TAEYEON’S POV

“Slap me.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Punch me.”

“I don’t have to.”

I can’t tolerate with Tiffany’s prank mode anymore. Too much overdosed romance in her DNAs. My face was flashing one irritating expression before I decided to hide my soon to be scorching scarlet red cheeks with my palms from Tiffany’s eagle eyes.  “Just imagine. Jongie and I…. Mr. and Mrs Lee Jonghyun. On a date. Together.”

Tiffany’s hysteric laughter began to fill my office as she was still hooking her orbs attentively on my phone. “So what? It’s kinda cute actually.”

I switched from blushing mode to dumfounded mode in a matter of second. Cute? Jongie and I? Tiffany must be out of her mind. Even worse I think that she might be having a sugar rush after playing too much of Candy Crush and coupled up with our previous ‘Jongie-Taeng date mission’ conversation.

“More like creepy FYI.”

“From the way I see it, you looked perfectly overly indulge in happiness in all of these photos. Especially this one. Both of you were so adorable with cream all over your faces.” With one playful eye smile decorating her flawless face, she waved my phone in front of my eyes.

Dumfounded mode switched off. Atrial fibrillation mode engaged. “Please. Don’t spout nonsense, Fany.” My voice raised a tone, denying Tiffany’s obvious accusation.

For someone who was totally clueless and inexperience in this romance thingy, I didn’t know why I can’t confide to my one and only best friend, Tiffany Hwang about this wild heart beat that I was having just by the sight of Jonghyun’s smile. I guessed I wasn’t sure if what I feel for Jonghyun was just merely a feeling for a friend or perhaps it was something more than that.

Something special.

Something that begins with the letter ‘L’.

Tiffany shook her head. “I’m not spouting nonsense. I’m stating the fact here, Taeng. You and Jonghyun really looked ecstatic together. You know as well as I do that this is the truth.” She swiped the phone once again, looking through the pictures.  At one point, she suddenly stopped. Her eyes initially widened before sparkling with my not so favorite word of the day. ROMANCE! A slight tug of uneasiness began to crawl inside my heart as I saw Tiffany was smirking jovially.

“Taeng…”

“Hhmm…” Calm beauty. That was the meaning behind my name and right at this moment, I tried my damn hardest to live up to it. In an attempt to conceal my nervousness from getting caught in the net by Tiffany’s hardcore Taeng emotion sensor, I played with my pen, totally avoiding any unnecessary eye contact with the eye smile girl.

“Look at this.” She shoved the phone into my hand. With eyes rolling and cheeks blowing, I looked at the phone lazily.

“Wae? There’s nothing out of ordinary.” I looked at her with a big question mark written on my face. Tiffany didn’t give me any reply. So I moved the phone closer to my eyes and began analyzing the picture assiduously.

And like a reflex, my right hand went straight to cover my mouth. The blushing mode that I previously suppressed victoriously was burnt down into ashes. My cheeks felt warm and my heart kept pumping faster than it already was.

“Jaws dropped?” One cheeky grin flashed from Tiffany.

My head was shaking repeatedly as my right hand was still frozen solid on my mouth. “More like blackout.” I babbled to myself.

*

JONGHYUN’S POV

Taeyeon erupted in laughter. Her shoulders were shuddering as she clenched tightly her pea-shaped plush toy inside her embrace. Her ajumma laugh was contagious, leading me who was making a midnight snack at the kitchen to burst out laughing in sync with her. With two glasses of milk and a plate of chocolate chip cookies placed on the silver tray, I brought the food to the living room.

“Seriously Jongie? Charlie’s angels are nieces of Charlie Chaplin? Where on earth did you get that idea from?” She grabbed the glass and took a sip of the milk.

“What? It’s true isn’t it? Kyuhyun and Yonghwa kept telling me about it since ages ago.” My hand reached out for the cookies and snapped it into two before devouring it contently.

“You just got played, Jongie. I bet Yonghwa and Kyuhyun made a pact to fool you.” She took the leftover cookies from my hand