“Ilsan High School Family Day 2022”

The big banner at the school's main gate greeted its students and their respective families who were entering the school with excitement and glee.

At one spot on the broad green lawn of the school campus compound, one particular high-schooler was chatting with her parents before a sharp voice and skipping footsteps approached.

“Taeyeon-ah!”

The mentioned student grinned at the sight of her friend running toward her, looking all cheery in her school sport uniform.

“Hi, Yeri.”

“Hi hi!” the happy girl put her arms around her shorter friend's shoulder, then noticed the presence of two other people beside her, “oh, Taeyeon's mom and dad, right? Annyeonghaseyo, I'm Yeri!” she greeted with an enthusiastic bow.

Boa beamed at the girl full of energy, finding her cute, “I've seen your photos and heard about you from Taeyeon a lot and now I finally get to see you. You look way more adorable and pretty in person,” she complimented which earned a bashful giggle from the girl.

Meanwhile, Taeyeon was looking behind Yeri where a certain person no other than her mother was standing. As she started to wonder how in the world someone could look dazzling like a princess in just a white t-shirt and denim jeans, the woman noticed her gaze and briefly smiled at her. Taeyeon smiled back awkwardly, looked away and cleared , feeling as if she just got caught.

“And let me introduce to you,” Yeri pulled  the hand of her mother who was behind her, “this is my mom.”

“Hello, I'm Yeri's mom, Tiffany,” the lady greeted casually.

Boa and Changmin both returned the greeting, “Yeri's mom is also a true beauty in person! I've been telling Taeyeon that Yeri must take after her mother,” Boa said, “it must be rude of me to ask about age at the first time we meet but you're not still in your 20’s, right? As Yeri is already at the same age as our Taeyeonnie.”

“Ah, umma! What's wrong with you? It's embarrassing,” Taeyeon slightly nudged her mother's side, silently telling her to stop.

Tiffany chuckled and shook her head, “Not at all. I'm turning 39 this year actually.”

“Omo, really?” Boa gasped, “But you look-“

A loud bell ringing sound interrupted their conversation, followed by the instruction from the microphone of the event host.

“All students and families, welcome to Ilsan High School Family Day 2022! I would like to introduce about today’s agenda so everyone, please gather in front of the stage!”

“It's starting. Come on, let's go!” Yeri pulled Taeyeon's hand, dragging her toward the stage while the parents closely followed behind.

“This is how you do it?” Tiffany mumbled, adjusting the top of the sack bag that nearly reached her chest.

The agenda of the day was to start off with a series of sports activities in which two families team up and compete with other groups, and as expected, Taeyeon's and Yeri's families teamed up. The first game was to jump toward the designated finishing line in group while wearing one huge sack bag altogether.

“Yup umma,” Yeri explained, “we all wear this bag and jump toward the finish line. So we have to jump in unison so that we don’t fall and get there fast.”

“Okay.”

Taeyeon stared at the woman who was looking like a lost puppy, feeling amused. In fact, she wanted to about that but she still didn't dare to, when both their families were also present.

“So are all the teams ready?”

The voice of the host immediately got the families get into ready posture at the starting line, with excitement and nervousness written on their faces.

“In 3...2...1...go!”

With the loud whistle sound, everyone started group jumping in their sack bags, some moving forward and some already falling down.

Taeyeon and Yeri family team started off quite well, with Yeri shouting the counts to match the jumps.

However, after a few meters, Boa’s and Yeri's feet accidentally tripped over each other, which made them all lose balance and fall down, given they were wearing the same big bag.

“Ahhh!!”

Taeyeon felt a weight falling on her with a grunt shortly after she fell. Her body froze and all her hairs stood up when her nose sensed the perfume scent she secretly got addicted to, which belonged to no other than her friend's mother.

At the same time, Tiffany realized she just fell on the teenager and immediately landed her elbows on the ground in attempt to stand up before her eyes met the ones under her.

Her eyes just met the wide rounded pair of the petite girl that were staring intently into her own, and the world around her seemed to have stopped for a few moments.

“Those eyes. Even the depth in those eyes is resembling.”

February, 2004

“Hey, why do you keep staring at me?”

Tiffany commented bashfully, gazing down to hide her cherry red face.

The other person sitting across her exhaled in content with a dreamy expression, using her one palm to support her face with her elbow on the coffee table.

“You know it's because they’re beautiful. I feel like I have the whole universe when I look into your eyes cuz I see the stars, the moon, the sunlight, and everything there.”

Tiffany snorted, unable to hide her blush nonetheless.

“Hopeless romantic.”

“Taetae, Yeri's mom, are you both okay?”

Tiffany blinked several times, standing up quickly and mouthed “yes, I'm okay” to Taeyeon's father.

She looked down at the student who still seemed dazed, “Taeyeon-ah, are you ok? Try getting up,” she extended her hand toward the girl.

“Huh?” Taeyeon snapped back from her daydream and grabbed the woman's hand to get up, her chest still pounding hard and her whole body getting electric shock through her hand which touched Tiffany's warm soft one.

“I-I'm ok too.”

“Thank goodness no one got injured,” Boa said, “come on, if you're all ok, let's keep going.”

“Congratulations to all the winning families and with this, I hereby announce that Ilsan High School Family Day 2022 is successfully completed!”

“So tired, and got no prize,” Yeri complained with a pout, clapping at the families who were on stage accepting the prizes.

“It's ok, baby,” her mother soothed, “winning or losing is not important when we had so much fun