“Doubts aren’t the end of knowledge, but its beginning,” Yoona said slowly, nodding her head and she just listened to Taeyeon’s thoughts about Tiffany. Taeyeon really needed to tell somebody and Yoona seemed like a perfect person, since she did not know Tiffany nor anybody in this area.

They were sitting in a nearby café, just hanging around one afternoon.

“You need to get in touch with her once again somehow,” Yoona added then.

“I know, I know, but it’s not that easy, she’s really unapproachable… Phew… This is driving me crazy. But it’s physics tomorrow, we will definitely talk, because of our project,” Taeyeon smiled. She really hoped the next day would go well. No more faux pauses please.

“Oh, well, good luck then, unnie,” Yoona grinned.

“Thanks, I will totally need it,” Taeyeon answered as she sipped her hot chocolate.

“In case it wouldn’t go well tomorrow, count on me, I will help you out during the weekend.”

“How?”

“I don’t know yet, but I will figure something out. We could simply pay her an unexpected visit or something. If it doesn’t work, then simply hit on her. Directly. No beating around the bush,” Yoona smirked.

Taeyeon blushed only thinking about it. “That’s easy to say,” she mumbled.

“Oh come oooon,” Yoona sighed. “You are nervous just thinking about hitting on her. How the heck are you supposed to seduce her if you’re this insecure?” she groaned desperately. Taeyeon’s helplessness was driving her crazy.

“Ahh, you’re not helping,” Taeyeon stuttered a bit as it was driving her much more crazier, since it was a thing she needed to do, not Yoona, not anybody else, but her, Kim Taeyeon. “Let’s change the topic please.”

“Okay, okay… what about… my… problem?” Yoona whispered, raising her eyebrows.

“Well… Uhm…” Taeyeon scratched her head and looked around the café. It was quite crowded, this restaurant was quite popular with young people. She suddenly spotted a few girls out of school. She hadn’t notice them before. Sojin, Soyeon, Sooyoung and Seohyun. Taeyeon scoffed as she realized all of these names begin with the letter S. What a weird clique. “Do you find any of those four girls… attractive?”

Yoona frowned as she looked at the four chicks. She pouted, thinking hard. “I don’t know… do I? They are all very pretty, but I’m not sure if I like some of them in some… unusual way.”

Suddenly one of the four girls turned around and noticed Taeyeon and Yoona looking at them. Yoona immediately looked another way. Taeyeon just smiled and the girl smiled back. “Hi,” she mouthed. Taeyeon greeted her back and then looked at Yoona, who looked a bit uncomfortable.

“This one is the most beautiful.”

“Oh… really?” Taeyeon smiled. “So… Seohyun…”

“It’s almost our turn,” Taeyeon mumbled as she and her classmates were standing on the school field, watching themselves trying to hit the egg. It was quite hilarious. Some students failed badly, some did impressively well. The teacher was really excited about the whole thing.

“Okay, next is… Kim Taeyeon, Hwang Tiffany,” he said, looking into his list of students.

Taeyeon looked at Tiffany who had been standing at the other side of the field the entire time. Taeyeon took out the eggs she had prepared earlier that morning and without exchanging a single word with Tiffany, they prepared their project. Taeyeon then glanced at Tiffany and their eyes met in a long firm eye contact. Taeyeon just smiled and nodded. Tiffany slightly smiled back and broke the eye contact before taking the teacher’s golf club.

“Good luck,” Taeyeon whispered into Tiffany’s ear and touched her shoulder for a second.

Tiffany hit the egg. Taeyeon closed the eyes for a second at that moment, but she didn’t have to worry. They egg flew quite well. It wasn’t too far away, it was rather close, but compared to other students who smashed it on the spot… They did surprisingly well. But Taeyeon still felt they could have done better. It was obvious Tiffany was too careful with her shot. The teacher just smiled and walked to check the egg. It wasn’t cracked.

Tiffany and Taeyeon looked at each other. “We did well,” Tiffany said quietly, so only Taeyeon, who nodded, could hear her.

“Not the best though,” Taeyeon added.

“Nice shot,” the teacher smiled at them. “One of the better ones. You both get an A.”

“Whoa, awesome!” Taeyeon laughed excitedly. She looked at Tiffany, but even though she was smiling, she took a step backwards, building some kind of invisible wall between them. Taeyeon understood. She got it. They were not friends. Okay. She got it. It made her a bit upset as she remembered her task once again.

How how how???

“Okay, next is… Kwon Yuri and Jung Jessica.”

Silence.

After a few seconds of silence, everybody started to look around and talk.

“Kwon Yuri, Jung Jessica!” the teacher repeated.

“Jessi!” Tiffany walked a bit away to a body lying on the lawn, kneeling down and shaking it roughly.

“What is going on?” somebody from the crowd uttered. Taeyeon was standing near, so she overheard the entire conversation the student had with friends.

“Is she dead?” some girl asked.

“Nah, just sleeping, you know her,” third student said.

“In December? On the lawn? I know there’s no snow yet, but oh god, she’s gonna fall sick,” the first student wondered.

“Yeah, like you five a about her.”

“… True.”

Everybody was watching the sleeping princess waking up. Jessica lazily rubbed her eyes before looking at Tiffany.

“What is it?” she asked really quietly. Only Tiffany heard her.

“It’s your and Yuri’s turn.”

“Really?” Jessica slowly stood up with Tiffany’s help and then looked at the teacher sleepily.

“Where’s your egg?” the teacher asked. “And where’s your partner?”

“I have no idea,” Jessica answered honestly. Yuri was absent. Yeah yeah, what a surprise.

“You didn’t do the project, did you,” the teacher stated, obviously not really amused.

Jessica just shrugged. “I’m afraid we did not, I apologize on my behalf. Just mine,” she said, scratching her head. “Give us an F.”

Everybody was watching in a complete silence. The teacher was slowly changing colors. At first his face obviously darkened, then turned pale and then red. Taeyeon thought he would make a great chameleon.

He opened his mouth and took a deep breath. Everybody was feeling a bit scared, but really curious about what will happen next. The teacher didn’t yell though. He just exhaled as deeply as he inhaled and looked at Jessica expressionlessly.

“You and Yuri both get an F and you will remind partners for the next project. If that one won’t be done, you will both fail my subject,” he said uncompromisingly.

Jessica seemed a bit lost. She had blank expression and was looking to nowhere.

“Jessi, don’t space out! Not now!” Tiffany whispered into her ear sharply and shook her arm.

Jessica blinked and seemed to return to reality for a moment. “Okay,” she simply said.

“Jessi, you do realize you will have to do this this time, correct?” Tiffany reassured.

Jessica just nodded. “I will figure something out…”

The teacher then looked at Tiffany. “Oh, right. Since Jessica and Yuri remain as partners, you will remain Taeyeon’s partner as well for the next project.”

Taeyeon’s heart skipped a beat.

Another opportunity?

“I need more time,” Taeyeon said quietly as Sunmi dragged her into an empty bathroom after their last lesson which they happened to have together.

It was almost a week later and Taeyeon was realizing she was in dire straits.

“More time?” Sunmi repeated, raising her eyebrows.

Taeyeon nodded. “Yes.”

Sunmi frowned, not obviously very pleased with the idea. “I’ve noticed you’re progressing. Which, I’m not gonna lie, is very surprising to me.”

“Yes. I am progressing. We’re… friends,” Taeyeon hesitated a bit. They were far from being friends, Tiffany still wasn’t greeting her at the hallways, but at least they talked… when they had to. Better than nothing. Probably.

“I can see you’re really trying,” Sunmi said. Taeyeon wasn’t sure if she was serious or not, but it actually did sound like she was serious.

Taeyeon gulped, nervous. She was so nervous she thought she might throw up. Luckily they were in the bathroom already. She started to shake her right hand behind her back, she always did that when she was nervous or felt nauseous.

“Okay, because I am very generous, you have time by the end of the first school week in January,” Sunmi said after a while.

Taeyeon exhaled all the air she had been holding the entire time. She succeeded. Kind of. Sunmi just gave her more than two more weeks. She needs to meet Tiffany during the winter break. The winter break lasts for ten days. But… Sunny is coming over for a few days. And Yoona’s still here, even though she’s currently looking for a better place to stay, since she will be apparently staying in Seoul for a little longer. Uhh, that’s bad. Taeyeon needs to figure something out. But… be thankful for Sunmi pushing the deadline at least a little bit, Kim Taeyeon, be thankful.

Taeyeon smiled a bit. “Thank you. I will do my best.”

Sunmi just nodded and seemed like she doesn’t plan on going on with the conversation, so Taeyeon turned around and started to walk away. Once again that annoying thought emerged in her mind. But… Tiffany could be innocent …

“Huh… weird,” Taeyeon mumbled as she checked the new Facebook notification she got.

“What is it?” Yoona wondered. She was just packing her stuff as she was already moving to a hotel room she found and booked online. She is going to stay in Seoul a little longer and unfortunately she can’t stay in Taeyeon’s house for that long. But Yoona didn’t care, she was rich enough to afford living in a hotel for not just days, but weeks or even months.

“I got an invitation to a New Year’s party of my classmates. I guess somebody added me by an accident, nobody invites me ever,” Taeyeon said in disbelieve.

“You should go,” Yoona said.

“No, I should not, I would just sit there and stare,” Taeyeon said, shaking her head.

“Well, Tiffany is going,” Yoona said, looking at the list of people who confirmed their attendance on the party.

“It’s on the second of January. Sunny is still going to be here… maybe,” Taeyeon opposed.

“I am willing to keep her occupied,” Yoona smirked. “I am easy-going, I will get on well with her.”

Taeyeon sighed. “I will decide later,” she said then.

“Add her as friend,” Yoona said then as she noticed Tiffany and Taeyeon weren’t Facebook friends yet.

“What? No!”

“Why not? Are you shy?”

“Yes,” Taeyeon admitted and crossed her arms.

Yoona chuckled, took the computer mouse and clicked the damn “add friend” icon.

“Yoona!” Taeyeon shrieked as she realized what Yoona did, while Yoona laughed.

“Whaaat? Look, the worst thing that can happen is that she won’t accept it. But why wouldn’t she. She has bazillion friends, obviously.”

Taeyeon had to agree with that, but she didn’t say it aloud. She was shaking a bit. That was so bold! No not really that bold… but for Taeyeon it was.

Deep inside Taeyeon was kind of glad Yoona did it. She herself would never gather enough courage to do it. But she was really nervous about it anyways.

Yoona smiled. “You will go. You will…”

“Kwon Yuri.”

Yuri stopped halfway to class. It was Monday, first day of the last school week of the year before the winter break. She was late, very very late. What a surprise. Not that she cared. Jessica Jung was the person who stopped her. Yuri waited a few seconds, since Jessica had to catch up with her.

“Jessica Jung,” she said then. “I thought I expressed myself clearly last time.”

“That’s not it,” Jessica answered. “It’s our physic project.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Apparently, Mr. Park assigned us a project. You know, those ing projects we are supposed to do every fortnight…”

Yuri seemed a bit lost, but Jessica just assumed it’s because she’s too dumb to understand it all immediately, so she slowly continued.

“We have to do the next project together and if we don’t, we will fail the stupid subject.”

Yuri still seemed lost. “We do some kind of projects in Physics?”

“….” Jessica was left speechless. “… Yes? We do?”

“Really?”

“Uhmm… Yes. We do. Every second Friday, first lesson.”

“Ahhh! Correct! Sorry, totally forgot about it. Ah yeah… Sorry, Taeyeon always does it on her own, so it completely slipped my mind. Oh, I should remember it, since last time I helped her out…” Yuri stopped talking, looked at Jessica and laughed as she remembered flattening her tire.

Jessica let out a heavy sigh, not suspecting anything at all. “I can’t believe I have to cooperate with a tard like you.”

“A tard? Excuse me. I thought you wanted me to deflower you,” Yuri smirked.

“I’m not a ,” Jessica said.

“You may not be a straight , but you are a gay ,” Yuri explained. “You said so yourself.”

“…Okay. Back to the project, don’t you dare to skip the Friday’s lesson. It’s the last lesson before Christmas break, we need to discuss it. Like when we’re gonna do it and stuff.”

“Sure… I’ll try not to oversleep.”

“You won’t oversleep… Give me your phone number.”

“What? Why?”

“I will call you on Friday in the morning to make sure you’re up.”

“You’re so not having my phone number.”

“Well…” Jessica’s eyes sparkled as she swiftly took Yuri’s phone which was peeking out of the front pocket of her jacket, turned around and while Yuri was trying to get her phone back, she tried to dial her own number.

“Yah! Give it back!” Yuri ordered, trying to reach her phone, struggling with Jessica. Jessica was shorter and lazier, so Yuri assumed it would be easy, but Jessica impressed her with her skills. Jessica was fast and strong. Fierce. Fierce Jessica. A dirty thought crossed Yuri’s mind as she backed out a bit. Not like it the dirty thoughts disturbed her or something, 90 percent of her thoughts were dirty.

Yuri stopped trying and Jessica turned around and gave her the phone back. “Thank you,” she smiled brightly, before leaving.

“I hate you,” Yuri mumbled as she put the phone back into her jacket.

Jessica heard, turned around, gave Yuri a wink and walked away.

Taeyeon left a bit early from school that day. She promised Yoona to help her move to the hotel and settle down there a bit. Yoona was used to living in hotels, but it was still better with somebody around. She didn’t have a manager at the moment, so Taeyeon volunteered. She didn’t really mind skipping school. She felt a bit down though, Tiffany wasn’t at school at all that day. Taeyeon tried to ask around a bit, but no one seemed to know what was happing with the latter. Maybe Jessica knew, but Taeyeon was a bit scared to ask her. What if Tiffany is sick and she won’t see her for the rest of the year? That would be bad.

Taeyeon was almost home already, earphones plugged in, lost in her thoughts.

She was patiently waiting on the pedestrian crossing, her phone in hand, switching the songs, letting the cars pass around her. There was no car from the left, but there was a huge truck from the right, so she had to wait. Once the truck slowly drove away and the car behind it stopped to let her cross the street, she entered the road without a further thinking.

Suddenly, she heard a loud squeezing. Brakes. Somebody just stepped on the brakes hard. She quickly turned her head and looked to the left. There was a car, completely out of nowhere, obviously had been speeding. Taeyeon’s eyes widened. She wasn’t as dumb as every second movie character, she sure didn’t stay there waiting for a dashing knight to come and miraculously rescue her. No. She as quickly as possible tried to run. She wouldn’t make it. But the car stopped. Her knees started to shake a bit as she crossed the road. As she was safely on the other side, she turned around and looked at the car. It drove a bit aside, before the door opened. A boy, around Taeyeon’s age, peeked out, looking furious.

“You stupid ! Where the are you looking, you !?!” he yelled at her harshly.

Taeyeon took a deep breath. She wanted to ignore him at first, but since she was in a bad mood, she felt a sudden need to argue back. She opened to yell something at him, but somebody beat her to do it.

“You , who do you think you are? Apologize to her! ing !!!! You were speeding, I saw it!”

Taeyeon looked at the person, shocked.

“Tiffany?” she breathed out, really surprised. It really was her.

Tiffany seemed really enraged, completely ignoring Taeyeon’s presence, busy cussing the guy.

“ing !” the boy ended the conversation before shutting the door and driving away rather quickly. Totally speeding again.

“Idiot,” Tiffany mumbled, breathing heavily from the screaming as she watched the car disappear in the distance.

“Uhmm… Tiffany?” Taeyeon said quietly a bit freaked out by the whole situation.

“Oh god, Taeyeon-ah, are you okay?” Tiffany asked then, putting her hand around Taeyeon’s forearm, caressing it a bit and looking really worried.

“Shocked, but no physical harm was made,” Taeyeon smiled.

“You look really pale,” Tiffany said then, withdrawing her hand.

Taeyeon just shook her head. “I’m okay, really.”

Tiffany slowly nodded, but still looked a bit worried. Then she cleared and broke their eye contact. It was getting a bit awkward.

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” Taeyeon nodded. “I gotta go…”

“Okay…”

To Taeyeon’s surprise they both walked the same direction.

“Oh,” Taeyeon chuckled. “Where are you going?”

“To my cousin’s, she’s looking after Prince,” Tiffany explained.

“You were gone?”

“I was at the doctor’s.”

“Are you ill?” Taeyeon asked and peeked at Tiffany. Their eyes met once again.

Tiffany smiled. “No, but thanks for worrying. Just a normal check-up.”

“Ah, glad to hear you are okay…”

Then they were silent for a few seconds.

“You’re going home?” Tiffany asked, breaking the silence.

“… Yes,” Taeyeon breathed out. She was still a bit shaky, but she wasn’t really sure why. Was it because she almost got hit by a car earlier or because she was actually walking right next to Tiffany Hwang? She sincerely had no idea.

“You don’t look too good, wait here,” Tiffany ordered and entered a café they were passing around. Taeyeon waited like an obedient puppy, just standing there and staring inside the café, watching Tiffany buying something.

It took Tiffany just two or three minutes to return with two cups of a dark warm liquid.

“Here you go,” Tiffany smiled brightly, her eyes almost disappearing. Taeyeon accepted the cup and her knees started to shake once again, this time it surely wasn’t because of the accident earlier.

She hated coffee, but she didn’t want to offend Tiffany, so she carefully took a sip. It was…

She looked up, surprised. She remembers…

Tiffany seemed a bit confused by her expression. “What? I thought you liked hot chocolate, don’t you? And I thought it would make you feel a bit better.”

“Why are you doing this?” Taeyeon breathed out in a complete disbelieve.

“What?” Tiffany asked, puzzled. “What am I doing?”

“You’re being my friend,” Taeyeon explained.

“No, I am not, I am just being nice. I would be this nice to anybody who just almost got hurt. I thought I had made it pretty clear. You are not my friend,” Tiffany said, suddenly her voice sounding somehow colder. But there was something else in her voice, Taeyeon couldn’t say what it was, but it made Tiffany’s statement sound… not so hostile. It was like she was trying too hard to sound cold. Like she realized she accidentally got carried away with the comfortable situation and started to be… yeah, well, actually nice.

Taeyeon immediately regretted saying something. Stupid Taeyeon. She needs to think before talking a bit, but… she just felt so overwhelmed with the situation, she needed to ask. She always hated the feeling of unknowingness. In general. She still regretted asking though. It made Tiffany more distanced immediately and Taeyeon actually still had no answers. She felt like… Tiffany was… lying. She frowned as they continued to walk in a complete silence. Ahhhh, Kim Taeyeon, stop overthinking every singly petty thing! But she couldn’t help it. She wasn’t stupid, she could see something was very, very odd about Tiffany. Something just wasn’t right about the whole thing.

“This is my house,” Taeyeon breathed out quietly as she spotted her home.

“You live here?” Tiffany raised her eyebrows, looking at the small building in front of her.

“Yeah, I guess you are used to different standards,” Taeyeon blushed a bit as she realized Tiffany lives in a penthouse.

“It’s cute, it looks cozy,” Tiffany smiled.

“Thanks… ahem… Tiffany?” Taeyeon made a decision. It was now or never. She will gather all of her courage and do it.

“Taeyeon?”

“Well… A-are you free tonight? Can I invite you for a cup of coffee? I feel like I owe you,” Taeyeon stuttered and looked down, breaking their eye contact. After a second or two, she looked back into Tiffany’s eyes.

Tiffany looked… blank. Was she thinking about the offer? Was she thinking about the nicest way how to say no? Taeyeon sincerely didn’t know at all.

“W-well?” Taeyeon asked and gulped. felt really dry. Back to the knee shaking. “You invited me last time and you bought me a cup of hot chocolate just now, I feel like I need to pay you back,” she reasons quickly, so Tiffany wouldn’t get any wrong idea. “We are not friends, I know, it’s just returning a favor, okay?”

“… Fine. Meet you here at six?” Tiffany agreed then. Taeyeon wasn’t sure about her tone. Was she glad? Was she forcing herself?

“Okay,” Taeyeon smiled maybe a little too brightly. “See you.”

Tiffany quietly chuckled. “See you,” she whispered and slowly started to walk away.

Taeyeon just stood there and she couldn’t stop smiling. That was a really nice move, very smooth, good job, Kim Taeyeon! You’re not such a good-for-nothing after all! Taeyeon kept praising herself in her head for a while before happily going home.

We are so friends.

A/N: So I had been fighting with a writer's block until I almost got hit by a car on my way from school and got into an ugly argument with the driver. Ahem.

Thank you all for your lovely comments, thanks for reading, welcome all the new readers! :)

The next chapter will be a bit special. A bit shorter than usually, so maybe I will update earlier :) Maybe.

Thank you once again and see you soon :)