They're sitting at a cafe again. Talking and drinking hot beverages. Sometimes a fan of Taeyeon's comes up to the booth to ask for an autograph or a selfie. It's calm for the most part since paps aren't allowed in the establishment. Sometimes the fans interact with Tiffany as well. Some glare, but Taeyeon doesn't entertain them for long. Those who pay her compliments or are generally pleasant earn more time with Taeyeon. Tiffany supposes it makes sense. Of course, she'd protect her girlfriend like that. Tiffany doesn't like how fluttery the word girlfriend makes her feel.

 "Oh, , I have to take this," Tiffany says as she notices Hyoyeon calling her. Taeyeon nods and goes to get refills of their drinks to give her privacy. It was a bit off-putting how considerate she'd proved to be. They'd been dating, if you could call it that, for a week now. It was Friday once again, at around lunchtime.

 "Hi, Hyo." She greets pleasantly.

 "Hello, Miyoung. Remember when I asked you about the Christmas fundraiser?"

 "I do."

 "So, you'll be receiving a formal invite soon, but I thought to let you know myself. All you'll have to do is show up and we've got you covered!"

 "Oh, okay. What am I doing there exactly?"

 "You'll be our auctioning piece," Hyoyeon says this as if it's perfectly normal to auction someone off. "By the way, do you mind me asking what's your uality? Specifically."

 "I'm bi. Like, biual." Taeyeon comes back at that exact moment. Her lips are twitching like she wants to say something. "Why do you wanna know?"

 "Oh, it's for your sales speech."

 "You're- you're selling me? Hold on, what is this auction thing-" Taeyeon's expression hardens and she scoots closer to Tiffany. She really tries to ignore her fake-girlfriend's possessive streak, but it's impossible.

 "A businessperson buys a date with you and the money goes to charity!" It would've been fine with Tiffany if only she'd been aware of this beforehand.

 "A random chump will buy me for a night? Um-" Taeyeon's expression is stormy, her twinkling eyes dark like the night sky and mouth twisted into a harsh scowl.

 "No, no, you'll be connected to a restaurant. I think you'll be going to one of Donghyun's brother's places." Donghyun was Hyoyeon's husband and Sunny's cousin.

 "Uhuh..." Tiffany sighs. "Fine. I'll RSVP the invite." Taeyeon gapes at her. 

 "Great! Can't wait to see you!"

 "Byebye!" Tiffany says into the receiver before hanging up. Taeyeon's arm snakes around her back and pulls her snug to her side. Tiffany doesn't say anything, only sighs and closes her eyes. Taeyeon was a very touchy person and she had learned to just accept it in the week they'd been 'together'. And, begrudgingly, she had to admit that Taeyeon touching her wasn't all that bad. Maybe she was a bit touch-starved. So, she takes a sip of her drink, black coffee with no extras, and leans into Taeyeon's body just a little bit.

 "You're being sold? At an auction?" Taeyeon's tone is clipped and her hand squeezes Tiffany's waist, fingers worming under her shirt to touch bare skin. She fights a shiver.

 "It's a company thing. Something about LGBTQ+ charity for Christmas. I don't know." She looks around, not wanting to look at Taeyeon directly, and sees that there's a gaggle of teenagers shuffling about awkwardly. They're probably wary to approach when she and Taeyeon are sitting so close and being... Couply.

 "You've got fans." She nods in the teens' direction.

 "I don't care." Tiffany turns to Taeyeon in surprise. "My girlfriend is apparently being auctioned somewhere. I have more important stuff to do than entertain fans."

 "That'd hurt their feelings." The teens take their seats, still staring in their direction. Tiffany's pretty sure they're filming them.

 "You know what's hurting my feelings? That you're dodging this topic." She turns back to Taeyeon. She looks hurt and Tiffany is confused. Why would she be concerned about her fake-girlfriend going on a date? Sure, publicity, but Taeyeon didn't seem to care much for that and the press wouldn't know about this in the first place. It's private company matters.

 "It's nothing, Taeyeon. It's just a date at one of Lee's restaurants." 

 "When?"

 "I don't know! I haven't even received the formal invite yet. Would you please stop interrogating me when I don't have any answers?"

 "Fine. When you do have answers, just tell me. I'm not comfortable with you going on a date with another person."

 "It's not like it would mean anything." She rolls her eyes. "It's not gonna be love at first sight. I'll still be your girlfriend, ."

 "Damn right you will." Taeyeon's voice is gritty as she leans closer to Tiffany, as close as she was a week ago in the car. This time, they're in a public space and Tiffany is too stunned to strategize an escape route. Also during the last week, the crush Tiffany had harboured for Taeyeon years ago had somehow come back alive. It was ridiculous and stupid, totally senseless on her part. Taeyeon might've been possessive of her, but that couldn't be anything but an objective desire. There was no way Taeyeon wanted to-

 "I really want to kiss you right now..." Welp. Tiffany's face goes beet red and she panics. She gulps down all of her coffee and ignores how it burns on the way down.

 "Too bad, Miss Popstar, not happening." She pushes Taeyeon away with her pointer finger on her forehead. Taeyeon whines petulantly. Crisis averted.

 "Would you just let me kiss youuuu..."

 "No."

 "Why?"

 "One, we're in public and two, I don't want to and, finally, three you don't deserve it." Taeyeon looks at her as if she's sprouting horns.

 "One, we can kiss in public, the company would like and I would like it. Very much." Tiffany hates how her hands tremble as she fiddles with her empty mug. Taeyeon leans closer. "Two, it's okay if you don't want to. And three, what can I do to deserve it?" She's speaking right up against Tiffany's ear, whispering intimately as real couples would. Tiffany's dizzy, it's too much too quickly.

 "Oh, I don't know, maybe you could respect my boundaries, you dingleberry."

 "I'm really trying my best here to woo you and you call me a dingleberry? Tiffany. Tiffany, really?"

 That's how most of their dates have gone in the past week. Tiffany's pretty content with it, aside from the fact that day by day, it's getting harder to ignore the singing of her heart. But it's fine. Once Taeyeon gets sick of her she'll go back to being mundane and ordinary. It'll be fine.

 (No, it won't. You're jinxing it. You're really jinxing it.)