TAEYEON

Thursday was a lazy day. She had been asked to attend the lunch function with the dean and a bunch of other students and sponsors. Taeyeon hated those functions the most. Faking a smile and acting that she actually cares in front of rich old people who were not even going to be her future bosses. Despite that, Taeyeon still attended every function. Even if they weren’t going to be her future bosses, having connections was a way of survival.

Taeyeon waved as a form of greeting to Seohyun and Sunny who was waiting outside the dean’s office. Seohyun was an overachiever, the girl skipped an entire year of university by overloading on modules. How she managed to get A+ in all her modules was not surprising seeing how the girl always buries herself with books. Sunny happened to be one of the smartest girls Taeyeon knows. Sunny or Soonkyu as Taeyeon would often is one of Taeyeon’s best friends. They have been best friends for as long as Taeyeon could remember. In fact, Sunny was the first person who knew Taeyeon dated Jessica back in middle school. As much as Taeyeon and Jessica both played it off as ‘discovering’ themselves, Sunny knew that the pair had genuine feelings for each other. Everyone else has more or less forgotten about the young love, except for the occasional arguments between Yuri and Jessica when Taeyeon often find herself being dragged into on days when Yuri has her bad ‘insecurity’ days.

Taeyeon was used to it. Both she and Jessica would wait until Yuri calmed down and convince the taller girl that there was absolutely nothing going on between them. Taeyeon and Jessica had broken up for a few years before Yuri moved into the empty house next to Taeyeon’s. Yuri also knew what she was getting herself into, given the fact she asked Taeyeon if the older girl was alright with her dating Jessica.

Taeyeon and Sunny would exchange exasperated expressions each time they made eye contact. Just another hour of this torture and Taeyeon can go back to sleeping on her bed. As soon as the whole function was over, Taeyeon, Sunny and Seohyun went their separate ways. Sunny went off to meet her girlfriend, Hyomin. Seohyun went to meet her boyfriend, no, not the library or the books but Yonghwa, the resident good boy who’s both smart and talented. Hyoyeon and Yuri would often joke that Yonghwa’s existence made Seohyun less ‘nerdy’.

Taeyeon went straight to her car, who does she have waiting for her if she’s been single all along? As she drove out of campus, she noticed someone familiar sitting at the bus stop. Red hair, pink shoes, pink cardigan. It was the weird girl. Taeyeon didn’t realize that she had actually slowed down until the bus behind her honked. She jumped slightly and realized that the weird girl was now looking at her. Without looking back, Taeyeon stepped on the accelerator and drove away.

TIFFANY

Thursday was spent in the arts building. Tiffany spent the morning checking out her new workspace. Unlike her old school where the workspaces were too small for her to do any proper paintings, Juniper University was a lot better. It was an entire room that has small partitions on the sides but a huge empty space in the middle. Tiffany walked to the empty cubicle that had her student number on it. As she walked, she realized that it wasn’t just contemporary art in the studio. Fashion students, students from the Architecture department and others were also sharing the same space. Tiffany found herself staring at the artwork in the cubicle next to her. Well, it was in Tiffany’s mind artwork. She knew it was a design student from the sketches and bits of fabrics attached to the sample designs. She’s talented. Tiffany made a mental note, she assumed it’s a girl from the signature at the bottom. J.J didn’t indicate much but the Jessica Jung written on the covers of sketchbooks was obvious enough.

Tiffany took out her own stuff, sketchbooks, paints, paintbrushes and a few pieces of black canvas. She left her workspace slightly bare but it was enough to indicate someone is using that particular cubicle.

On her way out of the studio, Tiffany noticed familiar faces. It was another blonde that she had seen from yesterday. The girl and the taller one next to her were the two that sat next to the other blonde that tried to make her life difficult. She could tell that the pair had an argument as the blonde girl stomped towards her direction. She watched as the taller girl cursed out loud and walked in the opposite direction. Tiffany turned back to see the back of the blonde girl disappear into the studio.

Tiffany waited for what seemed like forever for the bus home. She sat down and sighed in her head when she noticed that the bus behind a black convertible wasn’t the bus she has been waiting for. It wasn’t until the bus driver honked that Tiffany realized the person driving the car. Black hair, black wayfarer, blue and white baseball jacket. It was the girl from yesterday. The same girl in the café and the same girl she sat next to during lecture. The girl that stares.