Everyone was seated in the living room except Sunny, Hyoyeon and Taeyeon. They were in the kitchen discussing important matters. 

“So you’re telling me that you planned all of those things? Playing charades and me yelling ‘I love you, Jessica’?” Taeyeon asked after Sunny and Hyoyeon told her the whole story. Taeyeon didn’t know about HyoSun’s ingenious plan up until now.

The two nodded. What pushed Taeyeon further to the edge was the look on their faces. There was no sign of guilt for doing such thing. No trace of remorse on their faces. Instead, they have the brightest smiles.

“Why?” 

“To get you two together. Like an official couple. We’re amazing friends, right? Right, Sunny?” 

Sunny nodded, “We saw what you did there, though. We didn’t know you had it in you. To kiss the person you’re stalking is a crazy thing to do but because you’re our friend we commend you for that.”

“That was your fault! If you didn’t plan that stupid game—“

“You wouldn’t have had the chance to kiss her and practice to say those three words to her. So you’re welcome, Taengoo,” Hyoyeon said, still grinning from ear to ear.

“Hyo’s absolutely right. Doesn’t it feel nice to let that out of your chest? It feels like a weight has been lifted off your shoulder, right?” Sunny said to her. She sounded like a hippy.

I guess they’re right. It does feel nice to say it..err..yell it. Wait a sec! They still have some explaining to do!

“Why did you tell Tiffany about this? I remember telling you two not to—“

“I heard my name again. You guys like talking about me, huh?” Tiffany popped out of nowhere.

“What the hell, Fany!? You scared the living daylights out of me. Stop doing that!” Taeyeon said in an annoyed voice. This was just what she needed, another person knowing about her secret.

“We never told her anything. We rarely talk to her. She’s busy arguing with Yuri,” Hyoyeon stated.

“Oh, you guys were talking about her admiration for my sister? I’m not busy arguing with Yuri. You two are too busy scheming that’s why we barely have a conversation,” Tiffany defended herself.

“How’d you find out?”

“You guys were too obvious and why the heck didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped you.”

“Really? You would seriously do that?”

“If you told me beforehand, I would’ve but these two short stuff look like they know what they’re doing so I think you’re in good hands. You even stole a kiss from her. Good job, Taengoo! But I suggest not to do it again,” she said cheerfully.

Tiffany clapped her hands and the two followed suit.

“That brings us to our next plan. Make Jessica notice Taeyeon more. Stop being so shy around her,” Sunny said in a serious voice.

Tiffany nodded and said, “Sunny’s right. I don’t think you will go anywhere if you continue to just be around her and agreeing with everything she says to the point that you don’t even care about your other friends anymore. Just like when I got my haircut—okay, enough of that. The point is you’re being too shy and too…submissive.”

“She’s right. You’re not trying to go inside the friend’s zone, are you? Doing those things is what friends do. Don’t even give me a crap excuse like, ‘I wanna be friends with her and get to know her more and then that’s when I’ll make a move.’ Those things happen on TV shows and movies and you, Kim Taeyeon, are definitely not a movie star,” Hyoyeon seconded.

“Unnies, Shinyoung-unnie’s… Am I interrupting something?” Seohyun asked.

“Seohyun, good thing you’re here.”

Sunny decided to fill her cousin in. She and Hyoyeon got a little scolding from Taeyeon because of involving Seohyun. They explained to her that Seohyun will also benefit from their plan. 

“Okay, so what’s the plan now?” Taeyeon asked. The information that she’s receiving is too much that she feels like her head is going to explode.

“Do we really have to repeat, Taeng? You have got to stop acting nice around her all the time. Even powerpuff girls have a little spice in them. So don’t act all ‘sugary’,” Sunny enunciated.

“Yeah. Be more…I don’t know…aggressive? Is that the right term?” Hyoyeon said, very unsure of what she just said.

“Are you kidding me? Do you want me to die young? I kissed her on the cheeks and a few minutes ago she threatened to break my bones!” Taeyeon exclaimed.

“I think I know what Hyoyeon meant by that. You have to sort of flirt but not exactly flirt, you know what I mean?”

“No, you guys are crazy,” Taeyeon said seriously. The other girls’ ideas are getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

“Here’s what you have to do and you have to listen well, Taeyeon. Focus!” Sunny said.


---


“So where will Shinyoung-unnie sleep?” Yoona asked.

It’s already 3 in the morning and they just finished watching three movies. They watched “The Exorcist” first then watched “The Hangover” to get rid of Linda Blair’s creepy face. Boy, what a HUGE mistake that was. Now they all have to sleep with a very graphic image of one of the characters pulling out his own tooth and…it’s r rated so why would I mention it? Jessica, Soooyung, Seohyun and Tiffany almost passed out while watching “The Exorcist” while the others just enjoyed the movie.

The last movie they watched was “Kick-”. Another mistake, probably halfway through the movie, the girls were shouting at Shinyoung for bringing those DVD’s. They watched a kid get beat up and became a superhero just because a nerve in his brain got damaged. All throughout, the girls would be yelling “Eww” or “Gross”. Taeyeon, Sunny, Hyoyeon and Yuri watched in awe as the little girl did her balisong or butterfly knife routine. At the end of the film, they were dumbfounded that it was actually ‘Hit Girl’, an underage kid, who did most of the work while Kickass just watched.

Everyone blankly stared at her, they’re all exhausted from screaming and laughing and oh, yelling “Shinyoung-unnie”. 

After a few more minutes of staring and spacing out, Taeyeon spoke. “Shinyoung-unnie can take my bed, I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Shinyoung yawned and looked at her. “Are you sure? Okay.” She didn’t wait for Taeyeon’s response. She made her way upstairs and immediately went to sleep without even brushing her teeth. The girls made a mental note to not talk to her in the morning. Not before she brushes her teeth and gets rid of the stench in .

Everyone went upstairs and got in their room to sleep, except for Taeyeon who will sleep on the couch. 

“Oh darn! I forgot I need a blanket,” she just shrugged. She’s too tired and too sleepy to go upstairs and get one.

“Taengoo, heads up,” she heard someone say. The next thing she knows, a blanket had hit her square in the face.

“Yoona told me to bring you a pillow and a blanket,” Jessica said. She was about to walk away and head upstairs but stopped when she saw Taeyeon spreading her arms wide open. “What?”

Be confident. Don’t stammer and look at her straight in the eye. Release your inhibitions and tell whatever it is that you want to tell her. 

She remembered Sunny telling her.

“No good night hug?”she asked smiling confidently but on the inside she was panicking. Good. I didn’t stutter. Taengoo, Hwaiting! She gave herself a little morale boost.

“I’ll give you an even better one,” Jessica smirked. “How about a good night kiss?”

Stay cool and act like you don’t care that much even though you want to spazz out about it. She remembered Tiffany’s advice so she just gave Jessica a confident smile.

“A kiss with the ball of my foot? How about that?”

Even if she threatens to kill you, be cool. Try not to believe her even though it seems like she can kill you by using her bare hands. It was Hyoyeon’s advice. She tried to act like she’s composed and stay rooted to where she is. She was sweating bullets when she noticed that Jessica was walking closer to her.

“Did you bump your head or something? Did you already forget what I told you earlier? I swear Taeyeon if you repeat what you did earlier, I will personally fly to the Philippines, purchase abalisong, give it to Hit Girl and tell her to skin you alive.”

Taeyeon gulped but didn’t let Jessica see it. Calm yourself down, Taeyeon. Don’t let her scare you. Instead of saying sorry like what she normally does, she just smirked at Jessica. The latter walked away and headed upstairs.

“Dammit! I don’t think this is gonna work. She must be thinking that I’m such a jerk now,” Taeyeon said to herself.


---


Yuri got out of the bathroom only to find an unusually quiet Tiffany on her bed and hugging her knees. “Wow, you’re quiet. I hope you’re like that most of the time.”

“Yuri, I’m scared,” she said as she pouted.

“Scared of what? Linda Blair’s face?” Yuri giggled. 

Tiffany nodded.

“It’s not real. Go ahead and google Linda Blair,” she paused, “On second thought, don’t because there are a lot of pictures of her and her big boo…Forget about that.”

“I’m serious I can’t take the image of her face out of my head. It’s scary!”

“Oh please. it up. You’re a big girl now you could kick Linda Blair’s if you want to.”

“Meanie!”

“Don’t think about her face anymore. Think about my face. Think about how pretty I am.”

“Yah! I’m serious and it’s almost 3 am. You know what they say about it, right?”

“No. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it’s not true so go to sleep.”

Tiffany shook her head and continued to pout. She was still hugging her knees and looking at her surroundings.

“Hey, don’t imagine scary things and go to sleep.”

“I can’t.”

Yuri let out a sigh and decided to talk to Tiffany and to calm the girl down. They stayed up a few minutes more, talking about things that could distract Tiffany so she won’t think about scary stuff anymore. Yuri asked Tiffany trivial questions and Tiffany answered them. They continued talking until both of them couldn’t keep their eyelids open and they drifted off to dreamland. That night both of them realized two things. 

One is that 3 am isn’t really the “devil’s hour”. They were awake ‘til 3:40 am but nothing happened. No ghosts. No evil spirits. 

Two, they realized how nice it was talking to each other without having an argument every 5 minutes.