Step.

Step...

A bunch of mismatched steps and a stomp.

By this point Tiffany, who was sleeping soundly in her comfortable pink bed, is about to either scream her power lungs out or die from a heart attack, because she can hear someone in her apartment and according to her phone it’s almost 2 in the morning. She lives alone. No normal person visits at that hour anyway.

The stomps continue, stop and go on until there’s a guttural groan right outside her bedroom door and Tiffany yelps, hides under her furry blanket and prepares to call the police. She fumbles with the phone in her hands, curses when it keeps on slipping away and once she’s got the first number down, the door swings opens and she peeks through a hole.

It’s dark, obviously; it’s 2 in the morning, and yet there’s a bulge standing under the frame like it owns the place. Tiffany thinks maybe if she doesn’t move—maybe if she doesn’t breathe—and maybe if she blinks, that marshmallow with legs will go away. Of course it doesn’t, and it moves, and Tiffany is about to arm herself with her precious phone to knock that thing out somehow before the lights go on and she’s blinded for a moment. She brings her hands to her eyes and feebly attempts to wipe away the tears as fast as she can.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?” She hears an all too familiar voice.

Damn it.

Tiffany throws a pillow and roars. “Nah…nope, pfft, not at all. The hell, Taeyeon! Have you seen the time? God damni—“

“I know, I know. I just—calm down. I’m sorry,” a short girl wearing at least 30 coats and a giant scarf waddles towards her, plops herself down uncomfortably and smiles brightly. “I got you something. I was gonna wait until tomorrow to brin—“

“—congratulations. You waited well.”

Taeyeon scowls and continues. “I was going to wait until tomorrow to bring it, and I mean today at a decent time, but I thought you thought I forgot when I called you earlier. So…yup. Didn’t know if you were angry,” she says as she slips her gloves off. Tiffany reaches over to undo her scarf and notices that regardless of how bundled up the girl is, her nose and cheeks are red as ever. She kisses her nose and forgets to be irritated. “Angry at what?”

“Well, it’s your birthday. It’s been your birthday since midnight. I mean, not really since midnight; I don’t know at what time you were born. Unless you were born at midnight, that’d be convenient, but the day starts at midnight. It shouldn’t be called midnight. It should be mid-day, even though it’s night. Woah, a paradox? Cool! Wait, your birthday, right, so…I didn’t forget, it’s just that at midnight it kinda slipped my mind, so—“

“—Taeyeon,” Tiffany is on the brink of laughing by now.

Taeyeon nods. “I should have said happy birthday at midnight, ‘cause that’s what’s usually done. You like cheesy romance, right? It’s pretty romantic to be the first to call your girlfriend on her birthday, and I didn’t do it! Barging in your apartment ain’t so sweet. How dare me, right? Rude. Bad Tae. Here, punch me. K.O.,” she says, placing Tiffany’s hand on her temple. Tiffany is laughing now, and instead pats down the messy hair coming out of Taeyeon’s winter hat.

She gets up pulling the marshmallow monster up with her, helps her out of her coat and tangles Taeyeon’s little arms around her waist. They walk out and into the living room, where Taeyeon points to a box of cake surrounded by balloons and lit candles. Tiffany gasps and hops her way towards the table, squealing out incoherent words in the highest pitch she can manage. All the while Taeyeon stands beside her, taking one of Tiffany’s hands into hers and plants a peck on her now exposed shoulder.

The birthday girl twirls around and gives her girlfriend’s body a squeeze, mumbling her thanks into her sweater while nuzzling it. “Thank you so, so much Tae. Barging into my apartment wasn’t so bad, you know. You’re forgiven,” she says and let’s go. Taeyeon kisses her, and they stand there for a while kissing until they’ve both run out of air. Both are shaken up enough to yearn for more, and it comes as no surprise when Tiffany whispers it to Taeyeon, that maybe, maybe she’ll be extra forgiven if she gets another kind of present; Taeyeon complies, of course, so she’s set on guiding them back to the bed.

She pushes Tiffany down onto it with a bounce and they giggle childishly, but that doesn’t ruin the mood one bit. In fact, Taeyeon closes in and leaves those tickly kinds of kisses on her lover’s neck, around her ear and down to where her collarbones are.

Tiffany…Tiffany is in bliss. Her hands grab at the arms of the person looming over her and it’s so warm. No not, warm. It’s hot. So hot. It’s burning, actually, and she’s loving it. It’s scorching up her skin and—no no no no…it’s cold, why is it cold? Why in the world is it suddenly cold? Taeyeon…where’s Taeyeon. God, that girl better not be leav—

She’s leaving.

Tiffany is burning up again in a totally different way.

“Where…” she starts, “where do you think you’re going, Kim Taeyeon,” she snarls.

Taeyeon stumbles a bit under Tiffany’s menacing glare, but she has already put her gloves and stuff back on and she figures if things get too bad, she can make a run for it and face the wind outside just fine.

“I have school tomorrow, sorry. I didn’t think you would wake up so, you know, I wasn’t expecting to take long,” she mumbles apologetically and stops when Tiffany is back on her feet kissing her cheek good-bye. There’s a sigh.

“Taeyeon?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you for this.”

“No problem. Happy birthday, babe. I love you,” Taeyeon says through a smile.

“Taeyeon?”

“Yes, love?”

“Give me that key I gave you.”

…Ooh, Taeyeon thinks.