Chapter 11

Pursuit of Parallel Happiness

2015.

.

.

.

Is… Taeyeon still… alive?

 

I held my breath as I was at a sudden lost at my new found information. I grabbed the phone next to the couch and dialed the one number I memorized by heart.

 

The answer came instantly.

 

“The number you have dialed is currently not in service. Please…”

 

The voice faded out as I dropped my hand with the phone.

 

Nonononono… this is not happening!!!

 

I shook my head in disbelief. My hands were shaking as I started hyperventilating. It felt as if my heart was torn violently away from my chest. If there was even any of it left the first time.

 

My tears started to well up and I felt a different surge of feelings.

 

“How could she do this to me again?!” I shouted as I smashed the phone across the room.

 

Yes, anger. I was angry.

 

Angry at how unfair life was.

 

Angry at how she didn’t wait for me.

 

And mostly, angry at myself.

 

Why it wasn’t me, who died?

 

I covered my face with both hands as I bawled my eyes out.

 

Click.

 

The sound of the door knob drew my attention towards the hallway. A familiar figure walked out of my room, eyes swollen with a tissue in hand. She was about to wipe her tears off but her hand froze in midair when she saw me staring at her.

 

“Tiff…” I called out softly as my tears continued to flow down my cheeks.

 

-

 

“AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!” she screamed as she grabbed the vase, a hallway decoration and held it up.

 

Right. I forgot about my earplugs.

 

“Get out!!! I am calling the police!!!!”

 

My eyes widen when I realized she thought I was a thief or something.

 

“YAH! Look at me! Do I look like a thief?” I questioned with a tinge of frustration. I was in no mood whatsoever to deal with anymore problems.

 

She took a step back and rubbed her eyes as she took a closer look at me. Those crying probably didn’t help with her eyesight.

 

She gasped and let out another shrieked as she held on the vase for dear life.

 

“GOD. Stop doing that!” I frowned. “And put down that vase would you?”

 

“What are you?” she carefully walked closer. “Are you here to claim me? Oh. My. God. Am I dead? How come I don’t remember dying?”

 

She stared into space and was honestly trying to recall something.

 

“What? No!” I looked at this Tiffany amusingly. “Where did you get that idea from?”

 

“I heard that family members who passed away come to get you when you know… when you die?” She shrugged. “Well, I was more expecting my mum to come but… what are you?”

 

Here we go again.

 

I rolled my eyes before explaining my dimension travelling situation.

 

-

 

“Cool!” She smiled brightly. “It’s like Rooftop Prince!”

 

“Erm, no? That’s time travelling. I am dimension travelling.” I commented coldly, a little affected by how she could still smile so… genuinely.

 

“Oh whatever. Sci-fi as just cool! I am like a protagonist in my own sci-fi film!” She disregarded my comments and pulled me into the room where she grabbed a tissue to wipe off her tears.

 

Her simple action reminded me of why I was crying earlier on. I guessed this girl was not doing any better despite her smiles. I took a deep breath and held her hand.

 

“I understand.” I said softly before pulling her into a hug.

 

“Eh, huh?” she gave me a confused look as she moved away from me.

 

I motioned to her eyes and mine.

 

“Oh, I was just watching this other super sad drama. How could he leave her?!” she explained as she sniffed. “Why didn’t he believe that she truly loves him?”

 

All I could do was glare at her in disbelief.  Being too caught up in the situation just now, I didn’t have a good look at this Tiffany. She was wearing thick glasses and had this nerdy vibe. Speaking of which, her room was full of comic books, manga, anime and drama DVDs.

 

O...kay…

 

“Wait, what were you talking about? Why were you crying?” Her question brought me out of my thoughts and I was not thinking straight when the name slipped from my mouth.

 

“Taeyeon.”

 

“What about her?” She frowned, still confused.

 

That was when a hope flashed in my mind. Maybe I have jumped the steps.

 

“Is she… erm… is she…” I stammered as I couldn’t bring myself to say the word ‘dead’.

 

“Is she still alive?” I finally finished my sentence as I settled with a different approach to the question.

 

“What? Yah?” she asked back. “Wait, are you trying to tell me something?”

 

I could only look at her in silence.

 

“OH.AM.GEE.” She exclaimed as she grabbed her hand phone and dialed someone. She waited impatiently as a worried expression hung on her face.

 

“TaeTae! Thank goodness you picked up!”

 

“…”

 

“Oh nothing much. Just wanted to remind you about dinner.”

 

“…”

 

“Alright. Bye!”

 

She placed the phone down and glared at me as if I lied about something important.

 

Hmmmm, I didn’t lie, probably misled her. I thought as I hung my head low. Nonetheless, I felt elated and relief that Taeyeon was still alive. Guess she had a different number here.

 

I wiped my grin off as I saw her narrowing her eyes at me.

 

“Why were you implying that something happened to TaeTae?"

 

I gulped under her intense gaze although it was quite funny that I felt somewhat threatened by myself. I let out a sigh as I thought I probably had no other way out of this and decided I should just let her know what happened to my Taeyeon.

 

-

 

“I am so sorry.” Her brows furrowed and her eyes soften. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she pitied me but then I realized she would be the closest person who would understand me and my feelings despite not going through the same thing.

 

“It’s alright.” I stated coldly as I wiped away the tear that threatened to fall and looked away. I knew I have built a strong defense around myself that I was not able to open to anyone, including myself. Jessica never failed to remind me about that. Letting this Tiffany know what happened was one thing but talking about my feelings was another matter altogether.

 

“You know, I wanted to do the same thing on the same day you mentioned.” She sighed. “But it turned out that weather wasn’t on my side. There was a typhoon that day and we canceled but I guess I have to thank that typhoon now.”

 

Processing…

 

“I thought that was a sign that we were never meant to be.” She continued. “I mean my horoscope did say things will not go well that day and there was only one star out of five for love. Really. One out of five? One?!” She exclaimed like it was something incredulous.

 

Processing…

 

“Every time we decided to meet, the stars never go over three out of five.” She sighed in defeat. “My horoscope seemed to have something against me!”

 

Processing…

 

“Maybe I should try tarot cards…”

 

Processed.

 

I grabbed the nearest cushion and whacked the girl right on the head.

 

“OW! What was that for?”

 

Horoscope? Tarot cards? Seriously?! What’s next? The Chinese Almanac calendar? Or the Aryan calendar, which predicted that we all should be dead right now?

 

I shook my head in disapproval.

 

Screw taking things slowly. This Tiffany knew her feelings well enough. She has to be pushed. Real hard.

 

“I let her slipped through my hands. I… I… I let her… died..” I frowned at the last word but I managed to gather my thoughts and was determined not to be affected by my sealed away feelings.

 

"Yet, you... you just give up? Just like that?" I was frustrated at the girl in front of me.

 

“You are not going to be me.” I stated firmly. “You are not going to hide your feelings anymore.”

 

That came out more like a command than a request.

 

“So what’s this dinner you were talking about on the phone?”

 

-

 

A/N:

My apologies. Was busy this week plus a little writer's block.

Anyway, here's an intro to the new Tiff.

And nope, I wasn't trying to troll at the start. *shifty eyes*

Erhem, I mean comeon, it's realistic that she assumed the worse. *Innocent smile*

Haha, thanks for liking the fic and the encouragements!

Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!
HolyCrab
From now onwards, its gonna be crazy updates till completion. =DDD

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #1
Chapter 41: Love the table! That sums up everything! Thanks for posting this chapter!
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #2
Chapter 40: Yes! I love happy endings! I enjoyed this story very much! Really, better late than never reading this!
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #3
Chapter 37: Yep, that was 2014...
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #4
Chapter 36: Ah, this chapter... 🥲
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #5
Chapter 34: Next!
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #6
Chapter 32: What the?! 🤯
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #7
Chapter 28: Cute!
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #8
Chapter 25: Not rushed for me, I like the flow of the story. 😉
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #9
Chapter 23: I knew it! I thought I was confused! 😁
UndefinedCharacter
16 streak #10
Chapter 18: I love jessica! 😁