CHAPTER ONE.

 

Begin.

 

It was cold. The weather was gloomy and the rain has not stopped falling all day. It was supposed to be the time for sunset but instead, Tiffany saw skies outside her room’s window. 

 

Pink skies.

 

Somehow, the scene makes her feel a lot of emotions. Emotions she couldn’t name and yet have capabilities to make her tear up.

 

She drew a heart on the foggy window pane and she heard a loud sound coming outside her room. It was her parents fighting. Again.

 

“Where will you go? Come back here! We’re not done talking!” she heard her mother yelled and rustles of suitcase tiny wheels could be heard screeching on the floor.

 

“I’m through with you always putting the blame on me! I’m through with this suffocating marriage with you!” she heard her father yell back.

 

There was a minute of silence so she opened her door to peek before she saw her mother utter some words.

 

“How about our daughter?” 

 

And her father said some words that made her heart clenched. Words she would remember until forever.

 

“For god sake, she’s fifteen! She’s old enough to take care of herself. Keep her. I don’t care about it anymore.”

 

She saw her father aggressively closed the door and her mother knelt on the floor and sobbed when her father was gone. Her mother was too prideful to show her father that she was hurt.

 

They said the worst kind of pain is the one you cannot put into words. They’re right.

 

Tiffany closed her bedroom door softly, she heard thunder roared outside. When she looked at the window, the heart she drew was gone with the wind. It was already dark. And Tiffany hasn’t noticed the sunlight so much ever since.

 

***

 

She felt like there was a fire on her feet every time she stepped out of her room and looked at her mother and her newly built family. When she saw her mother sitting on the couch with her stepdad and a baby on her lap, Tiffany felt like she didn’t belong. She felt like a stranger in her own home.

 

She was seventeen. She ran away home. She didn’t know why. She wondered why love was so easy to be replaced or abandoned.

 

She left a note: Please don’t look for me. I want to stay away.

 

All she took with her were the self-inflicted wounds that she kept in secret ever since she was fifteen. They said with every wound, there’s a light that comes out but she hasn’t seen the light. She doesn’t know if she would ever have the privilege to see it.

 

Nobody knows her pain. Nobody relates to her. Nobody will ever understand.

 

She had one dream, to survive alone and prove that she can make it alone.

 

Looking at the skies, the weather was harshed. She hugged herself on a street bench watching people around her passing by. Someone draped her a jacket. An old lady with a warm smile.

 

“Do you have somewhere to go?” She asked, obvious concern laced in her voice. 

 

“I...No.” Tiffany shook her head embarrassedly. She was young and stupid to go out without a plan but her emotions and her feelings overwhelmed her. She convinced herself that this is the right choice.

 

“Would you be interested in a job?”

 

Tiffany nodded her head frantically, “I’ll take anything I can right now.”

 

The old lady took her towards an ice cream shop with huge signage.

 

‘Wanted: Ice cream vendor.’

 

It was winter. The ice cream was not popular during that season. Would this old lady really post that advertisement? It screams hypothermia. Nevertheless, she needed a job.

 

“I see you’re a minor?” the old lady said as they sat with each other face to face to assess Tiffany’s capabilities.

 

“I don’t see that as an issue of me working,” Tiffany said with no emotions showing on her face.

 

“Do you still study?”

 

“It’s winter break but I will enrol next semester once I save enough.” The old lady looked at Tiffany sympathetically.

 

“What about your parents?” The old lady carefully asked Tiffany to just look down and fidget her fingers. After a minute of silence, Tiffany decided to tell the best answer she could say.

 

“They’re gone.”

 

“I’m sorry to hear that, do you have a place to stay?”

 

“I-I...I don’t.”

 

“I have a spare room and a daughter, maybe she and you could be great friends.” The old lady warmly smiled at her and held her hands. It scared Tiffany a little to see how this woman reflects the look of her mother.

 

“I don’t want to impose,” Tiffany hesitated.

 

“I’m a single mom that lives with my daughter the same age as yours. I don’t see an additional person at home could be a nuisance.”

 

“But I’m a stranger?”

 

“Can you be trusted, Tiffany?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“You can start working tomorrow, my daughter is also on her winter break. She can help you.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“It’s nothing.”

 

“But, Mrs Kim… Why ice cream during winter?” Tiffany curiously asked.

 

“My daughter loves to eat ice cream so much that she insists that it’s food for all seasons.” the old woman chuckled.

 

“What a peculiar girl,” Tiffany commented and could only wonder who Mrs Kim’s daughter was.

 

***

 

Peculiar. Odd. Weird. Strange. 

 

Four words that came into Tiffany’s mind the moment she met Mrs Kim’s daughter. Tiffany could swear she is the palest girl she has ever seen. It’s like the girl hasn’t gone out of the house for the longest time and sunlight hasn’t kissed her skin.

 

She’s a winter child.

 

Tiffany looked at the obnoxious eyes who were staring at her, Tiffany noticed that her presence might not be welcomed by Mrs Kim’s daughter. It’s funny how she left home due to feeling like a stranger in her own home just to feel like a stranger in other people’s homes.

 

Since neither of the two wanted to break their staring contest, Mrs Kim was the first to speak.

 

“Tiffany, meet my daughter, Taeyeon. Tiffany will live with us for the meantime.”

 

Tiffany was the first to offer her hand, “It’s nice to meet you. I’ll be working with you in selling ice creams from now on,”

 

Taeyeon looked at her hand and to Mrs Kim, “I told you, I don’t need help.” the girl sighed and went upstairs like Tiffany didn’t exist.

 

How rude.

 

“I don’t think she likes me,” Tiffany told Mrs Kim. 

 

Mrs Kim looked at Tiffany apologetically, “Don’t worry, she’ll come around soon. Meanwhile, I’ll show you your room.”

 

“Here are some clothes for you, I think they fit you. The shower’s on the right side of the corridor.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Tiffany looked around her room, she saw pictures of children at the frame. And another frame with young Taeyeon and some friends. Taeyeon was smiling in the photo.

 

‘If only she smiles like that at me.’ she thought.

 

Once Mrs Kim left her room, Tiffany could only think of how kind-hearted Mrs Kim in contrast with her daughter, Taeyeon. 

 

“It’s not like I’m going to stay here forever, I just need money.” Tiffany sighed, she saw the gloomy skies on the windowpane as the snow fell down and melted down once it reached the ground.

 

Grey skies.

 

She wonders what kind of life awaits her future.

 

After dinner without Taeyeon’s presence, she took a shower to clear her mind and wore an oversize tee that Mrs Kim lent to her. She bumped into somebody on the corridor as she mindlessly walked towards her room.

 

“I’m sorry...Taeyeon?” Tiffany could just say as she hid both of her hands at her back and looked at Taeyeon’s stunned expression.

 

“T-That’s my shirt!” Taeyeon stuttered as she blinked a few times and gulped as if she lacked air. 

 

RIght, this is Taeyeon’s shirt.

 

Tiffany exasperatedly sighed, “Right, I’ll give it back to you once I bought mine.”

 

“Y-You don’t really need to be here,” Taeyeon softly said as she looked down embarrassed, almost apologetic. Tiffany could only raise her brows in confusion.

 

“I know you don’t want me to be here and you don’t like me, I’ll move out once I have my first salary and rent somewhere,” Tiffany explained.

 

Taeyeon was about to say something else but decided to just walk past Tiffany.

 

‘She hates me,’ Tiffany thought.

 

***

 

It was slow. Tiffany could just watch the clock ticking while Taeyeon was just staring at the ice cream melting at the machine. Of course, it’s winter. Who would want ice cream during the winter? No one dares to say a word with each other. But Tiffany appreciates this comfortable silence. Something that she never experienced before. No shouting, no yelling, no crying just being still.

 

She was staring at Taeyeon’s figure and wondering what kind of person she really was. She was about to conclude that Taeyeon is arrogant, weird and hates her 100% until the bell on the shop chimed and they got their first customers when the sun was about to set.

 

She saw Taeyeon’s face lit up.

 

“Hi, welcome to Kim’s ice cream shop. Please choose your flavour.” Taeyeon enthusiastically said. Enthusiasm is the last thing that Tiffany would ever think that Taeyeon has but today it surprised her to see Taeyeon at different light and with a smile on her face.

 

It was two young girls.

 

“Yeri unnie, I want mint!” the younger girl pointed at the tubbed display excitedly.

 

“Okay, Dahyunnie…” The older girl was about to order until the younger girl pointed out a different flavour.

 

“Yeri unnie, I think I want mango!”

 

“Dahyun, make up your mind.” The girl named Yeri sighed and Taeyeon helped them to choose.

 

“How about you take both flavours so she can taste both?” Taeyeon suggested.

 

“But it’s winter, she might have a cold,” Yeri awkwardly explained and the younger girl named Dahyun whined.

 

“Yeri unnie, ice cream is a food for all seasons!”

 

Once again, Tiffany saw the flickering light on Taeyeon’s eyes.

 

“My daughter loves to eat ice cream so much that she insists that it’s food for all seasons,” Tiffany remembered Mrs Kim’s words about Taeyeon.

 

It seems like the little girl shares the same sentiments as Taeyeon.

 

“Here’s your ice cream!” Taeyeon gave the young Dahyun a high-five before she gave a cone with an extra scoop on it.

 

“Wow, unnie. You’re the best!” Kid Dahyun said.

 

“Should I pay for the extra scoop?” Yeri asked.

 

Taeyeon shook her head and smiled, “Nope, it’s on the house.”

 

“When I grow up, I want to work here with these pretty unnies!” Young Dahyun said as she looked at Tiffany and Taeyeon and Yeri shook her head as she raffled the younger’s hair.

 

“Thank you, unnie. We’ll go now.”

 

“You’re welcome, come back again Dahyun!” Taeyeon waved them goodbye.

 

“Take care!” Tiffany just smiled at them.

 

“Bye pretty unnies!” Young Dahyun waved and held her Yeri unnie’s hand as they made their way out of the shop.

 

Taeyeon was so happy she was smiling all the time until she noticed Tiffany staring at her and she frowned.

 

“W-What?”

 

Tiffany shook her head and said, “Nothing, you just look pretty when you smile. You should do it a lot.”

 

And Taeyeon was left speechless.

 

“Why do you always remain silent? You don’t say anything,”

 

“It’s none of your business.”

 

It becomes a habit.

 

***

 

There was a commotion upstairs and Tiffany checked it, it was Taeyeon and her mom having an argument. Taeyeon’s ears were red and Mrs Kim had a deflated expression.

 

“I don’t need her,” Taeyeon exclaimed.

 

“But it’s been years since you had a friend… I’m worried about you.” Mrs Kim tried to comfort Taeyeon but Taeyeon stood up and slapped her hand away.

 

“All that other people do is lure me and hurt me in the end. She’s just like them! I will never approve of her!” Taeyeon scoffed as she took heavy breaths in and out.

 

“Taeyeon… Just because some people hurt you doesn’t mean your whole world has to stop as well. I understand that you were hurt but not everyone's the same, it hurts me to see you alone,” Mrs Kim explained and that took Taeyeon aback.

 

“Please think about it.”

 

Then Taeyeon went down the stairs and saw Tiffany.

 

“I-I...Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt or something.”

 

Taeyeon looked at her in the eye, it’s like she’s conveying a message that she couldn't decode. Her eyes were soft and fragile until she frowned and suddenly it was blank.

 

“Stay out of my way.”

 

‘Some people are such treasures that you just want to bury them.’ Tiffany clenched her fist.

 

***

 

For weeks, Tiffany got used to Taeyeon’s silence as they worked in the ice cream shop. She also got used to the fact that Taeyeon ignores her when they’re at home but she takes no offence. She was about to leave when she got her first salary but Mrs Kim insisted she continues working at the shop so she stayed and it’s advantageous on her side as well to save some money for her next semester.

 

It was all quiet until someone entered a shop. A customer she didn’t want to see. 

 

Her dad.

 

“For god sake, she’s fifteen! She’s old enough to take care of herself. Keep her. I don’t care about it anymore.” His words still rang inside her head. It made Tiffany remember everything. The heart on the windowpane, the pink skies, her father walking out the door and her mother kneeling on the floor.

 

Especially the darkness that is still consuming her up to now.

 

“Hi, welcome to our shop!” Taeyeon greeted but her smile was cut off with Tiffany’s unfriendly tone.

 

“Get out.” Tiffany coldly said and Taeyeon looked at Tiffany as her eyes widened.

 

“T-That’s not how you treat the customers...” Taeyeon sensed the tense atmosphere and immediately went silent.

 

“He’s not a customer,” Tiffany curtly said.

 

“Please come back home,” the old man tried to reach out for Tiffany but Tiffany backed away.

 

“I don’t have a home.”

 

“Your mom’s looking for you,”

 

“Tell her not to look for me.”

 

“Tiffany…You're our daughter, don’t be like this.”

 

“Did you think I was your daughter when you left me?”

 

Her father was quiet until he was able to form up the right words he could say, “It was a mistake.”

 

“I don’t need you now. Please leave.”

 

“You’re only seventeen and you need my support!”

 

“You didn’t have the same sentiment when I was fifteen.”

 

The bitter words sipped to her father’s heart but Tiffany has been hurting long enough as well. Her father left the ice cream shop with a heavy heart and Tiffany fought all her feelings just not to break down in front of Taeyeon. Taeyeon saw her knuckles turning white as she gripped on her apron tightly.

 

“You told my mom your parents are dead.” Taeyeon carefully said.

 

“They’re dead to me.” Tiffany stoically commented.

 

Everything was quiet until someone broke in. It was Taeyeon who initiated the conversation with her for the first time.

 

“You know, my father died when I was seven,” Tiffany looked at Taeyeon and her eyebrows furrowed upon the change of behaviour. “I told my father I’m going to have the best ice cream store in Seoul and make him proud in the future.”

 

“Is that why you sell ice cream during winter?” Tiffany sarcastically said.

 

Taeyeon nodded and asked Tiffany a question she had no answers, “How will you make your loved ones happy, Tiffany?”

 

And this time, it was Tiffany that was left speechless.

 

Tiffany feels like Taeyeon is crazy, but sometimes she makes sense.

 

She needs to run away from this town.

 

***

 

For days, Taeyeon keeps observing Tiffany. Tiffany was aware but getting used to Taeyeon’s peculiar attitude, she just let the latter stare at her. Her stares weigh so much meaning even though she hasn’t spoken a thing towards her. She stretched her hands as she yawned getting used to the phase of the customers at the ice cream shop.

 

She saw Taeyeon’s eyes widen, she realized Taeyeon must have seen her wrist so she immediately covered it up and avoided the judgemental gaze given to her by the latter. Maybe, pretending to be asleep is the best method not to talk about the issues she refused to talk about openly.

 

When they arrived home, it surprised her when Taeyeon called her out while the latter was inside the bathroom.

 

“Come here,” Taeyeon called her as she walked down the corridor.

 

“Is that an invitation? I have never been invited to the bathroom before.” Tiffany jokingly said but she was dragged inside by Taeyeon as she locked the door.

 

“What the are you doing?” Tiffany asked and Taeyeon rolled up her sleeves, “Since when?” Taeyeon took her wrists and stared at her eyes.

 

Tiffany slapped Taeyeon’s hands off her, “Be silent. This is not your affair.”

 

She left Taeyeon dumbfounded inside the bathroom.

 

She doesn’t need anybody’s judgement on how she lives her life. She just needs the money so she can run away again. Far away in a place where nobody knows her and she could peacefully start a new life.

 

Then she saw Mrs Kim’s gold infinity necklace that surely was worth much on the table.

 

Nobody is responsible if you are on the wrong path.

 

Tiffany could only blame herself.

 

She stole it and ran away from the house of the people who only showed kindness to her when she’s at her lowest point. Maybe, she’s no different from her father.

 

***

 

Karma is a . The biggest of all. 

 

Tiffany found herself all beat on the dark alley. She was robbed after she robbed the household of people who trust her. She lost the gold infinity necklace.

 

“Pathetic.”

 

She sat up and looked at the darkness around her, “I’m tired of living my life like this.”

 

“Can I just skip days like this...Please take me to the best day of my life,” she whispered in the wind and she saw vivid colours forming on the darkest side of the alley and heard someone whisper in her ears.

 

A figure in blue and silver dust. 

 

“Your wish is my command.”

 

And she lost consciousness.

 

***

 

Once Tiffany snapped out her trance, she found herself in a different place.

 

‘Where am I?’ she asked herself as she looked around and saw a familiar girl in front of her. It was Taeyeon. But this Taeyeon looks more mature. Her hair is blonde, her face is no longer pale, it was pinkish. And her voice is a little bit deeper and huskier. She was so confused about why and how she got there that she missed Taeyeon’s words.

 

“It looks good on you,” Taeyeon said with so much adoration and love in her voice.

 

“I’m sorry, what was it again?” Tiffany asked.

 

She found herself standing right in front of a girl who was in the middle of proposing.

 

“What I’m saying is that we’re 27 and we’re not getting any younger anymore, I love you and I want to spend my life with you.”

 

“What?! Who’s 27 again?” Tiffany was shocked.

 

“Are you okay?” Taeyeon touched her forehead briefly and Tiffany could just flinch. This Taeyeon is way bolder than the Taeyeon she knew.

 

Then she saw the blue figure and the silver dust forming on a distant and she heard her own voice inside her head, “Please take me to the best day of my life.”

 

“.”

 

“Fany? You looked distressed.” Taeyeon said in concern.

 

‘Fany? She calls me that? Since when?’

 

“I can’t believe this,” Tiffany uttered.

 

She wants to run away again. But Taeyeon held her still and looked her in the eye, “I love you. Please spend a lifetime with me?”

 

‘NO!’ she was about to utter until she felt the blue figure staring and shaking its head and some invisible force from the silver dust smacked her head.

 

That made her knees weak. Then she heard a voice inside her head, “Say yes or you’ll ruin the best day of your life.”

 

Reluctantly, she closed her eyes and said, “Y-Yes.”

 

And Taeyeon gave her a kiss she will never forget.

 

Blue skies.

 

That’s the last thing she saw before her time stood still.

 

The silver dust disappeared along with the blue figure. 

 

***

 

She found herself staring at the space. “I’m 27 and I have a fiancee and it’s Kim Taeyeon.” She repeats the sentence like a mantra as she stares at Taeyeon as the latter cooks their dinner.

 

Out of all people in the world, why must it be Kim Taeyeon? The girl who hated her when she was 17. The girl who treated her like she was nothing.

 

“Mom is coming to have dinner with us,” Taeyeon said.

 

“Mrs Kim?”

 

“Yes, mom?” Taeyeon chuckled, “The last time you called her Mrs Kim, she gave you a huge lecture. Have you forgotten?”

 

“I honestly forget a lot of things,” Tiffany said honestly as she sighed and slumped her face at the kitchen counter. Seeing Taeyeon with a warm personality makes her feel odd. 

 

“Don’t act so cute, I might burn the steak.” Taeyeon pinched her cheeks and resumed cooking.

 

“You used to not like me, what changed?” Tiffany asked curiously. 

 

“That was like what? Ten years ago! And yes, I didn’t like you. I was very useless and experienced chaotic things and foreign feelings every time I approached you. And I really thought mom forced you to work in the ice cream shop with me just for me to have a friend because my social life was a mess. But there was a saying that the more you hate a person, the more you love them, right? Hence, I hated you the first time and I might have loved you at the same time.”

 

“So, you liked me the first time you saw me?” Tiffany leaned closer and smirked, she thought Taeyeon was going to get flabbergasted but she was wrong, Taeyeon leaned closer as well, their foreheads touched, and Taeyeon smiled so charmingly at her as she speaks, “The first time I saw you I knew you were special,”

 

Tiffany is swooned. 

 

'She's beautiful. ' Tiffany was surprised why she never saw this side of Taeyeon before. 

 

Then they heard someone walk in, “Ehem, so what’s the name of the baby?”

 

“Mom! I just got Fany as my future wife. Don’t jinx this please!” Taeyeon whined.

 

“Mrs Kim!” Tiffany was shocked to see the kind woman who took her in during her lowest point in life, she gave her a tight hug as she cried. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to steal the infinity necklace! I’m so sorry,”

 

That golden infinity necklace she lost. She feels bad about it. But she saw Mrs Kim laugh about it.

 

“I thought we had the talk that you’ll call me mom? Especially now that Taeyeon and you are going to be married…And that infinity necklace that hangs on your neck, I gave it to Taeyeon to give it to you to symbolize your infinite love for each other. So stop thinking that you’re stealing it from me.”

 

‘Hangs on my neck?’ Tiffany looked at the pendant and was shocked, ‘How on Earth did it get here?’

 

“It looks good on you,” Mrs Kim commented, Taeyeon frowned when she saw the looks on Tiffany’s face.

 

“Mom, why did you make her cry?” Taeyeon worriedly approached Tiffany to dry her tears. “Please don’t cry,”

 

“Come here fools and give me a hug!” Mrs Kim engulfed the two with a tight hug, “Don’t you dare break up or I’m going to get mad!” 

 

“I will never leave Fany!” Taeyeon promised and looked at Tiffany lovingly before they heard a series of beep sounds.

 

“Taeyeon, your steak is burning!”

 

“OH GOD!”

 

Tiffany looked at Mrs Kim and Taeyeon who were busy tending to the burning steak in the kitchen. Maybe being 27 and having Kim Taeyeon in her life isn’t a bad idea.

 

***

 

When the day ended, Tiffany woke up on the dark alley again. She saw the vivid colours forming again. The blue figure started to swirl in silver dust and whispered: Two wishes left.

 

“Please take me back to the time I regret the most.”

 

The blue figure snapped its fingers as the silver dust swirled around it.

 

“Your wish is my command.”

 

Tiffany found herself back to the time she stole the infinity necklace. She smiled and put it back on the table and sighed. She heard footsteps and saw the seventeen-year-old Taeyeon glaring at her.

 

“You’re going to steal it, aren’t you?” 

 

Tiffany chuckled, she saw Taeyeon, the winter child version again. Who would have thought she’s the summer that’s going to melt Taeyeon’s winter season? She walked towards Taeyeon and Taeye