Chapters will be named by the reference's title. Last one was from a shoujo-ai manhwa/webtoon.

This one refers to Rainbow Rowell's, find out which and leave it on the comments section below :))

Chapter 2: Fangirl

"So you let her rest on your...shoulder?" Jessica asked in disbelief, eyes trained on Tiffany.

Tiffany exhaled under her breath, giving away the chills rumbling inside her in the past few hours since meeting Taeyeon. "Y...eah. I did." Her typing pace on her Macbook increased.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that." A nod.

Jessica wiped the residue on her face, patting her skin with a warm face towel. "Geez, Tiff. You should really know when to draw the line in your nice attitude."

Tiffany stopped typing to talk properly to Jessica who was looking at the vanity mirror in the room. "I know, it's just..." She sheepishly smiled, a hand raising to the back of her neck. "she looked so exhausted—fine, and she looked like a baby, oka​y?" She changed direction upon seeing Jessica's raised eyebrow.

Jessica smiled, laughing under her breath. "If only Taeyeon wasn't such a fragile looking kid, I would've kicked her for sleeping in such a situation. She better get used to uni life."

Tiffany continued typing again, snorting. "Please, you talk like you've already experienced college more than two months, Jessi."

"You mean one year. Every month is, like, six regular months. Especially for a freshie, with so much happening." The said girl shrugged, going to Tiffany's side of the bed. "But, it is about the experience. I bet Taeyeon hasn't joined an org yet."

"She's in two!" Tiffany countered. "Well, accepted in both, yes..." She trailed off, face slightly pink.

"What, she told you that?" Jessica asked, lying on the bed. When Tiffany didn't answer, Jessica sat up, a smirk on her face. "Wait, you stalked her, didn't you?"

Tiffany stopped for a moment. "We friended each other on Facebook, nothing wrong with that!" She couldn't keep her composure in check as she whined.

Jessica laughed, invaded Tiffany's space and took the mouse from her hand, never mind the "H-Hey!" coming from her best friend. She went to Facebook and indeed saw the two were recently friends.

"Oh my god, this is the death of you, Tiff." Jessica commented, staring at Taeyeon's adorable profile picture. She stopped at one Tiffany liked, and burst into laughter seeing how far back she had gone through. "Yah yah yah, you're interested in a kid!"

"Jessi!" Tiffany whined, pushing the laughing girl away from her side but Jessica didn't budge; instead, she sprawled over the wooden table propped on the bed and went over all of Taeyeon's profile with a livid Tiffany by her side. "Argh. Yaaaah!"

Jessica finally let herself be pushed away, tears streaming in her eyes from all the laughing. She fanned herself with her hand, curled on Tiffany's side.

"Please let me finish my homework in peace. Besides, shouldn't you be going over your readings now?"

Jessica's laughter died down smoothly, stopping with a wistful sigh. "Eh, I'm too tired right now. Scrabble was such a chore."

"You make up words with a jumble of letters for two hours, how hard could that be?"

"It's hard when you play against the Literature majors."

Tiffany, having no experience with it, only shrugged in sympathy. "Okay then."

"Okay."

There was a comfortable silence that settled inside the room. Tiffany's constant typing mellowed like white noise to both their ears, and if they blocked all sorts of noise coming from the other dormers, the long night can be considered as peaceful as it can be.

When Tiffany checked on Jessica sometime later, the girl was already sleeping in the same position, panda eye mask secured around her eyes. Tiffany smiled, closed her laptop and tucked herself in for the night as well. Or the next morning, if she checked the time.

The weekdays soon rolled in and like the shining sun to the world that was half awake, the sunlight did nothing but heat up the already lit room where Taeyeon resides. She had been working on her current plate for Materials class, diligently gluing small pieces of paper she could use for it. She accepted her fate as an art student that although the units were considerably less than most majors, the plates given balanced out the heavy workload and she almost always regretted pushing back her plate for another episode of an anime. Or another chapter of a manga. Or even fanfiction, actually, especially in the Marvel universe.

Back when she first started out as a college student, all young and fresh and nervous but ready to take on the campus world, she promised to herself to never give a work she wasn't satisfied with, and if possible, to aim for steady A's and B's all throughout this semester. After the second week, she found it very difficult to manage time like it was back in highschool. This was very confusing for her; just thinking how she even managed to balance 15 subjects in high school whereas now she only had to worry for single digit subjects and yet the experience was tiring, if not mentally exhausting. Okay, so maybe she splurged too much on her free time and in turn this affected the struggle of time management and the pressure was real on her shoulders and at this very moment all she wanted to do was to submit her plate and go back to her dorm to sleep.

The world is cruel, Taeyeon thought, for she still had another class to go to after eleven.

"I'll be in the faculty waiting for your studies," the professor's words signalled the end of his lecture and the start of the day's laboratory work. The class erupted in noise of their favorite jams, mostly the sound of metal rulers gliding like a wielding sword; and then there's the occasional soft cursing when they make a mistake. Taeyeon was usually part of the ruler-wielders, listening to her music in silence; but today she sat on the monoblock chair, face down on the table, her eyes blocked by her arms. The rumbling noise did nothing to wake her senses, and she desperately needed an eye-opener to keep her running for another hour.

"You okay there, little lamb?"

Taeyeon answered, still in place. "Sleepy."

"Aw, rough night you had, huh?" The questioner patted her shoulder. "Was the coffee not enough this morning?"

Taeyeon shook her head. "Maybe I should've downed a monster drink..."

"Tsk, you'll be fine. You're Master Tae!"

At that, Taeyeon arose to face her friend. "Tch, says the real master here, Heenim."

Heenim is Kim Heechul, Taeyeon's buddy in her block. The two decided to be buddies since they met and the friendship easily came between the two after a simple conversation.

"So what's your name?"

"T-Taeyeon. Um, you?"

"Yo 'T-Taeyeon', I'm Heechul, call me Heenim though."

"Huh. Hi... ?"

"Say, Taeyeon, why don't we become buddies?"

"Sure?"

"Alright. Cool. Now let's buy lunch, little lamb, I'm hungry as fu—"

Taeyeon remembered Heechul tripping on his own shoe and landing on the ground. The girl had to carry his weight on her shoulder that day. But the simple question connected them together, broke the barrier and made them the best of friends. Or the closest of friends in the whole block.

People sometimes claimed they were siblings, and Heechul further polished the idea, calling Taeyeon his "little lamb" while she squirmed inside his hold. Kidding aside, they were called masters.

Taeyeon was the impressive pro-procrastinator, while Heechul was the easygoing fast worker. They both produced excellent works graded high, if not the best in the block.

Sometimes though, Taeyeon's procrastination can affect her other classes.

"I couldn't keep my eyes open even under Sir Byul's stare, ugh." Taeyeon rubbed her eyes tiredly, very restless in her seat.

Heechul stopped making winged to erase a small smudge on the paper. "If it's any comfort, you can nap after you finish the study."

Taeyeon scoffed. "Right. Let's get this over with." Grabbing her mechanical pencil and a short bond, she wrote down her name, the class and the date today. She cracked her mind, turning the gears in her head once more.

"Oh yeah, I heard you scored a chick last Friday?"

And the gears screeched to a halt. Just the simple mention of her woke up Taeyeon, looking wide-eyed at Heechul.

Heechul caught her stare, the end of his lips slanted up. "Hrm, Tiffany, was it?"

Tiffany. Gah, Taeyeon definitely was refreshed, her cheeks turning a full blush on.

"H-How'd you know-"

"News travel fast in the Red Dorm, litte lamb," Heechul mentioned his place. And it tormented Taeyeon, thinking so Tiffany lives there. Even a small tidbit such as this overwhelmed her, made her think back to the beautiful girl she's attracted to at first sight.

"O-Oh. I see..." flustered Taeyeon mumbled in a daze.

Heechul hummed, giving her a reassuring smile. "I must admit, I didn't quite think you liked the loud ones. But that's a good balance, I guess. You complement each other."

Taeyeon stared at the blank paper, mulling over her memory of Tiffany. She really meant it when she told her she's beautiful. Her smile was contagious, and her friendly personality more so. Heecul was right; they were polar opppsites, but just this mere attraction that's building up when they look in each other's eyes connected the two, surrendering in each other's trust.

"Aw geez, the little lamb found her pink pig!"

"Wha—?"

"Oh—oh." Heechul twisted in his seat. He pointed at her with a funny face consisting of a weird laughing hum and wiggling eyebrows. "You don't know her that much yet. Okay."

"Huh?" Taeyeon asked again, not understanding.

Heechul continued his gesture, almost actually laughing out loud. "Uri dearest Taengoo, do go and take Tiffany out to dinner."

"E-Eh—?!"

"Better yet, I'll do the trick for you!" Heechul exclaimed his "aha!" moment. He dived down to get her bag. Taeyeon managed to pull her bag but not her phone that was already in his working hands.

"Y-Yah, Heenim!"

Then a look of surprise surfaced on his face, followed by his weird gesture before. "My oh my, I've been upped by your crush."

Again, as tiring as it seems to say it for the girl, she uttered another "what?"

"See for yourself." Heechul slid the phone to her desk and anticipated beside the leaning girl whose cheeks are dusted pink.

Hi, Taeyeon-ssi! You free tomorrow afternoon? :) the text read.

Taeyeon hesitantly pressed the text box and stared at the blinking insertion point, thinking of a good reply.

Yes was all she could think about. Yes, yes, yes. But the readings though, her mind cried softly, and the charcoal plate for Techniques and the research on the new Materials plate and—

"Geez, I'll reply to her for you."

In a whim, Heechul snatched her phone (once again) and the two had another bickering moment until the man pressed the send key with a triumphant smile.

"H-Heenim! Seriously, man? I was still thinki—" Taeyeon almost choked when she saw the reply.

Why? You taking me somewhere? ;)

"Yah, Kim Heechul! I don't—the emoticon—this is not me—"

Ping!

A new message pushed the previous ones upward: Well, you know we have a free show as perks of a freshie in uni, right? Tiffany wrote, There's one tomorrow, 2 pm, at the Film Institute. Call? ;) ;)

"Call, Tippani-ssi! I can't wait to see and gush over your pretty face again!" answered Heechul in a high-pitched voice by Taeyeon's side, which startled the dazed girl.

Taeyeon gripped on her phone this time, giving him a warning look. Taking a deep breath, she wrote, Call.

As simple as that. Just like what her previous answer should be.

Alright! See you, Taeyeon-ssi :)) answered Tiffany.

Taeyeon didn't see the point of texting back a returning message and only smiled in thought of seeing her again.

"I would've stopped you with a basic 'bros before hoes' line Taengoo but I can't stand in the way of young love. Ah, puppy love. I remember I also dated back in your age—"

"Heenim. You're 26 years old. That's only six years apart from me—"

"Shh, now now, little lamb. You don't speak of my age so carelessly, I am as young and beautiful as a commercial model teenager on American TV, right? Now start on your study already, would you? Remember, dates before plates~!"

The way he singsonged irked Taeyeon a bit, but annoyed was as far she got to him. She didn't like being mad at people.

She did shake her head helplessly muttering back, "Oh please, who was the one who set me up?"

Heenim avoided the question. He sung in tune to a Gwen Stefani song being played by someone in the room.

Taeyeon soundlessly laughed, concentrating on her work again.

Well, at least Tiffany pulled her awake.

"JESSICA JUNG SOOYEON, YOU ARE SO DEAD!"

"O-Ow! H-Hey, girl, cut it out. I was doing you a favor—"

"You made me look like a flirty high school cheerleader!" Tiffany almost shrieked in two increasing octaves; thank god they were not in a classroom at the moment.

Jessica rubbed the sore spot on her arm with a pout, "And Taeyeon answered like a mysterious bad boy? Is this what you're saying?"

Tiffany paused, annoyed at how easily affected she was by Taeyeon's own stereotype. Indeed, she was interested in cute girls, but she was also into the tall, dark, and handsome bad boys with their tight-lipped mysterious past.

And Tiffany was sure she was the cliché popular girl that was half-sweet and half a female dog.

"It's just—agh." Tiffany's strangled cry answered defeat. "I wanted to wait for one more day to actually text her."

Jessica snorted softly. "You don't have to follow the three-day rule so seriously, Tiff."

"But I wasn't ready!" Tiffany hissed, noticing the stares of other people on them. "I was one minute away from my phone when you freaking pulled this stunt."

"But you texted the last bit anyway." Jessica taunted. "I swear if I didn't talk for you, every text you'll send will have that laughing emoticon on the end."

Tiffany took a deep breath. She calmed down and inwardly sighed in defeat. "Alright. Thank you for...making me an advancing predator to her prey—"

"Hey!"

"No, but seriously, okay?" Tiffany giggled. "I guess I have a date tomorrow afternoon because of you. Thanks."

"Damn right you should be." Jessica crossed her arms, a winning smile on her face.

"Okay."

"Okay."

Tiffany and Jessica snorted, then burst in a peal of laughter, clutching their stomachs while catching their breath.