Then think about it.

That was what she said and it was rolling on her mind all night. She couldn’t sleep, her eyes just wouldn’t close. It wasn’t a new thing, she is used to sleepless night. But from the last two years they were just about a woman, always her, with her sweet eyes turning into burning embers ready to burn her soul.

So she was thinking about it, and it wasn’t easy.

Taeyeon could hear clearly Sunny turning in bed, her soft snoring while thoughts were tormenting her. She immediately remembered the night before, when she slept like a baby with the brunette in her arms. Crushing the face on the pillow she shut with force her eyes, searching some sort of calm, something to let her sleep.

Abruptly the pillow turned into a pale nape with brown baby hair on it and the second pillow she was hugging turned in Sunny’s body, the feel of warm and morbid skin under the skin, the rhythmic up and down of her tummy under her arm. Just convincing herself deeply of the illusion she managed to collapse into an agitated sleep.

Maybe deep in her heart she wanted to fall and never get back, but she couldn’t allow it, she wouldn’t survive to be broken again, not from that impossibly shining smile.

Taeyeon was playing with her ramen, her eyes fixed on Sunny smiling at her butler. They were conversating on the best breakfast food but the old was so in love with her fake girlfriend that wasn’t even putting on a fight.

“What about you then?” Sunny was talking to her and it took her a few moments to distance from the lucid dream and realize.

“Oh… I am not picky, but I like sweet things so I think I prefer these things. You know like they do in Italy or France.” She sipped her coffee and watched the girl blink. She saw the pout even before it was formed and couldn’t resist. “Maybe we’ll get a vacancy time and I’ll show you, what do you say?” She regretted it immediately when the grin turned into an unsure scowl.

“S-sure…” Even Mr. Im understood there was something wrong and excused himself with a bow.

Sunny cleared and got back to eat, she finished her coffee and stood up putting her plate on the sink. When she was about to leave the lounge area a voice stopped her. “I know we are supposed to be faking, but refrain from saying such things, please.” Taeyeon swallowed hard and turned.

With a lame smile she tried to bright the atmosphere. “I could always rent you and go to Paris?” The grimace she got as an answer made her understand it wasn’t time to bright up the atmosphere.

Sunny had shiny eyes when she stood up and meet her stare.

“I-I was joking, it was a joke…” She tried but her resolve was crumbling under that serious glare.

“Yeah, maybe it’s all I am to you, anyway.” The hurt hidden behind those spitted words made her skin crawl. And she watched her go away, step after step, with a lump in . Until she couldn’t stand it anymore and matched her pace. Sunny glared at her again.

“I couldn’t sleep tonight because I kept thinking about what you said.” That stopped her, they reached the garden and the Sun caused her to shrink her eyelids. “You are not a joke to me.” It was firm, honest, and it seemed to breach something into the other girl.

Soft brown eyes were staring at hers, a twitch on a cheek was the only indication that she was not a statue. “Am I just supposed to believe you?” The blonde’s eyes dropped on the ground and she snorted.

“I think the dark circles under my eyes speaks for me.” She emphasized them with two fingers.

Sunny smirked.

“That’s just proves you didn’t sleep, not that you were thinking about me.” She exhaled from her nose, visually aggravated.

“God, you sure are stubborn.” The sky was open above them, crystal blue, not a cloud in sight.

Nevertheless Taeyeon felt as if there was a weight on her stomach and maybe it was because of the girl in jeans in front of her.

She really liked how those jeans swaddled her thighs.

“And you are not much of a lawyer if that is your excuse of an argument!” The pointy nose raised up and her arms crossed made it clear a want of a fight.

She palmed her nape and groaned at nobody but herself. “You are not a client to defend in court or a judge to convince, are you?” Those arms just crossed more.

“Convince me as if I was one, then.” The high and mighty pose almost caused a giggle but she held it in.

Taeyeon took deep breaths and contemplated where this could bring them. “Look, no excuse me, Your Honor.” She saw Sunny hold a smile and kept going. “I am going to give you an embarrassing proof and then I’ll rest my case.” The lips almost stretched and she knew it was working. “In fact in order to fall asleep I had to picture you as my pillow.” She cringed and regretted it immediately, shutting tight her eyelids.

When she found the courage of rising her head there was a soft blush on the other’s cheeks.

“Are you serious right now?” The tone was still strict though.

She throws her hands in the air and then placed them in the pockets of her sweats. “Have I not embarrassed myself enough for you?” Her ears were surely red and she bite the inside of her cheek, what was she doing it for?

Sunny snorted and stared at her with doubting eyes, her hands now in fists by her sides. “I just want you to make up your mind and tell me what you want! Is it really too much to ask?”

“I told you, it’s not that simple.” In fact it was becoming a nightmare, a labyrinth of self-doubt and wrong choices.

The brunette retired her stare, opting to look at the lawn under our feet. “Maybe we just need to let it all go, it wasn’t a good idea anyway.”

It felt as if taking a step forward and losing hundreds every time. She felt go dry and her heart drop. With an hand in her loose hair she cursed in a whisper.

“But you must stop coming at me!” A finger was pointed at her, the intensity behind those words created a shiver up her spine. “You stay at your place, you stop touching me when you don’t have to and God don’t look at me like that.” Taeyeon blinked.

“Like what?” The situation was evading her control.

“Like that! With your eyes like that!” The girl puffed. She got closer with few steps just for Sunny to further their distance. She really hoped no one was listening or looking.

“I am not doing anything with my eyes!” She half screamed and half whispered, the stress making her head thump. Then they heard a loud rumble and the conversation was put on a hold. A black blazing Audi speed until it met the ingress of the house. They saw both brothers getting out and smiling at them. She sighed and glared, a headache staring behind her temples.

The girl at her side tensed and she straighter her back, minding to put a strong. “Can’t we have a moment peace, God it’s starting to frustrate me.”

Taeyeon had to stop from touching, from holding, her hands trembling inside her pockets. “Apparently not. I hate my family, I swear.” The girl blinked at her and huffed. The green at her feet really felt the right thing to watch. Trying to find the strength to enter that den of lions she flinched when a soft hand grabbed her wrist.

Raising her glance she found understanding eyes waiting for her and an half smile. “Come on, we should go. But we’ll continue this got it?” Slowly her fingers filled the spots they seemed created to. Breathing in hard for few seconds she took in the feeling of safety she got from their interlaced hands. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. But I thought I was supposed to stop touching you?”

Sunny gripped her fingers harder. “It doesn’t extend to me.”

She could only grin preparing to the war that was awaiting inside the house.

The tense feeling of watching a stalemate between two gunslingers, she felt it into her bones watching Taeyeon and her brothers staring at each other with a fake sober face.

“Mom and Dad are not here, so drop the façade and tell me what the hell do you want.” The arm practically glued to hers tensed even more.

Dowon smiled immediately, a shark smile, a took a folder from his bag. “This is a list of the activities we’d like to have the management of.” It was a thick folder, with a lot of graphics and numbers.

Taeyeon grasped it with anger and huffed. A eyebrows shoot to the sky at the very first page. “This is nonsense! Dad would never give them to you, and you don’t have the capacity to administrate them. Chose more wisely next time.”

The older brother sat down and shake his head. “You don’t get to decide Big Sis, you really want us to tell dear mommy and daddy about all of this history?”

Sunny saw how Taeyeon’s jaw settled and her back straightened immediately. “Enough of this, I won’t undermine the future of our family and our company for you two.”

The feeling in her gut just got worse, it felt like being on the edge of a cliff and watching the waves crashing under.

Dowon sat down next to his brother, the smile all gone off his face. “Then what eh? You need to do what we tell you. Or I’ll go directly to the medias.”

It seemed to be the wrong thing to say.

“Then do it, you want all our stocks to get under our feet? ing do it, I’ll raise right up. You two? I don’t think so.” It was an angry and raspy declaration of war, she could understand it, and eventually saw the realization on the men.

Finally the stand off ended with Dowon and Jaeho storming out of the house.

The blonde was left in an rage mood, her head in her hands, a scowl on her face. It was humiliating the want to make it all better, she wanted to caress her cheeks and tell her it’d be everything alright. Still on the edge of that cliff trying to summon the wish to not jump or surpass the fear to impact the agitated water below.

“You think they’ll stop now?” It was the first she spoke for about an hour and it was a weak excuse to break the heavy silence.

Taeyeon raised up her head, her eyes still calculating and angry red. “It’s just the beginning. They’d already tried it, in the past but this time they have something real to rely on.”

Yes, and she was that something.

Shallowing she thought about what to say, it wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t her place but the empty sensation in her stomach wouldn’t let her alone. So she stayed in silence, hearing the other breathe, sensing her brain overworking itself until she spoke.

“Maybe I should just tell my parents, preventing the worse. What do you think?” Troubled eyes met hers and she was left speechless. “You said we should be friends, friends gave each other advices. So?” Her glance had an hint of hope, as if she could make it alright with few words.

“I don’t know… I don’t know your parents that well and if it is a right choice.” It dawned on her that they were discussing telling these people that she is an , payed to be with her daughter and that is causing her a lot of trouble. The scenarios that played in her head weren’t optimistic.

Maybe Taeyeon saw that in her eyes and changed her stare, it was sweet now, like something melted deep inside. “You are with me, my responsibility, they won’t do anything to you.” Perhaps was the strong tone or the security behind it that hit hard.

Her life wasn’t one of stability, of safety and warm fuzzy feelings. Her body didn’t know how to react to it, to feel held, to have a parachute ready to save you.

“I am not your responsibility.” The need to don’t give away the control of her fall was fighting with the desire to just let go.

The blond seemed to be able to read her mind, her expressions, and that scared her even more. “Until I bring back you on American ground you are.”

And what happens after?

She smiled lightly, trying to not overthink, to keep both of her feet on the ground. The silence spread and it was dangerous, in the quiet feelings get heavy and bigger, the tension just grows and grows. She wanted to touch, to have the right to crumble.

Taeyeon’s glance was unrelenting, it was stuck on her face, her hand hovering near her hair. “I can’t, right?” It felt like fire on her face, and she wanted to go back to her words.

“You can’t watch me neither, you are already disobeying.” Sunny tried to keep her voice steady but the lump in wasn’t helping. Fingers brushed against her hair, thousands shivers went up her spine. Her body was rebelling against her will.

“I’ll face all the consequences.” Taeyeon’s hand cupped her cheek, tracing half circles with her thumb. She thought it’d escalate, that she was about to kiss her, but the hand traveled south, caressing her neck, then her arm until it got a hold on her own hand.

Shivers just won’t stop, her pride refused to unknowledge them, but the fluttering in her stomach spoke for itself.

“I want to kiss you, it is very selfish of me, but that’s the truth.” The eyes in front of her just got darker, she wished to jump in them.

The words were difficult to articulate when wanted to do other things. “It is…” The fingers holding hers were also playing with her hand, it was another distraction.

Taeyeon got closer gradually, her nose brushing hers but in the end she felt a soft kiss on her cheek, that made her smile big, blushing hard.

Then the blond got up, a grin on her face. “What do you say we’ll go for an early lunch, and I’ll find a way to outsmart the prole of Satan?” The tone got so much lighter that she almost didn’t catch the twitch of discomfort on the other face.

The wish to make it disappear came strong and she immediately got up, taking an arm between her hands. “Only if I get to decide on what kind of restaurant.”

Taeyeon snorted but agreed with a nod.