stranger siblings: (iv)

“Yuri, could you please pick your jaw up from the floor,” Taeyeon muttered pushing her friend out of the house and thudding the front door closed behind her.

“Taeyeon,” Yuri’s voice was a mixture of awe and excitement. “Taeyeon. Oh my god, Taeyeon.”

“Stop saying my name like that.” She pulled Yuri down the street. “It’s annoying.”

“But, Taeyeon-“

“Look, until you can talk in coherent sentences, I don’t want to hear it.”

Yuri’s mouth clicked shut and remained so until they arrived at their destination. The sun was beating down on them in thick beams, making the walk into town sticky and uncomfortable.

The bell jingled overhead as they entered the ice cream parlor. It was only after they had placed their orders and slid into their usual booth, did Yuri grin at Taeyeon from across the table.

“Taeyeon,” Yuri began, and Taeyeon already knew what she was going to say. “Tiffany’s hot. Like unfairly hot. Why didn’t you tell me she was so…so hot?” There was a dreamy lilt to her voice as she leaned her head onto her fist, eyes glazed.

All it had taken was Tiffany to come down the stairs, offer Yuri a half-smile and a perfunctory greeting that didn’t last more than 35 seconds before disappearing into the living room, for Yuri to essentially fall in love. It almost made Taeyeon sick. Why was everyone so entranced by her?

“I get it, Yul. You think she’s hot.” She rolled her eyes.

“Why aren’t you excited?” Yuri pressed, leaning forward in her seat. “You’ve just gained a sibling! A hot stepsibling! Not many people can say that.”

Taeyeon shrugged, picking at the corner of her paper napkin. “She’s been my stepsister for like two years, Yuri, it’s not exactly new information.”

“But still,” Yuri lamented, “she lived on the other side of the world before. She was basically a stranger, and now all of a sudden-“

“We’re living together.” Taeyeon finished. “I’m aware of the situation.”

“Stop being such an . You know what I’m getting at.”

She did know what Yuri was getting at. It should’ve been exciting, or at least, it shouldn’t have inspired such dread within her whenever she saw Tiffany sitting on the couch or when they brushed shoulders in the kitchen or when they crossed paths in the hallway. Most teenage girls would love to have a sister, and Taeyeon was not sure why she wasn’t one of them.

“I don’t know,” she found herself shrugging, “It’s just kind of…weird.”

“Have you guys talked much? Is she nice?” Yuri’s eyes were aglitter with curiosity.

Taeyeon opened to try and answer when their ice cream orders were set down in front of them. She watched, thinking, as Yuri tucked into her waffles and ice cream without prompt.

Tiffany had arrived Friday evening – it was Sunday morning now. So that meant they had spent less that 48 hours together. And that wasn’t long. They hadn’t spoken much really, or at all. And when they had spoken it was conversation prompted by their parents, and the conversation was trivial, never personal. Taeyeon guessed that Tiffany had been mainly occupied with unpacking and settling in and Taeyeon had been busy with getting ready for senior year, which started tomorrow. So, really, they hadn’t had much of a chance to talk – not that Taeyeon was particularly desperate for that chance either.

“I’m not sure what to make of her,” she said honestly. “She’s okay, though. Not as rowdy as we were expecting. She’s…kind of…strangely quiet.”

Yuri’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? I thought Americans were just inherently loud.”

“Apparently not.” She picked up her knife and fork to dig in, but found that she didn’t have much of an appetite anymore.

“Do you think she dates girls?” Yuri pondered aloud after a moment. There was a blob of whipped cream smudged on the corner of .

Taeyeon had to scoff a little. “How am I supposed to know?”

“Westerners are more chill about that stuff, right?” Yuri pointed out.

“Even if she does date girls, I doubt you’ll stand much of a chance.”

“I’ll have you know, Kim Taeyeon, I can be pretty damn charming when I want to be.” Yuri waved her blunt knife in the air wondrously, a smug smile on her lips.

“I’ll believe that when I see it.” Taeyeon spooned some ice cream into and let it melt slowly on her tongue, let the cold numb her.

“Are you gonna come out to her?”

Taeyeon felt an incredulous look contort her facial muscles. “Why the would I do that?”

Yuri shrugged, her expression suddenly a little more somber. “Sisters tell each other that stuff, right?”

“She’s barely my sister and I barely know her.” Taeyeon grumbled. “I’m not even out to my mum yet, let alone Miss America.”

Yuri shrugged again. “True. I was just wondering.”

Taeyeon sighed and leaned back against the back of the booth, folding her arms against her chest. Her head felt hot and under her skin she it was as though she was bubbling. “I’m sorry for being grumpy.”

Yuri chuckled, poking her fork into a stray strawberry topping. “You’re always grumpy. I’m used to it.”

“You know what I mean.” Taeyeon looked across the table at her friend with vehemence. Yuri had been her best friend for so long that sometimes she felt like an extension of Taeyeon herself.

“I know what you mean,” Yuri echoed with a warm smile.

“I think I’m just a little stressed with everything. It’s been kind of hard to process Tiffany moving in.” She admitted. Taeyeon was very rarely vulnerable with her feelings, but when her vulnerability did come to the surface, it was usually Yuri who was listening.

“I get it.” Yuri was always so good at understanding. Sometimes she reminded Taeyeon of one of those machines that detected earthquakes – only instead of earthquakes, she could detect one’s emotional tremors. “It’s a big adjustment. But I’m sure you’ll get used to it eventually. Heck, you might even end up being like real sisters?”

Taeyeon chuckled lightly, pushing her melting dessert around her plate, because somehow, she knew, somewhere in the back of her head, that the likelihood of she and Tiffany ever being real sisters was very, microscopically small.

* * *

“Hey honey,” Mrs. Kim greeted as Taeyeon walked into her room. “I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

“Yuri had to sort some stuff out for school tomorrow, so she left early,” she huffed a little as she sat down on the bed. “And I thought I told you to stop folding my laundry?”

Mrs. Kim smiled, calmly continuing to fold her daughter’s school shirt. “You know, most mother’s stop doing this kind of stuff for their kids when they’re at least fourteen. So, consider yourself lucky, hmm?”

“Yes, captain.” Not having the energy for a rebuttal, she picked up a pair of jeans and began folding them quietly before adding them to the pile.

“I actually wanted to talk to you,” Mrs. Kim started after a moment, getting up from the bed and going to close the door gently.

Taeyeon looked up in confusion. “Oh, about what?” Her eyes followed as her mother came and sat back down again.

“Just…about this whole situation with Tiffany moving in. Are you doing okay? You seem a little down.” Her hand covered Taeyeon’s warmly.

Taeyeon shook her head, touched at her mother’s concern. “I’m fine. I’ve just been thinking about starting school tomorrow. That’s all.”

Her mother nodded in thought, “What do you think of her?”

Taeyeon looked at her mother and wondered what the right thing to say was. Despite that she and her mother were close, there were certain times when Taeyeon felt like certain truths should be kept secret. “She’s okay, I guess. I haven’t spoken to her much.” She let her shoulders drop and fall casually, deciding the half-truth would be just fine without all her real, underlying feelings tacked onto the end of it. “What about you?”

“She’s lovely,” Mrs. Kim began but the conflicting look on her face betrayed her so, “but, at the same time…maybe a little bemusing? I was expecting her to be...louder and more rude. But she keeps to herself and has been very polite. If this is how she is, I wonder what got her thrown out of school.”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing.” Taeyeon agreed, relieved her mother felt similarly to how she did.

“I think she’ll be fine but keep an eye on her at school tomorrow. Just in case.” Mrs. Kim hummed in consideration. “And make sure you invite her to sit with you and your friends at lunch, okay? There’s nothing worse than being the new kid at school.”

“I will, mum. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried,” Mrs. Kim got to her feet and pressed a kiss to Taeyeon’s forehead. “I know you’ll be a good sister to her.”

And even as her mother left the room and the door click closed behind her, the words seemed to linger in the air. Taeyeon fell back onto her mattress, unsure why the term ‘sister’ had suddenly become so troubli