It was five in the morning and almost everyone is still asleep save for Yuri who was out running again. Taeyeon, on the other hand, unconsciously rolled to the left side of her bed. 

She twitched. She has fallen off of that bed way too many times. She’s half-awake now and she knows she’s about to fall on the floor once again but she didn’t. She was still on her bed. Part of her body was. It seems like she’s fallen into a gap. Her left hand instinctively grabbed onto something. The sheets of the bed beside hers. 

Even though she’s just stuck in the gap which is the size of her outstretched palm, she couldn’t help but hold onto something. She rolled to the right side and opened her eyes. She rubbed them and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before turning to her left.

She smiled as she stared at her girlfriend. “Her silly request saved me from falling off the bed.” Her smile only grew wider when she remembered their conversation before going to bed. 

”Taengoo, move my bed closer to yours,” Jessica said.

Not that she didn’t like it but she’s itching to know Jessica’s reason. “Uh…why?”

“Because…” Jessica paused. “Do I really need to give you a reason?” She sighed and her shoulders dropped. “Can’t you just move it right now, please? I’m saying ‘please’ and that’s a big thing since I don’t use that word often. So just… do as I say, Taengoo.”

She ended up pushing Jessica’s bed closer to hers.

She chuckled at how random Jessica could be at times. 

Then it hit her. “Aish, Taengoo-ah, you’re stupid!”

She hit her forehead with the heel of her palm. She immediately got off her bed and carefully sat on Jessica’s bed. She did what a creeper does best. Stare.

She heard Jessica’s alarm went off and she quickly grabbed it to turn it off. She knows how much Jessica loathes that darn thing. She’s seen the girl hit it with all her might. She doesn’t know if she’s imagining things but she’s also seen her glared at it. If only I could invent an alarm clock that would cower once Jessica glares at it.

Jessica was always the heavy sleeper but for some reason, she woke up early without the aid of an alarm clock or a person waking her up.

She yawned. 

“Good morning, Sica,” Taeyeon greeted, smiling like a dork as usual.

“Are you trying to steal that?” She pointed her finger at the alarm clock that Taeyeon was still holding.

“I was trying to spare it from your wrath,” answered Taeyeon.

“How long have you been up? Were you staring at me while I was sleeping?”

“I woke up a few minutes ago and yes, I was staring at you.”

“Stop doing that. It creeps me out.”

Taeyeon nodded, still armed with her dorky smile. “I know why you wanted your bed to be moved closer to my bed.”

“Oh, really?” said Jessica as she sat up.

“Yup. Thank you but I don’t understand why you didn’t just tell me about your motive.”

“Tell you that I wanted our beds to be closer because you fall off yours all the time? What for? Besides, it’s pitiful to look at you in the morning lying on the floor, hugging yourself, snoring and mumbling.”

Taeyeon chuckled. “Well, that’s embarrassing.”

“Let me guess. You figured it all out because you almost fell again, didn’t you?” asked Jessica.

“Yeah.” She looked at the alarm clock she’s holding and said, “You won’t be needing this anymore, by the way. Just tell me what time you need to get up and I’ll wake you up. Even if it means I’ll have a bruised face.” She smirked when she saw Jessica pouted.

“I cannot believe you’re still not over that. I punched you once and it’s not like it was intentional,” said Jessica.

“Fine, fine. Memory deleted. What do you want for breakfast?”

“Anything would be fine.” She stood up to go the bathroom but she was pulled back. “What is it?”

Taeyeon looked at her and hesitated for a few seconds before saying, “I know you hate odd numbers but do you think I could…die for the ninth time?”

It took about three seconds for Jessica to understand what Taeyeon was saying. She raised her right hand and placed it on Taeyeon’s cheeks. Taeyeon stared intently at the blonde, waiting for her kiss.

Jessica lightly tapped her cheeks and answered, “No.”

“Why not?” Taeyeon pouted.

“Because I don’t like odd numbers.”

“Kiss me twice then,” she answered back cleverly. 

“No,” her girlfriend said. She stood up again and started walking towards the bathroom but she got blocked by the shorter girl. “What now?”

Instead of answering, Taeyeon quickly leaned forward and kissed Jessica.

Taeyeon’s aim was a little off so instead of planting a kiss on Jessica’s cheek, her kiss landed on the corner of Jessica’s lips. Both of them froze. Taeyeon was the first one to recover and she dashed out of the room, away from Jessica.

She shut the door and leaned on it. “Damn it! Should I say sorry?” she said to herself. She opened the door and took a peek only to see Jessica glaring at her. Crap! “Sica, sorry. I swear I was aiming for your cheeks.”

Jessica didn’t answer. Instead, she turned around. She was smiling as she made her way to the bathroom. “That annoyingly adorable cookie-selling girl scout is going to get it from me,” she mumbled before shutting the door.


----


Despite her lack of sleep, Yuri still managed to run two miles. She sat at their doorstep just like yesterday. She sighed when she remembered everything that happened yesterday. She leaned back and stared at her shoes. It was the running shoes she bought with Tiffany. It was the day she made her strawberry crepe for breakfast as a peace offering for shouting at her and breaking her phone.

Flashback

They were once again left with nothing to do. They have three hours ‘til their next class. Yuri and Tiffany were walking down the hall. The two of them just made up after their huge fight last night. It was still a little awkward for Yuri so she just kept mum. Luckily, Tiffany has already gotten over it and spoke to break the silence.

“Are you going back to the house?” she asked.

“I actually need to buy something in the mall.”

“Oh, great. I’ll go with you.”

They took Tiffany’s car and in about half an hour, they arrived at the mall. It was still early so there weren’t a lot of people which is a good thing. They didn’t have to deal with hordes of people shopping or just strolling inside the building.

“What do you need to buy?” Tiffany asked.

“I need to buy you a new phone and I also have to buy a new pair of running shoes for myself,” Yuri answered, looking around.

Tiffany nodded. “Okay. We’ll look for your running shoes first.”

They went to different stores and looked around. Yuri walked around to see if there’s an item that she’d like. A minute later, Tiffany would literally drag her out of the store and they’d both enter another store. Yuri tried not to argue but when she saw a pair of shoes that she really wanted to try out and got dragged by Tiffany again, she snapped.

“Yah!”

Tiffany looked at her innocently, “What?”

“How could I try on some shoes if you’d keep on doing that?”

“Are you kidding me? You actually wanted to try those things?” Tiffany shook her head and continued, “Let’s go to Adidas, they have pretty shoes there.”

Yuri was about to complain but Tiffany was already dragging her inside the store. 

She looked around once again. She hasn’t even checked out a quarter of all the items in there when she heard Tiffany calling her. 

“What?”

“I found the perfect running shoes for you!” she squealed excitedly.

She went to where Tiffany was and saw the girl holding a shoe. She couldn’t help but to think that Tiffany only picked it up because of its color, white, grey and her favourite, pink. It was the ‘Climacool Kona’ running shoes for women.

“It’s pink.”

“I know, right? Isn’t it cute? I swear this would look good on you,” she said.

“How do you know? I haven’t even tried it yet. Besides, I don’t need something that’s just pretty, I want a pair of running shoes that’s comfy,” Yuri retorted.

“It is comfy plus it’s laceless which would prevent accidents since you’re not going to trip on the shoelace when you’re running,” Tiffany defended.

A sales lady approached them and nodded to what Tiffany said, “Your friend’s right.” She continued to talk about the features of the shoe.

Yuri ended up trying it on and was convinced to buy it later on. All thanks to Tiffany and the sales lady who seemed to form an alliance.

Yuri, however, tried to go against her roommate and asked if it comes in another color. The sales lady nodded but said it was out of stock at the moment. Tiffany smiled in triumph. “Yup, those two definitely connived on making me buy this pink shoe,” she thought.

When they got out of the store, Tiffany stopped walking and pulled Yuri by the sleeve of her shirt. “I’m hungry.”

They headed to a fast food chain and ate there. It was almost noon when they finished. They spent about an hour to finish eating their meal for they would start laughing about the most random thing they talk about. They decided to go back to school and Yuri wasn’t able to buy Tiffany a pink phone.

Her brother, Victoria and Nichkhun was right. She is in love with Tiffany Hwang. She still doesn’t know when or how it started though. She also doesn’t know if this realization is a good thing or a bad thing. Being friends with Tiffany’s girlfriend, Sooyoung, is another dilemma. 

I bet if Tiffany’s in a relationship with anyone other than any of our friends, everything would be easy for me. I bet I could make her fall for me and she’ll have no choice but to break up with her partner and be with me. She laughed loudly but stopped when she realized how crazy she must’ve looked like. 

She laughed again but made sure she’s doing it quietly. I’m so full of myself sometimes. She then sighed. But she’s with Soo and Soo loves her. I also love Fany…but Fany loves Soo.

She stood up and opened the door. She went upstairs and contemplated on which room she should go to.


---


Should I take a shower in Sooyoung and Seohyun’s room or our room? Maybe I should just take a shower in their room and change on our room. But that’s too much of a hassle.

I should just get my clothes and take a shower in their room. Yes, that’s what I should do. Wouldn’t want to disturb their sleep. 

I grabbed the doorknob and carefully opened the door so as to not wake them up. As expected, it was pitch black inside our room. 

Now, the thing is I can’t fall asleep if it’s too dark so I bought a lamp shade. Tiffany usually wakes up in the middle of the night to turn the lamp shade off but of course, since I didn’t sleep here last night she probably didn’t have to do that. I left door open so ample light could get in and it wouldn’t be difficult for me to find decent clothes that I could wear today.

The moment my eyes laid upon Tiffany’s bed, I wished that I didn’t enter our room. I looked away immediately. I thought that they weren’t going to sleep in the same bed since I already switched rooms with Soo but that’s just me and my wishful thinking. 

I looked down thinking that I’d still be able to get rid of the image of them snuggling on Tiffany’s bed. Bad idea. What I saw next just broke my heart even more. Clothes and undergarments scattered on the floor near Tiffany’s bed.

I looked up again hoping and praying that Soo and Fany were wearing their clothes and the clothes were lying around because they decided to just mess up with the room last night. 

Seeing their bare shoulders exposed and the only thing covering their bodies was Tiffany’s blanket shattered my hopes. The evil doctor’s messing up with my pacemaker again.

I felt numb for a second. Then the damn emotions came. It hit me hard like a frying pan. A frying pan held by a contemporary Rapunzel. I wish she were real so she could just hit me with it and I’d be unconscious. I wish she would hit me hard and would cost me to lose my memory of them being in bed together. Snuggling. .

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard Tiffany’s alarm went off. I’m not sure why I ran towards my closet instead of going out of the room. I squeezed myself inside and shut it. Hugging my knees, I tried not to make any sound. I didn’t know why I was hiding.

It was quiet again. I suppose Tiffany’s already awake and I was right. I heard her saying Soo’s name, probably waking her up.

“Soo. Soo, it’s already 6 in the morning. We have classes.”

“I don’t want to attend classes. Let’s just stay here, Fany.”

“We can’t we’ve already missed midterm exams yesterday.”

I heard a grunt and it became quiet for a while. I wished it stayed that way. Surprise, surprise! It didn’t. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what they were doing. All I could hear were loud smooching sounds and Soo and Fany mumbling ‘I love you’ every five seconds. I just have to look at the brighter side now. Hearing them is better than seeing them do it. Who am I fooling?

I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I tried to blink back the tears but failed. I wiped it away with the back of my hand. This is stupid. I’m stupid. 

Why do people cry? Why am I even crying? Is it because I’m hurt? Is this how it feels to be heartbroken? I didn’t know people mean it literally. It feels like I’m being stabbed with a knife unceasingly, straight to the heart. It’s like someone took it out and decided to chop it into pieces. That’s weird. I must be hurting a lot then. Even after taking my heart out, I could still feel the pain.

My thoughts were interrupted once again when I heard Soo.


---


“We should never do it during weekdays,” said Sooyoung while staring at Tiffany.

Tiffany, who was lying on top of her, propped herself up with both hands and stared at Sooyoung. “So we should only do it on weekends. Is that what you’re suggesting?” She smirked as she waited for the other girl’s response.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” Sooyoung grinned.

Yuri who was still inside the closet hugged her knees tighter and buried her face in her arms, trying hard to muffle her cries. Please, stop. It hurts. Please, make it stop. At this point, she doesn’t know if she’s having a hard time breathing because of what she’s hearing or because she’s trying too hard on stopping herself from crying like a baby.

“I love you,” said Tiffany.

It only caused Yuri to shed more tears. Seldom does she hear Tiffany saying it first. You really did change your mind about Soo, huh? I’d love to be in her place.

“I love you, too.” Sooyoung gave her a quick peck on the lips.

I love her, too.

“We should get up now and get ready for school,” said Fany as she stood up, pulling the blanket with her.

Realizing that it was the same blanket covering her bare body, Sooyoung stood up, as well. “We should take a shower together so we won’t be late.”

Tiffany laughed heartily. “It’s like 6:30, Soo. I’m pretty sure we won’t be late if we showered separately.”

“But all the bathrooms could be occupied by now,” Sooyoung tried to reason out.

“Fine. Come on.” Tiffany reached out for Sooyoung’s hand which made her drop the blanket covering her body and Sooyoung did the same. They shut the bathroom door and Yuri took it as her cue to leave. She grabbed her clothes and quickly exited the room.

She dashed to Seohyun and Sooyoung’s bathroom and closed the door. Before she knew it, fresh tears were freely falling from her eyes. She sat on the floor and got back to her previous position when she was still inside the closet. She buried her face in her towel and continued to cry, her breathing hitched but she didn’t care. 

“I love you, Tiffany,” she said out loud for the first time. “I don’t think I can forget you and move on.”