“Perfect.” Victoria smiled menacingly, her fingers wrapping around the black object protectively, as if it was a precious diamond that was worth a million dollars.

“Don’t you think that’s kind of mean, Victoria?” Krystal asked.

“Shut up, maknae.” The older girl glared, causing a chill to run down Krystal’s spine as she gulped and mentally slapped herself.

What was she thinking? Trying to be nice to the new girl? She didn’t choose this path, but it was the only way to get what she wanted in the school. Her sister, Jessica, chose the nice side, but she’d never bothered to follow in her footsteps anyway. To get to the top, she found out, was to get down and dirty, no matter what it took.

“It’s a wonderful picture, splendid, don’t you think?” Victoria asked.

“Ravishing.” “Amazing.” Amber and Luna replied, while Krystal just kept silent. Sulli just smirked, rolling her eyes.

“Now, we just need to do it the right way… Luna, have you gotten the number?”

“Victoria Song, who do you think I am?”

“That’s my girl.”

The two of them laughed together. Somehow they don’t sound mean, Krystal thought, but looked straight ahead and forced a small smile.

****

“Taeyeon, I can—” Wooyoung began speaking, only to be stopped by the girl.

“Just shut up. Shut the f—just go away, please.”

“Taeyeon I really—”

“I said go away!” She yelled, snapping out of her cool, collected state.

And he did—Wooyoung backed away into the darkness of the lockers, and left Taeyeon to cool on her own. She checked her phone, and she’d received a text from a private number.

-// Goody-two-shoes. I’ve got you now. //-

She was utterly confused. She wasn’t goody-two-shoes… At least, she thought she wasn’t. She had her ‘A’s and all, but she wasn’t a teacher’s pet, so why’d this person say so? And why did this person say that he or she had gotten her?

Her finger hovered around the ‘delete’ button, but she decided to ignore it instead. Locking her phone, she stuffed it into her pocket in a frustrated manner. First day of school and she’d been kissed unexpectedly, and now she’d received a private message? How much worse can the day get?

Taeyeon frowned and walked along the hallway, fixing her hair before going into the next room for the last two periods of the day. She couldn’t imagine taking anymore of these crazy events in the next twenty-four hours.

****

The periods passed fairly slowly, it was World History and Social Studies. Wooyoung wasn’t in any of her periods, but Jessica and Tiffany were in each one respectively, and they could pick up immediately that something wasn’t right with their new friend.

Jessica whipped out her phone and texted Tiffany in World History, when Tiffany was in an English lecture, ‘Taeyeon’s acting weird, check her out later.’ And when Tiffany was in Social Studies, she texted Jessica back, ‘Yeah, we need to confront her, like ASAP.’

“Spill.” Tiffany walked out with Taeyeon and glanced at her, demanding an explanation.

“Yeah, spill.” Jessica appeared out of nowhere and grimaced.

“Spill about what?” Taeyeon feigned an expression of confusion, though her stomach was practically lurching inside.

“Don’t play dumb with us. We know something happened. You can trust us. We’d never do anything to make you upset, we promise.” Tiffany laid a hand on Taeyeon’s shoulder sincerely.

Taeyeon however, couldn’t help but think, what if Tiffany and Jessica were the ones behind the crazy private number text message? Then she looked again at both girls’ concerned expressions and decided to risk it anyway.

“Wooyoung kissed me, and I got this weird message from a private number.”

Tiffany had a sharp intake of breath, while Jessica just raised an eyebrow, arched so high though; it almost seemed to touch her forehead.

“Let me show you.” Taeyeon muttered as she took out her phone and displayed the message again.

“That is one creepy message. And I think… I know who’s behind it.”

Tiffany nodded at Jessica’s statement. And as if on cue, the five girls strutted down the hallway and sent the boys crazy. The girls just glared furiously.

Now it was Taeyeon’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Who else?” Tiffany said in fluent English, but Taeyeon just shook her head. “Why would they do that?”

“Listen Taeyeon. If you haven’t yet realized, you douche, you’re gorgeous, and there are many boys already after you. And those girls are jealous of your beauty, just like, not being cocky here, I’m just stating a point, us—Tiffany and me.”

Taeyeon thought this through, and took a deep breath before replying, and not to mention the sinking feeling that something very bad was going to happen, “You know, I think you’re right.”

****

“Teukie-ah!”

Taeyeon’s almost-shrill voice pierced the air as she announced her arrival. She smiled, throwing her bag across the sofa before looking around for her boyfriend. He seemed to have teleported in front of her, and she was taken aback when she didn’t meet his usual expression.

“Would you mind… explaining this?”

Leeteuk bit his lip as he showed her a picture from his phone. Right there, it was a beautifully taken picture at such a perfect angle that it wasn’t difficult to make out that Taeyeon seemed to be enjoying the moment. It was Wooyoung taking advantage of her.

“I trusted you not to go and kiss some other guy, and on the lockers too! Kim Taeyeon! What have you become? I leave you for one day, expecting myself to come back to a faithful, loyal girlfriend that truly loves me and I see this? It’s outrageous!”

“I can explain—"

How ironic—she found herself saying something Wooyoung had said and she didn’t even realize it.

“What is this, Kim Taeyeon? Let me think. Oh! It’s you kissing another guy! Another guy! Ha! Haha! Ha! How funny!”

And for some reason, maybe because Taeyeon already had a very rough day and was on an edge, she placed her hands on her hips and yelled for the second time that day.

“Yah, Park Jungsu! What the hell is this? Obviously I’m a normal, good girlfriend who is loyal! Do you think, do you really think I’d do this to you? I’m Kim Taeyeon, the girl you moved in next too when I was what—five? The girl who’s been with you since we were freaking kids! I’m your girlfriend now! And if you’re going to take this picture and jump to conclusions then you might as well just break up with me!”

Taeyeon’s breath caught on the last word as she felt tears pricking her eyes. She couldn’t hold in her frustrations any longer and shot a short glance at him before taking her things, preparing to leave his house.

“I’m extremely disappointed in you, Park Jungsu, extremely disappointed.”

And with that, she slammed the door close and walked over to her own house, without even greeting her mother as she ran upstairs into her room. Her mother didn’t ask anything, she figured Taeyeon would have her reasons.

Five minutes later her table was cluttered with math worksheets, her pencil box with pens sprawled all over and a calculator. She took out her glasses and wore them as she roughly pulled her hair into a bun.

Of course, she found that she couldn’t concentrate. Pulling her hair in disgust, she stood up and removed her glasses. She massaged her temples and walked outside to the balcony. It was about seven in the evening, not that dark yet, but she could see the faint outline of the moon.

Taeyeon felt a buzz in her back pocket. She took out her phone and there was a message from Jessica.

-// Taeyeon-ah… How are you? I’m not free now, but I think Tiffany is. Why don’t you call her? You need support right now, not being alone, dear… xoxo, Jessica. //-

She contemplated calling Tiffany, but refrained from doing so, scared that she’d spill everything, even her fight with Leeteuk. All her years she’d never had such a huge row with him before. Sure, there were arguments and all, but none of them were actually so confusing, if you put it that way.

So she texted back a simple, ‘No, I’m fine.’

When clearly, she wasn’t. But she didn’t want to bring about them worrying; she knew it’d be bad.

“Taeyeon-ah, it’s dinner time.”

****

Throughout dinner no questions were asked, and it was a mostly silent dinner. Avoiding the topic of school for obvious reasons, her mother spoke about her father, who was on a trip to San Francisco soon for a few weeks, and these days he’d be back late. It was a relatively quiet one, but Taeyeon decided it was why she loved her mother. She didn’t probe into things Taeyeon obviously didn’t want to talk about. She understood.

Her mother said that she’d do the dishes today, and that Taeyeon should go up to her room to rest. She followed obediently and gratefully. It wasn’t a surprise when she gave up on her math homework after an hour of trying to decipher the paper. She only managed half of the paper.

“I should sleep now.” She told herself, and checked the time. It was ten thirty, still pretty early but she felt strangely exhausted.

Switching off the lights and pulling the bed covers over her, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep. She tossed and turned, the rustling of the leaves of the trees and the barking of the dogs could be heard and she tried to cover her ears with her pillow, but to no avail.

“Taeyeon…” A whisper.

“Taeyeon…” Another whisper.

She felt something shift in the darkness, and something—or someone—appeared beside her, on her bed. Her father probably hadn’t returned and her mother had probably fallen asleep, so she the bed lights.

It was Leeteuk

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making you so upset. I know it’s not your fault, and I shouldn’t have been so stupid and not let you explain yourself before throwing a freaking tantrum. I’m really, really sorry Taeyeon-ah.”

“It’s not your fault… I was too. I let him kiss me long enough… But I swear I didn’t kiss him back. I only love you Jungsu… You know that. And anyway, I’m sorry for yelling at y—”

He kissed her. He just kissed her and wrapped his arms around her; the soft, slow kiss became hard and passionate by the seconds. She pulled away, and asked a question.

“How did you get here?

“Easy. Your balcony’s open, so I kind of climbed through the window. Almost broke a branch but I jumped up fast enough. Haha.”

“Yah, pabo, you could’ve gotten injured or hurt and I would be worried!” She whispered.

Suddenly she heard footsteps down the hallway and she jumped up to switch off the light. It was her mother coming to check on her, she supposed. Leeteuk hid under the bed, barely able to breathe. Her mother asked if she was okay and Taeyeon quickly said yes. Luckily, she didn’t say anything more and shut the door.

A few minutes later when they were sure she’d left, Leeteuk came up. When she reached to turn on the light, he stopped her, saying that he was going to leave soon anyway.

“Taeyeon, I’m sorry again, okay? I promise I won’t misunderstand you again like this. It was a stupid mistake, and I love you. I really do. I’ll see you in the morning okay? It’s almost midnight and my angel has to get her sleep.”

Leeteuk kissed her forehead, her eyes, her nose, her cheeks and , lingering a little longer on . And then he smiled, his eyes glinting in the darkness. Taeyeon didn’t say a word as he climbed out, but she thought to herself, be careful, I don’t ever want to lose you.

She watched his figure disappear into the night, and shut her eyes for a peaceful night.