A Song of Fire and Ice (1)

To say that Key’s newly-dyed red hair catches Taeyeon’s eye is an understatement. It is, in the sea of students, a beacon which demands Taeyeon’s entire, devoted attention for as long as it is in her sight.

As if she needs another reason to stare at Key.

“You’re going to walk into a wall if you keep this up,” Jongin says, by her side.

“Shut up,” Taeyeon growls, entranced by the way Key flips her head back and laughs at something her bff, Junghee, just said.

“You’re being so obvious,” Jongin continues; he steals one of her fries, and Taeyeon lets him get away with it because Key is still laughing and there isn’t a sight more beautiful in the world than that. It’s an antidote to her twin’s annoying-ness. “Like, seriously, you better stop gawping with your mouth wide open-”

“My mouth is closed!”

“-wide open before dance practice this Wednesday, otherwise Key is totally going know what ersions you fantasise ab-”

“I will kill you,” Taeyeon hisses. 

Her twin just throws his hands up. “Just saying.”

As much as Taeyeon hates to admit it, Jongin has a point. She has to get some control over herself before their first bi-weekly dance lesson or risk giving herself away.

~

Wednesday comes, and Taeyeon is in despair.

“Jonginnie, darling twin of mine, please do your sister a favour?”

Jongin looks up from tying his laces, eyes narrowed. Favours are always cause for trouble in their household. “What sort of favour?”

“Push me down the stairs, so that I won’t have to go to class today.” And for the foreseeable future, Taeyeon adds silently.

“Nope.”

“I hope you break your legs,” Taeyeon mutters dispiritedly.

~

“TAEYEON!”

Taeyeon blushes as every head in the classroom turns to her. Sometimes she wishes Key weren’t so loud.

She doesn’t have much time to worry about that, though, because Key has rushed over – wearing black yoga pants, dear god, and a bright purple tank top – and is pointing to her red hair, as if Taeyeon could have missed it. And despite the eyes on them, Taeyeon relaxes, because Key is smiling at her and all is right with the world.

“So, Tae, what do you think?”

“It’s…” It sets my soul aflame, Taeyeon wants to say, it takes my breath away “… it really looks good on you.”

Key giggles and loops their arms together. “I know, right? It’s not even a really expensive dye, and I did it by myself, but it turned out so well. Didn’t you notice me in school?”

Behind her, Jongin snorts.

“Uh, no… sorry.”

Key waves her apology away. “Living in the clouds, as always, I assume. So, tell me, what’s been going in the strange and exciting world of Lee Taeyeon?”

“Uh…” Moments like these baffle Taeyeon. Key always asks her this, even though it’s been three years and Taeyeon hasn’t given her anything half as interesting as the snippets of her life that Key shares sometimes. “Nothing much. I beat Sehun at CS last weekend, that was cool.”

Key makes a face. Taeyeon knows that face. It’s the elder girl’s ‘what are you doing with your life’ face, the one that she gets when Taeyeon tells her that she doesn’t really have plans after graduation.

“Well, what are you doing this weekend?”

Taeyeon shrugs. More of the same, probably. She knows her life must seem boring to Key, but she’s really quite content with her small circle of friends; Jongin, Sehun and Moonkyu.

“Do… do you want to come over to my place? I’ve downloaded the new series of Sherlock, d’you remember the show I was telling you about, and I need someone to watch it with. I’d ask Junghee but-”

Taeyeon never really finds out why Junghee can’t watch Sherlock with Key, because the only thought running through her head is that Key just asked her over. And then she can’t even think anymore, because Key asked her over.

When she comes back to herself, Key is watching her with apprehensive eyes, and Taeyeon realises that she hasn’t answered. “Oh… yeah…” she says, trying to sound unaffected like being invited over to Key’s place is not the most important thing to ever have happened “…sure. Around noon?”

“No, are you crazy? Haven’t you got remedial math with Eunsook on Saturday afternoons?”

“Oh, yeah.” Taeyeon smiles, embarrassed to have forgotten and giddy that Key can remember something she mentioned in passing ages ago. Key is awesome in many ways. “Erm, after my class, then?”

“Yes. I’ll make something for dinner, don’t worry, or my mum will, and if you need a lift back, just ask, okay?”

“Okay.”

~

Never before has Taeyeon agonised over her outfit like this. She looks good in everything, if she’s allowed to say so herself, but Key isn’t some silly boy who can be impressed into buying her McFlurries just because she’s wearing those cute little shorts that make her look good. Key is a fashion goddess, and she will no doubt call such an outfit safe, which is her keyword for boring.

“How is this?” she asks, holding up a rainbow coloured tie-dyed tank top and black faux leather skirt for Jongin’s appraisal.

He raises an eyebrow. “What is this, the nineties?”

He’s right. Taeyeon growls in despair and throws the top and skirt into the ever growing pile in the corner of her room. Key would probably have pissed herself laughing at that combination.

The next item she pulls out is a denim dress.

“No,” Jongin says, even before she can ask.

And that’s it; the sum total of Taeyeon’s wardrobe. She’s got plenty of loose, comfortable tank tops and sweats for dancing – because she’s always dancing, even on days when there isn’t class – and a couple of nice things for formal occasions and a couple of relics which she hasn’t gotten around to disposing, but she has nothing to impress Key with.

Jongin must have seen the despair in her face because he pulls himself off her bed with a weary sigh and comes to sit beside her. “Look, Key knows you. She’s known you for years now and she’s seen the stuff you wear, and that didn’t stop her from asking you over, so don’t stress about it, okay? She’s not going to unfriend you for bad fashion choices.”

“Not bad, boring.” Taeyeon leans on her twin’s shoulder. “I want her to think I’m fun… like Junghee and Nicole.”

“You’re a different kind of fun,” Jongin explains. “Just wear your favourite shorts and a t-shirt, otherwise you’ll get really uncomfortable and instead of enjoying your time with her, you’ll be counting down the minutes until you can get home and strip down.”

“When did you become so wise?”

Jongin shrugs. “One of us had to be the responsible, level-headed one. It certainly isn’t you.”

“ off, I’m your noona.”

“Five minutes doesn’t really-”

“Yes it does.”

~

Key answers the door before she can even ring the doorbell. “TAEYEON!”

It appears that she’s as loud at home as she is in school.

“Hi Key.”

“I hope you like bastardised food.”

“Huh?”

“We had leftover honghap jjim from last night, so my mum added tteokbokki to it and apparently it’s a complete, stand-alone meal now. I swear, sometimes I think I was adopted.”

“Gwiboon, honestly.” This is said by a homely looking woman standing near the stairs. Taeyeon bows to her, assuming that she must be Key’s mother. “Taeyeon, right? It’s nice to finally meet you. Key’s talked about you a-”

“Alright, enough chit chat,” Key interrupts, grabbing Taeyeon’s elbow and steering her towards the kitchen. “We’ve got a lot of TV to watch, so let’s hurry up and eat.”

Despite her boisterousness, Taeyeon feels completely at ease once they start eating. Key is a lot quieter at home, she realises, without her entourage of friends and loyal followers.

Taeyeon discovers that she has a lot more to say than she previously thought, because she finds herself filling Key’s silences with stories about Jongin and Sehun and things she likes. She talks about the time she went on holiday to Tokyo and how she wants to visit Osaka and Hakone and the other, more remote districts. She talks about the new patbingsu place she discovered earlier this month, about how she wants to give a Nobel prize to whoever put wings on pads and why she feels a little sorry for Eunsook who’s too nice to give up trying to make her understand quadratic equations.

Key is a really good listener.

~

Key’s room is a flurry of colours and textures and statements. There are posters on the walls and clothes overflowing from the closet and just stuff everywhere. Taeyeon feels a little overwhelmed, until Key grabs her laptop off her table and tosses it onto the bed, motioning for Taeyeon to climb on as well.

As instructed, Taeyeon climbs on, feeling somewhat self-conscious. She’s used to sharing her bed with Jongin, but she hasn’t really been invited into other people’s bedrooms before and she doesn’t know what the rules are.

“So, like, I’m going to start with the first episode of series one, because you’re not going to get anything that’s happening otherwise, okay?” Key says. “And it’s an excuse for me to watch it all over again, of course, which Junghee always complains about.”

“Okay,” Taeyeon agrees.

Key starts up the laptop and scrolls through her downloads for the episode, clicking play once she finds it. Taeyeon sits by her side, close enough that she can see the screen but not so close that she’s in the other girl’s personal space.

“You haven’t been for many sleepovers, have you?” Key asks quietly. There is no judgment in her voice, so Taeyeon isn’t embarrassed to admit that no, she hasn’t.

“Well, first things first, you’re going to be a lot more comfortable like this,” Key rolls onto her stomach in front of the laptop, propped up on her elbows “than sitting all pretty and proper like that.”

Taeyeon follows her lead, but now she can’t see half of the screen.

“Now scooch closer, otherwise you won’t be able to see.” Key pats a spot on the bed right next to her, and, with her heart thundering, Taeyeon sidles over until every inch of her side is pressed against Key’s.

Just when she thinks they’re done with surprises for the night, Key drapes an arm over her shoulders. “There. Are you comfortable?”

Not trusting her voice, Taeyeon just nods. She’s not comfortable, per se, because her heart is beating so fast that she’s worried she’ll give herself a heart attack. Thankfully, Key seems to be too distracted by the high-cheekboned, pale man on screen to give her much thought.

He looks like Voldemort, but a strangely attractive version of him. Taeyeon finds herself mildly disturbed by his odd facial expressions.

Before they’re halfway through the episode, however, Taeyeon stops watching the show and starts watching Key instead. It’s a bit creeper-ish, she knows, but the light from the laptop illuminates Key’s face and makes the contrast between her dark red hair and pale skin even more stark. She’s beautiful, with cheekbones that rival Lord Voldemort the Second, and bow-shaped lips that Taeyeon has been dying to kiss ever since she walked into school on orientation day to be greeted by those lips curved into a welcoming smile.

When the first episode comes to an end, Taeyeon realises that she only has a very vague idea of what happened. Hopefully, Key isn’t the type to dissect shows after watching them. Then again, she’ll probably assume that Taeyeon is just being her usual stupid self.

“So,” Key asks, rolling onto her side to face Taeyeon. “Did you like it?”

Taeyeon nods. “It’s different from the usual TV shows.”

Key’s eyes light up. “I know, right? And Benedict Cumberbatch is just so…”

Snake-ish? Weird? Creepy?

“…pretty.”

“You’re prettier.” The words are out of Taeyeon’s mouth before she can run them through her admittedly faulty brain-to-mouth filter. She blushes hard when Key’s eyes widen with surprise and ducks her head.

Key laughs. It’s not a sarcastic laugh, more like a good-natured one that has her flailing about on the bed. “Aigoo, Taebaby, you’re so cute.”

Taebaby. Taeyeon likes the sound of that.

Just then, Taeyeon’s phone dings. It’s a message from her appa, letting her know that he’s five minutes away from Key’s place.

“My appa’s almost here,” Taeyeon says.

Key reaches out and tucks a stray strand of hair behind Taeyeon’s ear, her touch gentle. “Cool. Let’s hang out again, okay?”

“I’d like that,” Taeyeon responds. And then she summons her courage and tells Key what she truly thinks. “I… you look really good with red hair. I mean, you look good all the time anyway, but the red really suits you.”

Key’s smile is warm. “I think that’s my favourite compliment yet.”  

~~~

I don't know what this is. Key looked so, so hot in that SHINee Academy VCR that I just had to write a GIRLee Taekey fic. I'm sticking to Key as Key's name, because I consider Key to be gender neutral and Gwiboon just rubs me the wrong way. 

Please leave a review telling me what you think. It's the first time I'm writing GIRLee, and I want to know whether the characters are believably female and still in character.