It was bright and sunny when she woke up the next day.  The sun was smiling, the birds were chirping happily, and the scent of fresh grass after a long night of rain welcomed her as she opened her eyes.  She smiled a little remembering what happened last night.  Today was the big day.  Thanks to her oppa, she had decided that today, she would let everything out, and tell her seven year crush how she really felt.  A tinge of fear swept over her for a second, but she brushed it away quickly before it could overcome her courage.  With a deep breath, she got out of bed and whispered to herself, “Tiffany, fighting!”

            After she got ready, she looked at herself in the mirror.  Her hair was now almost down to her waist, straight and smooth, unlike her usual slightly wavy hair.  She remembered her oppa’s reaction when he first saw it, how he kept playing with her hair saying he really liked it.

“Silly oppa.”  She chuckled.

She put on some powder and lip-gloss.  Pondering on whether or not she should put on more make-up, a flash of memory dashed through her mind. 

“right, oppa says I look prettier without make-up,” she mumbled to herself, putting down the eyeliner she had in her hand. 

She smiled at the reflection in the mirror, never realizing that all this time, it wasn’t her crush she wanted to impress, it was her oppa.

            Down stairs, she found her members already gathered at the table, talking, laughing, and heartily eating breakfast.  Though it was rather hectic living with eight other girls, Tiffany found it the only way she could live, for these girls were her best friends, her sisters, her happiness.  She sat on the empty chair beside a short haired girl.

“hey, where did you go last night?” asked Taeyeon, the short haired girl.

“I just went for a drive.  Cleared my mind,” she answered.

“oppa came over, and he went berserk when he found out you weren’t home,” said Jessica, who was sitting in front of her.

 “yeah, he called me,” Tiffany replied as she started eating her breakfast.

 “He told me to confess,” she added after swallowing her first bite of blueberry pancake. 

There was a long pause as every girl stopped eating and turned to face her.

“You’re finally going to tell him?” Yuri squealed from the other end of the table.

“yeah, today,” she answered, smiling confidently.

The girls all went back to eating their food when Sunny suddenly asked loudly, “wait, who?”

Everyone looked at her confused.

 “I mean, who are you going to confess to?”  she asked Tiffany.

 “what do you mean ‘who’? You know there’s only one guy I like,” Tiffany replied.

“well, I really thought you would forget about him and end up with you know..” Sooyoung, who was sitting beside Sunny, joined the conversation.

“End up with who?”

Tiffany was getting confused as to what her friends were implying.  Who was the other guy they were talking about?  She has been in love with the same guy for seven years now, and there wasn’t any other guy in her heart.  Or was there?

 “with oppa,” answered Sunny nonchalantly as she kept munching on her food.

She couldn’t believe her ears.  Was she hearing wrong or did Sunny really just say oppa?

“why would you think that?” she asked, shock written all over her face.

“well, he obviously loves you tiff,” said Hyoyeon, who had been concentrating on her breakfast before.

“and you, even though you haven’t realized it yet, but you love him too,” Jessica pointed out making the others nod in agreement.

“you might not admit it now, but we know you tiff..” Taeyeon added.

Tiffany was dumbstruck.  She didn’t know how to react.  She didn’t know what to say.  How could they think that?  She wasn’t in love with her oppa..was she?  She couldn’t believe what the girls thought.  “They’re wrong,” she told herself.  But deep down, at the bottom of her heart, for the first time, Tiffany began to remember her oppa in a different light.

The rest of the morning went silently.  Tiffany ate her food without a single word.  She was busy with her own thoughts.  And the others knew better than to disturb her.  As they went out of the dorm to head to practice, the maknae, Seohyun, walked beside her.

“we just don’t want you to regret anything, unnie,” she said softly as she cling her arm with the older girl’s.  Tiffany smiled, and they walked arm in arm to the van.

******

                    As much as she tried, Tiffany couldn’t get the thought out of her mind.  It kept torturing her the whole day.  As they drove to SMent.  As they practiced singing.  As they practiced their choreography.  As they ate lunch.  All she could do was think about what her members said.  She convinced herself that they were wrong, that she already had someone else in her heart.  She convinced herself that she had loved him forever and still does.  But every time, images of her oppa kept filling her mind.  She kept comparing the two, and she couldn’t understand why.  After much consideration, she built up all the courage she had and decided that the only way to put her mind at peace was to tell him how she felt.  It was now or never.  With her blazing determination, Tiffany ran to the other practice room.  She opened the door and rushed in before she could let herself think twice.  As she walked in, she saw him.  The person she had loved for so long.  His brown, slightly wavy hair, covering his forehead down to one of his eyes.  Sweat was dripping down his face and chest soaking his black wife beater.  She smiled at the sight.  She took a step forward and caught her breath when she met eyes with a smiling face standing behind him.  Her heart skipped a beat.  She could feel it pound so fast, as if she had just run a marathon.  She felt her lips form a wide smile on its own.  Flashes of memories started filling her mind.  Memories of her oppa.  Every day he came to cheer her up, every call he made to make sure she was okay, every smile he gave her, every soothing word he said to her, every laugh they shared, every tear he wiped, everything. 

Before she realized what she was doing, as if her feet knew her heart better than her mind did, she unconsciously walked past her first love, stopping in front of a certain blonde haired guy who was standing behind him.  The guy whose smiling face had shut down her brain and accelerated the function of her heart.  He had kept his eyes on her the whole time.  From the minute she entered the room he had been preparing himself for the heartbreak of a life time.  He knew she was going to confess her love today.  She was going to give her heart to his best friend, and she was going to leave him heartbroken.  But even so, as if pulled by gravity, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.  He couldn’t help but smile when he saw the angelic face of the girl that captured his heart.  And as he kept his eyes on her, his face turned from smile to shock when he watched her walk past his best friend and stand in front of him. 

“what are you doing?” he asked her, still in a state of bewilderment.

“I don’t know,” she answered innocently.

“I thought you were going to confess today?” he asked again.

“I… I am…” she replied, looking rather uncertain.

“but, he’s over there tiff,” he told her, pointing at the other guy who was now looking at them.

The room was filled with the nine members of the group practicing, and now eight pairs of eyes were staring at the two. Trying to figure out what was going on between them.

“I know…” she told him.

“Then what are you doing?” he asked her again, feeling conscious of the other people in the room.

She fidgeted as she stood there.  Playing with her fingers, pulling at her clothes.  She herself, was still trying to comprehend what she was doing.  She looked up and met his eyes.  His gentle caring eyes that always kindly looked after her.  Just one look, and all her confusion went down the drain.  She realized then and there that she was in love with him.  They were right.  Her girls were right.  She was in love with her oppa.  More than she ever knew, and more than she would admit.  As the realization hit her, she reached her arm out and pulled him closer to her.  Before he could react she tip-toed making their lips tenderly meet.  Loud gasps could be heard all around them, but they didn’t care.  She felt him smile in their kiss before she let him go.  No words could describe his feelings at that moment.  It was as if Christmas had come and Santa had given him the best gift of his life.  Fireworks were bursting in his heart and he couldn’t wipe the wide grin on his face.  He looked her in the eye and she smiled a perfect eye smile making his heart jump right out of his chest and his legs turn into jelly.  Then she looked down, trying to hide her face.  Her cheeks had turned a red as a ripe tomato.

“took you long enough,” he said chuckling, amused by her sudden embarrassment.

“I was… chasing the wrong pavement..” she answered softly.

“well, no more chasing,” he told her, leaning down, lessening the distance between them.

“nope, I’ve reached the end,”

With that he kissed her, for he had been longing forever to taste her soft sweet lips and hold her in his arms.  He still couldn’t believe it. she was his now.  HIS.  He let go and whispered in her ear, “I love you tiff… so much…”

She giggled at this and softly whispered back, “I love you too, hukkie oppa.”

She said it so softly, barely loud enough for him to hear.  But he heard it.  The words he had waited so long to hear.  He finally heard it.