Tiffany kept on running with all her might, storming her way through the low branches on the trees and the thick bushes on the ground. Her legs refused to stop as she kept on dashing through the forest. She was still crying at this point. She wanted to stop as her eyes were sore, but her tears rejected her plea.

As she ran, the sharp branches, jagged rocks, and prickly leaves scraped her skin, leaving scratches on her arms, legs, and even her face. But this wasn’t the reason why she shed gallons of tears; it was because of the ignorant and childish attitude that Jessica showed to her.

“Why did she have to do that?” Tiffany thought to herself as she kept on crying and running simultaneously. “She scared me to death. I thought she had already died. I thought I had lost her forever.”

Tiffany clasped a part of her chest and continued to ask herself. “I… I feel that my heart would explode if that happened… but she didn’t die… why is my heart in pain?”

Her little heart wasn’t able to handle the worries that Jessica’s practical joke brought upon her. The other girl thought that it was funny, but it was the complete opposite for Tiffany. At the moment, she didn’t want to think of Jessica, but she didn’t have control over what she wanted to think and what she didn’t.

“Why is my heart like this?” Tiffany continued thinking as she placed her other hand on her chest. “I’ve never felt this way before whenever I’m with her. Why is it aching like this? What she did… it was just too much for me.”

Tiffany ran for nearly an hour, without stopping. It’s funny how her heart was able to handle an hour of running without ceasing, but can’t take a simple prank by Jessica, someone close to her.

Tiffany, after nearly an hour of running, stops. It wasn’t for her to rest, but to give her mind some time to think.

“She always told me that she loved me, but she never really showed it to me. Why is she like that? If she really loves me, wouldn’t she care about my feelings? How I feel? What pains me? What hurts me? Does she only think of the ‘fun’ she has when she’s with me?” Tiffany thinks to herself as she stopped.

She shuts her eyes tightly and then pounds her chest. “Tiffany… don’t think about her. Tiffany… you don’t want to be with her anymore. Tiffany… this isn’t going to work out,” the girl tried to brainwash herself.

She tried to force herself to forget Jessica for the moment, to rid her mind of any traces of Jessica, to think that it was over between them, to think that their relationship never would’ve worked out in the first place. Unfortunately for her, it didn’t work out quite well.

“But why can’t I let go completely? Why… why can’t I get her out of my mind? Why does my heart hurt more when I try to forget her?”

After a few seconds of thoughts, Tiffany opens her eyes once more and instinctively resumes running.

Sweat that fashioned from the pores of her skin mixed with the dirt from the ground and air. Then, her dirty skin muddled up with the blood from the small scrapes and scratches that the barbed tree branches, thorny leaves, and spiky shrubberies caused. At that moment, she looked like someone who had just been and thrown over a cliff. She was filthy, exhausted, and the worse of all, heartbroken.

Following a few more minutes of struggling through the harsh forest, she finally found a sand-covered path that led to the seashore. Her speed suddenly decreased and her sprint turned into a slow walk. And after an hour of a non-stop high speed dash, her legs collapsed beneath her. She falls down on her hands and knees with weakness upon her. Then, she loses her strength and suddenly became unconscious. She crumbled to the ground, with her front side against the earth. Looking at her, she seemed like a lifeless rag doll in the sandy path. In her situation, it would be better to stay that way than to wake up with her heart in two.

“Jessica…” Tiffany uttered softly, her last words before her eyes slowly closed.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Tiffany lay on the ground for more than half an hour. It was so until a girl found her there. It was the girl she was talking about with Jessica, the girl she met a few hours after Jessica left her in dreamland.

“Tiffany?!” the girl yelled out as she saw the motionless body from afar.

The girl sprinted from where she was to Tiffany. She was in front of the unconscious in mere seconds. She kneeled down and placed her hands beneath Tiffany. Then, she lifted the girl on one side and turned her over in a way that she would be laying on her back.

“Tiffany! What happened to you?” The girl questioned the unresponsive girl. “Who did this to you?”

The mysterious girl tried to bring Tiffany back to her consciousness with every possible way she could find. She slapped her softly on the cheeks, splashed water on her face, and even pinched parts of her skin. Tiffany didn’t respond to any of those. Although that was the case, she was still breathing and blood was still streaming through her veins.

The girl decided that she should at least clean Tiffany up and help her change her clothes since she was unconscious and helpless at her state.

First, she brought Tiffany to a more comfortable place. The girl slung Tiffany’s hand over her shoulder and carried her, nearly dragging her, to a shaded area with all her might. She lay her down on the sandy ground and placed a piece of cloth she was carrying beneath the girls head. She made sure that Tiffany was in a comfortable position.

The clothes she let the girl borrow were previously clean. But after hours of hiking, running, even diving, the clothes were soaked in water, sweat, and dirt, and they were torn and ripped in some places as well.

The girl stared at the poor girl, thinking what to do next. Before changing Tiffany’s clothes, she decided to wet another piece of cloth to clean Tiffany up before her small scrapes and scratches become infected. She took another small, clean towel and places it in her hand. Then, she took the water container which was attached to her belt and opens the lid. She held it over the towel and starts to pour some clean water on it. Soon, it was soaked in water and she headed back to where Tiffany was.

Once again, she kneels beside the girl and started to wipe the dirt off her face. Then, she dabbed the damp cloth on the small scratches on parts of her cheeks and after doing so, she started cleaning the girl’s neck. It was not as dirty as the rest of her body, but she still decided to rub it with the towel.

After that, she started to cleanse Tiffany’s body. First, she takes the girl’s left arm and softly places the cloth on the skin, gently wiping the dirt in a back and forth motion, from the shoulder to the hand. She does the same for the other arm. Then, the girl’s fingers slide down to Tiffany’s belly. She slightly lifts Tiffany’s soiled tank top, revealing the girl’s flat abdomen. She rubbed this part with the cloth the same way and did the same thing for the scrapes on the side of her body.

Involuntarily, the girl’s hands suddenly let go of the piece of cloth, then started to caress Tiffany’s stomach. Then, her fingertips slowly made their way to Tiffany’s chest area. Her hands went under the girl’s shirt and she continued to feel the soft and silky skin of the unresponsive girl. On impulse, she closes her eyes and continued to Tiffany’s upper body inappropriately.

Only after a few minutes did she realize what she was doing. After she grasped what she was doing, she abruptly removes her hands from under the lifeless girl’s shirt.

“What am I doing?” The girl asked herself as she looked at her hands in confusion. “Why did I just do that?”

The girl had no idea what she just did and why she did it. Once she looked at the girl, she immediately had an involuntary urge to do what she just did. And when she lifted the girl’s shirt up, that urge became stronger. She didn’t want to do it, but she couldn’t help it.

But although she had that urge, she still decided to finish cleaning Tiffany up. She pulls the girl’s top back down as she tried to fight the urge to take advantage of her once more. She picked up the towel she dropped and continued to wipe the dirty parts of Tiffany’s body.

After finishing cleaning Tiffany’s upper body, her hands made their way down her lower body. She took a look at the girl’s smooth legs which were sporting the shorts that she let her borrow. After doing so, she suddenly wanted to cuddle and the girl once more. Her hands slowly reached for Tiffany’s legs, but she hesitated for a bit, then took them back.

“What am I doing?” The girl asked herself once more as she hit herself in the head softly. “Why can’t I control myself when I’m with this girl?”

Once more, the girl picked up the towel she dropped and finally was able to continue cleaning the grimy limbs of the girl with much effort. It took her a while to finally finish, but she did.

Originally, she wanted to help Tiffany change her clothes, but afraid that she might do something else in the process, she decided not to do so anymore.

“What is this girl?” The girl asked rhetorically as she sat down beside Tiffany. “How can someone look so perfectly beautiful like her?”

The girl stared at Tiffany intensely, from head to toe. Tiffany looked better than what she did a few minutes before thanks to the other girl. Surprisingly, her slightly long hair was still in place after hours of running and hiking through the forest. And though her eyes were closed, the girl knew that they were as beautiful as the rest of her. Tiffany’s arms and legs were very smooth and silky, disregarding her minor scratches of course. Tiffany’s figure was perfect. Her face was perfect. Everything about her was perfect. But the other girl’s eyes seem to be dysfunctional for they were only looking at one thing through all these: Tiffany’s lips.

“Her lips…” the girl told herself mechanically. “They’re… beautiful.”

The girl was out of it again. She was unconsciously making her way, leaning towards Tiffany’s face. She looked at her lips intensely and she closed her eyes, relaxed her lips and went in for a kiss. Her face was slowly inching closer and closer, and the two girl’s lips were about to touch.

“Where am I?” Tiffany suddenly uttered as she opened her eyes.

Frightened at Tiffany’s sudden words, she sprung herself up, off of Tiffany’s face.

“Umm… you… th… I… you… fainted… there…” The girl stuttered as she frantically searched for something to say, her hands fidgeting.

“Wh… where… who are you?” Tiffany hastily asked as she sat up and faced the other girl.

The other girl just stared at Tiffany blankly, with widened eyes. Then, as Tiffany took one look at the girl, she realized whom she was talking to.

“Oh. It’s you,” Tiffany muttered with a little bit of disappointment. “What happened?”

“I think I should be asking you that,” the girl replied, finally finding the right words. “I found you unconscious somewhere there,” she pointed towards a certain direction.

“Unconscious?”

“Yeah. You were filthy when I found you so I actually cleaned you up.”

“Y… you cleaned my body?” Tiffany confirmed as she raised an eyebrow.

“Well… yes.”

“Are you sure that’s the only thing you did?”

“What?! What are you talking about?! Of course! What else could I have done?!” The girl panicked as she was taken aback by the sudden question.

“Okay. Okay. Sheesh. There’s no need to be that defensive,” Tiffany exclaimed, giggling at the other girl’s frantic response.

Tiffany looked away from the girl, then stood up. She looked at the sky and realized that the sun was setting.

“The sun’s setting already.”

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

“She’s going soon,” Tiffany uttered, sitting back down on the sand.

“She?” Jessica said as she sat down beside Tiffany. “You’re not talking about Jessica are you?”

Tiffany looked at the other girl, and then suddenly burst in tears at the mention of the name “Jessica”.

“Wh… what? Did I say something wrong? Are you okay?”

“It… it… it…”

It’s okay, you can tell me,” the girl told Tiffany as she placed her hand on her back.
“J…just… a while… a… ago,” Tiffany started to narrate as she tried to calm down. “I was with her.”

As the tears started to stop flowing, Tiffany was able to relate the story to the other girl, regarding what happened with Jessica and her a while ago. She told every detail and every action, even telling what she felt at the moment. The other girl just listened intently, feeling empathy for her as she continued to tell her story.

“She really did that to you?” The mysterious girl asked Tiffany.

“Yes. And she was laughing while I was sitting there, terrified that she might be dead,”

Tiffany, yet again, started to cry. It has already been one and a half hours since Tiffany ran away, but her tears haven’t run out yet.

“Don’t cry,” the other girl consoled as she combed Tiffany’s hair with her hand. “I’m here for you.”

Tiffany looked up at the other girl, smiled, and then rested her head on her shoulder.

“Thank you,” Tiffany gratefully said to the girl beside her. “I appreciate your help.”

“It’s okay. Nothing big,” the girl replied. “You know, the sunset is really romantic.”

“It really is.”

“Do you really love her?” The other girl asked suddenly.

“What? Why are you asking that?”

“Do you?”

“Well… I… I loved her… but I’m really confused right now…”

“Well… I’m not confusing,” the other girl suddenly told Tiffany. “And… I… I love you more than she does.”

“What?” Tiffany screamed out as she lifted her head from the girl’s shoulder. “We barely know each other!”

“We’ll get to know each other more. And don’t worry, I won’t hurt you like she did.”

“But Jes–”

“Your Jessica isn’t here. She doesn’t love you. I do. And it’s just the two of us right now.”

Tiffany stopped talking and looked at the other girl with confused eyes. The girl looked into Tiffany’s eyes similarly. Then after a few seconds, the girl closed her eyes and tensed her lips. Suddenly, she held Tiffany’s face and started to lean into her. Tiffany involuntarily closed her eyes too and waited for the girl’s face to come close to hers. The two were about to kiss.

But Tiffany didn’t want to let go of Jessica just yet. She turned her face away from the other girl and she faced the ground.

“I can’t do this. I still love her. And I’m sorry… because I don’t feel the same way about you.”

The girl didn’t respond.

“I’m really sorry.”

The girl still didn’t reply.

Tiffany, curious as to why the girl wasn’t speaking back, lifted her head and opened her eyes. She realized that she wasn’t talking to anyone anymore. The girl was gone in a sudden.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


“Where do we practice?” Jessica asked as the two walk along the empty hallways of the school.

“Does the school have a wide and open are some sort?” Yuri asked back. “Well, besides the auditorium. I know the others are using it right now. We can’t do it there. We need privacy.”

“Privacy?” Jessica looked at Yuri strangely. “Why would we need that?”

“Well… we can’t afford being disturbed by others, especially that there’s only three months ‘til the play.”

“Oh, I know. We have a playground and it’s a bit spacious, but the slides and swings are kind of rusty,” Jessica replied as they continued to walk.

“That would be fine,” Yuri exclaimed. “Besides, we’re not going there to play. We’re going to dance.”

“Wait; there are no sockets out there.”

“So?”

“You mean…” Jessica paused and looked at the tall girl in the eyes. “We’re going to practice dancing without music?”

“Yes. Yes we are,” Yuri replied. “Why? Is there a problem?”

“Do I have a problem?” Jessica told the other girl. “I can barely dance with music! And you expect me to dance without it? Are you crazy?”

“Didn’t I tell you that I was going to teach you well? Would you please just trust in me for once,” Yuri pleaded as she placed her hand on Jessica’s shoulder.

“Well alright. But if I fail, you’re going to have to take responsibility,” Jessica threatened as she started walking the other way.

“Where are you going?”

“Duh! To the playground.”

“Oh.”

“Are you coming or what?”

“Y-yeah,” Yuri answered.

Yuri caught up with Jessica and the two of them headed to the playground. They reached the end of the hallway and went down two flights of stairs. Then, they entered a narrow corridor on the ground floor, which led to a very small door.

“Why is the door so small?” Yuri asked as she stared interestingly at the minute door.

“Who else would you expect to play in the playground?”

“Little children.”

“Little children play in the playground, thus, the little door.”

“I see,” the tan girl replied as she nodded her head. “How do we open it?”

“It’s been a long time since this playground has been used. No one has been allowed in here since last year.”

“No one has been allowed here since last year? And you’re still planning to go through with practicing here?”

“Well, you’re the one who suggested this place in the first place. Besides, no one even checks this place anymore. No one will know we're here.”

“Well, okay. If there’s no other place…”

Jessica bent over to reach for the doorknob which was placed quite low. It was rusty, but she didn’t hesitate to grab hold of it. Then, she turned the knob and it released an echoing, creaking sound across the hallway. Then, she pushed the door open.

The two girls were about to head outside through the door, but someone was already on the other side of the doorway.

“Taeyeon?”

“Jessica?”

“When I said little children, I didn’t mean… little.”

“Ha-ha,” Taeyeon laughed sarcastically. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”

“I should be asking you the same thing.”

“We were dismissed early.”

“Why didn’t you just go home?”

“Why does it matter to you?”

“Why are you even talking to me? Aren’t you supposed to be mad at me?”

“I am! And I’m not talking to you!”

Taeyeon entered the hallway through the door as the two continued to quarrel.

“Is that drool on your face?” Jessica asked Taeyeon, pointing her finger at a wet spot near Taeyeon’s mouth.

Taeyeon wiped with her arm, embarrassed. Then, she pushed Jessica by the shoulder.

“I feel so sorry for you,” Taeyeon told Yuri.

“What did you just say?” Jessica asked as she pushed Taeyeon against the wall.

“Guys! Guys!” Yuri finally spoke. “Cut it out!” She yelled out as she tried to separate the two girls. “Cut it out!”

She pulled the two childish girl by their collars and split the two apart.

“Taeyeon, I think you should be going now.”

Without saying a word, Taeyeon left the scene. But before doing so, she stared at Jessica furiously and released a puff of air through her nose.

“What the heck was that about?” Yuri asked Jessica.

“That was nothing,” Jessica answered as she rubbed her shoulder. “Should we get on with practice?”