Taeyeon, a young lady fresh into her twenties is having her first-year anniversary of a relationship with her girlfriend. She’s ecstatic, so excited that she fails to notice the small belt on her heel has come undone at some point throughout her pacing back and forth. Taeyeon notices eventually, when it hits repeatedly against her skin and it starts to bug her, but when she bends down in a dress that’s a little too tight for her liking, instead of grumbling and mumbling to herself—something Tiffany, her girlfriend, always points out and laughs at—she smiles on her own. It’s a good day for them. It’s been a good year as a couple, and Taeyeon can’t wait to thank her lover for it. The short girl stands back up and walks towards a mirror to give one last minute check on her look. She’s radiant, but not blinding. Even with the makeup, the eventful hair and clothes, she’s pretty satisfied that her getup is just right. Looks pretty, looks decent and is still pretty humble, because—

“That’s what I love about you, Taeyeon,” is what Tiffany told her this day one year ago when she beat Taeyeon on the Who-asks-who-out race. Those little details mattered, and Taeyeon is bound on working her plan to get even with it. The little details are her plan to make their day perfect.

Taeyeon checks her phone, grabs her purse and picks up a dazzling little box with Tiffany’s written on it. Not that she was the culprit, but quite humorously the company she bought her present in went by the same name as her beau, and she thought it’d be funny—and romantic, excuse her—if she purchased it there specifically. She almost runs down the hall of the apartment complex and into the elevator, and almost trips along the way which makes her stop to take a deep breath and chastise herself for getting childishly carried away, but the girl is happy, and when she finally reaches her car she can’t help herself any longer. Putting on some music, Taeyeon sings her little lungs out and dorkily laughs when her voice cracks a bit between her wheezing. She ran, after all, and she’s convinced she might have ruined her hair and dignity when she did, but it’s her anniversary with the most amazing person to walk on Earth.

Tiffany is the most amazing person to walk on Earth.

Taeyeon loves her so much. It took a while to do so, and it took even longer to say, but now Taeyeon knows and gladly admits that she simply loves her Tiffany. She loved her when they met, she loved her through their friendship, she loved her when they fought and Taeyeon could not turn away despite her pride. To this day she loves her, and each day it grows more. That’s why she’s dedicated this year to love her Tiffany, to tell her every day all those silly things that Tiffany would yelp and chuckle after hearing, claiming it was too much for her heart. Every day was spent well, with their sweet touches and their lengthy holds on each other, their shy staring and really…it was perfect. It’s perfect to Taeyeon. Maybe they lacked a little intimacy, maybe they didn’t kiss too much, if at all, but it was perfect. Love is unconditional, isn’t it? It’s emotional, kinda spiritual too, is it not? Taeyeon thinks of that and shrugs, still feeling weird about having single conversations in a car. The name of the restaurant where she agreed to meet Tiffany flashes and reflects off the windshield of the vehicle; she parks and steps out.

Once again, Taeyeon takes a deep breath, fixes her dress and sticks a small card on top of the box before storing it in her purse. She walks in the establishment with the longest strides her short legs allow her, looks for the red haired princess within the heads of the crowd—

“—Taetae! Over here,” Tiffany, an equally young lady with delicately curled red hair rises from her seat at the sight of a little woman glowing by the entrance. She’s found gasping and choking down both her words and tears, because the girl who is walking towards her now with a dimpled smile plastered on her face looks nothing far from beautiful. Stunning, mesmerizing, adorable.

So y, Tiffany thinks.

They hug for some seconds, and that’s all Taeyeon does for a greeting. Tiffany considers kissing her; Taeyeon isn’t really one for that sort of skinship, but it’s a special day and she finds the action reasonable. She just bites her own lip and decides she’ll be patient about it.

“You look beautiful, Taeyeon,” she says and allows her eyes to curve into her signature eyesmile. “Oh my gosh,” Tiffany switches to English for a moment and then back to Korean, “you look amazing. You look amazing all the time but…I might punch a lot of men tonight, Taetae. Kiss me now and I might not have to.”

Taeyeon laughs heartily and takes Tiffany’s hand to kiss it a few times. “It’s not that I mind cuddling at home with you, but I just thought, you know, we haven’t had a fancy date recently and we both had time for tonight. So why not, right? Why not get all dolled up.”

Although Taeyeon’s grasp on Tiffany’s hand is still sweet and the smile she has is still being brilliantly displayed there, Tiffany on the other hand falters a bit.

“This is a date? A normal date?” Tiffany questions, deciding not to press on the fact that Taeyeon ignored the kissing comment. She usually did that anyway.

“What do you mean with normal date? I don’t think dates are ever normal. Something wrong?”

“No, no! I just—it’s good. This is good. We’re on a lovely date, I just thought it’d be a little different today.”

“Different? Why? What’s today?” Taeyeon feigns ignorance of the pouty look Tiffany was getting, and although she feels cruel and undeserving of the efforts Tiffany was making to look joyful, she was having a bit of fun.

Just a little more baby. I’m sorry, Taeyeon thinks and sits back to let a waiter do his job.

Tiffany wipes her lips with a napkin and thanks Taeyeon for the wonderful meal. She is happy, really; Taeyeon had taken the initiative to plan a dinner for them, but honestly it still pisses her off. Today was their anniversary, and she doesn’t want to nag Taeyeon about not remembering. It hurts an awful lot, she expected this to be a special occasion, but Taeyeon just grins that dorky grin of hers and picks at the last bits of her food like a kid, unaware of the importance of that day.

“Taeyeon-ah…” She starts, digging around her bag, feeling her eyes sting from the menacing tears.

“Fany, can you please pass me my wallet? My purse is closer to you and this heel is kinda hurting me,” Taeyeon speaks before Tiffany continues. She bends down grimacing as if to show and Tiffany only sighs and does as she was asked. She opens up the purse and finds instead a box from an all too familiar place and a note adhered to its lid.

I love you.

Tiffany reads the note and looks up to find a smirking Taeyeon.

She reads the note again and finally…finally, she cries. Taeyeon laughs from across the now sniffling girl. “Open it!” she points and says.

Tiffany does. Inside there is nothing else but another slip of paper.

I’ll prove it :)

The redhead glances up again. This time, Taeyeon is moving a chair beside her and settles down on it. She’s no longer laughing. Her face is bathed with adoration despite seeming serious. Behind it, however, Tiffany can see Taeyeon is nervous, more than she’s ever seen her before. This makes her think, with Taeyeon reaching up to cup her face gently with a hand, that maybe she’s going to kiss her. In a second Tiffany’s heart is racing and she herself is infected with uneasiness, but it’s a good uneasiness. This is perfect, she thinks, and she prepares herself to fall in love all over again. She waits. Taeyeon clears and speaks.

“I—um…I know it’s kinda cliché. It’s really cliché, actually. I’m so sorry but…I dunno,” the shorter of the two leans closer and continues. “I wouldn’t forget something like this. You should know that, Fany. It’s our day and I’m not original and whatever, so I went the dramatic way and made you cry. You do know I wouldn’t forget, right?”

“You scared me though. I really thought you—“

“Wait,” Taeyeon takes both of her girlfriend’s hands into hers and covers up the space separating them. “This is kind of embarrassing,” she admits with a giggle. “One year ago, you asked me, formally, to be your…your girlfriend. I was so glad and I thought I was going to die from emotional overload. I thought I was going to burst and poop flowers from the joy, but then I felt bad…’cause I wanted to ask you first. So, uh…I wanted to do something to have revenge and—and I thought of something cool. Remember what you did that day?”

Tiffany nods and gives Taeyeon’s clammy hands a squeeze.

“I hid your peas and you went all hulk on me.”

They laugh.

“The other part though.”

“I gave you the counterpart of that lock necklace you gave me for my birthday, said a bunch of cheesy stuff that still freaks me out…and I kissed you. That’s a big deal,” Tiffany makes sure the last part is evident.

“You did,” Taeyeon sighs with a smile and turns away to pick something off the ground; she sits up and places something cold on Tiffany’s finger. “Which is why I wanted to do the same. Like I said, I’m not original, but the lock has a new meaning now that we’re one year into our relationship. And it’s your favorite color too! I’m not sure if this is how it goes but, please know I’ve put all my feelings in there. Right there, on that little lock. All of ‘em, because I love you too much and we kinda need a safe to keep it all from bouncing around and hitting us on the face” she finishes proudly and waits for Tiffany’s response.

Tiffany looks at the ring around her finger. Certainly, it has a lock. It has become an emblem for them, their secret code and she’s flattered Taeyeon took note of how precious that simple ring would be to her. It was simple yet beautiful. She has no complaints. She didn’t want anything to begin with. Well…

“Kiss me,” Tiffany demands.

“Huh?”

“You want to do the same I did. I kissed you then, so kiss me,” she says, once again feeling disheartened that she has to ask her lover for such a trivial thing.

Taeyeon looks at her. Then she looks at the ring. Tiffany catches on.

“I like it, Taetae, I love it. It’s beautiful, thank you so much for it. But I didn’t need a pretty ring, it’s our anniversary, I just want you. I didn’t need an elaborate date either. Hell, we could’ve been home snuggled up doing nothing and it would’ve been more than okay for me. I just—please kiss me. I know you don’t really care about that but—“

She is kissed. The kiss stops, and she is kissed again, and again, and one more time.

“Why’d you have to take my spotlight? You got your chance to show off once, it was my turn today!” Taeyeon kisses her once more and sulks playfully. “You don’t let me finish.”

Tiffany beams and whispers an apology, wraps her arms around the petite girl beside her and listens to her lover’s “happy anniversary.”