TaeYeon eases herself onto the bed. She does not care enough to peel the cover nor taking off her shoes first. She does not even care the wrinkles her uniform will surely obtain in the process. The blonde is heartbroken. It feels like high school all over again, except for the absence of her thick glasses and brackets, and the fact that her crush did not even know of her existence. But her Rapunzel—No, Miss Hwang Tiffany, did notice her and yet she still got her heartbroken.

Hwang Tiffany.

Robbins had kindly informed TaeYeon of her crush’s name after she saw her crestfallen expression. It failed to ebb the pain, despite how nice the name rolls off TaeYeon’s tongue. The changes must have been so obvious that even JongHyun did not make any joke and let TaeYeon have her space. He too did not raise a protest when the blonde woman later on decided to not participate in the flight back to Incheon on the next day. That is two flights in a row—LAX to Incheon then Incheon to LAX—and she did not even blink when she was told about a certain amount of money in her paycheck would be reduced then handed to SiWon, her replacement.

TaeYeon just wants to sleep, but even the sandman evades her tonight. Again, the time difference is part to blame. Now that sleep is elusive and her thoughts are making her restless, TaeYeon turns to the tiny pills her physician had prescribed shortly after her major break-up with her ex-fiancée. Two blue bitter pills and a glass of water later, the blonde finally dozes off. When TaeYeon wakes up the next morning, the first things she notices are the fact that she is still in her uniform, sans the shoes, and then, that she is alone in the lodge room the airport has provided for international pilots like herself. The memories of what had happened the other day rushes into her mind and she sighs dejectedly.

The blonde goes about her morning routine in a vain attempt of distracting herself. She takes a long shower, dressed herself in civilian clothes, and grabs a quick brunch with JongHyun at a nearby restaurant. It works well, until she comes back and checks her uniform before she supposes to send it out to be dry-cleaned, and finds the note from Tiffany. TaeYeon had shoved it inside her pocket after she read it once, not bothering to see it ever again. Despite the pang of displeasure inside her chest telling her to toss it away, or better, burn it off, she still goes against her own better judgment and sits down on the bed, rereading the lone sentence that had managed to break her heart.

Please stop bothering me at work, Captain Kim.

TaeYeon scoffs. Thinking so highly of yourself, huh? She then rolls her eyes, heart sets on the more traditional way of getting over the heartbreak by hating the woman, or in this particular case, ignoring the woman. I will get over this stupid crush, she promises herself as she tosses the note haphazardly and plops down to lie on her back. I will overcome it. It’s so not worth—

Whatever newly-made determination TaeYeon is going to declare suddenly vanishes when she turns to her side, looking straight at the back of the folded note, where a string of numbers stares back at her tauntingly. Bewilderedly, she reaches out for the paper and brings it in for closer inspection. The numbers are written on the bottom and in smaller letters, which is why she had not noticed it before. It is a foreign cell phone number, written by Tiffany, but it can be of a random person’s. Or it can be another proof of her crush’s apparent disrespect of the affection she harbors towards her, the deliberate use of used note is to mock said feeling.

Or it can be hers... the small, hopeful voice rings from the far back of TaeYeon’s head. It can be Tiffany’s and she wants me to call her...

Before the stupid self-argument TaeYeon normally engages in can commence, her heart has yet again beaten all logic her brain is ready to throw out. With her body in perfect tune with her heart, the blonde finds herself scrambling ahead to retrieve her own phone from its charger on the nightstand. The number is typed in and soon followed by the green call button being tapped, panic finally settles in TaeYeon after the first ring. She might be calling her freaking crush and she has no idea of what to talk about. When she thinks of hanging up to gather her wits first, it is too late.

“Hello?”

TaeYeon’s heart skips a beat and the butterflies she does not know she has start doing silly somersaults inside her stomach. It is Tiffany. The pilot tries to greet back, yet no sound manages to come out. opens and closes like a fish out of water. She hears small rustle on the other side, probably Tiffany taking the phone away from her ear, and she waits for the dial tone to resonate with bated breath. TaeYeon is sure Tiffany will hang up, thinking it is a prank call, but the noise never comes.

“Captain Kim?”

“Yes!” TaeYeon squeaks out.

The blonde has to remind herself that Tiffany is, in fact, not standing in front of her. She can’t see her. There is no reason for her to be so worked out over a phone call. It is just like another courting attempt through the air traffic communication, except it is better because the whole LAX staffs can’t hear them. With such reassuring thoughts, TaeYeon’s nervousness dissipates and replaced by her composed, flirty persona.

“Hello, Rapunzel.” This time, TaeYeon’s timbre goes down by a notch into her pleasantly soothing voice. She also uses Korean to subtly hint that she knows about Tiffany’s lineage. A smile breaks on her lips when she notices a tiny, almost timid giggle comes from the other end. Maybe I’m not the only one who is shy here. Her grin widens into a toothy one.

“You must have known my name already, Captain Kim.” Tiffany’s Korean flows impeccably but her heavy accent makes it very distinguishable that she does not use the language frequently.

“So do you, Miss Hwang.” TaeYeon switches back to English, it never hurts to practice the language more.

“It took you long enough to finally call me, TaeYeon.”

TaeYeon frowns, but not because the intentional use of her name. “You told me to stop bothering you, Tiffany.” She really does not want to be petty, but the woman had caused her unnecessary suffering.

“Yes, at work.” Tiffany sounds like she is enjoying the small banter too much for TaeYeon’s likings. “I prefer to act professional while I’m working. That’s why I gave you my number.”

“Yes, number that I prefer to be written in big bold letters on front, under your message.” TaeYeon would have rolled her eyes but she is too distracted and buzzed with excitement, so much that she ends up blurting out, “I’m free today and the date offer still stands.” Then smacks herself square on the forehead, even when it is too late to take it back.

Tiffany laughs good-naturedly. “It does?”

“Y-yeah...”

“Then pick me at seven on the North Tower.” A small chuckle follows. “I expect you to recite the line from Rapunzel—“ It gets cut off.

TaeYeon is sure her heart has leapt up to when Tiffany agreed, but the abruptly ended call has pummeled it back down to her chest where it proceeds to drop down to her stomach with each second passes and she hears no more sound coming. Confused and a bit hurt, TaeYeon pulls the phone away from her ear and stares at the black screen. She cusses out loud when she realizes it has run out of batteries.