Taeyeon didn’t know when it happened, but she felt like they drifted apart.

Gone were the days Tiffany would shower her confusing affections, or would drag her to places just to be with each other. They were still best friends, of course. Or in her part, she thinks so.

Maybe they just matured? Hah. More like I moved on. In any way, she was just glad she could help her friend. When she looked at Tiffany that night, she remembered the girl who used to have nothing but her. The girl who have so much to tell but could barely said the words. She saw her.

“I could help.” 

"I could help.” 

"I could help.”

“Yah, Taeyeon. Are you listening?” Tiffany’s face, only inches apart from hers, greeted her.

She backed away in reflex. “Uhhh…”

“You’re not listening, are you?” she squinted her eyes at her.

“Chinese.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s eat Chinese food.”

“Oh, okay.” Tiffany hooked their arms as they walk the path to the restaurant.

-------------

They were seated in the restaurant near the dorm, just waiting for their food to be served.

“So how have you been?” Tiffany started the conversation.

Taeyeon wondered if Tiffany felt the awkwardness too. She was acting pretty normal, though. Maybe it’s just her.

“Good.” It’s an automatic reply. She sensed that Tiffany felt lost in a moment.

“How ‘bout you? How are you and Nickhun?” she tried to save the conversation.

Luckily, Tiffany’s mood brightened. “We’re good!” she excitedly said. “We’ll go watch a movie on the weekend. You should come, too.”

“No. I’m good.” She politely declined. “I don’t want to be a burden for you two.”

“Nonsense. You’re my friend, and besides, we could use this opportunity to make people think that Khun and I are just friends.” She grinned.

Taeyeon was silent for a moment. “Hmm, you’re right. But we should bring Sunny, too. I don’t want to be a 3rd wheel, you know.” Taeyeon pouted.

Tiffany laughed. “Deal.”

The atmosphere around them lightened after that.

The food arrived, and they were still busy talking and laughing. Still, they acknowledged the waiter with a bow of their head.

Tiffany was telling Taeyeon about that one time Khun and her bought a Mickey sticker.  Her hands moved animatedly. Her eyesmile, more visible.

Taeyeon was looking gently at Tiffany’s eyes to show that she’s listening, but her hands were busy preparing Tiffany’s sauce for her food.

“Thank you.” Tiffany smiled as she dipped a dumpling into the sauce.

Taeyeon just nodded in acknowledgement. Then she put some food inside .

They ate in comfortable silence, and went home after that.

----------------

“Tiffanyyyy!!!”

“What?” she groaned. She was trying to get her sleep since her thoughts won’t stop running.

“Nickhun’s downstairs. He said he wanted to see you.” Taeyeon stated. 

“Nickhun?!” The brunette stood up in an instant. She rushed downstairs to meet her boyfriend.

“Tiff, wait! You forgot—” she was greeted with the sound of the front door closing. Aish. This girl.

Tiffany was in an obvious hurry. One can say that it’s because of excitement of finally seeing your love again, but she herself didn’t know why she wanted to see him as soon as possible. She even used the stairs, stepping two at a time, because the elevator was taking so long.

When she set foot in the lobby, she saw Taeyeon standing in front of her. “How did you get here?” she asked, obviously confused. “I thought you were—" 

“You left this, pabo.”

Taeyeon put the winter coat around her shoulders, and the facemask to keep the fans from recognizing her.

“It’s snowing hard outside. Take care of yourself.” She was about to go back when she faced Tiffany again, “Oh, and so you know, there is this thing called elevator.” She winked, as if teasing the girl.

Tiffany was left standing there. When she finally got her senses back, she saw the other girl step inside the elevator. Taetae.. Are you back? She wondered as she calmly walked outside the building.

“Baby…” Nickhun’s face brightened seeing his girlfriend. He assisted her inside the passenger seat. 

“Sorry I had to come by. I just I missed you.” He said when they were in the car.

Tiffany smiled, her eyes turned into two crescents. “I missed you too.”

They were driving around Seoul because the boy didn’t want to risk people seeing them. Nickhun held Tiffany’s hand all throughout the ride. It felt simple yet satisfying.

“We found a solution for our problem.” Tiffany said after being quiet a while.

“Really? What is it?” She played with the guy’s hands. Her eyes were focused on what she’s doing.

“Taeyeon and I would try to use our coupling popularity to distract the people about us.” 

“Oh, right! You two have strong fanbase, right?” Nickhun didn’t seem bothered by it. “You have many fans back in my country.” He chuckled. 

“Dae..” she sighed in relief.

“I think we should ask her to join us watch the movie.” Nickhun has been very open about it.

“Yup. Done that. But she said she wanted to go with Sunny too. She said she didn’t want to be a 3rd wheel.” She laughed and Nickhun joined in.

“I never get tired of seeing you laugh.” he said randomly.

Tiffany blushed. “Y-yah..”

He chuckled. So cute.

They drove back to Tiffany’s dorm. Every now and then, they would look at each other’s eyes and smile.

“Take care on your way home. Text me when you got there.” She demanded.

“Yes, Mrs. Mickey.” He teased.

She smiled. “Good.”

“Night. Love you.” He kissed her on the lips.

“Love you, too. Take care, okay?”

“Yup!” he grinned.

She exited the car and went up the dorm feeling happy and giddy. That night, she slept peacefully.