It was 10PM and like usual, Taeyeon was already snug in bed. Tiffany watched from the door way as Jessica kissed their older sister on her forehead and wished her a goodnight. The smile that was plastered on her face was much wider than usual and Jessica couldn’t help but admire it for a moment longer before getting up from the bed.

“Sweet dreams,” the two sisters whispered before they shut the door and made their way back downstairs.

Jessica plopped down on the couch, face down which cause the younger girl to giggle.

“Tired, Jessi?” she asked as she sat on the empty space next to the girl.

An incomprehensible groan escaped Jessica’s mouth as she nodded into the couch’s cushions.

“Today was a really good day though,” Tiffany said as she crossed her legs, “I wonder if anything different happened this morning? TaeTae said she’d tell us about it but it never came up again.”

Jessica adjusted herself and instead of leaning her entire body into the couch, she simply rested her head on Tiffany’s shoulders.

“She always gets really into celebrating my birthday and painting the garage,” Jessica answered as she yawned, “It probably slipped her mind to tell us about it.”

Before Tiffany could continue their discussion, their doorbell rang.

“You get it,” Jessica demanded before lying back down on the couch.

“What? Why?” Tiffany protested with a pout.

“Because it’s my birthday,” Jessica replied with a smirk.

“Oh shut up,” Tiffany answered before throwing a couch cushion at her sister and getting up. She used that excuse way more often than she should have, and yet Tiffany enabled her every time.

With a roll of her eyes she approached the door, curious to who was at the door. Perhaps it was their new neighbours? Tiffany had been waiting for them to make another appearance since the other night.

To her pleasant surprise however, she found Yoona and Seohyun at their door. Usually, Seohyun would call them at least an hour before heading over so she wondered what the emergency could be. They greeted her with warm smiles however and hugged her before she led them into their house.

“What’s the special occasion unnies?” Tiffany asked as the she sat the two in her living room. Although they were close to the couple, they rarely visited so randomly in the middle of the night.

They had known the couple since their parents were still alive, Yoona especially since she was really close to their mother. They were one of the few people on the island that knew the extent of Taeyeon’s accident and how much the girls worked to take care of Taeyeon. Seohyun and Yoona acted almost like a second pair of parents, always taking care of Taeyeon in the morning and always checking in on the younger siblings at least once a week.

Jessica had entered by this time and greeted her dear friends before offering to make tea. Tiffany rolled her eyes at her sister who only a few minutes prior was face down in the couch, refusing to move. It amazed her how much Jessica initiated things whenever the couple was around. It made Tiffany wish that they came over more often.

“No need Sica,” Seohyun said with her hand raised, “We just came for a short talk.”

“Is this about what happened to Taeng this morning?” Jessica asked as she put down the tea kettle.

“Oh, she told you?” Yoona asked with slightly wide eyes. She didn’t imagine that the girl would bring it up, after all, it was just breakfast with a stranger.

Tiffany shook her head, “She mentioned it, but she never told us anything in detail.” She tilted her head and looked at the couple curiously, “What happened this morning exactly?”

Seohyun sighed and crossed her arms, her expression clearly displeased, “A woman had breakfast with her.”

Jessica’s eyes widened and Tiffany looked a little taken aback as well.

“Yeah, she’s a Korean girl who is here on vacation with her friends. She just got up and helped Taengoo with her waffle house and the two suddenly started talking for the rest of the breakfast period,” Yoona explained, clearly remembering the two causing the diner to be filled with loud talking and laughter.

“This girl, does she look suspicious?” Jessica asked, her eyebrows furrowed. Her defensive personality kicked in at the thought of some stranger talking to her older sister. “Who does she think she is? Suddenly talking to our Taeyeon out of the blue?”

Yoona shrugged, “I think she really liked her. She wouldn’t take her eyes off her the whole time and even though I was working, I could tell that she was flirting with her.”

Jessica let out a low growl, “Why didn’t you kick her out?”

Tiffany placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder to calm her down, “Jessi, they couldn’t just suddenly kick out one of their customers. And Tae would’ve been suspicious too.”

Seohyun nodded, “I watched them carefully the whole time and wished that maybe Taeyeon would’ve rejected her or something. I even wanted Yoona to tell her to back off, but like you said it would’ve seemed suspicious.”

Yoona nodded and let out a sigh, “She seemed really into Taeyeon though, and I have a feeling she’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

Jessica shook her head furiously and slammed her hand firmly on the table, “No, don’t let her in tomorrow. Tell her about Taeyeon’s condition and tell her to leave her alone.”

Tiffany understood Jessica’s words but couldn’t help but shake her head at her, “Wait, Jessi maybe we should think about this for a bit before doing something rash?”

Jessica rolled her eyes, “What is there to think about? You know Taeng can’t have a normal relationship with the way she is.”

Silence fell upon the group as the words sunk in once more.

Since Taeyeon’s accident a year ago, nothing had ever been the same. Jessica had always been over protective, but since the unfortunate incident that occurred on her birthday almost a year ago, she couldn’t help but push it to another level.

Tiffany however, was always unsure about the constant lie that they had to put on every day for Taeyeon to convince her that everything was the same. Of course, she understood the importance. After all, they had been putting on the act since Taeyeon first lost her short term memory.

She closed her eyes and pictured the moment when she was waiting in the hospital, the least injured out of the three girls.

It all happened so quickly.

Tiffany was driving with Taeyeon in the passenger seat and Jessica sleeping at the back. They were on their way to pick a pineapple for Jessica’s birthday, a tradition started when Jessica was first able to say the word at 4. It wasn’t her favourite fruit, but their mother made a mean cake out of it.

Even after their parents died, Tiffany and Jessica were determined to recreate the cake and its delicious flavour. Unfortunately, they were failures in the kitchen most of the time. However, Taeyeon as the eldest of the three took it upon her to figure out the recipe. With time, she was able to recreate the cake and was thus responsible for the cake from then on.

They’d wait until Jessica was awake before they head off to pick the pineapple. But even though she slept in, she still managed to sleep in the car. So Taeyeon and Tiffany took the front and sang happily until they reached their destination.

Unfortunately, a family of ducks were crossing the road. Tiffany was distracted at the time, admiring the sun setting and Taeyeon’s powerful high notes as she sang along with Beyoncé on the radio. She caught sight of the waddling family a second too late and turned straight into a tree.

She suffered a few fractured ribs while Jessica suffered the same along with a fractured shoulder. However, their precious eldest sister suffered the most.

It was nearly impossible to look at her, with the bruises and cuts that covered her face. She had lain unconscious in the hospital bed for two months before she woke up and the doctor confirmed her mental state.

Tiffany shook her head out of the reminiscing and brought her attention back to the group of people in the room. Taeyeon had her breakfast in the couple’s diner every morning and the resident patrons respected her memory loss and played along with the family’s game of replaying Jessica’s birthday every day.

The younger of the siblings bit her lip before turning back to the older couple, “What do you two think?”

Yoona glanced over at her wife and spoke to her with her eyes. Seohyun nodded and the couple turned back to two siblings with a stern expression, “We agree with Sica. It would just be easier if we asked the girl to stop talking to Taeyeon.”

Tiffany was jealous of the way that the two were able to communicate with just a look. Yoona and Seohyun had been together for 10 years now and the two were even looking to adopt soon. Tiffany didn’t know any couple that was even nearly as in love with each other as the two were. Normally she’d be swooning at how magical their bond was, but she had something else on her mind.

“I don’t know,” she responded, causing the three others to look at her. “Tae seemed really happy today guys, like a lot more than usual. Don’t you think that’s a good thing?”

Jessica scoffed and Yoona let out another sigh, “I think that’s the main reason why I didn’t shoo Sooyoung away right away. They seemed to click, like magic. It was spooky.”

“I scolded Yoona after for letting her get too close,” Seohyun added with an apologetic look, “Perhaps we could have avoided the whole thing is someone had just stopped this Sooyoung woman in the first place.”

Yoona pouted, her face suddenly looking ten years younger. The couple already looked much younger than their 30 years of age, but Yoona’s childish response only made it worse.

“Hyunnie, don’t blame me!” she whined, gripping onto her wife’s arm and shaking it, “If you saw the way Sooyoung looked at her…I feel like she would have done anything to talk to little Taengoo.”

Unable to resist her lover’s charms, Seohyun quickly forgave Yoona and caressed her cheek, telling her to calm down. Yoona smiled brightly and slightly bounced in her seat, causing Seohyun to call her, her favourite nickname, “Im Choding.”

“See, she sounds like she really likes Tae,” Tiffany said, turning to her sister and pleading. “Come on, shouldn’t we give this a chance?”

Jessica kept her ground and shook her head, “Seohyun unnie, please tell this Sooyoung everything tomorrow. Once she finds out Taeyeon’s story, she won’t want to bother with her.”

The group fell silent again as the idea of Taeyeon never finding someone to love her hit them all again. It was too much of a hassle for anyone to take care of Taeyeon outside of the four.

“No one would bother making the girl fall for them over and over again, every single day,” Jessica continued, her voice almost a whisper as she finished speaking. It was a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless.

Tiffany sighed, defeated and unable to think of any way to change their minds. She only hoped that this Sooyoung would be persistant.

---

For once in her many years of living, Sooyoung had woken up early with no assistance whatsoever.

Except for the thought of seeing Taeyeon again.

She sprung out of bed and yanked the blankets off all her friends and jumped and screamed and made as much noise as possible to wake them up. She had to get to that diner as soon as possible. She had to see Taeyeon again.

“Are you joking?” Hyoyeon groaned as she grabbed her blanket and pulled it over her head.

“Sooyoungie, it’s only 5AM,” Sunny replied, pulling her own covers over her head again, “Come back again in a few hours okay?”

“Come back to bed,” Yuri mumbled as well, pulling Sooyoung back to her bed. “Aren’t you tired?”

It was Sooyoung’s turn to groan for it seemed like her friends weren’t willing to move an inch. It wasn’t really to go get breakfast, was it? She was certain that the diner opened at 6AM, only a painful hour away.

As she looked back at her sleeping friends, all three looking like they weren’t going to budge at all anytime soon, she let out a defeated sigh. It looked like she had to be patient after all.

After tossing and turning for what seemed like forever, Sooyoung managed to be seduced by sleep once more. It was only a few more hours before she was able to go back and see Taeyeon, after all. She could wait. She had to wait.

Unfortunately, she kept waking up in ten minute intervals, her excitement getting the best of her. She groaned and grunted and tossed and turned, her noises and shifting on the bed getting louder and louder. Her friends stirred from their sleep from the constant noise and it wasn’t until Yuri threw a pillow at her did she realize how annoying she was being.

6AM

The diner was open now.

If her friends weren’t coming along, Sooyoung figured that she’d just head out on her own. This way she had more time with Taeyeon after all, right?

Sooyoung practically leapt out of her pajamas and into comfortable jean shorts and a black tank top before practically sprinting out of their rented cabin. She had only one destination in mind and she was determined to get there as soon as possible.

However, Sooyoung wasn’t really that athletic of a girl and she quickly lost her breath.

“I’ll just speed walk,” she said to herself with a firm nod to confirm her decision.

It looked rather awkward, but luckily for Sooyoung there weren’t many patrons around to witness her odd behaviour. And even if they did spot her, Sooyoung figured that they’d forget about it seeing as she was a tourist and it wasn’t like she would be there forever.

Then it hit her. She was only a tourist. She would be gone in a month while Taeyeon lived there.

“Would that be a problem?” she mumbled to herself as the diner came into view. “Wait, what am I talking about we’ve only had one breakfast together.” She laughed at her foolish thoughts and tucked the possibility of her future together with Taeyeon to the back of her mind. Maybe after the third date she’d start worrying about that.

When she reached the diner, she could see Taeyeon from the outside. It looked like she was in the same spot, even wearing the same clothes. Sooyoung raised her eye brow at this, but figured that maybe it was her favourite outfit or something. She immediately found the idea endearing and adorable instead of strange.

She opened the door and was about to announce her presence when a woman stopped her in her tracks. Sooyoung remembered her as Seohyun, the cook of the diner and the wife of Yoona, the waitress. While she was smiling at Seohyun, the older woman looked rather angry back at her.

Seohyun was about to tell Sooyoung to talk to her for a second when a costumer called for her. Not wanting to neglect one of her patrons, she pointed a firm finger to Sooyoung’s face.

“You stay right here,” she demanded, causing Sooyoung to shiver a bit at her tone.

However, once Seohyun had left her and Sooyoung’s eyes made contact with Taeyon’s figure fiddling with a waffle house, she felt herself drawn towards the smaller girl like a magnet.

“Taeyeon!” she called out happily, skipping over to Taeyeon’s table and sitting herself in front of her. She made herself comfortable and even grabbed a piece of the other girl’s waffle, tossing it into .

“Did you miss me?” she asked with still slightly full. She was way too excited, “You were the first person I thought of when I woke up and I couldn’t wait to come down here to see you again.”

Sooyoung’s eyes had been closed as she expressed her happiness of seeing Taeyeon again. This prevented her from seeing the frightened look that developed on Taeyeon’s face, which was the first thing she saw when her eyes opened.

“W-Who are you?” Taeyeon asked, getting up from her seat and backing away from the table slowly.

Sooyoung raised her eye brow before letting out a laugh, “Oh, you’re such a joker Taeyeon! It’s me, Sooyoungie, from yesterday remember? The pretty local tourist?”

Taeyeon shook her head slowly, continuing to back away from Sooyoung as she only tried to fix the gap, “I’ve never seen you before in my life…”

Sooyoung sighed, “Don’t be like this Taeng, come on let’s have breakfast and fun like yesterday, huh?”

Taeyeon was absolutely terrified at this point, “Don’t call me Taeng, you don’t know me.”

She quickened her pace and waved her arms in front of her. Who was this woman trying to have breakfast with her all of a sudden? She freaked out and turned away from Sooyoung, “Yoong! Yoong! I need help!”

Yoona immediately came to Taeyeon’s side and she had to immediately stop herself from accidentally calling out Sooyoung’s name upon noticing the tall girl. She tensed as she felt Taeyeon grab her arm, feeling almost sorry for Sooyoung.

Sooyoung couldn`t believe what was happening and almost called out for Taeyeon again when she felt a hand on her arm. She wanted to wrestle out of the grip, but she calmed herself down knowing that she just needed to know what was happening.

“Come with me,” Seohyun said firmly as she gently tugged Sooyoung towards the door.

Sooyoung looked back to see a frightened Taeyeon hiding behind Yoona’s back. She was confused and angry, what the hell was going on?