Length of Happiness

Chapter 6 - Face Full of Water

One amusing thing Tiffany also noticed was when she acted caring and overly friendly to her, so much as to give her a side hug, Taeyeon would get flustered and jumpy. Once she shared a pack of chocolate with her, Taeyeon acted like if she had received a gold medal. The amusing part was that she tried to act like it was nothing when her expression and reaction betrayed her. Tiffany swears that if she had teased a bit more, Taeyeon would faint from happiness over something so little. No matter how witty, smart, or cool Taeyeon thinks she is, Tiffany knew in the end she is still just a kid. Teasing the girl to reveal her childish side became one of Tiffany's best motivations to come to school.

Back to the present state of mind, Tiffany heaved a sigh remembering that all her friends are out to have fun.

Since they just completed an exam, Jessica and her other friends had already left, as usual to do their silly after school things. Post Exam Celebration, they called it and they had a celebration for just about any occasion. Tiffany sighed, how she wish she could be as smart as them and take extra time off, no matter how little free time it was. She was the last one in the classroom to leave due to her dedicated habit - to write a summary of what she need to study at the end of every class.

She walked down the empty corridors; it was rather peaceful. Everything was silent, aside from some chatter coming from study rooms and the library. She was about to enter the library when she heard chatter down the hallway that sounded like her friends. However, before she was going to walk up to them, she heard something concerning.

"...let's get her! How dare she go against us!" Hyoyeon exclaimed out loud.

Are they pulling a prank? Tiffany thought, eavesdropping on her friends.

"Shhh, Hyo you are going to inform the whole school!" Yuri put her index finger to her mouth, shushing the girl.

"It's about time she is taught a lesson." Jessica said with an evil smirk.

Tiffany thought something fishy must be going on, so she followed after the group. She remembered when they used to play with certain other students, but they were just playing. But when Jessica said that sentence, she seemed serious about it, like she wanted that girl to suffer. Tiffany knows that tone because Jessica used to do that to her servants at home when Tiffany visited her house. If the servants managed to get on her nerves, Jessica would plot against them. That made all the servants at her mansion scared of her, but at least she stopped doing that as she grew older.

From a distance she could see that they were trying to follow someone walking alone not far from them in front.

Are they trying to pull a prank on that girl? Tiffany tried to see if she could recognize the girl. She had short hair, lying an inch above her shoulders, and judging from height, she seemed pretty short. Taeyoon? She thought.

Tiffany followed them to the entrance of a narrow alleyway just a few meters away from the school. Seeing there's nowhere to hide in the alley, she just looked at the group from a distance. When the group made a left turn, Tiffany started moving again. Then she realized there were pieces of scrap paper littered everywhere, leading a trail.

She followed the trail and indeed it was Taeyoon who had been dropping them. But after the turn the trail stopped and she looked around wondering where they could have gone.

...

Hyoyeon and Yuri approached the short girl and turned her around to face Jessica. Tiffany knitted her eyebrows and tried to see what's happening from afar.

The girls stood on each side of Taeyoon and held onto her arms. Tiffany let out a gasp before covering her mouth. She couldn't make out Taeyoon's expression, she expected the girl to be panicking, but instead, Taeyoon had a nonchalant expression on her face. She did not even struggle.