“Hello?”

              I held back my laughter. Tiffany’s vain attempt to mask the hoarseness present in her voice by adding pep to her greeting wasn’t enough to mask the fact that she just woke up.

              “Good morning Fany, did you just wake up?”

              Tiffany’s digitized chuckle came from the other end. “So it was that obvious, huh?”

              Laughter erupted from my lips. “Sorry for disturbing your sleep,” I apologized, settling onto my bed.

              “Don’t worry about it,” she said, pausing briefly to shuffle around, presumably to sit up on her bed, “How are you?”

              Huh … for some reason, that seemed like a strange thing to say in this situation. Was it? Maybe it was just me, who normally had to proactively think about speaking in social situations; being faced with situations in which my brain wasn’t working fully usually meant completely forgetting about any and all conversational norms.

              “I’m doing—… well, actually, I wanted to talk to you about something,” I admitted, “But if you still wanted to sleep, then I can always call you back.”

              “Noo,” she pouted in her husky voice, “I’m awake, it’s ok. What did you want to talk to me about?”

              I was slightly apprehensive about taking Tiffany’s offer but ended up taking her word. “Can I come over right now?”

              “Huh?” That was probably the second time I’ve ever heard Tiffany flustered. It was kind of cute, honestly. “Right now?”

              “Yeah,” I said, jumping off my bed, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

              “Wait!” That was the last thing I heard as I hung the phone up.

              I grinned to myself, imaging Tiffany running around her apartment frantically, flustered. It was immature of me, but I relished that the situation was flipped. Plus, I couldn’t deny the exciting prospect of Tiffany being the one off-kilter instead of me for once.

              Twenty minutes later, I was knocking on Tiffany’s door.

              “Taeyeon?” her muffled, panicked voice came from the other side of the door.

              “Yeah it’s me. Don’t worry about makeup, I’ll love you even if you don’t have it on,” I replied, mirroring her words from when she came to visit me. I grinned giddily; as expected, it was really fun being on the other side of the teasing.

              “Wait a second,” her still distant voice called out, “I’m not even recognizable right now.”

              “Yah, then what did that make me?” I fumed playfully.

              “Well you actually look pretty without makeup, but—”

              “Fany, you know I don’t like you because of your appearance, right?” All sound emanating from her apartment abruptly stopped. All sound—words from , shuffling from her feet—everything suddenly ceased. “Plus, you did this to me first,” I added.

              I stood there for a few moments in an almost eerie, complete silence. “I haven’t seen you in a week, at least let me make myself presentable,” she eventually replied.

              I lowered my head at that.

              In the last week, I tried texting her, calling her, even staying at the bar until it was her shift. No matter what I did though, Tiffany was distant; every time I tried to approach her, she would politely decline as if I was a stranger, whether it was in the form of curt replies to my texts or simply smiling and bowing her head in apology to me in person.

              It was my fault, wasn’t it? It was because I made an assumption about her that I genuinely believed. I, of all people, should know better than to do that: to disillusion myself into presuming to understand one’s person on the fragile basis of a few days. Had I just realized this and not burden Tiffany so immensely to always live up to her happy, energetic, bubbly self, perhaps she wouldn’t have shut herself off from me so much.

              Over the week, I even began to fear that Tiffany started to dislike me. Maybe the smiles she gave me those times at the bar were out of obligation than sincere friendliness. Maybe I didn’t deserve such an amazing friend like Tiffany after all. Maybe a socially inept person like me couldn’t mesh well with someone like Tiffany.

              As I heard her footsteps approach the door, I calmed myself by taking a deep breath. Remember Jessica’s words from yesterday: be confident in myself. If I just act friendly to her, maybe she won’t have a choice but to reembrace me as her friend. I shouldn’t let her out of my grasp so easily.

              I nodded, taking a deep breath and fist pumping to myself. I can do this.

              Wait … act friendly to her? How do I do that?

              The door swung open.

              “Taeyeon, come in,” she said, pulling the door open and quickly turning away from me.

              “Fany! Are you running away from me?” God, what was I saying? “You won’t hug your friend after not seeing her for a week?” Was I being too cheesy? There was no way I wasn’t being too cheesy, right? But was I doing this correctly?

              “Give me a few more minutes—” Tiffany started to head back into the bathroom, but it was at that moment I made a split-second decision: I quickly closed the gap between us, reaching for her hand and lightly pulling her towards me. In what could only be described as a startled state, Tiffany stumbled in my direction, her back still facing me. Figuring that turning her around was impractical, I brought my arms around her waist, wrapping them comfortably around her in a back hug.

              “I missed you,” I told her, resting my face against her back. Tiffany stood there for a few seconds, her only response being to cover the back of my hand with her palms.

              “O-Oh. I missed you too,” she replied. Biting my lip was all I could do to stop myself from squealing; was that the second time I’ve heard her stutter? Why was it so cute? Maybe I should hug her more often. I definitely needed to hug her more often.

              “How much longer do you have?”

              “You mean for makeup?”

              I nodded against her back, realizing a few seconds later that she wasn’t able to see me. “Yeah,” I responded, hoping that Tiffany didn’t feel me nodding somehow.

              “Ten minutes?”

              I released my embrace. “Ok, I’ll wait in the living room then,” I told her.

              When I took my seat on the couch, I looked back to see Tiffany still standing where I left her. “What’s wrong Fany?”

              “Ah, nothing, I was just … um, I’ll be back soon,” she said, quickly turning her face away and rushing to the bathroom.

              I frowned. Why was she like that? Someone as naturally pretty as Tiffany didn’t have the right to act like that, especially in front of someone like me.

              I leaned back, swinging my head up to the ceiling. As I did that, something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention: a familiar branch impeding my view of the apartment room.

              I jumped up and turned around; sure enough, at the other end of the couch stood the very pseudo-plant at the furniture store Tiffany decided to buy the other day. My curiosity peaked, I looked around and quickly found the Hello Kitty clock neatly sitting on top of the TV. How she managed to get that so high up was beyond me. Maybe she had a male friend help her?

              The thought of Tiffany alone with a man unsettled me, so I decided to move on from that topic, carefully inspecting the rest of her living room and kitchen for fun little surprises. When Tiffany emerged, I was looking at the refrigerator magnets stuck onto the smooth, metallic surface. “Fany, I think my house has the same refrigerator,” I told her, facing her.

              “Oh, it’s so nice isn’t it? Honestly, there’s more space than what I know to do with,” she said, chuckling a little.

              If nothing, hearing that gave me hope. Maybe Jessica was right, and Tiffany wasn’t avoiding me because she started hating me.

              “I noticed the plant and the clock, too,” I said, motioning towards them.

              “Oh yeah,” she said, following the direction of my gesture, “They’re cute.” The comment just hung in the air; I could just about see the chat bubbles appear around us filled with nothing but ellipses. I just sat on the couch, drumming my fingers on my leg, desperately trying to think of something to say. The weather? It’s pretty average, though. Plus, that’s way too awkward to say; how about— “Oh, your outfit is pretty cute,” Tiffany suddenly said.

              “Oh yeah,” I replied readily, feeling glad that the silence was broken but also feeling guilty that Tiffany was the one who did it, “Jessica picked it out for me.”

              As soon as the words left my mouth, I froze. In my rush to fill the silence with conversation, I replied to her inquiry without a second thought.

              “Oh, so she’s still interested in fashion huh?” she said. Oh … so Jessica wasn’t a taboo topic? She didn’t seem phased at all when I said that … but what if she was just being nice and disregarded it? What if she was just holding in her emotions for my sake?

              Tiffany started scooting closer to me, staring directly at me. “You’re doing it again, aren’t you?”

              I blinked. “What? Doing what?”

              Tiffany settled right next to me, gingerly placing a hand on my knee. “You’re blaming yourself for something that isn’t your fault. I think I know what it is this time: it’s ok to talk about Jessica around me. She isn’t a taboo topic to me or anything, so don’t worry about it,” she said warmly, like a mother reassuring her daughter who just tripped and bruised her knee.

              “Oh, ok,” I replied, unsure of how to further respond.

              “So what’s her major?” she asked.

              “Business, but she’s doing a 5-year masters program,” I told her. This conversation still felt so awkward; I felt bad for Tiffany and extremely frustrated at myself, but my mind was just drawing blanks at the moment. So, even though I wanted to wait a little longer to reveal what I wanted to tell Tiffany, I figured now was as good of a time as any.

              I opened my mouth the slightest bit but stopped as Tiffany spoke up.

              “Do you remember that day when we visited my friends?” When I nodded, she continued, “I’m sure you noticed us acting strange that day when you name dropped ‘Jessica Jung’; I told them that I was close to someone named ‘Jessica Jung’ back in America and that she was part of the reason why I was here in Korea, but that was it.”

              “Huh? You’re here because of her?”

              I knew it was a sensitive question and I mentally punched myself for the question slipping past my lips so quickly, but my curiosity got the best of me.

              Tiffany nodded thoughtfully. “It’s sort of true, but it wasn’t her fault. It’s not like she was directly responsible for anything; I don’t have anything like a grudge against her, I’m more worried about what she thinks of me.”

              Tiffany skirted around her words very carefully; her sentence was very carefully constructed, more so than her usual style of seeming to just say whatever was on her mind. Maybe this was something Tiffany spent the last week thinking about.

              “Um, Fany …”

              “Hmm?”

              The way Tiffany was looking at me was just too adorable. My heart abruptly started racing. Why was I reacting like this? Stop that, Taeyeon.

              “Um, I … I feel guilty about this last week,” I started.

              “Tae—” I cut her off before she had the chance to dismiss my guilty sentiment.

              “I know I said I wanted to be a good friend to you and I really do, but in this last week, I feel like you went through something hard and I failed as your friend to help you through that. I made a lot of excuses to myself, but ultimately, a good friend will be there for you no matter what, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you.”

              Tiffany remained in her seat, not speaking, her hands over and her eyes shining. She remained like that for the longest few seconds of my life before finally jumping up, rushing into an embrace. “Oh my god Taeyeon you’re just the most adorable person ever!”

              “A-Am I?” was the only thing I could think of responding with. Did she have to hug me like this? I suddenly felt really self-conscious about myself. I showered, didn’t I?

              “Noo don’t worry yourself over it,” Tiffany said, releasing the embrace. I could tell that her mood significantly increased from my arrival to now: she shone more, radiating happiness with her bright smile, “I told you how I don’t like lying, right? The last week was because I felt really bad for lying to you and thought you would find me a hypocrite.”

              Although she said that, the smile never faded from her face. It was magical, how just seeing her smile could bring such a feeling of relief to me. It was an immensely welcome sight after the week I just experienced.

              “What? I didn’t even think about that,” I told her, “I’m just happy that you seem a lot happier.”

              “Do I?” Tiffany said, pulling me back onto the couch, “I was just lonely this last week without you, that’s all.”

              “Well don’t do that again because it was scary for me,” I told her, “I was sure that you hated me or something.”

              Tiffany looked at me, appalled. “What? I could never hate you, TaeTae,” she said.

              “Even if I went to the bar with Jessica yesterday?”

              Tiffany stood up. “Yah Taeyeon, you’re clearly cheating on me!”

              “I’m not your girlfriend though!” I retorted, amused at Tiffany’s apparent jealousy, “What I wanted to tell you was because of that, though.”

              “So you got Jessi drunk?”

              Honestly, it took me a second to link the nickname ‘Jessi’ to Jessica, especially since she used the English name in the middle of a Korean sentence. The next thing that came to my attention was the way Tiffany worded that sentence.

              “Yah! We’re only friends! I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen to me, so it wasn’t my fault,” I said in rapid-fire, not even bothering to think about my words.

              “So she did get drunk,” Tiffany said accusingly, “I mean, Jessica’s a very attractive person, and I also happen to know that she’s a lesbian…”

              “Stop implying things!”

              I was turning really red, I could tell. This was one facet of hanging out with Tiffany I definitely did not miss. I turned my face away from her in an attempt to hide the state of my face from her.

              “Hm? What do you mean?” Tiffany said, all of the sudden taking an innocent tone, “I didn’t say anything. Implying things? What do you mean?” I felt trapped. Was this intentional? Did I just dig my own grave? “What were you thinking?” Tiffany asked, tugging on my wrist.

              “Nothing, I wasn’t thinking about anything,” I stammered; the all too familiar feeling of the tips of my ears burning returned; it felt like my embarrassment was boiling over me like a full kettle on a hot stove.

              “You weren’t thinking about anything?” Tiffany said, scooting closer to me, “How about with me? What would you do with me if I got drunk?”

              I felt my arm and neck muscles tighten as Tiffany breathed the words into my ear. Stop that right now Taeyeon. Stop imagining a bedroom. Stop imagining stripping her down. Ooh god this was dangerous … I was much too far into this rabbit hole already to go back. I really hoped I didn’t have a nosebleed. Did that actually happen in real life?

              “N-Never mind that,” I said, stuttering pathetically, “Nothing h-happened. Well, I mean—”

              “You mean?”

              Tiffany moved to the edge of her seat. Feeling a misunderstanding coming, I hastened my response. “I mean she told me something while drunk, but when I asked her again about it, she didn’t seem to remember,” I explained quickly.

              Tiffany nodded, relaxing a bit. I was pretty sure it was all for show, but it was a pretty convincing one nonetheless. “So why are you telling me?”

              “Well, I thought I would just let you know that apparently, Sica—I mean Jessica is working for your dad!”

              I felt a deep, sinking feeling in my chest as I observed Tiffany’s reaction.

              I was biased by both my positive relationship with my own parents as well as Jessica’s, so I never even stopped to consider Tiffany would be in a different situation. I was just the worst, wasn’t I?

              “Taeyeon, it’s ok,” Tiffany said reassuringly, “You couldn’t have known.”

              I glanced at her again, who this time was wearing a smile on her face. “Fany—”

              “Taeyeon, can you arrange a meeting with Jessi and I? I need to talk to her about something.”

First mention of Tiffany’s dad :o

Wonder what’s up with him. Why does Tiffany seem to not like him? Why does Jessica working for him prompt Tiffany to want to talk to Jessica?

All these questions will be answered soon :D

Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed!