Blood was dripping down the cheeks of a struggling midget. She never knew that these girls would be stronger than she thought. Well, she doesn’t care about them or their strength. All she cared was her mushroom who had been bullied by these 9^th graders. They have been discriminating her bestfriend just because she doesn’t have a mother. Tiffany’s mother died due to illness when they were just five years old and since then the poor girl has suffered from bullies like these people. Tiffany would never tell her about this oppression, knowing what she could do to them. This time, it was one of her classmates who saw Tiffany being bullied by these students that told her. Taeyeon decided to skip class in order to teach these bullies a lesson. But it seemed like she’s not really making such difference with her current condition.

“What now? Is that all you got, huh? Mighty savior of the Hwang who doesn’t have a mother?” one of the four girls laughed at the sprawled Taeyeon who was struggling to stand on her feet again.

Her uniform has been tainted with dirt and some of it were ripped off due to the beating. Her lips was already bleeding with the non-stop punches she got from the girls a while ago and blood was flowing from the cut on her upper left eye corner. Taeyeon is sure wasted.

But when she remembered the days when Tiffany would knock on her door just to get a hug from her, saying that her embrace is what all she needed for her to sleep in peace; when Tiffany would come to school sniffing and saying that she just caught a cold on her way where in fact she has been bullied again by the 9^th graders; when Tiffany would try her best to smile in front of Taeyeon where in fact she is hurting inside; the midget was sure that she should regain her composure in order to revenge for her beloved bestfriend.

“Oooh! This is getting interesting!”

Taeyeon, after striving to get back on her feet, shot her deadliest glare to the girls that gained disturbance from the latter. She’s not backing down from them anymore.

“Why you!” one of the hot-headed 9^th graders abruptly gave a heavy thump on the midget’s face that resulted for the latter to step back a bit. After receiving a punch, Taeyeon went back staring at them again with all the seriousness all over her face. This time, the 4 girls flinched at the gaze. It was as if this midget is not hurting after all the beating and heavy punches she got from them.

What kind of monster is she? They thought.

The leader of the group who seemed to be really disturbed by Taeyeon’s gaze scoffed. She never thought she’ll be having a hard time on this kid-leader.

“Finish her…”

***

Meanwhile, something is really disturbing Tiffany. She knew something is wrong. It’s just that she doesn’t know what it is that is wrong.

Well, Taeyeon didn’t come to class today. She texted her and she said she can’t come because she has some important matters to do. Maybe an errand from her uncle who supported their family after her parents passed away. Taeyeon is very thankful to her uncle since he was the one who took the responsibility on Taeyeon and her 3 other siblings after their parents died on a plane crash. Tiffany knew how grateful her best friend is to the last family she got so she cannot say no when it comes to them.

But wait, Taeyeon usually tells her about the errand she needs to finish. This time, Taeyeon just told her that it is something important which is unlikely on the midget. Can it be??

“No… Hell no… Taeyeon will not break her promise…” Tiffany talked to herself as she continued walking down the hall to get into her locker.

Her bestfriend promised her that she will not do anything that will involve herself to the mean 9^th graders. Tiffany knows her bestfriend all too well. She knows how protective Taeyeon is to her and how stubborn the latter is. It’s not that she doesn’t like this side of the kid leader. It’s just that, she doesn’t want her to get into trouble just because of her. Tiffany doesn’t want to see anyone hurt because of her. And if taking all the bullies all by herself keeps her most important person safe, she’ll do it.

Suddenly, a mention of someone’s name by some of the students resulted for the American to eavesdrop and pause on her pace.

“Hey, did you know about Kim Taeyeon, the rich freshman kid?”

“Oh that cute midget? Yeah I know her. She’s too adorable. What about her?”

“She challenged the 9^th graders to a fist fight. It was supposed to be today. Did you guys went to see it?”

“And why did she—“

“No, I didn’t. We were stuck in the lab. Where was it?”

“Hey! I asked first…”

“Somewhere near the abandoned warehouse at Changju St? I don’t know. I only heard it from one of the sunbaes.”

But before Tiffany could hear any further, she immediately sprinted towards the mentioned location of the fist fight, leaving the students in the hall confused at the sudden ruckus of someone running. She could not think clearly and all she is thinking is Taeyeon. Her bestfriend Taeyeon who is so stupid to engage herself into a fist fight with those bullies.

I thought you promised me not to do this, Tae-tae?? You promised me!!

***

Breathe Kim Taeyeon. Just breathe.

“You are so full of yourself, Kim! Too arrogant!” one of the girls exclaimed while giving the hardly beaten Taeyeon pretty hard kicks on the gut.

The poor midget has been spitting out blood for a while now but it didn’t seem to bother the four 9^th graders at all. All they were thinking was to beat the hell out of this over-confident freshie who doesn’t seem to know anything about seniority.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Taeyeon loose count of all the kicks she has been receiving since they started brawling. Her body is now sprawled down but these thugs don’t seem to know anything about stopping. She should be unconscious right now, with all that torture she got. But no. Her body is pretty much enduring for things like these. She doesn’t know why. She just can’t get knock out after all that happened.

Tiffany.

The image of her beloved bestfriend suddenly flashed into the bleeding midget’s mind. Her bestfriend’s eye-smile suddenly popped into Taeyeon’s head and it somehow gave her the reason not to close her eyes and perhaps—die? All of this is for her best friend. She could not afford to see her Tiffany crying just because of these bullies. She brawled against these filthy people for her Tiffany but it seems like she will not get the revenge she wanted.

I’m sorry Ppany… I’m too weak…

“Hey!” a husky voice of someone made the 9^th graders stop at the torture they were doing and turn their heads towards the direction of the voice. The midget also struggled to move up her head to see who it was.

“Pp…Ppa..Ppannyy…” Taeyeon breathed. Her bleeding head makes it hard to see if it was really Tiffany she was seeing and not just a side effect of the kicks she got.

Tiffany could not hold her tears. It freely flowed down her cheeks as soon as she saw Taeyeon, her body sprawled at the feet of the people who made her cry every day. Her bestfriend’s face was visible of bruises and blood and that didn’t help to calm Tiffany.

This… This is not happening…

“Ta..Tae…Taeyon-ah…” the eye-smiling girl is now slowly approaching. She don’t seem to comprehend anything that is going on right now. She did not even notice that she had picked up a wooden paddle out of nowhere.

“So... Here comes trouble eh?” one of the girls teased as she earned laughs from other girls who don’t seem to be bothered by the building anger inside the American. Well, they shouldn’t have done that if I were them because the next thing they knew, they were already dodging the heavy whacks from Tiffany who has this blank expression on her eyes. This is not the girl they were bullying, they thought.

“You… You will pay for what you did…” Tiffany blankly stated (imagine her like a mannequin in the Gee Era) as she successfully hit one of the ducking girls. The girl immediately went unconscious and blood splattered on the floor.

One.

“G…Grab her!” the leader of the gang nervously exclaimed as she tried to hide behind one of her minions. The ordered one tried to catch the raging Tiffany but instead, she was hit on the head and went unconscious just like the other girl.

Two.

The two remaining girls uneasily nudged each other in whose turn it is now to face Tiffany’s paddle. But instead of a hard whack, one of the girls received a full blow on the face and a very hard one on the gut that left the latter on her knee, struggling for air.

Three.

So now it’s just the leader. Tiffany doesn’t know her name but she vividly remembers her face. This was the face who always reminded her that she’s a kid who grew up longing for the love and care of a mother. She’s the one who announces to the world how lonely Tiffany was being alone. She’s the one who Tiffany really wanted to give a handful punch from the very beginning. She’s the one who made her cry every day and worst, she’s the one who hurt Taeyeon. She hurt the most important person for Tiffany and she will not be forgiven for that.

“N…No…P..ple…please! Don’t do this, Tiffany-sshi…P..please!” the girl broke out in tears as she knelt down to beg for her life.

But it seemed like Tiffany was not hearing anything. She is still wearing her blank expression on the face and started lifting the heavy bat above her head, ready to whack the devil down the head of the begging girl. She’s not hearing anything and the bad side of her keeps telling her to go on with what she is doing until…

“Stop it…” a warm heap of air was felt by the zoning out Tiffany that resulted for her to blink her eyes rapidly and break free of the trance she was in. A pair of warm arms was engulfing her waist and that gave chills down the cold spine of the American. Taeyeon was successful in bringing Tiffany back to reality.

“S..Stop it, Ppany… It’s o..okay.” the midget struggled to speak and balance herself but was able to with the help of Tiffany’s back for support. The paddle above them carelessly fell down the floor that echoed throughout the abandoned warehouse they were in. The girl under them was still sobbing with her hands above her.

“Go…Go now.” Taeyeon weakly ordered the crying girl which was hesitantly obeyed by the latter. She gathered herself up and run out of the place like a thief, leaving behind her knocked out minions lying on the floor.

“Tae…Taeyeon-ah…” Tiffany spoke for the first time after all the whacking. She was still left agape at her position, with Taeyeon still back hugging her as a support.

“Tippany…”

The American slowly reached for the encircled hands of the midget and unbind them so that she could turn around. As soon as she turned, Taeyeon weakly fell down but was immediately caught by the firm arms of Tiffany.

Seeing up close how badly beaten her bestfriend is, tears started flowing down Tiffany’s cheeks again which means she is the normal Tiffany again. Not the scary Tiffany anymore.

“Yah Kim Taeyeon!” Tiffany wanted to yell but her words turned out to be a whisper.

“Mmm?”

“Why did you do this?? Why did you break your promise??” Tiffany whispered under her sobs. Taeyeon’s angelic face is now filled with blood and cuts and Tiffany never imagined her bestfriend to look like this. The American slowly caressed Taeyeon’s cheeks, afraid that it might bleed the moment she puts in force in making so.

“I…I’m so..sorry. But isn’t it… isn’t it also my promise not… not to let anyone make you cry??” Taeyeon weakly asked as she caressed the hand that was caressing her face. Such a cute view seeing Tiffany cry like this, Taeyeon thought.

“You’re the most stupid person I ever met… I hate you…” Tiffany shed tears even more at the words of her bestfriend who doesn’t seem to run out of ways to make her feel special even at the worst situations like this. Paboo Kim Taengu, Tiffany thought.

No one made the eye-smiling girl very angry before and this was also the first time seeing herself like that. All wild and free and unstoppable like a beast who doesn’t know mercy. She is always known to be the brightest and jolly person in the world that she didn’t even know that she has that side in her until today. And since then, the American knew that only her Taeyeon could let out the beast in her. Taeyeon will always be the reason for the wild and devilish acts of Tiffany and the midget will also be the only means to stop her for it. Nothing more. Nothing less.

***

Taeyeon sprinted down the hallways as fast as she could when she saw Tiffany fetched her phone and turned herself to answer it. The midget didn’t even bother to look back when she heard the American calling out her name. The girl was seriously clinging unto her throughout the hours that went by. It’s not that she doesn’t like it. She and Tiffany has always been like this—together—throughout their lives but today is just not the day Taeyeon feels like being with the eye-smiling-clingy-girl. Besides, her heart is looking for someone blonde. She needs to talk to her.

After like a run that looked like someone’s life depended on it, Taeyeon lost sight of Tiffany. She let out a heavy sigh and grinned. She doesn’t even know why she is smiling over this thing. This is like a scenario in K-Dramas or in fanfics where a character who is incredibly famous will be followed by the fans everywhere he goes and time will come that he will run as fast as he can and hide as much as he wanted to in order to get away from the crazy fans. Well the thing is, Taeyeon is not a famous person and Tiffany was not her fan. She was her… bestfriend. Yeah bestfriend. The bestfriend who told everyone in class that they’re in a relationship, which is not. Haigoo. She can’t get over the fact that she outsmarted the clever Tiffany and if someone sees Taeyeon, they would think she’s gone crazy for smiling alone in a lone corridor.

This is sooo much high school…

Having her first Tiffany-free time in their mission, Taeyeon decided to walk along the hallways of the school. She kinda missed going to school and every details in the building brings back memories of her younger days when she was still attending an ordinary high school. Since she and Tiffany signed up for the Society when they were still in middle-school, they started attending classes inside the CS headquarters and it was a lot different than normal classes have. So this is actually nostalgic for Taeyeon.

Ah. What a lovely feeling being young and fresh and free, isn’t it?

Just after she walked towards the corner, she saw the person she badly needed to see. The blonde was stuck on the other side of the hallway and Taeyeon guessed she was peeping into something behind the walls. The midget then decided to slowly approach the concentrated blonde who seems not to notice her steps.

“Jessica…”

The soft voice of the midget startled the blonde which resulted for her to jump out of her position and turn her head to the owner of the voice abruptly. Jessica’s heart went on racing because she was so astonished of Taeyeon’s sudden appearance out of nowhere.

“Taeyeon! What the! You scared me!” Jessica hissed as she clutched her chest to ease her beating heart. Well, part of it was also because of their proximate distance.

Taeyeon could only wonder why the blonde is so surprised to see her.

“I’m sorry. What are you looking at?” the midget casually threw herself to see what Jessica was peeking behind this corner but was swiftly blocked by the firm hands of the blonde.

“N…Nothing… It’s nothing Taeyeon…” Jessica nervously smiled at the kid leader while her hands are settled on Taeyeon’s shoulder. She doesn’t want to look pathetic in front of the girl. She knows it was rude of her to peek unto someone’s conversation plus it will be embarrassing if Taeyeon finds out she’s glancing at her cousin secretly.

“You will not be hiding herself here just to peep at nothing, will you?” Taeyeon raised her eyebrow at Jessica, knowing that the blonde will not stammer on nothing.

“It’s my new hobby!” Jessica blurted out brilliantly but soon cursed herself for saying ridiculous things.

“What??”

“I…It’s my new found hobby. You… You know, I am getting tired of sleeping and lazing around so I figured out I should do something new… It’s this…” the blonde nervously smiled, hoping that Taeyeon will buy her absurd statement.

“I don’t believe you…” Taeyeon briefly said and forced herself to check on the ‘nothing’ that Jessica was talking about.

The blonde seemed to have a stronger grip on the midget’s shoulder and was able to stop her first. But Taeyeon grabbed Jessica’s arms and gently pinned her on the wall. Jessica blinked twice at the sudden kinship between the two but Taeyeon was too occupied thinking about the ‘nothing’ to notice the blonde’s blush.

With this opportunity, Taeyeon popped out her head towards the view Jessica was staring at a while ago but surprised to see that there was really nothing special about the place. It was just a hallway of lockers with no students lingering.

What the??

“There was nothing…It was just an empty hallway…” Taeyeon spoke but merely to herself.

“I told you…” Jessica felt relieved that the YoonYul went away already or else Taeyeon could have seen them.

It was like a minute or so before the two danshins realized that they were still stuck on the position they had. For a second, Jessica was sure to see a shade of pink on the midget’s cheeks.

Kyeopta.

Taeyeon cleared and backed herself away from the blonde.

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay…”

The two was left staring at each other before Taeyeon broke the silence.

“Je…Jessica—“

“Kim Taeyeon?! Where are you?!” the sound of Tiffany’s husky call alarmed Taeyeon so much that panic was really visible on her face.

“Oh no…”

Jessica could only look at the freaking midget since she didn’t get why she is panicking from Tiffany’s call. Before she knew it, Jessica was being dragged by Taeyeon to who knows where and the blonde didn’t understood why she is not pulling away from the grip.

Taeyeon found a door and didn’t hesitate to open it. She gently pushed Jessica to get inside of the room and she followed behind, shutting the door and locking it. She pinned the blonde against the wall beside the door and put her index finger on the latter’s lips, gesturing her to keep quiet. The blonde could only nod in response since she doesn’t have much of a choice anyway.

“Yah! Kim Taeyeon!” Tiffany’s voice was audible even inside the room and Taeyeon could only shake her head out of frustration that her bestfriend is really annoying today.

“Why you midget! I’m going to find you in any way I can!” Tiffany talked to herself and soon there was the sound of the heels tackling the ground away from where Taeyeon and Jessica was hiding.

The kid leader finally sighed in relief as she realized Tiffany was nowhere from their hiding place. She smiled goofily at the thought that yet again, she outsmarted the clever Tiffany for the 2^nd time today. How good is that?

But what Taeyeon missed was the fact that Jessica was silently staring at her, enjoying the view of her grinning. The ice-princess was left in awe at the adorable smile Taeyeon was flashing. It was an attractive view for her and she didn’t realize that she has been gazing at her intently.

“Jessica…”

“Dae?”

“I’m sorry…” with that said, Jessica went back to reality and furrowed her brows at the sudden apologize.

“For what?”

“Eeer… For what Tiffany said to the class? The girl is acting childish and I don’t know how to fix it. But just so you know, it was not true okay? Tiffany and I are not a couple. I think it will be a part of the disguise now but everything that we will do together is purely professional…” Taeyeon explained with the fragile expression on her face. She doesn’t even know why but she felt the need to explain things to Jessica, afraid that the blonde will misunderstand everything.

Jessica was left agape again. She doesn’t understand why Taeyeon is explaining things to her. She realized that the midget was sincere enough to care for her feelings. She is sure lying if she says she was not bothered with what Tiffany announced. She was not expecting that it will be the first thing she will hear from the eye-smiling girl and it kinda pinched her heart to hear the words.

“Sica? Please say something…” Taeyeon pleaded. She needs to know the ice-princess’ reaction but the girl was just staring at her.

“Taeyeon…” Jessica spoke and saw that the midget was really waiting for an answer from her. A tinge of happiness exploded inside the blonde’s head as she thought that the girl was cute in wearing this kind of expression.

Jessica reached for the girl’s cheeks and pinched it gently, making the midget grin more on Jessica’s action.

“You are such dork, Kim Taeyeon. Why would I be mad at you? You’re a secret agent, always full of disguises and covers. I truly understand why you are doing this…” Jessica smiled assuring Taeyeon that everything is alright.

Man, she’s too adorable.

“Thanks, Sica… Thanks really…” Taeyeon flashed her most expensive smile that will melt even the most frozen heart in the universe—including that of the ice-princess.

A/N: Hi my dear  readers! Thanks for the comments, subscriptions, and upvotes! :) Your author here is really happy of such suport despite me being just a new writer here in AFF :) thanks much!! :) Forever Sone! :)