The night is suffocatingly dark except for the sporadic streaks of lightning forking across the sky, accompanied by the pounding of the rain onto the pavement and the cacophony of thunderclaps that almost drown out the sound of Taeyeon’s knuckles rapping across the door.

It’s not long before the door is pulled open, revealing a pale, wan face on the other side.

“Taeyeon?” It’s Tiffany, looking both concerned and weary, but not surprised.

“Fany,” Taeyeon says, craning her neck to see if there’s anyone with her. “Sorry to bother you at this hour.”

“It’s fine.” Tiffany’s face is cast into shadow for a moment. “Why are you here?”

Taeyeon cuts to the chase. “Is Jessica with you?”

Tiffany turns on the porch light, illuminating her face and the odd look that comes over it. “You’re looking for her?” she asks in a tone as hard to read as her expression, some tightly coiled emotions tangled up in it. Taeyeon is too tired and worried to try to untangle them.

“Yes,” Taeyeon says. “Is she with you?”

“No,” Tiffany says, and Taeyeon doesn’t understand why she looks so sad. “She’s not.”

“Really?” Taeyeon presses.

“Do you think I’d lie to you?” Tiffany doesn’t look away from her, but there’s something unsteady about her gaze.

“No, I just think that if Jessica asked you to cover up for her – I mean, not that she’s in the wrong, I was, I think I really made her mad, at least I hope it’s mad rather than sad – I just want to apologize—” Taeyeon wets her lips. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”

Tiffany gives a tired smile. “I know you do that. I’m used to it.”

“So… Jessica’s not here?” Taeyeon asks, almost tentatively, like a child waiting to be rebuked.

“Taeyeon, I swear she’s not with me.”

And Taeyeon believes her, but she still can’t help but feel like Tiffany is hiding something from her. “Do you know where she is?”

Tiffany opens , closes it, and opens it again. “I—”

The sound of approaching footsteps interrupts them, and then a bleary-eyed figure wrapped in an ill-fitting pink bathrobe is there, touching the small of Tiffany’s back for a moment before directing her attention to Taeyeon.

Yuri’s voice is thick with sleep when she asks, “Taeyeon?”

“Yul,” Taeyeon says. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

Yuri rubs her hand across her eyes for a moment, before bringing it away and looking at Taeyeon with an expression similar to Tiffany’s earlier. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“She’s here to look for Jessica,” Tiffany says, the corners of her eyes tightening.

“Of course,” Yuri murmurs. “She’s not here, Taeyeon.”

“So Fany told me.” Taeyeon scuffs her shoe across the ground, feeling sheepish now. She had reacted too hastily. Jessica is probably home now, waiting for her to grovel and apologize, or maybe she’s staying with Krystal, who’d no doubt be much ruder to Taeyeon if she called, not to mention showed up on her doorstep in the middle of the night.

“Do you want to stay the night?” Tiffany asks. “It’s raining so hard. You don’t have to drive all the way back.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Taeyeon says hurriedly. “That’d be too much trouble.”

“It’s no trouble,” Yuri says, her hand on the small of Tiffany’s back again, and Taeyeon knows she isn’t doing it to flaunt their relationship, probably isn’t doing it consciously at all, but it stings, to watch her friends’ PDA when she’s on bad terms with her own other half. “You’re our friend. And I don’t think you should be alone right now.”

“I’m not alone. I’m just looking for Jessica.”

“Yeah…” Tiffany says, drawing out the word in a trailing way. “She’s probably with-with Krystal, or maybe Minyoung. You should stay here for the night. I’m sure she’ll be back before you know it.”

“Didn’t Minyoung move to America? How could Jessica be with her?”

Tiffany’s expression freezes. “Oh, right. Right, she did.” She turns nervously to Yuri. “Did she move to America, Yul? My memory is so bad these days.”

“Shouldn’t you remember news about your homeland, Fany,” Taeyeon jokes.

Yuri disregards all that. “Did you try calling Krystal?” she asks with a strange intensity.

“I wanted to, but I can’t find her number, for some reason. Maybe Jessica deleted it off my phone because she doesn’t want me to reach Krystal. I think we had a fight about that a while back, maybe…” Tiffany’s memory isn’t the only one that’s failing these days. Taeyeon tries to remember what happened with Krystal’s contact information – she’s sure there’s something behind it – but the memory slips away from her like water through cupped fingers.

“Headache?” Yuri asks in concern when she sees Taeyeon clutching her temple with a wince.

Taeyeon musters a weak smile. “I think it’s just from being out in the rain. And it’s late.”

“Did you take your medicine?” Tiffany asks, and Taeyeon gives her a confused look. “Your migraine medicine. You always forget to take it.”

“Oh.” She didn’t even remember she’d been prescribed migraine medicine, but now that Tiffany mentioned it, she vaguely remembered the orange bottles sitting untouched on the kitchen counter. “Right. I forgot.”

“You always forget to take it,” Tiffany repeats, and now her voice is trembling, her chin following suit.

“I’m sorry,” Taeyeon says, bewildered at how upset she’s getting. “I’ll take it from now on.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay the night, Taeng?” Yuri asks. “We have the guest room all set up. You can take a warm shower, change into some dry clothes…”

“You make me sound like a child,” Taeyeon jokes. “Are you going to tuck me in and sing me a lullaby too?”

“If you want us to,” Tiffany says with a faint smile, and they sound like parents or something, the two of them, so supportive and domestic together, and Taeyeon just want to leave.

“It’s fine,” she says, already making her retreat. “Thank you. Sorry for bothering you. I just got panicked, but Sica probably went home already and I’ll just go home and apologize. Or if she’s with Krystal she’ll probably come back in the morning and she might worry if I’m not there. Anyway, I’ll get going.”

“Taeyeon—” Tiffany and Yuri say at once, but Taeyeon is already pushing her way through the door back into the rainy night.

“Should we go after her?” Yuri asks worriedly.

“What’s the point,” Tiffany says tiredly. “It’s not going to help her ‘migraine.’”

“It’s raining so hard, though, the roads must be slippery as hell. It’s not safe for her to drive like that. She could get into a car accident.”

Tiffany flinches like she’s been struck, and Yuri’s face pales. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Do you remember that night?”

“How could I forget?” Yuri closes her eyes, like she can banish the memory that way. “The smallest things remind me, even just driving.”

“Isn’t it ironic? We can’t forget, and Taeyeon can’t remember. Or maybe she just doesn’t want to.” Tiffany peers out into the darkness. “Do you think we should have listened to Krystal,” she says abruptly.

“And what? Had her committed? How could we do that to her?”

“Is this any better, really? Letting her live in this delusion? Not just letting her but participating in it, deleting everyone’s contact information from her and hoping she doesn’t bump into anyone who knows.” Tiffany takes a ragged breath. “Are we playing god?”

Yuri puts her hands on Tiffany’s shoulders and looks at her very seriously. “Tiffany. We love her, and we love”—her voice cracks—“loved Jessica. I’m sure Jessica wouldn’t want her to live out her days in some ward either.”

“Would she want Taeyeon to be like this? Showing up on our doorstep every week asking after her dead girlfriend?” Yuri is the one to flinch this time, and Tiffany’s shoulders slump and she buries her face against Yuri’s shoulder. “Sometimes I catch myself thinking that they’re just having a fight and Jessica is going to show up and pull Taeyeon away and whine to us about how annoying she is but in that really fond way, you know what I mean—”

“I know,” Yuri says quietly. “It sounds like she’s complaining but the love is practically spilling from her eyes.”

Tiffany in a breath. “I still remember that. And I can still hear her aegyo voice, and I can see her pout, and I can also see her glare, but then the next second all I can see is a coffin, that closed casket because there wasn’t enough left of her to—”

And then her voice dissolves into huge, gulping sobs and she’s weeping against Yuri’s shoulder, and Yuri slips her arms around her and holds her tightly, wordlessly, as they’re lost in a storm of their own.

Taeyeon returns home to a dark, empty apartment. So Jessica hadn’t forgiven her that quickly, after all. It’s okay, Taeyeon knows she’ll come back. No matter how much or exaggeratedly she gripes, Jessica never stays mad at Taeyeon for long.

Tiffany had told Taeyeon to do something. Take her…migraine medicine? But Taeyeon doesn’t get migraines. Maybe the occasional headache if she hasn’t had enough sleep, but she sleeps fine as long as Jessica is there with her.

Taeyeon gets out her favourite mug, noticing how Jessica’s isn’t there in its usual spot beside it. Jessica’s always had a habit of taking it with her and forgetting to wash it and put it back later. Taeyeon would have to remind her about that again, but not in an overly pushy way or Jessica would get mad and they’d end up a fight again.

What was this fight about? Something trivial, no doubt. They’ve been fighting more and more lately, and Jessica has been storming out, leaving Taeyeon to chase after her. They should have a good, long talk after this, so they don’t keep having these silly fights. But it’s okay even if they do, because no matter how angrily Jessica leaves, she always comes back. She and Taeyeon had weathered so many things, and this will just be another one of them.

Taeyeon knows that Jessica would be back in no time at all.

A/N: Inspired by Third Drawer Down. I hope I managed to get you with the twist! When did you suspect, or know, what was really happening?