Chapter 5

"But I already have something cute on my bed."

Taeyeon gulped. She became hypersensitive to her surroundings. The sensation of Tiffany's breath on her neck, the feel of Tiffany's fingertips padding the skin of her cheeks made her breathless. The room was quiet, save for the incessant humming of the air conditioning.

"A-ah. I-I s-ee." Taeyeon finally squeezed an audible sentence out of after what seemed like an eternity.

"What do you see?" Tiffany's voice rattled against Taeyeon's reddened ear, the same tinge of red as her cheeks. "Do you like what you see?"

Taeyeon's eyes traced the milky white shoulders and collarbone. She swallowed the lump in and felt her cheeks burning up. Her heart was pounding so furiously that she thought she was going to have a heart attack. The skimpy top certainly helped to accentuate those godly features. And suddenly she found herself not knowing where to place her hands. Her hands were rigid at her sides, her fingers were twitching, subconsciously yearning to feel her girlfriend's warm body, to explore further. All she wanted was to slip her hands underneath the thin cotton.

"Why are you so quiet? You're usually so talkative and noisy."

"A-ah." Taeyeon bites down on her lower lip and tried to search for words to articulate her desires. "C-can I-" Just as Taeyeon readied to lift her hands to feel the warm, smooth skin of her back, Tiffany lets out a yawn and rolled lazily off her. She quickly withdrew her hands by reflex, jolting her out of trance.

"So sleepy. Don't mind me." She pulled the blanket upwards and fell asleep, snuggling close to Taeyeon. One arm possessively around her waist and one leg curled onto her lower body. Taeyeon found herself trapped. Yes, she was trapped under Tiffany's spell.

Taeyeon spends the next hour watching the snoring girl, trying to make sense of herself. What was I trying to do just now? Kim Taeyeon! She silently disciplined herself and made a vow to chop her fingers off the next time they try to make a move for Tiffany. She had never felt like this before. So out of control and so needy.

She pried the arm from her waist and extracted herself as gently as possible from the bed. She needed some fresh air and some quiet time.

==

Sunny eyed the back of her best friend suspiciously. Taeyeon had been acting all weird and touchy ever since she came back. A touch on her roommate’s shoulders earned Sunny an elbow onto her stomach. Despite Sunny’s exaggerated attempts to groan loudly in pain, she did not even bother to turn around and continued working wordlessly.

She watched Taeyeon typed away furiously on the keyboard, hard at work. Granted, she was always focused and hardworking, but it was really rare to see her all touchy and sensitive. Sunny knew something was very wrong.

“Hey”

“...”

She grabbed one of the plushie lying around and threw it towards the girl’s head, knowing that it would elicit a response from her best friend.

“Can you leave me alone?” She flared up, rubbing the back of her head. “Please?”

“So you do have a mouth after all. What is going on?”

“...” She let out a loud sigh.

“Come on Taengoo ah...let’s talk?”

Taeyeon rubbed her forehead harshly, a habit she had acquired whenever she got frustrated. “I am going crazy Soonkyu. I really am.”

“What happened?” She tried again, more gently this time round.

“I wanted to touch her so badly. I am going crazy Soonkyu. My fingers were moving by themselves. I am a sick ert. I don’t even know I am doing anymore--”

She explained the entire story from the start to the end to her best friend who listened intently.

“There’s nothing wrong with you. Taengoo, you’re almost an adult already. It is perfectly normal to feel that way. She is your girlfriend after all, it is not wrong to want to touch her. Have you talked to her about it?”

“N-no. I left before she woke up.”

“Find a proper time to talk to her about it? I am sure she will understand. There’s really nothing wrong with you.” Sunny rubbed soothing circles onto her best friend’s back. She knew it was a strange and difficult period of time for Taeyeon. After all, it was Taeyeon’s first relationship. And from what she had gathered, it seemed like Tiffany was deliberately teasing her. She was not happy with it but she had to calm Taeyeon down first and talk to Tiffany privately about it.

Taeyeon nodded her head tentatively, still very much shaken by herself.

==

Tiffany woke up and the first thing that she had noticed was the emptiness of the other side of the bed. She was wondering where Taeyeon had gone to when her mobile phone rang. Her head was still heavy and she tried to blindly find the noisy device from within her bed sheets.

She groaned a little as she saw the caller ID. Sunny. There was nothing good whenever Sunny calls.

She lets the phone rings for several times before reluctantly answering it.

“What” She snapped, still very much clouded by sleep.

“I swear I am really going to kill you this time. I swear. What did you do to Taeyeon?” She shouted through the phone. “She is freaking out right now!”

“What did I do again? Please enlighten me.” Tiffany was irritated at the uncalled for shouting.

“You deliberately right? Asking to share a bed with you? Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do.”

“Are you living in the 80s? Lee Soonkyu, are you stupid or what? You mean it isn’t normal for a couple to cuddle?”

“But we are talking about Taeyeon! She is completely clueless about such things. And you know it. No thanks to you, she is freaking out about herself.”

“Is it my fault that I am too attractive?”

“Can’t you just take things slow?”

“Wow. In case you hadn’t realized by now, I have taken things very slowly with Taeyeon. I wasn’t even intending to do anything. I was tired and I wanted to sleep. You know, I didn’t sleep the entire night before and my head was throbbing from all the alcohol. There was no way I could have done anything to be honest.”

There was a long pause from the other side of the line.

“What…wait? Did you just said you didn’t sleep the entire night before? And your head was throbbing from alcohol?” Sunny tried to connect the dots. “I thought you had a class project to finish up?”

“Uh…y-yeah…I have.”

“Something sounds really wrong to me, Hwang Tiffany.” Her tone was laced with accusation.

“Can’t I have a drink after completing the project? Nothing is wrong. Bye. I have another incoming call.” She hastily hung up the phone before Sunny could reply.

She cursed her loose tongue. Sunny is too alert and smart, it is only a matter of time before she figures out that I was at the party. I need to find a way to shut my friends up.

On the other side of the line, Sunny frowned. There was definitely something amiss.

“Taeyeon ah”

“Hm?” The girl was a lot calmer after talking to Sunny.

“Did Tiffany tell you why she was late this morning?”

“Nope. I am guessing she overslept. She pulled an all-nighter for her project after all.”

“She told you that?”

“I think so. She said she had a project to rush yesterday.”

Sunny merely nodded her head and prayed that her intuition was wrong.

==

“Hello?”

“Hey. Tiffany here.”

“Yeah?”

“Yuri, I need your help. If Sunny or anyone of Sunny’s friends asks you about me attending any party, you need to deny it.”

“For…? It’s just a party.”

“Please? I will make it up to you. I promise. You cover up for me this time. I will cover your the next time round.”

“You’re really whipped by the nerd.”

“Just cover up for me. If not, I am going to tell Yoona that you kissed that senior during the party.”

“You got yourself a deal, Tiffany.”

Tiffany put her phone down and heaved a soft sigh of relief, convincing herself that a lie can cover up another lie perfectly.