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The cellphone rang and Tiffany stirred in her sleep. She wanted her sleep more than anything else and she left the phone ringing, hoping it will stop. When it didn't stop after some time, she blindly reached out to the table beside her, with her eyes closed, trying to grab her phone. Her index finger managed to touch a corner of her phone and she clumsily slid it nearer to her before picking it up.

"Hel...lo..."

"Tiff..."

"Yes Taeyeon..." Tiffany's eyes were still closed.

"I need to see you."

"Can we...leave it till tomorrow... I'm slee-"

"Claire is Jessica."

Tiffany's eyes shot open when she heard what her best friend just said. In shock, she sat up straight.

"W-what?! Where are you now?!"

"I'm at my studio..."

"Okay you stay right there. I'll be over in a while! Taeyeon please stay calm."

"Yeah..."

Tiffany quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before she grabbed her coat and her car keys and drove straight to Taeyeon's studio. She drove as fast as she could and didn't take too long to reach. She familiarly scanned a card and the door opened. The girl let out a sigh when she saw Taeyeon sitting there, leaning against the mirror and hugging her knees, her head buried between her knees. Gently, she walked towards her and sat down beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Taeyeon..."

The older didn't respond, as she continued crying. It wasn't too long before she finally looked up, and looked straight into Tiffany's eyes.

"Why aren't you even...shocked...?" Tiffany found herself at a loss for words as a guilty expression crept up on her face. "Y-you...knew about it?" Her best friend asked, her voice shaking. Swallowing her saliva, Tiffany nodded.

"But before you get mad at me or anything else, Taeyeon, I want you to know that I always have your best interest at heart. I want you to know that there was a reason why I didn't tell you anything. I want you to know that I decided to keep mum only after much consideration. If you don't want to see me now, I'll leave. But I need you to promise me that you won't do anything foolish. And I want you to know that I'll be right here any time you need me. Do you...want me to leave?"

Tiffany was surprised, when Taeyeon shook her head after she looked away for a while.

"Taeyeon..."

"When did you know...?" Taeyeon was mindlessly looking at the floor when she asked that question.

"Two weeks ago..."

"And that was why last week you told me that perhaps I should just let it be? All that about Soojung...?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Right..."

Their conversation awkwardly came to a stop. After thinking it through, Tiffany sat up straight as she started saying the things she had planned in her head.

"Taeyeon... Firstly... I'm really sorry for keeping it from you. I'm sorry because it's something that you have the right to know. But it's also something that I don't have the right to tell you about. The reason why I didn't tell you, was that I felt that you should hear it from Krystal herself, or...when Jessi remembers... I didn't want to be the one who manipulates your thoughts. I figured, if you really wanted to find out, you would find ways to contact that Krystal you saw from Jessi's phone and then...she will probably end up telling you everything. And if you decide to live a new life with...well...Claire, then...if Jessi doesn't regain her memories...maybe you two can just...start afresh. Tae I think...since we're already at this point...you should contact Krystal and ask her yourself..."

Taeyeon nodded as she bit her lip, trying to control the tears that were overflowing but to no avail. Tiffany found tears welling up in her own eyes as she tightened her arms around Taeyeon, who held on back to her as tightly. Taeyeon was so broken. Her world had just collapsed, once again.

***

Krystal bit her lip as she sat at a cafe. Tiffany must have broken her promise and told Taeyeon...I just shouldn't have trusted her, she told herself. She recalled the shock she had gotten when she received the call from Taeyeon.

Krystal was in the office working on the new project her dad had put her in charge of when her phone rang. The caller alert showed an unknown number. Another unknown number? Krystal asked herself. After hesitating for a while, she picked up the phone, and she immediately regretted it.

"Hel-"

"Soojung ah." Krystal's eyes widened. She would never forget that voice. Not even if she had not heard it for a million years.

"I... T-Taeyeon u-unnie...?"

"We...ought to meet up."

"W-what? F-for what?"

"We should have met up a long time ago. I took 2 years too long."

"..." Krystal couldn't say a word.

"I'll meet you at the usual cafe. I'm sure you still remember."

"Taeyeon unnie I..."

"I need to meet you. Now."

"O-okay..."

Krystal swallowed her saliva when the door of the cafe swung open and a familiar figure approached her, before taking a seat opposite her. She was at a loss for words, as she just stared at Taeyeon. Taeyeon didn't say anything too, while she took her time to settle down. She kept her gaze on the table as she thought about everything she wanted to say, or ask. When she was ready, her eyes darted to Krystal, who swallowed her saliva yet again.

"It's been...a long time, isn't it?" Taeyeon started the ball rolling.

"Y-yes..."

"2 years."

"Yes 2 years..."

"The amount of time since Sica left us." Krystal eyes widened, suddenly confused. Wasn't she here to question me about Jessi's situation? She thought to herself.

"Yeah..."

"You wouldn't believe it." Krystal tilted her head slightly, not understanding Taeyeon.

"Huh...?"

"I'm...seeing someone, now." The younger girl felt a strange heartache as she thought about the relationship her sister and Taeyeon once shared.

"That's...great..."

"But you know what's amazing?"

"W-what...?"

"The girl I'm seeing now, happens to look exactly like the one I had loved for 10 years." Taeyeon said, while she looked out of the window beside her. This time, Krystal's eyes not only widened, but her jaw dropped as well.

"..."

"She...looks the same, sounds the same, but she's not my baby girl." Krystal became fearful of each and every word Taeyeon was going to say.

"..."

"She told me that her name is Claire. I kept treating her as if she was my Jessica for a long time, until one day, she said her younger sister had called her. And the name on the screen said Krys." The younger Jung's shoulders drooped, when she knew that Taeyeon had already found out about the truth by herself.

"..."

"So..." Taeyeon turned back to look at Krystal, her eyes somewhat shining, from the tears she had been trying to hide. "Why?" Krystal clenched her jaw as her heart started thumping wildly.

"I..."

"Why did you do that...?"

"I-'m sorry..." Taeyeon slightly looked up as she tried to hold the tears in. She let out a deep sigh. Without looking at Krystal, she continued.

"What I want to know is..." Krystal's gaze was fixed on the older girl. "...why."

"Because..." The younger one took a deep breath. "Mom thinks that it's the only way to ensure Jessi's safety..." Taeyeon's eyes met Krystal's, when she heard the girl. "The one who caused the accident...was your rival... You know that... Mom thinks that if...if it wasn't for you then...then Jessi wouldn't have... Unnie I'm sorry... I'm really sorry... I didn't want to hide it from you... I really didn't want to..." Krystal was shocked, when Taeyeon let out a laugh, although it didn't sound like a laugh at all.

"And...sometimes you can't stop fate at all, can you? Here I am... Not knowing she is alive, and killing myself inside for thinking that I like someone else just because she looks exactly like her."

"I guess that explains why she's so happy recently...? I haven't seen her so happy for a long while..."

The two of them stopped talking for a while. Krystal didn't know what to say, while Taeyeon had to sort out her thinkings.

"Soojung ah." Krystal's body stiffened as she heard the serious tone, while she looked at Taeyeon, who didn't look back at her. "I...won't make your efforts go down the drain."

"What...?"

"I...will leave her."

"Unnie that wasn't I meant! I-"

"You know... Your mom was right. The only way to make sure that Je...Jess is safe...is to leave me..."

"Unnie... I was against the idea of keeping it from you right from the start. I reall-"

"Listen to me Soojung. I...had dealt with lost her once. I can deal with it again, even if it means going through hell once more. It was lucky that both of us survived, but I can't guarantee that she would be fine with me. And I can't deal with her leaving this world again." Tears welled up in Krystal's eyes as she listened to Taeyeon. "I...I would rather live without her, than to endanger her life just to stay by her side... God erased her memories so that she could start anew. I lost the chance to protect her... I'm...not the one for..." Taeyeon couldn't complete her sentence as her tears flowed uncontrollably. "...f-for her..." She forced herself to say.

"Unnie..."

"But Soojung ah... Can you...can you give me 2 weeks? I just need 2 weeks with her..."

"..." Krystal couldn't reply as she tried hard not to cry.

"I'll leave her... I...I'll leave her..." Taeyeon's crying turned to sobbing and Krystal found herself standing up and running to her as she hugged the older one from behind.

***

It was already all dark. Taeyeon was at that place again. She was sitting at the same bench, and there was a bouquet of roses on the same spot beside her. She wasn't crying loudly, but her tears just silently fell as she looked far away at the water in front. She held up her phone as she turned to the back to look at the cover. She clenched her jaw hard as more tears flowed and held the phone so tightly that her hand, that was shaking so badly, turned white. When her phone vibrated, she flipped the phone over to look.

Taeyeon used her free hand to cover as she cried even worse than before. Her whole body was shaking badly from all the crying.

"Taeyeon..." Taeyeon knew it was Tiffany, but she couldn't respond as she continued crying. Tiffany went up behind Taeyeon as she wrapped her arms around the girl's neck, her cheek brushing past Taeyeon's. Before long, Tiffany's tears were falling non-stop too as Taeyeon held the arms which were around her.

"I...I don't want to...leave her..." Taeyeon spoke with difficulty as her tears choked her.

The girls didn't stop crying until a long time after. As usual, Tiffany put the bouquet of flowers on her laps as she sat beside Taeyeon.

"Have you decided to break up with her...?"

"Yeah."

"Do you really have to do it?"

"I have no other choice, do I...?"

"Why not...?"

"It's either I leave her, or I'm gonna cause her death someday, isn't it?"

"There's no guarantee that it's gonna happen Taeyeon."

"Then can you guarantee that she's gonna be fine with me?"

"..." Tiffany knew the answer.

"See...? I want her to be safe, to be breathing, to be fine."

"Then...what about her...?"

"What?"

"What about what she wants...?"

"I don't know what you're saying."

"I know Claire loves you but I can't say how much exactly does she love you. It's different for Jessica. Jessica would give everything up to stay with you!"

"And that's the problem, Tiff."

"Where's the problem?!"

"She's so silly. She doesn't know what she's doing."

"You don't know what you're doing Taeyeon!"

"What's wrong with wanting her to be safe?! Don't you want her to be safe?!"

"You want her to be safe but have you thought about what she wants?!"

"What? She wants to die?"

"Taeyeon stop thinking that way!"

"Then how else am I suppose to think?!"

"Taeyeon... Jessi she... It's gonna kill her without you. She'd rather risk her life than to be without you. Why don't you just take the risk?"

"Are you ing kidding me Tiffany? Take the risk? ing risk her life?"

"Do you think that it's easy for me to tell you to take the risk? Jessi is as dear to me as she is to you! But I know that even if you let her choose a million times, she would choose to be with you and risk her life than to be safe without you by her side! Are you blind enough to not see that?!"

"AND DO YOU THINK THAT IT'S EASY FOR ME TO EVEN DECIDE TO LET HER GO?! FOR 'S SAKE I LOVED HER WITH MY LIFE FOR TEN ING YEARS! HOW EASY DO YOU THINK IT IS TO...." Tears welled up in Taeyeon's eyes again. "...to..." She tried to continue speaking, but she was choked. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down. "...to let go of...her hands...?"

"..." Seeing Taeyeon's tears again, she clenched her jaw to hold her tears in.

"Do you know...how hard it is...to tell someone you loved for ten years...goodbye...?" Taeyeon's voice was shaking. "It's killing me so much...I really hope that the one who had lost her memory is me... I should have just died in that accident..."

"Taeyeon!" Tiffany's teary eyes flickered. Taeyeon wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hands as she stopped crying.

"Tiffany..." She took on a pleading tone. "It's a decision that I have to make. It's already difficult... So please... Help me, instead of holding me back any more..."

***

"Taeyeon ah is that you?" Mrs Kim walked out of the kitchen when she heard someone coming back. "Omo what happened to you?!" She rushed to her daughter when she saw her puffy eyes.

"Mom... Jessica...is still alive..." Mrs Kim swallowed her saliva as she blankly stared at Taeyeon. Taeyeon was more shocked than ever to see her mother not being shocked. "Mom you..." Taeyeon's eyes became teary. "Don't tell me you knew about it?!"

"Taeyeon ah mom actua-" Mrs Kim's words stopped short when Taeyeon suddenly laughed. There was something scary about the way she laughed. And then the laughter faded as a look of a mixture of anger, disappointment, sadness and confusion took over.

"Just wow..." Her tears threatening to fall, she looked at her mother once more before she turned to leave.

"Taeyeon ah..." Mrs Kim called after her, but Taeyeon just took big steps to her room before slamming the door shut behind her. Letting out a big sigh, she decided to give Taeyeon some space first and she was about to head back to the kitchen when she saw Hayeon at the door with a look of disbelief on her face.

"M-mom... H-how could you...?"

[A/N] I'm sorry this chapter took a bit long! I had some kinda writer's block. Also, it was because I had a very strong idea about a TaengSic one-shot and eventually completed it! But some readers convinced me to extend the story and so I've decided to make it a trilogy. You can check out Mesdemoiselles The Trilogy :)

Remember to leave me comments! It keeps me going when I'm having writer's block, really. Looking forward to seeing your comments! ^^

© Sky Blue Tales ✍