Sooyoung was completely enthralled with the girl before her. Once she let go of the girl’s hand, she missed the touch instantly.

When they finished their introductions, Taeyeon began to play with the house built in front of her eyes. She took several toothpicks and placed them outside of the house and danced them around before sticking them in place at the front of the door.

“This is your new home, guys!” she exclaimed happily, clasping her hands together afterwards before leaning back and once again appreciating her hard work.

Sooyoung watched the petite girl before her with wonder, her eyes lighting up with every joyful noise that spilled out of . “What are their names?” she asked, egging the girl’s imagination on.

“Tiffany and Jessica,” Taeyeon answered with a small nod, “They’re the names of my sisters who live with me.”

“Then we shouldn’t forget about you,” Sooyoung added, grabbing another toothpick and sticking it next to the other proudly standing sticks.

“Of course!” Taeyeon nodded furiously. She felt embarrassed and couldn’t help but giggle lightly at having forgotten herself.

“So where do you guys live?” Sooyoung asked bravely, finding herself comfortable to be talking to the cute stranger before her.

Before Taeyeon could answer, Sooyoung’s eyes travelled to the tray of delicious smelling food that their waitress brought to the table she shared with her best friends. She frowned a little, wondering if she had to get up and get her meal. It was too much work, walking a few steps then walking back.

“You’re hungry, aren’t you?” Taeyeon teased, her lips curling into a brilliant smile.

Sooyoung found herself blushing and instinctively wiped to make sure she wasn’t drooling.

“Shikshin!” the group of girls chanted in unison before bursting into laughter.

“Yah!” Sooyoung exclaimed, immediately standing up and shaking her fist at her idiotic friends. But once she realized her actions, she sat down gracefully and placed her fist to to cough into it. “I mean, um, yeah I’m hungry.”

Taeyeon had no problem showing off her laughter before raising her hand and calling Yoona over.

“Bring the tall kid’s meal over here, Yoong!”

Yoona had brought her order to her spot in front of Taeyeon, although Sooyoung missed the hesitant look on her face. Yoona had been cursing inwardly since the moment Sooyoung stood up and approached the lonely architect at her table. She was simply taking orders and handing out meals, but she swore that she heard her wife’s nostrils flaring. The two were a little uneasy with the situation, but luckily their discomfort went unnoticed.

“Enjoy your meal,” she said politely to the tourist before turning to Taeyeon, “And you should eat that up before it gets too cold, Taeyeonnie."

“You’re right,” Taeyeon replied while rubbing the back of her neck. She had a tendency of getting too involved with her artful food. She turned back to her eating partner, picking up her fork and spoon. “Let’s enjoy our food now, yeah? You haven’t made eye contact with me since your meal arrived.”

Yoona couldn’t help but snicker at this before leaving the table. Sooyoung caught the sound however and sent daggers into Yoona’s back with her eyes in order to hide the growing blush on her face.

“Come on, eat up!”

Yuri, Hyoyeon and Sunny had squeezed into one side of the booth in order to see the pair that were happily chatting two tables away. They all held hands and watched in anticipation, reading both girls’ faces to their best ability.

“Sooyoungie is eating much slower than usual,” Sunny observed, pointing at how the girl’s plate was only half empty. “She should’ve finished by now and asked one of us to buy her an extra side of pancakes or something.”

Yuri shook her head, “Unbelievable. I have never seen Sooyoung more interested in a conversation than a meal.”

“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Hyoyeon commented, receiving a unified nod from her other two friends. “It suddenly became harder to listen to them.”

“Maybe that’s because we keep talking,” Sunny deadpanned, sighing at their silly behaviour.

“Right.”

Before she knew it, an hour had passed. It started with small conversation about the interior details of the waffle house and then moved into more personal topics. Sooyoung told Taeyeon how they were there for a month and occupied a cozy cabin on a nearby beach. She told her about how they were originally from Korea and how she was a dance teacher there and this was supposed to be a vacation. Taeyeon explained how she was also on the same beach and how she had been living in Hawaii for the past 10 years. Her parents had died 5 years ago in a fishing boat accident so it was just her and her sisters. She told her how she came to the diner every morning and how she taught a community art class.

“Have you always wanted to be a teacher?” Taeyeon asked, taking the last piece of her waffle house into . It was a little cold at this point, but it was difficult not to enjoy the food with such good company before her.

Sooyoung had completed her meal a few minutes ago and she amazed even herself with how slowly she consumed the meal. She also surprised herself with how she restrained herself from ordering something else. She couldn’t possibly make her shikshin title a reality so fast, so soon.

“Not really,” she replied honestly, giving a little shrug. “As I learned dancing I found joy eventually in helping others dance as well and then I decided that it was a suitable career choice. How about you?”

Sooyoung propped her elbows on the table now, her chin resting comfortably in her hands. She watched the petite girl in front of her and admired the gleam in her eyes as she began her own answer.

“Yes!” it was simple and she clapped for herself. “There is so much joy in sharing your passion with others and helping others. I’m usually a little shy and keep to myself, but when I’m in a classroom I’m at ease and in my element.”

The taller girl tilted her head, “A little shy?” she commented curiously. “You seemed fine with me this entire time.”

Sooyoung immediately caught Taeyeon’s rosy turned cheeks and smirked inwardly.

“To be honest, I was a little scared at first,” Taeyeon replied, her eyes looking to the ceiling as she pondered their meeting from an hour ago. “I thought about how this stranger suddenly put her hand on my food, but then I really appreciated your door idea.”

“I’m brilliant, I know,” Sooyoung complimented herself, placing a hand on her chest. “If you ever need help again I’ll be sure to assist you.”

Taeyeon stuck her tongue out playfully, “Of course.”

“So at first you were scared, but then?” Sooyoung was fishing for a favourable answer and she knew Taeyeon was going to give it.

“You made me feel really comfortable, I don’t know how to explain it.” She placed a finger on her chin, her eyes finally returning from their descent to meet with Sooyoung’s again. “There was something about you that made me want to talk to you.”

Sooyoung beamed confidently at Taeyeon’s answer, “I get that a lot.”

The three girls who were sharing a coconut smoothie from afar began to choke on their drink before bursting into obnoxiously loud laughter. But when the surrounding patrons began to stare at them, they coughed and did their best to calm down. However, they failed to do so and Yuri was even pushed out of the booth by Hyoyeon in the midst of her laughter.

Sooyoung just rolled her eyes mentally and made a note to kill her friends later.

But Taeyeon was laughing as well, finding the tall girl’s friends to be rather amusing. It started small but then erupted into a laugh so powerful that Taeyeon almost fell over on her seat. She did her best to cover her big mouth with her hand but it didn’t stop Sooyoung from seeing her in all her glory.

Her laugh was completely addicting. Sooyoung made a promise to herself that she wanted to hear that laugh every day.

“We should do this again,” Sooyoung offered, giving the smaller girl a wink. “I had a lot of fun.”

Taeyeon came down from her laughing high and nodded before taking her small hands and covering her now red face. She had heated up from laughing too much and even wiped a few tears away.

“I would love to do this again,” she responded as soon as her breathing returned to normal as well. “Same time tomorrow?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sooyoung offered her hand again and Taeyeon gladly took it. But instead of shaking it, Sooyoung brought the petite hand up to her lips and kissed it gently.

She bathed happily in the reaction Taeyeon gave her. Her face had instantly turned red again and was hanging open. Sooyoung was extremely tempted to close it for her, but she resisted.

“Speaking of plans, do you have any for the rest of the day?” Sooyoung felt like she was on a good streak. The girl before her was definitely interested in her and the pinkness on her face couldn’t possibly lie. “You should show us tourists around to the best places on the island.”

Taeyeon shook her head, “Ah, I’m sorry but I have plans. Today is actually my sister Jessica’s birthday. She sleeps in until 12 so I decided to get breakfast here before she woke up. Her, Tiffany and I were planning on picking a pineapple, it’s a tradition of ours since forever ago. We’d pick a pineapple then I would bake us a cake with it!”

Sooyoung was definitely disappointed, but she understood the importance of her matter. She simply nodded, “Well then, I hope your sister has a good birthday then.”

“But I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Taeyeon asked, her eyes glistening with curiousity. She looked undeniably adorable and Sooyoung wanted more than anything to pick the girl up and spin her around.

“It’s a date.”

As soon as Taeyeon left the diner, Sooyoung practically leaped back into the booth where her friends were sitting. She sat across from them, having noticed their moving of position ages ago. With a glare, she flicked each of their noses in anger.

“Thanks for embarrassing me!” she growled.

“Oh come on, we totally helped you,” Hyoyeon defended, rubbing her now sore and very red nose. Sooyoung unfortunately never held back. “We made her laugh a bunch of times, and we saw how your face would light up every time.”

“It did not light up!” Sooyoung retaliated almost a little too quickly, she crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. “It was cute yeah, but it’s not like I really enjoyed it or anything.”

“Look at this kid,” Sunny commented with a shake of her head, “Syoung, your face lit up so much that I thought the sun was rising again.”

“Ugh, whatever! You guys are blind.”

Despite her anger, Sooyoung couldn’t help but smile a little. Maybe her vacation wasn’t going to be so bad.

Taeyeon hopped into her car, a wide smile plastered on her face since she said goodbye to the tall stranger she met at the diner. She knew that her face was beginning to hurt but she couldn’t relax her face at all. She felt an incredible surge of energy as she drove back to her home.

She hadn’t done it in a while, but she decided to turn on the CD player in her car and began to sing loudly to one of her absolute favourite songs.

“There were bells on a hill
But I never heard them ringing
No I never heard them at all
Till there was you!”

When she pulled into the parking lot where the cabin residents kept their cars, she was greeted by her younger sister Tiffany. She turned off the ignition and hobbled out of her car, still singing the song.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Tiffany commented. Taeyeon had never come home from breakfast like this and she was absolutely delighted, “Whatever you ordered from Seohyun’s diner this time, be sure to get it again, Taengoo.”

Taeyeon did a little shimmy before grabbing her sister’s hand, “Oh, it wasn’t the food Fany-ah. Actually, maybe it was kind of the food.”

Tiffany tilted her head but before she could ask Taeyeon to clarify she was being dragged inside the house.

“Come on, let’s go wake up that sleepy head. I’ll tell you all about my special breakfast after we celebrate the princess’ birthday!”

Tiffany’s smile reached her eyes and any bystander would have instantly been dazzled by them. She wondered what could have possibly happened to Taeyeon that morning. Perhaps Seohyun was really the magician in the kitchen that Yoona always bragged about. Either way, it was a good way to start the day with Taeyeon in such a good mood.

‘Jesse would like this very much,’ she thought to herself as she watched Taeyeon jump onto Jessica’s bed in an attempt to wake her up.

---

The rest of the day progressed much too slowly for Sooyoung’s taste. After leaving the diner, the four finished preparing their cabin for the month. Today was Yuri’s turn to blast her ipod and while the other three were singing beautiful harmonies to SHINee’s ‘Best Place’, Sooyoung found herself thinking about the adorable resident she met that morning.

She was so distracted in fact that she didn’t notice that her three friends were observing her from afar.

They decided that teasing Sooyoung was more important than hitting the right notes while singing along to kpop.

“You guys know how Sooyoung is when she falls for someone,” Hyoyeon started, shaking her head, “She falls fast and hard.”

“They just met this morning and I bet she’s already fantasizing over their wedding,” Yuri added, wrapping her arms over the two friends next to her.

“That Taeyeon girl is in for some big trouble. Do you think Youngie brought some of the couple items she’s bought back home?” Sunny asked her fellow girls, turning to them. She smirked, knowing how annoyed Sooyoung was whenever they for her habit of buying couple items to use with her future partner.

Unfortunately, none of their taunting tactics had worked for Sooyoung was still in a daze on her bed and feebly attempting to fix the sheets.

“Was she seriously that great?” Hyoyeon asked a little loudly, trying to irk the girl further.

“You two spoke for like an hour, this is just a silly crush!” Yuri yelled, using her hands to project her voice even more. “She’s too short for you!!” She was just throwing anything at this point.

Their plan was failing and the girls groaned at their failure. Somehow, they weren’t entirely surprised and Sunny resorted to personally insulting the girl.

“Choi Sooyoung, you look like an idiot with your mouth open like that!” Sunny shouted this time, taking a step closer.

Still, nothing.

The three girls exchanged glances and shrugged in unison before turning away. This time, SHINee’s Replay was playing and Sunny was the first to burst into song with Hyoyeon and Yuri following behind her hitting the song’s choreography perfectly.

It wasn’t until the girls left that Sooyoung turned around to her open door, “Oh, I like this song.”

She blinked a few times and then yawned before wondering why felt so dry.