The next morning, Tiffany woke up in a coughing fit. Scared to wake up the sleeping girls in her room, she quickly left. She ran to the kitchen to get some water. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Taeyeon seated in one of the bar stools in front of the counter, drinking a glass of water as well.

Tiffany smiled. “That’s all you’re drinking, Tae?”

Taeyeon chuckled. “First thing in the morning and Miss Hwang is already questioning me? I don’t even get a good morning?”

Tiffany playfully punched her arm. “Good morning, Tae Tae,” she said sweetly. She gave Taeyeon a peck on the cheek. “Better?”

Taeyeon smiled. “Much better, but you probably shouldn’t do that with my girlfriend around.”

Tiffany gasped. “No way! You asked her out?” Taeyeon nodded. “Tae, that’s awesome! I’m so happy for you!” She gave Taeyeon a hug.

Taeyeon laughed. “Fany-ah~ Stop! You’re smothering me.”

“Oh yeah? Just because you have a girlfriend, you think you’re too good for me now?” Tiffany teased.

“Excuse me, I have always been too good for you,” Taeyeon teased back.

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah,” Taeyeon said, poking Tiffany’s forehead and sprinting out of the kitchen.

“You asked for it, Kim Taeyeon!” Tiffany said before taking off after her friend. Tiffany chased the danshin around, continuously teasing her friend. “Is that as fast as you can go, Tae? Are your legs too short?”

“Excuse me?” Taeyeon asked, stopping in her tracks and facing Tiffany. “You’re asking for trouble, aren’t you Fany?”

“Am I? Or do you just have a short fuse?” she teased.

“All right, Tiffany. You better start running.”

Tiffany sprinted off to the other direction, Taeyeon following close behind. “You should’ve taken some milk from the refrigerator this morning, Tae Tae.”

Taeyeon reached for Tiffany’s shirt but Tiffany started running faster in order to get out of Taeyeon’s reach. This caused the danshin to lose her balance.

Tiffany looked over her shoulder to find Taeyeon laying on her stomach. She walked towards her friend, concerned. “Are you all right, Tae Tae?”

Taeyeon rolled over to lie on her back. “Can you come in front of me?” she asked pointing towards her toes.

Tiffany did as she was asked. “Tae, why’d you want—,” She felt a tug on her hand and the next thing she knew, she was on top of Taeyeon.

Taeyeon smiled and rolled over, pinning Tiffany down. “Have you had enough?” she asked with a smile.

Tiffany blushed at the sight of Taeyeon’s face being so close to hers. Tiffany nodded, her face flushed.

“What’s wrong, Fany?” she asked. “Cat got your tongue?”

Tiffany giggled. “You’ve gotten more confident about yourself, haven’t you?”

Taeyeon stared at her in surprise then smiled. “Yeah, I guess I have.”

“That’s good. Maybe Sunny will be able to break you out of your shell completely.”

“Maybe,” she agreed.

Tiffany touched Taeyeon’s cheek. “I like this new you, Tae. It’s better for you.”

 Taeyeon smiled. “You really think so, Fany?”

Tiffany nodded in reply. “Yeah, now get off me before someone sees us and misunderstands,” she said, giving Taeyeon’s shoulder a light push.

“It’s a little too late for that,” Jessica said.

Taeyeon and Tiffany looked toward the direction of the voice to see Jessica and Sunny standing just outside the bedroom doors, staring at them.

Taeyeon gasped and stood up. “Sunny-ah, please don’t misunderstand! It’s not what you think!”

Sunny studied her for several seconds then smiled sweetly. “It’s fine, Taeng. I trust you.”

Taeyeon let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear.”

Sunny approached Taeyeon and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Don’t worry, Tae. I’m a low maintenance kind of girl,” Sunny whispered in Taeyeon’s ear.

 Taeyeon smiled at her. “I—I see.”

Sunny checked her wristwatch. “We should go, Taeng. Jessica and Tiffany probably have other things to do. We shouldn’t impose on them.”

“It’s no trouble at all, Sunny-ah,” Tiffany said. “We’d love for both of you to stay for breakfast.”

“Yeah,” added Jessica. “Besides, the other girls aren’t even awake yet. So, you might as well stay.”

“That’s all right,” Sunny said. “We really should get going. We had other plans afterwards.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” said Tiffany, disappointed.

Taeyeon opened to say something, but closed it once she felt Sunny’s hand hold hers.

“This was a really fun party and I really did enjoy it. Thank you so much for inviting us,” said Sunny.

“No problem,” replied Jessica. “Thanks for coming.”

Sunny nodded and led Taeyeon to the bedroom to gather their things. Several minutes later, they came out with their belongings, gave Tiffany and Jessica hugs then left the apartment.

“Are you all right, kid?” Jessica asked, nudging Tiffany who was staring blankly at the door.

She forced a smile. “Yeah, I think so. Why do you ask?”

Jessica furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not your usual cheery self again. What happened?”

“I don’t know, Jess. I just feel like all of the energy got out of me.”

There was a period of silence. “You know, I’ve noticed that you have been a lot happier ever since Taeyeon came around. I think the tw