Luckily Sunny had re a Friday night so she had the weekend to prepare herself for her re-entrance into her old best friends’ lives. After finishing the gist of unpacking, Sunny connected her internet and started typing up a mass email to her friends.

 

She stared at the blank email for a few moments before turning on her music as well. It was difficult thinking of what exactly to write for her friends. She thought about texting Taeyeon for advice but she figured she tortured the girl enough that night.

 

Taking in a deep breath, Sunny started with an apology to her friends before going into detail of what happened. Right as she finished, she pondered on how her friends would take the email. And that led to her thoughts of Monday and seeing her friends again. Looking back at the events of earlier in the night, she recalled both Taeyeon and Seohyun looking much different for being apart 3-4 years. What was she kidding, it was a long time after all.

 

After having read over her email twice and adding a P.S, Sunny pressed the send button.

 

Hello everyone!

 

Yes! I have risen from the dead! Praise, for your beloved friend Sunny is back! No but seriously guys, I’m sorry if I worried you.

Shikshin duo, I have only read your emails recently and I hope you two can forgive me.

 

You see, a lot has happened at home, with my parents and my dad’s company. It was difficult for a long time so I couldn’t contact all of you. However, I am able to email you guys again. Unfortunately, I am unable to go on skype anytime soon so unfortunately you’ll have to do without my cute face. I hope it’s not too much of a downside!

 

Once again, I’m sorry and I hope you’re all doing well. How’s senior year so far? Tough, right? Do your best girls and feel free to send me emails again if you could forgive this danshin for disappearing so suddenly.

 

 

Fighting!

Love, Sunny

 

P.S. I’ll be coming when you guys graduate, so look forward to it!

 

Within the next ten minutes, Sunny received three replies. It was 3AM and Sunny was surprised to receive responses so quickly and so late at night. It was Yoona, Taeyeon and Hyoyeon.

 

Sunny unnie! How dare you disappear like that?! I started eating less when you stopped replying to my emails! Take responsibility for my inability to enjoy food for the past few months! I hate you! Don’t email me again!

 

Sunny sighed at Yoona’s reply and shook her head when another email from her popped up again.

 

Eh??? You’re coming in three months time, unnie? You better not be lying! I’ll be waiting!

 

This one definitely made Sunny burst out in laughter. She knew she’d be getting another email from Yoona tomorrow despite her anger.

 

Sunny opened Taeyeon’s email, wondering what she possibly had to say when they just saw each other.

 

Yah! Sunny! Go to sleep already it’s late!

 

Sunny smiled at Taeyeon’s concern and quickly responded.

 

Taengoo~ Stop worrying about this jet lagged Sunny. You better be sleeping by now. Goodnight!

 

“I’ll sleep when I want to!” came a text from Taeyeon. Sunny rolled her eyes at her best friend’s actions.

 

“If you say so, noona. GOOD NIGHT!” was all Sunny responded. Taeyeon didn’t reply right away this time to Sunny’s relief.

 

The blonde opened Hyoyeon’s email and burst into laughter when she saw a huge webcam selca of Hyoyeon trying to be angry. The simple message said, “In three months you die!!!!”

 

The dancing queen never failed to make Sunny laugh.

 

An hour later and Sunny didn’t receive any more emails or texts from Taeyeon so she decided to lie in bed and hope that sleep would take her soon enough.

 

--

 

The next day, Taeyeon woke up with a smile on her face. The smile was different from her usual sleepy morning smiles as all she could think about was having her best friend back in her life again. It’s not that she wasn’t grateful for her other good friends or her sister, but she had to admit that she felt complete again with Sunny’s presence in her life.

 

She opened her phone and had an urge to text Sunny when she realized that the jet lagged girl was probably sleeping now. Instead she decided to maybe text Tiffany or one of her other close friends. However, when she glanced at her phone she noticed that she had 6 new texts.

 

TaeTae check your email!!!! Sunny sent a mass email! She’s okay! Ah!!!! – Mushroom

 

Yah! Taengoo, wake up already and read Sunny’s email. Fany just woke me up for this and now I’ll be going back to bed. Yoona wants us to meet latre ro takk about tis? she probly textd ou, ngiht – Princess Sica

 

Taeyeon laughed at the progressively messed up typing from Jessica, realizing that she probably passed out after sending the text.

 

Kim twin! You will not believe who’s risen from the dead – Kim Choding

 

UNNIE! CALL. ME. NOW – Shikshin jr.

 

YAH! TAEYEON!!! WAKE UP AND CALL YOONA! WE NEED TO MEET UP LATER! ALSO, YOUR TREAT – Shikshin

 

Taeng! You won’t believe this but Sunny finally emailed us! Yoona wants to meet later to discuss this???? Anyway, she’s already dragging me from my soccer practice and will probably come by for you and Seohyun! – Yul

 

Taeyeon replied to each text, acting as surprised as her friends. She couldn’t help but laugh at her friends’ reactions and couldn’t wait to see how they were all taking the news. For sure Sunny’s P.S made the girls very excited.

 

Seohyun then made her entrance by knocking on Taeyeon’s door more loudly than usual to wake her up.

 

“Unnie!! Unnie!!!!”

 

Taeyeon saved the younger girl her energy by quickly walking to the door and opening it for her sister. As soon as the door was opened, Seohyun pounced on her older sister.

 

“Yoona is so happy! She said she’ll be coming after Yuri unnie treats her to breakfast so we could all talk about this! Have you seen the email yet?” Seohyun’s voice ran faster than usual and Taeyeon couldn’t help but beam from the girl’s enthusiasm. Sunny’s return to their lives was probably the greatest thing that could happen for them.

 

“Yeah, yeah of course I have!” Taeyeon finally replied as Seohyun looked at her expectantly. She took her younger sister’s hand in her own and walked with her to the kitchen where their parents had prepared their breakfast.

 

Seohyun happily told their parents the news and their mom was surprised that Taeyeon wasn’t the first to announce it. Taeyeon probably would have if she only read the email and not have actually seen Sunny the night before.

 

Two hours later, the doorbell rung and Seohyun quickly answered it to find Yoona, Yuri and Sooyoung.

 

“Taeyeon unnie, you didn’t call me!” Yoona whined, pouting at Taeyeon cutely, “Why did you ignore me unnie?” she then asked in her cute voice that called for a punch. Seeing Yoona so happy though, Taeyeon couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed.

 

“It slipped my mind, sorry,” Taeyeon lied, scratching the back of her head.]

 

Yuri smiled at the eldest, “Typical Taeng,” she said simply snickering at the shorter girl.

 

If Taeyeon wasn’t in such a good mood she would’ve shot Yuri a glare.

 

“So are we going to fetch the rest of the girls?” Taeyeon asked as she and Seohyun locked the door behind them. All of the girls lived relatively close to each other, but since there were so many of them, they all travelled in Yuri’s van.

 

“Of course! This event is way too monumentous for us not to gather and talk about it!” Yoona announced excitedly, her voice booming more than usual. Her volume rivaled that of Tiffany’s.

 

“Taeyeon-ah~ you’re going to treat us to lunch after right?” Sooyoung asked, trailing her finger up and down Taeyeon’s arm. The shorter girl swatted her arm away and hissed.

 

“Only because this is big news, but don’t get used to it!” Taeyeon yelled. Unfortunately, Taeyeon did take the responsibility of paying for extra lunch for Sooyoung and occasionally Yoona when they ran out. She would always say, don’t get used to it but she had to face the fact that she indeed have to get used to it.

 

---

 

“I can’t believe it happened guys,” Yuri then called from the driver’s seat, “It’s been over a year since she last contacted any of us right?”

 

“Unless she had been secretly contacting you, unnie,” Yoona accused, glaring at Taeyeon from her spot next to Yuri. She gave the eldest her best stink eye before pointing at her.

 

“Yoona unnie stop! I’m sure Taeyeon unnie wouldn’t hide such news from us when we’ve all been so worried about Sunny unnie!” Seohyun was right, Taeyeon would never hide such a thing but it still made her guilty. Although the girls were informed of Sunny’s safety and state of liveliness, Taeyeon couldn’t help but feel bad for having to hide that Sunny was amongst them again and that they didn’t have to wait three months to see their friend. However, she couldn’t betray Sunny’s wishes and if Taeyeon was anything, she was a loyal friend and more importantly, she had to put her best friend and now boy or girlfriend before the others.

 

Taeyeon silently thanked her sister as the van stopped before Jessica’s house which was next to Tiffany’s. The two girls were waiting patiently for the group and Tiffany waved eagerly at the group. Jessica followed suit not exactly as eagerly, but she looked like she was in a good mood.

 

The two girls squished into the back with Taeyeon, the three close friends greeting each other with hugs before taking their seats. With Sunny’s absence, Taeyeon found new best friends with Tiffany and Jessica. They were close before but the three happened to become closer as high school started. It became easy when Taeyeon and Jessica had their little…complicated relationship a month or two into freshman year.

 

Despite that piece of history, Taeyeon joined the best friend triangle with the two American born besties and were often seen together within the group.

 

Yuri made her final stop at Hyoyeon’s house and the girl energetically got into the middle row next to Seohyun, her favourite maknae. She ruffled the youngest girl's hair and giggled when Seohyun asked her unnie to stop. Now that the van was full, the group noisily argued where to go for their lunch.

 

After about half an hour discussing in Hyoyeon’s driveway, the group decided to go to their usual noodle place.

 

“Half the time we end up going here, why don’t we just use it as a default?” Hyoyeon asked, raising her eyebrow at her friends.

 

“That makes sense,” Taeyeon agreed with her name twin and the rest of girls just shrugged indifferently.

 

---

 

Once Yuri parked the car, the girls got out of the cramped space and headed straight into the noodle restaurant. They didn’t even wait to get seated and placed themselves comfortably in their usual spots.

 

“Okay guys, we have gathered here today to discuss a very important topic,” Yoona started, standing from her spot. Everyone paid her attention except for Sooyoung who was ripping through the menu.

 

“Yah! Sooyoung! Didn’t you just eat breakfast an hour ago? Why are you in such a hurry to eat?” Hyoyeon scolded, slapping the menu away from the tall girl. Sooyoung simply hissed at her before going back to her menu browsing. Hyoyeon looked at Seohyun for some help but she simply smiled and shrugged at her unnie. There was no use fighting her.

 

“Aside from the huge Sunny news, I think it’d be good for us all to catch up in general,” Yuri mentioned, “We’ve just finished midterms and we’ve barely seen each other this past week or so.”

 

“I see you every day,” Hyoyeon retorted, smiling playfully at Yuri.

 

“That’s because we’re both in the dance crew but you know what I mean!” Yuri retorted quickly, throwing a crumpled napkin at her fellow dancer.

 

“Yuri is right,” Tiffany then spoke up, “I feel like I haven’t seen you guys in ages!!” She grabbed Taeyeon’s arm and held her closer, “Like you, TaeTae! With the choir competition and upcoming talent show we barely see you!”

 

“Yeah, Taengoo, we’re all even part of that talent show and we never see you,” Jessica added, kicking the older girl playfully under the table.

 

“Unnie has been hiding something huge from us,” Seohyun mentioned with a small smile, “And I met him last night.”

 

All the girls gasped in unison and all turned to the now blushing and slightly taken aback Taeyeon. She didn’t expect Seohyun to bring up the news of her “boyfriend” so quickly when they were gathered to discuss Sunny.

 

“Yah! Guys! We can talk about Taeyeon unnie’s secret lover after discussing Sunny unnie’s reappearance!” although Yoona was interested in this unsuspecting news, she wanted to share her excitement about Sunny’s email with the rest of the girls.

 

“Did any of you guys reply to her email?” Taeyeon asked, happy to get the attention off her right away. But she couldn’t help but feel a slightly cold stare from Jessica. Her phone then vibrated and she glanced at the screen to see a message from Jessica reading, “What are you hiding?”

 

“I replied right away,” Hyoyeon admitted, “I was up late last night catching up on my drama. I almost woke up my parents when I gasped at the sudden message from her.”

 

“Me too,” Taeyeon replied, “I was so excited to hear from her again.” The oldest wasn’t exactly lying, she was really happy to hear from her best friend even though that email wasn’t her first encounter with the girl.

 

“I sent her some emails out of shock and anger,” Yoona mentioned, grabbing the menu from Sooyoung. “I was really happy, but I was mad at the same time.”

 

Sooyoung nodded in agreement, “She has some nerve to come out of hiding,” she said indignantly. But she smiled to herself, “It made me feel so good to hear from her again though, did you guys feel it too? Like I received some sort of blessing.”

 

The rest of the girls nodded in agreement. They were a family after all, no matter how long they had been apart from Sunny. Hearing from her after worrying about her for so long felt like some sort of miracle.

 

The waiter soon came to take their orders and the girls did it in an orderly manner. Although there were so many of them, after so many years together, ordering in such a large unit wasn’t difficult or complicated at all.

 

“Three months is too long of a wait,” Yuri complained and all of them nodded at once. Taeyeon sighed a little too loudly, upset again about the girls having to wait while she got to see her best friend again.

 

Her sigh however caught the attention of the rest of the girls and Hyoyeon’s mouth transformed into a smirk.

 

“So who’s the guy?” She asked with no hesitation, letting the oldest know that they had not forgotten about the hot issue.

 

Taeyeon’s mouth hung open for a while as she thought about how to explain herself. She wished “Sungmin” was there to explain the situation. She wanted to slap herself for not thinking it over in case Seohyun asked about it again. The whole group meeting thing came unexpectedly as well, but she was usually more prepared than this.

 

“He looked foreign,” Seohyun pondered, remembering Sunny’s blonde hair, “He was very nice and very handsome. He was small though, for an oppa.”

 

The girls ohh’d and ahh’d at Seohyun’s explanation. They only grew more and more curious at this mysterious guy.

 

“How did you meet him?” Tiffany asked, a little bit upset that Taeyeon had never mentioned this guy before or even showed them a picture. She squeezed Taeyeon’s arm a bit in anger, “How come we haven’t met him?”

 

“Yeah, Kim Taeyeon, explain yourself,” Jessica demanded and all the girls watched Taeyeon carefully for a response.

 

She was temporarily saved however when several waiters and waitresses came to serve the girls their orders. Yoona, Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and Yuri were distracted by their orders but Taeyeon felt the weight of the stares from her younger sister, Tiffany and Jessica on her.

 

“I didn’t mean for Seohyun to meet him last night,” Taeyeon admitted, answering slowly to make sure she didn’t say anything wrong.

“You’re never this secretive though, TaeTae, at least not since-“

 

“Don’t,” Jessica retorted quickly, giving Tiffany a cold look. Tiffany pouted, forgetting about their rule to not bring up the last time Taeyeon was secretive which somehow involved Jessica.

 

“I’m sorry guys,” Taeyeon sighed, stirring her noodles absentmindedly. All the girls had their gave on Taeyeon again as she slumped into her seat. “I was really going to introduce him soon enough, I swear.”

 

“Where is he even from?” Sooyoung asked, full. Small bits of her food spilled out of onto the poor girl next to her, but she didn't seem to notice.

 

“Is it raining?” Yuri asked, teasing Sooyoung.

 

Sooyoung ignored her comment however and thoroughly chewed what was in , “Give us details Taeng, details!!!”

 

That’s when Taeyeon’s phone went off. It was Sunny, or well, Sungmin.

 

“Is that him?” Yoona asked excitedly and the rest of the girls watched Taeyeon as she walked away from the table to talk on the phone.

 

“Look at how happy she is,” Hyoyeon pointed out as the girls spied on the short girl on the phone.

 

“Hyunnie, we’re going to invade your house tonight if you don’t mind,” Yoona stated, “We’re going to meet this guy no matter what.”

 

“No need for that,” Taeyeon said as she sat back down with her friends, “He’s coming here now.” She looked unsure, and she could feel her heart beating. What if they didn’t buy it? Sunny did look different as Sungmin, but they were all good friends, would they really not recognize her because of a haircut, different makeup and different wardrobe? Surely the chest thing would help, and Seohyun had absolutely no suspicions. Sunny had reassure her on the phone that it’d be alright, but she couldn’t help but be worried.

 

The girls banged the tables with their hands in excitement, “We’re gonna meet a hottie!!!” Hyoyeon exclaimed. She then started fixing her hair and some of the other girls followed. Tiffany handed Hyoyeon her hair brush and she then passed it on to Sooyoung.

“Unnies! He’s taken, remember?” Seohyun declared, not wanting Taeyeon to get mad.

 

Taeyeon simply laughed at her friends’ actions, it seemed especially funny considering who they’re getting themselves ready for. “It’s okay Seohyun, it’s not like they’d stand a chance with your unnie’s boyfriend.” It felt good to brag about a significant other again, even if he was secretly her their friend.

 

The girls were ordering milk shakes when a handsome blonde boy entered the noodle hut. Since they were texting each other, Taeyeon knew exactly when Sunny would be coming. She got up from her seat as the other girls watched her speedwalk like an excited ahjumma to the door. She embraced Sunny and she even lifted up Taeyeon and swung her around. As Sunny put Taeyeon down, she kissed the now shorter girl on the forehead.

 

“How did you get taller?” Taeyeon asked when Sunny grabbed her in another embrace.

 

“It’s called insoles Taengoo, we should buy you some. This oppa can’t be shorter than his girlfriend, right?”

 

Taeyeon playfully pushed Sunny away before taking her hand and bringing her over to the table with their mutual friends.

 

Sunny’s heart was pounding as she approached her friends. It felt as if it was ready to jump out of her chest at any second. As confident as she was in her plan, she still hasn’t seen her friends in so long. How have they grown up? Will they accept this new persona? Knowing them, they would probably interrogate her. If Taeyeon brought some strange guy to her, she'd ask him so many questions he'd probably cry. But what about these girls? Oh how she had no idea.

 

But once her eyes met the expectant ones of Yoona, Seohyun, Yuri, Tiffany, Jessica, Hyoyeon and Sooyoung, she had to fight the tears building up in her eyes. Oh how she longed to hug them, but she had to stick to her plan. They all grew up so beautifully, as expected. It was a little unfair how all her friends were so pretty. What was also unfair was that she still seemed to be the shorter of the group. At least the insoles made her taller. She began to shiver however as they got closer and close to the table. Taeyeon noticed Sunny’s faltering and squeezed her hand before hugging her from behind to reassure her as they stood in front of the group. She couldn’t suppress the words that came out of Sunny's mouth next though.

 

“You guys sure have changed.”