She buried her face under her thick scarf as the cold wind blew. It was a freezing night; not exactly the perfect time to take a stroll outside but she was bored at home and her sudden craving for ice cream could not be ignored.

She huffed. Five minutes into the walk and she was already tired – she wasn’t one to withstand long minutes of walking, especially at that weather. She went to the nearest bus stop and sat on the bench provided. She mindlessly looked around her surrounding in hopes to find something interesting to look at while she waited for the bus but found nothing.

The street was unusually empty, save for the cars that would pass by every now and then. No sign of the bus. She sighed and leaned back on the bench, pushing her hands further down her coat pockets.

A couple of minutes passed when she felt a sudden vibration from one of her pockets. Ah. Must be her phone. She remembered putting it on silent earlier when she was in class. She must’ve forgotten to put the ringer back on. She grabbed the device and stopped to look at the number

Unknown number.

Hmm… must be a friend or relative who changed numbers recently. Shrugging to herself, she slid her finger across the phone’s screen and held the device against her ear.

“Hello?”

“Hi!” A cheerful, unfamiliar voice greeted her back. She furrowed her eyebrows. Maybe the person on the other end of the line was a friend she hadn’t had the chance to talk to for a long time?

“May I ask who’s on the line?”

“Tiffany.”

Tiffany… Tiffany… she didn’t know anyone named Tiffany. So who was this Tiffany? “I think you might have called the wrong number. I don’t know anyone named Tiffany. I’m sorry.”

She was about to end the call when the person yelled from the other line.

“No! Wait!”

“Huh?”

“I-I mean… yeah, you don’t know me but uh… do you mind if we chat? I just… I was bored and needed someone to talk to…”

‘Don’t you have friends for that?’ was what she wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to be rude. She sighed as she tried to think of a response. A minute passed with only silence between them when she heard Tiffany sigh.

“I guess you do… well, thank you for answering the call anyway. Goodb–”

“I’m Taeyeon!” All she wanted to do at that moment was bang her head on the nearest lamppost and not wake up. She didn’t know why, but when she heard the bright and cheerful voice lose its life all of a sudden, she felt guilty. She panicked when Tiffany was about to end the call so she yelled her name.

“W-what?”

She breathed out. “I’m Taeyeon.”

“Y-you’re actually willing to be friends with me?”

“Well, not friends but you did ask if we could chat so…”

“Oh, right. So it’s okay?”

She shrugged even if Tiffany wouldn’t be able to see it. “I guess.” Besides, it didn’t look like the bus would be coming any time soon.

“Great!”

The enthusiastic voice was back. It was like she was really happy to have found a phone pal. How should Taeyeon respond to that? “Heh… yeah, great.” Awkward. She cleared and adjusted her position on the bench – her was frozen. “So… um… is there anything you wanted to talk about?”

“Oh um… well, nothing specific but… maybe I can tell you about my day.”

“Go ahead.”

Taeyeon never knew so much could happen to a person in one day because her life was never as… eventful.

Tiffany told her about how she slipped in the bathroom and almost bumped her head on the sink if she didn’t bump into another student – who had the misfortune of bumping her head on the sink instead. They were both carried to the clinic because while she only had a sprained ankle, the other girl was unconscious.

Taeyeon could only listen with mouth agape when Tiffany shared how she caught her basketball varsity team captain boyfriend cheating on her with one of the cheerleader bullies and how she broke up with him in front of his classmates and teammates – plus a slap to the cheek and knee to the groin as if the humiliation wasn’t enough. She had to watch him being carried to the clinic too ­– the same one she had just got out of.

Tiffany narrated how she skipped lunch to study for a test, only to fail miserably when she misread the instructions. ‘I was supposed to encircle the antonym, not the synonym!’ Taeyeon had to bear five minutes of Tiffany shouting curses after that. When she finally calmed down, she told her about how her best friend heartlessly ditched her for the movies when they’ve already planned an afternoon of bonding at her home, gossiping until they fell asleep.

Taeyeon felt like she had just watched a whole season of an American teen drama series with all the stories Tiffany told her. The girl on the other line kept rambling nonstop for thirty minutes and it amused Taeyeon to the point of missing the bus two times.

…well, more like three times now. She could only groan as she watched the blue bus disappearing into the corner. She huffed then stood up, still with her phone against her ear, with Tiffany telling her how she messed up cooking instant ramen for dinner. Taeyeon had to laugh at that. How could anyone mess up cooking instant ramen?

She shook her head and decided to just walk to the ice cream store, quickly buy her ice cream then go home. Waiting for the bus would be pointless now if she was going to miss it again later.

The whole fifteen-minute walk, she got to know Tiffany more. The girl was Korean but was born and raised in LA. Thankfully, her parents always spoke to her in Korean despite being in an English-speaking country so she knew the language by heart. Now, the girl resided in Seoul together with her parents and was studying in a reputable university.

She finished her ice cream just as she rounded the corner of her street. They were still on the phone, and she didn’t even know how much time they’ve spent talking. She was enjoying it and she didn’t care that it was already past ten in the evening.

She kicked her shoes off once she entered her apartment and plopped on the couch. Tiffany was telling her about an interesting book she found in the library the other week. Taeyeon could only shake her head when Tiffany told her how she had to fight with another student for that book. In the end, they both got kicked out of the library empty-handed for being too noisy.

“Your life is very eventful, Tiffany.” She laughed. “Unlike mine.”

“Oh! I just realized that I’ve been doing most of the talking since earlier. I don’t know anything about you at all aside from your name!”

Taeyeon laughed louder. She only realized now? Wow! They’ve been talking for… almost two hours and she didn’t even realize that all Taeyeon had been doing was listening and laughing. “It’s fine. Your life’s more interesting anyway. Nothing exciting every happens in my life anyway so there’s nothing to tell.”

“Oh come on, there must be something interesting that happened to you today.”

Taeyeon thought hard as she shifted to lie on the couch, one arm under her head.

“Um… well, I accidentally spilled my drink on one of my professors’ shirt when I tripped in the cafeteria.” She chuckled when she remembered. “Although I’m not really sorry about it since she was always one of those who picked on me in class.”

Tiffany snorted. “Accidentally? Pfft. Yeah right.”

“It was!”

Tiffany laughed and Taeyeon couldn’t help but smile.

The call went on until the wee hours of the morning. Needless to say, Taeyeon lacked sleep and was late for school the next day. She had to sit through half an hour in class with her professor rambling about the importance of punctuality.

She groaned and rested her forehead on the table once the old man ended his speech and went back to teaching.

She felt a pat on her shoulder and turned her head to see her friend looking worriedly at her. “Hey, you okay? You look really tired.”

She nodded then yawned. “Just slept a little late.”

“Judging by the bags under your eyes, it wasn’t just ‘a little’ late. What kept you up?”

“Just… video games.”

Her friend chuckled. “You must be hanging out with your cousin a lot. She must’ve really influenced you to play video games, huh?”

She chuckled as well and was about to respond when the professor’s booming voice interrupted her. “You dare disrupt my class after coming in late, Miss Kim?”

Taeyeon groaned inwardly and muttered a quiet ‘sorry.’

The professor stared at her for another minute before finally continuing with the lesson.