It’s actually quite astounding how fast a week pasts by. It seemed like it was only yesterday that the girls were given a vacation. Now, everyone was back in the dorms getting ready for their next schedule.

“Yah, giant hand me those spoons over there.”

Sooyoung leaned over the sink and grabbed a handful of new spoons for Sunny, who had a height complex. The girls were having a quick breakfast before jumping in their van and starting a long day.

Inside Taeyeon’s room, she was applying makeup alone in the big bedroom she shared with Sunny.

“Morning.”

“Holy Jesus Christ! What the hell Jessica, you could have scared me to death.”

Jessica’s head popped through the bare wall right next to the large mirror that Taeyeon was so focused on.

“Aish, you made me mess up my makeup too.”

Taeyeon slouched in her chair and pouted. Feeling guilty, Jessica immediately kneeled down to examine her face.

“Aw, I'm sorry.”

She reached over and grabbed a dark brown eyebrow pencil. Jessica used her finger tips to gently smudge away the mistakes caused by her.

“What are you doing?”

“Fixing your makeup. Don't worry, I’m great at this, Nana taught me a lot about makeup before.”

“Oh really…?”

“Yeah, she’s a great makeup artist, she even has a license and everything.”

The girl had reached in so close that, Taeyeon could literally feel her breath on her own skin.

“She sounds…skilled.”

“She is. Ha-ha, she’s done my makeup dozens of times.”

“Oh.”

Taeyeon couldn’t look Jessica in the eye anymore, she couldn’t tell if it was because she was too close or because of her new discovery of Jessica and Nana’s closeness.

“Hey Taeyeon you’ve go—“

Tiffany came into the room without knocking what-so-ever. She just stood there for a second as she witnessed the flying makeup utensils in the air next to Taeyeon’s face. In a panic, Taeyeon quickly grabbed onto them to make it look as logically possible as she could. In result she was holding Jessica’s hand. Which both girls did enjoy. Very much.

“Did those…things just…fly?”

“What? Of course not, ha Fany-ah, you’re seeing things.”

“No, I could have sworn I saw it. With my own two eyes!”

Taeyeon stood up immediately and placed whatever was in her hands back on her drawer.

“Tiffany, its early in the morning. Maybe your eyes were just playing tricks on you. Silly girl they weren’t fly…I um…was throwing them in the air. Yeah!”

Tiffany eyed Taeyeon suspiciously. Why on earth would a normal person throw their eyeliners and bronzer in the air for the fun of it?

“No, they were staying in place. Almost as if…someone was holding them or something.”

Taeyeon stared at her with wide eyes.

“No, no. Of course not. Tiffany I think you’re seeing things. Haha.”

The shortest girl in the room nervously laughed and shoved her best friend out of the door.

“Manager oppa said he’s going to be here in about ten minutes, hurry up.”

Taeyeon locked the door once Tiffany was on the other end.

“Phew, that was close. You could have at least helped you know?”

She said to Jessica who was currently sitting on her bed looking amused. Tiffany on the other hand didn’t leave yet. She had heard her leader talking as if there was a third person in the room. Tiffany was damn sure she was alone.

Who is she talking to? What’s going on with her?

Tiffany walked away worryingly.

“If I did help, then it wouldn’t be as fun.”

Taeyeon shot her a glare and went back to her daily routine.  

“Do you still want my help though?”

“Nope.”

Jessica flopped down on Taeyeon’s bed lazily. What was she going to do the entire time the girls are gone? Usually she had Taeyeon to keep her company but, that didn’t seem possible as the girl herself had a music show to attend.

“Alright, I’ll be off in a few minutes. Behave yourself while I'm gone.”

“You talk to me as if I'm a five year old.”

“No, you’re worse than that. At least children listen to adults.”

“Yah! I am an adult.”

Jessica threw a nearby pillow at her. Which, Taeyeon caught with ease.

“You throw like a kid, too.”

The younger girl stuck her tongue out at her before walking out of the room to join the rest of her members in the living room. Taeyeon carefully placed her purple pillow back where it belonged.

In the living room, everyone was moving around frantically except Jessica of course and strangely Tiffany as well. She just sat on the couch and ate her cereal still in her pajamas with a messy bun. Jessica eyed her friend curiously.

“Weird. Isn’t Tiffany always the one that’s getting everyone ready?”

“Alright, we’ll be off now Fany. Don't forget, your schedule starts in another 2 hours.”

“Yeah I got it. Geez Taeyeon you’re so bossy.” Tiffany playfully stated.

“Ungrateful kids…”

So I guess I’ll be stuck with Tiffany for quite a while.

*

Jessica stared at Tiffany with her creeper eyes. She would have never thought the loud and always jolly Fany Fany Tiffany would be so boring. All she does is do cosmetic practice the entire time she’s alone.

“Geez is this how she always is like when nobody’s around?”

Right now Tiffany was soaking her face in a cucumber and honey facial mask. Jessica didn’t dare stand within a two feet radius of her.

Feeling rather bored, Tiffany turned the TV on and randomly started surfing channels. She stopped at one channel that was currently airing a popular music show called ‘Music Bank’.

“Oh hey…Seohyun and Taeyeon are the MC for today…”             

Taetiseo was the official MCs for the show, but the fact that Tiffany had a conflicting schedule meant she couldn’t go for today.

“Man, I should really get ready for the event I'm attending today.”

*

“Thanks for watching everyone. Don't forget to tune in next week for another amazing episode of…”

“MUSIC BANK!”

Seohyun and Taeyeon yelled in union. Well that was the end of that. Rushing off to their resting rooms to change, the duo encountered a few old friends.

“Ah Orange Caramel, how are you guys doing?” Seohyun and Taeyeon bowed to their fellow colleagues. To which the three girls returned the favor of.

“Unnie!” Lizzy particularly jumped on top of Taeyeon giving her a bear hug.

“Ha ha, hi Lizzy. Gee you’ve gained a few pounds.” Lizzy retreated from the shorter girl with a pout.

“Aw geez, you’re no fun. This is why I’ve always preferred Seohyun unnie more.” She stuck her tongue out at Taeyeon and went to attack Seohyun instead.

“So Taeyeon-ssi.” Nana politely stepped forward to Taeyeon with Raina trying to peal Lizzy off the poor maknae in the background.

“Ah hi Nana-ssi. How have you been?” Taeyeon and Nana had never been close, they had ran into each other a couple of times but they never really had a proper conversation or anything.

“Great thanks for asking. Uh, if you don't mind me asking, how is Sooyeon doing?” The blonde asked with concerned eyes.

Geez, how close are they really? She’s even using her Korean name.

People rarely address Jessica by her Korean name. Not even her family or close friends.

“Aw yeah ‘Sooyeon’ is doing fine. Well…not fine as you can see but…stable.”

“That’s nice to hear. I’ve been so worried.” Nana broke out in a smile.

“Wow, you guys must have been pretty close. Ha ha…”

“Of course we are. We bonded over our interest in makeup and soon became really great friends.”

Looks like someone wants to be more than just ‘really great friends’ to me…

“Is that so?” Nana nodded cutely.

“The day before Sooyeon got in her car accident, she called me up and we were supposed to go drinking the next day. But looks like our little ‘date’ won't be happening anytime soon.”

Nana finished off with a small chuckle. Taeyeon hated it every time when Nana would call Jessica Sooyeon. Who does she think she is? Even Taeyeon doesn’t call her that and they’ve known each other for around a decade.

“Come on Nana! We have to get going, we have another schedule!” Raina yelled on the top of her lungs.

“Coming! Gosh it’s like she has ants in her pants or something. Anyways Taeyeon-ssi I’ll be going now. Bye.”

Nana bowed a farewell to her senior and being the polite older lady that she was, Taeyeon bowed back.

“Come on Unnie what are you waiting for? We have to rush to our next schedule or we’ll be late.”

Seohyun dragged her leader to their dressing rooms. Sometimes it’s hard to believe she was the youngest member out of all of them.

*

“We’re home!”

Yuri yelled as she locked the door behind her. She and Taeyeon had ran into each other downstairs. It was already 11:30 at night. This was actually considered quite early for them.

“Aw no fair you guys started dinner without us?”

“If you really think we were going to wait for you, you’re crazy.”

Sooyoung stuffed with some raw salmon. Tonight, the girl band is going to feast on Japanese dishes.

“Yay, you guys saved me some tuna sushi!” Yuri ran to the dinner table and grabbed the plastic container.

“Well to be honest you are the only one that likes tuna sushi.”

“Hey Taeyeon, what do you want? Better act fast, Sooyoung and Yoona are going to eat everything soon.”

“Uh…no thanks Sunny. I’m just gonna head back to my room.”

“Are you sure? Aren’t you hungry?”

Taeyeon reached over and grabbed two random small plastic boxes from the table and smiled.

“I’ll just eat in my room. Night guys.”

“Night…” Taeyeon was already gone.

“Guys don't you think our leader has been acting sort of…weird lately.”

“Tell me about it. Just this morning I heard her talking to someone in her room.”

“What’s so weird about that?”

“There was no one else in her room.”

*

In her bedroom, Taeyeon saw Jessica lying on her bed with wide open and eyes closed. The girl was sleeping like a baby.

She walked over and couldn’t help but brush the back of her hand against her cheek. Her skin was so smooth. Just like how she remembered it.

“You would make the perfect stalker fan.”

Jessica’s eyes opened. Taeyeon’s hand retreated right away.

“What the…weren’t you asleep?”

“I was. But then I heard the door open.”

“So you just pretended to be sleeping?”

“I was curious of what you would do.”

“That’s just low.”

Jessica shrugged her shoulders and sat up.

“Taeyeon I'm hungry.” She said like a little kid.

Taeyeon tossed her one of the boxes she managed to snatch while outside.

“Ew tuna sushi? Only Yuri likes this kind of stuff.”

Taeyeon shrugged her shoulders carelessly like she was mocking the way Jessica acted.

“How come you get salmon? I want salmon.”

“Too bad, it’s either tuna or nothing at all. Your choice.”

Jessica made a face and popped open her dinner box. Yuck, even the smell of tuna with rice was nose cringing.

Dinner went by fast with Jessica trying to steal some food from Taeyeon’s dinner box and always getting caught. Though, she did manage to grab two slices of salmon. Ah salmon, so much better than tuna.

After their little meal, Taeyeon and Jessica just sat there on Taeyeon’s bed with no plans in mind. Usually they would be out in the living room annoying the hell out of each other. But not from now on, the other members have returned already.

“Hey Taeyeon?”

“Hm?”

Jessica never answered.

“What?”

“…what if I don't make my deadline?”

This time it was Taeyeon that didn’t answer.

“What if I never manage to complete this quest of mine?”

“You’ll do it. You’ll be able to.”

“How can you be so sure?” She turned around to face her midget leader.

“Because I'm here,” Taeyeon turned as well, “I’ll make sure of it.”

The gap between them was so little, it was tempting, very tempting to close the stupid gap. And they did.

Jessica looked down at Taeyeon’s opened mouth and witnessed it coming closer and closer. They kissed. It was the first time after a while. A long while.

Taeyeon was just about to part her lips as she felt Jessica’s tongue on her bottom lip when a loud knocking on her door interrupted them.

“Taeyeon! Open the door now!”

Both girls grunted. But Taeyeon’s was louder.

She got up from the bed frustrated and threw open the door. Sooyoung and Yoona were at the door step.

“What?!”

Yoona took a breath.

“They found him…”

“Who?! Who could it be that is so importa—“

“The man who ran Jessica over.” Sooyoung answered.