12.31pm.

“It’s really cute, isn’t it? And it has two black spots too, like a Dalmatian… what breed is this?” Jessica looked at me. Her eyes were fixated on the sleeping puppy. She had taken out an old basket and folded a blanket to put the pup on it. The puppy had been sleeping until now.

“I think it’s a Jack Russell.” The images at google told me that. Good, trusty google. Along with 2,001,234 million images, I spotted one that looked like the pup that Yuri had given to me.

Jessica looked at it, excited, “Oh, it’s awake! Where is it going? It’s my hands….Does it want something? I’m putting it down!”

The pup looked/sniffed at me, then at Jessica before happily making its way to the silent figure sitting on the couch who was reading a book. Possibily philosophy. I caught a glimpse at the title.

“Ah, no. Oh, wait… it’s going to…” Jessica’s eyes widened when she realised what the pup was going to do.

“…”

Too late.

It had chosen Taeyeon’s feet as its ‘happy spot’ and had very nicely peed on Taeyeon. Taeyeon could only look at me with widened, afflicted eyes. Her usually emotionless face looked as if she was holding back her emotions; torn between looking flustered and attempting to retain her composure. Involuntarily, a smile crept to the sides of my lips despite the ‘apparent seriousness of the problem’. The puppy had peed on Taeyeon!  After all, we are talking about Taeyeon… A person who could easily kill a life, just like that.

I handed her a wet tissue. Taeyeon took it, but she looked at me swiftly again, realising that I had smiled gently. Her gaze turned slightly softer and she looked at the pup in a rather stern manner before saying slowly, “You’re not very… well behaved, little one…”

I smiled lightly despite myself. It was a rather rare, adorable scene, wasn’t it?

“You’re lecturing a puppy?” I heard myself asking.

Taeyeon looked at the puppy and nodded her head slowly, “It does need some disciplining…”

Like Yuri too? I thought silently about her hidden meaning behind her words.

I shook my head slightly clearing my thoughts, and turned to Jessica, “Jessica, could you please help me get some essential stuff from the pet store? I think I need…pet food, puppy house breaking stuff, etc…” (Housebreaking = toilet training)

Even without taking her eyes off the pup, Taeyeon had reached out to pass her credit card to Jessica, “Here, take this to pay.”

Jessica meekly took the credit card that was offered and hurriedly got out of the house.

I was silently studying the image of the pup and Taeyeon with my head titled. She narrowed her eyes at he puppy one last time before turning to look at me, “Are you really keeping this pup? If you want a puppy, I could have easily gotten one for you, Tiffany.”

I bent down and the puppy ran to me instead, almost as if it had just found its saviour. It my hands.

“It’s different, Taeyeon. You could consider that my accepting this puppy is a form of apology to Yuri...”

“Why would you need to apologise to her? She’s the one who overstepped her boundaries,” Taeyeon said coolly, and almost proudly, “She should know her place, honestly.”

I carried the pup in my hands. “You were the one who allowed those rumours about Yuri to escalate, weren’t you?” I paused, sighing as I continued, “Or probably even encouraged it when you saw the opportunity to. Everything’s in your hands…Taeyeon. Everything.”

I sighed and the pup sighed too.

And I continued. “Nothing escapes you.”

I figured that was why she had appeared deeply unfazed when the rumours about Yuri were leaked.

She was staring at me now. Taeyeon, in her dark suit. She looked deeply unfazed, however, I knew that underneath that calm exterior laid a brewing icy storm that was threatening to pour.

I was used to her icy exterior. But I also know, that she could never be truly mad with me. She liked me that much, I know.

‘…I have everything in my hands, is that true?” Taeyeon looked at me pointedly. She scoffed lightly, shaking her head before narrowing her eyes, “Really, Tiffany?”

She stood staring at me, while I carried the puppy in my hands quietly petting its head.

That icy moment was interrupted by a phone call. I glanced down and saw that it was Jessica.

“Jessica?” I answered, placing the puppy down unto the basket, but the other end belonged to a male’s voice, “Ah, Jessica’s sister. Tiffany, am I right?”

Not Jessica?!

I held the phone tighter and was about to say something in alarm when he cut me off, “Don’t say a word to your girlfriend in front of you. Act calm, my love. ACT CALM!”

Sighing softly instead, I bit my lower lip and answered calmly, “Yes, Jessica.”

“Very smart to use your sister’s name as a decoy. Now, listen. If you want to save Jessica’s life, bring Taeyeon to the abandoned warehouse around your estate by the end of the day at 9pm, understood?”

“I see. Fine, Yes…Stay safe, Jess.” I meant that as ‘Don’t harm Jessica”. Apparently the guy understood what I was trying to insinuate and he chuckled, “Sure. Just make sure your girlfriend’s alone when you bring her here. Remember that, or you may say goodbye to your little Jessica forever.”

With that, the phone was clipped short. It was 12.45pm.

8 hours and 15 more minutes.

Taeyeon was looking at me quietly, “Anything the matter?”

I shook my head, “Nope.”
My heart was racing like mad.

-

2.49pm

What is my heart made of, truly? Ice? Stone? Cold? What do I feel, truly? Numbness, hurt? Or pain? Or both. Sighing, I looked at myself in the mirror, before forcing a smile that never quite reached my eyes. I shook my head, once, twice as I tried to clear my thoughts. Breathe. Now try again.

Try harder, Tiff. Try harder, and I did, when I heard Taeyeon walking towards me quietly from the back.

Everything’s like an orchestrated move.

Even without turning my back, I spoke to the thin air, looking as though I was rehearsing my lines, “What I’m trying to say is… I’m sorry, Taeyeon. I will listen to you… about Yuri. I will stop seeing her. Argh. No good, too stiff, try again, Tiff.”

“What I’m trying to say, Taeyeon is that I’ve always loved you…. Not Yuri. No one can possibly take the place you hold in my heart, do you understand? You’re the one I want to be with, always. Let’s have dinner together? Argh, sounds too cheesy.” I sighed softly and muttered to myself again, when I felt her reaching over to give me a back hug.

Everything’s calculated.

“It’s not cheesy!” She said from behind my ears, looking happy like a kid, looking as though she couldn’t contain her joy because Christmas had came early for her. Looking overjoyed at my apparent concern for her.

“That’s embarrassing…you’ve heard everything,” I sighed softly.

“Thankfully, or I would miss this.” Taeyeon said, “Even if you’re lying to me, it’s okay, I love you, Tiffany! Like a million times.”

“Can I ask a favour?” I asked abruptly, and she nodded her head, “Yup, of course! Ask anything.”

“Can we have a date together, today?”

Taeyeon looked at me, about to answer happily when she remembered that she had a meeting with her subordinates today and she sighed, “But I have a meeting today…” She looked almost tragically at me, almost as if it was doomsday for her, “And I know how much you hate going to ‘these places’ with me, does that mean our date’s cancelled?” She looked sadly at me, almost as though she were a kid that had just lost her favourite candy.

I looked at her, smiling lightly. Truly, what is my heart made of, Tiffany? Stone? Cold?

Or was it truly just flesh and blood – and more?

I smiled at Taeyeon, and I petted her head lightly, “It’s okay. I’ll follow you ‘there’, and we could still have our date.”

Taeyeon looked overjoyed, “Really, T? You’re not lying, or attempting to torture me by making me really happy one moment, and really sad, the next?”

“I’m not a devil, you know.” I said lightly, with a slight offended smile.

She laughed, and nodded her head, “Fine, fine, I apologise. Ah, finally, I’ll be able to introduce you to my subordinates! They’ll be overjoyed to see such a pretty girl. Plus, I’ll make sure the meeting’s adjoined earlier today!”

-

Overjoyed? More like over kill. It was a Japanese tatami floormat room setting, and there were four straight rows of an even distribution of six figures bowed face down, uniformed in their immaculate black suits. They were the sector heads. 24 of them. An even numbered distribution. No one dared to look up, no one even dared to look at Taeyeon in the front. She was sitting calmly by the front, on the porch with a dark heavy wooden table placed in front of her.

I knew she was cold, but I never knew to what extent. I had kept myself away from ‘here’, away from that side of her that I didn’t want to approach.

Her face was steel. She, herself was clad in pristine white. Her face was a smooth, icy cool mask – pretty much like how she looks like when she was silently angry over something that I did. She had her eyes closed meditatively and she was sipping tea over the table when someone spoke up to report something about another gang’s violence.

She nodded thinly before glancing at me. I was seated on her right, with a cap and my sunglasses.

Apparently, everyone knew who I was already.

Tiffany, her ‘precious girlfriend’ – no one had ever dared to sit on her right, since that place was probably reserved for me.

On her left was Sunny who was standing as she silently took down notes. She smiled nicely at me, and I glanced away slowly, watching quietly as the meeting carried on steadily.

-

4.56pm

“You’re telling me that Jessica’s been kidnapped?” Yuri asked Yoona once again, her voice was deadly cool as she repeated what Yoona had told her over coffee. They were in a coffee place around town.

“Yes. I cannot trace who had done it, but it probably is one of her gang members who’s not happy with the transformation that she’s been doing with her dad’s legacy.”

“So, they’re using Jessica to get to Taeyeon?” Yuri asked and Yoona sipped her coffee gracefully and calmly while Yuri appeared flustered.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Yuri asked, looking agitated and Yoona glanced up from her coffee, “Does it matter how Tiffany would feel, Yuri? Isn’t that what you’re truly asking? It’s not like you can comfort her, Yuri. Know your place.”

Yuri looked at Yoona, her gaze was narrowed icily, and she was about to say something when Yoona placed her cup down.

“Besides, I didn’t tell you earlier because, I didn’t want you to overreact. This is a very good opportunity to finish what you’ve came here for…Basically, we’ll be killing two birds in one stone.”

Yuri looked at Yoona who was wiping the lipstick stain off the coffee cup.

Yuri sighed, and continued what was on Yoona’s mind. “You mean… Jessica’s kidnap is a good opportunity to mess up Her gang’s operations and kill Her at the same time?” Yuri asked and Yoona nodded swiftly, “It’s payback for what she has done to my family.”

-

4.56pm

Breathe. Calm, take a step forward. Lift your sword, and attack. There was a rhythmic tapping in her moves, and she looked deadly agile as she practiced against the afternoon sun, like a black, graceful fighter.

Her movements casted shadows on the floor.

“Are you bored already?” Taeyeon asked as she walked towards me in her black kendo attire, removing the headgear.

Her face was pale, and luminous and I shook my head. She smiled lightly, “I’ll be ready in an hour….” She stood right before me as she said, “Wait for me here, ok? Sunny will accompany you.”

I nodded my head, as I was accustomed to. She smiled even brighter and walked away with her back facing me. There was grace, even in her straightened, disciplined back, as she disappeared from my sight.

Sunny stood beside me, we were standing side by side, looking out into the Japanese styled garden. She sighed and I glanced at her, “Is anything the matter, Sunny?”

She looked at me in alarm before smiling lightly as she said, “Ah, so, you actually do speak.”

I was silent as she nodded her head and continued tentatively, “She loves you a lot…Tiffany.”

Again, I was silent, and she glanced at me swiftly before saying, “You’re her hiding place, really, I should say that. You’re the only one she bares her soul to…” She paused, before taking a deep breath, as she said, “So, please don’t hurt her, okay?”

I sighed and placed my cap on. She looked somewhat alarmed at my gesture, almost as if she was wondering if I was angry or not.

It was afternoon already, wasn’t it? How long more do I have? 4 hours and 4 minutes.

I was looking at the way the leaves had fallen, and the way sunlight had fallen onto the ground, casting shadows of the trees on the stone pebbled pavement outside. In an almost inaudible sigh, I said, “Believe it or not, Sunny. From the very first moment…I was already in love with her.”

With that, I walked away quietly, as quietly as Her. I was mimicking her moves like a diehard lover would.