Chapter 1

She chewed the top end of her ballpoint pen in an almost obsessive manner as she tried to focus on her thick Physics textbook and the lecture that was going on. But she could not focus. She pushed her glasses up her nose as she pretended to pay attention to the equations and mechanics that the Professor was explaining.

Her heart was fluttering and jumping and skipping. No, wait a minute. Logically speaking, a heart cannot skip. A heart beats, pumping blood from the heart to all of our body. Wait, how many chambers does a heart have again? She made a mental note to google the answer once the lecture ends. Ah, the heart is such a work of art seriously. The heart is sort of like a pump, or two pumps in one. The right side of our heart receives blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs. The left side of the heart does the exact opposite: It receives blood from the lungs and pumps it out to the body, works in unison, works in harmony.

That girl’s confident smile melted her. To be more precise, the smile was one that reached her eyes, turning those round, jet black orbs into thin, precious crescents. Well, the word crescent is derived from the Latin verb crescere "to grow", which means "waxing" or "increasing”. And that was how she felt about the girl. That darn smile made her feel strange, tingling things and made her heart beat harder and faster every time she smiles that dreamy smile.

“Taeng”

She felt a tug on her neatly tied braids and turned to see her best friend looking weirdly at her.

“What?” She whispered back.

“Stop smiling that creepy smile and rambling to yourself again. What do you see in that old Professor anyway?” Sunny nudged her chin towards the general direction of the old Professor.

“Soonkyu, if you are not going to shut up, I am not letting you copy the assignment.”

“Then why are you smiling to yourself? Please, smartiepants, please have mercy on your less intellectually gifted best friend.”

She rolled her eyes, adjusted and readjusted the black rimmed glasses resting on the bridge of her nose and went back to paying attention to the lecture, leaving the remnants of the girl at the back of her mind.

==

She was sitting crosslegged on the floor, smashing buttons on her Xbox controller while staring intently at the TV screen. She was about to clear the final stage of her game when her phone rang, distracting her from the last checkpoint. She groaned loudly when the screen went blank.

She saw the name "Sunny Lee" flashing her phone and let out a few tasteful curse words.

"THIS BETTER BE IMPORTANT" Taeyeon yelled into her phone.

"My pretty, perfect Taeyeon. Please help me."

"What" She snapped.

"I have left my file on my bed. I need it for the meeting. Can you pretty pretty please bring it to me now? I promise not to pull your braids or call you rigid for a week."

"Wow, Soonkyu, that is a real incentive for me. I almost cleared the last stage."

"A bad gamer would blame anyone but herself. I can't talk anymore. Level 3, room eight. Please Taeyeon, love you"

She let out a few more tasteful curse words. She grabbed the file and was too occupied with thinking the most efficient way to strangle Sunny to realize that she left the room in her pyjamas.

==

It was a lazy weekend and most of the students have already gone home for the holidays, leaving the corridors almost deserted.

Taeyeon tried to tame her messy bed head by combing it with her bare fingers, to make herself more presentable. (No, Taeyeon still hasn't realized that she was in her pyjamas.) She gave exactly three precise and measured taps on the door and waited patiently for the door to open. Three taps was just perfect, she commented to herself. Not too pushy, not too rude but still allowing the occupants to understand her urgency to enter the room. Maybe she can try four taps the next--

Her train of thoughts was cut off abruptly by the opening of the door, startling her. She felt like all the air in the world was away when she saw the figure at the door. 

She stood open mouthed, file loosely held onto with her palms that are becoming sweaty.

"You are looking for...?"

"..."

That dreamy smile, that curvy eyes, that husky voice.

"Taeng!" A familiar voice brought her back to semi consciousness. "Oh my god, what are you wearing?"

She looked at herself and wanted to choke herself when she saw the numerous tiny Mickey Mouse that dotted her pyjamas top and her pants.

The smiling girl simply chuckled.

Taeyeon wanted to dig a hole and bury herself. She stood rigidly in front of the door, biting her lower lips.

"Don't worry, she tends to zone out very often. Give her a while." Sunny commented while giving a few taps on her best friend's shoulder. "Earth to Taeyeon, I repeat, Earth to Taeyeon."

"Affirmative." Taeyeon replied unconsciously, partly due to habit.

Sunny facepalmed.

The girl chuckled some more.

"Taeng, meet Tiffany. Tiffany, meet Taeyeon."

"Hi" The girl reached her hands out and gave a wide smile.

Taeyeon wanted to keep that smile in her pocket. But she reasoned that it was impossible, a smile is intangible.

"Taeng!"

"Ah. Nice to meet you." Taeyeon replied formally and gave a slight bow, forgetting to shake the outreached hand.

"She's the same age as us, Taeng."

So she is not a senior, but why does she look so mature. Is it the flaming red hair? Or the shapely curves that lined her body? Oh god, why am I staring at those curves? This is not normal, Taeyeon.

"Kim Taeyeon. Stop being weird in front of my friends and respond to the conversation."

"Ah. I think it’s a combination of all factors." She said aloud to herself.

"Okay, okay Taeyeon. This is not normal, not even by your usual standards. I think the game fried your brain. Go back to get some sleep, remember to heat your lunch up before you eat." Sunny turned her friend around by her shoulders and pushed her in the general direction of the dorm.

"Is she always lost in her own world?" Tiffany asked after watching the tiny figure in pyjamas walk away.

"She's usually more normal than this."

"She's cute." 

"No Tiffany Hwang. Don't even think about it. She's like a kid." Sunny said protectively.

==

Taeyeon could not function properly the entire day. Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany, that flawless smile that reached her eyes. Her rapidly pounding heart. Maybe she should go for a health checkup these days. It is not normal for a heart to skip several beats. No wait, she needs to stop using the word skip. If the heart skips several beats, she wouldn't be alive anymore. It’s beat. Her heart beats, she reminded herself.

"Earth to Taeyeon"

"Affirmative. What. I haven't killed you for making me embarrass myself this morning."

"Nobody asked you to leave the dorm in your kiddy pyjamas.”

Taeyeon sagely adjusted her glasses. "Two points to note. Firstly, my pyjamas are not kiddy. They are comfortable and easy on the eyes. Secondly, you should have told me that Tiff--, not wait, there are people there."

"I said I had a meeting."

"But you didn't mention that the meeting had started."

"Oh god Taeng. Must you be so precise? What a draining friendship."

"But you weren't clear enough."

"I will walk away and get myself a cup of tea before I rip your head off."

"Sunny…"

"What"

"I want to join the Debate team."

"What? No."

"Why?"

"You're embarrassing."

"Come on, I promise to be normal.”

"Why the sudden interest? I thought social activities are not your cup of tea."

"I...want to make...make more friends. Besides, I have always liked such intellectually stimulating activities. I see debate as a good way to keep myself mentally alert."

"Sounds suspicious. But I will let you off this time. We are having a meeting tomorrow morning." Sunny eyes her best friend suspiciously. "Wear something decent."

"Can we just stop talking about the pyjamas?" Taeyeon groaned at the thought of Tiffany laughing at her pyjamas.

==

She nervously followed Sunny into the conference room, eyes darting around in search of Tiffany. 

She settled down on one of the cushioned seat, sticking close to Sunny.

She watched the members stream in slowly through the door and closed up when she saw the redhead bounced cheerily into the room, greeting everyone in sight.

"Hi Taeyeon! I heard from Sunny that you will be joining us? Awesome."

A dreamy smile that made Taeyeon felt like she was drowning in those crescents. Darn it.

Taeyeon tried to respond by giving her best smile. But the smile ended up being creepy and a little goofy. She made a mental note to practise smiling in front of the mirror tonight.

"Hi...hi Tiffany."

IT FEELS SO GOOD TO CALL HER BY HER NAME. Taeyeon screamed inwardly to herself.

"You're so cute." Tiffany gave a wink before taking a seat right beside her.

That wink, that flirty wink. She called me cute? I AM CUTE. She had to stop herself from hyperventilating.

This was going to be one hell of a meeting, Taeyeon thought to herself as she side eyed the girl from her seat.

==

She had first noticed Tiffany at the school library. She was reading her notes when she saw the girl or rather, heard the girl talking animatedly to her friends, obviously oblivious to the fact that they were in a library.

On normal occasions, Taeyeon would get annoyed. But the girl had a charming smile, and all Taeyeon wanted from then on was to stare endlessly at that smile.

==

"Do you want to grab a drink or something? This is getting boring." Tiffany whispered to the girl who was listening attentively to the debates, occasionally taking down notes.

"Y-yeah, sure."

Tiffany pulled her out of the room, ignoring the dirty looks that Sunny was shooting at her.

==

"So, tell me about yourself."

The two girls found themselves sitting face to face in a crowded coffeehouse, with Tiffany sipping a sophisticated cup of Americano and Taeyeon drinking her hot chocolate from a straw.

Taeyeon had to stop from staring too much, reminding herself that it was socially unacceptable.

"Taeyeon, 19, boring."

Tiffany chuckled. "Tiffany, 19, aimless."

"Aimless?"

"Boring?"

"Looks like everyone has their own problems." Taeyeon concluded neatly.

"Looks like we would a good match for each other."

Tiffany laughed and Taeyeon grinned along, drowning in Tiffany’s eyes, smile, wink, grin, voice. Basically everything Tiffany.

That day, Taeyeon's heart pounded and pounded and skipped and tripped over everything in sight. And she didn't even care about all the technicalities or precision anymore.

==

"Where were you just now?"

"Break"

"Fany, Taeyeon is not for you."

"What? I can't even treat our new member to a drink?"

"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking of. She's gonna get hurt, really really hurt."

"What makes you think that I would hurt her?"

"She's serious you know, I can see it in her eyes, the way she stares dreamily at you. Taeng doesn't even know what love is, and now she's madly in love with you. She's not one of those girls."

"She is not a baby and I have no intentions of hurting her." Tiffany raised her voice slightly.

"Then you would stay away from her."

==

Taeyeon waited nervously outside the cinema. It was their first outing together and Taeyeon was looking forward to watching, discussing, dissecting and analysing the movie with Tiffany. Oh, and staring at that smile that she would never get tired of.

She took a glance at her watch. She was about 5 minutes and 39 seconds early. Maybe she should line up for the popcorn first. But wait, does Tiffany likes salty or sweet popcorn? Or should I get both?

"Why are you rambling to yourself again?" The voice jolted Taeyeon.

"Oh, hi. I was just wondering if you wanted salty or sweet popcorn." She peeped at her digital watch. "You're 3 minutes and 15 seconds late."

"And you're 315% annoying. No more rambling, it is nothing more than a bad habit." Tiffany grabbed her hands and dragged her to the concession stand. "Let's get the sweet one. I know you like sweet popcorn."

==

Tiffany watched as the girl munched on the popcorn, completely absorbed in the movie.

Taeyeon was unlike all the other girls. Taeyeon is like a clean sheet of paper. Her round, sincere eyes was glassy, untainted.

While Taeyeon attentively watched the movie, hugging the popcorn box, Tiffany found herself staring at the pair of honey coated lips that were glistening in the dark cinema.

Maybe Sunny was right, she was going to end up tainting this pristine sheet of paper with her carelessness.

==

"How was the movie?"

"Not bad. I will want to watch it again when I cannot sleep."

"EXACTLY. Did you see all the special effects? It was so realistic and surreal. I will give it a 10/10." Taeyeon raved.

"I meant that it would help me fall asleep because it’s everything boring."

"Oops." Taeyeon made a weird face and was clearly embarrassed. "Sorry, I should have asked for your opinions before choosing the movie."

"It’s fine. Having you for company is more than enough for me." A flirty wink.

Taeyeon wanted to gasp for air, because Tiffany shouldn't be allowed to wink because it is a heartstopper, heartskipper, I HEART EVERYTHING TIFFANY. She stood rigidly, eyes blinking, mind whirling.

"Earth to Taeyeon"

"Affirmati--"

The word was cut off with a pair of lips pressing firmly against its honey coated counterpart.