The clock had just struck two, and Tiffany Hwang was quite nearly wasted. She slumped against the railing of a balcony, listening to the distant chatter of her friends inside. Sunny and Yuri were engaged in a heated game of beer pong with some kids from a neighboring high school. Sooyoung and Yoona had run off somewhere with Kris Wu and his friend. And, snoozing peacefully on the couch behind Tiffany was the troubled little angel, Taeyeon.

    They’d officially entered what Tiffany liked to call “The Weird Hours” of the night. It was a nickname that, ironically enough, she and Jessica had come up with when discussing their experiences at parties. It was late enough that the normal people had already gone home or passed out, but early enough that the "hardcore" partiers were still going strong. As the receding drug effects took their toll, conversations became tangential and disorganized, laughter gained a manic edge to it, and swaying, bleary-eyed girls were whisked into bedrooms by stumbling, grinning boys.

    Tiffany watched a lone eighteen-wheeler as it rumbled across the winding road of route fifty-seven, curving behind mountains and emerging from view in a burst of headlights and shadowed smoke. She smoked a cigarette - her third of the night - and blew the smoke upward, away from Taeyeon. In terms of drinks, Tiffany wasn’t too far gone yet. The hangover tomorrow would be bad, but she probably wouldn’t spend the day puking. A mild headache, maybe, and some nausea, but nothing she couldn’t fix with water and tea. In terms of driving ability, however, she was definitely too impaired to safely navigate them home. After much convincing, she’d handed her keys over to a hesitant Taeyeon, who seemed utterly terrified at the prospect of driving a BMW.

    That was funny, in a way. Tiffany’s mother never used the SUV. Most of her business trips were international, so she just took taxis to the airport. And still, she had to have the lavish, feature-laden vehicle sitting in their driveway, because if they didn’t, how would the neighbors know how much money the Hwang family had?

    Tiffany extinguished the remains of her cigarette, grabbed her glass of red wine from the bannister, and polished it off. She winced as she gulped it down, running the tip of her tongue against her dry palette, wishing she had a glass of water. Going downstairs for a drink was too risky. Though Tiffany hadn’t seen her since their first encounter, Jessica was definitely still around here somewhere; this was her boyfriend’s party, after all. Tiffany glanced back at Taeyeon, who was curled beneath a heap of blankets, breaths rising and falling with the controlled rhythm of a restful sleep. No, Taeyeon didn’t need to be woken up now. She’d already been stressed enough.

    God, tonight had been a mess. The things Tiffany could remember saying were shameful and emotional, unnecessary burdens that she’d placed on Taeyeon’s shoulders. The cheerleader repeatedly berated herself throughout the night for revealing so much to Taeyeon. Not that lying would’ve been a better option, but the way she’d worded things was unbelievably stupid.

    Tiffany sighed and hung her head over the railing, running her hands over the cool wooden surface, staring down at the crystalline pool twenty feet below. Even in her blubbering stupor, Tiffany knew that her words had hurt Taeyeon. She’d seen a fire in the meek blonde’s eyes that had never been there before. If she could go back, she wouldn’t have gone into such detail about her and Jessica, or about the emotions associated with the brunette. She could’ve just stated the facts and cut to why she was so upset. She could’ve just thrown on the same mask she wore when she spoke to everyone else, the one that allowed her to so stoically trudge through a life worth missing.

    But no. It was impossible to hide from Taeyeon. She was one of the only two people to pull the mask off, to see Tiffany for what she truly was, to show genuine appreciation for the scared little girl that hid behind there. After how close they’d grown, after everything they’d shared, wearing that mask in front of her angel would never feel right. It would be worse than lying to her face.

    From within the room behind her, someone put on music. A single, wavering B-note played out behind a high, feminine voice. It was a song Tiffany recognized from the radio, and though she didn’t know its name, she knew most of the words. Driven by her intoxication and somber mood, she began to sing:

    “Bet she needs you more than I, Evanie,

    Did you hide your neck to save her from her sleep?”

    She continued from there, lolling her head back so that she could stare up at the star-dusted sky. She lost herself in the notes, swaying back and forth to the music, to the melancholy harmony backing the main vocals, to the gentle plucking of the acoustic guitar. When the song broke into its fugazi-like outro, strings grating against the speakers, Tiffany began to sing louder, surrounding herself with those woeful sounds, drinking them in, tasting the lyrics on her tongue as they unfurled from her lips. With the sliding door shut and the curtains drawn, she had no fear of being discovered. She concluded the song, letting the word “sin” drag out against the instrumentals, fading into the wind, into a lingering whisper that drifted with the breeze.

    “That was beautiful.”

    Tiffany jumped and spun. Taeyeon was sitting up in her seat, chin resting on her hands, leaning forward. It was obvious that she’d been listening intently.

    “I didn’t mean to wake you,” Tiffany said, trying to let the moment pass on its own, to ignore what Taeyeon had just heard, “I… I’m sorry.”

    “Don’t be,” Taeyeon said, cocking her head to the side, “I loved it. You’re an amazing singer. You should do it more often.”

    “I practice when I’m alone. I just don’t like doing it in front of people. I get nervous.”

    That was, technically, true. For some reason, she’d never been comfortable singing in front of anyone. Not her parents, not her friends, and certainly not her best friend-turned-lover.

    Taeyeon cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re the most popular girl in school. I refuse to believe nervousness is the only thing holding you back.”

“It’s just a hang-up of mine. Not sure why, but I’ve always been like that,” Tiffany said with a casual shrug, “You better treasure that one song you heard, because you’re probably not hearing another one ever again.”

Taeyeon gave a wicked grin, pushed her blankets to the side, and stood. She placed her hands on her hips, locked eyes with Tiffany, and ran the tip of her tongue over her lips. “What would it take for me to hear another song?”

Tiffany’s drunk mind careened in seven different, equally shameful directions. Taeyeon was probably just messing around, but that didn’t make it any easier to resist kissing those perfect lips right then and there. “Oh, stop. You’re starting to sound like me now.”

Taeyeon’s grin faltered, a ripe blush filling her cheeks as the ual energy immediately drained from her. The transformation from naughty vixen to nervous puppy was so stark, and so brisk, that Tiffany couldn’t help but laugh.

“Don’t make fun of me!” Taeyeon said indignantly, though she was smiling now, “I’m just trying to use my feminine charms to get what I want. If Yoona and Sunny can do it, so can I, right?”

Tiffany shook her head slowly, fighting back another laugh. She was glad that, despite what had transpired earlier in the evening, Taeyeon’s behavior toward her hadn’t changed one bit.

“Come enjoy the view with me,” Tiffany said, ushering the blonde over.

Taeyeon gave an uncertain glance at the balcony doorway.

“Nothing weird,” Tiffany assured, “Just two best friends hanging out, watching the stars. No lip contact.”

The blonde flashed a smile and hurried over. They stood close together, drinking in the same view they’d seen from the bushes below. At that height, the mountains didn’t feel as dauntingly high; they no longer towered into the heaven like untouchable monoliths.

“You know, you gotta get it out of your head that us being intimate is ‘weird’,” Taeyeon said casually. “I’m supposed to be the one questioning my uality. You already know you’re a lesbian.”

Tiffany tapped her bottom lip, thinking. “When you grow up hiding it from everyone you know, that makes it weird by default. Since all the other people - the normal people - are straight.”

Taeyeon was quiet for a while before answering.

“Does that mean you exclusively like girls?” she asked furtively.

“Yeah,” Tiffany said. It was a question she’d asked herself many times as a preteen. “I have zero interest in guys whatsoever. You?”

“I’ve found guys attractive before, but never enough to really, you know… care,” Taeyeon’s eyebrows knitted together, as if she was deep in thought, calculating her uality like it was a complex math problem.

Tiffany poked a finger into the flesh of Taeyeon’s shoulder, mostly just as an excuse to touch the older girl. “Maybe you’re biual, then.”

Absently, as if it wouldn’t drive any homoual woman in a ten-mile radius insane, Taeyeon reached over and tucked a lock of Tiffany’s