A sigh left the girl’s lips and she tilted her head up, focusing her eyes on the blue sky above her. Her lips formed a frown and she picked up her phone, checking the time to see how much left she had of her lunch break.

Fifteen minutes Taeyeon quickly calculated. She pocketed her phone and let her hands remain in her jeans pockets. She had avoided the girl for the whole day, knowing Tiffany would be with Jessica and Hyoyeon Taeyeon decided she would take a distance until she felt she could talk to Jessica again.

Tiffany had nagged her about apologizing to Jessica, and Taeyeon had no problem about it. She too felt the last thing she had told the girl had been a bit harsh. But the problem was that Tiffany had told her Jessica’s secret and she felt she couldn’t meet the girl just yet.

She had to mask it somehow. She had to cover up the fact that she knew Jessica had feelings for her.

Another sigh escaped Taeyeon’s lips and she closed her eyes. It passed a few minutes and soon the sound of voices was heard. Her eyes snapped open and her head turned the way the voices came from, her eyes landing on three guys she recognized from Jessica’s class.

Her eyebrow rose as she watched them, they suddenly stopped and turned around, and her eyes caught a forth guy that had been with them. Her eyes widened when she noticed who it is.

Suho? She watched the guys from Jessica’s class talk to her own classmate. Seeing Suho’s hunched figure being backed up against the wall she didn’t think more about what they were doing and made her way over to them.

“Hey, Suho!” She called and earned the four guys’ attention. “Our next class starts soon, what are you doing?” Taeyeon asked and stopped beside the guys. Her eyes wandered from the guy who was leaning against the wall to the three that stood in front of him.

“He’ll come later.” The tallest of the three guys said. Taeyeon frowned by his answer and turned towards Suho, taking in the boy’s pale face and panicked eyes Taeyeon knew leaving him alone with these three would be bad.

“Then I’ll wait for him. Here.” Taeyeon said and crossed her arms.

The corner of the guy’s lips pulled downwards into a frown. He glared at Taeyeon before turning towards his two companions, he nodded towards Taeyeon and they moved towards her.

Her eyebrow rose when she saw the guys approaching her. Seeing their expressions her face hardened and she let her arms fall down to her sides, she put one foot behind her and bent her knees a bit, she readied her hands to be able to protect herself if needed.

She guessed that both she and Suho would be late for their next class.   


---


Brown orbs focused on the white ceiling above her. One hand rested on her stomach, the other holding the ice packet she had been provided against her cheek bone. She glanced towards the way she heard a voice. A woman’s voice was speaking softly, but not getting any verbal responses. And Taeyeon could understand why, as she knew how the person the woman was talking to was currently looking like.

A sigh escaped her lips and she turned towards the ceiling again, shifting some in the position on the bed, only to wince when she felt the pain from her ribs. She stopped moving and furrowed her eyebrows. She hoped she didn’t have to go to the hospital.

A knock on the door to the infirmary made the woman stop talking and Taeyeon glanced towards where the door was located. She heard the woman walk to the door, opening it and greeting whoever had knocked.

“Yes, she’s in the bed over there.” Taeyeon heard the school nurse say and she heard quick steps coming towards her and soon the curtain that had been around her bed was pulled aside and her eyes landed on the worried faces of Tiffany and Jessica.

“Oh my God, Taeyeon.” Tiffany’s shoulders slumped. Taeyeon couldn’t even muster up some kind of smile to assure the girls that she was okay. Her eyes left Tiffany’s form and looked at Jessica, the blonde’s face had paled and she suddenly felt guilty. She gulped and turned towards Tiffany.

“I’m fine.” She said even though she felt her words weren’t that convincing considering she was lying here on the bed, a cut on her lip and a bruise on her cheek bone.

“Fine my .” Tiffany said and made her way towards her bedside. Fearing what the girl would do Taeyeon shifted a bit to the side only to have Tiffany grab her arm to prevent her from moving.

“Be still. You first disappear on me, then you came back and get mad at me, and now you get into fights. Do you have any idea how much you make me worried? You’re going to make me age early.” Tiffany scolded.

Even though Tiffany sounded angry, Taeyeon could see the softness in her eyes and she managed to muster up a small smile at the girl. She wanted to apologize, for making the girl worry, but really, what was the point in that?

“I’ll try to be more careful.” Taeyeon said instead.

“You better!” Tiffany exclaimed and hugged her. Taeyeon winced when she girl squeezed her ribs.

“Fany…ribs…hurts…” Taeyeon said and tried to bite back the tears that had formed in her eyes from the pain. The girl quickly pulled away, eyes apologetic and brows furrowed.

“Sorry.” Tiffany apologized, letting her hand rest on her shoulder.

“It’s fine.” Taeyeon said.

Tiffany didn’t look convinced but she ignored it and carefully sat up on the bed instead. Her eyes went to Jessica, the blonde had regained some color in her face now, and a small smile appeared on the girl’s lips when her gaze met with Taeyeon’s.

Taeyeon mustered up a small smile at the girl before she turned around and managed to get up from the bed with the help of Tiffany, who now had begun rambling about her carelessness and how she shouldn’t have intervened and things Taeyeon would rather not listen to.   


---


Taeyeon followed the two girls after she had left the infirmary. She had just nodded to the school nurse’s instructions about how she should rest and what she should look out for and when she should consider visiting a hospital. Tiffany had however taken the instructions seriously and she felt as if the girl would constantly remind her of them for the past two weeks now.

Just thinking about it made her sigh and a feeling of exhaustion hit her.

She Tiffany and Jessica’s stopped in their tracks. Their conversation about what had happened with the three guys from Jessica’s class had ended, and the last thing Taeyeon had heard from that conversation was that the three guys had been at the principal’s office. Whatever had happened after that she had no idea.

“Where are your things?” Tiffany asked and turned towards her. A frown appeared on Taeyeon’s lips and she refrained from rolling her eyes when she felt the answer to that question was quite obvious.

“In my locker.” She said.

“I’ll go get your stuff.”  Tiffany announced and turned to leave. Realizing the girl was leaving her alone with Jessica her eyes widened and she turned towards the leaving girl.

“Fany!”

Tiffany didn’t hear her and left. A sigh left Taeyeon’s lips and her eyes went from the leaving girl to Jessica. Her gaze met with the girl’s and she awkwardly smiled at her and let her eyes fall down to the floor.

What the heck should she say now?

Her eyes returned to the blonde girl, watching as Jessica was staring into the wall in front of them. Her shoulders slumped and she let out a sigh. She finally figured out why Tiffany had left her alone with the girl.

“Um…” She started and scratched the back of her head. Jessica turned towards her, and she smiled awkwardly once again at her. “About before…I’m sorry.” Taeyeon apologized. Jessica’s eyes widened and she felt really stupid suddenly.

“I didn’t want to hurt you or anything. I was just in a bad mood. And I’m not used to people worrying about me…I just don’t get why people even worry about me.” Taeyeon said and let her eyes fall down to the floor.

“People worry about you because they care and think of you as someone important.” Jessica replied. Taeyeon blinked and turned back to the blonde, she felt unable to turn away as she caught Jessica’s gloomy look. It seemed as if Jessica didn’t notice her staring as the girl was too busy staring into the wall.

She gulped, felt her lips part but not words came out of . She closed again, furrowed her eyebrows and continued to look at the blonde who now turned towards her, her gloomy expression gone and she just stared blankly at Taeyeon, very unusual as Taeyeon had grown used to seeing the girl smile all the time.

“If someone like you they’ll care about you and will start to worry.” Jessica added.

Taeyeon’s eyes widened by the words, her heart picked up its pace and she continued to stare at Jessica as Tiffany’s words echoed in her head.

“It’s because she likes you!”

Was this a confession? An indirect confession? She continued to stare at the girl. Jessica didn’t say anything else, and neither did she. She swallowed and finally broke the eye contact with the girl and focused on her shoes instead.

“I don’t want you to worry.” Taeyeon said and glanced at the girl. “When you worry you stop smiling, and I like it when you smile and laugh.” Taeyeon said.

She saw Jessica’s eyes widened, and she suddenly felt embarrassed by the girl’s surprised look. She looked away again, hoping Tiffany could come back now and save her from this embarrassing moment.

“It’s only a few people I can smile genuinely with though.” Jessica suddenly said. Taeyeon turned back to the blonde, seeing a small smile on Jessica’s lips. And Taeyeon began to wonder, had this girl ever shown her her genuine smile? Or has Jessica always shown her faked smiles?  She gulped, wondering if the laugh and everything else was also fake.

“You should spend more time with those people then.” Taeyeon replied. Jessica’s smile widened and she turned to her.

“Do you want to come to my place later? Tiffany is coming too.” Jessica asked.

Taeyeon didn’t reply immediately. She stared at Jessica, wondering if this was another indirect confession that Taeyeon was one of those few people that could make Jessica smile genuinely. But why? How could she make Jessica smile genuinely?

“It’s because she likes you!” Tiffany’s words kept haunting her mind and she turned away from Jessica’s form. Not being able to look at her when she knew a secret about the girl that the girl didn’t know she knew.

“Sure I can come.” Taeyeon said and glanced in the corner of her eyes at the blonde. She saw Jessica’s face had turned brighter, and that smile the girl usually had on her lips was once again there.  

She felt her relax by the sight. It was nice, nice seeing Jessica seemed to be back to her usual self, not the one that had a worried expression on her face, lips unable to turn into a smile.

Taeyeon realized she had grown used to it. Jessica smiling, Jessica laughing by some things she said, Jessica randomly contacting her. She had grown used to the girl.

She continued to observe the blonde. Maybe she just didn’t know Jessica personally, but she had definitively grown familiar with the girl’s presence.


---


When Tiffany had gotten her things the three girls headed to Jessica’s place. Tiffany hadn’t even been surprised when Taeyeon had joined them, it was like the girl had expected it. And for some reason Taeyeon felt this had been planned before hand by her friend, or maybe by Tiffany and Jessica.

She wasn’t sure, and she felt thinking too much about it would just give her an unnecessary headache. And she had already suffered enough pain for the day.

After a twenty minutes’ walk they arrived at an apartment complex. Jessica took the lead and showed the girls the way. And by how Tiffany acted all comfortable Taeyeon figured this wasn’t the first time the girl had been to Jessica’s place.

“I’m not sure if anyone is home.” Jessica said when they were riding up the elevator. “But if it is, just ignore everything they say.”

Her words made Taeyeon arch an eyebrow. She glanced at Tiffany, but from the girl’s expression she felt as if this wasn’t something new to her. Instead she resumed being silent and followed the two girls out of the elevator when it stopped on the fifth floor.

Jessica stopped outside one of the four doors on the floor. The girl fished up a set of keys from her handbag and unlocked the door and held it open for Tiffany and Taeyeon to enter.

The hall was a bit crammed. A lot of shoes was on the floor, jackets and other outwear clothes was hanging on the crooks on the walls to their left. Taeyeon looked down where she put her feet, she followed Tiffany’s lead and removed her shoes, placing them beside the girl and followed the girl as Tiffany stepped further into the apartment.

“You can go to my room. I’ll be right there.” Jessica said and motioned for them to go. Taeyeon not having any idea where Jessica’s room was located turned to Tiffany who led the way, and then she got proved that Tiffany had been here before.

They made their way through the hallway, into the living room and stopped in front of a door that lied adjacent to the living room. Tiffany opened the door and entered and Taeyeon carefully followed the girl inside the very neatly cleaned room.

She took her time taking in the bed that stood by the wall on one end of the room, the desk by the window, a wardrobe next to the door and a couch of the other end of the door. It wasn’t a big room, but probably big enough for Jessica it seemed.

“Take a seat.” Taeyeon heard someone say from behind her and she stepped to the side to let Jessica enter her own room. A smile was flashed her way and a hand grabbed hers and tugged her towards the bed in the room, and soon she found herself seated on it, her eyes going back and forth between Tiffany and Jessica.

Tiffany had taken a seat on the black leather couch, and Jessica was standing by her desk, turning on her computer and picked up a camera that had lied beside it.

“This is the one I talked about!” Jessica exclaimed and held out the camera towards Tiffany.

“Oh, so this is the one you bought.” Tiffany said amazed and took the camera from Jessica’s hand. Jessica smiled proudly and turned back to her desk, typing in something on her computer before she turned back to Tiffany.

“Yeah, I was thinking of trying it out and snapping a few pictures.” Jessica said and took the camera when Tiffany handed it back to her.

“Taeyeon knows really good places to take pictures.” Tiffany pointed out and Taeyeon felt her eyes widened when the girls attention was turned towards her.

“Oh, you have to show me those places one day.” Jessica said and beamed a smile her way. Taeyeon blinked, trying to understand what places Tiffany was talking about, but she nodded her head in answer anyway.

“Sure, one day.” She replied and continued to watch the two other girls. Jessica held up the camera in front of her face, snapping a picture of Tiffany before she lowered the gadget and checked the display screen. A small laugh escaped her lips and she turned the camera to Tiffany to show the girl the picture.

“Oh my God, delete it.” Tiffany said and pushed the camera away from her.

“Why? I think it turned out pretty.” Jessica laughed.

“Just because you see the pretty in everything ugly.” Tiffany pointed out.

“Maybe so.” Jessica said and turned back to her desk. After a few clicks and a few moments of typing the room was filled with the sound of a guitar. A pleased smile appeared on Jessica’s lips and she turned back to her guests.

“I was going to do Tiffany’s nails. Do you also want your nails done?” Jessica asked and turned towards Taeyeon.

“Um…” Taeyeon looked back and forth between the two girls. “It’s no use in doing my nails. They’ll get ruined when I play guitar anyway.” Taeyeon said.

“Oh, well. Suit yourself.” Jessica said and shrugged her shoulders. “But tell me if you change your mind. I wouldn’t have anything against doing your nails.” The blonde said and smiled her way. Taeyeon nodded her head in answer, continued to watch as Tiffany and Jessica talked about designs for the nails and what to use and other things Taeyeon felt she didn’t care much about.

Her eyes wandered around the room, her eyes landing in the corner at the end of the bed. Her eyebrows rose when she noticing something very familiar, and something she at least could find interest in.

“You have a guitar.” Taeyeon said and pointed at the black string instrument that stood in the corner of Jessica’s room.

“Yeah, but I’ve used it like one time. My dad bought it for me, but I never learned how to play it.” Jessica confessed.

“Really?” Taeyeon said her disappointment couldn’t be hidden in her voice.

“Yeah. Music never interested me. But you can play on it if you want. But just to warn you, it’s probably really off tune.” Jessica said.

“Taeyeon could probably tune it.” Tiffany spoke up.

“Really? Just by ear?” Jessica asked amazed.

“Um…maybe. I’ll see what I can do.” Taeyeon said and grabbed the guitar from the corner. She wiped off some of the dust that had gathered on it before she sat down on the bed again and strummed the strings. She made a grimace by how off tune it was.

“Should I turn off the music?” Jessica asked.

“No, it’s okay.” Taeyeon said, concentrating on the guitar than anything else. Completely lost in her own world, and didn’t even take notice of the two girls that were now observing her.

Feeling satisfied with her work she began to slowly play a few chords, her ears picked up the tunes of the music that were playing in the background, and soon she had figured out the chords for the song and she started to slowly play along while humming a small tone that soon evolved into soft singing tunes.

The song stopped and she stopped playing as well. When she looked up she noticed Tiffany and Jessica were staring at her with their mouths agape. Feeling embarrassed she placed the guitar to the side and awkwardly coughed.

“Your guitar is tuned.” Taeyeon mumbled.

“You sang.” Jessica said.

Taeyeon didn’t reply and focused on her nails instead.

“Taeyeon that’s the first time I’ve heard you sing since middle school.” Tiffany pointed out.

“It was beautiful. You have a really good voice!” Jessica praised.

Taeyeon felt too embarrassed to look up at the two other girls. She continued to focus on her nails, and tried to make her fast beating heart calm down, and make the redness on her cheeks go away. She wondered how she could have lost herself in the music so badly that she completely forgot about her surroundings. Now she felt like sinking through the floor and disappear.

“Taeyeon, can I ask you something?” Jessica asked suddenly asked.

Taeyeon blinked and looked up at the girl that now had finished painting Tiffany’s nails.

“Do you feel insecure about our voice?” Jessica asked and met Taeyeon’s gaze.

Taeyeon didn’t reply at first. She looked from Jessica to Tiffany that looked expectantly at her. Her gaze went back to the blonde, she gulped, not sure what to answer even though she knew the answer, but she wasn’t sure what Jessica was looking for.

“I…do.” Taeyeon admitted shyly. She continued to hold Jessica’s gaze for a few seconds, the blonde started to slowly nod her head and she looked back at Tiffany’s newly painted nails before she looked back at her.

“You shouldn’t. Because you have a really good voice.  If you released a song I’d listen to it all the time because your voice is so good.” Jessica laughed.

Taeyeon awkwardly smiled by the compliment and lowered her gaze back to her hands. She side glanced at the guitar beside her, feeling the small desire to play something, but felt too embarrassed to do it now.

She continued to watch the two girls that were painting each other’s nails. She felt she was getting a bit more comfortable and so she crawled back on Jessica’s bed until her back was leaning against the headboard.

Jessica turned towards her, a smile graced the girl’s lips and she felt her lips turned into a smile as well. The blonde turned back to Tiffany’s hands to tend to the girl’s nails and Taeyeon watched them, feeling strangely relaxed in their presence.