Her teeth nibbled on her lower lip, her eyes flickering from each person that walked past her when they went through the door. A group of people walked towards her, and she shrunk in her pose and moved in her side to make room for them to walk past her.

They didn’t seem to notice her as they continued their conversation, someone saying something and the rest of the group burst out in laughter. Her eyes followed the group until she saw in the corner of her eyes that someone came through the door again, her eyes went to that person, only to have her sag against the wall when she noticed it wasn’t the person she was waiting for.

She sighed and continued to observe the people that went through the entrance of the school. Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked down on the phone she was holding tightly in her hand. She unlocked the screen, not text messages, no missed calls, and ten minutes left till performance.

“Hey!” A familiar voice made Taeyeon look up from her phone. Seeing two blonde girls her shoulders sagged and her eyebrows furrowed when she saw the smiles on their faces.

“Hi.” Taeyeon greeted Jessica and Hyoyeon that stopped in front of her.

“Did you wait for us?” Jessica asked hopefully. Taeyeon’s lips formed a frown and she shook her head in answer. Jessica’s face showed disappointment and Taeyeon sighed and looked down the hallway before she turned back to the two girls.

“Narsha hasn’t shown up yet.” Taeyeon mumbled. Both Jessica and Hyoyeon looked surprised and they exchanged glances with each other before they turned back to her.

“But…you’ve done sound check and everything, right?” Jessica asked.

“The others have. I can’t exactly do sound check when the person I’m going to perform with isn’t here.” She said dryly. Jessica and Hyoyeon looked at each other again before they looked back at her. Taeyeon lowered her gaze, not being able to meet their sympathizing gazes.

“What’s going to happen to your performance then?” Hyoyeon asked.

“The music teacher said that if Narsha doesn’t show up I won’t perform…” Taeyeon mumbled.

She heard a scoff coming from one of the blondes and she looked towards Jessica who suddenly marched past her. She looked at Hyoyeon who looked confused as well. The other blonde nodded towards Jessica and Taeyeon figured she should follow the girl.

“Jessica,” Taeyeon noticed Jessica didn’t stop to take a seat when she had entered the auditorium. Instead the girl was marching towards the stage with rapid steps. Noticing the attention the blonde was drawing towards her Taeyeon began to feel nervous and she quickened up her pace to catch up with the girl.

“Hey, Jessica!” Taeyeon managed to stop the girl before she had managed to walk up on the stage. The brunette took a cautious look around before she turned back to the blonde girl, her eyes suddenly fell on Jessica’s lips, and she felt herself blush by the memory of their kiss, and that distraction gave Jessica the time she needed to escape her again.

Seeing the girl walk away from her again Taeyeon let out a groan and followed the girl who had walked up on the stage. But instead of stopping there the blonde went backstage and Taeyeon followed her.

She noticed the students in her music class turned towards her. Feeling embarrassed by the attention she bowed her head low, but made sure to keep her eyes on the back of Jessica’s shoes to not lose the girl.

To Taeyeon’s relief Jessica suddenly stopped and she managed to catch up with the girl. She sighed and Jessica turned towards her, determination written on her face, shocking Taeyeon that was used to the girl’s smiles and grins.

“What are you doing?” Taeyeon asked in a whisper. She looked around her, noticing some of the students were watching them. It gave her an uneasy feeling as she wasn’t used to have that much attention on her.

“Will you be fine if I offer to take Narsha’s place?” Jessica asked.

Taeyeon blinked, surprised to hear that. She looked around her before she looked back at Jessica.

“I guess I’m fine with it.” Taeyeon said.

“Good, let’s find your teacher then.” Jessica said. She felt the blonde wrap her hand around hers and Taeyeon was dragged along. She felt herself blush and she lowered her head when she noticed people were still looking.

They found her teacher, talking to one of the other students. But when he saw Taeyeon approaching he looked up, his left eyebrow quirked up when he noticed Jessica, but he didn’t pay much attention to the girl and turned to Taeyeon instead.

“Has miss Park shown up?” The teacher asked.

“No, but I found her a replacement.” Taeyeon said and glanced towards Jessica. The teacher, still with his left eyebrow raised, looked towards Jessica. He eyed the girl up and down, a frown appeared on his lips and he crossed his arms.

“Miss Jung.” The teacher acknowledged.

“Wow, I’m amazed to see you remember me.” Jessica said. Jessica’s statement made Taeyeon’s eyebrows rose in surprise and she looked at the teacher that didn’t look all too happy about Jessica’s comment.

The teacher scoffed and looked towards Taeyeon again. “You’re not performing with miss Jung.” The teacher deadpanned.

“Why not?” Taeyeon was just about to ask the same but Jessica beat her to it. She looked at the girl, that now had earned herself the annoyed expression on the music teacher.

“Because you missed sound check. Also, you need to tune in with miss Kim. Don’t you know anything?” The teacher said.

“Maybe if you had taken the time to teach me I’d know.” Jessica said and raised an eyebrow.

“It’s hard teaching students that are not present for their classes.”

“If you maybe paid equal attention to the students in the class maybe you wouldn’t have students that skip your classes.”

Taeyeon looked back and forth between the teacher and Jessica who seemed to have ended up in a staring battle. She shifted a bit in her stance, getting a bit startled when the teacher abruptly turned towards her, a sneer on his face.

“You’re not performing this time, Kim. End of story.” The teacher said and turned.

“Yah! You can’t punish her because of me!” Jessica protested.

“I’m not. Miss Park isn’t here, and so she’s not performing.” The teacher said and his heels and walked away from them.

Defeated and disappointed Taeyeon’s shoulders sagged and a frown appeared on her lips. The performance had been so close, and she still didn’t get it. Her eyes left the retreating back of the teacher and she turned towards Jessica that looked apologetically at her.

She sighed by the sight and shook her head at the girl before she turned to leave. Jessica had at least tried, and she appreciated the girl’s effort for her.

She left the auditorium after she had picked up her jacket and other things. She didn’t know where Jessica had gone or where Hyoyeon was, and she didn’t care, she just wanted to be alone for now.

After reaching the backside of the school she let out a sigh and leaned against the wall before she sagged down against it, taking a seat on the cold concrete and stared straight in front of her. It had been so close, she had really believed she would perform this time, she had practiced like crazy, and yet…

She sighed. Maybe she wasn’t meant to perform at all. Her eyes closed and she leaned her head against the brick wall, feeling the cold evening wind blow past her, making her skin prickle in the cold.

The sound of steps made her open her eyes and look towards where the sound came from. Her eyes landed on Jessica, a cigarette between the girl’s lips. The girl had a small smile on her face and she stopped beside Taeyeon, taking a seat beside her.

“The music teacher .” Jessica stated and took out the cigarette from , slowly blowing out the tobacco smoke.

Taeyeon nodded her head in agreement. A comfortable silence settled between them as they both were immersed in their own thoughts.

Taeyeon felt Jessica look at her, but she didn’t looked back. She felt the girl move closer to her, the action made her raise an eyebrow but she didn’t say anything and waited for Jessica to say something again. But the girl didn’t, and she felt the occasionally motion of Jessica’s arm rubbing against hers when the girl moved it to bring up the cigarette up to , and then lower it again.

“I’m cold. And if you’re wondering why I sit so close to you it’s because you’re warm and I don’t like to freeze.” Jessica explained after seconds of silence.

“Go inside if you’re cold.” Taeyeon muttered.

“Too bad that goes against what I want.” Jessica said and Taeyeon could catch the girl grinning in the corner of her eye.

She reflexively in her lips when she remembered what had happened the last time Jessica had said a sentence with the word ‘want’ in it. She blushed, remembering the lingering flavor of raspberry on her lips after the incident.

She heard Jessica laugh beside her and it made her turn towards the blonde who looked at her with an amused expression.

“Don’t do that with your lips.” Jessica said and put her thumb under her lower lip and pulled down, freeing her lips in the process. Pleased by it she smiled and titled her head to the side. “I might kiss you, but I’m not going to eat your lips.” Jessica chuckled.

Taeyeon gulped. She continued to hold Jessica’s gaze with her own, her own uncertain and confused eyes that displayed her whirling emotions inside of her. Her eyebrows furrowed, and her expression must make Jessica wonder what’s on her mind because the girl looked expectantly at her, like she waited for her to say something.

She her dry lips, and she suddenly missed the taste of raspberry on them. The thought made her lower her gaze to Jessica’s lips, only to realize the girl was watching her and she panicked looked up at Jessica’s eyes again, noticing the girl had an eyebrow raised now, patiently waiting for her to say something.

“Is your lip balm raspberry flavored?” Taeyeon blurted out.

Surprise was registered on Jessica’s face for about a second before the blonde burst out laughing. Jessica almost fell over because of how hard she was laughing, her hand clutched her stomach, her head bent down as she tried to calm down.

“Oh, Kim Taeyeon, you’ll be the death of me.” Jessica breathed after she had calmed down. Taeyeon suddenly felt embarrassed by her question, and she turned away from the blonde, a blush tinting her cheeks.

She didn’t look at Jessica again. The blonde finished her cigarette, blowing out the last smoke from . She felt some of her blush had disappeared from her lips and she looked at Jessica that was blankly staring in front of her. She continued to observe her profile, the blonde’s jawline, the blonde hair that covered half of her ear as it fell down over the girl’s shoulder.

Jessica was pretty. Taeyeon admitted to herself.

The girl suddenly turned and Taeyeon felt herself staring a bit longer at her. Getting her eyes locked with the girl who didn’t turn away. Jessica smiled and Taeyeon got snapped out of her trance, taking in more of their situation. She realized she had unconsciously leaned closer to the girl.

“Why did you kiss me?” Taeyeon finally asked and met Jessica’s gaze. The blonde smiled at her, tilted her head to the side, making more of her hair fall down over her shoulders and chest.

“You said you wouldn’t hold me back from what I want.” Jessica pointed out.

Taeyeon bit her lower lip, letting her gaze fall from the blonde’s face before she managed to look up again. Her eyebrows furrowed.

“What if what you want goes against someone else’s wants?”

“That’s their problem.” Jessica stated.

Taeyeon frowned. “That’s pretty selfish.” She pointed out.

Jessica chuckled. “Maybe. But how else are you going to get what you want?”

“Ask?”

“There’s still a chance of getting rejected.”

Taeyeon furrowed her eyebrows. “So, you just do whatever you want, without caring what anyone thinks?”

“Pretty much. Besides, no one has really shown that they care what I do, so I just do whatever.”

“What if what you want to do involves other people?”

“As long as they don’t show they care, I won’t care either.”

Taeyeon furrowed her eyebrows and turned away from the blonde. She had to take a pause from this, think things through. What does all this mean even? She bit her lower lip, stared straight in front of her, only being brought back to reality when she felt a small push to her shoulder.

She turned and looked at Jessica that had bumped her shoulder into hers. She gave the girl a quizzically look, and was met with a smile in return.

“I want to do a lot with you. But you have a tendency of showing what you feel in your eyes.” Jessica said. She saw Jessica reach her hands towards her and soon she felt the girl cup her face, it made her freeze and she stopped breathing momentarily. The blonde turned so her whole body faced her, she was shown a smile, and Jessica leaned closer, but stopped before their foreheads met.

“And you look so terrified that I’m afraid I’m going to give you a heart attack if I do what I want.” Jessica whispered. Taeyeon gulped and let her eyes lower to the blonde’s lips before she looked up at Jessica’s eyes again, wondering if she will walk home with raspberry tasting lip balm on her lips again.

“What if I’m getting a heart attack because I’m excited?” Taeyeon asked. Jessica smiled.

“Stop looking so scared then so I can believe you.” Jessica said and released her face and leaned away.

Taeyeon didn’t remember if she had ever felt so disappointed about someone putting a distance between them. She curled up against the wall, already missing some of Jessica’s closeness even though the girl was sitting right beside her.

“I am scared.” Taeyeon admitted. She got a surprised look from the blonde. “I’m scared because you barged into my life, try to get close to me, and I’m not used to have strangers trying to get close to me.” Taeyeon said. “And you’re also straightforward, do whatever you want, and I feel like I have a hard time catching up with you. I have no idea where to place you.” She explained and looked down at her feet.

“You’re like a train that goes in full speed at me and I’m just waiting for the impact to kill me.” She mumbled.  When she looked up at Jessica she noticed the girl had a look pf hurt on her face. The blonde sighed and titled her head.

“Waiting for the impact to kill you.” Jessica echoed. She chuckled sadly and closed her eyes. “I’m not going to kill you.” She said and opened her eyes and met the brunette’s gaze.

“Let’s say I’m a train. But I’m no longer going in full speed at you, I’ve stopped and now I’m just waiting for you to get on.” Jessica said and straightened up in her pose. “You have the ticket in your hand, the train is waiting. But remember, the train doesn’t wait forever.”

Taeyeon’s eyes widened slightly. Her heart beat had fastened, and she wasn’t sure what to say. It was going too fast, everything was going too fast and beyond her control. She gulped, and continued to hold Jessica’s gaze, the blonde waited, and waited. And Taeyeon had already gotten it stated that the girl wouldn’t wait forever.

“A date.” Taeyeon blurted out. “Let’s go on one.” She added. Jessica looked surprised, the girl’s eyebrows had rose and her eyes had widened. It took a few seconds until what Taeyeon had said sunk into her mind, and her eyebrows lowered to their normal place and a smile graced her lips.

“Okay, Kim Taeyeon. Tomorrow you’re taking me to a place that I will be able to take pictures at.” Jessica said. It wasn’t a request, it was a demand, and Taeyeon found that much better than having her choose a place for them to go.

“Okay.” She agreed.

Jessica smiled, the girl leaned her head against the wall behind her, her head still turned towards Taeyeon, her eyes watching the brunette girl that looked at her.

“And the train is going.” Jessica whispered.

Taeyeon mustered up a small smile, feeling her heart beat faster in anticipation, fear or maybe even excitement. She leaned her head back, letting her eyes close, and hoped the train ride wouldn’t be that bumpy.