The ribbing was real. And the teasing came in various forms, according to each of their personalities.

“Taeyeon and Tiffany sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Hyo was singing the moment she stepped into the booth.

“I knew it. I told you so,” went Sooyoung with her know-it-all expression.

“So are you really together with her now?” asked Seo with her doe eyes.

Try as she might, Taeyeon could not get her bandmates to give her even the slightest moment’s peace, and by the end of the night, she was ready to roast them over fire.

“Shut the up, y’all. Can’t a girl be civil with her manager around here?”

Sooyoung’s eyebrows waggled up and down. “Civil, huh?”

“You were the ones asking me to be nice to her. And now that I’m nice to her, you’re all over my case.”

“It looks like you’re more than nice to her, Taeyeon. Dinner? At your place? Huh?”

“I told you, Sunny is the one who asked her to stay for dinner.”

“Ah, but what was she doing at your place in the first place?” Sooyoung countered, looking pleased with herself for cornering Taeyeon.

“I was just trying to be nice to mana!” Taeyeon yelled in frustration.

Eyes went wide and gasps barely escaped the hands that flew to the mouths of Hyo, Seo and Sooyoung.

“What?” went Taeyeon as she turned to look at the cause of her bandmates’ reaction.  Her own eyes went wide and she gasped as soon as she saw the very person she had just mentioned. “M-Mana—T-Tiffany!”

Tiffany’s eyes were full of emotion, swirling around in her dark brown pupils. “Thanks for being nice to me,” she said, almost spitting each word out from .

“Tiffany,” Sooyoung began to say but Tiffany had already left their booth and disappeared.

“Taeyeon, you gotta explain it to her,” said Hyo.

Taeyeon’s entire mind was yelling at herself to chase down Tiffany but her legs wouldn’t budge. “Why?”

“Why? She’s gonna think you don’t like her or something. She heard you say ‘mana’.”

Seo stood and gave her a push. “Go!”

Taeyeon sat instead. “Why should I?”

All three members of her band stared at her like she had lost her common sense.

“Didn’t you see how hurt she was by what you called her?” Sooyoung questioned with her voice raised.

“If she’s hurt this easily, it’ll be hard for her to stay in this line of work.”

“Seriously?” Hyo was on her feet now. “You’re gonna just sit here?”

“Taeyeon, you should go talk to her,” Seo added.

“I’m not gonna.” Taeyeon folded her arms and stared back at her bandmates. “You can go explain things to her if you want. I’m not doing it.”

“Unbelievable,” Sooyoung uttered before stepping out of their booth, presumably in search of Tiffany. Hyo and Seo stared at her for a moment, silently egging her to move but eventually gave up and followed in Sooyoung’s footsteps.

Taeyeon. You’re a horrible person. You’re a coward.

The war went on in her head but Taeyeon just wouldn’t get up from the seat. Nope. Nope. Nope.

o|v

When she woke up the next day and looked in the mirror while washing up, Taeyeon knew she had screwed up big time. Her friends had abandoned her in attempt to comfort Tiffany and her own conscience was done with her. Why hadn’t she fixed the mess last night? Why did she have to be such a mess? Why couldn’t she be a nicer person like everybody else?

Taeyeon splashed water at the Taeyeon in the mirror. “You .”

It was too late to salvage things though. As much as she regretted her unexplainable stubbornness from the night before, the damage had been done. Tiffany was probably not going to speak to her ever again. As least, not as a friend. Not as someone she liked.

“Why? Why? Why!” Taeyeon asked herself. She had no answer. And this was why she hated herself at times.

She could have tried harder at Math in school but she didn’t.

She could have tried to be nicer to her parents at home but she didn’t.

She could have tried to put in more effort into her relationships . . . but she didn’t.

It was a miracle she even had friends. What did Sooyoung, Hyo and Seo see in her, she didn’t know. Probably her voice. Yeah, they needed a vocalist to form a band. That was why Sooyoung stuck by her all through the years in school and now, in a band. Other than her voice, she had nothing else going for her.

By lunch time, Taeyeon was depressed. Slouched low on the couch, she channel surfed but found nothing interesting to watch. She tossed the remote and entered the kitchen to get a drink. Drinking a can of coffee did not help. Eating sweets did not help either.

By three o’clock, Taeyeon was at the door. She had set up all her sketching tools but she knew Tiffany wasn’t going to come. If mana wasn’t going to come, she would go to her.

o|v

Taeyeon pressed the doorbell and ducked. Then, she waited. It took a while, but the door opened and she slipped her foot forward to block it before standing up to face the music.

“Hi, Tiffany.”

Several different emotions flashed in Tiffany’s eyes. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here to fulfil my promise.”

“What promise?”

“I promised to sketch you a copy to keep.”

Tiffany looked at the folio in Taeyeon’s hand. “You don’t have to. I don’t want a copy anymore.”

“I think you’re just saying that ‘cos you’re upset.”

Anger flared in the air around Tiffany. “I’m not upset. I just don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore. It’s as simple as that.”

“You don’t want to have anything to do with me ‘cos you’re upset.”

“I don’t need you coming around here to tell me how I feel. Get your foot out of the way.”

“No.”

“If you don’t, I’ll slam the door on it.”

“If it’ll make you feel better, I’m willing to sacrifice my foot.”

“It’ll make me feel better if you get out of my sight.”

Taeyeon’s heart took a stab then, but she wasn’t about to back down so easily. “I think there’s some things I need to explain about last night.”

“I think there’s nothing to explain.”

“Firstly, you don’t know the context of what I said.”

Tiffany snorted. “Context? What context could there possibly be for ‘mana’?”

“See, I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

“I wasn’t aware that ‘’ can be used in a good way.”

“It’s complicated. But I just need you to know that I didn’t mean ‘’ as in a horrible woman ‘’.”

“Please, just leave.”

“Not until you understand this.”

Tiffany’s eyes hardened. “Don’t blame me for this.”

“For what?” Taeyeon asked, then yelped in pain as her foot was slammed into the frame of the doorway by the closing door. “Oh my God,” she cried and crouched down to hold her foot. “Oh my God, this hurts. This really ing hurts!”

“I told you to move your foot.”

Taeyeon hung her head and bit her lip. The pain was spreading across her toes, up to her ankle. Sitting down on her bum, she cradled her foot and rocked in pain, not daring to move her foot for fear of causing more pain.

“Move it, Taeyeon.”

She held back the tears that were springing to her eyes and tried to stand but the pain streaked across her entire foot. “Ow!” she yelped and fell back onto her bum.

“You can stop the act. You’re not fooling me.”

Taeyeon looked up into Tiffany’s eyes, her temper flaring up. “I’m not ing acting! I think my foot is ing broken!”

Tiffany stared down at her. Looking away, Taeyeon tried to stand again but putting the slightest bit of weight on her foot hurt her like crazy. The pain was real. And the pain was becoming harder to bear with each passing second.

Tiffany’s face appeared before hers. “Are you crying?”

She avoided Tiffany’s eyes. “I’m not.”

“You obviously are.”

“That’s ‘cos it ing hurts!”

Tiffany touched her sneaker. “May I?”

Taeyeon shook her head. “Don’t touch it,” she said, but Tiffany undid the laces and loosened the shoe.

“Take it off.”

Taeyeon pulled her shoe off carefully, trying her best to avoid causing more pain. She had not worn socks in her haste to come here and it was a regret now. The sock could have helped to cushion some of the hit . . .

“Does it hurt when I—”

“Ow!” Taeyeon moved her foot away from Tiffany’s fingers. “Don’t touch it!”

“I’m sorry.”

Taeyeon met Tiffany’s eyes as the apology was uttered and she held her gaze steady as three words rose up to her lips.

“I’m sorry too.”

o|v