All 9 girls sat around the dining table in silence, which was interrupted every now and then by Taeyeon’s buzzing phone. She sighed.

“I’m sorry….” Taeyeon mumbled. “I didn’t mean to bring this shock upon all of you.”

“Taeyeon, is it true?” Sooyoung asked. “Then why didn’t you tell us beforehand? Do you know how shocked I was when I checked my phone in the morning and the first thing I saw trending was,” she spat, “SNSD’s Taeyeon and EXO’s Baekhyun dating? I mean, it doesn’t even make sense!”

Seohyun nodded. “Yeah, unnie. What’s going on? Why aren’t you denying it?”

“Are you really dating Baekhyun?” Yuri gasped.

“Omo…”

“Why Baekhyun? He’s younger than you….”

Tiffany and Yoona remained silent. Tiffany snuck a glance at Jessica and saw Jessica sitting there, staring at Taeyeon with a very confused and hurt expression. Jessica looked like she was trying so hard to hide her emotions and it hurt Tiffany to see her suffering like that. I must find out the truth behind the whole incident, Tiffany thought.

Tiffany cleared . “Guys, if Taeyeon doesn’t want to say anything now, give her some space. I’m sure that she’ll tell us everything soon. Right, Taeyeon?”

Taeyeon nodded and shot her a grateful smile.

Catching on, Yoona quickly said, “Come on, let’s get ready for our photoshoot later.”

The other girls groaned and got up from their seats to get ready. “Thanks to Taeyeon, I lost 2 extra hours of sleep!” Sooyoung complained.

“ Sica-unnie, wanna grab some coffee downstairs first? You look tired.”

“Not today, Yoona, I don’t really have the energy.” Jessica mumbled.

Yoona sighed and grabbed Jessica’s wrist. “All the more we should.”

Tiffany mentally thanked Yoona for getting all the members out of the dining room so that she and Taeyeon could talk. As she sat back down on the chair across from Taeyeon, Taeyeon muttered apologetically, “Fany-ah, I know that you’re dying to know about the whole story of Baekhyun and I but I’m really tired now. Could we leave this talk for later?”

“I know that it isn’t true.”

Of course it isn’t true, you idiot. Taeyeon thought. Baekhyun wasn’t even her type.

But she had to keep the whole truth about her fake relationship from her members. Knowing her members, they would definitely want to help her against Kim Young Min and that didn’t really sound like an ideal plan, especially since she knew the personalities of each and every one of the members. They were rash, and would most likely do things that they would come to regret later, and Taeyeon couldn’t afford for that to happen.

“What if I say it is true?” Taeyeon said, and looked defiantly at Tiffany, watching her face expression change from confidence to confusion.

And then one second later, Taeyeon started to regret her decision of attempting to lie to Tiffany when her expression turned to a mixture of hurt and disappointment.

“I thought I was your best friend, Taeyeon.”

Taeyeon flinched at her tone; Tiffany only uses this tone when she was really hurt. And suddenly, Taeyeon recalled all the times that Tiffany had been by her side, all the times Tiffany had stayed up late at night to wait for Taeyeon to fall asleep first because of her insomnia, and all the times she had hurt Tiffany because she loved Jessica.

And yet Tiffany was willing to remain by her side, she was willing to watch her love Jessica because Tiffany only wanted Taeyeon to be happy.

Taeyeon realised that she hadn’t been treating Tiffany the way she should be treating her.

“I’m sorry, Fany-ah.” Taeyeon bit her lip. “You know me too well….”

Tiffany cracked a smile. “I may be forgetful and I may be unsure of some things, but I’m very sure of one thing: Kim Taeyeon will never date a guy like Byun Baekhyun.” She crinkled her nose. “I knew it wasn’t true the moment I saw the name Baekhyun. It would’ve been more believable if it was Kim Heechul instead.”

Taeyeon smiled and she silently thanked God for placing Tiffany by her side.

“So….if the dating news aren’t true, why are you not denying it? Please tell me the truth, Taeyeon. I can help you.”

So Taeyeon told Tiffany everything. Right from the beginning.

“Woah.” Was Tiffany’s first word after Taeyeon had told her everything.

“Yeah….crazy huh?” Taeyeon tried to laugh. “There’s so much drama going on, that my life could be made into a drama, huh? Which channel should I contact? KBS? SBS?” she joked, and Tiffany’s eyes started to well up.

“Yah, why are you crying?”

“I feel so frustrated.” Tiffany sniffed. “I can’t just sit back and watch this happen to you, yet there’s nothing I can do to help.”

Taeyeon cracked a smile. “Nothing’s going to happen to me, Fany.”

“I know nothing’s going to happen to you physically,” Tiffany sobbed, “but are you going to ignore what EXO-Ls are going to do to you from now on? You know that they will never leave you alone. Your SNS is going to be flooded with thousands of hurtful comments. You’ll never get peace, Taeyeon.”

“Of course I know.” Taeyeon tried to swallow the lump in . “All I can do is to try to stay strong. And I know I can, with all of you being by my side.”

“Unnie, please say something.” Yoona begged.

“Huh?” Jessica looked up, eyes softening at Yoona’s worried and concerned face. “Oh, sorry. I was thinking about something-“

“They’re not dating for real.” Yoona blurted. “I know Taeyeon unnie will never do something like that. Especially to you.”

“I know.” Jessica said quietly, watching the steam from her coffee slowly dissipating into thin air.

“Then why do you still look so upset?”

Jessica sighed. “This may make me seem petty but...I’m upset because Taeyeon didn’t bother telling me anything. If the dating news were fake, then why didn’t she deny it? There must be something going on, and she clearly doesn’t want to talk about it with me. It’s almost like she didn’t trust me enough.”

Yoona opened to say something; anything; to defend Taeyeon. But she couldn’t come up with anything believable. She herself was also confused. What was Taeyeon hiding from the rest of the members?

“TAEYEON, LOOK HERE!”

“KIM TAEYEON, IS IT TRUE THAT YOU ARE DATING EXO’S BAEKHYUN?” A reporter shoved his camera into her face. Taeyeon’s manager pushed him out of the way, causing him to stumble back and fall.

Normally, Taeyeon would’ve grimaced at the sight and lightly reprimand her manager for using force. But not today. She was physically and mentally exhausted, having woken up to malicious comments and articles every single morning, without fail. It had been 2 weeks ever since the dating news had ‘leaked’, and for the past 2 weeks, she had been hiding in the dorm, trying to hide from the outside world.

For the past 2 weeks, she hadn’t talked to Jessica at all. In fact, the only person she ever let into her room was Tiffany, the only member whom knew everything. However, she didn’t intend to shut off her members by not telling them everything. The other members were just so busy with their hectic schedules and on top of that, they also had to deal with bombarding questions about the dating scandal.

Taeyeon felt very apologetic towards her members for dragging them down with her. The whole atmosphere at the dorm had been very tense; and she felt even worse when the members would drop by her room occasionally to give her some snacks and a word of encouragement.

Except Jessica.

Whenever Taeyeon would emerge from her room once in a while, she would either see Jessica stoning in the living room with her headphones on, or taking a nap with a tear-stained face in her shared bedroom with Tiffany, where Taeyeon often sneaked to at night just to catch a glimpse of Jessica’s face.

The first few days after the dating news had been released, Taeyeon would try to approach Jessica to explain about the whole situation, and Jessica would also linger around in places where Taeyeon could find her easily to talk. But every time Taeyeon tried to approach Jessica, she became tongue-tied and would eventually back out. This mislead Jessica into thinking that Taeyeon, afterall, didn’t want to confide in her, thus leading them back to square one. A cold relationship.

I tried to give you a chance, Jessica wrote in her diary, but you didn’t want to take it. What happened to us? Why won’t you talk to me?

“TAEYEON, WHAT DO YOUR MEMBERS THINK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH BAEKHYUN?” Another reporter yelled into her ear, causing her to snap back to reality.

“We’re finally here.” Her manager tsked in annoyance, angrily punching in the passcode at the main entrance of the SM Building. “Thought that we would never get away from those reporters.”

Taeyeon braced herself as she walked through the doors towards the lifts. She was afraid, but she’s not going to show it. It’s time to face the tiger again.