______ went home with Irene that day. For once, Taeyeon didn't have an activity after school and could drive the two home(being a junior, she had her license. She technically wasn't supposed to drive minors, but nobody actually followed that rule).

The car was loud and fun, three girls with the radio turned up. The two sisters sang, Taeyeon following as best as she could while concentrating on driving.

"C'mon, sing!" Irene grinned at ______, encouraging her on.

"Nah, you guys are too good, it's embarrassing!"

"We won't judge. We'll even drown out your voice, if you want. Come on, unnie!"

The sisters sang at the top of their lungs and ______ quietly joined in, soon getting into it and singing just as loudly as they were. The two passengers in the backseat danced along to the beat-more like bounced to the beat since neither could dance-while the driver smiled, glancing at them occasionally in the mirror.

The short drive to their houses was disappointing for once since it meant they had to stop their fun, but the girls were already tired by the time they stumbled out of the car, laughing and gasping for breath.

"Call me if you need anything, okay? I'll probably be in my room." The younger girls nodded as Taeyeon left them alone to study in Irene's room.

Irene's room was purple, everywhere. The lilac and white color scheme was complete with a white bed with lilac sheets and blankets, lilac pillow cases, and even a purple stuffed bunny ______ gave her when she had particularly good luck at an arcade once and traded the stuffed animal for her tickets(along with a giant blue soccer ball for herself).

Irene put down her purple backpack and pulled out her-thankfully-pink notebook. Pink wasn't exactly ______'s favorite color, though she didn't mind it, but right now, anything but purple looked great.

"I feel like I'm blind every time I come into your room," ______ muttered, sitting down on the bed. Irene sat at her chair in front of the large bedside table that doubled as a work bed.

"It's not like yours is much better," Irene muttered, and ______ grinned, remembering the large amounts of her favorite color scattered throughout her room.

"Let's just get to work," ______ suggested, and Irene agreed. She pulled out the worksheet that she had trouble on earlier and ______ sat on the bed next to the desk, pointing out mistakes and such.

She slowly spoke in english to Irene, who often had to ask for definitions to vocabulary words, but ______ was patient and taught her carefully. Irene herself was hardworking, and meticulously noted down the new words she came across while listening to ______'s casual english.

Grammar was hard to teach. It felt normal to ______, since she was fluent, and she knew what sounded right and what didn't, so she often couldn't explain why something was wrong, only that it was.

She decided to expose Irene to more english, and so when their homework was done and the rest of the tutoring was over, ______ dragged Irene to the downstairs couch, popping in one of her favorite movies.

Up.

Okay, it's a little childish, but ______ loved animated movies. To be honest, there were few genres she liked more, mostly because she couldn't handle much horror or blood and gore.

______ the subtitles at Irene's cute begging, and relaxed against the couch, popcorn in hand, drink in arm's reach, lights off, snuggled up in the couch with Irene.

The movie played for a few seconds before ______ quickly paused the movie, startling Irene.

"What's wrong?"

"Wait, I forgot something!"

She struggled out of the blankets surrounding her and ran off. Irene laughed when she saw her come back with two boxes of tissues.

"Do you seriously need two boxes?"

______ gave Irene a confused stare.

"We're watching Up. Don't you?"

Irene burst out laughing at ______'s honestly confused, innocent expression. She put the tissue boxes down onto the table, helped ______ rewrap herself in her blankets, and started the movie again.

______ started crying five minutes into the intro, and Irene reached out to put an arm over her shoulder. ______ smiled a little between her sniffling.

Irene found that ______ was very animated(pun intended) while watching Disney movies. She watched ______ snuggle into her in fright at the pack of scary cartoon dogs trying to attack the main character, cry again, tense up during the action scenes, giggle loudly at the jokes(which are supposed to be directed towards a child audience), and cry-again-at the ending scene out of joy.

Irene probably watched the girl sitting beside her with red eyes and more tissues in hand's reactions more than she watched the actual movie.

When the credits finished rolling(______ insisted on staying for the credits so she could relax and cool down by watching the extra pictures and scenes), Irene finally the lights and turned the tv off.
Popcorn had fallen everywhere, the blankets were all messed up, and there was a giant pile of tissues on the coffee table. The two cleaned everything up(______ releasing some last sniffles) and collapsed back on the couch.

"Well that was fun," Irene breathed out.

"I know, right? Such a good movie!" ______ proceeded to rant about the scenes and the adorableness of the main character.

"I was watching you more than I watched the movie," Irene cut in. ______ immediately shut up, a rosy hue blossoming across her cheeks.

"W-what?"

"Your reactions were so cute!"

"T-thanks," ______ blushed even more. She didn't know what to say and they fell into silence until ______ noticed the time. "It's late, I'd better get going now."

They walked to the door and waved goodbye.

"See you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow!"

The movie watching became their routine for the next few weeks. They alternated choosing movies, and ______ chose an animated movie every time. From Finding Dory and Finding Nemo, to The Princess and the Frog.

Irene preferred romantic movies like The Notebook and classics like Titanic or dramatic action movies. Normally ______ would have mock gagged at the romantic sacrifice scenes, but she pulled Irene closer and wiped her tears away with the tissues from the tissue box now permanently placed on the coffee table in front of the couch.

Irene's english grades improved too, though it probably wasn't because of the movie watching. It was the long periods of time every day where ______ would sit on Irene's bed and watch her work, teaching her patiently, explaining english as best as she could, and admiring her pretty face. The other girl usually brushed it off as boredom or making sure she didn't make a mistake.

They looked forward to these "study dates" as ______ liked to call them in her head. Her own grades improved too, going up to second in class while Irene went to fifth, since ______ would ask Irene for help in other subjects and they would study for hours just so she could spend more time with her crush.

Yeah, she was desperate.

But they got closer and spent more time with each other each day, and ______ couldn't be happier.

A/N

Happy 9th anniversary, SNSD! Have you guys heard the new song Sailing? It's so relaxing and great, and the music video is so pretty.

Also I'm so over the entire Tae/Baek thing(tbh I was never really into all that drama). I just read something on Tumblr that's recent and relevant and I'm not going to reveal what, but please be careful and considerate about what you say about celebrities. They already go through so much. Hate their songs, sure, but don't say bad things about their character. You don't know them, leave them alone. For both Baek and Tae, even though Tae's my bias and Baek is not.

Sorry about that, I had to get that off my chest. If you want to say or ask anything, go ahead and comment or PM or even add me as a friend, I don't mind! Comment, upvote, subscribe to your heart's content.