The pen fell from her hand as she had finished writing. A satisfied smile was on her lips and she stretched her arms above her head, letting out a small groan before she lowered them again and looked at the piece of paper in front of her. She nodded satisfied and got up from her seat and made her way to the closet in her room.

After rummaging through the clothes in there she finally closed the door with a pair of old jeans, an old t-shirt and an old sweater. She began undressing to change into the clothes she had found, glancing towards the window to make sure the weather was right. A bright shining sun with no clouds in the sky. Perfect day for her plan.


---


The sounds of steps coming upstairs caught the girl’s ears. Not minding them as she thought it was one of her family members she continued to focus on the game she was playing on her laptop.  The sound of the door to her room opening made her turn away from the latop scrren to caught a glimpse of her neighbor’s eldest daughter, clad in a pair of jeans and a sweater she remembered the girl last wearing a few years ago.

Not bothering about the girl Taeyeon turned back to the screen. Her ears caught the sound of her wardrobe door opening, and she glanced to see what Jessica was up to. Seeing she was looking for something she rolled her eyes and continued to play her game.

“What are you doing?” Taeyeon asked tiredly.

“Searching.”

“For what?”

“Old clothes.”

“What for?”

“To get dirty.”

Taeyeon paused the game and turned around in her seat to look at what Jessica doing. The girl lifted up jeans, checking them before she folded them and placed them in a pile and continued to search. A sigh left Taeyeon’s lips and she turned back to her laptop.

“Check the box I have beside my shoes.” Taeyeon said.

“This one?” Jessica asked and took out a brown box she found. Taeyeon quickly checked if Jessica had found the right one.

“Yeah, that one.” Taeyeon said.

Jessica opened the box and a smile formed on her lips upon seeing things she was looking for. She took out a pair of old jeans, an old t-shirt and a hoodie she found in the box before she closed it and placed it where she had found it, and placed back the clothes she had taken out of Taeyeon’s wardrobe before closing the door to it.

“Taeyeon, I need you to undress.” Jessica said and looked at the girl that was sitting by her desk.

“I’m busy.” Taeyeon said and didn’t tear her eyes away from the laptop screen.

“But that’s not important. We have to do this today.” Jessica said and went over to the girl, tugging on the chair Taeyeon was sitting on, which made Taeyeon almost fall off.

“What’s the important thing?” Taeyeon asked annoyed and looked at Jessica.

“I need you to wear this and come out with me.” Jessica said and held out Taeyeon’s old clothes towards her. The girl raised an eyebrow and looked up at Jessica again.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. We have to do it today. It’s sunny outside!” Jessica said and pointed outside the window.

“But I’m busy with this.” Taeyeon said and pointed at the game she was playing.

“Games are no excuses to not be outside on sunny days! Now get changed!” Jessica dragged Taeyeon off of the chair which made the girl fall to the floor. Taking the opportunity while Taeyeon was no longer in front of the computer Jessica quickly found a menu where she could save the game and shut it off.

Seeing Jessica shutting off her laptop Taeyeon gaped shocked and pointed at the gadget on her desk.

“I hope for your own sake that you saved my game before you shut it off.” Taeyeon said and looked at Jessica.

“Yeah, I did. Otherwise you’d have killed me. Now, change into these.” Jessica said and shoved the clothes into Taeyeon’s face.

Taeyeon removed the clothes from her face. A sigh left her lips and she began changing clothes in hope of making Jessica stop bothering her about it.


---


Furniture. Desks. Tables. Chairs. Drawers. Everything in wood. Taeyeon blinked shocked upon seeing all the things in Jessica’s backyard. She looked at the girl that turned towards her with a wide grin on her lips while having her arms outstretched like she tried to show off all the things.

“Tada!” Jessica said.

“Okay…” Taeyeon said and shifted her eyes from Jessica to the furniture. “Why have you dressed me up in old clothes and brought me to show off your collection of old things?” Taeyeon asked.

Jessica began laughing and went up to Taeyeon’s side and lightly slapped the girl’s shoulder.

“No! I’m not showing them off. We’re going to paint them.” Jessica said and turned to Taeyeon with a grin. Taeyeon looked at the girl with a raised eyebrow.

“Why?”

“Because they need to be painted.”

“Yeah, but why are we doing it? Why did I have to get dragged out of my home to paint with you?”

“Because you need to get out more. I’m bored. And painting is no fun alone. So, yeah, that’s why.” Jessica said and grinned.

A sigh left Taeyeon’s lips and she shook her head.

“Where did you even get all these things?”

“Oh, these. I found them in our garage. Seems my dad was going to give them away after he had painted them, and because I’m a nice daughter I offered to paint them instead.” Jessica said still with her teeth showing in a proud grin.

“Okay, why did I get dragged into this when you offered to paint them?”

“I told you. It’s no fun painting alone.” Jessica stated.

Another sigh escaped Taeyeon’s lips and she began looking around the garden. Noticing something was missing she turned back to Jessica.

“You do know we need paint brushes and paint to paint these things, right?” She pointed out. Jessica’s face shone up brightly and she leaned closer to Taeyeon.

“So that means you’ll paint them with me?” Jessica asked hopefully.

“I thought I had no other choice.” Taeyeon said and furrowed her eyebrows.

“Oh, true. I’ll get the paint and the paint brushes then!” Jessica said and jogged inside the house. A sigh left Taeyeon’s lips and she looked down on the ground and kicked some dirt while she waited for the other girl to come back.

It didn’t take long and Jessica was soon back with to buckets of paint and a pair of paint brushes. She had also put up her hair in a ponytail while she had been gone.

“Now we have everything we need. Hold on, let me help you with your hair.” Taeyeon stopped in her action of taking one of the buckets of paint and waited for Jessica to fix her hair.

She felt her hair being pulled back, fingers brushing through it a few times, before she felt Jessica lightly pull on it a few times, and soon it was put in a ponytail. Jessica went around her again and looked at her work. She nodded with a smile and picked up the bucket of paint Taeyeon had been supposed to pick up and handed it to the girl.

“Let’s start off with the chairs.” Jessica said and took the two paint brushes. Taeyeon nodded her head and the two girls went to take one chair each to paint.

Taeyeon painted in silence while listening to Jessica that was humming a familiar pop song she was sure she had heard on the radio before. With a pleased smile on her face she painted she chair, forgetting about the game, or that she had been forced to do this, and continued to listen to Jessica’s humming.

“Hey, Taeyeon,” Jessica suddenly stopped humming and looked over at her friend.

“Hmm?”

“What if the chairs don’t like this color we’re painting them in?”

Taeyeon stopped moving her paint brush and looked up at the other girl. She knew where this was heading, but she couldn’t stop herself, no matter how much she knew it was pretty pointless, but she knew she couldn’t stop herself from causing it to happen.

“They’re chairs, Jessica. Not humans.” Taeyeon said and sighed.

“I know, but they’re wood, right? And wood comes from trees and trees are living things and would trees really like to be painted like this?”

Taeyeon sighed and looked at all the wooden furnitures. She looked back at Jessica that looked defiantly at her. She shook her head and sighed again.

“I don’t know. Trees don’t talk to me.” Taeyeon said.

“It’s probably because they don’t think you’re worthy of their wisdom.”

Taeyeon stopped in her action of going back to paint the chair. She looked at the girl that had spoken, she saw Jessica had started painting again and a frown appeared on her lips.

“So trees have been talking to you?” Taeyeon asked.

“No, but I talk to them.” Jessica said.

Taeyeon slumped her shoulders. A sigh escaped her lips and she shook her head.

“Wow…for some reason am I not surprised.”

“I talk to my mom’s plants as well. Krystal thinks I’m strange.”

“Well, they say plants feel better if you talk to them.” Taeyeon said and looked at the half-painted chair beside her.

“I know! And I told her that, but she just looked at me like I’m stupid and walked away!” Jessica said and wailed her arms above her head which made paint from the paint brush land on her face.

Jessica stopped wailing her arms and stared at Taeyeon that looked back at her. The latter bit down on her lip to stop the laughter that would probably escape her lips.

“Sica, you got some paint here, and here, and yeah, here.” Taeyeon tried her best to hold in her laughter while she pointed at her own face to tell Jessica where the paint was. The other girl began to frown and tried to wipe away the paint from her face with the back of her hand, but it just made it worse.

Taeyeon burst out laughing, which made Jessica frown even more.

“Don’t laugh! Help me instead!” Jessica shouted. Taeyeon stopped laughing and went over to the girl with a smile on her face.

“I think we should get inside to wash this off instead.” Taeyeon said after she had tried to wipe away the paint with her hand but it had just smudged even more. She smiled and looked at the girl that was pouting.

“Let’s go. I’m sure the chairs won’t walk away while we’re gone.” Taeyeon said and tugged on Jessica’s hand.

“Well, chairs do have legs to walk with.” Jessica said.

“Yeah, but I don’t think they would want to leave while they look like that.” Taeyeon said and looked back at the half painted chairs. She turned back to Jessica that was still trying to wipe away the paint with her hand.

“Leave it. You’ll just make it worse.” Taeyeon said and swatted away Jessica’s hand. The girl just frowned, but soon grinned and placed the hand she had used to wipe away the paint with on Taeyeon’s cheek.

“Look how pretty you become!” Jessica said. Taeyeon just frowned and shook her head. She figured that leaving Jessica alone until they had washed away this would be the best.

They left the paint brushed in the paint bucket and went inside Jessica’s house. The first person they bumped into was Jessica’s sister that was watching TV in the living room. The younger girl looked wide eyed at the girls that had gotten in from the backyard.

“Wow, unnie. I thought you’d paint furniture and not your face.” Krystal said.

“Well, it’s hard when the chairs take the paint brush from you and insist they’ll paint you.” Jessica said.

Krystal shook her head, and Taeyeon figured that it was better to drag Jessica with her to the bathroom before the girl got any idea of making Krystal join in on their face-painting team, and knowing Krystal, Taeyeon had a feeling the girl wouldn’t enjoy getting paint on her face.

Taeyeon pushed Jessica inside the bathroom when she had reached it and entered right after the girl. When they were inside she made Jessica sit down while she took some paper towels and tried to wash away the paint on the girl’s face with it.

Jessica closed her eyes and grinned while she faced Taeyeon. The latter could only shake her head by the stupid grin as she wiped away the paint from the girl’s face.

“Taeyeon”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think I’m strange?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you hang out with me then?”

“Because I like you that way.”

Jessica opened her eyes and met Taeyeon’s gaze. A wide smile appeared on Jessica’s lips and she closed her eyes again when she saw Taeyeon smiled back.

“I don’t have a lot of close friends…” Jessica continued to talk when Taeyeon had finished washed her face and began to remove the paint from her own.

“I know you don’t.” Taeyeon replied.

“People think I’m weird.” Jessica said and curled up on her seat and watched as Taeyeon washed her face.

“I know they do.” Taeyeon said. Jessica tilted her head to her left and looked at Taeyeon with a thoughtful look.

“Won’t they think you are weird for hanging out with me?” Jessica asked.

A sigh left Taeyeon’s lips and she turned towards Jessica when she had finished washing her face.

“They do think I’m weird.” Taeyeon said. She grabbed a towel and began to wipe her face dry. “But I don’t really care if they think that.” She added and looked at Jessica.

“Why?” Jessica asked and tilted her head to the side.

“Because they can’t bring out the best in me like you can.” Taeyeon said and looked down on the towel in her hands. When she looked at Jessica again she saw the girl was grinning, a smile appeared on Taeyeon’s face as well and she threw the towel at the other girl.

“Let’s go back to finish painting the chairs.” Taeyeon said and turned towards the door. Jessica got up from her seat, left the towel behind, and followed Taeyeon out.

With a wide grin on her face Jessica placed her arm around Taeyeon’s shoulders and led the girl back out to the backyard where they continued to paint the chairs while discussing what color trees would want to be painted in if they knew they would become chairs.