By Any Other Name

(Tiffany’s POV)

Taeyeonie left the three of us standing on the pavement like idiots. Even though I was in on the scheme, I was still baffled. The Jungs on the other hand were in a real mess. Jess looked conflicted while Krystal looked horrified, both definitely worried and guilty.

“I told you it wasn’t a good idea to meddle!” Jess said to Krystal.

“Unni, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault! I swear, I’ll fix it!” Krystal said to me.

“No, even if you did try to help, it was I who decided to go along with it and if I had the courage to confess in the first place instead of playing all these games, this wouldn’t have happened,” I told them both.

“Still Jessie and I forced your hand and Taeyeon unni’s as well. If I didn’t beg her to help me, she wouldn’t feel like we’ve made her to be a fool.”

I could tell that Krystal was feeling really bad about the whole situation and I felt bad that we were messing with her head like this but it wasn’t my call.

“I can’t believe it though… I wouldn’t have imagined that Taeyeon would react like this. She was always so calm, patient and understanding…” Jess thought out loud.

“I know. Me too. I really didn’t think that she would just leave like this. I must have really crossed the line. It’s probably because she’s repressed those feeling for so long that she feels betrayed that I played with those feelings so easily. But that wasn’t my intention at all… I wish she could just see that I love her more than anything…” I agreed.

“Eotteohke, unni? You can’t just give up like this… She’s only running away because she’s scared! I know she still has feelings for you…”

“No, Krystal. I can’t force her to love me back. I’ve already lost my best friend. I don’t think we’ll ever recover from this.”

“Really, Tiff? It’s just like you said. She’s your best friend. Now you really have nothing to lose. You should go after her!” Jess added.

“I don’t know what I can do. She won’t listen to me…”

“Prove to her that you mean what you say…” Jess said.

“I can’t just let Taeyeon unni make the biggest mistake of her life! I’ll track her down and make her understand,” Krystal said with determination.

“Don’t! Haven’t you done enough, Krystal?!”

She looked at me with wide eyes. Then they started to water.

“I-I’m sorry I ruined your life!” she cried and ran off.

“That was cold, Tiff… Even if she did meddle, she was just trying to help… You didn’t have to say that,” Jess said then ran after Krystal.

I’m sorry you guys! I didn’t want to do this…

(Taeyeon’s POV)

I wasn’t sure how they’re reacting right now but it was actually more intense than I planned. I just wanted it to be a joke but it might have gotten out of hand.

I’ll just have to go along with it for now. I’ll make it short and tell them the truth soon.

The truth is though, all the things I said had a little bit of truth in them. Perhaps I had been repressing my feelings a little too much but it felt good to get them off my chest. I wasn’t really angry at them of course but I did feel a little hurt that everyone knew some version of the truth except for me. So technically I was the pawn in their scheme and it wasn’t exactly the best feeling. However, I was thankful that they did what they did because both Fany and I were cowards, and without help from the Jungs we might have been stuck in the friendship zone forever.

Even before the Jungs arrived, I had decided to head to a hotel. It wasn’t a big deal; it was just for the time being since I actually had work to do despite my urge to mess with the Jungs. I didn’t want to lug my suitcase around while I tried to get my stuff done.

Soon after I left, I received a call from Fany.

“Hey, how did it go?” I asked.

“I feel bad. I made Krystal think that she ruined my life. She cried and ran off. Jess actually called me cold. Kim Taeyeon! You’re making me look like the bad guy here!” she yelled into the phone.

“Sorry Fany! I guess I did go a little overboard. I promise I’ll make it up to you… I’ll tell them I forced you to do and say all those things…”

“You’d better! Otherwise I’ll…”

“You’ll what?”

“Nothing… I’ll do nothing because I can’t think of anything I can do about it… I’m totally at your beck and call…”

I laughed at her silliness. “You and your sweet talk!”

“So where are you heading to?” she asked.

“I’m just going to stay at a hotel for the night. I don’t think we should drag this prank out. We’ll tell them the truth tomorrow. Let them torment for a day…”

“A hotel? Why don’t you just come home?”

“And what if they come over again? It’s just for a night… not a big deal…”

“Oh, alright…”

“Why? Do you miss me already?”

“Soooo much! Like I’m missing an arm…”

“Ohmigod! Too much!” My fingers were curling from what she said. I wasn’t used to all the mushiness and sappiness yet and Fany tended to have so much aegyo it was almost unbearable.

“Well get used to it because there’ll be lots more!”

“I already expected that, you fluff ball!”

She giggled. “So… you’re my little animal and I’m your fluff ball?”

“Kyaaa! You! I’m hanging up now!”

“Wait! What are you planning to do the rest of the day?”

“I’ve got to get some work done… Although… do you want to come stay with me tonight? Since I have a room… might as well put it to good use…”

“You’re such a byun!”

“Is that a no?”

“No…”

“Is that a yes…?”

“Maybe… We’ll see what happens.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. I’ll let you know where I’m at once I’ve checked-in.”

“And I’ll let you know if I’ll actually come over.”

“You’d better come!”

“You’re not the only one who has work tomorrow, okay?!”

“Yes, but you’re the boss…”

“All the more I shouldn’t slack off…”

“Then why don’t you just come meet me for dinner?”

“Dinner? Hmmm… alright. Text me later.”

“I will. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, my little animal!” she shouted over the phone.

“Yah! You better not call me that in public!” I blushed.

“Of course not. That’s only for your ears…”

“Aish! I’m hanging up now!” I hung up immediately.

(Jessica’s POV)

I never thought Tiff could actually say something that cold… She must really love Taeyeon…

I ran after Kryssie. I wished she wouldn’t run so fast, I hated running.

“Kryssie! Stop…! Wait for me…!” I called out to her.

She kept running until we arrived at my parked car.

She was still pretty upset so I pulled her in for a hug.

“Don’t cry, Kryssie… It’s not your fault, even if I did tell you not to meddle,” I told her while her hair.

“I should have listened to you, I guess…” she sobbed.

“Kryssie… seriously… there’s nothing to cry about… I’m pretty sure they’re lying.”

“W-What are you talking about?” she asked, looking me straight in the eye.

“I think they’re just pretending… I don’t think they’re really fighting…”

I had my suspicions about this whole thing. It didn’t really make that much sense.

“But… They… What makes you think that?”

“Okay, well first off I can always tell when Tiff is lying. Her voice gets really high and she starts going overboard. Secondly, did you see what Taeyeon packed in her suitcase? It looked like she was packing for a business trip… It doesn’t make sense. If they were really fighting, she would be an emotional mess… so would her packing,” I explained.

“Why didn’t I notice any of this? How sure are you?”

“I’m pretty sure… On top of that, doesn’t it just seem so unlike either of them to be behaving like this? They’re both calm and rational people. I mean, Taeyeon is always listening and giving others advice, there’s no way she would just brush us off like this.”

“You have a point… I can’t believe this! Are they trying to mess with US?! Nobody messes with the Jungs!” Kryssie exclaimed, suddenly full of resolve.

I couldn’t help but laugh. She had turned a 180 and completely forgotten that she almost “ruined Tiff’s and Taeyeon’s life”.

“Okay… calm down, Kryssie… Don’t get carried away. I can tell that there were some truth in everything they said earlier… It was probably good for Taeyeon to let out some of that repressed anger.”

“What should we do now, Jessie? Should we just leave her alone or should we do something?”

“You know what… I think we should actually call her up. I think we should get everything out in the open. Let her vent and have her listen to our reason for doing what we did.”

“Mmmm… I agree! Then should we pretend we don’t know that they’re messing with us?”

“Let’s just not mention that we know…”

“Sounds good to me…”

(Krystal’s POV)

After Jessie shed some light on the situation, I didn’t really know how to feel about all deception and lies that we used to get my two favorite unnis together. Perhaps I did meddle too much and perhaps we had ALL gone overboard. After this… no more! I promised myself. I’ve had enough of lying and deceiving. It made things too complicated.

But first, we had to end this last game.

When we got home, I decided to call Taeyeon unni.

It took five attempts but she finally answered my call.

“I don’t really feel like talking, Krystal…” she said, not even bothered to say hello.

“Don’t hang up, unni! I’ve made a big mess of things. Please forgive, Tiffany unni… It’s not her fault.”

“Krystal… I already told you-“

“Please, unni. I just need a few minutes to talk… Please hear me out, otherwise I won’t be able to forgive myself.”

There was a long pause.

I had hoped that that would tug at her heartstrings a little. Taeyeon unni was too kind-hearted to leave me to blame myself for all this.

“Fine… Bring Sica. I want to hear what you two have to say…”

Yes!

“Should I ask Tiffany unni to come along?”

“No! Just you two.”

“Okay, okay…”

“Meet me at 5.”

“Where?”

“I’ll text you.”

“Uhm, okay…”

“Okay, bye.”

She hung up abruptly.

“So?” Jessie asked the moment I hung up.

“She agreed to meet up. You’re coming…” I told her.

“Now I’m definitely convinced she’s lying…”

“Me too… I think you’re definitely right…”

“She didn’t want Tiff to come along?”

“No. Just us apparently…”

“Oh, she’ll definitely ask Tiff to come… just not with us…” Jessie smirked.

“How do you know this?”

“Your sister is a genius, don’t you know that by now?” she said proudly.

“I don’t know about that, but my girlfriend sure is an evil mastermind…” I said.

She fell silent for a moment and just stared at me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked when she stayed silent for way too long, making things just a little uncomfortable for me.

“W-What did you just call me?”

“An evil mastermind?”

“No! The other thing…”

“What? My girlfriend?” It was kind of strange calling her that, I admit, but I didn’t want us to be labeled sisters anymore. It just didn’t suit us.

“Kryssie…”

“Why? Is it too weird? I want to move past being just sisters, Jessie… I don’t want to be just your baby sister forever…” I told her.

It was frustrating that this one simple label was getting in the way of us being a real couple.

“I understand… but Kryssie… you’ll always be my baby sister…” she started.

Not you too, Jessie?!

“But only in terms of my never ending need to protect you and take care of you. Other than that, I wish we didn’t have to be tied to this label either. Is it so wrong?”

“Why is life treating us this way? Did I do something wrong in my past life?”

“No, Kryssie… It brought you back to me… We’ll figure this out somehow… We were meant to be together.”

Is there anyone more loving or more understanding? Is there anyone who could treat me better?

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m lucky. I had the best sister, and now… whatever we were, she was still the best.

“You know what…? As long as we’re together, I don’t care what we are,” I told her.

“We’ll always be together. You and me… Nothing will ever change that.”

I couldn’t help myself but to throw myself onto her. I nearly knocked her over but she somehow managed to catch me, stumbling back a few steps. I wrapped my arms around her neck and my legs around her waist.

“Ohmigod, Kryssie! This is not what I meant… God, you’re heavy!” she complained.

“Well… good luck because I’m not letting go…”

“You have to let go sometime… We have to meet Taeyeon later…”

“Mmmm… I’m not letting go until then…” I told her as I planted multiple kisses all over her face.

“You need to stop eating so much or I won’t be able to carry you anymore…”

“Shut up! I’m not that heavy… I’m just taller…”

“Man, it was so much easier when you were five.”

“You’re getting old, Jessie!” I giggled. “And I’m not five anymore… I’m an adult now…”

“No… you’re still a baby…”

“I am NOT!” I hoped off of her and crossed my arms.

“It’s not a bad thing… enjoy your youth… then when it’s time… enjoy being an adult…”

“Yes, o’ wise one!” I bowed at her.