"Ms. Tiffany, I'm going home. I'll see you later."

The mentioned woman wearing the apron diverted her attention from the stove in the kitchen to where the voice came from, and spotted the teenage girl standing at the kitchen door and greeting her as usual when she finished studying with her daughter.

"Sure, Taeyeon. See you," Tiffany replied with a smile and then quickly realized the time and that the dinner she was making was almost ready, "Oh, and do you want to have dinner with us before you go? It's almost done."

"It's fine," Taeyeon mumbled, flashing a side grin and scratching her head which Tiffany noticed was her habit out of shyness. Heck, she would be lying if she said she didn't find it cute.

"Wae? Just join us! Mom can drive you back home after the dinner. Right, umma?" Yeri who was beside Taeyeon chirped in.

"Of course. I'll drive you home after dinner. Now come on, you two."

"Oh, Yeri-ah, I can't come to study with you this weekend," Taeyeon said, making both her friend and the mother look up from eating.

"Wae?" Yeri casually asked, stuffing a spoonful of rice in .

"I have to go for temple stay with my parents on both days," the short girl replied.

"Temple stay? What for?" The older student questioned with round eyes, all curious, while Taeyeon could also feel the woman's attentive eyes on her.

"I had nightmares since I was a child. And those nightmares recently came back. So, we're going to receive the monks' prayers to make them go away like we did when I was young."

"What nightmares?" Her friend asked again.

"I don't know for sure. Like I was hit by lightening or something."

Yeri had a surprised face at first, and then laughed out loud a few seconds later, holding her stomach,"Hit by lightening? Are you a five-years-old, Kim Taeyeon?"

Taeyeon pouted and squinted her eyes at her friend, "Yah, don't make fun of me when you haven't experienced it yourself. They are really scary." She still had shudders just by thinking of those.

"That's right, honey," Tiffany added, "It's not nice at all to make fun of someone who is being serious."

"Umma, now you're rallying with Taeyeon against your daughter?" Yeri made a sad face.

"I'm on her side because she is right," Tiffany clicked her tongue at the pouting girl.

Taeyeon contained her smile that was almost bursting her face and continued eating, feeling her stomach flutter at the small trivial fact that her friend's mother just sided with her.

"Do you want to listen to music?" The American-Korean woman asked, breaking the silence in the car. She turned the FM on with Taeyeon's eager nod. Flew was the upbeat song named "Dynamite" by BTS.

"Can I change channels?" The young girl carefully asked.

"Of course. Go ahead."

Taeyeon pressed on the small screen to listen to what each channel was airing. Tiffany glanced at her side and smiled at the sight of the teenager focusing on choosing channels with narrowed eyes. She stopped pressing skip button at a particular channel airing the song "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden, looking satisfied.

"Do you know this song?" Tiffany asked the girl who was humming along to the song.

"I do. I actually happen to like a lot of songs from 1990s and 2000s. I mostly listen to them."

Tiffany looked at her in awe, "That's unique of you. You weren't even born yet when those songs were popular. Don't the kids around your age like Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and those kpop groups...what are they called again? Right, like BTS, Blackpink or New Jeans?"

"I know, right?" Taeyeon replied with a shrug, "my taste in music is quite oldschool."

The two people smiled at each other and then fell into a comfortable silence with the sound of serene music in the car.

Until both of them broke the silence in unison a few minutes later.

"By the way," "Oh, and,"

They both chuckled briefly at the coincidence. "You first," Tiffany nudged her chin at the young lady.

"Today, Yeri invited me to her birthday party next Tuesday. Told me it'll be a small home party."

The teen's mother nodded with a smile, "Actually I was about to invite you just now. And yes, it's gonna be a small party at home with the people close to her. Including you, of course. You're coming, right?"

"Of course, Ms," Taeyeon agreed eagerly, "Please do c