“Seriously, why the does school start on Thursday. They could have let us stay home for the two stupid days and then during the weekend. I wish the break had been longer,” Yuri groaned as she dragged her feet to the school, obviously very annoyed. “And you could have let me sleep a bit longer too, you know,” she complained then and nudged Taeyeon’s shoulder.

Taeyeon just laughed a bit. It was a bit forced, she was in quite a bad mood for the past two days. “I’m sorry, Yuri, but I really think you should start going to school more often,” Taeyeon said. She really meant that. And she also kind of hoped with Yuri around she won’t be bullied as much as Sunmi promised her she would be if she failed her mission. Taeyeon hasn’t officially failed yet, she still had technically four days left, but she wasn’t willing to continue, not after what happened during the party. She became a better person, selfless. She sadly smiled as she realized it.  Then she laughed as another thought crossed her mind. What a ridiculous though indeed. But… it was true.

“Why are you laughing, it’s not funny,” Yuri mumbled and yawned.

“No, it’s not that, I was thinking about something else,” Taeyeon said quickly.

“Really? Tiffany?” Yuri smirked.

Taeyeon nodded. She always found it amazing how good Yuri was at guessing.

“What is it? Come on, tell me. You need to tell me what the happened after the party,” Yuri tried really hard to make Taeyeon talk about it.

“Nothing happened,” Taeyeon answered. “You wouldn’t tell me what you were doing that evening either!” she reasoned.

“Because I want to erase that night from my memory,” Yuri scoffed.

“Why?”

“It never happened, okay?! That night never happened.”

“Okay. Sure. Since it never happened, I won’t tell you what happened to me, because nothing happened to me since the night never happened,” Taeyeon said quickly with a cheeky smile.

Yuri just shook her head. “Okay, fine, whatever. You have yours secrets, I have mine,” she said, sticking out her tongue.

Taeyeon laughed, but that one stupid thought was still on her mind…

Taeyeon wasn’t sure if it was just a coincidence or not, but she had literally no opportunity to talk to Tiffany. Or Jessica. Meanwhile Jessica was sleeping all the time without lifting her head even once, Tiffany was gone every break, she left the classroom as soon as the school bell announced the end of the lesson and came back only when the bell rang once again, to announce the beginning of it.

Taeyeon noticed a weird thing about Yuri though. She kept glancing at Jessica all the time. It was really odd, Taeyeon was pretty sure it had something to do with the party. But Yuri wouldn’t tell her.

Taeyeon sighed, thinking about whether Tiffany was avoiding her or not. Then she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. It was a text message from Yoona.

11:52AM

From: Yoong

Wanna meet up 2day? Haven’t seen u in a while.

11:54AM

To: Yoong

Sure. MG Café, 4PM?

11:55AM

From: Yoong

OK. CU.

Taeyeon forced herself to kind of survive the rest of the day unnoticed by anybody. Just herself and her own thoughts. Or more like a thought. Just one. It was on her mind for the entire day and she was actually thinking about it on her way to the café as well.

She was a bit early. She went there directly from school. She waited outside only a few minutes before Yoona arrived as well though.

“Hi, unnie,” her cousin was greeting her happily from the distance.

“Hi, Yoong,” Taeyeon smiled, but it turned out to be kind of sad. Yoona noticed.

“What’s wrong?”

Taeyeon just shook her head. “I will tell you inside.”

“Okay.”

The two girls sat down and ordered hot chocolates.

“Okay… so spill it,” Yoona said.

Taeyeon remained quiet for a while, thinking about her soon to be words carefully. “It’s about Tiffany.”

“Tiffany? The bet?” Yoona asked. “You failed, didn’t you?”

“Well… technically not yet. But I will, because I don’t wanna do it,” Taeyeon shrugged.

“Why?”

“It’s a ed up thing to do. Mean and very selfish.”

“So?”

Taeyeon gave Yoona a weird look. “That’s the reason. You don’t do ed up things like that to people. It’s just very rude and it would ruin her social life.”

“Sure, I agree with that, but since when do you… care? You knew that it’s a bad thing from the very beginning. So why did you change your mind?” Yoona questioned.

Taeyeon shrugged. “I became aware of a few… facts,” she said and her cheeks turned a bit pink.

“Oh god, no,” Yoona whispered. “No, no, no, that’s very bad, Taeyeon,” she laughed then.

Taeyeon frowned and opened to say something, it was a bit unusual for Yoona to call her by her name, but the waitress disturbed them with their order. Taeyeon took a spoon and started to stir the hot chocolate, not saying anything until the waitress left.

“Well…” she grinned at Yoona awkwardly.

“You like her!” Yoona exclaimed in disbelieve.

“Shhhhtt! Quiet, oh my god!” Taeyeon warned quickly.

“But I am right, aren’t I,” Yoona raised her eyebrows.

Taeyeon just sighed before nodding. “I think… after getting to know her a little bit more… I kind of… I guess I kind of fell for her,” she smiled bitterly.

“Phew… that’s really… surprising. Never heard you saying you fell for somebody, not even that ex of yours,” Yoona said. “What are you going to do?”

“Well, you know I was not in love with Hyoyeon, it was just a small fling and we both got over it really quickly. This time it feels different. I really care about her, I don’t wanna hurt her,” Taeyeon said really quietly before sipping her chocolate.

“I thought you disliked her though, you said she slept with everybody,” Yoona said.

“Well… That’s what everybody says and I blindly believed it. It turned out to be a one big fat lie. She’s actually still a . And she’s gay,” Taeyeon said like really very quietly.

“Mhmm… I see…” Yoona seemed to be thinking about the whole thing. “You could continue seducing her until you eventually succeed even after the bet is over. You two could start dating and problem solved. But you have to really careful so she wouldn’t find out about the bet in the first place. I don’t think she would like it.”

Taeyeon just shook her head, looking at Yoona in disbelieve, slightly opened. “You have been watching too much anime and k-dramas, I can’t do that! I don’t wanna lie to her even more. I’m going to tell her the truth.”

“But that will probably completely bury the last piece of hope you maybe still have,” Yoona stated.

“Yeah, it’s all gone, no more hope left for me,” Taeyeon answered bitterly.

“Well, never say never,” Yoona shrugged.

“I think I can say never in this case. No sane person would ever be happy about the whole thing. Just imagine you told somebody your darkest secrets and that person was just playing with you.”

“That usually pisses people off, true,” Yoona admitted. “But you weren’t playing with her, when she told her those secret, were you?”

“No, I was sincerely listening to her, but try to explain that to her. There’s no chance she would listen to me.”

“Maybe you are underestimating her. You never know. She could surprise you. Maybe she fell for you as well.”

“I wish,” Taeyeon forced a laugh.

“It’s gonna be okay, trust me,” Yoona nodded.

“I hope so…” Taeyeon sighed. Suddenly the image of possible consequences appeared in her head. Tiffany being really angry, cursing her, Sunmi beating her up and stealing her money, hanging her out of a window, she coming home late and devastated, her mom being desperate, asking her, she refusing to tell her, eventually switching schools, not being able to graduate, no education means no decent job, she’s gonna end up homeless and hated…

“Ugh! God! I’m thinking about some really insane stuff right now, we need to change topic. Right now. Now,” Taeyeon quickly demanded.

“You just had a series of catastrophic scenarios with you ending up jumping off a cliff in your head, didn’t you.”

Taeyeon looked at Yoona, shocked. How did the girl know her so well? “No, you are completely wrong… I cut the trail of thoughts after being homeless and hated,” she added quietly.

“…. Lovely,” Yoona nodded with an ironic smile after a while.

“Yes, I know, so… figured out your uality already?” Taeyeon asked, indeed changing the topic completely.

“I actually believe I did,” Yoona announced proudly.

“And you seem really happy about it,” Taeyeon commented.

“That’s because I am.”

“And? Will you tell me?”

“Of course I will, I am goddamn gay,” Yoona chuckled.

“And you seem really happy about it,” Taeyeon repeated herself. She had a huge suspicion Yoona was gay since forever.

“Yes. I feel somehow good, I can’t explain it, but I feel… free,” Yoona smiled widely.

Taeyeon frowned. “What made you feel free? Or more like… who?” she asked, suspicious about the whole thing.

Yoona just shrugged, still smiling like a dork.

Taeyeon raised her eyebrows. “Won’t tell me? Okay, no juicy details about me spending night over at Tiffany’s for you.”

“Whhhaaat? You spent a night over at her place? Why didn’t you mention this earlier! We really need to start hang out more often!” Yoona’s eyes almost popped out. “Fine! It’s Seohyun! Happy?”

“Seohyun??!!” Taeyeon gasped. “Is she even gay?!”

“Don’t know, don’t care. I feel good in her company. That’s it.”

“That’s… interesting. And quite unexpected. I wouldn’t expect somebody as smart and mature as Seohyun to hang out with a kid like you,” Taeyeon teased.

“Hey, don’t be mean, unnie,” Yoona faked whining, but she was smirking.

“The world has gone crazy,” Taeyeon just shook her head. “Tiffany’s gay, Yoona’s gay, Seohyun’s possibly gay, Jessica’s bicurious possibly gay, what’s next? Sunmi being gay?!” she exclaimed. “What is this, a ing gayland?”

Yoona grinned. “That would be so awesome! Imagine it!”

Taeyeon let out a sigh. “You are being a bit too excited about your newly discovered self. Calm down a bit, will you?”

“Sorry… okay, so now back to Tiffany and the juicy details! What happened? Were you naughty?”

“Well, she was. She disabled my walking ability for two days,” Taeyeon said.

“Was she that rough?” Yoona asked, her eyes really big.

“She was very rough. I was soaking wet and it hurt a lot. And before you get the wrong idea, she stamped on my foot with a stiletto shoe, threw her drink into my face and slapped me. My foot is still bruised.”

“Oh god, why?”

“I kissed her,” Taeyeon smiled sadly.

“Oh really? What was that like?”

“I don’t know,” Taeyeon shrugged. “Lasted for like half a second before she managed to push me away and started hurting me. And she tasted like alcohol. Yeah she was a bit drunk and that’s not y… at all. So I guess I can say it really .”

“How the did you end up at her place after something like that happened?” Yoona wondered.

“Later that evening she told me all of her secrets- I think I should thank alcohol for that, but I won’t, because it’s still a really disgusting thing- and I paid for her cab, since she didn’t have money and then she told me to go with her, that she will give me the money back. And somehow I ended up at her place for a few hours. I sneaked out as soon as she fell asleep,” Taeyeon summed the whole thing up.

“You said there were juicy details!” Yoona complained.

Taeyeon just shrugged with a smile. “I lied.”

Taeyeon was on her way home, when suddenly her phone started to ring. That was quite unusual, she didn’t have many friends who would call her just like that. It was Yuri. Taeyeon frowned a bit, wondering what the problem could possibly be, before answering it.

“Yes, Yuri?”

“I was kissing her on lips!” Yuri yelled.

Taeyeon immediately put her phone away from her ear as she just almost went deaf. After a second or two, she put it back to her ear.

“Taeyeon, are you there?!”

“Calm down, Yuri-yah, please explain. What is going on?”

“I am going crazy. I thought I’m gonna forget it, since my memory , but I can’t get rid of the image…” she ranted.

“What are you talking about?” Taeyeon asked, confused.

“On the party… the thing I didn’t want to tell you…”

“Yes?”

“I made out with Jessica Jung.”

“Oh… That’s… interesting,” Taeyeon said, trying hard not to laugh. “Why is it such a big deal? I thought you actually considered doing it. And I thought we had made it clear – sleeping sickness is not an STD.”

“You don’t get it, I kissed her on lips. You know I don’t do that. I consider kissing on lips a sign of affection, I wouldn’t kiss on lips a person I don’t like,” Yuri said, panicking.

“Calm down, you were drunk, probably caught in a moment,” Taeyeon tried to console the other girl a bit. “You are overthinking this, nothing happened, really.”

“I guess you are right,” Yuri sighed. “But it really does upset me. Such a thing never happened to me, I never kiss the girls I sleep with, I don’t understand what went wrong.”

“God knows,” Taeyeon mumbled. Not like she wasn’t interested in Yuri’s problems, it’s just she didn’t understand why it was such a big deal.

“I know you don’t think it’s an important thing, but my lips are sacred, okay? It really upsets me. I am confused. I didn’t want to tell anybody, but after seeing her today, I just had to tell you,” Yuri admitted.

“Okay, I am sorry for making fun of it. We all have some kind of ritual, don’t we…” Taeyeon said.

“Yes, thank you. Okay… so… are you going to tell me what happened between you and Tiffany that night?” Yuri then asked, her mood suddenly completely different, mischievous.

Taeyeon sighed. “Nothing much. I found her in a bar nearby, she was drunk, I paid her a cab, went over to her place, once she fell asleep I went home,” she said, leaving out some details.

“Really? That’s kinda… boring. Thought it was a bit too exciting since you refused to tell me,” Yuri mumbled.

“Sorry, it really isn’t,” Taeyeon chuckled. “She told me some personal things about her though. I’m not gonna tell you, please don’t take this personally.”

“Oh really?” Yuri asked, curious. “No, no, no, you gotta tell me! I told you everything as well!”

“Okay, let’s just go with this one… she’s not a ,” Taeyeon laughed. “Bye Yuri!” she said then and hang up before Yuri could ask any further. She just heard an angry ‘Hey!’ at the other side of the line.

Taeyeon just shook her head, still smiling, but her smile seemed a bit sad. It’s gonna be over tomorrow.

The next day, Taeyeon arrived to school really early. Mostly because she wanted to avoid Sunmi. They didn’t have the first two lessons together, it was Physics. The Physics she had with Yuri, Tiffany and Jessica. The Physics with the stupid projects.

Taeyeon assumed she would be the first one to arrive to the classroom. She wasn’t right. Tiffany was already there, sitting at her desk, reading some kind of book or something, looking… as stunning as ever, but this time Taeyeon saw her differently. She didn’t seem as unapproachable as before, now she looked just like a fragile lost girl.

As soon as Tiffany heard somebody entered the classroom she looked up.

“Hi,” Taeyeon whispered as their eyes met.

Tiffany remained quiet for a moment. “Hi,” she said eventually, her expression blank.

“I-I need to talk to you,” Taeyeon stuttered as she took a few steps towards the girl, but still keeping over two meters distance.

“If it’s about the Physics… I have it. If it’s about something else… I have nothing to say,” Tiffany stated, still with an unreadable expression. “Just… sorry about your foot. How is it?”

“Good, good… Thanks for caring.” Taeyeon bit her lower lip as she broke the eye contact. “But there is one thing I want you to hear.”

“I don’t wanna talk about… it,” Tiffany gulped.

“Well... it’s not just about… that. It’s more than that.”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Tiffany repeated. “You said my secrets were safe. But I would like you to forget it. Completely. Pretend like it never happened,” she said so quietly Taeyeon had to come a bit closer.

“They are safe, I really meant what I wrote in that note. It’s just… I need to tell you something…”

Tiffany just sighed. “Fine, go ahead. Make it quick.”

“I want you to know that-“ Taeyeon immediately stopped talking as three other classmates entered the classroom. She sighed.

Tiffany frowned at them, then she looked at Taeyeon, shaking her head slightly.

“Bathroom, second floor, after the lesson,” she said then really quietly before she went to the desk she usually shares with Yuri.

A few minutes later, the lesson started and Taeyeon sure wasn’t surprised the seat next to her was empty. She looked to the back of the classroom and noticed Jessica was also absent. Double surprise.

The teacher entered the room with a smile on his face. “Welcome to the year 2008!” he announced loudly. He seemed to be in an exceptional mood, which made him look really creepy.

“I hope you all did your homework,” he said as he clapped. He looked around the class and suddenly his expression darkened a bit. “Where are Jessica Jung and Kwon Yuri?” he asked. “I was especially looking forward to their homework.”

“We are here!”

Two girls burst into the room, catching their breaths. They obviously had been running. Taeyeon was surprised to see the two girls come to school together.

The teacher smiled, his good mood being back. “I am very happy to see you, girls, please take a seat,” he said.

“Thank you,” Yuri said with a bow as she collapsed on the seat next to Taeyeon.

“What just happened?” Taeyeon asked, shocked.

“Give me a minute,” Yuri mumbled, still breathless.

“No,” Taeyeon frowned. “Spill it. Now. What is going on between the two of you?”

“Nothing… Seriously… Pheww… We met in the hallway and found out none of us did the homework. So we were quickly making up some answers on the staircase for the past five or ten minutes,” Yuri explained as she put on the desk a wrinkled piece of paper.

Taeyeon frowned as she looked at the answers. “I… don’t think that’s correct,” she said, shaking her head.

“Duh. Whatever,” Yuri rolled her eyes.

“Yuri, Taeyeon, I understand you two have a lot to tell each other after the winter break, but I would prefer seeing your homework. Same goes for Jessica and Tiffany,” she teacher said sweetly.

Taeyeon immediately turned around to see Tiffany and Jessica were in a similar discussion as Yuri and herself. Taeyeon thought Tiffany must have been as surprised to see the two girls come together.

“I would prefer seeing your homework now,” the teacher repeated. Taeyeon took Yuri’s paper and her own and handed it to the teacher. Tiffany did the same with hers and Jessica’s.

The teacher took them and started examining them. He was frowning and slightly nodding, looking at Tiffany’s and Taeyeon’s paper. He them put them on the desk. “You two did well. I hope you understand it all.”

Taeyeon and Tiffany nodded.

“Good. You both get As.”

Subconsciously or not, the two girls happily looked at each other, giving each other a victorious smile.

The teacher’s face turned visibly darker as soon as he looked at Yuri’s paper. “What is this? Is this your homework, Yuri?” he said, holding the wrinkled piece of paper. It was pretty obvious it spend a few days rumpled in Yuri’s bag.

Yuri just shrugged.

The teacher started to look at the answers. He sighed as he put the paper away and took Jessica’s. To everyone’ surprise, his expression was only getting worse.

“Some of these formulas are right, but none of the problems is solved and if it is, it’s incorrect. I am very disappointed, Jessica. I will have to give you Fs.”

Yuri abruptly stood up from her seat, turning around, looking at Jessica. “I thought you were smart!” she yelled. Taeyeon gasped. That sure was unexpected. And what followed was even more shocking.

Jessica stood up as well. “I am smart, sorry for not being a freaking genius! Sorry for not being able to solve TWENTY physics problems in FIVE minutes without a calculator!”

Some students seemed shocked, some were having hard time suppressing their giggled. Including Taeyeon. Watching Yuri and Jessica just stand there, looking at each other, mentally killing each other. She could feel the tension, it was really intense and really funny. She took a glance at Tiffany, who seemed as into the situation as Taeyeon was. Then she turned her attention the teacher. To her surprise, he seemed to be amused by it.

“I can see you two girl have some problems to figure out and I don’t mean just the physics. Well, you will have enough time to do that in the afternoon. Meet me in this class after your last lesson, since you are obviously unable to do your homework at home, you will stay here till you are done with all the problems.”

“What?!” both, Yuri and Jessica barked, looking at him, before looking at each other again, this time even more furious.

“Ain’t nobody got time for that!” Yuri stated. “I’m  sorry, I have to go to the gym.”

“No you don’t, just like Jessica doesn’t need any more sleep. I will keep an eye on you. Now be quiet, so we could start the lesson,” he ordered.

Yuri and Jessica both collapsed back on their seats, groaning.

“ this…” Yuri mumbled.

Taeyeon chuckled as she failed at suppressing it and Yuri glared at her. “Sorry,” Taeyeon apologized, but Yuri didn’t speak to her for the rest of the lesson.

Taeyeon left the classroom first after the lesson. She immediately ran towards the bathroom on the second floor. She made sure it was empty. It was.  It usually was, since the second floor is barely used by the students. Most of the classrooms were on the first one.

She needed to pee, so she did. She was really nervous. She thought it had been a good idea to choose bathroom, in case she got so nervous, she would throw up. She let out a bitter laugh and while washing her hands she also washed her face a bit as well and drank some water from the tap. She looked at herself in the mirror, fixing her dark brown bangs. Then she saw the door open in the reflection. A black haired girl entered the bathroom. Tiffany. She stood there for a while, just looking at Taeyeon, who kept watching her through the mirror.

“So…” she said after a while. “You can talk now.”

A/N: Khunfany rant starts now.

Awww, I hope this update brightened your mood at least a little bit, my poor adorable broken hearts, kekeke.

I swear, I really did cry. But don't worry, I am not gonna stop shipping TaeNy or writing fanfics just because some Nichkhun guy happened.

Let's just be happy for our girls and let's not forget their happiness is our happiness and it's the most important thing and some KhunFany is definitely NOT a reason to leave this amazing fandom and this amazing group :) .... and it's still TaeNy forever, what is 4 months compared to 10 years, seriously.

It's not Khunfany that breaks my heart, it's the fact that some people are leaving fandom because of it. But what can we do...

End of the rant.

As always, thanks for reading & commenting & subscribing. I will be torturing you with TaeNy for some time now (as if we aren't tortured enough real life, ahem) as there won't be that many TaeNy moments, but don't worry, I'll make it up to you later ;)

Also, I am very happy to announce I got my English certificate. I am officially a "proficient user", whatever that means :D Yay me!

Aaand, the poll results from the previous chapter are quite interesting. I am sorry, dear one person, but I am going to continue with this fanfic even after they leave high school.

Next chapter teaser:

“Stop looking at me, I hate it."
“Do you hate it? Or do you hate me?”
“It.”

See you next time! Love you all~~ And cheer up :P