“Kim Taeyeon.”

“Present . . .” Kim Taeyeon replied, slumped over her desk with her eyes closed and messy black hair strewn all over the place.

The teacher shook his head at her lethargic response but said nothing more. After all, there was really no point in saying anything. It’s not like she would’ve listened anyway. He wrote the page numbers for today’s work on the board after calling the attendance and turned back to the class just in time to catch Kim Taeyeon rising from her seat.

“Where are you going, Taeyeon?”

“The toilet, Mr Park.”

“The class just star—Kim Taeyeon, I’m talking to you. Kim Taeyeon, come back here. Com—”

The class had turned into a mix of awkwardly silent and giggling students. It was a lost cause, so Mr Park shook his head again and addressed the rest of the class. “Today, we will be translating this Korean passage into English.”

The class groaned.

=

“Welcome back to class, Kim Taeyeon.”

Mr Park shook his head at her limp wave and watched as she slumped back to her seat. Forget it. She wasn’t worth the time. He carried on with the lesson smoothly, until he spotted Kim Taeyeon talking to the girl next to her.

“Kim Taeyeon, pay attention.”

“I was only asking a question.”

“Is that true, Hyoyeon?”

The student with one too many streaks of blonde in her head nodded vigorously. “Yes, it’s true, Mr Park. Taeyeon was asking me who the new girl is.”

“Ah, the new girl. She came in while you were out strolling the corridors like a patrolling policewoman.”

Right at this moment, the new girl jumped from her seat, her light brown hair swirling about like in a hair commercial, and turned around to wave at Kim Taeyeon, with a smile that could light up the classroom if there were a blackout. “Hi! I’m Tiffany! I’m from LA! Nice to meet you, Kim Taeyeon.”

Mr Park was smiling at her bubbliness when Kim Taeyeon made him jump in his skin by slamming her hands on the table and yelling, “Who are you to call my full name? And we’re in Korea right now. Speak Korean!”

“Kim Taeyeon!” Mr Park shouted angrily. “Don’t be rude to our new classmate. It’s detention for you if you don’t apologize this instant.”

Kim Taeyeon looked as though she were about to take on the detention but much to his surprise, she apologized and sat down. How strange.

=

“Hey, I heard you scolded the new girl for speaking English in an English lesson, is that true?” Yoona asked Taeyeon as soon as she sat down at her table. Taeyeon simply stared at her and her short curls jiggling above her shoulder. If she weren’t such a close friend and pretty girl, she would have given Yoona a piece of her mind for asking that.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard about it too. Did you? Did you?” Sooyoung asked eagerly, giving up her burger for a few precious seconds to find out.

Taeyeon looked Sooyoung and her big round eyes and oily, mayonnaise-stained lips and rolled her own eyes. “Ask Hyo.”

“She did.”

Yoona and Sooyoung looked at each other and burst out laughing. “You crazy .”

“You won’t say that again if you want your burger to stay in one piece.”

Sooyoung stopped laughing immediately and guarded her burger protectively. “You don’t touch my burger. Stay away.”

“So, this new girl . . . what’s her name?”

“Ti-ing-pany.”

“It’s Tiffffany,” Hyoyeon corrected her.

“What a nice name,” said Yoona. “Why don’t you like her?”

“She was so ing showing off in class with her American English. I hate that .”

“Mr Park got her to correct our English translations. She did it very nicely though. She wasn’t mean or anything,” Hyoyeon clarified.

“Well, if you like her so much, be her friend instead,” Taeyeon said in a huff, and stood from the table. “Now excuse me,” she said, faking a ridiculous American English accent, “I’m going to catch a wink.”

“We got Math class in thirty minutes, Tae, don’t forget!” Hyoyeon called after her.

“ Math. I’ll go if I go.” Taeyeon trudged off with a wave and walked out of the canteen to the back of the school. But she was stopped along the corridor by two giggling girls.

“Hi, Tae.”

“You don’t get to call me Tae. You’re not my friend. I don’t know you,” Taeyeon said to them. “My name’s Taeyeon.”

“Oh, we know. But it’s my dream to call you Tae once, please don’t get angry,” said the girl with round glasses, a pony tail and nervous smile. She was physically taller than Taeyeon but was somehow seemed shorter when Taeyeon glared at her.

“What do you want?”

“Er . . .” the girl nudged her friend, “ . . . she wants to say something.”

Taeyeon turned to the friend. Shorter, slimmer and sporting a ponytail as well. These two girls were definitely best friends. “Say what you want to say.”

“Mmm . . . would you go out on a date with me this Saturday? I’ll treat you to lunch, a-and a movie. I’ll book the tickets and everything. You won’t have to do a thing, I promise.”

“I don’t accept dates so easily.” Taeyeon shook her head. “And if I want to take a girl out on a date, I’ll do the booking and everything for her. I’m taking care of her.”

“Oh . . . you’re so cool, Taeyeon . . .” the two girls swooned as she walked past them.

“I know,” she replied with a smug smirk and continued on her way.

A distance later, Taeyeon rounded the corner and walked straight into someone. “Ow.”

“Ouch! I’m so sorry.”

 “Idiot,” she said, “watch where you’re going.” Taeyeon rubbed her forehead and looked. It was the from LA. “You’re in Korea now. We drive on the right.”

“We drive on the right in LA too.”

“Then why the hell were you walking on the left?” Taeyeon scolded before walking away from Tiffany and cursing her luck.

“I’m sorry, Kim Taeyeon.”

Angered, Taeyeon spun around and backed Tiffany into the wall. She slammed her hand on the wall next to Tiffany’s face and leaned in close to those big round eyes with long curled lashes. “Do not call my full name. Do you understand?” she growled, mincing each word through clenched teeth.

Those big round eyes blinked. And blinked. And blinked.

Taeyeon became aware of just how big and round they were. Then she became aware of just how close they were. She could feel Tiffany’s breath on her nose. She could smell the fruity lip gloss on Tiffany’s parted lips. She could feel Tiffany’s . . . chest on hers.

Backing up hastily, Taeyeon made a show of dusting her hands while trying to calm her heart down from its wild, irregular beats.

“Do you understand?” she asked once more, forcing her voice to sound calm and steady.

Very slowly, Tiffany nodded, looking just as flushed as Taeyeon felt inside.

“Now, stay out of my way,” Taeyeon said and marched down the corridor with her chin held high. It took her ten steps to realize she had marched down the way she came, which was the wrong direction. Feeling even more displeased, she marched to class instead, surprising Hyoyeon when she planted her on the chair beside her.

“Weren’t you gonna sleep at the back?” Hyoyeon asked.

“I didn’t feel like sleeping anymore so I came,” Taeyeon replied and propped her legs up on the table to rock her chair against the wall behind. Her mood sank even lower when Tiffany entered the classroom too.

Damn, the show-off American girl.

=

a/n: wrote this cos i felt like writing something light and easy to relax.
should have been a oneshot but nope, it's me, itsakyo and my stories just can't seem to end in one shot lmao