Taeyeon was feeling downcast. It’d been three days and she still hadn’t called.

 

Did she lose the card?

 

Was I too confident?

 

Is she ever going to call?

 

There was one more thought that absolutely terrified her and she refused to even consider its possibility.

 

She wanted to see Sunny again. That inexplicable urge consumed her mind all day and night. The past three days have been absolute torture. She felt like punching herself at times to knock herself into oblivion.

 

Why hadn’t she forced a number out of Sunny? That way, she would not be in this state right now. She could barely concentrate on her lecture and she had not done her preparation for the tutorial that was after lunch. She groaned and covered her face with her palms, her elbows resting on the little writing table attached to her seat.

 

A girl sat next to her quietly. She took out a pen and a lecture pad and bit on the pen cap as she began copying notes. Taeyeon paid no attention to the person next to her as she was too absorbed in her own misery to even notice that there was someone next to her.

 

She did notice a scent though… a special scent. Not the perfume that one could purchase from malls… neither was it a deodorant. It was fruity… like grapes but not the freshly plucked ones… more like… fermented grapes…

 

The scent enticed her to look up from her palms. Her vision was slightly blurred as she had palmed her face for a rather long time now but it cleared up gradually as she turned to look at the newcomer next to her.

 

And there she was… unmistakably her. Sunny was right next to her!

 

Her insides would have screamed if they had mouths to scream with.

 

AM I IMAGINING THINGS?!

 

I MUST BE DREAMING RIGHT?

 

Lukewarm fingers pinched her nose.

 

“OUCH!” yelped Taeyeon, drawing curious glances from other students in the theatre.

 

She flushed a bright pink and looked down at her lecture pad, hiding her face from the others. Then she looked up at Sunny who wore a huge smirk on her face.

 

“What was that for?”

 

“My answer to your question. Some questions are better answered in action than in words.”

 

“You stole my line you plagiarizer.”

 

“So… report me to the Dean.”

 

“Besides, I don’t remember asking that question.”

 

“I’m sure you did.”

 

“I didn’t.”

 

“You were definitely thinking it.”

 

Taeyeon pursed her lips. Sunny had caught her there. She was thinking it.

 

“How can you be so sure that I was?”

 

“You face said quite plainly that you were.”

 

Taeyeon chuckled.

 

Sunny couldn’t help smiling at her chuckle.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“I’m a student, like you.”

 

“Are you kidding?”

 

“No, I’m not.”

 

“Why have I never seen you around before?”

 

“You weren’t looking hard enough.”

 

Taeyeon eyed her suspiciously, doubting the truth in her words till Sunny flashed a student card in her face. Sure enough, it had her picture on it.

 

SUNNY LEE

 

Taeyeon’s razor sharp eyes caught sight of her name and student number.

 

299792458M/S

 

“You’re a Meteorology Science major?”

 

“Yeah, I’m really good at predicting the weather, you know?”

 

“So may I know what you’re doing in an accounting lecture?”

 

“I’m here to save a girl from dying.”

 

“Who’s dying? I don’t see anyone dying.”

 

“I know of someone who was absolutely dying to see me again.”

 

Taeyeon pursed her lips again.

 

“How did you find me?”

 

“Don’t try to change the subject.”

 

“Okay, you won that one. Now tell me how you found me.”

 

“I followed the stars.”

 

“Bull.”

 

“I really did.”

 

Taeyeon rolled her eyes and said, “Fine, you’re not telling, but you’re paying.”

 

“Paying? For?”

 

“Lunch. Come on, let’s get out of this hell hole.”

 

 

+++

 

 

They sat down at a vacant table in a corner of the cafeteria. Taeyeon had kept to her word and made Sunny pay for lunch. Sunny didn’t seem to mind it though. She paid for the food and even the drinks.

 

“You should have let me pay for the drinks.”

 

“Why? Feeling guilty already?” said Sunny sarcastically.

 

“I’m not feeling guilty. It’s only fair that I pay for something.”

 

“Nah… it’s alright. You can pay some other time.”

 

Taeyeon’s eyes connected with Sunny’s instantly.

 

“Some other time? Is this going to be a long term thing?”

 

“I wouldn’t want to be the cause of someone’s death.”

 

“Can our conversation stop being so morbid?”

 

Sunny laughed heartily before whispering into her ear, “Perhaps, it’s due to the circumstances under which we met.”

 

“I never did ask what you were doing up there. We both know why I was there but what about you?”

 

Taeyeon was stunned to hear her speak so freely about her suicide attempt. It would be a sensitive topic she had imagined, even though she certainly had plans to unearth the reason behind it. Neither was she prepared to discuss why she had gone up to the rooftop as well.

 

She lowered her voice to a low whisper and asked cautiously, “So… you are… you are over it now?”

 

Sunny smiled and nodded.

 

“What made you turn around?”

 

Sunny held her gaze for a moment before smiling brightly at her and saying, “You.”

 

“Me?”

 

“Yeah, you.”

 

“I didn’t do anything. I was actually beginning to regret leaving you there alone that night.”

 

“You thought that I had –“

 

Taeyeon nodded slowly.

 

“You hadn’t called me in three days… I was beginning to think… but I refused to even think about it…”

 

Tears welled up in Taeyeon’s molten chocolate brown eyes. A single teardrop fell as she blinked and Sunny instinctively wiped it away with her thumb.

 

“I had sensed that a challenge from me would keep you alive but when you didn’t call…”

 

More tears fell down her rosy cheeks.

 

“Hush… it’s alright now… you don’t have to feel guilty coz I’m sitting right here and you’re right… your challenge did save me.” Sunny smiled.

 

“I want to know why you were going to jump.” Taeyeon sniffed and blinked away the remaining tears in her eyes.

 

Sunny sighed.

 

“I don’t know why I’m telling you this and I can’t explain why you can make me tell you. Let’s take a walk after lunch.”

 

 

+++

 

 

They walked across the university grounds leisurely, their hands comfortably held in each other’s and fingers intertwined. The hand holding brought an inexplicable feeling of comfort to both girls and they treasured that feeling in their hearts.

 

“To make a long story short… I lost a very important friend a couple of months ago. And it was my fault.”

 

“Was it really?”

 

Sunny glanced at Taeyeon’s perceptive eyes sharply.

 

“You’re scary, but you’re right. It wasn’t really my fault but that’s what my mind tells me. My heart feels that I should take full responsibility for his death.”

 

“Boyfriend?”

 

“No.”

 

“Really?”

 

“He was not my boyfriend but he was like my family, my brother. We were as close as real siblings.”

 

“May I ask how?”

 

“He was protecting me. He died for me.”

 

“So you felt that you didn’t deserve to live.”

 

“Something like that.”

 

Sunny braced herself for an onslaught of wise words like how he would have died in vain had she killed herself and other lines that her colleagues at the unit had tried comforting her with but Taeyeon said nothing. She merely walked on with her in silence, her thumb now drawing circles on her own thumb.

 

Instead of offering her advice, Taeyeon surprised her by asking her a question.

 

“So what exactly stopped you from killing yourself after I left the building?”

 

Sunny paused.

 

“You killed the mood.”

 

Taeyeon laughed out loud. She laughed so hard that she kneeled on the grass and rolled over onto her back, holding on to her tummy.

 

“Gee, what was so funny about that?” Sunny asked in amusement, sitting down on the grass to watch her.

 

“I don’t know,” laughed Taeyeon, sitting up and wiping her tears, “it’s just so funny when you say it.”

 

“My turn to ask questions.” Sunny laughed before turning a little more serious.

 

“Why were you up there?”

 

Taeyeon stopped laughing and her smiling face darkened somewhat.

 

“Do you know who I am?”

 

“Yes, I do. You’re Kim Taeyeon.”

 

“No, I meant, who I really a –“

 

“You’re the Prime Minister’s daughter.” Sunny interrupted with her answer.

 

“Okay… you’re the scary one here.”

 

Just how good of an actress is she to act like she didn’t know?

 

Taeyeon’s eyes were wide open in surprise.

 

 

+++

 

 

Tiffany had cornered Jessica after their tactical training. She didn’t care if she was smelly, sticky and sweaty. She wanted an answer from Jessica and she wanted it now.

 

Jessica found herself backed into a corner of the shower cubicle. Tiffany had surprised her in the showers and caught her unawares. Tiffany kicked the door shut and bolted it fast.

 

“Now… talk…”

 

“I’m not a criminal you know,” squeaked Jessica.

 

“Tell me why.” Tiffany continued to ignore the older girl’s protests.

 

Her curiorsity would always get the better of her and she found herself sleepless the night before as she tossed and turned in bed, wondering why Jessica was so nice to her after all that she had done.

 

She had an answer in her mind but she wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth. She had to hear it.

 

“If you don’t tell me now… I’m going to kiss you.” Tiffany threatened.

 

“No you can’t, that’s ual harassment at work!”

 

“Not if you enjoy it, no it isn’t.” Tiffany laughed loudly.

 

“What?!” squeaked Jessica nervously.

 

“Why would I enjoy it?”

 

“You tell me.”

 

Jessica clamped both of her hands over .

 

Tiffany laughed even harder at her adorable gestures. How the tables had turned…

 

“Say it Jessica.”

 

Jessica’s eyes widened when she heard Tiffany calling her by her name instead of her family name which was the practice for officers-in-training.

 

“Hwang…” a muffled protest escaped from her lips unwittingly.

 

“Call me Tiffany.”

 

Jessica’s eyes opened even wider than before. Her entire body stiffened as Tiffany pressed against her and whispered in her ear, “I already know what your answer is, but I want to hear it from you.”

 

Jessica flushed a deep crimson red and looked down instinctively only to see their cleavage mashed up against each other. She squealed and raised her head up to stare at the ceiling instead.

 

She couldn’t really understand why she was feeling so embarrassed and shy. Wasn’t this exactly what she had wished for? For months now, she had been dropping hints, hoping for Tiffany to pick up on them but each time, Tiffany had only misunderstood her more and more. Until now… and what was happening now was a little too hot for her to handle. She had imagined her confession to be somewhere a little more romantic like a park or by a lake or at least in a nice restaurant – anywhere but here in the academy’s shower cubicle, and certainly not being forced to confess by Tiffany in this humiliating way.

 

She pushed Tiffany with all her strength, and managed to create enough space for herself to escape from the corner, unbolt the door and dash out from the showers.

 

She bumped into other officers who were heading towards the showers with their towels in hand. Feeling a wave of relief wash over her, she relaxed and joined the group, laughing at one of their jokes as she re-entered the showers. Tiffany was standing there looking cross but Jessica averted her eyes from her piercing glare and grabbed her things which were lying on the bench, dashing into a cubicle and fastening the bolt as quickly as she could.

 

 

+++

 

 

Tiffany was still there. She had peeked out from under the door and seen her shoes tapping impatiently on the floor. Jessica squeezed her eyes shut and breathed deeply. She had to time it perfectly with the other girls who were showering.

 

“Let’s go girls, bye Jung.” said one of the officers loudly.

 

Jessica opened the door and said, “Let’s go together.”

 

Tiffany cleared loudly and glared at Jessica. She marched to the girl and pulled her aside from the group.

 

“Bye gals, I have something to discuss with Jung for a little while.”

 

The other girls nodded and left the showers, leaving them all by themselves again.

 

“Hwang…”

 

“I said, call me Tiffany!”

 

Uh oh… she sounds pissed now. Maybe I shouldn’t have run away like that.

 

“T-Tiffany…”

 

“Yes that’s much better.” Tiffany smiled, turning her eyes into cute little crescent moons that took Jessica’s breath away. It had been her eyes that caught her attention on the first day of their six-month intensive training course to become elite protectors of the nation.

 

But her cute crescent moons turned into fiery suns in the next instant as Tiffany pinned Jessica to the wall again.

 

“Say it.”

 

“Can... we go… to a nicer place at least?” Jessica requested in a small voice.

 

“What’s wrong with this place?” asked Tiffany, looking around the showers.

 

“It’s not…”

 

“Not…?”

 

“Not romantic.” Jessica blurted out in a rush.

 

Tiffany giggled.

 

“So that’s what was stopping you? Then why couldn’t you say it at the BBQ restaurant?”

 

Jessica shifted uncomfortably against the wall. Tiffany noted that. She found Jessica very attractive when she was backed into a corner like she was at this very moment. She tended to be rather cocky when she was confident which Tiffany did not like at the beginning.

 

After that dinner, Tiffany had recalled all the moments and exchanges they had shared in the past couple of months and realized that Jessica had been dropping hints all along. Even the recent bet on their shooting accuracy was Jessica’s way of having dinner with her but she had mistakenly thought that the girl was out to show off her marksmanship instead.

 

She acknowledged that she did find Jessica wildly attractive but so did everyone else. At this moment however, she had Jessica where no one else had before. A blushing Jessica was definitely way cuter than a cocky Jessica.

 

She had Jessica right where she wanted and she’d stop at nothing to get the confession out from her lips.

 

“Jessi…” whined Tiffany, using an impromptu shortening of her name, “…I want to hear you say it… won’t you say it for me?”

 

Jessica was certain that her blood vessels would explode from the pressure of the sheer bliss that was welling up in her heart at that moment. Hearing Tiffany call her Jessi in that sweet voice had sent tingles up and down her spine.

 

She lowered her head and submitted to Tiffany’s demands.

 

“I like you.” she mumbled softly.

 

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

 

Their eyes met, Tiffany’s were the cute crescent moons that Jessica loved seeing so much.

 

Plucking up a little more courage now, Jessica said it again a little louder.

 

“I like you.”

 

“Who?”

 

Jessica’s face was as red as a tomato’s.

 

“I like you, Tiffany Hwang.”

 

“I like you too, Jessica Jung.”

 

Tiffany grinned at the blushing girl and gave her a deep, passionate kiss to seal the deal.