Tiffany was a hard worker. At home she was the only child to a single parent since her mother passed away when she was young. She and her father split the house work evenly and even took turns cooking meals. She always did her homework when she got home and finished at a decent time. Her spare time was used to work on any outstanding articles for the school’s newspaper, for investigation, practicing for the talent show and occasionally on her hobbies like writing or singing. And of course, when she had the time she would hang out with her closest friends.

Tiffany thanked God every day for her beautiful 7 girl friends.

Since Sunny had emailed them, she exchanged emails back and forth with her again. She missed getting mail from her but at least this was something. Sunny would reply pretty often and this made her happy, especially with the past absence. She seemed to be doing well and Tiffany even started a countdown until she came back.

She sighed as she casually replied to some of her texts. All of the girls seemed preoccupied today, but that was okay because soon she would be having lunch with her Jessie and TaeTae. Out of the group she was closest to the two of them and she always looked forward to any sort of occasion involving the two.

She invited Sungmin as well, hoping to get closer to Taeyeon’s new boyfriend. Although his appearance was sudden, it seemed as though Taeyeon was serious about him. When they spoke of him the other night at Sooyoung’s place, she could tell in her friend’s face how happy she was to have him in her life. He must truly be a blessing.

It was weird though since her two best friends stopped dating a year ago and she was pretty sure they weren’t over each other. She wanted to laugh at Jessica’s obvious jealousy, but she knew that she was probably hurting on the inside. Tiffany didn’t know what she would do if she was in her position.

She scrunched her nose, thinking of Jessica’s suspicions of the guy. Did he really seem so mysterious? It’s not like they could know everything about Taeyeon’s life at once.

She hated to admit it, but she was a little disappointed about his appearance as well. Tiffany hadn’t discussed it with anyone, but she thought that she felt like Taeyeon was flirting with her sometimes. Of course she ignored it or played along with it for fun, but the fact that it was suddenly gone kind of made her sad. Maybe she was just imagining things?

Either way it was time to forget about it. Taeyeon was happy and really that’s all that mattered.

Tiffany looked at the time and saw that she was to meet with her friends soon. With a wide smile she started getting ready to go out, excited about the day’s possibilities.

---

Yuri was surprised at how good Sungmin was. The boy was smaller than most guys she knew but he definitely had good proportions and knew how to move his body. He followed the beat of the song well and she noticed that he even did some of the choreography from the music video. was hanging open as she and the rest of the girls clapped to his performance. Taeyeon had definitely picked up a guy she could get along with.

“You are on the team!” Yuri exclaimed, patting the small blonde boy on the back.

Sunny was still trying to catch her breath but smiled as her friends or well fellow team mates applauded her.

“Yuri-ah, I get to decide who gets on the team!” Hyoyeon yelled with a serious expression on her face. The other girls looked at her scared until she stuck out her tongue at them, “And I think you’d be a perfect addition!”

Sunny jumped up and pumped her fist into the air in happiness. She couldn’t wait to tell Taeyeon at lunch about her success. And that’s when her face dropped. She had to meet with Taeyeon, Tiffany and Jessica in about an hour and she was covered in sweat.

“So we have about 10 members now!” Yoona happily declared, “Our giant group number is going to be amazing!” She danced a little at the thought of dancing with Sunny and at the thought of hanging out during practices. It was going to be a blast.

Hyoyeon noticed Sungmin’s expression first, “Yah, oppa, are you okay? Don’t tell me you’re ready to pass out after that one performance because let me tell you, practices are going to be much harder than this.”

Sunny shook her head, “Ah no, I have plenty of stamina it’s just that I forgot I had a date in about an hour so I should really head home to clean up.” She started stepping away from the three, sad that she had to depart so soon.

“Sorry if the audition was a little too soon,” Yuri said, scratching her face, “We didn’t mean to make you sweaty for your date.”

“Nah, it’s good for him,” Hyoyeon responded, placing a hand on Sunny’s shoulder, “I’m sure Taeyeon will appreciate your sweat.” She winked at Sunny, causing her to blush a little. She turned around right away though to hide her embarrassment.

“Sorry to leave so suddenly guys, but thank you for letting me join your team!” Sunny called out as she started to jog home.

“Practice after school tomorrow!!” Yuri yelled, waving at the retreating boy. Sungmin just waved back with a thumbs up before disappearing from their sight.

Hyoyeon wiped some sweat off her brow. This Sungmin guy really did seem great and he managed to click well with them from the start. It was almost if they had been friends in a different life with how friendly they all got to be so quickly. It must be part of his charm, she thought. Taeyeon had good taste.

“Unnie, please buy me ice cream,” Yoona pleaded to Yuri as the three started stretching before practicing again but with Yoona. Yuri gave into the request rather quickly knowing that Yoona always won at these kinds of things in the end. It was amazing how much the girl still craved the frozen treat in colder weather.

“Thank you unnie~” she purred and Yuri sighed not surprised that she still got the aegyo voice in the end.

Sunny started running when the girls were out of sight. Aish, how could she forget about something as important as lunch with Jessica, Tiffany and Taeyeon? She calculated how long it would take to quickly shower and change once she got home. Her mind was jumbled up in possibilities as she felt the wind get knocked out of her when she ran into someone.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry!” she pleaded while rubbing her own sore head. Sunny was usually better at seeing where she was going.

Her victim was still lying on the ground rubbing her poor head and Sunny felt even more sorry. That was when she recognized those slim and long limbs before her covered loosely in sweat pants. Upon realizing who it was she laughed, wondering how she couldn’t see the giant while she was dashing home.

“Yah, Sooyoung-sshi I’m sorry about that,” Sunny repeated, being careful not to call her by her favourite nickname.

Once Sooyoung snapped back to reality she stood up quickly and bowed, “Ah, Sungmin oppa it’s okay it was my fault.”

Sunny shook her head. If it was Sunny who she ran into, Sooyoung would’ve started arguing with her and telling her that she should watch where she was going. Was she really this different with guys?

“I’m the one who ran into you,” Sunny replied, giving her tall friend a toothy grin, “Don’t sweat it. I’m sorry about that, wouldn’t want to break any of my girlfriend’s pretty friends.”

Sooyoung blushed at his comment and bowed once again, “It’s okay.” She coughed and tried to compose herself. She was usually good at being herself around guys. She’d often be so comfortable with them that they’d end up looking to her as a sister. And despite her attraction to the short blonde guy, she had to be as platonic as possible for Taeyeon. It shouldn’t be too difficult, what she was feeling now, her quick heart beats, her shortness of breath, it was just a crush. You didn’t see guys like Sungmin very often at all.

“Where were you heading?” Sungmin asked, watching as Sooyoung brushed the dust off her sweater. She was totally flustered and Sunny was soaking it all up. She had to tell Taeyeon about this later.

“Oh um, just dance practice with the other people in this dance crew at our school,” Sooyoung explained, finally collected. “I need to catch up and learn some choreo so Hyoyeon, Yuri and Yoona are going to teach me some of the routine.”

Sunny smiled, she hadn’t seen Sooyoung dancing in a long time either. Too bad she had somewhere to go, she would have loved to see Yoona dancing and the four moving as one unit. “Ah, I just auditioned for that dance crew actually.” And then Sunny remembered the time, starting to jog in her spot.

“Really?” Sooyoung asked, surprised.

Sungmin winked at Sooyoung, “Yeah! I’ll see you at practice then, Sooyoung-sshi. Sorry to run out on you now but I got a date! Later!” Before Sooyoung could respond, Sunny dashed home, this time being more careful of her surroundings.

Sooyoung fanned her face before slapping it lightly with her hands, “Dance crew and tutoring?” She realized that she’d be spending a lot of time with him and couldn’t help but smile to herself. Surely with all this time spent with him she’d get over the crush and be able to see him as a good friend. Maybe Taeyeon made him do all these things so he’d get close to all of them. Well, he was a sweet guy for agreeing. Sooyoung nodded to herself as she headed towards the park again. Her friends had good taste.

---

Jessica left Taeyeon since she was going to meet up with Sungmin first before going to the restaurant Tiffany wanted to eat at. She was going to meet Tiffany for a bit first before going on their kind of double date.

When she got to her best friend’s house she had just walked outside. Once Tiffany spotted Jessica, she ran to her and engulfed her in a hug. Although Jessica didn’t feel that great considering the fact that she had to cope with the reality that was Taeyeon and Sungmin, she felt comforted by Tiffany’s embrace.

“You okay?” Tiffany then asked. Best friends knew each other well, after all.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Jessica answered a little dejectedly, “I’m just a little disappointed.”

Tiffany nodded slowly, “You had your talk with TaeTae?”

Jessica did her best to fight back the tears that were starting to form and she managed to succeed. She didn’t like crying when she wasn’t in a secluded place like her room.

Tiffany squeezed her, “It hurts?” She asked despite knowing the answer.

“I honestly thought that maybe one day we’d get back together,” Jessica confessed, holding her best friend tighter. “Now I have to suddenly move on?”

“I’m sorry babe,” Tiffany muttered, rubbing circles into Jessica’s back, “Maybe it wasn’t meant to be? You’re hot and you’re artistic, and you have a killer voice and personality, I’m sure you’ll find someone just like Taeng did.”

Jessica huffed, wishing that things were just the way they used to be. She wished that the two took the chance back then and were selfish enough to risk their friends. But the truth of the matter was that it was over between them and all there was left was their friendship. And she couldn’t leave that, she wouldn’t because Taeyeon was one of her best friends ever.

---

Taeyeon and Sunny were walking hand in hand towards the restaurant Tiffany suggested for their date. Taeyeon was dressed in red skinny jeans and a thick turtle neck while Sunny fashioned black jeans and oversized sweater. She managed to shower and change just in time to meet Taeyeon.

“Did you and Sica have fun?” Sunny asked, swinging their hands together.

Taeyeon sighed and wore a small smile, “You can say that. But last night and this morning was mostly kind of serious?”

Sunny worried a little, hoping that nothing bad had happened between them just because of her involvement.

“We kind of settled things between us,” Taeyeon continued, watching their feet as they walked now. “We never really had closure and kind of just became best friends who knew that we had feelings for each other. We both acknowledged that things couldn’t work between us but I guess we both never got over each other? She never grew cold or anything towards me but I couldn’t stop thinking about her so I tried to exercise my thoughts with something else.”

“Or someone else,” Sunny added, shaking her head. “Taengoo-ah, did you really think that adding your feelings for Tiffany would make things easier?”

Taeyeon shrugged, feeling a little guilty for overwhelming herself in the past, “It did make things easier though, in a sense. Fany has never really showed interest in girls, that’s the thing. So at least with her, I knew I’d get rejected not because of me, but because of just natural preference, you know?”

Something tugged on Sunny’s heart as she completely understood what Taeyeon meant. She squeezed her best friend’s hand and stopped her for a moment to face her. Placing her hands on her shoulders she looked into her eyes and said, “You and Jessica didn’t work out because of you, and it wasn’t because of her either. Sometimes, people just aren’t compatible, you know?”

Sunny wanted to avoid words like, meant to be, and soulmates, and perfect for each other because it felt weird thinking that Taeyeon used to think like that about Jessica. It’s not like she was sure about her and Taeyeon being those things, but it made her uncomfortable to think that could think like that about someone who wasn’t her.

“So don’t blame yourself, okay?” Sunny added, giving Taeyeon’s shoulders a squeeze. “And getting over someone by hanging onto feelings for someone else isn’t going to help either, you idiot.”

Taeyeon laughed at Sunny’s last words before givng her a slap in the shoulder, “Shut up.” She said simply.

“I better not be some sort of replacement for the both of them,” Sunny gave Taeyeon a suspicious look despite smiling, “Because like I said before I’m not going to be involved in your sick love square thing!”

“Yah, Sunny-ah, it’s not like that!” Taeyeon whined, grabbing Sunny’s arm to link with her own, “You’re my girlfriend because you’re my best friend and I like you, okay?”

“Mmmhmm,” Sunny responded, smiling at Taeyeon when she stuck her tongue out at her. She leaned forward to give her a kiss on the forehead, praising God for the invention of insoles.

“Let’s hurry up before we’re late, yeah?”

---

Tiffany and Jessica were browsing through the menu when Taeyeon and Sungmin were sat down by the restaurant staff. Taeyeon greeted the both of them with a hug while Sungmin bowed politely to them.

“Nice to see you two again,” Sunny said with her most charming smile. She felt more relieved today as the environment around Jessica did not feel hostile at all.

The lunch went by peacefully with Sungmin being the centre of attention. He shared the news about joining the Chodings and his audition earlier that day. He also spoke about how he didn’t really want to do much else since the year was almost done and it’d be awkward making friends now since they’re all just graduating.

“How long have you been dancing?” Tiffany asked, her hands resting under her chin.

“About two years ago I started taking classes,” Sungmin started, pointing a finger to his head in thought, “But I’ve had a thing for dancing since I could remember.”

Tiffany nodded and smiled, remembering something Sunny had told her in an email the other day, “Ah, a friend of mine is taking hip hop dance classes too!” She then realized that they never really spoke about Sunny before and wondered if he knew about her existence. After all, she was one of them too.

“Tae, did you ever tell Sungmin about Sunny before?” Tiffany then asked, causing Sungmin and Taeyeon to exchange looks. Little to their knowledge, Jessica flinched at the name.

“Of course!” Taeyeon answered, “Especially since she emailed us so recently, I had to tell him about her. She’s my best friend after all!” She could feel herself perspire a little and thanked God that Tiffany never made the connection like Yoona did.

“Hey, am I not your best friend?” Tiffany asked with a pout. Taeyeon just laughed and patted her friend on the head.

“You’re my best friend too, Fany-ah,” she replied. She then turned to Sunny who had just squeezed her hand.

“I heard she disappeared on you?” Sungmin then brought up, hoping that her acting would be superb for the situation at hand.

Tiffany continued the talking as Jessica tried to process what exactly was surprising about Tiffany bringing up Sunny’s name. She knew it was important, she knew there had to be some connection between the two but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She pretended to be occupied with her meal as she thought about it.

“…and then she finally contacted us on Friday night! We were so happy to hear from her, weren’t we, Jessie?”

Jessica jolted up from her seat when she heard her name, “A-Ah, yeah!” She shook her head as her friends looked at her concerned. She didn’t have time to think too much now and tried to brush the thought aside until later.

“Are you alright, Sica?” Taeyeon asked, her eyes filled with concern. Jessica didn’t realize how out of it she looked.

“Sorry, I…I didn’t get enough sleep last night,” she lied, trying to find an excuse, “You kept talking your sleep again!” she accused which wasn’t entirely untrue. She stirred in her sleep whenever Taeyeon would start singing some anime theme song in her sleep.

“Oh yeah, Taengoo does do that, doesn’t she?” Sungmin accidentally said, laughing at the thought.

Tiffany and Jessica’s eyes widened at the remark and they both turned to Taeyeon at once.

“You guys already…?” Tiffany started, a blush creeping to her face.

Taeyeon’s face turned red at the realization of what Sunny’s phrase implied. She shook her head furiously and waved her arms around, “N-No!!! No, no, we just, we didn’t do that we…”

Sunny’s eyes widened as well when she realized what she had done, “Ah, no, um…” she blushed innocently, not having to act at that instant, “We’ve slept in the same bed but we didn’t do anything.”

Suddenly there was an awkward silence for the four, all girls blushing at the misunderstanding.

Thankfully soon enough the waiter came with the bill and Sungmin ended up paying for all of them. While they waited for the waiter to come back to pick up the bill, the four managed to transfer into a different topic.

“You and TaeTae must do a duet together,” Tiffany suggested, nodding enthusiastically at the idea. “It would be so sweet!”

Jessica’s mouth became a thin line as she tried to resist making any rude remarks on the matter.

“I’m already in so many acts,” Taeyeon replied bashfully, “I don’t want the audience to get bored with seeing me continuously.”

Sunny shook her head, “Come on Taengoo, I bet the audience loves you. I heard you sing before and I don’t think anyone could get bored of that.”

Jessica found her opportunity to speak, “Don’t forget who continuously gets asked for autographs since it’s her last year of school here.”

Taeyeon blushed at Jessica’s comment and the rest of the girls just laughed at her humble heart.

Just as they finished packing their leftovers, Sungmin bowed to the two girls and thanked them for a good lunch.

“No, thank you for paying! We’ll be seeing you at school right?” Tiffany asked, showing off her beautiful eye smile to Sungmin.

“Of course,” she replied returning the smile, “I hope that we can all be really good friends.” After finishing, she turned to Jessica and the two exchanged awkward looks.

Jessica inhaled slowly and urged herself to talk, “We’ll see you tomorrow, thank you,” was all she could muster. But it was enough. She felt satisfied when she saw Taeyeon smile at her.

“We’ll be on our way then,” Taeyeon said, grabbing Sunny’s hand as they separated. “Bye girls!”

“Later TaeTae!!” Tiffany exclaimed happily, “Bye Sungmin oppa!!”

Jessica waved at the retreating figures, wanting to go home and figure out what exactly it was that she just realized over lunch.