“Taetae, have you seen Jessica? I haven’t seen her walk home with you to work on your songs these days,” Fany asked as she, Sunny, and I were on our way to the student council room to drop off some important-looking documents Sooyoung left behind in our club room. I shrugged.

“I’m not really sure. She just said that she needed to do something at home and that we have enough material, for now, to last us until our next live performance.” The two just looked at me weirdly.

“That doesn’t sound like her, though. I wonder if something happened.”

“Are you talking about Sica?” The three of us jumped in surprise and whirled around and saw Hyoyeon behind us, smiling slyly. We all nodded at her, and she just giggled and led us into the student council room where Sooyoung was sorting out stuff I didn’t really care about.

“Don’t worry, Jessica’s fine. She’s just a bit preoccupied lately.” Sooyoung enthusiastically waved her hand in greeting as Sunny handed her the documents.

“Ah! Thank you, Lee Sunkyu! I was wondering where I placed these.” I rolled my eyes at her.

“You should be careful with your documents, Choi Sooyoung, or Sica will get mad at you again,” I reminded her as I sat down on the couch and crossed my arms and legs. Sooyoung just smirked at me.

“Oh, Sica’s too busy with Hyojin lately to keep tabs on me, but she made sure that Hyo keeps an eye on me so I don’t slack off too much!” she said offhandedly, and Sunny, Fany, and I just looked at her curiously.

“Hyojin?” Sooyoung and Hyoyeon looked at each other then back at us, playful eyes and huge smiles on their faces.

“Oh, yeah! You haven’t met him yet. Jessica’s been working extra hard during the day so that she can go home early and see Hyojin.”

“Hyojin’s family just moved in a few houses away from her house. You could say Sica fell in love at first sight! Hyojin is very adorable, right, Sooyoungie?” I swore Hyoyeon’s eyes sparkled in something akin to mischief as I saw her look in my direction for a second. My eyes narrowed, my lips morphing into a full-blown frown.

“Yup! And so sweet, too! Aww, I’m really jealous of Jessica right now! Hyojin also seems to really like her.” Sunny and Fany’s eyes sparkled, but my mind seemed to take the news of having my writing partner’s attention somewhere else quite disturbing, and, frankly, I didn’t like it one bit.

‘She prefers to spend time with someone she just met rather than writing songs with me?!’ I let myself stew for a few minutes as I sat there digesting this piece of information while the others gushed over how nice this Hyojin was. I snapped out of my thoughts as Fany shouted my name.

“Earth to Taetae! Are you okay? Your face is scary.” I blinked then blushed as I noticed everyone’s gazes were on me.

“O-of course, I am! What do you want now?” I stammered as I tried to appear nonchalant about the topic of discussion.

“Uh, we’re going to visit Sica and Hyojin with Sooyoung and Hyoyeon later. Want to come with us?” Sunny asked. My answer was instantaneous.

“No! I-I mean, I don’t have a reason to visit her. And I don’t really care about meeting this Hyojin. If you guys are staying, I’m going home now,” I said as I stood up to leave then went out the door with a careless wave to the others. I ignored Sunny and Fany’s confused faces and opted to also ignore Sooyoung and Hyoyeon’s mischievous glances.

“Is Taeyeon upset about something?” Soo and Hyo just laughed.

‘This is getting ridiculous!’

I tuned Sunny and Fany out while they continued to gush over how cute Hyojin was when they met him the day before. I really didn’t get how one person could get the attention of my friends this much, especially since he got the approval of my usually stoic partner. My eyes suddenly twitched irritably, and I must’ve been gripping my sheet music tightly because a warm hand suddenly encased mine and eased the papers from my grip. I looked up and blushed, Sooyeon’s eyes staring at me worriedly. She didn’t say anything, and just straightened up and addressed the other people in the room.

“The others are waiting in the club room. Why don’t you, two, go ahead and we’ll catch up after we fine-tune some of the songs?”

“Okay, Sica-ya. We’ll see you later!” Sunny and Fany left still talking animatedly, and I was left there, uncomfortably waiting for Sooyeon to address me. I felt her sit beside me on the bench and carefully placed my sheet music on the piano.

“I honestly expected you to come with them when Soo texted me that they’d be visiting yesterday,” she said casually. I just turned my head away as I fiddled with my hair.

“As I said, I really don’t have any reason to go.” We stayed like that for a while, not saying anything, until I heard Sica giggle beside me, so I discreetly took a peek at her and saw that she was laughing at something on her phone.

“Is that from Hyojin?” I couldn’t help the hostility in my voice. Sooyeon looked at me, smiling.

“Sort of. His mother secretly took a picture of him doing something silly then sent it to me. It’s really quite funny.” I scowled.

“You’ve only met his family for, like, a week? And now you’re getting really close to his mother,” I said as I gritted my teeth in irritation. At this point, I didn’t care that I was acting like a spoiled brat. Someone was taking Sooyeon’s attention away from me and I wasn’t afraid to show anybody how upset it made me. She giggled again.

“Well, for me to see Hyojin, I need to go through his mother first, don’t I?” That made me scowl more.

“What for? Doesn’t he have the free will to see you on his own? I really don’t see how great you think he is for you to constantly see him. Because of him, you haven’t spent time with me in days!” I blushed madly as I accidentally blurted that last part out.

“I-I mean because we haven’t made progress on a new song yet!” I tried to remedy, but the damage had been done, and now I tried really hard to avoid my partner’s face as she looked at me in amusement.

“Sometimes I don’t get what’s in that head of yours. If that’s the case, then why don’t you come over after practice so that we can work on that song you’re so adamant about composing?” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. She suddenly stood up and headed for the door, but before she went out, she turned and looked at me.

“And so that I can finally introduce you to Hyojin. Let’s see what you think of him then,” she winked at me then left.

Sica must have noticed my unease as we finally entered her street. She took my hand and smiled at me as she led me into one of the houses down the road.

“Is this really necessary? I don’t really care about meeting him,” I murmured defiantly as I followed her, my face flushed as I stared at her hand clasped in mine.

“This won’t take too long, Taengoo,” she reassured as she let go of me then rang the doorbell. My back was to the door so I didn’t notice who answered, but I stiffened when I heard Sica call Hyojin’s name, and I couldn’t help my irritation because she sounded so genuinely happy to see him.

“Taeng,” she called to me, and I took a deep breath first before finally turning around.

I stared. And stared. And stared a bit more.

“Taeyeon-ah, this is Hyojin. What do you think?” I heard Sica ask, and at that moment, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry for acting so petty and ridiculous in the first place.

“H-hyojin?”

Sooyeon held in her arms a handsome baby boy, probably not more than two years old, who was looking at me intently with brown eyes a few shades darker than Sooyeon’s. The baby gave me a toothy grin then laughed as Sica tickled him softly.

“Hyojin, Taeyeon-noona wants to apologize for being silly because she was jealous of you.” I blushed heavily at that, but, before I could form a retort, she handed him to me when Hyojin reached out. I carefully held him, and, I had to admit, he really was adorable! I looked up and saw Sooyeon and who I assumed was Hyojin’s mother smiling at me. I blushed even more and slightly turned away.

“So this is the famous Kim Taeyeon-ssi. We’re glad to finally meet you! Sooyeon has talked highly of you. Sooyeonnie, you weren’t joking when you said that Hyojin does look like the two of you combined,” she said casually, and I swore my face just got redder at what she just insinuated so I hid my face behind the happy baby I was holding. I could see Sica blushing a bit, too, but she just laughed it off.

“Well, we won’t take up most of your time today. We need to do something school-related, so I’ll just visit again some other time. I just wanted to introduce Taeyeon to Hyojin.”

“You, two, are welcome to visit anytime. Hyojin is very happy to have lots of big sisters to play with!” I almost reluctantly gave the baby back to his mother, but before letting go, she leaned into me.

“Don’t worry, Taeyeon-ssi. It’s still way too early for this little one to steal Sooyeon from you,” she whispered then winked at me subtly. I couldn’t remember a time when my face was flushed as heavily as at that moment, but at least Sica didn’t comment on it until we arrived at her house. I dropped my things beside her study table and glared at her.

“Don’t even think about it,” I said as I sat on her bed, arms and legs crossed, and turned away, resolute on not speaking to her for the rest of the day. I felt her gaze on me which made me blush again.

“Never thought you’d lose your composure over a baby, Taengoo. I certainly misjudged you,” she said, trying to contain her laughter. I just groaned and went to lock myself in her bathroom for a while as I composed myself. Maybe in a few years, I’d also be able to laugh this off, but right now, strangling my friends for baiting me was on top of my priority list.

A/N:

Jealousy AUs is such a splendid thing when mixed with some fluff. Haha!

Enjoy, dear ones! <3