Baby, I’m happy you’re home

Let me hold you in my arms

I just want to take the stress away from you

Winter. 2009.

“Oppa, do we have any schedule for tomorrow?” Tiffany asked her manager with a low voice, not wanting to wake up the exhausted members in the van.

“No. Why?” her manager replied, his eyes were focusing on the road.

“Hm, oppa… then can I stay at my other apartment? Just for a night. I probably come back tomorrow.” Tiffany said carefully, she didn’t want her manager caught her lying. It was so hard to find an excuse.  Her manager was silent for a moment before giving a nod to her and Tiffany thanked him.

Tiffany—with her black coat, a cap, and specs—headed out the apartment building. She was glancing one more time to make sure no one was following her. Once she was sure, she started to walk. She tried to walk as casual as she could and as normal as other pedestrians, not wanting to attract many attentions if she walked with her head down, plus she had hood almost covering her sight. She was taking slow steps; heart was praying no one will recognize her until she reached Wu Fan’s apartment later.

It was a chilly night but the streets were filled with people and food stalls. Tiffany could see people would stop at one stall; ate their snacks quickly while standing. Some people were chattering with their friends, soju on the tables. Tiffany wanted to be like those people; they could do anything they want in public without any disguise and of course without having someone following them with cameras in their hands, ready to capture anything; what she ate and drank, with whom she was going with, etc. The feeling of wanting to be ‘normal’ grew when she started to date Wu Fan. Sometime, Tiffany couldn’t understand why some fans didn’t like when their idol was dating someone, some fans even hated it. She wanted to be like those couples she saw when she was walking; walking hand in hand, having fun, etc. It would be fun, wouldn’t it?

Her eyes wandered to the restaurants she had passed by, thinking if Wu Fan already had dinner or not. She was a little bit hesitating but ended up walking in to the small restaurant, ordering a jajjangmyun. She kind of had a hard time to wait because some people started to whisper to their partner while looking at Tiffany, but the hardest part was when she went to pay the bill and the owner asked her if she was Tiffany. But Tiffany just shrugged it off by telling politely, “I’ve heard that many time before but unfortunately I’m not Tiffany, ahjumma.”

She let out a sigh of relief when she stepped out of the restaurant. Living a life of celebrity is tough, she thought. She continued to walk and after passing some blocks, she arrived at Wu Fan’s apartment. It was such a fortunate that their apartments were close.

She had come to Wu Fan’s apartment several times and therefore, it had started to be “Tiffany’s runaway” and Wu Fan didn’t mind it, at all. He even trusted Tiffany enough to give her the spare key, and Tiffany never felt this special before.

She opened the door and found it dark, indicating that Wu Fan wasn’t home yet. His apartment wasn’t big, but it was giving a ‘home’ feeling every time Tiffany spent her time at there and because of that Tiffany realized that Wu Fan was a neat and tidy type of guy, something she never expected from him. But he wasn’t a neat freak either. Tiffany found out when she entered Wu Fan’s room—when Wu Fan invited her for the first time—and Tiffany’s jaw dropped at the sight. Right after then, Tiffany always helped him to tidy up his room, like what she was doing at the moment.

Tiffany heard the door being closed and she stopped arranging his books and rushed out of the room. Wu Fan really looked tired at the moment and without saying anything, Tiffany walked to him and circled her arms around his waist. Tiffany felt his shoulder relaxed when she hugged him, it made Tiffany realize how tense his body was. Wu Fan buried his head in the crook of her neck, he tightened his arms around her