So Nyuh High: Term One

Before and After

Jessica made her way back to the classroom where Tiffany and Taeyeon still were. Tiffany raised her eyebrows at Jessica, wanting to know what Jessica had found out. She shook her head wearily.

“It’s not her,” Jessica mouthed the words for Tiffany’s eyes.

Taeyeon sat quite still, with Tiffany’s arm comfortingly draped over her shoulders. She knew that they knew. And for some reason, she was slightly irritated by that. She wanted to be alone. She needed to get a grip on the inner turmoil going on inside. So she dashed out of the classroom and headed to the rooftop. Thankfully, they did not follow. They understood her that much.

Up on the rooftop, Taeyeon let her thoughts run free.

Taeyeon didn’t have to ask for her name. She knew that it wasn’t her. As much as they looked similar, she knew that it wasn’t her. Perhaps, that was what was breaking her heart so. The floodgates that she so carefully guarded were now wide open and her two year old memories came rushing back, like bats out of hell…

The child smiled through her tears at her.

“Why are you crying little kiddo?” she asked, ruffling the child’s smooth, silky black hair.

“I’m l-lost.”

She smiled and said, ”Don’t worry kiddo! Lots of kids get lost in this place every day but I promise to help you find your way again. Now, you just have to tell me who brought you here.”

“Soo Kyung unnie…”

“Soo Kyung unnie? Alright, we get you your unnie back, okay?”

The child nodded her head and sniffed. Her tears had stopped flowing as quickly as they had started and her eyes began to twinkle like the sunshine through the rain.

“Awesome. Hold on to Taeyeon unnie’s hand and we’ll get going now.”

“Taeyeon unnie?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

Together, they made their way to the concierge. An announcement was made for a Soo Kyung unnie to pick up her little sister at the concierge at the lobby. Taeyeon felt a tug on her arm and looked down at the little girl. She looked worried.

“”Don’t worry, your sister will be here soon. Let’s play a finger guessing game while we wait, shall we?” suggested Taeyeon.

“OKAY!”

That was how Taeyeon met Soo Kyung. Lee Soo Kyung. Soo Kyung had insisted on repaying Taeyeon for her kindness and arranged to treat her to dinner another day. They became a pair after hitting it off at the dinner. Virtually inseparable, they were seen together anywhere and everywhere. It turns out that they went to the same creative arts school but never met because Taeyeon was in the vocal class while Soo Kyung was in the acting class. Taeyeon went to a few of her plays and one night, after the final show of one of her plays, Taeyeon found herself asking Soo Kyung to date her officially. But it went downhill from there.

Soo Kyung was a born actress. She knew how to charm people and get away with things. She accepted Taeyeon’s request coyly and became her girlfriend. However, what Taeyeon found out later was that she also had two other partners at the same time. It turned out that Soo Kyung was a gold digger. She dated only the rich for the perks and wealth that came with it. And when she accepted Taeyeon’s request to be girlfriends, there were tears of joy in her eyes. Taeyeon had mistakenly thought that it was because of love but really, it was just greed.

Soo Kyung certainly knew how to get the most out of their relationship. The requests to buy her gifts poured in from the moment they became official. From iPods to iPads, designer dresses to designer shoes, Soo Kyung never seemed to be satisfied. Taeyeon, who had never been in a relationship before this, didn’t suspect a thing. She had plenty of money to spend and even though she was never a spendthrift, she was very generous with her first girlfriend. Jessica and Tiffany saw through her ploy very easily but they weren’t in love for the first time. Taeyeon turned deaf ears to their advices and even stopped contacting them because Soo Kyung asked her to stop.

However, when Jessica saw her boasting to classmates about a new diamond ring Taeyeon had given her, she decided that that was the last straw. So she rang up her dad’s personal assistant and got him to hire some private eyes to dig up the dirt on Soo Kyung. Sure enough, there was plenty of dirt to be found. Jessica was sure that Taeyeon wouldn’t even want to look at any of it so she sent an anonymous email with a video embedded in it.

Much to Jessica and Tiffany’s surprise, Taeyeon didn’t cry about it. She made a clean break with Soo Kyung immediately and went back to her lifestyle before. She hung out with Jessica and Tiffany just like old times but they felt increasingly uneasy from watching her go about her daily routines as if nothing had happened. They decided to give her some space to breathe but after a month of watching and tiptoeing around her, Jessica could hold it in no longer.

“YA! TAEYEON!” roared Jessica, while striding over to her and before she could react, she had received a resounding slap on her cheek. Taeyeon blinked in surprise before yelling back at Jessica. Their shouting match went on for a while till Taeyeon broke down in tears and cried from the bottom of her broken heart. Tiffany then hugged the both of them and all three girls cried together. This cemented their bond even further and all three swore never to turn their backs on each other, not even for their partners in future.

Now as Taeyeon thought about her painful past and the girl who triggered it all, she looked up at the clear blue sky and yelled, “How can the sky be so sunny when there’s a storm going on in my heart all over again? And she’s called SUNNY?! Is this a joke you’re playing on me?”

“A-are you talking about m-me?” a cute yet hesitant voice came from behind.

Taeyeon spun round to see Sunny standing behind her. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” she shouted out of shock, “GO AWAY!”

She watched as Sunny’s eyes brimmed with tears creating the saddest puppy eyes she had ever seen. And as Sunny turned to run away, she was filled with guilt instantly. Something about Sunny had melted her heart a little. She ran forward and grabbed her arm intending to apologize.

“Oww!” yelped Sunny and she winced in pain.

“I’m sorry! Did I hurt you?” Taeyeon apologized. She let go of the arm and saw the beginnings of a bruise forming where she had held on to. “Woah, did you knock on something? That looks like it’s gonna be a bad bruise.”

“Umm... actually, it was Jessica.”

“JESSICA? WHAT DID SHE DO?”

“She grabbed my arm like you did but she did it really, really hard,” Sunny sniffed.

Taeyeon chuckled earning herself a quizzical look from Sunny.

“Jessica has a black belt in Taekwondo. She doesn’t realise how strong she is sometimes. Forgive her, I’m sure she didn’t mean to grab you so hard,” explained Taeyeon but Sunny remained silent with her eyes glued to the ground.

“And I’m sorry for shouting at you like that. I was kind of messed up inside when you showed up.”

“Why were you shouting my name? Or was it somebody else you were calling?”

Taeyeon paused. She didn’t feel quite ready to talk about it yet although she had this uncanny urge to tell Sunny about the whole story.

“I’m sorry. I’m not ready to talk about it yet. I’ll tell you about it some other time alright?”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me if it’s private. I was just surprised to hear my name being yelled out like that, that’s all.”

“How did you get here in the first place? I’m amazed that you found this place. Nobody knows about this place and you’re new!”

“I don’t really know. I was feeling really lousy so I walked blindly up the stairs, turned a couple of times and ended up here. And I was just sitting behind that wall when I heard you screaming my name.

“Were you feeling lousy because of Jessica?”

“Let’s just say that it hasn’t been the best morning for a first day of school for me.”

Taeyeon extended her hand to Sunny and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Sunny.”

Sunny looked at Taeyeon in surprise. She then smiled and shook her hand saying, “Yeah, it’s nice to meet you too.”

“Cool, we’re friends now so why don’t you let me show you around a bit.”

“Sure!” Sunny smiled, her face brightening up considerably.

“Whoever named her Sunny sure did a good job naming her,” thought Taeyeon as she led the way back down into the building. “I don’t know why but I feel so much better already.”