stranger siblings: (i)

The first time she laid eyes on Tiffany was at the wedding. It was a mediocre affair in Taeyeon’s opinion – an awkward in-between of trying to be grandiose while also trying to maintain a close, intimate atmosphere.

She doesn’t remember much about the day itself other than her mother’s smile, the faux fancy food and that Tiffany wore a red dress.

It was lacy, flowed down to a respectable length just below Tiffany’s pale knees, and was cinched in at the waist by a silk sash. Maybe, if anybody else had worn it, Taeyeon would’ve barely taken notice – but Tiffany, generally speaking, was hard not to take notice of. From her fashionable half-up-half-down hair-do, to her earrings, to her bracelet, to her painted toenails in her opened-toed shoes, all the way down to how she smiled at the people she talked to, the way she welcomed them in with just one look – it seemed too refined, too natural to be of a young girl their age, barely fifteen.

Taeyeon felt like a child next to her; donned in a formless, ill-fitting dress that her mother had forced her to wear, and shoes that definitely didn’t match. It just didn’t seem all that fair.

At the reception party, Tiffany hugged her. Taeyeon was unsure how to reciprocate, so she just patted the other girl’s back in the least awkward manner she could manage, which was still very awkward anyway. When it came to pretty girls, Taeyeon found herself turning into a jelly-like substance; shaky, entirely unstable and unable to formulate proper sentences.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Taeyeon.” Tiffany beamed at her as she pulled away, and what really hit Taeyeon was that the smile was genuine. In Taeyeon’s world, people who seemed as perfect as Tiffany had to have some detrimental character flaw, and with a face like that, she figured that Tiffany’s personality must be some caliber of ing treacherous. But Taeyeon had never seen a smile so pure. “My dad has told me so much about you.”

After a dry swallow she managed to mutter out a “Likewise.”, and it was then that it dawned on her, really dawned on her, that they were officially stepsisters.

* * *

A few days after the wedding, Tiffany went back to America. She lived there with her mother, whom Taeyeon had never met. This in itself, the fact that Tiffany was American, had a life that was entirely unknown and foreign to Taeyeon, added an air of exoticism to the enigma that appeared to be Tiffany Hwang.

Taeyeon often found herself scrolling through Tiffany’s social media accounts, and the deeper she went and the longer she scrolled, the more she realized that not only was her stepsister unfairly beautiful, stylish and confident – she was also very popular. Most of her posts involved some friends, and her under her posts there would be endless comments of praise or various complimentary emojis.

Despite all the social media stalking, she knew very little about Tiffany. They had only met once, and everything she knew had either been observed during their first meeting or been told to her by Mr. Hwang, who she actually did like. He was a kind man with a friendly disposition, and really, out of all her mother’s past boyfriends, he was probably the best pick – but that’s beside the point.

The only interaction she had with Tiffany was waving hello awkwardly from the background when Mr. Hwang video called her sometimes, but even then, that was something she tried to avoid.

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