CHAPTER NINETEEN: Taeyeon's Beautiful sunset

Taeyeon woke up the next day. She spent a bunch of time just avoiding Instagram, but she couldn't stop thinking about it. Finally, she managed to open the app. She read the comments, because she could read. Nothing about Jessica beyond the usual 'I miss Sica' and 'why did you kick her out'. She went to Jessica's page. Nothing about the background being one Kim Taeyeon's bedroom.

She let out a breath and realized that she had been holding it. Rationally, no cameras had ever filmed her in this bedroom, so no one on the outside could link Jessica's picture with her bedroom. One thing for sure, she would never take a picture of herself in here.

Still, who knew if she had to reveal it in the future? At least Girls' Generation, the idol seniors that they were, had more control now on where variety show crews could go.

Overnight, Jessica had taken most of the comforter. And somehow, overnight, Taeyeon had put on the pair of bedroom slippers that she had left on the floor. Whatever. If her feet were warm, she was warm. She scooted down the bed, then shifted until she was resting on Jessica's stomach. She liked how she could play a round of Candy Crush with the sound on, and Jessica could stay asleep, mouth slightly agape, and one arm above her head. She kept the volume down only because Sunny was on the other side of the room.

She received a text from Keunsuk.

'KYM wants to see you at 10:45. I'll pick you up at 9:30.'

The thought of Kim Youngmin got her off the bed. She shook Jessica awake. "I have to leave in an hour. Want to eat breakfast together?"

"Where're y'going?"

"SM. The President wants a meeting."

"Okay, I'll eat," Jessica mumbled, eyes still closed.

Taeyeon pulled her until she was sitting upright. "You can snooze for maybe fifteen minutes. I'll wash up and get breakfast ready."

"Thanks, Taengoo..." Jessica flopped back into the pillows.

Taeyeon dragged Jessica up and made sure she was somewhat vertical even if she was leaning against the wall, before going off.

She got washed and put on light makeup, then went to the kitchen. The housekeeper had left tofu soup in the fridge. Taeyeon heated it up in the microwave while she laid out side dishes, removing lids from the tupperware. She scooped two half bowls of rice.

When Taeyeon returned to her bedroom, Jessica was back down on the bed. "Ya, ya, wake up."

On the other side of the room, Sunny groaned but turned over, still asleep. Taeyeon decided to say nothing else and yanked the comforter off Jessica. She hauled the woman to her feet and soon Jessica was blinking awake.

Jessica glared at her. Taeyeon glared back and whispered, "Breakfast. I gotta go soon."

"Right."

Somehow, Jessica managed to stay awake through brushing her teeth, and joined Taeyeon at the dining table. 

"Yummy."

Taeyeon sank into a spoonful of warm tofu. So good. She nodded and put some fresh cabbage kimchi into . "I could eat this every day... Wait, I can eat this every day."

"Show off," Jessica muttered. Taeyeon's grin widened.

Kim Youngmin wasn't even forty years old, but he felt like sixty to Taeyeon. She resented his abusive authority over her group. She hated him for manipulating them at will. She feared what he could do to her.

Her dislike of him, if she weighed it carefully, was not mere disdain. Disdain was nothing more than a bitter aftertaste compared to the anger she felt inside. She kept this all inside of her.

Taeyeon fiddled with her iPhone as she sat at the reception, surfing websites mindlessly. In the silence, she noticed the EXO single playing in the room. When that was done, the next song was Growl. After that, Call Me Baby.

Fifteen minutes later, the set meeting time came and went. She waited for thirty more minutes. EXO song after EXO song, with one Red Velvet song in between.

She locked and unlocked her cell phone over and over again. Finally, the receptionist, with her straightened nose and whitened teeth, beckoned her into the President's office.

Taeyeon entered. If there was an upside to meeting the President, it was in that he still bothered meeting her. Girls' Generation was still worth a face-to-face meeting. He wasn't done with them yet. Which was good because she wasn't done with the group either.

"Good work on the comeback," Kim Youngmin said. "Lion Heart sales are charting higher than expected."

"Thank you."

"So I've decided that, ahead of your Arena tour, you'll get a worldwide concert tour. Two days in Seoul, then weekends in Bangkok, Singapore, Hongkong, Shanghai and Taiwan. Name and concept will be given to you by the end of this week, and rehearsals will begin next week."

She was stuck between happiness and confusion. "We've been preparing for the Arena tour, and Tiffany has a solo-"

"Preparations made thus far for the Arena tour has been scrapped. You'll do a Japanese version of this new tour."

They had been practicing for weeks whenever they weren't working on Lion Heart. Taeyeon felt as if a heavy handed mother-in-law had smashed a four-foot wedding cake and demanded the patissiere bake a new one in an hour.

Well, there was nothing they could do about it. She was sure the other members would agree with her that the more concerts, the better.

She nodded. "What about Tiffany's solo debut?"

"It has to be pushed back, of course," the President said. "We don't have time for it. After the Arena tour, you have the Taetiseo comeback, which we've decided to shorten promotions by a week."

"Why?"

"Marketing has low projections for the Christmas album, so we'll cut it to another mini album. You can record some music shows, but don't expect an elaborate promotion."

"What do you mean? Lion Heart's doing well and you're giving us a concert. Shouldn't Tiffany and Taetiseo be given more attention, then?"

"Christmas albums are just different."

Taeyeon frowned. "Taetiseo will make the difference."

"EXO couldn't."

The air thickened instantly. Taeyeon stared impassively.

"Miyoung's solo will wait till next summer, or after your next group comeback."

"Okay, I understand that the concert eats up time, but why not after Taetiseo then? She has the tracks and everything."

"People are going to be tired of all this activity from Girls' Generation," the President said. "So Miyoung needs to wait. Especially if she insists on all the English lyrics. Besides, there are other artists in our lineup. It's not her turn."

And that is the real reason. The pig president probably saw more profitable groups than Tiffany. Taeyeon didn't want to name names, not even in her head.

"I think you should have this discussion with Tiffany."

A smile quirked on the little man's face. "I don't think I need to. I've thought about this, and I think your group needs to grow up. I know that Miyoung has been acting as the group spokesperson, and you think you can discuss things with us as if we haven't already considered what we want to do. The thing is, the lot of you are nearing thirty. You shouldn't rely on upper management this much anymore."

"I don't get what you mean. Shouldn't we discuss things more as we mature?"

"SM is managing many different entities. I think Girls' Generation has enough experience to start taking care of itself. I'm delegating more responsibility to you. If your team has concerns, you deal with it," he said. "So from now on, you will get whatever music-related information about the group first, along with the relevant managers. That should give you enough time to prepare to field whatever questions the affected members have."

Taeyeon frowned. "Why are you doing this? We're doing well. I did well, the group is doing well. It shows that the public anticipates whatever we do. The rest of us will do well, too."

"Yes, and I'm sure you'll do a good job of making sure this continues. I'm doing this to give you notice that it's the start of your sunset."

She was stunned. She knew it was coming. The end had to come, after all. But this was too early, too sudden, too forceful. Since he was being so rude to her, she couldn't hold it all back. "Is this because our contract's ending in two years, and you don't think most of us will sign again because of what you did?"

"No, and don't bring up the storm that stupid woman dragged me through," Kim Youngmin said. Taeyeon held her tongue in case she made things worse. "Look, your group has enjoyed freedoms that success and seniority bring. Essentially, the only change here is that you have to step it up as leader and the others should defer to you. It's how things should be with a leader anyway. It's time to be responsible. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

Now that the President had said his primary piece, she was quickly dismissed, and quickly shipped by van back to her apartment. If only she could just as quickly figure out what this all meant. Why in seven s did the President have to burden her with this crap? Why on earth was the end starting so soon?

Maybe there was nothing in particular that Kim Youngmin was scheming about. Perhaps this was how groups were retired from SM's focus. She wondered if this was what Leeteuk and Yunho had to go through. She could technically ask them, but she wouldn't. Girls' Generation was different. They had to go through this in their own way.

Taeyeon knew what she could do. A lesson learnt recently. She could figure this out with her members.

The first person that Taeyeon wanted to turn to was Jessica. She wanted to seek encouragement. But Tiffany deserved her respect, so she went to Tiffany's room first. Screw letting the manager tell Tiffany at some arbitrarily later date. She prepared herself for the disbelief, confusion, anger and tears that the one Tiffany Hwang was sure to express, and knocked on the door.

"Come in," Tiffany said from inside her room. Taeyeon heard Prince barking a little.

She steeled herself, gripped the door knob, and let herself in.

Taeyeon was exhausted. She spent the first hour convincing Tiffany not to storm to SM and incur Kim Youngmin's wrath. She spent the next hour being sad with Tiffany about shattered dreams.

"But I think you'll definitely debut next year," is not the best way to wipe away tears. Like Taeyeon, Tiffany had spent nearly a decade preparing for this. Unlike Taeyeon, her hopes were thrown off track.

Taeyeon held Tiffany in her arms, rocking back and forth, as Tiffany cried. She rubbed Tiffany's back. "You are going to be fine. When your album comes out, all of this crap is going to be worth it. You're gonna show them that they shouldn't have slept on you."

Tiffany nodded, and Taeyeon realized that she was doing exactly what Kim Youngmin told her to do. But it wasn't like she could choose to disrespect Tiffany by keeping her in the dark. And neither could she stop comforting her best friend just to rebel against an asinine dictator. That scheming crock of .

They won first place in Music Bank for Lion Heart. Puffy eyes hidden by mascara. Tear-stained faces covered by blusher. Everyone was happy about the concert, disappointed with Tiffany's solo delay, and crushed by the change in SM's tone towards the group.

Taeyeon called Jessica first thing after getting home. Jessica was hard at work in Hong Kong. Taeyeon was going to be confident about this call. Jessica said it would help with getting over being out. So Taeyeon called her the first thing.

"We won!"

"That's great! How's Tiff?"

"Fany didn't get much sleep last night."

"How did the others take it?"

"Not too great. We all had a late night."

"Man... I wish I wasn't in Hong Kong."

"We'll be fine, Sica. Don't worry."

Jessica sighed. "Well, congrats on the win."

Taeyeon smiled. "Yep."

"I suppose it's especially nice for you girls to win today."

"Yep, it sure is." Taeyeon smiled wider. "What are you doing right now?"

"Krys told me to laugh at Amber's mouth in their Red Light video, so I was watching it again."

"Ha! What's this about Amber?"

"Like at 1:26. No idea why it's funny though."

"Must be an inside joke." Taeyeon grinned. "Right, we talked about Red Light maybe some days ago. Since f(x) has Red Light, and we have Green Light, Red Velvet should do a song called Blue Light."

"Ha, ha. You girls are so witty."

"I know. But seriously, it's a good idea. Red Light is so f(x), and Green Light is so us. Don't you think so?"

"Hmm."

"I kinda wish Green Light was our title song. It's so much more fun to sing."

"Yes..." was all Jessica said, which was strange.

"Especially Sooyoung's part," Taeyeon said.

Jessica chuckled, in a weirdly nervous way. "Yes. Remind me how it goes again?"

Seriously, "How can you forget it? 'I'm coming' is practically the whole point of the song!"

"Oh right, I'm coming. Yeah, it was, like the best. Sooyoung has really improved."

"Hmm." It was a great bit, and among the eight of them, only Sooyoung could do it, but it wasn't a stretch or anything for her. It simply seemed as if Jessica had actually forgotten the entire song, which wasn't like Jessica.

"You know what, enough. I hate lying. I'm sorry, but I actually haven't heard the song yet."

Taeyeon blinked. She sat up in her bed. "What?"

"I haven't actually heard the rest of the Lion Heart album other than the singles."

"Oh." Taeyeon blinked again. A million thoughts flew through her head. Jessica wanted her to talk naturally about the group, but had not listened to their album. There was nothing casual about this. Maybe it wasn't the right time to restart this relationship. Jessica wasn't ready. Now that was quite a lousy thought to have. "This is kind of awkward."

"It doesn't mean that I don't like the album."

If Taeyeon could just calm the down, she'd be able to understand Jessica better. It was hard. "Okay. Okay. It doesn't mean that you don't like us. Okay. But you haven't listened to our album. Not because you don't like what we do just among us. Okay."

"It's not like anything you're thinking of at all, Kim Taengoo. Calm down."

"I think I'm being very calm." I should just hang up now. Why make me tell you about us winning if you don't even want to listen to our damn album?

"It's just hard, all right? Hearing a Soshi song with just eight voices. I'm scared of what that sounds like. At least I listened to Lion Heart, You Think and Party."

"At least you did," Taeyeon said. She glanced at her wall clock. It was late. She should get ready for bed. "It's eleven, Sica. I think I'm going to sleep. It's kind of been a tiring few days, you know?"

"I understand. Good night and rest well, Taengoo."

"Yeah, you too."

A/N: Thanks for waiting, and thank you for the comments and upvotes! There's so much I want to ask, but I'll keep it to this: How was this chapter?