Chapter Thirteen

TAEYEON

Taeyeon  watched for Hyoyeon's reaction, she couldn't help herself she was just letting all this out of her. Something so locked up that she didn’t even let anyone besides Tiffany and Jessica  get this far. She shut them all out. But somehow Hyoyeon felt safe, he felt like home. He got himself over the wall and wedged a part of him her heart. Which was a ridiculous thought after last night but she would look past that. Like Tiffany said he was protecting her. Taeyeon believed he did, it was the only way they could move forward. Something in Hyoyeon's face worried her, this was new information he didn’t received. Which surprised her, she was sure that Hyoyeon knew all her secrets. Just like how he knew about Onew cheating on her.

"No one told you this part of my story, did they?" she asked running a finger round the rim of her teacup.

“No,” he simply responded.

“Well, let me explain,” Taeyeon said as he lifted his glare towards her.

“Taeyeon, you don’t have to, we’ve asked each other three questions for today,” he said. His kindness and compassion warmed her. There was a strange feeling overtaking her body, hot and intense. Like a little bit of her was being mended. She didn’t understand it but she would chase this feeling for as long as she needed to.

“I want to, Hyoyeon. By telling you about how I found out about him cheating on me, it may shed a little light about me. We are getting to know each other, after all.” Taeyeon smiled for a moment. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She was going to relive that night.

“Let me go back to that night,” she said as she gripped the teacup. She was about to open the door on the worst night of her life. The pain would surely reopen her wounds, so close to healing but so easy to break open. She was still broken, no matter how much she told herself otherwise.

⌘

“Taeyeon! Party! Party!!” Yuri yelled out to her, beer in one hand and Tiffany’s waist in the other.

“Hey,” Taeyeon said as she approached them both. She had worked late at the bakery with a new recipe, so engrossed that she had almost forgotten about the mid-semester party.

“You made it! We thought you were never going to come!” Tiffany said with a bright smile. She never really gave Tiffany  the chance to be friends they worked on a few assignments together but never really hung out.

“Sure did,” Taeyeon replied as she searched the room for Onew. She arrived an hour late to the party and she was sure Onew would be angry with her. Taeyeon looked around the function room, balloons filled the floor, streamers flown around, fairy lights lighting the room, and the dance floor was filled with couples dancing. That would be them dancing soon.

“Come on Choi, let’s get you a beer,” Yuri said as he led her to the drinks table. A brown haired girl in a tight black dress stood by the table, holding her corona while speaking to a girl Taeyeon was unfamiliar with. Taeyeon  was thankful she wasn’t wearing black she couldn’t pull it off like Jessica did. She was happy she was wearing a red, sleeved short dress that had sequence detailing on it and went well with her red velvet heels.

“Well if it isn’t Choi Taeyeon, looks like you came out to play,” Jessica said as she turned her back on the girl she was talking to. She and Jessica had never been close friends but Taeyeon  was always nice to her, you always had to be nice to Jessica.

“I guess I have, you haven’t seen Onew anywhere have you?” she asked over the loud music asYuri handed her a corona. She watched as Jessica looked at Yuri and then at Tiffany.

“No,” Jessica shook her head as she took a mouthful of her beer. Taeyeon simply held hers. She wondered why no one had seen Onew since he was the one begging her to come out tonight. Taeyeon took out her phone and dialed hisnumber, her call going straight to his voicemail. It had been doing that a lot lately.

Where is he?

“Let’s dance baby,” Yuri said as he dragged the giggling Tiffany to the dance floor leaving Taeyeon with Jessica. There was an awkward moment of silence between them they had never been left alone together before.

“I’m going to go look for my boyfriend,” Taeyeon said as she smiled at Jessica.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you, at least not for a half hour or so,” Jessica said as she checked the time on her phone.

“Uhh, why would I do that?” Taeyeon asked, her response confusing Taeyeon.

What did Jessica  mean by give Onew half an hour?

“Just trust me, Taeyeon. You don’t want to go searching for him. Not yet. If you know what’s good for you,” Jessica said as she placed her beer down.

“Good for me? Look, thanks for the concern in the matter but you don’t decide what time I should see my boyfriend. Now excuse me,” Taeyeon  said as she tried to walk past Jessica, only to have her wrist restrained by her.

“Don’t be foolish, Taeyeon. Trust me. Please,” Jessica pleaded but Taeyeon shook her head.

“Fine, but let me come, okay?” Jessica sighed heavily as she removed her grasps from Taeyeon. Her reply continued to confuse Taeyeon but she just simply let Jessica lead the way. She seemed to know where Onew was.

They exited the main function room and headed out to the courtyard. When they reached the path leading out to the garden Jessica stopped Taeyeon. Perfectly trimmed hedges boarded the courtyard except for the gap that lead to a path further out into the garden.

“Are you sure you want to search out here?” she asked as Taeyeon looked at her. Jessica’s eyes started to dilate. She was warning her? Clara shook the thought away.

“Should I be worried about something, Jessie?” she could feel the hesitation in her voice.

“Just prepare yourself, okay,” she simply replied and they both started to walk to the path. The cold wind felt like sharp needles, what Onew was doing out here she didn’t know. The sound of Taeyeon and Jessica’s heels clicked through the cold air. The deeper they went into the garden, the more it turned into a forest. Not the kind the sheltered innocent rabbits, a forest that hid monsters and serial murderers.

“If I tell you ghosts roamed this place, will that convince you to turn around and

walk back to the party?” Jessica asked as she stopped Taeyeon in her tracks.

“What the hell is going on, Jessica?” she groaned out but she continued walking.

The only light had been from the moon and it made it eerie to be out here.

“I can’t tell you, Taeyeon,” was all Jessica said as they walked further on the path.

Can't or won't?

Taeyeon  felt a sting of dishonesty at Jessica’s reply but she didn’t care, she just needed to find Onew it was getting too cold to play Marco Polo. The path ended on to a clearing but Onew wasn’t there, he must be further out. She couldn’t think of a reason for Onew being this far out, unless he was drinking with some of the boys. As her heels sunk into the ground she could hear Jessica curse behind her, her designer heels were not meant for clearings like these.

They reached the outskirts of the clearing, the wind growing fiercer causing her to shiver. She was hoping Onew had a jacket she could wear to protect her exposed skin from the elements. The trees were denser than the trees near the path. It made it tricky not to fall over fallen branches. The sound of a branch breaking caused her to jump, she turned around to see Jessica on the ground.

“Are you okay?” Taeyeon laughed as she helped her up.

“Broke a heel, !” Jessica murmured as she assessed her heel.

“Come on. We’ll look a bit further if he isn’t here we’ll go back to the party,” Taeyeon said as she helped removed the leaves stuck in Jessica’s hair.

“Fine, but after tonight you owe me. I didn’t just kill these pumps for nothing!” Jessica said as she starte