"No. I am fine, I just have a headache after all." 

"You have a headache, that is not okay. You seemed pretty effected back on the bus. Which way is your home?" Tiffany insisted on going to her house first.

Reluctantly, Taeyeon pointed behind her towards the direction of her home. Then the two walked together.

The man followed.

———

On the walk home it was quiet. Taeyeon was just thinking about what she experienced earlier, Tiffany walked beside Taeyeon in silence.

After a few minutes, Taeyeon gave up on trying to figure out what went through her head and took a deep breath. As she turned to face Tiffany, she heard a faint set of foot steps behind them. She looked back and there was only one person behind them, so she turned back to Tiffany.

“Hey.” 

“Hey, are you alright?” 

“I think so, sorry, just had a lot on my mind.” Taeyeon half smiled, kind of glad Tiffany came with her or else she might had to deal with the situation on her own. Before, even if it was just her stepparents she was glad, but then again, none of them were as good as Yoona when it comes to giving her comfort. 

“What happened back on the bus, was it something I said? I didn’t mean to call you weird, I...”

“Nah, just a lot of things happened today. And how did you come up with the name TaeTae?”

“I don’t know. It just sounded right and you know what? Taeyeon is a mouthful.” Tiffany teased.

“A mouthful? Yah, your name takes longer to say than mine. You should just shorten it to Pany instead.” 

“Pany? Fany? I think most people just call me Tiff.” Tiffany stated, amused at her creativity.

“Most people call me Yeon, and you call me TaeTae. Hmmm.” 

“No they do not, what kind of nickname is Yeon? You think I am dumb?” Tiffany rolled her eyes and she realized something, “You know you are actually quite nice to talk with right now. Why can’t you be like this when we were at school?”

“Don’t know. I just don’t like places with a lot of people. I like to do my own things on my own. People just distracts me.”

“I see.” Tiffany always had the charisma to meet new people if she wanted to. However, she did realize that she has not met any new friends so far, perhaps it was because she is too interested in the girl walking next to her.

They walked along quietly for a few minutes, and the footsteps could still be heard not far behind them.

A few more steps later, Taeyeon glanced back again only to see the same man following them. Confused, she held onto Tiffany’s hand and walked quickly towards a small gate, which leads to a shortcut to her home. She looked really focused for the moment, so Tiffany didn’t say a word.

After they reached the end of the pathway, Taeyeon looked around for a blunt object. 

“Taeyeon? TaeTae! What are you doing?” Tiffany looked back at the pathway and was not able to see anyone.

“This is too thick. No, not this one.” Taeyeon flipped through a pile of junk laying on the ground. Then found an empty ceramic vase, “this is perfect.”

Taeyeon step