I apologize beforehand for any grammatical errors and typos as English is not my first languange. Correction will be well-appreciated. Hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 6: Their Complicated Situations

Jiyong found himself in hesitation, considering whether to pick up the call or not. Seeing him, BIGBANG members could only look at one another. Sharing the same thought. When they saw Jiyong’s change of gesture, they had strong instinct kicking in. And when they heard Jiyong said,

“Hm…excuse me for a minute.”

‘Kiko.’

The four boys mentally concluded.

Of course nobody would notice it. T.O.P could only exhale and shake his head in disbelief. Taeyang was a little annoyed and he tried so hard not to chase Jiyong at the moment, wanting to keep the dragon under control. Meanwhile Daesung and Seungri sensed the tense air between the four. Seungri decided to take the mic and give it to Taeyang. “Your turn, Hyung.”

Everybody looked at Taeyang with much expectation. It was a duet he had to sing with Haha. Not wanting to change the bright mood in the karaoke room, he took the mic from Seungri and foolishly sang a trot song with Haha.

As for the girls, the night was another bliss where they could hang out and have fun in full formation. Taeyeon could not ask something better than this.

But that was not long till Taeyeon felt her phone vibrating.

1 new message.

From: EXO’s Baekhyun

Frowning, Taeyeon hesitated whether to open and read the message she just received or not. But unconciously, it took her too long to take the decision. Unknown to her, sitting all beside her, the SNSD members eyed her carefully. They noticed the change of the leader’s expression.

All gone the trace of fun.

‘Baekhyun.’

They eight girls mentally guessed.

Tiffany who sat right next to Taeyeon couldn’t hold it. She forcefully took Taeyeon’s phone from her hand. In the middle of blasted music and dim light, the claimer of SNSD’s eye-smile whispered and warned her, "Don’t."

"But Fany-" 

"How many times should I tell you, Taeng. Stop. Freaking. Replied. To. The. Boy." All the while Tiffany made sure to stress the last view words, “You’re already given him false hope, Taeng!”

Feeling like her privacy was being threatened, Taeyeon felt so uncomfortable being in the same room with Tiffany. Not this time.

As though the rest of the girls saw that coming, they sighed to themselves, ‘Here we go again.’

It was already…4343892304 times Taeyeon and Tiffany argued over one particular topic revolved around one of the vocal lines from their company bandmate, EXO. They would sometimes notice Tiffany being strict and told Taeyeon to do things out of her wills, which resulted to Taeyeon couldn’t feel collected in Tiffany’s presence.

Not that Taeyeon disliked Tiffany for telling her…or advising her – as how the girls had always told her – but this thing was a within private borders that Taeyeon would make sure to take care of.

And hell Taeyeon took privacy too..very seriously.

She would make sure nobody invaded it.

As she couldn’t stand anymore nags coming from her bestfriend, Taeyeon tried her best to plaster a smile on her face. She quickly excused herself to the bathroom, bringing her clutch with her, leaving the Karaoke room which was on heat with another silly duet from Kwangsoo and Gary.

~ ∞ ~

“Times like this, Tiffany! How can you be so insensitive! URGH!” Taeyeon washed her pale face and threw the water away rather roughly. “I told her to let me handle this. I said I freaking got this with me this time! But look what she’s done!” Taeyeon was ragging mad. She took a paper of tissue and looked at herself in the mirror.

She stopped there, face expression back to normal. She sighed. Swallowing everything slowly.

She knew Tiffany didn’t mean anything wrong to her. She simply cared for her. Been her best boo for more than 10 years, Taeyeon should know better that the pink-lover girl didn’t mean to annoy whatever out of her. But she hoped that Tiffany would trust her this once. Just this once.

Taeyeon was not her old self anymore.

She was stronger now.

She had learned to accept her past, all of the ugly memories. She had learned to control her emotions, to keep her sane, to avoid her from falling in another stressful hollow.

She wished Tiffany could give her a little space, a little respect. Just this once. Because she considered that she got everything under control with the EXO boy.

Ah..that EXO boy.

Taeyeon remembered the reason why she needed to head straight to the bathroom. She needed to reply to the short message Byun boy had just sent.

Without dirty looks on SNSD girls being thrown at Taeyeon’s pale pretty face.

From: EXO’s Baekhyun

Noona, I just finished one recording for SM Station track. Can you check it out, pls? How about dinner? Sounds good for you?

Baekhyun was always a cute dongsaeng whom Taeyeon looked out for. She has been close, not only with him, but also all EXO members. Even with all of her dongsaengs in SM. But Taeyeon couldn’t really recall when was it that Baekhyun turned out to be clingy to her.

Very…clingy.

At the same time, Taeyeon had a glimpse of Sooyoung’s face, somewhere in 2014, when she said,

“The dating scandal will get you stuck with him. Then it’ll prevent you from dating someone else properly. Because you will feel being responsible for this stupid cover up. Next, you probably will incur some hopes on the boy’s heart and left him hanging with your every good attention you may pay to him.”

Boy, was Sooyoung so damn right.

Oh, how SNSD got Taeyeon so well.

Truth be told, Taeyeon too was tired with everything that revolved around this matter. 2014, she had no choice but to accept SM’s call to ‘pair’ her up with Baekhyun. SM called upon their insider in Dispatch. They had to feed people with the act. All the year, she needed to be extra careful to not being seen together with someone else, as she should stay ‘loyal’ to her one. That included her rejecting many dating offers coming from other men.

And she welcomed the side effect.

Because she too, was tired to be called ‘sly fox’ for dating the fangirls’ ‘Oppas’.

Seriously. Couldn’t