stranger siblings: (vi)

Taeyeon did not like games. In fact, she hated them. She especially loathed the games wherein she felt as though she had no control over the outcome. She was only seventeen, but if there was something she’d learned in her short span of life, it was that you can control things more than you think you can – sometimes it would inevitably be out of your hands, but other times, things tended to fall right into the middle of your palm.

But it wasn’t in her palm this time around. Tiffany had made sure of that.

“Still thinking of ways to destroy your stepsister?” Yuri asked idly, tucking her hands behind her head as they lounged in the empty sports field behind the school.

“Absolutely.” Taeyeon answered.

“I understand that she’s gotten under your skin, but why not take a break from brooding and enjoy this beautiful day?”

“She hasn’t gotten under my skin,” she found herself snapping. “She thinks she has. But she doesn’t actually know anything.”

“Exactly,” Yuri closed her eyes to bask in the sun’s heat. “So, why are you stressing?”

“I’m not stressing,” she said, but in fact, she was indeed stressing. Tiffany was dangling a threat over her head, albeit an empty, baseless threat, but for some reason she still felt as though she was under attack. Sometimes Tiffany looked at her as though she could set her whole world alight – which was dramatic, she knew, but she couldn’t find any other way to describe it. “I just…” she sighed. “I just want to make sure I’m a couple of steps ahead of her. Just in case.”

“Huh, interesting,” Yuri’s face drew into something thoughtful. “How are you gonna do that?”

“I have a few ideas…” she said, but really, she only had one idea – and it wouldn’t be much fun. “I’m gonna need you to go do something for me.”

* * *

Taeyeon stood quickly as Yeseo entered the dingy storeroom and closed it behind her with a metallic squeak and an echoing click. Last semester, when they were still together, they’d sneak in here during free periods to make-out and sometimes more.

Seeing Yeseo standing there struck Taeyeon with a strange feeling. It was heavy in her chest. Maybe this wasn’t the best place to choose for a meeting spot.

“You came,” Taeyeon said unnecessarily, clearing .

“Believe me, I wasn’t going to,” Yeseo said as she came closer. Her face was hard to read with the lack of light.

“What changed your mind?”

Yeseo shrugged. Now that she wasn’t so far away, Taeyeon could see that her expression was somewhat stoic – rather different from the tears and glares that she’d been serving Taeyeon since their break-up. “Curiosity, I guess.”

Taeyeon wondered if it really was just curiosity. She doubted it was just curiosity. She suddenly remembered a line from a book she’d read, about how you don’t stop loving someone all at once – it happened over time, it was gradual. It wasn’t simply pulling a plug from a socket, it was more like an untangling – bit by bit, day by day. If Yeseo asked to meet her for whatever reason, then Taeyeon knew she would go – out of courtesy and genuine care.

Taeyeon found herself to be a funny being sometimes; always wanting to be logical, but unable to quell all the little embarrassing feelings that danced around inside her. Sometimes she hated herself for it.

“Yuri said you wanted to talk to me about something?” Yeseo sat down on a stack of old rubbery mats that were cracking at the corners and sides.

“Right.” Taeyeon swallowed. “Yeah. I did actually.”

“What is it?”

Taeyeon sat down slowly next to her ex-girlfriend. “You and Tiffany have gotten kind of close, huh?”

“Yeah,” Yeseo shrugged, quiet. “What about it?”

“Well, the thing is…Tiffany hasn’t exactly taken a liking to me.” She gave Yeseo an uncertain look.

“Okay…?”

“She knows that something went on between me and you. She doesn’t know what, but she’s been threatening to find out.” While things between her and Yeseo were still considerably sour, it still felt nice to talk to her – Yeseo was always a good listener – and Yeseo also understood the fear surrounding the prospect of being unwillingly out-ed.

Yeseo nodded and to Taeyeon’s surprise, Yeseo didn’t seem fazed at all. “I kind of guessed as much.”

“Really?” Taeyeon asked.

Yeseo nodded again. She looked calm, but Taeyeon could still make out the sadness in her eyes. “She’s asked about you, and why we don’t speak. But in a prying way – like she wants to get dirt on you or something.”

“She definitely wants dirt on me,” she finds herself laughing darkly.

“What did you do to make her hate you?” Yeseo asked with a genuine curiosity.

“Honestly,” Taeyeon shrugged, “I don’t know. I think she just wants to make sure that I won’t get in her way or rat her out if she does anything stupid.”

Yeseo chuckled. “Trust you to get yourself into a predicament like this.”

“I know. It’s just my luck to get stuck with a crazy stepsister,” she sighed, smiling a little. “I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t, you know, gonna tell her anything.”

“Why would I do that?” Yeseo frowned.

Taeyeon lifted her shoulders and let them fall again. “I don’t know. You and her seem close, not to mention you kind of hate me so…”

“I do kind of hate you,” Yeseo admitted, “but I’d never dream of outing you like that. Just like I trust you to not do the same to me. Right?”

“Right.” Taeyeon agreed. She gazed into Yeseo’s dark, round eyes and it took her back to when they’d first kissed all those months ago.

“We might not be together anymore, but people like us have to look out for each other. No one else will.” Yeseo reached out and patted Taeyeon’s hand. “You don’t have to worry.”

“Thanks, Yeseo. I really appreciate you talking to me despite everything.” She tried to say as sincerely as possible. “I know I’ve not exactly been very good to you.”

“You can say that again,” Yeseo laughed lightly, tilting her head up slightly to the tiled ceiling. “You weren’t always so bad though. You were actually a very good girlfriend.”

“I could say the same about you.”

They looked at one another for a moment. It was almost as though Yeseo was searching her face for something that’d been there once, but was now gone. Somehow, Taeyeon could sympathize. They’d fallen out of love - that much was apparent. But sometime she still wondered if Yeseo still wanted her…she wondered if she still wanted Yeseo.

“I should get going,” Yeseo said, getting to her feet. “I have class in