“What,” we both said a little too loudly. Although I knew we both wanted to go public, this is not how we had planned it. Oh god.

“There are pictures, videos, and articles already spreading all over the internet about you two,” Lee Sooman explained.

“Di-did they get the kiss,” Taeyeon asked hesitantly.

“Yes Taeyeon, even the kiss.” Damnit! That was so stupid of me. I felt Taeyeon’s hand come in to mine.

“Fany-ah, what do we do?” I looked down at him. Oh my, he looked so lost, like a little puppy or something. Ugh! Why was he asking me? I didn’t know what to do either!

Well, I guess I was the more experienced one in the whole field of being an idol though. I took a deep breath.

“What should we do?”

“There are a few different things I can think of. First-.“ I heard a cell phone ringing.

“Oh mianhae,” Taeyeon’s manager spoke up. “It’s the Strong Heart PD, I should take this.”

“I’ll go too, they’ll probably want to talk to me as well.” After both of our managers stepped outside Lee Sooman began talking again as Taeyeon’s grip tightened on my hand.

“As I was saying, I can first off just release a statement saying that yes you two are in fact dating, but I assume that will cause a whole new set of questions and problems, especially with your injury and his group’s comeback coming up. This really couldn’t have been at a worse time,” he stated flatly. I saw Taeyeon lower his head. Ohh, my poor baby. I wanted to wrap my arms around him right here and now. It wasn’t all his fault! “I’m sure it’ll be brought up relentlessly in interviews and future programs for a while too. Hopefully though it will turn and work in our favor.”

“What’s another option?”

“Well, I could hold a small press conference with just you two. The reporters would ask questions, and you would answer.” Eh, that seemed like the worst possible situation, and not to mention a boring one. There had to be a better way right?

“Is there any-“

“We have big news,” my manager came through the door.

“They’re being pulled from the Strong Heart line up,” LSM said sarcastically. “I already figured as much.”

“Aniyo sir, actually it’s quite the opposite. They called to ask us not to pull out.” Seriously?

“What?” LSM was equally in shock as we all were. Taeyeon perked up.

“I know,” Taeyeon’s manager started. “They also made us another offer. One that I think we should seriously consider Taeyeon.”

“What is it hyung?”

“They said that they would triple both of their appearance payments if they talked about their relationship on the show.” Holy , triple?

“They were really adamant about wanting to be the first place that the public heard the details from.”

“I never thought about doing it that way. That would be a much lighter and friendly environment than a press conference or anything of the sort. What do you two think?” I didn’t even know what to think. The question wasn’t do I want to tell my secret anymore it was HOW I wanted to tell my secret. Ugh. “Since SM takes very little from what you earn from your appearances, this is a good offer.”

He was right, but it wasn’t about money! That was the least of my worries right now. This was our personal life we were talking about here, not some silly topic that could be laughed off the next day. Did I want to talk about it on Strong Heart? Well I sure as hell didn’t want to have a stupid press conference. I took a deep breath. The first option didn’t seem so bad though I guess? Aish, no! Like he said there would just be a billion more questions. We needed somewhere where we could explain it all. Maybe we could get on a different television show? With just the two of us? Yeah! That would be… that would take too long. Tae’s album came out in a week and we needed to clear this all up beforehand. Oh god, he’s going to have to go around and promote while trying to deflect topics about me. No, we had to talk about this. We had to talk about it soon.

“I think we should do it.” I felt Taeyeon’s gaze turn violently on to me.

“Jinjja?” I hummed.

“Where else are we going to get to explain ourselves outright? We’ll each get what, like five to ten minutes to talk about our story?” He nodded. “If we both talk about the same thing, that’s at least ten minutes right there. We can come clean and apologize to the fans and everything else we need to do Tae.” I squeezed his hand. The more I talked out loud about it the better the idea actually did sound. It was perfect! “What do you think?” He still had the same lost expression across his face. Was he even listening? “Tae?”

“Let’s do it.” Really?

“Really?” He nodded.

“I’ll call the PD right away.” Taeyeon’s manager opened the door to step out, but he was greeted by my doctor. “Oh, hello! Excuse me.”

“Ne, hello everyone. Everyone stood to slightly bow. “How are you feeling today Tiffany?”

“A lot better,” I smiled. Especially after this morning, I thought. We would finally be sharing our secret with everyone. Wah~!

“Well that’s very good to hear. I have some good news for you as well.” Omo! I felt Taeyeon squeeze my hand as the doctor began explaining the next few things.

He said that I had injured my posterior cruciate ligament. Which I guess was inside of my knee somewhere? He also mentioned that there was no serious damage and that I was lucky because I didn’t even need surgery! If I did it could have taken a long, long time to recover! I was so thankful I almost hugged him, that was until the next statement.

“We’ll need you to come back in in four weeks and we’ll see if we can clear you for your performing then.”

“Four weeks,” I shouted.

“Fany-ah…” Right, inside voice.

“I mean, four weeks? Can’t I do it sooner?”

“I’m afraid not Miss Hwang. This isn’t an injury to take lightly. If you would happen to fall again it would regress the situation and you could end up having to get surgery. You’ll have to come in to physical therapy twice a week as well.” Oh my god. “We’ll monitor your recovery very carefully.”

“But, but… Oppa,” I looked to my manager across the room.

“Tiffany if that’s what the doctor says we have to listen to him.”

“He’s right,” LSM spoke up. Damn, I totally forgot he was even here. “We need to make sure you’re properly healed before you start again. For now we’ll have to pull her out of all the activities that include preforming. Get in touch ASAP with the vocal coach and choreographer to make the transition from three to four members for performances, got it?” Oh my god this wasn’t happening.

“Ne, sir.” My manager replied with a bow. I really wouldn’t be performing with my group for a month! Maybe even longer. Ugh, stupid, stupid knee.

“Okay. It’s done,” Taeyeon’s manager announced as he stepped back in the room. “You should be getting a call soon sir. They want to ask you to release a statement that coincides.”

“Arasso. I’ve got to get going anyway.” He stood up. “You two good luck, everyone’s eyes will be on you tomorrow.” Oh great that wasn’t going to help. “Tiffany, I hope you feel better.” We all said our goodbyes and he eventually left.

“Taeyeon, we’ve got to go too. Sooyoung and Yuri are already at SM. We have rehearsal.”

“I can’t leave hyung.” I smiled.

“Taeyeon, go. You’ve got to practice.”

“But, I don’t want to leave you.” My grin grew. Gah, he was so cute!

“It’s fine. I’ll be going home soon probably and I’ll be with everyone else. Just go rehearse.” He let out a defeated breath.

“Fine. Come here,” he said as he pulled me in to a hug. “I love you. Call me if anything happens okay?” I nodded. I brought my lips to his.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Daebak,” Sooyoung called out from in front of the computer. I hummed. “You two have been dubbed a Royal Couple.”

“What,” I asked loudly as I rolled off the sofa. We were back at the dorm after a long day of practices at SM. “What does that even mean?”

“Who knows? Probably because you’re both famous idols,” he questioned himself. “Jesus there are a ton of articles out. Look.” He turned the laptop so I could see.

“Ugh,” I groaned aloud. The first headline I saw read ‘SNSD’s Tiffany and TYS’s Taeyeon Dating.’ They weren’t even questioning it anymore. It was a statement! He scrolled down to bring a few pictures of the two of us together side by side. Aish, they really pulled out all the stops…

“Oooh, people are totally psyched about the Strong Heart episode though. Every other comment says something about it.” I guess LSM’s statement really got the ball rolling. I mean it did sound pretty ambiguous. I read it again as it came in to focus on the next article Soo pulled up.

Reps from SM have commented- ‘We can’t say anything as of right now. Taeyeon and Tiffany want to address the situation themselves and will do so on this coming episode of SBS’s Strong Heart. Please continue to support them through this time. Thank you.’

“Oh this guy doesn’t seem too happy about you two though,” Sooyoung laughed. “He commented.” He put on a very dramatic voice. “How dare he take my Tiffany? He is unworthy,” he stopped and busted out in laughter. “I-I can’t finish.” I chuckled a bit too as I moved to read the comment myself. Psht, his Tiffany. Sorry kid, she is all mine.

As he kept scrolling down though, I did see quite a few people defending me and saying very nice things about the two of us, such as ‘I’m happy for them’ or that we ‘look good together.’ It made me feel a little better, but I saw just as many negative comments. I was so worried about tomorrow. Ughhhh!

“I just want tomorrow to be over! Once they know the whole story people will stop freaking out about it right?”

“Probably not kid. It’ll just make them want to see you two more.”

“Yah, watch who you’re calling kid, kid.” He laughed. “Once they know though, I think it’ll be better. We’ll be able to be ourselves in public.”

“I guess so. Just go to bed. It’s already past midnight. We have to get up early tomorrow.” Aish. This guy…

“Fine mom. Night,” I patted his head and then continued to my room.

I don’t know what it was tonight, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I tried counting sheep, no luck at all, actually I think it made it worse. How was counting sheep even a real thing? Did that really help people fall asleep? I felt like I needed to go run a few miles, but at the same time I was ready to drop dead at any moment. Gah, whatever this was I really hated it. What time was it? It had to be close to- Crap. While reaching for my phone, I knocked it off the table beside my bed.

Reaching around on the floor I didn’t find it, but I did find something oddly familiar.

“My peas!” I yanked them up next to me.

How could I forget about these bad boys? I remembered back few weeks ago when Tiffany had moved them off the bed right before we, uh well…started getting intimate because she said, and I quote, that ‘they cannot watch this kind of thing Kim Taeyeon! They are too innocent!’ I smiled just thinking about it, and her. Mostly her.

I snuggled the peas in tight to my chest and I could still smell her on them, her fruity, yet flowery scent that intoxicated me every time I was near.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning was hectic as well. Just getting in to the SM building was an issue and it was only 7am! There were quite a few photographers trying to get a picture of Tiffany and I, I assumed. What did they think? Two days after we were exposed, unknowingly, to the whole nation of Korea we would be walking around hand in hand posing or some ? Of course not you idiots, I wanted to yell, but I didn’t. I found my way behind a few security guards and safely went inside.

We had a short vocal practice and another stupid hour long Japanese lesson. Not that the language itself was stupid, just that I was for not being able to understand it. UGH! It drove me insane. Couldn’t we study English instead? That would at least come in handy with Tiffany.

Thankfully it was all over soon. We then met with the stylist noonas who were in charge of making us look our best for Strong Heart. They fixed up our hair and then gave us each an outfit. To go with our new concept it was a little more uh, chic than what I was used to wearing to variety shows.

I had on black dress pants and a black jacket to match. Underneath I just wore a plain white t-shirt. I looked in the mirror. Wah~. I did look pretty cool. I might have to start dressing like this more often. Then I saw Sooyoung. He was in almost the same outfit, but his jacket was white, and he just looked so much freaking cooler than I did. Why, like…how? How did he always look so stylish? We were wearing almost the same thing!

Ugh, I give up.

It was a quiet ride to the studio, for I was too nervous to speak. We all were I think. What if it went badly? What if-

“We’re here.” !

We slowly made our way inside and greeted a few of the staff members as we ran in to them. We passed the studio we would be in today, but it didn’t seem like everything was even set up yet.

“Hyung are we… early?”

“Very. The PDs wanted to talk to me about some details before the show.” I hummed. That made sense. We continued making our way back to where we were supposed to wait. Wait!

“Does that mean SNSD will be here early too?” He chuckled.

“They’re already here.” I looked to where he was nodding and saw four girls looking straight at us. Waah~! I quickened my pace as met them in no time, immediately pulling Tiffany in to a hug.

“How are you? How’s your knee?” I pulled away and looked at her knee, which had a rather large brace on it. “Does it hu-.” I looked at her face but I got seriously side tracked when I noticed something else. “Fany-ah!”

“What,” she grinned.

“Your hair. It’s red!” She laughed.

“That it is.” I took a strand of it in my hand. I didn’t hate it, actually I liked it a lot better than the blonde. “I wanted it dark again since I’m pretty much done with promotions, but the stylist screwed it up yesterday and she said she can’t dye it again for another week without damaging my hair,” she put on a fake nasally voice to imitate the stylist I’m assuming. I laughed a little as I continued examining her hair. “Do you hate it? You look like you hate it.” I brought my eyes to hers and smiled.

“Nope. I like it.” Her brows rose. “I do, it’s way better than the blonde.”

“Good.” She smiled back at me. “Are you ready for today?” I took a deep breath.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She cupped my cheek.

“You’ll be okay. We’ll be okay.”

We sat around for the next twenty minutes or so just waiting for other idols to start showing up and our managers to get back from the little meeting they ran off to. To my surprise IU was the first to show up!

“Oppa?”

“Jieun-ah, what are you doing here,” I asked stupidly.

“I’m on the show today, duh.” Yep. Walked right in to that one. “Is it true?” I curiously hummed. “You two are talking about… everything, today?”

“Oh, that.” I looked at Tiffany. “Yep!”

“Jinjja?” I nodded. “Wow, oppas so cool,” she teased. I laughed.

“Oh shut up. Have a seat. We were just talking about who else we think is going to show up.”

However none of us expected the next few people to walk through the door. It was around ten minutes later when they came in and ruined our conversation. I was pretty mad too because my good friend and my girlfriend were able to finally spend time together. I really was hoping they could become close too!

 “Taengo?” I looked at Soo.

“What? That wasn’t me,” he nodded. I looked at the door and saw that my cousin Hyoyeon had just walked through. Omo! Hyoyeon! I stood up. Wait a second… If Hyoyeon was here does that mean… I looked at Sunny and then back at the door. Oh jesus christ. It did.

Hyomin came strolling in right behind him. This was not going to be good. I felt the whole mood of the place go downward. I looked back to Sunny but she didn’t seem to notice, yet that is, she was wrapped up in a conversation with Jessica. Sooyoung did however. I watched him as he put his hand on hers. My eyes widened. If it weren’t for this whole situation I would have definitely for this later. The hand grabbing however definitely seemed to grab her attention.

“Yah,” she shouted in a whisper. “What do you think you’re do-ing,” her aggressive tone died off in the end as soon as she looked to where he was staring. Her smile faded, but then she did something else that surprised me. She wrapped her hand back around his!

Oh my goodness! This was surely because Hyomin was right there though, right? I really hoped it meant more.

“Taengo, it’s nice to see you again,” Hyoyeon said as he approached our group. Hyomin hung back a little, but I definitely was able to tell that Sunny holding Sooyoung’s hand had totally pissed him off. Oh god Soo way to go…

“Yeah, it’s nice seeing you too. I had no idea you were having a comeback soon.”

“Neither does anyone else,” he laughed. “Walaah~,” he spread his arms out like he had just done a magic trick or something. “That’s why we’re here. It’s going to be at the beginning of the year. JYP wants us promoting early though since we haven’t had an album in a while.” I nodded. That made sense. “What about you? Isn’t it coming up?” I hummed.

“Yep! In about six days. How’d you know?”

“Duh, Taeng. I’ve gotta keep tabs on my little cousin,” he said as he ruffled my hair. I swatted his hands away and he laughed. “Plus it’s on every news site out there. Everyone’s excited for it, especially after this little fiasco,” he motioned toward Tiffany and back to me. That had been another big topic that had been out since Tiffany and I were exposed. People had finally figured out who all of my songs were about, and were curious about the next one, particularly because of the ‘y’ concept that came along with it. Ugh, I really could not hit myself enough for that one. I laughed a little.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Oh, since you’re here I wanted to ask you something.” I hummed. “Would it be okay to tell everyone about, well... us?” My eyes widened. “If not it’s cool. I have a back-up, but I was just curious since you were going to be here and everything.” I laughed.

“Ne, that’s fine. Actually, before all this happened that’s what I was planning on talking about,” I explained.

“Ah jinjja?” I nodded. “Wah~, we really are related.” I laughed. I was really glad that we sort of fixed the relationship between us. It was still awkward when either of us talked about anything to do with our family, but I really hated all those years I didn’t hear from him, so I didn’t bring it up, ever. “Ah, well we’re going to go wonder around for a bit. See ya in a while.” I nodded and we said our goodbyes.

As soon as Hyomin left the room I watched Sunny release Soo’s hand. Aw man!

“Thank you.”

“No problem Sunkyu. I’ll be right here if ya need me.” Tiffany excitedly nudged me as if I wasn’t watching.

“I know, Fany-ah,“ I whispered in her ear right before I planted a kiss on the side of her head. “I saw it too.”

Soon it was time to get started. We all went and got mics put on and then were told where to sit. The seats this time were all connected, Tiffany and I were of course beside each other. So were Sunny and Sooyoung, I’m assuming because of WGM. Jessica and Yuri however, were not. Jessica sat beside Seohyun, while Yuri had no one beside him right now. IU was behind me, alone as well while Hyoyeon and Hyomin were on the other side of the room. Seriously where were the other groups? We still had a bunch of chairs open.

The rest of the guests all arrived in the next ten minutes however. First it was 2AM, which I wasn’t really close with any of them, but they did all seem like fun people to be around. Boom was the next person, along with Leeteuk, Eunhyuk, and Shindong of Super Junior, who were all the fixed guests of the show. The last group however was another cruel joke the universe was playing on me today. First we had to talk about our relationship, secondly Hyomin was here to screw with Sunny’s mind, and thirdly. Thirdly KARA was the last group to show up. Tiffany did not like that at all. I don’t even know why it was that big of a deal anymore since they now knew, hell everyone knew. Either way once she saw Hara, she scooted a little closer to me, and by a little I mean quite a bit. We were definitely sitting the closest to each other out of everyone else here. I didn’t mind it though, it actually helped me calm down a little.

The PD came to the front of the stage and told us we would be starting in a minute. Oooh boy was I nervous. Tiffany’s hand came on top of mine.

“You’ll be fine Tae. Calm down, okay?” I looked at her and nodded. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Alright thirty seconds everyone!”

“Oh god.”

“Taeyeon…” She warned.

“I know, I know.” I took a deep breath as she removed her hand from mine.

You can do this Taeyeon. You have to be confident! You have to be cool. This is what you wanted.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lee Seunggi and Kang Hodong just finished the opening monologue. Everyone started clapping and cheering. 

“It’s amazing here today!”

“Ne. It’s our Idol Special. Every single one of our guests here today is an idol.”

“Wah! Wait, Boom-ssi, what are you doing here?” Everyone laughed.

“I’m here just in case the idols can’t keep up with the variety show pace,” he teased.

“Oh, come on! Everyone here is experienced. We have SNSD, KARA, 2AM and H2YO,” Seunggi oppa bantered.

“Yeah but we also have TYS and IU-ssi. It’s their first time here am I right?” I heard Taeyeon agree from beside me.

“Aniyo,” Hodong commented. “They are already both very well known in Korea and in variety. They’ll do just fine.”

“Speaking of well known. IU-ssi?” I heard a low ‘ne’ from behind me. “You couldn’t go anywhere for a long time without hearing your song ‘Nagging,’ how did that feel?”

“To say it did well would be an immense understatement wouldn’t it? You’ve really taken off recently.”

“Yeah, I see her everywhere these days,” Shindong oppa commented. I heard her nervously laugh. I did feel kind of bad. To be the first one kind of attacked on a show like this is not easy.

“I think it did pretty well,” she said modestly. Everyone knew that was an understatement, by far. “It wouldn’t have done half as well if Taeyeon oppa wasn’t the one to sing it with me though. I owe a lot of it to him.”

“Ah so his fans would listen to it and then immediately become your fans as well?”

“Ne, that could have been what happened.” She laughed again. I have to admit that I was starting to like the girl. I discovered today that she really was no threat to me. Taeyeon treated her exactly like he did Hayeon, which made me a little sad and happy at the same time. I was sorry that he had to sort of replace his sister, but I was glad that he did find someone to fill the void since I couldn’t be his girlfriend and like a sister to him. Yuck, that’s even weird to think about.

“It wouldn’t have been hard for it to happen that way either, TYS has really been popular for a while too.”

“Yeah, since it hasn’t even been that long since they debuted and they’re already this popular our president is really proud of them,” Leeteuk commented. I smiled just hearing that. I was proud of my Taeyeon too.

“How many years has it been,” an MC asked.

“About a year and three months,” Yuri questioned.

“Wow is that it? Do you think of yourselves as popular?”  Taeyeon took the initiative to answer this one.

“I think we’re doing alright. There are so many other groups out there that have more experience and fans than us and we know that,” he answered modestly.

“Yah,” Jokwon shouted. “If you guys are doing just alright, what does that make us?” Everyone started laughing, for we all knew they were way more popular than he was letting on to be. TYS was becoming one of the top male groups right before my very eyes and I couldn’t have been more proud of the three of them. This was only after a year too, I couldn’t wait to see what happened in the future.

The MCs finally began to move on to the other guests. He talked to KARA next and then H2YO. Rounding out the opening chat with 2AM, they had them sing their newest song and eventually got back to us.

“’Hoot’ has won multiple times so far let’s give them a round of applause,” he paused. “Can we see it here?” We all froze. They did know about my knee right?

“Uhm,” I started.

“Oh that’s right,” one of the MCs started. “At a performance a few days ago Tiffany-ssi was injured isn’t that right?’

“Ne,” I responded.

“I saw you had a brace on it earlier,” Lee Seunggi commented. “Do you know the details yet?”

“Yeah, we figured out yesterday morning.” I went on to explain my injury the best that I could and then broke the news that I would be sitting out of most of the promotions for the next month or so.

“Wow, I’m really sorry to hear that as I’m sure the fans are too.” I nodded.

“Yeah, I’m very upset I can’t continue, but at least it was nothing too serious that could have caused even more months of damage,” I replied.

“That’s right, let’s give her a round of applause,” he paused. “We’ll be seeing SNSD with three members today. Come on down.” The other three made their way to the stage in front.

“Taeyeon-ssi, why don’t you get down there and take your girlfriend’s spot,” Boom teased. We all froze, and I mean all. Not even just SNSD and TYS all the other idols seemed to hold their breath for a second as well. Taeyeon had to be an idiot and fall for it too...

“Uh-uhm, ne.” He started to stand up. Oh god how could he not see that he was obviously joking?

The audience erupted in ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s and all kinds of other noises before Boom spoke up again.

“Aniyo! Taeyeon-ssi, I was only kidding. You responded rather quickly though,” he teased again earning even more laughter.

The girls got finished dancing to the song and quickly found their seats again.

“Yes that was the end of our warm up talk, now everyone take your boards. The topic of today is ‘Hide it or Reveal it!’ Please write down a hint of what you’ll be sharing with us today!” 

They gave us time to write while the cameras were off.

“Taeyeon, why don’t we just use the same one,” I quietly asked him. He picked up the marker that he had just dropped.

“Do, do you think that’s okay?” Good question.

“Let’s find out. Boom oppa!” He looked around until he saw me waving at him.

“Ne?”

“You know what our topic is going to be right?” He nodded as a sly grin came to his face. “Can we just use the same board then and like, share our turn?”

“Uhm, that’s a good question let me go ask the PD.” As he walked away I turned back to Taeyeon.

“What should we write?” he laughed.

“I love Tiffany Hwang.”

“Yah, I’m serious. Give me this,” I said as I took the board. “How about this?” I showed him.

“Oooh, I like it,” he commented cutely. “Your handwriting is so bad though babe.”

“Shut up, let’s see you write in English.” He stuck his tongue out at me just as Boom popped back up.

“Hey, the PD said it would be fine. We’ll get this one out of the way then for you.” I thanked him as he removed the stand with my previous board on it.

A few minutes later the PD spoke again saying we would be starting back up in thirty seconds. Whew! I was getting even more anxious!

“Alright! Wow, a lot of different topics around here.”

“Ne, let’s start with KARA’s maknae!  Jiyoung-ssi start us off!”

We spent the next hour or so listening to a whole bunch of different stories. Some of them were actually pretty hilarious. While one annoyed the crap out of me. I swear, if we weren’t being filmed I would have gone over and killed him or something. Stupid Hyomin sat there and told this story about how his dating scandal with Eunjung ruined his life because it really ruined his chances with another girl that he had been in love with for a year, which was obviously Sunny. He then went on to apologize to said girl and he was going on and on about how he has changed and blah blah. Ugh! I was so done with hearing this, but I couldn’t show it.  I really hoped Sunny wasn’t buying this crap.

His story took the lead however and that just made me even more furious. For one, it was total bull, and for two, he just openly admitted to cheating on someone, like… I really could not deal with him or this audience for voting for him. Thankfully Sooyoung’s story beat his out. I laughed so hard at the irony of it too. His story was pretty touching though.

It was about how his father had an illness that was causing him to gradually go blind. He wanted to take the time to bring awareness to the disease that he called RP? I think that’s what he said at least. Sooyoung then said that he wanted to try to start a charity and he hopes that with the help of SM and his father that they will soon be able to. The next story was also interesting to see the reaction to.

It was Hyoyeon oppa’s turn. He went by first telling the story of how his love for dancing came about and that his cousin was the only one to ever support him. He went on to say how his parents strongly disagreed to the point where he up and left one day out of the blue and didn’t speak to anyone from his family for four years. Then he started talking about the things that were more familiar to me.

“Ne, then one day I saw that a new group had debuted on television and the one kid looked very familiar, but I thought no. That couldn’t be him. So I went on my phone and looked it up and sure enough, my cousin debuted. The same cousin I had left behind four years ago.”

The crowd and MCs were all very shocked; I guess they didn’t really see where this was going.

 He went on and explained how soon after Hyomin met his cousin through a mutual friend and gave him his phone number, but he was too scared to text or call him so he just ignored it and kept ignoring it. That was until a very persuasive friend of his cousin’s had asked a mutual friend to talk him in to finally meeting him and he did.

“Wah! So you two are okay now,” Boom asked excitedly.

“I think okay is the perfect word. I hope we can become closer soon, just like we used to be,” Hyoyeon explained.

“Send your cousin a message, look in the camera,” Seunggi urged him. I started to smile. I knew where this was going and I was so excited for it to happen.

“This one,” Hyoyeon pointed. “Okay. Can I stand?” They allowed him to.

“Ready, go!”

“I would like to first say, that I am sorry. I am truly sorry. Secondly, Kim Taeyeon-ah, after this, let’s go out to eat somewhere. Hyung will buy.”

A whole round of different reactions came from everywhere except from the select few that knew.

“Why are you suddenly asking Taeyeon-ssi to go out for food?”

“Ah, you didn’t know? Taeyeon-ah is my cousin.”

“WHAT,” was the general response from everyone.

“Taeyeon-ssi is this true?”

“Ah, ne. Our fathers are brothers.” The MCs were dumbfounded. I think they wanted to ask more questions about it, but they needed enough time for us to talk so they quickly did the vote in which Sooyoung’s story still beat out Hyoyeon’s.

Now there was only one left. Ours.

“Now, we all know this is the story that everyone has been anticipating. Your board reads ‘It’s all true.’ Care to elaborate?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “All of the rumors that have ever happened between us,” I motioned toward Taeyeon and myself. “Are more than likely 100% true.”

“So, what your trying to say is…,” Boom pried. I guess I didn’t really cleanly come out and say it. How should I put this? I paused as I saw a camera flash.

(Hover for Tiffany's description of photo.)

I felt a hand come on mine.

“We’re in love,” Taeyeon cut me off everyone erupted into cheers and claps filled the room.

“Wow love?” I used my free hand to cover my mouth for I could control my smile no longer. I nodded. “Daebak! How long have you been keeping it a secret?”

“A little over a year,” He responded confidently. Gah Taeyeon, what has gotten in to you just now? “Wow that’s such a short time when I think about it, but I can’t imagine my life before her.” I looked away. Omo, Kim Taeyeon don’t do this to me. I won’t be able to talk if you keep up this cute crap.

“Ooh Tiffany liked that,” Eunhyuk oppa called out.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen her speechless before on a variety show,” Shindong teased.

“Wah, Kim Taeyeon-ssi, congratulations. Tiffany-ssi is he usually that sweet?” I nodded again. Before I could answer though, others decided to comment.

“He always is. It’s hard to be around them most of the time,” Jessica chimed in causing everyone to laugh and ‘ooh’ some more.

“He says the cheesiest things all the time,” Sooyoung teased next.

“Ooh like what like what,” an MC questioned.

“Like the whole song ‘No Other.’” Everyone started laughing again.

“Yah, that’s enough,” I finally spoke, still unable to stop smiling. “Yes, Taeyeon is always very sweet.”

“So you like sweet guys? You don’t like the manly man guys?”

“I bet everyone at home right now is taking notes,” Boom joked again.

“Ani, aniyo. I think Taeyeon is pretty manly too,” I smiled. ”I don’t know how much of the uh, situation from two days ago everyone saw, but Taeyeon came on the stage knowing that there were probably hundreds of cameras pointed on us at the time and then carried me off stage when he found out I wasn’t okay,” I explained. “So yeah, I think that’s pretty manly and sweet. Right?”

“Don’t ask us, were all guys! IU-ssi did you see any videos from the day this happened?” I heard her say that she did. “What did you think?”

“Uhm, well…Since it’s already out, I guess I can say that I already knew about them.”

“You knew?”

“Ne, I accidently found out a while ago, so I was actually worried for them. I called oppa an hour or so after I heard about it but his phone was off, so I didn’t get to talk to him until today.” I smiled. Okay, maybe I did like her a little. She was worrying for us and it wasn’t even about her! That was very nice of her.

“Oh jinjja? You two are that close?”

“Ne,” Taeyeon answered, still holding my hand. “Ever since we sang ‘Nagging’ together, we’ve become really close. Every time I see her I instantly get reminded of my little sister.”

“Ah wow. You that does sound close. Tiffany-ssi does that worry you?” Oh crap, my question?

“What other girls getting close to him?”

“Ne, when other idols say that he is their ideal, there a notorious one here today.” Oh god. I knew where this was going.

“It’s been known for a while that Hara-ssi really likes Taeyeon-ssi. Does stuff like that bother you or make you worried?” I thought about it for a second… Does it?

“Honestly,” I started after I thought about it for a quick second. “Not really. I know Taeyeon has a lot of admirers and other idols that are close or want to be closer to him, and I can’t say that I blame them,” I joked earning laughs. Woo! Go me! “But,” I continued back on my point. “He really makes it a point to make me realize that he wants me and only me,” I laughed. “Is this too cheesy?”

“Ani not at all, everyone here is wrapped up in you two right now. Keep going.” I looked around again and he was right. All the other idols were looking at us very curiously.

“Right. What was I talking about?”

“Are you worried about Taeyeon and other girls,” Boom refreshed me.

“Ah! Right! Even though I may act jealous or worried sometime I know Taeyeon definitely isn’t the type to have a wandering eye and I trust him completely anyway. So when someone does flirt or get a little too close to him I’m not so much worried, but it’s more so like… back off,” I laughed as did most of the other guests.

“Everyone heard that didn’t they?”

“Ne! Stay away from Taeyeon!” Omo!

“Aniyo! It’s not like that,” I argued. Oh god. I could see the headlines now. ‘SNSD Tiffany threatens nation.’

“Sure it isn’t,” Shindong oppa teased next.

“It’s really not how I meant it!”

“We know Tiffany-ssi we’re just giving you a hard time. What about you Taeyeon-ssi, are you worried about other male idols? I mean she’s SNSD, everyone loves her.”

“She said exactly what I was thinking,” he replied. “But.” Ooh, I was excited to see where this went. “I’m more worried about the fans.” That got a round of laughter as well.

“Why the fans? What happened?”

“Nothing personally, yet,” he joked. “But last night Sooyoung-ah was looking up articles about us like he always does and there were so many negative comments toward me. It was crazy.”

“Ah while we are on the topic of the fans, is there any reason why you didn’t go public for so long? You said it’s been over a year so I’m sure some fans must be upset.”

“Yeah and we totally understand why, but there were multiple reasons,” I answered quickly. “At first we didn’t want to obviously because we ourselves didn’t know how long we would last. We didn’t want to get everyone in a big disorder just to say oh, well it’s over a month or so later,” I explained. “We had actually gone to our president about going public formally after his album came out. We didn’t want to interfere with their promotions or anything, so we thought we could wait a month or so longer.”

“Ah, so now you’re confident in your relationship?”

“We have been for a while I’d say,” Taeyeon spoke up. I smiled and nodded. “But once we became confident enough we began to worry about what our fans would say. We heard from multiple people about how it would be harder to stay together once we did reveal our relationship. Also our fan count would go down once people found out an-“

“And they were just starting to take off, so I didn’t want to ruin that for them,” I interrupted.

“I had a big worry of my own,” Taeyeon started. Huh? He did? “One that I haven’t even told Tiffany about.”

“Jinjja,” I asked.

“Ooh Tiffany seems surprised. What was it?” I was excited to hear this too.

“Well we started dating a few months after I debuted right?” I nodded even though I know he wasn’t looking at me. “And SNSD is very popular, obviously. So I always had the worry that people would think I was d-dating Tiffany, to gain popularity or something like that. There were even a few rude comments that said that yesterday, so I’m even happier that it happened now rather than earlier,” he explained. Why didn’t he tell me that? Was he really that embarrassed or something? I slightly pouted.

“Taeyeon,” I said softly. “People couldn’t think that though,” I added quickly. “I was the one to come after you,” I accidently admitted. I covered my mouth but it was too late.

“Oooh. Tiffany Hwang going after the hoobaes,” Leeteuk shouted. Omo. I released Taeyeon’s hand and covered my face completely.

“Who said I love you first,” Boom asked. Oh god.

“She did,” He answered after a sigh. “I was too afraid to.”

“Aigooo!” The whole studio erupted in different sorts of noises, mostly ‘ooh’s and ‘aww’s.

“They’re so cute,” a girl from beside me said. I couldn’t tell who exactly, but it had to be someone from KARA.

“Yes they are, now sadly the time has run up and we have to vote. Who will be the Strong Heart today?”

“Will it be Sooyoung with his touching story, or Taeyeon and Tiffany with their loving story?”

I looked at the monitor that had been displaying the votes.

“And~ it’s the Taeny couple! Congratulations!” Waah!

“Wow! Thank you so much!”

“You’ll have to come back soon, and share more stories with us.”

The MCs then did the closing monologue and the cameras were finally off. I grabbed Taeyeon’s hand.

“We did it.”

“We did.”

“We should go out and celebrate.” I pulled on his hand excitedly.

“Fany-ah, we can’t do that yet.”

“Why not? This episode will air tonight and everyone will know the truth.” It’s a perfect time to celebrate I thought.

“I have to go practice though. I keep messing up the dance moves,” he laughed. I grinned.

“We really are meant to be huh?”

“Why because you’re such a klutz too?”

“Yah,” I shouted. He moved away before I could hit him though.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

ps. on the picture. I'm not 100% with the writing on their board since I'm not fluent in Korean. haha
I ran it through Google Translate, so if it's wrong... Whoops!

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