Sometimes things don’t turn out as planned. The plan was to be angry and upset and unhappy. But Tiffany opens the door wearing a thin white tank top that might as well be made of tracing paper (with no bra!) and a pair of luminous pink boyshorts and Taeyeon’s plan evaporates into the night sky. She spies the word ‘PINK’ printed around the waistband of Tiffany’s and smiles. Victoria’s Secret. Tiffany has spent a fortune shopping on Victoria’s Secret dot com and Taeyeon is the lucky beneficiary of this expenditure. The visual beneficiary. She holds up a bottle of Tiffany’s favourite champagne and the scantily clad woman ushers her in with a welcoming smile, frozen fish head forgotten.

“How did the 3D rendering go?” Tiffany asks as she walks into the kitchen.

Taeyeon sits on the red couch, leans back and closes her eyes. “How did Matt know that you like the strawberry shortcake from that café?”

There is silence. Then the patter of feet on the floor. Taeyeon opens her eyes. Tiffany is standing at the threshold of the kitchen with a bucket of ice and the bottle of champagne.

“So you heard about it.”

“Yeah, I heard about it. Did you think I wouldn’t?”

“I didn’t think you would or wouldn’t. You see, I haven’t had much time to give it any thought with work stacking up and all. And especially not after the stupid fish arrived.”

“So you agreed to go out with him to piss me off.” Taeyeon stands and faces Tiffany. “Well, you’ve succeeded.”

“What the are you talking about? You weren’t even in the picture when I agreed.”

“I was not in the picture.” Taeyeon nods. “Great! Thanks for letting me know how much I mean to you.”

“Oh, for ’s sake.” Tiffany puts the ice bucket down with a clang. “That’s not what I meant.”

“What else could you have meant?”

The champagne bottle is chucked into the ice with such force that, for a moment, Taeyeon worries the bottle might shatter. “You being very unreasonable, Taeyeon. I don’t see a problem with accepting the coffee treat from Matt. And it’s not like I jumped at the chance to go out with him. You should’ve seen how insistent he was. How apologetic.”

“Apologetic? Why would he be apologetic?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“What would he have to be sorry about?”

“Taeyeon, he knocked into me and made me drop my coffee. Any decent human being would feel apologetic about it.”

“H-He knocked into you?”

Tiffany rolls her eyes. “Yes, didn’t he tell you?”

Taeyeon’s jaw drops and she slumps onto the couch, feeling like a royal . “No, he did not mention this bit when he told us about it. But he did say it isn’t really a date.” She groans as realization dawns on her. Matt must have seized the opportunity to squeeze a ‘date’ out of Tiffany and used it as bragging rights. “Damn, Matt made it sound like an actual date. He’s such an .”

“I can’t believe you would think so badly of me.”

Taeyeon moves rapidly, taking wide strides to eliminate the distance between them, and wraps herself around Tiffany. “I’m sorry. I thought you’d done it to get revenge for the fish.”

Tiffany sighs. “I wouldn’t stoop that low.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not entirely your fault. You had no reason to think Matt was lying.”

Taeyeon leans back, liking the feel of Tiffany’s arms around her waist and melds her lips with Tiffany’s. Their lips part and lock, the intensity increasing with every passing exchange and Taeyeon melts into jelly in the arms of Tiffany. So much warmth. So many feelings. She’s in a thunderstorm yet sheltered from the rain. They stop to come up for air and their eyes meet, chests heaving. The feeling that passes between them sends Taeyeon reeling. A connection beyond electric. A bond beyond casual. Taeyeon may not have planned to fall in love so quickly but right here and now, she feels like she’s falling, hard. It hits her and frightens her. She’s never felt this way with the girlfriends she had before. Never been struck by lightning. Never been shot this deep by cupid’s arrow of love. How is she to know if this will last? How is she to know if this is for real?

Tiffany nudges their lips together again, gently this time and smiles as she leans back. “We’ll take our time tonight. First, the champagne.”

A slow grin spreads across Taeyeon’s face. Tiffany’s right. There is no rush. She will figure it out. So for tonight, she will enjoy the champagne with Tiffany, then the woman she might be in love with. And enjoy she did. Tiffany too. In fact, they enjoyed themselves so much that it might actually be illegal in certain parts of the world to be that high.

Let’s just say, they didn’t stop enjoying each other till the sun threatened to rise and paint them orange.

–

There is something to be said about waking up next to someone you have feelings for. Something about seeing this special person first thing in the morning—or afternoon. To feel the warmth emanating from the person you’re lying next to. The touch of skin. Taeyeon wakes up to a weight on her abdomen and leg. An arm is stretched across her abdomen, still but full of life. A leg is sprawled over hers on the right, tempting her to trap it with her legs. Fallen hair obscures Taeyeon’s view of Tiffany’s face so she closes her eyes instead and smiles. Then, she inches closer to Tiffany and turns so that she can snuggle. Tiffany shifts as she does so they end up on their sides, almost hugging. And all Taeyeon can think is how comfortable this is. How right this feels. That if she had the power to stop time, it would be this moment she chooses to use it.

“Morning,” Tiffany murmurs, putting a smile on Taeyeon’s face.

“Morning.” Taeyeon runs her finger down Tiffany’s arm, shoulder to elbow, up and down, up and down. She watches with satisfaction as tiny little bumps appear on the arm and strives to raise even more bumps.

Tiffany giggles. She lifts her head and their lips meet for a brief moment. Taeyeon sweeps hair out of the way and presses another kiss on Tiffany’s forehead as the woman settles back on the pillow. For a moment, peace reigns. Then, in one swift swipe, Tiffany lifts the sheets, jumps out of bed and pulls the sheets over Taeyeon, covering her completely.

“Last to the bathroom has to make breakfast!” she yells while dashing for it.

Taeyeon mutters a curse and struggles out of bed to chase her down but Tiffany is already in the bathroom holding her stomach as she laughs at a Taeyeon trying to wrestle the sheets down. Taeyeon falls back flat on the bed and concedes defeat. Tiffany raises her hands in victory then adds, “I’ll help with the coffee. Yuri taught me how to make an Americano.” Taeyeon blows Tiffany a kiss from bed and grins, bubbles of happiness rising from the bottom of her heart.

“I’d like to meet this Yuri of yours,” says Taeyeon, still lying in bed.

“Eager to suss out my friends already?”

“We’ve been together for three months. It’s not too soon.”

“You’re right.” Tiffany pokes her head from the bathroom with a toothbrush spinning over her rows of white neatness. “But to be fair, I want to meet your friends too.”

“Deal,” says Taeyeon while stretching her arms over her head and pulling her body taut. She relaxes and sinks back into the mattress. “Tiffany, I love your bed so much.”

Laughter trickles out from the bathroom. “I thought you were going to say you love me.”

Taeyeon giggles and asks in jest, “Do you want to hear me say it?”

For a moment, all Taeyeon hears is the sound of splashing water. Then, the water stops flowing and Tiffany steps out wearing another pair of boyshorts, all black with lacy trims on top. Down on the left side in white fonts with a pink outline, it reads: NO BOYFRIEND NO PROBLEM. Taeyeon snorts at the irony of Tiffany’s choice of . Meanwhile, Tiffany walks to the foot of the bed and stands there, looking like Miss Seductress.

“Do you?” she asks simply, her tone curious.

Taeyeon sits up, aware that Tiffany has left the land of jokes. She shifts to the end of the bed and gets up on her knees. How strange a moment this is, Taeyeon thinks, to be confessing her innermost feelings to Tiffany—stark and on both of her knees. But it is a fitting moment too, after the night that they had. She takes Tiffany’s hands and holds them together.

“I may not be deeply in love with you yet, but I’m falling for you more and more, every single day.”

Tiffany bends to join their lips and they share a gentle kiss that raises volumes more feelings than Taeyeon realizes she has.

“I’m falling too,” Tiffany murmurs in her ear and it sends sweet, sweet electric shocks all over her body.

They kiss again, this time much longer and deeper until Tiffany pulls back and says, “Brush your teeth, dirty bug.”

Taeyeon giggles and gets out of bed. “Yes, Ma’am!” she says with a salute and a great big smile.

–