Nodus Tollens: 

n. the realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore—that although you thought you were following the arc of the story, you keep finding yourself immersed in passages you don’t understand, that don’t even seem to belong in the same genre—which requires you to go back and reread the chapters you had originally skimmed to get to the good parts, only to learn that all along you were supposed to choose your own adventure.

Chapter five – Another day

Cue Rainy mood (Keep at a Low volume) 

   “A fish?” Tiffany held up the round clear bowl filled up to the brim with water as a gold fish swam, its’ eyes were bulging out with such intensity Tiffany thought they’d roll right out.

    “Yeah. I didn’t know what else to get you. Fishes are nice pets, they don’t need a lot of caring and stuff. You don’t have to play with it or anything just feed it some of this.” Taeyeon handed her some fish flakes, she was half smiling half frowning. Tiffany just made her nervous to the bone. “Once a day and that’s pretty much it.”

Tiffany took the fish flakes from Taeyeon’s hand abruptly, twisting open the bottle and pouring the food in. Just a little. They both leaned in close to the bowl, watching the fish swim to the top and swallow some food. In a weird way Tiffany thought it was kind of cute looking.

“You do know I chop--” Tiffany lowered her voice to a mere whisper, “--Chop fish heads off for a living right?”

Taeyeon didn’t think about that, “Yeah.” She lied anyways, “Don’t chop off his head please.” She whispered back.

Tapping on the glass lightly Tiffany pursed her lips, “I won’t.” She said, “He’s too small anyways. Wouldn’t fill up a cat.”

    “You’re weird.” Taeyeon whispered.

    “I know.” Tiffany agreed, turning to face Taeyeon. Her eye lashes were long and her eyes were almost black, Taeyeon never noticed Tiffany in such detail. It was almost mind boggling—almost.

Taeyeon stared into those black eyes. Thinking if she stared long enough maybe she’d be into a place in Tiffany’s mind where it didn’t rain.

    “But you like me this way.” Tiffany smiled, and Taeyeon couldn’t say she didn’t agree.

    “Yeah.” Leaning a little more forward Taeyeon smiled, “I do.”

All of a sudden Taeyeon froze. Her eyes went wide and all she saw was Tiffany blinking at her. “Taeyeon are you okay?”

Taeyeon stood up straight taking a step back flashing a toothy grin, “Yup!”

    “Okay…” Tiffany stood up as well, her eyes wandering back to her new pet as he swam into the glass of bowl and continued to swim in circles.

    “No wonder you guys get caught so easily in nets…”

    “Tiffany?” Tiffany looked over at Taeyeon, “Let’s go out today.” Taeyeon’s voice had cracked a bit but Tiffany didn’t make anything of it.

    “Okay.” Tiffany gave her a fleeting smile, pursing her lips just a little. Taeyeon could hear the rain smacking up against the window pane, she could hear it meeting with the roof over their heads, greeting each other loudly like old obnoxious friends. “Why a fish?” Tiffany wondered aloud, playing with her fingers, looking down at her toes as she wiggled them.

    Taeyeon sighed, “I don’t know,” She said, “I guess I just don’t want you to be lonely.” She paused, “When I’m not around.”

Tiffany smiled once more, but this time it didn’t leave so soon.

   “Thank you.”

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   Tiffany ended up complaining about how hungry she was, Taeyeon offered to make her lunch before they went out but Tiffany refused. She wanted something else.

    “Ramen?” Taeyeon held the umbrella over their heads as they walked along the side of the road. Civilians on their scooters drove past them, as the flimsy plastic covers sticking over their heads flapped in wind. Taeyeon liked the familiar sound.

    “Yeah.” Tiffany nodded, “I’m in the mood for some noodles and warm broth.” Tiffany’s mouth watered as she gulped down her salvia, Taeyeon noticed herself her lips.

    “Well alright, I know this place down by the bay and boat docks, they have the best ramen ever.” Taeyeon felt Tiffany grab her hand. Little tingles were sent up her spine. Tiffany was as warm as she remembered.

    “I’ll be the judge of that.” Yawning Tiffany got closer to Taeyeon, leaning a little on her shoulder. Everything was sort of peaceful, the rain didn’t come down as hard as before. The buzzing sounds of scooters passing by was oddly soothing to Tiffany, and Taeyeon was as warm as she remembered.

    “So, do you ever think…? I don’t know maybe, you’ll start coming back to school?” Taeyeon felt the grip of Tiffany’s hand holding loosen when she had asked that question. Maybe it was a little bit too personal, maybe they weren’t at that stage yet in their friendship. A pang of regret hit her.

Maybe it was all in her head.

“Why? You miss me?” Tiffany chuckled out through her nose, breathing in the musty thick scent of rain water.

“Well,” Taeyeon paused for a second, “Yeah.”

“Oh.”

“I mean, it’s just kind of lonely without you, and boring.”

“I’ve just needed to make some more money, so I took a leave of school for two weeks.” Tiffany replied solemnly, because most of her felt that something was missing—like there was a hole in her soul, and not school, not work, not anything could fill it.

    “So you’re coming back this week?”

    “Yeah, of course I am.”

She had an odd feeling that Taeyeon was a temporary replacement. To whatever had gone missing. So she took a leave of absence at school, just to test her theory. One that was farfetched. One that even she thought was weird.

    “Cool.” Taeyeon smiled, “I really miss sitting next to you.”

    “Yeah.” Tiffany breathed out, “Me too.”

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   Taeyeon was glad that they were so comfortable with each other, in a sense that they could hang out all day and never get tired of each other, Still, Taeyeon felt there was a wall between them that she so desperately wanted to take down. She just didn’t know how, yet.

   “See? I told you it was good.” Taeyeon smiled as she watched Tiffany scarf down the noodles as if she hadn’t eaten in a long, long time.

   “It... is really… good.” Tiffany said between slurps, “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

Taeyeon puffed out her chest with a cheeky smile, “Of course not.” Tiffany laughed wiping and for a moment they were left in a comfortable silence, a profound one that seeped into the atmosphere that surrounded them.

“Can you walk me home?” Tiffany hesitantly looked up at Taeyeon as Taeyeon slowly nodded her head.

“Yeah of course I can.” She trailed off, watching Tiffany sip on the noddle broth. “Hey Tiffany…”

“Hmm?” Tiffany hummed out.

    Taeyeon froze for a second, forgetting what it was she wanted to say. There was just something about the way Tiffany looked in this moment, her mind started to get cloudy and just like when it thundered, her heart began to rumble. “I like you.” Taeyeon spoke confidently, her eyes stuck on Tiffany and Tiffany’s eyes stuck on her. Taeyeon didn’t really know if it was indeed necessary for her to say those words. It had to be obvious in the way she treated Tiffany so tender like. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. Tiffany didn’t seem like the dense-type. But maybe she didn’t know Tiffany at all.

    “I like you too.” Tiffany said just after a few short moments. As if, it wasn’t something totally out of the ordinary but something perfectly expected. Taeyeon felt calm. And in a way, concerned. What happens next? She wondered.

    “I’m ready to go now.”

Apparently nothing.  

Taeyeon stood up along with Tiffany and fleetingly smiled.

And she was okay with that.

    “Okay. Let’s go.” Taeyeon followed right behind Tiffany as they exited the restaurant, feeling odd. Something was off. And she looked up into the grey sky as the rain was at a light sprinkle. A storm was brewing, Taeyeon just didn’t know what kind.

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