset at the perpetrators of her injury.

How could that possibly be…possible?

Junghwa looked up at Tiffany in surprise but refrained from giving an answer.

Tiffany sighed and decided not to push the matter further.

“How are you getting home?” Tiffany asked in a lighter tone, trying to ease the other girl’s obvious discomfort.

“Walking,” Junghwa mumbled.

Tiffany rolled her eyes.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this…Jessica is going to kill me…” the younger girl mutters before standing up and gently hauling a wincing Junghwa up beside her.

Tiffany moved up in front of the older girl and crouched down slightly, motioning for Junghwa to climb on.

The injured girl didn’t move.

“Come on! My members are waiting for me to come home for dinner and Taeyeon hates it when I’m late. I don’t have all day unnie! Just get on and I’ll take you home,” Tiffany griped impatiently, the way with which she used the honorific almost mocking in a sense.

Junghwa gulped nervously but did as told. She squealed when she felt Tiffany stand up quickly and set a brisk pace down the halls. Tiffany asked Junghwa where she lived, which was thankfully no more than a fifteen-minute walk away for most people. Ten for Tiffany because…well…she was Tiffany.

The entire way home, neither girl said anything or made small talk. But for some odd reason, it wasn’t awkward between them either. And considering their unfriendly history, it was rather peculiar that they were almost…comfortable with each other.

Tiffany herself shrugged it off and decided not to concern herself too much with it. But Junghwa…Junghwa found herself questioning her own values and her past actions. She knew she had a bit of soul-searching to do.

As they neared the apartment complex where Junghwa lived with the other Sky High members, Tiffany stopped short of going further than the lobby. The younger girl gently set Junghwa down by the lobby desk where the security guard was sitting, doing the Sudoku in his newspaper.

“I wouldn’t mind bringing you right to your door, but I have a feeling that would really do you more harm than favors,” Tiffany said quietly.

Once more, Junghwa was astonished at the comprehensiveness of how much Tiffany understood her current dilemma and situation.

Tiffany was indeed right…the other members definitely would not take kindly to her showing up at the dorm with…their embittered ‘rival’, and Junghwa would surely pay the price for such foolish fraternizing.

Tiffany took Junghwa’s phone from her pocket and poked in a few numbers.

“Just in case…” the younger said as she handed the phone back to its rightful owner.

Then Tiffany approached the guard and politely asked him to Junghwa back to her dorm, citing that she wasn’t strong enough to carry the other girl up. The guard agreed and moved to support Junghwa back home.

Tiffany was already in the process of walking out the lobby doors when Junghwa called out.

“Wait!”

Tiffany turned with a brilliant smile on her face and Junghwa was once again speechless.

Tiffany was positively radiant when she smiles…

Seriously, where had she been all this time?! Who the hell is this smiling, laughing, kind girl in front of her?!

Junghwa wanted to slap and pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

“Did you want to thank me? Well tell you what, if you do happen to have a change of heart and indeed want to thank me, then take good care of yourself so that I don’t have to. I hate worrying about other people. I would rather worry about me. Feel free to call or text me if anything. Our slate is clean. There’s nothing to make up for. Oh! And when you get home, stay off your foot, keep it raised above your heart. So if you’re laying down, prop a pillow below it. It’ll drain the blood and keep it from swelling up like a balloon. I’ll see you around…Junghwa unnie,” that last was again, said with a slight edge of sarcasm, but Tiffany meant everything else she said.

“Regardless…thanks…Tiffany…” Junghwa managed to choke out before Tiffany was gone.

The thug gave a noncommittal wave back, not even sparing Junghwa a glance as she walked away. But Junghwa could somehow tell the girl was smiling as she left.

She looked down at her phone.

She had a new contact…

‘Mushroom Burger’

The older girl shook her head.

Seriously…where had she been all this time?

Seriously…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tiffany walked home, thinking to herself about what had just transpired.

Junghwa had always been the less vindictive and malicious of the four Cheap Plastics. The girl obviously was simply following along with what the other three were doing. She wasn’t exactly the brightest light bulb in the batch, but Tiffany was pretty sure Junghwa never rea