Chapter two

Lost in Translation

Chapter two: Deep dark blue  

 

 

            I wondered how it would feel to have someone you cared about so much change you in ways you didn’t know you could change. It nagged me, it gnawed at my insides and I hated it.

 

Emi from what I gathered was a unique person, just like what Taeyeon seems to be now. Although I have a feeling Taeyeon was always meant to be unique or special, she just seemed to carry that with her. I laid in bed, three days after our misadventure and tried to sleep the day away. I haven’t made any friends here and with my lack of Japanese how was I supposed too? I didn’t know. Taeyeon wasn’t around much, she was always busy doing something. I envied that about her. She seemed to be living her life while I lay here rotting away in mine.

 

I heard soft knocks on the dorm door, as I watched a girl make her way inside.

 

This no lock policy really should change, creepy girls coming inside the dorm randomly. Although I wasn’t quite sure if she was creepy. But she could have been for all I know. My mind was elsewhere and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone.

 

“Excuse me?” I sat up in bed and she jumps back a little, her hand on her chest probably from me startling her.

 

“Holy crap you scared me…” she speaks in fluent Japanese and I blink rapidly at her. Oh great that’s just what I needed. Where was Taeyeon when you needed her? Hell, busty girl would do.

 

“I’m sorry” I reply, “I don’t speak much Japanese.”

 

“I didn’t know Taeyeon got a new roommate…” there she goes with the Japanese again and I figure she’s either talking to herself or to me. Secretly I hoped she was talking to herself.

 

She chuckles out softly “Korean?” I nod, finally some clarity.

 

“You speak Korean?” she asks in Korean, and again I nod.

 

“Yes.” I smile, “I didn’t know there were any other Koreans in this building.” She shakes her head and I notice her Korean features coming to view, though she could be mistaken as Japanese, or even a bit of Latin maybe.

 

“I’m not a student here, I’m Taeyeon’s cousin.” She walks to me and holds out her hand for a shake and I notice she’s also way more humanly polite than Taeyeon is. “Sooyoung, Choi Sooyoung.” Her hair was long and wavy falling over her slender shoulders. She was skinner than Taeyeon but her body was long, she had a celebrity like Aura to her. She even looked like a model, maybe all of Taeyeon’s family was pretty like her.

 

“Hi, I’m Tiffany… I’m new here.” She nods and looks around for a moment.

 

“Where’s Taeyeon?” she asks and I don’t know what to tell her, Taeyeon’s a free bird, she never tells me where she’s going even though according to the rules here, you have to tell at least your roommate.

 

“Sorry, I don’t know, I haven’t seen her for a while. She sort of comes and goes as she pleases.”

 

“Sounds like Taeyeon.” She replies, her smile was bright and perfect, not a crooked tooth insight, her eyes were round and her skin was tanned compared to Taeyeon’s. They didn’t seem related at all.

 

“Son of a .” Okay maybe just a little, “I’m exhausted.” She falls on Taeyeon’s bed with a sigh, shutting her eyes and I feel awkward. What am I going to say? I can’t make small talk with strangers.

 

“So Tiffany…” she turns on her side, propping her head up with the palm of her hand. “You’re from America right?”

 

“Yeah, how’d you know?” somehow Sooyoung seems to give off a familiar feeling.

 

“Your name.” she breathes out kicking her legs to the side and sitting up “Well I once went to America for studies, Taeyeon came here for some reason. Though her English is almost perfect, I’ll never understand.”

 

“Where did you go study?”

 

“New York, a fashion school.” I didn’t know why, but I sort of expected that, well judging by her impeccable sense of style I would assume.

 

“Oh that’s cool, you seem like you’d be a Fashion student.”

 

“Yeah, they called me Summer over there.” I hear her laugh as she shakes her head. “Summer,” she repeats “what an odd name.”

 

I never met a girl named Summer, but I was sure it was somewhat common in the states. I guess I wouldn’t know for sure though. She was the first Summer I met after all.

 

------

 

Sooyoung or shall I say Summer had left, she spoke about having a plane to catch to Hong Kong. She was a Fashion model. Probably keeping busy and stuff with photo-shoots. The last thing she told me was to take care of her baby cousin and I could say that I agreed, although I wasn’t sure how that would work. I could barely take care of myself.

 

Taeyeon seemed to have a good tight grip on her life anyways.

 

“Whew.” The door swung open revealing Taeyeon who kicked off her shoes as they landed on my side of the room.

 

Paint covered her face as she reeked of alcohol and cigarettes. That’s when I realized that for the entire day all I had done was sleep, eat, talk to a stranger and sleep some more.

 

“What’s up?” She speaks without looking at me as she walks to her bed and strips off her white tank top only wearing her bra.

 

She had this habit of taking off her clothes in front of me and as a socially awkward person I was madly embarrassed.

 

“N-Nothing, your cousin came by earlier.” I stated looking away, only to look back and see her laying on her bed on her back, still in her bra and a pair of black-washed skinny jeans. I guess I should get this to this.

 

“Which one?” she turns to face me and I notice she’s wearing some wide black-rimmed glasses, sort of like the ones teenagers wear to look cool these days, except judging by how her eyes seem to magnify, she probably actually needed them.  

 

I see my reflection in them and I looked like a crazy hobo, my jet-black hair everywhere, eyes sort of baggy and nose a little red.

 

“Sooyoung.” She nods, her head turning upward to stare at the ceiling.

 

I study her face and spot a mole on the lower part of her jaw. Her skin is fair almost transparent. And I almost want to ask what she does to keep it that way, but I could guess she does nothing. She’s naturally pretty like that.

 

She doesn’t ask about what her cousin wanted, she doesn’t ask about what we talked about she only asks me one thing.

 

“You hungry?” she pushes herself up and off her bed, grabbing a fresh shirt and putting it on.

 

She didn’t really wait for an answer, she just went and grabbed my shoes tossing them to me.

 

“How does ramen sound?”

 

------

 

 It was already pass midnight here in Tokyo, the night was breezy but the temperature was just right. It felt like a warm blanket hugging you, keeping you just comfortable.

 

“Are there any shops open at this hour?” I ask, following beside Taeyeon, she walks quickly as she pushes her glasses up higher on the bridge of her nose. She was so pretty.

 

“It’s Tokyo.” She replies her voice was tired but nonetheless it was nice, “The city that never sleeps.” I tilt my head.

 

“Isn’t that New York?” I point out.

 

“Eh” she shrugs “Same thing if you ask me.” She leads the way down a tight road, shops of all sorts on either side.

 

I watch as Taeyeon stuffs a hand in her jean pocket, the other coming up to move some windswept hair from her face. Her nails are painted black while the other hand I was sure was painted a deep dark blue. She was an odd girl. With odd habits, odd haircut, odd nail colors and had odd thoughts. But I was so content with being with her that it sort of made me think I was odd also.

 

“Tiffany let me ask you a question.” she speaks holding the door open for me to enter a shop. It was colorful and had a homey vibe to it. My eyes darted around the small venue.

 

“Okay.” I walk in ahead of her as she guides me to a stool, the place is surprisingly busy. I sit as we wait our turn.

 

“You have a boyfriend?” I turn to look at her and shake my head.

 

“I dated this guy for like three months but it went nowhere, so we broke it off and now,” I look around “Here I am.”

 

She nods her head as she scans the menu that’s tapped and laminated to the table.

 

“Okay let me ask you another question, it’s like a game. You can ask me one after and we can take turns… or something like that.” She mumbles and I silently agree. “Why do you always pray before sleeping?”

 

It was an odd question, why does anybody pray before sleeping? Is there a special reason why we pray before we sleep? Is it so God can bless us and that we don’t end up dying while we’re asleep? I don’t know.

 

“Because.” I say “It’s just something I’m used to doing I guess…”

 

“What do you pray for?” she asks.

 

“It’s my turn to ask a question,” she chuckles out softly.

 

“Okay, shoot.”

 

“Where were you tonight?” I really was curious, the paint on her face was still there. She didn’t bother in washing it off.

 

“I went to a rave, it’s a place where they play weird techno music and throw paint on you while you get drunk and dance with people.”

 

“Well,” I scoffed “Don’t invite me next time.” I say sarcastically to , Taeyeon slaps my shoulder lightly smiling.

 

“Like you would want to go.” she rolls her eyes, as a big man Japanese man, with sharply slanted eyes places two shot glasses in front of us and fills it with clear liquid.

 

“I would!” I retort “It sounds fun, I guess.” She takes the glass and throws it back making a hissing sound afterwards.

 

“What’s your idea of fun Tiffany?” she takes my own shot glass and throws it back, I watch in amusement. She didn’t even ask.

 

“I don’t know…” I sigh “Anything’s fun as long as it’s with the right people I guess.”

 

She nods “You’re right” I wasn’t expecting for her to agree “If there’s one thing I know, with the right person you can make the most boring situations fun.”

 

I watch as she orders in Japanese for the both of us and not much later two bowls noodles are placed in front of us.

 

“Pork ramen, it’s good. Eat.” She breaks the wooden chopsticks she was given and digs right in. The way she ate made me cringe, it was so grotesque. My eyebrows stich together as I break my own chopsticks and begin to eat.

 

By the time I’m half way done, Taeyeon is on her second bowl.

 

“Tiffany you eat like a turtle,” she says “Actually I’m positive a turtle eats faster than you.”

 

“I don’t eat a lot, so I eat slowly.” I reply as I place my chopsticks on top of the bowl, I’ve seen them do that in animes.

 

I hear her snicker as she slurps up the last of her noodles and again I cringe. Why does she have to eat that way?

 

“You need meat on your skinny bones” she’s one to talk “Curvy girls are ier.”

 

“Everyone has their preferences.” I shoot back.

 

“You’re right,” and again for the second time tonight, Taeyeon agrees with me “But, I don’t want you to lose those thighs you have” my eyes widen a little in shock “Or that .”

 

I stay quiet for a while, letting her words sink in.

 

“For some reason, every time a pretty girl comes to Japan she ends up becoming skinner.”

 

“That’s not true,” I try to call her out on her white lie.

 

“Really” she nods “It’s true, now—” she grabs my chopsticks and hands them back to me “—eat.”

 

I suddenly remember it’s my turn to ask her a question.

 

“Taeyeon.” I hear her hum in reply as she fills up her shot glass once again “Why do you even notice my thighs and ? That’s a little weird you know.”

 

She stays quiet for a while, drinking shot after shot “Because” she says “I like the way a girl looks.”

 

“I like how they have pretty eyes and pretty hair” she continues “I like how they are soft and fragile. I like a girls laugh and the way she smiles. I like how girls are more passionate and fun.”

 

I feel my body tingle all over and I can’t figure out if it’s because of the three shots of sake I took or because of Taeyeon’s unusual words. I wasn’t oblivious, I knew what she was getting at and a part of me was okay with that. But a part of me was left wondering.

 

“That doesn’t answer why you notice me though.” I speak softly, poking at the floating noodles that seem to be swimming in the broth.

 

“You’re a girl aren’t you?”

 

“Yeah” I nod “But that’s all I am, just a girl. I’m not anything special. I’m not passionate nor fun.” I wallow in self-pity, I hated doing that but I couldn’t help it. No one ever liked a boring girl like me.

 

“But Tiffany, you’re beautiful” she replies “And whether you believe it or not, you’re more than just a boring Korean-American girl. Believe me, I know it. There’s always a little something more to everyone. Just wait and see.”

 

She stands up and places some money on the table, and I’m not quite sure what to say.

 

“C’mon Tiffany” I watch her for the second time that night push her glasses to the bridge of her nose “Let’s go home.”

 

And I was right from before, her nails were a deep dark blue.

 

------ 

 

 

A/N: Yeah they're moving quickly. But when you're young it happens that way. Believe me. :/ 

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Hey guys its been a while but look out for the new update

Comments

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wahidah1975
#1
Chapter 8: Hope you update this great taeny story
kjms29
#2
Chapter 8: Another masterpiece of yours that I just finished. This story is just so pure and loved by many. I hope you'll comeback one day and continue it because I'm dying to see how their relationship will evolve. I really love your writings in general and this one is no exception. I love the theme, I love the characters you created, I love the words you have chosen, I love how your stories make me feel. Really, the relation between Tiffany and Taeyeon makes me think of a first love and I swear my heart beats so fast when I'm reading it, as if I was the one falling for Taeyeon.
crazygw
#3
Chapter 8: Omg this is sooooo good
taeyeongg309 #4
Chapter 8: I just have found this story on 2017:(( so late but better late than never. When i reached this chapters i just hv known that the story is abandoned? Even though its already 2017,i hope you still on to continue this pleaseeee???? You made a good one heree, i gtg to read another from yours surely
Thunderette #5
Chapter 8: Yo when the next one? I am so into this, I need the next chapter or I am going to die
nov_sone97 #6
Chapter 1: It's like "the roommate" movie?
yulsharangee #7
Chapter 8: Is this the end author-nim?
Ipandas #8
Chapter 8: Duuuuuuuude I thought you left thus Galaxy
gainer #9
Chapter 8: Omg i got so happy when I noticed you updated this story omg. Im in love with your writing. Please don't abandon this fic