“Why am I here again and not Soo? It’s Sunday today and I was supposed to go to the mall to buy stuff and my shampoo since my roommate used it all.”

Yuri sent a glare to Tiffany through the rear view mirror while the latter stuck her tongue out and sang, “Shampoo ga dwego shipeo geudae ye meori karake na heulleo naerimyeo.” She even imitated Nana’s expression on the song’s video to further tick Yuri off.

From anyone else’s point of view, it would seem like Tiffany succeeded on teasing Yuri but it’s really not the case. Behind her frown lies a smile that she was trying hard not to show. She was pretending to be upset but in all honesty, she didn’t really care about her stupid shampoo.

After singing the whole verse, she leaned back and said, “Your shampoo smells way better than mine and I like it.” She grinned and continued singing the song.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier that you wanted to go to the mall?” Hyoyeon asked.

The three of them were supposed to go to the park for Hyoyeon’s project but when Yuri mentioned the mall she thought that it would be better to go there than the park so she took the next U-turn and began to explain why she asked for Yuri’s help instead of Sooyoung’s. “I’m doing my final project so I don’t have to cram during the finals week and this project involves telling a story through photos. We were given a theme and mine was ‘Love and Hate’. Seeing you two bicker with each other most of the time, I thought it would be better to ask you guys for help plus, I can’t really ask for Soo’s help since she’s busy with lea—“ she stopped and bit her tongue. I almost ruined the surprise, Soo would kill me.

“Busy with what? I only saw her twice this week,” said Tiffany. “She barely gets out of her room and she doesn’t let me in there either.”

Hyoyeon tried not to spill the beans. “I think she’s just busy with her studies and stuff. It’s hard juggling your subjects if you have a double major.”

“Right. She only has to take one extra subject this term, Hyo.”

“She’s a geek. Let her be,” she said, still trying to cover for Soo.

Tiffany just shrugged it off.

After a few minutes, the trio arrived at the mall and went straight to the department store to buy Yuri’s shampoo. By the time they got there, Hyoyeon had taken several shots of the two arguing about trivial matters.

They argued when Yuri didn’t hold the “heavy” door for Tiffany. The shorter girl went on it for about five minutes before she accidentally stepped on Yuri’s foot and it was the latter’s turn to make a big fuss about it. While all of these were happening, Hyoyeon was capturing the moments and grinning at how her friends were making her project easier for her. She also enjoyed watching her friends banter animatedly.

When she diverted her attention from her camera to Yuri and Tiffany, she noticed that the two were about twenty steps away from her. She didn’t bother catching up and continued looking at the photos she’s taken earlier.

Meanwhile, Tiffany was pointing left and right while saying phrases like “I want that” or “That one’s hideous” while Yuri was walking lethargically, humming a song and stealing occasional glances at her childlike roommate.

Yuri stopped in front of a shelf and contemplated whether to grab the bigger bottle of shampoo or just the regular one. I don’t even like this shampoo that much. My brother just gave it to me.

But regardless of whether she likes the shampoo or not, she’ll buy it because Tiffany likes it. She’s been doing this a lot lately, doing stuff that isn’t really smart or that would seem desperate in other people’s point of view just so she could fill that emptiness she feels every time she remembers that being more than friends with Tiffany is not possible.

Yuri grabbed the bigger bottle and turned around only to see Tiffany’s face in a very close proximity. She backed away and stared at Tiffany who was smirking and pointing a finger at her.

“You’ve been humming ‘Shampoo’ ever since we got inside the department store.”

“It’s your fault for singing it earlier while we were in the car. It got stuck in my head.”

Hyoyeon has finally caught up with them. She took the bottle from Yuri and said, “I’ll pay for this as a ‘Thank you’ gift for helping me.” She walked up to the cashier and added, “Don’t tell TaengSic, SunByung and YoonHyun that I gave you guys something.”

“Oohh~ so we’re special because you gave us a ‘Thank you’ gift, huh?” Tiffany cooed.

Hyoyeon looked at her with an expression similar to someone who smelled a stinky sock. “No. If I asked Yoona and Jessica what they want, they’d probably say food and I bet they won’t stop eating ‘til they’re full and I’ll be broke. As for SunByung, Sunny will probably ask me to sleep on Hyomin’s room, which is like 10 houses away from ours, so she could spend time with Hyomin doing kin—“

“HYO!” Tiffany and Yuri shouted in unison.

“Please spare us the details,” said Yuri.

After paying for the item, the three of them decided to walk around the mall before returning to their house.

Tiffany and Yuri were still singing the same song since the latter is still suffering from last song syndrome. It wasn’t long before Hyoyeon joined them and sang along.

The tanned girl didn’t know when it started but what they were doing moments ago evolved into something much more embarrassing. She was looking at some random red shoes that were on display so their walk was put into a halt. She’s guessing that’s when the very eccentric Hyoyeon thought of doing something silly.

She looked back at the two and saw Tiffany holding the camera and pointing it at Hyoyeon who decided to stick flowers on her head. Where did the flowers come from? It magically grew. Not really. It was part of the mall’s décor. They were laughing very loudly as Hyoyeon posed and shouted ‘Fierce!’

She walked towards them, not forgetting to cover her face since her friends have caught unwanted attention, and asked, “What the hell are you guys doing?” She bowed to the people walking passed them and apologized. “I’m so sorry. These two just got out of the mental ins—“

“Please do not believe our uptight friend. We’re just having fun,” Tiffany said and hit the back of Yuri’s head. “That’s not very nice.”

“Can we just go before you further embarrass yourselves?”

Hyoyeon scowled and put the décor back to its original place.

While walking, something caught Tiffany’s attention yet again. Thanks to her short attention span. She ran towards the rack like a little kid and held the towel, rubbing the soft cloth on her cheek. “Little Mermaid,” she squealed. “I’m becoming nostalgic. Do you guys remember the song Part of Your World? I love that song!”

Hyoyeon and Yuri were just standing there, staring at her while she reminisced about her childhood and her fondness of the Disney classic movies.

“Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the— Wow, you two really don’t know that song?”

Hyoyeon shrugged and said, “The only song I know from that movie is Under the sea, under the sea,” she paused and tried to think about the next line but failed so she ended mumbling the rest of the song.

“Me, too,” said Yuri.

The two of them walked past Tiffany with Hyoyeon half singing half mumbling ‘Under the Sea’ and Yuri telling the latter about how she suddenly missed Yoona. The girl was making faces and it reminded her of a flounder.

Yuri looked back and saw Tiffany pouting. “Fany-ah, are you coming or not?”

“Can I at least buy this before we go home?” she whined.

“How old are you again?”

“Shut up. At least, the things I like are considered classics. I’m sorry if I’m not a big fan of ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’.”

“Yah! That show is funny,” Yuri mumbled.


---


“Ms. Kwon and Ms. Hwang, care to explain why you two didn’t submit anything?”

Professor Henney’s class was in the school’s courtyard where equipment for archery was set up for them.

The shorter girl looked at Yuri, baffled that her roommate didn’t submit any paper. “I forgot to do my homework, Sir.”

The tall man nodded and motioned for Yuri to speak. “Mine got burnt while I was cooking breakfast.”

Liar.

“That’s new,” he said, not fully trusting Yuri’s alibi.

“I was cooking breakfast while writing it. Multitasking. That’s the ‘in’ thing right now, Sir. Maximizing your time. Being more productive.”

“I see.” He looked back and forth at the two and added, “I want to try and be nice so instead of making you run five laps around the field, you two could just sit here while your friends learn the fundamentals of archery.”

The other students who were clearly not as enthusiastic as their professor murmured ‘That’s their punishment?’ They regretted doing the damn homework.

Yuri sat under a tree and watched the whole class as they lazily learn how to propel an arrow using a bow.

Tiffany threw her finger tab on Yuri’s lap and sat next to her. “You are a liar.”

Yuri gave her a small smile before looking back at their classmates and propping her head on her palm.

“Why didn’t you just submit your homework? Are you trying to be a hero?” Tiffany poked her roommate’s cheek and added, “Are you trying to be my hero, Yuri-ah?”

When she remembered the thing that’s been bothering her for quite some time, she cleared and looked away. What the heck did I just say? Tiffany, you are with Soo! With Soo, with Soo, WITH SOO~! UGH! I’m not even cheating on her and yet I feel like I am every time I think about the possible feelings that I have for Yul. Damn it!

“If I wanted to be a hero, I would’ve pulled a ‘Mulan’ and pretended to be a guy to be able to defend and serve our country.” She glanced at Tiffany and said, “I was just worried that my conscience will haunt me because of my silly roommate forgetting to do her homework.”

Tiffany huffed. “Well, it was your fault that I didn’t get to do it.” It’s your fault that I’m too preoccupied to even function well, you…you, charming person!

Yuri shook her head and changed the topic, “Did you read the e-mail sent by the dean about the merging of our art class with Soo’s and the rest of the girls’?”

“Yeah. I’m still wondering what happened to that other professor but I hope the new one would not be as boring as the other one. I’m interested to know which museum we’ll visit on our first meeting with him.”

“Me, too. I hope and pray that he’s funny and cool or else I won’t be able to make it ‘til the end of the term. If he’s boring, I might just jump out of the bus than suffer the whole trip hearing his monotone voice.”

Tiffany nodded in agreement. “I hope he’s cute but not a terror. Having Professor Henney over there is fine. Students of IU don’t need another Hitler of a teacher.”


---


“Annyeong,” said a person who got out of the bus that was parked just outside the campus. He took off his cap and bowed in front of the students. “I’m Kim Jooyoung. I was just hired last week as a new faculty member in the Art Department. I will also be your driver for today.”

He smiled at the students and said, “Unlike most of you guys here, I had to work and earn money to pay for my own tuition fee and that’s when I became a road manager for some famous idols. I’m not going to mention any names but I can tell you that they are all pretty. Chodings but pretty. That’s pretty much everything you have to know about me.”

“Looks like the new professor’s not that boring,” Yuri mumbled.

“He looks cute, too,” remarked Hyoyeon.

“I trust that everyone has read the e-mail and you all should know where we’re going today. Everyone, get on the bus!” He pointed at Taeyeon and said, “Except you, Kim Taeyeon. The dean called me earlier and said you can’t go so I suggest you let go of Miss Jung’s hand and go to her office now.”

“Excuse me, Sir, how did—“

“I’ve seen everyone’s files and memorized all your names and faces.”

Taeyeon pouted but didn’t let go of Jessica’s hand. She glared at Yuri and said, “Yah, Yuri-ah, be Jessica’s bodyguard. I don’t want you to let any stranger near her. Got it?”

Yuri looked at her with an unreadable expression. Her eyebrows slowly creased and her palm soon landed on the older but shorter girl’s forehead. She got on the bus without saying a word.

Taeyeon rubbed the stinging spot on her forehead and shouted, “YAH!”

“I think it’s her way of saying ‘Yes’, Taengoo. Besides, I don’t need a bodyguard, I’ll be fine.” She grinned before kissing her girlfriend’s forehead.

“I’ll try to talk some sense into my cousin and catch up with you guys there,” said Taeyeon before cupping the blonde girl’s face and kissing her forehead as well. “Take care. I love you. Please try not to fall asleep.”

“I’ll try,” she smirked and added, “I love you, too. See you.”

Everyone has got on the bus and Taeyeon waited ‘til the bus was out of sight before stomping her way to her cousin’s office.

When she got there, she was all sweaty from speed walking and was complaining as to why the dean’s office was so damn far. She knocked on the door furiously. “Unnie, open up!”

She was startled when the door opened and was welcomed by her grinning relative. “Shinyoung-unnie? What are you doing here? I thought you were at our house, washing our dishes.”

“I’ve finished that and I decided to pay a visit to my other lovely niece. Anyways, I’m off to…somewhere. See you later, Taeng! Have fun here!”

She searched for her other unnie and found her cleaning one of the lockers. “Unnie,” she whined. “Why did you have to exempt me from that field trip?”

“They’re going to the National Museum, Taeng.”

“I want to go the National Museum.”

Ji-eun stared at her and raised an eyebrow. “Grandma Kim is a curator. By the time you turned fourteen we’ve already visited almost all the museums in this country and visited a bunch of other museums abroad. You just want to be with Jessica.”

“Yes, that, too!” She sat on the table and stared at her cousin. “What do you need? Tell me now so I can go there and be with my girlfriend.”

Ji-eun tossed a crumpled paper at her cousin and said, “I need you to help me with tidying my office again. I’m not going to take ‘No’ for an answer. You’ve done it before and you owe me. If I didn’t allow you to look at the students’ files, you wouldn’t have met Jessica and you two won’t be together.”

Taeyeon knew that she’s already lost. Everything that her cousin said is true. Damn you for being smart!

“Get off my table and help me clean!”

“I don’t get why you didn’t ask for Shinyoung-unnie’s help. She was here seconds ago.”

Ji-eun shrugged and said, “I did ask for her help but she said she had somewhere to go to so she suggested that I should ask for your help instead.”

Aish! So it’s Shinyoung-unnie’s fault.

She got off the table and helped her cousin on cleaning the huge office. There was really no point in arguing and she realized that the sooner she gets it done, the sooner she can be with Jessica again.

Ji-eun glanced at her and saw the frown on her face that was very visible. “You’re being too obsessed with Jessica, you know that, right?”

“I love her so it’s only natural that I want to be with her all the time.”

“You’re being too clingy, Taengoo. Too much of something is bad.”

“I don’t care,” she answered, not looking at her cousin and focusing on the task of cleaning. “If it’s about Sica, I don’t care if it’s too much and if it’s bad for me.”

She walked up to Taeyeon and put an arm over her shoulder. “You love Jessica too much, dear cousin. There should at least be a part of you that doesn’t love her that much. If I have to put it in figures, I’d say about three to five percent.”

“I’m not interested to know why but go ahead, let it out of your system and tell me why because it seems to me like you’ve thought about it for a very long time.”

Ji-eun grinned and said, “Gladly! If you two ever break up, you’re going to need that five percent of you to move on and not be suicidal because I’m sure you’ll be devastated if you ever part ways with her.”

“You’re wrong. I’m not going to need that five percent because we won’t break up. I won’t let it happen.”

“I’m saying ‘IF’ and there are other things you won’t be able to control, Taengoo. What if she falls out of l—“
“Stop it! She won’t! Don’t be a jinx unnie and just clean so I can be with her. Move, unnie. NOW! RIGHT NOW!”

Ji-eun raised both her arm as if to surrender and said, “Okay, okay, no need to shout. Sheesh!”


---


While Taeyeon was helping the dean clean her office, the other girls were either busy looking at artefacts or bugging their girlfriends.

Yoona was tugging Seohyun’s arm like a little kid while using all her aegyo to convince the latter to do what she wants. Seohyun, on the other hand, was getting more annoyed since the class was there to learn and not to play around and yet Yoona’s refusing to behave like an adult.

“Hyunnie, I want to take a picture with that cool looking sword.”

“It’s fine to take a picture OF it, Yoong. Why do you have to take a picture WITH it? Can’t you see the sign? You can’t touch it.”

“But I want to touch it. It’s an authentic sword. It’s cool~”

“You can’t and that’s final. I don’t want you to get in trouble. I don’t want both of us to get in trouble. Understood?”

Yoona pouted even more and muttered, “You’re being such a snow queen, Hyunnie. You’re colder than Sica-unnie.”

And with that, Seohyun pulled Yoona away from the sword and said something about going to the ten-story pagoda.

Tiffany witnessed their small argument and glared at Sooyoung. “See that? You are so like Yoona.”

Sooyoung, just like Yoona, was busy bugging her girlfriend and being a kid. “I can see why Yoona wanted to take a picture with it. It’s cool looking. I just wanted to take a picture of myself while lying down on that rug and maybe borrow Narsha-unnie’s extension and pretend that I have a beautiful and very long hair.”

Tiffany’s eye twitched. “Did you not hear yourself? How can you not figure out that everything in that sentence is wrong? It’s…just wrong, Soo.”

She saw Sooyoung stomping her feet and said, “That’s it! Go be with Yoong and I’ll be with Seobaby! You two are such chodings.”

She walked away and tried to catch up with Seohyun and Yoona. Meanwhile, her sister was just staring at them, wishing that her own choding was there so she wouldn’t be as bored as she was at that moment.

Jessica looked at Sunny and Hyomin who were both glaring at the laughing Hyoyeon. She doesn’t know where Yuri was but her best bet was that the girl was probably with Krystal again.

Jaebeom walked past the blonde girl and stopped to stand beside her. “Hi.”

Jessica stared at him with a blank face and nodded slightly while Jaebeom tried to find words to say to her. He noticed Jessica staring at Sunny’s direction and tried to joke, “That little girl wearing the red hooded cardigan could pass as the next ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. All she needs now is a big bad wolf.”

“Thanks for insulting my friend,” Jessica said flatly without even looking at him.

Jeabeom, thinking that Jessica was being sarcastic, stuttered as he tried to explain himself, “I was just joking. I didn’t really mean to insult her. I just—“

“No. I’m serious. Thank you. I tried to tell her not to wear that but she won’t listen. I was so close to giving her a basket before we left the house.”

The guy laughed nervously and was supposed to speak again but got interrupted by Yuri’s loud voice.

“Sica-yah! Can you please tell Taeng to stop flooding me with text messages? It’s so annoying!”

He cursed inwardly when the two continued to talk and eventually left him there, standing like an idiot. “Damn.” He tried to follow Jessica and Yuri but was blocked by Sunny, Hyomin and Hyoyeon.

“Sunny-ah, did you just wear that so that if you get lost we’ll be able to find you easily?”

“Yah! Hyomin gave this to me and I wanted to wear it because it looks nice.” She turned to Hyomin and said, “Hyominnie, tell her.” Despite the abundance of aegyo in her voice, Hyomin just stood behind her and mumbled, “Sunny’s right.”

Jaebeom was staring at the three girls in front of him when he remembered that he was supposed to be following Jessica. He walked past them but Jessica and Yuri were already out of sight.

It took him about an hour to find them outside of the museum. He ran towards Jessica who was now all by herself staring at the pond.

“Hey,” he said, panting. “What are you doing here alone?” he asked to break the ice although he really didn’t mind that the blonde was alone. He actually liked the fact that Jessica was all by herself and saw this as an opportunity to make a move on the blonde girl.

“Taeng told me to wait here. She said she was already on her way,” she said without looking at him. Jaebeom started talking again but she didn’t pay any attention for she was staring at something. She wasn’t sure what it was but she’s sure about two things; it was flying and it was heading towards her.

She instinctively ducked and immediately went near the ‘thing’ that flew past her, leaving Jaebeom yet again.

She crouched and said, “Poor pigeon.”

Jaebeom followed soon after and said, “That’s a dove.”

“It’s still a bird.”

“Would you like it if people say you’re Jap—“ he paused when he saw Jessica glaring at him. He cleared his throat and said, “Poor do…bird. It might have damaged its wings or something.”

“Can’t you do anything?” Jessica took it in her arms and petted it.

Jaebeom stood up and was supposed to go near Jessica and pet it but he stopped when he heard someone calling Jessica.

“Sica!” shouted Taeyeon who was glaring at Jaebeom. She doesn’t like the guy and the fact that he keeps on trying to be friends with her girlfriend irks her.

“Taeng,” Jessica answered back gleefully. “If you’re gonna hug me be mindful of the pigeon I’m holding.”

“Sica, that’s a dove.”

“That’s what I said earlier,” said Jaebeom but only received a mini glare from the short girl.

“It’s the same thing. Sheesh! Taeng, let’s bring it home since it’s obvious that you two don’t know anything about tending to a wounded bird.” She linked arms with Taeyeon as the latter looked at her weirdly.

“Eh? You don’t even know the difference between pigeons and doves.” She saw her girlfriend throwing her a glare so she had to act quick and she ended up blurting out, “I brought apples.”

Jessica smiled and the shorter girl linked arms with her. She opened her bag and offered the apples that she got from her cousin’s office.

They started walking away leaving Jaebeom by himself yet again. When the taller girl finally got hold of an apple and brought it near , she saw that a small portion of it was already consumed. “Eww, Taeng. Why would you bring an apple that's obviously already been bitten?”

“Sorry. I got it from Ji-eun unnie’s office and I just stuffed them all in my bag. That’s probably Shinyoung-unnie’s fault.” She took the apple and tossed it, hitting Jaebeom’s head.

“Ouch!”

Both of them looked back. “Sorry, girly voice,” said Jessica while Taeyeon mumbled an apology.

The two might have left Jaebeom with a bump forming on his head but this seemed to only motivate the guy from getting closer to Jessica.


The day ended on a good note even though everyone was half asleep during the ride home. Later that night, while everyone was sleeping like a log, Yoona flinched when she heard Taeyeon hissing in pain. She immediately opened the lights and saw Yuri standing beside Taeyeon’s bed while the latter was rubbing her forehead.

“Yuri-unnie?”

Yuri didn’t respond and hit Taeyeon’s forehead again. “That’s for causing so much hassle. Do you know how hard it is to delete your messages? You flooded my phone with more than a hundred of your messages that contain the same thing.”

“You could’ve just deleted all the messages so you don’t have to delete it one by one.”

Yuri hit her again. There’s no way in hell that she’ll delete all the messages in her phone. I’m not going to delete my conversations with Fany.

“Do that again and I swear Taeng, my phone will leave a mark on your face.” She turned to look at Yoona and said, “Sorry for waking you up, Yoong. You can go back to sleep now.”

“Uh…okay. Good night unnie.”


---


It’s been a month since the second term has started and everything was now going well for Tiffany. Everything that’s related to school, that is. She has somehow managed to focus in class and stopped thinking about Yuri save for the times she sees the latter with Krystal. Times like these require her to recite her self-made mantra. So when they showin’ me their booty, I’m already taken. So hard to look the other way but baby, I’m taken. I don’t wanna be a player. No more, no more. Baby, I’m taken.

Okay. So it’s not really a self-made mantra but a lyrics to a song called “Already Taken” but she thought that it would be better since it’s not hard to memorize a lyrics of a song.

She was humming it to get rid of her thoughts on attacking Krystal who was staring at Yuri while the latter was in front reciting the lines from the movie ‘Finding Nemo.’ It’s an exercise that their professor in Public Speaking wanted them to do.

“I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come here, Squishy. Come here, little Sq—“ Yuri was cut off by the strumming of a guitar.

Everyone’s attention was on the intruder holding a guitar and her side kick who has a tambourine in her left hand and a bouquet of roses on her right.

“Soo and Hyo?” Yuri, Taeyeon, Tiffany and Jessica said in unison.

“Hi, Fany-ah. We’re here to serenade you,” said Hyoyeon.

“Seriously?” asked Tiffany as she stared at Sooyoung. This made the tall girl blush in deep red.

Sooyoung cleared and started playing the guitar, making sure that her fingers were in the right place. Hyoyeon, being the hyper active girl that she is, started bobbing her head and eventually made use of the tambourine.

“The way you move is like a full-on rainstorm and I’m a house of cards.” First line and already played the wrong chord but it didn’t stop the tall girl from singing her heart out to Tiffany.

Yuri, on the other hand, was rooted on her spot, staring at Tiffany while Taeyeon, Jessica and even Krystal stared at her. Oblivious to everything else that’s happening, Tiffany and Sooyoung continued to stare at each other like they’re the only ones in the room.

Everyone else was watching Hyo while she tries to make an interpretative dance out of Taylor Swift’s song. She would sometimes get a glare courtesy of her best friend who she keeps hitting in the head with the bouquet.

When she finished the song, she grabbed the bouquet from Hyoyeon and approached Tiffany, took her hand, stared at her and said, “These past few months that we’ve been together have been the best months of my life,” she paused and shook her head, “I’m so sorry if that sounded so cliché. If I could stop the first person who said that and made it cliché, I would. I really don’t know how to put it any other way. I love you, Tiffany Hwang.”

Before Tiffany could answer, everyone heard their professor clearing . “Sorry to break your cheesy bubble Miss Choi but no matter how sweet that gesture is, I still have to send you to the dean’s office.” She looked at Hyoyeon and said, “You, too, Miss Kim.”

“I understand Miss Isak. Sorry for disturbing your class.” She bowed and turned to Tiffany, “I’ll see you later.”

Tiffany simply smiled and nodded.

On their way out, Soo bowed and apologized again for disrupting their class while her perky best friend bowed and said, “Thank you. Thank you very much,” in an Elvis Presley manner.

Tiffany sat back down and stared at the roses while Yuri tried to it all up and continue what she was doing before the whole scene with Tiffany and Sooyoung happened. She looked at Tiffany again and breathed in.  it up, Yul. You can’t be jealous. Know where you stand. She mentally scolded herself and tried to focus on her task.