There's a tap on my shoulder and I halt in my footsteps. The schoolyard is bustling with students eager to get home on the Tuesday afternoon. I startle when I see Tiffany before me, playing with her bag straps and avoiding my eye. There's no one else with her, and her exhales are longer than her inhales. 

The memories come rushing back. Her snarl, piercing eyes, accusing finger. Kai, Hyoyeon, Sehun, all turning on me. Drops of blood, on the tiles, basin, staining on clothes. I shudder. It was such a frightening sight, so unlike the care-free Tiffany I had spent so many years creating moments with. My best friend, since we were young, really young. Does she not treasure our play-dates like I do? How could she throw away everything over one incident of which I wasn't even present to witness?

"Um." TIffany clears and tears her eyes away from the cement footpath. "I-I'm sorry for the way I treated you... My thoughts were really messed up and my anger was so strong I just had to take it out on someone, you know?" Her eyes are tearing up and she's gripping her wrist, and it's only now do I realise that she's wearing a long sleeved shirt under her school uniform. "I'm sorry Taeyeon. Even though we weren't as close as before, I still miss your company, our times together, our friendship. I know that you were only trying to help me, to help all of us, but I didn't see it at the time; I was blinded by fury and I did nothing except push you away." Tiffany closes , a sign that she's close to break down and bawl.

I sigh and offer a weak smile, albeit on the inside, I am over the moon that I'm not the only one who misses my best friend. "Not in public, Tiff." I tenderly take her hand and lead her out of the school gates, like a big sister taking care of the younger one. I ignore the probing stares I've been receiving these past two days, and don't slow down my pace until we reach the convenience store down the road. With the soft sounds of cars passing by, I drop Tiffany's hand and she lowers her head. She is meaning to hide her face in shame, but even with her growing bangs and our seven months difference, I will always be the shorter one. "Come here." I step forward to embrace her thin body, and a sob chokes out from her. "Shh, it's okay. I'm forgiving you, everything's fine."

We stay there for a while, in the same position, a short teenager reaching up to encircle a taller one, whom is quietly weeping.

-

"He rung me late at night."

We are sitting on her bed, munching on cheeseballs while Tiffany is browsing for a certain Korean drama she wants to show me. She had not bothered to try and prevent the swelling of her eyes like she had done before Kris' first visit to her place, so an hour and a half later her eyes are still ringed with red patches. We have shed our uniform, and Tiffany has let me borrow her sweatpants and a shirt. The pants are a little too long for me, and Tiffany isn't a fan of loose clothing, so the shirt is a little restricting. I don't mind though, it's just Tiffany and I tonight; the Hwangs are over at someone else's.  

"How late?" I ask. 

"Late like, two in the morning late."

"What were you doing until two?!" I splutter on a cheeseball. I can barely make it past eleven-thirty. 

Her reply is blunt. "Tumblr."

She finds the website and turns to fiddle with her speakers as the video loads. Tiffany pretends that she's come across a problem with the sound system but I know that she's just hiding her smile for what she's about to tell me. 

"Alright let's just get to it Tiff. What was he like? Was he all mushy: "Baby, I'm sorry, forgive me"? Or was he oozing 'hotness': "Hwang Tiffany, I love you to the moon and back, I'm coming to your bedroom right this instant"."

Tiffany explodes into fits of giggles as I had tried to impersonate a manly voice in the latter option. Then she abruptly stops and turns to me in shock. "How did you know he confessed to me?"

I blink before realising my slip-up. "Oh, erm... I-"

"He told you?"

"Uh, well, yeah-"

"How?! Did he make up with you before Sunday?"

"No. He was planning to confess the day Kris and I were here."

Tiffany takes a second for this to set before her eyes widen to its limit and falls open. "Oh."

I lightly smile. "And that's how the storm really started."

She stares at her blanket, before taking a cheeseball and popping it in . "Well, it's all over now." She shrugs and turns her attention to the screen. "Yay, we can start!"

I turn my eyes to her laptop while digging my fingers into the food bowl. Tiffany has always been a careless person. She wasn't a thinker, quite the spontaneous type. Thus it was a significant surprise when I had found her that day, lying in Kai's trembling arms, slashes across her forearm. It just wasn't like her to do anything drastic like that. 

Now, Tiffany has seemed to return back to herself, her content face showered with basic make-up, rings on her fingers, hair carefully curled.

The opening of the drama kicks into life and I breathe in deeply, the aroma of her cinnamon-scented candle filling my nostrils, pink and square photo frames in my peripheral vision, the crunching of cheeseballs leaves a smile on my lips when Tiffany squeals at her stained school shirt, and I'm so glad our friendship is restored.

-

And we all make up, just like that.

Kai and Hyoyeon's sheepish approach took away my seriousness in a second. We had all ended up on the floor laughing at each other, and I keep forgetting, how they all turned their backs on me without a second thought, how they had viewed me as trouble when I clearly meant to help. But I wanted to forget, forget it all because it doesn't matter anymore. Their sounds of their cheery laughter is a million times better than the sorrow empty feeling I felt when I was alone. "Freedom", I had called it, but if I was free without my bunch, what possible word can I use to describe my elated state, with these four people back in my lives?

Sehun's approach had been very surprising. Out of the four of them, I had thought that it would end with Kai and Hyoyeon's apologies.

The popular boy had stalked up to me, before Kai and Hyoyeon's turn actually, and without a word, pulled me into a rough hug. He trapped me with one palm at my back and the other wrapped around my shoulder. I was shocked, to say the least, and before I could utter a word, he pulled away, his grip still on my shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said, a hard but meaningful gaze at my eyes, and though he said nothing more, those words smacked me in the face. Sehun meant it, of course he did.

He sidesteped as I stood rooted to the ground, and Kai and Hyoyeon sauntered over.

Kai cleared his throat. "Taeyeon... Hyoyeon and I would like to deeply apologise..." He looked over to his girlfriend, gesturing.

"Oh, ah, because we..."

"... weren't thinking straight..."

"We wanted to help Tiffany and ah..."

"... we... had no intention of hurting you in the process." Kai had grinned at his finish, which he probably thought was excellent, before realising the situation and dropped it, trying to create a solemn look.

There was silence as I processed this. Kai and Hyoyeon, biting their lips, not sure whether to glance at me or somewhere else. Sehun, emitting confidence, staring at me without indecision. Tiffany smiling proudly at them, especially at Sehun. All eyes surveyed me, awaiting my reply.

My hiccup had broken the silence, and they stared on dumbfound, until my hiccups escaped my throat in a faster manner, and I collapsed onto the floor, my body convulsing with snorts of laughter.

"You guys... hurt me," I gasped, "but I love you all, and you should... have seen your awkward faces!"

Nobody had said anything as I was trapped in my own bubble of energy, but then Tiffany joined me, her shrill voice echoing mine, and Hyoyeon was quick to follow, adding in her own bass of craziness. We must have sounded absolutely insane, our different types of laughs moulding into one, and then we were all down on the floor, our music filling our souls. Our euphoric, carefree souls.