Tiffany was trembling. The look in Taeyeon’s eyes was scaring her. They were so possessive that she did not dare to break the eye contact, afraid that Taeyeon might harm her. "I-I'm nobody's property," she managed to say out but her voice faltered in the middle. 

Realizing her actions, Taeyeon loosened her grip on Tiffany and looked at the American girl with hurt and confusion flashed across her eyes. She did not know how to react at all. What she said a few minutes ago was by instinct. She was afraid that Tiffany would fall into someone else's hands before she had the chance.

"Y-you're crazy," Tiffany stuttered as she struggled to get out of Taeyeon's grip. How did wanting to go on a walk down the beach lead to this? It was partially her fault, Tiffany knew that but why was Taeyeon so upset over it?

Taeyeon let her arms droop down to her sides as she stared down at the wooden floor. She was not sure what to feel anymore. Was she really going crazy? No, she thought. All the things that were happening to her were making her go insane, making her lose her sanity. She wished she could ignore all of them but she could not escape them at all. They were haunting her mind every single night.

"T-Taeyeon?" Tiffany said as she looked at the blonde in front of her. "Are you okay?" she asked, reaching her hand out to touch Taeyeon's face but retreated thinking that it was a bad idea.

Why wasn't she running away? Why was she still in the beach house with someone who was still considered a stranger? Why did she choose to stay? Tiffany had no answers at all. 

Taeyeon, on the other hand, did not expect all of this to happen at all especially in a day. She was supposed to keep a low profile but she had failed to do so due to her jealousy. Why was fate being cruel to her? She did not want to be avoided by Tiffany at all.

Slowly looking up, Taeyeon's eyes met Tiffany's confused eyes. She did not understand it at all. Why wasn't Tiffany running away from her? Was Tiffany not afraid of her? "You're not afraid of me?" the question left Taeyeon's lips in a whisper. She was confused as well. This was not how she thought it would turn out. Was fate being nice to her now?

The room was silent with only the sound of breathing coming from the two souls. Neither of them knew what to say. Tiffany could have just run away but she did not know what was stopping her from doing so. Taeyeon, on the other hand, was just looking at Tiffany, waiting for an answer from her. The silence was slowly eating her up but she did not want to say anything. She was afraid she would frighten Tiffany again.

Taeyeon lifted her hand up, wanting to brush of the hair that was covering Tiffany's face but the latter quickly backed away by instinct. Taeyeon felt her heart dropped and she retracted her hand, clutching onto her other arm. "You should leave now," Taeyeon spoke up. "I'm sorry." 

Taking it as a cue, Tiffany ran past Taeyeon without answering her question and never turned back. Taeyeon clenched her fist and punched the wall in front of her. "I'm really stupid," she chuckled to herself. "I feel like I can go insane any time now." 

Little did she notice that someone else had been watching them since they got into the beach house. "I'll get her first before you can, Kim Taeyeon," he smirked and walked away from the beach house.

Tiffany had locked the door and was curled up on her bed as soon as she got home. She wanted to believe everything that had happen had been a dream but it was impossible. The scene was constantly playing in her mind like a broken recorder.

The sound of her ringtone shocked her as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She was afraid to see who it was from. The last thing she wanted to see was a text from the mysterious guy whom she was supposed to meet earlier.

"Tiffany, are you alright?" Michelle's voice could be heard from outside the room.

Surprised, Tiffany placed her phone aside not wanting to read the text she received. Instead, she got out of bed and opened the door not forgetting to put on a smile. "I'm fine, Michelle. Can you prepare me something to eat? I'm hungry."

"Okay..?" Michelle said questioningly, raising her brows slightly at Tiffany. She found Tiffany's actions not quite herself but she did not want to ask her any further questions. The last thing she wanted was having her sister ignore her for a few days. She knew her sister too well and she did not want to risk anything.

For the nth time, Taeyeon let out a heavy sigh. She still could not forgive herself for what she had done to Tiffany. Her chances of getting closer to the latter were getting small and she disliked the thought of it. However, she was not going to allow the mysterious guy to get Tiffany first. 

The silence in the apartment was not helping Taeyeon at the moment. Her thoughts were running all over the place. All she needed was company but from who? Tiffany was obviously out of the option but had no one else other than the American. She had not made friends other than Tiffany. Well, they were not technically friends yet but Taeyeon would like to put it that way. Shutting her eyes, Taeyeon felt that sleeping would be a great escape from all the things that had happened that afternoon.

--

Tiffany was not sure if going to school was the right thing to do. She was afraid to see Taeyeon. She did not want to do anything that involved Taeyeon. However, if she did not go to school, her sister would suspect that something was wrong and Tiffany did not want to do any explaining.

Reaching out for her phone on the table, Tiffany had forgotten that she received a text the previous night. A sense of relief washed through her as the text was only from Bora who asked about their homework. Tiffany replied the text saying she was sorry that she replied late and kept her phone in her bag. 

"I can do this," Tiffany told herself. "I'll just ignore her if I see her today."

Taeyeon was already in class before Tiffany had arrived. She had taken the same seat right beside Tiffany's and waited patiently for the American to arrive. She had been repeating the apology a lot of times in her mind and she hoped she would not chicken out later on. 

Her head shot up as she saw Tiffany entering the classroom. Her heart started to beat rapidly and her palms were starting to feel sweaty. Taeyeon could only hope that she would not forget what she wanted to say to Tiffany. She did not want to mess things up like the last time.

“Tiffany, I would like to apologize for my behavior the previous day. I really don’t know what got into me. I’m really-”

Taeyeon stopped apologizing when she noticed that Tiffany had not been listening to her at all. She felt her heart dropped and sighed, ruffling her hair in the process. ‘Who am I kidding?’ Taeyeon thought as she looked at Tiffany. ‘She’ll never forgive me and I’ll never have the chance.’

When Taeyeon stopped apologizing, Tiffany felt bad. She knew Taeyeon was being sincere in her apology but she could not help but to ignore her. She wanted nothing to do with Taeyeon anymore. Although they had only met the previous day, Tiffany felt that it was best that she kept a distance between her and Taeyeon.

Glancing at Taeyeon, Tiffany bit onto her bottom lip unconsciously upon seeing how Taeyeon looked down all of a sudden. The latter was resting her head on her arm and doodling something on her text book. She would not mind being Taeyeon’s friend but after the incident the previous day, Tiffany was afraid of what might happen next if she were to be with Taeyeon longer.

‘This is not how I want to spend my school year,’ Tiffany thought as she slowly changed her focus on her teacher that had just entered.

--

It was finally lunch break and Tiffany was relieved that she had survived almost half the day in school being able to avoid Taeyeon.

“Hey, shall we go for lunch now?” Bora asked Tiffany, breaking the latter’s train of thoughts.

“Hm? Alright, let’s go,” Tiffany smiled slightly and followed Bora out of the classroom.

"Wait a minute," Bora stopped walking. "I'll be right back," she added and returned back to class, making Tiffany confused at the sudden stop.

"Tiffany..." Taeyeon appeared from the left side of the hallway. She had been hiding behind the walls ever since her class ended to wait for Tiffany.

Turning her head, Tiffany felt nervous and scared all of a sudden. 'Why did Bora have to leave me alone?' she thought as she saw Taeyeon jogging towards her. 'I have to get away from her.'

"Please," Taeyeon pleaded as she grabbed onto Tiffany who had just turned her body away from the former. "Don't run away from me again." 

Using her other arm, Taeyeon wrapped it around Tiffany's waist, hugging her tight after pulling the American closer towards her. Tiffany was stunned.

“Please, forgive me for what I did yesterday. I… I wasn’t in the right state of mind. I swear. I just- I don’t like it when you mention about that other guy. He’s not a good guy,” Taeyeon whispered into Tiffany’s ear.

Tiffany shook her head. “No,” she said firmly. “Let me go.”

“No, I won’t,” Taeyeon tightened her grip slightly around Tiffany’s waist and rested her forehead on Tiffany’s back.

“You’re crazy Kim Taeyeon. We’ve only met for only a few days not even a week and you’re already claiming me. I’m not even gay! What do you even know about that guy too?” Tiffany flared up. This time, she was really done with Taeyeon’s possessiveness.

Taeyeon flinched at Tiffany’s words. She was hurt by them of course but she did not know it would hurt a lot. Her grip loosened once again and she bit on her bottom lips to prevent herself from crying. Had she been selfish all this while? If only Taeyeon was not the jealous type, she would not have gotten angry and told Tiffany that she was hers.

“I’m sorry,” Taeyeon could only utter. She really had no other words to say than sorry. In fact, she was actually lost for words. Tiffany’s words were like arrows shot straight through her heart. Each of them stung.

“I’m really sorry.”

Tiffany could hear how vulnerable Taeyeon sounded but she was not going to give in. She found Taeyeon weird and Taeyeon looked exactly like the bench girl. It made Tiffany thought that she was going crazy for a moment. “Let me ask a question,” Tiffany said. “Are you really sure you’re not the bench girl I saw during gym class a few times?”

Taeyeon furrowed her brows. “Of course I’m not,” she answered in a quite confused tone. “I only entered this school this week.”

“Then how do you know me if you just entered? You treat me as if I’m a long lost friend,” Tiffany continued to question Taeyeon, raising more suspicions against the older girl.

“I…” Taeyeon did not know how to reply Tiffany at all. Her grip loosened around Tiffany’s waist and the latter took the chance to escape and face Taeyeon.

“Who are you exactly Kim Taeyeon?” Tiffany asked softly.

Taeyeon looked down on her feet with her fists clenched to her sides. She was really speechless this time. Why was it so hard for her to speak? What was actually holding her back?

“I’m back- Oh, am I disturbing you girls…?” Bora returned and looked at the two girls cluelessly. 

Tiffany shook her head and held Bora by the wrist. “Let’s just go for lunch,” she told her friend and pulled her away to the cafeteria, leaving Taeyeon behind. 

All of a sudden, Taeyeon felt a hand gripping on her shoulder lightly and heard the person chuckled, “You’re an idiot, Kim Taeyeon. You’ve always been.”

A/N: And finally, here's an update. ouo;