Breakfast at Tiffany's

Jessica has been waiting for at least half an hour. Her grande caramel macchiato had already gone cold in her wait. She looked at her watch, quarter to five. Sunny wasn't usually this late. In fact, she would almost always be ten or fifteen minutes early for a meet up. She had sent her almost twenty messages but received no response. Her calls ring then goes to voicemail. She even phoned Sunny’s sister, Jinkyu, to see if she was at home or something; only to find out that her sister had been out all day and left Sunny in her sleeping state back home.

She wondered if she can buy a box of Krispy Kreme donuts to pig out at their place. Sunny could never be in any sort of serious trouble, so Jessica isn’t really worried that visiting her friend would cause any damage. She just really needed someone to talk to. Especially since she knew someone important will be here by tomorrow. Someone she had waited for a long, long time.

Jessica began scanning the magazines she took out from the rack moments ago. One of them had a very familiar face with doe looking eyes. She sleepily peeled the cover to read an article about a province girl’s sudden rise to fame after starring in a chicken commercial. Jessica closed the album not long after reading the first few paragraphs.

Stars without real talent make her sick. So what if she can pose for pictures? She can’t sing or act. Anything that comes out of was selected and filtered, thus losing its sincerity. Jessica can imagine the writer editing the model’s answers at the back of her head, twisting her words to make it more enticing to the readers. How pathetic.

She glanced at her Samsung S3, One new message. It said. She quickly unlocked the phone, hoping to hear from Sunny but instead saw a text from Donghae. She didn’t even bother reading that. She knew he’d be angry, but it would pass. Boys were like that. Acting like they’re all that. They’re all the same if they get wrapped in a girl’s finger. There really isn’t anything the girl can do that the boy can’t endure.

Knowing this, she had never given any thought of pursuing a serious relationship with anyone. At a young age, she was exposed to production. Her parents even recorded voices from normal people and singers while talking; all so she can differentiate which one were singers, had potential and had no talent at all.

And there was one time that she slipped judgment, when she was given a sample record of a girl that recorded songs with high and low notes. Immediately, Jessica concluded that she had a wide vocal range and immediately recommended her parents to have her sing in Radio Seoul.

Her parents, excited that she finally had passion for finding and nurturing talent, decided to give her a shot; but then the girl she chose froze up, probably because of cold feet and remained silent for most of the song.

It was around that time that her younger sister, Krystal, was subject to the same treatment. Hers was even harsher; to her parents, Jessica had obviously did not have the natural, necessary skills to continue their line of work. Her flunk even cost them a sudden downfall of ratings for that particular show.

She didn’t want her little sister to be treated the same way. Jessica felt like they were sponges that needed to soak up everything. She wanted both them to experience things that were unrelated to showbiz; but by the time she had thought though her that, producing had already been her life. Thankfully, Krystal also fell in love with it. She was actually sizing up overseas competition in Japan right now.

This must be the feeling of being arranged with a boy their parents picked out and eventually liking him back. She sighed. Remembering that incident made her feel embarrassed, but at the same time she felt smarter because of what she learned.

She took a sip of her cold coffee, coughing slightly because the cold caramel irritated as it passed. She took a sip of water to flush the feeling down, closing her eyes because she wanted to gag so badly.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Taeyeon enter the café. She was worried for a moment that she might be talking to other companies, but she was wearing casual clothes today and didn’t look like she had official business to take care of. So she was safe on that, at least for now.

Jessica quickly took out her sunglasses and pretended to read the magazine, eyeing the other girl carefully.

She had not noticed Tiffany sitting in a corner. She looked different from the princess style she wore the last time she saw her. Her hair was now dyed red and was pulled into a bun with a pencil. She wore a yellow sweatshirt that had the University's logo printed on it. She also had an iPad open in front of her. It looks as if she looking something up because she had paper scrambled all over the table and was noting down a lot of stuff.

Taeyeon went up to her with big smiles, kissing her on the cheeks before sitting down. Tiffany promptly pulled her card and asked what she wanted to eat. It looked like Taeyeon didn’t know yet because she shrugged. Tiffany then pointed at the barista. It looks like she really wanted Taeyeon to eat because she handed her credit to her and pulled her off the chair.

These two act so normal when they’re in front of other people. Jessica thought as she turned the page of the magazine she hid behind. It disgusted her that she knew what she they did behind closed doors.

To Jessica, Tiffany was an enemy; it would’ve been easier if she can just erase her presence completely, but Taeyeon won’t even function with the absence of Tiffany. So she had to find the next best thing, demoting her to best friend status.

She’s a bit early though. Jessica checked her twitter notifications. Her last update read:

DJ Taengoo @DearLoveKTY                    [4H]
Might be back in Seoul tomorrow! Did you guys
miss me? Kkkkk :)))

Why is she here then? Jessica scrolled her earlier messages. Taeyeon didn’t drop any hints about her early arrival to the big city. It frustrated her that she didn’t know about that.

She tried to compose herself but her body moved like it has its own mind, compulsively arranging the table. Her vision blurred. She felt her fingers twitch and bend in ways that it shouldn’t have. She felt like there was a demon inside of her. She had to grit her teeth hard to regain control.

She reached out for her phone and speed dialed her sister. It took a few seconds, but her sister picked up.

“Yeoboseo? Unnie?” She asked.

Jessica began to calm down. The sound of her sister’s voice was usually all she needed to regain her footing. She can’t place her fingers on it; but she had always thought that if her screws up, Krystal will always be her back up. Does it seem odd that she heavily relied on her little sister to save her from her own mistakes?

I’m human too.

“Ya, unnie…” Krystal laughed. “Are we playing the staring game again? I can’t tell if you’re blinking.”

“You dummy, I just wanted to see how you’re doing.” Jessica said. She felt blood return to her brain again. She began to think by herself and her hand began to move at her will.

“Are you OK, unnie? Are you spacing out again?”

“Shut up, dork face. When will you be back?” Jessica snapped.

“How can I answer that if you just told me to shut up?” Her little sister laughed.

“Answer the question, .”

“I’ll be back by tomorrow.” Krystal said, Jessica heard voices in the background and knew that their time would be cut. “Unnie, I have to go.”

“Araseo. Jalisso.” Jessica said, looking at Taeyeon as she ate. She was almost halfway through in eating her waffles. “Oh… And ask Mum to have someone fetch you at the airport. Are you coming from Gimpo?”

“Aniyo, unnie.” Krystal answered. “Appa will come home from L.A. tomorrow too. So I took a plane to Incheon. He asked if we can meet.”

There was a brief silence on the line. Krystal quickly broke it by telling her sister that she really needed to go.

Jessica ended the call, feeling relieved, but no less stressed than before. She fished out a mirror and checked how she looked like before stuffing all of her things in her bag and leaving.

Kim Taeyeon. She wondered. What can I do to make you mine again?