Chapter 15

Taeyeon has to get her books back. The books are expensive. The books are important. Yes, she has to get them back.

She nervously wipes her sweaty hands along her jeans as she cautiously made her way to their usual meetup spot, the park near her dorm. Her heart was pounding with anticipation. She knew it was stupid of her to feel this way, but the heart wants what the heart wants. And Tiffany was everything that she had ever wanted.

When she felt a tug on her hoodie’s hood, she almost let out a scream when she felt a pair of arms encircling her waist from behind, with a chin resting on the right side of her shoulder. Her heart might have stopped beating for a second. Or two.

She tried to pull away, but the pair of arms around her tiny waist only tightened, rendering her helpless. Her lack of athleticism had always been a problem for her. She quickly made a mental note to train up her fitness levels over the holiday.

“At least listen to me before you run away? Please?”

Her voice was uncharacteristically gentle. It caught Taeyeon off guard for the second time today. She had expected a sassy Tiffany, not a yielding one. How can she say no to this? Okay, just a quick talk, take her books back then go back. Yes, she was here to get her books back. She reminded herself for the umpteenth time today.

“O-okay”

Tiffany lifted her hand up, revealing a picnic basket.

“Lunch?”

“I have to go. Just return me my books.”

“But you promised you would listen to me. You can listen while eating.”

“But we—“

“I spent the entire morning making them.”

Once again, Taeyeon found herself unable to decline. It was Tiffany after all.

Taeyeon allowed herself (and her heart) to be dragged by Tiffany across the field, towards a quiet spot facing the fish pond.

“Here you go. This is the best sandwich in the entire world if I may say so myself.” She flashed that bright and proud smile as she handed over a thick sandwich filled to the brim with ingredients. “Look! I have made an egg omelete as well. Want to try guess which character is that?”

Taeyeon received the sandwich gingerly with both hands and got a shock when she saw what may possibly be the ugliest Mickey Mouse shaped omelette in the entire world.

“Mi-mickey?”

To be quite honest, as a long time Disney fan, she could only identify that it was Mickey Mouse due to its two round shaped ears on top of an equally mutilated larger circle which she concluded that it was be Mickey himself. 

“That’s right! I made it especially for you. I hope it tastes as good as it looks!”

Tiffany forked what seemed to be the left eye of the poor iconic Disney character and promptly plopped it onto Taeyeon’s plate. Taeyeon winced a little.

“Try it!”

She nodded tentatively at the dry piece of rubber on her plate. And that was when she saw the huge band aid across Tiffany’s hand. Instinctively, she grabbed hold of her wrist. “What happened to your hand?”

“Ah, it’s nothing much. Just a cut.” Tiffany shrugged it off and took her hand back. “Give me your honest opinion about my food. You know I hardly cook. You’re more of a cook, tell me how the food is.”

Taeyeon took a huge bite off the sandwich, followed by the oddly shaped omelette. It felt a little strange to be eating her favourite character of all time but she managed to keep the food in. It tasted alright. Not that Taeyeon is a biased person or anything. It was edible by most standards.

“Not too bad.”

Tiffany heaved an audible sigh of relief. “That’s good. I guess you’re ready to listen to me?”

“Not yet.” Taeyeon stretched her arms and took hold of Tiffany’s hand, gently peeling off the band aid. She examined the burn. "You shouldn’t be covering a burn with a band aid. You didn’t even apply burn cream onto it. You need to apply some cream and then cover it up with a proper sterile bandage.”

“O-oh okay.”

“Since we do not have burn cream or a bandage cloth here, I guess you should just cover it up with the bandaid in the meantime.” She pressed the bandaid back with some pressure.

Tiffany was not expecting this level of gentleness from Taeyeon. Her grip was just every bit as soft as Tiffany had remembered it to be. Taeyeon never did change and it somehow strengthened her determination to have Taeyeon back in her life and to make it up to her. “T-thanks”

“Now do you want to talk about?” Taeyeon continued to finish up the sandwich, not wanting to waste any bit of it.

“Us. Taeyeon ah, I think I owe you a proper apology.”

“I accept it. There’s no need to feel sorry or anything. I have gotten over it.” Taeyeon’s tone was flat, almost nonchalant.

But Tiffany was not about to give up. It was time that she fought for Taeyeon, fought for them. “No Taeyeon. I don’t want you to get over it. I don’t want you to get over us. I still love you. Even more than I thought. I just didn’t know it at that time. I know that even if I said sorry a thousand times, it would still not be enough. But I just hope you will give me another chance to make it up to you. To fight for us.”

“And I know you will probably reject me, and you have all the rights in the world to do. But I won’t give up. This time I want you to know that I am serious about you. I can wait for you.”

Tiffany continued, not giving Taeyeon even a second to reply.

“You can ignore me all you want to, you can get Sunny to push me away. But I will continue to bug you, I will follow you everywhere you go, I will make cute bentos for you every morning, I will—“

Tiffany’s babblings were cut off by a pair of lips crashing against hers.

Slowly but surely, the pair took their time to explore, to taste. It was unlike the other kisses that they had shared before. Taeyeon’s sudden assertiveness caught Tiffany off guard. Lips, teeth, tongues clashed as they were locked in a passionate kiss. It sent shivers down to Tiffany’s spine like no other.

Taeyeon only pulled apart when she felt like their lungs were going to burst from the lack of oxygen. Who needs oxygen when you can kiss Tiffany Hwang? After all there are indeed benefits of kissing. Kissing relieves stress and releases epinephrine into our blood, making it pump faster, which result in a reduction of LDL cholesterol…

Tiffany stared at the breathless Taeyeon with flushed cheeks, lost in her own thoughts.

“Yoohoo? Earth to Taeyeon? You there?” She waved a hand in front of Taeyeon.

“Affirmative.” Taeyeon was jolt back to earth and was now consciousness and well aware of her actions. And that was when she realized that she had just kissed her ex-girlfriend.

Tiffany waiting for Taeyeon to break the awkward silence. Taeyeon was the one who started the kiss after all. She bit her lips shyly, not used to the assertive side of Taeyeon. She swore she felt Taeyeon’s fingers tugging at the hem of her blouse at one point.

“A-ah…I am sorry, I don’t know what got into me.”

“No, it is fine. I returned the kiss as well didn’t I?”

Taeyeon had to groan. She had just complicated the entire situation. It was supposed to be a simple meetup to retrieve her things. What was she supposed to take back again?

“Please Taeyeon…give me another chance to make it up to you. I love you, and I cannot let you go. Please take me back?”

Judging by the way Taeyeon had kissed her, Tiffany was pretty much certain of Taeyeon’s feelings. Taeyeon still loved her and that was all she needed to press on.

“I still love you TIfany, I know some people are going to call me stupid but I love you. I don’t want you to be with other people.”

Wiping her teary eyes away, she immediately pounced onto Taeyeon, hugging her as tight as she possibly could.

“That girl that you saw yesterday…she is my sister.”

“R-really? I thought…”

“I know, you ran away because you thought she was my new girl?” Tiffany combed through Taeyeon’s bangs with her fingers. “Taeyeon ah, I only want you.”

“Same. I want you back. Let’s start all over again?”

“Let’s do just that. I will make sure I learn from my mistake and I will make it up to you. I love you Taeyeon.”

Taeyeon did not reply immediately. Instead, she took Tiffany’s hand and kissed the burn spot on her hand. It is really amazing how a simple kiss from Taeyeon can set Tiffany on fire. As she held Taeyeon tight in her arms, she swore to herself that she would never let her go ever again.

==

Taeyeon was always a messy eater and the sauce stains around her lips frustrated Tiffany to no end. And the fact that Taeyeon had the bad habit of wiping it off with her sleeves made things worse. Eventually Tiffany had picked up the habit of wiping it off before Taeyeon did.

They were just finishing up their meal and Tiffany was wiping Taeyeon's mouth with a napkin. "Fany ah"

"Hm? Your mouth is gross by the way." Tiffany dropped the napkin and gave her girlfriend a mandatory peck on her lips. "Done"

"I don't think you should keep texting me your locations and the people you hang out with. I don't need to know and you deserve your privacy."

"But I want to, I want you to invade my privacy." Tiffany inched across the table, finger padding along the length of Taeyeon's arm. She smirked a little when she felt the goosebumps on her fingertips.

Taeyeon cleared awkwardly.

"Kidding." Tiffany burst out in laughter and leaned back onto her seat. "I don't mind telling you where I go to. Remember I promised you that I will try to make this work?"

"I know...and you're doing very well. But trust is very important in a relationship. I would like us to have more of that. Besides, I would rather get cute texts and selcas from you."

"Hm. You're still on probation. Not sure if I want to send you anything cute."

"WHAT?" Taeyeon had to groan. It has been nearly a week. "There is nothing going on between us. We are just lab partners. Lab partners! She is nothing more than a junior to me."

"So? She's all flirty and tries to get your attention all the time. Oh Taeyeon, are you made of copper and tellurim? You’re so CuTe!” Tiffany deliberately mimicked the girl’s high pitch tone while recalling a conversation between Taeyeon and the girl. “How disgusting can she get?”

"But Fany--"

"No buts"

She was just trying to be a good senior and did not expect the junior to go all flirty at her, especially right in front of Tiffany. Thank God she kept the Bunsen burner in the drawer and out of reach on that fateful day. And the hydrochloric acid. Although she secretly cheered at the fact that Tiffany kissed her then and there right in front of everyone.

Taeyeon sulked nonetheless, obviously not happy at the injustice.

"Oh come on stop being such a baby, Tae Tae."

"Ah. Not you too. I shouldn't have let you near Soonkyu."

"What's wrong with TaeTae? It's adorable. Suits you."

"But I'm a big girl now."

"Okay okay big girl, shall we go now?"

Taeyeon smiled, got off her seat and allowed Tiffany to cling on her arm.

Tiffany had insisted on sending her off at the airport. Initially, Tiffany was sad and unwilling to see her girlfriend go overseas for further studies but in the end, she reasoned that it would be good for Taeyeon to study things that their current university was unable to offer. It also helped that Taeyeon had promised to fly back as much as her schedule had allowed her to.

"Who told you to be such a smarty-pants?" It was Tiffany's turn to sulk now.

"I'll come back whenever I can." Taeyeon dropped her carry-on onto the ground and held her girlfriend firmly by her waist. "I'll miss you."

"I hate you."

"I love you." Tiffany looked up and was instantly met with a kiss on her forehead by a tiptoeing Taeyeon. "So very much.

It was satisfying to see how expressive Taeyeon had become over the course of a year. Taeyeon was patient and gentle. Taeyeon was always loving. Sometimes a little weird but Tiffany had long embraced the weird sides of Taeyeon.

"Same. I love you so so so much." Tiffany tried to hold back her tears. She did not want to cry in front of Taeyeon. "I'll send you a cute selca every day. Stay warm and remember to take your meals on time."

Taeyeon likes the way Tiffany smiles, the way her bright eyes narrowed into thin, precious crescents. It was a good year for them. Tiffany had kept to her words and more. She made sure to report her whereabouts to Taeyeon although Taeyeon had insisted there was no such need. She was always witty, funny and helped Taeyeon relax when she most needed to.

She kissed her girlfriend carefully one more time, making sure to savour the sweetness and warmness unique to only Tiffany. Only Tiffany can make her feel like that. As cheesy as it sounds. She thumbed the smooth skin of TIffany's cheek, giving another peck before letting go reluctantly.

"Alright I have to go now. The plane waits for no one."

"But I'll wait for you." Tiffany continued to cling onto Taeyeon's hoodie, not wanting to let loose. She rest her head on her chest and sniffed the soothing scent of Taeyeon's hoodie. "I miss you already."

Taeyeon pressed on a smile, and rubbed the unshed tears off Tiffany's eyes. As unscientific as it sounds, her heart skips, leaps, pound, beats for Tiffany. And all she could do is to grin through her tears because she understands that Tiffany feels the same way as well.

She was kinda glad for those old pyjamas that she wore to pass Sunny her notes that day.
 

The end.

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Mickey Mouse egg omelete anyone?

Thanks for reading~ Sorry if the story didn't turn out the way that some of you wanted it to be. I will post the PDF version + possibly one bonus chapter after I have edited the entire story from the beginning.