“So…” Taeyeon began hesitantly and pursed her lips, fingers twiddling about with a pen.

“So,” Tiffany echoed after shortly, humming as she tapped at her chin musingly. And then ever so abruptly, she paused. Her features lit up and a sneaky grin stretched across her lips.

“Doo doo roo doo doo doo, kissing you baby~”

Immediately, Taeyeon flinched. in a deep breath, she shook her head and placed her pen down (not so gently) onto the table. “Hell no,” she muttered, cringing as if she had accidentally on something sour.

“But why?” Tiffany gasped, whining. She pouted. “It’s such a sweet song and we could even use lollipops as props on the day itself—“

“No.” The brunette interjected bluntly.

Tiffany sulked, made a face, but didn’t continue to persist the matter, striking off from her long list of short-listed songs.

“Please baby baby baby~” 

“Next,” Taeyeon sighed, waving her off flippantly. Another one off the list.

“Gee gee gee gee, baby baby baby~”

“If you’re planning on making us do the crab-dance in front of everyone, a hundred times no.”

“But I love the crab-dance, it’s fun, cute and imagine you doing it, it’ll be the most adorable thing on earth.” She squealed and clapped her hands together in sheer excitement.

Taeyeon shot her a withering look.

 “It’s still a no.”

The redhead huffed and folded her arms, scowling. “You’re impossible!”

“It’s just…” Taeyeon trailed off, frowning. “Those song aren’t exactly ideal for a wedding, y’know?”

“Then what’s ideal then?”

Taeyeon shrugged, the pen between her fingers idly. “I don’t know… Ballads and r’n’b?”

“Okay fine, how about Kelly Clarkson’s ‘A Moment Like This’. That’s ideal for a wedding, right?”

Taeyeon pursed her lips and mumbled in a tiny voice. “That one’s kinda’ hard to sing…”

Tiffany scoffed and threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly. “I give up. Why don’t you suggest something?”

There was a long contemplative silence, that was coupled with the tapping of a pen against the table and fidgeting of fingers, before Taeyeon finally came up with an answer.

“Um, ‘I Want To Dream With You Forever’?”

“That’s kind of a sad song, Taeyeon-ah...”

“How about ‘Lost in Love’ by Girls’ Generation?”

“What are you, trying to curse the couple into breaking off or something?”

“Well, I’m sorry if my playlist is filled with sad breakup songs.” Taeyeon retorted heatedly, despite the pinkish hint of a blush on her cheeks. She frowned and bit at her lip, casting her eyes away abashedly.

Tiffany quirked an amused brow and grinned teasingly. “Gee, Taeyeon-ah, if I didn’t know any better I would have thought that you’re stuck in an unrequited love of some sort.”

The blush on Taeyeon’s cheeks deepened immediately.

“Quit messing around, Fany-ah.” She muttered lowly, frowning.

The redhead laughed, nudging her playfully on her shoulder. Her eyes twinkled with mirth as she grinned down at her. “Alright, I’ll stop.”

Shooting her a pointed look, Taeyeon released a sigh. “Hmm, how about Narsha’s ‘I’m in Love’?” She queried, glancing up at the taller girl expectantly. Hopefully.

“I’ve never heard that song before,” admitted Tiffany musingly.

“Hang on, I’ve got it in my phone.”

As Taeyeon reached to dig into her pockets, a gentle, faint grip on her wrist halted her from doing so. Inclining her head up at the redhead perplexedly, she was met with a pair of dazzling dark brown eyes smiling down at her.

“How about you sing a couple lines from it instead?”

Taeyeon faltered, averting her eyes away sheepishly. She swallowed, struggling to fight down the heat that was creeping up the base of her neck. She mumbled, “That’s kind of troublesome…”

“Eyyyy, it’s not!” Tiffany protested immediately. The grip on Taeyeon’s wrist tightened urgently. “Please, Taengoo? I really want to hear you sing. It’s not like you’ve never sang in front of me before.” She pouted in that adorable manner of hers and Taeyeon found it all the more excruciatingly hard not to give in right there and then.

“Please? Tae-Tae?” She implored once more, sweetly this time.

Looking up into those large, watery puppy-like eyes, Taeyeon felt her resolve quickly dissolving away into a pitch of nothingness. Features softening ever so slightly, she sighed resignedly, shoulders sagging in defeat. She inhaled deeply and steeled herself.

Here went nothing.

“To be honest, from our first meeting saying I like you wasn’t an easy thing for me to do.”

As her voice flowed, carrying the lyrics along with it, Taeyeon couldn’t help but be taken away by the memories that came washing over her, tugging at her heartstrings filled with nostalgia.

“You’re small.”

A laugh. That cheery laugh, which she found to be so annoying.

A smile. Her eyes into heart-melting crescents, which Taeyeon couldn’t help but hold with much caution and suspicion.

As she stood before her with an outstretched hand, she had looked so bright.

Blinding.

And it was just too hard to look directly at her.

“If I didn’t contact you first, I’m afraid of missing you

So I type out the text, hesitate a bit, then delete it again. I keep repeating this process over and over.”

Eight-fifty-three P.M.

Taeyeon frowned, dropping her gaze back down at her phone in her hands.

An uncomfortable heaviness in her chest.

Did something happen?

She would have called by now.

Fingers tapping in that all-too familiar number, she hovered over the call button.

A sigh.

And she locked her phone and stashed it away from her.

Forget it. She should be fine.

A moment of hesitation.

She scrambled to reach for her phone once more.

“If my love for you gets any deeper, it’ll hurt me more.

My mind is muddled with fears, that is the truth.”

“It’s going to be okay,”

A shiver and a silenced sob.

Taeyeon held her close in her arms.

With every quiver from her, her heart trembled in accordance.

Gently, she worked her fingers through her stringy hair, made damp by the pouring rain outside.

She knew, even though Tiffany hadn’t said it out loud.

The reason for her tears.

An unmistakable pain struck through Taeyeon’s chest.

It hurt.

Did it hurt to see her like this?

 Or did it hurt to know that she loved someone else?

“Praying with all my heart, the person I’m yearning for— I believe that person is you.”

Swallowing the thick bitter bile down , Taeyeon braced a small glance up at the redhead, throwing whatever caution to the wind as she caught her eye almost instantly. She sang, her heart swelling as she did.

“Ooo… I’m in love.

Ooo… I’ll fall in love.”

It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it coming.

No, in fact she saw it heading towards her from miles away at a speed of a bullet, but didn’t do anything about it.

It came at her hard, knocking the breath out of her and it left her in a daze for months.

Years.

And now?

And now.

“I’m not afraid anymore. As long as I’m with you, the world is beautiful.”

There was a couple seconds of fragile silence hanging between them after Taeyeon had finally ended the song, the last of her voice reverberating through the confined walls of her room. As she quickly broke eye contact and lowered her head sheepishly, she had failed to catch the spark that had flashed fleetingly across those dark brown eyes that were still trained intently onto her.

“That was… really sweet.” Tiffany remarked, crooning. Without even looking up, Taeyeon could hear her smiling and it made her all the more embarrassed. Flustered.

Taeyeon could only clear awkwardly, pretty much red in the face. “Thanks,” she croaked and pursed her lips.

“That song might work. We’ll shortlist it for the time being until we find something better. In the mean time…”

The rustling of papers caught Taeyeon attention as she peered over at the redhead curiously. Rummaging through the messy pile of papers, she held a particular sheet up triumphantly.

“Let’s move on to my favorite part now— the dresses.”

Taeyeon fought back a groan.

Just then, her phone began buzzing noisily in her pocket. And as she reached to retrieve her phone, she released a relieved sigh.

What perfect timing.

From: Kwon Yuri

To: Kim Taeyeon

We’ve been waiting for you guys in front of the com for the past 15 mins. R we still skyping or wat?

Peeping and reading the message from over Taeyeon’s shoulder, Tiffany muttered, “Oh crap, I’ve totally forgotten all about them.” She sighed, looking to her stack of designs. “We’ll have to decide on the dresses some other time then.”

Smiling, she got up, sauntered over to Taeyeon and held her hand out to her. “Let’s not keep them from waiting, shall we?” She winked, flashing the brunette a dazzling smile.

Taeyeon snorted and shook her head despite the small smile hinting at her lips.

She reached forth for her hand.

--

‘Hey, how’re you guys doing?’

“I see your English have improved, Yuree-ah.” Tiffany remarked, grinning teasingly.

The tanned brunette shrugged, looking rather smug. That was... Until she was elbowed (not so gently) in the ribs by the shorter and fairer brunette sitting beside her.

‘Nah, that’s all she can really say in English,’ quipped Jessica back in good-ole Korean as Yuri sulked, pouting and huffing indignantly like a child.

‘Yah, Sica-yah…’

Tiffany laughed and Taeyeon chuckled, biting back a grin.

Even though they were miles away across the ocean, it almost felt as if they were sitting right across them at the moment. Except. They were ‘trapped’ within the confinements of Tiffany’s revamped pink monitor screen. But other than that, it still seemed as if they were close enough to touch. As if they hadn’t left Korea at all.

‘Just kidding,’ the famed Ice Princess crooned sweetly and then pecked her girlfriend briefly on the cheek. ‘You’ve been speaking English really well.’ 

Yuri beamed, looking fairly pleased at being complimented by her lover.

“It’s been awhile since we’ve skyped,” Taeyeon started, drawing the couple’s attention.

‘Yeah, the last time was… A month ago?’ Yuri mused.

“Whoa, it has been awhile.” Tiffany gasped, astonished. “Anyway, how’s everything been for you two?”

‘Okay, I guess. Everything’s same-old since the last time we’ve chatted face to face. School’s tough, Sica’s Mom is as awesome as she gets… And Soojung’s still a brat.’ Yuri said, raising her voice intentionally as she turned and stuck her tongue out at someone to the side, off-cam.    

‘Sis’, Yuri-unnie just called me a brat!’ 

Jessica only sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, looking rather vexed. She glanced over at the Black Pearl wearily, ‘Baby, can you please stop riling her up like that.’

Yuri shrugged, raising her hands up in surrender.

“Well, at least that’s one thing that hasn’t changed over the month— tormenting your girlfriend’s baby sister.” Taeyeon jested light-heartedly. Yuri laughed, but Jessica remained unamused, groaning loudly instead.

‘Don’t encourage her, Taeyeon-ah. My migraine’s bad enough, thank you very much.’

Chuckling, Taeyeon eyed the intertwined hands that were laid out on the table and grinned. “Anyway, it’s good to see that you two are still closer than ever.”

Looking to her tanned lover, who had raised an amused brow at her, the fairer brunette rolled her eyes. ‘Obviously,’ she smiled and gave their linked hands a squeeze, before glancing back at up at her with eyes filled with adoration.

It was a sweet sight, really. Just looking at the two of them at the moment, they looked so very much in love as they were back in high school. Granted, while the five years had allowed them to mature into young women, they had still remained pretty much the same. Maybe except less reckless and fickle— no longer the flighty schoolgirls they were from before.

“Oh yeah, your anniversary together is coming up real soon,” Tiffany remarked, and as Taeyeon turned to face her briefly, she noted the pensive quality to her features— an absent smile plastered across her lips.

‘Yes, it is!’ grinned Yuri and instinctively wound an arm around her lover’s shoulder, pulling her close. ‘It’s coming up in a couple weeks time actually.’ Gently, she prodded at Jessica’s nose, to which said-girl wrinkled her nose, then swatted her finger away, causing the Black Pearl to chuckle.

Tiffany smiled, and there was something wistful about the way her lips seemed to curl and the way her eyes sparkled enigmatically at the couple as she watched them play around with one another.

Taeyeon felt something stir deep within her.

Casting her eyes away, she pursed her lips, holding back the tiny block of ice that was beginning to form at the back of and ignored the dull throb in her chest.

‘Oh my, I nearly forgot!’ 

Both Taeyeon and Tiffany blinked, perplexed when the Black Pearl had suddenly clapped her hands together along with her announcement. Exchanging glances with her girlfriend beside her, a mutual understanding of something then transcended between them. Instantly, Yuri was seen with a face-splitting grin and Jessica was spotting a huge smile, seeming oddly fidgety as if trying to contain the excitement that was bubbling up in her. 

‘Well, our summer break’s only a week away,’ hinted Yuri liltingly.

“Yeah… What about it?” asked Tiffany, apprehensively as the couple inched closer towards their monitor screen.

‘And you know, it’s been a long time since we’ve last seen each other in person, Tiff’.’ Jessica bit back a grin.

The redhead gasped.

Taeyeon’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Don’t tell me you guys are…—”

‘Yes, we’re heading back to Korea next week!’ 

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it, Jessi’!” Tiffany squealed, clapping her hands in the way she did whenever she was excited over something. Her face was lit with a radiant grin that was absolutely blinding to look at. “Oh jeez, if only you were sitting in front of us, I would totally crush you with a hug right now.”

Looking at Tiffany at the moment, cheeks bursting and eyes melting into their usual dazzling crescents, Taeyeon thought she’d never seem happier.

And for some reason it stung a little.

Like a splinter in her chest.

“So how long are you guys staying for?” Taeyeon queried, clearing , inwardly shaking off her unease.

‘We’ll be back for five days,’ answered Yuri, before smiling sheepishly at them. ‘By the way, do you think it’s possible if we crashed at your place—’

“If you insist—

Of course!” replied both Taeyeon and Tiffany simultaneously.

Looking to each other, smiling (grinning), Taeyeon continued. “We’ll make room for you two when the time comes, don’t worry.”

“This is so exciting! Oh my gosh, I can’t wait.” Tiffany gushed.

‘Sis’, it’s eleven-thirty already! You said we’ll hang out, remember?’

Came a whine from somewhere off-frame that Taeyeon and Tiffany had come to familiarize themselves with over the years.

The couple only sighed.

Jessica looked towards her side, eyes softening ever so affectionately; in a way that was specially reserved for the two most special people in her life.

‘Soojungie, you’ve been sitting there, sulking for the past twenty minutes. At least commere’ and say ‘hi’,’ she paused, then corrected herself, ‘or ‘bye’ to Tiffany and Taeyeon.’

There was a groan, followed by heavy, reluctant footsteps building up to the couple.

A sullen face popped in beside Jessica.

And at first glance, anyone would have thought Krystal was Yuri’s sister and not Jessica’s.  She was nearly a splitting image of Yuri when she was seventeen.

‘Hey, Tiff’. Hey, Taeyeon-unnie.’ She greeted, looking bored out of her wits.

But at a much closer glance, she was still irrevocably Jessica’s younger sister.

That piercing gaze. Lethal sharp tongue. And that same frigid presence they both seemed to ooze so naturally.

Another formidable Ice Princess in the making, Taeyeon shivered.

“Hi, Krys’! It’s been such a long time.”

“Hello…”

‘Alright I said ‘hi’ already, so we can go now, Sis’?’ She groused, frowning at the older girl, who merely smiled and ruffled her hair fondly in response.

‘Go change up and get ready, Yuri and I will meet you downstairs.’

‘What? Yuri-unnie’s coming too?’ Krystal moaned exasperatedly.

Yuri merely shot the younger girl a smug smirk, folding her arms authoritatively.

Jessica chuckled, pinching her nose lightly, teasingly and cooed while Krystal pouted. ‘She’s the one with the car, right?’

‘Yah, Sica!’

Krystal huffed, ‘Fine, I’ll see you two downstairs.’ Turning to the Black Pearl, she casted her a death glare and stuck her tongue out, then scurried out of frame. Although, not before giving Jessica a brief hug and a peck on the cheek.

‘Bye, Tiff’ and Taeng-unnie.’

At the sound of the click of the door, Yuri muttered darkly under her breath. ‘-blocker…’

‘We should get going now,’ said Jessica, ignoring her girlfriend’s earlier remark. She smiled cordially at both Taeyeon and Tiffany, ‘We’ll text you guys our flight details when everything’s more or less confirmed. See you soon!’

“See you soon, Jessi’ and Yuree!”

“See you guys soon, I’ll let Sooyoung know.”

And with that, their skype session zipped to black. Immediately, Tiffany turned to Taeyeon, swiftly grabbing her hands in hers. “Can you believe it, Taeyeonie? They’re finally coming back!” She enthused happily. “After three years, we’re going to see them again.”

“Yeah, that’s great.” Taeyeon said with an absent smile.

Watching Tiffany laugh, getting up from her chair in a twirl as she danced her way to her bed before plopped herself down, Taeyeon couldn’t help the slight pang in her chest.

Yes, she was happy that her friends were returning home.

But still…

It made her wonder if the reason for Tiffany’s happiness was truly the case.

Was it really because so?

Or did she still…

Was she…?

Taeyeon inhaled deeply and shook her thoughts away, bracing on a smile.

Forget it. What mattered now was that Yuri and Jessica was returning back to Korea.

And that was that.

--