Taeyeon tugs her blazer closer to her body, shivering slightly as another gust of wind blows through the city streets. Autumn in New York is definitely colder than autumn season in Seoul, and she wishes that she had brought a scarf along with her.
 

She spies a well-known café coming up on the block, and she checks her newly-adjusted watch for the time. Figuring that she has enough time to grab a cup of steaming coffee before the meeting, she makes her way inside the cozy-yet-busy shop.
 

When she states her order to the American barista, the latter automatically leans forward, as if needing that extra few inches to understand her. Taeyeon finds it amusing how most people here in the States seem to do that whenever they encounter a foreigner. Her diction isn’t as good as she wants it to be, but she’s quite fluent with the English language. After all, this isn’t her first time abroad, and ever since she has worked in SMT, she’s had to meet with foreign investors from time-to-time and converse with them in English.
 

Once she pays and gets her drink, she pushes the door open and exits the café, feeling a tad warmer due to the beverage in her hand. She’s just a few minutes away from the company building anyway, so Taeyeon tucks her free hand into the pocket of her blazer and braves through the cold.
 

Thankfully, the building has a well-heated interior, and Taeyeon immediately relaxes once she steps inside. She slows down once she reaches a security checkpoint that needs a swipe of a valid ID to pass—which she lacks—so she informs the guard of her name. His face clears in recognition, and he lets her pass. He gives her a temporary visitor’s ID, and Taeyeon thanks him with a polite bow.
 

She asks him the number of the floor to the finance department, thanking him again before she makes her way there, riding the elevator to the 38th floor.
 

Taeyeon is impressed with the grandeur of Halcyon’s company building so far, and she can’t help but compare it to SMT’s, which is roughly only half the size of this one. Although the SMT building is modest in size, it had been decently furnished years ago, but she admits that the state of the place and facilities have deteriorated since then. The company could barely afford to pay all their staff, much less pay for the maintenance of the building.
 

Although Taeyeon has a bit of pride in her, she knows that her company cannot survive the next few years if they don’t sign this merger with Halcyon. As the chief financial adviser of SMT, she has been tasked to fly to New York City and negotiate terms with Halcyon’s own financial adviser. She hopes that they can come to a fruition as quickly as possible so she can come back home and be the bearer of good news.
 

It’s not that Taeyeon isn’t excited to be in New York for the first time, but she knows her visit is vastly different from a vacation, because if it were a vacation, she wouldn’t be spending her days holed up in an office.
 

Taeyeon knows that some people like travelling alone, but that has never been her preference. It would’ve been nice if she could have taken some of her staff with her, but SMT is already in a tight enough budget as it is, and they could not afford to pay for the travel expenses of an additional person. The company had actually suggested that they close the deal through conference calls alone, but Halcyon insisted that they had to have a representative negotiate terms in-person.
 

Taeyeon was the wisest choice, so here she is now, making her way through the beige-colored hall of the 38th floor, about to meet with Halcyon’s chief financial adviser, as well as the rest of the staff that she will be dealing with in the next few weeks.
 

She was informed that today’s meeting is more on the introductory side, and so she isn’t really sweating about it, although if they suddenly decide to start discussing terms right away, then Taeyeon isn’t ill-prepared to do so. She’s already drafted some plans in advance, carrying them with her in a thick folder—and she also has a digital copy in her laptop.
 

This has been the only thing assigned to her by her company for her entire stay here. The rest of SMT’s financial department is stuck in Seoul, poring over stressful financial reports and trying their best to allocate funds in the areas that really need it. Taeyeon's temples begin to throb at the thought, recalling how she was the one in-charge of those things for the past years. Alone or not, Taeyeon doesn’t shoot a gift horse in the mouth and finally realizes that this trip is a vacation enough as it is.
 

Taeyeon approaches a woman sitting on a desk labeled ‘Reception’ and politely tells her her name and what she’s here for. The woman’s face lights up in acknowledgement, and she stands up to guide Taeyeon inside a room through its navy blue double-doors. She tells her that Ms. Hwang will be with her in just a moment, and Taeyeon's head snaps back a little at the mention of the surname.
 

Hwang.
 

Almost like an episode of PTSD, memories flood through her system, of crescent eyes, pink hoodies, and a sad smile, and Taeyeon has to physically shake her head to clear them.
 

Such an occurrence isn’t new to Taeyeon. Hearing that surname often in Korea brings back plenty of memories. She’s glad that the source of the memory’s given name and nickname aren’t quite as common there, or else these episodes of déjà vu will happen much more often.
 

Luckily, the woman who brought her to the meeting room doesn’t seem to notice her internal struggle and bids her goodbye after telling her to take a seat on one of the chairs surrounding a huge mahogany table.
 

Taeyeon thanks her before she closes the door behind her, and the former regains her composure as she takes a seat. It’s silly, she knows, but she doesn’t think she can ever forget those memories. Isn’t sure she even wants to.
 

She takes a sip of her now-lukewarm coffee. Funny how the bitterness she tastes on the tip of her tongue doesn’t come from the beverage.
 

She isn’t left alone to her own thoughts for too long—and she’s glad for it—as the heavy doors are pushed open.
 

And she almost drops her coffee right on her lap because holy ing .
 

Crescent eyes, pink hoodies, and a sad smile.
 

The harbinger of those very memories is standing right in front of her, and Taeyeon knows that no matter how hard she physically shakes her head, she won’t be able to stop a giant burst of memories from resurfacing.

***

10 years ago…

“Is this seat taken?”
 

Taeyeon looks up in surprise and is met with the darkest eyes she’s ever seen. She opens to say yes, because everyone knows her friends sit beside her—fill up practically all the seats next to hers—but apparently this girl isn’t part of her generalization of ‘everyone.’
 

For some reason, Taeyeon shakes her head no, and she’s greeted by a quick smile before the girl sets her books down on the desk and takes a seat.
 

Soon enough, Taeyeon's friends make their way inside the lecture hall, and the one who usually sits on the seat to Taeyeon's right raises her eyebrows in disbelief at the occupant of said chair, although the unassuming student doesn’t notice because she’s busy highlighting one of her textbooks. Taeyeon gives her friend a subtle shrug in response, and thankfully, she doesn’t push it and just finds herself a different seat.
 

Taeyeon finds out her name is Hwang Miyoung because their professor takes attendance since it’s their first day, although the girl tells everyone to call her Tiffany. Taeyeon mouths the name, trying it out, and slightly judges the new student because doesn’t she know pronouncing F’s isn’t really a thing here in Korea?
 

They don’t interact the entire time in class, but Taeyeon notices how the girl seems to take notes about everything the professor is saying, while Taeyeon tries not to zone out every five minutes.

**

Tiffany is already sitting on the same chair the next time Taeyeon comes in for class, and Taeyeon doesn’t think about her decision too much as she sits beside her. Before Taeyeon can check the time and find out how many minutes of napping she can get before class officially starts, the girl offers her a pack of Starburst candy. She tilts her head at the English brand, unsure, but Tiffany tells her it’s chewy and yummy in this sort of endearingly broken-Korean way, and so she sticks her hand in and randomly takes one out. It’s pink.
 

“Oh! The pink one is my favorite!”
 

The way Tiffany exclaims this, a-little-too-loudly in the half-filled room—but so enthusiastically that her eyes are shining and disappearing into crescents like Taeyeon has never seen before—makes Taeyeon believe deep within her heart that Tiffany's favorite really is the pink one.
 

And then Taeyeon subtly notes the pastel pink hoodie, the pink pen and highlighter, the pink bag, and whoa. Pink overload.
 

“Do you like it because of the flavor or because it’s pink?” She asks, amused, as she unwraps the candy and stuffs it inside .
 

Tiffany pauses, and Taeyeon finds it funny how the girl seems to be thinking really hard about her casual query.
 

“I…I don’t know.” She pauses again. “That’s a good question.”
 

She says the last statement in English, making Taeyeon go “What?”
 

The girl shakes her head. “Nothing. But I think I like it because it’s pink.”
 

“Ah.” Taeyeon chews the candy, and it really is quite yummy. “I like it too.”
 

“Right??” Tiffany beams at her, and Taeyeon has the urge to laugh at her seatmate’s incredible enthusiasm, but instead, she settles for an easy smile.

**

They kind of fall into sync together, gradually and naturally. Taeyeon tries to explain the terms their professor throws in a simpler Korean way when she sees Tiffany's eyebrows scrunching in confusion in her periphery, and in return, Tiffany lends her a copy of her notes (Taeyeon is sure they make a lot of sense for Tiffany because the girl seems to be acing their Accounting class despite the language barrier, but Taeyeon, for the life of her, cannot understand half of the words because most of them are in English).
 

Her friends notice the budding friendship between her and Tiffany, and they ask. Of course they do, and practically the entire school seems to care about the topic too.
 

Taeyeon has been popular in their university since her first year there, because for some reason people think she’s effortlessly cute and talented and cool, and Taeyeon doesn’t deny any of that, but she doesn’t really care about it much either.
 

So she tells her friends the truth: she and Tiffany clicked ever since that weird Starburst question, and they’ve become fast friends.
 

Being friends with Tiffany also feels effortless to Taeyeon, but unlike her popularity, she does care about it. About her.
 

They first hang out in the library, when Tiffany invites Taeyeon to study with her for their second exam. Taeyeon is privy to Tiffany's remarkable loudness as they’d conversed with each other many times prior to class, but Tiffany is surprisingly really quiet during that study date.
 

The girl’s eyebrows are furrowed in deep concentration, and Taeyeon is tempted to reach out and smoothen them with her fingers.
 

They both get high scores for that exam, and Tiffany asks her to dinner to celebrate.
 

For the first time, they get to talk to each other for more than just a few minutes, and it stuns Taeyeon how comfortable she feels around Tiffany, who’s her exact opposite in almost every aspect.
 

She learns that the girl moved to Seoul from LA two months before their second year began, and she’s still adjusting to everything, and she’s really glad that Taeyeon's there to help her out sometimes because she admits that her Korean is pretty bad, at least conversation-wise. Tiffany tells her that she misses most of her family, but she wanted to try studying here because her brother is currently living in Seoul and has settled in quite well here, so maybe her future’s here too.
 

Tiffany practically tells Taeyeon everything about herself during their two hours together, and the former only shamefully realizes this once they get up to pay for the bill. She apologizes, even though Taeyeon reassures her that she doesn’t mind—she’s more of a listener, anyway—but even so, Tiffany promises that Taeyeon will get the chance to tell her all about herself next time.
 

Taeyeon does so eventually, when they hang out and catch a movie during a Friday night before a no-homework weekend, and Taeyeon is impressed with how Tiffany can both be a talker and a listener.

**

Because of Taeyeon's stat