I idly stared off into the cloudless sky: the mesmerizing sight never failed to captivate me despite the fact that I lived here for the majority of the past four, five years. Jessica, perhaps owing to the fact that she lived in California all her life, didn’t share this passion with me: to her, the untainted, pure blue sky unsettled her, seemed somehow unnatural to her. To me, however, I didn’t think of it like that: I knew the implications of such a sight—that this day would just be another rainless Californian day—but I would still find myself staring in awe of its beauty.

              I quickly glanced around, spotting Jessica walking towards me. As we made eye contact, I stood up excitedly, waving to her. “Sica!”

              “Tae—” she got cut off as another girl walked up to her, tapping her shoulder playfully. Caught off guard, she turned to look in the direction of the girl, who offered a smile and a wave.

              “Hey Jess,” she greeted her.

              “Oh, hey Stacy! How was your summer?”

              “Restful,” she answered with a laugh, “That is to say, apart from my internship, I lazed around my house all day.” Jessica smiled in response, but before she could reply, Stacy said, “Well, I have to get to class, but we should catch up some time!”

              “Yeah, we should! See you!” she said to the departing woman.

              I was pretty much used to this. Jessica had many friends aside from me, and even as she caught up to me, I noticed a glance from a few guys. I could understand why she was so popular though: smart, beautiful, confident, kind, and friendly … what wasn’t there to like about her?

              “Sorry about that Taeyeon, let’s go,” she said. I made sure to grab her hand as she turned around. “Where do you wanna go today?”

              “Let’s go to that Korean restaurant,” I offered.

              “Again?”

              “What? They have good food!”

              Jessica turned to look at me, her will crumbling when I shot her a smile. “Ah, how can I resist you? Ok fine, let’s go there,” she conceded, turning back to face forward.

              “So how was your date last Friday?”

              “Eh, it was ok, nothing special.”

              I frowned. “Why? I thought he seemed like a good guy.”

              Jessica laughed at that. “Well I’m glad he’s Taeyeon-approved.”

              “Is there going to be a second date?”

              “Eh, I don’t know. Maybe.”

              “’Maybe’? Why, what’s stopping you?”

              Jessica pursed her lips for a bit before responding, “Well, it’s just that another friend recommended me someone he knew and that guy sounded pretty promising, at least from what he told me.”

              “Wait, so you’re only giving that guy one date?”

              “Well…”

              “I think you should at least give him one more chance. He looked like such a nice guy.”

              “Wait, you only saw his picture, right? You didn’t actually meet him?” When I didn’t respond, Jessica just laughed again. “I thought you were better than this, judging people just from their face.”

              I chuckled with her, saying, “Well, no, it’s just that you seemed like you were in a good mood after the date, so I thought he must be a good person.”

              “Ah, it wasn’t because of him that I was happy, it was—” she suddenly stopped, and although she didn’t finish the sentence, I could understand what she was about to say: that Friday, Tiffany and I invited Jessica over to our apartment for dinner and a movie, but when we learned she was going on a date, we told her she could come over and watch a movie after it if she wanted. Although our dynamic had more or less returned to what it was before Jessica confessed to me, there were still occasionally moments like these that I suddenly became conscious of the existence of Jessica’s evident lingering emotions.

              “Why haven’t you tried going out with any girls?” I said, picking up the conversation for her.

              “Well, in the first place, I wasn’t really ever attracted to any girls—or anyone in general, I guess—other than you and Tiffany, so I thought I should use this time to determine what my preferences are,” she explained.

              “Ah, ok.”

              We entered the air-conditioned restaurant, causing Jessica to sigh. “Ah, that feels nice.”

              “Don’t clog the entrance,” I told her, pulling Jessica to a nearby booth. “It’s not even that hot outside, how did you live your whole life here?”

              “With air-conditioning,” she replied, taking the seat opposite me and opening the menu attached to the table. “Anyway, what about you? I heard from a friend that’s in your class complaining about the exam you guys took, and that there was one person with an outlier, near-perfect score. It wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”

              “Well, I mean…”

              “He was complaining that score would break the curve for the exam,” Jessica added, only making me feel more guilty.

              “I mean, I wasn’t not going to try my best on that exam,” I defended myself.

              “Ah, you smarty-pants,” Jessica chuckled, reaching over the table and patting my head before I could react. “I get the feeling your test scores are going to be the bane of Alex’s existence for the rest of the semester.”

              “…Sorry…”

              “You don’t have to apologize,” Jessica chuckled again, closing the menu, “I decided on what I’m getting; are you getting what you always do?”

              I nodded, Jessica quickly putting her hand up to get a server’s attention. We continued to converse until our food arrived, and shortly after, a man—a rather attractive, fashionable, friendly-appearing man—approached our table.

              “Hi, how’s your meal so far?”

              I didn’t respond, knowing he was here for Jessica. This was a common enough occurrence that I knew how to respond when in this situation. Jessica, as always, responded in a friendly manner, “It’s excellent!”

              “That’s good; oh, actually, I get that quite often,” he said, nodding to the bowl in front of me. “It’s good, isn’t it?”

              “Yeah,” I replied, caught off-guard. Most of the time, the guys didn’t regard me, which wasn’t something I minded at all, really: I didn’t mind not being given the opportunity to embarrass myself in front of a potential suitor of Jessica’s.

              “She gets that every time we come here,” Jessica said, laughing.

              “Well, I don’t blame her. Hey, but what you got is pretty good too,” he said, motioning to the plate in front of Jessica. “Sorry, I don’t think I asked for your name yet.”

              “I’m Jessica,” she replied, “and that’s Taeyeon.”

              I bowed slightly out of habit as Jessica introduced me. “Nice to meet you, I’m John,” he said, offering a handshake, first to Jessica, then to me. “Anyway, I’m going to get straight to the point; could I get your number?”

              This was also a pretty common occurrence, so I could tell Jessica was priming herself to reject him. What wasn’t a common occurrence was how much he went out of the way to include me in the conversation, which was why I decided to stop her. It wasn’t much, honestly, but it was enough to give me a favorable impression of him. “Wait, Sica, I think you should consider it,” I told her.

              She paused, meeting my encouraging gaze for a brief second before acquiescing. “Sure, give me your phone.”

              “Thanks for having my back, Taeyeon,” John thanked me, laughing.

              “It’s not a problem, Jessica is way too picky for her own good,” I told him.

              After a short while, Jessica gave John back his phone. “I’ll text you later; maybe we can meet for some coffee this Friday?”

              “Sure, see you then!” she replied as John walked back to his own table. When he was out of hearing range, Jessica turned to ask me, “What about him caused you to stop me?”

              I shrugged, digging into my own meal. “He seems like a nice person. Most guys don’t really address me, right? I feel like he’s more friendly than most people, and even if he addressed me to try to get on your good side, it at least means he’s probably not just trying to get in your pants, right?”

              Jessica smacked me from across the table. “Yah, what are you saying?”

              I grinned. “Come on, even I’m not that oblivious to the fact that some guys approach you with the intent having a one-night stand.”

              Jessica sighed, digging into her own meal. “You know, sometimes I wonder what caused me to fall in love with such a ert.” When I laughed in response, Jessica added, “A ert with an ahjumma laugh, no less.”

              A short while later, I spoke up again. “Do you think you’ll have kids?”

              Jessica suddenly stopped eating, looking up at me. “What kind of a question is that?”

              “Fany and I already talked about it and we agreed that we wanted to adopt one.”

              “Already? You guys are thinking that far into the future?”

              I nodded. “Why? Is it weird?”

              “Most people have many relationships before they settle; it’s pretty uncommon for someone to marry the first person they get into a relationship with,” she answered.

              “Oh…” I didn’t really know what to think about that. Maybe my understanding of relationships was tainted by the rose-tinted glasses of K-dramas, but I honestly couldn’t imagine who else but with Tiffany that I would spend the rest of my life with. It was probably unhealthy how much I came to depend on Tiffany, but in my mind, it wasn’t a problem as long as we stayed together; however, if most first relationships didn’t end that way … what would become of me?

              “Well, that isn’t to say it never happens. I have a high school friend who recently married the person she was in a relationship with since sophomore year of high school,” she reassured me. Hearing it made me feel a lot better, but the thought lingered in the back of my mind. Jessica, noticing this, spoke up again, “So you two speak about this kind of stuff a lot?”

              I shrugged. “I guess? I don’t really know what would be considered ‘strange’, but we talk about the future a decent amount, so yeah.”

              She sighed, shaking her head. “Damn … how has her job search been, by the way?”

              “Oh! Tiffany found a job earlier this week and starts today,” I told her.

              “Aw, so she won’t be there to greet you when you get home this time, huh?” she said in a teasing voice, grinning playfully.

              I tried my best to refrain from turning red. It was true that one of my favorite parts of the day was coming home to Tiffany: while Jessica would do it sometimes when I roomed with her, there was just something different about the overly affectionate way Tiffany welcomed me after returning from my classes. I didn’t know how else to describe it other than thinking that I wanted to come home to it every day.

              “What kind of job was it? A bartender again?”

              “No, I wouldn’t let her,” I said, Jessica chuckling in response. I ignored it, knowing Jessica probably understood my reasoning behind that response and probably wanted to tease my overprotectiveness, and continued on, “She told me that it’s as a secretary for a therapist, although she suspected that her dad used his influence to ensure Tiffany the job. She told me that the main reason she took the job anyway was because they offered to provide education for her to become a licensed therapist, which she accepted.”

              “Oh, that’s nice,” Jessica said. I nodded, not mentioning the part where I convinced her to take the job in hopes that, if I wasn’t enough, she would find ways to help herself in her training.

              As usual, our meal was cut short by the limited amount of time we had, our class schedules demanding that our meals last no more than 40 minutes. After classes, I made sure to pick up a carton of eggs before heading back to our apartment, and to my surprise, I was greeted by a welcome surprise when I opened the door.

              “Welcome home, TaeTae!”

              “Ah, you’re home already Fany?” I asked as I took my shoes off at the entrance.

              She skipped over to the foyer, a wide grin plastered on her face as she gave me a quick hug. “Yeah! How were classes?”

              “They were alright, but more importantly, how was your first day at work?”

              Tiffany took my backpack off my shoulders and pushed the slippers I always wore towards me. They were small actions, really, but they were what made me really thankful for her existence and even caused me to think about how I could get used to something like this. “Well, it was the first day so I didn’t really do much. We talked a bit about when I would start my classes and said that I’ll probably start in the spring semester, but they weren’t sure yet.”

              I deposited the eggs into the fridge, walking over to the couch with Tiffany and collapsing on it. Tiffany joined me so I adjusted myself to rest my head on her shoulder. Tiffany giggled, patting my head briefly. “What?” I asked.

              “Nothing, it’s just that you’re too adorable,” she responded, reaching around and patting my head again. “Is something wrong?”

              I shook my head. “No…well, actually, yeah, sorta.” While, admittedly, it normally was uncharacteristic of me to say such things, these sort of words just naturally seemed to flow out of me around Tiffany.

              “What is it?” the tone of her voice instantly transformed into a soft, worried one.

              “Do you think … do you think that you’ll ever leave me, or that we’ll not be together in the future?”

              Tiffany grabbed my hand and gently rubbed the back of it. “Do you want me to?”

              My heart just about stopped when she said that: I could tell she was being playful, but there was also a faint hint of sadness in her voice. “No! Of course not! I just—never mind,” I answered, a huge relief washing over me upon hearing Tiffany’s words.

              “You look like you have something else,” Tiffany pressed on.

              I almost just straight up laughed at that in surprise; despite how many months it’s been that we’ve been together, Tiffany’s ability to read my mind never failed to amaze me. “It’s nothing big, it’s just that you taking the job and taking classes means you won’t be home to greet me every day, right?” After realizing how terrible conceited I sounded, I immediately appended on, “I know it’s selfish, but—”

              However, Tiffany interrupted me before I could finish with an embrace. “Aah, you’re just so cute!” she squealed, wrapping her arms tightly around me. “Is that what you were worried about? Don’t worry! I’ll make sure I’m home in time every day!”

              “You don’t have to…”

              “I want to though. Don’t worry.”

              I tried to remain calm as my face was dangerously close to her bosom, but it was getting harder by the second, my consciousness gradually slipping away as the scent of her light perfume invaded my brain. I didn’t really mind it though; it felt comforting, like I was truly at home. After a few seconds, Tiffany released me.

              “I-I’ll start making dinner,” I told her, getting up from the couch.

              “Don’t you have homework?” Tiffany said, following me off the couch. “Let me take care of it.”

              “I finished it already,” I told her.

              “But isn’t your homework due on Fridays?”

              “Yeah.”

              “Why would you finish it all by Tuesday?”

              “…well, I got it done as quickly as possible so I could spend more time with you.”

              “Aww, do I just have the best girlfriend or what?” Tiffany gushed again, this time enveloping me in a back hug. This time, I overlooked my embarrassment and just pressed my cheek onto her right arm, a smile forming on my face, something catching the corner of my vision right before closing my eyes: the couple tattoo on her shoulder, the puzzle piece tattoo.

              In a way, it was sort of amazing that we ended up the way we did. Our dynamic reflected these tattoos, I realized: jagged, uneven, incomplete as we were, our imperfections suited each other perfectly. Tiffany and I were two pieces of a puzzle, but we just so happened to belong next to each other.

Even though this story hasn’t really gained as much attention as my other one, I think I’m just as satisfied with this one :’) There’s just something really satisfying about seeing your lovable protagonists overcoming their obstacles and obtaining a happy ending, huh? Even though I’m the author of the story and I more or less knew how the story was going to go the entire time, it feels both really satisfying to see that happen but also a little bittersweet that the story’s finally ended :’C

Special shout out to tipco09 and kimtaengoo18 who commented so frequently and provided me with such motivation :’) to be honest, I have final exams next week but I just really wanted to write this final chapter.

One thing I’m sorta curious about is if you guys felt Taeyeon and Tiffany’s relationship felt too forced or rushed; my focus on this story (as a writer) was to accelerate the story as much as I could without cutting out too much, but I feel like I might have rushed Tiffany and Taeyeon getting together as a result. What do you guys think? Don’t worry about potentially hurting my feelings or anything like that, I can take the criticism.

Anyway, that’s it! If you go to my facebook page, https://fb.me/affkesujo, I’m going to be posting my writing schedule, or what I plan on working on for the next year or so. Other than that, thank you all for reading this story all the way until the end! <3