She stared out the window, again, for the sixth time that day. Taeyeon leaned back and tried to relax her tensed muscles. She had enough for today, enough worries, enough trouble but not enough sleep. There was, however, a smile on her face. She felt grateful and felt that she couldn't complain. What was truly wrong? Nothing, at the moment, as she was sitting on a white leather armchair, music was playing in the background and her left hand was gently holding Sooyoung's. 

 

 

 

 

"Tae, when can I go home?" After the accident, Taeyeon found Sooyoung's voice much more pleasant to hear, not that the girl's voice wasn't absolutely soothing in the first place. The shorter of the two, but now the taller's caretaker ironically, stood up and bent down to plant a kiss on Sooyoung's forehead. She caressed Sooyoung's cheeks and laughed a little. 

 

 

 

 

"Youngie, you just had an accident a few days ago, your body needs to heal you know?" Sooyoung pouted and made a fake crying noise, melting Taeyeon's heart and making her squeal in delight. Despite her many bandages, casts and annoying IV drip,  Taeyeon could only see a beautiful woman that was all hers. Sooyoung was alive, and that in itself was so beautiful to Taeyeon.

 

 

 

 

Sooyoung propped herself up and moved herself to the other side of the bed. Taeyeon understood this and climbed onto the bed. She then thought about something she always wanted to ask her but never seemed to have the time to. 

 

 

 

 

"Girl, why are you so thin?"  Sooyoung looked at her with the face of disbelief. It was a mild face but it did good in making Taeyeon shut up. She always told the latter that she was insecure about her weight, how her bones showed in too many places and how she felt like half a woman having a figure of a stick. Taeyeon thought the opposite; she wanted to be skinny since her childhood and always felt far too chubby. All they saw were imperfections in themselves, however, they saw perfection each other. 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps Sooyoung was partly a way of having something that she had always wished for. Perhaps Taeyeon was the same to Sooyoung, vice versa.  Sooyoung had been told once before by a friend back in the past that some lovers feel attracted to someone with tastes and views contrary to their own. This was, how her friend had put it, 'filling in the gaps'. However, that particular friend had warned that it could result in unwanted side effects. 

 

 

 

 

Being the dorks they were, they held their arms up and made a heart with their hands. This turned into a certain 'hand fight' where both of them were competing to grab the other's hand. They made high-pitched monster sounds and fought on, with their earlier conversation disappearing from their memories for the moment. Each of them laughed hard, maybe their chuckles could be heard from the other room. They didn't care. 

 

 

 

 

"Wait! Let me take a picture!" Sooyoung could only shake her head and straighten her arm as Taeyeon struggled and later, succeeded in taking a picture of the heart they formed with their hands. There was a moment of silence as Taeyeon looked over at the pictures she had taken for the past few days, most of them were 'selcas' of her and Sooyoung. Of course, the girl had a big, wide smile on her bright face. Her heart was full, in comparison to the emptiness she felt not too long ago. 

 

 

 

 

"Yah, Taengoo, you still kept that dart board picture as your background? Don't you think it kind of looks...I don't know...dark and mysterious?"  Taeyeon looked to Sooyoung and shook her head. She s her arm under Sooyoung's waist and wrapped her other arm over it, side hugging her. She rubbed her cheek on her shoulder and sighed. "When I think of the darts, I think of us. And when I think of us, I think of happiness and love, now is that dark and mysterious? No!"  

 

 

 

 

There were birds chirping outside, the sun was shining down on their bodies, her girlfriend was, for once, cuddling with her and a nurse was bringing ice cream in. Strawberry ice cream to be exact, which was her favourite. It was the life. It was a life that Sooyoung had always dreamt of. Everything was beautiful and at peace, well not counting for the fact that she was in stitches and bandages at least, but still, it was great. Life was great and all was fine. 

 

 

 

 

"Thank you!" They said in unison as Taeyeon reached out to take the ice cream, but not before Sooyoung snatched it away and stuck her tongue out. Sooyoung pointed at herself and took the spoon, scooping a whole lot of pink ice cream and urging Taeyeon to take a bite. With another cute monster sound, Taeyeon took a bite out of it and instantly started fanning with her hand.

 

 

 

 

"Brain freeze!" Taeyeon held her hands on her head as if it was pulsating and shrieked in pain. Sooyoung burst out into laughter seeing how feminine and childish her tomboy Taeyeon was acting. She kind of liked it. It was entertaining as well, she thought as she took a big dollop of ice cream and stuffed it in . She didn't get a brain freeze, luckily for her, she had trained in the art of fast ice cream eating.

 

 

 

 

"No-But-You-You didn't get a brain freeze!" Taeyeon tackled Sooyoung and tickled her in many places, the latter laughing out loud and rolling from left to right subconsciously. The blonde then began kissing Sooyoung's ear and jaw while still tickling her in her stomach. If Sooyoung could describe that moment, she would say that she was falling in love all over again. 

 

 

 

 

Because of her fatigue, Taeyeon stopped the tickle match but still was laying on top of Sooyoung. She used one of her hands to take one of Sooyoung's and used the other to play with the girl's hair. Meanwhile, Sooyoung was looking straight into Taeyeon's eyes and was mesmerized by them once again, how they shine beautifully in the sunlight. Or on any occasion for that matter, her eyes always were like stars, but even more gorgeous. 

 

 

 

 

"I wish it was bigger," she said as she put her hand over the left side of her chest,  her heart. "I wish it was bigger so it can love you more," she continued, going in to kiss Sooyoung more and more around her cheeks and neck. "You deserve way more than this old thing." 

 

 

 

 

"I think it's just right." And like Taeyeon, Sooyoung smothered her girlfriend with, most likely, more than a hundred kisses all over. She even forget that she was in a hospital. It was amazing because she's never felt that happy in a long time- normally, she would expect that Taeyeon would simply give her a few pecks, maybe feed her some ice cream, give her some encouraging advice and maybe a few more pecks here and there but that would be it. Never before had they 'played' like that. It made Sooyoung think more into it. 

 

 

 

 

"Ah well, she probably values me more now...Hehehe..." 

 

 

 

 

"What did you say?" Sooyoung shook her head and wrapped her arms around Taeyeon's neck, pulling her into a deep, passionate and long kiss she desperately needed.  They closed their eyes and deepened the kiss, Taeyeon placed her arms around Sooyoung's waist and they cherished the softness of each other's lips. How did the simple act of kissing convey such a vast amount of emotions? It was magical, the act of kissing. 

 

 

 

 

They pulled themselves apart, but their hearts were still pressed together. Oh how they both wished that they could be closer. It's funny how they felt so close to each other emotionally, a bond they thought was inseparable. However, since birth they were parted by the solid, opaque masses that were their bodies, they were apart from the start. Sooyoung suggested to Taeyeon that, somehow, love was able to pass through anything, even the dense, inscrutable heart of Taeyeon's. Taeyeon laughed at that. 

 

 

 

 

"Open!" Unbeknownst to Sooyoung, Taeyeon picked up the cup of ice cream and had already scooped up another spoonful of ice cream. Readily, Sooyoung chomped down the ice cream and her lips. They alternated roles for who fed who and at the end, Taeyeon even let Sooyoung the cup dry. The girl loved her food. But then, the curious Sooyoung noticed something. 

 

 

 

 

"Enjoyed it? Seven months."  

 

 

 

They looked at each other the second after they read it. Much to Sooyoung's surprise, Taeyeon merely scoffed at it and fell back onto the bed.  But Sooyoung knew that things were getting serious, she had to know if it was real. Even if it took an arm and a leg, she was going to find that woman again and force her to explain if it was true or just a prank. And if it was true, how would she have known?  Truly, she was confused, even though she knew exactly what the woman said. 

 

 

 

"Choi Sooyoung, the authorities have kept a secret. In seven months, your world is going to end." 

 

 

 

The sentence was vague and hard to decipher, but Sooyoung had already come to a few possible meanings-

 

 

 

A- That the lady was lying/ stupid/ dared to talk to random people/ a hoax/ mentally insane.

 

 

 

B- That the entire world was going to end and Sooyoung was some prophet that needed to tell everyone about it. 

 

 

 

C- That she was going to die. 

 

 

 

"I hope it's choice A," she accidentally muttered out as she stared at the window, twiddling her thumbs.  Even though she hoped that it would be A, she was still constantly thinking that it would be either B or C. "What?" Said Taeyeon, as she cracked her knuckles. "Nothing, Tae." 

 

 

<<<<<~>>>>>

 

 

 

 

Sooyoung was plagued with utmost fear. Was it true? It had to be. Sure, the woman in a babushka, with pristine glasses, sitting at the corner of a road with a table decorated with tarot cards was quite the cliched sight. Though, those characters were either telling the truth or were typical frauds. Which one were they facing? Well...Not they, Taeyeon wasn't bothered that much. She was still on the verge of definitely rejecting it. 

 

 

 

 

She had been discharged from the hospital, though she was told to stay on bed for the next one or two weeks, so that her stitches could fully close. The ride home was fantastic, Taeyeon dropped by at the nearby candy store and had gotten her a bucket full of candy and other scrumptious goodies. 

 

 

 

 

"You really do pamper me, don't you?" Sooyoung stared down at the pink tin pail full of chocolates, sweets, gummies and lollipops, all of which might get her diabetic but, hell, she was recovering from a car accident and was facing the possibility of death in seven months, she needed some encouragement!  

 

 

 

 

"Babe, I hope you don't listen to that 'seven months' shtick," muttered Taeyeon as she pulled up at the driveway. She got out of her Porsche and ambled to the other side, opening the door and bending down so that she could piggyback Sooyoung to their room. They went into the elevator and all was in silence, no small talk or any type of talk at all, for some reason. Sooyoung was still holding onto the pink bucket as she was brought into their room. 

 

 

 

 

"I'll be back, I need to park the car. Be safe, okay?" Sooyoung nodded obediently and rested her head on her arm as she heard the door slam shut behind her. She would be back in around fifteen minutes, Sooyoung thought, her woman would probably go to the nearest seven eleven first to get some cigarettes. She smelt smoke in the car, even though she requested that Taeyeon should stop smoking. 

 

 

 

 

It was useless anyway, she was a stubborn one. Never wanted to go to church, never ate healthily, never stopped smoking, even if Sooyoung and her got married, the former wouldn't be able to stop those nasty habits of hers. Sooyoung knew doing those things were for her good- especially the smoking part, but the girl would never listen. 

 

 

 

 

She grabbed a Jolly Rancher from the bucket and popped it in . Her eyes traveled to the clock, the clock which had a dartboard picture in it. Funny how so many things in their house had a dartboard theme, maybe Taeyeon wanted them there so that they could remember their first meeting. But Sooyoung had to say, it fitted in with their vintage-styled apartment. 

 

 

 

 

"Our first meeting..." She closed her eyes and tried to seep into the memory of the day they first met. Their meeting wasn't intentional, wasn't planned, in fact, Taeyeon was drunk when they had first set eyes on each other. Sooyoung wondered how she fell in love with a drunk person, who was a woman moreover. The scene appeared as if it had just happened the day before, and the image of a dartboard on the pub's wall followed soon after-

 

 

 

 

"Love! I'm back~" Taeyeon sang blissfully as she leaped onto the bed and hugged Sooyoung from behind. Sooyoung's mood was the opposite of hers, she was unsettled, for the main reason that she could nearly taste the ash when she inhaled through . Taeyeon had been smoking. 

 

 

 

 

"Taetae-" She stopped when Taeyeon leaned in to kiss her. Despite the fact that she smelt like an ash tray, her heart fluttered and she appreciated the kiss. The other then went on and planted kisses all around her neck like a needy puppy, and Sooyoung's mood rose and all her hatred for the girl's stinking breath disappeared. She maneuvered herself to face her girlfriend and cupped her cheeks, their kiss was prolonged. "Oh God I love you." They ignored the bucket's clear clanking as it flew and hit the floor, scattering all the candies on the ground, all over the place. 

 

 

 

 

Taeyeon stood up and ran towards the switch, only to return to an anticipating Sooyoung with the lights dimmed, grinning from ear to ear.

 

 

 

 

Sooyoung knew better. She acted on impulse, totally forgetting what she wanted to ask Taeyeon in the first place. She knew that she didn't believe it, but she wanted to investigate the situation further. She wanted to know more, like who printed those words at the bottom of the cup? Too many questions were at bay. 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, she wasn't focusing on making out that much, her mind was focused and prepared on the subject. 

 

 

 

 

Seven months. 

 

 

 

 

It rung in her head. Seven months. Seven months. Seven months. She had a whole day ahead of her tomorrow, she was sure of that. A long time ago, seven months seemed so far away, like a month covered a stretch of a year. Now that was shortened and by the way her heart was ramming against her lungs, she felt as if a month was a day. As if she would die in seven days, along with her girlfriend. 

 

 

 

 

No. Taeyeon. 

 

 

 

 

Taeyeon won't die, Taeyeon will live. It's only her that will die right? Right?

 

 

 

 

"No! Stop it!" Sooyoung shoved Taeyeon off of her body and immediately covered herself with the blanket, like a shield. Taeyeon's touches and kisses reminded her too much of their fate, if it was real, and placed images in her head. She heard the way a heartbroken Taeyeon wished her goodnight, along with the depressing noise of the bed squeaking. It wasn't going to be a good night for either of them.