*Tap tap tap* Taeyeon was lightly drumming her pen on her desk while she was still waiting for Jessica to talk to her. It was their third session and Jessica had refused to talk to her during the second session. She sighed and started to read a book about anger management because Jessica didn’t look like she wanted to talk today either.

After a while, Taeyeon glanced over at her clock on her desk to see that the session would end in 10 minutes. “Do you like noodles?” Taeyeon’s eyes shot up in surprise. Did she hear it right? Jessica just spoke.

“Ah umm yea?” This girl was always catching Taeyeon off guard. Next question in Taeyeon’s head was where was Jessica going with this conversation?

“Know of a good place around here?” Taeyeon mentally slapped herself thinking that they would make any progress today. The girl must just be hungry.

“I ah don’t eat out. Maybe my secretary knows of a good place. You can ask her when our time is up in 10 minutes.” The office fell silent again so Taeyeon went back to reading her book before that familiar voice spoke again.

“You are strange.” Well that comment got Taeyeon’s attention. Never has anyone called her strange before. She lived an orderly life which was to be anything but strange. Taeyeon looked up to see those brown eyes staring right at her. Jessica was not in in her usual position of laying on the couch anymore.

Taeyeon carefully closed her book while she placed her pen on the right side, “What makes you think I am strange?”

“Well for starters, you never talk to me. Isn’t it like your job to initiate conversation with me? I am dying of boredom here. Also, all humans go out to eat once in a while. What is your deal?”

Taeyeon wasn’t used to being interrogated by her patients, but whatever got Jessica talking was what mattered, “I am probably not the only human who doesn’t go out and eat. I am very busy and…”

“Also what is up with this place? So boring! No pictures or nothing. I mean do you not have family or friends?”

“Well I…”

Jessica cut her off again which was starting to irritate Taeyeon, “Plus what is up with your attire? You look too perfect.”

Taeyeon looked down to see their time was up, “Looks like our time together is over. You can ask Ms. Choi about the noodles on your way out.”

Jessica scoffed as she shoved her hands in her pockets after opening the door to leave. Taeyeon slumped down in her chair. It was like she was holding her breath the hold time the girl was questioning her. It had been a long time since anyone’s words affected her so much. Could there be such a thing as being too perfect? No no. If there are no flaws, then no one could judge her. No one could say something is wrong with her…right?

Taeyeon made her way home but her day was anything but happy. Jessica’s words kept echoing in her head which made her day consumed with anxiety. She slipped off her shoes and went to straighten them.  Taeyeon stood up but examined her shoes again. They weren’t perfectly straight so she tried again. That wasn’t right either so she tried again…again…again. After several tries, Taeyeon finally was satisfied before she put her keys on the hook.

She took off her jacket and went to put it into the closet but she saw it had creases. It was like her mind was playing trick on her because all the clothes that were pressed before had creases on them too. The anxiety and pressure in her chest was building. Everything before her made her angry and cut off her breathing. Out of fury (for the wrinkles in her clothes) Taeyeon started ripping all her clothes off the hangers and onto the floor. “No no...nothing is right.”

In a hurry, Taeyeon ran over to personal sanctuary which housed her ironing station and her beloved steam iron. After placing all her clothes near the iron, she desperately tried to get out any and every imperfection that was in her clothes. It was a hard night but Taeyeon got through it once she ironed out all of her clothes. How could words affect her so much?

After ironing her clothes and a long shower, Taeyeon was able to calm down enough to get into bed. She hugged her pillow before drifting off to sleep finally.

Taeyeon stood in front of the girl with tears streaming down her face. She was standing there with every muscle unable to move. Like they were bound in place saying one movement would cause more pain. The girl in front of her was screaming at her. What was she saying? It was like Taeyeon lost her hearing the whole time the girl spoke. The last line was the only audible part, “Taeyeon we can’t work because you will never be perfect for me…” Suddenly the girl’s face changed into Jessica. It was like Jessica was now mocking her while repeating, “too perfect.”

Taeyeon sat up in a cold sweat. She looked over to her clock and saw it was only 3am. She wanted to lay back down and go to bed but every time her eyes closed, it went back to the face of Jessica so she got up and went to drink some water. She carefully got out of bed, aligned her pillow, tucked in the sheets, and swiftly brushed her hands over the cotton so it looked nearly perfect.

Taeyeon took out the filter in her fridge that had water in it and poured it into her glass. She took one large gulp of the water before slamming the glass down on the counter, “How can she say such a thing?! Being perfect is good. It has always been great these past 4 years. And crazy? She is the crazy one with being all hot and cold with me.” Taeyeon leaned back onto her counter, “why is a 19 year old delinquent affecting me so much?!” After she released her anger on her poor glass of water, Taeyeon made her way back to her bed to get some much needed sleep.

It had been several days now since Taeyeon saw the girl but today she had the pleasure of seeing the girl again. However, this time, Taeyeon was not sitting behind her desk but right in front of the girl who was on the couch. She tried to look calm in front of the girl but the girl’s face made her blood boil a bit. “So doc. What do you want me to tell you?”

Taeyeon leaned back in her chair, “Did you find a good noodle place to eat last time?”

The blond haired girl leaned back and started to laugh uncontrollably, “You get paid to ask if I liked those noodles? Are you seriously a shrink?”

Yep there goes the girl always trying to get under Taeyeon’s skin, “If you don’t like my topic, then what do you want to talk about?”

Jessica put herself into a thinking position, “Humm how about your first kiss?”

Taeyeon was flabbergasted. It was a very random and personal question, “I don’t think my personal life is very interesting. How about we talk about your first romance?”

Jessica started chewing her gum obnoxiously again, “No no doc. I ain’t showing my cards till you show yours.”

Taeyeon sighed. She didn’t like sharing her personal life to people. Her past was not what you would call happy. It was filled with many scars which were hard to relive. Now it was a question of doing her job to help the girl or be selfish and protect her vulnerabilities. Although the girl really annoyed Taeyeon, she chose to do anything to help Jessica.

“First kiss...I must have been close to 6 years old...”

“Hold it. That is stupid. When you were 6 you didn’t know what love was or what a kiss really meant. You can’t use that.”

Disappointed that little plan didn’t work, Taeyeon sighed before unveiling a small portion of her past love story:

Taeyeon was in sitting at her desk drawing random pictures in her notebook while her teacher was doing a lecture on something to do with the Spanish Inquisition. She was smart and her teacher used the book for all the exams so paying attention was not one of her top priorities at the moment. Her pen stopped moving when she heard the bell chiming. She smiled while grabbing her things to leave the classroom.

“Ms. Kim where are you going in a hurry?”

Taeyeon grinned happily when she heard a familiar voice, “Ms. Hwang I was of course looking for you.”

“You are silly. Are we joining Soo for lunch today?”

“Actually do you want to have lunch in a quiet place today?”

“I am up for anything...wait,” Taeyeon’s friend went to get a hair off Taeyeon’s uniform while straightening her vest that was slightly crooked, “You should really take better care of your appearance.” Taeyeon blushed with the girl’s attentiveness she showed towards her.

“Hey Tiff...Tae...” The girl looked down when her eyes looked at Taeyeon.

“Did you want to have lunch with us?”

“Actually, Tiffany can I talk to Taeyeon alone?”

Taeyeon was surprised to hear that the girl wanted to speak to her alone. They were all friends so it was a bit weird that Tiffany wasn’t allowed to be around. “No problem Sunny.” Tiffany returned her attention to Taeyeon, “I will just join Soo for lunch. You two take your time. See you after school?”

Taeyeon was a bit disappointed to see her friend leave but she didn’t have a choice this time, “Yea of course.”

Once the one girl left, Taeyeon returned her attention to Sunny, “Umm so what did you want to talk about?”

Sunny looked at Taeyeon, “Tae what would you do if you were in love with someone?”

Taeyeon was happy to hear that her friend has finally fell for someone, “Who is the lucky guy?”

“Actually that is what I am worried about. I fell for a girl...”

Taeyeon gulped knowing full well that she was secretly gay herself and had a crush right now on her best friend. “I don’t know. Maybe you should just tell her how you feel.”

“What if it ruins our friendship?”

“Don’t worry about things like that. A true friend wouldn’t abandon you.” Sunny suddenly turned and kissed Taeyeon on the lips.

“I love you Taeyeon.” Taeyeon didn’t know what to do. She was in shock. For fear of rejecting the girl, Taeyeon just ran out.

Jessica was rolling on the couch laughing, “You got it stolen? What bad luck!”

“Yah! It isn’t funny. It was bad for both of us. Our friendship fell apart after that.”

“You are such a hypocrite. You said it wouldn’t ruin the friendship yet you just said it was ruined.”

“That is another story. So what about you?”

Jessica sat up and casually looked at her nails, “Made out with the quarterback of the football team at some party. No big deal.”

Taeyeon sighed. She thought Jessica might have some interesting and romantic story but it was just a sloppy first. Yet, this fact didn’t surprise Taeyeon. Jessica was always acting this way around her.

“Oh looks like our time is up doc. It has been swell.” Taeyeon watched as Jessica took her bag and left the room.

Taeyeon carefully massaged her temples, “What am I going to do with that girl?”

Author's Note

Wow you readers are increasing at an alarming rate! So many new subscribers and the upvotes! Went from 3 to 17 within a day. Thank you so much!

I do want to say that this will be be a romance eventually.