Tiffany was in deep thought as she approaches the stairs. I’m about to meet the girl who’s supposed to help me expose someone else’s feelings. That works out well for me and Jess, but what about Irene? She has no idea about the complications that Jess and I are having, and is about to be unknowingly dragged into it.

I really want to find out how Jess feels about me, but there’s got to be a better way! Doing it like this can create a huge mess!

She sends a text message to Seohyun.

Tiffany: Can I talk to you for a minute?

Seohyun: Now?

Tiffany: Yes, it’s very important!

Seohyun: Ok. I’m in room 127

Tiffany: Thanks!

Tiffany hurries downstairs and searches for room 127. She hastily sends a message to Irene saying that something came up, so she’ll be ten minutes late.

Just as she arrives, Seohyun walks out of the room.

“Is something wrong, unnie?” questions the maknae, closing the door behind her.

“I think we need a new plan. As much as I desperately want to know how Jess really feels about me, using Irene is not a good idea. She’s innocent in all of this, and I’d prefer not to use her as a pawn to get what I want. There’s got to be a better way, like trying to somehow talk Jess into being direct with me!”

“What if that doesn’t work? You’ve had difficulties getting Jess to open up to you about her problem. But, if done correctly, my plan would guarantee that you’ll get the answer you need.”

Tiffany brushes some of her bangs away from her eyes with her hand. “But what about Irene? It’d be manipulative to get her to fall in love with me, just to dump her when I find out Jess likes me.”

“Is Irene’s feelings more important than exposing how Jess feels about you?” Seohyun inquires curiously.

“Finding out how Jess feels about me is one of the most important things on my mind right now, but I’m going to do it a different way! I don’t how, but I’ll think of something!” Tiffany responds. 

“You didn’t seem opposed to it when I first mentioned the idea.”

“Oh, that was because I was concentrating on trying to figure out why Jess was pushing me to date Irene, and then you had to leave for your study group.”

Seohyun nods. “Do you have Jessica unnie’s phone number?”

Tiffany realizes that she had never asked Jessica for her number. “No, I don’t have it yet.”

“I’m sending it to you. Call her.”

Tiffany glances at the phone number that she had received in a text message, and then smiles at Seohyun. “Thank you again, for all your help with this.”

“You’re welcome. I believe this may be the alternative that you’re looking for. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my group.” Seohyun gives her a small smile before going back into the study room.

Tiffany stares at the closed door. “What the hell? She didn’t seem surprised or disappointed that I reconsidered her idea! Was she expecting me to do that?”

Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the time to contemplate what had just happened, because she had to make a phone call to Jessica, and Irene was waiting for her. “Alright Jess, I’m going to need some answers.”

Tiffany goes into an empty study room as she enters Jessica’s phone number onto her phone. She then stares at it for a moment, suddenly feeling a little nervous.

“You can do this, Tiff! You’re just making a simple phone call to a friend to have a conversation. It’s not like you’re asking them out, or anything like that.”

She continues staring at the numbers on the screen of her phone.

“But what am I going to say to her? Hey Jess, guess what Seohyun told me! I should date Irene so that we can expose your feelings about me! So what do you think? Isn’t that such a good idea?”

Tiffany groans. “If I don’t do this, then I have to seriously consider dating Irene for real. I better make the call now before I change my mind!”

The brunette squeals as she presses the call icon. “Here goes nothing! Oh my god, I’m calling her!”

She nervously listens to the ringtone. What am I going to say? What if she doesn’t like me calling her? And why the hell am I so nervous?!

“Hello?” answers Jessica.

Oh my god, I’m talking to her on the phone! And her voice sounds so cute right now! Tiffany squeals internally. “Hi Jess, it’s Tiffany! You know, the one who has a crush on you?” Tiffany facepalms. Why the hell did I say that?! That sounded so stupid!

“Prove that it’s really you.”

Tiffany was blushing slightly as she thinks of what to say. “Ok, let’s see, we had lunch at Red Robin, and you had chicken salad and raspberry iced tea. Oh, and you got a lovely backhug from me earlier today, and you enjoyed it so much. Is that good enough?”

“I suppose it’s passable.”

“Now you prove that you’re