..imi imi nun ape areunareundaeneunde..

..mangseoryeo Why.

Taeyeon took a deep breath as she finished her final rehearsal for the day. Glancing at her watch, she decided to text Tiffany to see if her friend wanted to meet up for lunch at the university cafeteria. 

To: Pany

 -    I’m done with my rehearsals. Wanna grab some lunch?

Taeyeon slipped her phone into her pocket and placed the microphone casing back in the storage cupboard. Carrying the microphone stand back to it’s corner, she picked up her music scores and slid them into a folder before slinging her backpack over her shoulder. As she closed the doors to the music room, she felt a vibration in her pocket followed by a gentle beep.

From: Pany

 -    Sure Taengoo! Meet at our usual spot?

To: Pany

 -    Yeap. I’m already headed that way.

From: Pany

 -    Ok Tae-Tae! See you there! <3

Smiling, Taeyeon headed towards a small fountain located in the eastern part of the school garden. It was a quiet place where Tiffany and Taeyeon would spend their time together relaxing in between classes since not many people knew of that tiny heaven. They would often spend hours talking or just sitting in silence, basking in the comfort of each other’s presence. She remembered the time where she had Tiffany broke down hearing the news of her mum’s passing during their first year. 

Tiffany’s brother, Leo, had not allowed his dongsaeng not to fly back to Los Angeles since she would not make it in time for the burial. Tiffany had bawled her eyes out to Taeyeon as she assumed Leo was being cruel to her. After trying to calm the sobbing mess for hours, Taeyeon managed to get Tiffany to realize that her brother had only stopped her because he knew she was in the midst of her examinations and did not want to distract her from it.

As she stood next to a soft patch of grass, Taeyeon glanced down and blushed as the memory of last semester flooded back. She had woken up from one of their naps with her face inches away from Tiffany’s and spent the next few moments staring at Tiffany’s beautiful lips, realising that her feelings for the pink princess was growing.

“No Kim Taeyeon. She sees you as a friend, nothing more. Stop daydreaming.”

Taeyeon shook her head to clear her thoughts of her American friend. Right on cue, Tiffany invaded Taeyeon’s vision, skipping happily in her pink dress towards her. Taeyeon smiled as Tiffany linked arms with her friend and they made their way towards the cafeteria. 

“How was rehearsals Tae-Tae?” asked Tiffany, flashing her famous eye smile at Taeyeon. Taeyeon sighed. Using her free hard to brush her bangs out of eyes, “Not too bad. I’ve almost got the chorus nailed. But it’s not good enough yet, with a couple more days of practic-“ Taeyeon turned in surprise to Tiffany who had lifted her index finger on Taeyeon’s lips, effectively silencing her.

“You constantly underestimate yourself Taengoo.”

Tiffany moved her hand away from Taeyeon’s lips to brush another stray hair away from Taeyeon’s eyes, “I believe in you, always have. But my best friend needs to start believing in herself too. You’re an amazing singer and no one in this whole campus works even half as hard as you do. Give yourself a little credit now and then.” Taeyeon’s head and heart drooped a little hearing the term best friend. She knew Tiffany has always looked up to her since they met in high school and that was partially the reason she was so scared of failing. For fear that her dear Tiffany would leave her side after realising Taeyeon was just a flop.

Through all the mulling, Tiffany and Taeyeon had reached the cafeteria. Moving towards the food counters, Taeyeon heard her friend squeal in joy as the cupcakes served today was topped with pink icing. Grabbing a tray, Taeyeon picked up her favourite bowl of sundaeguk and a box of black bean milk. Glancing sideways at Tiffany, she shook her head with a smile as her friend grabbed two slices of pizza and a bottle of orange juice. “Could you be anymore American?” said Taeyeon smiling at the bubbly friend who was busy choosing one of those pink cupcakes. Finally deciding she had found the perfect cupcake, Tiffany looked over at Taeyeon’s tray, “Could you be anymore Korean?”. The duo made their way over to the checkout counter in which Tiffany waved away Taeyeon’s hand and flashed her credit card at cashier. “Pany, I can pay for myself,” grumbled Taeyeon watching the attendant hand Tiffany’s card back to her with their receipt. Tiffany looked at her friend, “I know. I just like treating you to lunch to get on your nerves.” She proceeded to flash her eye smile at Taeyeon and the latter felt a rising heat in her cheeks. “Now let’s go get our seats.”

Looking round the cafeteria, Taeyeon spotted two familiar figures at a table towards the back entrance of the cafeteria. The tall lanky one did not look happy as she whined something to a tanned girl who was absentmindedly nibbling on a takoyaki ball. “Pany, Taeng. Come join us,” said Yuri when she noticed her friends approaching their table. Sooyoung stopped her whining and looked up to smile at her dorm mates. Taking their seats, Taeyeon looked at Sooyoung, “So what whining did Yuri have to listen to before me and Pany got here?”

“She’s having trouble getting Hyomin’s number,” said Yuri blandly.

“Yuri, it’s not as simple as walking up to just anyone and asking for information about a girl,” huffed a restless Sooyoung. Taking a bite out of her burger, Sooyoung continued bantering about how difficult it was to find anyone from her class who mixed with the likes of Sungkyunkwan dancers. Yuri sighed and threw a rolled up ball of tissue paper at the shikshin’s forehead to end the whining. “YAH! Why’d you do that for unnie?!” Sooyoung wailed and rubbed the spot where the ball had hit her. Before Yuri could answer her, the girls heard a familiar voice call out to them.

“Taeyeon! Unnies! I’ve missed you!”

The girls turned around to see a fair girl with long hair and bangs framing her face running towards their table. Taeyeon smiled at her hoobae, “Jieun! Come, sit! Wait, it’s IU now right? *chuckle* It’s been too long. Did you just get back from Japan?”.  All eyes were on their university’s youngest singing prodigy as she nodded and sat down in between Taeyeon and Tiffany, causing a flash of jealousy to pass Tiffany’s eyes in which only Taeyeon and IU failed to notice. IU started her story about her trip to Japan to meet with music producers who were planning a Japanese debut album for her. 

“Taeyeon-unnie, the boys in Japan are so much cuter than the boys here! I can’t believe I’ve never thought of taking a holiday to Tokyo before.” gushed a happy IU. Yuri and Sooyoung watched in amusement as the jealousy in Tiffany’s eyes quickly subsided upon hearing her words. “Because you’re too young to even think about dating Jieun-ah!” said a smiling Tiffany which caused the table to roar with laughter when IU faked a tantrum about not being old enough to date.

“She’s got Sooyoung’s expression five minutes ago when this shikshin was being a baby about finding a way to get to Jiyeon.” laughed Yuri. Sooyoung threw a glare at Yuri, “Keep laughing and those smile lines are gonna get deeper.” “YAH! Shut it, food monster!”

“You want to get close to Jiyeon, sunbae-nim?” said a surprised IU.

The four girls stopped their laughing and turned to their confused hoobae. “You know her, Jieun?” said Taeyeon with wide eyes. IU turned her face to Taeyeon and nodded. “If it’s Park Jiyeon from Sungkyunkwan, then yes. She’s one of my best friends! We studied in the same high school and got really close they put us both in a special class because of our grades.” Sooyoung did a fist pump and looked at IU excitedly, “Then can I ask you for a favour? I’m not exactly looking to get to know her but I made a promise to Sunny about getting a phone number of a girl who is friends with Jiyeon. But I don’t know anyone who mixes with Sungkyunkwan students except.. you!” IU scratched her head and thought for a moment. 

“AH! I got it!” exclaimed IU excitedly. 

“Why don’t you all come to my concert this weekend? I could invite Jiyeon to join us too. Maybe you can ask her then, sunbae-nim,” said IU with a big smile on her face. “Omo? Are you sure Jieun-ah?” asked Yuri. Nodding happily, “Yeap. I’ll get all of you backstage passes. My sunbaes will be my guests of honour!”

“Who’s gonna be guests of honour, Jieun-ah?” came a voice from behind IU. Whipping around quickly in her seat, IU squealed happily as she stood up to hug Yoona who had just walked in with Sunny and Seohyun. Pulling back from the hug, IU beamed, “I was just telling the other unnies that you’re all invited to my concert this weekend and that you’d all be my guests of honour.” Yoona smiled and nodded saying that they would be more than happy to attend after glancing back at Sunny and Seohyun who nodded in agreement. 

After checking the time, IU stated that she had to run to get to an interview with a radio station before her next class, she hugged her sunbaes once more and waved goodbye to them as she exited the cafeteria. Taeyeon looked at her watch as well and reminded Yuri that they had a class in fifteen minutes. As she stood up to leave, Tiffany suddenly grabbed Taeyeon’s arm and kissed her cheek. “Bye Tae-Tae, see you at home later,” Tiffany giggled, enjoying watching the usually stoic Taeyeon blush. The other girls exchanged knowing looks as a chuckling Yuri slung her arm around dazed Taeyeon and pulled her out of the cafeteria.

“It was just a friendly kiss, Taeyeon, stop dreaming,” Taeyeon thought sadly to herself before the sunlight blinded her vision and thoughts as she and Yuri swung open the cafeteria doors.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author’s Note:

As I promised, here’s TaeNy!

I know I know, doesn’t seem likes it’s going the way it should, but I have my reasons.

Sorry about raising a couple of goosebumps about YulSic in the previous chapter but again, I have my reasons. :)

To Sunbyung shippers, none in this chapter but I won’t say why otherwise I’d start sounding like a broken record.

And for those of you who are surprised with IU’s random appearance, she was one of  the only links between T-ara and SNSD that I could think of. But I don’t know much about her so I’m sorry if she doesn’t sound like her real life character. *bows*

Thank you to all those who’ve subscribed, voted and commented.

PS. I hope this story doesn’t feel too slow paced with all the tiny details I’ve been tossing in. :x