Yuri was all about routine.

--

She’d get up on the right side of the bed, fix her bed sheet three times and make sure she had smoothed every inch and wiped everything until nothing physically unkept was visible to the eyes. She’d take a shower, making sure to soap and scrub and soap and scrub and soap and scrub before she’d rinse everything out of her soap clad self six times then brush her teeth twice. She’d change into her working clothes and change them repeatedly until she found ‘right’ one. She’d wash her hands thirteen times before eating breakfast and wash the dishes five. Locking all windows seven times each, she’d be ready to go, but not before she’d locked the door fifteen times. She’d always hold her breath while she stood in front of her door when she’s done. She knew no one will to open them from the inside but she was compelled to wait. Minutes of staring at the unmoving door made her right pointer finger tic; standing there irritated her to the core but she had to wait.

She used to wish that she could just turn around leave but now, she’d given up and accepted her fate.

Fifteen minutes to eight, she’d start her agonizing walk to work and spend the rest of the day working on autopilot. Because her world consisted mostly of the same invasive thoughts and endless repetitions of things she had long before gotten used to. 

--

Until Tiffany came and brought in all the new. 

--

It started with an apologetic smile and a sweetly given pat on the cheek.

Yuri was staring at an ugly crack on the sidewalk when a girl, late and dashing to work, accidentally hit Yuri’s face with her Gucci bag. It sent Yuri falling on her .

“Oh, ! I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

The first thing that Yuri thought was how unkempt the girl’s hair looked (a leaf was stuck on top of her hair), second thing was how dirty the pavement she sitting on must be (She’s sad she had to throw away this skirt now. Of the dozen which looked exactly like it she owned, this one was her favorite.)

“Here, let me help you get up.” Tiffany shifted the cup of cold coffee on her hand to the other one whose hold her bag and wiped her hand on her skirt before offering it to Yuri. Yuri fought to keep her disgust to herself.  

“No thanks. I’m okay.” Yuri said, ignoring the girl’s sorry stricken face. She searched the ground to find something a little less dirty she can brace her hands on. She was surprised when Tiffany took her hand anyway and pulled her up.

Yuri could only look at Tiffany in astonishment as the unhesitant girl brushed the dust off her shirt, feeling smeared by those filthy hands. She jerked when Tiffany’s hand slapped her bum. Tiffany tilted her head to the side and gave Yuri’s cheek a pat. Yuri looked at her in horror. Her hand was soft and warm but it didn’t stop Yuri for wanting to scrub her face less.

“There, you’re all clean now.”

The girl beamed a smile, her eyes turned into crescents, then all of the sudden, the thoughts bugging Yuri inside her head fell quiet. She felt something somersault in her stomach, something told her it was because of the germs but the flipping of heart told her otherwise.

Dazed, she could only stare as the girl looked down at her watch before she looked up with worried eyes. A crease formed on her brow and Yuri wanted to smooth it so bad.

“Look,” The girl said, “I’m sorry for hitting your face like that but I really have to meet someone inside this coffee shop,” She pointed her thumb at the shop behind her. “So … care to wait for me? I mean, inside? It’ll be short. I just have to interview someone real fast. Please, please, please? I really want to get you something as an apology,” She pouted, looking at Yuri with hopeful eyes.

Yuri found herself trying to search her mind for words and failing.

“O-Okay,” She said at last.

With that, the girl smiled ever brighter. It made Yuri squint. She heard the girl say something before she turned around and hurried inside the restaurant but Yuri didn’t comprehend it. She was too busy replaying the girl’s smile in her mind.

--

“Sorry, I took a while longer. I’m Tiffany. What’s your name?” Tiffany said, holding out a hand for Yuri to shake.

Yuri hesitated to take her hand at first, “Yuri. My name is Yuri. Yuri Kwon. Kwon Yuri. Yuri. Yuri. Yuri,” By the 20^th time she said that, Yuri looked away, feeling embarrassed.

“Well, I sure would never forget your name,” Tiffany smiled teasingly, “Kwon Yuri.”

The sound of her own name never sounded right to Yuri... until Tiffany. 

--

Yuri was all about order.

--

Her things were lined up inside her drawers in precision; by size and by purpose. Her personal collection of books was aligned on her shelf, categorized by genre and color. There’s a to-do list on her bulletin board; each task written on different colored memo notes; each color representing one meaning different from the other, listed in consideration to what comes first and what’s more important.

Yuri had a way on putting on things into categories and no matter how odd or weird or useless a thing was. It’s what had landed her a job as professional organizer and not once did Yuri doubt that ability.

--

Tiffany made her think twice.

--

They’d meet every day in front of the coffee shop because Yuri would always find herself stuck at staring at the ugly crack on the sidewalk and Tiffany would always pass by the shop to get her boss’ coffee. Rash as Tiffany was, she would still wait for Yuri’s compulsion to stop before she’d hook her arm on Yuri’s and they would start to walk together. They would talk a lot; with Tiffany doing most of the talking because Yuri would always be busy trying to bury the thoughts of ‘someone holding her’ in the back of her mind. As unsanitary as Tiffany’s clinginess made Yuri feel, Yuri would never wish for it to stop.

--

Yuri preferred doing things precisely as she had planned. She had established a time table for almost everything and anything that she needed do in a day, and she’d stick on it like how a drill master would stick to his rules. Any kind of delay and discrepancy from her plans gave her anxieties so never once had she dared to divert from it. But everything about that changed when Tiffany started showing up in front of her office building after work.

“I was on my way back from an errand and thought I’d wait for you. You don’t mind if we walk back together, do you?”

No, Yuri didn’t.

But she minded the fact that Tiffany seemed to have the same errand to run every day and would always arrive there 30 minutes earlier than the time Yuri’s working hours end. Yuri minded the fact that the thought of Tiffany already waiting for her outside was making her rush things just to see her early and not feel even a bit sorry about it.

--

In some days, Yuri wished Tiffany would just shut up.

“Do you like tea? What’s your favorite color? Gosh, why is my boss always this y!? Are you always this quiet? If worse comes to worst, would you or would not reuse your underwear? Have you ever been in love? Do you have like twitter or tumblr? How about instagram? Follow me?”

There are already too many thoughts in Yuri’s head and sometimes, regardless of how much Yuri likes listening to her talk, noise was just noise; Yuri didn’t want to hear it.

“If I didn’t hit you with my bag, would you even notice me? Maybe but most probably not. I’ve seen you a lot of times before. Sometimes, I would stop just to watch you stand there looking at that ugly crack and never once did you notice me.”

She stared at the ceiling and counted sheep. She’d think back if she included number 9 on her count and start back to one before Tiffany’s voice went back to invading her thoughts once again.

“I used to hate that crack a lot you know.”

“Why?”

“You gave it more attention than me.”

The thoughts of Tiffany shyly looking away and the faint blush on her cheeks made Yuri’s own face red.

“But I owe that crack a lot too. If not for it, I wouldn’t have found you.”

Yuri pushed her face on a pillow to muffle her girlish scream, chasing away the sheep. It’s on days like this that Yuri wished Tiffany would just shut up and let her sleep.  

--

Yuri usually found herself stuck on ugly things.

At the loud barking of a dog nearby, at the crumbled blanket they sat on and at the insects hiding under the grass that could crawl their way up their skin at any second they remained on the lush yet scarily dirty place they were sitting on.

Not on the hair tickling her arm, nor on the sensation of fingers playing with her hair. Not on the brown pair eyes staring up at her and the way it twinkled when she smiled or teared up slightly when she laughed. Not the cute nose that scrunched up when Yuri had gathered just enough courage to poke it or the way those long eyelashes fluttered lazily as Tiffany’s eyes started getting heavy.

Usually, Yuri wouldn’t find herself on a park, sprawled on a pink blanket with a tiny woman sleeping on her lap, or Yuri running her hands on somebody’s arm over and over and over again without wanting to immediately wash her hands.

Because Yuri usually found herself stuck on ugly things and Tiffany was anything but.

--

Yuri asked Tiffany to be her girlfriend 10 times in one minute. Tiffany said yes by the 4^th time but it didn’t feel enough so Yuri continued on until Tiffany shut her up with a kiss on the 23^th. It still wasn’t enough to make Yuri believe Tiffany was hers for real so Tiffany kissed her again and by the 15^th time she kissed her that night, Yuri asked, “You know I am different, don’t you? Why did you agree so easily?”

“If you haven’t asked me, I would have asked you first.”

--

Yuri was someone always bugged by questions.

What’s wrong or what’s right. Why was something like this and why was something else like that. Did she or did she not.

She had spent a lot of her time asking herself these questions and after a long thought process and endless repetitions, she’d usually got an answer that felt good enough.

But with Tiffany, what’s right doesn’t always feel correct, what’s done wasn’t always enough and the reasons for the whys don’t always make sense. 

Oddly so, that's what made everything about her perfect.

A/N: This was originally meant to be a YulSic fic but I forgot about it lol. Yuri's spamming on Tiffany's birthday gave me feels then I suddenly remembered this and figured Tiffany suited the role more so I scraped the whole thing and rewrote it to suit Yulti. I hope you liked it. P.S. I'll probably write a bit of an extension to this probably, no promises. P.P.S. Happy Anniversary Soshi and Sica, my loves!