“Are you going to Monarch again tonight?”  No, that sounded too accusatory.  “Are we going to Monarch again tonight?”  Ugh, no, Tiffany might take that the wrong way.  In what fashion, Taeyeon didn’t know, but still the wrong way, somehow, she was sure.  In the end, she settled on a simple, “Are you going out tonight?” and hit send before she could overthink it.

She absently flicked through the channels on her tiny TV, waiting for Tiffany’s response.  Just as she was beginning to worry, a response came through:  “I was thinking about it, but Sunny and Soo have an exam tomorrow.  Don’t want to go alone.”

“I could go with you.”  Don’t think, just send it.  Done.

Bzzz.  “Are you sure?”  What was that supposed to mean?  Of course she was sure.  She was so, so sure.  Never more sure in her life.

“Yeah, I had a good time last week.”  Taeyeon really needed to stop lying to Tiffany.  She crossed her fingers and prayed that Tiffany’s memory of that night was blurry enough to forget that Taeyeon holed up at the bar like the world’s biggest curmudgeon.  And that Tiffany would gloss over the fact that Taeyeon had been blatantly avoiding her since then.

“K!  See you at 10? (:”  She used a smiley face.  She must be happy about Taeyeon going with, right?  People used emoticons when they were happy, Taeyeon was approximately 93.5% sure.

“Yup, see you. :)”

No Sunny, no Sooyoung.  Just her and Tiffany and a hundred strangers.  If she was going to do this--get on the dancefloor, pretend like she knew how to dance, she was going to be as comfortable as possible.  No heels, no skirts, no push-up bras.  Black jeans and combat boots were the attire for tonight.  She ran her fingers through her hair, attempting to salvage the mess and turn it into something remotely attractive.

“You look gay as hell,” she said to her reflection.  “Kind of badass, of course, but super gay.”  Oh well, it would have to do.