Right after the lesson ended, Taeyeon stood up and went to Tiffany’s desk. She wouldn’t dare to if Jessica was present. She found Jessica intimidating. Very intimidating. But since Jessica was still absent and usually, when Jessica overslept, she overslept for the entire day, Taeyeon dared to try to talk with Tiffany in spite of their last… moment.

She slowly walked towards Tiffany and then cleared . Tiffany looked up. She looked a bit… frightened. Taeyeon realized she must think she’s some kind of voyeurish freak.

“Uhm, so we’re lab partners now, I guess we need to… talk about it,” Taeyeon started awkwardly. “I apologize for the last time, I… didn’t mean to say that. It’s not that I was watching you on purpose, I just happened to walk aro- you know what, forget it,” Taeyeon quickly said as she saw Tiffany’s face getting darker and darker. “I’m sorry, okay?”

Tiffany didn’t say anything for a while. “Let’s just get this stupid project done and go back to ignoring each other like we did for the past three and a half years, shall we?” she said then, expressionlessly.

Taeyeon shakily nodded her head. Suddenly Tiffany reminded her of Jessica. The blank face and scary tone… Intimidating. “O-okay… are we going to do it in my house or yours? I suggest we start today after school, so we’re done as soon as possible,” Taeyeon said.

“We can start today. But we will stay at school and do the project here.”

“Here?” Taeyeon repeated with a questioning look. “Aren’t we supposed to leave school right after the last class?”

Tiffany let out a weird laugh. “I have keys. You should know that since you, like you said yourself, saw me ing Donghae here the other day.”

Some inner voice was telling Taeyeon not to ask any further, even though she still had a bunch of questions on her mind.

“So… I don’t think we have any lessons together today, so see you after the lesson in the… class you had with Donghae?” Taeyeon suggested, laughing.

Tiffany seemed lost for a moment. “And that class was? Sorry, I don’t remember, we have ed in too many classes,” Tiffany said then casually.

“The one next to principal’s office.”

“Hmm, okay,” Tiffany nodded. “See you there.”

During the next lesson, which happened to be Biology, Taeyeon got a text.

9:58AM

From: Yul

 “Hope you got paired up with Tiffany, otherwise I completely wasted my effort.”

Oh god, what the have you done, Kwon Yuri? Taeyeon thought. She would have never guessed Yuri planned it.

10:00AM

To: Yul

“OMG, Kwon Yuri, what have u done?! Did u kill Jessica or sth?”

Taeyeon didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

10:04AM

From: Yul

“I just coincidentally happened to walk around Jessica’s house on my way to school and seeing her beloved car, I unscrewed one screw on her tire and… Ah, it was kind of satisfying seeing her tire flatter than your chest. Did you get paired up with Hwang?”

10:05AM

To: Yul

“Coincidentally, yeah. OMG, Jessica is gonna be really angry. And I hate you, I’m not flat.”

10:07AM

From: Yul

“Not really. She walked out of the house, all sleepy, saw her flat tire, sighed and returned to the house probably to continue sleeping. And you are flat. DID YOU GET PAIRED UP WITH HWANG?!”

10:08AM

To: Yul

“LOL, sounds like Jessica. YES I DID!”

10:09AM

From: Yul

“THANK ME!”

10:09AM

To: Yul

“THANK YOU!”

Taeyeon chuckled. Yuri was so childish at times, but she was an amazing friend. She was okay with doing things Taeyeon was too scared to do. Yuri didn’t care. She never really cared about consequences. She just lived for the moment and Taeyeon admired her for that.

Taeyeon was kind of looking forward to the end of the last lesson. It was Friday and she was looking forward to just lazing around this weekend. Of course, she had to go to work, she had a part time job as a postwoman, but that was just a small thing. But at first, she had to deal with Tiffany. As soon as the school bell rang, she left the class, heading towards the class next to the principal’s office. She was a bit nervous, but not as much as a person would expect. It was just a project. And it can make them less awkward with each other. Taeyeon was determined not to be awkward. And she knew that would be hard. She was born to be awkward.

When she arrived to the class, it was still empty. It was 3PM and Taeyeon hadn’t had her lunch yet, so she sat on one of the desks and took out cookies to satisfy her hunger a bit. She was munching on the third one when Tiffany walked into the room. She looked beautiful as always, so unapproachable and mysterious in Taeyeon’s eyes.

Don’t get too carried away by her beauty, Kim Taeyeon, she ed your enemy’s boyfriend on the desk in front of you.

Tiffany was a shameless and Taeyeon hated girls like her. Kind of. There was something weird about Tiffany, something different that just irked Taeyeon every time she saw the latter.

Tiffany nonchalantly walked towards Taeyeon and sat on the empty chair in front of her.

“Want some cookie?” Taeyeon asked politely, offering Tiffany a cookie from her box.

“No, thank you, I want this project over as quickly as possible,” Tiffany answered and took out a pencil and a piece of paper. She was acting rather cold and obviously she hated being with Taeyeon.

“Uhm, Tiffany… I… I really apologize for what happened, I’m sincerely sorry, don’t you wanna start all over?” Taeyeon said, trying really hard to sound nice and friendly.

Tiffany just looked at her. “I don’t want to be your friend,” she said, frowning. “It’s not really personal, though you disturb me a bit, so don’t feel offended, I just don’t want to make friends in general,” Tiffany said.

“Really? Why?” Taeyeon asked, curious.

“I just don’t okay?” Tiffany answered angrily.

“Okay, okay,” Taeyeon backed out. But she was still wondering and dying for some answers about this mysterious girl. She was never interested in her, really, but since Sunmi gave her that stupid task and she focused on the girl more, she started to wonder.

“So, any idea how not to break the stupid egg when you hit it with a golf club?” Tiffany asked.

“No, not really… we can try wrapping the egg into many different things, but we can’t make it too heavy, because that way the egg wouldn’t reach large distance.”

“Okay, so let’s wrap it in some cotton. And then?” Tiffany asked.

“Cotton itself wouldn’t be enough; the egg would smash either way. We need to use more fabric. And I believe also boiling it could make it less fragile.”

“That sounds smart,” Tiffany agreed with a slight smile.

They discussed ideas for like an hour and then Taeyeon stood up and excused herself. “I need to pee, so…”

“Yeah, sure, go,” Tiffany just said. She was a bit busy writing down all the ideas.

Taeyeon walked out of the classroom and turned to right. The girls’ bathroom was at the very end of the long corridor. The school was dark and empty. Taeyeon was once again reminded of that thing a few days ago. When she was scared to death and then saw Donghae and Tiffany… She heard a noise. It startled her. The déjà vu feeling got stronger. She heard a… she… yes, she heard a freaking moan!

She totally forgot she needed to pee at that moment. She just peeked into the classroom she heard the moan coming from. Once again, she saw a boy and a girl making out there.

She had a hard time suppressing a gasp.

She once again couldn’t see their faces. The boy was blocking the girl and all Taeyeon could see was his back. Was it Donghae? Taeyeon didn’t know. And who was the girl? Taeyeon quickly backed out. That was so strange. Seriously, how often do you see a couple making out at school after the last class, secretly, on a desk? Taeyeon sees that twice a week; let’s congratulate her for reaching a new world record!

Taeyeon returned to the classroom. Tiffany was still writing down notes, looking calm. Taeyeon frowned. Unless something really creepy is going on, Tiffany can’t be at two places at the same time!

“Tiffany…”

“Yes?” Tiffany looked up from her notes and for a second Taeyeon got a feeling Tiffany’s actually being friendly.

“Uhmm, since we’re not really friends and since you made it pretty clear you don’t want to be my friend, I’ll just ask you, since I have nothing to lose,” Taeyeon started awkwardly.

“Yes?” Tiffany asked again, raising her eyebrows.

“Uhm… did you really… do it… you know… with… Donghae?” Taeyeon said quietly.

Tiffany was obviously very surprised at the question and her cheeks turned slightly pink. “Y-yeah, of course,” she stuttered a bit.

Taeyeon kept starting at her with the questioning look for a little longer, she could see Tiffany’s discomfort, before she slowly nodded. “Okay.” Maybe Tiffany just has at least some dignity left and she’s actually embarrassed about her behavior.

Then Taeyeon realized her bladder is full. She sighed and sat down. How to leave again without looking like an idiot? She decided to wait a bit longer before excusing herself again.

“So what do we have so far?” she asked and Tiffany started to read the notes.

“I think it might work,” Tiffany said once she finished.

“I agree,” Taeyeon nodded. “But we need to try it. Do you have a golf club at home?”

“Of course, my entire family plays golf.”

Taeyeon chuckled bitterly. Rich kids, she thought.

“Okay, do you have time tomorrow in the afternoon? Should we meet and try it?” Taeyeon asked.

“Okay, I don’t think I have any plans, so I guess we could meet,” Tiffany agreed. “Let’s get this task over as quickly as possible,” she added.

Taeyeon nodded. “Agree.” Tiffany was still very distant but at least she was talking to Taeyeon. Not that Taeyeon hoped it would be possible for her to seduce her and have with her within a month and a week. Taeyeon. Was. So. Doomed.

“Okay, so, see you tomorrow at three? At the central park?”

“Yeah, okay, there’s that meadow there, right? Take the golf club and I’ll take eggs.”

“Okay. So we’re done for today, right?”

“I think we are,” Taeyeon smiled. “Gosh, I’m tired already… and hungry.” She decided to try her luck. Tiffany seemed to be quite in a good mood, so she decided to risk it. “Don’t you wanna go to some restaurant?”

“I’m not hungry and I want to go home already, but thanks,” Tiffany smiled and started to pack her stuff.

Taeyeon was glad. She was glad, that Tiffany didn’t get angry at her invitation. She was expecting another I-don’t-want-to-make-friends speech, but instead of that, Tiffany politely refused.

Huh… she’s such a mystery…

Taeyeon arrived home quite late. Not that anybody actually cared.

“You’ve got mail,” her mom announced and threw Taeyeon a letter.

“Ah, yeah, thanks mom,” Taeyeon said. It was a letter from Sunny, as every week. She was always happy that somebody cared enough to send her letter every week. It was very cute.

She opened the envelope and read the letter decorated with little drawings around the text. Taeyeon loved that, she herself wasn’t that skilled when it came to drawing.

Only a few weeks were left between the present and the moment they will finally meet up. With a smile on her face she put the letter on her shelf, where she kept all of the letters she got and turned her computer on, so she could check Facebook and of course, chat with her brother a bit. She had to tell him about the project, she just couldn’t keep this from him. As long as she leaves out the… meaningless details. Meaningless details. Yeah… Let’s call it like that.

The following day Taeyeon woke up quite early. Which was undoubtedly a weird thing to do for her. She loved sleeping and she usually slept until noon whenever she could. But she felt somehow anxious the entire night, she was really cold and a little bit sick.

She got up and went to the kitchen for some breakfast. She opened the fridge and eggs caught her eye. She needs to prepare them. She ate her breakfast, thinking about the upcoming afternoon. Hopefully everything will go well. She really needs to impress Tiffany in some way. There was a low probability she will ever have a similar chance to talk to her in private, so she needs to take a chance now when she can.

After the breakfast she slowly started to prepare the eggs. They have decided to go with a boiled, freeze it and eventually wrap it in cotton and some fabric. Taeyeon was ready many hours sooner. She was always ready a long time before she actually needed to, it was her habit. She hated to be late, she hated the feeling that somebody is waiting for her. She’d rather wait herself. Weird? Maybe. But true.

That day she did the same. She walked out of house about twenty minutes earlier than she actually needed to and of course, she arrived twenty minutes earlier.

She was kind of expecting Tiffany to arrive late. She seemed like the type, even to school she always arrived only a few seconds before the lesson started.

Taeyeon sat on a bench in the middle of the park so she could see the entire place and just relaxed, earphones plugged in her ears. It was exceptionally cold that afternoon, she could see clouds of steam escaping every time she exhaled.

She was very surprised to spot the other girl with a golf club walking towards her five minutes before they were supposed to meet. Tiffany was being Tiffany and was dressed in pink. That was typical. She had a cute pink winter had, pink scarf and pink gloves. She looked cute.

“Hi,” Taeyeon smiled. “You’re early.”

“Hi,” Tiffany slightly smiled back. “So are you.”

“I hate being late.”

“So do I,” Tiffany laughed a bit. “Except for school. I don’t care about being late for school. I just hate it when people have to wait for me.”

Taeyeon smiled and stood up from the bench. “So should we start? I have ten eggs, so we have ten shots.”

“Sure,” Tiffany nodded and they moved to the meadow. “Let’s start,” she said and swung the golf club in the air a few times. “I can do it,” she mumbled to herself.

Taeyeon smiled. She was always telling herself the same thing.

“Don’t forget you don’t need to make the egg fly to the very end of this park. We can’t break it…. Oh my god, I honestly can not believe we are doing this ing project,” Taeyeon said.

Tiffany agreed. “I know right. Our physics projects are just ridiculous.”

“Yes. And I always end up doing them myself, coz… Yuri… you know, she never bothers to do anything to school.”

“I know right! I always end up doing them myself too, coz… you know, Jessica… sleeping all the freaking time.”

They both laughed as they complained about their best friends. Taeyeon realized this was going somehow very well. She was quite surprised.

Then Tiffany’s face darkened a bit. “Okay, let’s get this over,” she said and swung the club once again.

“Okay,” Taeyeon nodded. She put one of the eggs on the lawn. “Remember not to use too much force, okay?”

“Okay, okay,” Tiffany said, but did the exact opposite. She swung the club and… the egg didn’t go anywhere, Tiffany just smashed it.

“Oopsie…”

“Are you kidding me,” Taeyeon frowned, irritated.

“What? I never said I knew how to play golf!” Tiffany protested.

“Are you kidding me, Tiffany,” Taeyeon repeated. “You totally made it sounds like you do know how to play golf!”

“I did? Sorry, didn’t mean to, I always at it,” Tiffany flashed an innocent smile and Taeyeon sighed.

“Let me try…” she said. It was actually her first time holding a golf club, but how difficult must it be. Tiffany handed her the golf club. She, as well as Tiffany did before, at first tried the swing itself, before aiming on another egg. She swung the golf club and… another frozen boiled egg wrapped in cotton and fabric was smashed.

“See!” Tiffany shrieked. “Give it back to me, you’re gonna break the club.”

“Okay okay, we have eight eggs left. Hit it gently,” Taeyeon said as she placed third egg.

Tiffany indeed did hit gently. Too gently. The egg barely moved.

Taeyeon face palmed herself and rubbed her forehead, deeply exhaling. “No… you can’t be serious…”

“At least it didn’t break! Let me try again,” Tiffany put the egg to its original position and swung the golf club, this time hitting a perfect shot. Almost perfect shot. The egg flew perfectly, but Tiffany herself lost balance and fell on the cold ground.

“Ahhh,” she whined as she stood up and wiped her dirty pants.

Taeyeon giggled. “Are you okay?” she said and extended her hand, fixing Tiffany’s pink hat.

“Yes, I am,” Tiffany said, not noticing or maybe ignoring Taeyeon’s sign of affection. Wait… is this considered sign of affection if she’s doing this only because of Sunmi?

“Let’s go check the egg,” Tiffany suggested then.

“Yeah, sure, definitely,” Taeyeon agreed and they walked towards the egg which flew like… eight meters far. Taeyeon lifted it, unwrapped it and it was… okay.

“Wow, yay me and my awesome golf skills!” Tiffany exclaimed.

“You did great,” Taeyeon admitted. “High five?” she said, lifting her hand.

“Sure,” Tiffany smiled and they high fived.

“Great… Should we try again to see if we can go further?” Taeyeon said then.

“Of course. We’re gonna win this project.”

“Oh yeah…”

The two girls kept trying and trying and even though their conversations remained strictly about eggs, golf and school, Taeyeon actually had fun. She wasn’t sure about Tiffany though. She was so damn hard to read. Taeyeon wouldn’t be surprised if the beautiful girl was a serial killer who eats puppies for dinner every day. Taeyeon was pretty sure this girl won’t be able to surprise her anymore, Not after everything she knew about her. Which was not a lot… but yeah, her reputation in school says it all.

“I think we could stand a chance,” Taeyeon said as she picked up their last egg. “You need to practice golf a little more though,” she added, laughing a bit.

“Yeah, I agree,” Tiffany answered.

“Wanna…” Taeyeon took a deep breath. She never forgot her mission and now was a great chance. “Wanna go some restaurant? It’s freaking cold; I would use a cup of hot coffee.”

Tiffany obviously hesitated. “It’s getting late…”

“Oh come on, it’s just 7PM, you’ll be home by eight. You live nearby, don’t you,” Taeyeon persuaded. She was actually quite surprised Tiffany didn’t turn her down immediately.

“Okay,” Tiffany breathed out then. Taeyeon smiled.

“Great! Let’s go to the café over there,” she said, pointing at a small restaurant right next to the park.

“Okay. Just one cup of coffee thought…”

Taeyeon was awkward. She was sipping her hot chocolate, occasionally peeking at Tiffany. Tiffany was drinking her latté or whatever it was, also not saying a word. Taeyeon was wondering how far she can possibly push her luck.

“Why do you need to be home early anyways?” she asked then, trying to choose some kind of safe topic.

“I want to get some sleep, I’m going to church tomorrow,” Tiffany answered causally.

Taeyeon was surprised, but tried to seem like she was not. She thought she managed to hid her surprise quite well. She didn’t want Tiffany to think she said something unexpected; it could turn her into that I-don’t-want-friends state of mind again. And Taeyeon sure didn’t want that. “You go to a church?” she asked then, trying not to sound like she cared.

“Yes, every Sunday,” Tiffany confirmed.

“I don’t,” Taeyeon answered. She was surprised that a Christian person would behave the way Tiffany does… Messing with all the boys and stuff.  But… religion doesn’t mean a thing, I guess, it’s probably just a façade… Though she doesn’t seem like the type who would bother to hide something. Taeyeon thought about it and realized Tiffany has never ever complained about everybody talking about her like she’s the biggest… ahem… everybody talking about her promiscuity.  It seemed like it didn’t make her upset or bothered at all. Maybe it was just a façade she kept in front of her parents. Yeah, that must be it…

Silence. Again. Taeyeon wasn’t sure what topics are okay to be discussed with Tiffany. Of course, she couldn’t ask her about the things that she was interested in, she was pretty sure Tiffany would back out.

“Mhm, thinking about it, Jessica and Yuri are doing this project together, right?” she said then, quite randomly. “Do you think they are going to do it?”

“Uhmm… No,” Tiffany answered firmly. “I’m pretty sure they won’t. There is a chance Jessica is going to do something on her own if she gets some idea out of the blue. But she’s not gonna work on it directly like we did just today.”

“I’ve always wondered how is it possible Jessica gets As only even though she doesn’t study, doesn’t do homework and heck, she doesn’t even take notes, she sleeps half of the day,” Taeyeon said.

“Well, she’s just that smart. She hears a thing once and she remembers it without studying it,” Tiffany explained.

“What? Really? Wow, that’s crazy! I’m envious.”

“We all are,” Tiffany laughed. “People would kill for Jessi’s memory. But try not to tell people about it. Jessi doesn’t like people talking about her.”

Taeyeon quickly nodded. “Sure, no problem, my lips are sealed. I hate it when people talk about me too.”

“Yeah, me too,” Tiffany mumbled really quietly, but Taeyeon heard it. And she was sure she heard it right.

“Then why don’t you tell them? Coz… sorry to say that, but you are kind of a hot topic at school.”

Tiffany looked at her with no expression, which freaked Taeyeon out a bit. She thought she might have pushed too far.

“Y-you don’t have to answer,” she stuttered quickly, trying to save the situation. “It was just a question.”

“I have my reasons,” Tiffany just whispered and shifted a bit on her chair, before breaking their eye contact and finishing her coffee. “I really need to go now.”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you or something,” Taeyeon said, panicking a bit.

Tiffany stood up and smiled at her for a second. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing personal. It’s just it’s really late already,” she said as she was putting on her coat.

“O-okay… so we’re still friends? I mean… like... not friends, I know you said you don’t want to make friends, but… you know…”

Tiffany laughed. “You’re cute,” she said and then quickly returned to her emotionless look realizing what she just did. “We’re good. But you are right, we are not friends,” she said coldly. “See you at school,” she said and walked towards the counter to pay for her coffee.

Taeyeon sighed and finished her hot chocolate as she watched Tiffany leave. She let out a frustrated groan. Seduce her by the end of the year… yeah… sure… no problem.

She took out her wallet and went towards the counter to pay.

“Oh, but your friend already paid for both of you,” the waitress said.

“What?” Taeyeon looked at her confused. “She did?”

A/N: Updating a bit earlier once again. I think I'll update a little bit later next time, a friend is coming over to my place for a few days and I probably won't be able to write a lot :/

But look forward to the next chapter, some interesting things will be revealed ! ^^ Happy New Year everybody ^^