There was a man back in ’95,

Whose heart ran out of summers,

But before he died, I ask him

‘Wait, what’s the sense in life’

‘Come over me, Come over me’

He said,

Son why you gotta sing that tune?

Catch a Dylan song or some eclipse of the moon.

Let an angel swing and make you swoon.

Then you will see…you will see.

Then he said,

Here’s a riddle for you.

Find the answer.

There’s a reason for the world…

You and I.

Picked up my kid from school today.

Did you learn anything cause in the world today,

You can’t live in a castle far away.

Now talk to me, come talk to me.

He said,

Dad I’m big but we’re smaller than small.

In the scheme of things, well we’re nothing at all.

Still every mother’s child sings a lonely song.

So play with me, come play with me.

And hey Dad,

Here’s a riddle for ya,

Find the answer.

There’s a reason for the world…

You and I.

I said,

Son for all I’ve told ya,

When you get right down to the,

Reason for the world…

Who am I?

There are secrets that we still have left to find.

There have been mysteries from the beginning of time.

There are answer we’re not wise enough to see.

He said…

You’re looking for a clue?

I love you free.

The batter swings and the summer flies.

As I look into my angel’s eyes.

A song plays on while the moon is high over me,

Something comes over me.

I guess we’re big and I guess we’re small.

If you think about it, man you know we got it all.

Cause we’re all we got on this bouncing call.

And I love you free.

I love you freely.

Here’s a riddle for you.

Find the answer.

There’s a reason for the world…

You and I.

No one spoke, the warm husky voice of Tiffany ebbing and slowly fading away into the starry night sky.

Indeed...

You and I...

All nine girls merely lay there on the rooftop, taking silent comfort in each other’s presence. It was left unsaid, but that rooftop and that night, was when 소녀시대 was truly formed. They hadn’t known at that moment that that was what they would be known as to the world. But it didn’t matter, the world didn’t matter. They did. The nine did.

That rooftop, even in the years after they had moved away, would always hold a significance in their hearts. The girls would often return to that old building where so many of their first and most treasured memories were formed. It anchored them. Kept them together. Kept them real. Kept them a family.

Sometimes the girls came together or in subsets, sometimes alone when they needed to think, but unless Tiffany was with them, which was not all the time, the highest point of the rooftop, the pinnacle of what was 소녀시대, was unattainable to them. The girls could never figure out how Tiffany accessed the utility room, and Tiffany would never tell them, and as a result, there was a long period of time, a rather darkened era in their history where they could only stand on the sidewalk and look up. Look up and reminisce and dream of what wonderfulness had transpired that night, dream and hope desperately that that night was not a figment of their wildest imaginations, that the nine had been real.

Tiffany was the first to break the silence.

“Let’s turn in for the night. I want you all rested up for tomorrow. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

All the girls knew exactly who Tiffany was talking about, and they had never been so excited to meet Tiffany’s baby sister.

And by default…their sister.

Seven heads were already churning furiously about what they were going to buy for Lexi before they went to meet her. It’s not everyday you get a new sister, and the girls already were starting to feel like they were going to spoil Lexi like crazy. The eighth was smiling from ear to ear, so overly happy that her previously reticent girlfriend seemed to finally be opening up. The ninth? The ninth felt simply at peace with herself.

This was the right thing to do.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tiffany told the girls she wanted to leave for the hospital around eleven so that they could have breakfast at their leisure instead of rushing there first thing in the morning. The girls agreed and left for their separate rooms to ‘go to bed’.

Tiffany went into her room to find Jessica pushing Seohyun’s bed right up next to hers.

“What’s going on?”

“I asked the maknae if I could sleep here tonight.”

“Jess…I just slept with you last night…”

“Yes. That was ‘sleeping’ and now we’re sleeping.”

“So we’re actually going to just sleep?”

“Yes! I’m still sore from last night. So stop asking so many questions and just change already.”

“So where’s the maknae sleeping then?”

“Where else?!”

“Your room?”
 

“You get a gold star student Hwang.”

“You know you’re picking up my biting sarcasm quite well…”

“Yea…talk about bad influence…NOW SLEEP!”

“…”

“…”

“Jessi?”

“Ugh! What?!”

“Come ‘ere.”

“…”

“…”

“I miss sleeping in your arms every night.”

“I miss having you in my arms every night.”

“Yuri moves around and does yoga in her sleep. She’s super annoying.”

“Seohyun sits as rigid as a board waiting for me to come home every night. It’s like one of those horror movies where you turn on the light and there’s a person sitting there looking at you with a deadened stare. She’s really freaky as hell sometimes.”

“Yuri sticks her tongue out when she sleeps. It’d be cute if she didn’t also have a line of drool dripping from it.”

“Maknae’s a light sleeper and I’m always afraid of waking her up when I move around in my sleep.”

“Our roommates …”

“Hah! Jess…they’re not that bad…we’re just bitter we can’t sleep together…”

“Which reminds me…how are those nightmares of yours?”

“…”

“Tiff? Are they bad? Has it gotten worse?”

“No…they aren’t as frequent now, maybe twice or three times a week. But I wake Seohyun up every time with my and thrashing around. She keeps asking me if I’m alright and I tell her I am, but we both know she’s not convinced…”

“Yuri sleeps like a log, you should sneak in when you have them. The girls will understand…”

“I don’t want to rely on you anymore Jessi…it’s not healthy.”

“Ok. Yea. You’re right…but please Tiff, don’t ever shy away from coming to me. I need to know you’ll come to me when you need help. I know you. You hate to be the one asking. But for my sanity’s sake, I need you to promise me you’ll allow yourself to be vulnerable, to be needy, to be selfish, to take from me when you need to. Please…promise me.”

“…”

“Tiffany please…”

“…I promise that if I break…the pieces will only ever fall in your hands Jess.”

“I love you…I love you so much…”

“I love you too Jessi…”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While Jessica and Tiffany were busy having a sincere heart to heart, the seven other girls had snuck out of their dorm. Taeyeon had convinced Jessica to switch rooms with the maknae that night, the seven needed to go late night shopping for Lexi and they didn’t want Tiffany to know.

Jessica had charged Taeyeon with buying some things for her too, seeing as she wouldn’t be able to join them on their late ni