She’s never going to let me live this down.

________________________________________

 

Aside from major jealousy, Sooyoung’s reaction wasn’t as crazy as I thought it’d be… until she asked me not to wash my sheets until she came over and laid on them that is; but I quickly tried to forget she said that. Hyoyeon’s reaction wasn’t too bad either surprisingly. Actually she didn’t even believe me at first so I think that took some of the impact away. I had to show her the article and then tell her about twenty times not to say anything.

She was mainly just bummed because she didn’t get to spend the night with ‘her favorite unnie’ too, but when she saw that Tiffany had somehow signed her jumbo sized poster over her bed, which was also news to me, it sent her over the moon. I don’t think I heard another word out of her all night!

I might have to thank Tiffany for that…

I originally wasn’t going to tell Hyo at all, but if she saw it somewhere else and said that it was her sister in the photo I think I might’ve ended up actually hurting her.

This was better for everyone… or at least Hyo.

We woke up early the next day and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to go to school. Mainly because I only had a week left but also since the school I went to was pretty prestigious, scandals were rarely talked about. Idol scandals were a little more popular, but still nothing more than a few comments here and there. The students here were all too busy studying or doing some form of an after school program to be concerned about who’s dating who… with a few exceptions of course.

Whatever I was just glad that this time around it helped me too… or at least I thought it would.

To my dismay though, everyone in the entire school was talking about it. Okay so maybe not everyone, but it was definitely a lot of freaking people.

Of course this scandal had to be the one that spread like crazy. I figured everyone would be even more focused since finals were this week but apparently everyone had plenty of time to talk about the Tiffany scandal… Ugh.

Just great.

I heard one girl at lunch say it was another idol, which is the rumor that I hoped kept spreading. The guy beside her then said that whoever she was ‘she looked good from behind’, which oddly made me feel good, but when the next girl asked if her friends thought the ‘mystery girl’ went to school here I almost choked. I-

“Would you chill,” Sooyoung asked. “You might as well just go tell them that it was you.” Yuri hummed.

“Yeah, you’re over reacting for nothing Taeng. I talked to my dad last night about it and I think people really believe the ‘childhood friend’ story.”

Oh my god. A huge weight just lifted off my gut.

“Seriously?” She nodded.

This was the best news I’ve heard all day!

“I mean I think they’re still trying to find out who you are and make sure since it’s such a hot topic right now, but I don’t think people are convinced you guys are like dating or whatever.” I nodded.

Oh okay, so that wasn’t as good of news as I thought, but I would definitely rather be linked to Tiffany as her ‘old friend’ than her ‘new girlfriend’…

I’ve gone to school with a few idols in the past and there are at least ten trainees here as I speak. It would be totally plausible that I was Tiffany’s friend from childhood… if it ever came down to that that is.

Which I hope it didn’t… ever.

When I got Tiffany’s text that afternoon I felt even better, except for when her name popped up on my phone and I had a mini panic attack.

Good thing there was no one around me to potentially see it besides Yuri. Whew, I definitely needed to change her name in my phone.

 

Text Message
From: Tiffany

Hey this is Tiffany! I just wanted to let you know that Sunny said the news companies and gossip sites are totally buying the ‘childhood friend’ thing for now.  Don’t worry~!

 

I read it again to ease my mind and- wait.

Wait just a second.

Oh god.

‘For now’?

For NOW?!?

What the hell did that mean?!

I quickly typed ‘For now?!?’ in the message and hit send before ringing the next customer out at the café. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket as I gave the man his change, but with the line of people that literally came out of nowhere I couldn’t check it anytime soon.

I think I could actually feel my hair starting to fall out from how anxious I was right now and I couldn’t stop thinking about it either.

What the hell did she mean by ‘for now’?

My head wants to think that she meant it encouragingly, but I couldn’t stop feeling that it was more like a ‘they haven’t figured it out yet but watch out for tomorrow’ kinda thing…

Oh god. Why was this happening to me?!

Thankfully twenty minutes later when the line finally died down I told Kahi I was taking a break and practically sprinted to the backroom. I unlocked my phone with the new passcode I set up last night and finally read the text.

 

From: Tiffany

Yeah! I’ll text you later!

 

Uhm… What… What the hell kind of an answer was that?!

If it was possible, I would’ve reached through the phone and strangled her right then and there. She had to be kidding right? Did she not understand or something?

Oh my god.

Maybe she didn’t?

 

Text Message
To: Tiffany

No. I meant like what does ‘for now’ mean? Is someone going to find out?

 

I waited for her reply, but it didn’t seem to be coming.

“What the,” I said to myself a few minutes later. It took her like ten seconds to reply the first time what is she-

Right.

I momentarily forgot that she actually does things too. Even if she is an idol, I’m sure she’s busy. You can’t go a block in this city without seeing some form of add with an idol or idol group in it so she’s probably doing something like that. It’s obviously not the hardest job in the world, but I’m sure you still can’t just text mid photoshoot or whatever.

I cursed to myself. I guess I would just have to wait for her reply… and waiting was what I did.

I didn’t hear a reply back from Tiffany Hwang all week. Seriously.

All freaking week.

I almost went insane! I know I hadn’t heard anything from Sooyoung, who follows gossip and scandals religiously, but that still didn’t mean I was completely in the clear yet either! Who knows! There could be a huge article out about me tomorrow with my whole life story in it!

I wasn’t exaggerating either because Yuri said her father’s company was still hoping to figure out who I was so they could finally cut the ‘relationship’ rumor between Tiffany and their artist Jessica once and for all!

I texted her a few more times here and there throughout the week to see if I could finally get a reply, but I was met with the same response every time; nothing.

She was seriously lucky I had other things to worry about right now. If finals weren’t happening this week and I had extra time to actually think about the situation I was in, I probably would’ve tracked down that stupid idol and made her tell me what was going on.

Who in the world leaves off a sensitive conversation with ‘for now’?!

“Ugh,” I groaned aloud. “For now? Seriously? I-“

“For now what,” asked my manager with dog like hearing.

Holy hell…

“Uh, nothing unnie,” I replied. “I was just talking to myself.” She nodded.

“Ah okay,” she grinned. “Are you glad you’re finally done with High School?”  I looked at her to reply but then got really confused about how she even- “Sooyoung told me.” I nodded.

That explained it.

“Yeah, I am,” I chuckled. “Very glad.” She smiled again.

“Any plans for college? I heard Sooyoung is going to Korea University?” Kahi laughed. “I didn’t even know she was smart enough to get in there.” I laughed too.

“Don’t let her weirdness fool you unnie, Sooyoung is crazy smart… just usually more crazy.” Kahi laughed again, but when she repeated the first question all I could do was sigh and unfortunately answer with, “No.”

Of course she had to ask ‘why’ too, so I gave her the same answer I had given almost every other adult that has asked me.

“I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life so I’ve decided to take a year or two off to try to figure it out.”

I mean I’m not particularly good at anything nor do I like anything enough to keep doing it for like fifty years so what was I supposed to do? Just pick something and hope for the best?

Ugh, I don’t know how many times I’ve explained this to my mom but I’m hoping since Kahi was a little younger she would-

“Right on,” she nodded. “I wouldn’t spend all that money until I was absolutely sure either.”

Heol … I just came so close to hugging her right there, oh my.

“You’re seriously the first person to understand what I’m doing,” I accidently lied.

Sooyoung and Yoona both understood too, but they didn’t really count did they? That’s what best friends are for anyway, right?

“Yeah I totally get it… just don’t put it off for too long Taengo,” she laughed. I nodded. “And in the meantime if you’re interested Bekah’s spot still hasn’t been filled yet.” I felt my expression drop.

Oh my god… she wasn’t talking about what I thought she was, was she?

________________________________________

 

“Four thousand won is your change ma’am and your order will be right up,” I said cheerfully to the last customer in line. It was Sunday morning so it was pretty slow right now but I didn’t mind at all. It was a great change of pace from yesterday.

I watched Yoona pour the woman’s freshly blended smoothie into a clear cup and handed her a wrapped straw when I saw she was done.

“Thanks, and thank you ma’am. Have a nice day!” Yoona gave her trademark alligator smile and the woman thanked us in return… As soon as she turned her back though, our fake smiles dropped completely.

“How annoying,” Yoona complained as the lady went out the door. “Who on earth makes a smoothie order that freaking complicated?” I shook my head. “It’s just fruit!”

“I’ve seen worse.”

She didn’t believe me, but as soon as I told her about the woman who asked us to take out all the seeds of a strawberry she couldn’t help but give in.

“Okay. You win… but what’d you do though?” I laughed. It was actually kinda funny now that I thought about it.

“First I asked if she was serious, and she said she was so then I just told her that there was no way we could do that and she stormed out of here saying that she would ‘never come back’,” I said as I imitated the snobby lady’s voice. Yoona started to tell me a different story about another dreadful customer she once had but then completely changed topics out of the blue.

“Oh, that reminds me! Has you-know-who texted you back yet?”

What the- I really don’t see how a woman complaining that her iced coffee was too cold had to do with Tiffany texting me back, but I responded nonetheless.

“Nope.” Her huge eyes doubled in size… somehow.

“Not even once?” I shook my head. “Wow~,” she held out.

“I know,” I agreed. “It’s ridiculous right?” She hummed.

 “So much for telling you if something happened huh?” Yoona laughed, but I was getting even angrier just thinking about it again.

Aish, she freaking promised! I really thought she would too…

“Oh! Soo, come here,” Yoona called. I looked toward my tall friend who just arrived for her shift and internally groaned. It was only ten? The three hours that I’ve been here definitely felt like eight.

“Can you believe she still hasn’t texted Taeng back yet? It’s been what? Like a week, right?” I nodded.

“Almost.” Tomorrow would make it exactly a week but who-

“Who cares,” Sooyoung said as she started scrolling through her phone.

Whoa okay, I said internally. That was a little harsh even for Sooyoung. Yoona looked at me and I could tell she was thinking the same exact thing.

“Uhm, okay then,” Yoona said coldly. “I’m gonna go see if Jungah needs any hel-“

“No,” Sooyoung interrupted again. “Wait look, sorry,” she said while frantically scrolling a little more.

I had no idea what she was looking for but I also had a slight feeling I didn’t want to know…

“Just hold ah- Here look,” Soo said finally showing us what she had been searching for. “Who cares if she texted you back or not because she’s wearing MY sweatshirt again,” Sooyoung practically swooned. “This means she totally likes me right?”

“Oh my god,” Yoona groaned. “I almost just blocked you on Facebook AND Instagram you jerk.”

I seconded that… not the social media bit but the ‘oh my god’ for sure.

Sooyoung said and did alll that just to show us that Tiffany was wearing my hoodie again? Who cares if she-

Wait… why IS she wearing my shirt again? Doesn’t she have like tons of clothes she could wear? Why would she wear an old hoodie she borrowed from me out in public?

Also, more importantly, why in the hell hasn’t she given me my hoodie back yet? She told me she’d have her manager or someone drop it by in a few days in the bathroom last week… but I guess she also said that she’d tell me what was going on too so…

“This is definitely a sign,” Sooyoung declared. I laughed. I had too. She was being so ridiculous.

“You do remember that it’s my shirt, right?”

“Yeah but it was a present from me so bleh~,” she sounded with her tongue out. I sighed.

That’s the only reason I want the hoodie back in the first place really. If it were any other sweatshirt I wouldn’t really care, but since Soo bought me this when she went overseas it was special... to me at least.

I think the one dream that I have had since I was little is to travel. Nowhere in particular, but just everywhere… too bad there isn’t a job like that.

The only problem with that dream is that I can’t afford to go anywhere. I’ve never been to Jeju Island or even Busan let alone anywhere overseas and I doubt I ever will, so having a shirt from various countries and cities makes me feel like I have a little piece of them with me any way.

And now I’m missing my little piece of Italy and I really wanted it back.

 

Text Message
To: MiYoung

You don’t have to reply to this or any of the previous messages, but please have your manager give me back my hoodie.

TY.

 

I put my phone back in my pocket and then – what the? Seriously? Did my phone just vibrate? I questioned who it could be in my head as I pulled it out of my pocket once more but as soon as I remembered that Hyoyeon was home alone with mom, I knew that’s who it must be. She must be bored out of her mind and texting me to-to… oh my god.

I opened the text, but it definitely wasn’t from who I thought it was.

 

________________________________________

 

 

Sorry for taking so long!
(I hope you guys didn't forget about me!)

I got really confused about where I wanted to take this story though and how so I just kinda put it on hold, but I think I've got it figured out a little better now!

If you have any suggestions I'll be happy to hear them along with fake article ideas.^^ I haven't made one in a while!

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