A/N: Annyeong! The next chapter is here. Haven’t proofread, though. But before reading it, I just want to tell you that this prequel is not going to be long. This story will be more or less ten chapters but will never exceed fifteen. My main prerogative when I started this was to give Taeyeon and Jessica’s relationship a backbone and stability before (*new readers, SPOILER, don’t read the following words if you haven’t read Beyond Touch which is the one-shot sequel of this story) Taeyeon died. Expect a not-so-slow paced plot for I will not give cliffhangers often and will go straight to where I want the story to head. italics mean flashbacks. And unlike the first chapter, all of the remaining ones will suffice a taengsic craving. =) This will be the last of Taeyeon’s POV and all the remaining chapters will be narrated through third person POV. So, yeah, sit back, relax and in 3, 2, 1…

            “...class dismissed. Don’t forget the veterinary screening of horses tomorrow at 1pm. Your finals will consist of several requirements and one of those is the observation paper of the event so you are all required to go.”  As the professor left, most of the students started discussing the event for tomorrow. Some uttered disapproval. This time, a bigger animal will be screened. I am now starting to get the bigger picture of myself working in the future and having to take care of animals’ health.

“It would have been nice if the professor didn’t say the words ‘observation paper’” Soo Young complained. We headed to the library to finish some research about albino animals.

“she should have said, ‘aspiring equestrians are also invited’ because hello,” she made gestures. Pointing her hands from her head to toe, “perfect features”

“I knew it. You can be a horse! You have long legs: perfect for high jumps. Except you can’t win a race, you’re too lazy. Equestrians will never pick you.”

“Which part of me being a potential greatest equestrian to ever conquer the world didn’t you get?”

“Conquer the world? Ha ha ha! More like conquer a barn. Stop it, Soo, you’re sprouting nonsense again.”

It was past two in the afternoon. Leaves were strewn on the grounds but everyone didn’t mind at all. In fact, the rustling sounds of feet meeting with the crispy leaves we’re like music to the ears because it only meant one thing: the first winter was coming.

“12 o’clock, Tae. Incoming familiar dignitary from the Architecture Faculty.” Without my eyeglasses on, I could only sharply see everything within a six-meter radius so I was squinting at the direction Soo told me. A petite long-haired blonde girl was approaching us. But even though I could only see her outline, I already knew who it was. She walked briskly towards us and the moment I can see her favorite navy blue cardigan, she started laughing.

She grabbed my eyeglasses hanging from my shirt and placed them in front of my eyes. She was squishing my cheeks while I tried not to squeal from giddiness.

“Wear your glasses so you can see me, y’know. ”

“It’s not like I can’t figure you out without them, even if you’re just a needle in a hay stack I will spot you easily.” She took some of my books from my hold and locked her empty hand with mine as we crossed her college on our way to the library.

“Hey, Soo, remind me again when to hit her head when she’s being stubborn.”

“I will. It’s my job to assist the elderly.” I tried not to laugh by forming my lips into fine line.

“HEY!” she slapped Soo’s right shoulder but I could see her smiling as well.

“Okay, enough, guys. When did age become an issue? And don’t say, ‘since I got taller than you’, Soo because I’m going to personally bring you back to where you came from: your mother’s womb.” Her grip on my hand tightened as she laughed at what I said.

“You actually heard my thoughts!”

“Whatever, Soo.”

“fine, fine, ahjumma. Wait for me at the library, won’t you? I just have to get the soft copy of our anatomy notes from Seo. ” She headed to the dorm building where Seohyun was at the moment.

As we snickered and enjoyed our little expressions of amusement, a tennis ball was sent flying towards us and Jessica was hit on the right leg.

“Are you okay?” I worriedly asked as the player approached us and looked guiltily.

“I’m sorry, miss. Are you hurt?” there was a genuine worried look on his face but I couldn’t stop from reproaching him.

“Of course, she is! Shouldn’t you be playing IN the gym?” he bowed and lowered his head, “I’m sorry Taeyeon noona”

“Taeng, stop. I’m alright. It’s okay you can go now.”

We continued walking when she started rubbing her leg to ease the pain.

“you should have let me scold him more. They’re not gonna stop playing here”

“Taeyeon, there you go again. He even called you noona so that means he’s from your tennis club. Don’t start something that will cause ruckus in your team. I never bothered to reproach you when the same thing happened last time, did I?”

“Oh!” behind me was a girl picking up her belongings from the ground. She looked quite displeased and a hard look was obviously plastered on her face. I heard her sigh and muttered a ‘tsk’.

“I’m really sorry! Wait let me help you.” I started picking up her books and handed it back to her. Damn, it’s so embarrassing.

“We’re sorry, Jessica! We never saw you walking this way.” I looked at Yuri questioningly while Sooyoung mirrored my expression. I never knew Yuri had friends outside the faculty.

“It’s alright, Yuri, just watch where you’re going next time.” She looked tired and her eyes seemed like they were begging for a nice rest already.

“Do you need some help?” I offered. I felt guilty even more when I saw her calm demeanor. If I were in her position I’d probably scolded them right then and there.

“No. I should head off.”

She left hastily and it was probably to catch another class she was late for. As she was out of hearing distance we faced Yuri and started speaking like she already knew our question.

“She’s Jessica Jung from the Archi faculty. Also a junior, and running for laude. Remember Hyo from high school? She’s in the same class as her and they’re friends and I got to meet her when I met Hyo for coffee there. ” She pointed at the red painted café near the admin building. 

“Anything else?” she asked, “Yo, Tae”

“Yeah?”

“You were out” Sooyoung was looking at me, smirking.

“Oh, sorry. I-“

“Was only checking her out, yeah, I know” I tried to slapped her back but she dodged my hit.

“What the hell are you talking about?” instead of raising my voice, I was pretty calm about what she said. I wasn’t even offended. Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh.

“Told you, Yuri.”

The silent agreement between them was getting on my nerves.

Two weeks after, six in the morning, university field.

I took a sharp inhale and sat on the bleachers, my jacket soaked with sweat. I tried to calm my breathing and took gulps of water. After my 4^th round of jogging, I decided to take a break and let the morning breeze soothe my nerves. I make it a point to always make time for my daily morning routine. Only my friends were too lazy to get up at four in the morning and shake those excess in their bodies.

As I was preparing for one last round, I saw a figure dragging someone who seemed uninterested with their morning activity. She was whining and complaining. Muttering incoherent words and I only caught the word ‘useless’. They were nearing to where I was standing and then after a while I was finally able to see clearly. I never bothered bringing my eyeglasses with me whenever I jog because it only hindered my sight whenever my sweat clouded them.

“Taeyeon? Hey! You also run!?” I nodded Hyoyeon smiled while dragging her friend with her, “how come we never see each other here? It would have been nice to run with someone I know. Because I had to drag this lazy bum here who can’t leave her precious sleep alone.”

“Maybe she’s tired?” I looked at her and waved off my question.

“Hi, Yuri’s friend, and no, it’s okay, I’ll just kill her later when I have the chance” She fixed her shoelaces and sat on the bleachers and they started to warm up.

“You know each other?” Hyo asked.

“Not really” she told Hyoyeon about what happened two weeks ago.

“Aah. Why don’t we do this more often, Tae? Sounds like you’re a better running partner than this one.”

I chuckled. She really disliked running, “sure! Let’s get some breakfast after this, shall we?”

Ever since the three of us started to run together, my routine changed from 6 regular rounds to 4 to adapt with Jessica’s preference. Hyo didn’t mind either as she was considerate with Jessica’s plight. We ran together so often that I was already aware of Jessica’s breakfast favorite.

“here.” I handed her tuna club sandwich and sat down in front of her. The café we usually frequent together with Hyo was oddly quite empty today.

“There are no people today”

“Of course, the sem has ended, what do you expect?” she told me. after Hyo finished her finals, she came home straight away to Gangnam. So it was just me and Jessica doing our morning routine. Hyo was even astounded when she learned from me that Jessica still ran after finals. She thought that she was only forced because of her and that Hyo thought that it was very strange for a Jessica Jung to sacrifice her sleep.

I was munching on my croissant when I felt fingers touched the corner of my lips. It felt so soft against my skin and suddenly I felt heat covering my ears.

“I can’t believe you eat like this.” She showed me a crumpled tissue smeared with chocolate.

“Sorry,” I shrugged my shoulders, not totally sorry, “it’s chocolate croissant, I always eat like this when it’s chocolate croissant” she laughed at my expression. Slowly, her eyes softened. She chuckled a bit more and looked at me blankly.

She sighed.

She looked away from me. Her chin propped by her hands.

And she sighed again.

I tilted my head to mirror hers while I was eating. It made her smile. I was glad.

“Ugh. What the hell.” She muttered under her breath but I heard it clearly, anyway.

“What’s wrong?” was she tired of this? Was she just pretending to be glad that she was here?

“Jessica, if you don’t like to do this anymore, you can say it, you know. I’m sorry if I’m bothe-”

“stop. Don’t do that.”

“what-”

“I like you, okay? I don’t even know why I’m doing this either. I can’t believe myself.” She got up frustratingly and picked up her bag, “let’s go, it’s already 8. I have to get ready to go home”

At that moment, my senses were all scrambled. I couldn’t think straight and my knees felt weak I concluded it must be because of the run. But it wasn’t. She just told me she liked me and I don’t know what kind of like. My emotions were bursting at the seams but I didn’t want it to get the best of me. I felt like squishing my face to hide the forming beam in my face but then it turned into a grimace.

‘She likes me?’

‘She LIKES me?!’

 I needed to clear my thoughts but then I heard her speak again.

“Let’s part ways here. I’ll talk to you some time. Bye, Taeyeon”

We were already standing in front of her building! Wait, how on earth?!

Before she could go away I resorted to my first instinct which was to grab her wrist. I did. But something unexpected happened. And screw my freaking lips for doing that. Wait, maybe no?

She touched her left cheek and looked at me deeply in the eyes. Before she could say anything else, I got to talk first.

“See you next sem, Jess, let’s think this thoroughly okay? What you said earlier, I’m glad I heard it.” I smiled while she was still standing rigidly looking like an idiot. A beautiful, mesmerizing idiot.

---------

The silence in the library was very comforting. Soo still wasn’t here and it was only me and Jessica studying. She was looking at some architectural constructions from early Chinese Dynasty from the internet. Seeing her frowning and concentrating so hard is a funny sight and I tried hard not to chuckle.

“stop grinning like an idiot.” Without even looking up, she could still feel me gazing at her.

“Who’s grinning like an idiot?”

“That boy behind you who’s looking at me. He’s kinda cute, don’t you think? ”

 “What?” I turned my head and looked behind me where a boy was sitting. She was right. He was looking at her.

She scoffed at me, her eyes still locked in front of the screen,“I wasn’t talking about you, you know.”

“You were checking him out?” I whispered almost angrily. And seeing that she wasn’t giving any response, I got back to reading my own notes and turned each page with intentional noise. I was upset and I knew it was childish but whatever; I am Kim Taeyeon, the childish.

It fell silent again. The only thing I could hear was her typing and it really frustrated me.

The typing stopped. I thought she was reading something but she spoke abruptly, “I need to look for a book. Come with me, you know the sections better than I do.” I never got up from the chair because I was still mad at her but then she tickled my waist and I squealed. The librarian looked at us, disapprovingly. So before she could continue her attack on me I got up and walked in front of her. I didn’t even asked the book she was looking for.

“I think it’s here. Can you help me look a book about ancient buildings? Particularly from Qing Dynasty.” We walked deeper in the Sections; almost all of the books here are looking glum. Long forgotten by the students because of the World Wide Web.

‘China, China, China…’ where was that freaking book…

‘China, China… oh! Finally’

“here’s the -”

As I was about to reach for the book, she grabbed my shirt and pushed me further at the end of the aisle. There was only the two of us and not even a loud bang would be heard by someone.

“you are so gullible, you know?” she inched closer and closer. Her breaths were hot against my face. She wasn’t doing anything and we were locked into a staring contest. If she wouldn’t do any movement within five seconds I swear I’m going to do something about it.

5

4

3

Screw the last two seconds. She was so teasing me.

The proximity of our bodies drove me insane. I was fast enough to capture her lips and she responded eagerly, roughly. Her hands cupping my face with much fervor while she closed the gap between our bodies even more. I put my hands on her waist as I tried to steady my weakening knees. At that moment, when she bit my lower lip and on it softly, I didn’t care if somebody might see us. The drive was too strong that I never wished for it to end. I kissed her with the same eagerness for as long as I could. She pulled back first and we both panted heavily and looked into each other’s eyes. I knew she wanted more, but what made softened my gaze was the look in her eyes. She couldn’t be any lovelier.

“It’s really fun teasing you,”

“You did that on purpose?”

“What do you think?” We were both tidying up ourselves after the making out. At first I was sure we were gonna get caught but the lucky people that we were…

“I can’t believe you.” I took the book from the shelf but she stopped me.

“Leave it. I don’t need it” She held my hand and we walked out of the book sections.

“but you said you need it for reference?”

“I got what I wanted. So…yeah” we went back to our table and continued to review. Not that I would be able to keep on, anyway. Because my cheeks were flushed and my mind was not in its right state.

“Here, you got some lipstick on your face.” She wiped it off with her hand and looked at the boy behind me cunningly. I noticed what she did and I looked behind me. The boy was embarrassed and got off immediately.

“YOU ARE SUCH A DEVIL JESSICA JUNG!” I murmured not so softly.

The librarian shot us another glare.

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