Chapter 12

Tiffany heaved a sigh of relief as she tucked the phone back into her pocket. At least Taeyeon is safe. At least Sunny found Taeyeon. At least Taeyeon can now curse and swear to Sunny about what a terrible person Tiffany is.

She supressed a smile as she imagined a foul mouthed, red faced Taeyeon ing to Sunny. It would have been funny to see Taeyeon angry. An angry Taeyeon would have been the cutest Taeyeon…

Damn. She cursed herself once she realized where her stupid mind had wandered to again. Kim ing Taeyeon.  

She knew it was going to be yet another long night for her again.

==

The next morning was a largely quiet affair, with the two best friends barely exchanging a word. Sunny decided to give her sensitive friend a break and refrained from her usual grilling. She reasoned it would be better to talk about it at a later time, when Taeyeon is ready to talk.

Sunny was shoving scrambled eggs in when Taeyeon dropped her fork and uttered her first word of the day. “Hey”

“Yeah?”

She picked the fork up again and gripped it tightly. “Why aren’t you asking me about yesterday?”

Sunny did not know how to reply to Taeyeon. Never in a million years would she have expected Taeyeon to bring it up herself.

“Ah. You probably think I would be too upset and that I am too fragile to handle this.”

“Taeng…”

“No Sunny. Listen to me. I am not planning to break up with Tiffany. We are not done yet. I have no plans to give up on her.”

“Are you even thinking straight now?”

“I am thinking straight. In fact, I am thinking she is hiding something from me.”

“You want the truth? I can tell you. The truth is that she dumped your .” Sunny could not help but raise her voice slightly.

“I am going to find the truth myself.” Taeyeon replied calmly before dropping the fork and walking away.

What Sunny doesn't know was that Taeyeon had spent the night hatching a plan and was determined to see it through.

==

Tiffany shrugged off her sleepiness as she dropped a coin into the vending machine. She barely slept a wink last night.

She was bending down to collect the cheap plastic cup from the slot when she feels a palm on her shoulder. “Hey”

She turned around and almost dropped her coffee onto the ground when she saw who the person was.

“Hey Fany.”

“T-tae-y-yeon…?”

The other girl lifted her hand up, holding a metallic coloured flask.

“Drink this instead. This is much better. I brought it from home.” Taeyeon took the cheap cup away from Tiffany’s grip and drained it into the drain. “Sewage water belongs in the drain.”

Tiffany blinked several times, unable to believe what was happening in front of her.

Taeyeon simply pushed the flask into Tiffany’s now empty hands and leaned against the corridor.

Tiffany gathered her wits and sharpened her voice, making sure it was every bit as harsh as she wanted it to be. “Why are you still here? Haven’t I made it clear to you last night? Stop clinging onto me like some deadweight.”

“But you didn’t give me a chance to speak up and I haven’t agreed to your proposal. So technically we haven’t broke up and we are still a couple.”

“WHAT?”

“Yeah. Still my girlfriend.” Taeyeon grinned that childish grin and all Tiffany wanted to do was to wipe that grin off her silly face.

“You’re crazy. I am going off.” She shook her head and walked away, trying to ignore the faint flutter in her heart rising in her heart.

Is Taeyeon okay? Tiffany had expected Taeyeon to take it a lot harder than she is right now. She half expected a teary Taeyeon to approach her to ask for a second chance or an angry Taeyeon screaming at her face or a moody Taeyeon just ignoring her existence for the rest of her life. What she did not expect was a calm and collected, a confident Taeyeon insisting that they were still together. Wait. Or was it because she had hurt Taeyeon so badly that Taeyeon had gone mad?

Tiffany does all the thinking while sipping on Taeyeon’s coffee. (Yes, Tiffany is indeed drinking coffee from that clingy, deadweight ex girlfriend. Believe it or not.)

“I see you are enjoying my coffee.”

Tiffany turned around to see the all too familiar figure standing right under the doorframe of the classroom.

“You should be. It’s top quality stuff. Kopi Luwak. Some people call it the cat coffee.”

She almost spit the coffee out of and shouted the same word for the second time today. “WHAT?”

“You think I am trying to poison you out of spite?" She snatched the flash from Tiffany and took a sip. "Its good coffee isn’t it? I will only feed you the best stuff.”

“Haven’t I made it clear that we are over?” Tiffany felt like she had been repeating herself too many times today. But heck it, she needed Taeyeon to come around.

“No you haven’t. If you hated me that much, you wouldn’t have accepted my coffee. If we were really over, you wouldn’t have drank my coffee.”

“I just didn’t want it to go to waste and since you have dumped my coffee away, it is only fair for you to repay me. I don’t have any feelings for you anymore.”

There was an uneasy silence as Tiffany watched Taeyeon carefully for her reactions and micro expressions.

“Yeah, you dumped me and it hurts.”

Tiffany saw Taeyeon’s eyes. Those round, bright eyes glistening with unshed tears. And then she saw Taeyeon’s hands nervously gripping the hems of her shirt.

“…”

“But I am not going to just accept this. I have thought through it. It just doesn’t make sense how you will completely change your mind overnight. How you can go from iloveyous to iamsickofyous in one night? This may be my first relationship but I am not stupid.”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand Taeyeon.”

“What do I not understand? If I don’t understand something, you explain it to me. Just like how you taught me how to kiss, just like how you taught me how to relax around people, just like how you taught me how to approach people. Just like how you taught me what it is like to fall in love.”

“I wish it was so easy.” Tiffany looked down as she uttered those words, her voice quickly losing its edge.

She was completely caught off guard when she felt a thumb touch the base of her chin, propping her head up ever so slightly, and found herself drowning when Taeyeon pressed a soft kiss onto her coffee stained lips and whispered,

“It doesn’t have to be this difficult either.”