What happened?

Fidgeting on the stiff wooden chair, which in Taeyeon’s opinion, should really be replaced with one with cushion before deciding it was perhaps meant to be uncomfortable, Taeyeon carefully avoided that pair of intense eyes as she thought back the past couple of hours which eventually landed her In that hot seat.

Honestly, Taeyeon always thought it was improbable to have your life head towards the gutters in a downward spiral within hours of continuous and coincidental events, like those that were depicted too many times in the movies. Yet here she was, trying to put her thoughts in order, words in coherence and denial in all plausible sense – whatever that had transpired within the past couple of hours were simply a series of unfortunate coincidence. And hopefully, the situation would somehow turn to her favor despite how bad it looked right now, just like how it were for the protagonists in those movies.

If Taeyeon were to tell her story as requested, it would probably take her hours since explaining the characters and their relationships would have to start on that fateful night in summer camp when she was in third grade. Perhaps Taeyeon should just sum it up for both their sakes by introducing herself as the ill-fated party who secretly harbors unrequited feelings for her best friend and hope the person sitting across her watched enough sappy and cringe-worthy romantic movies to understand her position. But that would be a bad idea. Offering a motive would be a bad idea.

So perhaps Taeyeon should describe the relevant events that occurred earlier that evening, starting from the part when she received a distressed call from Tiffany who kept repeating about hating a cheating boyfriend, upon which she made a mad rush to Tiffany’s family vacation home in the outskirts despite the bad weather.

The moment Taeyeon set her eyes on the crying mess that Tiffany was in when she opened the door, Taeyeon already had her heart and soul ready to play the stereotypical role of a helpful and patient best friend to offer a listening ear. Having a great deal of patience to a one sided love wasn’t that much of a concern for Taeyeon after she resigned to her fate some years ago, until she found herself in the presence of judging eyes that were ready to question how far Taeyeon would go to help her unrequited love.

Pretty far actually, Taeyeon thought to herself but she wouldn’t say that out loud.

Not now.

That and the fact that Taeyeon had imagined the situation of a crying Tiffany running to her and finally falling back onto her instead of some other guy that came along the way – rudely cutting the, her queue – so Taeyeon could rewrite that seemingly fixed ending with her suffering silently while watching Tiffany from afar.

Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t a lost cause.

A girl could hope.

Tiffany did call her first after all.

A tiny spark of hope rekindled at that thought.

Until Taeyeon found Tiffany’s boyfriend, or ex for that matter, lying face down in the living room with a gaping wound on the back of his head. The only words that rang in her head were Tiffany’s soft whisper.

Help me?

Everything happened thereafter was a blur, especially when the adrenaline wore off. Taeyeon knew she was pulled out of a wrecked car, after crashing into a tree in the outskirts, possibly due to poor visibility on a stormy night. She was then informed that Tiffany was in a coma while her boyfriend, no one knew about the ex part yet, was pronounced dead on the scene.

In fact, it looked like a freak accident until the authorities became concerned about the wounds on both Tiffany and her boyfriend. That accompanied with the location at which they were found with that shovel in the trunk of her car.

Why? A girl who works in the construction industry can’t carry a shovel in her car trunk? Taeyeon scoffed.