June 2011

Taeyeon's POV

Term break just started. It was supposed to be a holiday, but no. In college, exams starts right after term break so we’ve got to study. Most of the time. Well, that’s what everybody says. Heck with studying, we’re supposed to have fun, it’s a holiday remember?! 4 weeks of break and I’ve already spent the first 2 weeks playing, going out almost every other day. My classmates, Sooyoung, Yuri, Yoona and Sunny and I spent our time roaming around the city, shopping and looking for good food. Scratch that. Sunny wanted to shop while Sooyoung and Yoona followed because there was good food in the city. Yuri tagged along since Yoona was there. That girl had a huge crush on the latter for as long as I could remember but did not have the courage to confess. She pretty much followed Yoona wherever she went like an obedient puppy just so that she could be near her. I was not fond of shopping nor was I a shikshin like Sooyoung and Yoona but I had decided to follow them anyway, since I was not in the mood for studying.

College life has been taking its toll on me, squeezing the life out of me. I had joined the school’s tennis team and training for competitions had been tough. More training sessions were added with training hours extended to prepare us and to make sure that we would be in condition when the season started. I was so beat every night that I slumped into bed after dinner, leaving my homework undone. Whoever says coffee keeps you awake must be joking. Despite ordering a cup of coffee from the café every morning, it was still not enough to keep me awake during lessons. Moreover, too much coffee in my system makes me want to puke. Maybe I should return back to drinking milk again. On top of that lessons missed during competition did nothing but slowed down my learning process even more. Even though I know that I should be studying and catching up on all the stuff that I had missed, I could not bring myself to. It was term break for god sake! I need to breathe- some time to wind down.

“Hey! That looks like a nice restaurant. It’s a Japanese buffet! Let’s go! I’ve been craving for some sashimi…hehehe…” I snapped out of my thoughts due to Sooyoung’s sudden outburst, trying to push my guilt of not studying out of my mind, not realizing that they have gone ahead of me.

“Taeng! What are you doing stoning over there? Common , we’re all hungry.” Yuri called out to me. Heck, study can wait. Let’s just enjoy our freedom for the time being.

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2 weeks passed and I figured that I should get started on my work. I found myself beside Jessica at a random Starbucks in town studying together…okay, she did, while I spent most of the time staring at her face, noticing how she would have that cute little pout on whenever she was concentrating hard.

The both of us are in different classes- she was more into arts. But anyway, we had gotten closer during orientation at the beginning of the year.

Flashback

It was the first day of school and I was so excited. After 2 months of slacking at home, being a couch potato, I was finally going back to school, starting a new chapter of my life. College. Wow. Time sure flies. It seemed like it was only just yesterday when I first got into secondary school and now 4 years had passed. Everything was so new to me, the buildings, and the people. A group of students, wearing their secondary school uniforms were crowding around a notice board outside the general office and I followed them. Orientation groups. I scrolled through the long list of names and finally found my name in OG 14. Looking through the list of names again, I was disappointed that none of my friends from secondary school were in the same group as me. Seohyun and Hyoyeon, my two friends from my class were lucky enough to be grouped together. Lucky them. I begun to panic. I was not a very sociable person and do not usually take the initiative to speak to strangers. How am I going to survive alone in an entirely new environment? I was on my own. I started to make my way to the hall, assembly was about to start and I had to find my orientation group leader for attendance taking.

“Everything’s going to be fine…don’t worry, you’re gonna be fine” I murmured to myself. 'Hwaiting Taeng! You’ll survive.'

The flag raising ceremony was finally over and the principal’s giving a welcoming speech to all of us year 1s. It had been over five minutes and the principal’s still not done with her speech. I’m starting to get bored. I had been fidgeting with my phone, turning it over and over again when I decided to look around. Since the principal had not shown any sign of stopping her speech any time soon, I might as well take the time to memorize the faces of my group mates. I did not know anyone in the group; I had to at least recognize their faces so I would not follow the wrong people around school later. It was then I saw her. I had never seen anyone quite as beautiful as that person. Right from the moment I first laid my sight on her, I could not take my eyes off her. It was as if a mysterious force was pulling me towards her, I never felt this way before. What was this about? Why was I acting like that?

I learnt of her name later while we were playing ice breaker games. We had to memorize all our group mates’ names and that was when I first heard her speak. Her voice was soft with a hint of shyness in it. Jessica Jung is her name and I doubt I would forget it any time soon.

We were having our lunch break in the café. Our group planned to have a group lunch to take the opportunity to bond with each other over food. I scanned the table looking for Jessica, hoping that I would be able to sit beside her. However, Jessica was not with the group, in fact, she was nowhere to be found. Just when I was about to give up and take my seat beside a boy whose name I roughly remember as Donghae, I saw her eating alone at the far end of the café all by herself. I surprised even myself with what I did next. It was so out of character. I found myself abandoning the rest of the group, making my way to her.

“Hey.” She looked up at me. I could feel my heart accelerating. I was nervous. “Can I?” I said, pointing to the seat right in front of her.

She nodded, indicating that I could have the seat, the corner of her lips turning up to form a small smile. I was stunned. How could someone look so beautiful smiling like that? Snapping back to reality, I quickly took my seat hoping that she did not notice my momentary absence, mentally. We started digging into our food, awkward silence hanging in the air. I could not take it anymore after a minute and spoke up, hoping to start a small conversation with her.

“My name’s Taeyeon. You’re Jessica right? We’re from the same OG.”

She looked up at me again, shyly giving me slight nod. I almost choked on my food. She looked too cute like that.

“W-why are you here alone? They’re having group lunch over there” I had almost forgotten how to speak.

No response. Just a small smile. Again. I should try harder.

“Sho, which skchool did chu come phrom?” I asked with my mouth full of rice.

She giggled, laughing at me. At least I got to hear her voice. Sweet.

“Richshore Secondary. What about you?” Ha. Success! I got her to speak!

That was when we became friends. We are so alike, personality wise that we clicked instantly. Just like her, I usually needed some time to warm up with people I just met, but she was an exception. I had never taken the first step to get to know another person. I was drawn to her and was sad when the class allocation came out, knowing that I would not be able to see her every minute in school. But since then, we had become so much closer during the orientation; we met up frequently during common breaks and hung out together after school, just the two of us. Since we lived near each other, we would always wait for each other to go home, making the hour long train ride less boring, more entertaining. I was attracted to her, period. We became best friends in that short amount of time and how I wished we could be more than that. Would she ever know of my feelings?

Back to present

“Something on my face? Why do you keep staring at me?” she said while wiping on the back of her hand.

I flinched. Shoot. I got caught again. I looked into her eyes but my gaze soon found its way to her lips. Oh, those lips, how I wish I could…

“Taeng? Taengoo, are you alright?” her voice full of concern, breaking my train of thoughts.

“Ye..Yea, yea I’m alright.”I stammered, looking back at my notes, embarrassed.

I could feel the blood rushing up and attempted to hide my face behind my hair to cover up the blush, hoping that she would not see. From the corner my eyes, I swore I saw her smirked before turning back to her books, like as if she knew what I was up to. I stared at the notes in front of me pretending to memorize the entire bond angle chart thingy for chemistry. Which reminded me…I had got lots of work to catch up with and mid-term wa in 2 weeks. I groaned. There was too much to do, maybe I should have started on it earlier. School was such a .

I forced myself to concentrate on my notes for the next few hours but it proved to be a distraction with Jessica Jung right beside me. My back had begun to hurt for sitting too long so I stretched myself and took the last sip of my ice latte. Jessica looked up from her books and took a glance out of the window.

“What time’s it Taengoo? Its already dark outside”

“7” I replied, trying to stifle a yawn.

“Wow, it’s late. Let’s stop here today, guess it’s time to go home for dinner.”

“Sure. Are you going to study again tomorrow?”

“Yup, mid-years coming, I don’t want to fail. You should study with me again tomorrow. You up?”

“Lemme think about it, I’ll text you later.”

We packed our books and made our way home. She gave me a hug when it was time to say goodbye. Electricity flowed through my veins when her body came into contact with mine, I could feel her pressed up against me. I should had gotten used to her hugs by now, but every time she did it, it never failed to send chills down my spine, the good ones.

“I’ll be at Starbucks again tomorrow, same time. Let me know if you’re coming okay?” I managed to give her a small nod.

With that, she turned and walked in the opposite direction, but not before giving me a wink, leaving me stunned. Gosh, the things she did. Did she even know the effects she had on me? I stood there standing like an idiot, watching her leave til she was out of sight. I started to make my way home, still thinking about her. Today was supposed to be a study date, but what had I learn besides the fact that she pouts whenever she was concentrating? Oh yea, I had also learn that bond angles were hard to memorize. Studying was going to be so hard with Jessica Jung. Maybe it was a bad idea to study with her after all.

Another update today! Hahaha.. ideas keep coming in so I'd decided to write. Please do leave a comment, silent readers are welcome!(: