Taeyeon wasn’t going to take no as an answer and she most certainly wouldn’t accept the fact that Tiffany can’t choose her because of a reason she doesn’t know. She made the woman happy for years so for her to just throw that away for a one month fling? That’s plain stupid, and while she knows that Tiffany has had her own fair share of stupidity, Taeyeon believes that this isn’t just because of that.

            So she resorted to extreme measures. She called up the admin office of her apartment building and asked for a copy of the CCTV footage on the day that Tiffany started to act different.

            “Hello, Miss Kim, here are the copies you’ve requested.” The man smiles as he inserts the tape into his computer.

            They both knew that this was against the rules, especially if there was nothing to see anyway but Taeyeon had a hunch that something did happen and she won’t leave the place until she knows what’s wrong. They watched intently the tape and still nothing has happened,

            “It will be better if you give me the exact time, Miss Kim.”

            Taeyeon sighs. She doesn’t even know what she’s looking for! Nevertheless, she closes her eyes and she tries to remember the time that Tiffany walked with her father to the parking lot.

            “The afternoon.” She mutters, that was the time when Tiffany went back upstairs and started to act different.

            The man in the control room nods his head and he skips to the part like Taeyeon had instructed. Suddenly, Tiffany and Mr. Hwang were shown in the monitor talking and saying their goodbyes to each other, next was Mr. Hwang entering his car and driving off. Taeyeon pouts when she sees nothing happen and she closes her eyes again, maybe nothing did happen and Tiffany really just didn’t want her anymore.

            “Mi…Miss Kim…”

            She was awoken by the man’s shaky voice and a hand gripping her wrist. She opens her eyes and quickly focuses on the screen. When she sees the familiar man grabbing Tiffany and whispering something in her ear, she almost gasps in shock, but her reaction is more of an angry one. She clenches her fists and she seethes in anger.

            “That’s enough!” she growls at the man and the man immediately stops the clip.

            “D-do you want me to call the police?”

            “No. I’ll deal with him on my own.”

            The man shakily bows when he sees Taeyeon walk past him.

            That day, while Taeyeon wanted to beat the crap out of Siwon, she had to teach Tiffany a lesson so she made the hardest decision to leave Tiffany alone in the apartment for a few hours until she asked Sooyoung to accompany the girl just so she was sure that the woman wasn’t going to do anything stupid, and also for the sake of Taeyeon’s heart being calm.

            She wondered why Tiffany didn’t trust her with this. It was serious and yet she chose to keep her out of the situation because she wanted her safe. Taeyeon couldn’t live with that. She wanted to protect Tiffany, not the other way around. She can take care of herself while Tiffany? She’s a strong woman but something like this was dangerous for her to deal with alone. She wanted Tiffany to know that she still has her but she won’t stay forever specially if she keeps on pushing her away.

            “Sooyoung-ah…” Tiffany whines. Clinging onto the taller woman’s arm and hugging her while she’s at it. Sooyoung rolls her eyes at the action but she chuckles afterwards at the cuteness. She shakes her head at the girl who was giving her the puppy look and for the nth time that day, she shoos her.

            “No, Tiffany. If you want to talk to Taeyeon do it yourself.” Sooyoung answers. She wanted to help but Tiffany had to do what she had to, “and besides I’m sure she doesn’t want to talk to you.” She adds, smirking when she sees Tiffany’s face fall. Oh how she loves it when she breaks Tiffany’s heart like this.

            “You think so?” Tiffany asks, looking down on her feet as sadness invades her.

            Sooyoung nods her head and says, “oh yes. She could be on a date with another woman right now for all we know; a woman who would trust her with her problems and everything. She loves her women that way.”

            Jessica rolls her eyes at what she’s hearing. She smacks Sooyoung’s back which makes the taller wince in pain and she gives her a look; a look Jessica returns in a more threatening way. Sooyoung pouts then ignores Jessica’s ministrations.

            “Don’t listen to her Tiffany. Taeyeon just needs some time to cool off. That’s all.” She smiles at the girl who was still distracted by her own thoughts. Jessica turns to Sooyoung again and gives her a glare that sent Sooyoung’s hair at the back of her head stand up. Jessica mouths ‘apologize’ to her and she sighs,

            “I’m kidding, Tiffany. This witch is right. Taeyeon just needs time to herself and besides, you heard Sunny, I’m sure she’ll knock some sense on Taeyeon’s head and she’ll come crawling back to you in no time.” She says, a little hint of sarcasm at the end of the statement. Sooyoung had always believed that Taeyeon was a softy on Tiffany which is why the younger always had things her own ways. It wasn’t really bad but look at Tiffany, she won’t even work to bring Taeyeon back and instead she’s asking people to talk to the girl because she isn’t brave enough to do so.

            Tiffany picked up on the slight tone of sarcasm and she sighs. Maybe Sooyoung was right, she needed to work on her own to prove that she wants Taeyeon back. After all, it’s her fault that the girl’s trust in her is wavering. She walks out of the kitchen and she grabs her phone on the table. She bites her lip when she opens the messaging app because she doesn’t really know what to say to Taeyeon. In the end, she closes her phone again and she groans in annoyance. She closes her eyes as she tries to think of something,

            “Ask her out on a date. You’ve never asked her out on a date. It’s always her asking you out.” Sooyoung hollers. Tiffany stares at her and she pouts. She’s never this type of girl. She’s so used to Taeyeon making her feel like a queen.

            “How?” she asks the woman and she frowns when the other just shrugs.

            She reaches for her phone again and she opens her messaging app.

            Hi.

            She squeals then throws her phone on the sofa as she waits for it to beep indicating that Taeyeon had replied. Jessica and Sooyoung watched her with an incredulous look on their faces. Tiffany was seriously acting like a high school student who was waiting for her crush to text her back.

            “What.the..” Sooyoung mutters. Jessica knocks on her head when she hears it then she chuckles

            “Don’t judge her Soo. She’s new to this.”

            “Yeah? Oh my gosh she’s worse than Taeyeon.”

            Sooyoung shakes her head when she sees Tiffany burying her face into a pillow and she giggles. She goes back to chopping some vegetables but she stops when she feels Jessica stand next to her. She smiles when she looks down on the woman, so small. She’s always had a crush on the woman but it disappeared when she learned that she had a boyfriend but that was ages ago.

            “So how’s the love life going, Sica?”

            Jessica looks up at her and raises an eyebrow, “What? I’ve been single for years, Soo. I just don’t think I have the time for my love life. They just give me headaches.” She scoffs then chuckles at the thought of her being in a relationship again. It was all fun and games until her boyfriend became bat crazy over her.

            Hearing this, Sooyoung stops chopping for a moment and she gulps. Jessica was single again. She stops herself from smiling like an idiot and she turns to look at Jessica who was busy with whatever she was doing. Jessica was a fine woman. She was kind but not kind enough to be stepped on. Sooyoung thinks that she’s amazing and anyone would be lucky to have her.

           “So are you open to being in a relationship with anyone?” she asks, hoping to hear the answer she wants to hear.

            Jessica shrugs as she goes to the sink to wash the vegetables that Sooyoung had chopped, “I fall in love when I fall in love. It doesn’t matter to whom.” She answers simply and the taller woman swore her heart almost burst out of her chest.

            “TAEYEON READ MY MESSAGE!”

            Suddenly, Tiffany had both their undivided attention. The woman was on the couch staring at her phone as if waiting for Taeyeon to respond. They see her pout and Sooyoung chuckles, Taeyeon must be panicking on the other line too but she won’t tell that to Tiffany or to Jessica.

            “OH MY GOSH SHE REPLIED TO ME!” Tiffany shouts and Sooyoung had to bite her lip to suppress the laughter. She’s never seen this side of the girl and she wants to freeze this moment forever.

            “Give her a break, Sooyoung!” Jessica hisses as she pinches the girl in the waist.

            Hello.

            “She said hello! What am I going to say?!” she panics and she wipes the beads of sweat on her forehead when she sees Jessica come close to her on the sofa. She looks at the girl for help and Jessica giggles,

            “Ask her how she’s doing.” Jessica suggests.

            Hearing this, Sooyoung face palms herself and she sighs. These two are so used to people making them feel like queens so they don’t know a thing about asking people out or something. She puts the knife on the sink and she wipes her hands with the paper towel,

            “Taeyeon hates small talk. Trust me, she won’t ask you back about how you’re doing and you’ll get stuck on the same cycle.”

            Tiffany and Jessica purses their lips as they stare at Sooyoung and they decide that she’s right.

            “Okay Tiffany, what does Taeyeon love to do?”

            Tiffany opens but she doesn’t speak. Taeyeon loved to do a lot of things but she loves to work the most. Of course she wouldn’t want Taeyeon to talk about her work right now so she closes her eyes to think of a better answer.

            “Well, she likes ice cream and it’s been a long time since we ate ice cream together.” Tiffany trails off.

            “Ice cream it is then.”

            Would you like to go out and eat ice cream with me, Taetae?

            Sure. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Ask Sooyoung and Jessica out too.

            When she reads the response, Tiffany pouts and she shows it to the other two people in the room. She hoped that it would be just the two of them but maybe Taeyeon doesn’t want to hang out with her alone. She must’ve been hurt so bad and now Tiffany feels guilty again.

            “She’s so cold.” She mutters as she sinks into the sofa

            “Come on Fany it’s not that bad.” Jessica coos. Sooyoung shrugs and she chuckles afterwards. Taeyeon is acting again and she seriously doesn’t suit it. Only Tiffany would fall for that sorry excuse of an act. Nevertheless, she hopes that these two can begin mending whatever is broken between them again.

            “Let me guess, vanilla for the shortest and strawberry for the one with eyesmile.” Sooyoung points to Taeyeon then to Tiffany as she states their preferred flavors. She smiles when she sees the two nod and she grabs Jessica’s wrist so they could order and leave the two people on the table.

            Taeyeon chuckles when she sees Jessica struggle to keep up with Sooyoung and she goes back to looking at the timid woman across her.

            “An ice cream parlor, huh? Nice.” She teases and she almost laughs when she sees Tiffany pout.

            “I’m sorry. I didn’t know where to bring you and Sooyoung said that this is your comfort place and—“

            “Ah, you didn’t even know.” Taeyeon smiles bitterly when she hears Tiffany’s explanation. Out of all people, the girl should have known where she’d take Taeyeon. While yes, this is in fact her favorite place, she is upset that Tiffany had to learn it through Sooyoung.

            “I’m sorry.” Tiffany mutters. Mentally beating the crap out of herself because of what she blabbed. Taeyeon deserved better. She didn’t deserve someone like her who doesn’t even know what her favorite place was.

            “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Tiffany.” Taeyeon reassures. She sees Tiffany nod her head a little and she sighs.

            Soon enough they were engulfed by silence. The silence was killing Tiffany. She’s never experienced dead air with Taeyeon before and experiencing it now is suffocating her.

            “so how are you doing?” she asks, in an attempt to spark a conversation but she ends up beginning small talk.

            “I’m fine.” Taeyeon answers simply, reaching for the cute menu in front of her to distract her thoughts. She wanted oh so badly to ask Tiffany how she’s doing but she needs to keep herself grounded and tough. She won’t break easily for the girl this time,

            “How’s work?”

            “Good.”

            Tiffany starts to play with her fingers on her lap as she sighs. She’s not used to Taeyeon giving her short answers. She wants to hear Taeyeon’s long stories and rants about work and other people. She doesn’t want to hear Taeyeon’s vague answers. She wants to hear Taeyeon tell her things about how her day went or something. She shifts on her seat uncomfortably and Taeyeon smirks,

            This is what she wanted anyway. She wanted Tiffany to know the feeling of not being trusted. She wanted Tiffany to experience not knowing what she wants to know. She wanted her to realize how much she’s hurt Taeyeon over the past few months and now she’s going to pay for what she has done.

            “I love you. Please come back home.” She hears Tiffany mumble and she almost gave up, luckily she didn’t. She’s been dying to hear those words from Tiffany again and it feel so good to hear it again. While she wants to answer back and tell the girl how much she loves her and misses her, she decides against it  and she pretends that she didn’t hear anything.

            The day I’m going to say those words back to you is the day I learn to trust you again. Right now, I can’t; not when you don’t even trust me with your problems.

            Tiffany thought Taeyeon didn’t hear it, so she decided to just play with it and act like she didn’t say anything. She bites her lip as she moves so Jessica could sit beside her.

            “So what happened? Did you two kiss and make up?” Sooyoung jokes making Taeyeon laugh. Tiffany stares at the ice cream in front of her when she hears the two women laughing as if their marriage was a joke. She couldn’t blame Taeyeon though, what she did was a huge pain in the anyway. She shakes her head as the thought of what she did to Taeyeon made her sick to the stomach. She couldn’t believe that she had the guts to cheat on the best wife she could ever have and even try to destroy her image because she was too blinded by fame and too self-absorbed.

            “She asked me about work. That’s all. You know how much I hate small talk.” Taeyeon states. She glances at Tiffany who wasn’t even trying to eat the ice cream and she almost blurted out her apology.

            Sooyoung clicks her tongue then pats Taeyeon’s knee, “Our Tiffany must be nervous.”

            Taeyeon simply nods her head then eats the ice cream in front of her,

            “Of course. After everything that she’s done to me I’ll commend her if she doesn’t get nervous talking to me.”

            Sooyoung and Jessica almost choked when they heard the statement come from Taeyeon. Sooyoung grips on Taeyeon’s leg and she gives her a look when the girl turns to her. Jessica on the other hand turns to Tiffany who was already sniffling in her seat. Taeyeon shoots Sooyoung a questioning look but she shrugs afterwards. They told her to say everything that she wants to say to the girl but it looks like she’s crossed the line.

            Tiffany knew that the three people on the table were probably looking at her right now but she frowns when Taeyeon doesn’t even look like she cares. She feels embarrassed, they all knew what she had done but she didn’t have to broadcast it again. She sighs when she realizes that she’s being sensitive but it’s true anyway, she did do an embarrassing thing and she should be ashamed of herself.

            “E-excuse me. I’ll be in the rest room.”

            She excuses herself and Jessica nods her head, understanding the situation. When they made sure that Tiffany was nowhere near them, Jessica glares at Taeyeon and Sooyoung was already frowning,

            “I crossed the line?” Taeyeon asks, timidly.

            “You bet your you did, Kim Taeyeon!” Jessica hisses. They told the girl to say anything she wants but they didn’t tell her to humiliate Tiffany further.

            “Hey let’s cool down for a bit, girls.” Sooyoung tries to calm Jessica down because nobody wants an angry Jessica, “Taeyeon I think you should apologize to her.”

            “I’m sorry Jessica.” Taeyeon mumbles stupidly and Sooyoung almost wanted to smack her for being stupid. She elbows the girl beside her and gives her a look,

            “Not to her. I mean to Tiffany!”

            Taeyeon’s mouth forms an ‘O’ and she nods her head. She stands up, and follows the girl to the restroom leaving the Sooyoung and Jessica alone on the table.

            Taeyeon stands outside of the rest room door and she sighs when she hears Tiffany sniffing and trying to stop her tears from falling. She tries to knock but Tiffany doesn’t answer.

            “W-wait a minute.” She hears Tiffany hoarse voice from inside. Taeyeon smiles when she hears her voice. She knows it’s bad to smile while hearing her wife cry but she couldn’t help but imagine Tiffany’s red nose and cute face as she cries.

            “It’s me.” She says. And she hears the sniffles stop, “please let me in.”

            Taeyeon waits for a few hours and she gives the girl a smile when she finally opens the door. Tiffany was about to go out when Taeyeon grabs her hand and stops her from going out of the rest room. They stay inside, facing each other with the other one already red because of the tears. This wasn’t the best place to talk but this was the best that they got at that moment.

            “I’m sorry, Fany. I forgot to filter my mouth.”

            Tiffany glances at Taeyeon then simply nods her head. She pulls a few from the tissue roll and she starts to wipe the tears in her eyes. It was disgusting yes, but she had no choice because Taeyeon won’t wipe those tears for her. She bites her lip when tears started to fall down again and she throws the balled up tissue papers on the trash bin,

            “Please stop cryi—“

            “I’m sorry, Tae…”

            Taeyeon was cut off when Tiffany suddenly launches herself to her and they get caught up in a tight hug. She feels Tiffany bury her face on the crook of her neck and she sighs. As much as she wanted Tiffany to realize a lot of things, she also knew that she hated it when Tiffany was crying. She hugs the girl back tight and she starts to whisper comforting words in her ears,

            “I’m sorry Taetae. I-I was wrong. I’m sorry. I don’t want the divorce. I love you please come back home.” Tiffany kept repeating those words and Taeyeon just listened as she choked on her words. Half of Taeyeon’s heart wanted so bad to go home but the other half wanted to teach Tiffany a lesson.

            “I love you, please Taetae. Please believe me. I-I’m sorry… this is my entire fault.”

            Taeyeon breaks away from the hug and she smiles gently at the girl. She cups Tiffany’s face and she wipes the tears with her eyes, “It is your fault, Fany but I also have my fair share of mistakes.” She smiles and hugs the girl again, caressing the girl’s back to comfort her.

            “I am a bad person. I-I need you Tae. Please give me a-another chance. I p-promise I’ll make it better.”

            “Why don’t you trust me, Tiffany?”

            “I do! I t-trust you!”

            “You didn’t even tell me about Siwon hurting you.”

            Tiffany immediately breaks the hug and she stares at Taeyeon after hearing those words. She knew? How?

            “H-how did you…”

            “I checked. You started to act differently so I had to check. I don’t understand why you can’t tell me. I’m your wife! I’ll protect you!”

            “I don’t want to hurt you.”

            “You already did!” Taeyeon explodes, making Tiffany take a few steps back, “You say that you don’t want to hurt me but you already did when you started cheating on me! You hurt me again when you filed for divorce! And you hurt me again when you tried to destroy my image! You’ve hurt me over and over again and I am stupid enough to still give you a chance but when you’re in legitimate danger you refuse to trust me and tell me what the is happening because you don’t want to hurt me?!”

            Hearing this, Tiffany didn’t know how to answer. She wanted to kneel down and ask for Taeyeon’s forgiveness for everything that she’s done and for all the pain that she’s caused her. She walks nearer the girl and she hugs her again,

            “I’m sorry, Taetae. I was stupid. I-I just wanted to keep you safe. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” She says in between her sobs but  she panics when Taeyeon doesn’t even return the hug.

            “I hate you.” Taeyeon trails off and she feels Tiffany shaking her head and hugging her tighter, “but I love you too. I hate how you make a huge mistake and I’m still here ready to give you another chance.”

            “I’m sorry Taetae. Please I’ll change. This won’t happen again. I will do anything… please just don’t leave me Taetae. Please.”

            Taeyeon sighs. She can’t believe that she tried to be strong when she knew that her weakness was Tiffany. She didn’t want to lose her and as stupid as it sounds, she was willing to give Tiffany unlimited chances. She doesn’t want to lose her, she’s her best friend, her wife, and the person she goes to when she’s feeling down. It’s not going to be easy for them but she was willing to try again.

            “I will fix w-what I broke Taetae please trust me again.”

            It feels so good to hear those words coming from Tiffany and she was willing to let her fix the trust the she broke. She doesn’t know how she’s going to fix it but she will, and Taeyeon was more than happy to know that.

            “I love you Tiffany. And I hate the fact that I couldn’t love anybody else as much as I love you. I deserve better, but I don’t think I want to deserve better.” She chuckles bitterly and Tiffany starts to tear up again. This time, they were sure that the tears were for a different reason.

“I want to protect you while you fix what you broke Fany. Please, trust me too.”