Thank you for the lovely comments. They make me so ridiculously happy :) <3

Sorry about the slight (I hope it's subtle!) change in writing style. I've never written anything this long before.

Chapter 11

Tiffany parks right in front of the SME main building, a spot reserved only for pick-ups and drop-offs. She removes her shades and tosses them into the glove compartment, then pulls out her iPad to search for the information she needs with a few quick swipes.

8-9: Radio Interview

11-12: Recording

5-8: Dance Rehearsal

The glowing red digits on the dashboard tells her that it’s 5 minutes past noon. At any moment, Taeyeon will be walking out of those glass doors to the vending machine situated at the right corner of the building’s entrance. It was the only vending machine in the building that sold her favourite peach-flavoured Aloe Vera drink that she always craved after a recording. “It restores sweetness to the voice,” Taeyeon would say goofily. Tiffany blindly reaches inside her glove compartment once again and smiles when she feels the chilled dampness from the surface of a bottle.

There is a knock on the window and Tiffany’s heart flutters, her instincts telling her that it is Taeyeon.

She could not have been more wrong.

Tiffany grudgingly rolls down her window and is greeted by a provocative “Hello beautiful”, which sends chills down her spine.

“What are you doing here?”

She tries to sound civil, but there is something about Tyler Kwon that makes innocent questions turn accusing.  He is leaning towards her car, supported by two hands firmly pressed against the window sill, a wisp of smoke emanating from the cigarette between his fingers.

“I’m waiting for Taengoo.” He exhales and Tiffany isn’t sure if she feels nauseated from his breath or his presence.

“Don’t call her Taengoo,” she utters firmly, almost like a warning. “What business do you have with her anyway?”

He chuckles, brings his cigarette to his lips and smiles smugly while taking a drag. Tiffany can’t help but wonder how Jessica could have ever been attracted to such an obnoxious human being. “You think all of this,” he gestures in circles with his cigarette, “happened purely because of your beloved leader? Taeyeon made a deal with the devil and he is here, again, to collect.”

As if on cue, the automatic glass door opens and Taeyeon lightly skips down the stairs, oblivious to the scene unfolding in front of her. She is bobbing her head to an unknown tune, twirling her pink earphones and occasionally slipping in some fancy footwork between steps.

Taeyeon stops dead on her tracks at the sight of both of them and swiftly tugs her earphones, letting them fall to the ground. Tiffany was so sure Taeyeon was going to do a double take and run.

Tyler saunters towards Taeyeon, stopping to pick up her earphones, his erect frame fully blocking her from Tiffany’s view. They are speaking beyond earshot and Tiffany could see her knuckles turning white on the steering wheel. From the corner of her eye, she discerns a figure rushing past the side of her car and the next thing she knows - Taeyeon is seated beside her, putting on her seatbelt.

Turning to her right, she sees Tyler Kwon staring back at them, dumbfounded, and Tiffany instinctively locks the car doors before driving away.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Taeyeon mumbles Tiffany’s name in her sleep.  It rolls off her tongue melodically, like part of an unfinished lullaby. Taeyeon is miles away in dreamland but Tiffany feels like they’ve never been closer.  

Tiffany turns off the car engine and Taeyeon stirs, rubbing her eyes and stretching her limbs. Their eyes lock and Taeyeon’s lips turn upwards slowly to form a dazed smile, past memories having faded in her sleep.

Taeyeon lifts her head to take in her surroundings and collapses back on her seat groggily.

“Did you bring me here to kill me?” she giggles quietly, eyes fighting to stay open.

“We were here for a press conference once. We were looking for the bathroom and found the parking lot instead. “Who would drive all the way up here to park on the 23^rd floor?” I asked and you said…”

“People like us,” Taeyeon exclaims and dashes out of the car, leaving a stupefied Tiffany frozen in her seat. Taeyeon leans against the half-wall separating the parking lot and the rest of Seoul, smiling at the wind that is messing up her hair.

Tiffany joins Taeyeon shortly, their packed lunch and drinks in hand. Taeyeon often mocks Tiffany’s cooking, but this time she thanks her with sincere eyes and devours them silently, staring at the bustling city far below.

“I’m sorry,” Tiffany says softly, instantly regretting the words once they leave . It was rude to break the silence.

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not a competition, Tiffany.”

“Only because you always let me win.”

Tiffany took the lack of a retort as a sign that the old Taeyeon had become a shadow of the person who is now beside her. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, starting to feel chilly.

“YAH!”

Tiffany jumps and knocks over her drink. She watches as it falls and disappears into the pale blur of trees below. Taeyeon breaks into a gleeful chortle and nudges Tiffany lightly on her arm. “Stop thinking too much! I swear you’re crazy intense nowadays.”

“Me? Intense?” Tiffany gapes and points at herself in disbelief. Have you met you? she thought to herself. Taeyeon is smiling brightly at her and she gives up the argument before it begins. Her field of vision narrows and she realises it’s because she is smiling too.

“Taeyeon-ah, can we go back to how we used to be?” She watches Taeyeon’s expression darken and mentally kicks herself for ruining perfect moments. 

“Intense,” Taeyeon enunciates the words slowly and turns away from her. “Definitely not. We are not the same people we were,” she says impassively. Taeyeon is now tiptoeing against the wall, pushing herself forward to get a better view and Tiffany is suddenly terrified that she will fall.

“You can’t ask me a question and then get disappointed by my answer. It’s not fair. You can’t say things, and expect everyone else to deal with the consequences. You’re too reckless, Tiffany. You throw your promises around like they mean nothing, but I pick them up and store them in the deepest corners of my heart. It’s just not fair.”

Taeyeon is gazing into the distance. Her voice is even, her manner so perfectly composed that it unnerves Tiffany. Tiffany had prided herself on being the only person in the group (okay, besides Sunny) who Taeyeon is comfortable yelling at. It was an odd thing to boast about, but one of the little things that made Tiffany feel special.

Tiffany looks at the towering skyscrapers and can’t help but feel small, insignificant.

‘We’re okay, right?”

Tiffany had to ask.

Taeyeon offers her hand and Tiffany takes it, lacing their fingers together.  

“We’re both hurting because we ignored a small wound for so long, it became a serious infection. But we’re always okay, Miyoung.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

Step, step, slide, turn, stomp, jump, step.

She feels a hand on her abdomen and then her shoulder, correcting her posture.

“How did the kidnapping go?”

A mild kick to her left heel makes Tiffany hop a little to the left and she holds the position for a few seconds, taking a mental image in her head. It was a tough choreography, and she was glad she had asked Hyoyeon to teach it to her in advance.

“Taeyeon has really changed, Hyo,” she says for the ninth time this week, starting to feel like the only person who has noticed. It wasn’t a subtle change, it was the kind she wanted to talk about again and again while comparing notes, but it seemed like she was the only one who didn’t get the memo.

Hyoyeon throws a bottle at her and her fingers graze the sides before missing it completely, causing a loud thump on the floor. She decides to take a seat while reaching for the bottle and Hyoyeon joins her.

“After everything blew up,” Hyoyeon takes a sip from her bottle. “Taeyeon started to self-destruct. She was so depressed that we were so afraid she was never coming back.”

Tiffany leans backwards, hitting her head slightly when it came in contact with the ground. She tries reigning in her rapid thoughts that have spewed in multiple directions.

“It was our maknae… Man, that girl is persistent. She showed up at Taeyeon’s door every day for weeks, pretending that she needed help with her new musical. Gradually, we all did the same. Yoona asked for help with her lines, me with my choreography, Yuri with her songwriting… Even Jessica came back to mend their relationship. We wanted her to know that we still needed her – that she is so much more than just a leader to us.”

Tiffany felt her heart constrict painfully. She wanted Hyoyeon to stop, but she needed to know more. These were the missing pages she had been looking for.

“Why didn’t any of you reach out to me?” Tiffany asks.

“She insisted we didn’t so none of us dared. Remember how Taeyeon shut Jessica out completely after she called Taeyeon’s family and you?” Hyoyeon shudders at the thought.                     

Tiffany hated to make this about her, but even though she had left them, she couldn’t help but feel left behind instead. The 8 of them had grown so much closer while she was away. Their effortless dynamic made a lot more sense now.

“Weren’t any of you worried about me?” The hurt was evident in her voice.

Hyoyeon knits her eyebrows and eyes Tiffany, looking slightly confused, as if the thought had never occurred to her, which made Tiffany feel so much worse.

“Tiffany-sshi, you’re the toughest chick I know. You have handled losing your mother, leaving your family to pursue some impossible dream, and all the ridiculous drama that came with it. You know what you need, and you get it. Taeyeon, on the other hand, is stupidly selfless, crazy stubborn, and though I love that idiot, she is infuriating.”

Tiffany pulls Hyoyeon’s ponytail endearingly, too drained to show any other forms of affection.

Taeyeon is infuriating, Tiffany agrees silently.