Taeyeon had become quite close to Tiffany from work.

Surprisingly, their polar opposite energies complemented each other perfectly and made for quite a synergistic friendship.  Although Taeyeon was a few months older than Tiffany, Tiffany took care of Taeyeon as if she was her younger sister, introducing her to new people and pulling her out of her comfort zone.  It was Tiffany who made Taeyeon feel more at ease during office events and other high-pressure social situations, and made sure that the introverted Taeyeon was included in everything and didn't just stay inside all the time.  In turn, Taeyeon proved to be a wonderful friend to Tiffany, always sticking by her side and lending her a listening ear.  She was a terrific listener and gave Tiffany advice on things ranging from work troubles to her love life.

It was another uneventful day at the office, a little quieter than usual, if anything.  Taeyeon was focusing hard at her desk, trying to incorporate all the advice Jessica had given her into her improved sample designs for the sneaker campaign.  For some reason, her creativity just wasn't at its peak and she remained unsatisfied with her work no matter what edits she made, no matter which angles she viewed it from.  It was actually lunchtime and Taeyeon was running low on energy, but she was unaware of that, being too hyperfixated on work.

“Taeng, stop working already!  Let's go grab lunch.”  Tiffany’s voice came up behind her, seemingly out of nowhere, startling Taeyeon.

“Oh my g- Don’t do that!” Taeyeon fake-scolded, putting her hand over her heart.  Tiffany laughed.  “Okay.  How about the others?”

“Hm, Seohyun is on leave, Kyuhyun went out to meet his girlfriend, and Jess and Donghae are at that innovation meeting, remember?  So it's just us.”

“Oh, right,” Taeyeon replied, trying to keep her face neutral at the sudden mention of Jessica.  She was relieved, though, that she was only going to be having lunch with Tiffany today.  Relieved, and a little disappointed.  Taeyeon hated to admit it, but a small part of her looked forward to her daily interactions with Jessica, no matter how trivial.  She saw them as tiny challenges, accomplishments to unlock.  That if she, one day, managed to surpass enough of them, she would find some sort of closure.  But that was just silly.

Taeyeon and Tiffany decided to just have lunch at the office cafeteria, since neither of them felt like walking somewhere further away.

While they were queuing up to collect their trays of food, Tiffany suddenly punched Taeyeon in the arm, a little too roughly, and Taeyeon almost fell over.  People tended to overestimate her strength.

“Oh, yeah!”  Tiffany exclaimed.  “Jess told me yesterday that you and her were classmates in high school.  How come you never told me?  Is that why you guys are so awkward?  That's hilarious!”

“Ah, yeah…” Taeyeon smiled, but it came out more like a grimace as her mind rapidly ran through thousands of possibilities.  They collected their food and found a table to sit at and start eating.  Taeyeon asked, “What exactly did she say?”

“Oh, it just sort of came out,” Tiffany said casually, unaware of Taeyeon’s discomfort.  “We were talking about the past and Jess said something about knowing you in high school, so obviously I asked her about it.  She didn't seem very keen on talking about it, though.  Wait… neither do you.  Oh, were you guys, like, rivals or something?”

“No no, it’s nothing like that.  I wasn't really part of Jessica’s friend group, that's all,” Taeyeon responded.  Technically, she wasn't lying.  She realised that there was no way to grill Tiffany on what exactly Jessica had sa