Tiffany let out a breath. “ you,” she said to her screen as she tapped the back arrow to move the clip back by a few seconds. She marked the spot and replayed it – only to find that it was still a fraction of a second too short. Tiffany groaned.

“What is it now?”

“This stupid clip won’t cut where I want it to cut.”

Yoona laughed. “Just leave it as it is, Tiffany. You know her company will probably have some kind of fancy editing team to do this anyway. Don’t worry about the timings and just put fade ins and fade outs and whatever.”

“That’s so ugly, though.”

“You’re a designer, not a video editor. They’ll understand.”

Tiffany slumped in her seat. “Okay, I guess.”

“Do slo-mo! That always looks impressive.”

She played whole clip again. Kim Taeyeon was posing for the camera with a window letting in light from her left; she turned around with her back to the camera and looked back over her shoulder, eyes staring directly into Tiffany’s soul. Her blonde hair followed the turn of her head and fell gently across her back.

Tiffany sniffed and held a tissue to her bleeding nose.

“Slow motion would work nicely here,” she said. A few quick clicks, a splice here, adjusting the speed there and Tiffany sat back, one hand still pressed to her nose. On the screen, Kim Taeyeon turned slowly, almost painfully slowly, her eyes opening and meeting Tiffany’s own. Her hair fluttered with mesmerizing, heartstopping suspense until it settled softly against Kim Taeyeon’s perfect shoulder.

“Damn,” muttered Tiffany.

“Yeah, that’s nice,” said Yoona from behind her. “Damn.”

“No, the timing is slightly off. I should—ugh, do you have any more tissues?”

Yoona handed her a whole box. “Is it just me or are these nosebleeds getting worse? The blood is flowing a lot faster this time…”

“Id ok,” said Tiffany, her voice muffled. “I’ll just ged more Gadorade lader.”

“But it’s like…it’s like, bad, this time, Tiffany. Tilt your head back!”

“I hab to finish dis!”

—

Sunny frowned across the table. “Yoona, what are you doing?”

“I’m making sure she eats enough,” said Yoona distractedly as she spooned more soup into Tiffany’s bowl. “Eat all of this, okay?”

“I’m fine, Yoona.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” said Tiffany, just as Yoona said, “Her nosebleeds are getting worse.”

Sunny scrutinized Tiffany. “You do look a little pale. I thought you said the nosebleeds stopped?”

“They did last night. When I got home nothing happened.” Tiffany felt her nose gingerly. “But this morning, while I was finishing up on the video, it started again.”

“And it was bad. Like, it was like an actual fountain, just gushing out like crazy and—”

With a cough, Sunny gestured at their lunch. “How about we leave the graphic details for later?”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.”

Tiffany’s grateful smile at Sunny turned into an expression of resignation as Sunny, too, began to spoon bits of meat and veggies from her own soup into Tiffany’s bowl. “I’m fine, guys. Serious.”

“Just eat it,” said both of them.

—

“Okay, I’m going to go pick them up at the lobby,” said the team manager. “Everything’s ready, right? Draft of the article — how many copies do we have?”

“I printed ten out, just in case.”

“Thanks, Hyukjun. And the spread is already open on the laptop?”

Tiffany nodded. “The video, too.”

“Perfect. Alright, then. I’ll be back in ten, can you guys get them some water? Yoona?”

“Yes, sir.”

As the team manager left the room, followed by Yoona, Hyukjun began to set the papers out neatly at each seat. Tiffany let out a long breath and leaned against the wall.

“You okay there?” Sunny came up to Tiffany and touched her forehead.

“Yeah. Just a little dizzy, that’s all.”

“Did you have another nosebleed?”

“While editing the video, yeah. This one went on for a really long time. I may have lost a little too much blood too fast.”

“Sit down.” Sunny plonked Tiffany down into a swivel chair in the corner. “Close your eyes for a bit. Do you have more Gatorade?”

“On my desk,” said Tiffany faintly.

“Be right back. Don’t move.”

Tiffany nodded once and immediately stopped nodding when a wave of dizziness washed over her. She rested her head against the back of the chair, taking deep breaths. Breathe in, breathe out; the quiet stillness in the conference room, punctuated only by Hyukjun’s arranging of the papers, soothed her and she nearly drifted off into sleep when something touched her shoulder.

“Hey,” said a voice, “are you alright?”

“Yeah. Did you get the Gatorade?”

“Gatorade? Do you want some?”

“It’s on my desk.”

“Okay. Um, excuse me? She says she wants some Gatorade.”

“Oh! Tiffany! Are you alright?”

Tiffany scrunched up her brows. That sounded like her team leader. He was back? Then…

Her eyes flew open and she found herself staring directly into Kim Taeyeon’s face. Kim Taeyeon looked worriedly down at her, concern in her perfect face. “Are you okay, Miss Tiffany? I’m not sure where your table is, I’m sorry. But I can get you some Gatorade later?”

The last thing Tiffany remembered was Kim Taeyeon’s eyes, staring into the depths of her being, as they had these past 48 hours. She said, “Wow,” and everything went black.

“Miss Tiffany!”