“Sweetie, we don’t shout at home,” Tiffany scolds the girl lightly after she comes up to stand behind her. “Use your inside voice.”

“Sowwy mama.”

The short exchange jerks TaeYeon out of her trance. Almost instantly, she bents down to retrieve the fallen flowers. A hundred and more questions run through her mind, irrational jealousy and unfounded betrayal triumph the rest. When she looks up, her onyx orbs meet Tiffany’s apologetic ones. They gaze at each other for long seconds, before the ATC relents and steps backward, wordlessly inviting TaeYeon to come inside. The ball is on TaeYeon’s court now.

At time like this, the blonde regrets her proposition of being friends first. Instead of being the safety-net she can fall upon, it traps and tangles her and now she can’t possibly run away from Tiffany. One does not walk out from their friend after finding out that they have a child. If she turns around and leaves, she may as well ruin what may turn out to be the best relationship she ever has. So she decides to give Tiffany a chance to explain and steps inside, letting the brown-haired woman close the door behind them.

The little girl must have left them during their staring standstill because when TaeYeon gets into the living area, she is there, sitting on top of the rug whilst hunching over the low coffee table. Papers and crayons litter all over the unfortunate furniture, covering its entire glass surface. TaeYeon feels her stomach drops lower than it already did simply from catching the natural domesticity that emanates from the girl’s presence inside the room. It is obvious that she lives—or at least spends a lot of time there.

“I’m sorry it’s messy. Elisa has been drawing since this noon with her sitter.” The fondness in Tiffany’s voice speaks clear love she has for the girl. “Someone will come to pick her up soon and then we can proceed with our dinner date,” she informs, trying to ease the tension that clouding over them since TaeYeon came.

“Oh...” TaeYeon tries and fails on not stuttering.

With no prior relationship with single parent—or any kind of parent in that matter—and Tiffany never mentions having any child before, TaeYeon is at lost. While she does feel a tad betrayed by Tiffany’s decision of withholding the information, she also respects her privacy. Tiffany herself had never meant to hide about Elisa, but the girl is not supposed to meet TaeYeon yet. On more than one occasion, Tiffany’s date breaks it off after they find out about her daughter and this time she is not willing to let the budding relationship wither prematurely just because she has a child.

“Are you okay?” Tiffany keeps the question vague, hoping TaeYeon would catch the real meaning behind it. “If you don’t feel like it, we can cancel this dinner...” She suggested with a smile even though her shoulders slump down ever so slightly.

“No, no. It’s okay. I’m fine. And hungry,” TaeYeon jests lamely then without waiting for a response, changes the topic before it gets too weird. “I brought you these.” With slight tremble of uncertainty, she hands off the bottle of wine and flower bouquet.

“Thank you.” Tiffany takes the offered items before adding, “Please take a seat and make yourself at home while I put these away first.” She waits until TaeYeon ease herself onto the couch across Elisa before she leaves them, vanishing behind a huge bookcase that acts as a partition between the living area and kitchen.

TaeYeon can’t help but study the little girl in front of her. She could not see much under the dim light on the hallway earlier. Now, she can tell that the girl is at least three or four years old and aside from the honey-blonde hair and green eyes, she has a very Asian facial feature and skin tone. She is practically a miniature of Tiffany and again, the jealousy flares inside TaeYeon’s heart. Elisa, for her part, is oblivious to the scrutinizing eyes on her and continues scratching an odd-shaped rainbow on a paper.

Eventually feeling the hard stare, Elisa looks up from her drawing and grins toothily at TaeYeon. “Doo-dle?” She offers a blue crayon for the intrigued pilot.

TaeYeon shakes her head in negative; the ability to speak seems to have left her at the moment.

Tilting her head to the side, Elisa asks again, “No?”

“Uum... No, thank you. I’m not in the mood to doodle.”

“Oh!” Elisa frowns before she nods, even though she does not really understand why adults depend their activities over this ‘mood’ thing a lot. “Okey.”

A series of constant knocks coming from the door snaps the two blondes simultaneously. Elisa perks up, abandoning her drawing and runs to the door. TaeYeon, wary of having little girl opening door by herself and without Tiffany’s presence in the vicinity, takes it on herself to follows Elisa’s every movement with her eyes. She is not going to lose her date’s child; no child is going to get kidnapped under her surveillance. However, her determination deters when the door open to reveal a tall middle-aged blonde woman with green eyes and Elisa squeals out in joy as she lunges herself forward to hug the woman’s legs.

“Mommy!”

TaeYeon chokes on the air she is breathing, eyes becoming as large as saucers. A daughter and now an ex?! She groans out loud, accidentally drawing the attention to herself.

TaeYeon hears Elisa more than happily indulge her mommy about mama’s date in hushed voice. The pilot feels compelled to introduce herself, so she gets on her feet, ready to cross the room and introduce herself to whom she believes as her date’s ex, but Tiffany beats her to it. The ATC must have heard Elisa’s loud squeal because she pops out from one of the rooms down the hall and walks briskly to intercept the mother-daughter duo with stuffed baby bags on each hands, shoves them onto the tall blonde lady, lands pecks all over Elisa’s face, and then ushers them out. TaeYeon swears she heard the woman tease Tiffany about dating before the door slams shut.

When Tiffany turns around, TaeYeon notices the soft blush on her cheeks, but she does not about it because she has her own slacked jaw to worry about. It is as if a hurricane had hit them out of the blue and now they are left in shock. Everything is scattered around and if they are not being careful, they are going to hurt themselves.

Taking the first tentative step, Tiffany says, “Dinner is served. Let me hang your jacket first?”

The blonde nods, she had forgotten about it. Peeling the tan jacket off, she gives it to Tiffany, who spends several seconds standing frozen like a statue. The situation earlier had diverted Tiffany’s whole attention, but now that everything is considerably calmer, she finally takes notice of her favorite pilot’s appearance. It is the first time she sees TaeYeon in a dress, the dark fabric contrasts greatly with her fair complexion. Without the outer top, she can see her bare arms and finds herself staring at the muscles hidden under soft, flawless skin. Tiffany swallows thickly before she scurries off to hang the jacket then leads TaeYeon to the dining area.

TaeYeon, not really knowing the cause of Tiffany’s sudden discomfort, grows worry from the silent treatment. Although her concern is immediately dropped as she catches a view of the dining room. “Wow…” The pilot turns to stare at her date, gawking and momentarily forgetting what had happened earlier.

Tiffany had set the table for two and dimmed the light, leaving the candles on the middle of the table to cast soft glows into the room. The wine TaeYeon brought is already opened and currently perching inside a bouquet of ice on the side. Two filled glasses of red wine, each sits beside a plate of what TaeYeon assumes as spaghetti and meatballs. She lets Tiffany pull a chair for her before settling on the one across the table. Then, with one push of a button on a tiny remote by the ATC, soft violin begins playing on the background.