March 1987

The bell chimed three times signaling the hour of 10 on a nice Friday night. The end of today beckon the next week of spring break, which meant college parties, college parties, and coming home to visit parents. The girls in the red corvette thought the first idea to be better for it sped down the rocky lane of the nice neighborhood. From the sight of it, the large white houses looked as if only the rich could afford. Statues carved from bushes and water fountains of various types of design all scatter in each and every one of the houses. Even foreign cars invaded most of the homes.

The red car stopped abruptly in front of the once homey looking mansion. The place itself was bigger than four condos put together. Taeyeon couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw a huge fountain in front of the house and all different types of flowers that surrounded the house. The gate even looked expensive with its edgy design.

Her two friends grabbed her by the arms from both sides and dragged her into the loud crowd. Once she stepped inside, the strong scent of alcohol and smoke filled her tiny nostrils. Hordes of people occupied the mansion, making it look smaller than what it appeared from the outside. She literally had to push people aside in order to get through. Luckily for her tiny stature, she could wiggle through most of the crowd.

To be honest, she felt out of place. Partying was never her style. Just by looking at her, everyone knew that she didn’t fit in. Her poufy floral dress flowed down passed her knees, but showing off her clean, white tennis shoes. Her brown locks flowed down, shaping her small face. To match it off, she had on her gold rimmed glasses that always seemed to fall down the bridge of her nose.

“Guys, I don’t think we should’ve come here.” Taeyeon watched as her own classmates and random strangers make out with each other, grind on each other and drink their stress away.

Jessica and Tiffany both gave her an exasperated look. “Come on, Taeyeon. Stop being such a party pooper.”

Jessica said this. She looked the exact opposite of Taeyeon. Her tight fitted floral dress hung a couple inches above her knee. Her orange brown locks framed her elongated face and only added edginess to her dark makeup. “Plus I haven’t even found Seunghyun yet.” She kept trying to peek through the crowds to see her boyfriend, who was voted as one of the most popular guys to enter the university.

“Yeah, come on, Tae. Have fun.”

Tiffany had to give her that famous eye smile that could make anyone forget their reason. This girl was also like Jessica. Her dress though slightly flowy, draped only slightly above the knee. Her hair wrapped up in a cute bun that gave full access to her slim face. She grabbed Taeyeon’s hand to reassure her that everything was going to be okay.

“Oh! There he is guys! It’s Seunghyun!”

Jessica ran full speed to him. The tall, pale, handsome man waved back to her. Opening up his arms in order for her to pounce on him so they could make out. The other two girls watched in envy as the couple tried to eat each other’s’ face off. Those two always said how they were going to grow up and get married.

“I’m going to get myself a drink.” Tiffany shook her head at the extreme pda those two were showing. “Want one?”

“No, I think I’ll pass. I better keep an eye out for Jessica before she does something she might regret.”

“Like have in front of everyone right now.”

Jessica and Seunghyun started to get frisky.

“Yeah. That.”

Tiffany let out a huge chuckle before going out to get a drink. Taeyeon, on the other hand, kept staring at the now grinding couple. “I better go stop them before they really do it.” She sighed. Pushing through the crowds of animalistic behavior, Taeyeon finally got to her destination. “Seriously guys, this is really gross. Really.”

The couple ignored her plain remarks, going even further to put hands where they shouldn’t be. Taeyeon found herself in an embarrassing situation. She didn’t know whether to try to pry them off or talk them out of it. To top off her problems, her head pounded with the beat of the songs, giving her a massive headache.

“Yeah, I know they seriously need to get a room.”

That voice brought her whole body into panic mode. Kwon Jiyong. He is the boy Taeyeon is currently crushing on and who is also one of Seunghyun’s best friends. He looked down at her with his handsome looks. His smirk that could kill anyone in a second. She swears that her heart stopped beating when he nudged her shoulder. He like Seunghyun is quite popular around school. Rumors have it that he’s bed with most girls, which is not surprising due to his good looks, musical talent and also for his two sided nature. Bad boy out front but sweet on the inside. But she never knew if she liked him for him or because she envied his carefree nature. He seemed to live a life that lacked responsibilities and full of freedom.

“I’m Jiyong, by the way.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Oh and you are? I don’t seem to have seen you around her before.”

Not knowing whether to laugh or be upset, she decided to be sarcastic. “Actually, we went to the same high school. And you also sit behind me in history class every Tuesday and Thursdays.”

“Ohhh.” Things got a bit awkward for a bit. She didn’t expect him to keep talking to her after her attitude scene. But he unexpectedly turns towards her. “Well, sorry for that. Let’s start over, shall we.” His hand reaches for her own. “I’m Kwon Jiyong, and you are?”

“I’m Taeyeon. Kim Taeyeon.” Her voice soft and shy. She never expected him to even talk to her nonetheless try to get to know her.

“Well, Taeyeon, I think we need to get these two either a room or off of each other before others start to complain.”

Taeyeon shook her head like a little girl listening to her daddy. The two after much persuasion and a little force from Jiyong, got the two to stop on each other’s faces and to take a walk instead.

The cool night breeze felt refreshing, Taeyeon thought as she walked next to Jiyong. The both of them stood a few feet behind their drunken friends, quietly exchanging dirty secrets about the two. She never knew he could be so fun. Her hers wandered up to his secretly. After all the bad gossip surrounding him, she thought of him as a richboy jackass who seduces girls. But right now laughing and talking with him, she never felt so comfortable. He was quite an easy person to talk to and even a great listener. Everything about him just seemed perfect.

“Do you want to stop here?”

Her movements ceased along with her friend. She noticed that they were now at the park, where the lovebirds decided to take a nap on the wooden bench. Jessica’s lucky that she’s skinny or else he would have a hard time trying to breath with someone lying on top of him like that.

“Come on now. They won’t get hurt. I promise.” He said while grabbing her hand to drag her towards the swings. When their hands touched, she felt her cheeks burn up, hoping he couldn’t see them despite how dark it was outside. “We’ll wake them up in an hour.”

She nodded, allowing him to take lead. At first, the conversation went nowhere, making the atmosphere quite awkward. At that moment, she just wanted to just shoot herself and get up and leave. But he tried.

“You like books.”

“I like school, yes.”

“I don’t.” His eyes twinkling with mischief.

“Oh, so what do you like?” Not even realizing it, she was flirting back.

“Pretty girls.”

“Of course, a growing man like you would. I didn’t expect anything less.”

“Why do you speak in such proper language? Can’t you just relax? You know loosen up.” His smile meant more to what he said. She knew it. Suddenly, the cool air felt so warm.

“My major is English. If I don’t speak properly, how can I write properly?” She smiles back except it’s a smile of a snotty genius.

“Oh, okay I’m sorry, Miss professor. I see now. Maybe you can teach how to speak properly? My tongue is a bit tied.”

His face is dangerously closed to hers that she’s afraid if he leaned any closer, he could feel her heart beat trying to escape out of her chest. He pecked her at first. It felt like cotton candy. Then he tried to keep their lips locked longer. She never felt so anxious yet happy. Then he let go in order to move his hands toward her face, which ended up being a bad idea.

What he didn’t know about her is that when she’s nervous she tends to…

“Achoo!” His face did end up getting covered by her spit. Immediately, the two stood up from their seats. While he was trying to wipe the saliva off his face, she tried to help but again. “Achoo! Omg! Sorry about that! Achoo! It’s just that when –“

“It’s fine.” He smiled, stopping her hand from attacking his face any further. “Why don’t you help yourself first?” His eyes looked at the water fountain across from them. She shyly nodded before quickly walking over there.

“I’m so stupid. So stupid. So stupid.” She whined, wiping her face with the water. “It’s just that I have never been so close to a guy like this and he’s my crush and uhh.” She gave her face one final wash. Taking a deep breath, she turned around to apologize, but realized he wasn’t by the swings anymore. Hurt flashed her eyes when she saw him trying to wake up Seunghyun and Jessica.

The lovebirds groggily woke up and though relunctanly followed Jiyong’s order to go back to the party. Jiyong’s eyes met Taeyeon’s. He knew that she felt upset by his actions. So he tried to catch up with her when walking back to the mansion, but for a tiny girl, she could walk really fast.

“Oh hey. Taeyeon! Wait up.” He had to sprint to catch up with her. “It was getting late you know and I told you we were going to wake them up in an hour.” She could tell by expressions that he was trying to make up for his actions.

“Oh, no. It’s okay. It is late and I should be going home anyway.” She sped up a little more.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to continue. It’s just that you were sneezing and I didn’t know if you were sick or –“

“Oh, you’re worried about that.” She laughed. “It’s no problem. I mean it’s not like anything was going to happen anyway. We should’ve probably woke them up earlier.” She knew how sarcastic she was being right now. “No, wait. We shouldn’t even have walked outside in the first place especially at night.”

Again, she sped up and again, he caught up with her.

“No. Look. Here.” He stopped her. He had both hands on her shoulders, forcing her to stare up at him. This would’ve been romantic since they were under a night light in the middle of the street at night if only she wasn’t angry with him. He brought their lips together again for a short kiss. Taeyeon couldn’t help but laugh at the situation.

“Yah, what was that for? I told you I was fine.”

His lips formed into a huge smile. “Yah! You scared me for a second.” He nudged her. They both couldn’t help but smile like little kids. He swung his arm around her neck, leaning towards her body. “You know. I think we’re going to become great friends.”

She laughed out loud.

“No, scratch that. Best friends.”

She laughed again, only a bit lower. Trying to match is huge grin with a half-hearted one; she looked down onto the ground thinking it was better than nothing.

This is how Kim Taeyeon became Kwon Jiyong’s best friend. Just a best friend.

A/N: I finally got a poster!! (: Big thanks to SaMaNtHa from http://ver-sah-tyle.blogspot.com for making this for me!