Taeyeon slowly awoke from her slumber and she was immediately met with a mouthful of birds nest hair.

“Thank you Lord for inventing the weekend,” she sighed, rubbing the poop from her eyes. After the wild events which occurred yesterday, she deserved some much-needed rest.

“Ah did I sleep with earphones in?” the young girl winced but secretly jumped for joy that they didn’t get stuck in and she wouldn’t have to go through the anxiety of booking a doctor’s appointment.

“Wait, why even did I sleep with earphones in?” Images of last night flashed in her mind and the tired girl looked to her side to find a starfish-shaped body snoring heavily into the pillows.

A smile graced the smaller girl’s lips and she mentally noted to thank Tiffany later as well as threaten her with a scalpel to never speak of that embarrassment again.

Should I make us breakfast? Wait does she even eat? I didn’t see her eat yesterday…but then again, she did appear at 11 at night, she could’ve eaten beforehand…what do magical girls who live in rocks even eat? Gravel? Pixie Dust? No that’s not right…Pixie Dust is for bathing in, not for eating. Aish whatever – let’s just see what’s in the fridge.

Master? Master?! Where are you going? Why are you doing this? Don’t leave me! Please don’t leave me here! Please! I’m sorry!! Please don’t leave me! I’m sorry, please!

I’m sorry Tiffany…I’m sorry for everything.

No! Don’t go! Please!

“Tiffany!”

*CRASH*

Tiffany’s eyes snapped open at the loud crash. She immediately sat upright and put her hand on her chest, trying to calm herself. After a few seconds past, she looked up to see a worried Taeyeon.

“Hey, what happened?”

“Oh nothing, just a bad dream I guess.” The older woman waved her hand in the air and attempted to tame her bedhead.

“You sure? You were crying and shaking in your sleep.”

“Really? Haha I don’t even remember what I was dreaming of, how strange. Maybe I was dreaming of Donald Trump becoming president or something lol”

“Uhh..Donald Trump is president.”

“WHAT?!”

“Yep.”

“HOW??”

“mm, how indeed…” Taeyeon hummed.

“What was that crashing sound?” Tiffany looked around to see a broken ceramic plate and bacon, eggs and mushrooms scattered across the wooden floor.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry Tae! I’ll make you a new plate straight away.”

“Ah no…that’s for you actually, well, it was for you.” The young girl chuckled awkwardly, scratching her head with eyes darting all around the room.

Tiffany’s face immediately broke into the biggest smile and she pounced on Taeyeon, squealing with delight.

“THAT’S SO SWEET YOU COOKED ME FOOD OH MY GOD YOU’RE SO SWEET AND NICE AND CUTE AHHHH TAEEEEEEE” The cheerful girl clinged to Taeyeon’s small frame, rubbing her face cheeks and hugging her tight.

“Aha it was really no problem, just normal breakfast foods anyone could cook.”

“No not anyone! Only considerate, generous, genuinely nice people would cook for someone they only just met!” Tiffany exasperated, throwing her hands in the air.

Taeyeon found this girl very…unusual. She was so loud and always so energetic? And making some breakfast food isn’t really Gordon Ramsay or anything…it was one of those situations where Taeyeon didn’t really know how to interact for smooth conversation to flow.

“Uh yea, anyways, it’s Saturday so no school so umm yea I have some work to do so I’ll clean this up now and then head upstairs to the studio.”

Taeyeon stood up from the bed but before she took a step, she felt a hand grasp hers and gently pull her back to the bed.

“Wait, don’t you want to talk first?”

“Talk about what?”

“Talk about this! This whole thing. What’s happening with us, what happened last night, I mean – I’m a magical girl who’s soul is encased in a rock and I’m guessing that was your first time yesterday and don’t you have anything you want to say or maybe ask??”

Taeyeon furrowed her brows and tilted her head to the side, thinking carefully. Tiffany thought she looked like a cat but refrained from commenting on how cute she looked so as not to interrupt her obvious thought bubble.

“No.”

“No?”

“Yes. No.”

“Huh??”

“No I’m not really curious. If I get curious and want to know more, I’m pretty sure I’ll start getting even more stressed and I don’t want that to happen. So no, I don’t really want to talk about what happened yesterday.”

“Tae you can’t keep running from your problems.” Tiffany sighed. She pulled Taeyeon down onto the bed and made her sit in a more comfortable position.

“So I thought about a few things last night…” the brunette started. She nervously touched her fingertips together, playing with her hands and avoiding eye contact with the smaller girl, obviously trying to word her next words together carefully before speaking them aloud.

“I want to help you with your anxiety.” She spoke, looking directly at the girl opposite.

“Huh??”

“It’s obvious you’re very reserved and kept to yourself…and that you have trouble talking to people, let alone make friends. I really think I can help you with that Tae.”

Taeyeon pursed her lips, thinking over what Tiffany had just said. She was shocked, to say the least. It’s true she’s never gotten help for her anxiety, but that was because she was too afraid to book an appointment. Tiffany seemed to be a very sociable person too, she’d be the right person to help Taeyeon one-on-one. And she has already seen Taeyeon have an attack and chose to stay rather than run, unlike her previous friends who thought she was being over-dramatic. But Taeyeon was still unsure of the other girls’ motives.

“Are you doing this because I’m your master?”

“What? No!”

“Or because you have nowhere else to go and you want to do this as payment for not throwing you out?”

“What?”

“Or do you want to try your hand at ‘fixing’ me up because it’d be a cool experiment?”

“ Tae who hurt you? No I want to help you because you need help. End of.” Tiffany was slightly hurt Taeyeon thought so low of her. But she understood Taeyeon didn’t trust people easily.

“No one gives for nothing. What do you want?”

“Honestly nothing. I’m not doing this because you’re my master. I’m doing this because I want to help you. I want you to be happy, Tae.”

Taeyeon scrunched her eyes, “I don’t believe you. What are your conditions?”

“ing hell! Fine, here are my conditions for helping you get over your social anxiety: in return for me helping you, you’re 1) Not allowed to send me back whenever you want. I decide when I leave. 2) You really have to try and be as cooperative as possible otherwise this won’t work and I think that’s obvious. 3) I’m not leaving and you can’t get rid of me until your anxiety’s gone.”

“How do we know when it’s gone?”

“mm good question. How about you write a list of 10 things you can’t do. I mean things that trigger your anxiety. Number them with 1 being the least difficult to overcome, 10 being the most difficult/ scariest. Only when you’ve combatted all 10 will we know you’re social anxiety’s gone.”

Taeyeon thought it over. This was a pretty good deal. And Tiffany was being genuine in wanting to help her, even her conditions couldn't really be counted as conditions.

Tae. It’s time for you to grow up. You’re almost 20 and you can hardly speak to the cashier at McDonalds! There’s a social butterfly here willing to teach you her ways – for free! C’mon, you’ve gotta try. It’s time to stop hiding.

With a shaky breath she nodded, “okay.”

And, again, Tiffany flashed that memorable eyesmile and hugged the smaller girl.

“Yay! Now that that’s decided, have you eaten yet?”

Taeyeon looked down at the broken plates and raised her brows at the girl.

“Good!” she clapped, “Wash up, we’re going to a café!”