It is a Saturday morning. Tiffany stirs at the feeling of something wet against her cheek. It wakes her up and when she opens her eyes, Taeyeon’s face is leaning over her, giving her kisses all over her face, her girlfriend’s playful lips dampening against her bare face.

Tiffany blinks her sleepiness away.

“Good morning, Baby.” The older one softly voices. And she wonders how long has Taeyeon placed herself above hers. She didn’t feel any weight because Taeyeon is using her arms to lift herself and when she tiredly yawns in response, she hears a muffled noise of giggles coming from her chest where Taeyeon is placing her head on it.

Tiffany waits. Groans and waits again.

She waits for Taeyeon to stop listening to her heartbeat, to get tired of keeping her lifted position, for Taeyeon to get tired of her but the clock ticks away and Taeyeon is still there, counting her heartbeat, tiring herself, loving her undoubtedly.

“I love you.”

Out of nowhere, she hears the words that she has been questioning herself. Taeyeon spits the words out so effortlessly, as if it was the easiest word to say, when in fact, Tiffany cannot even think the same anymore, and she knows to herself that she doesn’t deserve those words at all.

“Tae… Bathroom.” she grasps with her scratchy morning voice.

And luck is on her side that when Taeyeon finally lifts herself to look at Tiffany in the eyes, Tiffany doesn’t see any hurt in her eyes so she rolls to the side and frees her body away from her.

Unbeknownst to her, those words are not meant to be heard and Taeyeon doesn’t realize that she has uttered those words loud enough and clear.

     Around 9 AM, the couple got a message from their friends telling them in advance that there will be a meet-up at one of their friend’s Café; Sooyoung. It is a normal occurrence for Tiffany and Taeyeon to meet up with their friends like they always do whenever they manage to find time during the weekends.

They arrive at Sooyoung’s place at exactly noon, after dropping by at the nearest mall to make a quick grocery shopping.

The pair are sitting next to each other with Taeyeon holding Tiffany's hand loosely and placing it just above her lap.

It is a usual sight to all of their friends but the impassive face Tiffany has is not.

The seven of them keep on chattering with Taeyeon the only one who's more alive to talk between the couple, which is the opposite since Tiffany is the one who’s usually the loud one between them. The group laugh with each other while Tiffany listened to whatever they talk about. Tiffany would just say a word whenever she is asked by her friends and would put a measured smile whenever the group burst into giggles.

Sooyoung, their tallest friend told them about her plan for her upcoming birthday next Saturday and everyone tries to partake, giving their ideas. The woman gives Taeyeon an estimated number of guests she expects to attend and Taeyeon, being a professional young architect suggests her one or two places and recommendations for where the celebration can behold at.

“Oh and by the way! Yoona called me!” Yuri exclaims out of the blue, drawing everyone’s attention to her in seconds.

“How unfair, Yoona never calls me” Hyoyeon, the blonde teacher snorts in jealousy.

“She doesn’t call me either.” their brunette wedding-planner friend, Jessica secondly states.

“She always calls me, what’s new here?” muttered Sunny stoically, the one with short blonde hair, currently unemployed, and all her friends shoots her surprised looks and wide eyes. “And she said she will be back within this week.”

Yuri yells, “Yah I was going to say that!”

“And Seo too” Sunny continues cheekily and all of them sports a huge smile on their faces as they intake the news.

“Oh my god, then we will be having a complete reunion on my Birthday?! I can’t believe it!”

And their conversation goes on and on.

Once their food arrives, Taeyeon lets go of her hand and places the food she orders for Tiffany, knowing what she likes and what she craves—she doesn’t need to ask Tiffany for it. She gently pour Tiffany’s glass water without saying anything.

Because Taeyeon always knows her well.

Taeyeon snatches Tiffany’s plate and places it on her front, holds a knife and a fork to cut the steak into small pieces like she always does for her girlfriend. Engrossed in cutting the steak precisely, she is oblivious to their friends throwing each other looks.

When their friends start swallowing their food and Taeyeon is still doing her thing, Tiffany feels it again, that feeling. And she wonders How come she lets Taeyeon do it for her in the first place? How come she used to think it was normal when it’s not?

But what is normal?

When Taeyeon carried her bag for her, it was fine as always, when Taeyeon ordered the food on behalf of her, she didn’t complain one bit when Taeyeon poured water on her glass instead of an orange juice she didn’t react one bit. It’s funny how she just realizes it now since it has never really bothered her before.

She wasn’t keen on drinking orange juice but shouldn’t Taeyeon at least ask her which drink she prefers? Or at least give her options before deciding on her own? She knows she once told her girlfriend that she prefers water than juices but why can’t Taeyeon have the decency to at least ask her first? Tiffany finds it ridiculous because she has just realized after years of being with her. Because for Tiffany, it used to be normal.

“I’ll cut it.” she stops her this time, stopping Taeyeon’s hand firmly by putting her own above her’s.

“Nah, it is fine.” the older woman answers shortly.

“It's okay, I can cut it on my own.”

“I’m almost done anyway.”

“No, let me.”

“It’s fine Fany, don’t worry.” When Taeyeon ignores her curtly, Tiffany’s eyes glance to her friends and sees them giving them looks, which makes her feel that this isn’t the right time to lose her composure and even though it’s against her will, she backs away from the conversation and withdraw her hands away quietly. Tiffany watches her girlfriend do her thing and waits for Taeyeon to complete cutting the meat for her.

The couple finally returns home at 4 PM. Taeyeon flops her body on the couch and stars surfing channels, while Tiffany heads to their room to change her clothes, takes a quick shower. She has nothing else to do for the day. Usually, she would read books, open her laptop to continue her work, or simply watch something interesting on Youtube or if she's really in a good mood, she'll do the chores like cleaning or even doing the laundry. But none of those interests her, her mind is too occupied. And her body feels too tired to lift even the lightest thing.

"Hey."

Shifting her eyes towards the voice, she finds her girlfriend leaning sideways on the bedroom door. Taeyeon approaches her and sat down beside her on the edge of their bed.

"So my boss called me and... He needs me right now."

"You're going out?"

"Yes, it'll be quick though."

"It's fine, you should go."

"I'll probably be back before 7, I'll order something for our dinner."

The younger merely nods in response.

Hearing a long sigh from her girlfriend, Tiffany turns to her side and suddenly her lips are met with Taeyeon's one. It was just a single, gentle and brief kiss. Taeyeon pulls away from her and looks at her in the eyes.

"Whatever it is, you can talk it out with me, okay?" Taeyeon softly voices, lifting her hands to place it on her girlfriend's cheeks, looking at her thoroughly. "I hate it when you're stressed but I hate it more when I don't know the reason behind it." She caresses her cheeks with her thumbs. "Don't keep it to yourself, you know I'm always here for you."

Although she knows she can't, Tiffany nods anyway.

        Another week passes and it is the day of their friend's birthday. Taeyeon is squeezing her jeans up to her hips in a hurry and Tiffany is zipping her white knee-length dress on her back; which seems impossible for she knows that she needs Taeyeon to zip it up for her. They are both in a hurry, so after Taeyeon fixes herself, check herself one time at the mirror she then approaches her girlfriend who's struggling on her dress. She zips the back zipper of her girlfriend's dress without a say.

"We need to hurry, Fany. Come on" says Taeyeon before she dashes off to grab her car keys, wallets and phone, and pockets it right away on her jeans. She turns around and makes a move to grab Tiffany's purse that is placed on their bed. Tiffany is too busy checking herself at the mirror for the hundredth times for her that she doesn’t notice the tapping of Taeyeon's foot who is impatiently waiting for her. Tiffany recoats her plump lips with lipgloss. She combs her hair using her fingers and fixes it again and again. Taeyeon remains silent while looking at her girlfriend to get over with her look.

The celebration is being held at one of the places Taeyeon's suggested and it is a cozy hall with elegant walls. The highlight of the place is the big chandelier. People are wearing formal clothes, caterers are off attending the guests on their respective tables, a live acoustic band is playing at the far end to entertain the whole crowd. The party is going on flawlessly, and Sooyoung had given her architect friend; Taeyeon, a dozen words of appreciation as soon as they arrive.

Taeyeon is the best, she has talent in suggesting good places. She has talent in estimating it all. But there's one thing that she failed at. She failed to dress accordingly.

"Now come to think of it, I should've worn a dress. Now I look like I’m attending a seminar instead. I'm so sorry Soo." apologizes Taeyeon which is replied with a wave of a hand and a light roll of Sooyoung's eyes.

"Silly, you look fine! Now shoo! I have other people to attend to! And they are right over there!"

Sooyoung points her fingers and the pair trail their eyes to the direction. They both see their round of friends seating at one of the tables and start walking towards them. Sooyoung promises to get there once she is done greeting that newly arrived woman whom she recalls to be her old former colleague.

In just a matter of seconds, the couple is engulfed into a tight hug by their two friends who have just arrived from States; Yoona and Seohyun. The two youngest of the group.

Nothing could beat meeting their old mutual friends at the event, they make random talks and just happily reminiscing the old days of their young selves, back when there were just students and innocent. However, there is nothing much for an update since they always meet each other every time they have a chance, but the presence of the two youngest friends make them feel complete and think of how they all used to be.

When the birthday girl finally manages to take a seat with them, Sooyoung updates the two youngest that she's currently in a relationship with this businessman guy who's planning to franchise Sooyoung's Cafe Brand.

Jessica, their brunette wedding planner friend, told them about her exhaustion on being the representative of their branch company for she is the always the one who has to represent their company outside the country and that's the reason why her recent relationship didn't work out and leads them to break up.

Hyoyeon proudly tells them she was promoted to Master teacher II and is dating this professor guy.

Sunny informs the two youngest that she got fired at work and is currently unemployed and loveless while Yuri tells them rather excitedly that she’s going to meet the man of her life; physically after one year of being in a distant relationship with him ever since they met each other through social media.

Yoona butts into the conversation and tells them that she's currently dating that Lee Seunggi guy they used to teased for being a nerd during their college days, while Seohyun, the youngest among the rest, told them she's busy pursuing her dream to be a lawyer and has no time for love whatsoever.

And lastly, when all their friends shift their eyes to the only couple on the table, as if silently asking them to tell something about their lives, Tiffany's smile begins to falter for she cannot think something new about them She silently asks herself what is there to tell when all of her friends already knew about her usual office work. Aside from curtly telling them, she got promoted from being Quality Assistant to Operational Manager, there’s nothing enough much to tell, and let's not mention about her relationship with Taeyeon because all of her friends were there to witness from the very start of their blooming relationship.

"Well, Fany and I are pretty much the same." Taeyeon laughs softly as she answers for them, she looks at Tiffany and gave her a quick stolen kiss in the cheek which made her friends scrunches their nose at Taeyeon’s shameless affection and laughs heartily at their voices of disapproval.

Their endless chattering comes to halt once their food arrive, Tiffany's attention turns to her girlfriend when Taeyeon suddenly took her plate, again, instinctively sorting the food on her plate. she pick the fried chicken's legs and peel out the skin of it like it was a normal thing to do, taking out the fatty part of the pork and put it back to Tiffany's plate again, leaving Tiffany watching her girlfriend do that without complaining.

It was not the first time Taeyeon does it ever since they got together and upon knowing that Tiffany has a little bit of irritation in chicken’s skin, Taeyeon will automatically take the skin and any fatty part of any sebaceous meat from Tiffany’s plate. Their friends were used to it too, after all the teasing and fuss from they start died away as they all got over it. Except for the youngest two. Yoona is so shocked she ends up blurting out how pathetic it is not to eat the best part of the food.

Taeyeon reasons out for her, as usual like how she reasons out for her other friends, but Yoona is not taking it lightly and tells Taeyeon to just let Tiffany eat all the parts and accepts Tiffany as she is if she gets fats and red. Taeyeon playfully retorts that she doesn't want to date a fat reddening girl and she wants her in her best form. Although it comes out as a joke and every one of them starts to laugh, Tiffany resents it.

“Gosh, it must be awful not to eat the best part!” Yoona comments as she watches Taeyeon continue peeling out the chicken’s skin in Tiffany’s plate. “I didn’t know you have an allergy for chicken’s skin, unnie”

“It’s not an allergy,” Tiffany says in defense.

“It is an allergy.” Taeyeon chides in, in a matter of fact way. And Tiffany couldn’t remember how many times they have debated over the same issue again, with her protesting it is not and with Taeyeon telling her otherwise. But it doesn’t matter how many times they have debated it before, what matter most is that, in the end, Tiffany cannot eat chicken’s skin because Taeyeon will not let her. Allergy or not, Taeyeon won’t risk it. Tiffany remembered how this protectiveness used to make her stomach flutters so much, used to wake her butterflies sleeping inside her stomach, but now it feels like she was lacking freedom of everything she does.

“You alright?”

She hears her girlfriend asking her at the side and gives her a light squeeze in her arm. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? You haven’t touched your food Fany.”

Feeling obliged, she hold her utensils and started eating the food in her plate in silence. Taeyeon fills her glass water and caresses her back after, she can sense the frown in Taeyeon’s brow at the side but she chooses to ignore it.

Exchanges of friendly hugs and kisses on the cheeks by their friends as the celebration finally comes to an end, it is past 7 PM and the only remaining guests are Sooyoung’s closest friends which were the 8 of them, promising to each other that they will meet again this weekend.

When the couple finally parted from their friends, Taeyeon naturally hold Tiffany’s hand as they walk to her car, humming happily with their fingers interlaced. Tiffany knows how much Taeyeon love skinship, she loves holding her hands and she used to love it just the same. Even when they go to public places like malls and parks, Taeyeon won’t hesitate to fit her hands in hers as they ignored the odd stare people giving them, it doesn’t bother Taeyeon at all. When everybody is busy judging them, Taeyeon is busy being proud of her.

Proud to be her’s.

The ride back to their apartment is rather silent, except the occasional humming sound coming from Taeyeon’s lips and the light drum of her fingers on her steering wheels, Tiffany knows how much her girlfriend is in a good mood and she wants to keep the mood that way.

"Sorry for being late earlier by the way.y" Taeyeon started. "Mother just won't let me go." She continues “And please tell me if you change your mind?” Says Taeyeon after a long-filled silence and Tiffany becomes clueless at the question.

“Change of what?”

“That you will come with me to Japan?”

“We already talked about this, didn’t we?”

“I know it’s just that… it’s Japan Fany, remember?”

Memories come flooding back in her mind in a flash, the days when Taeyeon and her have gone to Japan by themselves despite their empty pockets, when they were still young and very much new to being together that nothing seems to be impossible when they have each other, that day when they decided to run away from their parents and let their destinies not to be controlled by anyone else, the time when both of their parents forbid them seeing each other and gave them no choice but to turn their back against them. Japan was the place where they hid for almost 2 weeks.

A small smile tug on Tiffany’s lips remembering crying over the expensive first anniversary rings they both once had but Taeyeon had guiltily taken it back from her saying that they have to sell it or they’ll be titled as fugitive from Korea. The trip to Japan was rather a mess, hiding from their parents, relatives, friends, to every person that they knew and although they knew that they couldn’t live in Japan for that long, they got there anyway because… just because they couldn’t live a day not seeing each other. And just because they both dream of going there together, so why not?

Tiffany unconsciously glances and touches her ring and Taeyeon smiles upon catching that. She didn’t have to say anything, she kind of knew what's running in her mind. It was those days she's remembering too. And feeling sorry for selling those rings away. But if there is a particular moment that she won't ever forget during their short stay in Japan, it was the time when she was pulling out her promised-ring from Tiffany's finger while her girlfriend was sulking and hitting her chest, crying herself out, futilely threatening her she'll break up with her. It was a painful and adorable moment at the same time.

Unfortunately for Taeyeon, she fails to understand what's truly going on in her girlfriend's mind.

Tiffany puts down her purse on their bedroom's dresser and sits to remove her make-up, while Taeyeon heads to their kitchen to get herself a glass of water. It gives her time for herself, looking straight to her own reflection. These past days has been so exhausting, pretending that she can still cope up, pretending that she's still the Tiffany that loves Taeyeon more than anything else in the world, because she knows that deep inside her heart, it’s gone and that she wonders if she could still live another day with her lie? She closes her eyes and sighs, it is never easy for her to admit it, it is never easy to left Taeyeon behind. But she knows that she can’t live lying to herself forever.

The door cracks a sound and Tiffany's eyes catch Taeyeon's figure in the reflection. The room is dimly lit, the only light in the room is the nightshade next to the table. But she is sure that Taeyeon is looking back at her through the mirror as well. Then silence engulfs them, with Taeyeon still has her back leaned on their bedroom door, and with Tiffany on her make-up table. Taeyeon's face is expressionless, it was as if they are both wearing masks...

Soon, she felt Taeyeon slowly making her way, getting nearer and nearer. Tiffany felt Taeyeon's presence behind her, then a soft hands gently placing itself on her curves, caressing her waist and Tiffany couldn't help but draw a deep breath when she felt a soft fatherly kiss on her bare shoulder blade; along with Taeyeon's breaths hitting her skin. Tiffany continues looking at their reflection while Taeyeon's face descends to her neck; giving her a certain amount of pressure through her hungry lips. Taeyeon holds Tiffany's brown locks at one side her shoulder, rendering her flawless fair skin exposed to her girlfriend's eyes. The way Taeyeon exhales Tiffany's alluring; Tiffany knows what Taeyeon wants, the way Taeyeon caresses her curves almost desperately yet painstakingly measured; Tiffany knows what she's craving.

"Fany-ah."

Her voice is almost pleading, begging. The message is obvious, she needs her in every kind of way there is.

Tiffany closes her eyes, it is a reflex when she tilts her head as Taeyeon nibbles her sensitive spot on her neck, Taeyeon continues traveling her lips to every surface of her girlfriend's skin.

But Tiffany knows she has to stop it before it’s too late.

"Tae, I'm not in the mood."

And with that, she feels her freeze. The kisses stop, the cold touches halt. Through their reflection, she sees Taeyeon clenching her jaws tightly before she nods in response. Her eyes are b with hurt.

Defeatedly withdrawing her hands from her girlfriend's body, she turns her heels away, closing the door on and closing the door on her way out with a soft yet deafening click.