“Wow, that was fun, wasn’t it?” I said awkwardly, half laughing.

“It was interesting,” Taeyeon agreed, nodding.

Another silence followed that. It unnerved me. Usually I thrive in silence; but this time, it felt unnatural. Especially after coming from a such a serious fortune like that, I couldn’t help but think that Tiffany and Taeyeon were … maybe taking it a bit too seriously? Although the lady did seem to know what she was talking about. And what’s more, even Tiffany, the energetic talkative person she was, was deeply engrossed inside her own thoughts. Taeng seemed to be the same, leaving me to stare at the two and wonder what was happening.

After we finally arrived at the bus stop, I looked at them again. Both still wore far away expressions. “Um, guys?”

No response. I squeezed Tiff’s hand. “Tiff?” I said, trying to prompt a response.

She blinked, hard, and looked at me. “Hm?”

I looked at her curiously. “What were you thinking about?”

She shook her head. “I—sorry, I was just a bit distracted by that fortune,” she said.

And then something strange happened. Almost by what seemed like telepathy, Taeng and Tiff made eye contact. Tae gave Tiffany a nod, which she returned. “What…?”

“So you know last night, when Tae asked to replace you in our bed?” I nodded, feeling a sort of relief and curiosity at the same time. “And how Tae and I kept on talking, sorry, behind your back about something?” I nodded encouragingly. Finally, an answer. “Well, that we were talking about—” she was cut off by the loud braking sound of the arriving bus. Never before have I been so disappointed in a mode of transportation’s arrival.

After we took our seats, with me eagerly leading them to the three closest seats to the door I could find, Tiffany continued. “We were talking about … how Tae—how—…how she likes you.”

I did a double take.

For some reason though, receiving the knowledge that the girl I have been in love with for many years, especially confirmed by the nod of the mentioned girl, didn’t please me. It didn’t fill me with a giddy joy that maybe we could finally be together. It didn’t turn my stomach over twenty times. It didn’t cause me to uncontrollably smile.

Instead, I felt … guilty. Guilty that I loved someone who loved me back, but was already in a relationship with another person.

“Don’t do that Jessi.”

I blinked and looked over at the source of the voice, Tiffany. “Do what?”

“I can see you beat yourself up. Don’t,” she said. And once again, I was amazed at this girl’s ability to read a person so accurately. And yet, she had no intentions of being a psychologist.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

She smiled warmly. “No need,” she said, shaking her head. I caught this action and smiled a little. It was cute how Tiffany often times used her whole body to talk. “And when I said Taeyeon might like you, I meant—”

Tiffany suddenly stopped. And again, it seemed like Tiffany and Taeyeon shared some kind of telepathy because I noticed that Tae was just now looking at Tiffany, which somehow caused her to stop. “I meant that … I’m confused right now. I honestly don’t know what my heart is trying to tell me, but as the lady said, I will try my best to not interfere with you two,” Tae continued for Tiff.

Taeyeon’s heartfelt comment really affected me. Coming from Taeyeon, who often times liked to keep to herself as to not trouble others, it meant a lot. I might have even felt a tear building up right then.

“I—I’m—oh-ok,” I said, stuttering as I fought my tears back. I was about to bring my wrist up to wipe them off, but instead, I felt a warm finger trace the bottom half of my eyes.

Taeng scoffed. “Psh, you two lucky lovebirds.”

Tiffany and I laughed, thankful for the change in mood.

“You have Leeteuk anyways, don’t you?”

Taeng’s face turned a little red. I smiled at that. At least she had someone to love.

0*0*0*0

“Oh yeah, speaking of Leeteuk,” Tiffany said as we got off the bus stop. We had been teasing Taeyeon about Leeteuk the whole ride back, which, luckily for her, wasn’t too long. “Can I be let in on the secret about him?”

I looked at Taeyeon. She shrugged. “I guess. Just please don’t tell anyone else. Technically we aren’t supposed to tell you, but I think he’d be fine with it,” she said.

Tiffany nodded eagerly. “Ok. So—” Tae looked around, her face taking on a slightly dissatisfied one. “Let’s talk about this back in our dorm.”

When we arrived, we sat down at the all-purpose table in the middle of the room. “So actually, Leeteuk has taken an interest in Sica because she looks a lot like his sister, who has disappeared at a very young age.”

Tiffany gasped. “Really?”

Tae nodded.

“I feel like I should tell the story from here,” I told Tae. She nodded again, and I took over. “So the thing is, Leeteuk only has really young pictures of her, so he doesn’t have a clue what she might look like at an older age. He only knows that the girl is about his age, and that’s about it. As you know, facial features can change a lot when as you grow older.” Tiffany nodded. “But in the baby picture, even I admit that the picture looked a lot like me. However, I know it’s not me,” I said, answering a suspicious and almost fearful look on Tiffany’s face, “because I have baby pictures of my own, along with a birth certificate and baby videos and everything,” I said. “Which you cannot see,” I said, cutting Tiffany off as her eyes suddenly lit up and opened. She closed them again and frowned. I smiled apologetically. “Not now, anyway.” She smiled again.

“So after Sica confirmed that she wasn’t her, Leeteuk became slightly sad about this, but didn’t want anyone else to know because there is a chance that if the kidnappers hear about this, they might be even more secretive with her and hide her even better than they already have.”

Tiffany nodded in understanding. “Wow, that must really .”

Taeng and I both nodded in agreement.

“Wait. Why didn’t Leeteuk just tell Jessi directly?”

“That would’ve been too suspicious. And just in case they implanted something on her that allowed their kidnappers to hear her for whatever reason, they would be able to hear that direct question. That was Leeteuk’s reasoning, anyways.”

Tiffany giggled a little. “Wow. That’s slightly paranoid.”

Tae shrugged. “So after observing that she indeed had nothing like that on her, which justified all the times he seemed to be … um, you know,” Tae said, face turning slightly red.

I giggled. Even though she was 18 already, she still couldn’t manage to say those words about the guy she liked. “Checking me out,” I said for her.

She nodded furiously. “Yeah, that.”

Tiffany laughed as well. “We may have hope for TaeTeuk yet,” Tiffany said. I felt a sudden pang of pain in my heart. That couple name still bothered me a little. Ok, well maybe more than a little.

Tae blushed a little more at that. “I-I hope so,” she said quietly, but loud enough for us to hear. “F-For you two, of course,” she said quickly, stuttering.

We both laughed. “Ok, sure,” Tiffany and I said in unison.

0*0*0*0

The rest of the day went by normally. And by that, I mean as normal as you could get for a trio like us.

Let’s just say that in one day, we managed to attract the attention of our whole building, run for our lives, and participate in some kind of weekly ‘games’ in which Tiffany and I participated in the three-legged race. I think Tiffany enjoyed falling a little too much.

So after that day, we finally settled back in our dorms.

“Well, I’m going to go update my stories now, good night!”

Tiffany and I looked at each other. The slight stutter on the word “go” seemed suspicious, and I knew from looking at her that she was as curious as I was as to why she actually wanted a room to herself.

So after waiting a few minutes to make Tae feel safe to do her activities, whatever they might be, we tiptoed to the door of her room and lightly pressed the open part of our plastic cups against the door, pressing our ears on the other end.

We didn’t hear anything. Despite the complete stillness of our room, not a single sound was heard. Not the sound of mouse clicking, typing, or any other noise. Deep inside, I was desperately hoping that Tiffany’s excuse had no merit. I didn’t know what to make of the silence though.

Then, a very faint sound. A mouse scroll.

I looked over at Tiffany, who was also looking at me. We seemed to have the same idea, because she mouthed a word I was looking for: “reading fanfic”.

I nodded, and was about to turn my attention back to the cups when I saw her, out of the corner of my eye, mouth another word. A word that took me a while to translate: “?”

I did a double take, which caused me to crunch the plastic cup against the door slightly, making a very audible noise. Tiffany and I quickly ran to our room and closed the door, laughing quietly. “No way,” I said.

Tiffany shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe.”

I shook my head. “I don’t—Taeyeon?”

“Guys? Was that you?” I heard Tae say from in the hallway.

We looked at each other for a second. “What, Tae?” Tiffany asked innocently, not moving.

After a brief moment of silence, we heard her speak up again. “Never mind. It’s late guys, you guys should get some sleep,” she told us.

“Ok!” Tiffany replied.

After we heard the door close, we started to laugh again, as silently as we could. After we finished, we washed and laid down in bed.

“I love you Jessi,” Tiffany said affectionately, out of the blue.

Her gaze told the exact same story, if not a better one. She looked at me with such love in her eyes that I almost melted from how much emotion she was displaying. I could really tell that she was sincere.

I immediately felt guilty. She already left herself so vulnerable, her thoughts and secrets already scattered in the wind, all for the sake of … what? Keeping me informed? Telling me something?

“I—I—” I tried to tell her, but the words got caught in my throat. My heart raced inside my chest, my brain worked furiously against itself. I was telling myself to say it, but my brain refused to cooperate. “I—”

“Shh, it’s ok Jessi,” Tiffany said, shushing me and placing a finger over my lips. She smiled tenderly. “I’ll wait for you,” she said simply.

I almost cried. Here was a girl who was so patient, so willing and open to love that she was willing to give the ultimate price, time, for the sake of a person. And that person just so happens to be me, a person who most likely doesn’t even deserve it. I must have been Gandhi in my last life to have such good luck.

 “You’re crying,” Tiffany commented, giggling happily.

“W-Well I can’t help it when—” I cut myself off. “When someone like you is willing to be so patient for someone like me who did nothing to deserve this—”

Tiffany once again silenced me with her finger. “I will hear none of this,” she told me. “You’re you, and that’s all that you need to be to deserve this, whatever ‘this’ is.”

I lowered my head. “B-But—”

I felt my chin being lifted up. Wordlessly, I observed Tiffany come closer to me and press her lips against mine. Once again, electricity flew from the connection. I couldn’t deny how good the warm lips felt on my own lips.

When we broke apart, she looked at me sternly. “You will not question us. Got that?”

I giggled at how serious she was being. “Owhkaay,” I said, trying to act cute.

Tiffany smiled at that. “I love you,” she said again, affectionately.

I simply smiled in response. But it broke my heart, how Tiffany’s love transcended jealousy, patience, and desire; it was driven strictly by motivation.

I, personally, like the way I ended the story :DD DAT LAST WORD WOOT

..ok sorry hhehheh

I don't know why I updated so early. By early I mean I meant to update on Saturday/Sunday, but I got a sudden burst of inspiration yesterday and wrote the part starting from when Tiffany says "I love you" and on. And then, after finishing that, I said "why not?" and wrote like 3/5 of the chapter yesterday. And since I was so close to finishing, I just decided to finish today.

But anyways, as you guys know, this was the last chapter of this story. First story I finished :') Thank you so much for reading! :DD

How many people want a sequel tho :oo make sure to tell me :DD

Nojk, I'll be writing a sequel anyways because of all the loose ends. It won't come til a while tho, but I'll let you know when the first chapter comes out. Stay tuned!

EDIT: I'm going to be honest, the sequel might take a few years. Like, 5 years or something ridiculous like that. I have other things I want to write, sorry to all those that are eagerly awaiting the next installment :C for the sake of sounding shameless, in the meantime, check out my other stories! The one I'm working on at the time of writing this is "Two Pieces of a Puzzle", which also features TaeNySic.