The first time Tiffany met Taeyeon, she hadn't wanted to see her. Her friend, normally quiet and stoic, was screaming her lungs out, jumping up and down and madly waving her light stick as Taeyeon jogged by on the extended stage. Taeyeon was waving, blowing kisses and smiling as she moved past them and Jessica was Taeyeon's fan. Tiffany knew Taeyeon of course, but she was here mostly because Jessica didn't want to fangirl alone, and a holiday was always nice.

It had occurred to Tiffany that she had basically paid to fly to another country and attend a concert she wasn't all that interested in, and the concert wasn't cheap. The worst part was that it wasn't even a solo concert. Known as SM Town, the concert featured a variety of artists and Taeyeon was just one of them. Which meant she'd perform a little, wave a little, smile a little, then leave. Jessica had flown across the Pacific ocean, for 30 minutes of Taeyeon. 

It turned out a little more than 30 minutes of Taeyeon, because the girl reappeared for an encore performance, such was her popularity. It was a lovely ballad. A little bit too melancholy for Tiffany's liking, but she admitted that Taeyeon had a wonderful voice, smooth and soulful. She could have easily been a fan, had she been more into the Korean music scene. As it was, she only preferred to listen to music in languages she spoke fluently, and that basically restricted her to English, although her own Korean could pass as conversational. 

Jessica had been clutching a strange plush toy the entire night. It was a pod of peas that opened and closed with a zipper. Inside were three actual peas with varying facial expressions. It was cute, Tiffany supposed, but Jessica had never been a huge fan of plush toys so Tiffany didn't really understand why she had it. Jessica had barely touched it all day, leaving it protected from the elements inside the plastic bag that she had also held onto, all day.

Taeyeon wasn't singing anymore, although Tiffany could still hear her. One of her more popular songs were booming through the speakers and Taeyeon was now wandering around to let all the fans see her. Jessica, standing next to her, suddenly gasped and grasped at her bag with shaky fingers. Taeyeon was almost in front of them now, and Jessica was clearly struggling to retrieve her toy, so Tiffany took on her and plucked it out of the bag with her own steadier fingers and pressed it into Jessica's arms. Jessica, on the other hand, had no time to show Tiffany any gratitude, and as Jessica drew her arm back, Tiffany's eyes widened as she realized her friend's intent.

She's going to throw it at her!

It happened all the time of course, but it wasn't exactly uncommon knowledge that people weren't meant  to throw things onto the stage. And Jessica at throwing. Flashbacks of Jessica's pitches when she had been forced to play soft ball in college went through Tiffany's mind and hand instinctively covered her own mouth in dreadful anticipation. But she was completely off, because Jessica's aim, at least today, was true and the plush landed conveniently a few steps in front of Taeyeon. A hand tightly clutched Tiffany's forearm, and Jessica was suddenly pressing herself against Tiffany, with her eyes still peeled on her idol.

Taeyeon didn't stop moving, but she did look down before sweeping her eyes towards the direction she perceived the toy was thrown from. 

"Pick it up, pick it up, come on..." Tiffany heard Jessica whisper to herself. 

But Taeyeon didn't, she just smiled and walked onwards and the fingers around Tiffany's arm went loose. Sighing, she slid an arm around Jessica's waist and pulled her disappointed friend closer. Jessica had been the first to toss something on stage, but she wasn't the last. As if the motionless pod of peas lying on the stage floor had been a cue, multiple other plushies began to be tossed onto the stage, all thrown in the singer's direction. A slightly larger one caught Tiffany's eye and apparently Taeyeon's too. It looked a lot like a shaggy little labrador puppy toy and even from so far away, Tiffany thought it was cute, although she would have preferred a white one herself. Apparently Taeyeon thought so too, because she stopped. She looked at her own feet and plucked the toy off the ground before kissing the toy dog's head, tucking it under her arm and heading off stage with a wave.

A cold, sweaty hand plucked off Tiffany's hand that had been wrapped around Jessica's face and Tiffany saw the hurt in Jessica's posture as she stared after Taeyeon's disappearing body.

~ ~ ~

"Do you hate her now?" Tiffany wondered aloud. Jessica, sitting across from her, nursing a hot chocolate because she had never liked coffee, stiffened in her seat.

"No..." Jessica mumbled, "I guess the dukong was a bit cliche."

"It was cute..." Tiffany reassured her wearily. They had woken up early in the morning to line up for the concert, and now that the adrenaline from the event was fading, she was just tired to the bone.

"The stupid dog was cuter." Jessica groaned, slumping in her seat and tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling.

Silently, Tiffany agreed but she knew that voicing her thoughts wasn't what Jessica wanted. So tactfully, Tiffany steered the conversatoin away from the toy tossing fiasco and back towards the little snippets of fan service they had received, and how close they had managed to get to the stage.

"She was like, at that bookcase there and we were here. That's so close! You could have hifived her if she leaned out!" Tiffany exclaimed with enthusiasm she didn't feel. She had enjoyed the concert of course -the performances had been stellar to say the least- but she still would have preferred to listen to music with lyrics she could actually understand. Jessica, who had studied on exchange in Seoul for a few years, had obviously developed a much better grasp of the language than Tiffany, who only spoke broken Korean to her family back at home.

Jessica was smiling now, but her eyes were tired and Tiffany knew that the fangirl she had been with in the mosh pit, had finally been replaced by the Jessica was she was used to. One obviously craving sleep. Her friend sighed and stood up.

"Thanks Tiffany." Jessica grinned wryly, "For trying anyway. You're right though, the concert was good and she was reaaaaaaaally close!"

"She was." Tiffany affirmed.

"Don't stay up too late?" Jessica patted Tiffany's as she walked past.

The question was rhetorical of course. Tiffany loved the quiet of the night, and that meant she often stayed up until the early hours of the morning, just doing nothing. But not tonight. Tonight she was just tired and retiring early sounded like a good idea. So she gave Jessica a few minutes head start, so the girl could change and what not, before heading out of the hostel lobby and back to the room.

She was just passed by the reception, when the receptionist flashed her a smile.

"How was the concert? Did you enjoy it?" The man asked.

Jessica had mentioned the purpose of their brief stay in Korea when checking in, and apparently her gusto had stuck with the staff, who now made an effort to, as they put it, "Psyche up their stay", by turning on music from SM's artists when they hung out in the lobby. It wasn't much, but it showed a little bit of attention to detail and Tiffany genuinely appreciated the effort.

"Yeah. It was pretty good. Tired from waking up so early for it." She replied, returning the smile.

"Ah, time to rest then I guess. Have you seen this though?" The receptionist, Jacky by his nametag, turned the computer monitor to her. 

Instagram was displaying in the internet browser and it was on the profile page of one "taeyeon_ss". It had recently been updated with a simple drawing. At first glance, Tiffany thought it was a green blog on a page but as she squinted and leaned forward to see it better, and Jacky clicked on the image to magnify the picture, Tiffany's eyes widened when she recognized a sketch of Jessica's folorn dukong plushie. There was a caption in Korean attached to the image, and although Tiffany traced the characters with her fingers, she couldn't quite understand what it said.

"It says, 'Someone threw this at me today. I was so shocked you guys remember these things about me that I forgot to pick it up. I hope its not lonely... Thank you!'" Jacky added with surprisingly fluent English, "You know what this means right?". 

The receptionish pointed at the end of the caption, representing laughter. Tiffany nodded.

"I think she saw this somewhere today with some fan and she found it memorable enough to post about..." Jacky trailed off, "Oh well. She's good to her fans. Have a good sleep!"

By the time Tiffany got to their shared room, Jessica was drooling on her pillow, her blonde her spilled everywhere and making soft snoring sounds. Tiffany gave a glanced at their humble lodgings, taking a mental picture so she could remember. Jessica still had a few more days in Korea, but Tiffany had only the weekend to spare, so she her bags were packed and ready for the trip home tomorrow morning.

A shower later, and Tiffany was patting her pillow to fluff it up a little and making a note to show Jessica, Taeyeon's instagram post tomorrow morning when they went to the airport together.

~ ~ ~

The problem was, Jessica slept in and Tiffany forgot.

---

A/N

So I was bored and reading some really good fanfiction when I decided to write this. I don't know where this will go and how often I'll update, but hopefully it's a promising start? =) Leave a comment!