After getting back from their trip to the mall, Krystal bid farewell to her sister and Jessica was left with nothing to do but work. Her eyes were begging her to sleep but her mind was still curious about something so she immediately typed Na in her smart phone but all she got was searches about Sodium so she tried using the hangul form of the word but then all she got was some random Korean pages that had Na on their address.

So she typed in Na Korean band and the first result was a link to a forum.

“Forum for international fans? They must be pretty huge then,” she muttered to herself.

She went to Youtube and typed in their band name. She clicked a random video and it turned out to be the band’s debut song, it said so in the description. The video started with a girl writing something and her body slowly disintegrating. Then the shot panned out to where the band was.

“That is so cheesy and senseless. Ooohh, girl vocalist.” She mentally scolded herself right after.

“My gay is showing.”

The vocalist started singing and Jessica’s lip curled upwards.

“Where the hell did that come from?” she uttered when Taeyeon started hitting the high notes. She quickly typed “Na live performance” on the Youtube search bar and she wasn’t even aware that she’s already spent hours watching them.

She downloaded their songs and even made a separate playlist for them. She’s not going to say she’s a fan but she liked what she saw and heard and needless to say, their music was impressive.

The next day she decided to join their forum for their international fans. Her reason being it was a good place to start learning about the band.

“I’m not a fan. It’s just so hard looking up for stuff about them because of their name. I don’t want to be redirected to some randomass website,” she said to herself. “This is not me being a fan.”

---

They were on their way home from shooting a variety program. They were all tired and they didn’t understand why Jungsoo and their other managers had to make their schedule so jam packed. They hated the guy even more.

“God, good thing the concert is on the 21^st. We get three days of rest.”

“Junsu-oppa, it’s already the 19^th.”

He checked his watch and cursed. “We taped that for the whole day? Damn.”

The van stopped in front of Taeyeon’s apartment and before she could get off the van, she heard Jungsoo saying, “Rest your voice, okay?”

She had nothing in mind but to rest but because she was too pissed off at their manager, she decided she was going to go against his wish. She was going to stay up late, sing songs and maybe go online and explore other sections of their international forum. She has been too busy the past month to pay the site a visit but she was going to do that now.

That’s right. Rebel Taeyeon is in.

A few minutes in and Rebel Taeyeon wants out. She was too tired to even try to understand what their fans in the chat box were saying and there were only three people there.

Having only three people online on the chat box made Taeyeon feel like it was safe to at least try and have a short conversation with them. It was one of those times when you think it’s a good decision but really, you’re just tired and sleepy.

ihearteuKimTaengoo: hi, im new here

JUNSUBB: ill get going now

xoxojaejoonghavemybabies: gotta go too mom says dinner’s ready

xoxojaejoonghavemybabies: can’t say no to dinner have to be healthy for bb jae

salt: lol tc

“Oh wow, everyone left.”

Just when she thought her first ever message on the chat box would get ignored, she read the reply of the only other person who’s still online.

salt: hi, your username’s real cute ^-^

ihearteuKimTaengoo: thank you

ihearteuKimTaengoo: my English is not good

salt: yeah I can see that

Other people would have been offended but Taeyeon liked the bluntness.

ihearteuKimTaengoo: do you come here a lot?

salt: nope I’m actually new here too

ihearteuKimTaengoo: I see

Taeyeon wanted to ask something but she wasn’t sure how to ask in English.

ihearteuKimTaengoo: do you how to speak Korean?

salt: I do

salt: my parents are Korean but I was born here in LA

salt: I also grew up here

salt: what about you?

ihearteuKimTaengoo: I’m Korean too

ihearteuKimTaengoo: can we speak in Korean?

salt: I guess no one would mind since it’s just us two here so yeah sure

Taeyeon pursed her lips and started typing in Korean.

ihearteuKimTaengoo: I’m more comfortable speaking in Korean

ihearteuKimTaengoo: you really don’t mind?

salt: of course not

salt: my spelling and grammar is a bit rusty though so feel free to correct me anytime

ihearteuKimTaengoo: will do

The two of them didn’t even notice that they’ve been talking for about an hour now. The topic never really touched their personal lives though.

ihearteuKimTaengoo: can I ask you something?

salt: go ahead

ihearteuKimTaengoo: why did you choose that username?

salt: oh well I’m not about to declare my love for one of the members through my username like you that’s for sure

Taeyeon could feel her cheeks heating up.

salt: I did consider the name of the band when I thought about my username though

salt: Na is the symbol for the element sodium

salt: sodium is salt

salt: therefore I am salt

ihearteuKimTaengoo: that’s pretty deep but isn’t salt sodium chloride making it NaCl?

salt: I’m not digging Cl so…

salt: lol

ihearteuKimTaengoo: i honestly thought you were just a huge fan of that Angelina jolie movie

salt: I like that movie too

salt: fell asleep the first time I saw it but I eventually finished seeing it the third time it was shown on HBO

xoxojaejoonghavemybabies: I’m back

xoxojaejoonghavemybabies: whoa you two could speak Korean?

salt: turns out we’re both Korean but since you’re here now I guess we could switch back to English, right, I hearteuKimTaengoo?

salt: do you have a name that I could refer to you as? Your username’s long

ihearteuKimTaengoo: just call me Taeng

salt: lol you like Taeyeon that much?

salt: well she is hot so I can’t really blame you

Taeyeon cupped her cheeks before she started typing a reply.

ihearteuKimTaengoo: I have to go now

ihearteuKimTaengoo: talk to you next time

salt: I have to go now too

salt: lady darth vader is tossing orders

Taeyeon closed the tab and shut down her laptop. She rubbed her eyes and checked the time. 4:30 am.

“That would be the first and last time I’m ever going to do something like that,” was what she said before she went to bed.

She lied to herself.

It wasn’t the last time and the night after their concert, she went straight to her room, went online and clicked on the chat box.

ihearteuKimTaengoo: hi everyone

 JUNSUBB: hi taeng’s number one fangirl

ihearteuKimTaengoo: did you guys enjoy the concert?

xoxojaejoonghavemybabies: sure did we wish we’re there like you though instead of just streaming it secretly

ihearteuKimTaengoo: maybe they’ll visit one of the states too

She thought about what she said and that was too much of a hint.

ihearteuKimTaengoo: someday

JUNSUBB: I will wait for junsu to come here

JUNSUBB: I will welcome him with open arms

ihearteuKimTaengoo: salt’s not online?

xoxojaejoonghavemybabies: probably at work

“She didn’t get to watch the live stream of our concert then.”

JUNSUBB: did you enjoy seeing taeyeon in person

ihearteuKimTaengoo: yeah

ihearteuKimTaengoo: she’s not as small as people made her out to be

JUNSUBB: lol

Taeyeon pouted. “Why won’t they believe me?”

ihearteuKimTaengoo: I have to go now

JUNSUBB: bye taengoo’s number one defender

---

I haven’t been able to log in on the site for about a week now and I think I’m experiencing withdrawal which is funny because really I’ve only logged in for about four times. Well, okay, those four times lasted for about three hours each.

I signed in and noticed one notification on the upper most right part of the page. I clicked it only to see a message from salt which reminds me that I haven’t asked her what I should call her.

How was the concert? I wasn’t able to watch the stream. I was working and I can’t really go online on the chat box that much so I thought I’d send you a message instead.

It was all in Korean and I smiled since she remembered that I’m more comfortable using that language. I started typing a reply.

It was great. I had a lot of fun. It’s too bad you didn’t get to watch it.

I didn’t send it right away, reason being I was starting to feel guilty about not telling them the truth about my identity.

“Would they even believe me if I tell them that it’s really me, Taeyeon and not some fangirl of hers? Aish!” I hit enter and closed the tab.

I was supposed to shut the computer down but I eventually changed my mind and decided to wait around for a reply. The reply I was waiting for didn’t take too long to come.

I opened the message and also clicked on the chat box but didn’t find ‘salt’ there.

I know,right? Bummer! It’s good to hear that you had fun. I’ve gotten crazy busy this week because my boss has tons of stuff to do which doubles every work that I have.

We continued exchanging messages and it wasn’t until three in the morning that I eventually felt sleepy.

I’d love to talk to you more but I need to rest. We should definitely do this again though. I enjoy talking to you. Do you think maybe we could just talk through Skype or MSN?

I waited for a few more minutes for her reply.

You’re not going to ask me to send you pictures, are you?

I’m not gonna lie I am curious what these people look like but I’m not about to ask her for a selca right after I add her as a contact.

No, of course not.

jess18.

I opened Skype on my phone and added it as a contact.

Taeng: Your name is jess?

Jess: sure is. Jessica, actually.

Jess: jess is fine though

Jess: and lol your name here is still taeng

Jess: you like her a little too much, don’t you think?

I cursed inwardly. Should I tell her now that I’m really Kim Taeyeon the vocalist? Too soon. Maybe some other time.

Taeng: I guess

Taeng: I gotta go though

Taeng: talk to you some other time

Taeng signed out.

I rubbed my tired eyes and made another promise that I probably won’t be able to keep again, I’m not gonna stay up this late ever again.

____

lol i'm sick pardon everything