“I feel ridiculous.”  They had really gone all-out with it.  Taeyeon felt like she had about an inch of makeup plastered onto her face; she was afraid to make any facial expressions, lest they ruin Sooyoung’s painstaking work.  After five stores and two hours of frustration, she settled on a cobalt cocktail dress matched with silver pumps and a black clutch, borrowed from Sooyoung’s extensive collection.  “I have no pockets.  Where do I put my hands?”  Her hands were currently occupied by a dozen pink roses and a folded sheet of notebook paper.  On the paper was the most heartfelt love confession Sooyoung and Sunny could come up with.  Taeyeon was told to memorize it, and spill her heart out while playing an appropriately sappy track from her phone.  All of her protests were met with “This is what girls like!”  Eventually, Taeyeon grew tired of fighting it, and let the two of them have their way.

“You put your hands on her hot body! Ow!”  Sooyoung rubbed her arm where Taeyeon had smacked her.  “Just keep them by your sides.  Be loose, be natural.”

“I don’t feel very natural right now,” Taeyeon grumbled.

Sunny walked over to them with her phone in hand.  “I just made you two a reservation at La Mer.  Hope you’ve got some cash saved up, it’s a little more pricey than I thought.”

“The seafood place?  I thought Tiffany didn’t like seafood.”  Taeyeon distinctly remembered Tiffany mentioning it when they were discussing their favorite and least favorite foods over coffee a few months ago.  She remembered they shared a love for Italian.

Sunny shook her head.  “Nah, I’m pretty sure she likes it.  This is a nice restaurant; she’s gonna feel like such a lady!”  She sighed, swooning.  “Maybe I’ll have to get mad at you next time so you can take me on a date.”

Sooyoung looked Taeyeon up and down, then fixed a crooked strap on her shoulder and picked something out of her hair.  “Okay, you ready?  We’ve done all we can do, now it’s on you, kiddo.”

“Text us if you need anything!” offered Sunny by way of a farewell as the two of them got into her car.

Waving goodbye, Taeyeon walked (though strut may have been more accurate, given her footwear) to the entrance of Tiffany’s dorm building.  She had this.  She had her plan, she was going to execute.  She would not fail.

Her confidence lasted as far as the elevator.  As the floor counter ticked up, ding, ding, ding, Taeyeon began to panic.  This was stupid, she felt awkward, Tiffany was going to hate it and hate her and it just wasn’t going to work.  

When the elevator stopped at Tiffany’s floor, the sixth, Taeyeon hit the button for the ground floor.

Back in her own room, she wiped off her makeup--it required the sacrifice of five makeup remover wipes--and changed into jeans and sneakers.  She placed the flowers on her nightstand and wrote herself a mental note to find a vase.  As she pulled open her door to leave, she grabbed a hat hanging from her bookshelf.

Ding, ding, ding.  The elevator doors opened to the sixth floor.  Tiffany’s room was just down the hall, and Taeyeon had no plan.   was a desert, her heart beat double-time, and her hands were starting to shake.  Screw the plan, she had to wing it.  She had to make it right.  If Tiffany decided to hate her forever after this, Taeyeon was just going to have to deal with it.  At least nobody could say she didn’t try.

Knock knock knock.

The door opened.  Tiffany looked uncharacteristically dishevelled--her hair was a mess, she had no makeup on, and the bags under her eyes were dark and prominent.  She was dressed in the “don’t give a ” outfit of most college-aged girls:  black yoga pants and an extra large T-shirt with their university’s name emblazoned across it.  Taeyeon still thought she looked gorgeous.

“Hey,” said Tiffany.

“Hey.”

They stood like that for a while, Tiffany with one hand on her doorknob, half her body angled into her room, Taeyeon just outside the threshold.  What could she say?  Taeyeon’s sweaty hand gripped the note in her pocket.

Let’s start with the truth.  Everything began to come out at once.  “Look, I feel like a .  I never should’ve done that to you, and I’m so, so sorry.  I wanted to show you I was sorry, and make things right, so I talked to Sooyoung and Sunny, and they made me get this dress, and these heels, and I put on tons of makeup, and I’m supposed to give you flowers and play some stupid love song and I even have this letter…” She took it out of her pocket before crumpling it and shoving it back in before she could begin to think about its saccharine contents.  “That they wrote with all this I’m supposed to say, and Sunny made us a reservation at La Mer…”

Tiffany’s face was unreadable.  Taeyeon took a deep breath, fighting the urge to start pacing back and forth.  “But I know you’re really allergic to flowers, and you hate seafood, and you don’t even like this song that they picked, I remember you told me that--”

“You remembered that stuff about me?”  Tiffany had allowed a small smile to grace her face.

“Yeah, I remember a lot of things we’ve talked about… they’re all important to me.  And dressing up, the makeup, all of that?  That’s not me.  I’m never gonna be the perfect lady, in a dress and heels.  I like sneakers and hats.”  Self-conscious, she rubbed the brim of her hat between her fingers.

Tiffany’s voice was soft, her eyes like pools of melted chocolate.  “I like your hats and sneakers.”

“Really?”

“Really.  I like you for you.”  Tiffany had edged forward a bit and taken her hand off the doorknob.

Taeyeon dug the toe of her shoe into the faded carpet.  “You’re not mad?”

“I was… but I’m ty at holding a grudge.  And I’m guessing you were busy all weekend making yourself feel way worse than I ever could.”

“Franzia and gas station burritos, yeah.”

“Oh, Taeyeon.”

“I know, I know.  Bad life choices.”  Taeyeon dared to hope Tiffany’s anger had really, truly fled.  “Hey… let me make up for being stupid with you.  I think we should go to Tony’s, my treat.  I mean, if you want to, of course.”

There.  The full, beaming, slightly crooked smile that only Tiffany could give.  Taeyeon couldn’t help but mirror it with a grin of her own.

“Can I get alfredo?”  Tiffany asked.

“Only if I can get it, too.”

“Deal.”

As their “off-script” date progressed, Taeyeon could almost feel the storm clouds dissipating above her head.  It was just like old times.  Taeyeon told lame jokes, and Tiffany laughed loud enough to get dirty looks from the other patrons, but neither of them cared, lost in their own world.  They talked about school, and about a new book Tiffany was devouring.  As usual, Tiffany mentioned a cute boy in her management class, but, for the first time, Taeyeon got to talk about the cute girl in her microbio class.  And, for the first time, there was a distinct air of flirtiness around them that Taeyeon didn’t fail to pick up on.  A light touch, a look that went on a half second too long, a blush erupting across cheeks that wasn’t due to a glass of wine.

They didn’t talk about Thursday.  It no longer mattered; it was water under the bridge.

The sun was beginning to set as they walked back to Tiffany’s room.  Taeyeon felt the light tickle of Tiffany’s fingers trailing down her wrist, until their hands entwined.  She loved the way their hands fit together: her short fingers joined with Tiffany’s long, thin ones.

They reached the entrance to the dorm building, when, suddenly, Tiffany pulled her into a hug.  It was far from the first time she had done so, but this time felt different, closer, fraught with all the built-up emotions from the past few days.  Taeyeon stiffened for a moment, but allowed herself to relax into the warmth of the embrace, the familiar smell of Tiffany’s favorite perfume.

“I know it was only a few days, but I missed you,” Tiffany said, her voice muffled slightly by Taeyeon’s hair.

Taeyeon gave a little squeeze in response.  “Me too.”

They parted, but Tiffany stayed close, her hand lingering on Taeyeon’s shoulder, eyes searching her face.

“You know…”  One corner of Tiffany’s lips quirked up, her smile moving from shy to coy in the space of a few heartbeats.  “I bet kissing you would be a lot more fun when we’re both sober and expecting it.”  Her hand slid up to gently cup the side of Taeyeon’s face.

And she was right.

END

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A/N: Thank you everyone for your subs and kind comments.  I started this little fic almost two years ago, so it feels good to finally finish it.  I'm not sure what I'll be moving onto next, but I bet I'll have something whipped up sooner or later.  Thanks again for reading!