Hurricane Diarrhea #6

Taeyeon aimed to get out of her house in record time. By hook or by crook, she wasn’t going to be late for 2027. Any class but that. Tiffany’s impression of her was bad enough as it was. From clogged toilets to falling asleep on a stranger’s bed, and even stinking up that same stranger’s toilet, she’d had enough of looking bad. Looking bad wasn’t her. She wasn’t like that. She was an ordinary university student, trying to live her life as best as she could. She didn’t usually look this bad in front of people, right?

But she didn’t have time to ponder over this. She had to put on her lingerie, t-shirt, jeans, socks, sneakers and make sure she brought all her pens and notes. No time to think. She was very, very busy. It was 11.57am when she dashed out of her little apartment and by 11.59am, she was desperate. She couldn’t run fast enough to get to school. She zipped by the line of shops, streaked across the roads, swerved violently to avoid knocking into several people and sprinted even faster when she finally saw the main entrance of the private women’s university.

12.06pm. She was feeling nauseous. Light-headed as well. But she was finally at the door of the lecture theatre. She didn’t know how she got here but she made it. Six minutes wasn’t too bad. Thank gawd. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and peeped. There was a seat right at the back, near the door. Awesome. She had a chance to make it in without anyone noticing.

Easy does it.

12.07pm. She pulled the door open a little more and slipped through sideways, moving to the nearest seat as stealthily as she could. And she almost made it too. Almost.

“I see that you have decided to grace our lecture with your presence.”

!

There was a low murmuring of voices and heads turned towards her. She froze, her just inches from making contact that the seat that she had run all the way here for. She could see Tiffany turning to look at her from the corner of her eye. Tiffany was looking at her in a way that she couldn’t comprehend. It was neither happy nor sad, angry nor amused. But there was one thing she did know. She knew if she could melt into liquid and flow back out of the lecture theatre, she would have.

“I’m very sorry, I won’t be late again,” she apologized, her embarrassment burning up her innards as she spoke.

The lecturer folded his arms. “I’ll appreciate your punctuality in future. Now, let us continue.”

Taeyeon decided there and then that she hated this lecturer. Hated him for his surprise quiz. Hated him for shaming her in front of everyone with his sarcasm. Yes, he had emphasized on the importance of their punctuality during the introductory lecture but this was a little too much, wasn’t it? There was nothing she could do but sigh. This was nother week.

The lecturer continued lecturing and Taeyeon sank low in her seat, trying to disappear from the world. But of course, she couldn’t disappear. She had notes to take. And she was determined to ace this class for revenge. Bah. She looked around as she took her notes out from her bag and caught sight of Noeul waving at her from the right side of the lecture theatre. Her friend seemed to be gesturing for her to sit beside her but Taeyeon wasn’t about to attract any more attention to herself for the world.

No. She shook her head but Noeul gestured once more. No. She shook her head again. Noeul looked a little exasperated but Taeyeon was determined to fly under the radar for the rest of the lecture—or even the entire semester, if possible. She wasn’t going to move. Noeul, however, seemed to have other ideas. She upped and moved to sit right beside her. Fortunately, the movement went by without any notice from the lecturer.

“Taeyeon,” said Noeul, under her breath.

Taeyeon had to whisper back, “What.”

“I need to tell you something.”

“What.”

“Maybe it’s a new fashion trend that I don’t know about but I’m pretty sure your t-shirt is…sort of…”

Noeul trailed off, looking unsure about how to put it into words and that made Taeyeon curious. What about her t-shirt? She looked. And gasped. She had worn it the wrong way round.

Oh !

Taeyeon buried her face in her palms and tried not to groan out loud. This was by far the worst week of her life!

Noeul nudged her. “Aren’t you going to change?”

Taeyeon sighed and nodded. She could only hope that nobody noticed. But who was she kidding? If Noeul had spotted it from seats away…

“I’ll be back real quick,” Taeyeon whispered and Noeul nodded.

~

“What did I miss?” Taeyeon whispered as she slid back into her seat with her t-shirt put on properly.

Noeul leaned close and whispered, “You didn’t miss much but you can copy my notes after this.”

“Thanks,” Taeyeon said gratefully and smiled. Her eyes then turned from Noeul to the screen but on the way there, they caught sight of Tiffany staring at her, the look on her face inscrutable. Taeyeon blinked, blushed and looked away quickly. It was as though Tiffany knew that she had waited a whole week for nothing even though she knew that it couldn’t be true.

She decided to put Tiffany at the back of her mind and focus on the lecture. She was here to learn and learn she would. The lecture was interesting and by the end of it, Taeyeon had to admit—albeit, begrudgingly—that the lecturer knew his stuff well. He was strict but taught well. Quite the rare commodity in a university, it seemed, where most lecturers seemed more interested in going back to their offices to write their research papers that would keep their job secure.

But just when Taeyeon thought that she could breathe a little more easily, the lecturer said, “You’ll be getting your quizzes back. My teaching assistants will give them out according to surnames. For surnames from A to L, please go to Tiffany, on my left.”

A to L. Oh crap. That means I go to Tiffany.

“The rest will go to Jessica, on my right.”

Jessica?

Taeyeon’s eyes widened in surprise. She hadn’t noticed that Jessica was there at all. But now she saw her, partially hidden behind a stack of papers, asleep. She giggled with the other people in her class as the lecturer shook his head, sighed and walked to Jessica to tap her shoulder. Jessica jolted and sat up straight, her face reddening at lightning speed. Taeyeon giggled again and so did most of the class. Meanwhile, Tiffany was already standing up, ready to hand out the quizzes.

Taeyeon bit her lip and rose from her seat. She didn’t know what she was feeling embarrassed about but it was time to stop feeling this way. All she had to do was take her quiz, smile, thank her and return to her seat. Simple.

She walked up to Tiffany, stretched her hand, took her quiz, smiled and said her thanks. Then, she turned. But she couldn’t leave. Tiffany held on to her quiz. Taeyeon turned back and looked at her with unspoken questions in her eyes and that’s when Tiffany leaned close.

“You didn’t have to lie about your number, you know. You could’ve just said no,” said Tiffany, her voice low yet peevish.

Taeyeon blinked. She had no idea what Tiffany was talking about but Tiffany had already let go of the quiz and was handing out quizzes to other people. She returned to her seat in a daze and didn’t even hear Noeul calling her until she was nudged.

“Hey, how did you do?”

Oh, the quiz. Taeyeon looked and much to her relief, she managed to pass the quiz. Thank goodness she did.

“You passed! Congrats! See, I told you that you had nothing to worry about.”

“It’s not a good score though.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not graded. What it does mean is that you won’t have to take this quiz again.”

“What about those who flunk it?”

“They’ll have to take it again. And study for it. Weren’t you listening at all, last week?”

Taeyeon grinned sheepishly. She knew what she had been doing last week. Staring at Tiffany, that’s what. Tiffany. Speaking of which, she couldn’t figure out what Tiffany was talking about. Lying about her number? What? Her brows furrowed as she racked her brains to dig up her memory of that fateful night. She’d given Tiffany her number alright. Even checked it before Tiffany kept her phone. And the number was correct. It was corr—

Taeyeon’s thoughts halted in mid-sentence and she gasped as she realized her mistake. Oh no. She hadn’t lied about her number but she had given Tiffany the wrong one.

.

~

Taeyeon hung around till everyone had left and waited outside for Tiffany. She had to explain. She had to.

“Tiffany!” she couldn’t help exclaiming when the said girl finally emerged from the lecture theatre with the professor and Jessica. It was only when the professor and Jessica looked curiously between Tiffany and her that she realized she had perhaps, been a little too zealous. “Sorry to bother you, but can I just have a minute with you?”

“Can I say no?” Tiffany replied.

Taeyeon twitched and her mind fumbled. “N-No?”

And her confusion spiralled even more when Tiffany laughed, a soft tinkering melody that ears and made her want to smile.

“I’m only teasing. Sure, I’ve got a minute to spare.” Then, turning to the professor and Jessica, she said, “Please excuse me. I’ll head to the office as soon as I can.”

The professor smiled and was about to turn to leave when he paused and added, “I’ll be anticipating your punctual arrival next week then.”

Taeyeon blinked. “Y-Yes, of course. I’ll be punctual next week.”

“Good.”

And with that, she was left alone with Tiffany.

“So what is it that you have to say to me? If it’s about the number, it’s alright. Don’t worry about it. I understand if you felt uncomfortable giving me your number. As it is, we’ve only met a few times and we’re practically strangers. So.”

Taeyeon opened to explain but nothing came out of it. And as she wrestled with herself, Tiffany looked more and more amused.

“Taeyeon? I need to get going. If you have anything to say—”

“I gave you the wrong number. But it wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t lie.”

Tiffany’s lips stiffened and her gaze intensified. “What do you mean?”

“I flushed my phone down the toilet two weeks ago and had to get a new one. The number I gave you was my old one. I’m still not quite used to my new number yet. I have trouble remembering it too.”

“You what?”

Taeyeon could feel her cheeks burning up rapidly. Why, oh why, did her story have to be about the toilet again?

“My phone slipped out of my pocket and fell into the toilet. I saw it as it was flushed away.”

Tiffany looked as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Taeyeon shook her head, her lips curling downwards in sadness. “I wish I were…”

“Aww,” went Tiffany and Taeyeon got the biggest shock of her life when Tiffany threw her arms around her and hugged her tight. “Don’t be sad. happens but we flush it away with good things.”

Taeyeon’s eyes expanded and contracted and her arms twitched. Wow, this was the warmest hug she had ever received. Dared she hug back? She moved her arms, wrapped them around Tiffany and gave her a quick squeeze before letting go and Tiffany did the same.

“Thanks. I needed that.”

Tiffany smiled and Taeyeon’s heart melted.

“We all need hugs. Friendly ones, playful ones, loving ones…all sorts of hugs.”

Taeyeon smiled too. “So what sort of hug did you give me?”

Tiffany’s laugh tinkled in the air and her eyes grew warm. “Go figure,” she replied, tongue-in-cheek and Taeyeon wasn’t sure if Tiffany was trying to say something or not.

“How about you give me your number this time. And I’ll call you right now. That way, I won’t make the same mistake.”

“Sure.”

Taeyeon grinned and dug her hand into her bag to get her phone. There was just one tiny little problem. Her phone wasn’t in there.

.

~