Taeyeon slowly poked one eye open scanning her surroundings. Her other eye opened when she saw someone hugging her, wrapping their arms around her protectively. That person must have drifted off to sleep as well, Taeyeon could see a little drool on the left side corner of .

She smiled and used the knuckle of her index finger to wipe it off. This scene reminded her of the olden days, ah the memories. Back when they weren’t the nation’s girl group, weren’t leading the hallyu wave. Just plain old high school girls going to school not giving a damn about what people thought.

*Seven years ago…

“Sica, you have to raise your hand higher during the .”

The 16 year old Taeyeon went over to correct her current girlfriend. They were in a room with six other girls around their age practicing their butts off hoping that maybe one day, they’ll be able to debut.

“Aigoo, Taeng take it easy. I’ve got this.”

The same aged Jessica poked her in the cheek. Seriously the girl’s puffy cheeks were just so tempting to her.

“Gosh just date already!”

Hyoyeon shouted at them from the floor. She was drowning in exhaustion and sweat, but that didn’t stop her from teasing her friends. Yoona and Yuri giggled while fetching some water.

“Yah Kim Hyoyeon, shut up.”

Jessica yelled on her way to her water bottle next to Tiffany. Taeyeon just stood and smiled, no one else knew about her and Jessica’s relationship, it was merely an experiment for Jessica. Though Taeyeon was still happy she had abandoned her habit of playing with guys’ hearts now. It seemed like Jessica had changed for the better and it was all for her.

Taeyeon smiled at the memory. Ha, she still remembered the time Jessica ran all the way down the block, through the rain, to chase down that ice cream truck. It was the day Taeyeon came back from the dentist office and her tooth kept aching like bloody hell. People say ice cream always helped so what else could Jessica have done? This was one of the things of Jessica that Taeyeon fell in love with. But of course those times weren’t full of rainbows and sunshine. Or else things wouldn’t be like this right now.

*July 12^th 2007….

Today was their 2^nd anniversary, Taeyeon was beaming in delight with a red little box in her hand. They were the couple rings that she had spent weeks, possibly even months trying to find. Thanks to her hard work she had finally found a pair to her liking. She even though of all the excuses and everything when people start noticing their identical rings. She’d simply say they were friendship rings, for those two girls have known each other for so long.

“I hope that pabo doesn’t forget like last time.”

Taeyeon mumbled to herself. Yes, the all mighty Jessica Jung had failed to remember their first anniversary but she did promise she’d make up for it somehow.

Just then her phone buzzed in her pocket. The caller ID showed that it was a text from her lovely girlfriend, Jessica.

Hey Taeyeon, mind coming to the practice room? There’s no one here…

Thinking that it was a surprise for her, Taeyeon ran all the way upstairs to their practice room, she didn’t have time to wait for the damn elevator.

In just a few seconds Taeyeon was running through the wooden doors to their practice room where Jessica was sitting on the floor.

“Wow that was fast. Did they upgrade the elevator or something? Ha ha.”

“Phew…yeah, something like that.”

Taeyeon said as she breathed heavily and loudly.

“Are you alright? You seem so…out of breath.”

“No, everything’s…phew…perfectly fine.”

“Well ok, if you say so.”

Jessica gave the girl she adored so much a few minutes to stabilize herself. After a short while, Taeyeon finally caught her breath and was appearing normal again.

“So, anything you want to tell me?”

Taeyeon said in her abnormally high pitched voice. She normally didn’t do agyeo but today was different, it was special.

“Ah yeah! Taeyeon-ah.”

Jessica placed both her hands into her own. She looked at Taeyeon with a serious gaze and gentle smile. The same smile Taeyeon loved. She was getting so excited and curious over what Jessica was going to say next. Oh she just knew it was going to be something super romantic and cheesy.

“Let’s break up.”

You bet your socks this took Taeyeon by surprise. She blinked a few times hoping either this is a dream gone wrong or she didn’t hear her right.

“N—neh?”

“Let’s break up.”

She repeated. Taeyeon never knew merely three words could do such damage to her.

“W—why?!”

“Well if you think about it, our debut is just around the corner. Isn’t that amazing? And if we continue this fling we have with each other even after we become celebrities, people are going to start noticing.”

A fling?! So that’s what Jessica had been labeling this whole relationship as. How could she? Taeyeon gave it her all during this relationship. How could she just end it with a lame excuse like this?

“I'm only thinking about our futures, this way we can focus more on our careers as well. Isn’t that great?”

Jessica exclaimed with such enthusiasm. No, it wasn't great. At least not in Taeyeon’s eyes. She wanted to say something so bad, something to put a stop to all this madness. But she couldn’t. Taeyeon felt like there was something stuck in preventing her from doing anything.

“We can go back to being best friends, though.”

No! They couldn’t, not with everything that happened. The entire time, Jessica had managed to keep this casual smile on. The fact that she could smile even after breaking the news to her disgusts Taeyeon. When she was slowly braking apart on this side, Jessica treated this whole situation like a game on the other side.

“Bye Taeyeon, see you tomorrow.”

Jessica leaded in and kissed her forehead. That was the very first moment Taeyeon started hating Jessica Jung.

Jessica grabbed her bag and waved her a goodbye still with the smile Taeyeon loathed. After she left, Taeyeon had managed to get back her senses. She immediately ran out the door wanting to tell Jessica she didn’t want to break up. That she loved her.

But it was too late. There was no Jessica in sight, she had gone home. Unknown to herself Taeyeon stepped back into their training room. She closed the door and collapsed crying. Anger, betrayal, hurt, everything was rushing into her head all at once. And as if that wasn't enough her heart was taking most of the blow as well. Her heart broke. Jessica Jung broke Kim Taeyeon’s heart on the 12^th of July 2007.

The mere thought of the memory had brought the feelings back to her. She could feel her face getting red from anger. Both at Jessica and herself. Jessica for toying with her and herself for allowing it. Also for acting so stupid when Jessica dumped her, she could have said something. But she was too weak, Taeyeon detest being weak.

Taeyeon’s hand started forming a fist and she grabbed onto whatever her hand was on at the time.

“Ow!!”

Coincidentally it was Jessica’s lap. Oh silly her, a trip down the memory lane had almost made her forgotten she was sleeping in Jessica’s arms on their couch.

Jessica had woken up from her nap. She pouted at the sudden pain. Taeyeon let go immediately seeing how she was hurting the girl.

“Sorry…”

Jessica didn’t say anything, instead she smiled more and hugged the girl even tighter. Well this was definitely something Taeyeon wasn't expecting. She remembered the last time Yoona accidentally did the same thing to her and Jessica yelled at the poor kid for twenty minutes straight.

After a few seconds Jessica finally let go but she was still wearing the same goofy smile she did when she woke up.

“Hi.”

“H..hi.”

“Did you have a nice nap?”

“Uh, I guess.”

“Good. Now would you mind getting off my lap?”

Realizing only now that she had been sitting on top of her, Taeyeon quickly stood up in embarrassment. She tried to occupy herself by fixing her clothing, brushing off the already smoothened clothes.

“Taeyeon, are you alright?”

“Y--yeah! Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Um, your cheeks are really red right now.”

In a panic Taeyeon quickly slapped her cheeks for evidence of Jessica’s claim. Oh she was right, Taeyeon could literally feel herself blazing up.

“Hey! Don't do that so hard. You're going to hurt yourself, come here.”

Jessica gently pealed Taeyeon’s hands away from her face and examined her cheeks.

“Gosh, you pabo. You made it worst, I think you just got redder. If redder is a word.”

Jessica softly brushed the back of her hand against Taeyeon’s cheeks hoping to help them heal faster.

Aish you’re the idiot here! You’re making it worst. Taeyeon wanted to tell her so bad. But she didn’t find the strength to, she always felt so weak and small next to Jessica and Taeyeon hated that fact.

“There, I think it’s better.”

“T—thank you.”

Feeling uncomfortable, Taeyeon darted her eyes all over the room hoping to find something interesting enough to distract her from the younger girl. But sadly their home was full of boring decorations, all thanks to their maknae, Seohyun, for choosing them. According to her they were calming to look at.

“Um, are you hungry? Gosh I'm starving I’ll go cook something for us to eat.”

Taeyeon tried to run for the kitchen but stopped when she felt a hand reach for her wrist. Her touch. Taeyeon shamefully missed that.

“Taeyeon, we just ate.”

“Well then uh…I’ll go get a drink. Ha…”

“No Taeyeon, I want to finish off the conversation we had before our little ‘nap’.”

Ok. Now Taeyeon would give anything to get out of this conversation. She knew where this was heading and she certainly did not want to end up fighting again. She was tired of doing that all the time. And what else was there to say? She didn’t want to bring the pain back.

“What’s there to talk about? What’s done is done. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“No. I want you to hear my side of the story.”

Taeyeon scoffed in sarcasm. This time she turned around to face the girl.

“What do you mean your side of the story?! You mean the side of how you went out partying with your friends after you freaking dumped me?! Oh I bet you had an awesome time, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t. I…trust me, I had my own fair share of agony after our break up.”

“Are you crazy or just think I'm stupid? Um hello? You broke up with me and you know what the most ridiculous thing is? You were smiling the entire ing time! You disgust me!”

Taeyeon never cussed. No, she always found friendlier substitutes for those nasty words.

“I was only trying to act like I was ok with everything. The truth is I wasn't. I didn’t want to let you go.”

“And why’s that? You weren’t done toying with me yet?”

“No, because I really loved you.”

Taeyeon was taken aback. She wanted to say something, say it was ridiculous, that it was absurd. But she chose to let her continue.

Jessica snickered but she wasn't smiling.

“I loved the way you whine when you missed an episode of Dragon Ball Z. I loved the way you hit your high notes during practice. I loved the way you walk down the stage like it’s your runway. I loved the way you at dancing, seriously even Tiffany is catching up to you now a days. I love so many things about you that it was borderline obsession. To the point where I would do anything for you, and also the point where I was afraid I would cause you trouble. That’s why I decided to break up with you.”

Taeyeon looked at her like Jessica was some kind of nut job.

“I know, call me crazy and stupid—“

“You’re crazy and stupid. Oh I could call you so much more.”

“Well I didn’t mean literally.”

“Exactly what were you thinking? Did you really think ending our relationship would help me in anyway?”

“Yes I did. We’ve both trained so hard and long. We’ve gave up so much. I wasn't going to risk the chance of throwing it all away just because of my selfish liking of you. I couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. Especially when my most prized procession was on the line.”

“What? Your singing career?”

“No…you.”

Taeyeon stayed mum, what could she say?

“The truth is, I never thought of the thing we had back then as a fling. Hell, that was an understatement. It was much more than that. Truly, the two years I spent dating you were possibly some of the best moments in my life. That day I broke up with you, once I made sure I was out of the room, I ran away crying. I cried my heart out. That’s really all I did for the past three weeks or so? I cried and I cried looking at your pictures, thinking of you. Of course no one knew, when asked I’d just say I smudge my eyes a lot.”

So that’s why Taeyeon couldn’t catch up with her even though Jessica had like, a three second head start. She ran, Jessica never runs.

“After some time passed, I tried dating again. With multiple people.”

Taeyeon’s heart hurts a little seeing how little time it took for Jessica to move on. But of course, what could she expect from one of the players of SM?

“Because I was hoping at least one of them would make me forget and get over you. But it didn’t work. Everything, even the slightest things just reminded me of you. That’s why those relationships never last long.”

The older girl could feel something about to brim her eyes. Honestly she was touched.

“I'm sorry I caused you so much pain. I'm sorry for being stupid, I just thought I was protecting you. But in reality I was the danger that was harming you all along. I should have known. From the—“

Jessica stopped talking when she felt a body launch herself at her. The girl’s grip was strong and it didn’t seem like she was letting go anytime soon.

“Just shut up, stupid.”

Even with the insult, Jessica had never felt herself smile more. Though she knew Taeyeon hadn’t fully given herself to her, this was a start. And Jessica couldn’t ask for more.