The girl’s eyes were focused forward as she walked through the hallway of the school. She tried not to have eye contact with any of the students she passed by, and just ignored them if she caught them looking her way.

Her focus was on getting to the school’s exit without stopping to talk to anyone, and also listen to the girl that was talking to her who walked beside her. She had heard at least dozens of different versions of complaints about two different assignments, and also some other versions about how boring they were.

Her school life was back to normal. Tiffany was talking to her, about the same thing she had done before. How the school’s teachers were crazy with all their assignments, how some of their classmates and other schoolmates were stupid, and how inappropriate some guys stared at them.

Taeyeon didn’t really care about all those things; she just let it go and went with the flow. That’s where she and Tiffany were different. Tiffany noticed things and complained about them, Taeyeon noticed things and didn’t care about them. She let them go and didn’t bother about them anymore. Less problems that way.

“Tiffany!”

A shout coming from behind them made the two girls stop in their tracks. Tiffany stopped midsentence about her complaint about how little she actually understood of what their history teacher was talking about. Their bodies turned around in time of seeing a blonde girl walking up to them with a smile on her face.

“Hi!” Jessica said when she saw she had earned the two girls attention.

“Hi!” Tiffany replied. Taeyeon gave an acknowledging nod to the blonde who continued to smile.

“Do you wanna hang out after school?” Jessica asked and looked from Taeyeon to Tiffany.

“Sure, I don’t have anything else to do.” Tiffany replied and the two girls turned to Taeyeon.

Taeyeon got taken aback when she realized the question was directed to her as well. She looked at Tiffany and then back at Jessica who looked expectantly at her. She shifted uncomfortable under the two girls’ gazes.

She had no problem hanging out with Tiffany, alone. But hanging with this blonde girl who was a mere stranger to her made her want to decline. When she felt she had been quiet for way too long she finally shook her head.

“I have a few things to do.” Taeyeon said as an excuse. She could see both Jessica and Tiffany got disappointed with her answer.

“What things?” Jessica asked and didn’t let her eyes leave the girl.

Taeyeon looked at her, not understanding how the girl could think she had any right to know it when they barely knew each other. Her lips formed a hard line, but her silence didn’t seem to indicate Jessica that she wouldn’t answer, and the girl continued to wait for her to tell.

“School assignments.” Taeyeon said not leaving Jessica’s eyes.

“But those school assignments– “

“Other school assignments. I have a ton to catch up with because I was gone.” Taeyeon explained before Tiffany had revealed that they had two weeks to finish the school assignments they just got. She looked at Tiffany before she looked back at Jessica that let out a sigh.

“Okay, can’t be helped.” Jessica said and shrugged her shoulders.

“Yeah.” Taeyeon said and fixed the shoulder strap to her backpack.

“Some other time?” Jessica asked and looked hopefully at her. Taeyeon’s eyebrows furrowed and she glanced at Tiffany before she looked back at the blonde girl.

“Maybe.” Taeyeon answered as she didn’t feel like promising anything to a stranger. Her answer seemed to satisfy the blonde girl and she saw her smile. Taeyeon looked away relieved as Jessica didn’t ask her anything else.

“Well, I’ve to go home now.” Taeyeon said. And what she thought would be a lone trip to the school’s exit she had the two girls tagging along behind her. A sigh left her lips as she listened to them talking about school things, something about Jessica’s stepmother, and the girl had to go and get something which Tiffany had to tag along to.

Taeyeon’s eyebrows furrowed as she couldn’t pinpoint how the two girls had started to hang out together. Jessica didn’t seem to be the type that would hang out with someone like Tiffany, and Jessica wasn’t someone she had pictured Tiffany to hang out with. She wanted to ask, but then she felt it was none of her business. If Tiffany wanted to tell her someday then so be it.

The three girls finally arrived at the school’s exit. Taeyeon turned around to bid her goodbyes to Tiffany and momentarily regretted it as she remembered Jessica was still with them. With a sigh she held up her hand.

“Bye, Fany. See you.” Taeyeon said to the girl. She looked at the blonde that was still smiling. “Bye Jessica.” Taeyeon added and turned around.

“Bye, Taeyeon!” She heard the two girls say. She didn’t bother to turn around and just focused on getting home. Trying to remember if there was something she needed to buy, but dismissed the thought as she felt it was too much of a hassle to go to the store. She just wanted to get home, to the peace of her room where she hoped no one would bother her with questions.


---


Taeyeon finally arrived at home. She slowly removed her shoes as she listened to the voices she knew came from the TV in the living room. A sigh left her lips as she had managed to take of the converse and she walked into the apartment.

She glanced into the living room on her way to her room. Her eyes landed on the woman that sat on the arm chair, a bottle of wine and a half emptied glass stood beside her on the coffee table. The sight not unusual and Taeyeon continued towards her room, not even bothering to greet her mother.

When she had entered her room she threw her backpack on the floor and plopped down in her desk chair. A tired sigh escaped her lips and she stretched her legs in front of her and titled her head back.

She sat in that position and just stared straight up at the ceiling. Thinking about the long list of things she has to do and how little she actually wanted to do them. Her eyes closed for a short moment and she continued to sit like that, trying to not think about anything else but how her lunges filled with air, how she breathed it out through her nose, the cars that drove past on the road outside of the apartment, and how she could hear the neighbor walk around upstairs.

She finally opened her eyes and sat up in a proper position on the chair. She turned to her laptop and turned it on, while she waited for it to start up she fished up one of the books she needed for one of her assignments. When she could see the wallpaper on the desktop she opened a word document, placed the book beside the gadget and wrote a title on it.

She stopped typing after she had put a title to the document. Her eyes went from the laptop screen to the book and finally to the sheet of paper which had all the questions she was going to answer. A sigh left her lips when she felt like ignore all this and just do something else, but she knew she had to do it, as it was her own fault that she sat with this pile of assignments to do.

She began to slowly type again, and stopped to read in the book. Her eyes went back to the laptop and she began to type again. It went slowly but she finally had managed to finish the assignments, and even the extra questions. Feeling proud over herself she leaned back in her chair and looked at her work, she nodded satisfied and looked at the time.

Not too late, and she knew Sunny must have finished her evening lectures if she had any today. She decided she deserved to do something else and she sent away the document in an email before she turned off the laptop, went to get her guitar and headed for the door.

“Taeyeon,”

Just when she had thought she could go out without being stopped she heard her mother call. A sigh left her lips and she left the guitar case in the foyer as she went to the living room to check what her mother wanted.

“Yes?” Taeyeon asked and stopped by the door to the living room.

“When will you be home?” Her mother asked and turned towards her. Taeyeon shrugged her shoulders and glanced at the TV.

“I don’t know.”

The mother stared at her in silence before she turned back to the TV. Her hand reached out towards the glass and took a sip of it before she placed it back on the table.

“Will you make dinner?” Her mother asked.

“It depends on when I get home.” Taeyeon answered. She continued to look at her mother that sat in silence. “If you get hungry you can make a sandwich or something. There are cereals in the cupboard, you can eat that too.” Taeyeon said.

“Okay.” Her mother nodded her head. But even though the woman had said it, Taeyeon could see she wasn’t fine with it. The brunette girl ruffled her hair and sighed in frustration. She didn’t feel like starting to cook now.

“I’ll be going.” Taeyeon said and turned to the door. Her mother didn’t say anything and she didn’t wait any longer for a reply and finally headed to the door. Taking her guitar case with her and finally headed outside.


---


Sunny’s mother had let her into the house like usual. And she had found her short haired, blonde friend in her room in front of her laptop like usual. Taeyeon felt at peace as she saw the sight and started to make her way towards Sunny’s bed where she usual sat.

“Your assignment is there.” Taeyeon heard Sunny say. Her eyes went from the girl by the desk to the bed. Three paper sheets was lying on the bed and a smile formed on her lips as she realized the girl must have printed them right after she had gotten her email.

“Thanks.” Taeyeon said and took the papers before she took a seat on the bed.

“No problem.” Sunny turned around and faced her with a smile. Taeyeon smiled back and looked down at her assignments in her hand.

“You seem better today.” Sunny pointed out. Taeyeon nodded her head and proceeded to take out her guitar from her guitar case.

“Yeah, me and Fany kinda made up yesterday. She’s at least talking to me.”

“I told you she wouldn’t be able to stand not talking to you.”

“Yeah, I know.” Taeyeon said and nodded her head. She began tuning the guitar, hearing everything sounded right she began playing a few chords to warm up her fingers a bit. Her eyes went up to Sunny that didn’t seem to bother about her playing.

Her mind went back to the two girls she had left in the school. Her eyebrows furrowed at the thought of Jessica and Tiffany hanging out. She continued to look at the girl by the desk, wondering if Tiffany had mentioned anything about Jessica to Sunny.

“Has Fany ever mentioned someone named Jessica to you?” Taeyeon asked and looked down on her hand that was strumming the strings. She stopped and looked up at the girl that didn’t turn away from her laptop.

“No, why?” Sunny replied.

“Nothing. Just wondering.” Taeyeon replied and shrugged her shoulders.

Sunny didn’t question any further and the two girls continued with their own things. It was something Taeyeon appreciated from the girl. Sunny never integrated further, when Taeyeon didn’t want to tell something Sunny left it at that and talked about something else instead. And if Taeyeon wanted to tell something Sunny was always there to listen, sometimes with advice and sometimes without them. And Taeyeon couldn’t ask for more, it was mostly enough that she knew Sunny was there to listen.

Taeyeon continued to play on her guitar, and Sunny focused on what she was doing on her laptop. Once in a while Sunny would break the silence between them, telling Taeyeon about something on the internet, or asking her to come and look at a video. The two of them would laugh and go back to what they had done before when they had stopped.

Hours passed, Taeyeon knew it was beginning to get late, and she didn’t want to bother Sunny even further. She started to pack down her things, gathered her music sheets and the assignment Sunny had printed for her.

“I think I’m gonna head home, see if my mom has eaten something.” Taeyeon announced. Sunny nodded and turned away from her laptop and looked at the girl.

“Okay, say hi to Miyoung from me tomorrow.” Sunny said and smiled. Taeyeon nodded her head and closed the guitar case.

“I’ll remember that.” She said and stood up. She glanced at Sunny one last time before she started making her way to the door.

“Take care Taeyeon!” Sunny said before she had walked through the door. Taeyeon smiled and looked back at the girl who had turned her attention back to her computer.

“You too, Sunny.”


---


The cold autumn air hit Taeyeon in the face as she left Sunny’s house. She regretted not taking something warmer to wear with her and began moving home, teeth clattering as she was freezing.

A sigh left her lips and she quickly made her way over the street and started to walk towards the apartment complex she lived at. By now it looked like she had entered a completely different city, but it was the same.

Compared to the place Sunny lived Taeyeon lived in the area where the older houses were. The houses looked dirty on the outside, some places even looked like they were ready to fall apart at any minute. But people were still able to live in the places, also the rent was cheap which people appreciated, but that also made not the best people move into the places.

Taeyeon knew that taking the wrong way in the middle of the night in this neighborhood could mean she wouldn’t see the next morning. But she had been living in the same neighborhood all her life without anything happening to her so she didn’t worry, she was also acquaintance with most of the people living there and they left her alone as long as she didn’t meddle in their things.

Sunny and Tiffany were also aware of the place she lived in. Tiffany had voiced her opinions about the place and her worry about something happening to her. Taeyeon had tried to assure her nothing would happen, but Tiffany continued to worry. Sunny that once upon a time had lived in the same neighborhood knew about how things worked there and trusted Taeyeon would just follow the rules and not get into any trouble.

Taeyeon also had found out that when you get older, looking more confident than you are tend to draw away people from you in this neighborhood. Once you look weak and scared people will come at you.

She sighed as she finally reached the entrance to the apartment complex she lived at. She quickly entered as she couldn’t stand the cold anymore and made her way in, taking the stairs up to the floor the apartment she lived in was at, and quickly got inside.

The TV was still on, but if her mother was awake wasn’t sure. She slowly moved towards the living room after getting her shoes off and looked at the woman that sat in front of the TV. Her mother sure was awake.

“Are you hungry?” Taeyeon asked the woman. Her mother turned away from the TV, her eyes unfocused due to the alcohol she had consumed.

“What are you making?” The woman asked. Taeyeon shrugged her shoulders, trying to come up with a dish that was easy to make.

“Pasta?” Taeyeon suggested.

“Okay.” Her mother said.

A sigh left the girl’s lips and she made her way to her bedroom to leave her guitar before making her way to the kitchen. She found pasta in a cabinet, and a pot she filled with water and put it on the stove to heat up.

She leaned against the kitchen counter and watched the water as it was slowly heating up. Another sigh left her lips and she glanced at the pasta, her teeth biting down on her lower lip as she realized they didn’t have anything to eat it with.

Whatever. We at least have  something to eat. Taeyeon thought and put in the pasta when the water was boiling. She took out a fork from the drawer and stirred the pasta. She quickly glanced at the time to see what time the pasta would be done. Her head bopped up and down and she turned back to the pasta, stirred it again before she stopped to stare at it.

When the pasta was done she brought out a colander to get rid of the water before putting the pasta back in the pot.

“Mom, the pasta is done.” Taeyeon shouted from the kitchen. Hearing no answer her eyebrows furrowed and she looked towards the living room.

“Mom?” She called out again. A sigh left her lips and she went to the living room to see what her mother was up to.

Her shoulders slumped and a sigh left her lips. Without feeling too disappointed over the fact that her mother had fallen asleep Taeyeon turned around to take care of the pasta she no longer had the appetite to eat. She made a note for her mother that there would be pasta in the refrigerator if she woke up and was hungry, but Taeyeon guessed the woman wouldn’t wake up until morning now.