0.5

Taeyeon’s hangover knocked on her head the morning after, pounding against her temples until it woke her up. She groaned and rolled over on her back, sighing as her splitting headache eased up a bit.

Sooyoung.

It was all Sooyoung’s fault, she recalled begrudgingly, grimacing at the amount of alcohol her friend had forced her to drink while she interrogated her about the mysterious redhead that made her lose the bet. But she did drink it all, too happy and too giddy to realize that she was way past her limit.

Because it was all worth it, she finally remembered.

She could smell like a barrel of rotten beer for all she cared, but it wouldn’t change the fact that she met Tiffany Hwang again, and no amount of hangover or earth-shattering headaches could erase that.

Taeyeon giggled in spite of herself.

She rolled again and lied on her stomach, sighing contentedly. She found herself grinning as she reached for her phone, but ended up dropping the device when it suddenly rang in her hand.

“—”

The device continued to ring while it tumbled a few more times before hitting the foot of her nightstand. Taeyeon had managed to tap the answer button before it stopped.

“H-Hello?” She croaked, turning the loudspeaker on.

“Hi, uhm, is this Taeyeon?”

“Yeah, who’s calling…?”

“Tae, it’s Tiffany.”

“Wha—Ow!”

Taeyeon groaned, her face greeting the floor as she eagerly flew from her bed to get her phone. She curled up on her side while she rubbed her forehead, grimacing when she touched a sore spot.

She heard Tiffany’s voice blaring from the phone beside her head.

“What was that? Taeyeon? Hey, what’s going on—”

She snatched the phone and turned off the loudspeaker, pressing the device on her ear. “Sorry, it was just—” Taeyeon breathed, calming her heart. “It was nothing. Hi.” She smiled to no one.

Tiffany giggled, probably from her dreamy greeting, and Taeyeon felt all the pains in her body disappear. She didn’t mind that she was on the floor, or that there was a growing lump on her forehead.

All she cared about was the sound of Tiffany’s voice, which didn’t seem to change throughout the years—that voice that she didn’t realize how much she missed.

Taeyeon’s heart suddenly felt full.

“Where are you? Are you on your way?” She heard Tiffany ask, making her frown.

“What? On my way to where?”

“I’m already here at the cafe you told me about.”

Taeyeon’s eyebrows furrowed. “What cafe?”

“I—” Tiffany paused and an uncomfortable silence filled the other line. “You texted me last night and asked to meet up for brunch…”

Taeyeon sat up in a flash. “I did?”

“Uh, yes Taeyeon, you did,” Tiffany huffed. “Do you want me to forward it to you?”

“I… W-Wait, hold on.”

Taeyeon hurriedly checked her messages and saw what Tiffany was talking about. Despite the number of typos and unnecessary characters in between the words, it clearly showed an invitation for brunch in one of her favorite cafes.

She groaned, slapping her palm on her face, barely missing the lump on her forehead. She brought the phone back to her ear. “I am so sorry, Tiffany,” she said, sighing. “I think I drunk texted you last night.”

“What…?”

“M-My friend… She kept on buying me drinks last night and I got really drunk, and I think at some point, I texted you…”

The line went quiet and Taeyeon slapped herself again, whimpering as the edge of her fingers hit the sore spot on her forehead.

She was about to mourn over her drunken stupidity when she heard Tiffany laugh.

“You’re still as silly as ever, Taetae.”

And that was all it took for Taeyeon to turn completely sober, smiling wider than any smile she had ever smiled for the past ten years.

—–

It was funny how Taeyeon felt even more nervous standing on her own foyer than when she stood in front of several foreign business partners, vying for their attention and interest.

Somehow, she couldn’t understand why it was so easy to be in a situation that was so crucial to not only her future but the whole company’s, yet found it so difficult to grab and twist the damn doorknob open, just so the person ringing the bell outside could finally be let in.

Moreover, she couldn’t, for the life of her, understand why she agreed for Tiffany to just head on to her apartment to have brunch, when she was still feeling, looking, and probably smelling, like .

———

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